"I WILL EVER PRAISE YOU"
- For your sacraments
- For your Word
Hasn’t the Lord blessed us this year? Four baptisms, including one adult baptism. Six new members, some through instruction classes and others by transfer. And one among us, Mickey Strever, has been taken home by her Lord to live with him forever in Paradise. What a year! What a great year living and using and benefiting from God’s Word and sacraments and seeing some of the results of the Lord’s work! It’s a great time to be a part of Living Word Lutheran Church in Montrose, Colorado! And so, as we close out another year, it’s good for us to look back at everything the Lord has done during these past twelve months so that we can boldly sing with the author of Psalm 71: “I will ever praise you.” Tonight we praise the Lord for the blessings of his Word and the blessings of his sacraments with which he has so graciously filled our cup to overflowing.
I look at the young children who have been baptized this year, and I marvel at the Lord’s love and his power. What a blessing to know that he has brought those infants into his family through the water and the Spirit. And I look at those children of the congregation who have been baptized in years past, who are now progressing in their faith received at baptism through church services and Sunday school. I look at you, my brothers and sisters, my spiritual siblings, and rejoice because all of us were baptized by the same Triune God into the same death of Christ for the same salvation. The forgiveness of sins, a new life, adoption as his children, the robe of righteousness, faith, and salvation are all the results of this baptism in Jesus’ name. Results that are sitting right next to you and in front of you and behind you. I will ever praise the Lord for that.
And then I look at those who are new members of this congregation this year. Joining us up front for Holy Communion. Eager to celebrate this sacrament and overjoyed to stand shoulder to shoulder with sinners who share the same Savior. And together we profess our common Christian faith twice a month. Standing in respect and awe at the Lord’s Table. Eating his true body, drinking his true blood, receiving that true forgiveness, and being comforted by the blessing of his peace. What a privilege I have to say those words to you. What an honor to hand you Christ himself. What a humbling thing it is to announce your forgiveness as a spokesman of the Lord. I will ever praise the Lord for that.
There are so many things that we have reason to praise the Lord for this past year. Things that we don’t even think of. And blessings that are overshadowed by all the negatives. Because as we get older, the more pessimistic we become, don’t we? We as sin-infested creatures tend to look back on a year like this with a disappointed and cynical gaze. We almost like to dwell on the negatives! “We’re still in this storefront for another year - are we ever going to get out!” “We’ve dropped so many members from relocation and transfer and release that are numbers are going backwards!” “I can’t see how we’ll ever be self-supporting at the rate we’re going!” “There are very few kids and teenagers here and hardly any young families. How are we supposed to attract any more?” “Volunteers are scarce, so-and-so is overbearing, the red chairs are uncomfortable, and the windows make this place too bright.” These things may seem a little humorous, but it isn’t funny to the Lord. Because that kind of attitude does not reflect the attitude of a Christian - the same attitude as our psalmist tonight: “My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you - I , whom you have redeemed!” That is an attitude of thanks and praise and appreciation. Ours is usually not. Ours is too often disrespectful and unthankful and ungrateful. We can’t seem to look past the sin that invades this life to see the blessings of our Savior. We let the joy of Christ in our hearts be eaten up by the desires of this life. We notice what we want while forgetting what we already have.
And this is nothing new this year. It happens every year. To every Christian. And the Lord has to hear that pessimism all the time… I’m glad he’s patient with us. I’m glad he’s patient with me. It seems like I never learn. It seems like I never am satisfied with what he’s given to me. It’s a wonder that he keeps giving me more! It’s amazing that we live our lives in pessimism, but he still blesses us like he has this past year. It’s truly incredible that he died for us in the first place! Why would he even bother? Why would he go through all that pain and torture on the cross for ungrateful little savages like us? Love. And he’s shown his love to his people every year since the Garden of Eden. And he’s shown his love again to this small group of Christians this year as we’ve just seen. He keeps smothering us with love until we finally get it! Until we finally say, “I will ever praise you” without any hesitation or qualification or caveat. He keeps pushing our noses back into his Word so that we can see his gospel in all of its beauty and clarity. And he has given us the opportunity to hear and read and study that Word here at Living Word in a number of ways.
We ended our study of the book of Romans in Sunday morning Bible class this year. We then explored the depths of prayer found in the words of Scripture. Now we are seeing the glories of Christ and his work through the book of Colossians. We have the opportunity right now to review the basic teachings of the Bible in Luther’s Large Catechism on Wednesday nights. Before that we were edified by the book of Revelation and before that we discovered the pictures of Christ in Old Testament sacrifices. The children in Sunday School are fed the Word by faithful Christians. Three young women are taking catechism instruction every week for the first time. And at least once a week we hear Scripture lessons from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Gospels. We confess our sins, we sing the psalms, we announce our faith, and we join together in Christ-centered hymns. The Lord has surely blessed us with his Word this year and I will ever praise the Lord for that.
And I will ever praise the Lord for bringing his children home. I remember Mickey Strever, whom the Lord brought home this last February. He worked faith in her heart through his Word. He strengthened her faith through his Word. And he gave her the comfort and the peace and the joy that only his Word can give. And so right now she is singing praises to our Lord face-to-face as we wait to do the same. What a wonderful comfort it is when we see one of our brothers and sisters makes it out of the war of this sinful life and join the saints and angels in the eternal pleasures of heaven. A permanent relocation we will all one day enjoy.
The Lord has blessed us. From the youngest of us in this building to the oldest of us, he has blessed us with his Word and sacraments in profound measure - and promises to continue to do so until our death. It is easy to see why the psalmist wrote down the words he did. He understood that the Lord’s love and mercy extended from womb to tomb. And he could not help but praise him for that. Let us close tonight by joining with the psalmist and speaking the words of our text together that are printed in your bulletin: “You have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since youth.
From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
I will ever praise you.
Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.
My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you - I, whom you have redeemed.”
Amen.
“May the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.” - Psalm 134:3
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
12/20/07 - Christmas 1 - Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
YOUR FUTURE IS SECURE
- The Lord knows what will happen
- The Lord knows what needs to be done
The life Jesus lived was filled with terrible situations. All of us remember the Pharisees and teachers of the law plotting his death on numerous occasions. We’re familiar with the people in his home town trying to throw him off a cliff. And the end of Jesus’ life is forever etched into our memories: betrayal, beatings, false accusations, flogging, and finally crucifixion. These kinds of things jump out at us when we think about the hard times that Jesus experienced. But let us not forget that the beginning of his life was not all that pleasant either! Not only did his parents have to travel 100 miles from Nazareth down to Bethlehem while Mary was 9 months pregnant, Jesus was born in a feeding trough! Not exactly the cleanest or the most sanitary of places to be born, especially two thousand years ago. And then, as our text for today tells us, soon after Jesus was born King Herod wanted to kill him. And so the young family had to escape down to Egypt, at least 120 miles to the border of that foreign country, and however many more miles it took them to get to the place at which they would stay. The danger in Jesus’ young life continued when they made that long journey back to Israel because Herod’s brother was on the throne - potentially just as dangerous to Jesus’ life as before. And so Joseph, Mary, and Jesus traveled that last 100 miles or so through the very heart of this heathen king’s territory in order to get to the northern city of Nazareth, the place where Jesus ended up spending the majority of his childhood.
The beginning of Jesus’ life was anything but quiet and peaceful. From a human point of view his future must have been questionable. I’m sure many people around him and his family at that time were wondering what would eventually happen to him. Where would he end up living? For how long? Would he even survive the threats to his life? We know, of course, that Jesus had to survive. He had to live until he reached the cross on Calvary. And God his Father made sure everything that happened to Jesus directed him towards that goal. His Father could do that because God knew what was going to happen beforehand. In fact, he predicted it! When Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem, that fulfilled a prediction the Lord spoke through the prophet Micah. The gospel writer Matthew reveals to us that when Jesus was taken to Egypt to escape the grasp of Herod, it fulfilled the prophecy of Hosea 11. And when Jesus was taken up to Nazareth to avoid the threat of Archelaus, it fulfilled another prophecy that said Jesus would come from that very town. These prophecies were spoken by the Lord hundreds of years before Jesus came. God knew what was going to happen the whole time! He knew what dangers lay ahead. He knew what sinful actions sinful people would try to carry out. And he knew what needed to be done. The future of the boy Jesus was secure the whole time. Jesus’ future had always been secure.
But so is yours. Your future is just as secure as Jesus’ future was. Because the Lord knows what will happen to you as well. And he also knows what needs to be done. He may not have prophesied specific details about your future, but he still knows. He still sees. And he still cares. Nothing will ever escape his notice because he has been aware of everything that will ever happen to you since eternity. Nothing is going to surprise him. Nothing is going to shock him. And nothing in your future or anyone else’s will disrupt his perfect and unchangeable will.
But it’d be nice to know how he is going to work everything out in our future, wouldn’t it? It’d be a relief to know where you’re going to end up, how he’ll work this recent tragedy out for this particular family member, or in what way he’ll use this sickness or this disappointment or this ongoing struggle for the good of your future. We understand that since the Lord knows the future, our future is secure. But there’s still a part of us that wants a little reassurance, isn’t there? If he could just sometimes show us how or why or when he will use what’s happening to us to secure our future, it’d be a nice encouragement and comfort for us right now, wouldn’t it.
I’m not about to tell you that he does show you how he works things in every time, but I will ask you this: Do you remember the 1st Commandment? “You shall have no other gods.” And what is the explanation to that commandment? “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” We should trust in God above all things. But do you realize that when you want that reassurance, when you would still sometimes like that evidence, the visible verification that what God promises is true, you are no longer trusting in God above all things. Your trust has faltered. Your faith has lost its focus. Because you are no longer basing your confidence and assurance in God’s Word alone, but on your knowledge. If you just knew that it were true, if you could just see how it will work out, if you could just be shown once in a while how and in what way your future will be secure, then you’ll be comforted, then you can relax, then you will understand how it all works out.
But that’s not trusting God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your strength and all of your mind, is it? That’s not relying on him 100%. That’s wanting something more. That’s falling into the sin of Thomas - the disciple who didn’t believe Jesus had risen from the dead. He demanded proof. He wanted to see and feel for himself. He crudely claimed that he would only be convinced if he could put his fingers in the holes from the nails and the gash from the spear. He did not take God at his Word. And just like Thomas we have broken the 1st Commandment many times by not completely putting our trust in God and his Word. And if we have broken the 1st Commandment, the mother of all commandments countless times how then could we ever look at the Lord in the face - the one we don’t fully trust? He knows what will happen in the future. He promises our futures will be secure. And it’s degrading to the Lord when that’s not enough for us.
Of course, since the Lord knows everything that will happen, he knew that we would break the 1st Commandment just like we have been. He knew we wouldn’t be satisfied with his clear Word. He knew we would always be looking for proof and assurance and verification. He knew these sins would condemn us (not to mention every other sin we have ever done). And since the Lord knew that was going to happen, he knew what needed to be done. That’s why we’re talking about Jesus’ life today. The whole reason we celebrate Christmas, the whole reason we have a Scripture reading from the gospels every Sunday, the whole reason we gather together as “Christians,” is because of what God did. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). Because God sent his Son Jesus to this earth, our sins against the 1st Commandment no longer matter. Our sins against the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th are forgotten. In fact, all of the sins we have ever committed are permanently erased from our record. God knew what needed to be done and he did it. He sent his Son. He rejected his Son. He sacrificed his Son. He raised his Son. He glorified his Son. So now the problem is fixed. No matter what terrible things you’ve done, no matter how badly you have broken the 1st Commandment, all those sins are lost in Christ. God did what needed to be done. Your future is secure.
And if God did all of that for you before you were even born, don’t you think he’ll continue to do what is necessary for you while you are living? He still knows what will happen. He still knows what needs to be done. And so the car accident that happens to someone close to you next month, has already been planned for. The sickness, the disease, the injury that you experience next year has already been on the Lord’s mind for centuries. The battle you’ve been having trying to spread the Word to your family members, and the struggle you’ve been having with your own faith - the end results of those labors are already known to your loving Father. And he also knows exactly how he will work them out for your best interests.
I’m sure Moses’ mother wasn’t too thrilled about placing her baby into a basket and sending it down the river so that he might possibly escape the murdering hands of the Egyptians. But God knew what needed to be done. And he used that tragic experience to save Moses and to eventually lead his chosen people to the Promised Land. I’m sure the prophet Jonah wasn’t happy to be inside a belly of giant fish for three days after he jumped overboard. But God knew what needed to be done. He not only saved Jonah’s life, but more importantly, he used that extremely uncomfortable and nauseating situation to bring Jonah to repentance. And if you remember, that allowed Jonah the chance to preach to the city of Nineveh and bring that entire city to repentance as well. I’m sure Joseph wasn’t in the best of spirits when his own brothers plotted to kill him, when he was sold as a slave, when he was falsely accused of trying to sleep with his master’s wife, and when he was forgotten in prison by the only friends he thought he had. But the Lord knew what needed to be done. He used those terrible things that happened to Joseph to make him the 2nd most powerful person in the land, to preserve his family, and to preserve the line of the Savior. Speaking of the Savior, I’m sure the disciples were worried sick when Jesus was arrested, close to depression when Jesus was flogged, and completely heart broken when Jesus was crucified. Of course, God knew what needed to be done with those events as well. And we all know how he used those sickening sinful actions to bring about salvation for all people of all times.
Have you ever had to send your new-born son down a river in a basket, knowing he would probably not survive? Have you ever been swallowed by a giant fish and sat in its belly for three days? Have you ever been sold as a slave by your own brothers and left in a prison for trying to act like a Christian? Have you ever witnessed your best friend, your teacher, and your God falsely arrested, flogged, and stapled to a wooden beam with metal stakes? Have you had to experience anything in your life even close to the horror and the misery of those events? But didn’t the Lord use the very atrociousness of those things for the good of his people? And if he could take things that awful and that appalling and turn them out for the good of his people, what do you have to complain about? No matter what happens to you in your life, you know God will turn it out for your good as well. He knows what will happen long before it ever does and he knows exactly what needs to be done to use those things for his will! How could we not live our lives in complete joy and optimism knowing that God has promised our future will be that secure?
Our eternal future is that secure. There is no promise of a pleasant earthly future. You may very well die in poverty. I might lose my job, my family, my health, my mental faculties, my reputation, and my sanity. But my future, my eternal future, will always be secure. And your eternal future will always be secure. The Lord will make sure that whatever comes your way will benefit you for eternity. That’s his promise. And so that will happen. That’s a comfort to know going into a new year, isn’t it? Because we don’t know what will happen. We don’t know what we’ll face. We don’t know what we’ll lose. But God does. And he knows what needs to be done. And although we will never know what God does, he has given us at least one very important insight into our future: we will go to heaven because Jesus died for our sins. So come what may in this life, we already know what will happen in the end and for the rest of eternity. And is there really anything more important to know than that?
Amen.
“The Lord will rescue us from every evil attack and will bring us safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.” - 2 Tim. 4:18
- The Lord knows what will happen
- The Lord knows what needs to be done
The life Jesus lived was filled with terrible situations. All of us remember the Pharisees and teachers of the law plotting his death on numerous occasions. We’re familiar with the people in his home town trying to throw him off a cliff. And the end of Jesus’ life is forever etched into our memories: betrayal, beatings, false accusations, flogging, and finally crucifixion. These kinds of things jump out at us when we think about the hard times that Jesus experienced. But let us not forget that the beginning of his life was not all that pleasant either! Not only did his parents have to travel 100 miles from Nazareth down to Bethlehem while Mary was 9 months pregnant, Jesus was born in a feeding trough! Not exactly the cleanest or the most sanitary of places to be born, especially two thousand years ago. And then, as our text for today tells us, soon after Jesus was born King Herod wanted to kill him. And so the young family had to escape down to Egypt, at least 120 miles to the border of that foreign country, and however many more miles it took them to get to the place at which they would stay. The danger in Jesus’ young life continued when they made that long journey back to Israel because Herod’s brother was on the throne - potentially just as dangerous to Jesus’ life as before. And so Joseph, Mary, and Jesus traveled that last 100 miles or so through the very heart of this heathen king’s territory in order to get to the northern city of Nazareth, the place where Jesus ended up spending the majority of his childhood.
The beginning of Jesus’ life was anything but quiet and peaceful. From a human point of view his future must have been questionable. I’m sure many people around him and his family at that time were wondering what would eventually happen to him. Where would he end up living? For how long? Would he even survive the threats to his life? We know, of course, that Jesus had to survive. He had to live until he reached the cross on Calvary. And God his Father made sure everything that happened to Jesus directed him towards that goal. His Father could do that because God knew what was going to happen beforehand. In fact, he predicted it! When Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem, that fulfilled a prediction the Lord spoke through the prophet Micah. The gospel writer Matthew reveals to us that when Jesus was taken to Egypt to escape the grasp of Herod, it fulfilled the prophecy of Hosea 11. And when Jesus was taken up to Nazareth to avoid the threat of Archelaus, it fulfilled another prophecy that said Jesus would come from that very town. These prophecies were spoken by the Lord hundreds of years before Jesus came. God knew what was going to happen the whole time! He knew what dangers lay ahead. He knew what sinful actions sinful people would try to carry out. And he knew what needed to be done. The future of the boy Jesus was secure the whole time. Jesus’ future had always been secure.
