Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost - The Kingdom of Heaven Is a Kingdom of Grace
- Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 24, 2023
Hymns 878, 573, 558, 932
First Reading Jonah 3:10 – 4:11
Psalm of the Day 115
Second Reading Romans 9:6-16
Gospel Matthew 20:1-16
Matthew 20:1-16
The Kingdom of Heaven Is a Kingdom of Grace
I. It excludes those who demand wages
II. It includes those who accept gifts
In the name of Jesus Christ, fellow forgiven and saved sinners,
I chose this lesson to be today’s sermon text back last spring.
This lesson was chosen by worship committees to be today’s Gospel thirty years ago. So reading and hearing this lesson today is not a commentary on the current UAW union strike.
But … Can you imagine any labor union agreeing to this contract: all workers will be given the same, regardless of how long they work? Can you imagine any company doing business this way: giving all workers the same, regardless of the work they did? This will never happen…in the business world.
But this is happening right now…in God’s kingdom – not just a place, but also God’s activity. This is how God works on earth! It’s eternally important for us to know the kingdom of God isn’t a matter of paying our dues for membership. Many people, even some who claim to be Christians!, think that way. God’s kingdom isn’t based on merits. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace – God working with His undeserved love for us sinners who deserve His anger and punishment forever.
That has huge implications for the way God’s people live, act, and trust in life. That has great applications for the way God’s Church does her work in this world. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. Therefore, it excludes – keeps out, shuts its doors to – those who demand wages. And it includes – is made up of, keeps its doors open for – those who accept gifts.
I. It excludes those who demand wages
On the surface this lesson seems so unfair! But as is often the case in our study of God’s Word, the background helps. A rich man had asked Jesus, “What good thing should I do that I may have eternal life” (Matthew 19:16)? To show him sinners can’t do anything to earn eternal life, Jesus said, “Sell all you own, then come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). Jesus wasn’t urging him to earn his own salvation. He could see the man’s heart. He knew the man loved his wealth more than the Savior. So when Jesus said, “Sell all you have, then follow Me”, He meant, “Until you trust God’s grace, and stop thinking you can pay for your ticket to heaven, you aren’t part of God’s family. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. It excludes all who demand wages for the good things they do in life.”
But Christ’s disciples missed that point. Next they piped up, “Lord, all twelve of us have left our possessions to follow You. What then will we have” (Matthew 19:27)?” That’s the same damning idea! “God, we have done great things for You. Give us what we deserve!” And that’s why Jesus said both right before and right after this parable, “Those who think they are first will be last, and those who think they are last will be first (Matthew 19:30; v. 16). My kingdom is a kingdom of grace! If you think you earn your way in, you are out! My kingdom is a kingdom of grace that excludes all who demand wages!”
This parable was Christ’s way to teach that truth. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace that excludes any idea of earning one’s way in. The wealthy landowner wanted workers to pick grapes in his vineyard. He hired some to start working at 6 AM, others at 9, more at noon, some at 3 PM, others at 5 – an hour before dark fell and work would stop. Obviously some did more work in the vineyard than others. But that’s not the Lord’s point here. His point is the owner gave all the workers the same: “a denarius” (vv. 2,9,10,13)”, a fair pay for a day.
Do we think, “That’s not fair!”? Don’t! No child of God gripes about what God gives! The workers sent out first, who put in twelve hours from sunrise to sunset, griped, “We want what we deserve for what we’ve done!” That sounds right. That seems fair. And in the work world, it is. Equal pay for equal work. Extra work? Extra pay!
But the kingdom of God isn’t the work world. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. The goal of God’s kingdom? Sinners forgiven, then taken to heaven! What must we do to get that? The Savior is clear! “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). But I’m not perfect. You aren’t perfect. No one is, except God! Still, many suppose if they try hard to be good, they will be golden forever. How does that agree with, “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10)?
What is a wage? What one deserves to get for what one has done, right? Ten dollars for mowing a lawn, fifteen dollars for babysitting, twenty dollars per hour on the job. If we keep God’s laws perfectly every second of every minute of every hour of every day of our entire life, our wages for our perfect life is heaven. But we don’t, so we won’t! God’s sentence is clear. “The slightest sin brings hell on you forever!” If we demand from God our wages, what we deserve for what we’ve done, God says, “Your wages are trouble, death, and hell!”
See that point of the Lord’s parable? He warns sinners, “Don’t demand that I be fair with you, that I give you what you deserve. You don’t want that! If you want me to be fair with you, I must send you to hell as payment for what you’ve done!”
II. It includes those who accept gifts
Some years ago, the judge who presided over a trial on US soil of a family of spies for Russia heard the jury convict the family of treason, with a mandatory sentence of 60 years in prison for each. The family’s defense lawyer rose to speak, “What my clients ask for is justice, your honor!” The judge replied, “The court has given your clients what they ask for: justice. What your clients want is mercy. But this court has no right to give mercy. I would be corrupt to overturn the jury’s just verdict.”
Applying that court scene to this parable, those first workers hired were the ones demanding justice, demanding wages. Any sinners who demand wages to be in the kingdom of God are excluded, shut out, locked out of it. But unlike that court scene, there is a way for the Judge to grant mercy – and still remain just. That way is His Son’s payment for all sins. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace, and it includes those who accept His gifts.
The wealthy landowner told each of the workers what he would give them. There would be “a denarius for the day” (v. 2) to those who went out at sunrise. They agreed to that; it was a good wage. When he sent others to work three hours, six hours, nine hours, eleven hours later, he promised, “I will give you whatever is right” (v. 4). Those workers were confident he would not go back on his word.
The parable is not about secular labor. It’s about sinners forgiven and saved. That is a one-sided contract by the holy God with helpless sinners in His kingdom of grace. Once again, the goal in God’s kingdom is not to make money, but to save souls. Not to keep people busy, but to forgive sins and give sinners the gift of heaven. It’s a gift from God to sinners because sinners can’t do anything to be forgiven or saved. Jesus did it all for all sinners. He lived the sinless life we can’t live. He gave up His life and endured the dread of hell in our place so we won’t ever have to suffer hell. He paid the full price for all.
All this is God’s doing. All this is His gift. All this is undeserved. We haven’t done any work which God credits as bonus points to get us into heaven. It’s all grace. It’s also His mercy, not giving us what we do deserve. God opens His hand to us sinners to say, “Here! A gift from Me to you! Tickets to a life of peace on earth as you live in the joy of full forgiveness won by My Son, followed by an unending life of perfection in the glory of My presence thanks to the work of My Son! Take My gift to you, dear sinner, dear redeemed, dear child!”
Do you get this point of the parable? No sinner can work his or her way into the family of God. The kingdom of God, how God works, His activity on earth and in sinful hearts with His powerful good news, is grace! The only way in is Jesus, His gift of forgiveness each day and salvation for eternity given to all sinners. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. You’ve heard that now more a dozen times in the last fifteen minutes. But we can’t say that too often. In most every other area of life in this world, we are taught, told, expected, and warned we need to work hard to get what we need and want.
The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. Called workers and lay people are tempted to look down on other members of the congregation because others don’t do anything for the church or rarely worship with us. Pastor, teachers, laypeople, watch out! Hear what the Savior says when we want recognition of our harder work under harsher conditions, our superior life in this world of sin. It is completely out of place for a member of God’s family to complain about God’s grace, that He gives the same gifts of His forgiveness and salvation to one who comes to faith just before dying. To the thief on a cross Good Friday, what did, from His own cross, Jesus say? “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
The kingdom of God is a kingdom of grace. We humbly, happily trust God’s invitation to work in His kingdom, never once worrying about wages, whether it’s our work in His kingdom of grace here behind the scenes or at home caring for spouse and children. We trust that He will give us “whatever is right”, which is exactly what God promises – forgiveness here, life as His children on earth, then with Him without end. All of that is ours through faith in Christ’s blood shed for us. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost - We Forgive As God Forgives Us
- Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 17, 2023
Hymns 782, 799, 733, 930
First Reading Genesis 50:15-21
Psalm of the Day 103
Second Reading Ephesians 4:29 – 5:2
Gospel Matthew 18:21-35
Genesis 50:15-21
We Forgive As God Forgives Us
I. Forgiveness in Christ is given to us
II. Forgiveness in Christ is given through us
In the name of Jesus, who lived a perfect life for us and suffered hell in our place to be the only Savior, fellow redeemed,
Twenty-two years later, the words were displayed once again in many places last week. We will never forget! Those words were displayed in sincere sorrow and great gratitude for lives lost in the attacks against our nation on September 11, 2001. But a man on the street interviewed for the national news last Monday said, “We will never forget! They will get what they deserve!”, shaking his fist at the camera in vengeance. God seethes in anger at our thoughts of revenge. Vengeance belongs to God and to God alone – not to us, whether it’s in sports or politics or court cases or personal disputes.
What God wants from us is what God gives to us. No, not our money – though that is His, too. What God gives us from His richest treasure in heaven is spiritual, not physical. It’s eternal, not financial. It’s at the heart of this lesson and all His Word. Forgiveness. That’s hard to give to those who have hurt us, isn’t it? But it won’t be when we treasure what we have. We forgive as God forgives us because forgiveness in Christ is given to us and forgiveness in Christ is given through us.
I. Forgiveness in Christ is given to us
You know the Bible lessons about Joseph and his brothers that cover the last fourteen chapters of Genesis. The lessons are full of gripping drama, of high and low points in the life of Joseph and his family. We wondered – at least the first time we heard it – how things would turn out between Joseph and his brothers. But they’re not so much about that family’s drama as they are about God giving the world His saving forgiveness.
When Joseph was still a boy, God sent him extraordinary dreams that his older brothers would bow to him. Joseph arrogantly let them know about the dreams. When the brothers had had enough of that – and of Dad’s favoritism to Joseph, they sold Joseph into slavery and told Dad, “Joseph was killed by an animal.” When Joseph had worked his way – with God’s blessing – up to lead overseer of the estate of wealthy Potiphar, Mrs. Potiphar ruined Joseph’s freedom by falsely accusing him of attempted rape, and Joseph was put behind bars. When Joseph used his God-given ability to interpret special dreams God had given two fellow inmates, one of those two failed to keep his promise to get Joseph out of prison. When Joseph once again revealed the meaning of dreams God gave Egypt’s Pharaoh, he was named prime minister of Egypt. But Joseph was still a stranger far from his home and family.
When famine devastated crops in the Middle East, the brothers went to Egypt where there was plenty of food in storage – thanks to a plan God had given their brother Joseph. They didn’t recognize him since they hadn’t seen Joseph in sixteen years. But he knew who those foreigners were as they came to buy grain. In time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. Not because Joseph demanded it, but because the purchase of desperately-needed food depended on it, they bowed to their younger brother – just as God had foretold and the boy Joseph had sinfully boasted. In love, Joseph had the family move to Egypt. In joy, Joseph and elderly father Jacob and all the brothers and their families were reunited.
But not all lived happily ever after. When Jacob, whose name God had changed to Israel, died, the brothers were worried. “Will Joseph hate us and pay us back in full for all of the evil that we did to him” (v. 15)? Now that Dad was dead, what would happen between Joseph and the brothers? Joseph was so powerful in Egypt that all he had to do was snap his fingers and soldiers would seize the brothers, then toss them in prison or lead them to execution. The brothers asked to be considered Joseph’s “servants” (v. 18), knowing they deserved far worse for what they had done to Joseph.
What happened? Joseph forgave his brothers! How could he? Joseph knew and trusted the Lord had forgiven him – and them. Joseph saw the big picture. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring this to pass and keep many people alive” (v. 20). That was more than millions of lives saved physically with food to eat due to Joseph’s judicious plan to store food before the drought God had predicted. Saving lives was the entire world being saved spiritually by the Savior to come from that family. These sons of Israel became the nation from whom the promised Savior would be born. Joseph knew and trusted that – then saw to it his brothers would live to extend the line of the Savior. This isn’t a story of forgiveness between brothers. This is the history of forgiveness for all the world from our Brother Jesus!
All God’s Word is woven around two teachings. Sins anger God and disqualify sinners from heaven and condemn every sinner to punishment forever. Salvation is won by God Himself, the Savior who came from heaven to live in our world and pay the full price we owe for our sins and cover our guilt.
Like Joseph and his brothers, we sin against God and rebel against His will. God doesn’t wag His finger at us to say, “Stop being so naughty!” He thunders His sentence against us to say, “Because you have not been perfect, you can’t get yourself into heaven, but deserve to be sent away from Me forever!” But God also says, “I’ve given the world My Son, who is God in the flesh, to forgive all. You can’t earn forgiveness with Me, but I give it to you in My Son who died for you, then rose from the dead to prove He is God and I’ve accepted His sacrifice!”
The treasure of forgiveness won by Christ and given us sinners will outlast every other treasure. Our car, house, money, job, success, recreation, sports – none of those last. Our forgiveness in Christ – won free of charge to us – lasts forever!
II. Forgiveness in Christ is given through us
Who is the hero in these verses? The brothers for changing their hatred against Joseph to loving acceptance of Joseph? Joseph for not using his power to get revenge on his brothers? Their father Israel for urging Joseph to “forgive the offense of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you” (v. 17)? No. No. And no. The hero in every chapter of Scripture, in every moment of our lives, is the God of undeserved love and forgiveness. We forgive as God forgives. He has given us His forgiveness in Christ to save us. And now He gives through us His forgiveness in Christ to others – to save them, too.
Why did Joseph forgive his brothers? Joseph was tested by troubles for years, yet trusted what the Lord had promised to do to forgive him. Joseph had learned from the ups and downs of his own life, from his own sins against God and his receiving forgiveness from God, to put his trust in God. And he knew his family’s vital role in God’s plan to forgive the entire world of sinners with the work of the Savior to come from them.
Joseph did not tell his brothers, “I’ll spare your lives. I won’t throw you behind bars. But get out of my life for what you did to me!” Joseph trusted the good to come to the world from his family. Brother Judah had been blessed by dying father Israel with the God-given promise the Savior would be born from Judah’s line of Israel’s children. Joseph “comforted his brothers and spoke to them” (v. 21) kindly. Rather than rid them from his life, Joseph committed himself to help them. “I will nourish you and your little ones” (v. 21). Not vengeance, but forgiveness. Forgiveness from God in Christ given to him became forgiveness from God in Christ given through him. Joseph forgave as God forgives!
Why do we forgive those who sin against us? First we need to ask, do we forgive them? Or do we simmer inside, I’ll never forgive them! I’ll hold a grudge until I die!? Do we silently seethe, Let him grovel before me for the evil he did to me!?
No! We who have been forgiven every sin in Christ forgive others as God forgives us. Do we want God to react to our daily sins against Him the way our sinful self wants us to react to those who wronged us? Never! We who have been forgiven in Christ the mountain of sins with which we rebel against God will in turn forgive in Christ the tiny pile of sins others do to us. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). We express our thanks to God for forgiving us by the way we deal with those who sin against us. That’s what Jesus has taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
God’s forgiveness in Christ is given to others through us. Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers wasn’t just the kind thing to do. It was Joseph giving them God’s forgiveness in the Savior who would come from them. God wants us whom He has led to trust the payment made by Christ to forgive us to give that forgiveness in Christ to others, especially those who don’t yet trust it. God’s forgiveness in Christ is given also through us.
If we had never suffered any disappointments or setbacks, we couldn’t relate to the lessons about Joseph and his brothers. But we have. Like Joseph, we face tests and tears. Like Joseph, not all our days are sunshine and success. So, like Joseph, we trust the Lord’s power and love in tests, tears, sicknesses, sorrows. And, like Joseph, we forgive those who have wronged us because we know and confess how much more often we’ve offended the holy God – and trust how much love He has given us in giving up His life to forgive us and save us.
What lessons in God’s forgiveness He has given us today! We live them. We forgive as God forgives us and all! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Glory Be to Me?
- Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 3, 2023
Hymns 600, 694, 831, 867
First Reading Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm of the Day 31
Second Reading Romans 8:18-25
Gospel Matthew 16:21-26
Romans 8:18-25
Glory Be to Me?
I. Yes! Heaven’s glory will outweigh earthly suffering
II. Yes! Heaven’s glory is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit
In the name of Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose to make us heirs of His eternal glory, fellow redeemed,
A cartoon character in the 1960s often said, “Well, glory be!” I wondered, “What does she mean? Glory be to whom? She must mean, ‘Glory be to God!’. He’s the One who gets all the glory, right?” That made sense to me because every week in worship we sang “Glory be to God”. Some sixty years – and two hymnals – later, we still do. We just sang, “Glory be to God on high!” Each Lent we sing, “Glory be to Jesus.”
Have we ever said or sung, “Glory be to me”? Preacher, that’s sacrilegious! We give all glory to God for saving us from the horror of hell, not claim any glory for ourselves. That’s right. And that’s wrong. We can claim glory for ourselves. God says so here. “The glory that is going to be revealed to us” (v. 18).
“Glory be to me!”? Hearing that, saying that, claiming that just seems wrong. We confess here each week that, because of our sins, we deserve nothing but trouble here, then suffering forever. That hasn’t changed. That is what we deserve. But here God says we sinners can claim “glory” for ourselves. It’s not glory we will earn. It’s glory we will be given. Glory be to me? Yes! Heaven’s glory will outweigh earthly suffering. And yes! Heaven’s glory is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.
I. Yes! Heaven’s glory will outweigh earthly suffering
The word the Holy Spirit gave the Apostle Paul to write here for “worth comparing with” painted a vivid picture for those who first read this in Greek. We’ll benefit from and better understand these truths if we, too, see that Word picture. God wants us to think of a huge scale, a balance scale with a plate or bowl on both sides. Got it? Now imagine all our suffering nd pain piled on one side of that balance scale.
What have you suffered in the past? What are you suffering now? A loved one who died suddenly? Excruciating back pain day and night? Cancer? A bad heart and a plethora of pills you must take all day every day? Family trouble? Your company about to eliminate your position? Stress at school? Is it that no matter how often and how faithfully you proclaim the truths of God’s Word, people close to you don’t change – or even listen? Is it depression so deep that, even if Jesus came down from heaven and showed you blue sky stretching above you, you would focus on the small cloud in the distance and fear more storms like those ten days ago?
What are your “sufferings at the present time” (v. 18)? Do you dwell on all that is wrong in your life? Even, in a sad way, revel in it? Try to convince others you have it worse than they do? It’s not that our troubles aren’t real. They are! But dwelling on them turns us into Don’t spoil my pity party! people.
The man whom the Lord used to give us His Word here agreed life is full of suffering. God did not spare his faithful apostle, Paul, from “beatings, imprisonments, riots…sleepless nights, hunger…dishonor, treated as a deceiver…grieving, poor, having nothing…shipwrecked…in danger from robbers…in danger in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in danger on the sea, cold and lacking clothing” (2 Corinthians 6; 11). Pain and suffering? Paul’s wouldn’t match, but overwhelm!, ours.
We shouldn’t be surprised by our “sufferings at the present time” because all creation is now a prisoner to pain. “For creation was subjected to futility…All of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time” (vv. 20,22). We don’t often think about those results of sin in the world: polluted rivers, oil spills, wildfires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, pests devastating crops, pets getting old and dying. None of that is what God intended when He created the universe.
But that’s the way it is all over the universe. It’s been corrupted by sin. Sin leads to death for all. We’ll never be free from pain or sorrow here. Neither will our world. We can’t make heaven on earth. It’s no wonder that creation groans. Even we believers “groan inwardly while we eagerly await… the redemption of our body” (v. 23).
The Lord of all urges us to see how the scale tips so far to the other side “with the glory that is to be revealed to us”. You’re right! That’s hard to see now – what with braces on our teeth, dentures in our mouths, orthotics in our shoes, Band-aids in our bathrooms. In fact, that’s hard for God to explain to us. Heaven is so glorious and so perfect He can’t describe it in a way our puny minds can fully grasp. So God had Paul paint another Word picture. All creation “is waiting with eager longing” (v. 19) is really craning its neck to see what is coming.
We believers put up with this present painful time because we know it won’t go on forever. Paul compared this life to the pain of childbirth. We men are told nothing in life hurts worse. But no other pain in this life leads to greater joy and happiness than “birth pains”. The pains of this life will pass away when we believers receive “the redemption of our body”. Christ’s blood is the price paid for that redemption. Our future will be living with a glorious body like the one Christ has had since He rose from His grave. No more trouble or pain or sorrow of any kind, only the warming love and perfect presence of Jesus.
Glory be to me? Yes! We can say that. You trust that. You long for that every day. The glory to come outweighs the worst earthly woes and tears and pains and sorrows!
II. Yes! Heaven’s glory is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit
But can we really be sure heaven lies on the other side of life? And, if so, is it really going to be that wonderful? Yes! Glory be to me? Yes! Heaven’s glory is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.
The sinful human nature demands, “Show me, or I won’t believe it! If I haven’t seen it, I’m not sure it’s real!” When it comes to future heavenly bliss, we’re like doubting Thomas. “After all,” the sinful nature in us whispers, “you’ve never been to heaven. How do you know what it’s like, that it’s so great, if it even exists? Maybe it’s just a tale preachers tell to keep you coming back to church.” The sinful nature is right. We’ve never walked heaven’s streets of gold or seen heaven’s gates of pearl. But the sinful nature is wrong to suggest heaven isn’t real. How can we be sure heaven is so wonderful, so glorious, is real? The Holy Spirit who lives in us!
In spiritual matters, we disagree with the adage Seeing is believing. For four thousand years, sinners were saved by the Savior who had not yet been born of a virgin or lived in Israel or worked miracles to prove He is the Son of God or sacrificed Himself for the sins of the world. Sinners before Christ believed in the coming Messiah. But they did not see Him. God had shown them what the Savior would do by having the Jews offer frequent sacrifices. Yet all who trusted the many promises given were saved by “this hope” (v. 24). It was while there was only “hope” – hope not yet seen – that salvation came. And it is in the “hope” of what Christ has promised – that hope not yet seen – that we live as saints already cleansed by Christ and waiting to inherit heavenly glory.
