tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-368440692024-03-17T12:23:27.547-07:00FishpondThe home of eclectic rants and theological thoughtsCudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.comBlogger352125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-989287936982593952024-03-17T12:22:00.000-07:002024-03-17T12:22:47.973-07:00What Are You Hearing?<p><i><b><span style="color: #351c75;"> John 8:46-47</span></b></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Judica Sunday 03/17/24<br /><br /><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">What Are You Hearing?</span><br /></span><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Let me present you with a conundrum, this morning. One truth that we have observed is that how you look at something will determine what you see, what is reality for you. A second truth is that reality shapes your perceptions, that is, what is around you and happens to you determines, to a large extent, what you observe or how you observe it. The conundrum, or puzzle, is this: which truth is most persuasive in your life?<br /><br />First, we observe that who you are and what your prejudices and values are can shape what you perceive. A situation may be seen as a failure, or an opportunity. A helping hand may be perceived as a kind thing, or as condescension, as a ‘leg-up' or as an attempt to weaken and disable someone. How often does it happen that something you think of as good is described by someone else as a bad thing? It happens frequently in political debate. This power of perception to change reality for you is at least partially responsible for the animosity of the radical Muslims for America. They perceive our freedom as an evil thing, a fundamentally immoral condition that must be eradicated. Clearly, how you look at things changes the reality of what they are for you, and how they function in your life.<br /><br />The same example of Islam also demonstrates how reality shapes your perceptions. It is his poverty and his commitment to a certain kind of Islamic thought that causes a Muslim to think of liberty as dangerous. Other examples might include the seemingly bizarre attitudes of the "woke" crowd, or how a woman might perceive certain things differently than a man simply because she is a woman, or how the reality that something has never been accomplished before causes people to perceive it to be impossible , or beyond their reach. I often use the example of Roger Bannister, the first man ever to run a recorded mile in less than four minutes. It was May 6th, 1954. He ran the mile in just six tenths of a second less than four minutes, but he was the first man to accomplish it in well over a century of people trying. His record nevertheless was broken in less than three months, and the current record is three minutes forty-three point thirteen seconds, set in 1999. Until Roger Bannister did it, everyone thought it was impossible, and once he did it, they all knew they could, and they did.<br /><br />Our text is another example of the conundrum. It is also a deeper mystery which amazes us, and gives us cause to praise God, totally disallows decision theology, and finally asks us to ask ourselves the question that is our theme this morning, "<b>What do you hear?</b>"<br /><br />"<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He who is of God hears the words of God</span></i>." Here is the conundrum presented. Who you are, the reality, shapes what you can perceive - the Word of God. Everyone who was listening to Jesus was hearing the same words, weren't they? Yet they were not all believing what Jesus said - in other words, they were not perceiving what they heard to be the Word of God, nor "hearing" it in the sense that they believed it and understood the truth of His words. Jesus said that the reason they could not perceive that it was the Word of God was the reality of who they were - or, more precisely, who they were not. They were not "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">of God</span></i>."<br /><br />Before our text, in John, chapter 8, Jesus preached that unless they came to know Him and trust in Him they would die in their sins. He explained that He was the Savior, the Messiah who was prophesied. Then He said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free</span></i>." It was that passage which caused them to rebel. They said [they] were Abraham's children and that they had never been enslaved! How dare He say such a thing!<br /><br />Jesus explained that He was talking about sin, and being a slave to sin. He told them that He knew the evil in their hearts, their desire to kill Him, and that they were doing the will of their father - meaning Satan. They challenged Jesus and He responded with the truth of who He was and who they were, and finally came to the words which form our text. And Jesus explained that because they did not believe in God, or know Him, they could not believe what Jesus said, either. Their reality, as unbelievers, and therefore servants of the devil, made it impossible for them to understand correctly or believe the Word of God. Their reality informed their perception, and their perception changed the nature of the reality of what they were hearing from the precious and life-giving Word of God, to something confusing and obnoxious, and unbelievable.<br /><br />First, let me show you how this answers the false doctrine of decision theology so decisively. No one who is not "of God" can hear, that is properly understand or believe, the Word of God - as Jesus demonstrates in our Gospel this morning and teaches in clear words. So, obviously, no unbeliever can hear, properly understand, or believe the Word of God, either the law or the Gospel. So how would anyone find the wisdom to choose to be a Christian, and "decide for Christ," when they cannot understand the Gospel or believe it because they cannot "hear" the Word of God until they are "of God"? Decision theology calls God a liar, which is what Jesus was talking about when He asked them which of them convicts Him of sin, and why don't they believe His words - which obviously the Arminian (the ones who believe that being and becoming a Christian is accomplished by an exercise of their free wills) is also doing. They deny Christ's honesty and truth by claiming to be able to decide for Christ.<br /><br />Anyhow, the question the text raises for you is "what are you hearing?" <br /><br />When God's Word is preached, what do you hear? "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He that is of God hears the words of God.</span></i>" As it was back then, so today, it is often difficult to listen to, and sometimes is not inviting to believe.<br /><br />We are happy to hear good things, which is why every television evangelist rips the promises of God out of their context and waves them about to impress the crowd. They tell the people what they want to hear, instead of telling them the truth. When they hear the truth, they violently reject it. Oddly, people generally don't mind the law so much as the Gospel. The promises of God are disconnected from the context in which they are spoken, and severed from the context of faith and salvation, and made to sound like God wants everyone to be rich, or God is going to make everyone eternally blessed, without regard to their life, or their relationship to Him.<br /><br />The people who preach these things do not hear the Word of God, and so they preach the doctrines of demons, designed to lead the flock before them astray. The crowd that listens, and raises their hands in a fit of "spiritual ecstasy" at these distortions of God's Word are denied the truth, and find their satisfaction in the false teachings of their preachers, to their destruction.<br /><br />You, however, know better. You have heard the truth. Sometimes the Law is hard to listen to – but it is the Word of God. The Jews that Jesus spoke to could not listen to the law either. They wanted a law they could keep. They wanted the honor and respect of being the chosen people and the children of Abraham, and they would reject anything, including the Gospel, that denied them the respect and glory they felt that they deserved. We sometimes find the law too demanding, and discover that it does not fit into our lives here in Minnesota. It asks - no, . . . it demands too much from us. It seems to want our time and our money and then, we are supposed to feel all guilty and ashamed - and that is simply not comfortable with us.<br /><br />But the truth is that you spend your money on yourselves far more freely than you spend it on the Word of God. You take your time, and your trips and your family get-togethers and your entertainments far more seriously - and sometimes more frequently, than you take worship, or fellowship with the saints around Word and Sacrament. Your time and your energy are focused on yourselves much more religiously than on your faith, or on the work which God has set before you as an individual member of His body, or before the body of Christ to which you belong, right here. And when I say those sorts of things, it makes you mad - or at least really uncomfortable. So, when that happens, what are you hearing? Are you hearing the Word of God? How is your reality shaping your perceptions? How are your perceptions shaping your reality around you?<br /><br />You should feel guilty, and ashamed at times. You should be prodded by the Law into self-examination. And you will find sin. I know that you will because when I hear the same words that I preach to you, I am accused, and I must wrestle with my own sins and selfishness, and the coldness of my devotions and prayers.<br /><br />But I also hear the Gospel. I hear it because I preach it. Jesus knew what a ‘rotter' I am, and how I could not turn away from my sins because I am a slave of sin in my flesh. So He redeemed me - and He redeemed you. He traded His holiness and righteousness for your sins and mine and took the judgment of God against us on His shoulders, bore the sentence of the wrath of God against us on the cross. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The whipping that wins peace for us was laid upon His back, and with His stripes, we are heale</span></i>d." "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He was made sin for us, He who knew no sin of His own, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him!</span></i>" His death on the cross was ours, taken for us. And we have been given His righteousness and holiness and the love of God which He has merited, and the everlasting life which He has earned is now ours by His gift!<br /><br />Are you a sinner? Not in Him! Should you feel guilty and ashamed? NO! Not if you believe that in Jesus Christ you are cleansed, redeemed, forgiven, and beloved of God. He has declared you "Not guilty!" "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">‘Come now, and let us reason together,' Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.</span></i>'" Those words are the Gospel - God's Word. <b><span style="color: red;">What are you hearing?</span></b><br /><br />The Gospel is forgiveness and life - but only for sinners. People who cannot hear the Law, that Word of God, cannot hear the Gospel rightly either. They hear the words, they just don't receive them as God's Words. And why is that? "<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them</i></span>," – if it may be said about you that you cannot find your comfort in Christ – "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">because you are not of God</span></i>."<br /><br />You should never feel really pleased about who you are apart from Christ, or how you handle things on your own wisdom and power. You should find that peace only in Jesus Christ, who has reconciled you with the Father, and redeemed you from your sins, and counts you as perfectly holy, with His own righteousness. The things of daily life, they will always be something short of right and good. Our sinful flesh will see to that. It doesn't mean we don't try to be good, it means we know the truth. We try, and we fall short of perfection. But our hope is built on Jesus Christ, and His perfect righteousness, and His atoning, propitiatory, redemptive death on our behalf. And His resurrection, of course, where the Heavenly Father proclaims that this sacrifice for sin was sufficient and paid the price of our corruption completely by raising Jesus from the dead.<br /><br />What are you hearing? It is life, and peace, and forgiveness, and joy. It is the Word of God, and it meant for your ears, and your hearts, and your consciences. To doubt either the law or the gospel is to call Jesus a liar, and I know that none of you would want to do that. Jesus said, in our Gospel this morning, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death</span></i>."<br /><br />So, <b><span style="color: red;">what are you hearing?</span></b><br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-56916232077184131752024-03-10T12:44:00.000-07:002024-03-10T12:44:50.073-07:00More Than You will Ever Need<h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> John 6:1-15</span></i></b></h3><p><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). And a great multitude was following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?" And this He was saying to test him; for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Jesus therefore took the loaves; and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost." And so they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten. When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world." Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Laetare Sunday 03/10/24<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">More Than You Will Ever Need</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />One of the challenges for Christians at this time in history is understanding what we can trust in God for, and how much we dare to trust in Him. That has always been a challenge, I suppose, but, in our day and age, we are farther removed from the magical and mystical and miraculous. We have centuries of "modern" men telling us that the miraculous is not possible and cannot touch our lives. Even when people talk earnestly about trusting God they usually are speaking about something seemingly ephemeral and distant, like salvation. Many times, we tend to make that shift in meaning in our own minds too. If it isn't immediately tangible, we tend to place it in the category of "not quite real".<br /><br />Our Gospel lesson stands as a testimony against such thinking. The Apostle John means to tell us what we can trust God for, and how much we can trust God. He shows us that even the disciples originally had trouble imagining just how far we can trust God. The lesson here is that we can trust God for everything He has promised – which is everything we need. Add to that thought that we can trust Him absolutely – as long as we are trusting in Him and not merely treating Him as our concierge. When you trust in God, our text illustrates for us that you will have more than you will ever need. And that is our theme this morning.<br /><br />The Gospel tells us that Jesus was healing the sick - and we might presume teaching, as well. A great crowd was following Him, thousands of people. Some probably wanted to be healed, or have a family member healed. Some probably came to see Jesus do miracles. Others followed Him to hear Him teach, and believed that He was someone worth listening to. <br /><br />John mentions that it was the season of the Passover, not so much to tell us what time of year it was, but to connect the events of this account to the Passover theologically. Passover was, as you know, the great rescue by God from slavery in Egypt. He rescued His people with signs and miracles and great power. God brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness and provided for them - for forty years. God fed His people with Manna - and He demonstrated Himself to the nation, Israel, as their God, the One in whom they could trust. He made a covenant with them in the wilderness, and it all began with the Passover. And it is this connection with caring for the people, and feeding them miraculously, and showing Himself to be their God and giving evidence that they could trust Him and depend on Him, that probably warranted mentioning that "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand</span></i>." <br /><br />So, Jesus feeds the entire crowd, much to everyone's amazement, starting out with just five loaves and two fish. The loaves were probably about the size of an eight inch tortilla, and about an inch or so thick. John gives us no information on the size of the fish, but I am guessing that the young boy was not carrying a pair of twenty-pound carp or eighty-pound catfish with him. Even if he had been, they would have been woefully insufficient to feed the roughly five thousand people who were fed that day.<br /><br />Jesus began with less food than it probably would have taken to satisfy the Twelve disciples. And when they were all done and everyone in the crowd was satisfied, the disciple gathered up the leftover pieces - the ones big enough to bother saving, and they ended up with twelve full baskets of bread pieces. The baskets were likely somewhere between the size of a five quart ice-cream pail and a five gallon bucket, according to the Greek word used to name them, but the point is that when everyone had eaten all that they wanted, and were satisfied, they had several times more in left-overs than what they had when they started in the first place.<br /><br />The people there were so impressed by what Jesus did, which makes sense, that they decided to seize Jesus and force Him to be their king. They knew a good thing when they saw it, and they reacted to free food the same way we do - get it while the getting's good. Jesus perceived that they were planning this action, and He slipped away without them noticing, and went up on the mountain alone to pray.<br /><br />Now that we have rehearsed the details, we have to ask ourselves, what does this tell us? I imagine the answer depends on how much you want to see. Jesus was facing an insurmountable task. He was going to feed five thousand people with little or no food. The situation was huge and the resources for it were extremely limited, and yet Jesus accomplished it. He fed those five thousand people and He had more left over - many times more - than He had when He started.<br /><br />In the light of this lesson, <b>What needs or troubles can we imagine that Jesus cannot handle for us? </b><br /><br /><b>What tasks are we facing that we feel we lack the resources to accomplish? <br /></b><br /><b>How much of our doing what Jesus gives us to do actually depends on us?</b><br /><br />These are the sorts of questions you should ask yourself. It would probably be helpful if you were honest with yourselves when you answered, too. The trouble we often have is that we don't really expect Jesus to really help. Not in things like real food or immediate, physical needs. We don't want to start things until we have a sense that we can succeed. We don't really expect divine intervention at any point. And so, when we finish, and have succeeded, we feel like we accomplished it. We church-types often piously say that this is the thing that the Lord has made, all the while still thinking that we actually did it.<br /><br />One truth is that we tend not to start anything - even as a congregation - we don't think we can finish. It isn't that we don't think we should do it, it is just that we want to be confident we have the resources to do it before we begin. Well, according to this Gospel from John, with Jesus, we have the resources. We have more than you will ever need. If Jesus give us the task, He will see it through to completion.<br /><br />Does that mean that we don't count the cost, or plan, or try to be wise about what we do and how we do it? No. We have to think, and Jesus calls on us to act - you know, do the things that need to be done. We are to do what we believe we have been given to do, and approach it with confidence that Jesus will bring us through to success, if what we are doing is what He wants done. In our Gospel, the disciples were asked to prepare the people for food. Jesus said, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">"Have the people sit down."</span></i> They did not have food, nor did they know how they would feed all those people - but they did what Jesus gave them to do, and Jesus accomplished what appeared impossible just before He did it.<br /><br />This miracle is not the only time Jesus did the impossible. It is not even the most impressive time. The most impressive example of doing the impossible is when He rescued us from our own sins. The verdict of God from the very beginning was that when one sinned, that individual would die. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The soul that sins, it shall die.</span></i>" That was the judgment of God. Sin, to put it simply, earned death - and that death was more than just physical. It included eternal torment and suffering. That was what God wanted to rescue us from. His nature, however, would not allow Him to just ignore our sins and pretend that they had not happened, however. That would have made God unjust and an accessory to our sins. He had to punish them, and punish them with death, as He stipulated originally. But His goal was to preserve us alive and rescue us from our condemnation.<br /><br />He did that by sending Jesus. He sent the Second Person of the Trinity, true God and yet, not the Father. He was made incarnate - that is He took on flesh and blood, and became a true man as Mary heard the Word of God with faith and bowed her head and said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord, Let it happen to me just as you have said it would</span></i>." With that, Mary became pregnant, conceiving in her womb the child who would be born nine months later and be named "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Savior</span></i>", or literally "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">God is Salvation</span></i>" - Jesus.<br /><br />Jesus kept the Law which man refused to keep. He lived without sin, just as He required of Adam and Eve and all of their children. They did not obey, but Jesus did. He obeyed God, as Scripture puts it, even to the point of death on a cross. Having fulfilled all righteousness, He deliberately gave up what He had earned and now deserved - life without end in the favor of God the Father - and took in exchange our guilt, our shame, and our condemnation, and our death. <br /><br />Every step of the way He endured the taunting and tempting of the devil, and resisted. During the hours just before His execution, when a word would have set Him free He kept silent. When silence would have served Him, He spoke. Everything He said was true, but it was also spoken with the full consciousness that it would ignite their anger and cause them to continue to march Him to the cross.<br /><br />He died deliberately for us. Because He is God He is of greater value than all of us combined, so His one death redeemed us all. Because He has taken our death, He now has the right to give to us the life eternal which He has earned. And He pours that treasure out upon all people everywhere, without consideration of their worthiness or holiness. He has appointed faith as the means by which we receive and hang onto this treasure of grace. <i><span style="color: #351c75;"><b> He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.</b></span><br /></i><br />Further, He knows that we are, by nature, not able to trust Him or love Him by virtue of our own corruption in sin, so He sends His Holy Spirit out through the preaching of His Word to work faith in the hearts of those that hear the good news of this Gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now, all who hear have the Holy Spirit at work in them. Many reject that work, and deny God's goodness, grace, and mercy. They are those represented in the parable of the sower by soil of the hard-trodden path upon which the seed falls, and the birds of the air eat the seed up. They had the treasure delivered to them, but they rejected it for something or someone else. But anyone that believes, which is accomplished only by the very work of the Holy Spirit within them, has life everlasting, and resurrection from their graves to come, and God is with them even now, day by day.<br /><br />The feeding of the five thousand reminds us that we can trust God in Jesus Christ in all things, and that He will provide abundantly. That provision isn't just for in the sky, bye and bye. He provides for us now, each according to His good plan for our service for Him. He provides food and clothing and the needs of this life, and lots of our wants as well. He feeds us with His holy body and precious blood in this Sacrament, to strengthen us, and to cleanse us, and to teach us to trust in Him and in His love for us individually, personally.<br /><br />He also cares for us in our day to day pressures, desires, passions, and temptations. He does not always give us what we desire, and surely not always what we expect, any more than those five thousand who were fed followed Jesus expecting a meal out there in the wilderness. He provides what we need, and then some, so that we may accomplish what He has planned for us.<br /><br />So, let us look to the future and <b>work while it is still day,</b> as we say in that old prayer, <b>before that night comes when no man can work.</b> Let us do what we believe the Lord would have us do with faith and confidence, trusting that we will have more than you will ever need. <br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say Amen)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-50358016519040417432024-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:002024-03-07T08:24:38.622-08:00The Servant – From Forgotten to Remembered<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Isaiah 49:8-18</span></span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Thus says the LORD, "In a favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; Saying to those who are bound, 'Go forth,' To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' Along the roads they will feed, And their pasture will be on all bare heights. "They will not hunger or thirst, Neither will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them, And will guide them to springs of water. "And I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up. "Behold, these shall come from afar; And lo, these will come from the north and from the west, And these from the land of Sinim." Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will have compassion on His afflicted.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me." "Can a woman forget her nursing child, And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live," declares the LORD, "You shall surely put on all of them as jewels, and bind them on as a bride.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Lenten Wednesday #4 03/06/24<br /><br /><b><span style="color: red;">The Servant of Isaiah</span></b><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">The Servant – From Forgotten to Remembered</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Our Servant text for tonight depicts the whole Gospel for us once again in the person of the Servant. The servant is called "Zion" at one point in our text, and several Gospel allusions dot the prophecy before us tonight. Tonight we will look at the Gospel, and our Servant of the Lord, under the theme, "The Servant – From Forgotten to Remembered".<br /><br />The prophecy is filled with images we have come to associate with the Gospel, for example, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">the day of salvation</span></i>", the covenant given to us in the person of Jesus, the springs of water, Jesus called it "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">living water . . . a well of water springing up to eternal life</span></i>", mountains being brought down to become a road and valleys being lifted up, being inscribed on the palm of His hands, and the bride.<br /><br />All of these images are familiar in both the Old and the New Testaments. Because the Gospel is the victory of Christ, which He has already won, it is easy to pass right by the pain and trouble of our Lord in getting there. Our prophecy tonight reminds us of what it must have been like for the Servant of the Lord. Isaiah gives voice to the Servant, But Zion said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The LORD has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten m</span></i>e." We know that this speaks about Jesus because we remember His cry from the cross, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?</span></i>"<br /><br />This is the sorrow that filled the heart of our Lord as He bore the wrath of God against our sins. He was alone, and although He is God, the Son was utterly alone, abandoned by the Father and the Holy Spirit in His agonies on our behalf. Surely He felt forgotten. He must have known, somewhere deep inside of Him, that God would not abandon Him, and yet He had to bear our human nature, too. He had to bear that sense of being alone, forsaken and forgotten, which, for one Person of the Trinity, forever One with the Father and the Holy Spirit, must have been exquisite torment. And He was alone, for He was facing the wrath of God over sin, and enduring our penalty in our place.<br /><br />But He was not forgotten, and He had not forgotten His Father. When His task was complete, and He had finished all that He had come to do, He commended His soul into the Father's hands, and died a truly human death. He died the same sort of death every man, woman, and child must one day face - the separation of body and soul. And the resurrection proves that He was not forgotten, but remembered. Isaiah describes it in this prophecy in these words, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Can a woman forget her nursing child, And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you</span></i>."<br /><br />The questions are rhetorical. Of course a woman who is nursing her child ordinarily cannot forget the child, and mothers are notorious for their patience and compassion when it comes to their children. Sometimes they are too patient and compassionate. Yet God says that even a mother is more likely to forget her child, sitting in her lap and nursing, than God the Father is to forget His Son, and He will be more compassionate than a tender-hearted mother.<br /><br />Here, next, is where the prophecy becomes difficult. The prophet swings from talking about the Servant to talking about the people of God, and he makes that change quickly and without any segue. Sometimes the same words seem to be spoken about both the servant and the people of God. That is because the Servant is the one-man representative of the entire people of God. He is Israel, and He is Zion! And yet, so are we. When Isaiah writes, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me</span></i>, I cannot help but think of the marks of the nails in the palms of Christ. We have truly been inscribed on the palms of His hands. The walls which the prophet describes as standing continually before Him are the walls of Zion, the city of God, and the temple of God, which is to say, us. Peter says it explicitly in His first epistle, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are that temple, and we are that Zion, and just as the Servant cannot be forgotten by the Father, so we too are indelibly etched on His hands and never to be forgotten.<br /><br />The Servant, once forgotten and forsaken, is remembered, and we are remembered with Him. It is that which makes this the day of salvation in which our Lord has helped us, as Isaiah spoke. The Servant has made us the people who will neither hunger or thirst, as Jesus illustrated by His feeding of the five thousand on one occasion and the four thousand on another. He makes all His mountains a road, as Isaiah describes it, because He does not bring things down to our level, but raises us up to His level by the gifts of grace and by bringing us at last into His glory in eternity. Out of the bitterness of being forsaken and forgotten, He has brought us into the glorious light of His glory. <br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, o mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His afflicted.</span></i> The compassion of the Lord rescues us from the death we have earned by our sin. He comforts us with the promise of resurrection from our graves and life everlasting. We are the ones spoken of by Isaiah, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Say to those who are bound, 'Go forth,' To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' Along the roads they will feed, And their pasture will be on all bare heights.. "They will not hunger or thirst, Neither will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them, And will guide them to springs of water."</span></i> The bondage is the bondage of the funeral attire. It was familiar to the ancient Israelites because they would bind their dead with cloths before burial. We read about those bindings in the account of the raising of Lazarus, and in the burial of Jesus. The darkness from which the prophets says we are to be released is the darkness of the tomb. The blessedness he then describes is the blessedness of paradise, beyond death and sorrow and all of the difficulties of this life, beyond hunger or thirst, beyond scorching heat so familiar to those who lived in the arid middle east..<br /><br />The final note from this prophecy of Isaiah is where Isaiah writes, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">As I live," declares the LORD, "You shall surely put on all of them as jewels, and bind them on as a bride."</span></i> Here he is speaking of those who gather to worship Him. The image is not identical to the one we are accustomed to, but it strongly suggests the New Testament image, patterned after much in the Old Testament, of the Church as the Bride of Christ.<br /><br />Our theme is, "<b>The Servant – From Forgotten to Remembered</b>". We have made the transition with the Servant. He was forgotten so that we might be remembered. Now He has remembered us, and the promise set before us tonight is that we will go forth in joy with Him for eternity. All of our hope and confidence rests upon the Servant, spoken of in Isaiah, and made flesh in Jesus Christ our Lord.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-8566576983038114562024-03-03T11:05:00.000-08:002024-03-03T11:05:14.701-08:00Christus Victor<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Luke 11:14-28</span></i></b></span><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And He was casting out a demon, and it was dumb; and it came about that when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke; and the multitudes marveled. But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons." And others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven. But He knew their thoughts, and said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own homestead, his possessions are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied, and distributes his plunder. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And it came about while He said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice, and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed." But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it."</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Oculi Sunday 03/03/24<br /><br /><b><i><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">Christus Victor</span></span></i></b><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Sometimes following Jesus – even just believing in Jesus – is a difficult thing. He says things that don't mesh with our world-view. He does things that are unexpected. Oh, we expect the things He does in the Bible, because the Bible has been there all of our lives and so it may seem to make sense to us. What God was doing back then didn't make sense to everyone back then, any more than the things that God is doing today - or putting us through - make sense to us today, at times. Even when it did make sense, it wasn't what they wanted to hear or wanted to see and so they chafed against it and rebelled against it. Jesus called them on it, and explained the truth to them so that we would see it today. <br /><br />Our theme this morning is "<i><span style="color: red;">Christus Victor</span></i>", which means "Christ the Victor" or "Christ is the Victor". I chose those words because of Jesus' words in our text, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.</span></i>" Let us consider the words of Jesus today and see what it means in our lives day-to-day that Christ is the Victor.<br /><br />Our Gospel opens with Jesus casting out a demon. You would think that would be a good thing, wouldn't you? His adversaries found fault with Him anyhow. They said that He was in league with the devil, and that was how He was casting out demons. They were cooperating with Him. The truth of the matter was that everyone who saw it was impressed. They were flabbergasted! The text says that "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">the crowds marveled</span></i>." They all knew that such a thing came from God - but to the Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes of the Temple, it was an awful blow. This Jesus was just getting out of hand. How do you compete with a man who can do the things Jesus could do? And it was so clearly from God that they felt compelled to try to diminish Jesus' authority and stature with the people before they lost all influence with the people themselves.<br /><br />So they made up the "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">in league with the devil</span></i>" thing. They didn't think it through, they just said what they thought would hurt Jesus in the eyes of the people. Others of their number were demanding that Jesus do something really impressive, something clearly ‘<i><span style="color: #351c75;">a sign from heaven</span></i>' to prove Himself to them. It was just like politics today: say anything, however absurd, and keep saying stuff until something sticks! Think about it – He was doing things only God can do, and He was so clearly God's man that the religious leaders felt the only way to diminish Him in the eyes of the people was to pretend that either He was in league with Satan or that He had done nothing special, and so they needed proof before they could believe what was painfully obvious to them in the first place. Makes sense, eh?<br /><br />Jesus responded by pointing out their flawed thinking - if the devil is working against himself, how could he possibly succeed? Then He confronted them with the question of why they accused only Him of being in league with the devil. When others did these sorts of things – or tried to, the critics never challenged them. But, as we say today, ‘what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.' If Jesus was in league with Satan [they even used the spooky sounding name Beelzebul (or Beelzebub) for the devil - the Lord of the Flies, or the God of the Demons. They were working on the creep-em-out factor. Jesus responded by asking, who are the others in league with, you know the ones of which you approve - and the ones everyone else believes are good, godly men? Consequently, Jesus said, they shall be your judges.<br /><br />Then He made the point out loud that His adversaries wanted to avoid the people making in their own heads - if Jesus was doing this by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has come among them - that is, the Savior is here. Their plot to discredit Jesus backfired, and opened the door for Jesus to make explicit what had been only implicit before. Jesus was the Victor there.<br /><br />We are often tempted to do something very much like those adversaries of Jesus did. If we don't like the direction the Lord is leading us, we try to cast it into terms that favor our preferences and deny the leading of the Lord. I am talking about times when, where God seems to be taking us is going to take too much of our time, or too much of our attention, or too much of our energy, or too much of our money. You know, when being the kind of Christian that Jesus talks about, and the Apostles taught us about, is not compatible with our modern individualism. It is the sort of situation in which our rights and our liberties stand at odds to the sort of commitment that faithfulness to Christ seems to demand. We want to believe that lukewarm Christianity is better than no Christianity at all - in open denial of what Jesus said in Revelation 3:16, in the letter to the church at Laodicea, "'<i><span style="color: #351c75;">So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth</span></i>."<br /><br />Our vacations and our family visits and our other ditherings seem to be challenged by the concept of faithfulness to Christ and His people. Our hobbies and our toys and our entertainments seem to be threatened by the demands of genuine Christian faith and commitment. When we feel that tug of conscience, we want to make the preacher back up a little and lighten up - sort of like the Pharisees wanted Jesus to back off and shrink in the estimation of the people.<br /><br />Jesus answered them with a couple of parables: the Parable of the Strong Man Guarding His Home, and the Parable of the Unclean Spirit. These are different answers than you might expect in the heat of conflict. Jesus tells a parable on the devil - Satan is the strong man who guards his house until a stronger man than he comes and takes everything away. Jesus is the stronger man. Consequently, those who try to prop up the devil, even inadvertently, are working against Jesus. The only way to work with Jesus is to be deliberately and clearly on His side. Neutrality, lukewarm-ness, and just not being involved, all serve the devil - <i><span style="color: #351c75;">He who is not with me is against me</span></i> - and He who does not gather with me scatters.<br /><br />Then Jesus describes First Century Israel as the house of the unclean spirit that has been driven out. He was driven out by the coming of Jesus Himself. But when Jesus has gone, the devil will return, and since Israel rejects Jesus, the last state is worse than the first, and the evil of the last state is far deeper than the first. That worsened condition is described as the first spirit bringing seven more spirits, more foul than himself, to live with him. And look at Israel, the people. They no longer hope for the Messiah. They actively oppose Him. They were once at least the people of the covenant before Jesus came, even if they failed to keep it, and they once had the Word and the prophets. <br /><br />Today they are empty, and the religion of the covenant is now pagan and idolatrous, because their Savior - their God - has come, and they rejected Him. They chose the familiar, and the personally preferable to the true and the saving.<br /><br />‘<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He who is not with me is against me</span></i>' is Jesus' way of saying <i>Solo Christo</i> - in Christ alone - to the Jews of His day. If we are not pulling on the oars with Him, we are dragging the anchor. If we are not working together with one another faithfully in the church, we stand guilty of working against Jesus Himself.<br /><br />One of the women there that day was so impressed with the wisdom and truth of what Jesus said that she cried out, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed</span></i>." She meant to praise Him for His wisdom and holiness - good things, but Jesus answered her, and answered those who had been made to feel foolish by His response. He indicated that the really significant thing was not how impressed they might be with Him, but how they dealt with God's Word. He said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it</span></i>." The true blessedness is in believing the Word of God both with your mind and with your life - not just thinking it is true, but living as though it is true.<br /><br />That Word says that your sins are forgiven. Jesus took the wrath of God against you and your sins and suffered on the cross what you have earned including death itself. He died that you might live. He bore your sins that you might be forgiven and live in holiness before Him. Believe that Word! What a wonderful gift - and what a wonderful Gospel. Believe it with your mind and believe it with your actions.<br /><br />Do we dare to behave like the Pharisees were behaving, as though this wondrous good news is not so special as it seems? Can it be that faithfulness and holiness can take a back seat in the life of a true believer to the pleasures and priorities of modern American life, with all its wealth and possibilities? Jesus and His obvious God-connections were getting in the way of the plans and priorities of the leaders of the Temple religion, and, although they saw the truth, they thought that they could cool it down and re-prioritize things safely.<br /><br />Faith in Christ and true faithfulness will call us to changing our behaviors, re-aligning our priorities, doing things first which we would rather leave for later. You probably feel the tug-of-war in yourself between what you kind-sorta think you ought to be doing as a faithful child of God, and member of this body here (or at your home church), on the one hand, and the tug to enjoy what is yours, take the time for yourself, do what is every American's right to do, and call Christ unreasonable for suggesting (even though it is your own mind doing all the talking) that you live sacrificially as a deliberate Christian rather than self-indulgently as one who has every right to own, to do, or to go as you please.<br /><br />Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it. The strong man in your life has been destroyed, and Jesus has taken his place - by taking your place on the cross. He has set you free - from sin, and from the slavery to yourself and your flesh - to serve Him. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">"Sin shall not be master over you, for you are no longer under law, but under grace</span></i>."<br />So, what should you do?<br /><br /><b>I'm not going to tell you.</b> I cannot. <br /><br />Believe the Word of God, of course. Walk in faith. Live every moment in the presence of God, and in the light of His love for you and the marvelous gift of your forgiveness and salvation. </p><p></p><p><br /> And remember the principle, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The Lord loves a cheerful giver.</span></i>" That applies to your time. It applies to your morals. It applies to your energy. It applies to your talents. It applies to your entertainments, and it applies, finally, also to your money. <br /><br />You have the Word of God, now how you respond, by the power of God within you, is up to you. Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it. And here, too Christ is victor!<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-76256906832218933022024-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:002024-02-26T09:01:24.389-08:00Persistent Faith<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Matthew 15:21-28</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from that region, and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him, saying, "Send her away, for she is shouting out after us."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Reminiscere Sunday 02/25/24<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b><span style="color: red;">Persistent Faith</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Our Gospel, this morning, is a wonderful account of a woman in prayer, and, in the words of Jesus, expressing a profound faith. It is sort of like situations that we find ourselves in at times. Our situations are not always as extreme as this woman's, and our results are not always as much the way we desire them to be as this woman's results were, but she can serve us as a lesson, illustrating the way prayer works, and demonstrating how faith works as well. This woman had a persistent faith. And that is our theme, this morning; Persistent Faith.<br /><br />The narrative is simple and clear. Jesus is walking with his disciples, minding His own business. He seems to be trying to avoid just the sort of attention that this woman gives Him. I say "seems to be" because I suspect Jesus knew she was there and what would happen if He withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon on that particular day. Jesus was walking through Gentile territory, where it might be reasonable to think that people would not pester Him - since they were not Jews and not looking for the day of the coming of the Messiah. That would appear to be part of His thinking, although He might have known where this woman was, and sought out her opportunity for her. In any case, as He is walking, this Canaanite woman comes out to meet Him on His way, crying out after Him about her daughter. <br /><br />And Jesus ignores her. Wow. Is that a familiar feeling? We pray and pray and hear nothing, and see nothing happening, and wonder if God is going to intervene in our situation on our behalf.<br /><br />The woman seems undeterred. She continues to follow Jesus and cry out to Him. She confesses faith in Him by calling out to Him as the ‘Son of David', a Messianic title. She acknowledges Him for who He is, Lord and Savior, the promised One of God. His disciples, on the other hand only notice that she is continuing her caterwauling and ask Jesus to send her away and give them some peace. Apparently, this goes on for a while, as Matthew notes that she continues to call out after them, and Matthew says the disciples "kept asking Him" to send her away.<br /><br />Finally, Jesus speaks to the woman. He tells her that He "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel</span></i>." These were words of dismissal and rejection. I have no business with you, is what it meant. Worse than getting no answer at all, she seems to meet an affirmative rejection. She doesn't seem to take notice of that. What she notices is that He is paying attention to her, and talking with her, even if it is just to tell her to go away. She seems encouraged by this and renews her plea, "Lord, help me!"<br /><br />Then Jesus tells her that <i><span style="color: #351c75;">it is not right to take the bread from the children and throw it to the dogs</span></i>. He tells her that He is not there for her, and that it is not right to take what is meant for the children of Israel and give it to Gentiles like her. He even ends up calling the woman a "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">dog</span></i>". The woman takes it all in stride. She doesn't even try to argue. She takes what Jesus says to her and uses it as part of her prayer - saying that if she is a dog, well, even dogs get to lick up the crumbs that fall from their master's table. She keeps pushing for her need, asking again for he blessing she seeks. Nothing turns her aside, not rejection, not insults, not being ignored. She believes that Jesus is able and ultimately wiling to help her, so she continues to pray.<br /><br />Finally she receives what she asked for. Jesus speaks admiringly about her faith - "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">You have great faith, woman!</span></i>" We don't know what she knew, or specifically what she believed, but we can see how tenacious it was, how faithfully she believed, and nothing could turn her away! Responding to her faith, and to her request, Jesus gave her what she wanted, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">be it done for you as you wish</span></i>." And her daughter was healed at that very moment.<br /><br />The woman confronted a test of faith, and she passed. She was clearly not merely a curiosity seeker, or someone who was giving Jesus a try as a last resort, "just in case". She knew Jesus could help her, and she was confident that He would, even when it seemed otherwise. So kept praying persistently.<br /><br />Jesus did not answer her because she bugged Him, or to get her off His back, or even because she was so persistent -He answered her prayer because she trusted in Him to do so.</p><p><br />We also face times when we want or need something, and so we pray. We should pray like this woman - persistently and believing. We have far more reason to know Jesus and to trust Him than this poor woman had. You know who Jesus is, and what He is like, and what He can do, and what His will is like toward you. So, you should be able to pray – and pray with confidence, and expect an answer, and pray with persistence until you have what you pray for, or clearly see that it is not going to be the way you want it because God knows a better way or a better answer.<br /><br />You should never doubt the will of God toward you, sinking to the feeling that God doesn't want to bless you. I often do not know what to pray for because I want something, but I am not certain that having what I want is the best thing for me or anyone else - and I am uncertain as to what the will of God is, so I pray, but I pray that His will be done. And I pray that prayer until I see the answer.<br /><br />But there are times in life that we need or want something so strongly that we want to push God's hands, as it were. In those cases, although we want to pray, "<span style="color: red;">Thy will be done</span>", we have a strong interest in seeing a particular resolution to the situation. In such cases, we need to be like this woman, asking God for our outcome, and accepting that although it may not work out the way we want it, we will follow after God and pester Him with out prayers and ask Him until we see the answer, and plead our case before the throne of heaven with persistence - because it pleases God when we do. He is pleased when we trust in Him and in His good will toward us and we boldly come before Him to pray and plead and seek our relief. He has commanded that we do so, and He has promised to hear us and answer us. The Old Testament says, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me</span></i>." In the New Testament, Jesus says, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Whatever you ask the Father in My name, believing, He will give it to you.</span></i>"<br /><br />But be prepared. You may face a test of faith, too. God doesn't always answer as quickly as we would like, not does His answer always come the way we expect. God will let you hang out there for a while, and the old evil foe will be glad to make you frustrated and depressed about the length of time you plead your cause and hear no answer. Sometimes God is testing you, to see if you trust Him, or if you are just taking a chance that you might get "lucky" and get something out of the prayer. And, by the way, He already knows the answer, just as Jesus knew the woman would be there, and would jump all of the hurdles because she had such great faith. Her predicament and her prayers were done, and recorded, for us, and for our learning.<br /><br />How can you know what the will of God is? In specific requests, you cannot. But you do know what His will is toward you. You know His love, and how deeply He is committed to your welfare. You can see it on the cross. The pain and the death of Jesus Christ are the testimony to how far God is willing to go for you. He became one of us to rescue you. As Paul observes in Romans 8, if He has gone this far, what can you imagine that He will withhold from you now? "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?</span></i>"<br /><br />The woman in the account had obviously heard about Jesus, but she had not seen much. She took the word about Jesus to heart and believed - undoubtedly believing because she had heard the Old Testament promises. You have heard the Old Testament promises, and have seen the New Testament fulfillment - and you have been baptized and have eaten of the Holy Supper. How much more you have than the woman had.<br /><br />God will not perform like a trained animal, nor will He do ‘wish fulfillment' like some mail-order catalogue company or Amazon Prime. He will always be God. But you know who God is, and what His will toward you is. And what is the will of God toward you?<br /><br />So let us face the test of faith, and meet it with persistent faith. That means we want to act as though the things we say we believe are true - and that we actually believe them. We cannot give up, or decide that God doesn't want to be good to us any longer. Doing either of those things means that you are no longer a Christian. Whether we are praying, or witnessing, or just living out what we confess, we can be faithful. The things we confess are true, and marvelous, and we can and we must dare to live as though they are true, if we want to be found faithful.<br /><br />So, trust God when you weigh your moral decisions. Trust God when you plan your stewardship. Trust God when you plan you weekly, or your daily schedule. Trust God when you pray.<br /><br />And trust God as we worship. Come and eat and drink and be forgiven and strengthened and equipped for life here, and prepared for everlasting life there. Consider the Canaanite woman, and her persistent faith, and face your own challenges similarly with a persistent faith. You can trust God. Just look at the cross, and you can see how far He will go for you – how far He has already gone!<br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.</span></i><br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-12328952322270663032024-02-22T07:47:00.000-08:002024-02-22T07:47:34.762-08:00The Servant Suffers for Sin<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Isaiah 42:18-25</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD? You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but none hears. The LORD was pleased for His righteousness' sake To make the law great and glorious. But this is a people plundered and despoiled; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons; They have become a prey with none to deliver them, And a spoil, with none to say, "Give them back!" Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter? Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, And in whose ways they were not willing to walk, And whose law they did not obey? So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not recognize it; And it burned him, but he paid no attention.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Lenten Wednesday #2 02/21/24<br /><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Servant of Isaiah</span></h4><p><br /></p><h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: red;">The Servant Suffers for Sin</span></h1><p style="text-align: left;"><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />The song was called "Everything is Beautiful". The line from the song is, "There are none so blind as he who will not see." The line of the song sounds as if it could have been about the Servant of the Lord. The difference is that the Prophet is speaking about a sort of blindness of the Servant of the Lord that both leads to and flows from forgiveness. Our theme this evening is "The Servant Suffers for Sin".<br /><br />Oddly enough, being blind and deaf is not entirely a bad thing in our text. It is an unfortunate condition, even spiritually, but God promises wonderful things for the blind and deaf. Just before our text, Isaiah says that God will rescue the blind and make the darkness light for them. He promises and then says that He will not fail to do these things for them. Then our text begins with the invitation – and command – that the deaf hear and the blind see! These prophecies are why Jesus healed the blind and the deaf. He wasn't just being a nice guy, He was identifying Himself as the Servant who was going to bear our sins and suffer such awful things.<br /><br />But the promise in our text was not merely about physical sight and hearing. Isaiah says, about the people Israel, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but none hears.</span></i>" This is a spiritual issue. The people of Israel have seen and heard the Word of God and yet they act as if they had not. They do not seem to recognize the promises nor do they trust God in spite of all that He has done for them and spoken to them. They are spiritually blind and deaf. Even the threats of disaster have fallen on deaf ears, as they say. The troubles which God has inflicted on them to awaken them to the danger of their situation does not make them see or understand.<br /><br />Then comes the Servant of God in the prophecy. He comes to take their weaknesses and failures and sins, and so He is blind and deaf too. It is not the same deafness, for the Servant knows God and trusts in Him. But that is the nature of His blindness. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?</span></i> Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD? The Servant is at peace with God, and trusts in God, even while He is carrying the guilt of the nation and the sins of the whole world before God, and even though He will receive from the hands of God the punishment due those sins.<br /><br />Still, the Servant trusts God and is at peace with God as though He does not know what is coming. It is the mirror image of the blindness of the people. They do not see or hear the love of God or His goodness, and the Servant acts as though He does not see the wrath of God about to fall on Him. The blindness of the people leads them into greater sin while the blindness of the Servant leads Him into even more glorious righteousness. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">The LORD was pleased for His righteousness' sake To make the law great and glorious</span></i>. Those words speak about the righteousness of Christ, perfect righteousness, which keeps the whole law. That holiness lifts up the Law and makes it glorious! It is in the face of that perfect holiness that the Servant will die, bearing sins that were not His own.<br /><br />He died for us because we could not rescue ourselves. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">But this is a people plundered and despoiled; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons; They have become a prey with none to deliver them, And a spoil, with none to say, "Give them back</span></i>!" We had no hope in and of ourselves, there was no way for us to redeem or rescue ourselves. That is what Isaiah is saying here. We all stood guilty before the Lord, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, And in whose ways they were not willing to walk, And whose law they did not obey?</span></i>" Because of our stubborn blindness and deafness we stood justly condemned before the bar of divine justice. God Himself is our adversary at law. <br /><br />But the Servant stepped in, blind to the wrath of God and deaf to the warnings of danger. It was on His own Servant that the Lord poured out His wrath over sin. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not recognize it; And it burned him, but he paid no attention</span></i>. The sinless Servant suffered for sinful man. He endured the wrath of God and agonies of hell to be the One who rescues. He has become the One who delivers the helpless people and the One to demand that they be given back to the loving care of God the Father, and the One to stop God's people from being prey for the wicked.<br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Who is so blind that He is at peace with the Lord?</span></i> It is the Servant of the Lord. Jesus had absolute peace with His Father, trusting Him implicitly and explicitly, and doing so in the face of what He knew lay ahead of Him. He faced God's wrath over against our sins, and still trusted in God and walked faithfully before Him all the days of His life and even on the cross. That is the blindness of the Servant – the willful blindness of One who sees clearly but refuses to turn either to the left or to the right. He trusts God and loves God and walks deliberately and unflinchingly into the suffering appointed for Sin. There are none so blind as He who will not see. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Who is so blind . . . as the servant of the LORD?</span></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> </span></i> <br />The Servant of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, suffered just as Isaiah said He would for our sin and rebellion. We consider that glorious, willful blindness on our behalf this Lenten Wednesday. Isaiah asks, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter?</span></i>" We answer, we will! After all, faith comes by hearing. The story of ancient Israel was the story of a people who would not hear, who were deaf to God by choice. That deafness had to be answered by another deafness – the sort that refused to be turned away from God by anything. And because our Lord was that Servant, He did not listen to the fears or allow Himself to be frightened from His task by what He saw or suffered, and the Servant of God suffered for our sins that we might be saved. God grant that you hear and believe and give thanks today.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say Amen)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-26180461406176369372024-02-18T12:00:00.000-08:002024-02-18T12:12:01.101-08:00Temptation<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Matthew 4:1-11</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Then the devil took Him into the holy city; and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING YOU'; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'" Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Invocavit Sunday 02/18/24<br /><br /><b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">Temptation</span></span></b><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br /> Our Gospel this morning is probably familiar. It is the account of the temptation of Jesus by the devil just after His baptism. These temptations echo in some ways the temptation of Eve. Jesus was recapitulating the testing of mankind, taking a second run at it if you will, only Jesus didn't fail. He faced the same sorts of temptations as Adam and Eve, only His were far more dramatic and urgent – and He resisted. When Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil that day, He passed the test that Eve, and Adam, had failed. He resisted precisely the temptations that mankind had failed, only tailored just for Him. And they were far more pressing upon Jesus than upon Eve. This was part of what He needed to do to earn the perfect righteousness that brings us salvation. <br /><br />On this day in the life of Jesus, you should notice that the playing field is not quite level. On the one hand, Jesus is God. That gives Him an advantage. On the other hand, He is living in humility, clothed in human flesh and blood and human nature, not accessing all of the powers and prerogatives of God. That gives the devil an advantage. Jesus has just spent forty days and forty nights without food. Matthew highlights the disadvantage to Jesus in saying, seemingly without any real need to, that Jesus was now hungry. Matthew says it, however, so that we don't get some fancy philosophical notion that Jesus was immune to hunger, and that this wasn't a real test.<br /><br />Of course, the playing field of temptation is never really level. You should learn that here and now, if you didn't understand it before. Everything was pretty much stacked in favor of the devil, when he confronted Jesus. Things are pretty much that way when he tempts us too. He cannot grow tired, while we can and do. He knows our every weakness, while we rarely understand them ourselves. He is perfectly deceitful, and we are not always expecting to be deceived. He has tremendous power, particularly among sinners, and we simply do not, particularly when it comes to opposing him. That is why this lesson is so important for us. We need to learn from Jesus about the best way to deal with temptation.<br /><br />The first temptation that Jesus faced was the temptation of food – physical need. Eve faced it too, when the devil said, "<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?</i></span>" He was challenging the goodness of God and the confidence she had in God's providence. She answered, and in her answer she added to the command of God, suggesting that maybe she thought God was a little unjust, or extreme, or something. <br /><br />And what was the answer of Jesus? His answer was the Word of God. <br /><br />It is interesting to note that Jesus never went on offense. I imagine that He could have, but we cannot, and so He did not. He showed us how to handle temptation when we are tempted. He did everything He did as One of us. Instead of claiming power, He claimed the fortress of God's Word. Jesus expressed His confidence in God: "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.</span></i>'" He resisted the temptation to doubt God's provision. When Eve sinned, she failed that test. Genesis tells us that one of the reasons that she took fruit from the tree was that the fruit was good to eat.<br /><br />The second temptation of Jesus listed in Matthew was the one in which the devil took Jesus to a high pinnacle of the temple and tempted Him to jump down, quoting Scriptures and saying, It is written. You might say, Jesus was being tempted with bad exegesis. The devil took the Word of God right out of Jesus' hands and used it to tempt Him. He set before Him an impossible situation, and then said, "Don't you trust God? Here is His Word saying that He will catch you and take care of you and protect you!" The temptation came once again with the "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">If you are the Son of God,"</span></i> clause. It was as much as saying, "Surely God will do all of this for you, since you are His Son!" The temptation was to doubt God's Word, and so put God to the test, to see if He would keep His promise. It was dressed up to look like faith, and it sounded like a legitimate promise, but neither was true.<br /><br />We face disbelief in God's Word disguised as bad exegesis all of the time. Nearly every debate about doctrine with another confession is a debate about a misunderstanding of the Word. Some swear that alcohol is forbidden, so they cannot see using it in church, as we do in communion. Some cannot comprehend how a child can believe, so they reject baptism for infants. Some demand that we worship on the Old Testament Sabbath, some insist on the need for keeping the Law, some think that the Jewish people are the chosen people and the true Israel of God, no matter what. Every one of them marshals Scripture to their cause. They all have their passages. And they are all wrong. They apply half-verses and half-truths just as Satan did, that day against Jesus.