But so is yours. Your future is just as secure as Jesus’ future was. Because the Lord knows what will happen to you as well. And he also knows what needs to be done. He may not have prophesied specific details about your future, but he still knows. He still sees. And he still cares. Nothing will ever escape his notice because he has been aware of everything that will ever happen to you since eternity. Nothing is going to surprise him. Nothing is going to shock him. And nothing in your future or anyone else’s will disrupt his perfect and unchangeable will.
But it’d be nice to know how he is going to work everything out in our future, wouldn’t it? It’d be a relief to know where you’re going to end up, how he’ll work this recent tragedy out for this particular family member, or in what way he’ll use this sickness or this disappointment or this ongoing struggle for the good of your future. We understand that since the Lord knows the future, our future is secure. But there’s still a part of us that wants a little reassurance, isn’t there? If he could just sometimes show us how or why or when he will use what’s happening to us to secure our future, it’d be a nice encouragement and comfort for us right now, wouldn’t it.
I’m not about to tell you that he does show you how he works things in every time, but I will ask you this: Do you remember the 1st Commandment? “You shall have no other gods.” And what is the explanation to that commandment? “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” We should trust in God above all things. But do you realize that when you want that reassurance, when you would still sometimes like that evidence, the visible verification that what God promises is true, you are no longer trusting in God above all things. Your trust has faltered. Your faith has lost its focus. Because you are no longer basing your confidence and assurance in God’s Word alone, but on your knowledge. If you just knew that it were true, if you could just see how it will work out, if you could just be shown once in a while how and in what way your future will be secure, then you’ll be comforted, then you can relax, then you will understand how it all works out.
But that’s not trusting God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your strength and all of your mind, is it? That’s not relying on him 100%. That’s wanting something more. That’s falling into the sin of Thomas - the disciple who didn’t believe Jesus had risen from the dead. He demanded proof. He wanted to see and feel for himself. He crudely claimed that he would only be convinced if he could put his fingers in the holes from the nails and the gash from the spear. He did not take God at his Word. And just like Thomas we have broken the 1st Commandment many times by not completely putting our trust in God and his Word. And if we have broken the 1st Commandment, the mother of all commandments countless times how then could we ever look at the Lord in the face - the one we don’t fully trust? He knows what will happen in the future. He promises our futures will be secure. And it’s degrading to the Lord when that’s not enough for us.
Of course, since the Lord knows everything that will happen, he knew that we would break the 1st Commandment just like we have been. He knew we wouldn’t be satisfied with his clear Word. He knew we would always be looking for proof and assurance and verification. He knew these sins would condemn us (not to mention every other sin we have ever done). And since the Lord knew that was going to happen, he knew what needed to be done. That’s why we’re talking about Jesus’ life today. The whole reason we celebrate Christmas, the whole reason we have a Scripture reading from the gospels every Sunday, the whole reason we gather together as “Christians,” is because of what God did. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). Because God sent his Son Jesus to this earth, our sins against the 1st Commandment no longer matter. Our sins against the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th are forgotten. In fact, all of the sins we have ever committed are permanently erased from our record. God knew what needed to be done and he did it. He sent his Son. He rejected his Son. He sacrificed his Son. He raised his Son. He glorified his Son. So now the problem is fixed. No matter what terrible things you’ve done, no matter how badly you have broken the 1st Commandment, all those sins are lost in Christ. God did what needed to be done. Your future is secure.
And if God did all of that for you before you were even born, don’t you think he’ll continue to do what is necessary for you while you are living? He still knows what will happen. He still knows what needs to be done. And so the car accident that happens to someone close to you next month, has already been planned for. The sickness, the disease, the injury that you experience next year has already been on the Lord’s mind for centuries. The battle you’ve been having trying to spread the Word to your family members, and the struggle you’ve been having with your own faith - the end results of those labors are already known to your loving Father. And he also knows exactly how he will work them out for your best interests.
I’m sure Moses’ mother wasn’t too thrilled about placing her baby into a basket and sending it down the river so that he might possibly escape the murdering hands of the Egyptians. But God knew what needed to be done. And he used that tragic experience to save Moses and to eventually lead his chosen people to the Promised Land. I’m sure the prophet Jonah wasn’t happy to be inside a belly of giant fish for three days after he jumped overboard. But God knew what needed to be done. He not only saved Jonah’s life, but more importantly, he used that extremely uncomfortable and nauseating situation to bring Jonah to repentance. And if you remember, that allowed Jonah the chance to preach to the city of Nineveh and bring that entire city to repentance as well. I’m sure Joseph wasn’t in the best of spirits when his own brothers plotted to kill him, when he was sold as a slave, when he was falsely accused of trying to sleep with his master’s wife, and when he was forgotten in prison by the only friends he thought he had. But the Lord knew what needed to be done. He used those terrible things that happened to Joseph to make him the 2nd most powerful person in the land, to preserve his family, and to preserve the line of the Savior. Speaking of the Savior, I’m sure the disciples were worried sick when Jesus was arrested, close to depression when Jesus was flogged, and completely heart broken when Jesus was crucified. Of course, God knew what needed to be done with those events as well. And we all know how he used those sickening sinful actions to bring about salvation for all people of all times.
Have you ever had to send your new-born son down a river in a basket, knowing he would probably not survive? Have you ever been swallowed by a giant fish and sat in its belly for three days? Have you ever been sold as a slave by your own brothers and left in a prison for trying to act like a Christian? Have you ever witnessed your best friend, your teacher, and your God falsely arrested, flogged, and stapled to a wooden beam with metal stakes? Have you had to experience anything in your life even close to the horror and the misery of those events? But didn’t the Lord use the very atrociousness of those things for the good of his people? And if he could take things that awful and that appalling and turn them out for the good of his people, what do you have to complain about? No matter what happens to you in your life, you know God will turn it out for your good as well. He knows what will happen long before it ever does and he knows exactly what needs to be done to use those things for his will! How could we not live our lives in complete joy and optimism knowing that God has promised our future will be that secure?
Our eternal future is that secure. There is no promise of a pleasant earthly future. You may very well die in poverty. I might lose my job, my family, my health, my mental faculties, my reputation, and my sanity. But my future, my eternal future, will always be secure. And your eternal future will always be secure. The Lord will make sure that whatever comes your way will benefit you for eternity. That’s his promise. And so that will happen. That’s a comfort to know going into a new year, isn’t it? Because we don’t know what will happen. We don’t know what we’ll face. We don’t know what we’ll lose. But God does. And he knows what needs to be done. And although we will never know what God does, he has given us at least one very important insight into our future: we will go to heaven because Jesus died for our sins. So come what may in this life, we already know what will happen in the end and for the rest of eternity. And is there really anything more important to know than that?
Amen.
“The Lord will rescue us from every evil attack and will bring us safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.” - 2 Tim. 4:18
12/25/07 - Christmas Day - Isaiah & Luke
CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONS ON "PEACE"
1. Peace in the world, despite the world
Palestinians and Israelis are still at war. We are in Iraq trying to prevent further damage. And civil wars are nothing new to many nations around the globe. There is no peace on earth. Far from it! But that is what a lot of people want and pray for, isn’t it? A candidate for Miss America will say: If I had one wish, I would wish for peace on earth. There is an entire website, peaceonearth.net, devoted to the cause. In fact, you could have gone to Ute Park right here in Montrose on December 22nd for a prayer gathering. And what was the topic of their prayers? “Peace on Earth.”
But all those prayers and wishes and hopes for peace on earth are all for naught. Because it is pointless to pray for something that God promises will never happen. “But what about the angels!” you may say. Didn’t they proclaim to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14)? Yes, they did. But that is not an earthly peace free from war. When it comes to the subject of war, Jesus himself said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come” (Matt. 24:6). God promises that wars will continue. He promises that fighting will occur and blood will be shed. The peace on earth that people want and pray for will not happen. Because that is not the peace on earth God speaks about.
There is peace in this world, but despite the world. No matter how many wars, how much blood, or how fierce the battle, there is peace on this earth. Because the peace that those angels proclaimed and that Isaiah prophesied about is Christ! He came to this world for the world. He died for everyone in the world. And he is preached to the world. The Old Testament prophet Micah even wrote down these telling words about Christ, “He will be their peace” (Micah 5:5). Christ is the peace in this world. That is a nice simple clear phrase, but what does it mean? How is Christ our peace? And what kind of peace does he bring? We will soon find out. For now we will sing hymn #61: “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
2. Peace with some, division with others
Many people are drawn to Christianity because they think their life will become that much better. They think that the Bible is some kind of self-help book and that God is more of a psychiatrist to help them with their day to day problems and with their relationships with others. In a way the Bible will help you with your day to day life. In a way it will help you manage your relationships with the people around you. But there’s a whole other side of the coin. As a Christian there will be peace with some, but division with others.
You know as Christians going to the same congregation that we enjoy a peace, a common bond with each other that only comes through Christ. Christ gives us a common faith in our Savior, and so we strive to show that same love to those around us that Christ has shown to us. That promotes peace, doesn’t it? Even if we disagree at times, even if we have different opinions, we work to be at peace with each other - and for the most part we usually are. That is one way that Christ is our peace. He makes it possible to have lasting a meaningful relationships with the brothers and sisters around us.
But just because you are a Christian, doesn’t mean you will be at peace with everyone. In fact, just the opposite is true. “Don’t be surprised,” John tells us, “if the world hates you” (1 John 3:13). And Jesus even says, “All men will hate you because of me” (Matthew 10:22). That doesn’t sound like peace! That doesn’t sound too pleasant at all! And you’re right: it’s not pleasant. It’s not peace. Even though you enjoy a peace among other Christians, and with some who are not, there will still be many people who hate you. They will hate what you believe, hate what you say, and hate who you are. But this is a big part of being a Christian: enduring hate because of the peace of Christ you have and want to share.
But we don’t want that part of being a Christian, do we? We don’t want people to call us names because we follow exactly what the Bible says. We don’t want people to stop talking to us because we tell them about the Savior. We don’t want people to avoid us because they know what church we go to. And so we start shrinking back a little bit. We start telling ourselves, “I’m not even going to bring it up. I’m going to avoid the topic if at all possible. I don’t want to make them mad or frustrated or uncomfortable or embarrassed because of who I am or what I say…” Do you see the irony? You are giving up the true peace of Christ to have an outward veneer of peace with them. That’s not being a Christian. That’s being a fake, a phony, a Christian in name but not in action. And what good does that do for them? What good does that do for you? It certainly doesn’t look good to Christ - the one whose peace you’re throwing aside.
When I was at the Seminary, I still worked in Nebraska for a couple summers. At the seed company I worked at there was an older man who lived and breathed vulgarity. Everything he said was inappropriate and peppered with language that I would be embarrassed even to repeat. A couple months went by until he asked what I was going to school for. My simple answer of, “A Lutheran pastor,” surprised him, embarrassed him, and he apologized for all the words he had been using around me. But I thought to myself, “Why didn’t he know before? What does that say about me? Why am I so concerned about keeping the “peace” between us rather than offering him the only true peace there is?” I was not being a Christian there. I was being a fake, a phony, a Christian in name, but not in action.
What sad Christians we are at times. We know that Christ is our true peace but we act as if he isn’t as important as getting along with those who don’t believe in him. I ask that the Lord forgives us for these failings. I pray that he looks on us with mercy. And I know that he does. That’s the main and most important reason he is our peace. He forgives us and does not hold our sins against us. And we will hear more about that in a few minutes. But let us praise him for his mercy and love now by singing hymn #41: “Let All Together Praise Our God.”
3. Inner peace is eternal peace
Christmas is usually considered a time of peace. It’s quiet time of the year, family and friends are around, the music is soft, the candles are glowing, the food is good, and the nights are warm. But as we have already seen, that’s not a real peace. Those things will not give you a life of freedom from stress and worry. They are nice blessings, but the only thing that gives us peace of mind is peace with God through Christ. And that kind of peace was not easy to come by.
Isaiah says that “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Christ’s punishment brought us peace. He allowed his wounds to bleed and throb and hurt from the nails and thorns and whips and fists and clubs. That was his punishment. That was actually our punishment that he decided to take. And that punishment brought us peace: freedom from stress and worry forever because our relationship with God has been reconciled. Isn’t that interesting? Jesus experienced and endured the very opposite of peace so that we could have it. He went through his whole life hated by his own people. He was the victim of political maneuvers and self-serving leaders. He was sentenced to an excruciating death reserved for hardened criminals. He was rejected by God his Father on the cross so that now we have peace with God our Father through the cross. That’s how Christ is our peace. He took our sins that separated us from God and paid for them. He wiped them away so that now our relationship with the Father is renewed. We are at peace with him through Christ. There was no one else that could have done what Christ did. True God and true man. A Savior and a servant. A baby and a King. True peace is not a feeling. Peace is a promise. A promise that the little baby Jesus came to this earth to take care of our eternity. And has.
And so not only is this Christmas a Christmas of peace. Every Christmas is a Christmas of peace! The Prince of Peace is born! The one who gained our peace is here! The one who is our peace has come! So whether the family you have is here or not, whether today is everything you hoped for or not quite like it used to be, have a peaceful Christmas this year, my fellow saints of the Savior. There’s no reason not to.
Amen.
“May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.”
- 2 Thessalonians 3:16
1. Peace in the world, despite the world
Palestinians and Israelis are still at war. We are in Iraq trying to prevent further damage. And civil wars are nothing new to many nations around the globe. There is no peace on earth. Far from it! But that is what a lot of people want and pray for, isn’t it? A candidate for Miss America will say: If I had one wish, I would wish for peace on earth. There is an entire website, peaceonearth.net, devoted to the cause. In fact, you could have gone to Ute Park right here in Montrose on December 22nd for a prayer gathering. And what was the topic of their prayers? “Peace on Earth.”
But all those prayers and wishes and hopes for peace on earth are all for naught. Because it is pointless to pray for something that God promises will never happen. “But what about the angels!” you may say. Didn’t they proclaim to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14)? Yes, they did. But that is not an earthly peace free from war. When it comes to the subject of war, Jesus himself said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come” (Matt. 24:6). God promises that wars will continue. He promises that fighting will occur and blood will be shed. The peace on earth that people want and pray for will not happen. Because that is not the peace on earth God speaks about.
There is peace in this world, but despite the world. No matter how many wars, how much blood, or how fierce the battle, there is peace on this earth. Because the peace that those angels proclaimed and that Isaiah prophesied about is Christ! He came to this world for the world. He died for everyone in the world. And he is preached to the world. The Old Testament prophet Micah even wrote down these telling words about Christ, “He will be their peace” (Micah 5:5). Christ is the peace in this world. That is a nice simple clear phrase, but what does it mean? How is Christ our peace? And what kind of peace does he bring? We will soon find out. For now we will sing hymn #61: “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
2. Peace with some, division with others
Many people are drawn to Christianity because they think their life will become that much better. They think that the Bible is some kind of self-help book and that God is more of a psychiatrist to help them with their day to day problems and with their relationships with others. In a way the Bible will help you with your day to day life. In a way it will help you manage your relationships with the people around you. But there’s a whole other side of the coin. As a Christian there will be peace with some, but division with others.
You know as Christians going to the same congregation that we enjoy a peace, a common bond with each other that only comes through Christ. Christ gives us a common faith in our Savior, and so we strive to show that same love to those around us that Christ has shown to us. That promotes peace, doesn’t it? Even if we disagree at times, even if we have different opinions, we work to be at peace with each other - and for the most part we usually are. That is one way that Christ is our peace. He makes it possible to have lasting a meaningful relationships with the brothers and sisters around us.
But just because you are a Christian, doesn’t mean you will be at peace with everyone. In fact, just the opposite is true. “Don’t be surprised,” John tells us, “if the world hates you” (1 John 3:13). And Jesus even says, “All men will hate you because of me” (Matthew 10:22). That doesn’t sound like peace! That doesn’t sound too pleasant at all! And you’re right: it’s not pleasant. It’s not peace. Even though you enjoy a peace among other Christians, and with some who are not, there will still be many people who hate you. They will hate what you believe, hate what you say, and hate who you are. But this is a big part of being a Christian: enduring hate because of the peace of Christ you have and want to share.
But we don’t want that part of being a Christian, do we? We don’t want people to call us names because we follow exactly what the Bible says. We don’t want people to stop talking to us because we tell them about the Savior. We don’t want people to avoid us because they know what church we go to. And so we start shrinking back a little bit. We start telling ourselves, “I’m not even going to bring it up. I’m going to avoid the topic if at all possible. I don’t want to make them mad or frustrated or uncomfortable or embarrassed because of who I am or what I say…” Do you see the irony? You are giving up the true peace of Christ to have an outward veneer of peace with them. That’s not being a Christian. That’s being a fake, a phony, a Christian in name but not in action. And what good does that do for them? What good does that do for you? It certainly doesn’t look good to Christ - the one whose peace you’re throwing aside.