Is that just pious preacher prattle to make suffering people feel better for a while? No! It is the truth of God. And He goes on to deliver this truth: “You have the firstfruits of the Spirit” (v. 23). This, of course, is the same Holy Spirit whom we confess weekly in our creeds. This is the same Holy Spirit Jesus promised. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-18).
The Holy Spirit dwelling in us since Baptism goes with us each day to show us how the side of the scale of glory that will be ours far outweighs the sufferings that now assault us. Why would the Spirit build His home in our hearts and make our bodies His temple if He were only going to be with us for this little while of pain? We “have the firstfruits of the Spirit”. That doesn’t mean we have a bit of Him now and will get all of Him in heaven. That means having Him now in this sinful world is powerful proof and the rock-solid guarantee He will take us to heaven forever – unless we drop Him from our lives.
Recall the Bible lesson of Joseph in Egypt seeing his brothers who had come from the Promised Land to buy grain? Before revealing himself to them as their long-lost brother, and when they were ready to head home with the grain they had purchased from him for the second time, Joseph demanded they leave a brother behind. That brother would be a guarantee the brothers would return. Joseph knew they wouldn’t leave their brother as a hostage in a foreign prison.
God gives His Spirit to us daily as His guarantee Jesus will come back to get us and take us, through faith in Him, to be where He is and has prepared for us “glory” in His glorious presence. That is our Christian “hope”. We don’t see heaven yet. But we know heaven is as real as is the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Satan wants to blind us with his sin glasses to see the balance scale tipped torturously toward trouble and suffering. The Spirit uses His truths to keep on the eyes of our heart His Son S-O-N) glasses to see the glory that will be ours, the glory that far outweighs present suffering. That keeps life in perspective. That holds heaven before us. That fuels us to live for Him who died for us and rose from death and will take us to be with Him forever in His glory. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - In God's Eyes Am I Wheat or a Weed?
- Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 23, 2023
Hymns 873, 491, 668, 926
First Reading Isaiah 44:6-11
Psalm of the Day 19
Second Reading Romans 1:18-25
Gospel Text Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
In God’s Eyes Am I Wheat or a Weed?
I. Who planted me?
II. What will come of me?
In the name of Jesus Christ, the sinner’s only way to heaven, fellow sinners He redeemed for time and for eternity,
Did God create weeds on one of the first six days? The Bible doesn’t list weeds in Genesis 1. But God’s Word does say on Day Three He made “plants and vegetation that produces seed according to its own kind” (Genesis 1:12). But what is a weed? Since the fall into sin, isn’t a weed any vegetation that grows where we don’t want it in farm fields and flower beds? Isn’t it whatever vegetation crowds what we want to grow?
Jesus teaches that wheat and weeds, spiritually speaking, exist side-by-side in this world. The most important question in life isn’t Will I be rich? or Will I get married? or Will I become successful? or even Why does God let rotten things happen? The most important question in life is In God’s eyes am I wheat or a weed? The answer to that critical question is clear when we see in Jesus the answer to these two questions: Who planted me? and What will come of me?
I. Who planted me?
After the story about the sower and the seed – remember from last week?, Jesus told “another parable” (v. 24) in which a man “sowed good seed in his field” (v. 24). Not bad seed, but good seed. Here all the seed fell on the field – none on hard paths or rocky dirt or among choking thorns. Good seed on good soil by a good sower? We expect a bountiful harvest!
But in this story from everyday life, while the farmhands were asleep the landowner’s “enemy…sowed weeds among the wheat” (v. 25). Weed seedlings of what is called darnel today look like baby wheat plants when both start poking out of the ground. It was weeks or more later, “when the plants sprouted and produced heads of grain” that the workers could tell that “weeds also appeared” (v. 26) in the field.
The parable is about every person’s life before God. “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man”, Jesus Himself. “The field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom” (vv. 37-38), even you women and girls – all whom God has adopted as His firstborn “sons” through faith in Christ and to whom He promises the greatest inheritance: heaven!
We don’t deserve to be part of God’s inheritance, members of His family, or even breathers of the oxygen He created and is giving us right now. We didn’t make ourselves right with the Father. The Son, God Himself, lived and died to reconcile us to God. We didn’t choose to become His wheat. The Holy Spirit brought us to faith in Jesus and thus planted us as His wheat.
But not all are spiritual wheat. “The weeds are the sons of the Evil One” (v. 38), those who are still under the control of Satan. “The enemy who sowed them is the Devil” (v. 39). He had a glorious existence as an angel created perfect. But he wanted more glory, rebelled against God, was thrown out of heaven forever, then tempted our first parents to sin. The devil’s plans and desires are to ruin souls forever!
Weeds among wheat – that’s the spiritual reality of life in this world. Could God wipe out Satan and “the sons of the Evil One” and all rotten things? Of course! He hasn’t told us why doesn’t do that. Instead, He tells us we wheat coexist with weeds. What do we do about that? More about that in a bit.
But before we get to that, we need to consider this: In God’s eyes am I wheat or a weed? Who planted me? Friends, there is no third category. Every person is either spiritually alive or spiritually dead, either a believer in Christ or bound to Satan, either a child of God or one whose soul belongs to the devil.
Don’t look in the mirror to see which you are. Many whom Jesus describes as spiritual weeds look just like spiritual wheat on the outside. Rather, look to who planted you and waters you. Some people are not the spiritual wheat they think they are. Just going to church, bringing regular offerings, praying daily, singing joyfully don’t make one “wheat”.
But when done for Christ, acts like those show a sinner planted and still watered by God as His “wheat”. Those whom Satan planted and feeds point to what they do, glory in their achievements, live as they want. We whom God has planted and still waters look daily to what the Son has done for sinners, glory in His life and cross and empty grave where He defeated sin and Satan, live each moment as He wants. In God’s eyes am I wheat or a weed? The answer lies in the true answers to Who planted me? and To whom do I go for food?
II. What will come of me?
In their fields farmers don’t use weed trimmers in their fields. Too much wheat would be cut with the weeds. In God’s kingdom that’s true, too. Rather than whipping weeds, God has us focus on questions for ourselves and others: What will come of me? What will God’s judgment hold for me? Those answers also reveal whether, in God’s eyes, we are wheat or a weed.
We get the farmhands’ plans to yank the weeds right away. It was their job. But the owner’s idea was even better for the wheat. “When you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them” (v. 29). The plants would grow to the point that heads of grain had formed. Some of them would be entwined with weeds. So if the weeds were pulled, some wheat would come with them. “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather the wheat into my barn” (v. 30). The workers might not mind if a little wheat didn’t get to the silo, if a few stalks were burned up. But the owner didn’t want a single wheat plant lost or burned.
In God’s kingdom, God Himself gives the plan of what to do with spiritual weeds. We want to clean house in the world and get rid of all evil by force. If only a nuclear bomb would rid the world of pagan terrorists. A rifle would gun down Christ-denying, Bible-ridiculing enemies of the Lord. A poison gas attack would wipe out all the hypocrites in Christian churches – those who claim to trust Christ, but really have little time for Him other than to show up in His house each week to look good; they don’t heed His Word.
But the Christian Church leader Augustine was so correct when he wrote long ago about this parable, What today are weeds, tomorrow may become wheat! God’s Word has the power to do that. Should we end others’ lives because their religion doesn’t agree with God’s Word? Or should we use God’s truth with them – the message about Jesus who covered all sins, the message the Spirit uses to change hard hearts and win lost souls and plant them for God’s eternally glorious harvest? That, too, is God’s great grace at work!
Let’s understand this, as well. God’s grace cannot be rejected indefinitely. Harvest time is coming. At the end of time, “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break the law. The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (vv. 41-42). God will tell His angels which souls are to be welcomed to heaven and which are to be sent to hell. Then the angels will direct each to their eternal destiny. When they do, not a single weed in God’s eyes, not a single person who trusted in someone or something other than the Savior Jesus and His cross, will mistakenly be taken to heaven.
Our role in God’s kingdom – described in Christ’s parables more as His powerful activity in human hearts than the place where we will live with Him forever – our role in God’s kingdom is not to use force to wipe out unbelievers. God’s Church, believers in Christ, are not to take up weapons to wage holy wars against those who deny His salvation. Our role is to rejoice in the truth that at the end of time the harvest will hold no terror for us who are wheat in God’s eyes. We trust our sins are covered by Christ. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (v. 43). Our role is also to declare to the weeds that Jesus is the only way to heaven, after we warn them of the eternal danger they are in because of their attitude about their sins and about the Savior.
Not just in natural fields and gardens, but in all the spiritual world, weeds grow among the wheat. God’s churches on earth are not perfect, ours included. But the world and the work still belong to Him. He will bring the harvest – at His good time according to His unfailing Word. Those who think they can live in sin without changing and still enter heaven will find out from the Lord of the Harvest differently – and eternally.
When the harvest comes, what will come of us? We don’t look at our reputation or work. We don’t compare ourselves to others. We look to Jesus and His blood shed for sinners. We rely only on His work for sinners. He supplies us with all we need to know the gracious answer to the greatest question: In God’s eyes, am I wheat or a weed? We never stop getting God’s answers. ”Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear” (v. 43) His message of life in Jesus to grow in assurance that God has planted us as His wheat and will gather us to His heaven. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - We Find Rest in Jesus
- Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 9, 2023
Hymns 917, 706, 670, 814
First Reading Exodus 33:12-23
Psalm of the Day 71
Second Reading Romans 7:15-25a
Gospel Matthew 11:25-30
Matthew 11:25-30
We Find Rest in Jesus
I. When weary of our guilt before God
II. When wanting to look good to God
In the name of Jesus, our Savior from sin, our perfect rest, fellow sinners and fellow redeemed,
Because we once looked into booking a room at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in the off season, I’m on the hotel’s email offers list. Ten days ago I received a message that due to a few cancellations for the Fourth of July, our dream vacation on Mackinac Island was just a few clicks away. What an opportunity, right? Clicking on the link took me to a booking page – and the reality that a Grand Hotel room with a queen bed for the Fourth cost twelve hundred dollars a night! That’s not a dream vacation, but a nightmare cost for ordinary folks.
You go on vacation – vacate your work place and home – to get away from the daily grind, to do what you (not your boss) want to do, to recharge and to rest. You understand your vacation plans will involve a cost. But you budget for that, right?
The Savior invites us, not for several weeks each summer, but for every day of our lives on earth, to go on vacation with Him. This vacation costs us nothing because it cost Him the steepest price ever paid. “Come to Me…and I will give you rest” (v. 28). We find rest in Jesus because we are weary of our guilt before God, and because we want to look good to God.
I. When weary of our guilt before God
Jesus had just warned fellow Jews who refused to see His miracles as proof that He is the long-promised Messiah, that His coming sacrifice would be the work to deliver all sinners. The Savior’s invitation to get rest in Him was rejected by “clever and learned people” (v. 25). What Jesus meant are those who suppose they’re so intelligent they don’t need anyone telling them how things work, those who suppose they’re so strong they don’t need anyone doing anything for them. They are the people who are smart in the world’s wisdom. But that wisdom is hostile to God’s truths. They judge things by human opinion, and if it doesn’t logically follow, if it isn’t politically correct, they want nothing to do with God’s truths.
That wasn’t just true of many Jews then. We were that way once. By nature everyone is hostile to God’s truths. By nature we hate to hear God’s laws convict us of our sins and show we deserve hell forever. That insults my sinful nature which thinks that since I’m not a real horrible person I can get myself to heaven. By nature we have no use for God’s good news which proclaims Jesus as the sinner’s Savior. That startles our sinful heart. When God says, “There is salvation in no one else but Christ, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), sinful wisdom argues, “You don’t need Christ! Trust your own life!” Worldly wisdom prevents people from seeing what only God can reveal, what mankind can’t figure out with brains or experiments or computer programs or satellite surveillance.
In this prayer to the Father the Son is not saying God wants some people never to be saved. God wants all to be saved. The Son praises the Father for not making worldly intelligence necessary for trusting the only plan of salvation.
In that sense, the “rest” we get in Jesus is only for “little children” (v. 25). Don’t worry, seniors in high school and senior citizens. That can’t mean a person’s age. The Holy Spirit made Ruth, the thief on the cross, the jailer at Philippi, the Ethiopian government official, the Zarephath widow, the Apostle Paul, the twelve disciples – all adults! – “little children” spiritually.
Our Savior says here what He says elsewhere. “Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:15). Little ones believe what trusted adults tell them. We don’t need to be “learned” scholars to grasp true religion. We simply trust what God tells us in His Word.
When we are weary of our guilt before God, when we wonder how our sins can ever be forgiven, we find “rest” not by our works to overcome our mistakes, but by the Savior’s work to remove our guilt. Those who first heard these words likely shook their heads in disagreement when Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (v. 30). The yoke they knew was the heavy wooden frame binding two oxen together as their owner had them do the heavy work of pulling a plow through his field. What the Savior meant was a sinner being yoked to Him and His work through faith. When we come to Jesus weary of our sin and guilt, sincerely repentant, humbly trusting Him and His work, we find “rest” from our sins in Him.
Our world insists there are many different paths to heaven, many different ways to think of God. But that calls God a liar! “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal Him” (v. 27). Those who are wonderful people, very devoted to a different god, extremely spiritual, but don’t rely on the revelation from the Father about the Son as the sinner’s only “rest” from sin and guilt are not saved.
We confess that our sins deserve damnation before God. We are bothered about, burdened by, wearied with our guilt. By God’s grace, we have had the only Savior revealed to us. He is the Lamb of God whose payment at Calvary is the only payment God accepts for every sin and all sins’ guilt. We have “rest” in Jesus!
II. When wanting to look good to God
This “rest” isn’t physical – not a nap or vacation. This “yoke” isn’t physical – not a tool or farm equipment. This “rest”, this “yoke”, is Christ’s work to save us sinners. We find rest in Jesus because we sinners need Him to look good to God.
Are we “weary and burdened” (v. 28)? Not by work or routine. Billions of people in the world who reject Jesus will get rest tonight. But “weary and burdened” by sin and its guilt? Or do we shrug off sin and guilt? One sin separates us from God. One sin is just cause for God to punish us forever. We have sinned millions of times. We are “weary and burdened” by our sin and guilt. We know from our conscience and from Scripture what we deserve because of how we look to God.
That’s not a pastor’s scare tactic. That’s God’s truth. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Everyone who keeps committing sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). There are hundreds of similar verses in His Word. We look horrible to God on our own. We have nothing to offer God as payment for one sin, much less millions of sins over a lifetime. Where is relief for our conscience, rest for our soul? The Savior invites us to find “rest” in Him. “I will give you rest…I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (vv. 28-29).
You know all about the gentleness and humility of Jesus. Though He is the eternal, mighty God, He became a little baby to enter our world as our Brother. Though He is the sinless Son of God, He agreed to have all our filthy sins and their damning guilt slathered on Him at the cross. He rose from death three days later to prove He was, is, and always will be who He claims to be: the Messiah come from heaven to buy us back from our sins and Satan, death and hell.
Jesus is widely believed to be a loving example of wonderful living and tolerating everyone. But we who insist that without trust in His payment a sinner will be damned forever are branded as intolerant religious nuts. Jesus is no shady salesman who talked about His mission, but wasn’t able to deliver it. He is our “rest” from the guilt of sins, “rest for our souls”.
By the Holy Spirit’s work we are “yoked” to Jesus through faith. His “yoke” is not a clumsy fashion look. It is the sinner’s only salvation. And now we no longer look at His commands as rules we have to keep, but as ways to express our love for Him and His work to join us sinners to Him forever.
We didn’t stumble on this wonderful, eternal “rest” sinners find only in Jesus. The Triune God has placed His rest in our hearts, on our souls, for our lives. To keep this wonderful, eternal “rest” sinners find and have only in Jesus, Jesus tells us, “Continue to learn from Me”. Constant contact with His Word isn’t a burden to bear, but blessed “rest” for us; the only, wonderful way to keep His “yoke” on us every day!
The great Old Testament word sabbath means “rest”. For Jews before Christ the every seventh day and every seventh new moon and every seventh year rest were symbols from God about the “rest” Jesus would deliver when He offered His life at the cross, the “rest” Jesus delivers personally when He puts His “yoke” on us to keep us close to Him, the “rest” Jesus delivers in His forgiveness when we are weary of our guilt before God and need Him to look good to God. Only in Jesus do we find this “rest”. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost / 493rd Anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession - We Celebrate the Real Birth of the Lutheran Church
- Fourth Sunday after Pentecost / 493rd Anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
June 25, 2023
Hymns 921, 865, 630, 900
First Reading Isaiah 55:6-11
Psalm of the Day 46
Second Reading Romans 10:5-17
Gospel & Sermon Text Matthew 10:32-39
Matthew 10:32-39
We Celebrate the Real Birth of the Lutheran Church
I. Confessing courageously Jesus as true God
II. Standing solidly on Scripture as God’s Word
III. Living unconditionally our love for the Lord
In the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ, fellow redeemed,
October 31, 1517 is important for us Lutherans, marking Luther’s first challenge to the false teachings of his church body. 13 years later a number of people declared, “This is what we believe, and this is where we are convinced our former church body is wrong!” 493 years ago today, June 25, 1530, the Augsburg Confession, written by some of those people with Luther’s help, was read to the Roman Emperor and representatives of the Roman Church. Luther had been excommunicated by the church nine years earlier. Now hundreds of former members of that church body confessed what the Bible teaches, and outlined errors the Roman church taught.
What does this mean for us? It’s more than a church history lesson. It’s an encouragement to be faithful to the Lord, not to Luther; to God’s Word, not to our church; with our lives, not just with our words. Not drawing from the teachings of Luther, but from the Lord, today we celebrate the real birth of the Lutheran Church. Jesus tells to confess courageously Him as true God, to stand solidly on Scripture as God’s Word, and to live unconditionally our love for the Lord.
I. Confessing courageously Jesus as true God
At Augsburg 493 years ago today there was no disputing who Jesus is. The Catholic Church taught, still does!, Jesus is true God. The Augsburg Confession, one of the six great writings from the Reformation era that declare the truths of God’s Word, has twenty-eight articles. Some reflect teachings with which the Roman church agreed, like who Jesus is.
But we don’t confess Jesus as true God only in His house, then give others outside His house the impression any other view of Jesus is okay, too. “Everyone who confesses Me before others”, Jesus says, “I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (v. 32). Confess means say the same thing. Confess also means not saying the same thing as those who claim Jesus is just one of many ways to heaven, who say it doesn’t really matter whether you confess Jesus as true God or not, things even millions who call themselves Lutheran say today. Confess means telling them what Jesus says about Himself, even if that means telling them they are wrong.
There’s an eternal cost for not confessing Christ courageously. “Whoever denies Me before others, I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (v. 33). Would we say, “No, I don’t want Jesus to be my Savior, don’t want to be associated with Jesus”? We do when we do not defend Jesus as true God in the company of those who deny Jesus as the only One who made the payment to rescue all sinners from hell.
It takes a special gift to “confess” Jesus when others put Him or His truths down, doesn’t it? We have that gift. It’s the gift of the Holy Spirit: faith. Our faith to confess Jesus courageously in a world that denies Him as the only way to heaven is strengthened by – and only by – God through His good news about Jesus given in Word and Sacrament. Thus strengthened here today, we confess courageously the work of Him who gave His body and shed His blood to save every sinner!
II. Standing solidly on Scripture as God’s Word
At the June 25, 1530 meeting was Dr. Eck, a Roman church official sent to Augsburg with a list of 404 charges of false doctrine against Luther. When an uneasy leader of the church in Germany told Eck, “I’m afraid we can’t refute the Lutheran side in a debate on doctrine”, Eck replied, “I will put them to shame – not with the teachings of Scripture, but with the writings of the church fathers.” That made the man more uneasy. “So the Lutherans sit on Scripture, and we sit beside it?”
We wonder if he knew how true his assessment of the two sides was. Not to celebrate the 493rd birthday of the Lutheran Church, but to walk with our Savior, we don’t sit, we stand, stand solidly!, on Scripture as God’s Word.
God provides peace. The Son of God is called “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). The night He was born angels announced, “There is on earth peace (Luke 2:11) for sinners won by the Savior.” The night before Jesus died, He told the Twelve, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you” (John 14:27).
The same Jesus about whom and by whom all that was said, says, “Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (v. 34). How can that be true? It’s because the peace established by God is peace between Him and sinful people – you and me. That peace is established by the sinless sacrifice of the Son of God to redeem all the world from hell for every sin. But the majority of this world’s people think they have what it takes to establish their own peace with God, and they resent anyone telling them differently – even the Prince of Peace Himself!
That’s why a consequence of Christ’s coming is for some not peace, “but a sword”. Many have been killed because the world hated their message that Jesus alone is the sinner’s peace and salvation. That’s why a result of Christ’s coming for some is not peace, but division. “A man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household” (vv. 35-36).
Some families here have felt the tension of one speaking so clearly for Christ that some in the clan can’t stand it. Mom stands solidly on Scripture and urges her family to worship together and hear God’s Word at home. But some at home ask her to keep her beliefs to herself. Dad stands solidly on Scripture as God’s Word and speaks lovingly about God’s people living by God’s will as God reveals it in God’s Word. But relatives roast him as a pious, narrow-minded bigot. When that tension between our God and our loved ones, between our God and the world around us arises, what do we do? We stand solidly on Scripture as God’s Word, as the ultimate authority.
