A Sure Thing: An Impossible Life

 November 8, 2026

John 6:25-59

         When I was a kid, I had a bike that had what was called a banana seat, which made it seem so cool. I would hop on that bike and ride it up and down our farm lane for hours. I remember that one of my favorite birthday presents was a little battery-operated device which made motorcycle noises when I pedaled my bike which made riding my bike even better. Now when you think back on your first time hopping on a bike, the idea of riding this clumsy thing seems impossible. I mean, the tires are so thin, all a bike seems to be good for is falling over. Then someone tells you that if you can get the tires to spin fast enough this clumsy bike can and will stay upright, a claim that sounds outright impossible. Yet, the only way to really know the truth about such a claim was to climb on a bike and get it going so fast that you find out that it really is true. Lucky for me, our farm lane had a nice sized hill which my Dad was more than willing to push me down, all the while yelling at me to, “Pedal faster!” Sure enough, that bike which was once only good at flopping over suddenly was able to stay upright but only as long as I kept on pedaling.

         What learning to ride a bike teaches us is that there are some claims which sound impossible which we find to be true only by doing what someone says is possible. Nowhere is this found to be the case then here in the sixth chapter of the gospel of John. In this chapter of John, we find several more of the double amen teachings of John which give to us truths which are a sure thing on which to build our lives, yet unlike the earlier double amen teachings of Jesus, the ones found in this sixth chapter seem quite impossible. Here Jesus speaks about himself as being the bread of heaven and then he tells us that we must eat of this bread if we want to have eternal life. Jesus goes on to make yet another claim which appears to be even more impossible than the first because he teaches us that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life. We can relate to the disciples when we hear them tell Jesus, “This teaching is difficult, who can understand it?” Jesus replies to them that it is the Spirit which gives life not our flesh and blood, and it is this claim that helps us to understand how to live what seems an impossible life.

         What has brought about this series of double amen teachings here in the sixth chapter of John is that Jesus has just fed the five thousand and the result is that those who enjoyed this meal have begun to follow Jesus around the Sea of Galilee. Now this sounds like a good problem for Jesus to have, I mean why wouldn’t Jesus want more followers? The only problem is that these people are following Jesus for the wrong reason. You see, what they realized through Jesus feeding five thousand people using only five loves and a few fish is that Jesus could be their ticket to their best life now. They were people who much like people today are looking for a way to live here in this present age the good life God promises to give to us in the age to come. Jesus seems to be the one who could make just such an impossible dream quite possible. He is the one who can take our meager livelihoods and make us to live like kings. So, what if it appears like we are in a relationship with God for just what we can get out of it? So, what if it seems like we are treating God like our own personal vending machine? I mean, it doesn’t take much thought to understand why Jesus wanted nothing to do with being used for someone else’s personal gain. After all he didn’t just come to give us the best life now, far from it. No, he came to give to us an impossible life, a life eternal that can begin today.

         Now what the people of God should have already known is that God has created us for more. To have us live a life that is a flesh and blood existence is not great enough for those of us created to bear the image of a holy God. This is what we learned in the first of the double amen teachings Jesus teaches us in the first chapter of John. There we learned that Jesus is the Son of Man upon which the angels descend and ascend to and from heaven. This means that Jesus is the one from heaven, the holy one, and his holy work is to take the blessing of God out to all the families on earth. So, when Jesus speaks to us as being the bread of heaven who brings life to the world, we are to understand this life as being the blessed life given to us by God. Jesus then taught us, in the third chapter of John that we must be born from above, which means that we must hear and obey the words of our Heavenly Father, seeking only to bring him honor and glory. This then supports what God told the people of Israel in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, where we are told that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.We are not animals whose life merely depends upon eating and drinking to survive. No, God has created us to live a life blessed by God, a life where we know ourselves as being the first-born children of God who hear and obey our Heavenly Father, working only to bring glory and honor to him.

         So, as Jesus teaches us increasingly about this blessed life then even though it may sound strange, it nonetheless, begins to make sense. When Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life we are to understand that he is saying to us that he must be our source of life needed to live a life blessed by God. Jesus clarifies for us what he means when he states that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood when in the fifty-sixth verse of this sixth chapter of John, Jesus explains that this means we must abide in him and that he must abide in us. Another way to say this is for us to say, Jesus has united himself with us and we, in turn, have united ourselves with Jesus. This is the covenant bond that is now ours through what Jesus has done for us upon the cross.

         United with Jesus, we then join him in the work he is doing. We, like Jesus, look to see where our heavenly Father is working and then join him in the work he is doing. This is what those who know themselves as being the first-born children of God understand as being their life’s work. This work God is doing is described for us in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus. There God tells his people that they were to love the strangers who lived among them just like family because when they were strangers in the land of Egypt, God loved them just like family, treating them as being his first-born son. This, then is the work God is doing, loving on all people just like they were his family even if they may not be aware that he is doing so. This is what Jesus did, he followed his Father’s lead, loving on all people just like they are his family even when people were strangers to him. Our Heavenly Father comes to those who are brokenhearted and in despair, and there Jesus joins him in loving on the hurting people, offering to them, life. This is the truth found at the cross where Jesus unites himself with all the suffering and hurting people. On the cross, the body of Jesus is broken so that those who are broken might be healed and have life. So when  Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life, he is saying  to us that we must be certain that our only source of life is what Jesus has done for us on the cross because of his great love for us.

         Yet it is also true, that not only do people suffer at the hands of others, but it is also true that it is our hands which cause of the suffering of others. It is the blood of Jesus poured out on the cross by the hands who caused his suffering, this is the means for our forgiveness of the sin we have done. Our life is not secure because of our perfection but only because of the perfect love of Jesus who first forgave us. When we drink his blood, we are saying that our source of life is that Jesus has covered over our failures by his blood, the blood he shed because he first loved us. 

