Hi all,
Just a reminder that today begins the start of our new sermon site. All future sermons will be published there and after a couple of weeks this site will be deleted.
You can find all our sermons at: http://sermons.grace-lesueur.org. Or if you want the specific address go to: http://grace-lesueur.blogspot.com.
Either link will bring you to the latest sermon. If today's sermon is not yet published, it will be at 9 AM.
May the Lord continue to bless you.
Pastor Shilling
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Marvel at the Lord's Faithful Forgiveness! (Genesis 3:1-15)
June 26, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
Forgiveness; Forgiveness is something for which everyone looks, but not everyone finds. Forgiveness is something for which everyone asks, but not everyone receives. Forgiveness is something that everyone hopes to receive, but forgiveness is something that is not always given. Forgiveness is hard. Forgiveness is hard, especially in a relationship that is tormented with past troubles. Forgiveness is hard in situations where trust has been lost, confidences have been betrayed, or one party feels that the other party does not deserve it, has not earned it, or will simply misuse it if they receive it. Forgiveness is hard and forgiveness often hurts. Forgiveness always costs because forgiveness is releasing another person from sin or guilt rather that demanding payment for wrongs done. Forgiveness is reaching out in love rather than seeking to extract revenge. Forgiveness is costly, because it is always given at the cost of something—the cost of tears, wounded pride, a broken heart, even diminished trust. Forgiveness has always been a costly gift for the one who is giving it, but it has never cost any of us as much as it cost the Lord our God!
Just think about what it must have been like for God, sitting there in eternity and planning his creation. He knew that satan would rebel against him. He knew that Adam and Eve would listen to his enemy and turn against him rather than remaining faithful to him. He knew the depravity into which the world would fall so that he would destroy it once with a flood and then finally, completely, on the Last Day. He knew all of this and he knew the cost he would pay with the life of his Son. Yet he still went ahead with it. He created the world. He allowed satan to tempt Adam and Eve. He allowed them to fight their own battle and even choose to turn against him. He allowed them to become unfaithful to him so that they and all the world would have the opportunity to marvel at the Lord’s Faithful Forgiveness.
Take a look at what I’m talking about. Take a look at Genesis 3:1 and see the beginning of how the Lord demonstrated his faithful forgiveness. Now, as you know the Lord had recently finished his work of creating. At some point after the sixth day satan rebelled against the Lord, tried to take over, was defeated by the Archangel Michael, and was cast out of heaven forever. At sometime after that, perhaps even the very next day satan shows up in the garden, determined to utterly destroy what the Lord God had created. Take a look at verse 1: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, NIV84)
With these words Moses clearly assures us that this is, indeed, a real snake. It is not merely some symbol of evil or some kind of benign thought. It was a very subtle and crafty animal, as Moses tells us, which is something that could not be said of any other of the animals that God had created. Thus, by revealing this to us, Moses is in effect calling on us to pause here for a moment, and consider what is going on. A snake, a serpent, that is more than a serpent, a crafty and cunning serpent is speaking to Even in the Garden! Verse 1: “He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1–5, NIV84)
Just think about what’s going on. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. They were perfect in every way. Their thoughts were in complete and holy harmony with God’s will. They were not capable of tempting themselves into sin. Their temptation had to come from an outside, evil source, which is exactly what happened. Their temptation came from the master tempter and deceiver who enticed Eve into doubting God’s Word. He moved Eve from not even thinking about the fruit on the tree as food to thinking about it to the point that it was the only thing that she could think about. Verse 6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:6–13, NIV84)
But before we go any farther, I have to ask a question. How often haven’t we been in that very same boat? How often hasn’t satan or one of his evil angels whispered in our ears or in our thoughts and subtly suggested that we not follow the Lord’s will in one way or another? How often hasn’t the siren song of certain websites, or certain Television shows, allured us away from work that had to be done, time that could have been spent with family, or time that needed to be spent with our spouse? How often haven’t we felt desire grow in our hearts like Eve did; desire for something we had hardly considered suddenly become so strong that we could not possibly live without it? How often haven’t we served as the tempter, as Eve did for Adam and drawn our spouse into sin with us? Or how often haven’t we gone along with our spouse, even though we knew that we should stand firm and not give into the temptation? How often haven’t we wagged our own tongues in order to point the finger at someone else’s sin in the hopes of hiding our own? How often haven’t little things like decorations, traditions, or personalities caused monumental problems in our lives or in our church? How often haven’t agreed with what Jesus said when he said, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” (Matthew 18:15, NIV84) But, as soon as we are offended by a brother or sister, we bring the matter up to the person who is just a little bit higher in the chain of command, so that now someone else will have to deal with it and we don’t have to go talk to the person? How often haven’t we allowed anger or frustration to fester and boil in our hearts until we are not able to even look at or be around the person or persons who either knowingly or unknowingly caused the hurt? How often haven’t we stood before the Lord like Adam and Eve did, blaming the Lord as the cause of our sins? How often haven’t we stood before the Lord expecting some form of punishment for our sins and finding ourselves once again marveling at the faithful forgiveness that he was so lovingly pouring out on us, even though we didn’t deserve it?
That’s where Adam and Eve found themselves. They were standing before their creator. They were standing before the God who had promised them that they would surely die when they ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, undoubtedly expecting that the worst was yet to come. But as Moses tells us in verse 9, it was the LORD God who called to them. It was Yaweh Elohim, who called them and before whom they were standing. Now, as I told you last week, Elohim is the word we translate as God. This is also the name that is most often equated with God’s power, with his righteousness, and with his holiness. The name Yaweh, on the other hand is translated as LORD. In your NIV Bibles this name is indicated by typing LORD either with all capital letters of the same size or with a large capital “L” and with smaller capitals for “ORD”. This is the name that is sometimes translated as Jehovah. This is the name that Moses received at the burning bush when the Lord declared “I Am”, and this is the name through which the Lord has revealed himself as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 86:15 and Psalm 103:8)
Though Adam and Eve had been unfaithful to the Lord their God, it was the Lord, or Yaweh, or Jehovah who remained faithful to them, gave them his forgiveness and promised their salvation. Take a look at verse 14: “So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:14–15, NIV84)
With these words the Lord God makes it clear that he is speaking to more than just a snake. He makes it clear that he is speaking to satan, a morally responsible creature, which again is something we learn from other parts of Scripture. Though satan seemed to win a victory here, it is only short lived, because God forgives Adam and Eve, removes their enmity with God and places it between them and satan, and delivers the first promise of the Savior. For with this promise God established an enemy status between Eve and satan by forgiving Adam and Eve. He would establish that same enemy status between her descendants—those who believed in the Lord—and satan’s descendants which would be those who did not believe in the Lord. Finally he would single out one specific descendant, Jesus, who would come to crush the serpent’s head and destroy the devils work. Though this would cause great suffering, pain, and even death as satan struck Jesus’ heal, by his death and resurrection Jesus would completely work forgiveness, destroy the power of satan forever, and cause us to marvel continually at the faithful forgiveness of our Lord.
Though we have been unfaithful, like Adam and Eve, the Lord has remained faithful to us. Though we have not deserved it, it was the Lord who has forgiven us for all of our sins. It is the Lord who has applied that forgiveness to us through the faith that he created in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Lord who has established enmity between us and satan, and between us and unbelievers. It is the Lord our God who has completely destroyed satan’s power over us. Though there are still times when our enemy gets the better of us, tempting us to sin, it is our God who faithfully calls us to repent, grants us the blessing of his forgiveness, and empowers us to forgive each other.
This is the faithful forgiveness that the Lord has shown in our lives. But the question is, do we allow that same forgiveness to show in our lives? How long has it been since you’ve let the faithful forgiveness of your Savior melt your heart into forgiveness for those who have wronged you? How long has it been since you let go of your pride, your frustration, your anger, or whatever it is that you are holding on to, and forgiven your fellow members, your pastor, your friends, even yourself for whatever wrongs might have been done? Are you still holding that grudge from that thing that happened so long ago that you can’t quite remember what it is, but you are still mad at a specific person and don’t know why? If you are still holding on to any past wrongs, I urge each and every one of you to let go and live in the marvelous forgiveness of your Savior, by forgiving those who wronged you in any way. Though I know that forgiveness is never easy and it will always cost something, can you imagine how amazing this place would be if we daily lived in the faithful forgiveness of our Lord! Can you imagine the joy that would permeate this house of worship because we were able to live together as God’s forgiven people because we had forgiven each other for whatever wrongs we may have caused! Can you imagine the blessings that the Lord would reign down upon us because there was finally room in our hearts now that we had let go of the sins, the hurts, and the wrongs to which we had once clung!
Though forgiveness isn’t always an easy thing to give away, it is the Lord’s forgiveness that enables us to give it away freely. Though forgiveness is something that will always cost us, it will never cost us as much as it cost the Lord our God. So as we bring this sermon to a close, take a moment during the offering to utter a prayer to the Lord. Release to him all your hurts, your heart aches, your frustrations, your grudges and ask him to forgive you for holding on to them. Ask him to help you to forgive completely those who have hurt you or wronged you in any way. Then with clear conscience, come forward and marvel at the faithful forgiveness the Lord has for you in the body and blood of his Son. If forgiveness is not something that comes naturally or easily today, then continue to pray to the Lord during this next week, until you find yourself able to forgive. Though forgiveness is sometimes difficult, though it is sometimes hard, though it always costs, continue to ask and you will receive it. Then, when you find yourselves living in forgiveness, able to forgive each other, go out and live in the faithful forgiveness of the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, abounding in love and faithfulness, the Lord who not only forgave our first parents, but also forgives us.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
Forgiveness; Forgiveness is something for which everyone looks, but not everyone finds. Forgiveness is something for which everyone asks, but not everyone receives. Forgiveness is something that everyone hopes to receive, but forgiveness is something that is not always given. Forgiveness is hard. Forgiveness is hard, especially in a relationship that is tormented with past troubles. Forgiveness is hard in situations where trust has been lost, confidences have been betrayed, or one party feels that the other party does not deserve it, has not earned it, or will simply misuse it if they receive it. Forgiveness is hard and forgiveness often hurts. Forgiveness always costs because forgiveness is releasing another person from sin or guilt rather that demanding payment for wrongs done. Forgiveness is reaching out in love rather than seeking to extract revenge. Forgiveness is costly, because it is always given at the cost of something—the cost of tears, wounded pride, a broken heart, even diminished trust. Forgiveness has always been a costly gift for the one who is giving it, but it has never cost any of us as much as it cost the Lord our God!
Just think about what it must have been like for God, sitting there in eternity and planning his creation. He knew that satan would rebel against him. He knew that Adam and Eve would listen to his enemy and turn against him rather than remaining faithful to him. He knew the depravity into which the world would fall so that he would destroy it once with a flood and then finally, completely, on the Last Day. He knew all of this and he knew the cost he would pay with the life of his Son. Yet he still went ahead with it. He created the world. He allowed satan to tempt Adam and Eve. He allowed them to fight their own battle and even choose to turn against him. He allowed them to become unfaithful to him so that they and all the world would have the opportunity to marvel at the Lord’s Faithful Forgiveness.
Take a look at what I’m talking about. Take a look at Genesis 3:1 and see the beginning of how the Lord demonstrated his faithful forgiveness. Now, as you know the Lord had recently finished his work of creating. At some point after the sixth day satan rebelled against the Lord, tried to take over, was defeated by the Archangel Michael, and was cast out of heaven forever. At sometime after that, perhaps even the very next day satan shows up in the garden, determined to utterly destroy what the Lord God had created. Take a look at verse 1: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, NIV84)
With these words Moses clearly assures us that this is, indeed, a real snake. It is not merely some symbol of evil or some kind of benign thought. It was a very subtle and crafty animal, as Moses tells us, which is something that could not be said of any other of the animals that God had created. Thus, by revealing this to us, Moses is in effect calling on us to pause here for a moment, and consider what is going on. A snake, a serpent, that is more than a serpent, a crafty and cunning serpent is speaking to Even in the Garden! Verse 1: “He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1–5, NIV84)
Just think about what’s going on. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. They were perfect in every way. Their thoughts were in complete and holy harmony with God’s will. They were not capable of tempting themselves into sin. Their temptation had to come from an outside, evil source, which is exactly what happened. Their temptation came from the master tempter and deceiver who enticed Eve into doubting God’s Word. He moved Eve from not even thinking about the fruit on the tree as food to thinking about it to the point that it was the only thing that she could think about. Verse 6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:6–13, NIV84)
But before we go any farther, I have to ask a question. How often haven’t we been in that very same boat? How often hasn’t satan or one of his evil angels whispered in our ears or in our thoughts and subtly suggested that we not follow the Lord’s will in one way or another? How often hasn’t the siren song of certain websites, or certain Television shows, allured us away from work that had to be done, time that could have been spent with family, or time that needed to be spent with our spouse? How often haven’t we felt desire grow in our hearts like Eve did; desire for something we had hardly considered suddenly become so strong that we could not possibly live without it? How often haven’t we served as the tempter, as Eve did for Adam and drawn our spouse into sin with us? Or how often haven’t we gone along with our spouse, even though we knew that we should stand firm and not give into the temptation? How often haven’t we wagged our own tongues in order to point the finger at someone else’s sin in the hopes of hiding our own? How often haven’t little things like decorations, traditions, or personalities caused monumental problems in our lives or in our church? How often haven’t agreed with what Jesus said when he said, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” (Matthew 18:15, NIV84) But, as soon as we are offended by a brother or sister, we bring the matter up to the person who is just a little bit higher in the chain of command, so that now someone else will have to deal with it and we don’t have to go talk to the person? How often haven’t we allowed anger or frustration to fester and boil in our hearts until we are not able to even look at or be around the person or persons who either knowingly or unknowingly caused the hurt? How often haven’t we stood before the Lord like Adam and Eve did, blaming the Lord as the cause of our sins? How often haven’t we stood before the Lord expecting some form of punishment for our sins and finding ourselves once again marveling at the faithful forgiveness that he was so lovingly pouring out on us, even though we didn’t deserve it?
That’s where Adam and Eve found themselves. They were standing before their creator. They were standing before the God who had promised them that they would surely die when they ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, undoubtedly expecting that the worst was yet to come. But as Moses tells us in verse 9, it was the LORD God who called to them. It was Yaweh Elohim, who called them and before whom they were standing. Now, as I told you last week, Elohim is the word we translate as God. This is also the name that is most often equated with God’s power, with his righteousness, and with his holiness. The name Yaweh, on the other hand is translated as LORD. In your NIV Bibles this name is indicated by typing LORD either with all capital letters of the same size or with a large capital “L” and with smaller capitals for “ORD”. This is the name that is sometimes translated as Jehovah. This is the name that Moses received at the burning bush when the Lord declared “I Am”, and this is the name through which the Lord has revealed himself as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 86:15 and Psalm 103:8)
Though Adam and Eve had been unfaithful to the Lord their God, it was the Lord, or Yaweh, or Jehovah who remained faithful to them, gave them his forgiveness and promised their salvation. Take a look at verse 14: “So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:14–15, NIV84)
With these words the Lord God makes it clear that he is speaking to more than just a snake. He makes it clear that he is speaking to satan, a morally responsible creature, which again is something we learn from other parts of Scripture. Though satan seemed to win a victory here, it is only short lived, because God forgives Adam and Eve, removes their enmity with God and places it between them and satan, and delivers the first promise of the Savior. For with this promise God established an enemy status between Eve and satan by forgiving Adam and Eve. He would establish that same enemy status between her descendants—those who believed in the Lord—and satan’s descendants which would be those who did not believe in the Lord. Finally he would single out one specific descendant, Jesus, who would come to crush the serpent’s head and destroy the devils work. Though this would cause great suffering, pain, and even death as satan struck Jesus’ heal, by his death and resurrection Jesus would completely work forgiveness, destroy the power of satan forever, and cause us to marvel continually at the faithful forgiveness of our Lord.
