4/29/12 - Easter 4 - Acts 20:28-32

YOU CAN COUNT ON IT

Paul’s Farewell

            The apostle Paul was leaving and, chances were, he’d never be coming back.  He was nearing the end of his third missionary journey, and as he headed back to the city of Jerusalem he decided to stop by and talk to some of the leaders of the church in Ephesus.  He didn’t want to meet with the entire congregation, probably because he had places to go and simply didn’t have the time to say good bye to everyone there, but he did want to give some final instructions and encouragements to those who had been appointed to lead that congregation.  And so when the apostle Paul met with this group of Christians in the nearby town of Miletus, he reminded them about what he had gone through when he had been with them, he reviewed for them the gospel that he preached, and he hinted at what would happen in the city where he was going.  He knew that prison and persecution were probably waiting for him there, but he was determined to go and finish his task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.  And then he said to them, “I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again” (Acts 20:25). 

            The Christians who were there that day, those who were brought to faith through the apostle Paul, those who were instructed by the apostle Paul, those who would one day receive a letter from the apostle Paul that is now included in Scripture itself, would no longer be able to count on the apostle Paul.  They would no longer be able to count on him to visit them; they would no longer be able to count on him to teach them; they would no longer be able to count on him even to be with them on this earth much longer.  And they were devastated.  In fact, Scripture says that “They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.  And what grieved them the most was his statement that they would never see his face again” (Acts 20:37-38).  This famous apostle, this loyal pastor, this faithful shepherd of theirs whom they had been able to count on for so long, was no longer going to be there for them.

They Could Count on False Teachers

            Paul himself knew this better than anyone.  And he was probably more concerned about it than anyone else too.  Because listen to the warning he gives these leaders: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”  Paul made it very clear to the people of Ephesus that although they may not have been able to count on Paul as their teacher any longer, but they certainly could count on false teachers after he left!  And it wasn’t just a possibility that false teachers could make their way into the congregation; it wasn’t just likely that distortions of the truth would affect the faith of some of the members; there was no doubt!  It was a fact: savage wolves would rise up even from among their own congregation and lead people astray.  And they could count on it! 

            Don’t you think the leaders of the congregation of Ephesus were a little bit scared by Paul’s words?  Some of their own congregational family whom they currently called fellow Christians would turn against the truth and lead unsecured sheep away from the flock!  Some of their own brothers - some of whom might have even been standing there in that group around Paul - would not only fall away themselves but would also drag others with them!  How horrifying that must have been!  How heartbreaking it must have been to know that some of those friends among you would soon become your enemies.  They could count on the unity of that congregation to be challenged.  They could count on the faith of every individual Christian there to be stretched to the breaking point.

Count on Your Faith Being Attacked

            And you can count on your faith being attacked just as violently.  Now I’m not saying that savage wolves will rise up from our own number and lead people in the wrong direction.  I would not anticipate that happening nor does the Holy Spirit give me special revelations like he did to the apostle Paul so that I would know something like that.  But this is true: your faith will be attacked by false teachers, false teachings, false ideas, and false assumptions.  And you can count on it!  There will not be a day that goes by when you are not attacked from without and from within! 

            From without the devil will hound you every step of the way.  Because, to put it mildly, the devil hates you.  He hates that you’re here this morning; he hates that you go to Bible study; he hates that you read God’s Word on your own.  He hates that you are not in the same situation he is in; he hates that you are God’s child.  And he will do everything he possibly can to rip you away from the arms of your Savior.  And the devil doesn’t play nice; he doesn’t play fair; the devil doesn’t abide by any of the rules of war.  He’s nasty and dirty and more vile than anything or anyone you have ever even heard of before.  He will come after you with a spite and a rage that is unparalleled on this earth.  And you can count on that.

            But the world we live in is not much better.  Because in general this world takes Satan’s side.  It will throw at you temptations of such varying colors and such varying degrees that you can easily be overwhelmed by them all: temptations of adulterous actions and thoughts, temptations of greed, of hate, of laziness, of impatience, of despair, of downright selfishness.  And the temptations of this world can be very subtle, can’t they?    Sometimes you slip up when you didn’t even realize that the ground under you was slanted in the first place.  And this world will not change; it will not improve.  It will keep getting worse; it will continue to promote and push those things that are contrary to your faith.  And you can count on it.

Don’t Count on Your Strength

            But let’s not just blame everything outside of us.  Because the attacks against our faith are even more brutal from within.  That sinfully depraved nature in us all pokes and prods and pulls us in the wrong direction in every aspect of our lives.  Even if the devil did not exist, even if the world in which we live could not affect us, that sinful disease in us has saturated our being to such an extent that it is in a constant battle with our faith.  Faith believes one thing, our minds tell us something different.  Faith clings to one thing, our experience teaches us the opposite.  Faith moves us to do one thing, our bodies want to do something in the other direction.  And that sinful nature is inbred; it’s a virus that we cannot shake.  And so it will always harass us until the day we die.  And you can count on it.

            And so what are we supposed to do?  If we are going to be attacked from without and from within, if we are up against the powers of an evil angel, the entire world, and even our own selves, if it’s never going to stop, what are we supposed to do?  What were the leaders of the congregation in Ephesus supposed to do?  They knew these attacks from the outside and from within were coming; they knew they couldn’t avoid the enemies that the Lord had predicted.  And so where did Paul point them?  Where did he direct them for their protection and their strength and their peace?  Not to themselves.  Paul didn’t just say buck up, hang tough, stay strong.  No, that wouldn’t have worked.  And it wouldn’t work for us either.  We aren’t strong enough to fend off the assaults of Satan, the weapons wielded by this wicked world, or the violent and sometimes fatal strikes of our sinful nature.  We are outmatched in every way.  And so how did Paul encourage his fellow Christians who were in the same desperate situation that we are in today?  “I now commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Count on Christ & His Word

            Paul wasn’t going to be there for them anymore, but God’s Word would be.  Paul wasn’t going to be able to lead them anymore, but God’s Word would.  Paul wasn’t going to be able to see them through the awful times that lay ahead, but God’s Word would.  And so Paul did not want them to count on him!  He did not want them to count on themselves or on anyone or anything else!  He wanted them to count on Christ and his Word: the only thing that was stable, the only thing that was able to defend them, the only thing that was powerful enough to strengthen their faith and keep them safe.  God’s Word is where Paul pointed them.  God’s Word was the only place that they could go.

