12/12/10 - Advent 3 - Matthew 11:2-11

WHERE DO YOU RANK?

There are some incredible Christians in the Bible, aren’t there? We read about Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his own son because the Lord asked him to. Moses who faithfully led the Israelites for over 40 years despite their constant bickering. Esther who fearlessly stood up for her people by putting her own life on the line. Noah who obediently built an ark in the middle of nowhere and then patiently waited in it until the Lord told him to come out. Paul who boldly went back into cities that had once tried to kill him. Ruth who loyally went with her mother-in-law to the land of Israel without any guarantee of survival. There are certain Christians in Scripture that we just marvel at, aren’t there? Their actions and their attitudes and their words are so noble and so respectable even in the worst of situations. And we haven’t even mentioned people like Jonathan or Stephen or Samuel or Job or Rebekah. The list of exemplary Christians we find in the pages of God’s Word could make up a “Christian hall of fame” of sorts. And there would be many legitimate candidates.
But out of all these commendable believers in the Bible, which one would you choose as the most remarkable? And Jesus doesn’t count… Which one of these Christians would you put at the top of your list? I’m sure there would probably be quite a few different people chosen if we complied all of our answers. And there would also probably be a few of these champions of faith that would be placed at the top of more than one list. But there is a believer in Scripture that we haven’t mentioned yet. And he’s probably worth mentioning because Jesus himself picked this person as the greatest one of all. It was John the Baptist.
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” That’s high praise from the Lord himself! But was John really greater than Jacob, the father of the Israelite nation? Greater than Elijah who was taken straight up into heaven without first experiencing death? Greater than Jesus’ own mother Mary who was chosen by the Lord to bear the Son of God, a woman who did not hesitate to believe that she was pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit? Yes! John the Baptist is set apart by Christ as the greatest of them all. After all, the Old Testament prophet Malachi specifically prophesied about John two different times over 400 years before his birth. John was the second “Elijah” who was predicted to come into the world. John was born of a mother who was supposed to be barren and then his birth was announced by the angel Gabriel himself. John “leaped” in his mother’s womb when she heard the voice of Jesus’ mother Mary. John was exclusively chosen by God himself to be the forerunner of Christ - all the way back from the time of Isaiah, 750 years prior to his coming. John was the first believer that we know of who was given the privilege and responsibility to baptize for the forgiveness of sins. John was the one who by his preaching and teaching prepared people for Jesus’ coming. John became the first New Testament martyr recorded for us in the Bible. This cousin of Jesus Christ was someone special. He was unique. He was half Old Testament prophet and half New Testament fulfillment - and there will never be anyone like him on this earth again. And so after looking at who John was and what he did it’s not so surprising that Jesus would say, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.”
Where do you think the Lord would rank you? He says that no one is greater than John the Baptist, so he’s at the top of the list; and David was said to be a man after his own heart, and so he would also be up there; and God said that Job was upright and blameless, a man who feared God, so Job too would be in that upper echelon of Christians; but where would you fit in on that scale? Would you be close to the top or closer to the bottom? Would you be commended by the Lord or criticized? If he took a good long hard look at what you have done and the things you have said and how you have turned out after all these years, what would his conclusion be? Would he determine that you have been faithful with the blessings he’s given you or wasteful? An admirable example to those around you in your younger years or someone whom no one should have followed? A willing helper, a passionate caretaker of souls, a perpetually nice person and an even-keeled individual and someone who was never condescending of a fellow Christian or someone who has been self-absorbed for the majority of your life?
I’m not all that sure I would want to be ranked by the Lord, to tell you the truth. I don’t think I would want to hear an honest evaluation from God himself about how I have lived my life and what I have failed to do. Because I know it wouldn’t be pretty! I know there would be a lot of embarrassing disclosures! I know there would be a lot of red check marks on my paper and very few positive comments! And I’m not being modest here. I’m in no way overestimating my ability to sin. That’s exactly where I would stand. If there were rankings of any kind I would be placed a lot lower on the list than many of you would probably care to imagine.
I doubt if any of us would want to be ranked among the Christians of this life. Because each of us knows exactly who we are. And if the Lord were to talk about us as he talked about John the Baptist, he would probably say something like, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone more disrespectful than this person.” Or “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone more selfish than this person.” Or “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone more apt to repeat the same sin over and over again than this person.” I think we would all be a little nervous if the Lord were going to describe our character to everyone around us. Because we aren’t always upright or decent or considerate. We don’t measure up to those believers in the Bible. We certainly aren’t on the same level as John the Baptist.