<br /><br />Eve faced the same temptation, when the Devil said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil</span></i>." The devil was tempting her to doubt the Word and promise of God. God had spoken the truth about sin and death, and His will, expressed in the single rule they had been given, was not meant to restrict her or deny her anything, but to protect her. The devil invited her to doubt God's Word about the result of sin - and God's goodness and honesty as well. Eve doubted God. Jesus trusted God, and refused to be pushed into a test which would actually show that he did not trust God's Word, but trusted His own judgment more. Jesus answered with the Word of God – sound doctrine. He answered a temptation clothed in a Bible quotation with the Scripture which answered the real temptation, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST</span></i>.'"<br /><br />Finally, the devil stopped hiding and simply offered Jesus the easy way. He knew what Jesus had come to do. He knew that Jesus could see the cross and all the pain and torment. He knew that Jesus had years of difficult work ahead, and he offered Jesus the easy route. Just bow down to me, worship me once, and I will let you off the hook. You can have the whole kit and kaboodle. Genuflect to me and recognize me as your superior, worship me as your God and I will spare you the cross and give you the whole creation as your prize.<br /><br />Like every temptation, it was filled with lies. In the first place, the world does not belong to Satan. It is not his to give. The price that Jesus was going to pay for our redemption was not paid to the devil. It was paid to satisfy the justice of God. If Jesus had given in to the temptation, He would have become just like us, only more so. That would have been Satan's victory over God and our absolute ruin. There would have been no glory to give to Jesus, nor would the devil have given it, if there had been. He is a liar, and the father of it, as Jesus once pointed out.<br /><br />Eve faced the same temptation. The devil told her that the fruit would make her just like God. This was a good thing that Eve expected God could give her. The devil wanted her to doubt God's goodness, and take matters into her own hand, and grasp the supposed good for herself, rather than wait for God to give her every good thing. – and she yielded to the temptation. Genesis tells us that one of the reasons she ate of the fruit was that it was desirable to make one wise. She became like God only in so far as she suddenly understood both good and evil. She understood good (having once been holy) and evil (having become evil). God understood both without ever becoming evil, so she wasn't<b> much</b> like God.<br /><br />Jesus answered with the Word. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">"It is written, YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY."</span></i> He answered with the Word of God, and faith. The thing that Eve forgot, which Jesus kept in mind, was that God is first, and we come second. That is the only position that a Christian can take. It does not matter what the stakes are, or what is offered, or how appealing it may be made to appear. When one trusts God and places Him in the proper place in our lives and consideration, then we wait on God, and we accept from God what He gives to us with thanksgiving and faith. We are called to be faithful, and we must first be faithful to God. If we fail in that, there is no faithfulness left for us. <br /><br />We face similar temptations. First is the temptation of physical need – or physical desire. Many times we are not able clearly to distinguish between the two. We just know what we want or need, and it seems more important – more urgent – to us to meet that need or fill that desire than anything else. The temptation is always to take care of Number One first. <i> We cannot let some theology, some bit of religious stuff – we cannot let some mere rule stand in the way of our need</i>. That is how the temptation often presents itself.<br /><br />Like Jesus we want to answer this first temptation with the Word of God and place God first, trusting Him in all our needs. We want to take Him at His Word that He will not forsake us, that He will always provide – as Jesus said, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.</span></i><br /><br />The second temptation was the temptation to doubt God's Word. Funny thing is that it doesn't usually look like a temptation to doubt the Word of God. Jesus' temptation looked like a challenge to Him as to whether He really trusted God. The faithful and sincere thing seemed to be to jump off the temple and trust God to do what He had said that He would do. But that would have been a species of unbelief. That would have proven that Jesus didn't trust God, because He would have foolishly put God to the test for nothing more than proof. Faith is not seeing, not having the proof in front of it, but still trusting.<br /><br />We get tempted in this way by false doctrine. We are often challenged directly: Do you mean to tell me that I could go out and kill someone and still go to heaven? Or, How could a loving God send anyone to hell? What difference does it make which church I belong to, as long as I believe in Jesus? These are some of the question we hear commonly. This is only a small sampling of the questions we face. These sorts of questions all do what Satan did on that mountain – they presume to challenge our faith with a supposed truth, but actually they challenge us to doubt God's Word and act or speak on the basis of false doctrine and confused interpretations of Scripture which place God at odds with Himself.<br /><br />Let me show you what I mean. Do you mean to tell me that I could go out and kill someone and still go to heaven? This question sounds so good, but it challenges us to doubt the grace of God, and the Gospel He proclaims, as though it is our behavior that wins eternal life for us. The answer is, ‘Yes, you could. But the more interesting question is, would you?' If you have murder in your heart, are you likely to be a true believer? <br /><br />How could a loving God send anyone to hell? This question places God's love in competition with His justice as though He could only be one or the other. The Bible says God is just and loving. <br /><br />What difference does it make which church I belong to, as long as I believe in Jesus? The best answer to this question is to ask, What difference does it make? Then we really need to get into the question of what differences there are between different denominations, and the differences in what we believe about Jesus and who this Jesus is – things which are by no means the same necessarily from one church body to another. <br /><br />The temptation is to ignore God's Word for the sake of feelings. To do that is to doubt the truth of God's Word, and count something or someone as more important than God. Jesus answered with faith, and clear doctrine – <span style="color: #351c75;"><i>you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test</i></span>. We need to put the truth first, and trust God's Word no matter what.<br /><br />The third temptation Jesus faced is common in our lives today. We face this temptation each and every time we are offered the faster way, the easier way, the more effective way than what God invites or commands us to do. Jesus said,<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> you shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only!</span></i> We need to remember whose church this is, and why we are really here, and how Christ's church works. We are here to receive His blessings – forgiveness, won for us on the cross, the Holy Spirit to create faith in us and keep us supplied with faith, and strength, and wisdom, and courage, and faithfulness to live each day as His people, a light in a very dark and evil world. We worship God by being faithful, and trusting God to grant us the increase. We can even win by losing — if we remain faithful.<br /><br />We can trust God, after all. We serve Him not by what we do, so much, as by trusting Him. Jesus once said to the Pharisees,<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Learn what this means, I desire compassion not sacrifice</span></i>. And His will, summarized in the First Commandment is that we hold Him first in all things, and trust in Him alone, and love Him more than life itself. And love for God is a love that is seen in love for one another. This is the same will as what we see on the cross, where He died for your sins so that you might be forgiven and come to know Him as He is, gracious and merciful, full of love and compassion, and desiring your salvation first and last.<br /><br />When we confront temptations, we can have no better pattern than that which Jesus provided. Keep your mind firmly fixed on Jesus, and everything else will sort itself out.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-21607766334830627582024-02-15T07:54:00.000-08:002024-02-15T07:54:06.603-08:00The Divine Plan for His Servant<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Isaiah 42:1-7</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it, "I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from the prison."</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Ash Wednesday 02/14/24<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">The Servant of Isaiah</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">The Divine Plan for His Servant</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />One of the great themes of the Bible is the theme of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. The Servant is a prophetic image for the Messiah, our Savior. Isaiah paints a beautiful picture of the Savior and of the Gospel He is charged with bringing in his prophecies. It is this Old Testament Gospel that we are going to spend our Lenten evenings with this year. Our Lenten Theme is the Servant of Isaiah.<br /><br />Modern Christians often see the Gospel in a rather one-dimensional light. I suspect that it is often viewed as a simple thing, easily detailed on a single sheet of paper with very few paragraphs. God took centuries, and wrote an entire book about it. In addition, we, the people of this point in time, tend to look at everything from our time and our prejudices and overlook the fact that the Gospel is deeply rooted in the Old Testament, and the prophets taught everything we can teach, only they did it without knowing the word "Jesus", and without having a cross in view. They had the back-story, as it is called on television today. They talked about the rationale of God and the fulness of the promises. We don't have time to review every prophecy during Lent, but we will take a closer look at those Servant passages and gather some of the Old Testament flavor of the Gospel as they knew it. Hopefully it will deepen your understanding of the Gospel and strengthen your confidence in God, who did all this for you.<br /><br />Tonight we begin with something of an overview. Our sermon theme is, "The Divine Plan for His Servant". In the prophecies, you may note, Isaiah switches from God speaking directly to us to Isaiah speaking about what God says. God's revelations sound at times like He is talking to His people, and other times it sounds as if He is talking directly to Jesus, the Servant. All of it is meant for our learning and all of it was meant for Jesus as He served and worked out the plan of God for our salvation.<br /><br />We begin by noting that the Servant is pleasing to God. This is where the ministry of Jesus begins as well, with God declaring that He is well-pleased with Jesus at His Baptism – and again at the Transfiguration. Isaiah writes, Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. It is striking that after saying, in the Old Testament, what God speaks at the baptism of Jesus, He then says that He puts His Spirit upon Him, which is precisely what happened at the Baptism of Jesus as well!<br /><br />Clearly, this is the plan of God being laid out before the people of God carefully, somewhere between seven hundred and eight hundred years before any of this plan comes to pass. He even describes the mission of the Servant as to be, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from the prison</span></i>." These words are similar to the words of Isaiah 61:1: <i><span style="color: #351c75;">The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God</span></i>; words which Jesus reads at the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke, chapter 4, and then declares that they have heard that prophecy fulfilled in their hearing. This is the divine plan for the Servant, which Jesus fulfills.<br /><i><br /></i>He even describes the character of both the Servant and of His Gospel.<i> <span style="color: #351c75;">He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.</span></i><br /><br />Jesus did not cry out when He was taken and crucified. He was humble, and He allowed all that was to happen to Him according to the plan of God happen. He actively stood in the way of any effort to stop what was happening to Him. He stopped Peter, and healed the ear of Malchus, when Peter took up arms against those who came to arrest Jesus. He refused to speak in His trials, such as they were, when speech should have set Him free, and He spoke the truth, often to the offense of those who heard it, when it served to spur on those who held Him to commit such atrocities against Him. He was not disheartened or crushed until He accomplished His mission. Instead, He steadily worked to accomplish what the plan of His Father set out before Him to do.<br /><br />That same passage also describes the Gospel,<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> A bruised reed He will not break, And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish.</span></i> Jesus established a Gospel which did not depend on us or the quality of our faith, but on Him. Jesus turns no one away who hears His invitation and believes the promise. <i><span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Trust in the Lord</b></span></i>, that is all that is said – not "trust mightily." God looks for no great faith and dynamic, aggressive spirit. He knows the measure of His people, and faith and spirit are His gifts to us, not something we must work up in ourselves. We are asked to simply trust Him and take Him at His Word. The power and glory are all His. <br /><br />What He establishes is truly justice. He paid the penalty. He took our place. We are not merely excused for the sins we have committed, but we are redeemed. Jesus made atonement. God didn't brush our sins under the rug, He punished them according to His wrath and all that they deserved. He laid that punishment on His Servant, Jesus. Our forgiveness is not injustice, but divine justice, bought at terrible price by the suffering and death of the very Son of God. Your sins are forgiven, and you are given everlasting life in connection with Jesus Christ, because it is just to do so. That is the justice that the Servant was charged with establishing.<br /><br />The rest of the prophecy identifies whose plan this is, and whose work is being done – whose Servant this is all about: God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it. <br /><br />You see, what we have in Jesus Christ is the careful working out of the divine plan, established in eternity, before the foundation of the world. God could have named the Savior in the prophecies, told us precisely when and where it would happen, and given us all the details we know from the New Testament. He could have, but He did not. If He had, it would not have changed a thing about the way the world receives the Gospel. The problem of the world is that it is God's plan, and the world is ruled by - dominated by – the devil, who is the enemy of God and the adversary of all mankind.<br /><br />If we had the details any clearer, the world would simply ignore them, as they do what they already have. They would tell us that no one could have known the future from the past, particularly with such precision, and called it a counterfeit. How do I know? Because that is what they do today. They say that it is not so. They say that the church invented the stories and details of Christ's life to align with the words of the Prophets. They say that the prophecies do not mean what they clearly say. The world rejects it out of hand, and chooses any fiction or fable instead because it insulates them from dealing with the true God and the reality of what they are, slaves of sin and Satan.<br /><br />Besides, the Bible does tell us where. The Magi got that information from the Scribes in Jerusalem when they searched for the one who was born to be King of the Jews. The Bible tells us who - it doesn't give us the name Jesus until Matthew, but it says that He will be called Immanuel, which means God with us, or God living among us, which is what and who Jesus was. It tells us about how people will treat Him. It describes in detail His death. It tells us that the issue is righteousness – those words are in our text – and justice, and about the tender, gentle mercies of our God. It is all there and the world refuses it. They deny it means what it says. They deny that God could have been speaking about Jesus, Then they even deny that there is a God at all.<br /><br />But the truth is there, plainly in prophecy and plainly in history. Isaiah laid it all out for us. It wasn't His idea. God inspired him. And He wrote down for us, the divine plan for His Servant. And for us. And in the coming weeks we will read more and hear more of just how carefully God laid out that plan before His people.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say Amen)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-9061086961357023242024-02-11T11:19:00.000-08:002024-02-11T11:19:13.500-08:00Who was really blind?<p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Luke 18:31-43</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And He took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again." And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And it came about that as He was approaching Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting by the road, begging. Now hearing a multitude going by, he began to inquire what this might be. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he called out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he had come near, He questioned him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And he said, "Lord, I want to regain my sight!" And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he regained his sight, and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Quinquagesima Sunday 2/11/24<br /><br /><b><span style="color: red;">Who Was Really Blind?</span></b><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Have you ever wondered why the pericopes of the Gospel include the accounts they do? Our lesson this morning is a perfect example. What does the healing of the blind man have to do with the prophecy of the coming torture, death, and resurrection of Jesus? At first glance they seem to be disconnected bits of the life of Jesus. Perhaps nowhere else is the nature of a Gospel as a theological document more clear. Luke, admittedly, was trying to assemble a more or less chronological record of the life and ministry of Jesus, but His task was obviously theological – he was trying to make a point by the way he stitched the accounts together. There is a lesson here in how and in what order the "stories" of Jesus were being told. Our theme in Luke's lesson here is, "Who was really blind?"<br /><br />Naturally, we would want to answer that the blind guy was the one who was really blind. It is so simple that it might make one wonder why the question might be asked at all. It stands to reason, then, that the simple answer is the wrong answer. He was blind physically. There is no doubt about that. The juxtaposition of the two accounts in the gospel tells us that the real blindness belonged to the Disciples. Their blindness was even more severe, because they thought that they could see.<br /><br />Jesus was intentionally heading toward Jerusalem to die. He was approaching the center and the purpose of His ministry – and everything that the Bible spoke about the Messiah was going to be accomplished. Jesus knew what He was going to face. I imagine that His divine knowledge showed Him clearly every pain and betrayal. What an amazing thing! Jesus walked to His death deliberately, knowing what was coming. The disciples, however, didn't have the faintest idea.<br /><br />So Jesus told them. He explained how the Jews – referring to the leadership of the Temple – were going to seize Him and turn Him over to the Gentiles. He described without much detail how they would mock Him, and abuse Him (meaning, beat Him), and spit on Him, scourge Him – which everyone understood to be the infamous 39 lashes – and then kill Him. He didn't have to say "crucify" because that is how Romans executed non-Romans. Then He told them that He would rise again after three days. He didn't necessarily see the resurrection with divine insight, but found it prophesied in the Scriptures.<br /><br />Luke tells us that still, even with the explanation, they did not understand. None of it made sense to them. Luke says that they did not comprehend the things that were said. Now it could have been that they were dull. It might be that they could not conceive of how the things that Jesus was saying could happen. After all, Jesus was so popular and things were going so well! There may be a lot of dynamics at work, but their failure to see what Scriptures said, and to hear what Jesus was saying to them is a form of mental and spiritual blindness.<br /><br />Luke also says "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">this saying was hidden from them</span></i>." Their blindness may not have been entirely their fault. Being "hidden" suggests that God did not allow them to comprehend at the moment. His reasons, while not being spelled out, may have included avoiding their well-intended interference. We know that when Peter finally understood, he tried to talk Jesus out of it. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">God forbid that such a thing should happen to you!</span></i>" It is possible that their blindness served the purpose of the Lord. Jesus wanted to tell them what was coming, so that when it happened, they would remember that it was supposed to happen! It also served the plan of God to accurately prophesy the crucifixion and the resurrection.<br /><br />Then Jesus healed the blind man. Healing the blind man and all of the accompanying details made a couple of points. First, it shows that Jesus has the power to cure blindness. He can fix the blindness of the eyes, and He is the One who alone can heal the blindness of the mind or heart.<br /><br />Secondly, we can see that the will of God is always good. He wants to heal. He is willing to lift the blindness of any and all who seek that healing, who know that they are blind and desire to see. Jesus demonstrated that will in how responded to this man. There was no hesitation.<br /><br />The third lesson is that the man's physical healing was something subsequent to his true healing. Jesus did not actually say, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Your faith has made you well.</span></i>" He said, "<i><span style="color: #20124d;">your faith has saved you</span></i>." The physical healing was merely the outward evidence of the inward reality. His blindness and corruption in sin was corrected by the Lord of life and the Source of Righteousness. When the blind man saw, it was the evidence for those who were watching – and for us today – that the man was, in fact, saved by grace through faith. His faith brought Him to Christ, and finally to salvation. And His salvation from sin brought him sight, a cure for one of the symptoms and consequences of sin.<br /><br />You see, when the man heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he called to Jesus using a prophetic name for the Messiah - Son of David. In doing that, he confessed that Jesus was the Messiah. He acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God, God come among man, just as the prophets said that the Messiah would be. He further confessed it by asking for mercy – what a sinner cries out to God for. Then he asked Jesus to do something that was commonly known to be something that only God could do. And in his asking, he confessed that he expected that the will of God toward him was going to be good, even though he did not deserve it, and had no apparent reasons to think that it would be.<br /><br />That was the faith that Jesus spoke of when He said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Your faith as saved you.</span></i>" It was the sort of faith that sees God for who and what He is, and lays all of its hope in Him and trusts in Him. The Blind Man saw more without his eyesight than the disciples did with full sight. And Jesus showed us that He is the One who can heal our blindness.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Finally, the man followed Jesus and praised God. He even caused others to praise God! He saw Christ and responded. His faith was not a mere "head thing" but a life changing power, and he followed Jesus. His situation showed us that blindness is not merely a physical thing. <br /><br />Who was really blind? The disciples! The blind man saw – and as a consequence, he also began to see physically as well! But the sight that was of greatest value was one he had already, and the disciples were, at least temporarily, without.<br /><br />How about you?<br /><br />Do you see? Can you see clearly? What does this sight do in you, or for you? What is it that you see?<br /><br />I ask these questions because many times it is difficult to tell who the Christians are, and who is not. The forgiveness of sins should transform your life! It should change how you deal with others. It should act almost as an inoculation against sinful conduct and evil behavior. It should make you patient and forgiving toward others and humble and caring as you deal with those who are brothers and sisters in Christ.<br /><br />Having, knowing, and believing in the resurrection from the grave, life everlasting, and salvation should color everything you do. It should be making a difference in how you approach life and its challenges, You cannot die. You cannot run out of what you need, because God is your supply. When your body does finally give out, it is a good thing, and you go on to a better and fuller life! Where in that scenario is there room for the fear of death and anxiety about illness? <br /><br />Where is there room for selfishness? How does your new relationship with God factor into your stewardship? How does God freely giving Himself for you match up with you withholding yourself or your offerings to Him for whatever reason? Or is your stewardship aimed at someone or something other than God?<br /><br />I mean, if you have a full supply in the Lord, do you need to grasp and hoard for yourself? Where is the care for your brothers in Christ – or for those who do not know Christ, who depend on you and our stewardship to make the message known? If you have been forgiven of great sins – and all of us have been forgiven of great sins – where is your patience and forgiveness with the other guy? If God has given you everything you have, how can you withhold from Him just because you do not like or understand what is going on around you? Don't you trust God? Don't you expect Him to be good to you? Don't you know how great His love is for you? Who is really blind, here?<br /><br />Look at the love of God. Don't look at your feelings, look at the cross. That is how much God loves you. He sent His Son to die for you. Not only that, but Jesus Christ is true God. God was willing to endure unimaginable pain and torment to save you. We will spend the next six weeks contemplating that torment and why it was necessary. But it was love that moved God to rescue you. It is because His will toward you is tender and kind that you are here, and that you have the Word preached to you.<br /><br />The blind man followed Jesus and glorified God. He did it so clearly that others saw and praised God. That is, frankly, what we need today. We need faith lived out in such a clear and unmistakable fashion that others see it and praise God. Peter wrote in his epistle, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.</span></i>" We need the sort of faith that trusts God daily, and lives by that confidence. We need the sort of faith that sees God where He has promised to be, and depends on Him to do what He as promised to do, and glorifies God in such as way that others are drawn to the cross to know this God of love and salvation and healing, and then also to praise God.<br /><br />After all, this is the sort of faith that the blind man had, and Jesus said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Your faith has saved you.</span></i>" We want to see Jesus. In this life, we will not see Him with our eyes, but with the eyes of faith, like the blind man. We want to see His truth, His love, and His saving power. To do that we have to see Jesus as He is, and as He reveals Himself in His Word. We also have to judge our circumstances not by what our eyes tell us, but by what God and His grace reveals. If we do that, if we walk by faith and not by sight, and when they ask "Who was really blind?" the answer will never be "us."<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</span> <br /></p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-61234570934832660042024-02-04T10:40:00.000-08:002024-02-04T10:40:33.738-08:00The Parable of the Sower<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Luke 8:4-15</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And when a great multitude were coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to Him, He spoke by way of a parable: "The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road; and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up. And other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it, and choked it out. And other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And His disciples began questioning Him as to what this parable might be. And He said, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, in order that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND. Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. And those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be saved. And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Sexagesima Sunday 2/04/24<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">The Parable of the Sower</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Our Gospel lesson is The Parable of the Sower. It is a picture of the Church, and more specifically, of the Gospel as it is proclaimed. Our theme this morning is the Parable of the Sower.<br /><br />I grew up hearing that a parable was an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. I guess that is as good a description as any. I think of a parable as a picture, drawn with words, to help us understand the reality of something – or to keep us from understanding, if we are not God's people. Jesus said it in our text, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, in order that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND</span></i>."<br /><br />That's hard to accept, isn't it? Jesus taught in parables precisely so that only those who were chosen by Him to be His people would understand. He intended that others would not understand. That doesn't fit the popular picture of Jesus, but it is the truth. Those who believe are not believers by their own choice, but by the choice and the grace of God. It is to those who believe that God chooses to reveal the secrets of life and of the truth. Those who refuse to believe, He leaves in darkness - deliberately. We should not be surprised, then, that the world around us fails to understand Jesus.<br /><br />But to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom. And the mystery we are given this morning is the parable of the Sower. In this parable, the Sower goes out to sow. The Sower is Jesus. He doesn't tell us that explicitly, but since the seed is His Word – the Word of God – it makes sense.<br /><br />The seed the sower is spreading is the Word of God -- more specifically, the Gospel. Jesus tells us that. It is His Word and it is about Him. It is useful, at this point, to remember that the method of sowing in those days was "broadcast sowing". They cast the seed everywhere in the field, rather than planting it in specific spots as we do with our planters today. After they cast the seed about, they would plow the field and thereby work the seed into the soil. That is how some of the seed ended up on the path and in the rocks and among the thorns.<br /><br />Naturally, the paths were not plowed, so the seed would lay on the ground like bird-food. They would not work in the really rocky areas because the going was just too rough, and their plows were simple implements, usually made of wood, back in those days. The seeds among the weeds were at the edges of the fields, or where things just got too overgrown. They did not have the equipment or the technology to cultivate or apply a herbicide. Some of the seed was simply wasted.<br /><br />It is a wonderful image for the preaching of the Gospel. I am the Sower's hands. Preachers and pastors are the equipment, if you will, which is used to scatter the seed. We preach it everywhere. We proclaim the goodness of God and the salvation He has purchased for us wherever and whenever we have the opportunity. Even here on Sunday morning, anyone who walks in the door is welcome to join us and listen and hear about the marvelous grace of God in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Of course, not everyone who hears believes. Some people are like those seeds that land on the path. The ground - their heart - is too hard. The Word doesn't penetrate. The devil comes and snatches away before they have opportunity to really think about it and come to faith. For them the Word of God is utterly fruitless.<br /><br />Others are like the seed on the rock. You have probably all known someone who came to faith and was so happy that they were a Christian and their joy burned so bright and loud. Then, one day or another, they seemed to slip away. Maybe they lost interest all at once, and maybe they just grew less and less regular, and less and less enthusiastic, and finally simply stopped coming. Before long, they didn't want to come. They found other priorities. Even in this small parish, we have seen that happen. They are the temporary Christians. Sometimes they think they are still Christian even after they leave us, just not so "on fire for the Lord". Sometimes they know that they don't believe anymore. It is all too sad, and all too common. Some of these people chase from church to church looking for the experience – that fire of the first faith. What they lack is depth and substance and root in the truth, and sadly, they will not believe that it is true when we try to help them see it. Like a seed growing in very shallow soil, they whither and die, spiritually, for lack of root and sustenance for their faith.