            God’s Word is the only place you can go.  You might be able to go to your spouse and they might be able to help you at times.  You might be able to go to your parents and they might be able to give you an answer or two.  You might be able to go to a friend, a neighbor, a fellow Christian, or to me.  But in the end, you cannot count on those people.  And no matter how much I want to say that you can count on me for anything, that I will always be there for you, that I will do everything that I can to make things right, I can’t.  It pains me to say it, but you can’t count on me.  And I don’t want you to count on me for your peace and strength and solidity.  The only thing you can truly count on is the Word of your Lord.

            The Word of your Lord will protect in ways that no one else can.  The Word of your Lord will strengthen you in ways that you cannot see.  The Word of your Lord will give you peace in more ways than you even thought possible.  The Word of your Lord will not fail you.  The Word of your Lord will not let you down.  You must, you must keep going back to it again and again: in worship, in Bible study, in the pages of your own Bibles at home.  Because when you are feeling down, where do you need to go?  Go to the Word.  When you are feeling angry, go to the Word.  When you are feeling all alone, go to the Word.  When you are feeling lost, confused, helpless, hopeless, hurt, go to the Word.  The Word of your Lord is your only remedy; everything else is just a band-aid.  The Word of your Lord is your only fortress; everything else is just a hole in the ground.  The Word of your Lord is the only thing on which you can rely.  It is the only thing that you can count on.  Because it is the only thing that tells you about Jesus.  It is the only thing that promises you forgiveness.  It is the only thing that secures for you salvation free of charge.

            I can’t predict the future, but I’m sure that in the coming years you will have you own share of difficulties.  And this congregation will inevitably struggle with different situations at different times as well.  And although I will do my best to help and solve and sooth and lead, I won’t be able to do everything that needs to be done for you.  I can’t even do everything that needs to be done for myself!  And although you will strive and work and put all your efforts into surviving a very vicious life, you won’t be able to do everything that needs to be done either.  And so my love and my concern for you moves me, it compels me, to say with the apostle Paul, “I now commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”  Not me, not you, not anyone else, but God’s Word.  It will build you up here; it will take you home there.  That’s the power of his Word.  And you can count on it.

            Amen.

“The Lord will rescue us from every evil attack and bring us safely into his heavenly kingdom.  To him be glory forever and ever.  Amen.”  - 2 Tim. 4:18

4/22/12 - Easter 3 - 2 Cor. 2:14-17

YOU SMELL LIKE DEATH

OT Sacrifices

            A sacrifice was offered on behalf of the nation every morning.  Another sacrifice was offered every night.  Sacrifices of lambs, goats, rams, bulls, and birds who offered for sin, guilt, reimbursement, cleansing, and thanksgiving every day by anyone who needed to or wanted to.  There were special sacrifices each week on the Sabbath Day, more sacrifices on new moon festivals every month, even more sacrifices during the annual feasts throughout the year.  And blood, lots of blood.  And death, lots of death.  If the Old Testament people of Israel followed the commands of their Lord, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of animals were slaughtered on the altar of the temple for thousands of years, vast amounts of blood were poured out there, countless carcasses were burned. 

            Can you imagine the smell?  The smell of all that blood?  The smell of all the hides, the hair, the innards of all those animals being incinerated on the altar?  The smoke?  The ashes?  The corpses?  The curtains of the temple must have reeked with that smell!  The ground around that altar must have been soaked with that odor!  The clothing of the priests must have been saturated with that stench!  How long did it take the priests to wash that stink out?  Did it ever come out?  Did others avoid them on their way home?  Did their wives make them hose down outside again before they stepped inside the house at the end of the day?  Because after all of the offerings those called servants of God had to sacrifice, they undoubtedly smelled like death.

A Pleasing Aroma

            But what a sensory experience that must have been for God’s people in Jerusalem: to constantly smell that, to get sick of that, to have their noses filled with that unmistakable scent of death every day.  What a vivid reminder of their sins!  What a graphic indication of the price that had to be paid!  But no matter how bad it must have smelled to those believers in Old Testament times, it didn’t smell bad to their Lord at all.  In fact, the Lord loved that smell of death!  This is how those sacrifices were described by Moses: “It is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire” (Exodus 29:18).  The aroma of a burning animal, the smell of blood and smoke and death was actually pleasing to the Lord!  He enjoyed it!  He treasured it!  Not because it was a nice smell of course, but because it meant that his people were sacrificing something to him out of reverence and humility, thanks and praise.  And, most importantly, that smell of death was pointing his people to the death of their Savior.  And so that smell of death was a sweet smell, a pleasing aroma, to their God.  It was a smell that he wanted wafting up to heaven every single day until the day of the death of his Son that he had promised was coming.

            And when his Son did die, it was the sweetest aroma of all.  The sacrifice of his Son was a more pleasing smell to his Father than any sacrifice that was ever offered before him.  Which is strange, isn’t it?  Normally the death of a son is not a good thing.  And normally death itself does not emit a pleasant aroma either.  If you have ever been in a room where someone has just passed away, you can almost smell it, can’t you?  It’s hard to describe if you haven’t experienced it, but it’s kind of a stale smell, a stagnant smell.  And, of course, the state of death itself doesn’t just have its own distinct smell, the body that has died will take on a whole new smell of its own soon after.  If nothing is done with the body, the natural decomposition of all its parts will let everyone know that something should have been done with it.  Remember how Martha the sister of Lazarus didn’t want Jesus to open her brother’s tomb because he had been dead four days and there would have been an awful smell by that time.  Remember how Nicodemus brought 75 pounds of spices to wrap Jesus’ body in after his death.  Nicodemus wanted to preserve Jesus’ body as long as possible; according to the normal practices of the day he didn’t want the body of his Lord to stink too much too soon.