When I was at the Seminary, I still worked in Nebraska for a couple summers. At the seed company I worked at there was an older man who lived and breathed vulgarity. Everything he said was inappropriate and peppered with language that I would be embarrassed even to repeat. A couple months went by until he asked what I was going to school for. My simple answer of, “A Lutheran pastor,” surprised him, embarrassed him, and he apologized for all the words he had been using around me. But I thought to myself, “Why didn’t he know before? What does that say about me? Why am I so concerned about keeping the “peace” between us rather than offering him the only true peace there is?” I was not being a Christian there. I was being a fake, a phony, a Christian in name, but not in action.
What sad Christians we are at times. We know that Christ is our true peace but we act as if he isn’t as important as getting along with those who don’t believe in him. I ask that the Lord forgives us for these failings. I pray that he looks on us with mercy. And I know that he does. That’s the main and most important reason he is our peace. He forgives us and does not hold our sins against us. And we will hear more about that in a few minutes. But let us praise him for his mercy and love now by singing hymn #41: “Let All Together Praise Our God.”
3. Inner peace is eternal peace
Christmas is usually considered a time of peace. It’s quiet time of the year, family and friends are around, the music is soft, the candles are glowing, the food is good, and the nights are warm. But as we have already seen, that’s not a real peace. Those things will not give you a life of freedom from stress and worry. They are nice blessings, but the only thing that gives us peace of mind is peace with God through Christ. And that kind of peace was not easy to come by.
Isaiah says that “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Christ’s punishment brought us peace. He allowed his wounds to bleed and throb and hurt from the nails and thorns and whips and fists and clubs. That was his punishment. That was actually our punishment that he decided to take. And that punishment brought us peace: freedom from stress and worry forever because our relationship with God has been reconciled. Isn’t that interesting? Jesus experienced and endured the very opposite of peace so that we could have it. He went through his whole life hated by his own people. He was the victim of political maneuvers and self-serving leaders. He was sentenced to an excruciating death reserved for hardened criminals. He was rejected by God his Father on the cross so that now we have peace with God our Father through the cross. That’s how Christ is our peace. He took our sins that separated us from God and paid for them. He wiped them away so that now our relationship with the Father is renewed. We are at peace with him through Christ. There was no one else that could have done what Christ did. True God and true man. A Savior and a servant. A baby and a King. True peace is not a feeling. Peace is a promise. A promise that the little baby Jesus came to this earth to take care of our eternity. And has.
And so not only is this Christmas a Christmas of peace. Every Christmas is a Christmas of peace! The Prince of Peace is born! The one who gained our peace is here! The one who is our peace has come! So whether the family you have is here or not, whether today is everything you hoped for or not quite like it used to be, have a peaceful Christmas this year, my fellow saints of the Savior. There’s no reason not to.
Amen.
“May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.”
- 2 Thessalonians 3:16
12/24/07 - Christmas Eve - Titus 2:11-14
HIS BIRTH IS JUST THE BEGINNING
- He gave himself up for us
- He redeemed us
- He purified us
Here we are at the apex of the season. This entire month of December has been building up to this point and we’re finally here. We’ve been overloaded with a smorgasbord of Christmas sensations for so long that it’s a good feeling to be at the end of it. It’s December 24th. It’s Christmas Eve. The night we celebrate Christ’s birth is upon us and Christmas morning comes with the sunrise.
But it’s really just the beginning. Jesus’ birth, the Son of God’s entrance into this world as a human being is just the beginning. It’s not over. It’s far from over. This month leading up to Christmas is just a warm up compared to what happens now. Because that little baby in the manger would mean absolutely nothing to us if he remained a little baby. Jesus lying in an animal stall doesn’t save us. Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the sheep huddling around his makeshift cradle doesn’t save us either. Jesus had to get out of that cradle and do three very important things. He had to give himself up for us. He had to redeem us. And he has to purify us. If he hadn’t accomplished each one of those three things we wouldn’t be here tonight celebrating his birth.
Of course, his birth was the first step. “The saving grace of God has appeared to all men,” Paul tells us in the book of Titus. That saving grace appeared to us in the God-man Jesus. It was necessary for him to come to earth as a true human being. There was no way around it. Because if he was going to be the substitute for the human race, he had to be a real human being. That was the only way he could live the life we couldn’t live, do the things we couldn’t do, conquer the things we couldn’t conquer, and endure the punishment we couldn’t endure. God in flesh. The all-powerful, Almighty Lord himself contained in the casing of a human body. He had to live a human life so that he could one day give that life up for us.
We usually don’t think that way, do we? The sight of the new life of baby Jesus in a manger usually doesn’t remind us that he would one day willingly give that life up. But that’s the entire reason Jesus was there in that barn. He was born so that he could die. And not just a regular death. A death for us! A death in our place! Because we would not be able to bear the death Jesus took for our sake. The death Jesus died involved the real and everlasting tortures of hell, Jesus’ death included rejection from his own Father, Jesus’ death carried the weight of all the guilt for every sin of all people. That’s why Jesus died. And that’s why Jesus lived. Do you think about Jesus hanging on the wooden cross when you see Jesus lying in the wooden manger? You probably should. Jesus wasn’t born to live a nice, comfortable, cozy life. He was born to hang on a piece of wood! He was born because your sins put him there. He was born because you deserved to be there. And so Jesus came to give his own life up in your place. We should be here not only to celebrate Jesus’ birth, but also his death!
Are you here to celebrate Jesus’ death? Or are you here because it’s a family tradition to come to church tonight? Are you here just because it makes you feel good? Are you here because you’d feel a little guilty if you didn’t go to church on Christmas Eve! Are you here because you better do your duty and you might even earn a couple brownie points with the Big Guy - if all of that stuff matters? Are you here tonight not because you necessarily want to, but because that’s just what you do: you go to church? Are you here because it’s a nice time of year to hear some nice things about the nice little baby Jesus? You mean to tell me you aren’t here to celebrate Jesus’ death? That’s why the shepherds came: the one who would die for them was born! That’s why the wise men eventually came to see the child Jesus: the one who would die for them was born! That’s why the prophet Simeon lifted the baby Jesus up in the temple and that’s why the widow Anna praised the Lord when she saw Jesus as well. This was the one who would die for their sins! This was the one who would give his own life for them! This is one who died for you, even if you’re here tonight for all the wrong reasons. He died for those sins too. And every other sin you will ever commit. And thankfully every other sin that I will commit - because I know there will be plenty of those.
“He gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness,” is what our text says. To redeem means to buy something back with a ransom. And the ransom price was Jesus’ own blood. At Jesus’ death his blood bought us back. From what? From our own wickedness! We were sitting on death row. There was no hope, there was no chance for pardon or escape. Hell awaited us for all eternity because of our sins. Until Jesus bought us back. He paid the price. He gained our freedom. That’s what that cute little baby Jesus came to do. He came to cancel sin, to conquer the devil, and to nullify death. That’s why Jesus’ birth is just the beginning. His birth would be pointless unless he also gave up his life to redeem us.
And even that’s not all. He not only gave up his life to redeem us, he also gave up his life “to purify for himself a people that are his very own.” And that’s a little bit different picture. Purify is a word that really comes to us from the Old Testament. In the Israelite culture there were numerous laws and regulations about being ceremonially (outwardly) clean. Those who touched a dead body, those who came into contact with an unclean animal, those with certain kinds of sicknesses… all of those people had to undergo a process of purification. After they accomplished the mandatory requirements and the appointed time had passed, the person was then purified. He was clean again. He could go on with his life as before.
We too need to be purified. Not an outward cleansing, but an inner cleansing. And we don’t do it ourselves. Jesus does it for us. And when the Bible says that Jesus purifies us, it is really equivalent to saying that he forgives us. We constantly sin and so we are constantly unclean. And if we are continually unclean, we need to be purified over and over again. Jesus purifies his children every time we confess our sins and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. He purifies his children every time we join together in the Lord’s Supper and receive the forgiveness of sins through his true body and blood. He purifies his children every time a person is baptized and accepted into God’s family through his promise of forgiveness. It is necessary for us to be purified so that our sins no longer count against us. That’s why the Lord repeats his promise of forgiveness in Scripture so often. We need to be forgiven. We need to be purified. That’s what Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished. That’s what Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem began.
I don’t want to downplay Christmas. I don’t want to make it seem like Jesus’ birth was an insignificant event that can be skipped over without a second thought. His birth is a momentous event. We as Christians should be overjoyed to celebrate his 1st Coming into this world. But I want you to realize that it’s only the beginning. For the rest of the Sundays throughout 2008 we will be learning about what Christ has done, what he has accomplished, what he promises us, how we can thank him, and what we can look forward to. There is so much more to the story than shepherds, angels, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the manger. It’s a great opening chapter, without a doubt! But be ready to see and hear and read and study everything else Jesus has done, is doing, and will continue to do in these next weeks and months and years. Because tonight is just the beginning of the salvation that is to come.
Amen.
“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” - 2 Peter 3:18
- He gave himself up for us
- He redeemed us
- He purified us
Here we are at the apex of the season. This entire month of December has been building up to this point and we’re finally here. We’ve been overloaded with a smorgasbord of Christmas sensations for so long that it’s a good feeling to be at the end of it. It’s December 24th. It’s Christmas Eve. The night we celebrate Christ’s birth is upon us and Christmas morning comes with the sunrise.
But it’s really just the beginning. Jesus’ birth, the Son of God’s entrance into this world as a human being is just the beginning. It’s not over. It’s far from over. This month leading up to Christmas is just a warm up compared to what happens now. Because that little baby in the manger would mean absolutely nothing to us if he remained a little baby. Jesus lying in an animal stall doesn’t save us. Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the sheep huddling around his makeshift cradle doesn’t save us either. Jesus had to get out of that cradle and do three very important things. He had to give himself up for us. He had to redeem us. And he has to purify us. If he hadn’t accomplished each one of those three things we wouldn’t be here tonight celebrating his birth.
Of course, his birth was the first step. “The saving grace of God has appeared to all men,” Paul tells us in the book of Titus. That saving grace appeared to us in the God-man Jesus. It was necessary for him to come to earth as a true human being. There was no way around it. Because if he was going to be the substitute for the human race, he had to be a real human being. That was the only way he could live the life we couldn’t live, do the things we couldn’t do, conquer the things we couldn’t conquer, and endure the punishment we couldn’t endure. God in flesh. The all-powerful, Almighty Lord himself contained in the casing of a human body. He had to live a human life so that he could one day give that life up for us.
We usually don’t think that way, do we? The sight of the new life of baby Jesus in a manger usually doesn’t remind us that he would one day willingly give that life up. But that’s the entire reason Jesus was there in that barn. He was born so that he could die. And not just a regular death. A death for us! A death in our place! Because we would not be able to bear the death Jesus took for our sake. The death Jesus died involved the real and everlasting tortures of hell, Jesus’ death included rejection from his own Father, Jesus’ death carried the weight of all the guilt for every sin of all people. That’s why Jesus died. And that’s why Jesus lived. Do you think about Jesus hanging on the wooden cross when you see Jesus lying in the wooden manger? You probably should. Jesus wasn’t born to live a nice, comfortable, cozy life. He was born to hang on a piece of wood! He was born because your sins put him there. He was born because you deserved to be there. And so Jesus came to give his own life up in your place. We should be here not only to celebrate Jesus’ birth, but also his death!
Are you here to celebrate Jesus’ death? Or are you here because it’s a family tradition to come to church tonight? Are you here just because it makes you feel good? Are you here because you’d feel a little guilty if you didn’t go to church on Christmas Eve! Are you here because you better do your duty and you might even earn a couple brownie points with the Big Guy - if all of that stuff matters? Are you here tonight not because you necessarily want to, but because that’s just what you do: you go to church? Are you here because it’s a nice time of year to hear some nice things about the nice little baby Jesus? You mean to tell me you aren’t here to celebrate Jesus’ death? That’s why the shepherds came: the one who would die for them was born! That’s why the wise men eventually came to see the child Jesus: the one who would die for them was born! That’s why the prophet Simeon lifted the baby Jesus up in the temple and that’s why the widow Anna praised the Lord when she saw Jesus as well. This was the one who would die for their sins! This was the one who would give his own life for them! This is one who died for you, even if you’re here tonight for all the wrong reasons. He died for those sins too. And every other sin you will ever commit. And thankfully every other sin that I will commit - because I know there will be plenty of those.
“He gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness,” is what our text says. To redeem means to buy something back with a ransom. And the ransom price was Jesus’ own blood. At Jesus’ death his blood bought us back. From what? From our own wickedness! We were sitting on death row. There was no hope, there was no chance for pardon or escape. Hell awaited us for all eternity because of our sins. Until Jesus bought us back. He paid the price. He gained our freedom. That’s what that cute little baby Jesus came to do. He came to cancel sin, to conquer the devil, and to nullify death. That’s why Jesus’ birth is just the beginning. His birth would be pointless unless he also gave up his life to redeem us.
And even that’s not all. He not only gave up his life to redeem us, he also gave up his life “to purify for himself a people that are his very own.” And that’s a little bit different picture. Purify is a word that really comes to us from the Old Testament. In the Israelite culture there were numerous laws and regulations about being ceremonially (outwardly) clean. Those who touched a dead body, those who came into contact with an unclean animal, those with certain kinds of sicknesses… all of those people had to undergo a process of purification. After they accomplished the mandatory requirements and the appointed time had passed, the person was then purified. He was clean again. He could go on with his life as before.
We too need to be purified. Not an outward cleansing, but an inner cleansing. And we don’t do it ourselves. Jesus does it for us. And when the Bible says that Jesus purifies us, it is really equivalent to saying that he forgives us. We constantly sin and so we are constantly unclean. And if we are continually unclean, we need to be purified over and over again. Jesus purifies his children every time we confess our sins and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. He purifies his children every time we join together in the Lord’s Supper and receive the forgiveness of sins through his true body and blood. He purifies his children every time a person is baptized and accepted into God’s family through his promise of forgiveness. It is necessary for us to be purified so that our sins no longer count against us. That’s why the Lord repeats his promise of forgiveness in Scripture so often. We need to be forgiven. We need to be purified. That’s what Jesus’ death on the cross accomplished. That’s what Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem began.
I don’t want to downplay Christmas. I don’t want to make it seem like Jesus’ birth was an insignificant event that can be skipped over without a second thought. His birth is a momentous event. We as Christians should be overjoyed to celebrate his 1st Coming into this world. But I want you to realize that it’s only the beginning. For the rest of the Sundays throughout 2008 we will be learning about what Christ has done, what he has accomplished, what he promises us, how we can thank him, and what we can look forward to. There is so much more to the story than shepherds, angels, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the manger. It’s a great opening chapter, without a doubt! But be ready to see and hear and read and study everything else Jesus has done, is doing, and will continue to do in these next weeks and months and years. Because tonight is just the beginning of the salvation that is to come.
Amen.
“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” - 2 Peter 3:18
12/23/07 - Advent 4 - Matthew 1:18-25
CONSIDER JOSEPH
- He believed the impossible
- He faithfully did his duty
He always seems to be the sidekick in a way. He’s forever overshadowed. He’s right there in full view but no one pays him any attention. Because there’s the baby Jesus in front of him, the Lord, the King, lying in the manger bed. And then there’s the virgin Mary, the instrument of the Holy Spirit’s miracle, kneeling next to her son, the one who is always depicted as holding the Savior in her arms. And, oh yeah, Joseph is there too. Isn’t that what it’s like? Joseph is almost in the background even though he is front and center. We think of him as simply standing there, holding his staff, distant, mysterious, caring, but not all that involved with that momentous event in Bethlehem.
There’s a reason for this universal passing over of Joseph. Scripture doesn’t say a whole lot about him. Other than some insignificant references to him in the other gospels, the first two chapters of the book of Matthew are the only places in which a few details are spoken about Jesus’ stepfather. And for good reason. The focus should be on Christ. The focus should be on the miracle of God’s birth. But as we dwell on this portion of Scripture today, Matthew 1:18-25, it seems as if the Lord doesn’t want us to forget about that third person in the middle of that manger scene. Today I want you to consider Joseph. Because he believed the impossible. And he faithfully did his duty.
Although we don’t know a whole lot about Joseph, the little that we do know about him is all good. He was a Christian man who handled himself very well in strange and unprecedented situations. Think of the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth that Joseph had to deal with. He was engaged to a young woman named Mary, but before it became official, Mary was suddenly pregnant! Joseph must have been shocked and furious and humiliated and heartbroken all at the same time! He knew it wasn’t his child and there was no way he could take Mary as his wife after her infidelity. But because Joseph “was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” According to the laws of that time, adultery could be punishable by death. And even if death were not the result, a woman would be ostracized and looked down upon by the rest of her people. And so what Joseph had planned to do was a very noble thing.
But as he was thinking about this an angel of the Lord visited him in a dream. “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” These are very familiar words to us. Words we here every Christmas. But the amazing thing about these words is that Joseph believed them! Joseph believed the impossible! He didn’t question what the angel had said. He didn’t wake up from his dream and wonder if it were true or not. He simply believed. He trusted that this impossible, unthinkable, unbelievable miracle was actually true. And even if we assume he knew what Isaiah had said, that “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,” even if he knew that prophecy and remembered it at the time of the angel’s announcement, he still believed that it was happening to him! That his wife-to-be was the mother of the Messiah. That they were the parents of the one whom all believers of all time had been waiting for.