<br /><br />Then there are those who hear and believe, but whose faith is choked out after a time by the cares and worries of life, just like the seed that fell among the thorns. Some of these people wind up leaving the church, and some of them remain members of the local church for the rest of their lives. Notice that Jesus did not say that they lost their faith, just that they "bring no fruit to maturity". These are the people who get lost in life, and for them the Christian faith and the church is just one thing among many. Maybe it is family that distracts them. Perhaps it is their money. Sometimes it is sports - playing or spectating. There are those who are always going to games, or going hunting, or going to races, or playing in some sort of tournament, and so they miss church regularly. At first it bothers them, and after a while it is the normal state of things. For some it is camping, or traveling, or visiting family – or having company, which just naturally keeps one away from church.<br /><br />Such people may never leave the church rolls, but they leave the faith. Our congregation's average attendance is something less than 100%, which indicates that for everyone of you who comes faithfully, there are others that are absent more often than they are present. Does that mean that those who are here less often are not Christians? Not necessarily, but it suggests that something else is more important to them than forgiveness of sins, more real to them than resurrection from the grave and eternal life, and more worthy of their time and attention than Jesus Christ Himself. Usually, those who are here only infrequently do not serve the congregation, and rarely bring others to the Gospel – likely because they themselves grant the Gospel such a low priority in their lives. God commands that you have no other gods before Him. Imagine how He must view it when virtually everything comes before Him.<br /><br />Then there are those Jesus likens to the seed that falls in good ground. They are the ones who hear the Word of God and believe it. They not only believe it is true, they live in that truth. You see, saving faith is not merely accepting propositions of low probability, it is accepting the Word of God as true, and living in it. Luther called it "Fiducia Cordis", a trust in the heart that causes one to risk everything on the faithfulness of God. It means living your life as though you cannot die, except physically, and that only for a time. It means living as though you cannot lose, and all that you need is certain and sure, so you can think more about the welfare of others and less often about yourself. Living in faith means that you take God at His Word and live in it and live it out.<br /><br />His Word says that He has rescued you out of sin and death and hell. If you understand what that means and believe that, it would difficult to ignore Him, or to resist coming to His house and hearing this wonderful news, and receiving the refreshment of both Word and Sacrament. Jesus thought it was so important that your sins be forgiven and that you have eternal life that He died for you on the cross – dying in your place for your sins. Just a day before He died, He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar, taking care to guarantee to us the gift of His true body and true blood, hidden beneath the elements of bread and wine for our blessing and strengthening and comforting and forgiveness.<br /><br />If Jesus believed your salvation was worth all of that, how could anyone that believed the Gospel was true count hearing about it as not worth their time? How could they value worship as something to do only if there is nothing "better" going on that week? How could a believer count the fellowship which Christ died to create for their support and encouragement in the faith as less important to their lives than, say, football or company visiting or sleeping in another hour? How could anyone who believed that in the Holy Supper is forgiveness, life, and salvation bring themselves deliberately to miss it?<br /><br />Those in whom the Word grows, in what Jesus calls "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">good and honest hearts</span></i>" and who "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">hold it fast</span></i>" will "b<i>ear fruit with perseverance</i>." That means that those who genuinely believe it will add patience and perseverance to their hearing. They will listen to the Gospel and live in it with tenacity, and as a result, will bear fruit to the glory of God. They are not the sort that come and go, but stand firm and steadfast. They find their treasure in the Word and they do what they must to keep that treasure uppermost in their lives and in their hearts.<br /><br />It is significant that Jesus ended the parable of the Sower with the words, "<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>He who has ears to hear, let him hear.</i></span>" This message isn't for everyone. God's people will recognize it, and live in it, but those who are not God's will find it hard to hear. They will not agree. They may see themselves in the parable, more or less, and be insulted. But Jesus presents the parable as though to say, be careful how you listen! The Sower is always Christ, even though He may use my hands to scatter the seed. The seed is always the same, the powerful and life-giving Word of God. It is the power of the seed to create faith in those that hear it. The only differences are in the listener.<br /><br />Some don't pay any attention, their hearts are too hard. Some love what they hear, but they never allow it to take root in them, and so their faith comes and goes. Some allow life to distract them, and the troubles, or the joys, strangle their faith, and choke out all the fruits that they might present to the Lord. In the end, they end up unbelievers, too. The difference is in the listener. So what are you going to do with this Word? I hope and pray that you plant it deep in the rich soil of a heart humble before God. Live as though you have a written guarantee that you will go to heaven, because you do! Here it is!<br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">He who has ears to hear, let him hear the parable of the Sower!</span></i><br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-79690666136655465502024-01-28T11:43:00.000-08:002024-01-28T11:43:26.038-08:00Grace Vs. Works<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Matthew 20:1-16 </span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, ‘You too go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?' They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.' He said to them, ‘You too go into the vineyard.'</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'</span></i></p><p><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> </span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"Thus the last shall be first, and the first last."</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday 1/28/24<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Grace Vs. Works</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />As hard as it may be for you to imagine, some people would rather have God demand works of them than for Him to simply give them eternal life and salvation. Maybe that isn't so difficult for some of you to imagine. I don't know. We were all raised by Depression-Era parents, or perhaps some of you grew up in the Depression. Self-sufficiency was a virtue and strongly stressed, so that understanding the "give-me" mentality that some people have is just alien to you. Well, this grace vs. works thing is the point of the parable in our Gospel lesson this morning. So, let us consider the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard under the theme, Grace Vs. Works.<br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">The Kingdom of heaven is something like this parable. </span></i> Jesus says so. But what Jesus is describing is not what the experience of heaven is about as much as what getting there is all about. Jesus is addressing this particularly to the Jews of His day. They were historically the "Chosen People." They had been chosen of God in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and so on through the ages. They were the laborers in the parable who had been hired right away in the morning. The others, hired later, were the proselytes – Gentile converts to Judaism. We, Gentile Christians, are the men hired at the eleventh hour. Jesus was picturing in the parable the attitude of the Jews that they were a people set apart, something different, something special by virtue of their long association with God. They were sure that they were better and deserved more than the "Johnny-come-lately's" of the proselytes.<br /><br />Jesus was explaining to them that their relationship with Almighty God didn't work the way they thought it did. To them it was all about earning and deserving. With God it is and always has been about His generosity and giving. They were thinking "works", and Jesus was saying "Grace." They believed that the length of time in their relationship to God – which was purely legal for many of them – meant that they deserved something more than others. It is an attitude which is still prevalent among Jews today. They have done more, they have suffered more, they have earned more. <br /><br />But the truth which Jesus was trying to illustrate by means of this parable is that it is by grace, and if God chooses to include others in His goodness and generosity, He can and will. With God, it is all gift. Life is a gift. His Word is a gift. Our faith is a gift. We were all standing about in the marketplace until He came and got us, and put us to work. We have the agreed wage – we have the promises of God of forgiveness and life and salvation. These are the same promises the Jews had, although they tended to interpret them in terms of worldly comfort and pomp and power – but then again, so do many of the prosperity preachers and their followers today. The problem that Jesus confronted with the Jews was that they thought that God owed them something – something extra, that they deserved more, that they had God over a barrel, so to speak.<br /><br />Modern so-called Christians often think the same way. You've heard the slogans – <span style="color: #ffa400;">Name it and claim it, </span><span style="color: #e69138;">Expect a Miracle</span>, <span style="color: #cc0000;">the Abundant Life for God's People</span>. Those slogans reflect a theology of glory which says that we deserve something more and something better because we are God's people, because we have done something, because of our time of service. Jesus says that our salvation is gift, not deserving – that it is grace, not works.<br /><br />The Jews were in for a surprise. The Christian Church was that surprise. Suddenly, the all of those centuries of history did not count for much. Those who had been there and had been faithful received what they had been promised. The faithful were saved by faith. God forgave them their sins in view of the coming sacrifice for sins, just as He now forgives us in view of the sacrifice once made for us by Jesus. Those who thought that they had something more and better coming because of their national heritage have been disappointed. God spoke through St. Paul, saying, <span style="color: #351c75;"><i>they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants.</i><br /></span><br />That is why I preach the Law. The Law shows us our sins and teaches us that whatever we receive from God is not because we are such good people. The Law tells us that we are sinners – and we do well to keep that clearly in mind. God gives to us out of His generosity and love – grace. We don't get what we deserve – nor should we want to. We receive so much more and better than what we earn. We earn death and hell. We get life and salvation instead.<br /><br />Part of this attitude to which the parable speaks is reflected in the idea that our religion is about us. We want it to be fun. We want it to be entertaining. We want it to make us feel good, and we want it to fit neatly into a sixty-minute package. But when we say those things, we are revealing that we think church is about US! But it is not about us. It is about Jesus and His great love, and His great gift to us.<br /><br />It is actually good for us to have our flesh disappointed in the worship service, as long as it is disappointed by the Word of God and the faithful worship of God. Then we are forced to place God and His will and His Word first, and humble ourselves before Him. When we grumble about this or that in the face of God's Word, we are like those laborers in the vineyard who grumbled because they just naturally thought that they were going to get more, somehow. We need to discipline our flesh to serve God and to hear His Word.<br /><br />But we do not need to leave the service feeling good. It would be nice, but it is not always possible, and to expect it is to have an unrealistic expectation. We are sinners. We should feel guilty. We should be ashamed of our sins. We need to repent. Only when we genuinely repent can we actually understand, believe, or receive forgiveness. Only in true sorrow over sin can we appreciate how much God does for us when he forgives us our sins. Only in the shadow the mountain of our own sinfulness can we estimate how deep and great the suffering of Jesus was – how great it had to have been – for our sins. Only the one who is forgiven much can love much.<br /><br />And if we know our sins, it is impossible to always feel good. When we then have faith in our Lord and believe that our sins are forgiven, we will usually feel thankful, and the knowledge of His goodness will bring us joy – but it is always a joy tempered by the humiliation of facing our corruption and sin. Some days the sin part is overwhelming the joy part, and then we rest in a quiet joy in faith, knowing that Jesus died for us and took our punishment, guilt and death, even when we are not "feeling good" or bright and chipper. The gospel is true no matter how I feel today.<br /><br />If we require a certain feeling, we have a "work" which we have imposed on ourselves or others before we can have salvation. If we demand that worship be entertaining, or that it meet some criterion other than faithfulness to the Word of God, we have made it about us. The Gospel is for us, but it is not about us. Our salvation is God's gift to us, but it is about His love, and Christ's substitution for us, and about the grace of God, freely given to all who believe. It is about grace, not works. It is about what God has done and gives to us, not about us, except as the grateful recipients of His abundant generosity.<br /><br />In the parable, the issue was deserving versus generosity. For us, this morning, it is grace vs. works. We want to keep grace clearly in our minds, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">for it is by grace that we have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not at all on the basis of works, so that no one may boast </span></i>– save in Jesus Christ alone! <br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-26048315708633074482024-01-21T10:42:00.000-08:002024-01-21T10:42:08.301-08:00Looking Forward - Looking Back<p><i><b><span style="color: #351c75;"></span></b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnrBt5HbjNf9IYXwYVY0mypfm0tNyb5uC-35jYlxzwSXuumN-sAbgy2KopfWh96v66QwSmPi9xmqSGNaJnOP4YDEvgTaU9OS82VzAy9BOXPs-bZNcufhO-sigVppq2QWYy96b7WzcT3tsbkhdGsH3t9Bsbbm7jOwptdMh-4I3vCSRTd_tq3mn/s780/transfiguration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="590" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnrBt5HbjNf9IYXwYVY0mypfm0tNyb5uC-35jYlxzwSXuumN-sAbgy2KopfWh96v66QwSmPi9xmqSGNaJnOP4YDEvgTaU9OS82VzAy9BOXPs-bZNcufhO-sigVppq2QWYy96b7WzcT3tsbkhdGsH3t9Bsbbm7jOwptdMh-4I3vCSRTd_tq3mn/s320/transfiguration.jpg" title="" width="242" /></a></b></i></div><i><b><br /> Matthew 17:1-9</b></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were much afraid. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus Himself alone. And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday 1/21/24<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Looking Forward -- Looking Back</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Crossroads. Have you ever come to that point in your life? To crossroads? That is the point you come to when you have reached one goal and you're about to start on another, or when one crisis is past and you are ready to face everyday life once more. There are a lot of different kinds of crossroads at different times of life, and we all come to them, now and again. When you come to crossroads, you tend to stop for a moment and look around, to look forward to what lies ahead, and to look back at what has come and gone before. Then, usually, we take a big breath and square our shoulders, and set off on another leg of the journey through life.<br /><br />Our Church Year is at the crossroads this morning. We have scaled the giddy heights of Advent and looked out from the inspiring peaks of Christmas joy, and then we descended on the pleasant slopes of Epiphany. Now we stand at the crossroads, looking down the road into the gloomy abyss of Lent, leading into the death valley of the Church calendar. We call this crossroads <span style="color: red;">Transfiguration Sunday.<br /></span><br />From any crossroads, we can look back, and look forward, and wisdom suggests that it is a good idea to do just that now and then. Transfiguration Sunday actually does it for us, it looks back, and it points forward. Let us pause, this morning, and look from this crossroads at the view afforded us by the Transfiguration of our Lord on the mountain. Let us look forward and look back to see what the Transfiguration has to show us.<p></p><p><br />In Matthew's gospel, Jesus has just heard the disciples confess Him as the Messiah, the Son of God. Then He foretold how He was to die. But His disciples were not ready to hear it. Peter tried to persuade Jesus not to endure the cross, actually saying God forbid that this should happen to you!<br /><br />Jesus was preparing for the road to Jerusalem. He was preparing Himself and He was preparing the disciples for this last, fatal journey. It was in this context of preparation that He took three disciples up on the mountain with Him. He took three, possibly because by Jewish Law it took three eyewitnesses to establish testimony as fact. The word of one was not enough, and two might do in a pinch, but the same testimony from three men would seal any witness as true.<br /><br />Jesus took Peter, and James, and John. Luke tells us that they went up the mountain to pray. Although Jesus knew what they were going to see, they did not. While they were praying, the disciples began to nod off. Jesus kept praying, but they were beginning to sleep. Just at that point where they were semi-aware of their surroundings, and halfway to slumberland, Suddenly, Jesus was transformed! His physical body began to change. He began to show the glory that was His as the Son of God. What that did to His body we do not know, all that the disciples recorded for us was that He began to glow and shine with the glory shining brighter than the sun His clothes became brighter than bright and whiter than white.<br /><br />Just as suddenly, the disciples were wide awake, and amazed and terrified and bewildered all at once. They stared at the transfigured Jesus, and suddenly they noticed two others standing there with Him. From the conversation they were having with Jesus or just from how they looked, the disciples knew that these other two were Moses and Elijah and they, too, had glorified bodies! And the disciples heard them calmly discussing with Jesus the death He was about to die. There could be no doubt about it, not even for Peter, Jesus was heading for a death on the cross. This was about all the disciples could handle.<br /><br />But suddenly there was more. A cloud of light overshadowed, them a bright cloud although it shined instead of casting a shadow, but our language simply doesn't have a word for cloud shine and negative shadowing. The cloud glowed with an eerie and unearthly light. It seemed like it filled the whole sky above them. And then the voice of God boomed out of that cloud. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">This is my beloved Son, in Him I am well-pleased. Listen to Him!</span></i><br /><br />Much the same words had been spoken from the heavens at the Baptism of Jesus. The "well-pleased" was the same as the goodwill and good pleasure of God about which the angels sang at Bethlehem those many years before.<br /><br />This was, however, too much to deal with for the three disciples. Our text tells us that they curled up on the ground and hid their heads in fear. Peter had begun to speak incoherently, not even really thinking about what he was saying, or so Luke tells us, but the voice of the heavenly Father stopped even that, and they all hid their heads in stark terror.<br /><br />Then Jesus touched each one of them, reassuring them, and when they lifted their heads, there was only Jesus, plain, old, ordinary Jesus, just as they had always seen him. No cloud shining, no face shining, no clothing glowing, no Moses and Elijah,<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> just Jesus, Himself, alone.</span><br /></i><br /><b>Now, what did they see? What was the view from their mountaintop crossroads?</b><br /><br />Looking back, they saw Mount Sinai. They saw Moses and the Law. They saw Moses coming down off the mountain with a face shining with an unearthly light in the reflected glory of God. They saw the man who had been entrusted with the Law and the covenant. They saw a dark and ominous cloud hanging over Mt. Sinai, terrifying the people with its flashes of fire and the awful, fearful rumblings.<br /><br />But in Jesus, they saw something greater. In Jesus, they saw a face which shines with its own glory, unreflected and, as the hymn says, unborrowed. In Jesus, they saw one who fulfilled the Law instead of simply delivering it to us. In Jesus they saw something greater than Moses - but something that Moses had himself promised - Deuteronomy 18:15,<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. And that is what the voice told them to do, Listen to Him!</span></i><br /><br />The cloud they saw was bright, not dark and ominous. They did not hear the rumblings, but the clear voice of God, a voice which may have terrified them, but it spoke of good pleasure and blessings, not of fear and threatenings. It is that well-pleased of which the voice spoke which is underlying our gospel.<br /><br />Looking back, they saw Elijah, the great prophet. They saw Him, but in Jesus, they saw an even greater prophet, and the one who fulfilled all of the prophecies. Elijah prophesied doom. Jesus prophesied forgiveness and grace. Elijah prophesied the coming Messiah, the Suffering Servant. Jesus was that Servant, and He not only prophesied, He fulfilled all that He promised by the word of the Lord. Something greater than Elijah was on that mountain.<br /><br /><b>And what did they see looking forward?</b><br /><br />Looking forward, they saw the death of Jesus Christ. They heard the great giver of the Law and the great prophet of old speaking about the death which Jesus had to die. There was no longer any room for denials. They finally understood, only briefly perhaps, and not with utter clarity, but they finally understood that Jesus had to pass through death to enter glory. And because of that death, we have only to pass through death to enter that glory also.<br /><br />Although it is hard to say for sure what they understood, they saw the sacrifice. God was declaring that Jesus, with whom He was well-pleased when He had begun His course at His baptism, was still well-pleasing to the Father. God announced on that hill that He was well-pleased with the One who would die for us. Hearing the voice then terrified them, but looking back in later years, it was the assurance of fitness of the sacrifice and validation of all that they had heard and read in Holy Scriptures before.<br /><br />Because Jesus was pleasing to the Father, He could die on the cross for the sins of many. His righteousness was perfect, so His death was unneeded, and He could exchange with us, His holiness for our sins, His life for our death. He died for our sins, not any of His own. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">He was made sin for us, </span></i>the Bible says<i><span style="color: #351c75;">, [He] who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him</span></i>. And so it is!<br /><br />Because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, we can now "put on" the righteousness of Christ, which He freely traded to take up our sins. We can have forgiveness. How?<br /><br />By faith. When we believe that Christ has paid the full price for us, and when we take God at His Word that, for the sake of Jesus Christ, God forgives us and gives us eternal life, we are forgiven and we possess that eternal life, and we will walk in glory with Him one day.<br /><br />When we look from the crossroads of the mount of the Transfiguration, we see our forgiveness the worthy sacrifice, the willing exchange, the free gift. We see who it was that died for us, and how He can be so bold as to say, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Your sins are forgiven - go and sin no more!</span></i> He revealed Himself in that shining moment of glory.<br /><br />And Jesus showed us what we could look forward to. We see the resurrection and the reality of the eternal life which we have been promised in the two who stood and spoke with the Lord. Just as the Bible says, when we see Him we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. There they were, Moses and Elijah. Long dead, and yet they were there, alive and recognizable! We, too, shall have bodies, and we shall be who we are - except without sin. We shall have bodies of glory, like Jesus and Moses and Elijah. We shall see and commune and converse with our Lord and with one another. What we see from this lofty crossroads gives us reason to hope in the future and comfort when we remember the past.<br /><br />And we can see that the portal to this transfiguring glory is what we dread and fear and call mistakenly "death," for death is swallowed up in victory, Christ's victory. Moses and Elijah spoke of the necessity of death for Jesus, and if we are to follow Him, it must be through that same portal. This truth alone should teach us not to fear death, but to view it as the door to eternal life with Jesus and it should comfort us that those who have passed through those gates before us are not dead and gone, but live in transfigured glory, like Jesus, and with their Lord.<br /><br />While we may not be able to commune with Jesus in that holy place today, as Moses and Elijah, or to see the wonderful transfiguration with our own eyes, as did Peter and James and John, we can share with them in the communion with Christ at this holy table, and here receive the blessings which He has won for us life and forgiveness. And having paused at the crossroads, and looked forward and looked back with the disciples, and having refreshed ourselves with this holy Meal of the body and blood of Jesus, we are ready to continue.<br /><br />We take a deep breath, and we begin our descent through Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima into Lent. We begin to live again, walking on the path which He has given us to walk. We are refreshed. We are ready for that next step in the journey. We now know, having seen it clearly from the crossroads, how far we have come, and where it is we must go. Let us thank God, and with Peter, let us humbly confess, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Lord, it is good for us to be here!</span></i><br />'<br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)<br /><br /></p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-29659284186999736002024-01-14T12:24:00.000-08:002024-01-14T12:24:53.860-08:00Listen to Jesus<p> John 2:1-11<br /><br />And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the wedding. And when the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."<br /><br />Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the headwaiter." And they took it to him. And when the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then that which is poorer; you have kept the good wine until now."<br />This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.<br /><br />Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany 1/14/24<br /><br />Listen to Jesus<br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />The account of the wedding at Cana is a familiar and often preached Gospel text. It is used in weddings, and, of course, it is a Gospel lesson during the season of Epiphany. There are a number of lessons one can draw from this text.<br />One lesson might be the compassion of Jesus. Look how He helps those in trouble. Another might be Jesus' respect for His mother, although that one could go either way, in the opinion of some. One could look at the providence of God or the richness of Christ's blessings. As an Epiphany theme, one could even speak about the glory of God shining through the humanity of Jesus in this, His first public miracle. This morning I want to begin from the words of Mary, Jesus' mother, "Whatever He says to you, do it." Our theme is, Listen to Jesus.<br /><br />The account is simple. Jesus is attending a wedding, with His disciples in tow. This is the wedding feast which follows the year of betrothal. This is the sort of wedding feast that Jesus intends everyone to relate to as He tells the parable of the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins. There is feasting and drinking and dancing and great merriment. Everyone they know is invited. Such joy and feasting was a community affair.<br /><br />Unfortunately, they underestimated the appetites and thirst of their guests, and the wine ran out. Now Mary comes to Jesus. Mary seems to know that they have run out of wine before most of the other guests. She comes to Jesus and lays this problem at His feet. She doesn't directly ask for Him to fix it, although that request seems to be implied. <br /><br />We are also not given any reason why Mary would expect Jesus to do something, or what she thought He might do. We don't know if and when His powers might have been used at home. We don't know if she thought Jesus might just go get some extra wine. We don't know if the Holy Spirit prompted her, or if she was just your typical Jewish Mother. We only know that she lays this problem at His feet, and, by the brief exchange between her and Jesus, we can tell that she clearly expected Him to do something, possibly something miraculous.<br /><br />Jesus' response to Mary is remarkable. "Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come." Some people have imagined that Jesus was being rude to His mother. Some suggest that Jesus was telling her that He did not want to do anything, or that she should leave Him alone. His response, though cryptic, must be understood as coming from our Holy Lord. It has to make sense in the context in which was spoken, and be consistent with His character.<br /><br />What He said to her, translated into idiomatic English – the kind of English we speak – would be something like, "Things are different now, and this is My responsibility, not yours. When the moment is right, I will take care of things." His words tell His mother that she is no longer in charge of His life, now that His ministry has begun. He lets her know that He is going to take care of things, but at the right moment. Though terse and cryptic, His answer to Mary is a promise to help, and a gentle instruction for her to understand that He is no longer merely her little boy.<br /><br />So, Mary steps out of the way. She gives the whole thing to Jesus and tells the servants of the household to listen to Jesus and obey. And Jesus tells them to do things that make no sense in the circumstances. He tells them to fill six stone pots with water. That's twenty or thirty gallons each. Those servants were working hard for a while! Then Jesus tells them to scoop out a ladle full of water and take the water to the steward of the feast – the guy in charge of the party arrangements. Headwaiter, from our translation, is just a little misleading. Doing the water filling had to seem nonsensical. Taking the water to the Steward of the feast had to seem equally pointless. But they did, and WOW! What a result! <br /><br />Jesus not only answered the need, He answered it abundantly! He provided somewhere between 120 and two hundred gallons of wine. And what Jesus provided was good stuff. The response of the steward of the feast tells us that. No one knew what Jesus had done, at least at first, but Jesus, the servants, and probably the disciples. What He did was not about an urgent need, but about the need of the moment, significant for that couple, but only for that night.<br />So, what can we learn from this?<br /><br />There are several lessons. First, is the lesson which forms our theme, Listen to Jesus. Nothing would have happened that night if the servants had simply ignored Him. They could have, He had no specific authority in that house. Like them, we need to listen, to hear Jesus, and to follow His direction. Not all that seems to be pointless is. Sometimes God has hidden great benefits in doing things His way, even when it doesn't make sense to us.<br /><br />To listen to Jesus, you need to listen to the Word of God. That means more than simply allowing it to flow over you. You want to pay attention, you want to think about what is being told to you and how it might apply to you and your life. You want to hear what Christ commands in His Word – and everything God tells us is a command. We ignore the Word of God in any topic at our peril. God knows. He knows what is true. He knows what we are like and what we are dealing with. He knows how to bring us blessings.<br /><br />What God tells us does not always have to make sense to us. Those servants did not understand the water thing, as they filled those large pots. You don't have to understand what or how or why either. Admittedly, it is nice to understand, but sometimes it is just faith, trust in God, that we need to listen to, and do it as God says to do it. <br /><br />A good example of this principle is all of the grumbling in our churches. God tells us to take our troubles to the ones who are troubling to us – directly, one-on-one. If you have a concern about me, or about someone in the parish, you are to take it to them personally, and hash it out there. That doesn't happened in many situations. We have all witnessed people grumbling to one another about someone else, instead of talking to the one they were grumbling about. The result is frequently discontent and division in a congregation, a scenario we see happening all around us in the Synod. And when I have encouraged people to do what God's Word teaches us to do, many have told me that it is not reasonable, and that it would never work, and that the destructive course of grumbling and gossip is better and more useful. But God's way is the way of healing, even if it doesn't seem that way or to appeal to us.