The Aroma of Christ

            But that wouldn’t prove to be a problem, would it?  Because Jesus’ body didn’t rot; it didn’t begin to stink.  Because what the Lord himself had predicted through King David 1000 years before the resurrection of Christ came true: “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy One see decay” (Psalm 16:10).  Jesus’ body did not decay.  It did not decompose.  Instead he rose.  His death and his grave did not reek like it would have from any regular corpse.  Instead his death smelled sweet because it ended in victory.  And his grave smelled fresh because it lay empty.  And now all those who believe in Jesus as their crucified and risen Savior smell exactly like him.  This is how the apostle Paul says it, “Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ.”  

            You know when a person walks by you with strong cologne or when a woman is wearing way too much perfume and even after they walk by you 10-15 feet the fragrance trails in their wake?  And it seems to hit you in the face and almost makes your eyes water?  Through faith, we are the aroma of Christ to God.  It trails in our wake wherever we go.  Which means: you smell like death!  You smell like the death of your Savior because through faith he has rubbed off on you and everywhere you go the fragrance of his sacrifice follows after.  And just as those Old Testament sacrifices were pleasing aromas to your Lord, you are pleasing to your God because you smell like the sacrifice of your Savior.

            But you are not only the aroma of Christ to God; you also smell like Christ to others.  “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?”  Your fellow Christians like that death-laden perfume you wear.  Unbelievers are repulsed by it.  Christians enjoy being reminded about the resurrection because of who you are and how you act and what you do.  Unbelievers plug their noses.  But that’s the life of a Christian: You are to God the aroma of Christ.  Some are going to like it, others will not.  Some will want to be around you because of it.  Others will run the other way.  Some will want to know why you smell so good and where they can get some for themselves.  Others will never want to smell it again.  But either way, you smell like death.  And there is no other aroma that your Lord likes more.

The Smell of Sin

            We have a trash can in our house with a lid on it that sits next to our kids’ bathroom.  We’ve been using it to throw dirty diapers and pull-ups in for years.  And although we’ve always had a bag in that trash can to hold the dirty diapers that we throw away on a regular basis, over time that trash can has begun to take on a rather unpleasant smell.  We’ve sprayed it with the appropriate cleansing agents, we’ve washed it out, we’ve even put it outside for days on end hoping that the exposure to the sun and some fresh air will eliminate the odor.  But nothing has quite worked to get the smell out of entirely.  The plastic has absorbed that stench for so long that any cleaner we use just makes the trash can end up smelling like a bar of soap in a dirty diaper and any floral scented Lysol we’ve tried makes the trash can end up smelling like flowers in a dirty diaper.  The odor is not erased, it’s not eliminated, it just gets mixed with other scents.  It’s probably time to get a new trash can.

            But I know that’s what happens to the beautiful aroma of Christ sometimes as I carry it around with me.  I mar the scent.  I mix up the sweet smelling fragrance of my Savior with the awful smelling sinfulness that I can’t get rid of.  And so sometimes the aroma of Christ might be evident in my life, but at other times this terrible stench radiating from my rotten attitude and my pungent actions overpowers whatever sweet smell Christ has left on me.  Which means that at times other people can’t notice the pleasant smell of the Savior because they’re so distracted by the disgusting sinner instead.  What a tragedy when that happens: when someone cannot detect Christ in us or on us or even anywhere around us because of the stench of our sin.  Sometimes it seems that we are like that little kid on the Charlie Brown cartoons called Pig Pen - the boy who has a cloud of dust and dirt and flies following him around wherever he goes.  No wonder Paul says, “Who is equal to such a task?” of carrying around the aroma of Christ.  It’s hard to smell the sweet aroma of our Savior when the trash can itself has been saturated with dirty diapers for so long.

The Fragrance of Life

            And, truthfully, that’s not really going to change as long as we live on this earth.  We are always going to smell a little foul, a little rancid, because that sin is always going to be hanging on to the very end.  But our ever-present sin does not change the Lord’s ever-present promise.  And here it is one more time: “We are to God the aroma of Christ.”  Still.  Still!  Even though he knows what we smell like underneath it all!  (No spiritual deodorant is ever going to cover up that stench.)  Even though he knows how awful and nasty we can be inside.  Even though he knows that the fragrance of Christ might not always emanate from our lives like it should.  We are still to God the aroma of Christ.  The smell of the sacrifice of his Son has risen to his throne and he is pleased with it.  When he smells you, he smells Christ and vice versa.  He accepts his sacrifice on your behalf; he receives his payment in your place.   And so just as Jesus walked on this earth smelling of your sin, you walk on this earth smelling of his death.  And it’s a beautiful smell, a liberating smell, a peaceful smell.  It’s a smell that needs to be shared with the world.  Who is equal to such a task?  On the one hand, no one is.  But on the other hand, you are.  Because God has placed this fragrance of Christ’s empty grave on you.  And he wants everyone you come across to know without a doubt who you are and why by the way you smell.  That is one of the great privileges and honors of being a Christian: to smell like death.  Do not hesitate and do not be afraid to share that aroma with everyone you know.  Because it truly is the fragrance of life.

            Amen.