Luther’s advice was blunt. What does the Lord here say about this? If the two, [family] and God, come into conflict, we must say, “We must obey God rather than men”, be they parents, [children], government, preachers, even the whole church. Parents, do you know what Scripture teaches as God’s Word and teach that to your kids? May we never be conflicting examples to children by saying to them, “Follow God’s Word”, then ourselves do or speak contrary to God’s Word. Kids, do you delight to learn more about what Scripture teaches so you can stand solidly on God’s Word without letting the devil push you off the Word? May we never stop studying His Word so we ever stand solidly on it, the only absolutely true authority!
III. Living unconditionally our love for the Lord
Martin Luther didn’t appear in Augsburg for the reading of the confession 493 years ago today. He was still under the ban of the emperor and pope, so he could have been assassinated had he been there. He wasn’t afraid to die, but his continuing work was important for the Church’s work. He had a huge hand in drafting the confession that was read. Thus it was to Luther’s deep disappointment that, in the months after the meeting at Augsburg, his right-hand man – Philip Melanchthon, one of the chief Augsburg authors, started compromising the confession, making concessions to the other side on matters Melanchthon considered less critical.
Do we disappoint our God? Daily, as we sin against Him! Every time we are disloyal to Him and His Word! Forgive us, Lord! And help us, Lord, live unconditionally our love for You!
We love God above all else! More than our money, our house, our career, vehicles, sports, our fun? Yes! God has first place in our hearts! Most of the time. But what about when choices conflict? What happens when God grants opportunities to use the money He’s given us to support His kingdom work more generously, but we also have our eye on a new car? Who gets the glory and what gets the love then? What happens when God’s Word is proclaimed at the same time our team plays or a special event is scheduled? Who gets our love then?
What the pastor wants you to answer, what Luther wrote could be wrong. But the Savior never errs. “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (v. 37). We live unconditionally our love for the Lord!
We may be ridiculed if we give up golf for worship. We may have more car problems if we give the Lord more to support His work and don’t get a newer vehicle. We may have to live in a smaller house if we keep hearing God’s Word on Sunday and decline the job promotion requiring work every Sunday – and miss out on the pay raise that went with the promotion.
The ridicule by people, recurring car trouble, cramped house are what Jesus calls, “taking up the cross and following Me” (v. 38). Sometimes people speak of any trouble in life as a cross. But getting the flu isn’t a cross. The “cross” of which the Savior speaks is what a believer suffers for the sake of following God and His Word. When we wonder, How can the Lord let me go through this?, we also trust, Heaven is my home, thanks to the Lord! Even if following Him costs me my life, whoever loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it” (v. 39).
493 years ago today a large group of Germans defied their mother church and stood on the teachings of God’s Word, as restored through the work of men like Luther. We who carry the name Lutheran do so because Luther was committed to God’s Word and God’s work, no matter what the earthly cost. We celebrate the real birth of the Lutheran Church by standing, not for Luther, but for the Lord and on His truth and with the salvation He alone has won for us! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Third Sunday after Pentecost - See the Heavenly Harvest
- Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 18, 2023
Hymns 902, 897, 896, 931
First Reading Numbers 27:15-23
Psalm of the Day 100
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 4:1-7
Gospel Matthew 9:35 – 10:8
Matthew 9:35 – 10:8
See the Heavenly Harvest
I. The fields are ready
II. The workers are needed
III. The machinery is here
In the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior who with His blood has won salvation for all sinners, dear fellow redeemed,
Last winter experts at an international convention estimated that our planet’s maximum capacity is 10 billion people, and that that number may well be reached by 2050. Where, they wondered, will we find food and water, medicine and health care for everyone? Nearly two thousand years ago, the Son of God, the expert in both the world’s population and the sinner’s salvation, said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (v. 37). Which situation is more serious?
Yes! The situation to which the world pays no attention. Harvesting souls for heaven is more critical than harvesting food, producing medicine, and improving the standard of living for the lives of 10 billion people. Oh, those are important, very important. But those are not the most important. The heavenly “harvest” is most important. Our eyes are directed by “the Lord of the harvest” (v. 38) to the heavenly harvest, to continents full of souls bought by His blood. Does His harvest have our attention, prayers, support, and work? We see – and get busy working in – the heavenly harvest. The fields are ready. The workers are needed. The machinery is here.
I. The fields are ready
Even those of us who know little about farming can tell when the grain fields we pass are ready for harvest. The tiny green grasses we see in fields when the snow melts grow into blue-green stalks, then become acres of golden grain. Farmers harvest the wheat at just the right time – before the heads get too heavy and while the stalks still stand tall for the combine.
The number of souls to be harvested is staggering. Only one-fourth of the world’s people trust the world’s only Savior, Jesus. “The harvest is plentiful”, the fields are ready, indeed!
All people are planted on earth against God by nature from conception and birth – sinners in God’s eyes and with no hope to enter heaven on their own. Without being harvested for the Lord, every soul is “troubled” (v. 36) by Satan and his helpers from hell. The idea behind “troubled” is going through a thick thorn patch and coming out a bloody mess. Without being harvested for the Lord, every soul is “downcast” (v. 36). This word is used by a shepherd of a four-legged sheep lying upside down and can’t get to its feet on its own. Without being harvested for the Lord, every soul is “like a sheep without a shepherd” (v. 36) to lead the sinner to the Savior.
That’s what makes the heavenly harvest so urgent and the fields so ready. Jesus lived the perfect life for all that no sinners can live. Jesus died the sacrificial death to suffer hell that sinners deserve forever. His holiness is ours. His payment – as God and man – is credited to our account. He makes the heavenly harvest an eternal blessing for every sinner! But billions are blind to that. They plow through life in unbelief, trusting their own work while rejecting the only Savior.
Fellow sinners rescued from hell by Christ, we keep the eyes of our hearts open to see the yet-unharvested souls around us. We see that the fields of souls are ready now. The heavenly Harvester says, “The harvest is plentiful”! His heavenly harvest doesn’t happen first on the Last Day. The souls of those who die trusting Christ for forgiveness are already harvested for the Lord and thus enter heaven when they die. The souls of those who die in unbelief without Him and His work in their hearts are sent to hell forever. The fields are ready now for the heavenly harvest work!
II. The workers are needed
The grain standing in fields today won’t make it to the elevator next month unless someone works to harvest it. Some in our nation are concerned that more stringent immigration regulations will result in some crops rotting in fields because there won’t be enough workers to harvest the crops.
Will part of the heavenly harvest be lost because “the workers are too few”? We don’t have the answer. But we do have the Savior telling us, “Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into His harvest. Workers are needed!”
We pray the Holy Spirit moves all of us to identify people we know, relatives we love, folks with whom we have a relationship, and souls living without the peace of God and His forgiveness for Christ’s sake in their hearts. We pray the Spirit gives all of us the words to tell them what only Jesus has done to rescue them and us and all the world’s billions of souls, or at least to invite them to hear here the life-giving good news about the Savior and His work. We pray the Lord will continue to fill our members, and members of some eleven hundred sister churches, to support His kingdom work – not just in our own congregations, but for schools to train pastors and teachers, for mission fields around the world you will never enter.
And when we pray for workers in the heavenly harvest, “the Lord of the heavenly harvest”’s answer may be, “Go! Get to work in My heavenly harvest! Use the opportunities I give you to harvest souls. Tell your boyfriend or girlfriend, neighbor or co-worker, friend or classmate. If you won’t speak to them about what sinners have in Me alone, who will? If you aren’t yet certain what to say to them about Me and My work, study what I tell you in My Word about Me and My work!”
The Lord of the heavenly harvest’s words about needing workers are even spoken about the youngest of you. “Children, what about you studying to become a full time worker as a pastor or teacher in My heavenly harvest? The first full time workers in the New Testament I called to teach others about Me and My work – Simon (who is called Peter)…Andrew, James…John, Philip…Bartholomew (also named Nathaniel), Thomas, Matthew, another James…Thaddeus (also known as Judas), another Simon…and Judas Iscariot” (vv. 2-4) – were not intellectuals, not particularly holy in their living, not much different from others. They were ordinary people like you are. You might think you don’t have what it takes to be a full time worker in My harvest. But I will equip you for the work. Ponder it seriously, children! Encourage it earnestly, parents! Pray about it fervently, all of you! Workers are needed!”
III. The machinery is here
Would you harvest grain entirely by hand, no tools? Of course not! Even in Biblical times farmers had oxen roll huge stones over the cut stalks, thus separating the edible kernels from useless straw and chaff. Today’s harvest tools are machines.
The same is true in the heavenly harvest. No one can work in the heavenly harvest fields without the right tools, machinery. Some say they harvest souls for the Lord with their manmade machines. They claim, “God is love and loves everyone into heaven!” But they don’t say Christ is the only way to heaven. That’s like using an ice cube to cook a turkey. It doesn’t work.
God’s miraculous machinery is the message about who Jesus is, about what He did and still does for sinners. “As you go to work in the heavenly harvest, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near’” (v. 7). Fellow workers in His heavenly harvest, to use that message, we need to know it! “The kingdom of heaven” is not so much a place as it is the activity of the Savior ruling in human hearts with His Word about the sinners’ salvation won by Him and by His work.
Some machinery mentioned then isn’t used for the heavenly harvest now. “Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse lepers. Drive out demons” (v. 8). That was needed for the heavenly harvest work in the early Church. Those miracles convinced souls the workers were sent by, and had the power of, the one true God. Today that machinery isn’t necessary because God’s Word is complete and shows what God has done and what He says. The machinery is here – His message of sin and salvation.
The machinery then also included a map. “Do not go among the Gentiles…Go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (vv. 5-6). During the Savior’s earthly ministry, His Word went to Jews first. But eighteen months after Jesus said this, on the first Pentecost, Gentiles, too, heard the Gospel from the apostles. And so it continues among us Gentiles today.
A combine costs a farmer today as much as a house. The heavenly harvest’s machinery is free. “Freely you have received salvation; freely give (v. 8) salvation.” You don’t have to pay the pastor and teachers; we’re willing to work in the heavenly harvest for “free”. But our called workers and their families have expenses. If we didn’t receive a salary for our work in the heavenly harvest, we’d work elsewhere to earn a living, leaving less time for our work in the heavenly harvest. Our called workers give thanks to the Lord of the harvest for your loving, generous support so we are able to work full time in His heavenly harvest with His machinery, His law and His Gospel – His Means of Grace, the good news of “free” salvation, the good news He gives in His Word and His sacraments!
Fellow workers in the heavenly harvest, He sends us to use His good news about the Savior after His threats show what every sinner deserves for every sin. The Lord of the heavenly harvest uses us as He gathers souls around the world for His kingdom and into His heaven. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Second Sunday after Pentecost - Jesus Calls Sinners
- Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 11, 2023
Hymns 738, 575, 677, 510
First Reading Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm of the Day 119 C
Second Reading 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Gospel Matthew 9:9-13
Matthew 9:9-13
Jesus Calls Sinners
I. So that we don’t stay sick
II. So that we do enjoy health
In the name of Christ Jesus, the Savior, fellow redeemed,
You can get forty-four ounce soft drinks at a reduced price all summer. But that doesn’t seem like a big deal. We who are grandparents remember when eight ounces of Pepsi once a week, every Sunday afternoon, was a big deal, a special treat. Now some guzzle five times that much several times a week. Now we don’t really consider soft drinks to be a big deal.
Is that how we sometimes see our relationship with Christ? Have we had it for so long in such great abundance and without any interruption that we take it for granted? If so, there’s a lesson for us in how the Savior called Matthew to follow Him, and in how He exposed the Pharisees as frauds.
Do we daily marvel that the holy, mighty, all-knowing God has made us trespassers His own? Do we wait eagerly all week to get to His house to join fellow believers to hear together what He who made the universe has done for us transgressors? If not, there’s much truth for us in how the Savior selected Matthew to be one of His Twelve permanently, and in how He scolded the Pharisees for their arrogance spiritually.
Jesus doesn’t enter data into a heavenly computer to determine the kinds of people whom He calls. It’s very simple and very personal. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (v. 13). We are “sinners”. Jesus calls sinners, you and me, so that we don’t remain “sick” (v. 12) – to use His word, and so that we do enjoy “health” (v. 12) – again to use His word, the “health” only He provides.
I. So that we don’t stay sick
In the King James Version they’re called publicans. Newer translations call them “tax collectors” (v. 10). Jewish boys never said, “I want to be a tax collector when I grow up!” Tax collectors were well off financially. And, as long as the Romans were in Israel and needed money for Roman roads and other projects across the Roman Empire, there would be plenty of money to collect. But Jews despised Jewish tax collectors.
Is that surprising? What do we think of when we hear the letters I R S? But the Roman tax collection system was corrupt. A Jewish child heard his parents grumble, “Traitor! He takes our money and gives some of it to our Roman enemies!” Jews who became tax collectors for Rome had Roman permission to collect more money than required and keep the extra. Jewish adults also muttered, “Cheater! He doesn’t have to charge us so much as we pass his toll booth. But he takes our money, then keeps some of it to feed his greed!” Jews wouldn’t let tax collectors join their gatherings. Jews considered Jewish tax collectors the scum of society, down there with prostitutes.
Such a man was Matthew at whose “tax collector’s booth” (v. 9) Jesus stopped in the northern city of Capernaum. To people, even if Matthew were the rare tax collector who didn’t charge too much, his occupation wiped out any qualification Matthew had to be a full time disciple of the Messiah. But not to the Messiah! Jesus knew Matthew didn’t deserve salvation. When the Messiah looked at Matthew, He saw what He saw in us. Unbelief. Sin. That’s what Matthew was and would have remained: a sinful unbeliever. But the Savior changed that.
Jesus called a sinner like Matthew! Jesus calls sinners like us! What qualities in us convinced Christ to call us to be His own and part of His mission? Our cheerful attitude? Doesn’t cancel our complaining every day! Our helpful work? Doesn’t cover our dirty desires and selfish actions. Our faithful worship? Doesn’t do away with our misusing God’s name! Our only hope is that Jesus calls sinners even while sinners are still sinners. And that is what He does – and has done for us sinners!
Only one of every four people in the world looks to Christ in faith for forgiveness. So nearly six billion people, twenty times the population of America, either haven’t heard of Jesus or, having heard, don’t care to hold to Him in faith. Statistics say that by the time a baby born tomorrow graduates from high school in 2041, another two billion people will have been born, most of them among unbelievers. Given those statistics, what were our chances of becoming believers? But we are children of the Heavenly Father! We are “sinners” who turn to Jesus for salvation! That is not because of what we’ve done. That is only because of what God does to call “sinners”.
Jesus calls sinners so we don’t remain “sick” in sin and unbelief, stay headed to hell. That was true of the prostitute in Jericho, the criminal at Calvary, the Pharisee Saul, tax collector Matthew, is true of us here. Jesus calls sinners so that we don’t remain “sick”, separated from God now and forever.
II. So that we do enjoy health
Some sinners whom Jesus wants to call oppose what Jesus does. Today they say, “God wouldn’t welcome sinners into His heaven because of what someone else did! Sinners must do something, too!” Outside Matthew’s Thank You, Jesus! banquet that day the Pharisees said, “The true Messiah will never associate with sinners like this tax collector and his bad news buddies! Jesus is a blasphemer, calling Himself the Messiah!”
Behind such comments is the idea that the Savior is only for good people, the lie that some are better than others. But the simple, powerful words of the Son of God smash those lies. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”. Jesus calls sinners so we sinners enjoy the health only Jesus provides.
When the Pharisees saw Jesus associating at Matthew’s home with other tax collectors and other obvious sinners, the Pharisees sinfully insisted, “No righteous religious leader would have anything to do with such sinners. So Jesus clearly is not the Messiah He says He is!” That really revealed their hard hearts against God’s salvation. They supposed themselves to be perfectly “healthy” before God by themselves. But they were just as “sick” with sin as those sinners eating with Matthew and Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no health for sinners.
“Follow Me” (v. 9), Jesus said. And Matthew did. Called by God’s undeserved love for him, Matthew followed the Savior as His disciple. That discipleship brought Matthew spiritual health. Certain forgiveness for all the times he’d cheated fellow Jews. Peace forever in the embrace of God’s family. Promotions in Rome’s tax collection system, receipts from goods passing through his toll station – all that had been Matthew’s treasure in life. Now all that was petty and passing in light of the treasures the Savior won for Matthew and gave Matthew.
But for Matthew, discipleship also meant giving. He hosted a dinner for Jesus. But it was also for his friends. We imagine He hoped, prayed literally!, that by hearing the long-promised Savior – in Matthew’s house! – his friends would receive from Jesus what he himself had received from Jesus. The toll collector became a soul gatherer. The tax receiver became a Savior sharer. The former cheater enjoyed the ”health” Jesus gives.
Will we ever want to give up what Jesus gives us? Grab money but leave behind the loving Savior whose “blood…cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7)? Go for fun but ignore the Lord who says, “I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5)? Trust ourselves but shrug off the Christ who promises, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19)? Strive for earthly fame, but shove aside “the kingdom prepared for” (Matthew 25:34) us by the risen Jesus? Will we ever want to give up His gifts that give us spiritual “health”?
Pharisees then – and now! – don’t have the health the Savior gives because they don’t think they need it. Pharisees then – and now! – think their good lives, regular worship, kind generosity count before God. Pharisees then – and now! – ignore the chest pains, fevers, or broken bones of their sins. “I don’t need a doctor! The pain will pass. The fever will break. The bone will heal.” Those who ignore their sins and close their hearts to God’s threats of hell insist on being right with God their way. God gives the “health” every sinner needs: Jesus!
Only when we see our guilt, take seriously God’s threats, admit there is nothing good in us do we treasure Jesus calling us “sinners” to Himself. Only when we see ourselves as God sees us – “sinners” who have nothing of their own to offer for any sin, do we invite fellow sinners to hear about Jesus and to rejoice in His healing their sick souls, too.
The Savior says, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (v. 13). The Pharisees made a big show of how well they obeyed God’s laws about sacrifices and tithes and more. But they did so only on the outside. What the Savior-God “desires” is a change inside, a heart that cherishes and trusts His “mercy” for sinners at the cross. When our entire life is driven by the love of Jesus who forgives us, not driven by looking good to others, we show love to Him who rescued us “sinners”.
“Sick”? We all are, on our own. And only that medicine makes us “healthy” forever. Enjoy that! Share that! Live that as we sinners, too, “follow” Jesus! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Day of Pentecost - The Holy Spirit Is Still Poured Out to Declare the Wonderful Works of God
- Day of Pentecost
May 28, 2023
Hymns 592, 585, 593
First Reading Acts 2:1-21
Psalm of the Day 104
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 12:3-11
Gospel John 7:37-39
Acts 2:1-21
The Holy Spirit Is Still Poured Out to Declare the Wonderful Works of God
I. To all people
II. With all confidence
In the name of God the Holy Spirit, who shows us the seriousness of our guilt before God the Father, and fills us with the peace of forgiveness won by God the Son, fellow redeemed,
There are countless Christmas TV specials. There’s usually an Easter parade on TV. But there are no Pentecost programs on TV today. If you wanted to send a Pentecost greeting card to a fellow believer in celebration of today’s festival, could you even find such a card? The world’s lack of attention on Pentecost leads to even some believers shrugging off Pentecost.
We don’t need, nor do we want, the world to set the tone for Pentecost. We’ve seen what the world does with the real Christmas and Easter. The world will always stress the wrong part of any Christian festival. We don’t need the world to set the tone for Pentecost. We have God’s Word!
What does God teach about Pentecost? It is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on people. But that truth is twisted even in some churches. Why was the Holy Spirit poured out on people that Sunday seven weeks after the first Easter? Why is He still poured out on people today? Not to speak in tongues! Not to heal the sick! Not to hear miraculous sounds or appear with what seems to be flames on heads! We almost miss it for all the flashy events in these verses. But there it is! The Spirit is poured out to keep people “declaring…the wonderful works of God” (v. 11). The Spirit is still poured out to declare the wonderful works of God to all people and with all confidence.
I. To all people
“The day of Pentecost” (v. 1) was for those Jews a day to gather in Jerusalem to thank the Lord for the harvest. The way the growing season goes in Israel, the early crop is ready this time of year. Pentecost referred to the fifty days from the Sunday of Passover weekend to that Sunday of thanksgiving. God used that as a background for what He had planned for that year’s “day of Pentecost”. The harvest He had in heart had to do with souls, not crops. And the souls for harvest that Pentecost lived in bodies from many different lands, not just Israel.
We won’t repeat the Pentecost parade of nations there, but simply summarize by saying people from three continents – Asia, Africa, and Europe – were there. Surprised? Don’t be! Recall that the once-proud nation of Israel for seven centuries had been two small nations split by petty arguments among them and pagan idolatry by them, had been taken twice into exile, then allowed to return. But when they returned, they were oppressed by foreign powers. So many Jews fled Israel.
Therefore, those who resettled in the Holy Land may have seen the other Jews in town for the harvest festival as outsiders. God wanted them to see His kingdom work more globally. The Spirit was very active in the Old Testament. Before the Son came to earth, the Spirit planted in Jews faith that trusted the coming Messiah, then strengthened that faith. After Christ completed His work to save all sinners, the Spirit in the New Testament would work more openly among people in all nations, not just Israel. This first Pentecost Sunday began to fulfill God’s promise through His Old Testament prophet Joel, “God says, ‘I will pour out My Spirit on all’ (v. 17a) people.”
The people asked, “What does this mean (v. 12)? How can these twelve Israelites be speaking in languages other than Hebrew or its cousin Arabic?” God answered, “The Spirit has been poured out on them to declare the wonderful works of God to all people – not only to Jews in Israel!”
The same Holy Spirit still does the same work in all the world today. We are part of the Pentecost miracle. No, English wasn’t one of the languages in which Peter and the others preached. But ours is another nation, and we are another people, to whom “the wonderful works of God” are declared.
What are the greatest “wonderful works of God”? Not the wonders of the vast universe God made in six twenty-four hour days – the wonders of green grass, human reproductive organs, majestic mountains, the Great Lakes. Oh, those are great wonders of God. But none of those top these! The holy God in love sent His Son, God in the flesh, to pay for our guilt! And, through faith in His Son, we are God’s children who will inherit His heaven! There is no greater wonder than these! The Spirit is still poured out to declare these wonders to us.