Though we have been unfaithful, like Adam and Eve, the Lord has remained faithful to us. Though we have not deserved it, it was the Lord who has forgiven us for all of our sins. It is the Lord who has applied that forgiveness to us through the faith that he created in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Lord who has established enmity between us and satan, and between us and unbelievers. It is the Lord our God who has completely destroyed satan’s power over us. Though there are still times when our enemy gets the better of us, tempting us to sin, it is our God who faithfully calls us to repent, grants us the blessing of his forgiveness, and empowers us to forgive each other.
This is the faithful forgiveness that the Lord has shown in our lives. But the question is, do we allow that same forgiveness to show in our lives? How long has it been since you’ve let the faithful forgiveness of your Savior melt your heart into forgiveness for those who have wronged you? How long has it been since you let go of your pride, your frustration, your anger, or whatever it is that you are holding on to, and forgiven your fellow members, your pastor, your friends, even yourself for whatever wrongs might have been done? Are you still holding that grudge from that thing that happened so long ago that you can’t quite remember what it is, but you are still mad at a specific person and don’t know why? If you are still holding on to any past wrongs, I urge each and every one of you to let go and live in the marvelous forgiveness of your Savior, by forgiving those who wronged you in any way. Though I know that forgiveness is never easy and it will always cost something, can you imagine how amazing this place would be if we daily lived in the faithful forgiveness of our Lord! Can you imagine the joy that would permeate this house of worship because we were able to live together as God’s forgiven people because we had forgiven each other for whatever wrongs we may have caused! Can you imagine the blessings that the Lord would reign down upon us because there was finally room in our hearts now that we had let go of the sins, the hurts, and the wrongs to which we had once clung!
Though forgiveness isn’t always an easy thing to give away, it is the Lord’s forgiveness that enables us to give it away freely. Though forgiveness is something that will always cost us, it will never cost us as much as it cost the Lord our God. So as we bring this sermon to a close, take a moment during the offering to utter a prayer to the Lord. Release to him all your hurts, your heart aches, your frustrations, your grudges and ask him to forgive you for holding on to them. Ask him to help you to forgive completely those who have hurt you or wronged you in any way. Then with clear conscience, come forward and marvel at the faithful forgiveness the Lord has for you in the body and blood of his Son. If forgiveness is not something that comes naturally or easily today, then continue to pray to the Lord during this next week, until you find yourself able to forgive. Though forgiveness is sometimes difficult, though it is sometimes hard, though it always costs, continue to ask and you will receive it. Then, when you find yourselves living in forgiveness, able to forgive each other, go out and live in the faithful forgiveness of the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, abounding in love and faithfulness, the Lord who not only forgave our first parents, but also forgives us.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, June 19, 2011
See Your Triune God at Work! (Genesis 1:1 - 2:3)
June 19, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
Did you know that today is a very special Day? Even though it is not Christmas or Easter, The Day of Jesus’ Baptism or the Day of His Ascension, the day of Transfiguration, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday or even the Day of Pentecost (which we celebrated last week) today is a very special day. It is a very special day because not only are we beginning a new sermon series based on the stained glass windows of our church, but most importantly because today is the day that we have specifically set aside in the Church Year to praise and worship our Triune God. Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, the day we take a closer look at the Work our Triune God has done as three persons in one God and one God as Three persons. Even though we regularly remind ourselves of the Work our Triune God has done and continues to do for us, today we specifically take time out of our lives to watch our Triune God at work as we take a look at the lesson before us in Genesis 1:1-2:3.
Now, normally, as you are opening your Bibles to Genesis 1, I would give you some background information and explanation as to what is going on so that you could better understand the context of what is taking place in our lesson. However, today, there is no background because before Genesis 1 there was nothing except for our Triune God. And even though we might have a fair number of questions as to what the Lord our God was up to during his time in eternity before he created the world, because he doesn’t tell us anything until he tells us about the beginning of us all. Take a look at Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NIV84)
If these aren’t some familiar words! After all, these are words that we have known by heart since we were little children. These are words that made our parents smile when we first learned them in Sunday School or Christian Day School. These are words that we have cherished as we’ve grown from Children to Teens and from Teens to Adults. But sadly, these are also words that have sometimes been drown out by the cacophony of worldly ideas that bombard us on a daily basis. Since we were little children Television has been assuring us that the world is millions of years old and that dinosaurs and humans couldn’t have possibly lived at the same time, even though we know that our Triune God created everything that exists in six, twenty-four hour days, so then they would have had to live at the same time. Not only that, but if you received an education in public school, even though you received an excellent education, you were taught, especially in the last 20 years or so, you were taught to believe that science is king and that the theory that all living creatures evolved from a puddle of primordial ooze millions and billions of years ago. You were taught either subtly or openly, you were taught to believe that science is true and what God says about creation is not as true as you might have once thought.
Just think about how many times you’ve been tempted to try to harmonize the Trinity’s Work of Creation with Science’s ideas of Evolution. Just think about how many of your children have come home from school openly questioning the truth of creation and favoring the “facts” of evolution because it is “scientific”. Just think of how doubting creation has led people to doubt other parts of the Scriptures and even caused people to fall from faith because they came to the logical conclusion that if one part is false the whole of Scripture cannot possibly be true. These are the reasons why we have gathered together to take a closer look at the work our Triune God did back at the beginning of Creation. Take a look again at Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2, NIV84)
Wow! In just a few short words Moses establishes the fact that it was our Triune God who began the world at the beginning! Now, if we take a look at the Hebrew for this passage, the first three words in Hebrew are, (spelled Phonetically) “beraysheet barah Elohim” Beraysheet means “beginning” or as we translate, “in the beginning.” Barah means, “he created” and Elohim, which is the subject of the sentence, means, “God.” So, in three short words, Moses tells us that until Elohim, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth, there was no time as we know it. There was nothing but our Triune God in eternity until the very beginning (Berahsheet) when he, Elohim (Barah), began his creating work, creating time and light out of nothing, and calling this world into existence, again out of nothing, as a formless and empty lump of clay, so to speak which he would then mold to his plan in the next 5 twenty four hour days. This is the work our Triune God began on day one!
“But Pastor,” you might ask, “how can you possibly know that the Triune God was at work? There really is no mention of the Trinity in these verses.” Now, if you asked me this question I would simply say, you are absolutely right! There are no specific mentions of our God being Triune or the Triune God at work. However, there are hints of God being Triune. Now, as I already said the name used for God here is, “Elohim.” This name is used 31 times throughout the account of creation. In Hebrew Elohim is actually plural and has been described as a plural of majesty, which means that God may be referring to himself as Kings and Queens of old referred to themselves as “we” rather than “I” like the common people did. Elohim has also been called a potential plural setting forth the vast potentialities of the Godhead, which would include mystery of the Holy Trinity. In themselves, these explanations cannot prove that our God is Triune, they can only hint at the fact that our God is Triune. However, when we take a look at the unity of the Scriptures and how our God describes himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, we can then look back and say that Father Son and Holy Spirit had to be at work in creation because our God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This would have been apparent to God’s people because, as we learn from reading the Old Testament, they believed in God as their Father. They believed that God would send his Son who would be there redeemer, just as the offerings foreshadowed. They even believed in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who worked in their midst. They knew and believed in God as three persons and yet they also believed that they only had one God as Deuteronomy 6:4 so beautifully confesses, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV84)
Today, we know and believe the same thing! Just as we will confess in the Athanasian Creed in just a few short minutes, we believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe that they are all co-equal in majesty and glory, yet they are not three who are God but they are one God in three persons and three persons in one God! So, as we look at these words from Genesis we see God the Father at work creating and calling things into existence out of nothing. We see God the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters, and we see Jesus at work as the instrument of creation because the apostle John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1–3, NIV84)
It is because of all of this (and many other passages of Scripture) that we believe, teach and confess that our Triune God was at work in creating the world for us. Just take a look at verse 3-5: ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:3–5, NIV84)
Verse 3 begins with the phrase “And God said,” which occurs ten times in the creation account. It shows us the manner by which God worked, namely, by his command and through his word (Hebrews 11:3). The phrase “God saw that the light was good” is noteworthy. In verse 4 it refers specifically to the light God created, but it also occurs six more times in the creation account. God is not telling us with these words that he was pleased with himself for what he had made, as if he were a human craftsperson stepping back to admire his work. He relates this information for our sake. He keeps us mindful of the wisdom and order that he put into his creation, which he was preparing for us to inhabit. He reminds us of the initial perfection of that creation, which is now spoiled by sin.
That was the first day. From there our Triune God went on to separate the waters on the earth and the waters in the sky. He called forth the dry ground and produced vegetation on it! Never planting see, but simply calling it forth with his word. He set the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens for the purpose of giving us light and helping us to tell time in weeks, months, and years. He filled the skies with birds and the waters with fish, and finally he created all the land animals, and then formed Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.
This is the work our Triune God did for you and me! He created the perfect world for us to live in and enjoy. Though our first parents ruined God’s creation when they brought sin and death into the world, our Triune God continued his work for us. He promised a Savior and sent prophets to renew and reiterate his promises for centuries. When the time came our Triune God saved us through the Work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, our Triune God continues to proclaim that message to you and me through his Word—the Bible—of which we have many, many copies. He continues to proclaim his message of salvation through pastors and teachers whose work it is to tell the story of salvation, teaching the young children and building up the faith of all the members of the congregation. And he continues to share his message of salvation through each and every one of you!
For now that you have seen the Trinity at Work in the creation of the world, you are reminded of all the work he has done to free you from your sins and bring you the sure and certain hope of eternal life. Who better than you to carry that message of salvation wherever you go? Who better than you to tell the work of the Trinity in your life calling you to faith, strengthening you with his Word, sustaining you in your faith, and leading you to your heavenly home? Who better than you to proclaim the Work that your Triune God has done? This is the work that our Triune God has given to each and every one of us—to make disciples of all nations, to teach them what Jesus taught us, and to baptize them in the name of our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This is today is a very special day! Though it is not Christmas or Easter, or any other holiday of the Church Year, it is Holy Trinity Sunday. Today is the day that we have set aside to specifically remind ourselves of all the work our Triune God has done for us. Today is the day we specifically give thanks and praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all he has done for us. Today is the day we continue to carry the message of salvation with us wherever we go so that we are always ready to tell others the reason for the hope we have in our Triune God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
Did you know that today is a very special Day? Even though it is not Christmas or Easter, The Day of Jesus’ Baptism or the Day of His Ascension, the day of Transfiguration, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday or even the Day of Pentecost (which we celebrated last week) today is a very special day. It is a very special day because not only are we beginning a new sermon series based on the stained glass windows of our church, but most importantly because today is the day that we have specifically set aside in the Church Year to praise and worship our Triune God. Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, the day we take a closer look at the Work our Triune God has done as three persons in one God and one God as Three persons. Even though we regularly remind ourselves of the Work our Triune God has done and continues to do for us, today we specifically take time out of our lives to watch our Triune God at work as we take a look at the lesson before us in Genesis 1:1-2:3.
Now, normally, as you are opening your Bibles to Genesis 1, I would give you some background information and explanation as to what is going on so that you could better understand the context of what is taking place in our lesson. However, today, there is no background because before Genesis 1 there was nothing except for our Triune God. And even though we might have a fair number of questions as to what the Lord our God was up to during his time in eternity before he created the world, because he doesn’t tell us anything until he tells us about the beginning of us all. Take a look at Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NIV84)
If these aren’t some familiar words! After all, these are words that we have known by heart since we were little children. These are words that made our parents smile when we first learned them in Sunday School or Christian Day School. These are words that we have cherished as we’ve grown from Children to Teens and from Teens to Adults. But sadly, these are also words that have sometimes been drown out by the cacophony of worldly ideas that bombard us on a daily basis. Since we were little children Television has been assuring us that the world is millions of years old and that dinosaurs and humans couldn’t have possibly lived at the same time, even though we know that our Triune God created everything that exists in six, twenty-four hour days, so then they would have had to live at the same time. Not only that, but if you received an education in public school, even though you received an excellent education, you were taught, especially in the last 20 years or so, you were taught to believe that science is king and that the theory that all living creatures evolved from a puddle of primordial ooze millions and billions of years ago. You were taught either subtly or openly, you were taught to believe that science is true and what God says about creation is not as true as you might have once thought.
Just think about how many times you’ve been tempted to try to harmonize the Trinity’s Work of Creation with Science’s ideas of Evolution. Just think about how many of your children have come home from school openly questioning the truth of creation and favoring the “facts” of evolution because it is “scientific”. Just think of how doubting creation has led people to doubt other parts of the Scriptures and even caused people to fall from faith because they came to the logical conclusion that if one part is false the whole of Scripture cannot possibly be true. These are the reasons why we have gathered together to take a closer look at the work our Triune God did back at the beginning of Creation. Take a look again at Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2, NIV84)
Wow! In just a few short words Moses establishes the fact that it was our Triune God who began the world at the beginning! Now, if we take a look at the Hebrew for this passage, the first three words in Hebrew are, (spelled Phonetically) “beraysheet barah Elohim” Beraysheet means “beginning” or as we translate, “in the beginning.” Barah means, “he created” and Elohim, which is the subject of the sentence, means, “God.” So, in three short words, Moses tells us that until Elohim, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth, there was no time as we know it. There was nothing but our Triune God in eternity until the very beginning (Berahsheet) when he, Elohim (Barah), began his creating work, creating time and light out of nothing, and calling this world into existence, again out of nothing, as a formless and empty lump of clay, so to speak which he would then mold to his plan in the next 5 twenty four hour days. This is the work our Triune God began on day one!
“But Pastor,” you might ask, “how can you possibly know that the Triune God was at work? There really is no mention of the Trinity in these verses.” Now, if you asked me this question I would simply say, you are absolutely right! There are no specific mentions of our God being Triune or the Triune God at work. However, there are hints of God being Triune. Now, as I already said the name used for God here is, “Elohim.” This name is used 31 times throughout the account of creation. In Hebrew Elohim is actually plural and has been described as a plural of majesty, which means that God may be referring to himself as Kings and Queens of old referred to themselves as “we” rather than “I” like the common people did. Elohim has also been called a potential plural setting forth the vast potentialities of the Godhead, which would include mystery of the Holy Trinity. In themselves, these explanations cannot prove that our God is Triune, they can only hint at the fact that our God is Triune. However, when we take a look at the unity of the Scriptures and how our God describes himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, we can then look back and say that Father Son and Holy Spirit had to be at work in creation because our God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This would have been apparent to God’s people because, as we learn from reading the Old Testament, they believed in God as their Father. They believed that God would send his Son who would be there redeemer, just as the offerings foreshadowed. They even believed in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who worked in their midst. They knew and believed in God as three persons and yet they also believed that they only had one God as Deuteronomy 6:4 so beautifully confesses, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV84)
Today, we know and believe the same thing! Just as we will confess in the Athanasian Creed in just a few short minutes, we believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe that they are all co-equal in majesty and glory, yet they are not three who are God but they are one God in three persons and three persons in one God! So, as we look at these words from Genesis we see God the Father at work creating and calling things into existence out of nothing. We see God the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters, and we see Jesus at work as the instrument of creation because the apostle John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1–3, NIV84)
It is because of all of this (and many other passages of Scripture) that we believe, teach and confess that our Triune God was at work in creating the world for us. Just take a look at verse 3-5: ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:3–5, NIV84)
Verse 3 begins with the phrase “And God said,” which occurs ten times in the creation account. It shows us the manner by which God worked, namely, by his command and through his word (Hebrews 11:3). The phrase “God saw that the light was good” is noteworthy. In verse 4 it refers specifically to the light God created, but it also occurs six more times in the creation account. God is not telling us with these words that he was pleased with himself for what he had made, as if he were a human craftsperson stepping back to admire his work. He relates this information for our sake. He keeps us mindful of the wisdom and order that he put into his creation, which he was preparing for us to inhabit. He reminds us of the initial perfection of that creation, which is now spoiled by sin.