         Our life then finds its security only through what Jesus has done for us; this is what we proclaim any time we eat of the bread and drink from the cup when we gather at the table of Jesus. Yet this is not all that we are to know about when we are certain that Jesus is our only source of life. What we must ask is just what kind of life does the love of Jesus make possible? The answer by now should be obvious, this life we are talking about is none other than the blessed life. It is the blessed life that Jesus lived which brings forth the blessed life within us. It is his life laid down for us as an act of great love that makes this impossible life, possible. This possibility of a blessed life is what is proclaimed, anytime we gather at the table of Jesus. We find the blessed life taught to us by Jesus through his double amen teachings found in the gospel of John, there in the actions of the hands which hold the bread at the table. First the hands take the bread. This symbolizes what we learned in the first chapter of John. Jesus takes the disciples out of the world by extending to them an invitation to come and see just where it is that he abides. They were to discover that Jesus lives in the house of his Heavenly Father. The double amen teachings of Jesus verifies that Jesus is the one who has opened heaven to us so that wherever Jesus is, there we will find the house of God, the place where our Heavenly Father dwells. Here in the house of God is where the blessed life begins. 

         Then, as one holds the bread is their hands, they raise the bread to bless it. This symbolizes what Jesus teaches us about in the double amen teachings in the third chapter of John. There we learned that our Heavenly Father blesses us by speaking his word to us. We are to know that our Heavenly Father considers us to be his first-born children who receive his authority and power to do his work here on earth. So, our Heavenly Father, has now placed his reputation, honor, and glory in our hands. We no longer are to seek honor for ourselves being concerned ourselves the opinions of others, otherwise we have failed to be a first-born child of God. We must make our life’s purpose glorifying our Heavenly Father who has blessed us by treating us as being his first-born children.

         Then, after one has blessed the bread, they take and break the bread. As the first-born children of God, we too must let our Heavenly Father break us just like the bread at the Lord’s table. This means that our power must come under the control of our Heavenly Father so that we join him in the work he is doing. We are to look for where our Heavenly Father is working and go to work with him. We must remember that our Heavenly Father is working at loving others who are strangers to him and then through his love, bringing them to be part of his family. Our Heavenly Father rushes to people broken and crushed by the world and through his love for them he brings them back to life. You see, our Heavenly Father loves all people in all places and in all times. We see this in how our God makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on everyone, no matter if they are good or evil, no matter if they are righteous or wicked. As his children then, we too are to love others like our Heavenly Father has first loved us, loving them whether they return our love or not. We love as our Heavenly Father does so that through our love all people might know the Heavenly Father who has always loved them.

         Well, as we know, once the host breaks the bread, they then take and offer the bread to all gathered there. In the same way, when we are blessed by God, we are to know that after we are broken, when our power is now directed by the actions of our Heavenly Father, we will allow him to give us as a source of life for the world. We hear this truth about the life of Jesus in the ninth chapter of the book of Hebrews, “(Jesus) …through the eternal Spirit offered himself to God (the Father).” The goal of the blessed life is to become a person completely yielded to doing the will of our Heavenly Father, so that our life is known as being an offering to him. Paul, in the twelfth chapter of the book of Romans captures this very idea when he writes “I invite you brothers and sisters through the deep compassion shown to you by God, your Father, to stand ready to make a living offering of yourselves, holy and well-pleasing to God, this is the logical worship for you.” This is the very same expectation that God had for the people of Israel, as found in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, “It is Yahweh, your God, whom you shall worship and serve.” God has always longed for people whose worship and service to him would be one and the same. Through his blessing of our lives Jesus has made the offering of our life as an act of worship to our Heavenly Father a real possibility. 

What causes our life to become a living offering is that we are now certain that God has indeed blessed our life. If we go back to the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, we find the reason Paul considers our logical worship to be that we stand ready before God as a living offering to him. In verse thirty-eight, we read, “For I am certain that neither death, not life, nor angels, nor rulers, more things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, has any power to separate us from the love of God our Father in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The sure thing we can build our life upon is the love of Jesus. It is Jesus who is the bread blessed, broken, and given for us; it is Jesus who shed his blood for us. Here in Christ Jesus our Lord is the blessed life securely held by the love of our Heavenly Father shown to us. As we gather around his table, we know that we are forever united with the love Jesus has given to us as represented by the bread and the cup. So, we can rise from that table knowing that we have a blessed life that is eternal because the love God has for us is eternal. This means that we no longer need to protect this life given to us but instead, we can, at last, love with the greatest love shown to us by Jesus who laid down his life for us, the greatest love the world has ever seen. 

The result of what Jesus teaches to us in the double amen sayings found in the sixth chapter of John is that we are to no longer live like the rest of the world. We are not to go looking for whatever scheme might provide for us the most comfortable and well of life in the here and now. This is the mistake of that large crowd who gathered one day beside the Sea of Galilee who were fed through the power of Jesus. Jesus had fed this crowd with the loaves and fishes to so that they might be certain of his powerful and never-failing love for them. Yet all those gathered there for the picnic that day saw in Jesus was the means by which they could eat, drink and be merry. So, they never received a life blessed by God, a life forever united to the love of God. This is why Paul also tells us at the beginning of the twelfth chapter of Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world but instead be transformed by a new way of thinking so you can know the will of God, doing what is good and pleasing and perfect in his sight.” This is the life Jesus came from heaven to give to all of us. And yes, it is a life that seems impossible. I mean can you imagine what we might look like if we became transformed through thinking differently about the way we ought to live? As impossible as it might sound, we just might look more like Jesus as we allow our Heavenly Father to break our hearts for the suffering of this world. Like Jesus we might also allow our Heavenly Father to pour out our life as we forgive those who have hurt us, offering grace to all people. Then, as impossible as it may seem, we just might end up transforming our world as well. Amen and amen!