<br /><br />God's way doesn't have to make sense or appeal to us. In fact, it is human nature that God's ways would not appeal to our flesh. It is, none the less, God's way, and it will be effective for accomplishing what God wills. His way is usually effective in bringing relief and peace to His people, too. I mean, no one thought at that time that Jesus should die on the cross, except His enemies — and Jesus Himself. No one but Jesus thought that He would be able to do something positive with so terrible a thing. But He took your sins and mine there. He nailed them to the cross in His body, and He died the death that you and I have earned. Because He died for our sins, God forgives us. Those who know this truth, and trust God, and take Him at His Word, are called "the children of God" and are given eternal life and are promised by God that they will rise even from their graves to life of both body and soul - with Jesus - forever.<br /><br />It doesn't have to make sense to us from the "get go". We need to listen to Jesus. He will help. And our need doesn't have to be the real important stuff either. Jesus cares about us. He cares about the little things, too. He helped this couple with the need of the moment – a little extra wine – okay, a lot of extra wine. You can take anything to God. And everything He tells you to do is what you should do. <br /><br />I don't expect God to talk to me personally out loud, and neither should you, but His Word tells us what we are to be like, and how we ought to behave, and doing it – whatever "it" may be – Jesus' way is always the right way. If God says it, it must be important, and we should listen to Jesus. God will help you in your troubles, and He will guide you in your way. <br /><br />Another truth which this Gospel account illustrates is that God can and will bless abundantly. He provided more wine than they could reasonably use that night. He fed the five thousand – with baskets full of left-overs. He forgives your sins abundantly too. He pronounces forgiveness in the absolution. He speaks His forgiveness in the sermon. And He feeds you with His love and forgiveness in the Holy Supper, as you eat His true body and drink His true blood hidden under the form of the bread and wine in the Sacrament.<br /><br />Do we need this forgiveness upon forgiveness upon forgiveness? The question is an impious question. God gives it. One might assume, rightly, that any one absolution is sufficient for the moment, but God is so superabundant in His giving that He gives and gives, and pours out more and more upon us for our comfort and our assurance. If you are wrestling with your sin, hearing one absolution may not be enough to quiet your fears and silence your guilt and shame. Besides, who are we to ask the question of need? God gives – and gives richly and abundantly! He gives so that if you can imagine that He did not intend you to be forgiven in the absolution that you cannot doubt that He knows your sins, and He knows you are there, and forgives you as He gives His body and blood into your hand and your mouth, personally! Listen to Jesus!<br /><br />You see, the question about listening to Jesus is really the question about who is Lord here. Our flesh is always tempted to push God aside and take charge. That is what Adam and Eve did in the garden. That is what Mary began to do at the Wedding at Cana. Jesus reminded her, gently, that He was in charge and that He would handle the situation according to His own timing and wisdom. The question each of us needs to answer in every situation where we are tempted to put our own wisdom and our own ways first is, "Who is the Lord here?"<br /><br />Who do we trust – ourselves, or Jesus? Who knows and understands how things work better – us or the Lord? Even the wickedness and sin of those who persecuted Him and executed Him served God's holy purpose. Because of that death, you are forgiven, and Jesus pours out on you eternal life. Jesus shows us in Cana how compassionate and abundant He is. Mary tells the servants of the house, and reminds us, to listen to Jesus, and to do whatever He tells you to do. It worked then, even though it wasn't clear until Jesus was finished just what He was going to accomplish. It isn't clear for us, either, many times, precisely what Jesus is planning to accomplish. But as it was in those days, so it is today. Listen to Jesus.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say Amen)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-39441984351587716942024-01-07T10:28:00.000-08:002024-01-07T10:28:21.082-08:00What Does This Mean?<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> </span></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj04AABdSFvWgDjMPWZ0fMWw_H3EXSGY_WzzvKSOwRN17T-2bO8x9DuiOQV-N6ToPqgbpLnl80XcdqI3fKrfSiY58EcbYpwyiHXm6CwjYxg9oG-6Bo9kI6Ona1EnAFmG0cqqG24mAbKMpWXpbK9MJdTtf290LO9shsTvToC8iVF0Y5m5GZ_zICD/s800/baptism%20of%20Jesus,jpg%20(2018_08_27%2022_19_02%20UTC).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj04AABdSFvWgDjMPWZ0fMWw_H3EXSGY_WzzvKSOwRN17T-2bO8x9DuiOQV-N6ToPqgbpLnl80XcdqI3fKrfSiY58EcbYpwyiHXm6CwjYxg9oG-6Bo9kI6Ona1EnAFmG0cqqG24mAbKMpWXpbK9MJdTtf290LO9shsTvToC8iVF0Y5m5GZ_zICD/s320/baptism%20of%20Jesus,jpg%20(2018_08_27%2022_19_02%20UTC).jpg" width="240" /></a></span></i></b></div><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span></i></b><p></p><p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Matthew 3:13-17</span></i></b></p><p><br /></p><p><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him.</span></i></p><p><br /></p><p><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."</span></i></p><p><br /></p><p>Sermon for 1-S A E 1/07/24</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">What Does This Mean?</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p>My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:</p><p>It is the most Lutheran of questions. We grow up with it in the Catechism. "<b>What does this mean?</b>" It doesn't always mean that we don't know what something means, when we ask the question. It is simply the Socratic method of teaching – asking questions. We see the method at use in the Christian Questions and Answers in our Catechism, building the understanding by means of questions that direct one to think clearly about an issue. It is also the nature of a Catechism to ask questions and then to answer them.</p><p><br /></p><p>But this morning, it is not a Catechism question, nor is it intended to be the Socratic method of inductive learning. It is simply a question aimed at getting into the meaning of a very familiar account. We all know about Jesus' Baptism. It is the Gospel for this service. What we want to do is think about what it teaches us, and why it is the lesson for the start of the Year. Our theme is, <span style="color: red;">What Does This Mean?</span></p><p><br /></p><p>John was preaching repentance and was baptizing those who confessed their sins with a baptism of forgiveness. He did it at the Jordan River - because there was plenty of water there, which is where all our Baptist friends get the idea that Baptism is supposed to be by immersion. They picture John baptizing in waist-deep water, dunking people under to symbolize their new birth and washing clean from sin. And it is a wonderful symbol.</p><p><br /></p><p>It just doesn't happen to be what John was doing, in all likelihood. These were people who believed that the water – bodies of water – were the domain of demons. They did not know how to swim - not even fishermen, generally. They were terrified of standing water, particularly deep water. That is why the parting of the Sea by Moses and the parting of the Jordan by Joshua was so significant. It demonstrated God's power over the devil's domain. That is what the "walking on water" of Jesus mean to those who saw it. He was treading on the domain of the devil. It wasn't simply mastery of the surface tension of water, or some ability to float on the soles of His feet. It was that demons were supposed to live in the water, that was a common superstition of the time. Jesus was demonstrating His mastery over the demonic kingdom by walking above it - on it, not allowing those devils to grab Him and drag Him under and slay Him as they had so many for so long!</p><p><br /></p><p>So these people were not likely to want to walk out into deep water and be plunged under. It would have suggested precisely the opposite to them from the symbol we imagine today. Instead of representing a cleansing and new birth, it would have pictured being plunged into the domain of Satan. And my grandmother on my mother's side was from Kansas. She grew up in a dry land, without lots of lakes. She was terrified of water in lakes and rivers. Knee-deep was as good as she could get. I am sure not every person was that terrified of water, but I would guess that most of those who gathered to hear John were.</p><p><br /></p><p>So John was standing in the shallows, pouring water over their heads in a ritual washing – as most of their washings were – to picture for them the forgiveness which God was working through their repentance and Baptism at the hands of John. His Baptism was very much like ours. And Jesus came to be baptized.</p><p><br /></p><p>John took one look at Jesus, and He knew who He was. I don't know if John recognized his cousin, or not. Probably did. But John was filled with the Holy Spirit, as the great prophetic forerunner of the Messiah, and he saw, and he knew instantly, that this One was the Son of God, the Savior, and without sin. So John said, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?"<span style="color: red;"> What does this mean?</span></p><p><br /></p><p>It means that John understood who Jesus was, and asked Jesus to Baptize Him instead. And, let's face it, Jesus did not need forgiveness.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then Jesus replied, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.</span></i>" Scholars have been debating the meaning of those words ever since. Jesus asked John to baptize Him, even though Jesus did not need forgiveness. He did not argue with John about His assessment. He simply asked John to let it be, and do the baptism. He said it was "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">fitting for [them] to fulfill all righteousness</span></i>." <span style="color: red;"> What does this mean?</span></p><p><br /></p><p>It means that it was the right thing to do. Jesus was righteous already, no sin. So what He did was not for forgiveness, but for us. In part, this was Jesus taking over for John. He received from John what John was doing. He didn't need to in an absolute sense, but it was important for people to see that Jesus was "coming after" John. He was John's successor – the one John was preparing the way for.</p><p><br /></p><p>Jesus was also showing that He had assumed everything that is part of us, in order to save us. He humbled Himself and stepped through the waters of Baptism, just as each of us who hope in Him must also come to Him through the waters of Baptism. In a sense, He prepared the waters of Baptism for us by His baptism – placing His righteousness into baptism, so that it would have the power to cleanse us from our sins.</p><p><br /></p><p>He also recapitulated the history of Israel with His life, and, just as Israel had passed through the waters – which Scriptures call a "baptism" into Moses – so, Jesus passed through the waters – and then went into the wilderness for 40 days, instead of the 40 years. He is the better Israel, for He did all things well, and did not sin, and did not fail to be and to do all that God called Him to be and to do.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was fitting, for God wanted Him to do it. It connects Jesus to the Old Testament people walking with Moses, and it connects Him with us, Baptized as He was, and cleansed by Him.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then Jesus came up out of the water – He walked to shore and stepped out of the river – and the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and the voice of the heavenly Father spoke, saying, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased</span></i>." It is interesting to note that God's Word sounds different to different people, sometimes. Mark and Luke report Jesus' hearing of the words, "<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>Thou art My beloved Son, . . .</i></span>" John, and anyone else who may heard and understood the words, heard "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">This is My beloved Son, . . </span></i>." God's Word comes to us, always fitting us as we hear it. We dare never assume that the Word we hear is aimed at anyone but us!</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: red;">What does this mean?</span></p><p><br /></p><p>First we see the Trinity. Jesus is standing in the water, the Holy Spirit is perched on His shoulder - or head - in visible form of a dove, and the Father is speaking out of the sky. All three persons may be observed, if not seen. Father in heaven, Son on earth by the river-bank, and Holy Spirit descending upon and resting on Jesus.</p><p><br /></p><p>Secondly, we hear that Jesus is "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">well-pleasing</span></i>" to the Father, as He begins His public ministry. This is the judgment of God that Jesus is holy and without sin. He is fit to begin the great work of our salvation. We will hear the same judgment of God spoken from the mount of Transfiguration on January 21st as Jesus sets His face to descend into Jerusalem to die for us. This is God the Father acknowledging His Son, and declaring that He is fit and holy and righteous as He begins His great work in His public ministry!</p><p><br /></p><p>I want to take this opportunity to focus your minds on the song of the Angels to the Shepherds outside of Bethlehem. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Peace on earth, good will to men" is better translated</span></i> "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Peace on earth among men with whom He is well-pleased</span></i>." This "<b><span style="color: #351c75;">Well-pleased</span></b>" spoken over Jesus here, at the beginning, is what is accounted our own in connection with Jesus Christ, by grace through faith. These words here mean He is ready to be our Savior, and He has what we need, as He begins. Right here, right at the beginning of His public work, Jesus has what we need from Him to have peace with God and to end the wrath of God against our sins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why is this our Sunday after Epiphany's Gospel? Because it speaks of beginnings. Jesus is beginning His great work prepared, equipped, and worthy. His ministry will next step into the wilderness for forty days and nights of fasting and temptations by the devil - temptations that Eve surrendered to, but which Jesus resisted and triumphed over for us.</p><p><br /></p><p>Are you ready to begin another year? Are you prepared with faith, equipped with the gifts of the holy Spirit, and worthy by virtue of repentance and forgiveness, and confidence in God? Sure you are. This little sermon is just a reminder. You begin the Epiphany season this year with God, Jesus is your constant companion – He did say, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Behold I am always with you</span></i>." The Holy Spirit has been poured out on you, too, in your baptism. He is given to you as a pledge and a guarantee of God's presence, power, and blessings – and your salvation, too. You share, by the grace of God, in the "in whom I am well-pleased" spoken about Jesus on the day our Gospel records.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: red;">What does this mean?</span></p><p><br /></p><p>It means we begin this year in faith, with hope and trust in God, confident of His mercy, blessing and presence with us and among us! Our sins are forgiven, and we are beloved of God in Jesus Christ. That's what it means!</p><p><br /></p><p>In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.</p><p>(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-24170401609085617742023-12-31T11:37:00.000-08:002023-12-31T11:37:18.021-08:00The Song of Simeon<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQbhLWsqSyvLv_A8Kkm-n1OQIcl2KkTy4eX_sAK-hL3qZSUp9JLZfzZyBjzBcGS2dLjejF2egZPKi4hStFtmuA9cqrNenbCpokvr83Ja3Tachj4u2nh8JxkQNU2vPz6hVGz8XYlzbxa5md6fxXn58VbM5KD3IQFiXxw_-7xuug93gtXPy3WQLD/s474/Simeon.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="474" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQbhLWsqSyvLv_A8Kkm-n1OQIcl2KkTy4eX_sAK-hL3qZSUp9JLZfzZyBjzBcGS2dLjejF2egZPKi4hStFtmuA9cqrNenbCpokvr83Ja3Tachj4u2nh8JxkQNU2vPz6hVGz8XYlzbxa5md6fxXn58VbM5KD3IQFiXxw_-7xuug93gtXPy3WQLD/s320/Simeon.jpeg" title="" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Luke 2:25-33</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, "Now Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart In peace, according to Thy word; For my eyes have seen Thy salvation, Which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Thy people Israel." And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for the Sunday after Christmas 12/31/23<br /><br /><b><i><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Song of Simeon</span></span></i></b><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Simeon is one of the most familiar strangers in the Bible. We are familiar with him through his prayer, which we sing each week. We call it the "Nunc Dimittis", which is the Latin for the first two words in the Latin Version, "<i>now let your servant depart</i>". We all know it, and we sing it week by week, and yet I wonder how often we sit down and think about it and what it meant, and what it was like to be there the first time those words were ever spoken in the church of God. Our theme, this morning, is what we now call The Song of Simeon.<br /><br />Everything we know about Simeon is contained in these few verses. We know that he was a believer, Luke calls him "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">righteous and devout</span></i>". We know that he was awaiting the coming of the Messiah with particular eagerness for Luke says he was "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">looking for the consolation of Israel</span></i>," which is a Messianic title from the Old Testament period. We know that he was filled with the Holy Spirit – and guided by the Holy Spirit. And finally, we know that he had been promised that he would not pass on until the Christ (the Messiah) was come into the world. He would live long enough to see the salvation of the Lord. <br /><br />Of course, that did not mean he would live exceptionally long while he waited. It meant that the coming of the Messiah was so close in time that Simeon was promised that he would see Him before he died. Every picture we see of Simeon pictures him as an old man - which sort of makes sense, except that we are told in no Bible passage that Simeon was old, or full of years, or living a particularly long and happy life. Simeon could have been in his twenties or thirties!<br /><br />We don't know much about Simeon's life, either. We know that he was a believer - that he was devout. We also know that He was faithful to his religion in a time when faith and faithfulness were less common commodities in Israel. When Jesus came, He called many of the religious leaders of Israel ‘sons of the great serpent,' Satan, and accused many of the people who approached Him of not having even a vague idea of who God is or what He wants of us - which, I think, qualifies them as unbelievers and enemies of the faith. Apparently, Simeon believed, and practiced his religion faithfully, and from a spirit of devotion to God rather than slavish obedience to rules.<br /><br />This conduct would indicate that Simeon was filled by the Holy Spirit, just as it does for believers today. If you believe, you gotta have the Spirit, for "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">No man can say, "Jesus is Lord", but by the Holy Ghost.</span></i>" When Luke tells us that "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">the Holy Spirit was upon Him</span></i>", he is saying that Simeon had an extraordinary gift of, or filling by, the Holy Ghost. But none of this is really important, except that it explains who Simeon is and why he showed up at the temple on this particular day, and did the things he did. What is important this morning is the prayer which he spoke, which we sing week to week.<br /><br />First, Simeon calls on the Lord to fulfil the second part of the promise. Now that he has seen the salvation of the Lord in the flesh, he is ready to die in peace. That is probably what reinforces the idea that Simeon was an old man. But doesn't have to mean that. Even as a fairly young man, Simeon could say,"Okay Lord, I am ready to go any time because I have seen the salvation which you have prepared before all of mankind." It doesn't need to mean anything more than the certainty that God has fulfilled His promise to Simeon. Old or young, think of the faith that this first statement took! Simeon saw the baby Jesus, just eight days old. The Spirit informed him that this One was the Savior - but Jesus hadn't done anything, yet. He would not do anything striking for another thirty-odd years. But Simeon believed. He believed the Word of God, and the promise of God, and what the Spirit showed him, and he was willing to live and die by it. We, too, can be willing to live by the Word of God, and be willing to die trusting in every promise of God<br /><br />Simeon said "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">My eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all the peoples.</span></i>" Mind you, Simeon had not seen the crucifixion, or the resurrection. He had never heard the Apostolic proclamation of the forgiveness of sins in His name. He had simply seen the baby Jesus. The Old Testament told Him the rest of the story, and Simeon believed what his eyes had not seen, but what the Word said, and the Spirit had revealed to Him.<br /><br />He makes an interesting point, however. Our salvation is not just the events that took place. They were the how of the thing - how it works, how forgiveness functions, how God got around the paradox of human guilt and divine justice, so that God is both just and the One who forgives sins and rescues those who trust in Him. Our salvation is Jesus. He is the miracle. God in the flesh of a man - in this case, a man-child. He is our salvation. The love of God is wrapped up in what it took to imagine such a redemption, and to personally step down from the glory of being God and take up a humble human existence.<br /><br />We might not be quite so surprised if God had been born in a castle or a palace somewhere. If He were rich and powerful in the ways of the world, that would have fit our expectations. If Jesus had demanded the honor due to Him and expected worship and praise and the sorts of perks that we ordinary people tend to demand when we get a little authority or celebrity under our belt, perhaps the whole Incarnation - the God in human flesh thing - might be a little more comprehensible. But here He is, God, making no big deal about it. He walks and talks like an ordinary man. He even dies - Imagine the wonder of it! God died! And He died just like you will - not the cessation of being, but the separation of body and soul. And He died for you, to redeem you from your own sin and rebellion, and rescue you from death and hell and torment. Because of what Simeon saw, your sins are forgiven!<br /><br />When Simeon saw the baby Jesus, He was staring into the most incomprehensible wonder of history - <b>and God was looking back</b>. The Holy Spirit had given Simeon the understanding of what he was seeing, and with that seeing, he was ready to die. What else was there. The promises of God were already fulfilled. Once God did the impossible thing in the incarnation, how could He fail? What else could challenge Him more? Isaiah had already revealed to us that the sacrifice was a done deal in heaven. Once God determined to accomplish it in time it was as good as done. Now Simeon saw the first step - and he knew the rest could not help but happen.<br /><br />Simeon also confessed, as the Old Testament had, that this salvation was not just for the Jews. Jesus is the Light of Revelation for the Gentiles. Up until Jesus came, God and salvation was primarily a Jewish thing – about the Chosen People of Israel. With the coming of Jesus, God reveals that it is His will to redeem and save all men, Gentiles no less than others.<br /><br />Jesus is the Light of Revelation. He alone shows us the Father. He reveals to us the will of God and the love of God for us. And what is the will of God for us? (<i>Our Salvation.</i>)<br /><br />Jesus reveals the will of God by first doing it, and then sending His preachers to proclaim it to us. Jesus revealed the will of God to save us by taking our condemnation and the wrath of God against our sins, and our just sentence due to sin, and suffering in our place, and then dying the death our sins have deserved. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes, we are healed.</span></i>"<br /><br />We are ‘enlightened' today by Word and Sacrament, through which the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts, and by means of which food we are forgiven, strengthened, and refreshed both – in this life and for eternal life. Jesus continues to be the Light of the world by the preaching of faithful pastors, and by the daily witness of lives lived to His glory by people who have been transformed by His grace and love. It is about this transformation that Paul writes, in Romans 12, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect</span></i>."<br /><br />You "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">prove what the will of God is"</span></i> by living in it - a holy life of one who is forgiven much, and so loves much; who is set free from sin and so chooses to live free from guilt and shame and sin. When you live out your confidence in God, rather than the fear of circumstances or the uncertainty of "luck", you bear witness to Jesus, who is the glory of God, and the glory of His people, Israel - both the people Israel, whose history is summed up in this one man who is also God and the living personification of the love and compassion of the God of Israel, and the Israel of God which also includes us, the people of the gracious choice of God "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."</span><br /></i><br />You may be beginning to see how the whole Gospel is captured in that beautiful prayer, which we call the Song of Simeon. Each time we sing it, you want to mark your place in it - one of those, who, like Simeon, has seen the salvation of God, one of those Gentiles for whom Jesus came to be a Light of Revelation, and one of those people, Israel, chosen of God, for whom Jesus is our glory!<br /><br />Luke reports that Jesus' "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">father and mother were amazed at the things that were being said about Him</span></i>." It is no small wonder! That was probably because they lived life everyday, and forgot the marvelous things God was working in them and through them. More amazing than the things being said, however, is the Jesus Himself. Even amazing as an infant, for that infant was also God, who required feeding and changing and burping like any other child, according to the flesh - but as God was running the universe, and causing stars to burn in the heavens, trees to grow, winds to blow, and the chemical reactions which we call the processes of life of our bodies to proceed, as though nothing unusual were happening at all. <p></p><p>What a marvelous thing - in the ancient sense - that is, full of things to marvel at. And it is all briefly and eloquently summed up for us for all time in the Song of Simeon.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-87545186273861549422023-12-24T10:20:00.000-08:002023-12-24T10:20:55.079-08:00That Voice in the Wilderness<p><i><span style="color: #351c75;"><b> John 1:19-28</b></span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" And he confessed, and did not deny, and he confessed, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." They said then to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Fourth Sunday in Advent 12/24/23<br /><br /><b><i><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"> That Voice in the Wilderness</span></i></b><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Many times people confuse the Church with what they see around them when they come to church. Sometimes it is a harmless thing. Some of what they see and hear is the Church. Sometimes some of it is not. The Church is not the way we sing. Some Sundays our singing is full and sweet, and other times it is thin and a just a little wobbly. Some people confuse the pastor with the message. While a faithful pastor is the bearer of the message, he is not the message. You don't have to like his personality, or the way he chants, or the inflection of his voice while he preaches. The Word of God is the message, words which the Pastor proclaims, but which do not belong to him. The people around you, beloved or somewhat obnoxious, are not what we come here for, they are here, too, because they need the Word of God and all of His gifts to live from one day.<br /><br />It is important that we do not confuse what we see with that which is greater. It is also important that we do not confuse ourselves for something or someone that we are not. Our text is a good illustration of that – both of those who confuse one thing with another, and an example of how not to permit that confusion to gain a foothold. Let us consider our Gospel lesson, this morning, under the title, That Voice in the Wilderness.<br /><br />They came to John. <i><b>Enemies</b></i>. They were looking for some way to shut him up. They didn't like what he preached. He preached sin and repentance. No one likes to hear about sin. No one wants to be told that they heed to repent. Just who does he think he is?!! Obviously he had to be stopped. The priests and the Levites were confident that religion was what they said it was and church was what they said, so they had to shut him down.<br /><br />The way the chose to do it was to challenge his authority. Are you the Christ? John had to answer, I am not the Christ. The first challenge to his authority was to ask him who died and made him God, so to speak? The Messiah had the authority to preach like this, but no one else. Of course we know that when the Messiah came and preached like this, they crucified Him.<br /><br />Well, if you are not the Messiah, are you Elijah? There was this legend among them that before the Messiah would come, Elijah would return. Jesus even refers to this and says that Elijah did come - and suggests that John was him. If he isn't the Messiah, they said, maybe it would be Elijah. He sounds a lot like they may have expected Elijah would have sounded. Elijah would have the authority to preach like that!! And John said, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">I am no</span></i>t.<br /><br />Well, what then? Are you the Prophet? You see, they expected a prophet. Moses had promised that God would raise up a prophet just like him, one who spoke to God as a man speaks to a friend, face to face. He would be the greatest prophet of all times! And He was to come just before the Messiah. Actually the Bible didn't say that last part. That was popular lore. Moses promised the prophet, and they just figured that He would come just before the Messiah. So, if John were the prophet, then he would have the authority to be kicking up a ruckus out in the wilderness, otherwise, just who does he think he is!? And John answered, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">No.</span></i>"<br /><br />Then who the heck are you? Where do you get off telling people how to be, or deciding what worship is, or preaching how people get to be the people of God? He said, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">"I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said."</span></i><br /><br />This was one person who was actually prophesied, but he was the one person who they did not expect, they did not recognize, and they did not grant the authority which the Word of God granted to him. So, they challenged his authority. Oh, he seemed to have some sort of excuse for all that preaching, so it wasn't politic to challenge that -- but the Bible didn't say anything about Baptizing, so that was the point at which they would challenge Him, And they asked him, and said to him, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"</span><br /></i><br />John's answer really didn't answer their question, but for some reason it satisfied them for the time. John answered them saying, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie</span></i>." John's answer was very much like saying, "<i>Don't worry about me, guys. I just baptize with water. The One whose herald I am is the One you should be worried about. He will baptize with the Spirit of God or with judgment and destruction. I would focus on that One first.</i>"<br /><br />John's answer was clever. It was inspired. It was the Word of God. John simply shifted the question of authority. He claimed no authority of his own. He pointed to Jesus, the Coming One, and said whatever I do, it is by His authority. If you want to take issue with my teachings, take issue with Jesus.<br /><br />You know, nothing changes much in this world. Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">There is nothing new under the Sun.</span></i> The disciples did not always agree with Jesus. Peter rebuked Him and cried out, Oh, God Forbid!, when Jesus taught about His crucifixion, death and resurrection. The Apostles had false teachers and enemies undermining them every step of the way. There was the Holy Ghosters with their tongues-movement. There was the circumcision party, claiming that you needed more to be a Christian than grace. There were those who denied that a physical resurrection would ever take place. And all of them called themselves true Christians -- and accused the Apostles themselves of being false and misleading, and having an evil and personal agenda.<br /><br />The preaching and the teaching of the Word of God always has its nay-sayers, even in the church. Those outside are no problem. It is those on the inside, niggling and politicking and seeking to sabotage the Word of God or the servant of the Word among us, that create such havoc and heartache. Luther had those who thought they understood the Lutheran Reformation better than the man who started it -- close friends like Carlstadt and Melancthon. <br /><br />Walther, first president of our Synod, had enemies and critics who were never at peace with Walther's insistence on pure doctrine, always wanting to remake the Synod of which Walther was the premiere theologian. There were many who quietly celebrated when Walther finally died. Today the theology of Walther's enemies has largely replaced Walther's faith in the Synod.