That was the first day. From there our Triune God went on to separate the waters on the earth and the waters in the sky. He called forth the dry ground and produced vegetation on it! Never planting see, but simply calling it forth with his word. He set the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens for the purpose of giving us light and helping us to tell time in weeks, months, and years. He filled the skies with birds and the waters with fish, and finally he created all the land animals, and then formed Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.
This is the work our Triune God did for you and me! He created the perfect world for us to live in and enjoy. Though our first parents ruined God’s creation when they brought sin and death into the world, our Triune God continued his work for us. He promised a Savior and sent prophets to renew and reiterate his promises for centuries. When the time came our Triune God saved us through the Work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, our Triune God continues to proclaim that message to you and me through his Word—the Bible—of which we have many, many copies. He continues to proclaim his message of salvation through pastors and teachers whose work it is to tell the story of salvation, teaching the young children and building up the faith of all the members of the congregation. And he continues to share his message of salvation through each and every one of you!
For now that you have seen the Trinity at Work in the creation of the world, you are reminded of all the work he has done to free you from your sins and bring you the sure and certain hope of eternal life. Who better than you to carry that message of salvation wherever you go? Who better than you to tell the work of the Trinity in your life calling you to faith, strengthening you with his Word, sustaining you in your faith, and leading you to your heavenly home? Who better than you to proclaim the Work that your Triune God has done? This is the work that our Triune God has given to each and every one of us—to make disciples of all nations, to teach them what Jesus taught us, and to baptize them in the name of our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This is today is a very special day! Though it is not Christmas or Easter, or any other holiday of the Church Year, it is Holy Trinity Sunday. Today is the day that we have set aside to specifically remind ourselves of all the work our Triune God has done for us. Today is the day we specifically give thanks and praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all he has done for us. Today is the day we continue to carry the message of salvation with us wherever we go so that we are always ready to tell others the reason for the hope we have in our Triune God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Take Comfort in these Last Days! (Joel 2:28-32)
June 12, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
If there is one thing that all Americans want for themselves and for their families, it is comfort. For the truth is comfort is something that we look for in any and every situation in our lives. We look for comfort when it comes to our linens, our bedding, and our sleeping arrangements. We look for comfort in our food, the ingredients we buy, and the things that we make at different times of year. We look for comfort in our technology, that perfect pair of headphones, the best mouse and the most ergo-metric keyboard for those of us who are constantly typing. We look for comfort in our vehicles, and in our traveling arrangements, and we look for comfort in our families and with our friends. However, comfort is not something that we are always able to find in every aspect of our lives! Though we’ve started to see gas prices retreating from the $4.00 mark, we all find ourselves wondering when the prices will start going back up. Though is seems that food prices may have stabilized for the time being, we all know that if the gas prices should start climbing our food prices will follow suit. We hear stories on the news about how many people are looking for jobs these days, and personally know at least a few people who are struggling in this way. We hear about banks foreclosing on houses and houses sitting on the market for years. Some of us have personally dealt with foreclosure, repossessions, bankruptcy, houses that simply won’t sell, and we wonder where we might find even the slightest bit of comfort in the midst of these overwhelming hardships!
Well, that is where the Lord our God steps in and speaks to us directly from his Word with his comfort and assurance. In fact, as we study the lesson before us we will hear the Lord our God calling on us to take comfort in these last days. He is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he is the one who has poured out his Holy Spirit upon us. He is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he is the one who has shown his signs and his wonders in the skies and on the earth below to remind us that the time is short. But even more than that, he is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he himself has assured us that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! Take a look with me at what the Lord our God has to say to us in our lesson today: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:28–32, NIV84)
Though we don’t know exactly when Joel wrote these words, we know that we are living in the fulfillment of this very prophecy of Scripture! We are living in the last days, which came to a beginning back on the Day of Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago. For on that day the Lord fulfilled this prophecy as he graciously poured out his Holy Spirit on the disciples who stood up and addressed the crowd of people who had gathered that day. The Lord fulfilled this prophecy as he poured out the Holy Spirit on his disciples, and the people heard them proclaiming the wonders of God in their own languages. The Lord fulfilled his prophecy as in one day some 3000 people were added to the number of believers! Yet this was not the end all and be all of this prophecy! Rather, it was just the beginning. For since that day when the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, he has not stopped pouring out his Holy Spirit on his believers or even on the people of the world!
For after that day of Pentecost, the disciples took that word of God to the nations as they were sent out to proclaim the wonders of God. They wrote letters and gospels for the churches to read and share and be strengthened by, and these have been gathered, collected, and compiled into the Bible that we have today! Today, some 2000 years after the day of Pentecost, the Bible has become the bestselling book of all time. About 10 years ago I read a statistic saying that the average American home has something like 7 Bibles in it. The Bible has been translated into nearly every language on the face of the planet. Each week Pastors proclaim the wonders of God in churches, on Television, over the Radio, and on the Internet. Today we can see the clear results of the out pouring of the Holy Spirit on all the people of the earth through the easy accessibility of God’s Word! Today, we can take comfort in that out pouring of the Holy Spirit, even as we are living in these last days, because we know that through the working of the Holy Spirit we have been prepared for the last days. We have been prepared by the Holy Spirit to recognize false claims of the last days, and we have been taught by the Holy Spirit to recognize the signs and wonders the Lord has revealed and will reveal in the heavens and on the earth below, as Joel tells us, “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. (Joel 2:30-31)
Though we are most certainly living in the last days, what a comfort it is to know that the Lord our God is in control! What a comfort it is to know that even as we see his signs and wonders marking the last days, he has not placed them there to cause us fear, but to turn us toward him in repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In fact, how many signs and wonders haven’t we seen that have driven us closer to him, causing us to look for comfort in the solace of his word? Since the beginning of this new millennium we have seen disasters that have tested the very fiber of our being. We have seen disasters that have caused us to look up at the skies and cry out, “Why?” We have seen disasters that have caused us to draw closer to the Lord in thanksgiving that we had not been affected in such a way, even as we pray for God’s deliverance of the people whose lives have been fundamentally changed by hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, lightning and hail damage. We have been shocked by that magnitude of destruction caused by floods, earthquakes, and even tsunamis. We have been horrified by the hatred of terrorist attacks throughout the world and even on our own soil, and we have even many of the prophecies of the last days being fulfilled in our own day and age.
For we have seen the blood and the fire and the billows of smoke caused by wars throughout the world. Back in the mid 80’s we have witnessed clouds of radiation raining down over Europe from the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, causing waters to turn bitter and causing many to die from radiation poisoning. Back in the early 90’s we saw the skies filled with smoke from the oil fields fires in Kwait blocking out what some have said was a third of the sky so that a third of the day and a third of the night was without light. Most recently, we have seen the twin towers fall, and our nation rise to war in the Middle East, and just a couple of years ago the big news was the lunar eclipse that caused the moon to glow with a distinctive reddish hue, looking almost as if the moon itself was covered with blood.
While there are some who have linked the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl with the sounding of the third trumpet in Revelation 8, the Gulf War and the burning of the oil fields with the fourth trumpet, our current war with the sounding of the fifth trumpet, and even the most recent eclipse with the words of our text today, only time will tell if these are the very events the Lord had in mind or if there are others, more specific events to come. But no matter what the case is, from these signs and wonders on the earth below and the skies above, we can take comfort in these last days! We can take comfort in these last days, because we know that our Lord’s return is coming soon. We can take comfort in these last days, because even though we are seeing all sorts of signs and wonders around us, we know, as Joel tells us, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)
How wonderful it is to know that no matter what happens to us on this earth, through faith in Jesus Christ, we have salvation. Even if the world should fall apart around us, heaven is our home. Even if gas prices should sky rocket to over $4.00 per gallon! Oh, wait, we’ve been there and even when we were there the Lord was providing for us, caring for us and giving us a reason to take comfort in him! Even if all the prophecies of the last days suddenly came true and we found ourselves living in a completely different world, we would not have to worry, because we would know that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
What greater comfort could there be for us than this! Through faith in Jesus Christ, the debts of our sins have been paid in full. The mortgage payments of our iniquities, which we were making to this world have been done away with. The mortgage note was burned by Jesus blood and he, himself has handed us the deed to our mansions in heaven. Through faith in Jesus we can take comfort in these last days because we belong to the Lord. Now, no matter what might happen in this life, we can take comfort in the fact, that through faith in Jesus we have the sure and certain hope of eternal life by his side forever in heaven! Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
If there is one thing that all Americans want for themselves and for their families, it is comfort. For the truth is comfort is something that we look for in any and every situation in our lives. We look for comfort when it comes to our linens, our bedding, and our sleeping arrangements. We look for comfort in our food, the ingredients we buy, and the things that we make at different times of year. We look for comfort in our technology, that perfect pair of headphones, the best mouse and the most ergo-metric keyboard for those of us who are constantly typing. We look for comfort in our vehicles, and in our traveling arrangements, and we look for comfort in our families and with our friends. However, comfort is not something that we are always able to find in every aspect of our lives! Though we’ve started to see gas prices retreating from the $4.00 mark, we all find ourselves wondering when the prices will start going back up. Though is seems that food prices may have stabilized for the time being, we all know that if the gas prices should start climbing our food prices will follow suit. We hear stories on the news about how many people are looking for jobs these days, and personally know at least a few people who are struggling in this way. We hear about banks foreclosing on houses and houses sitting on the market for years. Some of us have personally dealt with foreclosure, repossessions, bankruptcy, houses that simply won’t sell, and we wonder where we might find even the slightest bit of comfort in the midst of these overwhelming hardships!
Well, that is where the Lord our God steps in and speaks to us directly from his Word with his comfort and assurance. In fact, as we study the lesson before us we will hear the Lord our God calling on us to take comfort in these last days. He is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he is the one who has poured out his Holy Spirit upon us. He is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he is the one who has shown his signs and his wonders in the skies and on the earth below to remind us that the time is short. But even more than that, he is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he himself has assured us that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! Take a look with me at what the Lord our God has to say to us in our lesson today: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:28–32, NIV84)
Though we don’t know exactly when Joel wrote these words, we know that we are living in the fulfillment of this very prophecy of Scripture! We are living in the last days, which came to a beginning back on the Day of Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago. For on that day the Lord fulfilled this prophecy as he graciously poured out his Holy Spirit on the disciples who stood up and addressed the crowd of people who had gathered that day. The Lord fulfilled this prophecy as he poured out the Holy Spirit on his disciples, and the people heard them proclaiming the wonders of God in their own languages. The Lord fulfilled his prophecy as in one day some 3000 people were added to the number of believers! Yet this was not the end all and be all of this prophecy! Rather, it was just the beginning. For since that day when the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, he has not stopped pouring out his Holy Spirit on his believers or even on the people of the world!
For after that day of Pentecost, the disciples took that word of God to the nations as they were sent out to proclaim the wonders of God. They wrote letters and gospels for the churches to read and share and be strengthened by, and these have been gathered, collected, and compiled into the Bible that we have today! Today, some 2000 years after the day of Pentecost, the Bible has become the bestselling book of all time. About 10 years ago I read a statistic saying that the average American home has something like 7 Bibles in it. The Bible has been translated into nearly every language on the face of the planet. Each week Pastors proclaim the wonders of God in churches, on Television, over the Radio, and on the Internet. Today we can see the clear results of the out pouring of the Holy Spirit on all the people of the earth through the easy accessibility of God’s Word! Today, we can take comfort in that out pouring of the Holy Spirit, even as we are living in these last days, because we know that through the working of the Holy Spirit we have been prepared for the last days. We have been prepared by the Holy Spirit to recognize false claims of the last days, and we have been taught by the Holy Spirit to recognize the signs and wonders the Lord has revealed and will reveal in the heavens and on the earth below, as Joel tells us, “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. (Joel 2:30-31)
Though we are most certainly living in the last days, what a comfort it is to know that the Lord our God is in control! What a comfort it is to know that even as we see his signs and wonders marking the last days, he has not placed them there to cause us fear, but to turn us toward him in repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In fact, how many signs and wonders haven’t we seen that have driven us closer to him, causing us to look for comfort in the solace of his word? Since the beginning of this new millennium we have seen disasters that have tested the very fiber of our being. We have seen disasters that have caused us to look up at the skies and cry out, “Why?” We have seen disasters that have caused us to draw closer to the Lord in thanksgiving that we had not been affected in such a way, even as we pray for God’s deliverance of the people whose lives have been fundamentally changed by hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, lightning and hail damage. We have been shocked by that magnitude of destruction caused by floods, earthquakes, and even tsunamis. We have been horrified by the hatred of terrorist attacks throughout the world and even on our own soil, and we have even many of the prophecies of the last days being fulfilled in our own day and age.
For we have seen the blood and the fire and the billows of smoke caused by wars throughout the world. Back in the mid 80’s we have witnessed clouds of radiation raining down over Europe from the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, causing waters to turn bitter and causing many to die from radiation poisoning. Back in the early 90’s we saw the skies filled with smoke from the oil fields fires in Kwait blocking out what some have said was a third of the sky so that a third of the day and a third of the night was without light. Most recently, we have seen the twin towers fall, and our nation rise to war in the Middle East, and just a couple of years ago the big news was the lunar eclipse that caused the moon to glow with a distinctive reddish hue, looking almost as if the moon itself was covered with blood.
While there are some who have linked the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl with the sounding of the third trumpet in Revelation 8, the Gulf War and the burning of the oil fields with the fourth trumpet, our current war with the sounding of the fifth trumpet, and even the most recent eclipse with the words of our text today, only time will tell if these are the very events the Lord had in mind or if there are others, more specific events to come. But no matter what the case is, from these signs and wonders on the earth below and the skies above, we can take comfort in these last days! We can take comfort in these last days, because we know that our Lord’s return is coming soon. We can take comfort in these last days, because even though we are seeing all sorts of signs and wonders around us, we know, as Joel tells us, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)
How wonderful it is to know that no matter what happens to us on this earth, through faith in Jesus Christ, we have salvation. Even if the world should fall apart around us, heaven is our home. Even if gas prices should sky rocket to over $4.00 per gallon! Oh, wait, we’ve been there and even when we were there the Lord was providing for us, caring for us and giving us a reason to take comfort in him! Even if all the prophecies of the last days suddenly came true and we found ourselves living in a completely different world, we would not have to worry, because we would know that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
What greater comfort could there be for us than this! Through faith in Jesus Christ, the debts of our sins have been paid in full. The mortgage payments of our iniquities, which we were making to this world have been done away with. The mortgage note was burned by Jesus blood and he, himself has handed us the deed to our mansions in heaven. Through faith in Jesus we can take comfort in these last days because we belong to the Lord. Now, no matter what might happen in this life, we can take comfort in the fact, that through faith in Jesus we have the sure and certain hope of eternal life by his side forever in heaven! Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Rejoice in the Facts of Jesus' Ascension! (Acts 1:1-11)
June 5, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
If you grew up watching Dragnet, then I’m sure you will remember Sergeant Joe Friday and his no nonsense demeanor. I’m sure you will remember his methodical attention to details. But most of all, I’m sure you will remember the phrase for which he will always be famous; that phrase which he would speak whenever an eye witness was either embellishing too much or becoming too emotionally involved in what he or she was recounting. For whenever that would happen, Sergeant Friday would utter those three simple words, “just the facts.” “Just the facts!”—that was all Sergeant Friday wanted so that he could clearly peace together the solution for the case he was trying to solve. Well, this morning, we will also be looking at the facts of the case that Luke has laid out before us. Today we will be reminded of the events that led up to it. Today we will be assured of the promise it contains. Today, we will rejoice in the fact of Jesus’ ascension!