“[May] we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed.”  2 Cor. 4:10

4/8/12 - Easter Sunday - Zech. 8:19

THE RESURRECTION EFFECT

Fasting into Feasting

            Have you ever fasted before?  I know that it might seem like a strange question to ask on Easter Sunday, but just bear with me.  Have any of you ever fasted?  Fasting means that you purposely go without food for an extended period of time - not because you’re on a diet (that’s different!) but as a way to worship your Lord.  I haven’t either.  I like food too much!  I don’t know how I would mentally function!  But many Christians who have gone before us fasted for religious purposes.  Some 2000 years ago it was a regular practice.  It was a way to show one’s humility before the Lord, to demonstrate sorrow over sin and repentance.

            The Old Testament Israelites fasted on any number of occasions as well.  Especially during the era about 500 years before Jesus came into this world, God’s people seemed to have added quite a few different times of fasting into their yearly worship schedule.  On a specific day during the fourth month of the Jewish calendar they fasted; and they did so again in the fifth month and the seventh month and the tenth month each year.  But these times of fasting weren’t really to show their humility before the Lord and they weren’t necessarily used as times of repentance either.  These four days of fasting every year were in commemoration of past disastrous events in Israelite history.  In the fourth month they fasted because that was when the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian Empire; the fifth month was the destruction of the temple, the seventh month was in remembrance of the assassination of one of their leaders during the exile, and the tenth month marked the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar.  By fasting, God’s Old Testament people were doing something similar to how many people in this country put their flag at half-mast on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor or those who put flowers on the grave of their loved one each year.  These fasts were not joyous times or festive occasions.  They were somber events during which the awful things of the past were commemorated by the current generation.

            But these times of fasting were soon to be done away with because of the grace of their Lord.  Listen to the amazing thing that the Lord promised to his people through the prophet Zechariah: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah.”  Not only would the people no longer commemorate those awful events with fasting, those very occasions would be times of joy and happiness; they would actually become festivals and feasts of praise to their Lord.  And their Lord would do that for them by sending his Son as their Savior.  But that’s what our Lord does!  He takes the awful things of this life and the horrible things, the depressing situations and the heart-wrenching circumstances, and he turns them into something for which his people will praise his name. 

Three Days of Distress

            Now fast forward five plus centuries to the final days of Christ on this earth.  And think about the awful events that the disciples witnessed for the last three days of that week during Christ’s suffering, death, and burial.  Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus’ followers on the Friday of his crucifixion, the Saturday following, and the early hours of that next Sunday morning?  It must have been horrible!  It must have been completely miserable for them in every possible way.  Because they had just seen their Savior beaten and bloodied; they had watched as their Savior was scourged and nailed to a beam of wood; they had witnessed their Savior crying out to his Father in agony; they were there when he eventually give up his final breath.  And I would imagine that his disciples didn’t sleep very much for those three days.  They certainly didn’t on Thursday evening, other than a couple short naps in the Garden of Gethsemane when they weren’t supposed to.  I doubt they slept a whole lot on Friday night with the brutal execution of their Savior fresh in their minds.  And any sleep that they got on Saturday was undoubtedly restless and sporadic.  And so by the early hours of Easter Sunday morning, they had to have been emotionally frazzled, mentally exhausted, and in a state of sadness that they had never thought possible.  Their God had died, after all!  Right in front of them!  His corpse was lying in a grave at the moment and so now what?  Now what were they going to do?  Now where were they going to go?  Now whom could they believe in if not in their God?

The Relief of the Resurrection

            But then, sometime soon after dawn that day, a few of the women rushed back from the gravesite and told the disciples that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb.  Still highly skeptical, the disciples didn’t quite know what to think.  But then, hours later on that same day, a couple followers of Jesus ran back into town and told the eleven disciples that Jesus himself had appeared to them on the road to Emmaus.  The disciples were still not sure if it could all be true, but that cloud of sadness started to lift just a little.  And then that evening, as most of them were gathered in a locked room of a house, Jesus suddenly stood before them, revealing himself to them in the flesh for the first time after he rose from the dead.  Astonished, bewildered, amazed, and probably a little disoriented, all of the sorrow and distress that the disciples had been experiencing for the past three days was suddenly gone!  Because their Lord was no longer dead!  He was no longer hurting or bleeding or suffering!  He was alive!  Right in front of their eyes!  Everything was suddenly going to be OK!  Everything had actually turned out alright!

            And as the days and the weeks went on, and as Jesus appeared to his disciples a few more times before he ascended into heaven, they began to realize that the awful events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were not going to be times at which they fasted and mourned in the coming years; instead these would actually be the dates on which they worshiped their Lord and praised his name.  Of course, that was only going to be the case because of the resurrection.  We might call it The Resurrection Effect.  Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday put those times of sorrow on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday into a whole new light.  And they soon understood that his arrest in the garden hadn’t been unfortunate, it was necessary; and his suffering at the hands of his enemies hadn’t been completely devastating, it had been planned for; and his torture and his death and his burial hadn’t been the worst things that they had ever witnessed; in fact, they had been the best.  But that’s The Resurrection Effect.  The resurrection of our Lord from the grave turned every awful thing that happened to Jesus into something extraordinary for us.  It made the worst possible acts into the most celebrated.  It converted death into life, sorrow into joy, darkness into dawn.  That is The Resurrection Effect.  And it’s just as real for us today as it was for those disciples back then.

Unfixable Situation

            It better be.  It has to be.  The resurrection of Jesus has to have an effect on every one of our lives still today otherwise we are still lost, otherwise we are still stuck in an unfixable situation.  And the unfixable situation is simply this: God clearly lays out laws and commands that we must follow.  And if we do, we will be able to get to heaven.  The problem is: we can’t.  We cannot even come close to living up to the standard that God has set.  So it is an unfixable situation.  And there’s nothing we can do to get ourselves out of it.  And so I’m not going to stand up here today and tell you that if you just put your mind to it, if you just try harder, you can get yourself out of the deep dark places you find yourself in.  No, we are helpless, hopeless when it comes to the ability to turn our lives around on our own.  You aren’t that good.  You aren’t that talented.  You aren’t that likeable.  And neither am I.  And so I’m not going to tell you to try harder.  That would be worthless advice.  I will tell you what Jesus did, though.  And I will encourage you to lean on him.  Lean more on your Lord.  Tightly hold onto his death on the cross and firmly grasp his resurrection from the tomb.  Because his death and resurrection are the only things that will work.