<br /><br />Everywhere I have gone as a pastor, there have been those who niggle and complain about Pastor Fish. He preaches too much Law. He is too narrow-minded. He should be lighter, more cheery, more Gospel and sweetness than all of this gloom and sin and such. There truly is nothing new under the sun.<br /><br />I preach the Law because it is the Word of God, and it is true and it is still applicable, and it is God's Will for us. I also preach it because anyone who does not know their sin, has no sense of their sinfulness and does not face their own corruption due to sin cannot truly appreciate the Gospel. If you do not face your sins, then forgiveness is a chimera, a mythical creature. If you do not confront your total corruption in sin, you cannot fathom or treasure your forgiveness. If you are not crushed by your guilt, you will not delight in your forgiveness. If you cannot bear to hear the Law, then you probably don't actually believe the gospel either. The Gospel is not simply about your salvation -- it is about your great sinfulness having met and been covered by the great grace of God in forgiveness because Jesus died for you. If you say to me, or whisper behind my back, don't tell me about my sin, then you might as well shout from the rooftops, <b>DON'T TELL ME ABOUT JESUS</b>!!<br /><br />I don't know how this strange idea gained a foothold among Lutherans, that you do not need or want to hear about how sinful you are, but it is dead wrong. You want to know your sins so that you may know the sweetness and value and utter importance of your salvation. If you do not know the depth and size of your sin, you will never appreciate the greatness of God's love or His grace in forgiving you. Jesus said it once, He who is forgiven little, loves little.<br /><br />Luther wrote about those who wanted to ignore their sinfulness and only hear the sweetness of the Gospel . He accused them of only wanting to "be painted" a sinner. The problem with that, according to Luther, was that such preaching made Christ a "painted Savior" -- not a real Savior for great sinners, but a pretend Savior for those who have few sins and little guilt or shame. I, however, need the Savior from great and serious sins, because I know my guilt And so I cannot paint you a sinner, for I want you to know the Savior from deepest sins who died to save sinners, among whom I, too, and chief.<br /><br />For those who are troubled that I preach such stern stuff, I can give you no better answer than John gave those sent by the Pharisees. Don't worry about me. Look beyond me to Him who sent me, whose Herald I am and whose Word I preach. He will not simply speak. He will judge. He will measure each man and woman against the truth, and painted sinners will not stand in that day -- only true sinners, who have seen their sin and guilt and despaired of themselves, and now find their comfort in forgiveness and grace won for them on the cross of Calvary.<br /><br />I do not mean to even suggest that I am above criticism -- but take me to the Word. Examine my preaching against the Scriptures. If I am not teaching what they teach, or if I am not telling you of Christ's death on the cross and of the forgiveness of sins, then take me to task. And do me the Christian courtesy of coming to me, and not others without speaking to me. But let your critique be grounded on the Word of God. If your problem is that you simply don't like to hear God's Word clearly preached, then your argument is with Jesus, not with the preaching of Pastor Fish. Then my answer is very much like John's, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,'</span></i>."<br /><br /> In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-19448391913118486262023-12-21T08:04:00.000-08:002023-12-21T08:04:38.278-08:00The Holy Highway of Jesus<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Isaiah 35:1-10</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you." Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. And the scorched land will become a pool, And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes. And a highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, And the ransomed of the LORD will return, And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Advent Three 2023 12/20/23<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">The Holy Highway of Jesus</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />One of the more difficult things about prophecy is that it is not necessarily linear. We tend to think in straight lines, more or less. We tend to read what we read in the same way. A story starts and progresses to the end. When it does not, take the case of a flashback, for example, we want the story to tell us what it is doing. Many a fine story has been spoiled, and abandoned by many readers because it did not cue the reader in to the fact that there was no linearity to the account.<br /><br />Prophecy is not necessarily linear. It can be, but often it is less like telling a story, and more like describing a picture. Our text tonight is like that a description of a picture with details added here and there, out of place it seems, to describe the coming salvation of our God. Let us look at this prophecy, which is the entire 35th chapter of the book of Isaiah, and see salvation pictured as the Holy Highway of Jesus.<br /><br />The prophet begins by filling in the scenery. Joy is depicted. We see the desolate wilderness blossoming and rejoicing. The desolation and the wilderness are images of the human soul in sin. We are desolate, without hope if we must rely on our own resources. This sudden change in the wilderness is caused by seeing the glory of the Lord, literally <i><span style="color: #351c75;">the glory of Yahweh</span></i>. That means seeing Jesus, the One in whom the glory of God is finally revealed. Did the prophet understand it this way? We don't know, but Jesus did, and so did the Apostle Paul who wrote:<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.</span></i> We understand that this Glory, being revealed in the prophecy, is Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Then the prophet depicts encouraging the exhausted, strengthening the feeble, and comforting those who are worried and anxious. Those troubles also describe man's condition in sin but here it is intended to describe the burdens of the faithful of God. They are exhausted by waiting and living for God. They are so burdened by sin that they are feeble in their efforts and faith. The fear is that they cannot last in the face of the dangers and enemies of this life. The encouragement, strength, and peace are wrapped up in this: "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Behold Your God!</span></i>" God is here! Rescue is at hand.<br /><br />Then we have judgment talk: "Vengeance," and "recompense". God is coming to winnow His people and destroy the wicked. He is the Judge! And the Judge is the Savior! The prophet says: <i><span style="color: #351c75;">And He Will Save You</span></i>. That sentence in English is just one word in Hebrew, (<i><span style="color: red;">jisha'achem</span></i>) from which the name "Jesus" comes. That is why the name "Jesus" is significant it is a literal fulfillment of this prophecy. The judge is even named "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">And He shall save you.</span></i>" Jesus said the same thing in John 3:17: <i><span style="color: #351c75;">For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.</span></i> But He will judge! He is coming one more time at the end.<br /><br />As a result, nature rejoices! The blind see. The deaf hear. The lame leap about like deer. The dumb shout for joy. These remind us of the miracles which Jesus performed. These are the miracles that Jesus reports to the disciples of John when they ask in last Sunday's Gospel, "Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for another?" But the real blindness is spiritual blindness. The real deafness is deafness to the Word of God. The dumb cannot speak the truth of God, and the lame are crippled by their sins. The coming of Jesus, and the giving Holy Spirit, cure those spiritual ailments. We see and understand, we hear and believe. We know and speak, and How blessed are the feet of those who bring good tidings!<br /><br />Then the prophet continues with what does not sound so familiar. The dry places become swamps and luxuriant growth. The empty and desolate areas become lush and productive. Minor growth is replaced by strong, sturdy, thick, overwhelming growth. I do not need to draw out the contrast of man in sin to man in the power of the Holy Spirit. But that is what it is! Nature is rejoicing here. Contrast that to nature groaning as in labor pains, as Paul describes it in Romans 8:22: <i><span style="color: #351c75;">For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now</span></i>. Paul is trying to show clearly how Jesus, and all that God worked through Him, fulfilled this prophecy!<br /><br />Finally, the scenery is complete. Then Isaiah talks about the highway of holiness. In this unexpected place, there will be a highway. It will be the highway due to the glory of God. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">It will be the highway of "Behold Your God."</span></i> It will be the highway that John the Baptist was calling out to prepare and to straighten. It will be called the highway of holiness or the holy highway. Jesus spoke of this road in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:13-14: <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.</span></i><br /><br />This Holy Highway is that narrow road; the straight and narrow we often have called it. We call it straight because it is marked by holiness and righteousness. You shall be holy, God declares, for I the Lord your God am holy. And righteousness is what Christ gives to us. It is also interesting to note that the Greek word Jesus chose to describe that narrow highway refers to being narrow by reason of persecution, pressure, and difficulty. The road is not just physically narrow. It is narrow by virtue of all of the pressure to push you off. Not just anyone can walk on it.<br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">The unclean shall not walk on it.</span></i> They are all walking the wide and easy way, just because it is easier to do. Fools will not wander on it. The Hebrew uses the word "wander" as if one is aimless, and going nowhere in particular at least not deliberately. But this highway only goes one place one way, and those on it do not wander aimlessly. They are going somewhere, and purposefully. No, the fools will walk on the wide and easy road.<br /><br />Wild animals were a real danger to those who traveled in those days. They generally traveled by foot. Lions were always a threat. The prophet notes that, and notices that there will be lions along this road also, but they shall not walk on the road. They will be waiting in the thickets if you turn either to the left or the right. But only a fool would wander on aimlessly on such a road, a narrow and difficult road to stay on. There will be lions: people who want to catch you, push you off the road or invite you to join them on the wide and easy road. There will be traps, temptations, and snares along the sides of the road, cul-de-sacs, and turnoffs leading nowhere, but there are no deadly lions or anyone who will harm you on this road.<br /><br />Who will be on it? <i><span style="color: #351c75;">The redeemed will walk there</span></i>. This is the Holy Highway of Jesus. These are those who have been called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified. These are the Children of God. The next phrase indicates that also. It says the ransomed of the Lord will return there. They will return to their God.<br /><br />Isaiah says that those on the road will come to Zion with shouts of joy and Zion is where God chooses to be present with His people present in Word and Sacrament. This is Zion, the body of Christ on earth. And there is also the heavenly Zion. The highway takes you to both for rejoicing with shouts of joy. He is risen! Hallelujah!<br /><br />Then Isaiah says, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Gladness and joy will overtake those on the road</span></i>. What a beautiful image. We can always conceive of danger pursuing us and catching us, the footsteps in the dark behind us, the terror of that unknown noise. But here God pictures gladness and joy as the pursuer. They will move so steadily and certainly, that gladness and joy are inescapable. They will overtake everyone who walks on the road.<br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Sorrow and sighing,</span></i> on the other hand, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">will flee away</span></i>. Isaiah says that the people of the road will walk with everlasting joy upon their heads so that sorrow and sadness will have no place to roost or to rest on them, so those twin evils will have to flee. But consider, if the joy is everlasting, then the life which knows such joy must also be everlasting and Jesus said that this is the highway that leads to life.<br /><br />But the road is narrow and persecuted and hard. Those who are not on it do not want you on it. They are certain they are going the right way. Then there are those lions Satan and his crew. He does not want you on the road there you are safe from Him. He will seek to lure you off. To distract you from watching the road. You all know how easy it is to drive off the road if you take your eyes off of it for just a moment and look at something off to the side. This road is for walking, but it is so narrow and there are all sorts of pressures to push you off, and traps and temptations to lure you away. It requires determination to walk on the holy highway of Jesus. It does not come easily for anyone. Walking on the holy highway of Jesus will require deliberation just to stay on it, and the guidance and blessing of God. But for those who do stay on it, gladness and joy will overtake them. And the destination is life everlasting!<br /><br />God grant you the power of His Holy Spirit this Advent season, and the faith and the strength to walk this Holy Highway of Jesus!<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)<br /><br /></p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-11332130207456746642023-12-17T11:00:00.000-08:002023-12-17T11:00:08.166-08:00Why Are You Here?<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Matthew 11:2-10 </span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And as these were going away, Jesus began to speak to the multitudes about John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' palaces. But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, 'BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER BEFORE YOUR FACE, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.'"</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent 12/17/23<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Why are You Here?</span></b><br /></span><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Some questions are repeated, in the Bible. In Ephesians, two years ago, we confronted the question "Why are you here?". Here it is again, this time in the Gospel of Matthew, from the lips of Jesus.<br /><br />Our Gospel lesson this morning revolves around two questions – the question of John to Jesus – <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Are you the Coming One, or shall we look for someone else?</span></i>, and the question of Jesus about John, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? What did you go out to see? </span></i>Both of them are questions that we could consider – one of them we must consider. The question about John, though, is not as significant to us unless we translate it into our modern age, and place our congregation and its mission here in the place of the prophet John. When we do that, we change the question of Jesus into the theme of our sermon this morning, Why are you here?<br /><br />First, however, is the question John asked of Jesus. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Are you the Coming One or shall we look for someone else?</span></i> That is the question that rings through the ages in one form or another – What do you think of Jesus Christ? Is He God, or simply a good man? Is He really and fully human, or does it just seem that way? Is Jesus Savior, or is He Judge? Is He the Center of your existence, or simply an embellishment to it? Do you believe in the Jesus of the Bible or the modern, politically correct, socially sensitive, humanistic Jesus? Was Jesus the One, or are you still looking for someone else?<br /><br />It sounds silly, doesn't it? The question seems out of place here in a Lutheran Congregation. Unfortunately, it is not. It is never out of place. The devil is at work all of the time, trying to get us to imagine a "Jesus Christ" other than the One who existed and who died for us, and then to believe in that Jesus. In the days of Jesus, the people who were waiting for the Messiah were often waiting for someone else. When they met the Messiah, they didn't want to believe that this humble man was the One. They wanted someone else.<br /><br />Their problem was just the same as many today have. They had come to look for the One they wanted, not the One actually promised or the One who came. Today, many people want another Jesus. They want the "heck of a nice guy" Jesus who takes everyone just the way they are, and asks for nothing, expects no changes, overlooks anything and everything. Or, perhaps, they want the Ecumenical Jesus, the one who doesn't care if we know Him, who measures us by our public niceness to others, and who is pleased if people simply learn to pay lip service to the existence of a deity of one sort or another. Others have a Jesus in mind who changes His opinions as frequently as they do, and always agrees with them. Doctrine, morality, history – these people believe that they are all in flux because these people are not willing to commit themselves to anything, and their Jesus is just like them.<br /><br />Jesus gave John the answer: look at the Jesus who IS, and know Him. Jesus told John's disciples to look at what they saw and heard in Him. Jesus mentioned in specific the things which He had done, that the Messiah was going to do, according to the prophets. Then Jesus said, And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me. In other words, blessed is the one who believes in the Messiah who has actually come – who does not stumble over the real Jesus or who does not have another Jesus, a preferable Jesus, in mind. Jesus told John to face the reality that was reported – for us, that is the Jesus of the Bible, with the values, morality, and doctrines of the Bible. We cannot have Jesus if we reject Him and what He taught just because it feels good, or because someone we love has already rejected Him, and we don't want to face an uncomfortable truth about their spiritual life.<br /><br />Which leads quite naturally to the questions of Jesus for the crowd. He asked them why they had come – pointing to John rather than Himself, but asking them if they were about reality – the man that was out in the wilderness or about some fantasy – something not real. But when Jesus pointed to John, He was actually pointing to Himself. John was His messenger. The conclusions they drew about John would also shape the conclusions they drew about Jesus.<br /><br />So, <b><span style="color: red;">why are you here?</span></b> Did you come here to confront holy mysteries and deal with Jesus as He is, or did you come here for some other purpose, with another agenda in mind? Did you come for heavenly food or a symbolic meal? Did you come to be shaped and instructed, or just to feel good? Why are you here?<br /><br />If you see this congregation as here for you, rather than you here for everyone else, you are not here for Jesus. If you see a worship service as simply a place one can go to feel good, you are not seeing reality. If you see the messenger of Christ as simply opinionated and peculiar, or even as a nice guy and easy to listen to, and do not listen to, and inwardly digest the Word preached and if you accept or reject the message you hear proclaimed out of hand, without examining what is taught and preached in the Word, you have not come to see Jesus. If you have come expecting something like a fast-food place where you can get your religion served up hot and fresh and just the way you like it, you have not come to see Jesus. You want the nearest Burger King.<br /><br />This is an assembly of Christ's holy people. He has gathered His holy priesthood together here. We have come here by His invitation, to eat of His body and drink of His blood in this holy Meal before us, and to hear His holy Word.</p><p>We are to expect to be refreshed and strengthened. He has promised it to us, and we believe His promises. He has promised that our sins are forgiven and we already possess eternal life on account of what He has accomplished on the cross. He has promised that those who remain faithful will rise from their graves in glory unto everlasting life and joy.<br /><br />He has not promised, however, that being here or living this life as His servant will feel good, please our intellect, or appeal to any part of us that may be included in the description "our sinful flesh." His doctrines may not appeal to you – but if they are His, drawn clearly from His holy Word, then they are also ours to keep and to believe and to confess. He has also called us to serve Him in good times and in difficult times.<br /><br />God may ask you to stand firm in the face of persecution. If you have come to see Jesus, then you will. It won't be fun, but it will be what you will want to do if it is what God lays before you. Or enduring illness. Or facing certain death. Or patiently confessing Christ, or some truth about Him drawn from His Word, before those who will not accept it, and who will not accept you if you do not change – oftentimes people whom you respect and from whom you covet approval. In each of these circumstances, we can see the pain, the pressure, the difficulty, but we cannot imagine the blessings and we cannot see what God is at work accomplishing through our faithfulness. But it doesn't matter. He is God, and we are "poor miserable sinners" who have been redeemed and saved by Him.<br /><br />We often cannot imagine what difference it would make if we did what we ought not to do, or if we surrendered some piece of the truth, seemingly inconsequential, in order to achieve some goal or maintain some imagined good. We have not been asked to imagine. We have been asked to be faithful. And that is the course of the Christian who has come here to see the Jesus who is. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. We do it His way, and we trust His Word because it is His, and we are His. He is God, after all, and we are not.<br /><br />Jesus asked them what they went out to see when they went out after John. Of course, the only thing they really could see was that which was there – the prophet of God. Even if they denied that he was the prophet, that was still all that was out there for them to see. Even when people deny the truth, or want God and their religion on their own terms, there is still only one God and one true faith – and only one salvation. If they come with any other agenda than God's agenda, they come in vain, without purpose and without success.<br /><br />God has called you to His Word, and to His Supper, and into His family. He has forgiven you all of your sins for Jesus' sake and set His great love on you. He has called you to know Him and His Word. He has called you to serve Him by loving one another, and by faithfully living in the light of His great love day by day, in whatever circumstance you find yourself right now.<br /><br />He has not called you to understand every detail or enjoy every moment. He has not called you to feel good or be happy. It is okay if you do, it is wonderful if you can, but it is not part of the promise – at least not for life in this world. He has promised us sorrow, pain, and the hatred and persecution of the world in this life. And He has given us His Word and the Sacraments – and each other – for strength and comfort and encouragement as we stand faithful by His power and through His grace.<br /><br />So, why are you here? All that is here is the mystery of God's love in Jesus Christ, the purity of the Word, the refreshment of the Sacrament, and the fellowship of the saints. In it and through it all God gives us forgiveness and resurrection and eternal life for the sake of Jesus Christ. If you have come here for anything else, you will be disappointed. But if you have come for the false, let us show you the true Jesus, and let us show you the true mysteries – the wonders of God and of God's love for you.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)<br /><br /></p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-6307266346684266922023-12-10T10:36:00.000-08:002023-12-10T10:36:25.460-08:00Watch and Pray<p><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #351c75;"> Luke 21:25-36</span></b></span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And He told them a parable: "Behold the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they put forth leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that summer is now near. Even so you, too, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent 12/10/23<br /><br /><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Watch and Pray</span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Something is coming. Advent means "coming". The message about coming can become old and tired in our minds, if we are not careful, just like living deliberately in the light of your faith can get old pretty quick. That's part of the challenge of the life of faith, patiently enduring and continuing in well-doing, continuing to do what is fitting for the child of God, and maintaining our focus in a world that doesn't want to hear it, does not share our values or our hopes, and which does nothing to help us keep faithful, but rather tries to subvert our faithfulness and seduce us away from Christ.<br /><br />Advent means "coming". We talk about it so often to reinforce the steadfastness of faith. We all think we know what is coming. Many of us have been Christians for many years and have heard the sermons. Jesus is coming! Heaven is coming! Something wonderful is coming!<br /><br />Well, all of that is true. Still, there is something about the way that it is presented to us in the Bible that suggests that it is not all happy-faced and delightful. For the child of God on that day, it will be glorious! The experience of life as we slowly approach that day, however, will not seem or feel so glorious. I suspect that it will be somewhat different than we expect not because we haven't been told what to expect, but because we don't always take God at His Word, and we sometimes imagine that what God is doing will be done the way we would do it. But God always does things His way.<br /><br />With that thought in mind, I read the words of our Lord, and my attention is drawn to the warnings, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.</span></i>" This morning I want to look at what Jesus said in our text and talk about this admonition. Our theme is Watch and pray<br /><br />The last day is coming. I wish I could give you the date, but God refuses to reveal that. He even warns us against trying to predict it too closely. He simply tells us that it is going to come and that when it comes it will be awesome! Before the day arrives, there will be certain signs that it is about to arrive. There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. They may be the sort of things that only astronomers or astrologers would pay attention to, or they may be singularly catastrophic events. The text doesn't say, but it seems to suggest something widely seen and widely frightening.<br /><br />Then there are the signs on earth. "Dismay among nations." That one is hard to fix since there seems to be dismay most of the time. The ongoing war on terrorism might be what the text is speaking about, or not. The dismay seems to be connected to natural events as well as world events. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken</span></i>." This could speak of natural catastrophes, like hurricanes and floods and droughts and such. We seem to be having a lot of those - and the doomsayers are all busy telling us how it means deprivation and death to us.<br /><br />This prophecy might be talking about the world's anxiety over the environment. Some scientists are making frequent statements about global warming and how it will make life so difficult and different. There is still no hard scientific evidence for global warming, but it is the current buzzword, and there are movies about environmental catastrophes caused by our careless use of fossil fuels and such. The world elite are trying to change our lives like telling us we cannot continue to eat meat. People are being herded towards fear by the gloom and doom predictions -- at least men and women who don't trust God. Many people could be described as "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world</span></i>."<br /><br />Then again, it could be something much bigger, since it says that "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">the powers of the heavens will be shaken</span></i>." This could be speaking about something catastrophic coming from the skies - like that asteroid they keep promising us - you know, like the one that killed off the dinosaurs! On the other hand, it could mean that the very fabric of the universe will appear to begin to unravel. The scene painted here is terrible and frightening and not something to be ignored. These signs political, natural, environmental, and cosmic are the heralds of Jesus' final return. The problem is, that they are so ambiguous that they could apply to the world today, or centuries ago, or maybe they still await their final fulfillment. We just don't know. And, by the way, that is just the way God wants it. But those days will be terrible, and wonderful, and frightening to live in! That is in part why we have to watch and pray.<br /><br />When those signs appear we are to "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">stand up straight, and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near!</span></i>" Those who are crushed by fear stoop over, curl up, and hide. But our response to these signs is to know what is happening and to stand without fear and instead of fear, to look towards the heavens, as the place of God's appearing, and expect our Lord Jesus to come and rescue us! In other words, we are not to be frightened, but to trust God. We are to show by our demeanor that we have faith in God. And, we are not to hide, but to bear the good news of God and of our salvation to those who are being crushed and destroyed by the fears and the troubles of these end-time days! Those people - our friends and neighbors, and perhaps even our own families - are our mission field!<br /><br />Then Jesus told a parable. It was the natural course of Spring as it brings the trees to leaf. If Jesus lived in Minnesota, He might have had the parable of the Lilacs and the Rhubarb. When they are popping open or popping up, we know Summer is just around the corner. In precisely the same way, we are to know what to make of the terrible fears of mankind, the political, the military, the natural disasters, and the environmental worries. We are not to get wrapped up in them or terrified by them, but to understand that they are the signs of the coming of the end. They are, in a manner of speaking, the evangelism program of God. The world gets frightened, and we don't, and the difference is so painfully obvious that they will want to know why we are different and then, we get to do what Peter counsels in His first epistle, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence."</span><br /></i><br />And when Jesus finished the parable, He promised that the signs would be evident and obvious before the first generation of Christians passed away. In other words, this state of expectation and anticipation and persistent and bold faith and witness is to be the ordinary condition of the Christian Church. And how much more now than two millennia ago? Remember last week's epistle? "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">For now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.</span></i>" That means, of course, closer now than when we first believed -- and much closer to us now than when the first Christians first believed!<br /><br />Today the Christian Church, so-called, is pretty comfortable. Very few actually expect Jesus to return at any moment now. We have the time, according to our expectations, to make plans a year or more in advance, without ever thinking to add, even in our private thoughts, "God willing". Christians in many congregations today think they have so much time and such security in this world that they can fight with one another contrary to the command of Jesus to love one another. That is what our Epistle lesson spoke against, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus; that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God</span></i>." Some people feel such a lack of urgency about faith and salvation that they can set aside the Word of God whenever it is inconvenient, when it accuses us of sin, or it makes us uncomfortable. We can treat worship, communion, and Bible Study as optional activities for those weeks when we have something else we prefer to do. Face it, most Christians today do not really expect Jesus to appear in the skies and to end the world at least not during their lifetime.<br /><br />Jesus knew that this was going to happen. That is why He said, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.</span></i>"<br /><br />The simple truth is that what has happened throughout the modern world is that Christians have been weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life.' Dissipation is wasting your life on things of no significance or value.<br /><br />Another distraction for many Christians is the "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">worries of life</span></i>". That weighs many of us down. We worry about all sorts of things: the next paycheck, or the weather, or terrorists, or we worry about our health. Life is every day, and dangers, threats, worries, and fears are always clamoring for our attention.<br /><br /><b><span style="color: red;">Which ones have your attention?</span><br /></b><br />Jesus tells us to be on guard against just such things. They are just as natural as can be. One or another of them is impossible to avoid. So how can you keep that sense of expectation, and not give in to the worries and temptations of life? By being on guard, and "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place and to stand before the Son of Man</span></i>." You do it by vigilance, and prayer, constant, regular, fervent prayer. You do it by knowing that these temptations are coming and that you have no strength in yourself to withstand them, and so you call on God and then you trust in Him to bring you through.