As we do this, as we rejoice in the fact of Jesus’ ascension, I invite you to turn with me to our first lesson from Acts 1 and take a closer look at the facts that Luke is providing for our rejoicing. Now, when Luke wrote began writing the book of Acts, he began with the Ascension, essentially continuing where he left off with in his Gospel. In his Gospel letter to Theophilus his main purpose had been to tell about the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus and how through all of this Jesus had brought about the forgiveness of sins for all people. Thus as we heard in the gospel the account of the ascension was so brief. But now, by beginning with the Ascension in Acts, Luke’s purpose is to tell the Theophilus that this Jesus who died and rose again is truly the Son of God who has returned to his Father’s side. He is the Son of God who has freed all form their sins and brought life and salvation to light through the Gospel. He is the Savior in whose ascension we rejoice and whose work we now proclaim to the world. Take a look at what Luke writes in Acts 1, beginning with verse 1:
“In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with a water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:1-11)
What greater reason could there be for us to rejoice Today than the reason Luke gives with these facts of Jesus’ Ascension! For as Luke writes in the first verse of our text, he so expertly reminds us of the amazing and miraculous events of Jesus’ life. In such a simple way, Luke causes our minds to recall the events of Gabriel appearing to Mary, Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem so that the Savior could be born there in fulfillment of all the prophecies, and Jesus’ first trip to Jerusalem where he stayed behind, teaching the teachers, in fulfillment of another prophecy. In such a simple way Luke causes us to remember how Jesus went throughout the land of Israel preaching and teaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven, how he healed the sick and raised the dead, and how the Pharisees and teachers of the law constantly looked for ways to be rid of him. In such a simple way Luke causes us to remember how Jesus willingly gave his life for us on the cross, how he did in fact die, was in fact buried in the earth, and how he did in fact rise from the dead to assure us that our sins have truly been forgiven. In such a simple way Luke lays out for us the facts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection so that we might rejoice all the more over the fact of Jesus’ ascension, which Luke records for us beginning in verse 9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)
I don’t know about you, but if I had been there on that day, I probably would have stood there staring up into the sky with the disciples. If I had seen Jesus suddenly floating up off the ground in the way the people simply don’t, I would have been so shocked and amazed that long after the cloud hid him from view I would have simply stood there, gazing up into the sky, hoping for another glimpse of my Savior. If I had been there that day, I’m sure that I would not have moved until the angels appeared, giving me Jesus’ amazing promise that one day I would see him returning to the earth in the same way that I had just seen him go. If I had been there that day, I can tell you that I would have joined in with the disciples’ rejoicing in Jesus’ ascension as they worshiped their Savior on their way back to Jerusalem.
What greater reason could there be for us to rejoice this morning! What greater fact could there be for us to celebrate than the fact of our Savior’s ascension! For Today, we have been assured of the forgiveness of our sins! Today, we have been assured that just as we have seen Jesus return to his heavenly home, we will one day see him returning in glory and great majesty. Not only that, but Today we have built the hope of our own ascension upon the fact of Jesus’ ascension. Today, we have been assured Jesus has been exalted to the highest place that heaven affords. Today we have been assured that Jesus is indeed sitting at the right hand of our heavenly Father and interceding for us. Today we have been assured that Jesus is still watching over us and protecting us, guarding us and keeping us in his tender care. Today as we have seen the facts of Jesus life, death, and resurrection laid out for us, we have great assurance in the fact of his resurrection, which assures us of the fact of eternal life, and the fact of his imminent return on the last day!
So let us rejoice in the fact of our Savior’s Ascension! For Today, we have traveled with Sergeant Joe Friday, so to speak, as we have gathered the facts of the case before us. Though we may not have done so with a no nonsense demeanor or with methodical attention to details, we have found great joy in the facts before us! We have found great joy in the fact that our Savior has indeed ascended to his throne in heaven, from which he will one day return to take us to be with him forever.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
If you grew up watching Dragnet, then I’m sure you will remember Sergeant Joe Friday and his no nonsense demeanor. I’m sure you will remember his methodical attention to details. But most of all, I’m sure you will remember the phrase for which he will always be famous; that phrase which he would speak whenever an eye witness was either embellishing too much or becoming too emotionally involved in what he or she was recounting. For whenever that would happen, Sergeant Friday would utter those three simple words, “just the facts.” “Just the facts!”—that was all Sergeant Friday wanted so that he could clearly peace together the solution for the case he was trying to solve. Well, this morning, we will also be looking at the facts of the case that Luke has laid out before us. Today we will be reminded of the events that led up to it. Today we will be assured of the promise it contains. Today, we will rejoice in the fact of Jesus’ ascension!
As we do this, as we rejoice in the fact of Jesus’ ascension, I invite you to turn with me to our first lesson from Acts 1 and take a closer look at the facts that Luke is providing for our rejoicing. Now, when Luke wrote began writing the book of Acts, he began with the Ascension, essentially continuing where he left off with in his Gospel. In his Gospel letter to Theophilus his main purpose had been to tell about the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus and how through all of this Jesus had brought about the forgiveness of sins for all people. Thus as we heard in the gospel the account of the ascension was so brief. But now, by beginning with the Ascension in Acts, Luke’s purpose is to tell the Theophilus that this Jesus who died and rose again is truly the Son of God who has returned to his Father’s side. He is the Son of God who has freed all form their sins and brought life and salvation to light through the Gospel. He is the Savior in whose ascension we rejoice and whose work we now proclaim to the world. Take a look at what Luke writes in Acts 1, beginning with verse 1:
“In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with a water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:1-11)
What greater reason could there be for us to rejoice Today than the reason Luke gives with these facts of Jesus’ Ascension! For as Luke writes in the first verse of our text, he so expertly reminds us of the amazing and miraculous events of Jesus’ life. In such a simple way, Luke causes our minds to recall the events of Gabriel appearing to Mary, Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem so that the Savior could be born there in fulfillment of all the prophecies, and Jesus’ first trip to Jerusalem where he stayed behind, teaching the teachers, in fulfillment of another prophecy. In such a simple way Luke causes us to remember how Jesus went throughout the land of Israel preaching and teaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven, how he healed the sick and raised the dead, and how the Pharisees and teachers of the law constantly looked for ways to be rid of him. In such a simple way Luke causes us to remember how Jesus willingly gave his life for us on the cross, how he did in fact die, was in fact buried in the earth, and how he did in fact rise from the dead to assure us that our sins have truly been forgiven. In such a simple way Luke lays out for us the facts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection so that we might rejoice all the more over the fact of Jesus’ ascension, which Luke records for us beginning in verse 9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)
I don’t know about you, but if I had been there on that day, I probably would have stood there staring up into the sky with the disciples. If I had seen Jesus suddenly floating up off the ground in the way the people simply don’t, I would have been so shocked and amazed that long after the cloud hid him from view I would have simply stood there, gazing up into the sky, hoping for another glimpse of my Savior. If I had been there that day, I’m sure that I would not have moved until the angels appeared, giving me Jesus’ amazing promise that one day I would see him returning to the earth in the same way that I had just seen him go. If I had been there that day, I can tell you that I would have joined in with the disciples’ rejoicing in Jesus’ ascension as they worshiped their Savior on their way back to Jerusalem.
What greater reason could there be for us to rejoice this morning! What greater fact could there be for us to celebrate than the fact of our Savior’s ascension! For Today, we have been assured of the forgiveness of our sins! Today, we have been assured that just as we have seen Jesus return to his heavenly home, we will one day see him returning in glory and great majesty. Not only that, but Today we have built the hope of our own ascension upon the fact of Jesus’ ascension. Today, we have been assured Jesus has been exalted to the highest place that heaven affords. Today we have been assured that Jesus is indeed sitting at the right hand of our heavenly Father and interceding for us. Today we have been assured that Jesus is still watching over us and protecting us, guarding us and keeping us in his tender care. Today as we have seen the facts of Jesus life, death, and resurrection laid out for us, we have great assurance in the fact of his resurrection, which assures us of the fact of eternal life, and the fact of his imminent return on the last day!
So let us rejoice in the fact of our Savior’s Ascension! For Today, we have traveled with Sergeant Joe Friday, so to speak, as we have gathered the facts of the case before us. Though we may not have done so with a no nonsense demeanor or with methodical attention to details, we have found great joy in the facts before us! We have found great joy in the fact that our Savior has indeed ascended to his throne in heaven, from which he will one day return to take us to be with him forever.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Confess Your God before the World! (Acts 17:22-31)
May 29, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
Have you ever wondered why we take time out of each service to confess our Christian faith with the words of either the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creed? Well, if you ever have wondered why we do this the answer I’m about to give you might surprise you just a little, because the reason we confess our faith in our God is not because our God needs to be reassured that we do truly trust in him. It’s not because our God needs to be encouraged by our faith or have his ego built up by knowing that his followers do truly trust in him and believe in him. Instead, the reason we confess our faith each and every week is so that we might build each other up in our faith and our trust in our God. It is so that we can build each other up in our confidence that we do indeed believe in the all-powerful Lord our God who cares for us and watches over us. It is so that we might assure each other in our belief that the Lord is our God. Well this is exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing in our lesson today; he is confessing his faith in the Lord in front of, essentially, all the world. He is confessing the Lord as his God before the people of Athens who have gathered to hear the “new teaching” that Paul was brining to the people. In short, Paul is confessing the Lord as the God of all and the Savior of all people as he stood before the people of Athens in the Areopagus. Just as Luke records Paul speaking in our lesson today; Paul says, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.” (Acts 17:22-24).
Now, for the Athenians, to hear that the God who had made the world and everything it was the Lord of all, would have been a bit of a surprise to them. After all the people of Athens, indeed all the people of the Greek Islands had an entire Pantheon of gods who were responsible for any number of the aspects of their lives. In fact, according to the Greek Myths, the gods that they were currently worshiping were not the gods who had made the world. Rather they were the gods who had taken over from the previous godly government of the Titans. So hearing Paul confess that the Lord God was indeed the Lord of all would have been a surprise to them. After all, the Athenians were indeed a very religious people. They were a people who lived in a city filled with shrines, and temples, and statues dedicated to all sorts of gods and goddesses. They lived in a city where every square had its own little shrine and every gate had its own protecting gods. They were a community where every house had its own shrine and each person who lived there in worshiped their own personal protecting god or goddess. But the most remarkable part of the city was the statue of the goddess Athena which had been built in the Acropolis, a hill towering 150 feet over the city. This was a 75 foot tall statue, with face, and hands, and feet carved from the purest ivory. This was a statue that was draped in coverings of glittering gold. This was a statue which the sailors used as a land mark as they sailed near the city. This was a statue that the people of Athens worshipped as one of their many gods and goddesses.
Just imagine the scene as Paul confessed the Lord before the people of Athens. There he was, standing before a group of maybe 500 men who had gathered to hear him. Maybe 50 feet to the South East of where he was stood the Acropolisthe impressive temple and fortress designed to protect the citywhere the great statue of Athena stood. Then, below the Acropolis, the city with all its temples, and shrines, and household gods, and here was Paul making his confession before the people that God is the Lord of all. Here was Paul saying, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ ” (Acts 17:24-28).
In the same way that Paul confessed the Lord before the people of Athens in our lesson today, he is confessing the Lord before you and me today. He is reminding us that the Lord our God is indeed the Lord of all, and he is encouraging us to make the same bold confession before the world today, because we too, are living in a world that is also filled with all sorts of religious ideas. We are living in a world where the teachings of reincarnation are becoming widely accepted. Though this was once an Eastern philosophy, there are many people in America who not only believe that they have lived previous lives, but they also believe that when they do die they will be reincarnated and return to the world in some other form. We are living in a world where more and more people are putting their faith and their hope in angels, rather than in the Lord their God. We are living in a world where people are more worried about being spiritual than they are worried about being religious. We are living in a world where more and more people are turning from the worship of the true God to the worship of false gods like Buddha, Confucius, the Dalai Lamma, Allah (the god of Islam), their own ancestors, the saints in heaven, and yes, there are even some who have such regard for the pope that they essentially worship him as a god on earth. Not only that, but we are living in a day and age where people are looking for guidance from spirits, spirits who they believe come to them and guide them in their lives.
It is because of all of this that the Apostle Paul is calling on us to confess our faith in the Lord our God and confess it to the world. He is calling on us to confess our God to the world lest we be deceived by any of these false teachings. He is calling on us to confess our faith to the world so that we might not be taken in by the generic ideas of God that are so pervasive in our society today! He is calling on us to make a clear confession of the Lord our God and our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, because there is so much false teaching in the world that wants to group all Christians into one big category, even though there are very clear differences between churches of different denominations. This is why Paul is calling on us to confess the Lord our God before the World, so that all the world might know that Jesus is the Lord our Savior who has freed us from our sins. This, in fact, is the very clear confession that Paul made as he stood before the members of the Areopagus and said: “Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31).
Though in what Luke records for us, Paul never had the opportunity to specifically mention Jesus Christ as their Savior, he gave a clear confession when he called them to repent. He gave a clear confession when he told them that the Lord has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he appointed. He gave them a clear confession when he stated that God had raised this man from the dead. If Paul had not been interrupted by some of the members of the Areopagus at that moment, you can sure that Paul’s next sentence would have been, “And that man is Jesus Christ, the Savior of us all!” But even though he was never able to say those words, there were many people who repented of their sins that day. Even though he was not able to say those words, there were a number of people who came to faith in Jesus Christ that day. Even though he was not able to mention Jesus as the Son of God, there were many who came to realize that the Lord Jesus was their one and only Savior that day, through Paul’s clear confession.
This is the same confession that Paul is making to us today when he calls on us to repent! For he is calling on us to repent of our many sins! He is calling on us to repent of the times that we have not made a clear confession of God as Lord. He is calling on us to repent of the sins we have committed in being lax in our gathering for worship. He is calling on us to repent of our stubborn refusal to study his Word. In short he is calling on us to make confession of every sin and iniquity we have committed before our God. Then, as we stand before the Lord exposed and naked, Paul reminds us that the Lord our Savior has removed our sins. Though he may have never spoken those words in our text, he clearly brought them to memory when he spoke about the man whom God raised from the dead. For in raising Jesus from the dead, he assured us that all our sins have been forgiven. Every sin we’ve ever committed! Our laxity in attending worship for the strengthening of our faith; it has been forgiven. Our stubborn refusal to study his Word; it has been forgiven. Even our failure to utter a clear confession, it has been forgiven. All our sins have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus who is our Savior. This, then, becomes our confession which we want to bring to the world. Not merely that our sins have been forgiven. Rather, the confession that all sins have been forgiven by the Lord who is our Savior.