Okay. So now what? Pack those wonders in a purse or put them in the trunk, and head home? Or be part of the Spirit’s work as He is still poured out on many other people that they, too, hear “the wonderful works of God” in their own language? We support our missionaries who’ve learned foreign languages to declare the same wonderful works of God in a tongue new to them because the Spirit is being poured out to declare those same “wonderful works of God” in Jesus to people who have not yet heard it. Pentecost continues as the Spirit uses us to bring God’s Word to others and to all nations.
II. With all confidence
God used the miracles of a sudden sound of wind and sight of flames of fire to let people know He was about to do something amazing. But what was most amazing was what the apostles said, and the courage with which they said it. This was Peter who fewer than two months earlier had denied he even knew Jesus. These were men who ran in fear from Gethsemane, who locked themselves in a room lest enemies of Jesus arrest – and maybe crucify – them, too. Now they declared the risen Jesus just outside the temple, Israel’s most public place?! What happened? The Spirit was poured out on them to declare “the wonderful works of God” with all confidence.
The last time Peter was challenged by Jews who hated Jesus he melted like an ice cube on a hot stove. But now when some “mocked” (v. 13) him and the other disciples, Peter didn’t back down. He “stood up…, raised his voice, and spoke loudly and clearly” (v. 14). All twelve apostles preached with great confidence that day and for the rest of their lives. Holy Thursday they had fretted when Jesus told them He’d leave them and return to heaven. But the loving Savior added, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth – He will testify about Me. And you also are going to testify (John 15:26-27) about Me.”
That didn’t make the disciples feel better on their way to Gethsemane with Jesus the night before He died. They didn’t fully understand in the seven weeks between Christ’s rising and ascending. They likely had questions during the ten-day wait for the Spirit which Jesus promised again just before His ascension to heaven. But now they saw it clearly! Now the confidence which God Himself put in their hearts as the Spirit directed their words and blessed their work made all the difference in the world for their world-wide work for the Lord!
Peter also declared this “wonderful work of God”, “On a future day this world will be destroyed. As that day draws near, there will be strange signs. When that day is here, the heavenly bodies will be destroyed. Don’t be caught unprepared!” Peter used God’s Word given to Joel about the Last Day. That will be a dreadful day for all who reject the work of Jesus to bear their punishment, but a glorious day for all who trust in Jesus. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 21). It took confidence given by the Spirit to say that about Jesus and declare that “wonderful work of God”!
We haven’t heard or seen signs of the Spirit’s outpouring. But we have the same confidence to declare the same “wonderful works of God” from the same Pentecost Holy Spirit! When we declare the truth of God, we don’t need to back down. We uphold from His Word truths the world hates and truths even some Christian churches resist. Many take issue with God’s teachings. It isn’t comfortable to be mocked or challenged for standing fast in God’s truth. But we know we’re declaring the truth of God with the blessing of the Spirit. We have the confidence God is with us as we declare – in love – all His truths.
Joel’s prophecy, quoted by Peter with the Spirit’s direction, included the wonder that the Word would be proclaimed with confidence to others by all God’s people. “Your sons and your daughters will prophesy…On My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy” (vv. 17b-18). All the days from the first Pentecost to the Last Day, including this May day, are “those days”.
“Prophesy” means to declare God’s Word – what He has done, does, will do, and what God wants – not just to tell the future. You don’t need a divine call as a pastor or teacher to do that. “All” (v. 17) people of God are called by God to do that. That doesn’t mean all people of God serve as pastors or teachers in His Church. God declares in His Word His qualifications for His Church’s pastors, teachers, and leaders. But every believer in Jesus is to declare to family, friends, and others “the wonderful works of God” that we sinners are forgiven for the sake of our crucified and risen Savior who took our justly deserved hell on Himself! We declare that with all confidence from the Spirit poured out on us.
To those who insist Pentecost power today is Christians speaking in tongues and healing the sick, we confidently repeat the words of the very first Pentecost day listeners: “We hear them declaring the wonderful works of God”. That Pentecost miracle takes place in every service here, every class day in His school, every family Gospel devotion at home. We marvel at, and are a blessed part of, that work. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Seventh Sunday of Easter - Ascension of our Lord - Confirmation --Confirmand, Throw Yourself to the Lion
- Seventh Sunday of Easter - Ascension of our Lord - Confirmation
May 21, 2023
Hymns 474, 476, 715, 930
First Reading Acts 1:12-26
Psalm of the Day 47
Second Reading 1 Peter 4:12-17; 5:6-11
Gospel John 17:1-11a
1 Peter 4:12-17; 5:6-11
Confirmand, Throw Yourself to the Lion
I. He cares for you
II. He conquered your enemy
III. He calls you to His glory
In the name of the sinner’s only Savior, Easter and Ascension believers, rejoicing that He rose from the dead and has risen to heaven, and especially you, Sophia and Jett,
The phrase thrown to the lions is a way to say a person’s been put in a bad spot. A substitute sent to teach an unruly class for two weeks is said to have been thrown to the lions. The phrase comes from ancient people putting perceived lawbreakers in a cage or on the floor of an arena with lions, as happened to God’s faithful Old Testament prophet Daniel in Babylon. But you know that God kept Daniel safe from the hungry lions.
Our text mentions a “lion” (v. 8), as does the sermon’s theme. Is the pastor urging you to throw yourselves on this lion, “the devil” (v. 8)? No, not this lion. But on the One referred to in Revelation as “the Lion from the tribe of Judah” (5:5), our Savior. Jesus is the Lion on whom we throw ourselves, as we “Cast (throw, right?), Cast all our anxiety on Him” (v. 7).
Had this letter writer seen believers thrown to the lions? Perhaps. Peter was in Rome – first doing God’s Gospel work, then put in prison, and ultimately executed – when Nero was emperor. Nero was notorious for harming believers in Christ. And the first believers to read Peter’s two letters were suffering for their faith in Christ as we’ve heard the past few weeks.
Confirmands, you likely won’t suffer physically for the faith you confess today and will keep for all your lives. But for believing Jesus is the only Savior and upholding all His Word, you likely will be ridiculed. What were those early believers, what are you young believers, to do? Resign themselves and yourselves, to be thrown hopelessly to the lion, Satan? No! Throw yourself confidently on the Lion, Jesus, the Savior. He cares for you. He conquered your enemy. He calls you to His glory.
I. He cares for you
You wouldn’t try to get between a lion and its cubs, right? He’d use his powerful paws, long claws, and sharp teeth to kill you if you did. Then why did Jesus, “the Lion from the tribe of Judah”, let His children who trust in Him suffer “fiery trial…for being a Christian” (vv. 12,16)? Why didn’t “the Lion from the tribe of Judah”, Jesus, do something about that?
He did. He is. He will. “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you”. Sometimes the Lord allows us to suffer because we’ve gotten too full of ourselves, insisting we do things our way instead of living life His way. His allowing us to suffer in such situations truly is His “car”ing for us as He strives to drive sinful pride out of us. The holy God desires you confirmands and all His people of all ages and in all things live our relationship with Him as we “humble” (v. 6) ourselves, repenting of our sins against Him and relying on Him to forgive us.
There is His greatest “care”. What good does having a good job and a happy life do people now if they’re going to hell forever for rejecting the Savior? Peter asked the rhetorical question, “What will be the end for those who disobey (that is, reject) the gospel of God” (v. 18)? Peter knew the answer. You confirmands do, too! Hell – eternally!
Christ has perfectly completed His mission of living in holiness for us and suffering hell in our place. He didn’t pursue His own comfort, but our eternal “care” at the cross and by rising from death. He humbled Himself and shed His blood to remove our guilt. He gives us the best, most blessed, and unending “care”.
The Redeemer repeatedly taught, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). Proud, arrogant sinners think they control their lives and don’t need God or His forgiveness. Humble, repentant sinners turn from their sins and seek God’s pardon in Christ. “He cares for” us, indeed! When sorrow or setbacks, anguish or “anxiety”, little bothers or large burdens afflict us, we don’t try to figure our own way to deal with them. We throw ourselves on the Lion who “cares for” us.
II. He conquered your enemy
We wonder, Why is life a struggle so often? Why don’t problems disappear? We go to church regularly and have devotions daily! Why are some people around us so careless, loveless, reckless? Why do we find some sins fascinating when we’ve been burned by them so often before? God answers, “Throw yourself on Me, the Lion who conquered your enemy!
First the bad news, the warning. “The devil prowls around… looking for someone to devour” (v. 8). Among believers, he’s a sneaky enemy. He whispers his sweet-sounding lie, “You should do what makes you happy.” He “prowls to devour” our souls. Remember how Satan got Peter, who thought he was so strong on his own, the night before Jesus died?
Among believers, Satan is also a feared enemy, “like a lion”. Very early in history, Satan seduced many of his fellow angels – he and they had been created holy by God – to join his rebellion against God. Shortly after that Satan had his way with up-until-then sinless Adam and Eve. Satan’s not a silly, make-believe cartoon character. He’s our deadly, devouring “adversary” (v. 8). He wants to rule – and thus ruin – our hearts.
We all know all of that. Yet we at times treat Satan as a friend. We keep what he uses to tempt us close by instead of getting rid of those thoughts and temptations, the anger and selfishness. We think his ways might be fun rather than his deception to “devour” our faith with false teachings, with the lie that if it feels good to us it must be okay, with shrugging off sin as no big deal. He “prowls to devour” our eternal soul.
Now the good news, the victory. “Resist him by being firm in the faith” (v. 9), the faith that throws our sins and our souls on the Lion. Jesus is the promised descendant of Adam and Eve who crushed and conquered Satan’s power. The devil’s accusations (that’s what devil means, accuser), “You sinners can’t belong to God!” are exposed by the Lion who conquered him and paid for all sins. Satan’s power to control people is ruined when the Holy Spirit fills us with the Savior to “restore, establish, strengthen, and support” (v. 10) us.
This isn’t ancient history! This is God’s strength for us this Confirmation Sunday. We throw ourselves on the Lion. His power is our power to “resist” Satan’s temptations. And that’s not mysterious power. It’s His Word. There’s nothing better to use in “resist”ing the lying lion than the conquering Lion’s truths!
When the lying lion says, “God has forgotten about you,” run to the conquering Lion who says and shows by shedding His blood for sinners, “See how much I love you!” When the lying lion tries to roar, “You miss out on all the fun your friends have when you follow God’s Word”, the conquering Lion shouts, “There is no Godly joy in what saddens and angers Me, the God who died for you and rose from death!” When the lying lion tries to convince you, “No one understands you”, the conquering Lion assures you, “I lived your life! I am your Brother! I was tempted every way you are! Throw yourself on Me! I conquered the lying lion! You need not fear him any longer!”
III. He calls you to His glory
How long, Lord, will pain and problems, being short on cash and long on misery, being stressed or depressed last? The Lord doesn’t answer us by pointing to a calendar to show us. He speaks from His Word to “strengthen” us. “Throw yourself on Me, the Lion, because I call you to My eternal glory” (v. 10).
The same God “who called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus” (v 10) by the power of His good news about the Lion will not let your sufferings last one minute longer than He has planned. That’s why He says that, despite the way it at times feels for us, we “suffer only a little while” (v. 10).
That is God’s perfect, heavenly truth. Sinful human reason can’t see that. But that’s the spiritual view so clearly before us from our Savior’s ascension. The Lion who lives forever in heaven – and also miraculously lives in our hearts through faith in Him and His work – uses hurting times to serve us and His Church, all believers. He uses suffering to turn us to Him for help, for strength, for deliverance. Not in hopeless despair but in confident joy, we throw ourselves on the Lion who calls us to be His own now and to live in His “glory” forever! He ascended not to leave us, but to assure us He’s our heavenly Lion who lives and loves to have us throw ourselves on Him!
Do we live what the Lion gives us? We don’t ask, “Lord, my caring, conquering, calling-me-to-Your-side Lion, You won’t mind if I live life my way, will You?” We know better! We throw sin off us as we throw ourselves on Him who “cares for” us so dearly He suffered the worst in the universe for us – hell. We don’t say, “Lord, my caring, conquering, calling-me-to-Your-side Lion, You’ll understand if I don’t bother coming to Your house and reading Your Word this summer since we’ll be away each weekend, won’t You?” We know better! We throw off the lies of Satan and throw ourselves on the Lion as we use His truth daily and gather in His house weekly to hear His Word of life and praise Him for winning our salvation!
Peter knew what it was like to give in to the lion of hell. What a lesson that the Lion of heaven used Peter to give us the Lord’s strength here! With Peter we realize God never throws us to the lion who wants to lead the world astray. God always gives us His strength which is His power from before time began and rises from His love at Calvary and is given in His Word and sacraments. We daily throw ourselves on the Lion who won and guarantees our life with Him forever! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Fourth Sunday of Easter - God's Sheep Use the Divine Door Daily
- Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 30, 2023
Hymns 445, 938 (replaces “Glory Be to God”), 552, 555, 452
First Reading Acts 2:42-47
Psalm of the Day 23
Second Reading 1 Peter 2:19-25
Gospel John 10:1-10
John 10:1-10
God’s Sheep Use the Divine Door Daily
I. He protects the life of His sheep
II. He provides the life for His sheep
In the name of Jesus, our crucified and risen Savior, the Good Shepherd for the sheep, fellow Easter believers still celebrating His resurrection from the dead, fellow sheep of Jesus,
A tourist in Israel asked about a structure with no roof, made of stones stacked chest-high and set in a C-shape. When told by a resident working there, “It’s a sheep pen”, the tourist asked, “Why doesn’t it have a gate?” The man replied, “I am the gate.” He went on to explain that several shepherds bring their flocks from the fields each evening into the pen for safe-keeping and he curls up in the small entrance to the pen as a human gate for the sheep. No sheep, shepherds, and certainly no strangers get in or out of the opening without passing him.
We love the picture of Jesus as our Good Shepherd. But Jesus Himself wants us to love, to find comfort and to hear warning in Him describing Himself also as “the door” (v. 1). It doesn’t make as nice a picture on the wall. It seems kind of boring. But let’s let the Lord tell us, “I am the door for the sheep” (v. 7). God’s sheep use their divine Door daily! He protects the life of His sheep and He provides the life for His sheep.
I. He protects the life of His sheep
One of His sheep had just been attacked, and the Door swung shut to protect His sheep. All of John 9 is about a man born blind whom Jesus healed by spitting on the ground, making mud, putting the pack on the guy’s eyes, telling him to wash in a pool, and – for the first time in the man’s live – he could see! Children, imagine how he must have felt! Had that happened to you, wouldn’t you tell others what Jesus did for you?
That’s what the man did! And that’s why he was attacked! The Pharisees, self-righteous Jews who hated Jesus, said, “Jesus is a sinner (John 9:24)! No way He healed you! And because you say He did, you no longer have a part in our church!”
Do you remember what Jesus did? The Good Shepherd sought the sheep. Jesus told the man, “I am the long-awaited Messiah, proved by miraculously healing your life-long blindness.” The man confessed, “Lord, I believe (John 9:38) in you as the Savior!” Then the Savior told the Pharisees, “You…hold on to sin (John 9:41) because you reject Me as the Savior! There is only way to the true God, to heaven. I am the door” (v. 1).
That background explains why Christ starts this chapter, this great Good Shepherd chapter of the New Testament, by calling Himself “the door for the sheep”. It’s rich assurance for us, too, that He protects the life, the spiritual life, of His sheep.
Our risen Lord lets only legitimate shepherds, ones He approves, come in through “the door”. They are your parents, children, who teach you God’s Word at home; your Sunday School teachers and Lutheran School teachers and Vacation Bible School teachers and pastors who serve you with God’s pure Word. To such shepherds the Door opens because Jesus knows they will repeat His truth about our sins and our guilt and our deserved damnation, and His truth about His life and His death and His resurrection for our salvation!
To every other shepherd, “the door” is shut! Jesus is the Door who warns about and protects us from false shepherds. They can’t come in through the Door because their teachings aren’t the Door’s doctrines. So they try to sneak in by climbing over the wall. They don’t help God’s sheep. They harm our faith. They come not to bless us, but to separate us from God’s flock.
But if an intruder climbs into the pen, how do we know he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothes out to get us? For all we know, he got in through the Door and with the Door’s permission. Oh, we can know! We “will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because we do not know the voice of strangers” (v. 5). The Door for the sheep warns His sheep, protects them.
We test religious teachers. Do they agree with all God’s Word? Do we recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd and the approval of “the Door” in all that they say about a sinner’s relationship with God? Or from their teachings recognize them as “thieves and robbers to whom we dare not listen” (v. 8)?
We carefully test every religious idea we read or hear. Does it just sound good? Or does it come from God’s Word? If we follow the idea, does it lead us to a closer walk with the risen Lord? Or with those who “steal and kill and destroy” (v. 10)?
That’s why constantly being in God’s Word is the top priority for God’s sheep! That’s why the work of God’s Church is always centered on God’s Word! Just because a religious teaching seems right doesn’t mean it is true. We need to know what comes from the Good Shepherd and what comes from sinful people. False teachings are tempting. But only Jesus is “the Door”, and the divine Door, at that! If a teaching goes against what He teaches, if it is a teacher who hasn’t come through the divine “Door”, we “run away from” (v. 5) that teaching and teacher. God’s sheep use the divine Door daily! The Good Shepherd protects the life, the spiritual life, of His sheep!
II. He provides the life for His sheep
Sheep aren’t cute and cuddly the way they’re pictured in bedtime stories. Sheep are skittish and frightened. Sheep have no sharp teeth, no elusive speed, no keen mind, no good vision. They need a shepherd. And they know their shepherd’s voice.
Jesus calls us sinners His “sheep” to remind us we can’t survive spiritually on our own. We sinners need Him. God’s sheep use the divine “Door” daily who provides the life for His sheep.
Jesus isn’t our divine “Door”, to keep us locked up. He leads us “out to His pasture” (v. 9). In the “pasture” of His forgiveness of our sins by His life on earth and death on the cross, the Savior who rose from death feeds us. Not in how we feel about God, but in what the Savior has done for us, do we have the food of everlasting life, the life, “abundant” (v. 10) life.
Jesus used this illustration to expose those Pharisees who thought they had “life” by their own wonderful living. They were false shepherds. They had nothing to offer for anyone’s spiritual good. Not their teaching, but the teaching about the Messiah they rejected, is the divine “Door” to life, to heaven.
Jesus leads us out each day to feed us. He does so through shepherds who serve under Him, the Good Shepherd. They are the full-time shepherds who devote their lives to teaching God’s law and gospel – pastors in our churches and teachers in our schools. Our called workers thank you for your mission thankofferings years ago, before we knew each other existed, that God used to provide us with the best training in the world to present in pulpits and classrooms the crushing curse of our sins against God and the sweet salvation won by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the world’s sinful sheep.
Parttime shepherds who have access through the divine “Door” are our Sunday School and VBS teachers, parents and grandparents, and all who speak God’s truths to others. Give thanks to God for the privilege to serve Him and others that way. Go daily to feed in His “pasture” because He must fill us with His truths before He uses us to give His truths to others.
“When he has brought out all his own sheep, he walks ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know His voice” (v. 4). Do you hear Him? Sheep of the Good Shepherd hear His Word! Those who say they grazed in God’s gospel earlier in life so they don’t need to do so now clearly haven’t eaten enough of this chapter or of the Good Shepherd psalm. Jesus leads us out daily into the meadow of His message, to His still water of life. Those who ignore going there often aren’t listening to Christ’s voice, but to the voice of some false shepherd.
Jesus, our divine “Door”, leads us out to feed in His pasture so we are “saved” (v. 9). He does that so personally! Loves me every day the same / Even calls me by His name. We are not a faceless number to God, not just a name in His book, not cold data on His computer. He knows us intimately – our weaknesses, pet sins, damning guilt, desperate need for salvation. And He leads us out to give us what He knows we need spiritually – His strength, His forgiveness, His saving grace in Word and Sacrament, His guidance for life. All of that He personalizes for us, for “His own sheep whom He calls by name” (v. 3).
It was not our own strength or wisdom or life that brought us into God’s family. The only reason we are His sheep is His work. The Son bought us by His blood, the Father accepted His sacrifice to pay our hell, and the Holy Spirit used His gospel to bring us into His kingdom, His family, His “sheep pen” (v. 1).
Jesus, our divine “Door”, leads us out to feed in His pasture for His perfect purpose: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (v. 10). This is the life! The “Door” who won our heaven uses His gospel to grow our faith. This is the life! We are secure in our Savior who died for us and rose from death and took care of everything we need to be His sheep here and His heirs forever! This is the life! We have all we need in Christ. We keep grazing in His Word. The risen Savior is the divine “Door”, who says, “Whoever enters through Me will be saved” (v. 9. This is the life He provides for His sheep.
So, is Jesus the Good Shepherd who comes through the Door? Or is He the Door through which His shepherds come and go? Yes! He is both! The Good Shepherd is also the divine “Door”. His good news is the door through which He daily comes to us and through which He daily leads us to secure safety from Satan and to deeper trust in Him. Fellow sheep of the Good Shepherd, hear Him call to us, “My sheep, use Me, the divine Door, daily! I protect your spiritual life as My sheep! I provide the life, eternal life, for you, My sheep. What do you, My sheep, do daily? My sheep listen to My voice!” Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Third Sunday of Easter - The Redeemer's Resurrection Restores Our Hope
- Third Sunday of Easter
April 23, 2023
Hymns 442, 459, 443 (Communion distribution), 450
First Reading Acts 2:14a,32-41
Psalm of the Day 116
Second Reading 1 Peter 1:17-21
Gospel Luke 24:13-35
The Redeemer’s Resurrection Restores Our Hope
I. Hope for sinners cut by God’s law
II. Hope for sinners changed by God’s gospel
In the name of our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ, fellow Easter believers, still rejoicing in His resurrection,
It’s a cherished painting of a serene scene. But as the two believers walked on the road to Emmaus, they didn’t feel serene. The risen Christ asked them what they were discussing so deeply. “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be condemned to death. And they crucified Him. But we were hoping that He was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:19-21). Those disciples had placed their hopes on Jesus. But their hopes had died with Him at Calvary. For three days – part of Friday, all of Saturday, and now well into Sunday – followers of Jesus dealt with their dashed hopes. How could Jesus be the Messiah if He was dead?
