Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12901
Date: 2025-04-06
Time: Sun 11:00 am

P. Schaller –

Good morning. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Wow! Great. Praise the Lord! Thank you ladies. Wow.
Excellent. We have an Easter play coming up and many of you know that’ll be – this week is our
work on the play inhouse and then the next week is the week of the play. And I talked to my
neighbor yesterday. Invited him and he said I’m like I’m into science. And we had a good talk
and I understand that because I was brought up that way, also.

But I didn’t say this to him but I invited him and I want to say our theme, our message today is
about how we want to have a story. We want to have a story in our life and science is part but
science doesn’t really have a story. Science has a lot of knowledge and information, but if you
ask that scientist where, how did the world come into being, it’s possible they would say it was
an accident. It’s an accident. How will the world end? It’ll be, probably it’ll be an accident. So,
where’s the story? There isn’t anyone. I mean it’s not a good one. I mean what is that? I want to
have a story. I want to – anybody do Ancestry.com in here? Okay. Some people. A few. All right.
Why? I’d like to know my relatives. How many were criminals? And those things. Where we
came from. I want to have a story in my life.

How about you living your life and you read stories. Children grow up on fairy tales and those
are stories. And they start, “once upon a time.” Once upon a time. What’s that mean? A certain
time there is a beginning. And how do they end? They live happily ever after. I like it. I want to
know is there we live happily ever after, right? Is there a beginning in your life? And then, also,
where are we going? That’s the story.

So, this is from 1 John chapter 5. We’re going to read the verses from verse 4-10. That’ll be our
text today. And that will be I believe helping us because this is Passion season. Passion of Christ.
The sufferings of Christ. The Passion of Christ. There’s three words: Gethsemane. #2. Gabbatha.
Gabbatha was were the pavement, where he met Pontius Pilate. He went from Gethsemane to
Caiaphas to Sanhedrin. They brought him to Pilate. Gabbatha. And then they brought him to
Golgotha. Why is that important to us? Because that story has a lot to do with your story.
What happened with Jesus Christ and when did it start? When did the story start and then
where it? Where doe sit go? So, that’ll be our message for today. Welcome, P. Colban.
(Offering/Song).

Wow! Calvary is enough (song). That’s our theme today actually. So, Calvary is enough. I would
like to finish, you know, within 29 minutes. I think that’ll not be, that’ll happen I think. And
yeah, then we’ll have our communion because this is the first Sunday of the month. So, we are starting from 1 John 5, the text. So, praise the Lord! Calvary is enough. Wow! Calvary is enough.
Wow!

So, we have, we can say it this way. This is your life and this is the story as you see it in that box.
That’s your story as you see it. But then, as you grow older, you see more. You know, you start
with your Teddy bear. Your bedroom. The swing set in the backyard. Your mom and dad. The
duck, the hamster. Then, you get, you go to school and you start to think about your life. And
where did you come from? Actually, why do you live here? Yeah. Where do you go ultimately?
We are very, very much interested in that.
(Prayer). Amen.

In the Christian life, sometimes I think the point of Christianity is to learn to love my neighbor as
myself and maybe be a nice guy and be kind to people and help people. But actually, the
Christian life is not. It’s, that’s there but it’s not that. It’s the Atonement, the death of Christ on
the cross to pay for our sins for our lives. That he shed his blood. That’s important. We don’t
have a Savior without the blood of Hebrews 9:24. We need a payment for our sin. That’s another
message but a very important one. That somebody has to pay and it happens like that in your
life.
You loan your car to your friend. They take the car out and they just scrape the side of the car
and bring it back and they say, I’m sorry. Okay. Like that’s step #1. You said you’re sorry. Who’s
going to pay for that? I’ll pay for it. The guy that you loaned the car to. He says, I’ll pay for it.
Oh, really? Thank you very much. No, I’m not going to pay for it. Then, I guess I pay for it then
or the insurance company pays. Somebody pays. It’s like that written all over life. There has to
be something, something done about all of our sin and all of the things that we are part of and
all of it.

And here’s the amazing thing. When we believe in Jesus, we have another realm of life. We
have a family. We have God as our Father. When we believe in him, we are born of the Spirit of
God. So, we’re going to read that in a moment here. This is what we could say. There is a story
that is bigger than all of us that started in eternity with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And it wasn’t like once upon a time. It was beyond time in the mind of God. He decided that we
would be born into his family, that he would be our Father. That Christ would be our Savior and
the Holy Spirit would live in us. And we have a story that’s beyond us in our failure, in our mess-
ups, in our problems, in our psychology, in our physical bodies. That he would give to us
something that’s beyond us. That we be born into that kingdom, that realm.