      
The Resurrection Effect

            But that’s why he died and he rose in the first place, isn’t it?  To fix the unfixable situation we were in because of our sin.  And so Jesus came, Jesus lived, Jesus suffered, Jesus died, Jesus rose.  And on the day that stone was rolled away from his empty tomb, everything that he had done for us was set in stone.  His resurrection guaranteed that what he did on the cross actually worked, that what he had always planned for us was fulfilled, that he was powerful enough to do what needed to be done and loving enough to want to do it.  It’s The Resurrection Effect.  And his resurrection has an effect not only on our eternal lives but also our lives here on this earth.  Because if our Lord could and did take care of the most important thing with the power of his resurrection - our life in heaven - he can certainly take care of everything else in our lives as well.

            Please understand that Christ’s resurrection won’t just matter to you sometime in the future, it matters to you in everything you do every day of your life!  It’s true!  With the glorious resurrection of your Lord always in the forefront of your mind, the gloomy times you go through in this world won’t seem so dark.  Because your living Lord reaches out his pierced hands to you and says, “Are you hurting?  Are you struggling?  Are you all alone?  I have hurt for you.  I have struggled for you.  And for you I was left all alone.  I am now with you and you will never be alone again.  Are you being treated cruelly?  Are you weighed down by responsibilities?  Are you dealing with a death?  I have been treated cruelly for you.  I have been weighed down for you.  And for you I have experienced death myself.  But then I rose; I live; and I reign.  Everything you are going through, I already have.  And everything that I now enjoy, you soon will.  It’s going to be fine.  It’s going to get better.  I’ll make sure you get through this.  And I promise you will one day be with me forever.”  That’s The Resurrection Effect.  The power and promise of his resurrection has an effect on every single aspect of your life.  Today, Easter Sunday, makes every day better.  It makes every day liveable!  And might I even say: It makes every day great.

            But should that surprise us?  Should our Lord’s love and mercy surprise us?  Because that’s what he promised 2500 years ago through Zechariah!  Half a millennium before Easter Sunday existed, the Lord told his people that the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months would be turned into days of rejoicing and feasting and celebration.  And over the years that’s what has happened, hasn’t it?  I’m going to assume that even though you are counted as God’s people, none of you have ever commemorated the day on which Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians or the day when the temple was destroyed or when a man named Gedaliah was assassinated or when Nebuchadnezzar began his siege against the capital city of Israel!  Those times of fasting have long been forgotten.  Instead, what annual events do God’s people celebrate today?  Events like Christmas, Pentecost, and Thanksgiving.  But also events like Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  We actually celebrate the night on which Jesus was betrayed and arrested!  We celebrate the day on which Jesus was tortured and murdered!  Why would we celebrate something like that?  Because we can celebrate the day on which Jesus rose from the dead.  His resurrection makes the days of his death and betrayal worth singing about.  Because now those are the days of our salvation!  Those are the days of our victory!  It’s The Resurrection Effect.  It turns death into life, sorrow into joy, darkness into dawn.  Enjoy The Resurrection Effect today, my friends.  Revel in it!  In fact, enjoy The Resurrection Effect every day of your life.  You won’t be disappointed.  And why wouldn’t you want to? 

            Amen.

“ Hallelujah!  For our Lord God Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!”  - Rev. 19:6-7

4/6/12 - Good Friday - Zech. 12:10

THIS IS THE FUNERAL OF OUR LORD

Black

            Tonight is the funeral of our Lord.  And so tonight is not really supposed to be “happy” or upbeat.  Tonight is supposed to be a little bit more somber, a little quieter, a little darker.  That’s the reason for the color of the paraments tonight; they are black for a reason.  In fact, this is the only worship service in the entire church year that black paraments are used on the altar.  There is no other time you will see these.  It’s the funeral of our Lord, after all.  During the days of the early Christian Church almost 1700 years ago, the believers of that time took it even farther: they covered every cross in the church with black cloth; they extinguished every candle; and they didn’t sing a single hymn.  In place of the normal music of their regular worship services they repeated the penitential psalms on Good Friday - psalms that speak about our sins and our desperate need for God’s forgiveness.  It was a much different kind of worship than what they were used to throughout the rest of the year.  It was the funeral of their Lord, after all.

We Look Away from the Wound

            Is that the attitude you came here with this evening?  Did you come to church tonight feeling as if you were going to a funeral of someone you really loved?  And I don’t mean that you should have been crying as you stepped through the doors or that you should have felt completely empty and miserable all day long.  But you are here in remembrance of the burial of your God!  You are here to look back at how someone you deeply loved died in a very brutal way.  You are here to review an execution of an innocent man that was partly your fault.  What kind of attitude do you think you should have if you really are here for those reasons?  This is the attitude the Lord predicted through the prophet Zechariah: “They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”  Grieving.  Mourning.  Sorrow.

            After the service this evening I’ll go home and enjoy the night for the next few hours.  Earlier today I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary other than make the final preparations for this worship service.  Tomorrow I will hardly even think about what we are doing right now as I get ready for Sunday morning.  What I’m getting at is that I usually don’t “mourn” over my crucified Lord on Good Friday.  I certainly don’t “grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”  I can’t imagine being as devastated or depressed on Good Friday evening as I would be if I had lost a child...  And that’s probably because I know what’s going to happen on Sunday morning!  And so I tend to look past the darkness of Christ’s death and start looking forward to the bright dawn of his resurrection.  I don’t let myself get too sad.  I don’t allow myself to feel too depressed.  I’d rather dwell on the good things and the nice things and the happy things tonight.  Not the sad and the bad and the awful.