How could they not anticipate the Redeemer’s resurrection? Well, how do we fail to lean on the Redeemer’s resurrection? They let their wants and their culture’s expectations cloud their view of God’s truth. We do, too! Then the Redeemer’s resurrection restores our hope. It is hope for sinners cut by God’s law. And it is hope for sinners changed by God’s gospel.
I. Hope for sinners cut by God’s law
Like last Sunday’s First Reading, today’s First Reading is the second part of Peter preaching to Jews at Pentecost. Here, too, the Holy Spirit had Peter repeat Old Testament prophecies about the promised Messiah, prophecies that the Jews who hated Jesus knew and trusted. God was lovingly, but seriously, leading them to see Jesus as the One, the only One, who fulfilled the entire Old Testament. David’s descendant is also David’s Lord. Jesus descended from David according to His human nature. But as the eternal God, Jesus is also David’s Lord and David’s Savior.
Then God had Peter proclaim, “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (v. 36). Though Jesus didn’t look like your idea of the Messiah, don’t you see it now? His humility was God’s plan all along! And by raising the Son from the dead seven weeks ago and welcoming Jesus back to heaven ten days ago, the Father shouts, ‘This Jesus is the Chosen One, the Messiah, the Christ! This Jesus is My Son! This Jesus is your Savior! This Jesus is the world’s Savior!”
“And you crucified Him!” That was God’s law. Imagine the guilt of having the innocent Savior’s blood on your hands. Jewish leaders insisted Good Friday morning, “Let His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). Peter said fifty-one mornings later, “See what you did to the Christ!”
“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘What should we do?’” (v. 37) Through Peter’s preaching the Holy Spirit led those Jews to realize they deserved God’s judgment. They didn’t argue, “We didn’t crucify Him; the Romans did!” They didn’t deny, “He is not our Christ!” And now they didn’t accuse, “You’ve had too much to drink, Peter!” “They were cut to the heart”. God prepared the first Easter believers for His greatest news by first smashing them with His worst news.
We Easter believers weren’t actively involved in crucifying the Lord of life. But we, too, are responsible for it. How do we react to that truth? Are we “cut to the heart” by God’s law? Are we deeply troubled by our sins? Or do we shrug them off as mistakes everyone makes? Do we truly admit Jesus had to die for our sins? Or has Satan led us to believe, “Those who commit the really big sins did that!”? With terrified consciences do we confess to God our sins against God? Or do we figure that since so many misuse sex, we may; since some use God’s holy name in unholy ways, we may; since others gossip about us, we are free to fire back with bitter gossip about them?
Our hope for heaven is lost when we base it on ourselves, on what our culture values, even on our regular church going. Like those Jews, we, too, might choose to believe only those parts of Scripture that meet our preconceived ideas of what the Messiah should be and what the Messiah should teach. We need God to “cut us to the heart” with His law each day, to say, “You sin against Me! You deserve hell! Stop excusing your sin and ignoring your guilt! Repent!” (v. 38)
II. Hope for sinners changed by God’s gospel
But resolving, “I will not sin again!” doesn’t solve the problem. We will sin again! And what about the sins we’ve already committed? God told the first Easter believers to forget about getting right with Him by their own efforts or beliefs. God tells us the same. God directed the first Easter believers to the cross and empty tomb as assurance their guilt was removed. God directs us to the same. The Redeemer’s resurrection restores our hope, the hope for sinners changed by God’s gospel.
After the thunder of God’s law comes the gentle rain of God’s gospel – only His rain doesn’t dampen moods or ruin weekends, but waters souls and restores hopes. The crushing question, “What should we do?”, was answered, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38).
“Repent” means more than regret. The Jews regretted their past rejection of God’s chosen One as the world’s Savior and their part in Christ’s crucifixion. “Repent” means turn from your sins and turn to Jesus. Repentance is turning from trusting self to make things right and turning to trusting the Redeemer’s work. The good news God used Peter to present and the forgiveness that God gave in Baptism works repentance.
Baptism isn’t a cute ceremony. Baptism is taught in numerous verses of the Word as a way God grants His saving grace. Baptism is “for the forgiveness of your sins”. That forgiveness, won for the world by the crucified and risen Savior who suffered our hell, is given by God to individual sinners in Baptism.
And “the gift of the Holy Spirit” is given in Baptism. That isn’t an extra blessing that comes later, after the baptized turned their lives over to God. The “gift of the Holy Spirit” is the comfort and strength that flows from God-given faith in God’s work to send away our guilt. And this gift “is for and for your children and for all who are far away”. Along with the first Easter believers, we bring our infants to “be baptized” so the Holy Spirit will give them, sinful from conception, the precious gift of trust in Christ, the priceless gift of a changed heart.
Did God’s gospel change those first Easter believers? Or did they change themselves? A wrong translation leads many to a wrong answer. Both the King James Version and New International Version translations read, “Save yourselves”. But it’s a passive verb, meaning it is done to us, not done by us. Either “Be saved” or “Escape” (v. 40) gets the sense of the word. It’s not that we flee our forever in hell by anything we do, but “escape” the route our risen Redeemer paved with His life, death and resurrection for us. The Redeemer’s resurrection restores hope for sinners changed by His gospel, His good news.
As we’ve said several times already, if we sinners are counting on what we do in anything to be in God’s good standing, we have no hope. The Savior who lived a perfectly holy life for us, the Savior who agreed to be forsaken by His Father in heaven to take all our punishment on His holy soul, the Savior who then rose from death is our hope. He is hope for sinners who see what they deserve and are “cut to the heart” by God’s law, then are rescued by what they don’t deserve and are changed by God’s gospel. That’s the truth of all God’s Word. Not sinners’ efforts, but God’s gospel, saves sinners. And see God’s gospel at work among the first Easter believers. First the spoken gospel from God in Jesus through His apostles, then the sacramental gospel from God in Jesus through Baptism. “Those who accepted the message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added” (v. 41).
Peter and the other apostles didn’t add souls. The Lord did! God alone changes hearts. Still today He persuades and saves sinners by His gospel, not by our religious routine or pleasant personality or great good works. The Redeemer’s resurrection (who then or today would want to be connected to a still-dead savior?) restores the hope of sinners! When we stop “hoping” God will grant us here a life that has no troubles, stop “hoping” more than anything for more money, stop “hoping” that God will smile upon us because are such faithful worshipers, and live with confident hearts that He has changed in Christ, we have the certain hope that will never disappoint us!
Since the fall into sin, the hope of God’s people is tied to the Messiah who would crush the serpent’s head – but in so doing would have His heel crushed. The plan for redemption always included “the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19). The certain hope of eternal life for sinners with God is built on the sacrificial death of the innocent Lamb and the victorious resurrection of the whole world’s Redeemer. He restores our hope forever! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Second Sunday of Easter - The Risen Lord Is Our Living Hope
- The Second Sunday of Easter
April 16, 2023
Hymns 449, 456, 444, 465
First Reading Acts 2:14a,22-32
Psalm of the Day 16
Second Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Gospel John 20:19-31
1 Peter 1:3-9
The Risen Lord Is Our Living Hope
I. Hope for our family’s inheritance
II. Hope during our life’s grief
III. Hope in our faith’s goal
In the name of our crucified and risen Savior, fellow redeemed, still rejoicing in His resurrection and its results for us,
Holy Week we moved spiritually from somber to sorrowing to soaring in Easter joy. Easter Sunday attendance is the highest of any Sunday of the year. But already this second Sunday of Easter the excitement is diminished. The excitement fades, but the results don’t - ever! After hearing much from Paul last Sunday, today it’s Peter’s turn to teach what the Lord teaches about the everlasting Easter effects, the resurrection results.
Do you know the background of Peter’s two short letters? Peter likely wrote them from Rome, where he and other believers were being harmed because of their faith in Christ. It seemed the persecution of Christians would spread north and east to batter believers in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). It was to believers there these letters were sent, warning them life wouldn’t be getting easier in the short term, and encouraging them to hold on to their Easter hope now and forever.
Living and working among unbelievers today isn’t easy, either. What Peter told believers of old still holds for us. We likely won’t be physically accosted for our faith, but we are emotionally blasted because of what we hold so dear. Still, we have hope, “living hope” (v. 3). That hope is there even when our vehicle breaks down, bank account dwindles, health fails. How? Our “living hope” is anchored in our risen Lord. He makes our “living hope” the hope for our family’s inheritance, the hope during our life’s grief, the hope in our faith’s goal.
I. Hope for our family’s inheritance
Even when we strive to do the right thing for the right reason in the right way we can’t be confident in what we do before God and with God. Why not? We are sinners. So how wonderful to hear God say our “living hope” isn’t anything we do, but is a gift from “His great mercy” (v. 3)! The undeserved love from God to us sinners sent His Son to suffer our hell. The mercy of God led Him to raise Christ from His sacrificial death to give us this rock-solid, “living, hope”. By Christ’s resurrection, God “gave us a new birth” (v. 3), the new birth by faith that trusts Christ and His work for life’s greatest blessings.
Possessing that God-given faith, we’re different. We are members of God’s family. Our sinful nature now is in the back seat of our heart. The new person of faith is at the wheel of our lives, guided by its eternal driving instructor, the Holy Spirit. Though the Old Adam still tempts us to sin and stray, “through faith you are being protected by God’s power” (v. 5).
The Old Adam keeps trying to grab the wheel, but our faith is a screen between the front and back seats, preventing our sinful nature from taking control of our life again. And it is the power of God, His power to us in His good news of Christ in His Word and sacraments, that is strong enough to resist even Satan’s most savage attacks. The devil may distract us by his scheming, may cause us to swerve occasionally, but he can’t take control of us unless we let go of our “living hope”.
Our “living hope” is the risen Lord. He conquered sin and death, and gives us His heavenly inheritance. Most religions hold hope before their followers, the hope of blessings here and maybe blessings hereafter, if the individual earns them. Where is the sure hope there? How can people know they have done enough? On the Last Day every hope not standing on the risen Lord will be exposed as false hope, a cruel hoax.
We will receive the “inheritance…kept in heaven for” (v. 4) us. Since we have been adopted into God’s family, been given in Baptism the new birth to make us members of His family, “we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Since the inheritance comes as a gift from God, it is a sure thing, the “living hope” guaranteed by the risen Lord!
Some people worry their worldly inheritance will be eaten up by taxes or lost to a stock market crash. Not this one! Our spiritual family’s inheritance is “undying” (v. 4). Nothing can end it. Our family’s inheritance is “undefiled” (v. 4). Nothing can tarnish its beauty. Our family’s inheritance is “unfading” (v. 4). Nothing can make it grow stale or go away little-by-little. Can we really be sure? Yes! The risen Lord is the “living hope” we have for our spiritual family’s inheritance!
II. Hope during our life’s grief
Until we receive our family’s inheritance in the great unending glory of heaven, we have to trudge through disappointments, disasters, deaths. So we keep the eyes of our faith focused on Christ’s empty tomb. That puts grief in perspective. The risen Lord is our “living hope” even during our life’s grief.
The sad times and bad times we endure in life do not indicate that God is on vacation, that His powerful hand is no longer over us. The risen Lord Himself says it’s necessary that we undergo troubles. He compares that to the process of refining gold. As then, still today, gold is heated to eleven hundred degrees Fahrenheit to turn the gold to liquid. Because gold is heavy, the gold sinks and impurities float to the surface where they are skimmed off. When the heat is removed, the gold cools and hardens. What is left is purer gold than to start.
“Because of this you rejoice very much, even though now for a little while…you have been grieved by various kinds of trials so that the proven character of your faith” (vv. 6-7) is displayed. Peter tasted the bitterness of failing such a test. He fell on his faith in the courtyard of Caiaphas, denying he even knew Jesus. But Peter also tasted the sweetness of forgiveness from the risen Jesus and His powerful atonement.
We have God’s promise no trial will be more than we can bear. “God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability, but when He tests you, He will also bring about the outcome that you are able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God tests us for our good, not for His knowledge. God provides “the outcome” in His Word, telling us our faith and our eternal salvation are worth far more than anything else.
Our faith shows its “proven character”, the real thing from the risen Lord, when we use what God gives us to handle burdens bearing down on us. The world is watching us Easter believers to see if we really are different. Adversity shows the difference between us who have “living hope” and those who don’t. What does the world see in the way we handle “trials”?
What makes even the worst tragedy bearable? Knowing it’s only temporary. When a believer dies, surviving Christians are crushed by grief and sorrow. But the reality we will meet again in heaven is God providing our “living hope” in our risen Lord. When our financial condition is bleak, we are concerned. But the reality the risen Lord has not forsaken us is our “living hope”. When we are picked on at school, we aren’t happy. But the reality the risen Lord loves us more than anyone is our “loving hope”. God’s forgiveness of our sins in Christ and His promises of life forever bring us through “trials” and grief.
So when we Christones handle His way our losses, hardships, and grief our faith is shown to the watching world as real time evidence of God’s love and power. Who gets the credit? It results “in praise, glory, and honor”, not for us, but for our risen Lord. He brings us through life’s grief with the “living hope” that comes by His death and His resurrection for us.
III. Hope in our faith’s goal
You don’t believe there are genies in old bottles or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, do you? No one has ever seen them. They aren’t real. They are only stories and legends.
So is your so-called Savior!, skeptics say. Have you ever seen Him? Has He appeared to you? No! He’s just your imagination! So they say! We know different. We believe different. Christ not only lived on earth. He rose from death! He lives! The risen Lord is our “living hope”, hope in our faith’s “goal” (v. 9).
We heard in the Gospel how Peter saw the risen Lord sweep away the doubts of fellow disciple Thomas. Then we heard that, as blessed as were Peter and Thomas and the rest of the disciples by the risen Savior’s presence among them, even more “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29), people like you and me!
We look forward to something we haven’t seen, something promised by someone we haven’t seen. “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him” (v. 8). The world says that’s foolish. God says that’s His miracle of trust worked in us by His power.
Too often believers act like folks who suppose they are losers now, but will win in the end. We will win in the end! But we are also winners now! You are “filled with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (vv. 8-9).
Salvation is not ours when first we get to heaven. Jesus Himself said, “The one who believes in Me has eternal life” (John 6:47). We don’t wait until we leave earth to gain the blessings won at Calvary. We have them now! The risen Lord is our “living hope” to trust the “goal” of our faith in being His now.
How do we live? As Easter believers, basking in the “goal” of our faith! We were on the brink of becoming eternal fatalities when Jesus snatched us from disaster at the cost of His life. We express our “hope” with “joy” and gratitude, with “love for Him” and “faith in Him”. We walk and talk like people who have the “goal” in front of us every second, the goal that can’t be taken from us unless we let go of it. But why would we?!
Easter isn’t over. Easter never ends. The risen Lord is our “living hope”. That is confidence for this life and the life to come. That is ours in Jesus who died for us, then rose from death. The risen Lord is always our “living hope”. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Resurrection Sunday - What Really Happened at the Tomb?
- Resurrection Sunday
April 9, 2023
Luke 24:12
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE TOMB?
I. The Son of God proved His deity
II. The Father accepted His sacrifice
III. The sinner receives God’s promise
In the name of Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Redeemer, dear Easter believers who know that our Redeemer lives,
The whole state was buzzing Thursday for the Tiger’s home opener. That buzz wasn’t as loud yesterday. And, if the season goes as predicted for the Tigers, there won’t be much emotional interest or investment in the games come August.
Will that happen to us tomorrow – or already tonight – about Easter? We went to church for Easter, as we always do. Then the kids found their Easter baskets and we had Easter dinner with the family, as we always do. We had a wonderful Easter. If Easter is over for you tomorrow, that’s not God’s Easter. What happened the very first Easter isn’t something to watch, then walk away. It’s the truth we take to heart every day.
What really happened at the tomb? Jesus rose, you answer. True. But what happened at the tomb didn’t just happen to Him. It is also for us. Peter was “amazed at what had happened” (v. 12) at the tomb. God filled Peter with His Easter truths, then sent Peter out to preach it. God refills us with His Easter truths, then sends us out to live and share them. We start this truth: at the tomb the Son of God proved His deity.
I. The Son of God proved His deity
There could be no resurrection from the dead by Jesus had Jesus not died. Some suggest He didn’t die at Calvary, but only lapsed into a coma on the cross and seemed dead, then came to in the tomb, shoved the stone aside, snuck out, and said, “I’m risen!” The testimony of soldiers and of God’s Word is that Jesus died on the cross before the other two died, that blood and water flowed from His side when sliced by a spear. Jesus died, and the tomb held His dead body.
And then the tomb was empty! The wax seal and Roman soldier were requested by Jewish church leaders to keep Christ’s disciples from stealing the dead body and saying, “Look! Jesus has risen, just as He said He would!” Then, when the soldiers reported what really happened at the tomb, those churchmen bribed them to lie, “gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we were sleeping”’” (Matthew 28:12-13). What really happened at the tomb? The soldiers heard and felt “a great earthquake” (Matthew 28:2). “An angel of the Lord…rolled away the stone” (Matthew 28:2). What really happened at the tomb? The crucified Savior rose to life!
That means that Jesus is God. No one else in history had ever, will ever, promise to return to life on earth from death, and actually do it. Only Jesus did! He is the true God He says He is.
What would be the consequences were Jesus still in a tomb somewhere? If He who said, “On the third day I will be raised” (Matthew 20:19), did not rise as He said He would on the day He said He would, He’d be a laughingstock, not worth our worship or our time. He might live on in our memory as a wonderful man. But Jesus would be nothing more than that.
But enough of that! That’s not what happened. What really happened at the tomb is Christ rose, so He is the true God on whom we place our every hope for everything spiritual and eternal! Jesus took back His life, which proves He is fully God. He gave up His soul Friday afternoon, then brought His soul back to His body very early this morning. He is “declared to be God’s powerful Son by His resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). We sing about both His Good Friday victory and His Resurrection Sunday proof of who He is in Luther’s great Resurrection Hymn, Hymn 439, stanzas 1,3, and 4.
II. The Father accepted His sacrifice
Some resurrection misunderstanding comes from the creed. It sounds like Jesus first descended into hell, then came alive. What God’s Word declares is that very early Sunday morning Christ’s soul came from heaven to rejoin His body; Jesus was alive! Then, as we read in 1 Peter, Jesus went to hell – body and soul together – to preach to the spirits there. We’ll get to that in a bit. By the time the earthquake hit and the angels took care of the stone, Jesus was long gone from the tomb. When we say in our creed, “The third day He rose again from the dead”, we mean He left the place of the dead and appeared alive to people outside the tomb that third day.
More crucial than getting the day’s events in correct chronological order is knowing what happened to Jesus and for us that day. What really happened at the tomb is also that the Father declared His acceptance of His Son’s sacrifice for sins.
Had Jesus not risen from death, “your faith would be futile; you’d be still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). If His body were still in a grave, decayed and nothing but a skeleton after all this time, what good would your trust in Him be? If Jesus were still dead, how would His death have been different than John the Baptist’s or President Lincoln’s? A tragic assassination, but no value to anyone. If the crucified Christ didn’t rise from death, it would mean He didn’t pay for a single sin.
But He did rise, proof He has fully paid for all sins. When He went to hell very early that morning, He went not to suffer any more, but to declare His victory. He told Satan and the rest of the wicked angels, “I am here in the flesh and in your horrible home of hell! I have destroyed your power! I’m here to show you that You can’t touch Me and you can’t have My people!”
The angel told the faithful women who’d come to the tomb, “He is not here. He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:5-6). How did the angel know? He was God’s messenger from heaven to tell humans what really happened at the tomb. This is God’s Easter sermon: “Christ is risen! Trust what that means! He was raised to life because of your justification” (Romans 4:25).
Justify is the great Bible word that means, to declare, “Not guilty!” Oh, we are guilty, very guilty! We look so nice and sing so loudly and are so full of Godly joy this greatest morning of the year. But we remain sinful. And sin will mar our lives today. We will snap at a loved one, think unkind thoughts about others, consider selfishly only what we want.
But our damning sins are no longer held against us! What really happened at the tomb is that the Father showed He accepted His Son’s sacrifice for our sins. Raising the Son was the Father’s way to tell the world, “His work is perfectly completed! His sacrifice removes the curse of hell you deserve!”
Our Savior so properly gets the resurrection glory. But what really happened at the tomb is that we also get the resurrection blessing of sins fully covered. When Satan holds the huge pile of our stinking mess before us, we might wonder whether we’re forgiven. Then the Father shows us the empty tomb to say, “All your sins are fully forgiven. My Son really meant it when He shouted about sins’ payment, ‘It is finished’” (John 19:30). What really happened at the tomb is that the Father declared, “Your sinfulness is covered by My Son’s holiness. Your guilt is exchanged for His innocence!”
Bible verses that say Jesus rose from death emphasize He is God. Verses that say The Father raised Jesus teach He accepted His Son’s sacrifice. Both statements are true! We sing those glorious Resurrection truths with the words of stanzas 1,2, and 3 of Hymn 446.
III. The sinner receives God’s promise
Peter left the tomb that morning amazed at “what had happened”. He’d never seen a once-filled tomb empty. But the risen Savior would use Peter to preach, teach, and write about what really happened at the tomb. That guarantees what will happen at our tombs. The empty tomb of Jesus is God’s way for us sinners to receive God’s promise of eternal life!