 

A Sure Thing: Signs of Life

 November 1, 2026

John 5:1-40

         A couple of years ago, I planted a lilac tree outside of the side door to our house. It is an unusual color as it has yellow blossoms instead of the normal purple. I chose yellow because this is Jennifer’s favorite color. Well, with the hot humid weather this summer, the lilac tree that had bloomed so well in the spring began to look sickly. The leaves began to wilt and turn brown, and it wasn’t too long until the tree was bare from top to bottom. Jennifer was certain that her lilac was dead but I, knowing how lilacs are prone to fungus infections, was optimistic that with cooler weather the lilac just might surprise us. Well, I am happy to report that not only did the lilac tree grow new leaves but here in the middle of October, there are even lilac blossoms filling the air with their familiar sweet perfume. What once looked so dead and forlorn is now defying the odds, showing signs of life even in this fall season.

         I thought of how life can spring up where we least expect it to, not just in dealing with our lilac tree but also in what Jesus tells us in the fifth chapter of the gospel of John. In this series of messages entitled, “A Sure Thing,” I am looking at the twenty-five teachings in thee gospel of John which stand out from the rest of the gospel narrative because these teachings begin with Jesus saying, “Truly, truly…” At least this is how most translations record these double sayings. In the original language spoke by Jesus though, the words spoken twice before these teachings is, “Amen, Amen…” These two amens spoke by Jesus state that here in the teachings that follow them are a sure thing, a teaching which is true and certain upon which we can build our lives upon. These teachings then prove to be a great comfort for us, those who live in uncertain times.

         Today we are looking at several more of the double men teachings here in the fifth chapter of John. When we read these teachings in the fifth chapter of John, we find that the subject of these teachings is life. In the twenty-fourth verse, Jesus teaches us something astonishing, that anyone who hears his word and believes the Father who sent him, they will have eternal life. This eternal life is ours to receive right now, from the moment we first believe which may be every bit as surprising as discovering lilac blossoms in October. So often we think that eternal life happens after we die, yet this is not what Jesus teaches us. No, Jesus is clear that we can experience eternal life in the very moment when we hear his word and place our faith in our Heavenly Father who has sent Jesus to us. The question then that we must ask ourselves is do we show signs that we are living just such an eternal life, today? And if we don’t, then why not?

         As we consider this question, let us look at the circumstances surrounding these double amen teachings found here in the fifth chapter of John. Jesus has come up to Jerusalem from Cana in Galilee so that he might celebrate the festival. As Jesus walked along the pools, found by the Sheep Gate, he came across a man who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years. Now this number thirty-eight, is an unusual number, one that I believe John has put here to remind his readers of the number of years that had passed until all of the people who rebelled against God had died in the wilderness. Thirty-eight years is how long the next generation had to wait until they could at last enter the land promised to them by God. And thirty-eight years is how long this man had to wait to receive the long-awaited blessing promised by God.

         When Jesus sees this man who is unable to walk, Jesus first asks him if he wishes to be healed. The man answers that he has no one who will place him in the pool when the waters move. The belief of that day was that when the waters would ripple it was the angels who had stirred the water. In this moment those placed into the water could receive the healing from heaven. Jesus, though, does not place him the water, as the man expected. No, all Jesus did was to speak, telling the man to rise, pick up his mat, and walk. Jesus healed this man in a moment. So, the man picked up his mat as Jesus had told him to do and he began to walk.

         Now such a healing should have been an occasion for celebration, yet such was not the case. You see, the day when Jesus healed this man was the Sabbath. The faithful people of God who strictly obeyed the law became furious at seeing a man carrying his mat on the very day that God had commanded his people to do no labor whatsoever. The man who Jesus had healed tried to explain to these angry bystanders that he was merely doing what Jesus had instructed him to do. The bystanders then turned their attention to this one that had brought about this healing, the one who demanded that this man who had been unable to walk, now rise, take up his mat, and walk. Jesus, seeing that a crowd had gathered slipped away. Later that day, Jesus found the man he had healed. Strangely, Jesus told him to not sin anymore so that nothing worse might happen to him. Well, the man went and told the authorities that it was Jesus who had made him well, and this is why the authorities began to persecute Jesus, hunting him down and harassing him.

         Now when we pause for a moment and consider what had happened on that Sabbath day, there are several issues which should be disturbing. The first is that the man who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years, never spoke a word of gratitude to Jesus for healing him. Not once was did this man utter a thank-you to Jesus nor did he ever offer any praise God for making him whole. This man only searched for Jesus in order is to take the blame off himself for carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Much like the ones in the wilderness who died in the wilderness over a thirty-eight-year period, this man who had been healed was worried more about what was going to happen to him than he was about honoring the God who had given him a life free from impairment. The admonition Jesus gave to him to go and sin no more becomes more understandable when we consider how ungrateful and self-serving this man turned out to be.

         Well, because this man whom Jesus healed decided to point Jesus out to the authorities, Jesus had to explain his actions. The answer Jesus gave to the authorities only seemed to make matters worse for after hearing Jesus explain why he had healed this man on the Sabbath the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Jesus. What had enraged the authorities is that Jesus told them that his Father was working until now and so Jesus was simply working with him. Jesus had already enraged the Jewish authorities because Jesus did his healing on the Sabbath, but when they heard Jesus claim that God was his Father, well such a claim was just too much to let slide. What did Jesus think that he was, an equal to God? Now if these authorities would have remembered their own scriptures that would have remembered that right from the beginning of God’s relationship with his people, he thought of them as being his first-born son. Through the rest of the scriptures and throughout the prophets, God is known as being their father many times. So, the real issue that the Jewish authorities had with Jesus is that God is clearly working with Jesus, this is the real problem at hand. 