<br /><br />Jesus tells us that these days are coming and that they will come upon everyone who lives on this planet. The temptation is to surrender your expectation that these days will come soon and to get busy living like everyone else in this world. That is why you are called to watch and pray.<br /><br />The battle for your salvation has already been fought. Jesus fought it on the cross and rose from the grave to declare victory. Your sins have been forgiven! Jesus has poured out on you the gift of everlasting life and resurrection from your grave if the world does not end before your body goes to the grave. He poured those gifts out on you in your Baptism, and He feeds you with the Medicine of Immortality each week in this blessed Sacrament of His body and blood. Jesus said, in Matthew 24, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved."</span><br /></i><br />The one thing we want to be sure to do, is to stand firm, that is, to be faithful. We want to straighten up and lift up our heads and confidently expect the Lord. We want to do what Jesus has instructed us to do so that He may accomplish through us all that He has planned. Mostly, we want to believe, because "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">he that believes and is baptized shall be saved</span></i>." Losing our sense of expectation is a form of unbelief and the beginning of the total collapse of the faith. So, as Jesus said, Watch and pray.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-7000087410806436942023-12-07T07:49:00.000-08:002023-12-07T07:49:23.728-08:00The Mountain of the Lord<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Isaiah 2:1-5</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that In the last days, The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD. </span></i><br /><br />Sermon for Advent One 2023 12/06/23<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">The Mountain of the Lord</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />Prophecy is a difficult type of Scripture for most people to understand. It seems to speak about one thing, and then we find it ultimately referred to another. Some people claim to have special insights to prophecies, and use those insights to control others, or to build big reputations, or to sell books. The only insight I have into prophecies is that they are always clearer in the light of their fulfillment, and only when a prophecy has been clearly fulfilled can we be confident of our understanding of it.<br /><br />That was true of many of the prophecies of the Old Testament about Jesus. Modern scholars often point to a passage of the New Testament which says that this act or this fact fulfilled that prophecy and they say that the New Testament is wrong! They argue and debate with the Bible. One of our fundamental Biblical interpretation principles is that<span style="color: red;"> the Holy Spirit is the <b>only</b> safe interpreter of Holy Scriptures</span>, so when "scholars" debate the Bible, they always begin in the wrong. During our Advent services this year we are going to take a look at some of the familiar prophecies of Isaiah and see what they really prophesied, and how they might apply to us today. Our focus this evening is on the mountain of the Lord.<br /><br />This prophecy of Isaiah was spoken, or so scholars believe, at the end of the long and prosperous reign of King Uzziah. Isaiah tells us himself that His prophetic ministry began under Uzziah and continued through the reigns of the next three kings for a period of almost fifty years. He tells us in chapter six that he was called by God to the prophetic ministry in the year king Uzziah died. Judah had just come through a long, stable, and prosperous time under a good king, and with the change of kings came enormous uncertainty and the threat of dangerous changes.<br /><br />In that sense, we live in similar times. We are looking forward to electing a new president next year, or so many people hope, and so thing are uncertain, and we live in times of change – often confusing, frequently troubling, sometimes downright frightening. Our world is moving swiftly away from Christian ideals and ethics. Our view of how the world, or even our neighborhoods ought to be is no longer the dominant view. The courts do not function impartially as we had come to expect them to function. Medicine is terribly expensive, just at the time when horrifying diseases seem to be springing up, and some doctors seem more intent on dealing death than fighting for life. Abortion, Euthanasia, COVID deaths, and mercy killings are increasingly a reality, not simply open for debate. Today you can buy abortion in a pill. And what we were raised to believe was to be a neutral and protective media now seems hostile and partisan. These are times when the good-old-days sound awful good, and we wish there was somewhere to run away to and be safe from the crime, the fear, and the uncertainty.<br /><br />Isaiah's prophecy invites us to come to the mountain of the Lord. He invites us to look to that time in the last days when God will do something new and end the uncertainty. Isaiah promised those troubled people of ancient Israel that the day was coming when God would seize control and reign in peace. No matter how it seemed to them at the moment, those children of God were invited to draw courage and comfort from the certainty that God was going to act. And Now He has!<br /><br />Yes, we are living in those last days! Check out the New Testament. See how often one of the Apostles mentions that these are the last days, or the end of time, or the "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">end of the ages</span></i>" as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10: 11. We live in those last days, so we do not have to look forward to those days, as the Old Testament peoples did, but we can – and we must – live in them. We have our comfort and our assurance right here, right now!<br /><br />The mountain of the Lord shall be lifted up, Isaiah said. The mountain of the Lord is where the Lord is worshiped. In prophecy it always refers to the place where the glory of God dwells. But that place is no longer a place, it is a person! And the person is Jesus Christ. We hear a hint about this when Jesus is dealing with the woman at the well in Samaria. She asks Jesus whether the Jews are right worshiping in Jerusalem, or if the Samaritans are right worshiping in their places of worship - on their mountain. Jesus tells her that the Jews know and understand what they do and who they worship - at least confessionally. It is sort of like our Synod. We have a good confession on paper, even if not all of our pastors and people hold faithfully to it. Then He tells her that <i><span style="color: #351c75;">the day is coming when they will not worship in Jerusalem or on the Mountain of Samaria, but that God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.</span></i><br /><br />Jesus is the mountain of the Lord - and He was lifted up. The prophecy of Isaiah goes on after our text to tell the people that the destruction of Zion will come before Zion can be lifted up. Jesus was destroyed, crucified for our sins. He was lifted up, nailed to the cross on our behalf. And then raised again for our salvation.<br /><br />Isaiah says that when this shall happen, when the mountain of the Lord shall be lifted up, the nations, the goyim, the Gentiles, will come to it. Jesus Himself said that the Son of Man must be lifted up that He may draw all men unto Himself.<br /><br />The result of the lifting up of the mountain is that many peoples will say, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">‘come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths</span></i>.' The Christian church throughout the whole world has drawn men from every nation to the Lord, to learn of His ways and His love.<br /><br />Isaiah says: <i><span style="color: #351c75;">For the Law will go forth from Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem</span></i>. The word for "Law" is Torah. But that Torah is the entire Word of God, not just Law per se, as rules and condemnation, but also the gospel. In fact, the prophets often used the word "Torah" in a wide sense, just as we will often say "Gospel" to mean both law and gospel as a totality. In Romans 3:27, Paul refers to the Gospel as a law, speaking of<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> the "law" of faith</span></i>.<br /><br />Jerusalem is the prophetic place where God acts in judgment and in salvation definitively. And He did. Jesus died in Jerusalem. He said it could not happen anywhere else. There God dealt definitively in judgment against our sins. There God acted definitively in salvation, buying us back from our own guilt and sins and giving us eternal life and the hope of the resurrection for all those who believe.<br /><br />Zion, on the other hand, is the place where God is really present among His people, just as He is really present among us in Word and Sacrament. Jesus promised it, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them</span></i>. So the Gospel flows out of the Church, and Jesus comes to us from that decisive act of judgment and salvation. It was, in fact, their identification of Jesus as that Word of God that made the Jews crucify Him. It was the confession that Jesus is Lord that drove the early Christians from the synagogue, for the Jews understood that "<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>Jesus is Lord</i></span>" meant "Jesus is Jahweh!" The Christian confession of Christ is that <b><span style="color: red;">Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, in the flesh</span></b>. And He has come among us. That is what Advent is about.<br /><br />Jesus is the One who will judge, and Jesus is the One who rules even now, and Jesus is the One who will create peace. Isaiah is predicting the Church in this passage, the kingdom of Grace where Jesus creates peace, and men beat their weapons into tools of productive enterprise. Jesus will judge between nations, and render decisions. Not later, but now.<br /><br />And all that Isaiah prophesies here is for the purpose that Jesus may teach us His ways. This means that we might come to know God, and His good will toward us, and depend on Him and find our refuge in Him, and seek security and encouragement in Him.<br /><br />It is important to note that Isaiah ends this wonderful promise of comfort and peace with the invitation and exhortation, Come, 0 house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. He invites us to live from our faith, in the light of what we know and what we believe about God and about sin, and about salvation, and about His will for us!<br /><br />Where are we to turn in times of change? We are to take refuge in the Mountain of the Lord. Where are we to go in times of anxiety and uncertainty? We are to flee to the Mountain of the Lord. We are to answer every fear and every threat of the world and of life by faith. We need to learn to pray. We need to learn and then believe that He is active in our lives and in our world. Things aren't out of control, but He rules on our behalf. He judges even the nations and renders decision between people. He watches and protects you.<br /><br />And His purpose is peace - your peace. That peace is built on the confidence that Jesus is here and is with you in times of trouble and change and uncertainty. Jesus spoke through Isaiah to the Old Testament people to comfort them with this prophecy of the day to come in the last days. It should comfort us even more now, as we realize we live in those last days when the mountain of the Lord has been raised up, when God Himself is teaching us, and drawing people unto Himself<br /><br />Those days are no longer merely future, but now. Even though the world is changing, and events are frightening, we can have peace through faith in Jesus Christ, who saved us for eternal life, and also for life in this age!<br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Come, o house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!</b></span></i><br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-58629070917036018872023-12-03T11:19:00.000-08:002023-12-03T11:19:30.163-08:00More than Meets the Eye<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Matthew 21:1-9 </span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">And when they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them, and bring them to Me. And if anyone says something to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Now this took place that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, ‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.'" And the disciples went and did just as Jesus had directed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid on them their garments, on which He sat. And most of the multitude spread their garments in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road. And the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!"</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent 12/03/23<br /><br /><b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"> More Than Meets the Eye</span></b><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />No matter what the Gospel lesson sounds like, this morning is not Palm Sunday. Of course, you knew that. The lesson leads us to consider that day and that ride, but the purpose is entirely other than the purpose on Palm Sunday. <br /><br />There is more here than meets the eye. On Palm Sunday, we are looking forward to the betrayal and the crucifixion, and Jesus is heralded King of the Jews before His slaughter. This time of year we do not look forward to those things, but to the birth, and to the question of the Wise Men, Where is He who is born King of the Jews?? The Gospel begins our Advent preparation for that question by showing us the coronation ride of the King.<br /><br />On the scale of human events, this Palm Sunday ride doesn't really seem so big. It was humble. Jesus rode on a donkey. He sat on a saddle of coats -- outer garments, actually, which served as coats, and cloaks, and blankets at night, and protection against sand storms, and as an all-around, multi- purpose garment. That is what the disciples threw on the backs of the donkeys. Others lined the road with their cloaks, and still others cut branches off of the local palm trees and carpeted the path of Jesus with those. Some took the Palm Branches and waved them and called out "Hosanna." It wasn't as outwardly impressive as we might think, but there was more than meets the eye. And so that is our theme this First Sunday in Advent, More than Meets the Eye.<br /><br />It is true, this ride wasn't much by our modern standards. We have no way of knowing how many people actually witnessed it. The Bible speaks of a "multitude". But what size is a multitude? Jesus had sent no press agents. This affair was basically the disciples of Jesus. There is more than one gate to Jerusalem, so Jesus could only enter by one – and even if it were the busiest, He could well have missed the attention of most of the people in the city. He may have had a crowd of only a couple hundred, perhaps as big as a couple of thousands, cheering like an impromptu rally, and calling out the Hosannas. But there was more going on here than meets the eye.<br /><br />We can be fairly sure that His ride took Him to the Temple, because Mark tells us that in his Gospel. And this was the week before the Passover, so there were lots of very religious tourists in town, many hoping fervently for the coming of the Messiah. The ride He took was deliberately very much like the ride of the ancient Kings of Israel, which they took on the day of their coronation. The cries of the people were the praises called out to one being led into the city and to the temple to be crowned king. And Jesus drew a lot of attention, attention that was not appreciated by the priests of the temple.<br /><br />What was happening was the coronation ride of the King, the One who was promised of old to sit on the throne of David forever. It was among the reasons that the high priest looked for a way to destroy Jesus. It contributed to the death on the cross. But first it was the testimony borne of necessity that this One was the Messiah, the promised King.<br /><br />In Advent, we look forward to the coming of the King, and we remember how He came. We look forward by looking back. It doesn't matter that the crowd was small, or large. The crowd proclaimed, perhaps unwittingly, the truth that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promises of the prophets. Their testimony tells us that we are awaiting the coming of He who will fulfill the promise to us. We aren't looking forward to His death, or the work of redemption. They were, but we do not look forward to that because we can see by looking back that He has already done it.<br /><br />The Prophets told us that we could expect One who would come, who would suffer and die, who would purchase us back from our own sins, from death, and from Hell. We heard that promise just a couple of weeks ago, in the words of Ezekiel, through whom God promised that He would shepherd His sheep. We hear it in the words of Isaiah, familiar prophesies at this time of year, <i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.</span></i><br /><br />That is, in fact, the point of this Advent season. Jesus has fulfilled the promises on our behalf. He has lived like any one of us, except without sin., He has endured all that it is to be truly human, and yet kept the Law of God which none of us has been able to do – or willing to do , if we are honest with ourselves. Isaiah continued, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him</span></i>.<br /><br />We look forward to His return because He died in our place, and lifted the debt of sins from our shoulders. Because of Jesus, we are forgiven. Because of Jesus we will rise from our graves to new and eternal life. Because of Jesus we have hope in this life and in this world, and comfort when we consider the end of this life and leaving this world. Jesus died for all, that those who believe might live in Him and for Him. And it is that return that we look forward to in Advent.<br /><br />We look forward by looking back at what Jesus did and how He kept the ancient promises when almost all had abandoned hope and trust in God. They had been waiting for thousands of years, and when He came, He came to a small nation under foreign domination, and rode a humble donkey into Jerusalem with a small entourage leading and following and singing the praises of the King who would not ascend the golden throne they imagined, but the throne of the cross. On a world-scale it looked small and unimportant, but it was more than meets the eye.<br /><br />So now what? We look forward to the coming of the King. We are a small entourage – ridiculously small if you compare us to world population, or even to the population of those who claim to be Christian. We look forward to the coming of a King, but not like those of old, exactly. They were often confused about who the King would be or what He would do. We know. Many who call themselves Christian are confused, but we know.<br /><br />We know what He did for us. He died on the cross. He took our sins and their guilt and nailed them to the cross in His body. He turned the wrath of God away from us, and restored us to His love. He won forgiveness and life and salvation for all of us, and it is received by those who know it, and believe it, and trust in Jesus and not in themselves, or their works, or their prayers, or their decisions, but in Jesus, His life and His death, and His resurrection. We know who the King is and what He did, and what He will do. We just don't know for sure which day, so we have to be prepared every day.<br /><br />In the meantime, we go about singing His praises and calling out our "Hosanna's" just as that multitude of old did. We do not have donkey and the parade -- we have instead the Sacrament, where receive the true body of our Lord Jesus in and with and under the form of the bread, and we receive the true blood of Jesus – the blood shed for us on that cross – in and with and under the form of the wine. His body and blood are truly present for us to eat and to drink that we might receive Him within us, and forgiveness, and strength, and greater faith.<br /><br />We don't need to cast our cloaks into the mud for the Lord to ride on, but we confess with our words and our hymns and our communing together that here is the Lord of the Palm Sunday ride, coming to us in His body and blood to rule in our hearts by His grace. Just as they shouted "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Hosanna</span></i>!" We shout the "Amen!" to the words of Jesus in the Institution of the Supper, not asking how it can be, but hearing our Lord, and trusting Him even when we do not know how, and confessing Him and His gift before men. We want to tell the world that here, in this Holy Supper, is also more than meets the eye.<br /><br />And we keep faith with the people of God throughout the ages and wait and watch for the advent of our King, a coming promised so long ago. But we wait with true faith, for we know who is coming, and what He has done, and we know what He has promised to do when He comes -- to bring us to eternal life, and destroy sin and death forever. And so we watch and pray and wait faithfully, observing the promise of Advent all the year long. We know that in Jesus is and always has been more than meets the eye.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-3645244094646903642023-11-26T13:36:00.000-08:002023-11-26T13:36:24.350-08:00Looking Forward to Heaven<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Isaiah 65:17-25</span></i></b></span><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing, And her people for gladness. I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Shall be thought accursed. And they shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build, and another inhabit, They shall not plant, and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, And My chosen ones shall wear out the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them. It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for the Last Sunday in the Church Year 11/26/23<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Looking Forward to Heaven</span></b></span><br /><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />How would you describe the color of the sunset to a man born blind? How would describe the delight of your favorite piece of music to a person who was deaf from birth? The challenge in either situation is that the words we might choose to convey a concept would have no meaning. Our references would have no correlation in the experience of the person to whom we are speaking. Without vision, color is a meaningless word. Blue is not cool, or berry flavored. It is blue - but if someone has never seen anything, and has no experience of color or light, the words we could use to describe the sunset, or even just the single color of "blue" would be as empty of meaning to them as the incoherent babbling of an infant is to us.<br /><br />That little exercise in imagination was to help you understand the difficulty confronting the Prophet as he tries to put into words the heavenly realities pictured for us in our text. Now, Isaiah had help, great help. God was inspiring him. Still, the task exceeds the power of language to accomplish with any clarity. God is describing heaven here, but He must use symbols and images that we can understand to describe a place that is largely unlike anything we have ever experienced. This morning, through the words of Isaiah, and along with him, we will be looking forward to heaven.<br /><br />This is the last Sunday of the Church Year, and so we are looking forward to the end of the world. The odd thing about such forward glances, is that we are living at the very end of the world, so some of what the text describes is already, and some of it is not yet, because it looks past the end of this world and into the next.<br /><br />It gets more difficult than that – and more delightful. Most of what our text says applies both now and in heaven, after the end of the world and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. What we discover, as we consider the Word of God, is that we are in heaven already! It just doesn't feel like heaven, does it? Nor does it look like heaven. It looks like Bartlett Township. But right now, for us, heaven is not a geographical place, entirely. Heaven is where God is, and where His people are, and where His Word is preached and the heavenly gifts of God are handed out – gifts like Holy Baptism, the Holy Absolution, and the Lord's Supper. So, heaven is in the Church.<br /><br />Look closely at the text. Gods talks about rejoicing in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem He rejoices in is the Church. We who believe in Him, we are what God rejoices in. He doesn't rejoice in our sins, and our quarrels. He rejoices in our faith, and in our belonging to Him. He rejoices in His people that they can and do accomplish holy deeds, and work the works which He has planned for us. They shall not labor in vain, He says. That is just like the promise He speaks about His Word, which He promises will accomplish what He spoke it to do!<br /><br />He also has a wonderful promise here about prayer. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.</span></i>" This promise is for us, right here and right now. <b>God will answer your prayers</b>. He will answer according to His wisdom - and power - and our need – so that we may pray, and God will answer even as we pray, and may begin to answer even before the words are out of our mouths.<br /><br />The reason that it is hard to distinguish between heaven to come and heaven right now is that the death and resurrection of Jesus changed everything! The old world ended and a new one began on that day. Our sins were forgiven, and the Law of God was fulfilled for us. Now the question of salvation, of where we will spend eternity, does not rest in our behavior, or on our accomplishing a standard of righteousness, or our repaying God for our sins, as in penance. It is the gift of God, according to Ephesians 2:8.<br /><br />Now God deals with us differently. Jesus said it would be so; "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father."<br /><br />Now God is dealing with us as special, because we are His people through Jesus Christ. He is blessing us, and He is guiding us, and He is using us to accomplish His work here on earth. He favors us because we are His. He loves us because we believe in Him and in His Son. So, all of these promises of blessing are true right now to one degree or another. This is heaven - particularly here, and now, in the fellowship of the saints, gathered to hear the Word of God and to receive His gifts!<br /><br />Of course, then there is Heaven -- the one that is a geographical place. This passage also points our hearts and minds forward to that new world which will follow this one, when Jesus returns. God is urging us to expect that day soon, just as He does through the Gospel parable of the Ten Virgins awaiting the Bridegroom, and as He does in the Epistle, in which Paul warns us to be on the lookout for that day, which is coming like a thief in the night! We are to be looking forward to heaven.<br /><br />It is in describing the realities of the coming age that Isaiah needs all of the pictures, and none of them do it justice. First, God tells us that there will be a new place. It will be a planet, and a universe - new heavens and a new earth. When it comes, the sorrows and the troubles of the past will be forgotten. Those who wonder how they will feel about their family and friends who do not join them in heaven can find comfort here – "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">the former things will not be remembered or come to mind</span></i>." We will not know, nor sorrow. All of God's people will be there, and it will be right and seem right to us.<br /><br />All of the language about the youth dying at the age of one hundred and such is just a way of describing the incredible length of life in eternity with God. What they called youth, we call teen-agers. The prophet is picturing life so long that living what seemed to be almost unimaginably long in their time was just a short life. That's talking about eternal life, when you begin to sing "We've only just begun to live" at one hundred years of age.<br /><br />The promise is that in this new earth, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">There will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying</span></i>." There will be no sorrow. The New Jerusalem is for rejoicing! Infant mortality will be gone. I don't know if there will be any child-bearing in heaven. The Bible is silent about that. But in this world, babies dying is a major cause of pain and sorrow – and it won't happen there. Nothing will make us cry. Nothing will interrupt our joy!<br /><br />It sounds like this "new heavens and new earth" will be a place of productive labor. We won't just sit around on clouds, strumming harps. We won't be laying on cushions and eating delicacies all of the time. We will be doing stuff. God created us to participate in His creation, to manage and to develop and to garden and to shepherd and to build. So, I suspect we will be doing so there. Our text says so. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">And they shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build, and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the lifetime of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My chosen ones shall wear out the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, and their descendants with them</span></i>."<br /><br />This is where prophecy gets tricky. How much of this stuff is picture language, and how much is just what it seems? It seems we will build. It is clear that there will be no war, no stealing. The evils that befall men in this world will not be there. In these verses we are reminded again of the long life of the people of God who will be there. You will outlive trees. You will wear out the things you make - buildings and such. And in heaven, I doubt that planned obsolescence will be part of the manufacturing strategy. Some of the promises speak of descendants and offspring. I am uncertain if there will be children born in heaven. In the resurrection, Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:30, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">there is no marrying or giving in marriage, but </span></i>[that we]<i><span style="color: #351c75;"> are like the angels in heaven.</span></i> So, when the prophet writes about our descendants and offspring, he may be writing about those we have here, who follow us there.<br /><br />In any case, it is a good place to go - and a wonderful promise. A promise of immediate communication with God. He will hear and answer our prayers there, too, only more immediately and more readily perceived by us there than here. And peace shall be the rule. Even the creatures of the wild will be calmed, and there will be no violence or death. Lions will eat hay like cattle. Wolves will graze next to rather than upon the lambs. The powerful will not hurt or take advantage of the helpless. The serpent will be no danger to anything anywhere. The Serpent also points our minds to the great serpent, Satan. He will be of no danger to anyone either.<br /><br />Of course, we know that already. He has been destroyed, robbed of all his power already by Jesus. All of these wonderful promises, eternal life and happiness and peace and joy and contentment, all of these promises are because of the cross of Jesus, and guaranteed to us by Him. He has won the battle. He has paid the price! He has done all that needed to be done, and made us His people, and pours out all of these riches for us. Your sins, whatever they may be, are forgiven. That doesn't mean that they were okay, or inconsequential. It means that Jesus has been punished for them already, so that you don't have to be. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Go, and sin no more.</span></i>" That's how Jesus put it to the woman caught in adultery. It is the faithful response to hearing the Gospel, that your sins have been forgiven.<br /><br />Because of the cross you have been cleansed of guilt and sin by Jesus. He has made you to be one of His holy people. He makes these promises, and tells you what lies ahead, so that you will be always looking forward to heaven. It is not an "iffy" proposition. It is a sure thing for all those who trust in Jesus Christ. They are the ones referred to in our text, this morning, as "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">My people</span></i>" and "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">those blessed by the Lord</span></i>." You, you are the people God meant in this text, who he calls "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">My chosen ones</span></i>."<br /><br />These promises, Old Testament and New, are for you. They are repeated so frequently in the Bible so that you will know that God has not forgotten, and that the promises are real, legit, valid, and that God will do them. God knows that life is hard, and that we walk by faith, and not by how things seem. That is what faith is about, and, frankly, life hurts often. God wants us to know what good things He has prepared for us, so that we do not lose heart, and so that we are always <span style="color: red;">looking forward to heaven</span>.<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-50514817380806734732023-11-23T09:10:00.000-08:002023-11-23T09:10:25.314-08:00Let Us Give Thanks!<p><i><span style="color: #351c75;"><b> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Lamentations 3:22-25</span></b></span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75; white-space: pre-wrap;">The LORD's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.</span></i><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Sermon for Thanksgiving Day 11/23/23</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>Let Us Give Thanks</b></span></span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Our nation pauses once each year to celebrate a national day of thanksgiving. On the face of it, it sounds like a good idea – but it is religiously somewhat silly. We are to be a people of thanksgiving. Every day is Thanksgiving day for the child of God. We are instructed in Scripture to give thanks always, to thank God with all our prayers, to rejoice with thanksgiving, and to praise God for all His blessings – both temporal and spiritual. Simply setting aside a single day is unthinkable. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Then there is the question of encouraging everyone to thank whatever deity they might worship. It seems as though on this one day we pretend as a nation that all Gods are real, or all gods are equivalent, or all gods are the same God, which seems to me to be a denial of our faith.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, most people don t think that way, and, frankly, most people don't really take the time to give thanks. Our nation has made this the holiday of parades and football games. Many people limit their thanksgiving to the table prayer at the big meal if they think to do it there. It makes one wonder if many people forget even to say grace before their meals in general.