Look Closely on the Gouge

            And I don’t know if you are like me and are inclined to look past the Lord’s death and go straight to his resurrection, but if so, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to make that mental jump from Friday evening to Sunday morning.  It’s probably healthy for us to gaze at that gouge in his side for a moment, to stare at that stab wound.  Because that is the proof that our God had died.  That is the visual evidence attested to by the soldier whose spear it was that struck him, indicating that Jesus was no longer a living breathing human being, but dead in every way.  It’s good for us to pause at this moment of Jesus’ death because we are responsible for that!  We are the reason why Jesus’ body was split open and blood and water poured out of his corpse.  We brought this on him.  We contributed to the intense suffering he had to endure.  Let’s not forget that!  Let’s not look past that to something a little less convicting!  We need to stare at that wound for a second!  We need to be fully aware of who we are and what we have done.  And although we are reminded about our sinfulness in every regular worship service, the night we commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion makes it crystal clear.  There is no escaping our spiritual ugliness when that open wound is staring us in the face.  And so we may not be outwardly sobbing tonight, but inwardly mourning is appropriate.  We might not be physically crying this evening, but grieving bitterly in our hearts because of what we put Jesus through isn’t out of the question.  This is the funeral of our Lord after all.

Don’t Take Your Eyes Off of That Blood

            At any Christian funeral the feeling is always a little bitter-sweet, isn’t it?  Bitter because those of us still left behind miss the loved one now gone.  Sweet because we know that Christian has reached the goal of their faith and is now in heaven where we will meet up with them once again.  So too this funeral of our Lord is bitter-sweet.  Bitter because of our sins; sweet because of our salvation.  And that’s just one more reason to linger a while here at the foot of Jesus’ cross before peeking into the cavern of that Sunday morning cave.  Because in that gouge and that blood and that water is where our salvation was won.  It wasn’t won when Peter and John saw the empty burial clothes lying in the tomb; it was proved there.  It wasn’t won when those angels appeared to the women on Easter morning; it was proclaimed there.  It wasn’t even won at that moment when Jesus was physically made alive again by his Father; our salvation was guaranteed there.  Instead, tonight is where our salvation was earned: in the piercing of his side, in the gouge, in the gash, in the blood, in the water, in his death.  This is the moment our sins were forgiven.  This is the event that gained our forgiveness.  Let’s not leave too soon!  Let’s not move on as if we are just passing through on a quick tour of Holy Week.  Because no matter how unpleasant and disturbing the death of our Lord can be, it’s something we need to see.  Yes, his death is depressing, but it’s also the day of our deliverance.  This is the evening of our victory.

            Tomorrow morning when we wake up, it’ll probably feel like any other normal Saturday morning.  Expect, of course, we’ll be right in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  The black paraments will be taken down and white paraments will be put up.  The Lent banners will be put away and new Easter banners will be hung.  Evening services will be done with until Advent season starts at the end of this calendar year.  And the one and only early morning breakfast we have here at church will be in the final stages of preparation.  And I’m sure that most of you are looking forward to these changes.  And you should be!  Easter is a grand celebration!  But as you get ready for Easter Sunday morning and when you find yourself in the middle of that wonderful festival enjoying the sunrise and the Hallelujahs and the white, don’t forget about the black.  When you stand at the entrance to that empty tomb tomorrow, look back on the one we have pierced.  Because on Sunday morning, he’ll still be “the one we have pierced.”  It’s just that the blood will be dried and the wounds will be clean and the pain will be gone.  But that gouge will still be there in his side - reminding us of what he had to do to make Easter Sunday so glorious.  Don’t forget tonight.  Take the memory of this with you - into Easter Sunday and for the rest of your life.  Because this is the night of your salvation.  This is the night of your forgiveness.  This is a night worth remembering.  It’s the funeral of your Lord, after all. 

Amen.

4/5/12 - Maundy Thursday - Zech. 9:11-12

THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT

Old Testament Blood of the Covenant

            “Take and eat,” Jesus said to his disciples as he handed them some unleavened bread on the night before he was murdered.  “This is my body which is given for you...  And take and drink,” Jesus continued as he handed them a cup of wine.  “This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  It was a momentous occasion for his disciples, a very special act of love on the part of their Savior.  But these words must have taken the disciples by surprise!  It was such a strange thing to say!  And such a strange time to say it as they were finishing the annual Passover meal in the upstairs’ room of a house.  But what probably made it even more confusing for these faithful followers of the Lord was that they were already very familiar with “the blood of the covenant” from as far back as they could remember.  Because “the blood of the covenant” had been a part of their Jewish heritage for centuries.

            Hundreds and hundreds of years before these disciples were born, their ancestors had stood at the foot of a mountain called Sinai, and there a covenant was ratified with blood between God and his people for the generations to come.  Moses had just finished publically reading all of the commands and the laws and the decrees that the Lord had given to them, and the people responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”  And so Moses took the blood of some of the bulls that had just been sacrificed and he sprinkled that blood on the people.  “This is the blood of the covenant,” he said, “that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words,” (Ex. 24:7-8).  And for the next 40 years as they were lead through the desert, and then for hundreds of years afterwards as they lived in the Promised Land, into exile and back, all the way up to the time of these chosen disciples of Jesus, the blood of a bull was to be sprinkled or poured out for every single burnt offering, for sin offerings, for fellowship offerings, at every ordination of a priest, and most importantly on the annual Day of Atonement.  This blood had been a part of the worship practices of the Jewish people for 1500 years.  And so the disciples were well aware of this “blood of the covenant.”  It signified the agreement their entire nation had come to with the Lord himself many generations ago.  It represented what they had promised to do.  And so this blood of this covenant also probably reminded them of how they had failed to do it.