What better message could there be for us to carry to the world than the clear message of the Gospel. After all, our world today is not that different from Athens in Paul’s day. As a people we are very religious, or at least, very spiritual. There are many different people who believe many different things. Some people clearly believe and teach that we must live a good life in order to be saved. Others have clearly believe and teach that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere in your believe. Still others believe and teach that there are many roads that lead to eternal life. Clearly there are many people who need to know what we know. There are many people who need to hear the clear confession of the Lord our God and Jesus our Savior. There are many, many people in our world who are in serious need of the message that Jesus Christ, their Savior, is the only way to eternal life. There are many people who need us to bring this message to them. This is our mission, to spread the message that the Lord is the Savior of all. This is now our challenge, to confess our Lord before the world. So as you step out those doors today and enter the mission field before you, make the most of every opportunity that the Lord gives you to make your clear confession of Jesus as the Savior of all, by inviting someone to worship with us. Go out and make that clear confession, by talking to someone about their Savior. Go out and make that clear confession by talking about your faith when someone asks you about the hope you have. Only don’t be silent! For when we are silent, our confession is not heard. But when we active our confession about the Lord our Savior is heard loud and clear.
Though today we will not be confessing our Christian faith after the sermon, we were all built up when we confessed it together earlier. For it is through our confession of faith that we build each other up in faith in the Lord of God. But it is also through that same confession that we bring to the world that the world may come to know God who is the Lord and Savior of all.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
Have you ever wondered why we take time out of each service to confess our Christian faith with the words of either the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creed? Well, if you ever have wondered why we do this the answer I’m about to give you might surprise you just a little, because the reason we confess our faith in our God is not because our God needs to be reassured that we do truly trust in him. It’s not because our God needs to be encouraged by our faith or have his ego built up by knowing that his followers do truly trust in him and believe in him. Instead, the reason we confess our faith each and every week is so that we might build each other up in our faith and our trust in our God. It is so that we can build each other up in our confidence that we do indeed believe in the all-powerful Lord our God who cares for us and watches over us. It is so that we might assure each other in our belief that the Lord is our God. Well this is exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing in our lesson today; he is confessing his faith in the Lord in front of, essentially, all the world. He is confessing the Lord as his God before the people of Athens who have gathered to hear the “new teaching” that Paul was brining to the people. In short, Paul is confessing the Lord as the God of all and the Savior of all people as he stood before the people of Athens in the Areopagus. Just as Luke records Paul speaking in our lesson today; Paul says, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.” (Acts 17:22-24).
Now, for the Athenians, to hear that the God who had made the world and everything it was the Lord of all, would have been a bit of a surprise to them. After all the people of Athens, indeed all the people of the Greek Islands had an entire Pantheon of gods who were responsible for any number of the aspects of their lives. In fact, according to the Greek Myths, the gods that they were currently worshiping were not the gods who had made the world. Rather they were the gods who had taken over from the previous godly government of the Titans. So hearing Paul confess that the Lord God was indeed the Lord of all would have been a surprise to them. After all, the Athenians were indeed a very religious people. They were a people who lived in a city filled with shrines, and temples, and statues dedicated to all sorts of gods and goddesses. They lived in a city where every square had its own little shrine and every gate had its own protecting gods. They were a community where every house had its own shrine and each person who lived there in worshiped their own personal protecting god or goddess. But the most remarkable part of the city was the statue of the goddess Athena which had been built in the Acropolis, a hill towering 150 feet over the city. This was a 75 foot tall statue, with face, and hands, and feet carved from the purest ivory. This was a statue that was draped in coverings of glittering gold. This was a statue which the sailors used as a land mark as they sailed near the city. This was a statue that the people of Athens worshipped as one of their many gods and goddesses.
Just imagine the scene as Paul confessed the Lord before the people of Athens. There he was, standing before a group of maybe 500 men who had gathered to hear him. Maybe 50 feet to the South East of where he was stood the Acropolisthe impressive temple and fortress designed to protect the citywhere the great statue of Athena stood. Then, below the Acropolis, the city with all its temples, and shrines, and household gods, and here was Paul making his confession before the people that God is the Lord of all. Here was Paul saying, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ ” (Acts 17:24-28).
In the same way that Paul confessed the Lord before the people of Athens in our lesson today, he is confessing the Lord before you and me today. He is reminding us that the Lord our God is indeed the Lord of all, and he is encouraging us to make the same bold confession before the world today, because we too, are living in a world that is also filled with all sorts of religious ideas. We are living in a world where the teachings of reincarnation are becoming widely accepted. Though this was once an Eastern philosophy, there are many people in America who not only believe that they have lived previous lives, but they also believe that when they do die they will be reincarnated and return to the world in some other form. We are living in a world where more and more people are putting their faith and their hope in angels, rather than in the Lord their God. We are living in a world where people are more worried about being spiritual than they are worried about being religious. We are living in a world where more and more people are turning from the worship of the true God to the worship of false gods like Buddha, Confucius, the Dalai Lamma, Allah (the god of Islam), their own ancestors, the saints in heaven, and yes, there are even some who have such regard for the pope that they essentially worship him as a god on earth. Not only that, but we are living in a day and age where people are looking for guidance from spirits, spirits who they believe come to them and guide them in their lives.
It is because of all of this that the Apostle Paul is calling on us to confess our faith in the Lord our God and confess it to the world. He is calling on us to confess our God to the world lest we be deceived by any of these false teachings. He is calling on us to confess our faith to the world so that we might not be taken in by the generic ideas of God that are so pervasive in our society today! He is calling on us to make a clear confession of the Lord our God and our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, because there is so much false teaching in the world that wants to group all Christians into one big category, even though there are very clear differences between churches of different denominations. This is why Paul is calling on us to confess the Lord our God before the World, so that all the world might know that Jesus is the Lord our Savior who has freed us from our sins. This, in fact, is the very clear confession that Paul made as he stood before the members of the Areopagus and said: “Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31).
Though in what Luke records for us, Paul never had the opportunity to specifically mention Jesus Christ as their Savior, he gave a clear confession when he called them to repent. He gave a clear confession when he told them that the Lord has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he appointed. He gave them a clear confession when he stated that God had raised this man from the dead. If Paul had not been interrupted by some of the members of the Areopagus at that moment, you can sure that Paul’s next sentence would have been, “And that man is Jesus Christ, the Savior of us all!” But even though he was never able to say those words, there were many people who repented of their sins that day. Even though he was not able to say those words, there were a number of people who came to faith in Jesus Christ that day. Even though he was not able to mention Jesus as the Son of God, there were many who came to realize that the Lord Jesus was their one and only Savior that day, through Paul’s clear confession.
This is the same confession that Paul is making to us today when he calls on us to repent! For he is calling on us to repent of our many sins! He is calling on us to repent of the times that we have not made a clear confession of God as Lord. He is calling on us to repent of the sins we have committed in being lax in our gathering for worship. He is calling on us to repent of our stubborn refusal to study his Word. In short he is calling on us to make confession of every sin and iniquity we have committed before our God. Then, as we stand before the Lord exposed and naked, Paul reminds us that the Lord our Savior has removed our sins. Though he may have never spoken those words in our text, he clearly brought them to memory when he spoke about the man whom God raised from the dead. For in raising Jesus from the dead, he assured us that all our sins have been forgiven. Every sin we’ve ever committed! Our laxity in attending worship for the strengthening of our faith; it has been forgiven. Our stubborn refusal to study his Word; it has been forgiven. Even our failure to utter a clear confession, it has been forgiven. All our sins have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus who is our Savior. This, then, becomes our confession which we want to bring to the world. Not merely that our sins have been forgiven. Rather, the confession that all sins have been forgiven by the Lord who is our Savior.
What better message could there be for us to carry to the world than the clear message of the Gospel. After all, our world today is not that different from Athens in Paul’s day. As a people we are very religious, or at least, very spiritual. There are many different people who believe many different things. Some people clearly believe and teach that we must live a good life in order to be saved. Others have clearly believe and teach that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere in your believe. Still others believe and teach that there are many roads that lead to eternal life. Clearly there are many people who need to know what we know. There are many people who need to hear the clear confession of the Lord our God and Jesus our Savior. There are many, many people in our world who are in serious need of the message that Jesus Christ, their Savior, is the only way to eternal life. There are many people who need us to bring this message to them. This is our mission, to spread the message that the Lord is the Savior of all. This is now our challenge, to confess our Lord before the world. So as you step out those doors today and enter the mission field before you, make the most of every opportunity that the Lord gives you to make your clear confession of Jesus as the Savior of all, by inviting someone to worship with us. Go out and make that clear confession, by talking to someone about their Savior. Go out and make that clear confession by talking about your faith when someone asks you about the hope you have. Only don’t be silent! For when we are silent, our confession is not heard. But when we active our confession about the Lord our Savior is heard loud and clear.
Though today we will not be confessing our Christian faith after the sermon, we were all built up when we confessed it together earlier. For it is through our confession of faith that we build each other up in faith in the Lord of God. But it is also through that same confession that we bring to the world that the world may come to know God who is the Lord and Savior of all.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Remain in Christ the True Vine! (John 15:1-8)
May 22, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
I have always been amazed at how the Lord has blessed this great country of ours. Though it began out of 13 colonies it has grown to contain 50 individual states, which are able to operate independently within the system of our National Government. Yet, even though each state is free to act independently in many ways, no state is able to exist apart from our National Government. Though about 150 years ago some states tried to succeed from the nation and go it alone, It was the determination of President Lincoln that those states should remain part of this nation and that this nation should remain a unified whole. Thus, today, we find ourselves living in the best of the 50 states—states that have remained together as a nation. Well today, as we study the lesson before us from John 15:1-8, we will hear Jesus speaking to us about the importance of remaining together. However, he will not be speaking about the importance of remaining together as a nation. Rather he will be calling on each and every one of us to remain in him, the true vine.
Now, when Jesus spoke these words, he was speaking to his disciples one last time on Maundy Thursday Evening. Though in our Gospel lesson from John 14 Jesus and his disciples were still in the upper room, by the time Jesus is speaking in chapter 15, they have left the upper room and are most likely together in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you,” (John 15:1-4a).
As soon as the disciples heard these words, their ears must have perked up, for all through the Old Testament Scriptures, the Lord had used the illustration of vines and vineyards in reference to his chosen people Israel. However, rather than speaking about his chosen people, this time Jesus is drawing their attention to himself. This time Jesus is telling his disciples that he is the source of their faith and their life. In essence, what Jesus is doing in these last moments is boiling down the last three years of teaching and assuring his disciples that if they remain in him, Jesus will remain in them. Well the same thing is true for you and me today, for in the same way that the branches of a grapevine depend on the vine for sustenance, we also depend on Jesus for our lives. He is the one who has called us to faith. He is the one who nourishes our faith through his Word. He is the one who comforts us and assures us in every trouble. He is the one who strengthens us and protects us when the hardships and challenges of life come our way. He is the one who is faithful to us and has promised us that if we remain in him he will remain in us, because he is the vine and we are his branches. If we remain in him we will continue to grow, but if we don’t remain him we will quickly begin to wither and die. This, in fact, is the very warning that Jesus gives us as he tells us “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:6).
Around here, we don’t see too many grapevines or other vinery plants, but we do see trees, and I’m sure that we’ve all seen a tree that is just thriving, but has a few dead branches here and there. We had a tree like that just outside the fellowship hall not too long ago. During the winter, one of the branches broke either in the wind or under the snow. Though it was winter, the prognosis for this branch was bleak. It had broken and no sap would be able to flow to the limb and nourish it. There would be no leaves on this branch come spring because it had broken and died. Though this broken and dead branch hung there in the tree through the winter, a couple of months ago, it was removed by the city while they were cutting down the tree at the neighbor’s house on the other side of Smith Street. It was cut off, hauled away, and if it hasn’t already been burned up it will be burned up the next time the branches are burned down there by the river. In the same way that this branch was removed, so also will be the fate of all those who do not remain in Christ the True vine, as Jesus himself tells us, “[My Father] cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit…it is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown in to the fire and burned,” (John 15:2a,6).
Sadly, there are many who, though they once were fruitful branches in the Lord Jesus are no longer bearing fruit. There are many who, though they once held tightly to Jesus their true vine, have loosened their grip on him and have allowed themselves to wither. There are even some who have allowed their faith in Jesus to die and are like that dead branch in the tree outside, simply waiting to be removed completely. This is why Jesus tells us in verses 4-5, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me, I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing,” (John 15:4-5).
Now, with your permission, I will ask you an obvious question. If I were to go out to vineyard, find a nice branch form a grapevine, cut it off and bring it home, could I expect it to produce grapes for me? No, I couldn’t because that branch is now on its own. It is no longer attached to the vine. That branch is no longer receiving the life sustaining sap, which allows it to flourish and grow and produce grapes. All that is left for that branch is for it to wither and die. We are the same way. Only when we are connected to Christ by faith can we bear fruits of faith. When we neglect to read God’s Word and speak to him in prayer; when we neglect Holy Communion; when we allow our church attendance to drop because we are too busy doing other things; we are in effect taking a saw and cutting ourselves off from the Jesus the true vine. We are separating ourselves from the faith sustaining sap that Jesus the true vine provides us, and as we know apart from Jesus we can do nothing. This is quite a warning for us to behold, because if we do not remain in Jesus our Savior, our faith will die, we will be removed from him, and we will be cast into the fires of hell where we will pop and crackle like the burning branches in the campfire.
However, if we remain in Christ Jesus our Vine, he will remain in us. When we remain in Christ, we are like the branches of a grapevine that are laden with clusters of succulent grapes, as we bear fruits that flow from faith. When we remain in Christ our faith quite naturally shows itself in love to our fellow neighbor. Our faith blossoms into simple acts of kindness, a gift given for no particular reason or two children quietly and peacefully playing a game. When we remain in Christ, our faith blooms into patience and self-control as we learn to accept the crosses that the Lord has given each of us to bear in this life. When we remain in Christ, our lives glorify our Father in heaven, for through our lives, we bear much fruit and show ourselves to be his disciples. This is what Jesus was teaching his disciples that day, and that is what he is teaching us as well. Though no one can look into the heart of another human being and see who is a Christian and who isn’t, we can see the results of faith in the way people live and the fruits that they bear in their lives. This is why our Lord Jesus calls on us to remain in him, to bear fruit with our lives. As we live and remain in Jesus the true vine, he gives us the promise that we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer. Just as he tells us in verse 7: “If you remain in men and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you,” (John 15:7).
Now this passage has often given people trouble, because they are not exactly sure what Jesus is saying here. Sometimes people think that this means that when they become Christians Jesus will give them everything they ask from him. But the truth is Jesus is not telling us that everything we want will come to us just because we prayed for it. Rather, Jesus is teaching us that when we remain in him and he remains in us he forms the minds of his faithful people into a single will. He makes us to love his commands and desire his promises. When we remain in Jesus, we will pray that his will be done, just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, and he will work his will in our lives just as he did in the lives of the disciples. When the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parables to him, Jesus did so. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus taught them the Lord’s Prayer. When the disciples prayed that the Lord’s give power to his servants to speak the Word of truth boldly, that is exactly what the Lord did.
What about us? How many times haven’t we received whatever we ask for in prayer? How many times haven’t we prayed for safe travel and he has given it to us. How many times haven’t we prayed for good weather or rain and he has given it to us? How many times haven’t we prayed for the growth of his Church in all the world and he has given it to us. How many times haven’t we prayed, “Thy will be done,” and his will has been done. Yes, we know that it is true! We know that when we remain in Jesus the true vine our will understands God’s will and asks that God’s will be done. This is how we receive whatever we ask for in prayer.