We talk about a child-like faith sometimes. A faith that doesn’t question, that doesn’t hesitate, that doesn’t criticize, critique, or test. A faith that understands, “If it is said, it is so.” But forget about a child-like faith! How about a Joseph-like faith! Because he was an adult! He knew better! He could logically, intellectually, and rationally see that what the angel told him was completely ridiculous! It was impossible! He couldn’t understand it and so he believed it. He took the Lord at his Word.
But that wasn’t the last time Joseph believed the impossible. After the wise men had left their gifts with Jesus, Matthew records for us that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph again in a dream. And this time he told him to go to Egypt because Herod was going to seek out Jesus in order to kill him. Joseph didn’t wonder if this were true either. He didn’t say to himself, “King Herod? What would he be worried about? How would he even know about Jesus? And if he did, how would he know where we are?” No, Joseph just believed. And then he took the Lord’s at his word again when the angel told him to go back to Israel, and again when he was told in a dream to go to Galilee. The Lord spoke to him four times in his dreams and every time Joseph displayed an incredible faith that is rivaled in few other places of Scripture. He continually believed the impossible without question, without comment. If it was said, it was so.
Do you feel as if your faith doesn’t measure up to the faith Joseph displayed? I feel that way. I know I don’t accept things in his Word like Joseph did. I read words in Scripture about things like predestination, words that are all true but words that just don’t logically fit together and never will. And when I read those kinds of things my eyebrows lower, the corner of my mouth smirks, my hand rests on my forehead and I think, “That doesn’t make sense. How could that be? It doesn’t fit together. Something’s not right.” Haven’t you ever experienced that?
Maybe you read that God says, “I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you” (Jer. 29:11). These are simple and clear enough words. But then he says them to you in the middle of sicknesses and pains and catastrophes and accidents and surgeries and diseases and death and sin, and you begin to wonder, “Is that really true? It doesn’t make sense. How could he have plans to prosper me and not to harm me if all these things are happening to me right now?” Or we may think of God’s eternal judgment on unbelievers. That God will condemn every unbeliever to death - even those who have never heard about Jesus before. “Is that really true,” we’re tempted to say. “It doesn’t make sense. How can that be if God is a loving God and wants all people to be saved?” There are many things we wonder about in the Bible, things that God has said that we question and maybe even disagree with. Things that don’t sit well with our learning, things that don’t correspond with the way we would do it if we were in charge. That is doubt, my friends. And doubt is not a good thing. Doubt is not believing. Doubt is not trusting what God has clearly said in his Word. It is harmful, it is disrespectful, and it is a product of our corrupt and nasty sinful natures. That’s why Joseph’s faith is so incredible. It’s so easy for us to doubt and wonder and deny. But Joseph believed, without a doubt. He believed the impossible, because that’s what God said. He put his logic and intellect and experience and the very laws of nature behind him and surrendered to God’s clear Word about his Savior. A Savior who also happened to be his son.
That relationship between Joseph and Jesus must have been an interesting one over those next few years. It’s hard to say what it was like. A father with his son, but at the same time: a servant with his Savior. Of course, our relationship with our Savior is just as close and just as profound. Because the one whose words we doubt, is the Word incarnate. The one whose promises we question, came into this world based on a promise. The one whom we hesitate to believe at times did not hesitate to humble himself to be born in a barn, to go without sleep in order to pray for our well-being, to experience temptations from the devil himself, to allow his enemies to beat and mock him, to offer himself up as a sacrifice for disobedient creatures, or to lay in the tomb for three days as if he were only a regular human being… What a unique relationship we have with our Savior because our relationship with him is one-sided. He does all the work and he shows all the love. He forgives us when we question him and encourages us when we doubt. He promises us more when we remember him less. He gives up his own life when all we care about is ourselves. Our relationship with our Savior is everything it needs to be. It all depends on him. That’s something Joseph understood. That’s why he believed in him. And that’s also why he faithfully did his duty.
That’s another interesting thing we know about Joseph. He always faithfully did what he was supposed to do. Matthew tells us, “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” It wasn’t anything too spectacular that Joseph did. It wasn’t outwardly fascinating, it didn’t take a whole lot of time nor much effort. He took Mary as his wife and he named the boy Jesus. But Joseph faithfully did what he was supposed to do. And every time that an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream after that, he did exactly what he was told to do again. He immediately went to Egypt and then back to Israel and then finally to Nazareth. Again, nothing extraordinary. He traveled and he took his family with him. Anyone could do that! But the point is: he always did his duty according to the Lord’s will.
You and I will rarely do anything visibly extraordinary either. We will probably do nothing that is comparable to Moses parting the Red Sea or a woman washing Jesus feet with perfume that cost a year’s salary or that beautiful Christian confession of the thief on the cross. But the Lord still calls on us to faithfully do our duty. We know what we should do. We know what God wants us to do. And we should not hesitate to do it. That would include going the extra mile to lend a hand to those in any kind of need. Giving of your time to help out the congregation. That would include telling others about this holy child whose birth we will celebrate these next two days. That would include being kind, patient, and forgiving to all people in all circumstances. That would include making an effort to be a quality husband, wife, father, mother, child, employee, neighbor, friend, member. That would include encouraging those of us who are down, correcting those of us who are wrong and feeding those of us who need to taste the pure and glorious gospel once again. You have work to do. You have a duty to carry out. Maybe nothing on which books will be written. Maybe nothing for which you will be remembered for years to come. But very important work that the Lord has called on you to do nevertheless. And I can only pray that you live your Christian life in the same way as Joseph led his. Faithfully and quietly and humbly.
We don’t hear anything about Joseph after they went back to Nazareth. He drops out of the picture completely. Other than mentioning that he traveled with his family to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12, we don’t know how long he lived, where he died, or how he died. Because the Bible is not about him. Or Mary. Or Paul. Or Abraham. The Bible is about the one in whom all of those Christians believed. That little baby in the manger. The Savior in the straw. He is the heart of all Scripture. He was at the heart of Joseph’s life. And he is at the heart of ours. Tomorrow night we will celebrate his coming. The next morning we will continue our praises. And for every day after that we will thank him in our words and actions for all that he has done for us until we too with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and angels will see him face to face as well.
Amen.
“Jesus appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” - 1 Tim. 3:16
- He believed the impossible
- He faithfully did his duty
He always seems to be the sidekick in a way. He’s forever overshadowed. He’s right there in full view but no one pays him any attention. Because there’s the baby Jesus in front of him, the Lord, the King, lying in the manger bed. And then there’s the virgin Mary, the instrument of the Holy Spirit’s miracle, kneeling next to her son, the one who is always depicted as holding the Savior in her arms. And, oh yeah, Joseph is there too. Isn’t that what it’s like? Joseph is almost in the background even though he is front and center. We think of him as simply standing there, holding his staff, distant, mysterious, caring, but not all that involved with that momentous event in Bethlehem.
There’s a reason for this universal passing over of Joseph. Scripture doesn’t say a whole lot about him. Other than some insignificant references to him in the other gospels, the first two chapters of the book of Matthew are the only places in which a few details are spoken about Jesus’ stepfather. And for good reason. The focus should be on Christ. The focus should be on the miracle of God’s birth. But as we dwell on this portion of Scripture today, Matthew 1:18-25, it seems as if the Lord doesn’t want us to forget about that third person in the middle of that manger scene. Today I want you to consider Joseph. Because he believed the impossible. And he faithfully did his duty.
Although we don’t know a whole lot about Joseph, the little that we do know about him is all good. He was a Christian man who handled himself very well in strange and unprecedented situations. Think of the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth that Joseph had to deal with. He was engaged to a young woman named Mary, but before it became official, Mary was suddenly pregnant! Joseph must have been shocked and furious and humiliated and heartbroken all at the same time! He knew it wasn’t his child and there was no way he could take Mary as his wife after her infidelity. But because Joseph “was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” According to the laws of that time, adultery could be punishable by death. And even if death were not the result, a woman would be ostracized and looked down upon by the rest of her people. And so what Joseph had planned to do was a very noble thing.
But as he was thinking about this an angel of the Lord visited him in a dream. “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” These are very familiar words to us. Words we here every Christmas. But the amazing thing about these words is that Joseph believed them! Joseph believed the impossible! He didn’t question what the angel had said. He didn’t wake up from his dream and wonder if it were true or not. He simply believed. He trusted that this impossible, unthinkable, unbelievable miracle was actually true. And even if we assume he knew what Isaiah had said, that “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,” even if he knew that prophecy and remembered it at the time of the angel’s announcement, he still believed that it was happening to him! That his wife-to-be was the mother of the Messiah. That they were the parents of the one whom all believers of all time had been waiting for.
We talk about a child-like faith sometimes. A faith that doesn’t question, that doesn’t hesitate, that doesn’t criticize, critique, or test. A faith that understands, “If it is said, it is so.” But forget about a child-like faith! How about a Joseph-like faith! Because he was an adult! He knew better! He could logically, intellectually, and rationally see that what the angel told him was completely ridiculous! It was impossible! He couldn’t understand it and so he believed it. He took the Lord at his Word.
But that wasn’t the last time Joseph believed the impossible. After the wise men had left their gifts with Jesus, Matthew records for us that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph again in a dream. And this time he told him to go to Egypt because Herod was going to seek out Jesus in order to kill him. Joseph didn’t wonder if this were true either. He didn’t say to himself, “King Herod? What would he be worried about? How would he even know about Jesus? And if he did, how would he know where we are?” No, Joseph just believed. And then he took the Lord’s at his word again when the angel told him to go back to Israel, and again when he was told in a dream to go to Galilee. The Lord spoke to him four times in his dreams and every time Joseph displayed an incredible faith that is rivaled in few other places of Scripture. He continually believed the impossible without question, without comment. If it was said, it was so.
Do you feel as if your faith doesn’t measure up to the faith Joseph displayed? I feel that way. I know I don’t accept things in his Word like Joseph did. I read words in Scripture about things like predestination, words that are all true but words that just don’t logically fit together and never will. And when I read those kinds of things my eyebrows lower, the corner of my mouth smirks, my hand rests on my forehead and I think, “That doesn’t make sense. How could that be? It doesn’t fit together. Something’s not right.” Haven’t you ever experienced that?
Maybe you read that God says, “I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you” (Jer. 29:11). These are simple and clear enough words. But then he says them to you in the middle of sicknesses and pains and catastrophes and accidents and surgeries and diseases and death and sin, and you begin to wonder, “Is that really true? It doesn’t make sense. How could he have plans to prosper me and not to harm me if all these things are happening to me right now?” Or we may think of God’s eternal judgment on unbelievers. That God will condemn every unbeliever to death - even those who have never heard about Jesus before. “Is that really true,” we’re tempted to say. “It doesn’t make sense. How can that be if God is a loving God and wants all people to be saved?” There are many things we wonder about in the Bible, things that God has said that we question and maybe even disagree with. Things that don’t sit well with our learning, things that don’t correspond with the way we would do it if we were in charge. That is doubt, my friends. And doubt is not a good thing. Doubt is not believing. Doubt is not trusting what God has clearly said in his Word. It is harmful, it is disrespectful, and it is a product of our corrupt and nasty sinful natures. That’s why Joseph’s faith is so incredible. It’s so easy for us to doubt and wonder and deny. But Joseph believed, without a doubt. He believed the impossible, because that’s what God said. He put his logic and intellect and experience and the very laws of nature behind him and surrendered to God’s clear Word about his Savior. A Savior who also happened to be his son.
That relationship between Joseph and Jesus must have been an interesting one over those next few years. It’s hard to say what it was like. A father with his son, but at the same time: a servant with his Savior. Of course, our relationship with our Savior is just as close and just as profound. Because the one whose words we doubt, is the Word incarnate. The one whose promises we question, came into this world based on a promise. The one whom we hesitate to believe at times did not hesitate to humble himself to be born in a barn, to go without sleep in order to pray for our well-being, to experience temptations from the devil himself, to allow his enemies to beat and mock him, to offer himself up as a sacrifice for disobedient creatures, or to lay in the tomb for three days as if he were only a regular human being… What a unique relationship we have with our Savior because our relationship with him is one-sided. He does all the work and he shows all the love. He forgives us when we question him and encourages us when we doubt. He promises us more when we remember him less. He gives up his own life when all we care about is ourselves. Our relationship with our Savior is everything it needs to be. It all depends on him. That’s something Joseph understood. That’s why he believed in him. And that’s also why he faithfully did his duty.
That’s another interesting thing we know about Joseph. He always faithfully did what he was supposed to do. Matthew tells us, “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” It wasn’t anything too spectacular that Joseph did. It wasn’t outwardly fascinating, it didn’t take a whole lot of time nor much effort. He took Mary as his wife and he named the boy Jesus. But Joseph faithfully did what he was supposed to do. And every time that an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream after that, he did exactly what he was told to do again. He immediately went to Egypt and then back to Israel and then finally to Nazareth. Again, nothing extraordinary. He traveled and he took his family with him. Anyone could do that! But the point is: he always did his duty according to the Lord’s will.
You and I will rarely do anything visibly extraordinary either. We will probably do nothing that is comparable to Moses parting the Red Sea or a woman washing Jesus feet with perfume that cost a year’s salary or that beautiful Christian confession of the thief on the cross. But the Lord still calls on us to faithfully do our duty. We know what we should do. We know what God wants us to do. And we should not hesitate to do it. That would include going the extra mile to lend a hand to those in any kind of need. Giving of your time to help out the congregation. That would include telling others about this holy child whose birth we will celebrate these next two days. That would include being kind, patient, and forgiving to all people in all circumstances. That would include making an effort to be a quality husband, wife, father, mother, child, employee, neighbor, friend, member. That would include encouraging those of us who are down, correcting those of us who are wrong and feeding those of us who need to taste the pure and glorious gospel once again. You have work to do. You have a duty to carry out. Maybe nothing on which books will be written. Maybe nothing for which you will be remembered for years to come. But very important work that the Lord has called on you to do nevertheless. And I can only pray that you live your Christian life in the same way as Joseph led his. Faithfully and quietly and humbly.
We don’t hear anything about Joseph after they went back to Nazareth. He drops out of the picture completely. Other than mentioning that he traveled with his family to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12, we don’t know how long he lived, where he died, or how he died. Because the Bible is not about him. Or Mary. Or Paul. Or Abraham. The Bible is about the one in whom all of those Christians believed. That little baby in the manger. The Savior in the straw. He is the heart of all Scripture. He was at the heart of Joseph’s life. And he is at the heart of ours. Tomorrow night we will celebrate his coming. The next morning we will continue our praises. And for every day after that we will thank him in our words and actions for all that he has done for us until we too with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and angels will see him face to face as well.
Amen.
“Jesus appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.” - 1 Tim. 3:16
12/16/07 - Children's Xmas Service - 2 Peter 3:2
LISTEN TO THE PROPHETS
- We stop hearing to them
- The Lord keeps talking through them
Listen to your mother. Listen to your teacher. Listen to the rules. Listen to him - he knows what he’s talking about. Listen closely. Listen carefully. Listen up. Good advice, isn’t it? It’s important to listen to people who speak with wisdom. Not just to hear what they are saying, but to actually listen: to think about what is said, to remember it, and to apply it to your life. In fact, not listening to those kinds of people might be harmful to you in the future because you would not remember what they had said. We have similar advice given to us today by the Holy Spirit in 2 Peter 3:2. “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets.” A simple encouragement, but one that is extremely important. Listen to the prophets. Don’t ignore them. Don’t skip over them. Don’t skim through them. Don’t just read the prophetic books of the Bible just to read them. Actually listen to them. Think about what is said, commit it to memory, and apply it to your life. “Listen to the prophets” is a simple command, but not one that is easily carried out.
For example: how well have you been listening so far this service? Have you been concentrating on the words being said or have your thoughts been elsewhere? When is the last time you’ve read through the book of Micah? When is the last time you’ve read through the book of Zechariah? Ezekiel? Jeremiah? Numbers? Isaiah? Have you read any of these books in 2007? If you haven’t, that’s far from listening to the prophets, that’s not even giving them a chance to speak - that’s despising God’s Word. And maybe some of you have read through those books. Maybe some of you have read through all of those prophetic books this past year. So then what can you tell me about the book of Zechariah? What description would you give about the book of Micah? What details do you remember from the book of Amos? Anything? One, maybe two details from those entire books? You may have read them, but did you listen? Did you think about what they said? Did you apply their words to your life? Reading through a book of one of the prophets or coming to a worship service or going to a Bible class is worthless unless you listen to the prophets’ words.
There will be times when I’ll be reading through a prophetic book of the Old Testament, and as I am reading my mind starts to wander. Something reminds me of a situation I have to deal with or a conversation I’ve had or something I have to write or teach or prepare. And all of the sudden I’ve read through two paragraphs… but I haven’t really read anything at all. And when that happens - and it happens embarrassingly often - that is not listening to the prophets. That is despising God’s Word. That is not treating it with the honor and the respect and the awe that it deserves. Because God’s Word deserves our absolute and full attention. Something it rarely gets. We do not concentrate as we should. We do not think about it as we should. We do not listen as we should and that is only to our loss.