And I’m sure that is exactly what the people around Jesus were thinking as the Lord was talking to them about this forerunner of Christ. John was The Baptizer after all, he was a real-life prophet in the flesh, he was the object of multiple Old Testament prophecies, he was a person whom Jesus lifted up above all other human beings! But at the end of his description of John the Baptist, Jesus said something that must have shocked his hearers: “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” He who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist - the greatest one of all!
Now sometimes the “kingdom of heaven” does refer to the place of perfection where God currently lives and where we will also live after we die. And so those who are least in that Paradise of the afterlife are, of course, “greater” than John the Baptist while he was on this earth. However, the phrase “kingdom of heaven” is often times used in Scripture to describe God’s rule in the hearts of believers. And so anyone who would be in this “kingdom of heaven” would simply be a Christian. You are a Christian and so you are also in this “kingdom of heaven. And here Jesus says that the least of those in this kingdom of heaven - the least of Christians - is greater than John the Baptist.
How is that possible? How can someone like you or someone like me be greater than the one whom Jesus said was greater than us all? This is how: John was a great prophet, there is no doubt. He was an outstanding person according to the Lord’s own words. He was a topnotch human being. But that’s just it: he was still a human being. And as a human being he was filled with sin. No matter how faithful he proved to be, no matter how dedicated he was to his God, no matter how honorable he was in the sight of the people, he was far from perfect. He had plenty of his own faults, plenty of his own mistakes, plenty of his own errors. And we see one of them in this very story, don’t we? John had sent some of his follows to ask Jesus if he were really the promised Messiah that was to come! John was having some serious doubts! And we can understand why: He had been commissioned as the forerunner of Christ but now he was sitting in prison! And so he was no longer able to do what he had been called on to do. He was no longer able to prepare the nation for the one whom he thought had been the Savior. And so was this younger cousin of his really the one he had fully believed him to be? John was second guessing the entire situation. John was not perfect. John was not flawless. But Jesus wants you to understand that through faith, you are.
Through faith your are flawless. As a sinner you are certainly filthy. But as a Christian you are also flawless. Because as the book of Ephesians says, “God loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Eph. 5:25-27). Through the water and the powerful Word at your baptism, your sins have been wiped away. You are clean. You are pure. You are actually holy. You are still a sinner, but as far as God is concerned: “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). And that’s good enough. God washes away your sins in baptism. God washes away your sins by the gospel in the written Word. God washes away your sins in the Lord’s Supper. And so your sins no longer count against you. Your filthiness is hidden because your stains have been forgiven. You are unblemished and immaculate in the sight of God because of what your Savior has done.
And so are you greater as a Christian than John the Baptist was as a man? Most definitely! A Christian is pure; a mere human being is not! A Christian is blameless; a mere human being is all to blame. A Christian is accepted into God’s Paradise; a mere human being will always be turned away. Not that John was a mere human being; John was a Christian too. And as a Christian he enjoyed and still enjoys the same status before God as we do now. But the point is: John’s efforts in this life and his faithfulness to his responsibilities and his sacrifice for his Lord were nothing compared to the sacrifice the Lord has made for all of us. John’s extraordinary life and his special calling could not get him to heaven no matter how good he was or how hard he tried. Only Christ was good enough and powerful enough and loving enough to get him there. And Christ did get him to heaven just as he will bring us to his home one day. The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John ever was as a man because his efforts could accomplish nothing that was credited to us through faith.
And so where do you rank? You truly rank right at the top. You have been cleansed just like Isaac was or Lydia was or John the Baptist was. And so as far as your salvation goes you are not ranked, you are simply redeemed. You are not placed in order on a list of Christians, you are simply bought back with Jesus’ blood. You are forgiven. You are saved. You are #1 in the Lord’s Book of Life - right alongside every other Christian that has ever lived.
Isn’t that nice to know? Isn’t it nice to know that despite the way you have lived this life you will end up in the same place as those great examples of faith we read about in the Bible? What a forgiving God we have! That he would be just as merciful to us as he was to Adam and Eve. That he would be just as protective of us as he was of Joseph. That he would be just as lenient with us as he was with Zechariah. That he would be just as generous to us as he was to Sarah. That he would be just as complimentary to us as he was to John the Baptist. That he would actually reach down and pick us up from our sins and lift us up by his grace and hoist us up in his love to the topmost position. We don’t deserve that! We never will! But that’s exactly what he has done for us through his own sacrifice. And that’s the way it will always be.
Amen.