New Testament Blood of the Covenant

            But now these disciples were sitting in a room with their Savior, listening to him speak about “the blood of the covenant” in a completely different way!  “This is my blood of the new covenant,” Jesus clearly told them.  And it wasn’t to solidify an agreement between two parties; and it wasn’t to be a reminder about what they had promised to do for the Lord; and it wasn’t to  

be a visual cue that pointed out their sins.  This new blood of the covenant was for the forgiveness of their sins; it was a reminder about what the Lord had promised to do for them; it was to solidify a one-way agreement that could never be broken.  This new blood of the covenant wasn’t anything like “the blood of the covenant” woven into the strict worship practices of the past.  Instead, this new blood of the covenant gave them hope and comfort and freedom.  This blood of the covenant did not bind them to a contract; instead it released them from their sins.

Out of the Pit

            Of course, if the disciples had been paying attention to their Old Testament Scripture lessons, they would have remembered that the Lord had been predicting this new “blood of the covenant” for centuries.  We read earlier tonight how the Lord spoke about a new covenant of forgiveness for his people through the prophet Jeremiah because they had broken the covenant before.  But the prophet Zechariah also speaks about these things to come in even clearer terms.  This is what the Lord promised to his people through Zechariah, “Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.  Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope.”

            Even though Zechariah lived in Old Testament times, this “blood of the covenant” that he is speaking about cannot be the blood of the old covenant.  Because it has nothing to do with the commands and the laws that the people promised to keep.  This “blood of the covenant” in the book of Zechariah has to be the blood of the new covenant, because here the Lord is the one who is doing the promising.  And he promises an amazing thing through this covenant blood: to free their prisoners from the waterless pit.

            Back in those times, prisoners of war were apparently held in cone-shaped or bottle-shaped pits on occasion.  And although these large holes in the ground were probably temporary holding cells, they would be able to hold multiple captives at one time and were shaped in such a way that the top opening was significantly narrower than the dirt floor so that the prisoners could not climb up the sides and escape.  The opening would also be covered by a large rock just to make sure that no one could get out.   

            And so for the Israelites to hear that the blood of this covenant was to rescue them as if they were prisoners in one of these waterless pits must have caught their attention.  Because they weren’t trapped one of those holes at the moment, they weren’t prisoners of war, they weren’t in need of any physical rescue; but they were certainly in need of spiritual rescue.  They were still prisoners of that age-old agreement from Mt. Sinai after all.  They were in a pit of guilt with no way out because they had failed to keep that first covenant.  And so these words from their Lord would have meant something very special to them.  Just like I hope these words mean something very special to us.  Because the holes we dig for ourselves each week require that we need some rescuing too. 

      
Prisoners of Hope

            How you ever tried to keep track of your sins?  Try it sometime - just for a day.  It will be an overwhelming and humbling exercise.  Because you can’t count fast enough!  You can’t even pause long enough to keep a tally!   Our sins continue to add up on us at an alarming rate because we are in a constant state of imperfection.  And so when we take time to make ourselves aware of our sins we realize quickly that we too are in some serious need of spiritual rescue.  We too find ourselves as prisoners in a waterless pit of our own making every day with no way out.  And so every day we should be coming back to the words of our Lord through the prophet Zechariah: “Because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.”  These are the words of God’s grace.  These are the words of his love.  These are the very words of the Lord’s Supper, aren’t they?  “Take and drink.  This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”  And because of these words of your Lord, because of his promise connected with his Supper, you don’t have to keep track of your sins.  You don’t have to tally them up somehow or audit your life.  Because Jesus’ blood washes your life clean.  Jesus’ blood grabs you and gives you hope.  Jesus’ blood frees you from the pit and sends you to the fortress.  “Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope” Jesus urges you.  Return to this fortress where he gives you that blood.  Come back to this altar where he offers his love.  Rush forward to this stronghold where he showers you with his forgiveness.  Take and eat: this is his body.  Take and drink: this is his blood.  The blood of the new covenant.  The blood that rescues.  The blood that saves.  Because this blood in the Lord’s Supper is the very blood of his passion, O prisoners of hope.  This is the blood of that he has always promised.  Take and drink.  It’s the blood of the covenant shed for you.  Amen.

4/1/12 - Palm Sunday - Zech. 9:9-10

HOW COULD WE NOT BE HAPPY?

Happiness

            Are you happy today?  Not just OK and not simply surviving and not only above average, but are you truly happy?  Are you thrilled to be alive?  Are you filled with joy to be who you are?  Are you excited to see what the Lord has in store for you?  Are you ecstatic to be doing what you are doing? 

            I would imagine that your answer to those questions would depend on the day, wouldn’t it?  Because some days you might actually be happy, but on other days you aren’t.  Sometimes you are filled with joy and excitement, but many times you are far from it.  On occasion you might describe yourself as thrilled and ecstatic, but usually you’d probably describe yourself as just “alright” because as far as you’re concerned things could be a whole lot better in different areas of your life.  True, pure happiness seems to be difficult for us to grasp sometimes.  Because things happen to us in this life that aren’t so good and they end up tainting our entire attitude and mindset.  And so we might end up being angry one day or depressed or upset or miserable or empty.  Which means that we definitely aren’t happy or excited or ecstatic at those moments - and it sometimes takes a while to turn things around.