Dear friends, we belong to Christ in the same way that branches belong to a vine. Remain in Jesus Christ, our true vine. For when we do so, he will remain in us. We will bear much fruit to the glory of God the Father. We will receive whatever we ask for in prayer.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
I have always been amazed at how the Lord has blessed this great country of ours. Though it began out of 13 colonies it has grown to contain 50 individual states, which are able to operate independently within the system of our National Government. Yet, even though each state is free to act independently in many ways, no state is able to exist apart from our National Government. Though about 150 years ago some states tried to succeed from the nation and go it alone, It was the determination of President Lincoln that those states should remain part of this nation and that this nation should remain a unified whole. Thus, today, we find ourselves living in the best of the 50 states—states that have remained together as a nation. Well today, as we study the lesson before us from John 15:1-8, we will hear Jesus speaking to us about the importance of remaining together. However, he will not be speaking about the importance of remaining together as a nation. Rather he will be calling on each and every one of us to remain in him, the true vine.
Now, when Jesus spoke these words, he was speaking to his disciples one last time on Maundy Thursday Evening. Though in our Gospel lesson from John 14 Jesus and his disciples were still in the upper room, by the time Jesus is speaking in chapter 15, they have left the upper room and are most likely together in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you,” (John 15:1-4a).
As soon as the disciples heard these words, their ears must have perked up, for all through the Old Testament Scriptures, the Lord had used the illustration of vines and vineyards in reference to his chosen people Israel. However, rather than speaking about his chosen people, this time Jesus is drawing their attention to himself. This time Jesus is telling his disciples that he is the source of their faith and their life. In essence, what Jesus is doing in these last moments is boiling down the last three years of teaching and assuring his disciples that if they remain in him, Jesus will remain in them. Well the same thing is true for you and me today, for in the same way that the branches of a grapevine depend on the vine for sustenance, we also depend on Jesus for our lives. He is the one who has called us to faith. He is the one who nourishes our faith through his Word. He is the one who comforts us and assures us in every trouble. He is the one who strengthens us and protects us when the hardships and challenges of life come our way. He is the one who is faithful to us and has promised us that if we remain in him he will remain in us, because he is the vine and we are his branches. If we remain in him we will continue to grow, but if we don’t remain him we will quickly begin to wither and die. This, in fact, is the very warning that Jesus gives us as he tells us “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:6).
Around here, we don’t see too many grapevines or other vinery plants, but we do see trees, and I’m sure that we’ve all seen a tree that is just thriving, but has a few dead branches here and there. We had a tree like that just outside the fellowship hall not too long ago. During the winter, one of the branches broke either in the wind or under the snow. Though it was winter, the prognosis for this branch was bleak. It had broken and no sap would be able to flow to the limb and nourish it. There would be no leaves on this branch come spring because it had broken and died. Though this broken and dead branch hung there in the tree through the winter, a couple of months ago, it was removed by the city while they were cutting down the tree at the neighbor’s house on the other side of Smith Street. It was cut off, hauled away, and if it hasn’t already been burned up it will be burned up the next time the branches are burned down there by the river. In the same way that this branch was removed, so also will be the fate of all those who do not remain in Christ the True vine, as Jesus himself tells us, “[My Father] cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit…it is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown in to the fire and burned,” (John 15:2a,6).
Sadly, there are many who, though they once were fruitful branches in the Lord Jesus are no longer bearing fruit. There are many who, though they once held tightly to Jesus their true vine, have loosened their grip on him and have allowed themselves to wither. There are even some who have allowed their faith in Jesus to die and are like that dead branch in the tree outside, simply waiting to be removed completely. This is why Jesus tells us in verses 4-5, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me, I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing,” (John 15:4-5).
Now, with your permission, I will ask you an obvious question. If I were to go out to vineyard, find a nice branch form a grapevine, cut it off and bring it home, could I expect it to produce grapes for me? No, I couldn’t because that branch is now on its own. It is no longer attached to the vine. That branch is no longer receiving the life sustaining sap, which allows it to flourish and grow and produce grapes. All that is left for that branch is for it to wither and die. We are the same way. Only when we are connected to Christ by faith can we bear fruits of faith. When we neglect to read God’s Word and speak to him in prayer; when we neglect Holy Communion; when we allow our church attendance to drop because we are too busy doing other things; we are in effect taking a saw and cutting ourselves off from the Jesus the true vine. We are separating ourselves from the faith sustaining sap that Jesus the true vine provides us, and as we know apart from Jesus we can do nothing. This is quite a warning for us to behold, because if we do not remain in Jesus our Savior, our faith will die, we will be removed from him, and we will be cast into the fires of hell where we will pop and crackle like the burning branches in the campfire.
However, if we remain in Christ Jesus our Vine, he will remain in us. When we remain in Christ, we are like the branches of a grapevine that are laden with clusters of succulent grapes, as we bear fruits that flow from faith. When we remain in Christ our faith quite naturally shows itself in love to our fellow neighbor. Our faith blossoms into simple acts of kindness, a gift given for no particular reason or two children quietly and peacefully playing a game. When we remain in Christ, our faith blooms into patience and self-control as we learn to accept the crosses that the Lord has given each of us to bear in this life. When we remain in Christ, our lives glorify our Father in heaven, for through our lives, we bear much fruit and show ourselves to be his disciples. This is what Jesus was teaching his disciples that day, and that is what he is teaching us as well. Though no one can look into the heart of another human being and see who is a Christian and who isn’t, we can see the results of faith in the way people live and the fruits that they bear in their lives. This is why our Lord Jesus calls on us to remain in him, to bear fruit with our lives. As we live and remain in Jesus the true vine, he gives us the promise that we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer. Just as he tells us in verse 7: “If you remain in men and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you,” (John 15:7).
Now this passage has often given people trouble, because they are not exactly sure what Jesus is saying here. Sometimes people think that this means that when they become Christians Jesus will give them everything they ask from him. But the truth is Jesus is not telling us that everything we want will come to us just because we prayed for it. Rather, Jesus is teaching us that when we remain in him and he remains in us he forms the minds of his faithful people into a single will. He makes us to love his commands and desire his promises. When we remain in Jesus, we will pray that his will be done, just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, and he will work his will in our lives just as he did in the lives of the disciples. When the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parables to him, Jesus did so. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus taught them the Lord’s Prayer. When the disciples prayed that the Lord’s give power to his servants to speak the Word of truth boldly, that is exactly what the Lord did.
What about us? How many times haven’t we received whatever we ask for in prayer? How many times haven’t we prayed for safe travel and he has given it to us. How many times haven’t we prayed for good weather or rain and he has given it to us? How many times haven’t we prayed for the growth of his Church in all the world and he has given it to us. How many times haven’t we prayed, “Thy will be done,” and his will has been done. Yes, we know that it is true! We know that when we remain in Jesus the true vine our will understands God’s will and asks that God’s will be done. This is how we receive whatever we ask for in prayer.
Dear friends, we belong to Christ in the same way that branches belong to a vine. Remain in Jesus Christ, our true vine. For when we do so, he will remain in us. We will bear much fruit to the glory of God the Father. We will receive whatever we ask for in prayer.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Text: Revelation 7:9-17 May 15, 2011
Theme: The Lord Is Our Shepherd
Dear friends in Christ.
If there is one picture that the Bible regularly uses to describe the relationship between us and our Savior, it would have to be the picture of a Shepherd and his sheep. This is the picture that King David used as he penned the well known, opening words of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd!” This is the picture that Jesus himself used again and again as regularly called himself the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. This is the picture that Peter used when spoke about how we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. And this is the description that the Apostle John records for us in our lesson for today. For this morning, our lesson comes to us from some of the most beautiful and most comforting words of the Scriptures. Our lesson comes to us from the Book of Revelation 7:9-17, which is John’s vision of Jesus Christ our Savior—the Lamb of God who will be our Shepherd!
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Lesson from Revelation 7:9-17. I’ve always felt that Revelation is one of the easiest books to find in the Bible because it is the last book. In fact, I often tease my confirmation students by telling them that if they don’t know where Genesis and Revelation are in their Bibles, then they fail my class. But all silliness aside, the Book of Revelation, and indeed our lesson from chapter 7 bring us some of the most beautiful and comforting words of all Scripture. In fact, as we look at these words, just think about what an incredible picture the Holy Spirit paints for us through the pen of the Apostle John! What an incredible picture for us to see with John as it were; the picture of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God our Savior serving as our Good Shepherd who will one day call us out of this troubled world so that he might forever shepherd us in his heavenly kingdom where we will finally have rest from all our labors! This is the incredible picture of the Lord our Shepherd that John reveals as he writes in our lesson, beginning with verse 9: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17)
How incredible that the Lord recorded this vision for us today! How incredible that the Lord our God knew the comfort we would need and centuries before we were even born he recorded this vision of comfort and assurance for us in the pages of Scripture. How incredible that the Lord our Savior reveals himself as our Good Shepherd who will one day call us out of this sin-filled and troubled world to our life of rest by our Shepherd’s side forever! What greater words of comfort could there be for us today, especially as we look around at the world in which we are living. In fact, with your permission, I would like to take a little informal survey. How many of you have found yourselves cutting back and stretching every single dollar you have? How many of you are trying to drive less or trying to combine your schedules so that you are traveling with more than just 1 person in the car? How many of you have felt the rising costs of prescription drugs or even found yourselves having to decide which prescriptions you really needed to pick up because all of them were just too expensive? How many of you have worried about insurance costs or wondered how you would get along without it? How many of you have found yourselves hoping and praying that the thing that just doesn’t seem to be quite right with your vehicle will go away, because you just can’t afford the time or the expenses of a break down? How many of you have faced unexpected bills that have eaten up more of your paycheck than you expected and have found yourselves struggling to cover all the other expenses while you wait for your next check to come?
If you raised your hand for any one of these questions, you are not alone. You are not alone because my family and I have faced each and every one of these questions again and again over the past 10 years, though in the last three years we’ve faced them more frequently. You are not alone because each and every person in this congregation has faced one or more of these questions on any number of occasions since our economy went sour. You are not alone because Christians throughout the world and throughout the centuries have faced these same frustrations or frustrations like them. Yet, even in the midst of these troubles, hardships and unrest, the Lord our Savior, our Good Shepherd gives us the most beautiful comfort in our lesson today. As John writes: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."…“Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” (Revelation 7:9-10,13-14).
This is the comfort our Good Shepherd pours out on us today! Though here on earth we deal with all sorts of frustrations and hardships, as Christians, we are even now wearing the white robes of righteousness won for us by Jesus on the Cross. Though we constantly feel the effects of sin in our lives and find that our garments are stained by our sins, each time we turn to our Savior in forgiveness, we are, in effect, washing our robes in his blood and making them clean once again. Though this is our daily practice here on earth, when our Good Shepherd calls us out of this troubled world to our home in haven, we will pass though the river of his blood one last time, and our robes will be made white forever. When the Lord calls us home to his throne in heaven, we will stand before him in eternal righteousness, innocence and blessedness, because Jesus has delivered us from death by his death and resurrection from the dead. There, we will praise our Good Shepherd because he has delivered us from this world of tribulation and sin. There, as we stand around the throne and the Lamb, we will give praise and thanks to our Good Shepherd who will give us rest in his kingdom forever. This is the picture that John paints for us as he records the Elder’s explanation of the great multitude: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17).
Here on earth, we have the exact opposite of rest. We feel the empty space between our ribs and hear the angry complaining our stomachs make when we don’t take time to feed them. We taste the clay of our cheeks and feel the crumbs of dirt that stick in our throats as our parched tongues cling to the roofs of our mouths. We are baked in the summer oven of this river valley as the flames of the sun descend upon us and the ever increasing humidity seeks to cook us from within. Though we seek the cooling shade of the trees where we might relax and find a cool glass of water, we know that that this rest will not last long. For before we know it, we will be forced back into the kiln of life where satan kindles the fires of temptations hoping that he might harden in our sins before he glazes us for eternal death and destruction in hell. But when our Good Shepherd delivers us to the rest he has promised us, we will know peace. When our Shepherd calls us home to his heavenly kingdom, never again will we hunger, never again will we thirst, the sun will not beat upon us nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be our Shepherd, he will lead us to streams of living water, and God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Though we cannot fathom the beauty that heaven affords, or even begin to comprehend the rest that heaven offers us from the trials, temptations, and hardships that we face each and every day of our lives, we continue to follow our Good Shepherd as he leads us on the path to eternal life. Though we may not know exactly what we will do in heaven, or exactly what is waiting for us there, we do know one thing for sure. We know that heaven is where our Shepherd is, and heaven is where we will live with him forever. We know that in heaven, we will no longer have to deal with all the trials, and hardships that this earth affords. We know that satan and his evil angels will no longer be able to tempt us or lead us astray. In heaven, we will be free from sin forever, and we will live with the Lord our God, our Savior and our Shepherd who will spread his tent over us.
What better picture could there be for us than the picture our Savior uses of himself as our Good Shepherd. For in the same way that shepherds care for their sheep, Jesus, our Good Shepherd cares for us. Though here on earth we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil because our Shepherd is with us. He is the one who leads us to quiet waters, makes us to lay down in green pastures, and restores our souls. He is the one who gives us his comfort and his assurance in this life, and he is the one who will give us rest forever in his heavenly kingdom. What a day it will be when we join that multitude from every nation, tribe and people; a multitude that cannot be counted. What a day it will be when we stand before the Lamb, our Shepherd and serve him day and night in his temple. How amazing it will be when he spreads his tent over us, leads us to springs of living water, and wipes away every tear from our eyes!
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Theme: The Lord Is Our Shepherd
Dear friends in Christ.
If there is one picture that the Bible regularly uses to describe the relationship between us and our Savior, it would have to be the picture of a Shepherd and his sheep. This is the picture that King David used as he penned the well known, opening words of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd!” This is the picture that Jesus himself used again and again as regularly called himself the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. This is the picture that Peter used when spoke about how we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. And this is the description that the Apostle John records for us in our lesson for today. For this morning, our lesson comes to us from some of the most beautiful and most comforting words of the Scriptures. Our lesson comes to us from the Book of Revelation 7:9-17, which is John’s vision of Jesus Christ our Savior—the Lamb of God who will be our Shepherd!
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Lesson from Revelation 7:9-17. I’ve always felt that Revelation is one of the easiest books to find in the Bible because it is the last book. In fact, I often tease my confirmation students by telling them that if they don’t know where Genesis and Revelation are in their Bibles, then they fail my class. But all silliness aside, the Book of Revelation, and indeed our lesson from chapter 7 bring us some of the most beautiful and comforting words of all Scripture. In fact, as we look at these words, just think about what an incredible picture the Holy Spirit paints for us through the pen of the Apostle John! What an incredible picture for us to see with John as it were; the picture of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God our Savior serving as our Good Shepherd who will one day call us out of this troubled world so that he might forever shepherd us in his heavenly kingdom where we will finally have rest from all our labors! This is the incredible picture of the Lord our Shepherd that John reveals as he writes in our lesson, beginning with verse 9: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17)
How incredible that the Lord recorded this vision for us today! How incredible that the Lord our God knew the comfort we would need and centuries before we were even born he recorded this vision of comfort and assurance for us in the pages of Scripture. How incredible that the Lord our Savior reveals himself as our Good Shepherd who will one day call us out of this sin-filled and troubled world to our life of rest by our Shepherd’s side forever! What greater words of comfort could there be for us today, especially as we look around at the world in which we are living. In fact, with your permission, I would like to take a little informal survey. How many of you have found yourselves cutting back and stretching every single dollar you have? How many of you are trying to drive less or trying to combine your schedules so that you are traveling with more than just 1 person in the car? How many of you have felt the rising costs of prescription drugs or even found yourselves having to decide which prescriptions you really needed to pick up because all of them were just too expensive? How many of you have worried about insurance costs or wondered how you would get along without it? How many of you have found yourselves hoping and praying that the thing that just doesn’t seem to be quite right with your vehicle will go away, because you just can’t afford the time or the expenses of a break down? How many of you have faced unexpected bills that have eaten up more of your paycheck than you expected and have found yourselves struggling to cover all the other expenses while you wait for your next check to come?