         At last, then, we come to the first of the double amen teachings found in the fifth chapter of John. Jesus, speaking to the Jewish authorities gathered around him says this, “Amen, Amen, the son has no power to do anything on his own, he only does what he sees the Father doing for whatever the Father does, the son does likewise. For the Father loves the son, and he points out to him all that he is doing; and he will point out to his son greater works than these and you will be amazed. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life so also the son gives life to those he chooses. The Father judges no one buthe has given all judgment to the son so that all honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the son does not honor the Father who sent him.” What Jesus is saying here is a simple truth that any father would have understood which is that a son only does what their father decides needs doing. It is obvious from what Jesus says then that, as most fathers know, the son is not claiming equality with their father when they work with them, far from it. No, the reason Jesus was working is just that he was a dutiful son who was joining his father in his work.

         The bigger issue with what Jesus says in this double amen teaching is that here on the Sabbath God is not resting. The very reason God demands his people to rest from our labors is that God rests on the seventh day of creation. Yet, Jesus tells us that God, the Father, is working not resting as one would suppose. So, it follows that if God is working, even here on the Sabbath, then as his children it would not be right to rest while our father is busy at work. God is at work and not at rest as he was on the seventh day of creation, because sin has now entered his good creation through our rebellion. Sin causes people to suffer and when the weight of the despair found by living in a hurting world crushes us, God in his love rushes to help us. Now this should have not come as a surprise to the people of God for the reason for their very existence as a nation is solely that their ancestors in their slavery, cried out to God and God heard their groaning. This is why the songs they sang recalled that their God is near the brokenhearted, God is the one who saves the people who are crushed in spirit, as found in the thirty-fourth Psalm. 

         When God rescued his people from slavery he spoke of them as being his first-born son. Just as with human fathers, God expected those he claimed as being his firstborn son would learn from him his ways of caring for the hurting people around them. In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, God tells his people that they are to be holy as he is holy. A teaching of Jesus found at the end of the fifth chapter of Matthew describes what it means for us to be holy as God is holy. There, Jesus teaches us that as children of our Heavenly Father we are to always love all people, no matter if they refuse to love us in return. You see, our Heavenly Father makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he makes it rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. So, to be holy as our Heavenly Father is holy means that we must love as he does, loving others without any expectation that those we love will show us any love in return.

         Now with this understanding of what it means for us to be holy, that we love with no expectation of love in return, then what our Heavenly Father expects us to do to as his children becomes clear. In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, God tells his people that when they meet a stranger, they were not to mistreat them. They were to treat the stranger who lives among them like family, loving them as just as they loved themselves. They were to remember that they had once been strangers down in Egypt, and there the Egyptians mistreated and enslaved them. What God is telling his people is that they needed to remember what it was like when they were strangers down in Egypt because it was God who treated them like his family, rescuing them as if they were his firstborn. So now, as his firstborn, they were to follow in the ways of their Heavenly Father, loving the strangers around them just like their Heavenly Father loved them when they were strangers in a strange place. In the words of Jesus, they had watched as their Heavenly Father had loved them when they were strangers, so now as the firstborn son, they were to follow his example and love those who were strangers to them. The love God shows to all people is that he makes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on all people. What this implies is that our Heavenly Father loves through his giving of life, and so, as his firstborn son, we too are to love through the giving of life. In this way, just as our Heavenly Father is holy because he loves and gives life with no expectation of love in return, so as his firstborn children who watch and learn from him, we also are to love and give life with no expectation of return. In his response to the Jewish authorities one Sabbath day in Jerusalem, Jesus teaches us that this is the certain way of life God expects of us. 

         Now what the Jewish authorities should have understood is that when Jesus showed his love to the man who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years, he was did so to bring honor and glory to his Heavenly Father. The Father loved this man who was unable to walk, and he knew that he had suffered for an exceedingly long time. Our Heavenly Father had heard his despair when no one would ever stop to place him in the water. In such a situation that this man had found himself, it would understandable that he would be tempted to just give up and give into the darkness that overwhelmed him. He may have wondered just where is God when I lay here withering away, day by day? What he needed was to be certain that God was indeed with him. When Jesus entered this man’s life, he at last had found the certainty that he was longing for, the certainty called faith. Here in the presence of Jesus the man understood that here is life, the light of life scattering the despair and darkness that he once knew. Those who who are strangers to the love of God, those who have lost all hope, those who feel as if the entire world has come against them, in a real sense, experience death. Yet in the presence of Jesus, there they find the certainty of his love for them and in this love, they find life. Since their Heavenly Father loves them eternally then the life known through his love is eternal as well. This is what Jesus teaches us in his second double amen teaching that he taught that day, when he said, “Amen, amen, the one who hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come into judgment but has passed from death into life.” The word Jesus speaks is the word of love for all, even those who are strangers to him, even to those who will not respond in love to the love that he offers to them. When this word which speaks of a heavenly Father’s love for them becomes certain, then a person finds a life founded on the ever-eternal love that their Heavenly Father has for them. This is why Jesus could continue with his double amen teachings by telling us, “Amen, amen, the hour is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear this voice will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so also, he has given the Son to have life in himself. And he has given them authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.” You see, as we learn in the fourth chapter of the first letter John wrote, God’s perfect love throws out all fear. Without fear we find we can love as God has first loved us, we can in fact love all people, at all times. So, when we meet a stranger, we can now at last, be holy as God is holy, loving them like we love our family just as God first loved us. And through our love we too can give life just as God first gave us life, for we now live an eternal life knowing that God eternally loves us. Amen and amen! 