            But what about now?  Are you at least happy right now as you sit in church on a Sunday morning celebrating the festival of Palm Sunday?  When I was asking some of you as you walked in the doors earlier today how you were, I heard a lot of people say “fine,” “ “alright,” “I’m here,” I heard one “pretty good…”  And I know that those are just automatic responses to an almost generic question, but then again I didn’t hear anyone say, “Great!”  Wonderful!”  “Amazing!”  “Couldn’t be better!” either.  And I didn’t see too many people with an extra sparkle in their eyes this morning or a flush in their cheeks or a skip in their step.  It was pretty much like any normal Sunday morning that I can remember: some tired eyes, some sleepy looks, some nonchalant expressions...  But this is Palm Sunday!  The Sunday of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem!  The palm branches!  The robes!  The singing!  The celebration!  This isn’t just any normal day!  This isn’t even any normal Sunday!  This is Palm Sunday!  Why shouldn’t we be happy on a day like today!  Maybe this will help: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”  How was that?  Did that help a little bit?  Are you at least a little happier than you were before?  Because I’m sure it thrilled those Old Testament Israelites during the time of Zechariah who heard these words for the first time.

Rejoicing over the King

            Zechariah lived some 500 years before Jesus came to this earth.  He served the people as they came back from exile, having spent 70 years in a foreign land because of their sins.  Persia was ruling at the time and although the Israelites were given a little bit of freedom once again by King Cyrus/Darius, they were still not an independent nation.  And so they didn’t have a king.  They had leaders and high priests selected from their own people, but the title of “king” hadn’t been given out to one of their own for the last seven decades.  They were a conquered nation, a group of people who owed taxes and tribute to another kingdom, a small part of the massive Persian Empire subject to the whims and wishes of an emperor who could do to them whatever he wanted whenever he wanted for whatever reason. 

            It is in this fragile and unstable political environment that the prophet Zechariah lived.  And the Lord through this prophet encouraged an attitude for his people completely different than what they were probably feeling at the time: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you!”  Their King was supposedly coming - their King with a capital “K”.  A King who would be righteous - unlike many of the kings they had been troubled with in the past.  A King who would be delivered from his enemies - unlike the last few kings who had lost the throne of Judah to the Babylonians.  A King who was humble; a King who would ride on a donkey.  This King would be unlike any king they had ever seen before.  And of course the Lord is going to encourage them, “Rejoice greatly!  Don’t worry about what is happening around you!  Shout!  Pay no attention to who is ruling over you!  See, your King comes to you!”  And I hope they did rejoice and shout and celebrate.  Because to have the prediction of a King coming to them at that time in that situation would have been something special!  With that prophecy planted in their hearts they could go about their lives in peace and safety, knowing that this King was coming, that the chariots and war-horses would be taken away, and that he would proclaim peace not only to them but to every nation on earth.  I would hope that they took this prophecy to heart because with it in mind they would never have a reason to be scared or nervous or unhappy again.

We aren't Always Happy

            Do we have any reason to be unhappy?  And I’m serious about that.  Do you have any reason to be unhappy in this life?  Because we have this same prophecy from Zechariah that those Old Testament Israelites received.  Along with dozens and dozens of other prophecies about Christ throughout the Old Testament.  And not only that, we have the fulfillment of those prophecies in the pages of the New Testament.  Our King is not only coming, he has already come!  We have seen how Jesus carried out these very words!  He was the King who sat on the donkey as his disciples threw down palm branches and the children sang and the crowds shouted at the top of their lungs, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  This prophecy in Zechariah is not just a vague future prediction for us.  This is a fact that has already happened.  The King has come!  The King has conquered!  And he has proclaimed peace to the nations!  And it’s easy to see that this morning with the palm branches up front and the bulletins in your hands and the Palm Sunday hymns ringing in your ears.  But why do we seem to forget all of this when we go out there?

            And maybe it’s not so much that we actually forget what Jesus did on Palm Sunday, it’s probably more that it just doesn’t always affect us like it should.  Because when we have to deal with a situation at work or when we have some problems at home or when we are struggling with things out of our control, Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem is the farthest thing from our minds, isn’t it?  And everything looks bad and everything seems sour and nothing seems to be turning out right.  And we’re not happy, we’re not in a good mood, we’re not excited.  We’re wound up and flustered and bitter. 

            But are God’s promises really that fickle?  Does the promise of your King only apply to your life when you are feeling good?  Is the promise of the King only worth thinking about when you have no problems in your life at all?  Is the promise of a King only for you on Palm Sunday?  Of course not.  God’s promises never change.  His prophecies never vary.  He is always the King!  He is always righteous!  He is always proclaiming peace to the nations!  There is no reason why you shouldn’t always apply that to every moment of your life!  Because you not only know that your King came to you on Palm Sunday, you know what your King came to do.  

How Could We Not Be Happy?

            You are fully aware of what happens after this story, aren’t you?  You know that Jesus would spend a few days in and around Jerusalem, but then on Thursday evening he would go into an upstairs room with his disciples to give them the very first Lord’s Supper.  You know he would then walk out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray before meeting Judas and the mob.  You know that he would be taken before the high priest and then in front of Pilate.  You know that he would be physically abused and sentenced to an execution.  You know that he would hang on a cross for hours before bleeding to death.  You know his body would be taken down and wrapped up and buried.  You know that he would lay there while everyone else stayed at home for the Sabbath.  You know that one week from today a few women would go to the tomb with a handful of spices only to find out that he was no longer there.  You know what your King came to do.  You know what your King came to accomplish.  You know the rest of the story.  Jesus isn’t just a King riding on a donkey into Jerusalem today; he is your Savior riding into the city of his death. 

            It’s Palm Sunday this morning.  It’s Palm Sunday!  “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you!”  He comes to die.  He comes to rise.  He comes to reign.  This is the start of the greatest week of the entire year!  From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday - it does not get any better than this!  How could we not be happy right now?  How could we not be excited and thrilled and ecstatic?  How could we not be happy for the rest of our lives?  Because, honestly, what trouble in this life can possibly dampen the thrill that this week brings?  What problem in this life can possibly overwhelm the joy we will experience these next seven days?  What setback in this life can possibly be big enough to snuff out the pure happiness we have in our Palm Sunday King, our crucified King, our risen King?  “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you!”  And he comes to save.  How could we not be happy about that? 

            Amen.

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  - 1 Tim. 1:17