And it’s not as if these prophetic books contain nothing for us in this day and age. It’s not as if they are obsolete. The very reason I mentioned Micah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Numbers, Ezekiel, and Isaiah before is because we are using passages from each of these books today in this service. Each one of these books contains direct prophecies about Christ himself. Do not tell me those words are unimportant. Don’t tell me those words can be skipped over. But then we do. We skip over them or we don’t read them or we don’t listen to them. The Lord had these words and all the words of Scripture written down for us in one book, preserving them for thousands of years and promising to keep them around until the end of the world - all so that we can listen to them. The Lord does not go off on tangents. The Lord does not say things that don’t need to be said. Every single word in Scripture is important. And so how many of those words have you neglected to listen to?
And yet here we are: participating in a worship service filled with his words, in a church with a shelf full of Bible’s containing his words, among a group of believers learning his words. The Lord keeps on speaking. We fail to listen more often than not but the Lord’s keeps on speaking! He still allows us to have the written Word in every one of our homes. He still feeds us with the truths of his Word in worship services and Bible studies. He doesn’t take it away! The Lord does not take his Word away from us. Can there be a more gracious Lord than that? How many times does a mother have to tell her child to do something before the child is punished for not listening? How many times does a court warn an offender before there are consequences? How many times would you talk to a person who completely ignores everything you say and does the exact opposite of what you want - until you stop talking to that person all together? But isn’t that how we treat the Lord’s words through his holy prophets? And so what a gracious God we have! He does not stop talking to us. In fact, he talks to us all the more. He points us to his Word again and again. And he reminds us of the very words of the prophets that we haven’t been listening to.
“The Star of Jacob,” “The Shepherd,” The righteous Branch,” “The Lamp,” “The Prince of Peace,” “The descendant of David,” “Immanuel.” These are all words of the holy prophets. And all of these words are in this very service today that the Lord wants us to listen to because these words tell us about our Savior. They predict his coming. They describe his glory. They detail our salvation. Listen to these words and know that these prophecies about Christ are for you. Because that’s the reason for this type of service. To lay out for you a wide range of Scripture passages that speak of the pinnacle of our faith. Passages that get you ready not only for Christ’s birth in the manger but his death on the cross as well. Passages that point us to the Victor of our forgiveness and the Caretaker of our souls. There will be very few worship services you will ever attend in which you will hear so many prophecies all about Christ all at once. So pay attention. Listen to what is being said. And try not to get distracted by who is speaking these words. Do not get distracted by the kids reading and reciting the words of the holy prophets today.
It’s easy to get distracted by that, isn’t it? The younger ones are so cute, the older ones are so nervous, and sometimes you can’t quite hear what they’re saying. But the words that they speak are still the words of God. That’s the amazing thing about it. No matter who speaks these words: whether it was the holy prophets 2500 years ago, your called pastor, or some of the youngest believers in this congregation, you are hearing the words of God. He promises his almighty power works through those words. And he will strengthen us by those words. So don’t forget to listen to them! Make sure your focus is not on the children in front you, but on the words coming out of their mouths. Those words they speak are extremely important. They are beautiful pictures of Jesus our Savior. And they have been written just for you. Listen to these words of the holy prophets. Think about what is being said. Apply these words to your life. And thank the Lord that he still speaks these words to you - and always will.
Amen.
- We stop hearing to them
- The Lord keeps talking through them
Listen to your mother. Listen to your teacher. Listen to the rules. Listen to him - he knows what he’s talking about. Listen closely. Listen carefully. Listen up. Good advice, isn’t it? It’s important to listen to people who speak with wisdom. Not just to hear what they are saying, but to actually listen: to think about what is said, to remember it, and to apply it to your life. In fact, not listening to those kinds of people might be harmful to you in the future because you would not remember what they had said. We have similar advice given to us today by the Holy Spirit in 2 Peter 3:2. “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets.” A simple encouragement, but one that is extremely important. Listen to the prophets. Don’t ignore them. Don’t skip over them. Don’t skim through them. Don’t just read the prophetic books of the Bible just to read them. Actually listen to them. Think about what is said, commit it to memory, and apply it to your life. “Listen to the prophets” is a simple command, but not one that is easily carried out.
For example: how well have you been listening so far this service? Have you been concentrating on the words being said or have your thoughts been elsewhere? When is the last time you’ve read through the book of Micah? When is the last time you’ve read through the book of Zechariah? Ezekiel? Jeremiah? Numbers? Isaiah? Have you read any of these books in 2007? If you haven’t, that’s far from listening to the prophets, that’s not even giving them a chance to speak - that’s despising God’s Word. And maybe some of you have read through those books. Maybe some of you have read through all of those prophetic books this past year. So then what can you tell me about the book of Zechariah? What description would you give about the book of Micah? What details do you remember from the book of Amos? Anything? One, maybe two details from those entire books? You may have read them, but did you listen? Did you think about what they said? Did you apply their words to your life? Reading through a book of one of the prophets or coming to a worship service or going to a Bible class is worthless unless you listen to the prophets’ words.
There will be times when I’ll be reading through a prophetic book of the Old Testament, and as I am reading my mind starts to wander. Something reminds me of a situation I have to deal with or a conversation I’ve had or something I have to write or teach or prepare. And all of the sudden I’ve read through two paragraphs… but I haven’t really read anything at all. And when that happens - and it happens embarrassingly often - that is not listening to the prophets. That is despising God’s Word. That is not treating it with the honor and the respect and the awe that it deserves. Because God’s Word deserves our absolute and full attention. Something it rarely gets. We do not concentrate as we should. We do not think about it as we should. We do not listen as we should and that is only to our loss.
And it’s not as if these prophetic books contain nothing for us in this day and age. It’s not as if they are obsolete. The very reason I mentioned Micah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Numbers, Ezekiel, and Isaiah before is because we are using passages from each of these books today in this service. Each one of these books contains direct prophecies about Christ himself. Do not tell me those words are unimportant. Don’t tell me those words can be skipped over. But then we do. We skip over them or we don’t read them or we don’t listen to them. The Lord had these words and all the words of Scripture written down for us in one book, preserving them for thousands of years and promising to keep them around until the end of the world - all so that we can listen to them. The Lord does not go off on tangents. The Lord does not say things that don’t need to be said. Every single word in Scripture is important. And so how many of those words have you neglected to listen to?
And yet here we are: participating in a worship service filled with his words, in a church with a shelf full of Bible’s containing his words, among a group of believers learning his words. The Lord keeps on speaking. We fail to listen more often than not but the Lord’s keeps on speaking! He still allows us to have the written Word in every one of our homes. He still feeds us with the truths of his Word in worship services and Bible studies. He doesn’t take it away! The Lord does not take his Word away from us. Can there be a more gracious Lord than that? How many times does a mother have to tell her child to do something before the child is punished for not listening? How many times does a court warn an offender before there are consequences? How many times would you talk to a person who completely ignores everything you say and does the exact opposite of what you want - until you stop talking to that person all together? But isn’t that how we treat the Lord’s words through his holy prophets? And so what a gracious God we have! He does not stop talking to us. In fact, he talks to us all the more. He points us to his Word again and again. And he reminds us of the very words of the prophets that we haven’t been listening to.
“The Star of Jacob,” “The Shepherd,” The righteous Branch,” “The Lamp,” “The Prince of Peace,” “The descendant of David,” “Immanuel.” These are all words of the holy prophets. And all of these words are in this very service today that the Lord wants us to listen to because these words tell us about our Savior. They predict his coming. They describe his glory. They detail our salvation. Listen to these words and know that these prophecies about Christ are for you. Because that’s the reason for this type of service. To lay out for you a wide range of Scripture passages that speak of the pinnacle of our faith. Passages that get you ready not only for Christ’s birth in the manger but his death on the cross as well. Passages that point us to the Victor of our forgiveness and the Caretaker of our souls. There will be very few worship services you will ever attend in which you will hear so many prophecies all about Christ all at once. So pay attention. Listen to what is being said. And try not to get distracted by who is speaking these words. Do not get distracted by the kids reading and reciting the words of the holy prophets today.
It’s easy to get distracted by that, isn’t it? The younger ones are so cute, the older ones are so nervous, and sometimes you can’t quite hear what they’re saying. But the words that they speak are still the words of God. That’s the amazing thing about it. No matter who speaks these words: whether it was the holy prophets 2500 years ago, your called pastor, or some of the youngest believers in this congregation, you are hearing the words of God. He promises his almighty power works through those words. And he will strengthen us by those words. So don’t forget to listen to them! Make sure your focus is not on the children in front you, but on the words coming out of their mouths. Those words they speak are extremely important. They are beautiful pictures of Jesus our Savior. And they have been written just for you. Listen to these words of the holy prophets. Think about what is being said. Apply these words to your life. And thank the Lord that he still speaks these words to you - and always will.
Amen.
12/9/07 - Advent 2 - Romans 15:4-13
ACCEPT WITHOUT EXCEPTION
- Just as God accepted the Gentiles
- So that we have a spirit of unity
Today is the 9th, next week is the 16th, and the week after that is the 23rd of December. In two weeks and two days Christmas will be upon us once again. And every one of us here is looking forward to the celebration of Christ’s birth. And we should be. It’s a joyous time in the life of a Christian to have the opportunity to praise God for his incarnation into this world. But doesn’t it amaze you that out of all the people on this earth, we are looking forward to Christmas? Because, if I’m not mistaken, there aren’t any full-blooded Jews in here today, are there? We are all Gentiles! And yet we are still anticipating with an eager excitement the coming of Christ - the Savior who came from the Jewish nation for the Jewish nation. That’s a miracle, my friends! That we Gentiles would actually look forward to the coming of the Jewish Messiah! We shouldn’t even know about him! Because “Christ became a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs.” The patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God chose them. God chose the Israelites, the Jews, as his people. He promised to accept them as his children. He promised that the Savior would come from their line. He promised that his Word would first and foremost be theirs. And so what are we doing with the hope of the coming Christ? What are we Gentiles doing with faith planted in our hearts and sure salvation in our futures? What are we Gentiles doing as accepted children of the Lord? There’s only one reason: God’s mercy.
The Lord accepted us as his children only because of his mercy - only because he wanted to. He didn’t have to tell us about the Savior. He didn’t have to specifically seek us out and take the time to bring us to faith through his Word. The Lord can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t owe anyone anything - he especially doesn’t owe anything to the things he created. I think we forget how fortunate we really are that we know about Jesus, believe in him, and look forward to his coming. Because all of that is the work of God’s mercy on those who weren’t originally his people. He loved us when we were conceived in sin. He called us to faith when our sinful natures did everything to stop him. He accepts us as his own even though we are daily disobedient. If that’s not mercy - showing love, forgiveness, and compassion on the hopeless - I don’t know what is.
Now, knowing the extent of the Lord’s love for us, listen to the Holy Spirit’s encouragement to all us today: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you.” In the context of our reading from Romans 15, Paul is speaking about weak and strong brothers and sisters within the congregation. Despite the faults, despite the imperfections, despite the weaknesses, despite the differences, we are to accept without exception. We are to accept everyone here as a brother and sister in Christ - a relationship closer than any other. You are to accept each other just as Christ accepted you. That’s the model. That’s the example Christ has set that he wants you now to emulate. He has accepted you: a sinner, an outsider, a Gentle, without exception. You are to do nothing but the same. That doesn’t mean we overlook sin. That doesn’t mean we don’t still have a duty to point out when someone is clearly doing something or saying something contrary to God’s Word. It means that we are supposed to be loving and forgiving just as Christ is with us.
And don’t let yourself off the hook just yet. I’m sure many of you automatically assume that you’re doing all right when it comes to this area of Christian living. “Of course I accept others. I’m not prejudice. I know they are fellow believers. I’m not calling their faith into question.” But don’t fool yourself. None of us have accepted each other just as Christ has accepted us. Because accepting each other means more than simply being around each other. Accepting each other means more than tolerating each other. Accepting each other means more than just putting up with each other. I know you do that! I know you are around, tolerate, and put up with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. So do I! But so what? That’s not accepting others as Christ has accepted you! Christ doesn’t just force himself to be around you, he doesn’t just tolerate you or put up with you. He accepts you as his own. He loves you with every fiber of his being. He gave up his own life for you. He spends every second of every day caring for you. Everything he does he does for your good. Is that what you do? Is that how you treat your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? Is that how you accept them without exception?
If you do, I thank the Lord that he has given you the ability and the motivation to follow his example perfectly. If you don’t, then you’re just like me. Still a sinner. Ever a sinner. Always needing God’s mercy. And here we are again: we’re back to God’s mercy. Because of his mercy he accepted us as his children when we were his enemies. Because of his mercy he sent his Son to this earth to be born in our likeness. Because of his mercy he turned his back on his own Son while he was on the cross so that he would not have to turn his back on us. And because of his mercy he will forgive us every time we turn our backs on him. “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name,” Paul quotes in our sermon text from Psalm 18. “Again, it says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.’ And again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples.’ And again, Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him.’” Rejoice with me, my fellow Gentiles, my fellow sinners, my fellow accepted children of God through faith! In just under two and a half weeks we will again celebrate that Root of Jesse coming into this world as a human being. We will praise him for his sacrifice and glorify him for his victory! We will join together with one heart and voice to thank him for the forgiveness he gives us through his life, death, and resurrection! And we will gather as accepted children of his mercy, enjoying the peace and hope and joy that only his accepted children can truly understand.
And so the way in which Christ has accepted us is not only our example, it is also our motivation. Because Christ has accepted us with that incomprehensible love, how could we not show that same kind of love to others? It doesn’t matter if you don’t get along with somebody. It doesn’t matter if your personalities don’t mesh. It doesn’t matter if they’ve done something in the past or if they do something in the future. That didn’t stop Christ from accepting them as his children. That didn’t stop Christ from accepting you. And it’s a good thing. Don’t let that stop you from accepting your fellow Christians as dear family members. Accept your fellow brothers and sisters here without exception “so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And that’s one of the goals and one of the benefits of accepting others without exception. When that happens we join together as fellow believers with one heart and mouth. It’s not many different hearts and many different mouths singing four hymns every Sunday. It’s not many different hearts and many different mouths reciting the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not many different hearts and many different mouths singing the songs of the liturgy, professing the Creed, or confessing our sins. The result of this love for one another is one heart and one mouth glorifying the Lord. Together we have been accepted by Christ. And so together we praise him.
This togetherness, of course, is not accomplished by our outstanding efforts or our loving and patient personalities. If our unity depended on us, we would have no one left. We would drive each other away. This unity is only accomplished by the efforts of the one who accepted us. And so that’s why Paul prays, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves according to Christ Jesus.” As we grow together in the Word, as we join with each other in Bible studies, worship services, fellowship gatherings, and personal interactions, the Lord will continue to strengthen our spirit of unity. He will heal wounds, he will form bonds, he will weld us together as the spiritual siblings we are. He promises to help us with that and so he wants us to continue to work at accepting without exception - no matter how hard it may be at times.
This challenge and this blessing is nothing unique to our congregation. Every congregation in any denomination struggles with accepting each other without exception. But those who work at it receive the benefits. And what a blessing it is when a congregation as a whole is able to model the love Christ has for them. That is one of the best evangelism tools available. When visitors see the spirit of unity among us, when they feel that there is a family bond, when they want to be part of that connection in Christ - the door is that opened that much wider for the gospel. Is that the reason why we strive to accept each other without exception? No. But it is a wonderful side-effect.
I challenge you to work on that. I challenge you to follow the example Christ has already set - for the good of your faith, for the good of the congregation, and ultimately for the glory of the Lord. But if you’re going to work on that, that means it would be a good thing for you to force yourself to talk to those who you normally don’t talk to. Get to know them. Ask them questions. Try to understand them. Working on following Christ’s example also means it would be a good thing to make time for Bible classes either Sunday or Wednesday night. Because not only is that an irreplaceable opportunity for your faith to grow, it is also an opportunity to grow together with each other. Working on following Christ’s example means it would be a good thing to make an appearance at fellowship events as often as possible. The benefits of that for the sake of unity are obvious.
And I’m not necessarily calling people out. I’m not accusing someone or trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone. I simply want to relay the encouragement that the Holy Spirit gives all of us today: accept without exception. Just as Christ accepted the Gentiles so that we can have a spirit of unity with each other. This will be a constant activity. It will be a never-ending job wherever you are in whatever congregation to which you belong. But what a blessing that is! To actually have fellow Christians around you. To have men and women of the faith who you can call “brother” and “sister.” Do not underestimate these blessings from the Lord. These are blessings that many Christians throughout history never had. Take advantage of that! Embrace those around you. Enjoy the time you have together. After all, there will come a day when you and I and all our brothers and sisters will be together forever. That day is coming soon. The day on which we will no longer have to struggle to follow Christ’s example of love because we will forever be living in it. May the Lord grant us this unity not only in the perfection of Paradise, but right here, right now, together in Christ.