 

         

A Sure Thing: Born By the Word

 October 18, 2026

John 3:1-21

         In our dining room we have one wall that is covered in plaques with different sayings on them that we have found here and there. Some of them are funny, like the one which asks the question, “I wonder if we ever give God a headache?” Others go a little deeper, stating, “In this house we do second chances, we do grace, we do real, we do mistakes, we do I’m sorry, we do hugs, we do family, we do love; that’s a little food for thought while we share our food, isn’t it? Of course, we also must remember that our family has been given its character through dealing with a tree, so we also have a plaque that states, “Our family is like the branches of a tree; we may grow in different directions but our roots remain as one.” My favorite plaque though, is the one we placed in our basement for our Airbnb guests which reads, “Each day I am thankful for nights that turned into mornings, friends that turned into family, dreams that turned into reality and likes that turned into loves.” After enduring the loss of our home and getting through that ordeal with friends who became like family, this sign expresses our experience quite well. 

         I thought of that line that reads, “…friends that turned into family.”, as I worked on this week’s message. You see God does something even greater than turning friends into family for our God’s greatness is that he can take strangers and create out of them a family. In the first chapter of the gospel of John, we learn that Christ is in the world, a world that he created but the people of this world did not know him, they were complete strangers to him. Yet, we also learn, that as many who took hold of him, he gives them the right to become children of God, family members alongside of him. The reason for this amazing transformation is, as we learned last week, Jesus, the Son of Man, has come into the world to fulfill the mission first given to Abraham, which is that through Abraham and his offspring all the families of the world will be blessed by God. Jesus is the offspring through which the blessing of God goes out to all the people of this world. As Paul tells us in the third chapter of Galatians, “In Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham is found in the people of the nations so that they might take hold of the promise of the Spirit by faith.” The gospel of John, not surprisingly, is all about God giving this blessing to all people every bit as much as we find in the other gospel accounts.

         Throughout John’s gospel we find twenty-five unusual sayings of Jesus which all begin with Jesus saying, “Truly, truly.” At least this is usually how the words of Jesus are translated. In the original language of Jesus though, these sayings began with the words, “Amen, Amen.” The word, “Amen” comes from the root word, “Aman” which means something that is sure and certain, something you can build your life on, something that will not shift or fail. So, when Jesus says, “Amen” not once but twice, he is emphasizing in these twenty-five teachings that here we find foundational truths which communicate an ultimate truth that are not just reliable but are indeed reality itself. In times such as we live in when so much seems so uncertain and unreliable, here in these double, “Amen” teachings Jesus gives us a sure thing, a bedrock truth upon which we can build a life which is secure.

         Today in the third chapter of John’s gospel, we discover the second instance where Jesus gives us a double Amen teaching. This chapter of John is one of the most well known yet is also one of the least understood of any chapter of John’s gospel. The first double Amen teaching found in the third chapter, is one that many have probably heard before. Jesus is speaking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus who comes to Jesus at night, as if he is conducting a secret mission so that his fellow Pharisees will be be unable to scrutinize his speaking to this one named Jesus. Now Nicodemus never asks Jesus a question. All he does is merely confess to Jesus that it is evident that Jesus is a teacher who has come from God. Nicodemus has come to this conclusion because he has seen firsthand Jesus perform miracles, what John records as being signs pointing to the truth about Jesus which is that God is with him. When Jesus hears this testimony of Nicodemus, he begins a familiar, double Amen teaching, saying, “Amen, Amen, unless one is born from above, they are not the kingdom of God.” When I hear this teaching of Jesus, I can not but help remember a period of time in the life of the church when this teaching of Jesus became a litmus test people used to determine just who was a “true”Christian. Those who attended church were often asked this question, “Have you been born again?” Often those asking this question would press the issue a little further, asking, “When were you born again?” What questions like these ended up doing is creating doubt and uncertainty within the hearts of good, Christian folk. I can recall an article rebutting such question written by a Catholic priest who said that yes, he had been born again and the date when this happened was on a Friday when Jesus died for him upon the cross. I was so impressed by this answer I got his article out of the paper and kept it.

         Well, I believe that Jesus did not give us this double Amen teaching, a teaching that speaks of a sure and certain truth, all so that others could use this teaching to create doubt and uncertainty in the hearts of believers. While such people who asked others whether they had been born again probably meant well, they nonetheless missed the point in which Jesus was trying to teach us. Ending up with the wrong meaning to these teachings of Jesus is bound to happen if we do not remember that Jesus is teaching us about being secure in what has been promised to us by God, the blessing which he wants us to receive.

         When we keep the blessing of God as our criteria for understanding the teachings of Jesus, then we will realize that the pattern in which God blesses us mirrors the way that people in ancient Jewish culture blessed their children. We find this act of blessing in the story of Issac and his two sons, Esau and Jacob. Now, even though Esau and Jacob were twins, because Esau arrived first, he was the one given the birthright, the one upon whom the blessing of his father would rest. Jacob would one day end up tricking his father all so that he might be given the blessing instead of Esau. This is how important this idea of a father blessing his first-born son was in this culture.

         Well, when God enters a relationship with his people, he does so in the manner of a father blessing his firstborn son.When Moses was sent by God to Egypt to perform miraculous wonders before Pharoah in Egypt, God instructed Moses to tell Pharoah, “Thus says, Yahweh, “Israel is my son, my firstborn.” Moses told Pharaoh that Yahweh’s demand was this, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me.”  Using such language, God implies that the people of Israel are those he wants to bless just as fathers bless their own first-born sons. Thus, when Jesus teaches us that we must be born again, it is not a stretch for us to understand that we must know ourselves as being the firstborn children of God if we want to receive the blessing of God.

         The blessing of God, like the blessing fathers would give to their first-born sons, means that those who receive this blessing will bear the authority of the Father, and then go out in the power of the Father in order to do the work the Father expects of them. It is not difficult to understand then, that the blessing given to the son came with a great deal of responsibility because the Father now places his reputation in the hands of the son he has blessed. The son must be mature enough to set aside his own need for recognition so that all that he does brings honor upon his father whose work he is doing.

