... From Above.

[00:00:00] Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our father and from our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:08] In our gospel reading this morning, the people questioned Jesus. [00:00:14] Well, about Jesus, maybe. [00:00:16] Where did this man get these things? [00:00:20] Where did this man get these things? Good question. Where did he get those things? [00:00:27] You know, some people say, like, well, what happened when Jesus was a child? Like, we don't, we don't learn much about that. And they speculate, like, maybe he, maybe he traveled the world, you know, like, listening to the wisest people, and he. No, you know, Jesus tells us where he gets these things. It's not from, from, you know, studying with imams or something like that. [00:00:52] Where does he get these things? [00:00:55] All throughout the gospel of John, which we're studying in my study, between services, all throughout the gospel of John, he's saying that he's the one who has come down from above. [00:01:06] He's the one sent by the father, and the words he speaks are the father's words, and the works that he does are the father's works. [00:01:15] Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters with us? And they took offense at him. They're like, look, where'd you get this? We know you, like, you're just a little boy that we remember. [00:01:41] We have your family here. Where'd you get this? [00:01:46] Jesus tells us elsewhere, from above. Now, this is just true for any prophet. And that's kind of what Jesus, that's part of why Jesus brings in a prophet here. He says, a prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and is in his own household. A prophet is like a mouthpiece. [00:02:09] It's like, you see that in the Old Testament reading. Actually, he's just a mouthpiece. Like the words are coming through him from above. [00:02:20] Ezekiel says, he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak with you. And as he spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. Okay, so, you know, you read that, and then you think, okay, when I hear Ezekiel speaking, what should I be thinking? Like, the spirit entered into him, you know? And then it says, I send to you. I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels who have rebelled against me. [00:02:51] I send you to them, and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God says, what? No, that's the point. You shall say to them, thus says the Lord God, not me speaking. Ezekiel says, but God speaking through me. And where am I getting these words? I'm getting them from above for your benefit. How'd you get that wisdom? [00:03:12] I've been given it from above, right. That's the point. So Jesus is saying, look, any prophet who comes, like, basically, like, you should be hearing these words as coming from God, but you don't. Why? [00:03:27] Because you think you know me already if you're expecting to understand how I got this wisdom, well, it's come to me from above. [00:03:35] Now, from above is actually in the text. [00:03:39] I'm importing that, right? I'm saying, okay, I'm going to say it's coming from above. Of course, it's in John. It's in lots of places, but it actually shows up in a couple places in our service this morning. So in the Kyrie, I don't know if I've ever brought the Kyrie into a sermonous. For the peace from above and for our salvation. Why do we say that? For the peace from above, right. Why not just any peace? [00:04:06] It's a peace beyond our reach. It's the peace we can't get ourselves. Here we are. It's above us. And that's kind of the point of the above us language in a way. It's beyond us. It's beyond our grasp. We can't get it for ourselves. [00:04:20] So for the peace from above, like as a gift from God that God brings down to us by his spirit and through Jesus who came down from heaven. [00:04:32] So we pray for the peace from above. Also, in our sermon, hymn in verse two, he bears our sins upon the tree, he brings us mercy from above, the same kind of thing. This isn't the mercy of God that he would not give us what we deserve. You know, we deserve death, but he doesn't give us that because of Jesus. It's like we can't get that mercy for ourselves. You can't climb up into heaven and bring that down. [00:05:05] That mercy comes from above and Jesus brings it down from above for us. It's a gift. [00:05:16] So where does he get it? [00:05:18] He gets it from above. [00:05:28] This is kind of the point of Paul's, Paul's message to us this morning from two corinthians twelve, he speaks of actually being, well, somebody else that he knows being taken up right into the third heaven, like actually ascending. Okay, well, taken up, right. How would he, like, ascend to revelations? How would he receive revelation that would elevate his spirit that would bring him up into, you know, up out of. Out of sort of earthly, you know, muddy understanding up to where you can see up to where things are clear. What would give him a heavenly revelation? He can't get up there by himself. [00:06:21] It's a gift from God. Actually, in the ancient world, this is how they viewed insight in general. Like, insight wasn't something that you came to because you did all the right things, and then you just grab it. It's like insight was something that you received from above, like Plato