Amen.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Rom. 15:13
- Just as God accepted the Gentiles
- So that we have a spirit of unity
Today is the 9th, next week is the 16th, and the week after that is the 23rd of December. In two weeks and two days Christmas will be upon us once again. And every one of us here is looking forward to the celebration of Christ’s birth. And we should be. It’s a joyous time in the life of a Christian to have the opportunity to praise God for his incarnation into this world. But doesn’t it amaze you that out of all the people on this earth, we are looking forward to Christmas? Because, if I’m not mistaken, there aren’t any full-blooded Jews in here today, are there? We are all Gentiles! And yet we are still anticipating with an eager excitement the coming of Christ - the Savior who came from the Jewish nation for the Jewish nation. That’s a miracle, my friends! That we Gentiles would actually look forward to the coming of the Jewish Messiah! We shouldn’t even know about him! Because “Christ became a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs.” The patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God chose them. God chose the Israelites, the Jews, as his people. He promised to accept them as his children. He promised that the Savior would come from their line. He promised that his Word would first and foremost be theirs. And so what are we doing with the hope of the coming Christ? What are we Gentiles doing with faith planted in our hearts and sure salvation in our futures? What are we Gentiles doing as accepted children of the Lord? There’s only one reason: God’s mercy.
The Lord accepted us as his children only because of his mercy - only because he wanted to. He didn’t have to tell us about the Savior. He didn’t have to specifically seek us out and take the time to bring us to faith through his Word. The Lord can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t owe anyone anything - he especially doesn’t owe anything to the things he created. I think we forget how fortunate we really are that we know about Jesus, believe in him, and look forward to his coming. Because all of that is the work of God’s mercy on those who weren’t originally his people. He loved us when we were conceived in sin. He called us to faith when our sinful natures did everything to stop him. He accepts us as his own even though we are daily disobedient. If that’s not mercy - showing love, forgiveness, and compassion on the hopeless - I don’t know what is.
Now, knowing the extent of the Lord’s love for us, listen to the Holy Spirit’s encouragement to all us today: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you.” In the context of our reading from Romans 15, Paul is speaking about weak and strong brothers and sisters within the congregation. Despite the faults, despite the imperfections, despite the weaknesses, despite the differences, we are to accept without exception. We are to accept everyone here as a brother and sister in Christ - a relationship closer than any other. You are to accept each other just as Christ accepted you. That’s the model. That’s the example Christ has set that he wants you now to emulate. He has accepted you: a sinner, an outsider, a Gentle, without exception. You are to do nothing but the same. That doesn’t mean we overlook sin. That doesn’t mean we don’t still have a duty to point out when someone is clearly doing something or saying something contrary to God’s Word. It means that we are supposed to be loving and forgiving just as Christ is with us.
And don’t let yourself off the hook just yet. I’m sure many of you automatically assume that you’re doing all right when it comes to this area of Christian living. “Of course I accept others. I’m not prejudice. I know they are fellow believers. I’m not calling their faith into question.” But don’t fool yourself. None of us have accepted each other just as Christ has accepted us. Because accepting each other means more than simply being around each other. Accepting each other means more than tolerating each other. Accepting each other means more than just putting up with each other. I know you do that! I know you are around, tolerate, and put up with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. So do I! But so what? That’s not accepting others as Christ has accepted you! Christ doesn’t just force himself to be around you, he doesn’t just tolerate you or put up with you. He accepts you as his own. He loves you with every fiber of his being. He gave up his own life for you. He spends every second of every day caring for you. Everything he does he does for your good. Is that what you do? Is that how you treat your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? Is that how you accept them without exception?
If you do, I thank the Lord that he has given you the ability and the motivation to follow his example perfectly. If you don’t, then you’re just like me. Still a sinner. Ever a sinner. Always needing God’s mercy. And here we are again: we’re back to God’s mercy. Because of his mercy he accepted us as his children when we were his enemies. Because of his mercy he sent his Son to this earth to be born in our likeness. Because of his mercy he turned his back on his own Son while he was on the cross so that he would not have to turn his back on us. And because of his mercy he will forgive us every time we turn our backs on him. “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name,” Paul quotes in our sermon text from Psalm 18. “Again, it says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.’ And again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples.’ And again, Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him.’” Rejoice with me, my fellow Gentiles, my fellow sinners, my fellow accepted children of God through faith! In just under two and a half weeks we will again celebrate that Root of Jesse coming into this world as a human being. We will praise him for his sacrifice and glorify him for his victory! We will join together with one heart and voice to thank him for the forgiveness he gives us through his life, death, and resurrection! And we will gather as accepted children of his mercy, enjoying the peace and hope and joy that only his accepted children can truly understand.
And so the way in which Christ has accepted us is not only our example, it is also our motivation. Because Christ has accepted us with that incomprehensible love, how could we not show that same kind of love to others? It doesn’t matter if you don’t get along with somebody. It doesn’t matter if your personalities don’t mesh. It doesn’t matter if they’ve done something in the past or if they do something in the future. That didn’t stop Christ from accepting them as his children. That didn’t stop Christ from accepting you. And it’s a good thing. Don’t let that stop you from accepting your fellow Christians as dear family members. Accept your fellow brothers and sisters here without exception “so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And that’s one of the goals and one of the benefits of accepting others without exception. When that happens we join together as fellow believers with one heart and mouth. It’s not many different hearts and many different mouths singing four hymns every Sunday. It’s not many different hearts and many different mouths reciting the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not many different hearts and many different mouths singing the songs of the liturgy, professing the Creed, or confessing our sins. The result of this love for one another is one heart and one mouth glorifying the Lord. Together we have been accepted by Christ. And so together we praise him.
This togetherness, of course, is not accomplished by our outstanding efforts or our loving and patient personalities. If our unity depended on us, we would have no one left. We would drive each other away. This unity is only accomplished by the efforts of the one who accepted us. And so that’s why Paul prays, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves according to Christ Jesus.” As we grow together in the Word, as we join with each other in Bible studies, worship services, fellowship gatherings, and personal interactions, the Lord will continue to strengthen our spirit of unity. He will heal wounds, he will form bonds, he will weld us together as the spiritual siblings we are. He promises to help us with that and so he wants us to continue to work at accepting without exception - no matter how hard it may be at times.
This challenge and this blessing is nothing unique to our congregation. Every congregation in any denomination struggles with accepting each other without exception. But those who work at it receive the benefits. And what a blessing it is when a congregation as a whole is able to model the love Christ has for them. That is one of the best evangelism tools available. When visitors see the spirit of unity among us, when they feel that there is a family bond, when they want to be part of that connection in Christ - the door is that opened that much wider for the gospel. Is that the reason why we strive to accept each other without exception? No. But it is a wonderful side-effect.
I challenge you to work on that. I challenge you to follow the example Christ has already set - for the good of your faith, for the good of the congregation, and ultimately for the glory of the Lord. But if you’re going to work on that, that means it would be a good thing for you to force yourself to talk to those who you normally don’t talk to. Get to know them. Ask them questions. Try to understand them. Working on following Christ’s example also means it would be a good thing to make time for Bible classes either Sunday or Wednesday night. Because not only is that an irreplaceable opportunity for your faith to grow, it is also an opportunity to grow together with each other. Working on following Christ’s example means it would be a good thing to make an appearance at fellowship events as often as possible. The benefits of that for the sake of unity are obvious.
And I’m not necessarily calling people out. I’m not accusing someone or trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone. I simply want to relay the encouragement that the Holy Spirit gives all of us today: accept without exception. Just as Christ accepted the Gentiles so that we can have a spirit of unity with each other. This will be a constant activity. It will be a never-ending job wherever you are in whatever congregation to which you belong. But what a blessing that is! To actually have fellow Christians around you. To have men and women of the faith who you can call “brother” and “sister.” Do not underestimate these blessings from the Lord. These are blessings that many Christians throughout history never had. Take advantage of that! Embrace those around you. Enjoy the time you have together. After all, there will come a day when you and I and all our brothers and sisters will be together forever. That day is coming soon. The day on which we will no longer have to struggle to follow Christ’s example of love because we will forever be living in it. May the Lord grant us this unity not only in the perfection of Paradise, but right here, right now, together in Christ.
Amen.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Rom. 15:13
12/2/07 - Advent 1 - Matthew 24:37-44
THE SON OF MAN IS COMING
- As in the days of Noah
- To take you away
How many years were there from the time God created the world until he sent the Flood to destroy it? Any guesses? 1656 years. For over 1600 years the population of the earth increased. And remember: the Bible records for us that the people back then didn’t just live to be 80 - they lived closer to 800 years each. There must have been quite a few people in the world after that amount of time. But out of all those people after 1600 years of procreation, there were only eight believers. Noah, his wife, and their three sons with their wives. Eight believers on the face of the earth in the year of the Flood.
But it’s not as if the world’s population didn’t have fair warning before God covered the earth in water. Many of them must have saw and even more of them most have heard about Noah building the ark. An ark that was 450 feet long! How long do you think it took Noah and his three sons to build a boat that size? Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly how long it took, but it couldn’t have been accomplished all that quickly. And so for the entire time those four men were building this massive boat out in the middle of nowhere - the rest of the people ate and drank and married and went about their lives. Until the day it started to rain. But by then it was too late. By then Noah and his family were already locked up in the ark. By then the Lord’s judgment had already been sealed. The thousands and thousands of people killed in that Flood had a chance. They were given time and opportunity to repent. But they were taken by surprise nonetheless when the spring waters of the earth burst forth from below, the rain clouds let loose everything they held from above, and the flood waters poured for 40 straight days until even the highest mountain tops were covered.
This event is what Jesus points back to in Matthew 24. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” The Son of Man - Jesus Christ our Lord - is coming. Just like the flood in the days of Noah - so that he can take you away.
Are you ready for the coming of the Son of Man? There aren’t any enormous wooden arks around to tell us that his coming is near, but we do have different signs of those times, don’t we? Earlier in Matthew 24 Jesus said that these things must happen before the end comes: wars, rumors of wars, famines, plagues, false prophets, fake Christs, persecution, and the spreading of the gospel to the world. Are these things happening? Yeah, they sure are. And so the Son of Man could come at any moment. But are you ready? Are you prepared? Do you have your bags packed and waiting at the front door? Of course, the question is: how are we supposed to prepare? The only way you can be prepared for the coming of the Son of Man is through repentance. That’s what God wanted the people during Noah’s time to do, and that’s what he wants of all people during this time to do as well. He wants you to repent of your sins. And repenting means that you confess - you admit - all of your sins, plead for God’s mercy, and believe that they have been forgiven through Christ on the cross. That is repentance. That is how you prepare yourself for his coming. That is how you know you are ready.
But repentance is usually the farthest thing from our minds, isn’t it? Because although we know Jesus could come at any time, we don’t really expect him to. We’ve lived our entire lives so far without him coming and so have millions of people before us. So why should we expect that he’ll come today or tomorrow or while we’re still alive? And so just like the people during the days before the Flood, we eat and we drink and we plan and we go about our daily lives, and repentance doesn’t seem so urgent. “We’ve got time,” we tell ourselves. “What’s the hurry? Odds are he’s not coming back today.” Be careful. The signs of the end are prevalent. The ark is already built, so to speak. The rain is beginning to fall. So do not let those pet sins linger. Do not allow those so-called “minor” or “insignificant” sins to remain in your lives. Do not keep on trying to convince yourself that what you are doing or what you are saying or what you are thinking really isn’t a sin after all. And there are plenty of those kind of sins, aren’t there? Gossiping, selfishness, laziness, lust, coveting, short temper, worrying… need I go on? There are countless sins unique to each one of us that we don’t want to put away. Sins that we know are against what God wants us to do, but sins we don’t mind doing again. Sins that we have no plans on giving up any time soon.
That is dangerous, my friends. Because an unrepentant sin is a condemning sin. If you are not repentant of a sin, then you are refusing forgiveness for it. And if you refuse forgiveness, you are rejecting the one who earned that forgiveness for you - Christ himself. He will not overlook that. He will not just shrug his shoulders and look the other way. When he comes again he will not make an exception to the rule of judgment just for you. One sin condemns! And so all sins need to be forgiven! Repent of your sins. Not that you have to specifically name everything you’ve done, said, and thought, but repent of all your sins in full - confess them, plead for mercy, and believe that Jesus has forgiven them through his blood.
Let’s do that together right now. Let’s repent of our sins, expecting that the Lord will come again before today is done. We bow our heads as I read a few words of repentance from Psalm 19. “[O Lord], who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:12-14). Amen.
Be ready for Christ to come today. And if tomorrow gets here, then be ready for him to come tomorrow. And if the next day comes the same thing. It’s better to assume that Christ will come today than any time later. Because whenever Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God, does come again time will be up. There will be no more chances. Jesus himself says in our text, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” Are these words familiar to you? I ask that because these words are familiar to thousands of people in this country. These two verses are the main basis for what now is known as “the Rapture.” The Rapture is a teaching that Christ will come to gather believers before Judgment Day so that they will not have to endure the terrible things of the Great Tribulation. The unbelievers will be left behind to face the attacks of Satan and to have the chance to repent. The believers, on the other hand, will reign a thousand years and Christ will eventually set up his eternal kingdom here on earth… Don’t buy it. Don’t fall for the Rapture idea because it simply isn’t in Scripture.
The context of these two verses is talking about Judgment Day. And there’s no real reason to take them otherwise. Jesus will come on the Last Day to take you to be with him. The unbelievers will be left behind - but not to continue to live on the earth - they will be left behind for judgment. In other words, they will not be taken with the believers by Jesus to heaven - they will be left. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Jesus will come before the end of the world to take Christians away and give unbelievers a chance to repent before he comes a third time. The idea of the Rapture is a fabricated teaching. It is the result of science fiction imaginations that have stretched different passages of Scripture to vaguely refer to what they want to believe. It’s important for us to know about these kinds of teachings, but I don’t want to spend our precious time together today refuting errors - it is necessary for us to spend our time today focusing on Christ.
The Christ who will come again for the 2nd and final time. The Christ who will come at exactly the right time. Just like he did the first time. Remember what Paul says in Galatians: “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). When the time had fully come God did this. He had it planned from eternity. He knew exactly when, exactly where, and exactly how he would save sinners. At exactly the right time Christ came into this world in a town called Bethlehem, lived his life in the land of Israel, died his sacrificial death in the city of Jerusalem, and now reigns over all things on his heavenly throne. It was the perfect time and place for him to come. And the result of that perfect timing was the perfection of our souls through forgiveness.
In the same way Christ will return at exactly the right time. We don’t know when. Not even the angels are aware of the day of Christ’s coming. But we know that when he does come, it will be perfectly timed. It will be when believers need him the most. It will be when sin in this world is at its worst. It will be exactly when God had it planned before time began. What a comforting thought, isn’t it? To know that the Second Coming of our Savior that will bring about the ultimate goal of our faith and begin the never-ending ecstasy of eternity has already been planned before this world existed. We get antsy, we get impatient and jittery because we don’t know when that will be. But the Lord does. And that should be good enough for those of us who are his children living under his care.
And maybe just as comforting to us in this portion of Scripture today, and what we will close with today, is what is not said. “One will be taken, the other left.” That’s it. Did you notice that there will be no inquisition? There will be no trial. There will be no final exam. Christ will not take out your list of sins and read them off because as far as he’s concerned, you have no sins. They were already read off and the guilt was already dealt out on Christ as he was dying on the cross. That’s why he suffered so much. That’s why he was there in the first place. That’s why he’ll come back. Because he has gone through all that effort already to save you. And so when Christ does come the work will already done. He will immediately and without hesitation take you to heaven in an instant. When he appears in the clouds surrounded by his angel armies and accompanied by the trumpet blast of God himself, you will be filled with an excitement beyond compare. You will know that your Savior has come. You will know that he has come for you. This is what we look forward to. This is what we prepare for by repentance. This is what we know will happen soon. The Son of Man is coming. The ark is built. The rain is starting to fall. The Son of Man is certainly coming. And he couldn’t come soon enough.
Amen.
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus.” - Rev. 22:20
- As in the days of Noah
- To take you away
How many years were there from the time God created the world until he sent the Flood to destroy it? Any guesses? 1656 years. For over 1600 years the population of the earth increased. And remember: the Bible records for us that the people back then didn’t just live to be 80 - they lived closer to 800 years each. There must have been quite a few people in the world after that amount of time. But out of all those people after 1600 years of procreation, there were only eight believers. Noah, his wife, and their three sons with their wives. Eight believers on the face of the earth in the year of the Flood.
But it’s not as if the world’s population didn’t have fair warning before God covered the earth in water. Many of them must have saw and even more of them most have heard about Noah building the ark. An ark that was 450 feet long! How long do you think it took Noah and his three sons to build a boat that size? Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly how long it took, but it couldn’t have been accomplished all that quickly. And so for the entire time those four men were building this massive boat out in the middle of nowhere - the rest of the people ate and drank and married and went about their lives. Until the day it started to rain. But by then it was too late. By then Noah and his family were already locked up in the ark. By then the Lord’s judgment had already been sealed. The thousands and thousands of people killed in that Flood had a chance. They were given time and opportunity to repent. But they were taken by surprise nonetheless when the spring waters of the earth burst forth from below, the rain clouds let loose everything they held from above, and the flood waters poured for 40 straight days until even the highest mountain tops were covered.
This event is what Jesus points back to in Matthew 24. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” The Son of Man - Jesus Christ our Lord - is coming. Just like the flood in the days of Noah - so that he can take you away.