         So, with an understanding of what it means for us to receive the blessing of our Heavenly Father, then what Peter writes in the first chapter of his first letter begins to make sense of what it means for us to be born from above. Peter writes in the twenty-third verse, “We are born again not of perishable seed but through the living and abiding word of God.” What this tells us is that if we want to receive the promised blessing of God then we must let his word be our sole authority for our life. To answer the question that was so often asked, “When were you born again?” we just tell of when we last allowed the word of God to direct our actions so that through what we did the honor of our Heavenly Father is increased. This helps explain why Jesus taught this teaching about the need we have to be born again to Nicodemus. When Nicodemus came to Jesus after dark it was clear that the only reputation that Nicodemus was concerned about was his own. If Nicodemus had been living as a firstborn son of God, he would have not been concerned about his own honor among his fellow Pharisees but instead he would have only wanted to glorify his Heavenly Father.

         Now it was plain to Jesus that Nicodemus, who considered himself to be a teacher of the people of Israel, did not understand such a basic concept as this need we all have to be born from above. When Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus that anyone who is convicted by the Spirit can know themselves as being a blessed child of the Heavenly Father, Nicodemus replied, “How can this be?” Jesus then answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?” What Jesus is implying is that this idea of being born again is part of the very teachings of the people of Israel, what they call the Torah. It is in one of the most tragic incidents in the wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel that we can find a clear example of what it means to be born again. As we remember, when the people of Israel were set free from their slavery at the hands of Pharoah down in Egypt, the place where they always hoped to end up was the Promised Land. This is the land that God had promised to give to Abraham and his descendants. In the thirteenth chapter of Numbers, we learn that the people of Israel have at last gotten close to going into the Promised Land. All that is necessary is that spies be sent out from the people of Israel to go and look over the land that they were going to live in. So, they select a man from every tribe of Israel, twelve spies in all, to go on this dangerous mission. They were to see just what kind of people currently live in this place and how the land is, is it good or bad? They were to notice how well fortified the cities were and what find out just what types of trees grow in this place. So off they went to spy out the land. Well, before long the spies returned with their report. Ten of the spies come back with the same report. Yes, the land did flow with milk and honey for it was a very fruitful land. Nevertheless, the people who currently live in this land are strong, their cities are well fortified and large, and there are many tribes of fierce and strong warriors. Now, the people who heard this report of course were overcome with fear, but two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, quickly spoke up and said, “By all means we should go and take the land and possess it for we are able to overcome it.” But the other ten spies spoke up saying, “We are not able to go up against these people for they are too strong for us.” Then the report of these ten spies became even more terrifying for they told the people of Israel, “The land which we saw is a land that devours those who settle there, and all the men are giants. We were like grasshoppers next to them.” Well, upon hearing such news the people of Israel began to panic, and they lifted their voices and wailed and cried all night. The men of Israel grumbled against Moses and the whole congregation of the people of Israel said to him, “We should have just died in Egypt. Or we should have just died in our journey through this wilderness. Why would Yahweh bring us to this land only to have us all die by the sword? The people who live in this land will slaughter our wives and our little ones. Oh, it would be better for us to return to Egypt! So, they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” Only four men out of of the hundreds of thousands of men who were there that day, Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua, tore their clothes, upon hearing such rebellious words spoken against God. They cried out to the people of Israel, “This land which you looked at is an exceedingly good land. If God is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land, and he will give us this land which flows with milk and honey. So do not rebel against God for the people of this land will be like our bread, we will easily chew them up. God will take away their protection for God is with us so do not fear them.” Here in these two responses, we hear one group who were worried about what would happen to them and another group, this group of four men who were faithful to God who worried only about the reputation of God. Only the group faithful to God understood what it meant to be a firstborn son, wanting only to uphold the honor of their Heavenly Father. So, God decided that all the men over twenty of all that had come out of Egypt would die there in the wilderness, all that is except for Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua. Only when the last of these rebellious people had at last died in the wilderness could the second generation enter the Promised Land. Now when we hear of this judgment God handed down upon his people, we must wonder just who would this younger generation listen to for instruction? If they listened to their parents, those who dishonored God, then they too would end up rebelling against God when it came time for them to enter the Promised Land. No, this younger generation had to be born again, not listening to their parents who were only concerned about themselves. They had to instead learn to listen only to the word of God so that their actions would bring honor to their Heavenly Father.

         This is the story Jesus thought Nicodemus should have been able to remember. Jesus expected that Nicodemus would be more concerned about the honor of his Heavenly Father than being concerned about what his fellow Pharisees would think of him if they found out that he had gone to speak with Jesus. The people of Israel who had witnessed miracle after miracle, the parting of the Red Sea, being fed every day with the bread of heaven and seeing water flowing forth from a rock were still unable to give God all the honor and glory when the time came to receive what he had promised to them. In much the same way, Nicodemus as well had seen Jesus perform miracle after miracle proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that all that Jesus did was in God, but he refused to be seen with Jesus and thus he failed to honor and glorify God.

         Nicodemus may not have life lived in obedience to the word of God because he simply did not know just what such a life looked like. In this way he is much like us. This is the importance behind this well-known verse, John 3:16. We all probably know that it goes, “For God so loved the world that he gave his Son…”, yet we may never have considered just what God has given to us in this his Son. Here is the Word living in the flesh of this one called Jesus. No more do we have to wonder what our life will look like when we obey the word of God, because now we know that our life will look like the life of Jesus. When we believe in him, we do so because our faith has become sight because now we behold Jesus and in him, we can see ourselves alive with the life eternal, a life which eternally brings honor and glory to our Heavenly Father. Amen, and Amen!

