The Collect for the Sixth Sunday after The Epiphany
O God, Whose Blessed Son was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil, and make us the children of God, and heirs of Eternal Life; Grant us, we beseech You, that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves, even as He is pure: that when He appears again with Power and Great Glory, we may be made like unto Him in His Eternal and Glorious Kingdom; where with You O Father, and You, O Holy Spirit, He lives and reigns ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Epistle, 1 St John 3:1-8
3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
The Holy Gospel of St Matthew 24:23-31
23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
"the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken."
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Bishop Ian’s Thoughts
Today’s Epistle Reading is taken from the First Epistle of St John Chapter 3, Verses 1-8.
In this portion of his Epistle St John declares what great Love our Heavenly Father has bestowed on us, freely, without limits. St John uses the word “lavished” which denotes a richness in the quality and magnitude of a gift that is given:
“3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
God’s great Gift is the of Adoption of His Chosen men, women, and infants, as His Children, through their faith in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Infants, I believe, will be chosen, by God, through the faith of their parents.
St John reinforces that fact that we are now Children of God, as a result of receiving the priceless Gift of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, by adding the strong declaration “and that is what we are.”
St John emphasises the Love of God which revealed His Eternal Plan, to provide His chosen and faithful people, with the means of escape from His Divine Wrath on the Great Day of Judgement which will take place, when the Lord Jesus returns to this world at the end of the ages.
St John continues by explaining why the world (those who reject the Lord Jesus) do not know Christians. It is because they have no knowledge of, or reject, the Lord Jesus, His words, or His Great Deeds, and His Promises of what is yet to come:
“The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.”
The Jewish religious leaders of the Lord Jesus’ time were so preoccupied with the Law of Moses with it’s emphasis on sacrifice and other externals of religion, that they failed to recognise the Holy Lamb of God who would fulfil every command of God relating to the Law of Moses, and also provide much more than that Law could ever achieve.
St John then tells us that when the Lord Jesus appears a second time on earth all His Glory will be revealed and we will see Him in His Glorified Body, and we will be made like Him.
The world will then know us, as our bodies will be transformed to be like His Glorified Body:
“But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
We are then told that all Christians who have placed their faith in the Holy Gospel will share in the purifying Righteousness of the Lord Jesus, and so be accounted Righteous before God:
“3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
Belief in the Holy Gospel is credited to all believers as Righteousness by God, Just as God reckoned the belief of Abram (Abraham), the father of the Jewish people, in God’s promise that He would give him many descendants, as righteousness. This Declaration of Abraham’s Righteousness is recorded in the Old Testament Book of Geneses Chapter 15, Verses 5-6:
5 “He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
The next passage of St John’s Epistle has caused many faithful Christians, throughout history, much heartache and soul searching. Many Christians believe that it teaches that Christians never sin, and if they do, then they are not Christians:
“4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”
At first reading this warning must seem a most hard saying as all of us can look to times we have sinned against God, and other people, after we first came to believe the Holy Gospel.
Many fine Christian people have told me that they have thought, in their hearts, “I have sinned, since becoming a Christian, am I really a Christian?”
The answer is definitely “yes,” you are a Christian who sins and you will sin again and again.
St John’s words are indeed a solemn warning, however we must realise that the Greek word used by St John to denote “sinning”is the present continuous tense of the verb “to sin,” which denotes that it refers to habitual sinning that cares nothing for God and the Lord Jesus.
St John is impressing on us, the Great Truth of the Lord Jesus’ sinless Nature. No believer who lives in the Faith and Love of the Lord Jesus will be guilty of sin, for the Lord Jesus has clothed all believers in His own Holy Righteousness.
The great Apostle St Paul declares the nature of God, and all believers, in his Epistle to the Romans Chapter 3, Verses 21-26:
“21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.
He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
The tense used in the Greek verbs “sinned,” and ”fall” in verse 23, is the “present continuous” tense, like that used by St John in our Epistle Reading, indicating that we all sin continually, and fall short, continually, of the Glory of God.
The “all” of Verse 23, who have sinned, are the same “all” who are justified by their faith in the Holy Gospel.