Are you ready for the coming of the Son of Man? There aren’t any enormous wooden arks around to tell us that his coming is near, but we do have different signs of those times, don’t we? Earlier in Matthew 24 Jesus said that these things must happen before the end comes: wars, rumors of wars, famines, plagues, false prophets, fake Christs, persecution, and the spreading of the gospel to the world. Are these things happening? Yeah, they sure are. And so the Son of Man could come at any moment. But are you ready? Are you prepared? Do you have your bags packed and waiting at the front door? Of course, the question is: how are we supposed to prepare? The only way you can be prepared for the coming of the Son of Man is through repentance. That’s what God wanted the people during Noah’s time to do, and that’s what he wants of all people during this time to do as well. He wants you to repent of your sins. And repenting means that you confess - you admit - all of your sins, plead for God’s mercy, and believe that they have been forgiven through Christ on the cross. That is repentance. That is how you prepare yourself for his coming. That is how you know you are ready.
But repentance is usually the farthest thing from our minds, isn’t it? Because although we know Jesus could come at any time, we don’t really expect him to. We’ve lived our entire lives so far without him coming and so have millions of people before us. So why should we expect that he’ll come today or tomorrow or while we’re still alive? And so just like the people during the days before the Flood, we eat and we drink and we plan and we go about our daily lives, and repentance doesn’t seem so urgent. “We’ve got time,” we tell ourselves. “What’s the hurry? Odds are he’s not coming back today.” Be careful. The signs of the end are prevalent. The ark is already built, so to speak. The rain is beginning to fall. So do not let those pet sins linger. Do not allow those so-called “minor” or “insignificant” sins to remain in your lives. Do not keep on trying to convince yourself that what you are doing or what you are saying or what you are thinking really isn’t a sin after all. And there are plenty of those kind of sins, aren’t there? Gossiping, selfishness, laziness, lust, coveting, short temper, worrying… need I go on? There are countless sins unique to each one of us that we don’t want to put away. Sins that we know are against what God wants us to do, but sins we don’t mind doing again. Sins that we have no plans on giving up any time soon.
That is dangerous, my friends. Because an unrepentant sin is a condemning sin. If you are not repentant of a sin, then you are refusing forgiveness for it. And if you refuse forgiveness, you are rejecting the one who earned that forgiveness for you - Christ himself. He will not overlook that. He will not just shrug his shoulders and look the other way. When he comes again he will not make an exception to the rule of judgment just for you. One sin condemns! And so all sins need to be forgiven! Repent of your sins. Not that you have to specifically name everything you’ve done, said, and thought, but repent of all your sins in full - confess them, plead for mercy, and believe that Jesus has forgiven them through his blood.
Let’s do that together right now. Let’s repent of our sins, expecting that the Lord will come again before today is done. We bow our heads as I read a few words of repentance from Psalm 19. “[O Lord], who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:12-14). Amen.
Be ready for Christ to come today. And if tomorrow gets here, then be ready for him to come tomorrow. And if the next day comes the same thing. It’s better to assume that Christ will come today than any time later. Because whenever Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God, does come again time will be up. There will be no more chances. Jesus himself says in our text, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” Are these words familiar to you? I ask that because these words are familiar to thousands of people in this country. These two verses are the main basis for what now is known as “the Rapture.” The Rapture is a teaching that Christ will come to gather believers before Judgment Day so that they will not have to endure the terrible things of the Great Tribulation. The unbelievers will be left behind to face the attacks of Satan and to have the chance to repent. The believers, on the other hand, will reign a thousand years and Christ will eventually set up his eternal kingdom here on earth… Don’t buy it. Don’t fall for the Rapture idea because it simply isn’t in Scripture.
The context of these two verses is talking about Judgment Day. And there’s no real reason to take them otherwise. Jesus will come on the Last Day to take you to be with him. The unbelievers will be left behind - but not to continue to live on the earth - they will be left behind for judgment. In other words, they will not be taken with the believers by Jesus to heaven - they will be left. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Jesus will come before the end of the world to take Christians away and give unbelievers a chance to repent before he comes a third time. The idea of the Rapture is a fabricated teaching. It is the result of science fiction imaginations that have stretched different passages of Scripture to vaguely refer to what they want to believe. It’s important for us to know about these kinds of teachings, but I don’t want to spend our precious time together today refuting errors - it is necessary for us to spend our time today focusing on Christ.
The Christ who will come again for the 2nd and final time. The Christ who will come at exactly the right time. Just like he did the first time. Remember what Paul says in Galatians: “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). When the time had fully come God did this. He had it planned from eternity. He knew exactly when, exactly where, and exactly how he would save sinners. At exactly the right time Christ came into this world in a town called Bethlehem, lived his life in the land of Israel, died his sacrificial death in the city of Jerusalem, and now reigns over all things on his heavenly throne. It was the perfect time and place for him to come. And the result of that perfect timing was the perfection of our souls through forgiveness.
In the same way Christ will return at exactly the right time. We don’t know when. Not even the angels are aware of the day of Christ’s coming. But we know that when he does come, it will be perfectly timed. It will be when believers need him the most. It will be when sin in this world is at its worst. It will be exactly when God had it planned before time began. What a comforting thought, isn’t it? To know that the Second Coming of our Savior that will bring about the ultimate goal of our faith and begin the never-ending ecstasy of eternity has already been planned before this world existed. We get antsy, we get impatient and jittery because we don’t know when that will be. But the Lord does. And that should be good enough for those of us who are his children living under his care.
And maybe just as comforting to us in this portion of Scripture today, and what we will close with today, is what is not said. “One will be taken, the other left.” That’s it. Did you notice that there will be no inquisition? There will be no trial. There will be no final exam. Christ will not take out your list of sins and read them off because as far as he’s concerned, you have no sins. They were already read off and the guilt was already dealt out on Christ as he was dying on the cross. That’s why he suffered so much. That’s why he was there in the first place. That’s why he’ll come back. Because he has gone through all that effort already to save you. And so when Christ does come the work will already done. He will immediately and without hesitation take you to heaven in an instant. When he appears in the clouds surrounded by his angel armies and accompanied by the trumpet blast of God himself, you will be filled with an excitement beyond compare. You will know that your Savior has come. You will know that he has come for you. This is what we look forward to. This is what we prepare for by repentance. This is what we know will happen soon. The Son of Man is coming. The ark is built. The rain is starting to fall. The Son of Man is certainly coming. And he couldn’t come soon enough.
Amen.
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus.” - Rev. 22:20
11/25/07 - Christ the King - Jer. 23:2-6
A KING UNLIKE ANY OTHER
- He is just and right
- He saves and protects
The Old Testament Israelites were used to terrible kings. Because while they lived in the Promised Land there were very few rulers that were godly in any sort of way. David was good and his son Solomon was all right, but remember that after the time of King Solomon the Promised Land was divided: the northern half was called “Israel” and the southern half was called “Judah.” And each area began to elect its own kings. In the land of Israel Scripture records for us that they did not even have one worthwhile king for their entire existence - over 250 years! None of their kings remained Christians their entire lives. The land of Judah was a little better. There were five, maybe six, kings that remained faithful to the Lord compared to about 15 others who were either completely heathen or at least angered the Lord in various ways with various sins during their rules.
The reason I am reviewing Israelite history for you is because our sermon text for today - Jeremiah 23 - picks up right near the end of these ungodly times. And to understand the impact of the words in front of us today it’s important to remember what those kings were like at that time. The prophet Jeremiah served God’s people in the land of Judah right up until the end. And the king who ruled when Jeremiah began his ministry was Josiah - the last good king. After that, everything went down hill. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah were the final four kings of God’s people. And the Bible says of each of those four kings, “He did evil in the eyes of the LORD” (2 Kings 23:32,37; 24:9,19). During the reign of one of these evil kings, King Jehoiachin the words of our text are spoken. And when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah and gave him this prophecy, it must have struck a chord in the hearts of those people who still believed in him because it was a prophecy about a righteous King. “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.’” This King whom the Lord would raise up for his people, would be unlike any other. He would be one who was just and right. And he would be one who would save and protect.
I’m sure the believers at that time were thrilled to hear this prophecy! Finally, a king who will not be corrupt, one who would rule with wisdom, one who would keep them safe! But then the last part of the prophecy must have dawned on them: “He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.” “Wait a minute,” those believers must have thought. “What kind of king are we talking about here? This isn’t any ordinary king. This must be the Messiah! This must be the Promised One if the LORD calls the King who is coming the LORD!” And, of course, it was the Lord. The long-awaited Messiah, which in Greek is “Christ.” Messiah and Christ both mean, “Anointed One.” Christ Jesus did come into the world from the line of David. He was crowned King. He did do what was just and right in the land. He never made mistakes. He never made a bad decision. And he still doesn’t.
The King, Jesus Christ, who came into this world to rule, still rules right now. In heaven, over earth, and in our hearts. And so he still never makes a bad decision. I want you to think about that. Christ the King never makes a bad decision. I want you to think about that because I’m sure you’ve underhandedly excused him of that before, haven’t you? Think of how many times in your life you have scratched your head and wondered, “What are you doing, Lord? Why is this happening? It doesn’t make any sense that you’re letting my suffering linger or this war continue or these catastrophes to occur. It doesn’t make sense. How is this showing your love?” Now, let’s stop right there. I would find it hard to believe that there is somebody in this building right now that does not have these kind of thoughts at least every once in a while. And I’m no exception. I too question the King’s decisions. Especially when I think my plans would be for the good of his kingdom. “Lord, I’ve been trying and trying to spread the gospel to this person, why aren’t you letting it happen? Why don’t you take the obstacles and road blocks away? I thought you wanted everyone to be saved!” “Lord, when will you make this congregation grow? When will you give us a building? When will you bless our efforts?” “Lord, could you please help me get over this illness? I have to do your work for your people! I’ve been sick all week and you know I’ve got a lot of things to do before Sunday! I need to feel better to do what I’ve been called to do!”
These are not the thoughts of a humble servant of the King. These are thoughts of a rebellious trouble-maker, one who thinks he knows better, one who thinks he might even be able to do better than the King himself. These thoughts of mine and the similar thoughts that run through your head about different things in different ways are not merely harmless questions. They are mutinous. They are insubordinate. They are defiant. Who are we to question the King? Who are we to doubt that he does everything justly? Who are we to wonder if he is always right or not? The King does not allow that kind of attitude. He demands obedience. He demands complete loyalty. And so questioning the King is not a mundane pastime time like we are used to in this country when talking about the president. It is not our privilege or our right to cast doubt on his authority. Questioning the Lord, questioning THE King is worthy of death. And don’t think that is an empty threat. Because unlike any other king, this King always knows what you are thinking and he always does what is just and right. Even when it comes to punishment.
But the Old Testament Israelites during the time of Jeremiah stilled looked forward to this King. Even though they too were worthy of death - they looked forward to this King because this King would save them from death. “In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.” This King, our King, is just and right, but he also saves and protects. He did promise to judge sin and insubordination. And so he did issue the sentence of death and punishment because of those sins. He just didn’t mete out that punishment on us who actually deserve it. He took the punishment himself. Did you catch that? The King took the punishment himself. Our King really is unlike any other! What other king would do that for his subjects? What other king would put his neck into the noose knotted for those who rebelled against him? What other king would lay his head on the guillotine in place of those who were insubordinate? What other king would sacrifice his own life so that those deservedly on death row could be freed? There is no other king like our King who “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This is how the future Messiah would save the people of Israel. This is how our Christ has saved us.
It is almost unfathomable to think that when our eternal, immortal, all-powerful King came into the world he created, he allowed himself to be cruelly treated like a disobedient slave. He was verbally and physically abused beyond anything we have ever experienced. Our King even allowed himself to be murdered! But when he died, he won. And when he rose, he proved it. And when he ascended into heaven, he reigned. And he still does. Our King, the King who is unlike any other, still reigns and rules from his heavenly throne above, taking care of the very same sheep he died to save on earth. And so we will not face our deserved death penalty after all. We will never have to see the eternal punishment that rightly awaited us. Rather we will see our Savior and live the life of holy luxury in the palace of our King.
That’s a nice leader to have, isn’t it? It’s a comfort to live under the rule of one who is all-knowing and ever-loving. It gives us a sense of peace and tranquility to know that he who was powerful enough to save us is still here to protect us. And that promise of protection and safety was an important aspect of the King’s future reign to the people during the time of Jeremiah. Because when these words were prophesied about the future King, the northern land of Israel had already been taken into exile by the Assyrians. Half of the Israelite’s countrymen were no longer in the Promised Land. And the Lord had just told King Jehoiachin that he would hand him and the land of Judah over to the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians invaded Judah during that time and took Jehoiachin prisoner. And nine years later Jerusalem and the temple itself were completely destroyed. The people of Israel were not used to living in safety at that time. They lived in fear. They went about their lives in constant worry. And so the promise that this future King would protect them and they would live in safety was an incredible blessing that they desperately looked forward to.
That blessing may not be as urgent or as meaningful to us as Christians in the 21st century living in North America. We don’t have nations visibly at our doorstep ready to conquer us. We don’t have specific prophecies from the Lord that we will be destroyed in only a few years. We live in a land of relative safety compared to the turbulent times and places of ages past. But the safety and the protection that Christ our King offers us is still an extremely calming thing to know. Our King, the one who broke the chains of death, completely destroyed sin, and reigns victorious over the devil, promises to protect us from those very things throughout our entire lives. And the King, of course, is always in control. He may allow Satan to do his evil work, but only to a certain extent. The devil always has to answer to the Lord. The King may allow the world to tempt us in various ways, but not more than we can bear. He may allow our sinful nature to continue, but will not let it overtake the faith he has placed in our hearts. Our King is that powerful. Our King is that caring. He will not let us fall into spiritual captivity because he wants us one day to live with him in heavenly freedom.
It is a good thing we have a King unlike any other. Because it takes a King unlike any other to do what he did: live a perfect life as a true human being, make his death a ransom for the sins of the world, and rise as only the true God could. And now, as he sits on this royal throne, he still does what is just and right. He still saves and protects. And he still is the King whose coming believers look forward to with eager and excited faith. Rejoice that our King came. Rejoice that our King reigns. Rejoice that our King will come again. And rejoice that our King is unlike any other.
Amen.
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” - 1 Tim. 1:17
- He is just and right
- He saves and protects
The Old Testament Israelites were used to terrible kings. Because while they lived in the Promised Land there were very few rulers that were godly in any sort of way. David was good and his son Solomon was all right, but remember that after the time of King Solomon the Promised Land was divided: the northern half was called “Israel” and the southern half was called “Judah.” And each area began to elect its own kings. In the land of Israel Scripture records for us that they did not even have one worthwhile king for their entire existence - over 250 years! None of their kings remained Christians their entire lives. The land of Judah was a little better. There were five, maybe six, kings that remained faithful to the Lord compared to about 15 others who were either completely heathen or at least angered the Lord in various ways with various sins during their rules.
The reason I am reviewing Israelite history for you is because our sermon text for today - Jeremiah 23 - picks up right near the end of these ungodly times. And to understand the impact of the words in front of us today it’s important to remember what those kings were like at that time. The prophet Jeremiah served God’s people in the land of Judah right up until the end. And the king who ruled when Jeremiah began his ministry was Josiah - the last good king. After that, everything went down hill. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah were the final four kings of God’s people. And the Bible says of each of those four kings, “He did evil in the eyes of the LORD” (2 Kings 23:32,37; 24:9,19). During the reign of one of these evil kings, King Jehoiachin the words of our text are spoken. And when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah and gave him this prophecy, it must have struck a chord in the hearts of those people who still believed in him because it was a prophecy about a righteous King. “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.’” This King whom the Lord would raise up for his people, would be unlike any other. He would be one who was just and right. And he would be one who would save and protect.
I’m sure the believers at that time were thrilled to hear this prophecy! Finally, a king who will not be corrupt, one who would rule with wisdom, one who would keep them safe! But then the last part of the prophecy must have dawned on them: “He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.” “Wait a minute,” those believers must have thought. “What kind of king are we talking about here? This isn’t any ordinary king. This must be the Messiah! This must be the Promised One if the LORD calls the King who is coming the LORD!” And, of course, it was the Lord. The long-awaited Messiah, which in Greek is “Christ.” Messiah and Christ both mean, “Anointed One.” Christ Jesus did come into the world from the line of David. He was crowned King. He did do what was just and right in the land. He never made mistakes. He never made a bad decision. And he still doesn’t.
The King, Jesus Christ, who came into this world to rule, still rules right now. In heaven, over earth, and in our hearts. And so he still never makes a bad decision. I want you to think about that. Christ the King never makes a bad decision. I want you to think about that because I’m sure you’ve underhandedly excused him of that before, haven’t you? Think of how many times in your life you have scratched your head and wondered, “What are you doing, Lord? Why is this happening? It doesn’t make any sense that you’re letting my suffering linger or this war continue or these catastrophes to occur. It doesn’t make sense. How is this showing your love?” Now, let’s stop right there. I would find it hard to believe that there is somebody in this building right now that does not have these kind of thoughts at least every once in a while. And I’m no exception. I too question the King’s decisions. Especially when I think my plans would be for the good of his kingdom. “Lord, I’ve been trying and trying to spread the gospel to this person, why aren’t you letting it happen? Why don’t you take the obstacles and road blocks away? I thought you wanted everyone to be saved!” “Lord, when will you make this congregation grow? When will you give us a building? When will you bless our efforts?” “Lord, could you please help me get over this illness? I have to do your work for your people! I’ve been sick all week and you know I’ve got a lot of things to do before Sunday! I need to feel better to do what I’ve been called to do!”