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” - Jude 24-25

12/8/10 - Midweek Advent - Isaiah 9:6b

POWERFUL IN WEAKNESS

It was nearing the end of May in 2006, and I had just graduated from the seminary after 21 years of schooling. The very next day after I had received my assignment to Living Word here in Montrose, Eric Schaller, who was the chairman of the congregation at the time, gave me a call: “Is this Pastor Frey?” he said when I answered the phone. And, I kid you not, I almost said, “No it’s not; let me get my dad for you.” Now, I of course choked out a “Yeah, this is he,” without too much of a pause, but it was a little bit strange to be called “Pastor Frey” for the first time in my life. Because that wasn’t me! That had always been my dad! “Pastor” didn’t accurately describe who I was. I wasn’t the kind of person who could hold that kind of title. I had been a student the day before, after all, and so to now be given a name that identified me as a spiritual leader of a group of Christians I had never met was a little bit intimidating. It just didn’t seem right.
In the middle of Isaiah 9:6, sandwiched in between the names “Wonderful Counselor” and “Prince of Peace” are two titles given to Christ that just don’t seem quite right. And they don’t seem right because they aren’t usually names we use for Jesus - especially during this time of year. Here Isaiah calls him “Mighty God and Everlasting Father.” Don’t those names strike you as a little out of place? We are used to names like “Immanuel” or “baby” or “infant” or “Son of Mary” or “Christ-child” when referring to our Savior during the Christmas season, but “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father”? He’s the son of a young girl and a stepdad from Nazareth; he sure doesn’t seem like a Heavenly Father here! He’s a small fragile vulnerable helpless defenseless newborn baby lying in a pile of straw; he sure doesn’t seem like a Mighty God at this point either!
Oh, but on the contrary. This child in a manger has never been a mightier God than he is right here. Because God has just become human. The Immortal has made himself mortal. The almighty invincible Creator has taken on the form of something created, a living breathing being susceptible to sickness and pain and temptations and the natural laws of this world. How could that be? How could that possibly happen unless this boy was the Mighty God himself? In an amazing act of his incredible power the Mighty God transforms himself from a spirit without any body whatsoever into a human being with real skin and bones and muscles and blood. This is not normal! This is nowhere near natural! This is nothing other than an amazing accomplishment of the Mighty God!
But why did he have to accomplish such an amazing feat in the first place? Why did the Mighty God have to use his incomparable power to become a human being like us? Because we failed as human beings. We have not and are not and will never be good enough people. We don’t measure up to the standard that the Mighty God himself set for us to satisfy. He asks us to be loving; we are selfish. He asks us to be faithful; we are indifferent. He asks us to be kind and caring and compassionate; we are cruel. In fact, we have not done one thing right, have we? Is there anything in your life that you have actually done well in every respect? Is there any command that you have kept that would pass the Lord’s meticulous inspection? And so the festival of Christmas has a lot to do with our sin, doesn’t it? The Mighty God was conceived in the womb of a virgin girl because we were sinful in our mothers’ wombs. The Mighty God was born in an unsanitized stable because we were filthy dirty at birth. The Mighty God came into this world of sin, surrounded by sin, and attacked by sin because our sin was the problem. Our sinfulness put him in that position. Our awfulness left no other option. But his love moved him to carry it out.
And that’s why our Mighty God is not only our Mighty God. He is also our Everlasting Father. And although that phrase - Everlasting Father - is not usually used as a description of Jesus, it is very fitting for what he does for us. As our Everlasting Father he cares for his children, even when we are disobedient. He wants us to repent; he wants us to be safe; he wants us to enjoy life with him forever in his house. And he’s going to do everything it takes to make sure that happens! He’s going to spend the time and the effort our well-being demands. He’s going to sacrifice everything if necessary because he loves us that much! There is nothing that he cares about more in this world than his own child. And that is who you are. You are the Everlasting Father’s own chosen, cherished, treasured child. He loves you. He loves you. And Christmas proves it. Your Everlasting Father would not be a kid in a barn, born miles away from his earthly home, under a government that wanted to kill him and eventually di, if he did not love you.
“Mighty God, Everlasting Father.” Unique names of Christ in this prophecy of Isaiah. Unexpected names. But names that are more than fitting. He had to be the Mighty God to do what he did and he had to be the Everlasting Father to want to do it. And so this celebration of our Savior’s birth isn’t just about the cute and cuddly. It’s not about a quiet night and a picturesque manger scene and flickering candles and soft Christmas carols playing in the background. Our Savior’s birth is about the power and strength of our Mighty God and the unquestionable love of our Everlasting Father. What a great time of year this is. What a great Savior we have.