The night before He died Jesus told the disciples in the upper room, and us disciples in this Easter room, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). He said that while talking about His death. His resurrection from the dead means death is no longer a punishment for us; remember, our sin is fully paid! Death is no longer a one-way ticket to hell, but the quick trip to heaven. The risen Lord guarantees that for our soul. Then, on the Last Day, our body with our soul takes that trip, too.
What comfort when death seems to have snatched from us a loved one. In the fifty-one weeks since last Easter, death has visited the families of several of our members. The temptation is to mourn as if there is no eternal joy. Almost without realizing it we can act as if Christ’s tomb were still full and our hopes empty. But then we hear His Resurrection message, “Because I live, you also will live”, and we are filled again with His certainty that our loved one who died in faith is in heaven – and we will follow! What really happened at the tomb? We sinners receive God’s promise for life with Him hereafter!
With that promise, we also receive God’s purpose for life here. The angel told the women, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead!’” (Matthew 28:6-7). Will we who have seen the risen Savior with the eyes of faith go back to following the dictator of darkness? Back to the damning, dead-end slavery to sin? Back to slathering our souls with slime and filth? No way! The risen Jesus so fills our lives that we eagerly walk in the light of His Word, trust only in His cross and empty tomb, gladly put on the robe of His holiness every day.
Four hours from now, four days from now, four weeks from now, will we be living the power of what really happened at the tomb? We will as we keep using the risen Savior’s Word to fill our hearts. Some of you are here only because it’s Easter, and this is what you always do at Easter. But that isn’t what really happened at the cross and tomb. Jesus fills us for every day, not just holy days. We go to His Word at home, and come to His house each week, to be refilled regularly with the life and joy and power and purpose His resurrection gives us.
Jesus rising from His tomb so filled the early believers they began to celebrate His resurrection not just once a year, but once a week! Every Sunday is Easter for us who trust what really happened at the tomb. We’re happy for Jesus that He is proved fully God. We’re also happy for us, and so hear each week how His Father accepted His sacrifice for our sins, how His rising from His tomb will one day be our rising from our tombs. His work to pay for the world’s sins is completed. Now He gives us the privilege to spread that power and purpose in what really happened to Him, and for us, at the tomb! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Second Sunday in Lent - Lord, Give Us Such a Faith
- Second Sunday in Lent
March 5, 2023
Hymns 394, 570, 581, 927
First Lesson Genesis 12:1-8
Psalm 121
Second Lesson Romans 4:1-5,13-17
Gospel Lesson John 3:1-17
Genesis 12:1-8
Lord, Give Us Such a Faith
I. Trusting Your promises
II. Acting on Your promises
III. Spreading Your promises
In the name of Jesus Christ, the promised Savior, the One on whom our faith rests, fellow faith-filled children of God,
Faith. A well-known religious leader proclaims, “All faiths offer something to someone.” Lutherans mention faith all the time. But just what is faith? Faith is not another term for religion. And the idea that it doesn’t matter in what or on whom your faith lies, just that you have faith, is silly. If I have faith that what’s left of our last live Christmas tree will all by itself Easter morning turn back into the beautiful Christmas tree it once was, my faith is useless. The power of faith isn’t in the believing. The power of faith is in the one in whom one trusts.
What faith Abram had! Would you like faith like his? You have it! How? Not because you are famous heroes of faith like Abram. But because your faith is anchored in the same One Abram’s faith was. When we pray, “Lord, give me such a faith as Abram’s”, God answers, “I am giving you such a faith!”
You don’t feel you have this kind of faith? Well, are you looking for a great faith so you can do great things and become a great person and get great applause? That’s not this kind of faith, friends. The Lord promises to give us a faith that trusts His promises, acts on His promises, and spreads His promises.
I. Trusting Your promises
To see the kind of faith God gave Abram, we need to hear the kind of command He gave Abram. “Get out of your country and away from your relatives and from your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you (v. 1). Spend the rest of your life in a place you’ve never been and where you know no one else.” God gave Abram a faith to trust His promise that such a drastic move wouldn’t harm Abram.
God went on, “I will make you a great nation…bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing…All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you (vv. 2-3). A huge nation from you, Abram! The Savior for all people from you, Abram!”
Human reason told Abram, “You’ll never be a blessing to others. You’re seventy-five, so you don’t have long to live!” But his God-given, trusting faith told Abram, “The Lord promised it, so I trust it!” Human reason told Abram, “Why leave where you have it so good? You’re rich! Stay put! Don’t move!” But his God-given, trusting faith told Abram, “The Lord promised it, so I trust it will work out best for me and my loved ones!” Human reason told Abram, “You won’t be the father of a great nation. Will you and your elderly wife, still childless, have a son? Come on, Abram! Don’t be so naïve!” But His God-given, trusting faith told Abram, “The Lord promised it, so I trust it!”
The Lord gives us the same faith to trust His promises. Let’s be honest. Often our sinful flesh shouts, “Why believe this stuff? It’s just print on a page!” God, give us faith to trust what You say on every page about heaven being open to us sinners through the death for us of Abram’s descendant, Jesus. Often our human reason argues, “Why believe what you can’t see? Have you ever seen God? So why believe in Him?” God, give us faith to trust what You say, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Often our sinful nature whispers, “Why believe God created all things out of nothing? Why believe the Word used with ordinary water brings infants to faith in Jesus? Why believe Christ’s body and blood are really present in the Supper?” God, give us such a faith to trust all that is so because You say so! “Faith is being sure about what we hope for, being convinced about things we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
How much joy, peace, security, and comfort – especially when death draws near – we have with such God-given, trusting faith! Lord, give us such a faith to trust what we can’t yet see with our eyes or hold with our hands. Lord, give us such a faith to trust it because You have said it and You promise it.
II. Acting on Your promises
We miss the main point of this lesson if we don’t see the Lord approached Abram, the Lord initiated everything. Abram did not make the first move to God. But when God filled Abram, God changed Abram. The faith God gave Abram didn’t simply lie on his heart – as Luther said, like foam on beer. The Lord gives such a faith that acts on His promises.
To see the kind of faith God gave Abram, see the trip on which He sent Abram – a permanent, one-way trip. “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him…Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired…They set out to travel to the land of Canaan. Eventually they arrived” (vv. 4-5) there.
The move was several hundred miles. That’s not a long distance move today. But Abram and Sarai had no phones to keep in touch with relatives, no car for summer visits, no mail or email to send news to and receive news from loved ones. Once they left, ties with the rest of the family were gone.
Remember, Abram and Sarai had made a fortune in their homeland. They were set for life. To move meant risking robbery by ruthless land pirates who hid along travel routes. And even if the Lord granted them safe travel, they were still taking a chance they might not be as successful in the new land. To their human reason, the move made no sense.
Abram and Sarai went anyhow. Why? Because “the Lord had told them” to go. The Lord Himself gave Abram the strength to do what the Lord Himself had commanded. With Abram’s faith focused on the certainty of God’s promises, Abram had what He needed: God-given faith to act on God’s promises.
The Lord gives us such faith to act on His promises. We need such God-given faith when Satan’s helpers suggest, “Why obey God? He’s asking you to make an unreasonable sacrifice when He tells you to get rid of sinful entertainment, plotting against others, not hearing His Word regularly.” God, give us such an acting faith in Jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice, who gave His life for us, who suffered our hell on that hill.
We need such God-given faith when our sinful flesh tempts us, “Why obey God? The family next door doesn’t make any time for God, yet makes twice the money you do.” God, give us such an acting faith in Jesus to live the contentment that comes from being rich toward You in spiritual matters more than being rich before the world in money matters.
We need such God-given faith to defy the devil who suggests, “You already have faith in God. You don’t need to change your lifestyle. Do what you want. You trust Christ, so sin, then ask Him forgive you!” We need such God-given faith to trust the change He worked in us when He snatched us from Satan and made us His own! God, give us the sincere faith that confesses, and lives for!, Him who died for us and rose from death. God, give us such a faith to act on Your promises!
III. Spreading Your promises
Though the Lord has given us the faith to trust and act on His promises, He’s not done with us. As we read on in this twelfth chapter of His Word and in the rest of His Word, He wants to give us the faith that also spreads His promises.
What do you do when you get to your destination after a long trip from home? Lie on the hotel bed? Swim in the pool? Check out the area? Hear again what Abram did when their journey was done. He “built an altar there to the Lord” (v. 7). Why an altar? It was a spiritual marker, a visible confession of faith in the Lord who brought them safely to the new land the Lord promised to give to Abram and Sarai’s descendants.
Then Abram “proclaimed the name of the Lord” (v. 8). Abram preached to and taught his wife, nephew, and workers about the Lord. He conducted worship services, Bible classes, and home devotions. “We give thanks to the Lord who gave us a safe journey to our new homeland. We ask the Lord to continue to grant us good health and Your happiness here. Lord, teach us to trust You for all we need. Lord, grant us growing faith to tell our new neighbors about You and Your promises to save sinners through the Savior You will send from us.”
“The Canaanites were then in the land” (v. 6). Abram knew those pagan Canaanites would make life difficult for him and his family to settle and serve God there. But God promised to give the land to his descendants, so Abram trusted God. Abram didn’t run when he saw his family outnumbered there.
Lord, give us such a faith to rely ever more on You and Your salvation for us and all sinners. May we sinners see Jesus, the descendant of Abram, as our Savior. May we show Jesus to others we’ll invite to our Lent and Holy Week services to hear more about You. Lord, give us the faith to see always that You use Your good news in Word and Sacrament to increase our faith, and to equip us to spread Your promises to others!
What is faith? It’s the hand God gives us to receive faithfully all He’s done for us and promises to us graciously. We can’t get this faith on our own. God plants faith in us. Lord, give us such a faith! How great to know what God will do among us and through us as individual believers, as Godly families, as a congregation and church body by working in us with His promises! Not our act of believing, but His promises produce that faith in Jesus – and produce the works and life that flow from it. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
First Sunday in Lent - We Sinners Have a Savior!
- First Sunday in Lent
February 26, 2023
Hymns 499, 863, 676, 669
First Lesson Genesis 3:1-15
Psalm 46
Second Lesson Romans 5:12-19
Gospel Lesson Matthew 4:1-11
Genesis 3:1-15
We Sinners Have a Savior!
I. Shattering news for the devil
II. Sobering news for the Savior
III. Saving news for the sinner
In the name of Jesus, the Seed of the woman, the Savior of the world, fellow redeemed,
The parent protested, “If I tell him what he did at school was wrong, he’ll think he’s a bad boy and won’t see me as his friend.” The teacher said, “You’re his mother, not his friend!”
The view of most people about God is like that mother’s view of her role. God is love, they say. God wants me to be happy. True and true! So God is okay with what I do if it makes me happy. False! The all-seeing, all-knowing, all-hearing, ever-present Lord watches from heaven, warns us in His Word about our sins, then warms us from His Word with the Savior.
What we could never do on our own, what we need above all else, God has done and God has given. We sinners have the Savior we need! This first promise of the Savior was shattering news for the devil, sobering news for the Savior, and saving news for the sinner.
I. Shattering news for the devil
This first promise of the Savior wasn’t spoken directly to Adam and Eve. “The Lord God said to the serpent” (v. 14), really Satan, who used a snake’s body to deceive Eve. The devil was created a good angel. But he then rebelled against God and was thrown out of heaven with other rebelling angels.
God gives us the scene in Eden. Adam and Eve cowered before Him as He confronted them with their first sins against Him. Like stubborn children, they had run from their Father, supposing they could be happier and more complete human beings living on their own and disregarding God’s will. For a second they saw Satan as their counselor. They listened to the devil suggest what God had forbidden: eat fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. More on that later.
God had shattering news for Satan. “There was briefly friendship between you and the woman. She believed your lie that I don’t want what is best for her and Adam. You suggested they turn from Me for a moment and try life your way. They did. And sin entered the world! Unless I do something about sin, Eve and Adam and the whole human race to come from them will live forever with you in darkness, sin, then hell. I will change that. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed (v. 15). I will rip the disguise of friendship off you and expose you to sinners as what you really are: their darkest nightmare and eternal foe.”
That “hostility” would be on three levels. There would be bitterness “between you, Satan, and the woman”. There would be enmity between Satan’s “seed” (unbelievers throughout history) and her seed” (believers in the Savior every sinner needs). But most shattering of all for the devil was “hostility” coming to a head in one particular descendant of Eve. “He will crush your head” (v. 15)! Even worse than exposing the devil, God would send the Champion to crush the devil’s power.
Martin Luther pointed out that with these words the Lord mocked Satan. Since God didn’t identify the exact descendant of Eve – would it be Cain? Abel? Seth? Methuselah? Enoch? Noah? – Satan had to worry each time a baby boy was born. Is this the One who is going to crush my head, my power? Sinners have the Savior! That’s shattering news for the devil.
II. Sobering news for the Savior
God came to earth to fight our worst enemy. Not a rival at work or a bully at school. But the prince of darkness. The closing words of the lesson, “and you, Satan, will crush His heel” (v. 15), foretell the war would be grim, bloody work. We sinners have the Savior, and that’s sobering news for the Savior.
As we see very vividly this Lent season, Jesus didn’t avoid the war with Satan. As He crushed the serpent’s head, the devil crushed “His heel”, not a literal wound, but a word picture for Good Friday. Do you know anyone who died from being hit in the heel by a tree limb, a brick, even a bullet? No! “Heel” wounds aren’t fatal. Of course Jesus died. But His death was not the end. He rose three days later, just as He said He would. Still, He suffered the most wretched agony and death ever. He was not only rejected by fellow Jews and deserted by friends. He was forsaken by His Father as He hung on the cross and took the punishment of hell for every sin ever.
The Lord in Eden foretelling the Savior is the first promise of the Savior. God came from heaven to earth knowing the damningly difficult and hell-to-pay assignment that is the Triune God’s plan to rescue sinners even before time began.
Sin isn’t easily removed by God waving a wand or saying a divine Abracadabra. Defeating the prince of hell and rescuing the world of sinners from hell is the greatest miracle ever. Rescuing the world cost Christ His life and put hell on Him! He made the payment of hell we all deserved. That sobering news for the Savior is on display prominently this Passion season.
III. Saving news for the sinner
Russia invaded Ukraine one year ago this weekend, but the conflict continues without Russia really gaining any territory they covet. How long will the conflict last? The “hostility” foretold in Eden would have a clear-cut, decisive winner. We have that winner, the Savior. This is saving news for us sinners.
To many it seems silly to make a big deal of the sin by our first parents. So what if Eve and Adam took a piece of forbidden fruit? Kids sneak cookies all the time. It. Was. Not. About. The. Fruit! God used that tree and His prohibition about its fruit to give Adam and Eve a way to live thanks to Him for all He had given them – created in His image, the perfect world, unlimited love and joy. By thinking about, then doing, what God had forbidden, Adam and Eve were in effect saying, “Maybe God hasn’t told us everything we need to know. Maybe there’s even greater happiness to discover and experience.” That was the deceiving, damning lie the devil told Adam and Eve.
They sinned already by desiring what was forbidden. Their sin broke up God’s family and chained sinners to the devil. And look at the results! For the first time ever, they felt shame in their nakedness and no longer directed their sexual impulses only to their good and God’s glory. They felt fear. They tried to hide from God, blamed each other. Adam even blamed God. “God, the woman You gave to be with me…gave me the fruit (v. 12), so it’s at least a little Your fault!” What insolence!
What grace, then, for Adam and Eve to have God seek them out, then hear God tell Satan, “The Promised Descendant of the woman will crush your head, break your hold on sinners.” A snake with its head crushed has lost its power to harm. The first promise of the Savior is saving news for us and all sinners!
Satan still whispers, “God wants you to be His religious slaves. He doesn’t care if you’re happy or not. I want you to do whatever makes you happy. Go ahead and disobey God. If you want to return to Him later, you can do so. Just try it my way for a while.” When the devil whispers, we hear the Savior shout, “The devil is a liar and the father of lying” (John 8:44). We trust the perfect life and innocent death of Jesus. He defeated the devil. He frees us from Satan’s control.
Connected to that saving news for us sinners is who we sinners are in the promised Savior. When the devil succeeded in getting Adam and Eve to view themselves as their own bosses, and God as an unfair dictator, Satan planted his evil nature in them. It is not true that people now, like Adam and Eve at creation, are created in God’s image. What is true is that we began life with a sinful nature, and we will keep it until death. But brought to faith in the Savior and His work to redeem the world, God’s image has been partially restored in us, and we desire to serve Him. That is the spiritual identity the Savior gives those who trust Him alone for salvation. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because the Savior has broken Satan’s power over us, we are free to live for God now on earth, then live with God forever in heaven.
Does this promise of the Savior seem strange, especially for a service in Lent? It doesn’t mention Christ by name. It doesn’t directly declare what His work would be and how He would “crush” the devil. This first promise of the Savior used picture language, which makes it seem a bit vague. But the fulfillment is perfectly clear! At Calvary, Christ “crushed” Satan’s power.
Satan didn’t find this promise difficult to understand. When he learned the Savior was to come from Abram’s descendants, the devil concentrated his efforts on making trouble for the children of Israel. Despite the devil’s damning efforts, he did not derail Christ from coming. Jesus came to earth, knowing full well what He would suffer here. What love! What a Savior! What certain salvation we sinners have in Him!
More than an end to senseless gun violence, more than new lodging for hundreds of thousands displaced by the earthquake in Turkey, more than a cure for cancer, sinners need the Savior to rescue them from the hell they deserve. He has been sent! He has won! He calls us to trust in Him and to live for Him because He lived and died and rose to save us. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany - The Redeemer Reveals Real Righteousness
- Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 12, 2023
Hymns 370, 695, 835
First Lesson 2 Samuel 11:1-17,26-27
Psalm 119A
Second Lesson 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
Gospel Lesson Matthew 5:21-37
Matthew 5:21-37
The Redeemer Reveals Real Righteousness
I. The perfect righteousness demanded of us
II. The precious righteousness delivered to us
In the name of our perfect, precious Savior, Jesus Christ, fellow redeemed who desire to live for Him who died for us,
As we noted when introducing the service two weeks ago, many misunderstand our Savior’s Sermon on the Mount. They suppose in these three chapters of Matthew Jesus lists what sinners need to do to get to heaven. The Holy Spirit had Matthew write at the beginning of Chapter Five that Jesus speaks here to “His disciples” (Matthew 5:1), people who look to Him as the Savior, trusting the only way to heaven is through faith in His work to live perfectly and die innocently for sinners.
Jesus is not urging people to do things and live right to earn salvation. He is instructing His followers – sinners who humbly admit they are powerless to save themselves and lovingly look to Him to win their forgiveness and open Paradise to them – is instructing us how God desires the saved to live on earth.
The Redeemer here reveals real righteousness. The complete teaching of His Word about righteousness is far different than what the sinful world thinks about righteousness, even what some believers think about righteousness. We listen carefully and look diligently at what the Redeemer reveals about real righteousness – the perfect righteousness God demands of us and the precious righteousness God delivers to us.
I. The perfect righteousness demanded of us
Most in Jesus’ day assumed the most religious and righteous people anywhere were the teachers of the Jewish law and the Jewish Pharisees. But right before this lesson Jesus had said, “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
Hear the gasps from the crowd on the hillside that day? Listen to the whispers. “If that’s true, how can anyone be saved?! No one keeps God’s laws like the Pharisees and our law experts!” Those Jewish groups did make a big show of doing what God’s law demanded. But theirs was only an outward obedience. Their obedience certainly didn’t please God. Their interpretation of what God demanded was way too shallow. While they might have kept the letter of God’s law, they failed to say that even sinful thoughts are forbidden, that wicked motives are already transgressions, that evil scheming is just as much sin before God as are the acts which spill out from evil scheming.
We could spend the rest of the day dissecting these seventeen verses about murder, adultery, divorce, and improper oath-taking. We devote weeks of Catechism classes to the commandments against those sins. I hope you recall what you were taught and will review that regularly. But rather than go through those commands individually today, we take them together as the Redeemer reveals real righteousness, which begins with the perfect righteousness He demands of us.
Did you notice how the Son of God began each of these four sections? “You have heard that it was said…‘You shall not murder.’…You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’…It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife’…You have heard that it was said…‘Do not break your oaths’” (vv. 21,27,31,33). Then Jesus continued each section, “But I tell you…But I tell you…But I tell you…But I tell you” (vv. 22,28,32,34)?
What is the Redeemer revealing? Clearly, there’s a difference between what was heard and understood about the commandments and what God teaches and demands in the commandments. Everyone knows it’s a grievous sin against God to murder a person. But doesn’t it hit us between the eyes to hear that, before God, feelings of hatred and words that hurt are just as sinful and serious as murdering a person?
We know it’s a sin to be unfaithful to one’s spouse. But doesn’t the finger of God’s law point at us, too, when Jesus explains that “adultery” includes dirty desires, lustful looks, sexual jokes, and immoral entertainment? Do we see those as sins the way we see marital infidelity as sin? God does!
How many of us carelessly use God’s powerful name as we speak? God, it’s nice outside today! Oh my God, what a bad break! Doesn’t it frighten us to hear God Himself say such unthinking use of His name is sinful because it is unthinkingly asking God to witness to others about the weather or a coincidence? If a matter is serious enough to warrant using God’s great name to convince others we are telling the truth, we may do so. But adding a few God’s to spice up our speech is as serious before Him as is telling a lie after taking an oath in His name! God holds us responsible for all the words we speak.
Such sins – so often ignored, so seemingly trivial, so frequently brushed off with the chuckle, “Everybody does it!” – are really death-dealing, deserving of eternal punishment in “hell fire” (v. 22). They are as spiritually destructive as are the heinous crimes and destructive scandals reported on the news.