So, turn with me to 1 John 5:4. That’s the new birth. When you believe in Christ, you are born
of the Spirit of God, It comes into your heart, into your life. You are born of God and you
overcome the world. The world is that realm of life that’s without God. Yes, the whole
philosophy of we say the world, it’s kind of the world has a mindset or many mindsets. That it
has a religious mindset, a moral mindset. It has a way. It has a philosophy or wisdom of the
world. There’s also the spirit of the world.

Those are verses: 1 Corinthians 2, James 3, 1 Cor. The world.
He came into the world and the world knew him not. That’s a good definition for the word
“world.” It doesn’t know him. It doesn’t know him. It knew him not. And he came into the world
and he’s God that made the world. It says in John 1:1, 14. But the world knew him not because
it’s very possible to live your life physically, psychologically, in the whole existence of life for 70
years without God. I mean believe in God but I don’t really need him. And I don’t know him and
I don’t, I might not care about him.

So, I’m an unbeliever living in a world and I want to have a story. I want to have a career. I want
to have a family. I want to have a story. But the story isn’t in the – it isn’t connected with the
big story. What God has planned in his heart for us is that we will live happily ever after. But we
are, we read in the Scripture that a man can die in his sin in John chapter 8. You are those that
die in your sin. When I die in my sin without a Savior, I am lost.

And Christ said that I’d rather lose my hand then enter into hell with both hands. I’d rather
pluck out my eye, Mark 9:43-47 and have one eye and have the kingdom. Have not God. I
rather lose something in this life in order to gain something I will never lose.

That’s the reality of God as our Father. Okay. Let’s go back to the text. Chapter 5:4, this is you
might say I don’t have faith. You can get it. You can get it. Faith is kind of like a little light, you
know. You ever been in a dark cellar somewhere and there’s a little light in the other room in
the cellar and somehow you just know there is a little, little light there. But if I live in the light,
walk in the light that I have – I might not have much – but if I walk in the light I have, I get more.
That’s Psalm 36:9. It’s really true.

Begin to believe. Trust him. talk to God. You can tell him I don’t believe. Help me, God. That’s
actually Mark 9:27. The man said, I believe but help my unbelief. Like I believe a little bit. Jesus
is saying that’s all you need is a little. Do you believe that I came into the world born in
Bethlehem? Do you actually believe that I am the one the prophets wrote about? Do you
actually believe? Do you know that David said I’d be pierced through my hands and my feet?
People didn’t die in 950 B.C. by being pierced in their hands and feet.

Where did David get that from? Holy Spirit. Because crucifixion did not come until the Persians
in 300 B.C. It didn’t exist. They invented it. The Persians invented crucifixion to torture and
cause suffering on a criminal and hanging him up in the air. But God ordained this to be the way
that Jesus would die and so fulfill the prophecies.

This is something that grows in you. Your faith grows. There’s got to be something more. There
has to be a story about the universe. There has to be some reason why evil came into the
world. Why death is here. There has to be some reason why I struggle to live. There has to be
some reason why I’m guilty of my sin and my failure. The moral law that’s written in the hearts
of people has to come from somewhere. And if I’m hungry for a story, there must be a
storyteller. There must be somebody who can tell me what life is about.

Okay. Vs. 5. Water. Jesus Christ came by water and blood. The Bible commentators say a few
different things about this. Water and blood. I think the meaning essentially is that he was
called a real human being. That he had a birth by his mother’s womb where there’s amniotic
fluid and her water breaks and the baby is born. It could mean that he came by water and
blood, that he had a real physical birth. It could also mean he was baptized by John the Baptist
in the river Jordan. And he died on the cross and shed his blood. In any case, he’s a real – not a
spirit, not a ghost, not an apparition. But the reality of a human being born of the seed of David.
And he came and he says and it says also that the Spirit bore witness to him.

What is that? The anointing of God. The Spirit of God. By the way, don’t underestimate what
the anointing of God will do in your life. What did it do in Christ’s life? When he spoke, it
electrified the crowd. It fell in their hearts They were affected by his ministry of words. Luke
4:32, no man has spoken like this man. Not like the scribes and the Pharisees. He was anointed.
The Spirit.