         

A Sure Thing: An Open Heaven

 October 11 2026

John 1:40-51

         It goes without saying that we are living in uncertain times. While it is true that the only things we can be certain of are death and taxes, for most of us we want more certainty in our life than just these two aspects of life. Yet we can all agree that right now there is much that causes us to be anxious and worried. The economy doesn’t seem to be booming as it once was, and we have elections coming up in November. There are new concerns over artificial intelligence and the safety issues that no one can seem to assure us will not be a problem. And with the coming of artificial intelligence there are also the data centers which no one wants to find in their back yard. We are finding that with every latest technology there comes an ever-greater price for the benefits that will follow. 

         In times such as these, what most of us need now more than ever, is some certainty, something we can point to and say now here is a sure thing. Well, within the gospel account of John we find twenty-five times where Jesus gives to us a sure thing. When you read through the gospel of John what you find is that there are these moments where Jesus says, “Truly, truly,” before giving us one of his teachings. Perhaps when you have read these teachings you may have wondered, like I have, just why is Jesus repeating himself before these teachings. Well, what helps us to understand what Jesus is doing in these instances is to discover that what is normally translated, “Truly, truly,” is, in the original language of the gospel story, the words, “Amen, Amen.” Now this doesn’t seem all that helpful, does it? For most of us when we hear the word, “Amen,” all we are certain of is that the prayer is over and we can at last open our eyes. We may have never known just why this strange word, “Amen,” has come to be the way our prayers are wrapped up, yet the reason is rather profound. You see, the word, “Amen” is an ancient Hebrew word which derives from another similar word, “Aman.” This word, “Aman,” means something that can carry the weight of what is laid upon it, something that is solid, something you can stake your life on because it will not shift or fail. When Isaiah wanted to communicate how certain the future was for a servant of the royal household, we find in the twenty second chapter that he uses the illustration of a peg that was driven in a firm, an Aman, place, for on him all of the glory of his father’s house could be placed. 

         So, when we say the word, “Amen,” at the end of a prayer or benediction, we are stating that what we affirm, what we have just spoken, is immovable, it is a certainty because we have staked what we asked for on the reliability of God. This means that when we find Jesus saying, “Amen,” twice before he gives us his teachings, this means that he is not only saying that what he is about to teach us is a certainty, but that it is doubly so, a firm, sure truth to build our life upon. These twenty-five teachings, then, that are found throughout the gospel of John, are the non-negotiable, unmovable bedrock foundational truths that communicate to us teachings upon which we are to build our lives upon. What Jesus gives to us in these double, Amen,” sayings is not his opinion that we are to debate whether we agree with, far from it. No, Jesus uses two “Amens,” as a means for us to rest assured that his words carry the very same weight as the rest of the scriptures which spoke of his coming. His words are indeed the very words of God speaking directly to us which means that we must listen to them and obey what they tell us to do.

         Now, even though we are now aware that when Jesus uses two, Amens, to begin his most fundamental and foundational teachings, we nonetheless, must put forth some effort to understand what Jesus is communicating to us. This is especially important here at the very first of these teachings that we find in the first chapter of John’s gospel, the fifty-first verse, because what is said here introduces to us some key themes that will be found in the rest of the gospel account. 

         To get some background surrounding this first double amen teaching of Jesus, we must first begin with John the Baptist. As we might recall, John the Baptist, was born in a priestly family but instead of serving as a priest in the Temple we find that God has called him to be a prophet who announces that the day has arrived when God would visit his people. John calls the people of Israel to repent and as a sign of that repentance, to be washed in the waters of the Jordon. Now this act of bathing, what we know as being baptism, was something the people of God did not undergo. No, this ritual washing was reserved solely for anyone who was not one of the people of Israel, one who was of the nations. So, by John performing this rite on his own people, he was in affect stating that the people of Israel were no better than the rest of the those who never had known God. This flew in the face of many of the people of Israel who believed that there were two groups of people in world, the Jews, and the Gentiles, which is a Latin name for those who belonged to the nations. What we find in the gospel of John, though, is that John does not support this distinction, rather John speaks often about, the “world.” So when Jesus came to John to be baptized as a sign that he is united with all who repent and receive baptism, John cries out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” This meant that Jesus came to save not just the people of the nations who never knew God, but Jesus also came to save the Jews as well for they too were bound by the slavery of sin.

         When John bore witness about Jesus, he told of how God had revealed to him that this Jesus upon whom the Spirit had descended was indeed the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. To John this meant only one thing, that this Jesus was the very Son of God. This is the first of several titles that John records Jesus was held to be right here at the beginning of his ministry. Now John had his own followers who spent time with him to learn from him about the day when God would visit his people as the scriptures had spoken about. Yet the moment that John revealed to them that here in this one called Jesus was the very Lamb of God, they left John and began to follow Jesus. When Jesus notices that these men are following him, he asks them just what is it that they are searching for. They answer Jesus, saying to him, “Teacher, where do you abide?’ Now if you are familiar with the gospel of John, you will remember that during the last supper with his disciples, Jesus speaks volumes about the house of the Father and how they too can abide with him. So, when Jesus invites those who come tagging along after him to come and see just where it is that he abides, we must understand that he is going to show them what it means to abide with their Heavenly Father.

         Now one of those who followed Jesus was Andrew who, as it turns out, is the brother of Simon Peter. It is Simon Peter, who just as he does in the gospel of Matthew, is the first to figure out that this Jesus, is not just the Lamb of God, nor is he just the Son of God, but he is indeed the long awaited king out of the line of David, God’s anointed one, the Messiah or in the Greek, the Christ. It is at this moment that Jesus looks at Simon and tells him that he will be from now on be known as the Rock, Peter in the Greek, which is again much like we find recorded in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus calls Simon the Rock because it is his confession that Jesus is the Messiah which is the very foundation for what Jesus is building in the world.