Hateful thoughts that fester in us spoil the perfect righteousness God demands of us, even if we never say what we’re thinking or act on what our sinful nature wants to do. The leering look at what we see on the screen God condemns as “lust” (v. 28) which pollutes the perfect righteousness God demands of us – even if we never intend to do the naughty things we watch. The cold silence, icy stares, and sarcastic comments we send our spouse’s way defile the perfect righteousness God demands of us – even if we never seriously consider divorce.
Okay, so we can’t deliver the perfect righteousness God demands of us. So what? “The wages of sin” – even what society and our sinful nature call a little, tiny sin – “is death” (Romans 6:23). To God hatred equals murder. Looking with lust at anyone other than your spouse of the opposite sex is already adultery. Misusing God’s name by saying it without even realizing it is evil. We do all those, don’t we? The Redeemer reveals real righteousness to show how far we’ve fallen short of the perfect righteousness God demands of us.
II. The precious righteousness delivered to us
A faithful preacher will use every sermon to preach himself and other worshipers down to hell until we sinners cry, “Lord, have mercy on me!” There’s no problem with that in this lesson, is there? A faithful preacher will also use every sermon to comfort the sinful speaker and listeners with the Lord’s promises of mercy and salvation. But where is the comfort here?
It certainly isn’t our righteousness. God demands perfection, and our righteousness isn’t perfect. The comfort is only God’s good news. God’s good news needs to be applied to this lesson from other parts of His Word. God’s good news is the truth of what the Redeemer has done for the world. That truth is also righteousness. The Redeemer reveals real righteousness, which is also the precious righteousness delivered to us.
Righteousness is rightness. Specifically, it’s being right in God’s sight, which we aren’t by ourselves. This part of the Sermon on the Mount makes that painfully clear, doesn’t it? But Jesus is perfectly right, as God for us. He did what we don’t do. “Just as through the disobedience of one man (Adam) the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man (Jesus) the many will become righteous” (Romans 5:19).
True, Jesus was nailed to the wretched tree of the cross for us. But it’s just as true – and just as saving! – He kept His holy law for us, in our place, as our Substitute. Equally crucial in Christ’s work to be the Savior was His living under His own law. Not one hateful thought, not one dirty desire, not one wicked work or word. Not one sin in action, word, or motive stained His record for even a second of His thirty-three years on earth. And His perfect record, His precious rightness, becomes ours! On the Last Day we will say, “He lived a perfect life for me!”
“And He died my death!” “God made Him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). It was our sins for which He suffered. It was our petty little disagreements, even before they mushroomed into fits of rage, for which He made the payment. Will we be too busy to gather in God’s house for the Lent services beginning next week? Not when we rejoice that Jesus made the sacrifice for all our rebellions against Him, enduring damnation for every sin!
Another Gospel truth ties into this lesson about real righteousness. “The love of Christ compels us…One died for all; therefore all died. And He died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves but for Him, who died in their place and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). The power to do what God wants us to do, and to say “No!” to what God forbids, flows from what He has won for us.
Our lives won’t be perfect until we are home in heaven. But until we are, we strive to do and speak and think and desire only what pleases the One who did all that for us. We do that not to pull ourselves into heaven, but to thank the Redeemer for being our perfect, precious righteousness.
The Redeemer reveals real righteousness. We are shamed by how frequently we blatantly break and blindly ignore the perfect righteousness He demands of us. But we also trust His precious, saving righteousness He delivers to us. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany - Be Confident in the Lord's Covenant
- Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
February 5, 2023
Hymns 373, 630, 821, 375
First Lesson Exodus 19:1-8a
Psalm 112
Second Lesson 1 Peter 2:9-12
Gospel Lesson Matthew 5:13-20
Exodus 19:1-8a
Be Confident in the Lord’s Covenant
I. A wonderful blessing to us
II. A great responsibility for us
In the name of the God who, in love, sent His Son, as promised, to rescue us forever, fellow beloved by the Lord,
Some contracts aren’t worth much. How about some of the service contracts you’ve read? They contain hidden clauses and confusing phrases in tiny print, making the service agreement difficult to understand and practically impossible to use.
This lesson is about a contract – God’s contract with His people. Here it’s called a “covenant” (v. 5). But it’s the same as a contract, an agreement between two parties. Will God ever break His end of it? Does He put hidden clauses and phrases in it to trip us up later? Never! God’s covenant is for our confidence, not confusion. Be confident in God’s covenant – a wonderful blessing to us and a great responsibility for us.
I. A wonderful blessing to us
The Lord made His special “covenant” with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. He summoned Moses, His chosen leader for His chosen people, to meet with Him on the mountain. The region was familiar to Moses. Not even one year earlier Moses had been tending sheep of his father-in-law Jethro right there when Moses saw and heard something amazing.
Remember? Moses saw a bush on fire, but it wasn’t consumed by the fire. He heard a voice speaking to him from the burning bush. It was the Lord telling Moses, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground…When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain” (Exodus 3:5,12).
God kept that promise. He had led Israel to that “mountain”. God wanted His people to know He was faithful to His promise and to be confident in His promise. It was a wonderful blessing for them to be free from Egypt and headed to the land God had promised to give them!
The Lord said, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians” (v. 4). He had sent plagues: water turned to blood; frogs, gnats, and flies all over the place; dead livestock, festering boils; horrendous hail that stripped the fields, then grasshoppers that ate any crops left standing; thick darkness for three days; finally, the firstborn Egyptian males dead. In all of that God said, “Be confident in Me! I will continue to protect you!”
“You have seen…how I carried you on eagles’ wings” (v. 4). A mother eagle builds her nest in a protected place and defends her eaglets fiercely. She uses her huge wings to shade her babies from sun. When her little ones to learn to fly, she cruises just beneath them lest they fall during their first flights.
Hadn’t the Lord done the same for Israel? He protected her during the hot, hard times under Egyptian taskmasters. He led her as a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. He had them safely cross the dry bed of the Red Sea – two million men, women, children, babies, elderly – then drowned every pursuing Egyptian soldier by making the walls of water wash over them. He gave them manna each morning and quail each evening, no small feat for so large a nation, then water in that barren region from an unlikely source – a rock! He gave them victory in a battle, though she had no trained military yet, having Israel prevail as long as Moses’ arms were raised. “Be confident in Me! I’ll continue to do all this and more for you!” What a wonderful blessing God’s “covenant” was to Israel!
But there was an “if” (v. 5) in His covenant with Israel. “Now if you will carefully listen to My voice and keep My covenant, then you will be My special treasure out of all the nations” (v. 5). In order for God’s promise of protection and blessing to hold, Israel had to obey. More about that in a bit.
This covenant made at Sinai, with its hundreds of laws, was meant for just one people, Israel, and for a limited time, until the Savior came from them. Of all those laws only the unchanging will of God, summed up in His Ten Commandments, applies to all people of all time, including you and me.
But we do have a covenant with God, one in which we are to be very confident. It was made at another time, in another place, for another purpose. When the faithful Jew was distressed at his failure to keep God’s laws given through Moses on Sinai, the Lord wanted him to turn to the covenant, the promise, the agreement made with Abram much earlier, already made in Eden the evening of the first human sin. That covenant, of course, is the promised Savior from sin.
The Lord kept that covenant, too! He repeated it over and over through the four thousand years from Eden to Bethlehem. Then He fulfilled it when the Messiah was born in humility, lived in perfection, died our death, and rose from the dead. Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant that saves us.
The “covenant” with Israel at Sinai was two-sided – both God and man had obligations to fulfill to keep it in force. That covenant made with Adam and Eve and Abram and meant for every sinner ever is completely one-sided. There is no “if” in the Lord’s covenant of salvation. There are no conditions for us to meet. The Lord does it all. What a wonderful blessing!
Be confident in the Lord’s covenant! As great as were all the mighty miracles He worked to keep Israel safe on the way to, and in her conquering of, the Promised Land, the covenant the Lord has made to save every sinner ever is far greater! It’s not enough for us to be kept out of harm’s way for this life. What really matters is being God’s forgiven children for eternal life! The covenant we have with the Lord gives us that!
We need not wonder where we stand with God or question whether we are forgiven. We are confident in the Lord’s covenant with us because all is done and heaven is won for us! That is written with the blood of Jesus in the Lord’s covenant with us, His promise to us, His wonderful blessing for us!
II. A great responsibility for us
“You are” (Matthew 5:13,14), Jesus said. Then He added, “So be!” God doesn’t want us sitting like sponges simply soaking up His blessings, but doing nothing else. We don’t need to earn God’s blessings. But He does desire grateful living from His redeemed people. The Lord made that clear to Israel in the covenant He established with them at Sinai. He makes that clear to us, too. We are confident in the Lord’s covenant, one that carries a great responsibility for us.
The Lord told Israel, “If you will carefully listen to My voice and keep My covenant…you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation” (vv. 5-6). That was a great honor and a great responsibility. Christ is the great High Priest who went before the Father to make full payment and to beg full forgiveness for sinners. Old Testament priests would go before God for the people. But how could all Israel serve as “priests”? By going between the Lord and others, not to pay for the sins of foreigners, but to take God’s promise of salvation to them.
“You will be…My holy nation” (v. 6). In Scripture, “holy” can mean set apart. God’s people were to be different, set apart from how others lived. The unique laws God gave Israel at Sinai dealt with diet and dress, hygiene and holidays, worship and the work week to set Israel apart from others. They were to be completely dedicated to the Lord in everything.
But dedicated to Him for the right reasons! God didn’t want a forced obedience, “If You say I must, I will!” The Lord began His covenant with Israel by reminding the chosen nation how much He had done for her. “Keeping in heart My many miraculous blessings to you, here is how you may say, ‘Thank You’ to Me.” That’s the attitude of gratitude with which the Jews were to approach their side of this “covenant” with God.
They did, at first. “All the people answered together, ‘Everything…the Lord has said, we will do’” (v. 8a). But forty days later those same Jews made a calf-god of gold and worshiped it! That was the first of many Jewish violations of this covenant. They had quickly changed from shouting joyously, “We want to serve You, Lord!” to grumbling sinfully, “We’ll serve You, God, some of the time. But we aren’t happy about it!”
The Lord hasn’t given us the long list of laws He gave the Jews who lived to the time of the Sacrifice. Now that the Savior has come, God expects us to be more spiritually mature than the Jews before Jesus arrived and finished His work to buy sinners back from Satan. The Lord wants us to look at what happened at the cross and realize, “How richly God has blessed me!”
The Lord desires the same loving, willing obedience to Him that He desired from Israel. We are confident in that covenant completed at Calvary. It’s a wonderful blessing to us. But it’s also a great responsibility for us. Like Israel, we too are His “kingdom of priests and His holy nation”.
Will we say, “Lord, please forgive my sins for Jesus’ sake, but don’t ask me to share Your Word with others, to go between them and You with Your promises to save”? We will tell others what the Lord has done to give them and us life forever.
Will we say, “Lord, keep me Your child forever, but don’t expect my life to be different than the life of my friends. I want to have the same fun they do”? Then we’d be making our own golden calf and worshiping the way we want.
Will we say, “Lord, I’ll obey You, but I won’t enjoy it”? That isn’t being confident in that covenant God has made with us. To rejoice in all He’s done to save us and in all His promises to us, we gladly do and say and think all He wants from us.
We are confident in God’s covenant, fellow sinners saved by His death! It’s a contract unlike any other. God’s covenant with us is signed and sealed with His Son’s blood. That covenant is our salvation. It’s also our motivation until we enter heaven! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Circumcision and Name of Jesus - On the Eighth Day of Christmas My Savior Gave to Me . . .
- Circumcision and Name of Jesus
January 1, 2023
First Lesson Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 8
Second Lesson Galatians 3:23-29
Gospel Lesson Luke 2:21
Luke 2:21
On the Eighth Day of Christmas My Savior Gave to Me …
I. … His blood for my redemption
II. … His name for my confession
In the name of our Savior, Christmas Christians who begin this year in worship to celebrate His greatest gifts to us,
Do you know why we celebrated our Savior’s birth last weekend? There was no annual celebration of Jesus’ birth for several centuries after the first Christmas, and the exact month and day of His birth wasn’t – and still isn’t – known. When followers of Jesus chose a date centuries after His birth to celebrate His birth, they picked December 25. It’s a date near the winter solstice when the sun shines slightly longer than it has been shining in the Northern Hemisphere. But that’s about it. Nor is there any solid explanation why Christians chose January 6 to mark the Magi, the first Gentiles, worshiping the newborn Savior.
But what do you get when you count from December 26 to January 6? 12 days of Christmas! In medieval Europe there were worship services every one of those twelve days. Gifts were given on each of them, too. Sadly, all that most are familiar with is a silly song about twelve days and twelve gifts.
No reason for choosing the date we celebrate – nor any customs in the way we celebrate – our Savior’s birth changes what happened the first Christmas. And Christmas joy continues in us one week later the same way giving from God continued one week after Christ’s birth. What giving? Joseph and Mary didn’t wake up slowly that morning one week after Mary gave birth and wonder, “What should we do today?” They knew what they’d do on what we call this eighth day of Christmas. What happened is God’s gifts to us this first day of 2023.
We won’t sing a mind-numbing melody. But we will say, On the eighth day of Christmas my Savior gave to me His blood for my redemption and His name for my confession.
I. … His blood for my redemption
“After eight days passed…the child was circumcised” (v. 21). Today, when a son is born, staff in the maternity ward ask the parents if they plan to have him circumcised, have a small piece of skin removed from the baby boy. For us, it’s a curious, optional procedure. For Joseph and Mary, it was entirely a serious, spiritual ceremony for their son, also their Savior, Jesus.
For them and all Jews, it was a God-commanded rite given to their ancestor Abraham, who didn’t become a father until he was ninety-nine. God told Abraham then, “Every boy among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised…It will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you” (Genesis 17:10-11). Cutting off a tiny piece of skin wasn’t for health or hygiene. It was a visible reminder God would send from Israel the Savior from sin, the Savior no sinner ever deserved. It was a reminder of the best promise ever made. Circumcision also symbolized a sinner’s pledge to cut evil out of his life – a sinner’s Thank You lived to God for promising the Savior.
For centuries Jewish baby boys had been circumcised on the eighth day, as God commanded. Now Jesus was. But why? He is the promised Savior, true God come to earth. He was already true God and the Savior before He was circumcised. As true God He certainly didn’t need a reminder He is the Savior. He was circumcised because He also became true man for us.
He is true God, the sinless Savior! He certainly didn’t need that visible reminder to cut sin out of His life. Jesus was circumcised to show He was putting Himself under God’s law as our Substitute to keep God’s law for us and shed His blood for us. Already on the eighth day of His life Jesus gave His blood for us to show His determination to His mission to save us!
It’s not cute to say On the eighth day of Christmas my Savior gave to me something. It’s God’s truth in God’s Word! Sin defiles us. Its guilt must be removed. Only the shedding of the God-man’s blood removes guilt. Jesus gave His blood for our redemption, to buy us back. He didn’t lounge in luxury at a posh Mediterranean resort with servants waiting on Him until it was time for Him to bleed at the cross and die. Just as important as His Holy Week suffering and death were His previous, precious thirty-three years here living under His own law, including His law that a Jewish baby boy be circumcised on the eighth day of life outside the womb. Our Savior’s circumcision preaches the sermon, “I am going to do it all for you! I am born under the law, in order to redeem you under the law, so that you would be adopted as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).
For those reasons, we believers see January 1st as more than New Year’s Day. We see it as the day Jesus first willingly shed His blood to show He was going to go all the way to redeem us from the guilt of our sins. Ours isn’t a savior who suggests He’s so powerful He doesn’t need to keep the law. Ours is the Savior who leaves no doubt about what He’s done to save us! Already as an eight-day-old infant, already in these first hours of 2023, Jesus is showing us He came for us to redeem us, to buy us back by His blood!
II. … His name for my confession
Circumcision wasn’t all there was on the eighth day of the first Christmas. During the circumcision ceremony a Jewish baby boy would be named. Remember Zechariah and Elizabeth? Eight days after Elizabeth gave birth, Zechariah wrote during the circumcision ceremony, “His name is John” (Luke 1:63). So here. As with Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, so for Joseph and Mary this wasn’t a time when they announced what they had decided to name the child. God made that decision for them. He placed His name on the Child sent for the world, for us! On the eighth day of Christmas our Savior gave to us also His name for our confession: “Jesus” (v. 21).
That is a divinely declared name for the Savior. God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Mary the miraculous news that she, a virgin, would conceive the Savior, and the Savior in her womb was to be called “Jesus” (Luke 1:31). When God used an angel to tell Joseph the life-changing news his fiancé was pregnant miraculously from God, the angel told Joseph, too, he was to give the Savior in Mary’s womb “the name Jesus” (Matthew 1:21). Though Joseph had nothing to do biologically with the conception of the Savior, as the man of the family he would be the one to declare officially what God had determined eternally. The Savior “was named Jesus”.
That’s a divinely designed name for the Savior. “Jesus” wasn’t chosen because it was popular, but because it confessed salvation. Whenever she was asked, “What’s his name?”, Mary’s answer preached salvation: “Jesus”. Whenever Mary called her son in from playing outside, whenever Joseph called his stepson to supper, the name preached salvation: “Jesus”.
That name is a Hebrew sentence. In Hebrew, “Jesus” sounds like our name Joshua, and it means exactly what the angel told Joseph, “The Lord saves. He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). What a perfect name for that perfect Child, our perfect Savior! Every time the Hebrew name was spoken, it said exactly what the Child had come to earth to do: The Lord saves! “He will save His people from their sins”.
That’s a divinely directed name for the Savior. Every time we hear and use the name “Jesus” in 2023, we’ll think about what it means and tell others what He’s done. We were drowning in a sea of sin and guilt, headed to hell forever – what we confessed to start this service, to begin this year. But Jesus came to rescue us. Exactly what His name means, we confess to Him and before the world. “Jesus. The Lord saves us sinners!”
There’s more. In our modern age, when a child is born the baby takes on the family name as a last name. When a sinner is brought to saving trust in Christ – as God did for us in Baptism, the sinner is given the name child of God the Father, of God the Son, and of God the Holy Spirit. We sinners were given God’s uniform as He dressed us in the Savior’s holiness. What a great gift God gave to us – on the eighth day of Christmas!
And with that gift comes great responsibility. As we hear our Savior given the name “Jesus” today, the Holy Spirit uses His Word to remind us to live like people who belong to Jesus, who believe “Jesus” has saved us from the guilt of our sins. That means cutting off our sins of selfish grabbing and disrespectful talking and filthy thinking and all other sins. That also means putting on the new person of faith in “Jesus”, His name given us for our confessing to the world, “I belong to Him!” Will our confession to the world by our living throughout 2023 glorify Him whose name we carry? Or shame Him? “Jesus!”
On this day when people start following their resolutions, “Jesus” shows His resolution, His resolve, to be the Savior. On this eighth day of Christmas our Savior gave to us His blood, and we don’t have to do anything to get on His good side; His mission is to do all that for us. On this eighth day of Christmas our Savior gave to us His name, “Jesus”, and with it our status with God couldn’t be better. What a God we have, working for us already as an infant! What a God we serve as we rededicate our lives to Him each day, our most important resolution for every moment of 2023! On this eighth day of Christmas – and every day of His mission on earth – Jesus gave us everything we need to be His forever. Because of our Savior-God, 2023 will be a very blessed year! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
The Nativity of Our Lord - THIS is CHRISTMAS!
- The Nativity of Our Lord
December 25, 2022
Hymns: 343 - 362 - 363 - 344 - 350 - 331:12-15 - 345
Luke 2:1-20
THIS IS CHRISTMAS!
I. Humble deity (vv. 1-7)
II. Eternal victory (vv. 8-14)
III. Joyful ministry (vv. 15-20)
In the name of Jesus Christ, fellow recipients of the greatest Gift ever: He who is born to save us and all sinners,
The reality is that the world observes several different Christmases. One is the Christmas in which money is spent on gifts for your hairdresser, spouse, parents, and children. There’s nothing wrong with any of that. But that’s not Christmas. That should be called Giftsmas, maybe. There’s the Christmas for which businesses close for several days and schools shut down for two weeks to allow loved ones to be together for the holiday. There’s nothing wrong with that, either. But that’s not really Christmas. That’s perhaps Familymas, right?
Then, there’s this. “She gave birth to her firstborn, a son… ‘Today in the town of David a Savior was born for you; He is Christ the Lord’…When the shepherds had seen Him, they told others the message they had been told about this child” (vv. 7,11,17). This is Christmas, the celebration of Christ come to earth for us.
Swaddling cloths. Manger. Sheep. Angels. Shepherds. God used those objects and animals as props for the real Christmas, used His heavenly hosts and common shepherd folk as proclaimers of the real Christmas. But the real Christmas is this: the long-awaited Savior is born for us! These next minutes, if we haven’t done so already, we clear our heads of gifts and food, lights and loved ones, parties and plans. We focus on – and delight in – the real Christmas. This is Christmas: humble deity, eternal victory, and joyful ministry.
I. Humble deity (vv. 1-7)
Many in Israel had been looking for a physical and political Messiah to make their earthly lives more comfortable by breaking the hold of the hated Romans on them. For centuries most Jews had not been seeking the spiritual Messiah the God of grace had promised. They said, “The Messiah will be born a king! He will help us become a great nation again!”
People today, too, want to bend the Lord Jesus into their own kind of Messiah. “If He really loved me, He wouldn’t let me suffer so!” is a bitter, cynical view some have at Christmas. “If He really were the Son of God, would He have been born there? Would He have lived in all that poverty?” is an understandable, but still unbelieving view many have at Christmas.
This is the promised Messiah. “She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (v. 7). This is the real Christmas because this is what we need – His humble deity! Jesus didn’t leave heaven and come to earth to sit on a throne and have people wait on Him. He left heaven and was born of a virgin mother to live in humility and serve us sinners with what we need, not necessarily what we want.