That’s the nature of the church by the way. Where the Spirit of God is in the assembly and we
hear the words from the Bible that go into our hearts and feed us. Jeremiah 23 says I will give you
pastors after my own heart that will feed you in knowledge and understanding. In vs. 4,
knowledge. It’s what you gain by going to church where you have a Bible teaching. You have
the Bible taught to you wherever it is that God has ordained pastors and teachers to feed us
with knowledge and understanding. And when you get that, you know it. You get that. You get
that. I need that. I want that. I want more of it.

I remember when I first experienced that in the university campus. I heard a guest speaker.
There was a small group, 15 people. I was listening but wow! That made sense to me. That was
good. I want to hear that again. And I found this church and it happened all the time. I want the Spirit to speak to me. So, look at the text there, vs. 6. By the way, when the Roman soldier put
the spear up through Jesus’ side and it touched the pericardium of his heart. It’s what the
physiologists are saying. People that know the body.

They say that because of asyfixiation, the stress on the heart and that filled that sack that is around the heart. Filled with water and blood. If that’s the case, if that’s what happened. I don’t know that it did, but the spear went up
and out along the shaft of the spear ran water and blood.
Now, it says that in the Scripture in John 19. So, we know that not only did he come by water
and blood, but it says also and it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth. So,
when Jesus walked on water, the Spirit had him walk on water. When he raised the dead, the
Spirit raised the dead. The blind man, the Spirit did the miracle. When crowds gathered, and he
preached the sermon on the Mt. and then after he fed them and they were, the food was
multiplied by the Spirit bearing witness that this is the Christ, the Messiah.

Vs. 7. So, we have three in heaven. That’s the Trinity. Father, Word or Son. Same. And the Spirit.
Ad then on the earth in your life. So here’s your life. Here you are. And you have three that are
bearing witness to you. Three elements. Three words there that bear witness to you in your life,
in your messy life, in our messy life, in our failure. We’ll speak about that in a few minutes. Our
failure.

Peter denied the Lord. And in our failure, in our messy life, in our world of sin, unbelief or
stubbornness or pride or rebellion or confusion. Whatever state of mind that we are in. Our
story, our small story. There’s a bigger story.

By the way, sometimes people in their small story they live there and they struggle. They
struggle. That’s all that they got is that my uncle offended me. My uncle abused me. My uncle
stole money from me. My boss hates me. My sister never talks to me. Whatever our story is,
that’s a very small story to live in because there are three that bear witness to you.

Let me explain that. There are three that bear witness. Look at vs. 8. What’s that mean? It’s
here now. Three in you, in your body, in the earth, in your life. Now, not like later when we go
to heaven. It’s like now in the earth. There are three. Look at vs. 8. The Spirit is in you. We know
that because we are promised that in John 7. We are promised that I will send the Spirit in John
16:17. Those chapters at the Last Supper. I go but I send another that’s like me. That’s the Holy
Spirit. The Comforter.

#2. Vs. 8. It says water. You bear with me. This is something. Water. Literal. Okay. Water. That
we know what that is. We know what that is. But then, what does it mean that water is here bearing witness? And if you use a Scripture to define terms, you see Ephesians 5:26. If you could put
that up on the screen for me. Ephesians 5:26, that he might sanctify and cleanse. This is the church.
Context is the church. That he sanctified and cleanses the church with the washing of water by
the Word. What is the water? It is the Word. The Word cleanses us. John 15:3, now you are
clean through the Word that I’ve spoken to you.

There are times in your life when you will be confused and troubled. You’ll get a word from God
and the trouble goes away. There’ll be times in your life where you’ll be upset with yourself and
he will come to you. Not physically. But he will come to you in your heart and give you a word
and that and you’ll be okay. I have verses in my life where that happened to me. I can tell you
the verses but it’s not needed.

The point is that you are cleansed. It’s a clarity. It’s a cleansing that happens from the Bible and
if you get in the habit of reading the Bible, you will find you’ll be driving the car and something
from God, a word from God from the Bible will come to your mind and you’ll enjoy that. You’ll
relate to that. Believe that. And it has a cleansing effect on you. It helps your focus. It helps our
orientation to his story. Something bigger than us and our limits. What I’m saying is really, it’s
pretty amazing. If what I’m saying is true, that’s amazing.