Good and Faithful Christians always continue to sin and let God down. It is what we do when we sin that separates the Righteous person from the Unrighteous person.
How can St John warn believers not to sin while St Paul declares that all have, and will sin, continually.
The answer lies in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
The Righteous person, realising they have sinned, sincerely confesses the sin to God and seeks His forgiveness, knowing that forgiveness is readily available through the Holy Gospel of Lord Jesus.
The forgiven person, feeling remorse and gratitude for God’s forgiveness then seeks, through prayer, God’s help to avoid that sin in the future.
They then move on, trying to avoid sin, in the future.
To sum up, all Christians will commit sin after they are initially saved, but when they realise their sin they will repent, feel remorse and immediately confess their sin to God and seek His forgiveness, through the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
God accepts us and declares us innocent of sin through of our belief and faith in the Holy Gospel…..the Great Finished Work of God’s Blessed Son wrought on the Cross of Calvary.
Our Faith in the Holy Gospel clothes us in the Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus and that covers the sin that each of us will commit periodically throughout our entire life.
The Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus also covers our original sin, which we all inherit at birth, from the the fist man Adam, together with all our personal sins past, present, and future.
Even if any person was able to keep all of God’s Law every day of our life, we could not escape the guilt of original sin.
The Lord Jesus Christ was born without original sin, as He was born of God, not of Adam, and He committed no actual sin during his earthly life.
This was the reason that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the World, to accomplish what no man could.
That is why the Lord Jesus is often referred to as the “the Proper Man,” the “Right Man,” or the “True Man.”
Through Faith in the Holy Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ clothes Christians in His Holy Righteousness, and we are therefore viewed by God as Perfect and without sin.
What we must never do is to continually live our lives deliberately seeking out, and willingly committing sin, and then presume on God’s Forgiveness to save us.
To do this we are living and continuing in sin.
This insults God, grieves the Holy Spirit, and mocks the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
God will surely Judge and Condemn us for such a lifestyle.
The unrighteous person cares nothing about their sin and its consequences.
Those unrighteous persons who reject God’s Wonderful Gift of Forgiveness and the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus, and choose to continue in their sinful lifestyles will receive condemnation and eternal damnation on the Great Day of Judgement.
St John concludes our Reading by exhorting his readers to do what is right so that they might be righteous:
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
To do what is right is to believe, and accept the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Those persons who do what is right, by believing the Word of God and accepting the Truth of the Holy Gospel by trusting in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus, become clothed in The Lord Jesus’ Holy Righteousness, and become adopted children of God.
Those persons who do evil, by rejecting the Son of God and His gift of Salvation from God’s Great Judgement, are children of Satan, and will be eternally condemned by God’s Holy Judgement, and will suffer the same fate as Satan,….. eternal damnation by God.
The Holy Gospel has destroyed the power and works of Satan.
Let us always thank God for the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus that covers all of our sin, and that on the Great Day of God’s Holy Judgement we, clothed in the Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus, will be found most pleasing to God and, as His Adopted Children, will be made Heirs of the Lord Jesus’ Eternal Kingdom. Amen.
Today’s Holy Gospel Reading is taken from the Holy Gospel of St Matthew Chapter 24, Verses 23-31.
In this portion of his Holy Gospel St Matthew records the Words of the Lord Jesus as he answered His Disciples’ question about the end of the world.
Jesus and His Disciples had just left the Temple in Jerusalem and the Disciples, amazed at the mighty stonework of the Temple together with its ornaments and decoration, draw the Lord Jesus’ attention to the marvellous sight.
The Lord Jesus surprised His Disciples by not agreeing with their amazement, but by telling them that soon there will not be one stone left upon another stone. This means right down to the foundation stones that uphold the walls.
The Lord Jesus was foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the second Temple of Herod, in AD 66, by the Romans after suppressing the Jewish revolt of AD 60.
I have read that the Temple, which was the focal point of Jewish worship and culture, was so methodically, and completely destroyed that the ground where it stood was indistinguishable from barren untouched land.
The suppression of the Jewish revolt also saw the Jewish tribes scattered, in exile, throughout the known world.