         We must keep all of this in mind as we come to the double Amen teaching of Jesus. This teaching Jesus gives to us comes the next day after he first meets Phillip and invites him to come along and see just where it is that Jesus abides. Where Jesus finds Philip is in the town of Bethsaida, the same hometown of Andrew and Simon Peter. It was there that Phillip finds his friend Nathaniel, and Phillip tells him that the one who is written of in the law of Moses and the prophets, is in fact this one called Jesus, the son of Joseph, who is from the town of Nazareth. Now, Nathaniel is skeptical about this claim of Phillip, and he asks him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathaniel knew that Nazareth was just a just a backward little dump filled with uncultured, rough bumpkins, so he wonders, just how could a king come out of such a place. Phillip has no other answer for Nathaniel than the one Jesus kept telling all those who struggle to believe, “Come and see”. Well Nathaniel takes Phillip up on his offer, yet he is caught off guard because when he sees Jesus, Jesus rushes over to him, and shakes his hand, shouting loud enough for all to hear, “Here is a true Israelite in which there is no cunning.” Now of course Nathaniel is totally blown away by such this introduction of Jesus, and he asks Jesus, “Just how do you even know me?” Jesus tells him, “Before Phillip even called out to you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Here we must pause and consider just what is Jesus implying when he says that he saw Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree. You see, in both the writings of the Micah and Zechariah, a time is written of when people will sit under their fig trees for at that time no one will make them afraid. This is the prophecy of the latter days, the days when the people of the nations will come to Jerusalem, to the house of God. It is then that the word of God will go forth from Jerusalem, and people will hammer their swords into plowshares, and the nations will no longer learn of war for no one will make them afraid. So, when Jesus saw Nathaniel sitting under his fig tree, I believe that Jesus knew that Nathaniel had taken such prophecy to heart believing that he was indeed living in the latter days, and he was anticipating a time of peace when people could live in harmony. 

         Well, Nathaniel didn’t take long to conclude that here in front of him, in this Jesus of Nazareth, was the Son of God, that he is the very King of Israel. Jesus was so impressed by this faith of Nathaniel that he promises Nathaniel that he was going to see even greater wonders than what Jesus had just shown to him. And here at last we come to the first of the double amen teachings of Jesus, a sure thing if there ever was one. Jesus tells Nathaniel and us, “You will see heaven opened up and the angels on God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Now to know just what Jesus means by this we must remember a strange occurrence that happened to a man named Jacob. We find this story in the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis, where we learn that Jacob has left home to find a wife. When he had traveled a while, the sun began to set so he laid down finding a rock on which to lay his head. Then, Jacob had a dream, where he saw a ladder or a stairway that stood on earth with its top reaching up to the heavens. He beheld the angels of God ascending and descending upon this stairway. Jacob saw God standing above this stairway, and he heard God say to him, “I am Yahweh, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give to your offspring. And your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and all of your offspring, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold I am with you and I will keep you safe wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” When Jacob awoke from this dream, he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it. Jacob was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”   

         When we know this story of Jacob’s ladder, as it is commonly known, then this first double amen teaching of Jesus begins to make sense. Jesus is now the stairway that Jacob saw in his dream. Heaven is open and it opens there upon Jesus. The angels descended to earth at the birth of Jesus, and they were also found when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. At the end of Jesus ministry, there were also angels found at the resurrection of Jesus and when he ascended, they too ascended to heaven with him. So, yes, upon the life of Jesus the angels did descend and ascend just as Jacob saw in his dream. Now once again, Jesus gives us yet another title for himself when he tells us that he is the Son of Man. To understand what it means for Jesus to be the Son of Man we must go back to the Old Testament, this time to the seventh chapter of Daniel. There we read of how God gave Daniel a vision in the night. In his vision he beheld there, “…coming on the clouds of heaven was one like a Son of Man who came to the Ancient of Days and stood next to him. The Ancient of Days then gave this Son of Man dominion, glory, and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and tongues might serve him. The dominion of the Son of Man is an everlasting dominion which will never be taken from him. His kingdom is one which will never be destroyed.” This Son of Man, then, was one who looked very much human and yet he could do what no human would ever consider, which is to stand before a holy God and expect to live. This is who Jesus claimed to be, the human one who is holy, able to stand before God and receive an everlasting kingdom. He is the true human, one who is holy, without sin, who comes to us from heaven even though he calls Nazareth his home. 

As the Son of Man, Jesus is the holy one who has come to transform us so that we too might know ourselves as holy people upon which Jesus will pour the Holy Spirit. So, this identity of Jesus as the Son of Man gives us the connection with the story Jacobs ladder. God told Jacob that it was through his offspring that all the families on earth would receive the blessing of God. It is Jesus who is indeed the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one who has at last arrived to fulfill the mission God gave to Abraham as outlined in the twelfth chapter of Genesis. There God told Abraham that through him and his offspring all the families of earth will receive the blessing of God. The blessing of God means that God will give to us the power and authority so that we might do his work on earth. This power and authority come to us through Jesus alone because it is Jesus and no one else who opens heaven to us. Jesus gives us the power from on high, the Holy Spirit, so that we can say that we now live in the very presence and power of heaven itself. Jacob discovered that when heaven is open, right there is the house of God. Jesus has made certain that heaven is now open which means that wherever he is there indeed is the house of God. Jesus spoke this teaching to Nathaniel because Jesus could see that Nathaniel believed the promise of God that one day all people will know the blessing of God. When the blessing comes and all people receive the power and authority of God and do his work then, in that day, we will know war no more. Nathaniel sat under his fig tree in anticipation that this day was near, the day when people would no longer be afraid. As Nathaniel stood in the presence of Jesus, he is certain, and we should be also, that the day of blessing had indeed arrived. Amen and Amen, indeed!