The third one is the blood and that’s in vs. 8. Now, blood is cleansing by way of Hebrews 9:14. By
the way, a lot of time as a new Christian I was wondering how do you get blood washing
garments white? How can you take blood because my dad’s a butcher, right? My dad was a
butcher and we had a lot of, you know, I know about blood a little bit. But you don’t take blood
and make an apron a white apron. You don’t make it white. You make it red.

But then I realized that actually blood cleanses your body. Blood is a cleansing agent for
infection. Blood cleanses you. You get an open sore. It bleeds. But it’s like cleansing and it heals
and you are healthy because of the blood. All right.

So, what about my conscience? My conscience troubles me. But Hebrews 9:14 says that the blood
cleanses our conscience from dead works. So, we don’t pay for our sin by dead works. Have you
ever done something bad? You just say I’m going to pay for that. You know, I’m going to pay for
that by being depressed and sad and being just sad and depressed and withdrawn. I’m going to
pay for it by a large amount of money. I’m going to pay for what I’ve done. The penalty. What
I’ve done.

And many times, I don’t know about you, but I feel like I need to pay for my sins. Even when I
haven’t done anything wrong. Just my conscience bothers me and we learned last Sunday 1 John 3 if my heart condemns me, God is greater than my heart. And that’s written right here in
this text.

Look at vs. 9 with me. What does it mean if we receive the witness of men? Like men can
condemn us and say you are guilty and go to prison because of civil law and men say you are
unworthy to be in our society. We will put you in prison and in prison, there you are and the
witness of men is there. But it says the witness of God is greater than the witness of men. The
witness of God.

I mean can a criminal in a prison cell end up having forgiveness and joy and peace and how? By
these three that are in agreement. They are saying you are forgiven. And we say on what
grounds am I forgiven? And God says on the grounds of my Son who paid the price for your
sins. That’s not fair. God would say it isn’t strictly speaking. But what makes it different that it
becomes righteous is that it’s done out of love. I decided that I would take an innocent man and
make him guilty so you the guilty one could go free. I decided that in my wisdom in my mind
with love. My own decision. I love you and I did this for you.

And because you don’t believe me, I sent three witnesses into the world. The Spirit, the water
of the Word and the blood of Christ that would bear witness to you that you are forgiven. You
are free. I don’t remember your sin anymore. Hebrews 8:13, you are free. Go. And we say, no.
That’s not fair. Then the Lord will say then you have your own little 70 years on the earth and
your little story but your story is going to disappear into nothing.

Because the only one that is the one that really is, is mine. God’s story. That’s the only one that
makes any sense. The only one that smacks with reality. The only one that is eternal. The only
one that makes any sense. That I made you to live forever. But that ability to live forever isn’t
because of you. Because you have sinned. But you will live forever because of me. Because I
saved you by my grace. I gave my Son for you.

You know what? C. S. Lewis wrote a book about that. It’s called, The Great Divorce. And this is
basically what he’s saying. There’s a lot of people in hell with this little story. They are people in
hell with their story and I can see that happening in life. You know, you killed my brother. I will
never forgive you. They go to the edge of heaven. It’s an allegory. It’s not theologically sound in
every way, but in principle, it’s like people inn hell actually can’t get out of their life. They can’t
get out of their struggle. They can’t get out of the injustices. They can’t get out of their mindset.
They’re caught and trapped in themselves and the bitterness is there and the hatred is there
and the injustice is there. And they can’t get out of it. Amazing.

So, we have overcome the world by the Son of God coming into our lives. I wanted – I can do
quickly because I’m going a little long here. But go to Mt. 26:69. I want to show you about the
Apostle Peter messing up. Chapter 26:69. This is about his denial of Christ. Vs. 70. Peter is under
pressure. He is, he left Gethsemane following afar off. Following Jesus to Caiaphas’s house.
Sitting outside warming themselves by the fire with the others.

They recognize his accent. He’s from Galilee. They recognize that he’s the stranger in Jerusalem. That he’s not like one of them. They recognize it. They just see him. You are one of his followers. And he said, no, I’m not. Vs.
71. That’s the word for a young girl, maid. Vs. 72-74. This is the third time. I do not know him.
Now, wait a minute. Three and a half years. I a little list like this. Peter and three and a half
years. What did you see with Jesus for three and a half years? You saw him I the morning. You
saw him at night. You listened to him. You followed him. You saw his miracles. You saw a blind
man healed. You saw the transfiguration. You saw him turn white. You saw him talking to Elijah
and Moses on the mount.