recognize, like, insight as a gift, that you think and you consider things, but kind of with an openness, and then boom, like, the light bulb turns on, and that's been received. It's not been, like, grabbed for yourself. [00:06:55] You've been kind of granted to be lifted up beyond yourself, to perceive something beyond yourself and to receive it anyway, comes from above. [00:07:07] So Paul says, I could talk about revelations, but I'm not gonna. [00:07:14] I could boast I could elevate myself, but that's not good for me. That's not what God wants to me. So to keep me from being too elated, like, think about that feeling of being elated. You're on top of the world. It's like, you know, to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations. A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated, he received a thorn in the flesh. [00:07:52] We'll talk about that in a second. [00:07:54] To keep him, well, from being too elated, from being elevated beyond what's proper. Or you could say to help him to remember that the power is not his own, that the revelations are not his own, but that actually he in himself is weak. He in himself can't get any of that. It all comes to him as a gift from above. [00:08:22] The revelations, whatever else, they come to him as a gift from above. Now, he also says to keep him from becoming conceited. [00:08:34] If he became conceited or proud, you see, he would just be thinking like, this is great. I'm great. I've got all this knowledge, all this wisdom from above, but there I am, right there I am, up there in the clouds, and I'm getting it. But it's critically important that Paul remains aware of his own weakness so that he will continue to look to Jesus in faith and receive from him the one who brings down divine revelation, divine mercy, divine forgiveness, divine love from heaven. [00:09:14] This attitude of recognizing that it all comes down from above, it's a humble attitude, which is why Paul says I needed to be humbled so that I wouldn't become conceited. [00:09:24] That's the attitude of faith. [00:09:28] Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. It's beyond me, far above me. How unsearchable are his judgments? And how inscrutable his ways from our gradual. It's over my head. [00:09:42] Nothing I could get for myself. [00:09:45] If I receive any kind of divine revelation, which we do by faith in Jesus, it's a gift coming from above. How unsearchable are his judgments? Inscrutable his ways. [00:10:01] So, Paul. It's important that Paul is humbled, and so he receives this thorn in the flesh. [00:10:07] Have you ever puzzled over that? Like, what is the thorn in the flesh? Right? Because I'm thinking he probably didn't actually have a thorn stuck in him, and, you know, that he just, like, couldn't get off. Nobody could get it out. Right? It happened to my mom once with eggshells, like, you know, in her hand, and she just couldn't get them out. Finally, they came out. Not that kind of thing, though. Not that kind of thing, right. [00:10:31] So why does he say a thorn in the flesh? Like, why a thorn? Well, a thorn really bugs you, you know? I mean, even just getting cut by a thorn. Actually, I have a cut right now. It's not from a thorn. It's on my other finger. There it is. Bad band aid. [00:10:48] It's like a cut just drives you nuts, right? Well, until I put a bandaid on it, you know, after a day without a bandaid, it was starting to drive me nuts. [00:10:58] But a cut, it just draws your attention to it. You constantly are reminded that you have this thing that sliced you open. It's like I was a whole, and then this sliced me, and then, actually, your blood pours out. [00:11:18] Your life actually pours out thorns. You know, thorns come in all sizes, and they can be pretty nasty, right? They can be pretty long and sharp. [00:11:33] All right, so, thorns. Why are we thinking about thorns? Paul says a thorn in the flesh. He's not talking about a literal thorn. So why does he say a thorn? Like, what? Where else in scripture do we hear about thorns? [00:11:51] The crown of thorns is. I think that. I think you're saying that, but I see your mouth moving, and I can't hear it. [00:11:57] So there's the crown of thorns. Where else in scripture do we hear about thorns? [00:12:05] Oh, yeah. Like, the parable of the seed. [00:12:08] Yeah, that's good. And the thorns are actually, like, what chokes out, right? Yeah, yeah. In the garden of Eden, right? So there are a couple places, but there in the Garden of Eden, God is giving while he's doling out the punishment for sin. Like, here's what's going to happen. You're going to have thorns. And that's like, well, oh, that's not too bad. We can handle thorns, right? But no, the thorns represent all of suffering, right? And all those things that are just going to constantly be reminding us, constantly drawing our attention, all the forms of suffering and weakness that we experience as fallen human beings. That's what the thorns are talking about. And so Paul says he's got a thorn, a thorn in the flesh to remind him of his weakness. [00:12:59] See, this is the purpose of Paul's thorn, and it's the purpose of the thorns in Genesis. [00:13:07] It's actually, God actually gave thorns. He said, now there are going to be thorns. [00:13:13] Why? [00:13:15] Because he loves us. Why does he say to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you? It's because he wants Paul to know that his power is made perfect in weakness, that the power is not his own, that it comes from above. We had that, like, four weeks ago, where Paul says, we have this treasure in jars of clay. Why didn't you give me a, you know, not a jar of clay? Why can't I just have, you know, whatever, like, be whole and perfect and not suffer? We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. [00:13:51] This is our position right here. We are on earth, and we receive from above every good thing. That's faith. That's what it means to look to God for every good thing, to remember that they don't belong to us and that they come down to us from above as a pure gift. That's what grace is. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness or elsewhere. He says, when I am weak, then I am strong. [00:14:21] Why? Because it's God's strength. [00:14:26] You all have thorns. I experienced thorns in life, and we could spend all our lives trying to get rid of them. [00:14:37] That's kind of the story of the enlightenment, the history of the west. For the last couple hundred years, it's been like, hey, we can do this. We can get rid of the thorns. [00:14:48] We can take care of diseases, we can take care of mortality. [00:14:54] But that's not the point. Really. Fine. You know, not that those things are all bad, right? [00:15:02] But to just spend our lives trying to get rid of the thorns that God has given us to give all our attention to the thorns as things to be overcome and taken away. Well, that's not the point. How do we know that the thorns are Jesus crown on the cross? They're where Jesus shows himself as king to the world, where he says, here, these thorns, they're piercing him and they're actually like his life is pouring out to us for our sake, cleansing us and giving us life. There he is on the cross, and the crowns have become, the thorns have become his glory have become the highest thing. [00:15:45] And God says through Paul in romans twelve, offer yourselves as sacrifices. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, pleasing and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual worship. Sacrifice and willingly accepting suffering in faith, that's good to live, not just to try and get away from all forms of pain or difficulty or suffering, but to accept them in faith. To accept anything from God in faith and to look to him, that's good. [00:16:23] We see Jesus doing it on the cross and he says, take up my cross and follow me. [00:16:30] The thorns, well, they're just a nuisance. [00:16:33] They're just a nuisance. Like, they're not going to actually end us, right? Unless they draw us away from Christ, source of life, and we just go off. [00:16:44] Unless our attention is sucked away. [00:16:47] Looking to Jesus, there's nothing that can harm us. [00:16:51] What are the thorns that are, I guess, making you feel weak, right? [00:17:00] Give thanks to God for them. [00:17:03] Give thanks to God for the forms of suffering or just any time when you go, wow, I am weak. Then you say, thank you, Lord, right? You look to Jesus to be your strength. You look to him for forgiveness and say, like, well, okay, I guess I can't go a day without sinning, you know? I guess I can't go an hour without sinning. Jesus, thank you for your forgiveness, right? And you look to him because his power is made perfect in weakness. [00:17:30] You can't take care of yourself, and you need other people to help you. [00:17:35] Thank God for the humility that he's working in you through that suffering, the readiness to receive. [00:17:44] And thank God that others can be blessed by offering their bodies as living sacrifices, pleasing, acceptable to God in serving you that sacrifice, self sacrifice and service, weakness, humility. [00:17:58] God works all of this for our good. He's working these things in us in order that we may remember that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. When we are weak, then we are strong. [00:18:13] We're gonna have a barbecue today, except, you know, it's on my mind always remembering. There's barbecue coming, right? [00:18:20] We're gonna have a barbecue today, right? And we're not saying, like, hey, we're a great church, you know? Like, we don't have to be like, oh, we're so strong, or something like that. Like, we're just hanging out together. [00:18:33] We're just hanging out together, receiving from God together, right? Asking questions of one another, getting to know each other, hanging out together, right? Just because we have Christ who makes us strong. We have Christ who unites us together in himself. We all share these gifts from God that we're continually receiving that elevate us to the position of, like, child of God, which is crazy, you know? But we all together are God's family. Why, just by his grace, we get to share that together and remind one another together. Because there are many of us, probably all of us, who are struggling with things now, maybe not in this moment, right, but, like, we're gonna go home today and then the, you know. Or maybe in this moment, right, we've all got thorns, we've all got weakness, and we all need to hear, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Thank you, Goddess, for sending Jesus to be our strength, our forgiveness, our life. In Jesus name, amen.