If you raised your hand for any one of these questions, you are not alone. You are not alone because my family and I have faced each and every one of these questions again and again over the past 10 years, though in the last three years we’ve faced them more frequently. You are not alone because each and every person in this congregation has faced one or more of these questions on any number of occasions since our economy went sour. You are not alone because Christians throughout the world and throughout the centuries have faced these same frustrations or frustrations like them. Yet, even in the midst of these troubles, hardships and unrest, the Lord our Savior, our Good Shepherd gives us the most beautiful comfort in our lesson today. As John writes: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."…“Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” (Revelation 7:9-10,13-14).
This is the comfort our Good Shepherd pours out on us today! Though here on earth we deal with all sorts of frustrations and hardships, as Christians, we are even now wearing the white robes of righteousness won for us by Jesus on the Cross. Though we constantly feel the effects of sin in our lives and find that our garments are stained by our sins, each time we turn to our Savior in forgiveness, we are, in effect, washing our robes in his blood and making them clean once again. Though this is our daily practice here on earth, when our Good Shepherd calls us out of this troubled world to our home in haven, we will pass though the river of his blood one last time, and our robes will be made white forever. When the Lord calls us home to his throne in heaven, we will stand before him in eternal righteousness, innocence and blessedness, because Jesus has delivered us from death by his death and resurrection from the dead. There, we will praise our Good Shepherd because he has delivered us from this world of tribulation and sin. There, as we stand around the throne and the Lamb, we will give praise and thanks to our Good Shepherd who will give us rest in his kingdom forever. This is the picture that John paints for us as he records the Elder’s explanation of the great multitude: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17).
Here on earth, we have the exact opposite of rest. We feel the empty space between our ribs and hear the angry complaining our stomachs make when we don’t take time to feed them. We taste the clay of our cheeks and feel the crumbs of dirt that stick in our throats as our parched tongues cling to the roofs of our mouths. We are baked in the summer oven of this river valley as the flames of the sun descend upon us and the ever increasing humidity seeks to cook us from within. Though we seek the cooling shade of the trees where we might relax and find a cool glass of water, we know that that this rest will not last long. For before we know it, we will be forced back into the kiln of life where satan kindles the fires of temptations hoping that he might harden in our sins before he glazes us for eternal death and destruction in hell. But when our Good Shepherd delivers us to the rest he has promised us, we will know peace. When our Shepherd calls us home to his heavenly kingdom, never again will we hunger, never again will we thirst, the sun will not beat upon us nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be our Shepherd, he will lead us to streams of living water, and God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Though we cannot fathom the beauty that heaven affords, or even begin to comprehend the rest that heaven offers us from the trials, temptations, and hardships that we face each and every day of our lives, we continue to follow our Good Shepherd as he leads us on the path to eternal life. Though we may not know exactly what we will do in heaven, or exactly what is waiting for us there, we do know one thing for sure. We know that heaven is where our Shepherd is, and heaven is where we will live with him forever. We know that in heaven, we will no longer have to deal with all the trials, and hardships that this earth affords. We know that satan and his evil angels will no longer be able to tempt us or lead us astray. In heaven, we will be free from sin forever, and we will live with the Lord our God, our Savior and our Shepherd who will spread his tent over us.
What better picture could there be for us than the picture our Savior uses of himself as our Good Shepherd. For in the same way that shepherds care for their sheep, Jesus, our Good Shepherd cares for us. Though here on earth we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil because our Shepherd is with us. He is the one who leads us to quiet waters, makes us to lay down in green pastures, and restores our souls. He is the one who gives us his comfort and his assurance in this life, and he is the one who will give us rest forever in his heavenly kingdom. What a day it will be when we join that multitude from every nation, tribe and people; a multitude that cannot be counted. What a day it will be when we stand before the Lamb, our Shepherd and serve him day and night in his temple. How amazing it will be when he spreads his tent over us, leads us to springs of living water, and wipes away every tear from our eyes!
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Today is Confirmation Sunday
Since we are holding both Examination and Confirmation on the same day, there will be no Sermon today. We'll see you again next week.
Pastor Shilling
Pastor Shilling
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sing Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Peter 1:3-9)
May 1, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
If I could choose only one season out of the entire church year as my favorite, I would have to choose Easter. I love Easter. I love how the whole church seems to transform from a veil of sorrow to a veil of joy. I love how we beautify our church with all sorts of different flowers as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus. But most of all I love how joyful our celebrations are as we gather to sing praise to the Lord our God on Easter Sunday. It is always so fund to gather and raise our voices together in song as we sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as we did last Sunday, with songs like, I know that My Redeemer Lives, Amazing Grace, Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle, and even a couple of stanzas of How Great Thou Art! As I’ve said before, I do wish that all of you could sit where I do and hear how beautiful you all sound as we raise our voices together, singing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For, as we gathered on Easter Sunday and as we’ve gathered here again this morning, we have gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who raised his Son from the dead. We’ve gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who freed us from our sins and made us his own through the death and resurrection of his Son, our Savior. We’ve gathered to sing praise to our God and Father because he has redeemed us, restored us and forgiven us. In short, we have gathered to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the great things that our God has done for us, just as Peter explains to us in our lesson for today.
Now, if you haven’t already opened your Bibles to our lesson for today, I invite you to open to 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning with verse 3 and we’ll take a look at all the reasons Peter gives us to sing praise. Now, as you are turning to 1 Peter, let me give you the back story, so to speak. As Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, the year is somewhere between 62 and 64. The Apostle Paul is most likely traveling in the region of Spain, and Peter, perhaps at the request of Paul, sits down with Silas to write a letter of comfort and encouragement to the believes in the cities where Paul and Silas had traveled on Paul’s second Missionary Journey. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in Bible Class that it was Luke who had written 1 Peter along with Peter, however, that was not correct, as Peter tells us in chapter 5 that it was with the help of Silas he had written this letter (1 Peter 5:12) And who better than Silas, the man who had visited these congregations with Paul, to aid Peter in writing this letter of praise!
Take a look at what Peter writes beginning with verse 3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
What better message could there be for us to hear on the heels of Easter than this message, giving us every reason to praise our God who has brought us into a new and living hope. What greater message could there be than the assurance that we have hope in any and every situation, especially when we take a look at the world around us. It is no secret that our economy is struggling. It is no secret that people are scared. It is no secret that more and more people have entered survival mode and are on the brink of losing hope? How many of us are in the same boat? How many of us are finding ourselves scared about the future? How many of us are sacrificing little things here and there to keep from having to enter survival mode too soon. How many are looking at the world around us and beginning to wonder if hope will hold out?
This is why Peter is writing as he is this morning! He is writing to assure us that in the midst of our economy we have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father. We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because even though we had once been lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief, God the Father willingly handed over his one and only son to death so that we would not have to die. Before we were even born, God the Father loved us and planned for our salvation. Before he even created the World, God the Father laid out his plan for our eternal salvation which centered on nothing that we could do for him, but everything that he could do for us. Now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior, we have been given new birth in to a new and living hope. No matter what might be happening around us, the hope we have is secure, because our hope is in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us. Our hope springs from the waters of Baptism that have washed us clean through the work of the Holy Spirit in connection with the Word of God. Our hope is certain because Jesus Christ who died in our place, rose again from the dead to assure us that our sins have been completely washed away.
Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we have been made children of God and heirs of eternal life! In the midst of an economy where people are concerned about their investments, 401k’s, stock options and other retirement funds, we have no concern whatsoever. We have no concern because we know that our retirement benefits are not only safe but they are out of this world. We are confident because we know that our inheritance is kept for us in heaven, where no thief can ever break in. No moth can ever destroy. No rust can ever corrupt. Nothing can ever spoil it, nor can it fade away, nor can it be lost because the stock market takes a turn for the worse. Thus we sing the praise of our God and Father because he has secured our inheritance through his mighty power with which we are shielded even now, until our salvation will be revealed when the Lord calls us home.
Because of this, we have every reason sing the praise of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if that’s the case Pastor, if we can rejoice in the Lord our God, if we can sing his praises because he has redeemed us, made us his own, and even protects us in this life, why do we still have to face sorrows and hardships? Why do find ourselves suffering at the hands of others? Why do face difficulties in this life? Peter answers that question for us beginning with verse 6 where he says, “6 In this [that is all these things with which God has blessed you] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
Though no one likes hardships or suffering, we can still rejoice in them because we know that they come to us so that our faith might be proven to be genuine. They come to us to draw us closer to the Lord. They come to us to make us take our eyes off the things of the world and refocus our vision on the things of eternal life. They come to us because Jesus promised that when we followed him the world would hate us and we would be persecuted just as he was. They come to us because satan is looking for any and every opportunity to distract us from our faith, cause us to despair, lose our hope, and finally fall away from the faith. They come to us because sometimes the Lord sends them into our lives, as he did when he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, so that we can learn what we are made of; so that we can learn the caliber of our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Though they are never easy to cope with, James tells us that we can consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds because it will produce perseverance of faith. (James 1:2) Though they are never the most easy thing to cope with, Paul assures us that we can rejoice in suffering because produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3) Though they are never easy to cope with Peter assures us that they come to help us look forward to our living hope in a better future with the Lord our God forever in heaven.
This is why we have every reason to sing praises to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because he is the one who freed us from our sins by sending his Son to be our Savior. He is the one who crushed Jesus and caused him to suffer (Isaiah 53:10) so that we would never have to. He is the one who forsook his own son on the cross so that he would never have to forsake us. He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead to assure us that not only have all our offenses been cleared, but that he will also raise us, just as he raised his Son. Thus we have gathered together on this Sunday after Easter, to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the one who has made us his own and has given us a sure and certain living hope in eternal life through his Son, our Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
If I could choose only one season out of the entire church year as my favorite, I would have to choose Easter. I love Easter. I love how the whole church seems to transform from a veil of sorrow to a veil of joy. I love how we beautify our church with all sorts of different flowers as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus. But most of all I love how joyful our celebrations are as we gather to sing praise to the Lord our God on Easter Sunday. It is always so fund to gather and raise our voices together in song as we sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as we did last Sunday, with songs like, I know that My Redeemer Lives, Amazing Grace, Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle, and even a couple of stanzas of How Great Thou Art! As I’ve said before, I do wish that all of you could sit where I do and hear how beautiful you all sound as we raise our voices together, singing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For, as we gathered on Easter Sunday and as we’ve gathered here again this morning, we have gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who raised his Son from the dead. We’ve gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who freed us from our sins and made us his own through the death and resurrection of his Son, our Savior. We’ve gathered to sing praise to our God and Father because he has redeemed us, restored us and forgiven us. In short, we have gathered to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the great things that our God has done for us, just as Peter explains to us in our lesson for today.
Now, if you haven’t already opened your Bibles to our lesson for today, I invite you to open to 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning with verse 3 and we’ll take a look at all the reasons Peter gives us to sing praise. Now, as you are turning to 1 Peter, let me give you the back story, so to speak. As Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, the year is somewhere between 62 and 64. The Apostle Paul is most likely traveling in the region of Spain, and Peter, perhaps at the request of Paul, sits down with Silas to write a letter of comfort and encouragement to the believes in the cities where Paul and Silas had traveled on Paul’s second Missionary Journey. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in Bible Class that it was Luke who had written 1 Peter along with Peter, however, that was not correct, as Peter tells us in chapter 5 that it was with the help of Silas he had written this letter (1 Peter 5:12) And who better than Silas, the man who had visited these congregations with Paul, to aid Peter in writing this letter of praise!
Take a look at what Peter writes beginning with verse 3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
What better message could there be for us to hear on the heels of Easter than this message, giving us every reason to praise our God who has brought us into a new and living hope. What greater message could there be than the assurance that we have hope in any and every situation, especially when we take a look at the world around us. It is no secret that our economy is struggling. It is no secret that people are scared. It is no secret that more and more people have entered survival mode and are on the brink of losing hope? How many of us are in the same boat? How many of us are finding ourselves scared about the future? How many of us are sacrificing little things here and there to keep from having to enter survival mode too soon. How many are looking at the world around us and beginning to wonder if hope will hold out?
This is why Peter is writing as he is this morning! He is writing to assure us that in the midst of our economy we have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father. We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because even though we had once been lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief, God the Father willingly handed over his one and only son to death so that we would not have to die. Before we were even born, God the Father loved us and planned for our salvation. Before he even created the World, God the Father laid out his plan for our eternal salvation which centered on nothing that we could do for him, but everything that he could do for us. Now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior, we have been given new birth in to a new and living hope. No matter what might be happening around us, the hope we have is secure, because our hope is in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us. Our hope springs from the waters of Baptism that have washed us clean through the work of the Holy Spirit in connection with the Word of God. Our hope is certain because Jesus Christ who died in our place, rose again from the dead to assure us that our sins have been completely washed away.
Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we have been made children of God and heirs of eternal life! In the midst of an economy where people are concerned about their investments, 401k’s, stock options and other retirement funds, we have no concern whatsoever. We have no concern because we know that our retirement benefits are not only safe but they are out of this world. We are confident because we know that our inheritance is kept for us in heaven, where no thief can ever break in. No moth can ever destroy. No rust can ever corrupt. Nothing can ever spoil it, nor can it fade away, nor can it be lost because the stock market takes a turn for the worse. Thus we sing the praise of our God and Father because he has secured our inheritance through his mighty power with which we are shielded even now, until our salvation will be revealed when the Lord calls us home.
Because of this, we have every reason sing the praise of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if that’s the case Pastor, if we can rejoice in the Lord our God, if we can sing his praises because he has redeemed us, made us his own, and even protects us in this life, why do we still have to face sorrows and hardships? Why do find ourselves suffering at the hands of others? Why do face difficulties in this life? Peter answers that question for us beginning with verse 6 where he says, “6 In this [that is all these things with which God has blessed you] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
Though no one likes hardships or suffering, we can still rejoice in them because we know that they come to us so that our faith might be proven to be genuine. They come to us to draw us closer to the Lord. They come to us to make us take our eyes off the things of the world and refocus our vision on the things of eternal life. They come to us because Jesus promised that when we followed him the world would hate us and we would be persecuted just as he was. They come to us because satan is looking for any and every opportunity to distract us from our faith, cause us to despair, lose our hope, and finally fall away from the faith. They come to us because sometimes the Lord sends them into our lives, as he did when he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, so that we can learn what we are made of; so that we can learn the caliber of our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Though they are never easy to cope with, James tells us that we can consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds because it will produce perseverance of faith. (James 1:2) Though they are never the most easy thing to cope with, Paul assures us that we can rejoice in suffering because produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3) Though they are never easy to cope with Peter assures us that they come to help us look forward to our living hope in a better future with the Lord our God forever in heaven.