These are not the thoughts of a humble servant of the King. These are thoughts of a rebellious trouble-maker, one who thinks he knows better, one who thinks he might even be able to do better than the King himself. These thoughts of mine and the similar thoughts that run through your head about different things in different ways are not merely harmless questions. They are mutinous. They are insubordinate. They are defiant. Who are we to question the King? Who are we to doubt that he does everything justly? Who are we to wonder if he is always right or not? The King does not allow that kind of attitude. He demands obedience. He demands complete loyalty. And so questioning the King is not a mundane pastime time like we are used to in this country when talking about the president. It is not our privilege or our right to cast doubt on his authority. Questioning the Lord, questioning THE King is worthy of death. And don’t think that is an empty threat. Because unlike any other king, this King always knows what you are thinking and he always does what is just and right. Even when it comes to punishment.
But the Old Testament Israelites during the time of Jeremiah stilled looked forward to this King. Even though they too were worthy of death - they looked forward to this King because this King would save them from death. “In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.” This King, our King, is just and right, but he also saves and protects. He did promise to judge sin and insubordination. And so he did issue the sentence of death and punishment because of those sins. He just didn’t mete out that punishment on us who actually deserve it. He took the punishment himself. Did you catch that? The King took the punishment himself. Our King really is unlike any other! What other king would do that for his subjects? What other king would put his neck into the noose knotted for those who rebelled against him? What other king would lay his head on the guillotine in place of those who were insubordinate? What other king would sacrifice his own life so that those deservedly on death row could be freed? There is no other king like our King who “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This is how the future Messiah would save the people of Israel. This is how our Christ has saved us.
It is almost unfathomable to think that when our eternal, immortal, all-powerful King came into the world he created, he allowed himself to be cruelly treated like a disobedient slave. He was verbally and physically abused beyond anything we have ever experienced. Our King even allowed himself to be murdered! But when he died, he won. And when he rose, he proved it. And when he ascended into heaven, he reigned. And he still does. Our King, the King who is unlike any other, still reigns and rules from his heavenly throne above, taking care of the very same sheep he died to save on earth. And so we will not face our deserved death penalty after all. We will never have to see the eternal punishment that rightly awaited us. Rather we will see our Savior and live the life of holy luxury in the palace of our King.
That’s a nice leader to have, isn’t it? It’s a comfort to live under the rule of one who is all-knowing and ever-loving. It gives us a sense of peace and tranquility to know that he who was powerful enough to save us is still here to protect us. And that promise of protection and safety was an important aspect of the King’s future reign to the people during the time of Jeremiah. Because when these words were prophesied about the future King, the northern land of Israel had already been taken into exile by the Assyrians. Half of the Israelite’s countrymen were no longer in the Promised Land. And the Lord had just told King Jehoiachin that he would hand him and the land of Judah over to the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians invaded Judah during that time and took Jehoiachin prisoner. And nine years later Jerusalem and the temple itself were completely destroyed. The people of Israel were not used to living in safety at that time. They lived in fear. They went about their lives in constant worry. And so the promise that this future King would protect them and they would live in safety was an incredible blessing that they desperately looked forward to.
That blessing may not be as urgent or as meaningful to us as Christians in the 21st century living in North America. We don’t have nations visibly at our doorstep ready to conquer us. We don’t have specific prophecies from the Lord that we will be destroyed in only a few years. We live in a land of relative safety compared to the turbulent times and places of ages past. But the safety and the protection that Christ our King offers us is still an extremely calming thing to know. Our King, the one who broke the chains of death, completely destroyed sin, and reigns victorious over the devil, promises to protect us from those very things throughout our entire lives. And the King, of course, is always in control. He may allow Satan to do his evil work, but only to a certain extent. The devil always has to answer to the Lord. The King may allow the world to tempt us in various ways, but not more than we can bear. He may allow our sinful nature to continue, but will not let it overtake the faith he has placed in our hearts. Our King is that powerful. Our King is that caring. He will not let us fall into spiritual captivity because he wants us one day to live with him in heavenly freedom.
It is a good thing we have a King unlike any other. Because it takes a King unlike any other to do what he did: live a perfect life as a true human being, make his death a ransom for the sins of the world, and rise as only the true God could. And now, as he sits on this royal throne, he still does what is just and right. He still saves and protects. And he still is the King whose coming believers look forward to with eager and excited faith. Rejoice that our King came. Rejoice that our King reigns. Rejoice that our King will come again. And rejoice that our King is unlike any other.
Amen.
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” - 1 Tim. 1:17
11/21/07 - Thanksgiving Eve - Psalm 97
THE LORD REIGNS
- Rejoice in his judgments
- Rejoice in his love
Psalm 97 begins, “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.” It’s a fitting way to begin a psalm that we are using for the festival of Thanksgiving, isn’t it? Because Thanksgiving is all about being glad, about being thankful, about rejoicing over what the Lord has given us. It’s the time of year when we look back and praise our Savior for everything that he has blessed us with and everything that has made us happy. It’s a joyful time. It’s an uplifting time. And so we would expect to hear words such as these: “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”
But that’s not where the psalm ends. As the psalm continues it begins to talk about things we normally don’t rejoice about, things we normally don’t want to think about during the festival of Thanksgiving. “Clouds and thick darkness surround him… Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side… The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD… All who worship images are put to shame, and those who boast in idols…” We don’t want to talk about those things, do we? We don’t want to think about those things on a night like tonight! Not when we’re looking back on everything the Lord has done for us! Not when we want to concentrate on the blessings and the gifts God has showered on us this past year! Darkness and fire and destruction and shame… let’s just skip over that for tonight and focus in on the first verse: “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.” Now those words are more appropriate. Those words belong at Thanksgiving!
Yes, those words do belong at Thanksgiving. We are to rejoice that our Lord reigns. But it is also necessary for us to realize that the rest of those words are just as appropriate for Thanksgiving as the first verse. We are not only to rejoice that the Lord reigns in love, we are to rejoice that the Lord reigns in judgment as well. Listen to verse eight of our psalm, “Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, O LORD.” Have you ever rejoiced about God’s judgment of unbelievers? Have you ever been glad and expressed your thankfulness in song or in prayer about God’s judgment of his enemies? Why not? Isn’t that exactly what this verse - and this entire psalm - says? Don’t those acts of God display his power and perfection and justice? Aren’t those things something God has done for us?
And this is how the Lord will reign in judgment, “Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.” And who are the Lord’s foes? Not only those who are atheists. Not only those who are blatantly and openly anti-Christian. The Lord’s enemies are all people who teach or believe things that are contrary to the gospel of Christ. Anyone who refuses to believe that Jesus is their Savior 100% is an enemy of God! And the Lord’s fire will consume those enemies!
“Ah, but Lord, do you really have to do that? Do you really have to destroy those people with fire? You mean to tell me that the little old lady down the street is going to be consumed in fire? Yeah, she might not ever go to church, she may not believe in Jesus as her Savior - but she’s so nice! She’s always helping people out and never has a bad thing to say! Or that little 5 year old kid: you’re really going to consume him with fire? Sure, he doesn’t know about his Savior and maybe he’s a little naughty but you can’t blame him! He’s a boy, they’re all like that.” Are these familiar thoughts? We know what the Lord says we just don’t want to believe it. We don’t want to accept the fact that the Lord reigns in judgment.
But maybe you’re OK with the concept. Maybe you know what the Lord says and you have come to grips with the fact that he will reign over unbelievers in judgment. But you’re certainly not going to rejoice about that! You are certainly not going to thank the Lord for consuming his foes with fire! Why would you do that? Why would you be happy about those things? Especially during Thanksgiving! That is not something to thank the Lord for! But why not? If the Lord is bent on destroying his foes, we should be glad. Because that means he is destroying our foes. If the Lord will reign in judgment over his enemies, we should rejoice. Because that means he wins!
Back during the Civil War, when one side had a decisive and certain victory on th battle field, do you think there was rejoicing? Of course there was! They rejoiced because they were still alive! It was a matter of life and death. Even though they were fighting against their own countrymen. Even though they were often fighting against their own families. They rejoiced that the victory for that battle was theirs and they could live another day. How much more does this apply to the spiritual battle we wage every day? If the Lord reigns supreme, he must destroy all of his enemies and ours. He has to judge sin, he has to judge death, he has to judge all unbelievers on the Last Day. And we should rejoice in that fact! Because he is our Lord, after all! He is our Savior! Anyone who is not for him is against him and we could not want anyone to be victorious except our King!
Rejoice that the Lord reigns in judgment! And rejoice that the Lord reigns in love. Because if the Lord only reigned in judgment, we, too, would be judged for our sins. We know how much we have sinned. We know how often we have questioned God’s judgment and have not wanted to believe what he clearly says about his enemies. We know how often we have neglected thanking him for saving us from our enemies and reigning supreme because we didn’t think he should be doing those things! How blind we are sometimes! How deserving of judgment! And so it would be a dreadful life living under a God who only reigned in judgment. Rejoice that the Lord also reigns in love! He does not immediately send us to hell for breaking his law. He does not instantly condemn us when we fall away from his truth. He does not judge us the moment we think or say or do something contrary to his will. Rather, he reigns over us in love. And the most important way he reigns in love is by giving us free and full forgiveness.
Every year at Thanksgiving, as we look back at everything God has given us, one of the blessings we thank the Lord for is sending his Son to die on the cross for our sins. As well we should. And, of course, we make forgiveness the focus of every service and every sermon. But that forgiveness is not going to mean a thing unless we understand that we desperately need that forgiveness, unless we understand that the cross was the only way God’s reign of judgment on us could be changed into God’s reign of love. That’s why the last verse of our psalm tonight says, “Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.” We can rejoice in the Lord because we are righteous. God has given us Christ’s righteousness - which is Christ’s perfection. Scripture says that we are clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness - so that when we stand before the judge he no longer sees our sins, rather he sees Christ’s love and righteousness upon us. That is why Christians are called righteous - it is the forgiveness we’ve been given. That is why we rejoice. That is the only reason we can rejoice.
Now that’s more like it! That’s more of the Thanksgiving language that you’re used to, isn’t it? We rejoice because of the Lord’s love. And yes, that includes the food and the family and the health and the protection and the life that the Lord has blessed you with throughout this past year. It includes everything that you normally think of during a festival of Thanksgiving. But that’s not the real reason we rejoice. Because even if we didn’t receive any one of those things this past year, we could still rejoice with just as much enthusiasm. We could still rejoice because “light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.” The light of the gospel. The joy of forgiveness is poured out on us. These are the blessings of our Lord. These are the blessing that really matter. These are the blessings that will never be taken away. Thank the Lord that he made our forgiveness possible. Thank the Lord for his judgment on those who reject that and even try to take that blessing away from. And thank the Lord for his love through which he offers this blessing to all people of the earth of all times on every distant shore. “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”
Amen.
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” - Rev. 11:15
- Rejoice in his judgments
- Rejoice in his love
Psalm 97 begins, “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.” It’s a fitting way to begin a psalm that we are using for the festival of Thanksgiving, isn’t it? Because Thanksgiving is all about being glad, about being thankful, about rejoicing over what the Lord has given us. It’s the time of year when we look back and praise our Savior for everything that he has blessed us with and everything that has made us happy. It’s a joyful time. It’s an uplifting time. And so we would expect to hear words such as these: “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”
But that’s not where the psalm ends. As the psalm continues it begins to talk about things we normally don’t rejoice about, things we normally don’t want to think about during the festival of Thanksgiving. “Clouds and thick darkness surround him… Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side… The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD… All who worship images are put to shame, and those who boast in idols…” We don’t want to talk about those things, do we? We don’t want to think about those things on a night like tonight! Not when we’re looking back on everything the Lord has done for us! Not when we want to concentrate on the blessings and the gifts God has showered on us this past year! Darkness and fire and destruction and shame… let’s just skip over that for tonight and focus in on the first verse: “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.” Now those words are more appropriate. Those words belong at Thanksgiving!
Yes, those words do belong at Thanksgiving. We are to rejoice that our Lord reigns. But it is also necessary for us to realize that the rest of those words are just as appropriate for Thanksgiving as the first verse. We are not only to rejoice that the Lord reigns in love, we are to rejoice that the Lord reigns in judgment as well. Listen to verse eight of our psalm, “Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, O LORD.” Have you ever rejoiced about God’s judgment of unbelievers? Have you ever been glad and expressed your thankfulness in song or in prayer about God’s judgment of his enemies? Why not? Isn’t that exactly what this verse - and this entire psalm - says? Don’t those acts of God display his power and perfection and justice? Aren’t those things something God has done for us?
And this is how the Lord will reign in judgment, “Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.” And who are the Lord’s foes? Not only those who are atheists. Not only those who are blatantly and openly anti-Christian. The Lord’s enemies are all people who teach or believe things that are contrary to the gospel of Christ. Anyone who refuses to believe that Jesus is their Savior 100% is an enemy of God! And the Lord’s fire will consume those enemies!
“Ah, but Lord, do you really have to do that? Do you really have to destroy those people with fire? You mean to tell me that the little old lady down the street is going to be consumed in fire? Yeah, she might not ever go to church, she may not believe in Jesus as her Savior - but she’s so nice! She’s always helping people out and never has a bad thing to say! Or that little 5 year old kid: you’re really going to consume him with fire? Sure, he doesn’t know about his Savior and maybe he’s a little naughty but you can’t blame him! He’s a boy, they’re all like that.” Are these familiar thoughts? We know what the Lord says we just don’t want to believe it. We don’t want to accept the fact that the Lord reigns in judgment.
But maybe you’re OK with the concept. Maybe you know what the Lord says and you have come to grips with the fact that he will reign over unbelievers in judgment. But you’re certainly not going to rejoice about that! You are certainly not going to thank the Lord for consuming his foes with fire! Why would you do that? Why would you be happy about those things? Especially during Thanksgiving! That is not something to thank the Lord for! But why not? If the Lord is bent on destroying his foes, we should be glad. Because that means he is destroying our foes. If the Lord will reign in judgment over his enemies, we should rejoice. Because that means he wins!
Back during the Civil War, when one side had a decisive and certain victory on th battle field, do you think there was rejoicing? Of course there was! They rejoiced because they were still alive! It was a matter of life and death. Even though they were fighting against their own countrymen. Even though they were often fighting against their own families. They rejoiced that the victory for that battle was theirs and they could live another day. How much more does this apply to the spiritual battle we wage every day? If the Lord reigns supreme, he must destroy all of his enemies and ours. He has to judge sin, he has to judge death, he has to judge all unbelievers on the Last Day. And we should rejoice in that fact! Because he is our Lord, after all! He is our Savior! Anyone who is not for him is against him and we could not want anyone to be victorious except our King!
Rejoice that the Lord reigns in judgment! And rejoice that the Lord reigns in love. Because if the Lord only reigned in judgment, we, too, would be judged for our sins. We know how much we have sinned. We know how often we have questioned God’s judgment and have not wanted to believe what he clearly says about his enemies. We know how often we have neglected thanking him for saving us from our enemies and reigning supreme because we didn’t think he should be doing those things! How blind we are sometimes! How deserving of judgment! And so it would be a dreadful life living under a God who only reigned in judgment. Rejoice that the Lord also reigns in love! He does not immediately send us to hell for breaking his law. He does not instantly condemn us when we fall away from his truth. He does not judge us the moment we think or say or do something contrary to his will. Rather, he reigns over us in love. And the most important way he reigns in love is by giving us free and full forgiveness.
Every year at Thanksgiving, as we look back at everything God has given us, one of the blessings we thank the Lord for is sending his Son to die on the cross for our sins. As well we should. And, of course, we make forgiveness the focus of every service and every sermon. But that forgiveness is not going to mean a thing unless we understand that we desperately need that forgiveness, unless we understand that the cross was the only way God’s reign of judgment on us could be changed into God’s reign of love. That’s why the last verse of our psalm tonight says, “Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.” We can rejoice in the Lord because we are righteous. God has given us Christ’s righteousness - which is Christ’s perfection. Scripture says that we are clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness - so that when we stand before the judge he no longer sees our sins, rather he sees Christ’s love and righteousness upon us. That is why Christians are called righteous - it is the forgiveness we’ve been given. That is why we rejoice. That is the only reason we can rejoice.
Now that’s more like it! That’s more of the Thanksgiving language that you’re used to, isn’t it? We rejoice because of the Lord’s love. And yes, that includes the food and the family and the health and the protection and the life that the Lord has blessed you with throughout this past year. It includes everything that you normally think of during a festival of Thanksgiving. But that’s not the real reason we rejoice. Because even if we didn’t receive any one of those things this past year, we could still rejoice with just as much enthusiasm. We could still rejoice because “light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.” The light of the gospel. The joy of forgiveness is poured out on us. These are the blessings of our Lord. These are the blessing that really matter. These are the blessings that will never be taken away. Thank the Lord that he made our forgiveness possible. Thank the Lord for his judgment on those who reject that and even try to take that blessing away from. And thank the Lord for his love through which he offers this blessing to all people of the earth of all times on every distant shore. “The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.”
Amen.
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” - Rev. 11:15
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