The Lord Jesus tells the Disciples that great trouble and unrest is coming, so terrible that men and women will faint of fear. This of course began with the Jewish Revolt, and continues to this day.
St Matthew picks up the Lord Jesus’ description of the end times and His Second Coming:
“23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.”
We learn that in the days immediately preceding the Lord Jesus’ Second Coming, all manner of deceivers, false prophets, and false messiahs will rise up and seek to deceive all people, even the God’s elect (Chosen People) with “great signs and wonders.”
As we await the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, in our present time, these great “signs and wonders” will be demonic “miracles”, empowered by Satan, to impress and deceive a totally “dumbed down” world addicted to electronic social media, evil computer games, hard drugs and demonic music performed by satanically inspired mega stars.
We are living in the end times and the Lord Jesus’ predictions are coming to pass all around us.
The “pride” movement, ‘Black Lives Matter',” and a host of other so called “inclusive” and “sustainable” movements are all the work of Satan to destroy Christianity and to discredit and vilify the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ !
God will not allow this to happen !
The Lord Jesus’ warning to His Disciples and all Christians of future ages, to keep a sharp vigil and read the signs of the time, is most relevant to us today:
“26 So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus will be seen by all the world’s people at the same time.
St Matthew continues with the Lord Jesus’ description of His Return to the Earth:
“29 Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
The Lord Jesus is quoting the Old Testament Book of the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 13, Verses 9-10:
"See, the day of the Lord is coming
—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—
to make the land desolate
and destroy the sinners within it.
10 The stars of heaven and their constellations
will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give its light."
And again Isaiah Chapter 34, Verse 4:
"All the stars in the sky will be dissolved
and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall
like withered leaves from the vine,
like shrivelled figs from the fig tree."
These Old Testament descriptions refer to the Great Day of God’s Judgement at which time all those people, both Jews and Gentiles, who have rejected God’s Holy Son will see their world and it’s heavens (stars) destroyed and hear God's Verdict, of condemnation upon themselves.
The Lord Jesus is telling His Disciples, and us, that this Great Day of Judgement is near.
The Lord Jesus then gives us a clear picture of what we can expect:
“30 Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."
What the “Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven” is we are not told, however many Christians believe it will be a Cross, the symbol of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The description of the Lord Jesus “coming on the clouds of heaven” reminds us of the words of the Angels who appeared, to the Disciples, as the Lord Jesus ascended to Heaven after His Glorious Resurrection, as recorded in The Book of the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1, Verses 9-11:
“9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”
“10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will be the greatest and most awesome event the population of the world has ever seen. Atomic bombs, volcanoes in full eruption, and the greatest storms and earthquakes will pale into insignificance.
The Regal Splendour of the Lord Jesus Christ coming on the Clouds of Heaven, robed in Dreadful (mind numbing magnificence) Majesty, accompanied by thousands upon thousands of Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, and innumerable Saints (Saved People) will far surpass the combined sum of all earthly pageantry.
In thinking of the world’s best pageantry, I am reminded of a line from the great hymn “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” which declares:
“Fading is the World’s best pleasure, All it’s boasted pomp and show.”
When the trumpet of God blasts forth across the world it will signal the end of the Days of Grace and Salvation.
We can be sure that all people will hear it.
The Great Day of God’s Judgement will have arrived.
All those who have died unrepentant, and who have, in so doing, rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned already and are only awaiting final Judgement.
All who are alive at the time of the Second Coming, who have not believed the Holy Gospel, will find that it is too late to be saved and will only be able to await the Judgement with those, from all the ages of history, who have also died unrepentant in their sins.
The bodies of the millions upon millions of saints, from all the ages of history, who have faithfully believed God’s Holy Word and have trusted in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be transformed into the same Dazzling Spiritual Body as the Lord Jesus.
They will live forever, with the Lord Jesus, in the Great, Eternal Kingdom of God.
It is my greatest wish that all men and women might repent and believe the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and become adopted children of God and share in Eternal Life.
May God give us the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, to proclaim the Holy Gospel, God’s Free Gift of Salvation, to all people we meet, and humbly pray that their hearts may be opened by the Mighty Holy Spirit, to receive it, with humble, thankful hearts. Amen.
Bishop Ian