You saw 5,000 people fed by food miraculously, and you’re saying
you don’t know him? I don’t know him. Three times. Third time, he’s swearing and cursing.
Where’s that coming from? That from me. That’s in my heart. When I’m afraid, that’s in my
heart. I collapse. I’m a coward. I can’t do that. I cannot be there. I cannot. I cannot be loyal. I
cannot be loyal in this setting. It doesn’t work. Peter denied him three times. And there was
actually a sequence in his fall. #1. He was very confident it wouldn’t happen. He said it to Jesus.
I will never – it’s in chapter 26:33. Okay. Confidence. Confidence. He has a lot of rock solid and
in Gethsemane, he – remember – he pulled a sword. His knife. A short dagger and he cut off a
guy’s ear. That’s how good, how strong and confident he was, too.

But then, then a minute later, he’s collapsing on the inside. And the second thing. What was it?
He was compromising. No, he was lazy. He was – laziness. Is in Gethsemane in Matthew 26:43. But
they slept. They slept. They could have been praying. He could have prayed. I see this
happening also in our lives as Christians that we kind of slide away.

We get confident about life. We get confident about what I can do. We get confident about the
ministry. We get confident about the quality of life I live. We get confident about a lot of things.
And then, we also couple that with the laziness that we have in prayer. And that’s what he did.
Vs. 58. I get away from the church. I get away from my Bible. I get away from the Spirit leading
me in serving and loving. I get away. I get analytical and critical. I follow Jesus. I believe in Jesus.
I follow him a far off but I’m going to deny him. I’m one step away from denying him and the
pressure coming cuz I don’t have the spiritual capability in myself. It’s got to come from the
bigger story. The three that are in heaven haven three on the earth.

The Spirit, the water and the blood that are saying to me I am okay. I am good to go. I am capable. I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. I can live by faith. All the promises of God are yay and
amen, 2 Corinthians 1:19-21. We are able.

Noah could build an ark. Moses could get out of Egypt. Samson could destroy the enemy. David
could conquer enemies. Daniel could get out of the lion’s den. Christ, the Spirit, three are in the
earth that bear witness to us that we are able. We are more than able. We are capable. But
without those three, I got a scenario like Peter who is just one step away and it is the evil
company that he’s with. Evil company and he then denies him three times.

What’s evil company. It’s the world. It’s just at working places. It’s at schools. It’s in a
dormitory. It’s at a card game. It’s at a barroom. It’s in a family. Maybe that could be. Now,
here’s the thing. We are in evil company but when you’re not healthy, you get an infection. You
know, when you’re not – say I’m weak and I’m not healthy.

Then, when I get sick, I really get sick. When I get an infection, it can take me down. But if
you’re healthy, then you can be in the midst of sickness and it’s okay. You are stronger than the
disease. You are stronger than the evil. Youa re stronger than the lie. You are stronger than the
environment that says, hey. Don’t even say a word. And deny Jesus. Don’t defend him. Deny
Jesus. Go ahead. Deny him. We all are telling you and we’re in the evil company.

And what happened at Pentecost is the evidence that the reality of God in your life is stronger
than the world. So, you’re in an evil company, but you have a ministry to them. If I don’t have a
ministry to them, then what am I doing with them? Why would I be handing out with them?
They can infect me if I’m weak. And Peter is in that weak state and he denies him.
So, this is to encourage us that we can live in an evil world but be healthy and have a testimony.
A good one. 1 Timothy 6, a good witness and a good testimony. And I just commend you for being
part of this fellowship and learning the Word and living in faith and for God to do his work in
our life. And we could say, what’s your story?

And you could say, once upon a time. Actually, in eternity God made an agreement with himself
to save us and he once upon a time Jesus was born in Bethlehem and he overcame evil. And he
sent the Spirit into the world to bear witness to us by the water and the blood that we’re not
guilty of our sin. He is greater than our sin. That he’s forgiven us and washed us clean and given
us a new name and put our name in the book of life. And we call God Father and we will live
happily ever after forever and ever because of his great work that he did on the cross. Amen.
Amen.

I did go, I went over. It wasn’t 29 minutes. It was 42 minutes I think! Whoa! Who’s counting?
I’m not. I am but all right. We’ll do the communion before we leave. (Prayer)

 

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