This is why we have every reason to sing praises to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because he is the one who freed us from our sins by sending his Son to be our Savior. He is the one who crushed Jesus and caused him to suffer (Isaiah 53:10) so that we would never have to. He is the one who forsook his own son on the cross so that he would never have to forsake us. He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead to assure us that not only have all our offenses been cleared, but that he will also raise us, just as he raised his Son. Thus we have gathered together on this Sunday after Easter, to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the one who has made us his own and has given us a sure and certain living hope in eternal life through his Son, our Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, April 24, 2011
God's Great Exchange
April 24, 2011
Easter Sunday
Dear Friends in Christ
If you’ve ever tried to return home to the United States after traveling in a foreign country, then you know what going through customs is like. You know how you have to provide the proper documentation of who you are before they will even consider letting you in. You know how you will be asked all sorts of different questions by the custom agent before he or she will approve your credentials and allow you to enter. And you know that if you should fail to provide proper identification or fail to adequately answer the questions, you will be turned away and not able to enter at all. Yet with the proper documentation it is a very easy thing to pass through customs and return home to your own land. The same thing is true for us as Christians. Though we are citizens of heaven we are currently traveling outside of our home country, but we all know that one day we will stand at the border cross between this world and the next. One day we will be asked for our passports to eternal life. One day we will be asked why we should be allowed to enter our home land of heaven. It is because of this that I want to review with you the very hope and the very reason we have in looking forward to eternal life, and I want to begin by asking you a couple of questions. The first is, “If you were to die to night, are you sure that you would have eternal life?” …The second is, “If you did die tonight, and you were standing before God and he asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you tell him?”
… Though I don’t expect you to give me an answer right here and right now, these are questions I want you to ponder as we continue today. For the answers to these questions are answers that only come through faith, and in doing so, they lead us into a right relationship with the Lord our God.
For a person to be in a right relationship with God, that person needs first of all to ask God what his requirements truly are. To find out what those are, we turn to the pages of Scripture where we learn in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And again in Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” From this we learn that the very thing God demands of us is that we must be perfectly holy, completely set apart from sinners, without flaw of any kind, and absolutely perfect. This, in fact, is the very thing that Jesus said to a man who came to him asking , “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him with a question: "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Jesus told the man that he had answered correctly, God demands nothing less than perfection, a perfect love for him at all times, a perfect love for our neighbor at all times as well. Then Jesus said, "Do this and you will live." (Luke 10:16-28). In other words, keep on doing this at all times. Show nothing less than perfect love toward God and your neighbor in all that you do, and say and even think, and you will live. Always put God first in your life, never use his name in a wrong way, never have so much as a single greedy, covetous, lustful, vengeful, jealous, hateful, or even selfish thought. Be such a perfect, holy, sinless person at every moment of your life, and you will live, that is be in a right relationship with the Lord your God and receive eternal life.
The problem is, as we know, what God demands of us is the very opposite of what he sees. The Bible tells us, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). That means that each and every one of us has sinned in one way or another, and because of our sins, we have fallen short of God’s glory. It’s like going to Wal-Mart to buy groceries or things that you might need. You go around all the isles, spending a few hours shopping and getting all that you need, and finally when you fill that you’ve filled your cart full enough, you go to the check out. As the cashier rings up your purchases, you dig out your checkbook only to find that you ran out of checks yesterday, and completely forgot to put a new book in. So you look in your purse, or your wallet, for a check card or credit card of some kind, only to find that you’ve left them home as well. Now, you as you begin to search for some money, you know that it will be entirely fruitless because you left all your cash at home. Though you hunt and hunt for through your pockets, all you are able to find is two quarters, a dime and a nickel. The problem is, you have fallen short of that $150 tab that the clerk has just finished ringing up, and your sixty five cents will by no means cover that bill. Now, you have no choice but return home completely empty handed. That is what our sins have done to us. For in the same way that a lack of money separated you from the possibility of buying groceries, the Bible tells us, “your iniquities (sins) have separated you from your God” In fact, in the end, our sins will finally separate us from our God forever, as Paul tells us, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)
So then, what can we do? If God sees in us the very opposite of what he demands, what can we do to change it? Well, some might say, “I’ll try harder. I’ll keep trying my best to sin less and less every day.” The problem is, of course, as James tells us, “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10). Another person might come up with the idea of balancing out the sins I commit with all sorts of good deeds. If I come home in a bad mood, yell at my kids, and argue with my wife, I’ll take them all out for a special dinner to make up for it. The problem is, even if we could balance out our sins, they would still be there. We would not be able to get rid of them, and we would still be stuck full of sins, completely lacking in holiness, worthy of nothing more than death. Another might give in to the fact that he is not perfect, he might say, “I know I’m not perfect, but at least I’m not as bad as that guy over there.” Though comparing ourselves to another might make us feel pretty good about ourselves in the short term, when we look up, and compare ourselves to God, we realize that we are still destined for eternal damnation. Though these ways might seem right and logical to us, in the end they lead only to death and damnation. (Proverbs 16:25)
So then, what can we do! If we are so filled with sins and so lacking in holiness that we can only look forward to eternal death. If we can do nothing to remove our sins, and every sin we commit means we are guilty of breaking all of God’s law that we cannot possibly keep it ourselves to earn eternal life, what can we do? The answer is nothing. But even though there is nothing that we can do, it is God who has done it all for us! This is God’s remedy.
God’s remedy centers in a person. That person is his own Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. Jesus is the one about whom the Bible tells us, that though he was true God, he was also true man. Though he was true God from eternity, he became fully human, exactly like you and me in every way, except he was without sin. Jesus was completely holy, completely without sin! In fact, what God demanded, Jesus did 100%
There was even a time when Jesus flat out asked his enemies, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46). But no one could. Even when Jesus was on trial and the Jews were seeking to have him crucified, even then the accusations brought against Jesus did not agree. Even when false witnesses were coached on what to say, they still couldn’t make their stories agree. It’s as if the Lord himself were telling the world, “There’s no one who can find one fault in my Son. He lived an absolutely holy, sin free life.”
But even though he had lived his holy, sin-free life, his life still ended in death on the cross. But his death was not in vain, as Isaiah tells us, “The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) God transferred all our sins over to Jesus and let him pay the penalty for them. In the same way that we can easily transfer money from a savings account to a checking account, the Lord transferred all our sins over to Jesus account, and sent him to the cross with those sins, so that through his death, their payment would be covered. And when Jesus died, he cried out in a loud voice to let us know that his payment was complete that our sins had been forgiven.
It’s like being back at Wal-Mart, fishing in your pockets, fining nothing more than sixty-five cents. As you’re about to apologize to the cashier, and take your leave, someone from the line behind says, “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for your things.” That’s what Jesus did for us. He paid the penalty in full for us. He took our sins upon himself so that we could be in a right relationship with our God. This is exactly what the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In the same way that the Lord transferred our sins to Jesus, He transferred Jesus’ righteousness and holiness to us. Through Jesus, we become the righteousness and holiness that God demands. For God has covered us with the news cloths of Jesus’ holiness so that he no longer sees our sins, but only the Holiness and righteousness that Jesus won for us through his death and resurrection. This is God’s great exchange! He takes my sins and gives me Jesus’ Righteousness so that now, in his eyes, I am filled with holiness, completely devoid of sinfulness, and I am now in a right relationship with my God. The very thing that God demands of me, he has now given me. Not because I have earned it or deserved it, but because of his great love for me.
What a blessing this is indeed! For now that I am in a right relationship with the Lord my God through Jesus Christ my Savior, I receive his great blessings indeed. I have received forgiveness of sins and freedom from guilt. I have received the gift of eternal life and new life of faith. I have received the Lord’s guidance for life and his answers to prayers. I have received the gift of Christian fellowship and the power for living for the Lord. These are the great gifts and blessings the Lord has given me through this great exchanges. My sins on Jesus, Jesus’ righteousness on me, the gift of the forgiveness of sins, a God pleasing life, and eternal salvation forever in heaven.
So now, what about you, do you believe this? Do you know what you have to look forward to? Of course you do! If you were to die tonight, would you have eternal life? Absolutely! If you did die tonight, and you were standing before God and he asked you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” what would you answer? Heaven is mine through Jesus Christ my Savior. This is God’s great exchange! The very thing he demands of us, he gives us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Give thanks to God for what he has done for you, for he has given you eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, his Son.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Easter Sunday
Dear Friends in Christ
If you’ve ever tried to return home to the United States after traveling in a foreign country, then you know what going through customs is like. You know how you have to provide the proper documentation of who you are before they will even consider letting you in. You know how you will be asked all sorts of different questions by the custom agent before he or she will approve your credentials and allow you to enter. And you know that if you should fail to provide proper identification or fail to adequately answer the questions, you will be turned away and not able to enter at all. Yet with the proper documentation it is a very easy thing to pass through customs and return home to your own land. The same thing is true for us as Christians. Though we are citizens of heaven we are currently traveling outside of our home country, but we all know that one day we will stand at the border cross between this world and the next. One day we will be asked for our passports to eternal life. One day we will be asked why we should be allowed to enter our home land of heaven. It is because of this that I want to review with you the very hope and the very reason we have in looking forward to eternal life, and I want to begin by asking you a couple of questions. The first is, “If you were to die to night, are you sure that you would have eternal life?” …The second is, “If you did die tonight, and you were standing before God and he asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you tell him?”
… Though I don’t expect you to give me an answer right here and right now, these are questions I want you to ponder as we continue today. For the answers to these questions are answers that only come through faith, and in doing so, they lead us into a right relationship with the Lord our God.
For a person to be in a right relationship with God, that person needs first of all to ask God what his requirements truly are. To find out what those are, we turn to the pages of Scripture where we learn in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And again in Leviticus 19:2, “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” From this we learn that the very thing God demands of us is that we must be perfectly holy, completely set apart from sinners, without flaw of any kind, and absolutely perfect. This, in fact, is the very thing that Jesus said to a man who came to him asking , “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him with a question: "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Jesus told the man that he had answered correctly, God demands nothing less than perfection, a perfect love for him at all times, a perfect love for our neighbor at all times as well. Then Jesus said, "Do this and you will live." (Luke 10:16-28). In other words, keep on doing this at all times. Show nothing less than perfect love toward God and your neighbor in all that you do, and say and even think, and you will live. Always put God first in your life, never use his name in a wrong way, never have so much as a single greedy, covetous, lustful, vengeful, jealous, hateful, or even selfish thought. Be such a perfect, holy, sinless person at every moment of your life, and you will live, that is be in a right relationship with the Lord your God and receive eternal life.
The problem is, as we know, what God demands of us is the very opposite of what he sees. The Bible tells us, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). That means that each and every one of us has sinned in one way or another, and because of our sins, we have fallen short of God’s glory. It’s like going to Wal-Mart to buy groceries or things that you might need. You go around all the isles, spending a few hours shopping and getting all that you need, and finally when you fill that you’ve filled your cart full enough, you go to the check out. As the cashier rings up your purchases, you dig out your checkbook only to find that you ran out of checks yesterday, and completely forgot to put a new book in. So you look in your purse, or your wallet, for a check card or credit card of some kind, only to find that you’ve left them home as well. Now, you as you begin to search for some money, you know that it will be entirely fruitless because you left all your cash at home. Though you hunt and hunt for through your pockets, all you are able to find is two quarters, a dime and a nickel. The problem is, you have fallen short of that $150 tab that the clerk has just finished ringing up, and your sixty five cents will by no means cover that bill. Now, you have no choice but return home completely empty handed. That is what our sins have done to us. For in the same way that a lack of money separated you from the possibility of buying groceries, the Bible tells us, “your iniquities (sins) have separated you from your God” In fact, in the end, our sins will finally separate us from our God forever, as Paul tells us, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)
So then, what can we do? If God sees in us the very opposite of what he demands, what can we do to change it? Well, some might say, “I’ll try harder. I’ll keep trying my best to sin less and less every day.” The problem is, of course, as James tells us, “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10). Another person might come up with the idea of balancing out the sins I commit with all sorts of good deeds. If I come home in a bad mood, yell at my kids, and argue with my wife, I’ll take them all out for a special dinner to make up for it. The problem is, even if we could balance out our sins, they would still be there. We would not be able to get rid of them, and we would still be stuck full of sins, completely lacking in holiness, worthy of nothing more than death. Another might give in to the fact that he is not perfect, he might say, “I know I’m not perfect, but at least I’m not as bad as that guy over there.” Though comparing ourselves to another might make us feel pretty good about ourselves in the short term, when we look up, and compare ourselves to God, we realize that we are still destined for eternal damnation. Though these ways might seem right and logical to us, in the end they lead only to death and damnation. (Proverbs 16:25)
So then, what can we do! If we are so filled with sins and so lacking in holiness that we can only look forward to eternal death. If we can do nothing to remove our sins, and every sin we commit means we are guilty of breaking all of God’s law that we cannot possibly keep it ourselves to earn eternal life, what can we do? The answer is nothing. But even though there is nothing that we can do, it is God who has done it all for us! This is God’s remedy.
God’s remedy centers in a person. That person is his own Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. Jesus is the one about whom the Bible tells us, that though he was true God, he was also true man. Though he was true God from eternity, he became fully human, exactly like you and me in every way, except he was without sin. Jesus was completely holy, completely without sin! In fact, what God demanded, Jesus did 100%
There was even a time when Jesus flat out asked his enemies, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46). But no one could. Even when Jesus was on trial and the Jews were seeking to have him crucified, even then the accusations brought against Jesus did not agree. Even when false witnesses were coached on what to say, they still couldn’t make their stories agree. It’s as if the Lord himself were telling the world, “There’s no one who can find one fault in my Son. He lived an absolutely holy, sin free life.”
But even though he had lived his holy, sin-free life, his life still ended in death on the cross. But his death was not in vain, as Isaiah tells us, “The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) God transferred all our sins over to Jesus and let him pay the penalty for them. In the same way that we can easily transfer money from a savings account to a checking account, the Lord transferred all our sins over to Jesus account, and sent him to the cross with those sins, so that through his death, their payment would be covered. And when Jesus died, he cried out in a loud voice to let us know that his payment was complete that our sins had been forgiven.
It’s like being back at Wal-Mart, fishing in your pockets, fining nothing more than sixty-five cents. As you’re about to apologize to the cashier, and take your leave, someone from the line behind says, “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for your things.” That’s what Jesus did for us. He paid the penalty in full for us. He took our sins upon himself so that we could be in a right relationship with our God. This is exactly what the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In the same way that the Lord transferred our sins to Jesus, He transferred Jesus’ righteousness and holiness to us. Through Jesus, we become the righteousness and holiness that God demands. For God has covered us with the news cloths of Jesus’ holiness so that he no longer sees our sins, but only the Holiness and righteousness that Jesus won for us through his death and resurrection. This is God’s great exchange! He takes my sins and gives me Jesus’ Righteousness so that now, in his eyes, I am filled with holiness, completely devoid of sinfulness, and I am now in a right relationship with my God. The very thing that God demands of me, he has now given me. Not because I have earned it or deserved it, but because of his great love for me.
What a blessing this is indeed! For now that I am in a right relationship with the Lord my God through Jesus Christ my Savior, I receive his great blessings indeed. I have received forgiveness of sins and freedom from guilt. I have received the gift of eternal life and new life of faith. I have received the Lord’s guidance for life and his answers to prayers. I have received the gift of Christian fellowship and the power for living for the Lord. These are the great gifts and blessings the Lord has given me through this great exchanges. My sins on Jesus, Jesus’ righteousness on me, the gift of the forgiveness of sins, a God pleasing life, and eternal salvation forever in heaven.
So now, what about you, do you believe this? Do you know what you have to look forward to? Of course you do! If you were to die tonight, would you have eternal life? Absolutely! If you did die tonight, and you were standing before God and he asked you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” what would you answer? Heaven is mine through Jesus Christ my Savior. This is God’s great exchange! The very thing he demands of us, he gives us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Give thanks to God for what he has done for you, for he has given you eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, his Son.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
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