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">So why do we celebrate this day? Because we have so much to give thanks for! Plus, we, of all people, will not be seen as those who do not care to thank God, for we know better than most who God is, what it is that God has done for us, and how richly He has blessed us! I mean, if those who do not know God and His love will pause for a moment on this day to offer some sort of thanksgiving to the air, we who do know God will surely take time to worship Him in the holy assembly of the saints, and to gather as His holy priesthood to pay our debt of thanksgiving in public – where the whole world may see how God's people truly give thanks!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Our text speaks about God's goodness and faithfulness, but it really doesn't say anything about giving thanks. You will notice that the text doesn't even use the word "Thanks," "thanksgiving," or even the word "praise." Nonetheless, it actually describes real Thanksgiving. And our theme, this morning, is, Let Us Give Thanks.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The verse that describes genuine thanksgiving is verse 24. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">"The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him."</span></i> Those few words tell us how to give God thanks. We give God thanks by confessing Him and trusting in Him.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: #351c75;">The Lord is my portion, says my soul</span></i>. That is confession. It is a confession of faith that sees the Lord as the Giver of every good. He is where our riches have come from – and we are rich, even if you don t feel that way. Many people in the world have only the clothing they wear. When they flee as refugees, they can carry all their belongings in their arms or in a cart which they can pull. We cannot. And very few of us have ever had to flee as refugees.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Most people in the world today do not own houses. Most cannot afford a car. Only a minority can have a telephone in their home, a color TV, or even a radio. Most of the world cannot go to the grocery store and buy the incredible variety of foods that we take for granted. When they can get food, they have to disinfect it and worry that it is safe to eat. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We grumble about health care costs and the inconvenience we face, but the vast majority of humanity cannot see a doctor, let alone go to a modern hospital, have expensive and extensive tests, and receive elegant and effective treatments for various aliments which were fatal even in our nation just a generation ago. Oh, how richly God has blessed us.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But best of all are the blessings you cannot stockpile in your pantry or save up in your bank accounts. We have the knowledge of the love and goodwill of God for us. Most of us have grown up in the presence of the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We have weekly services in which we can rehearse His great goodness His desire to save us, and the salvation which He has won for us.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Because God loves you so much, He sent His Son into the world to be a man. Because of His great compassion, He placed His Son under the burden of the Law – with the same promise of eternal life if He kept it, and the same – and to us more familiar – curse that if He should sin, He would die both physically and eternally. He desired our good and our salvation so much that Jesus never surrendered to temptation – and He faced it more directly than we, and more subtly than we have. He kept the Law and kept Himself pure and holy.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And because God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son to die in our place, to take on our sins and be punished for them. <i><span style="color: #351c75;">"He became sin for us, who knew no sin of His own, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."</span></i> He paid the price, and now He declares that we are forgiven, freed from the punishment and penalty of our sins, removed from the power of sin to threaten and the power of the Law to force and coerce our behavior.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">To those who know these truths and believe that God did these things, and raised Jesus from the dead, and who trust God to do the wonderful things He has promised to do because of Jesus, to them God gives eternal life and salvation. And every little bit of all of these blessings comes to us because of the goodwill and the overwhelming love that God has for us.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">So, yes, the Lord is my portion! He is the one sure thing in this world. His love is proven over and over again in the furnace of affliction and shines forth in the sheer wonder of His gift. How can we help but confess such a good God and such a rich and giving Father? How can we do anything but thank Him? Let us give thanks! And the truest thanksgiving we can give is to know Him as He reveals Himself in His Word, and confess out loud, not just in church but in my daily life that the Lord is my portion, and I owe all that I have and all that I am to Him!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">How sad it is to consider how few of those who claim to know Him take the time on Thanksgiving to gather with His saints to worship Him and demonstrate by their worship that the Lord is truly their portion. The nation, an institution that cannot be Christian, can set the day aside to give thanks, but the people of God often cannot be bothered. How can His children treat Him so?</span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But thanks be to God you are here! You have come to lift up His name and cry aloud, as our text says, that the Lord is your portion. So, that you have the opportunity once this day to say it, please say it out loud, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The Lord is my portion, says my soul."</span></i></span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">He is the Giver of all things, and the One who watches over our lives to rescue us, therefore I have hope in Him. It is because we know of His love and particularly because we know about Jesus and all that Jesus has done for us and won for us that I have hope. Let us give thanks!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">— * — </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Your heavenly Father will not fail you. He will not let you slip and fall from Him. He will bless and keep you. How do I know? I look at what He has done already. Then, I remember how deep and consistent His love has been. Finally, I remember His promises. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We can give God no greater thanks than to have hope in Him. I place my trust in Him and I look at all of my life through His grace. How can illness or trouble really hurt us if God is on our side? How can our adversaries triumph over us if God is with us? If God is for us, who can be against us?</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Obviously, no one can. God has given us everlasting life, and He tells us of His forgiveness even before we can understand our need. In our troubles, God comforts us with the promise that the sufferings of this present age are not worthy to be compared with the glory that He will reveal to us and in us through Jesus Christ. When we are grieving, God promises a day of resurrection filled with profound joy that will outweigh all of the sorrows you may feel.</span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In sickness, He tells you that it is not for your death, even if this body should die. He assures us that it is not His anger that we feel, even in when we experience pain and weakness, but the power of the enemy which He has overcome for you. We will live with Him eternally. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">He also says that He knows that we cannot see or feel the reality of these truths today, but He calls on you to trust His love and His promises – not blindly, but with the cross of Jesus Christ in full view.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In the day of trouble, He tells us that we can dare to trust Him. He will rescue, and He will provide. He has a plan for each of us that cannot fail, and it is a plan for our welfare and our blessing. Therefore we can give Him thanks no more clearly than to fix our hope completely in Him. Faith is the real thanksgiving, a faith that speaks about what God has done and which lives in complete confidence in Him. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">That is what God desires for us and in us. He wants us to "fear not", but rather to trust in Him. How can we thank God more sincerely than to live in His promises, and face the life He has given to each one of us to live with the confidence that He has already saved us, that He does love us, and that your life and your times are in His hands for good and not for evil?</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And so the real thanksgiving is not simply a table prayer before we eat until we cannot move without pain, although the prayer is a part of it. It is not simply coming to church, although that is surely appropriate as a part of it. Our real thanksgiving is faith which finds hope in our troubles and sicknesses and comfort in our sorrows in God's promises and blessings. Therefore, let us give thanks with both lip and life. Let us speak boldly of His love, openly praise Him for His blessings, and let us live in his good and saving will deliberately and consciously.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It is true, you know, what the Prophet said, <i><span style="color: #351c75;"> The LORD's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him."</span></i> The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. So we will wait for Him, and seek Him in prayer, and always give thanks for all His mercy and goodness!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.</span><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</span></p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-16646649993860509602023-11-19T11:23:00.000-08:002023-11-19T11:33:24.467-08:00How Dare You Not Trust God?<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> Isaiah 51:9-16</span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not Thou who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not Thou who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the LORD will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, And of the son of man who is made like grass; that you have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; that you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, as he makes ready to destroy? But where is the fury of the oppressor?</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75;">"The exile will soon be set free, and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking. For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the LORD of hosts is His name). And I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.'"</span></i><br /><br />Sermon for The Second-Last Sunday in the Church Year 11/19/23<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b>How <u>Dare </u>You Not Trust God?</b></span><br /></span><br />My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<br /><br />One of the most intimidating phrases in the English language, and probably in any language, is the phrase "How dare you!?". It is challenge at the most fundamental level, and it carries with it the implicit accusation of wrong doing. It is simply powerful.<br /><br />Unless, of course, the one so challenged has a reasonable and fit reply. "I dare, because . . .". When the power of "how dare you," is released, the answer that what I have dared is good and right and proper adds power to the one challenged, and hurls the challenge back at the challenger, even when it remains unspoken. There is nothing quite as intimidating as the challenge, and nothing quite as satisfying as the fit response. To challenge makes one feel powerful, and rightly so. To have that challenge properly answered humbles one in a unique and remarkable way.<br /><br />Our text this morning is God speaking that challenge to us. In Isaiah's day, it was aimed at the people of God caught in fear about what was happening around them and to them, and their failing faith. We will ignore that because they are gone, and their circumstances are gone, and frankly we couldn't understand them from our place in history and our staggering wealth and comfort today. The challenge of the text is never aimed at someone else, it is always aimed at those who hear it, and so, today it is aimed at you. Our sermon theme paraphrases the challenge of God to His people – "How dare you not trust God?".<br /><br />God didn't say it just like that, He asked, Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies? Who are you that you dare to be afraid in the presence of God? How dare you not trust God?<br /><br />You might be thinking, "Who says we don't trust God?" The answer, of course, is, you do. Some of you say it right out loud. "We can't trust God to deal with this . . . or with that." Some of you say it by stating that you are worried about this or that. Most of you simply say it by how you live, and by your stewardship of what God has given you – time, talents, and, of course, money. You live as though God won't take care of you. You act as though it was all up to you, or the stock market, or your doctors.<br /><br />You fear. You worry. You live in the midst of the greatest blessings ever enjoyed by man on earth, among the more prosperous half of those people, and yet you are afraid, worried, not confident that God will take care of you, or your family, or His Church. You need to prepare, scheme, plot, plan, manipulate and message things to make sure you will be okay, that things will go just right, and in the process, you say by your conduct that you don't trust God.<br /><br />Some of you may be thinking that Pastor Fish is simply taking advantage of his position and using the pulpit to beat up on you. That is simply not true. When I prepared for this sermon, I recognized that this text spoke to some of you, but it spoke even more to me. I did not choose this text – it is the Old Testament Lesson for the day, chosen centuries ago by the Church. If you doubt that, turn to page 160 in The Lutheran Hymnal, and check what the appointed lesson for the 24th Sunday after Trinity is – Isaiah 51:9-16.<br /><br />More to the point, however, is that this lesson hits me first. Many of you are aware of the division in our congregation, of which our newly elected president spoke so eloquently at the Voters' Meeting and in his recent article in the newsletter. You are probably aware that once again it is a controversy over the pastor. Honestly, I have to tell you that the circumstance are frightening for me, and stressful.<br /><br />So I read this text and I hear God asking me, the pastor, "How <u><b>dare</b></u> you not trust God?"! "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, And of the son of man who is made like grass; that you have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; that you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, as he makes ready to destroy? But where is the fury of the oppressor?</span></i>"<br /><br />That is what fear and worry in the presence of God does, it turns away from God, and fails to trust in Him – and when are we not in the presence of God??<br /><br />God says the same sort of things in other places – for example Psalm 56, or Psalm 118, which says, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?</span></i>" or Psalm 27, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?</span></i>" Or Psalm 46, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.</span></i>"<br /><br />It is fundamental to our faith to trust God. The First Commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We start with God - and there should be nothing we fear as much as much as we fear His wrath, and there should be nothing that we fear more than we trust God.<br /><br />So, my fears and anxieties accuse me. And so I preach this sermon to me. Actually, I preach most of my sermons to me – it is just that we are alike so often, you and I. We are sinners. We have the same sorts of problems with God and His Word. We face many of the same sorts of temptations, so that when I preach to me, you think I am preaching to you. Well, this morning I am not. I am preaching in your presence, but I am preaching at me<br /><br />How dare you not trust God? Who is greater than God? The answer, of course, is "No one." There are few who can see how these words apply directly to them as easily as I can. God says, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">And I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.</span></i>" I am the one that God has called here to proclaim this wonderful truth -- you are God's people, all of you who trust in Him. Throughout this text, God reminds us of our blessings as part of that which should make us confident in His protection, and we in America live in the midst of blessings unheard of and unimagined even just a couple of generations ago. How dare we not trust God?<br /><br />Our Gospel lesson reminds us of the power God for our good. The Gospel tells us about two healings - the woman healed from a long illness (12 years of bleeding) and the raising from death of the daughter of the Synagogue Official. Our God has all the power He needs to meet each and every need we may have, and to cure any illness, and to stop any trouble in its tracks. How can we fear anything with God on our side, unless we do not trust God to take care of us, and to work His good and gracious will for us.</p><p><br />But our Epistle lesson reminds us that God has already worked His good and gracious will for us. The Epistle speaks of us being qualified for the inheritance of the saints in light by God, and being delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His Son. It also talks about being strengthened with all power according to the might of God. How dare we not trust God?<br /><br />Not only has God created the world - and most of us are pretty pleased with what God has done - but God has also called us His own people. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">You are My people.</span></i>" That is what God has called me to say. There are people on earth who are not His people, by their own choice. They are Moslems, or they are Jews, or they are Hindu's, or they are Buddhists, or they are just unbelievers. But all of these others are pagans, living in the active rejection of God, or of His truth, and of His marvelous grace and love. They are not His people, but you are!<br /><br />He has purchased you at a terrible price – the life and death of His own Son, Jesus Christ. Look at the cross! It wasn't counted as too much for God to pay to redeem you from your sins, and give you eternal life. So now, by His doing, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins</span></i>." He has claimed us and made us His own, and strengthens us with all of His power to be His holy people in this world.<br />That doesn't mean that life is going to be just the way we want it. It means that life is going to be just the way God causes it to be for us, and four those around us. It is going to be as God knows it needs to be for our blessing and for the success of the work which God would work through us. After all, we already have the victory, as long as we remain in Him. Faith is the hand that receives God's promises. Unbelief finds nothing but death and sorrow. So, how dare you not trust God?<br /><br />Of course, when we think about it, not one of us wants to fail in our confidence in God. The problem is that life and its pains and its temptations are so real that we sometimes forget, and fail to remember God. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, And of the son of man who is made like grass; that you have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; that you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, as he makes ready to destroy? But where is the fury of the oppressor?</span></i>"<br /><br />God tells it like it is. We have forgotten Him and His power and His love for us in the face of the pressures of the moment – whether those pressures be the "oppressor" or they are just the needs of the moment, and the things our culture has taught us to want – or to fear. But fear is about what we think might happen, and what could potentially come. God has proven Himself by what has actually happened, and by what we have already seen and received. The question, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">But where is the fury of the oppressor?</span></i>", really asks us to remember that what we fear is future and not real, yet. What we have hope in, the God we trust, is real. He has already proven Himself – in creating this world, on the cross of our salvation, and in all of our abundant blessings that we enjoy from day to day.<br /><br />We have the victory in Christ. It was given to us in our Baptism. It is strengthened in us in Holy Communion. It is ours today, even though we cannot feel it or taste it today. But when we remember what God has done already, and when we consider His great power which He uses on our behalf, and when we call to mind the wonderful promises that He has made to us for Christ's sake, <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Who are you that you are afraid?</span></i> In other words, How dare you not trust God?<br /><br />In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.<br />(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36844069.post-74420230466049831822023-11-12T10:00:00.000-08:002023-11-12T10:00:05.804-08:00Gotta Get Me Some!<p><b><i><span style="color: #351c75;"> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Proverbs 8:11-22</span></span></i></b><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75; white-space: pre-wrap;">"For wisdom is better than jewels; and all desirable things can not compare with her.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #20124d; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine. By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all who judge rightly. I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield than choicest silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, to endow those who love me with wealth, that I may fill their treasuries. </span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="color: #351c75; white-space: pre-wrap;">"The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old."</span></i><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Sermon for Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity 11/12/23</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="color: red;">Gotta Get Me Some</span></b></span><br /></span><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Once again, our text is from Proverbs. Once again, the topic of the text is "Wisdom". Solomon, the wisest man of his time, and reputed to be the wisest man that ever lived, had a great deal to say about wisdom. But these words are not just Solomon's. They are the Word of God, and we believe that they are inspired for us to read and consider. When I read these words about the great value and the wonderful advantages of wisdom, the one thought that strikes me is, I want some. So our theme this morning is, "Gotta Get Me Some."</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The first thing that we want to remember is the Psalm (111:10) (and Proverbs 9:10) which says "T<i><span style="color: #351c75;">he fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom</span></i>." Job 28:28 says that t<i><span style="color: #351c75;">he fear of the Lord IS wisdom</span></i>, and Proverbs 15:33 says that <i><span style="color: #351c75;">the fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom. </span></i> So, when we begin to talk about wisdom, we must understand that the entire discussion, in the Bible, is in the light of faith. There is no wisdom outside of faith, as far as the Bible is concerned.</span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">"God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise." "The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men." These are truths taught to us by the Bible, so, when Solomon writes about wisdom, we must first know that he is speaking about a wisdom that is grounded in the knowledge of God and trust in Him. The exhortations to wisdom are really exhortations to faith and to life lived in the conscious exercise of faith.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">What a wonderful treasure wisdom is! "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">For wisdom is better than jewels; and all desirable things can not compare with her.</span></i>" Many people would differ from Solomon on this point. Lots of people prefer wealth and jewels and good stuff! Solomon is writing from the perspective, however, of a man who possesses both. He is king. He has wealth and glory that was world-renowned. When the Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon, she said that she had come to see if all that she had heard about his wealth and glory were true, so expansive were the tales, and that she had not even heard the half of it! When Solomon said that Jewels and wealth and all desirable things did not compare to wisdom, he knew what he was talking about from personal experience. I do not seem destined to have great wealth so when it comes to something I can get, and something that is better than wealth, I gotta get me some!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">""<i><span style="color: #351c75;">I, wisdom, dwell with prudence.</span></i>" Prudence is sound judgment. Prudence is caution and circumspection. It means living life with all of the realities of life around us taken into account. Prudence means careful management. These are good things to have. I want my life to make sense in the context in which I live it. I want to do the right things, and I don't want to go around creating havoc - and I am sure that most of you feel pretty much the same way. I want to be prudent. Of course to be prudent, I need to know what is going on around me, and Solomon says that with wisdom, one find(s) knowledge and discretion. I gotta get me some!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to know. I want to know what is real and what is not. I want to know and understand how things work. I want to know the secrets of life - how to work, how to be happy, and how to make it work for me! Wisdom does that! Wisdom – beginning with faith – opens up reality, and teaches us that what we see is not always real. Boy, isn't that important in our day and age? We can fake pictures. We can make a movie or a video of someone doing something that cannot be done, in places that they have never been. Someone recently released a Beatles recording that no Beatle participated in, and it sounded authentic. There has never been a time when you could believe what you saw, or what you heard, or what you read as little as you can today. I want to know the truth, so that I can be discreet - so that I can act carefully and do what is proper and appropriate in each circumstance and situation.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And doesn't Jesus say that if we continue faithfully in His Word, that we shall know the truth? And doesn't He say that this truth shall set us free? This is what wisdom promises to those who seek her, and who cling to her. So how do we find wisdom? How do we identify wisdom when we meet her?</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Solomon tells us, by God's own inspiration, that "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The fear of the LORD is to hate evil</span></i>." Since the fear of the Lord is wisdom, wisdom is to hate evil! Where we see holiness and the rejection of evil, we are dealing with or facing wisdom. Where we see evil practiced, we can be clear that there is no wisdom - and therefore also no fear of the Lord. But specifically, what should we be on the lookout for?</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Solomon wrote, in our text, the judgment of God: "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Pride and arrogance and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate</span></i>." Pride and arrogance is when someone takes themselves too seriously. It is easy to do, and people around you will usually recognize it before you do. It is easy to assume that because of age and life's experience and success in past endeavors we are smarter, more capable, and have a better grasp on things than we really do. It is all too easy, and quite natural, to forget that all of our success and wealth and every good thing is from God and by His giving and choosing, not by our own native intelligence or ability.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Evil way is whenever we speak or act in ways that God has forbidden, or in ways that deny Him and His place in our lives. It is listed in the text this way because pride and arrogance usually lead to the evil way. One of the temptations we all face daily is to be wiser than God in our own estimate and to know a better way to do things than God's own way. That is where the perverted mouth comes in so often. We say things we should not say. We say things to the wrong people. We do not bring our troubles to ones with whom we have the problem, so very often, but we tell our friends, and those we know might be sympathetic to our pains and frustrations. These things have nothing to do with wisdom, however. At least not with this godly wisdom.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Godly wisdom brings direction, clarity, and understanding. That is what Solomon is writing about when he writes, " <i><span style="color: #351c75;">Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding</span></i>." Knowing God, knowing His will for us, and His love for us, and trusting God helps us make sense of things, even the difficult and painful things. It gives us the authority to live our lives boldly and confidently. Solomon writes, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Power is mine."</span></i></span><i><br /></i><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Now Solomon did not mean simply the power of a life lived confidently in the grace of God and in faith – but that's a pretty good thing! He actually meant the sort of power that kings exercise. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all who judge rightly</span></i>." But take note that it is not merely that they rule, but that they rule wisely, they decree justice, and they judge rightly. In other words, this wisdom, founded in the fear of the Lord, enables leaders to lead well. We have only to look at our world and its crazy leaders, and the violence and destruction so many of them spawn, to see that ruling without this wisdom is not just or profitable, or admirable to anyone.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Then God says something, through the pen of Solomon, that is really important: <i>"I<span style="color: #351c75;"> love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me</span>." </i> What that tells us is that this wisdom is not hard to find, nor is it locked up somewhere for only the few. It is the wisdom of faith, after all. Already in Old Testament times, God is telling us that those who seek it will find it. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It is the word, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">diligently</span></i>," that should catch our eye, however. Many people take a stab at finding it, but they are content with a counterfeit. They are happy with a religion that doesn't quite trust God, nor listen to His Word with any care. They often proceed on the basis of the Law, and not the Gospel, or apply principles of the business world where the principles of faith and of the Word of God are more fitting.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But if you are diligent about your search for God's wisdom, if you aren't willing to settle for counterfeits and imitations, God will show it to you. God's promise is that if we seek Him, He will show Himself to us. He will send the Missionary. He will send the pastor. He will cause His Word to be preached in its truth and purity. If we listen, He will pour out that wisdom of which our text speaks. If we resist His Word and merely tolerate it in our churches, we will miss that wisdom.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And that wisdom is grounded in the Gospel. God says, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice</span></i>." That righteousness is the righteousness which is by grace through faith, for the sake of Jesus Christ, and His death on the cross. The justice is that our sins have been punished, and so, when God forgives us, He doesn't simply pretend we did not sin. He forgives us because the atonement has been accomplished, the redemption price has been paid, and our sins have been covered by the death of Jesus Christ.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">That is why He inspired Solomon to write, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield than choicest silver.</span></i>" What is greater wealth than everlasting life?? Jesus said it, "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?</span></i>" (Mark 8:35-37) There is no greater wealth than salvation. But salvation is like an investment in the stock market. It doesn't necessarily look so good, or have much value day to day. It has its greatest value at maturity – it is when you need resurrection and life eternal that salvation will deliver its true worth! That is why I say, I gotta get me some! It may be the only sort of wealth I may ever know.</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And this has been the plan of God from eternity. The New Testament says that God made this plan, and chose us from the foundation of the world — that is, from before He started creating. Here He reveals it in the Old Testament, and tell us here, by the pen of Solomon, that this plan, this "Wisdom" has been in His mind and in His heart from eternity. "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.</span></i>" The verse just before our text begins the thought of our text, and provides us with a good summary – "<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Take instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choicest gold, for wisdom is better than jewels.</span></i>" This is true wealth, true wisdom, and life eternal in Jesus Christ. Every child of God shares the goal of our sermon theme, I gotta get me some!</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.</span><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">(Let the people say <i>Amen</i>)</span></p>Cudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04619556299719255490noreply@blogger.com0