This isn’t a novelty, a baby born among animals. This is humble deity. The One who is truly and powerfully God from forever is also become truly and humbly man. As true man Jesus kept His own laws in our place, perfectly so. As true God His obedience is the power of holiness for every sinner. As true man He suffered hell on the cross as our Substitute, completely condemned for all our sins. As true God His death is the complete payment applied to every sinner’s account. Still, some rip up this Christmas insisting, I don’t need, I don’t want, this Jesus!
This is Christmas: true God takes on our flesh and blood in one person. This is Christmas: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). This is Christmas: true God comes in humility for us. Hymn 344 captures that real Christmas truth, asking – and answering! – the question about the Child who is God and man in one person. We sing What Child Is This.
II. Eternal victory (vv. 8-14)
Some of us remember the song Snoopy and the Red Baron from December 1966. But what Christmas bells, those Christmas bells have to do with fierce World War II air battles is beyond me. With no apologies to the Royal Guardsmen who recorded that song, and with every desire to get Christmas right, we turn again to God’s Word. “Today in the town of David, a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord…Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind” (vv. 11,14). This is Christmas: eternal victory!
Christmas is the Savior born to us, the Savior we desperately need. We love to call Jesus our Savior. But we must also realize what we are calling ourselves when we call Jesus our Savior. We are confessing, I need to be saved! The real Christmas is right only if also admit the real crisis. I am a sinner who angers the holy God every day. I deserve His punishment forever for my every sin. I can’t pretend God hasn’t seen all my sins.
What are we going to do about that ugly truth that threatens to ruin this glorious Christmas morning? We can’t do anything to cover our sins, remove our guilt, pay for a portion of our trespasses. That’s why Jesus is born for us: “the Savior, Christ the Lord”. His perfect life for thirty-three years is credited by Him as our holiness. His sacrificial death Good Friday is counted by Him as our payment. His mighty resurrection from death is His guarantee we will rise from our graves.
This is Christmas: the Savior is born for us, the Savior we trust for our eternal victory. He knows as an infant what will happen to Him for us on that altar, and still He comes to win our victory forever! He commits His life on earth to walk right into the worst anyone ever endured – hell, forsaken by His Father there, so we will have the victory with Him in heaven forever! He lives His love for those who rebel against Him every day so there is “peace on earth”. That’s not between nations; war will be waged somewhere right up to the Last Day. But there is “peace on earth” for us sinners with the holy God in Him.
This is Christmas: the victory is won for us sinners by our Savior, the victory that has unendingly blessed results. We sing the triumph song about the real Christmas with the words of Hymn 350, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
III. Joyful ministry (vv. 15-20)
For many this season’s good feeling fades once work resumes and school reopens, when loved ones leave town and decorations come down. Can’t this day’s, this week’s, this season’s joy last? Not if it’s just a feeling. But it’s not just a feeling. This is Christmas: “When they had seen Him, they told others the message they had been told about this child…Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (vv. 17,19). This is Christmas: joyful ministry!
The shepherds didn’t shrug off the angels’ message. They didn’t see it as an intrusion on their work or lives to go to the little town of Bethlehem, to see what God had used His angels to tell them about “Christ the Lord” come as a baby and lying in a manger. Astounded by the news from heaven about the Gift from heaven, they left their flocks, their business, their earthly livelihood. “We have to see Him! Let’s go (v. 15)!”
Did they go because they were curious? Or faithful? We’re not told what they thought as they “hurried” (v. 16) to town. But we are told what filled them after they had gone to Bethlehem, had seen the Savior, had worshiped Him. “They told others the message they had been told about this child” (v. 17).
What Mary did was similar. She meditated on what God had used His prophets to foretell about the Messiah whom God had now sent to the world from her womb! The real Christmas filled the Savior’s mother, like those ordinary shepherds, with “the good news of great joy…for all people” (v. 10).
How do we keep Christmas going all year long? This Christmas keeps going as we keep going to the message about the Savior and keep going with His message to the world. That’s our joyful ministry, just as it was for Mary and the shepherds.
Ministry means service. The Savior’s people serve Him and others by bringing His harsh news about our sin and His great news about His work to souls bought by His blood. Not just called workers, but all Christmas Christians carry out His joyful ministry, doing so in the spirit of Mary and the shepherds.
When the holidays are done what will our children and grandchildren be talking about and rejoicing in most? Things they got for Christmas? Or the Savior come to earth for them and all sinners to save them and all sinners? The real Christmas is what God wants discussed most at home. That doesn’t happen by accident. That happens by doing what the shepherds and Mary did: going to the Word, even at home – taking it to heart and rejoicing in what God has sent us in Jesus. Parents, that is your most joyful ministry, most joyful service, and most joyful work for the Savior and to your children!
We’re not going to get the world to stop calling Christmas all sorts of customs and celebrations this time of year that have nothing to do with “Christ the Lord”, Jesus, our “Savior”. We Christmas Christians can, and do!, enjoy our customs and gifts and meals and celebrations with loved ones this time of year. But we put none of that above the real Christmas!
This is Christmas! The deity of God come in such humility. The eternal victory over sin and death and Satan and hell won by the Son of God come to earth for us. The joyful ministry God gives us all to ponder on our own and tell the world of the only Savior for sinners. No one can take the joy of the real Christmas from us. Nothing dims the real Christmas in our hearts.
Oh, and the real Christmas season isn’t almost over, it’s only last night begun! We’ll be here twice next weekend as real Christmas Christians to hear more about the life we live because of the Gift, and His gifts!, we’ve been given. Christmas Christians put the Christmas Savior and worship of Him first all year long and in everything. And Christmas Christians tell others, “This is the real Christmas: the Savior is born for us!” This is Christmas – and it never ends! Amen.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.
As we remain standing we sing part of Luther’s great Christmas Hymn “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come”, Hymn 331, stanzas 12-15
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
Second Sunday in Advent - Who Are You Rooted In?
- Second Sunday in Advent
December 4, 2022
Hymns 321, 316, 312, 304
First Lesson Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 130
Second Lesson Romans 15:4-13
Gospel Lesson Matthew 3:1-12
Romans 15:4-13
Who Are You Rooted In?
I. The God who deserves all glory from us
II. The God who gives great blessings to us
In the name of Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, fellow sinners redeemed by the saving flood of His blood,
“Who are you rooting for?” Watching sports – or even reality shows, I suppose – on TV we sometimes ask or are asked, “Who are you rooting for?”
Have we ever asked or been asked, “Who are you rooted in?” Probably not. But we should! We should ask ourselves in personal devotions, ask our neighbor if we don’t know what her answer will be, ask our loved ones, “Who are you rooted in?”
This lesson refers to “a Root” (v. 12), as the Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul quote Chapter 11, verse 10 of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah’s book and today’s First Reading. This root doesn’t clog sewer lines to cause messy, smelly backups. This root doesn’t protrude from the lawn to nick a mower blade or trip a toddler. Should we chop this Root up? Cut it out? Curse its existence? Is this Root a frustrating nuisance? Never!
This is the “Root of Jesse” (v. 12). This Root is Jesus, the Savior who came from Jesse, as promised in Isaiah. This Root bears much wonderful fruit. We are that fruit because we are connected to that Root who said, “I am the Vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5). Who are we rooted in? Christ Jesus. With the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son is God who deserves all glory from us and who gives great blessings to us.
I. The God who deserves all glory from us
There are thousands of religious ideas in the world. Some shout, We alone are right! More insist, No one can say for sure what’s right and what’s wrong. A person decides what is truth for him, which might not be truth for her, them, or anyone else.
What about that, fellow shoots from the “Root of Jesse”, believers in the Savior? Is there any absolute religious truth? Is anyone’s teaching perfectly correct? When we get to the Root of the matter, when we listen to the words and study the earthly life of the Root of Jesse, Christ Jesus, we are convinced He is the Truth and His every Word is the truth.
Jesus came not just to be seen – as though He were a walking, talking brilliant jewel or shiny new car or pretty tree. He came to work for the world! Then, after His living and dying, preaching and teaching, performing miracles and enduring hell, rising from death to prove He is indeed the Son of God and that His sacrifice has paid for all sins, Jesus instructed His followers of all time, “Go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). That’s how the holy God connected us sinners to Jesus, the Root, the only Savior!
Then, in the next breath, the ascending-into-heaven Jesus said, “and by teaching them to keep all the teachings I have given you” (Matthew 28:20). Not, “Pay attention to most of what I’ve taught you.” Not, “Teach the things I taught you if you agree with those teachings.” But “teach all the teachings I have given you”. We delight to be rooted in Christ, right? So we are delighted to be united in all His truth!
Do those who claim to be rooted in God “glorify” Him by thinking, We decide what is truth!? Do those who claim to be rooted in God “glorify” Him by ripping verses or chapters from His Word when those verses or chapters don’t fit their views? No! “May God…grant that you agree with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that with one mind, in one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 5-6).
The ”Root of Jesse” comes in His Word to unite us to Him, to root us in Him. But He does so on His terms, not ours. He unites us to Him to His glory and for our good, not our convenience. The Christians in Rome who first read this letter were troubled by a split in their church. Jews who trusted Jesus thought they were better believers than Gentile converts to faith in Jesus. God wanted those Jews and Gentiles to “glorify” Him together. After all, they were all shoots from the same Root. “Rejoice, Gentiles, with the Jews…On Him Jews and Gentiles will place their hope” (vv. 10,12).
We don’t have Jew-vs-Gentile tension here. But God-glorifying unity is always attacked by Satan. We fight the devil. We won’t pollute God’s glory by agreeing all religions have legitimate ways to heaven. The only way is to be rooted in the only Savior through faith in Him. God deserves all the glory from us since He’s done everything to bless us and save us. He desires we “glorify” Him as we stand united on His Word. As shoots from the Root of Jesse, we who are rooted in Him, who are connected by God-given trust to Jesus, put His Word – all of it – into practice in every area of life. We “glorify” God His way.
II. The God who gives great blessings to us
Roots spread. Grass roots grow into gardens where you don’t want grass. Shrubs send suckers under the fence where your neighbors don’t want them. Spreading roots can be bad news.
But it’s never bad news when the “Root of Jesse”, Christ Jesus, spreads and grows and takes root and produces fruit in more and more hearts and lives. Who are we rooted in? The God who deserves all glory from us because He is the God who spreads His wealth to give great blessings to us.
We mentioned tension between Jews and Gentiles in the Roman church. Many Jews thought keeping Old Testament laws about sacrifices and ceremonies made them closer to God than Gentiles who didn’t. But those Jews were wrong. “Christ became a servant of the Jews to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs” (v. 8). What does that mean?
In the centuries before the first Christmas, God promised “the patriarchs” – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the Savior would come from their descendants. God gave their descendants, the Jews, lots of laws and certain ceremonies to picture the Messiah promised to “the patriarchs”. Then, when Jesus came, sinners would recognize Him from all that had been foretold about Him. When Jesus finished His work, those laws and ceremonies were no longer needed. So those who said those laws and ceremonies had to be kept after Christ were wrong. Jesus, the fulfillment of those sacrifices and ceremonies, had come! That’s why God used five passages from Old Testament Jewish prophets in this New Testament letter to show Gentiles and Jews both have been blessed by God with the same Savior, that even in Old Testament Israel God had promised the Savior for the Gentiles’ blessings, too.
The truth is that God doesn’t accept any imperfect keeping of any of His laws as any payment for any of our sins. The truth is that sinners can’t offer God anything to pay for even one sin. The truth is that God saved sinners, all of whom deserve hell, by the work of the “Root of Jesse”. Trusting Him is the way to life. Since all that is true, God teaches, “Accept one another as Christ also accepted you” – notice, not, “As you accepted Christ”, but “as Christ accepted you” (v. 7). We don’t let grudges fester in His family. We “accept one another” as fellow shoots from the “Root of Jesse” who has given us the greatest blessings: forgiveness, faith, salvation!
Newspaper ads and TV spots the next three weeks will wish us all the joy of the season. But what is the joy of the season? Strolling in a soft snowfall? Getting a new toy or expensive shoes or video games? None of that gives real joy.
This is real joy. “May the God of hope fill you with complete joy…as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (v. 13). The joy of this – and every – season is that the “Root of Jesse”, the One born in an animals’ rest area and crucified on a cursed cross, is our Savior. Sinners who are bound for hell because of their guilt are handed in Bethlehem and Jerusalem the greatest Gift, the best Blessing, of all. That is “joy” to – and for – the world!
There’s more. “May the God of hope fill you with complete… peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope” (v. 13). What is this peace? A cease fire between Russia and Ukraine? Helping the homeless this month? Resolving conflict in our family? That would be great. But would any of that do any of us or any people in the world any eternal good?
The peace of which the Christmas angels sang is only in the work done by, and the blessings spreading from, the “Root of Jesse”. True peace comes “by the power of the Holy Spirit” who leads us “to believe” the “Root of Jesse” is the Savior. True peace comes when God fills us with the faith that in the Son the Father no longer holds our sins against us. True peace is going to bed each evening and rising from sleep each morning confident we are members of the greatest family in the world: God’s family through being rooted in Christ. “Joy and peace” in Jesus are the greatest blessings from God!
Advent preparation for Christ’s birth and His return includes honest evaluation of our hearts. A great battle still rages there. Satan was defeated at the cross, so he’s lost the war to control the world. But he still wants to win your soul and mine. Who’s winning the battle for our souls right now?
The answer depends on the one in whom we’re rooted right now. Too many are rooted in the feel-good god of this age who wants sinners to suppose doing more good than bad will lead to heaven. Or trusting any god will do to get a person to a good life after this. Or no god is needed at all because there isn’t any life after this. Those are the most dangerous lies in the universe because they lead those who cling to them to hell with Satan forever. But we are rooted in the “Root of Jesse”, Christ Jesus. He was born in humility for us, lived in perfect obedience for us, died on the tree for us, then rose to tell us, “You are Mine forever!” Who are we rooted in? By God’s grace and His greatest blessings, we are rooted in the “Root of Jesse”! We glorify God for that with all our lives. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
First Sunday in Advent - Our New Church Year Resolution: Walk in the Light of the Lord
- First Sunday in Advent
November 27, 2022
Hymns 301, 548, 309
First Lesson Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 24
Second Lesson Philippians 4:4-7
Gospel Lesson Matthew 21:1-11
Isaiah 2:1-5
Our New Church Year Resolution: Walk in the Light of the Lord
I. A message intended for all
II. A message needed by all
In the name of Jesus, who came once to save the world, who will come again to judge the world, and who comes in His Word of Light each day to the world, Advent worshipers,
We take light for granted, until intense lightning or strong winds knock out the power. Then, when power is restored, we rejoice. Those who’ve been in the dark won’t choose to go for hours, days, weeks, months, or years without light, right?
That’s God’s lesson here. Of course, it’s not about keeping electricity flowing. The people to whom the Old Testament prophet Isaiah preached had no idea about power lines or light bulbs. God says here, “Keep walking in My spiritual light!”
As we’ve already noted we enter a new church year today. How fitting that God gives us here the perfect new church year resolution: “Walk in the light of the Lord” (v. 5).
And how blessed we’ll be to keep that resolution! “Walk in the light of the Lord” helps us prepare for the coming of Christ on the Last Day. “Walk in the light of the Lord” guides everything we people of God will do throughout the church year beginning today. And it’s not as though we can choose either to “walk in the light of the Lord”, or not, and still be okay with God. “Let us walk in the light of the Lord” is a message intended for all people and is a message needed by all people.
I. A message intended for all
Well, of course it’s for all people, preacher. That’s obvious! It wasn’t so obvious, and certainly not accepted, when Isaiah served as God’s prophet in the 700s BC. The people of Israel to whom Isaiah preached presumed their identity as God’s chosen nation meant they alone were guaranteed always to have God’s “light”. But in Isaiah’s day, the Israelites were straying and decaying spiritually. In verses just before this God had Isaiah compare them to “Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9). Whoa! Was there any hope for Israel then?
“This will take place in the latter days: The mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it like a river” (v. 2). What was, what still is, “the mountain of the Lord’s house”? Not any terrain or building, but all God’s faithful people. And when are “the latter days”? In the Old Testament that phrase always refers to the days between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. So today is included in “the latter days”.
Whenever God’s faithful people gather around His saving Word is when “the Lord’s house is raised above the hills”. The people of Isaiah’s day would have associated that with the holy hill in Jerusalem where God had His temple built. The faithful after our Savior’s ascension would have associated that with the hill just beyond the temple where God gave Himself for all sinners. It’s also God’s way to say His Light lasts forever, long after all the lies of all false religions are burned up on the Last Day. God’s Word is the truth, far above all well-meaning, but still false, teachings that we are free to adopt our own values to fit our situations and lives. God’s good news is centered on the sacrifice made by Christ when He came the first time. What a perfect new church year resolution for God to set for His people: “Walk in the light of the Lord”!
The Old Testament children of Israel were chosen by God to receive His Word in a special way for a special reason: from them the Savior for all the world would come. But “in the latter days”, the time from Jesus on earth until Jesus returns from heaven, the Word of God goes out to all the world. “All nations…many peoples” (vv. 2-3) walk in the light of the Lord. We American believers are blessedly among them.
But even before the Savior was born, His Word was spread beyond the Jews, right? Didn’t Moses proclaim it to Pharaoh’s court in Egypt? Didn’t Jonah teach it to heathens in Nineveh? Didn’t Daniel confess it in Babylon, as we began studying in Bible Class today? God’s Word is revealed widely to all “nations”. We give thanks to God we are among that “many”!
What a blessed note on which to enter the new church year! “Let us walk in the light of the Lord”! God’s message is intended for all, not a privileged few. We thank God for that! Had He given His truth only to Israel, we’d still be stumbling in darkness far worse than a power outage. We’d be headed to hell in unbelief. Thanks to the gracious God, we have His truth, His “light”, His life in Christ who took our guilt on Himself, and thus from us!, by His sacrifice at Calvary. Now, in daily living thanks to Him, we walk in the light of the Lord. We walk in the path of His work and of His Word in everything! And in daily living thanks to Him, we give His saving Word to friends and loved ones, to neighbors and classmates who are not yet walking in the light of the Lord. His light is intended for all people!
II. A message needed by all
A decent salesperson won’t try to sell you on his company’s product with, “We intend all people have this gadget!” You’d reply, “No thank you! I’m doing just fine without it!” God isn’t a salesman. He is the Savior. God isn’t content to say, “Walk in My light because I intend it for all.” He adds, “You need My light! Resolve to walk in My light because without My light there is no life with Me! My light is needed by all people!”
That is true because all people – Jew and Gentile, male and female, young and old – begin life belonging to Satan. Already at conception we carried the sin of our parents, who got it from their parents and so on all the way back to Adam and Eve’s sin. Sin sticks to us for all our earthly life. We’re idolators like Baal worshipers were. How? We’ve never bowed before idols! No, but we put money and fun and our own ideas ahead of the Messiah and His forgiveness and His Word. We don’t have time to do a crushing soul search with all God’s other laws. But we must see our hearts under the spotlight of God’s law to see how dark our hearts are by nature. We smash His laws and spit in His face every day by defiantly deciding to do things our way, rather than walk in His “light”. We deserve to burn in hell for the sin in which we were born and for every one of the sins we pile up every day.
But we won’t burn in hell because the Lord rescued sinners – all sinners. The little Lord Jesus came to earth “not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom” (Mark 10:45) for all. What we couldn’t accomplish, Christ alone could – and did! He lived the perfect life for every imperfect sinner. He paid the price for every sin because no sinner can pay for even one sin. What we couldn’t know on our own, God made known to us in His Word. Receiving that good news needed by all people God pictures here with “Come…to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob…For from Zion the law (here, all of God’s truths – exposing our sins and revealing His forgiveness in Jesus) will go out, and the Lord’s Word will go out from Jerusalem” (v. 3).
Hold it! How can words on a page save us? It’s not the ink. It’s the truth of the reality of history and victory on Calvary those words convey. The Lord “will judge between the nations, and He will mediate for many peoples” (v. 4). That doesn’t help, preacher! If God “will judge” me, I’ll fail! Here, the idea of judging is to govern, to rule. The Lord rules with His Word. His rule isn’t a burden. He rules in His love for us. He wants nothing but the eternal best for us. We have been snatched from hell by Christ who lived and died and rose in the place of all sinners. When we “walk in the light of the Lord”, we live like the forgiven children of the Savior we truly are! “Let us walk in the light of the Lord” isn’t a forced march, but a joyful walk arm-in-arm with Him who gave His life for us.
Part of this lesson is etched on a wall of the United Nations building. “They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into blades for trimming vines. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war anymore” (v. 4). Isn’t this why the United Nations exists? Not really. That organization seeks the noble goal of peace between nations. Here, God is describing peace between His holy self and us guilty sinners. Two parties that had been separated are brought together by the work of the Advent Savior, Jesus.
“Let us walk in the light of the Lord”, the light of salvation all people need. Many insist that there are different roads to salvation. But only the work of Christ removes the guilt of sin. Only the message about Jesus is the saving “light of the Lord”.
On New Year’s Day people make a fresh start and get rid of rotten habits. This first day of the church year is all of that in far more important ways. We rededicate our lives to “walk in the light of the Lord”.
We don’t enter this new Church year blind to the challenges we face as a congregation, in our homes, on our jobs, with our classes. The challenges are real. But so is the Lord who urges us to walk in His “light” as we deal with every challenge before us. We apply the unchanging truths of God’s Word to every situation by “walking in the light of the Lord”. We do so to stay ready for the day when the Lord returns to bring an end to life here and take His own to heaven.
Walking in the light of the Lord means we use His light in our house and in His house. In these first hours of a new church year, we commit ourselves to life for Him who gave His life for us, to use His Word, to “walk in His light” each second, to see the heaven that awaits us through faith in Him. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
|
|
|