Of all the reformers and church leaders of history, we are most familiar with Martin Luther, simply because every year we are reminded of how the Lord used him to bring back the truth of the Gospel to churches in Germany. Yet, there is another church leader who his just as famous in England as Luther is in Germany. That man's name is John Wesley, the founder of the Wesleyan Church. When John Wesley was about 21 years of age he went to Oxford University. He came from a Christian home, and he was gifted with a keen mind and good looks. Yet in those days he was a bit snobbish and sarcastic. One night, however, something happened that set in motion a change in Wesley's heart. While speaking with a porter, he discovered that the poor fellow had only one coat and lived in such impoverished conditions that he didn't even have a bed. Yet he was an unusually happy person , filled with gratitude to God. Wesley, being immature, thoughtlessly joked about the man's misfortunes. "And what else do you thank God for?" he said with a touch of sarcasm. The porter smiled, and in the spirit of meekness replied with joy, "I thank Him that He has given me my life and being, a heart to love Him, and above all a constant desire to serve Him!" Deeply moved, Wesley recognized that this man knew the meaning of true thankfulness. Many years later, in 1791, John Wesley lay on his deathbed at the age of 88. Those who gathered around him realized how well he had learned the lesson of praising God and rejoicing in every circumstance. Despite Wesley's extreme weakness, he began singing the hymn, "I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath." (Copied from http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/p/praise.htm. Accessed 12/11/09 Adapted.)
In the same way that John Wesley was able to praise God and rejoice in him, even on his death bed, so also we can rejoice in the Lord, just as Zephaniah encourages us to do in our text today. He writes, “Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away your punishment.” (Zephaniah 3:14-15 NIV).
When God’s people heard these words, the believers must have shouted for joy right then and there, because when Zephaniah first delivered these words, those who had remained faithful to the Lord and who were eagerly looking forward to the coming Messiah were living in a nation that was falling apart spiritually. Many of the Israelites had been led away from the worship of the true God and had begun to make sacrifices to idols and false gods. Some of them had been led down this path simply because they had intermarried with the heathen nations around them. Others had been led down this path because many of their kings had turned away from the Lord, embraced the false gods of the nations around them, and encouraged the people to do the same. Because of this, the Lord had sent the prophets like Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and many others to proclaim his harshest law so that the people might see their sins and turn to him in repentance, but too many of the Israelites had not listened. Even when King Josiah was working to reform the religious life of the Israelites, it was not enough, as the majority of Israel continued to walk the path of the Lord’s punishment. Not merely the punishment that would bring the Babylonians in to conquer them, but also the punishment of eternal death and damnation for those who refused to listen to the Lord’s warning and turn to him in repentance. Yet even in the midst of a message of harshest law, the Lord also delivered a joyful message of forgiveness as Zephaniah called to the people and said, “Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy,” (Zephaniah 3:14-15 NIV).
Well, that same message of the Lord’s removal of our punishment is the message that causes us to rejoice today as well. Though we are living in a nation where so many people have turned away from the worship of the Almighty God to serve idols of greed, selfishness, and self-indulgence we are still able to rejoice in Lord. Though we are living at the beginnings of an economic recession the likes of which very few of us have ever experienced, we can still praise our Lord. Though we are living in a time when more and more churches are proclaiming a message that resembles, but is completely unlike the Word of God, we can still rejoice because we know that we are part of Zion. We can still rejoice because we know that we are members of God’s chosen people, we can still rejoice because we know that through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, the Lord our God has removed our punishment from us and placed it upon his Son, our Savior. In his great love for us, the Lord our God sent his Son to the cross where he endured the flames of hell as he was rejected by his father in heaven. He watched as his Son, who is true God from all eternity, who as true God cannot die, he watched as his Son died to pay for our sins.
It is because of this that we rejoice today! We rejoice in the Lord who removed our punishment that we deserved and brought us into a right relationship with him. We rejoice in Jesus our Savior who willingly gave his life in our place so that he might free us from that punishment forever. We rejoice in the Holy Spirit who now lives in our hearts creating and sustaining the faith that we have in Jesus Christ our Savior, and we rejoice in our Savior who turned back our enemy by his resurrection from the dead so many years ago.
What greater reason could there be for us to rejoice today, even as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of our Savior? What greater reason could there be for us to rejoice today than the knowledge that Jesus turned back our enemy by his willing death and his triumphant resurrection. For it is satan who has been our enemy from the beginning! Already back in the Garden of Eden he reared his ugly head and enticed Adam and Eve to sin against the Lord’s commands. It was satan who brought disaster on Job and inflicted his body with boils and sores hoping to make him to turn against God. It was the devil who tempted David to break the Sixth Commandment and commit adultery with Bathsheba. It was satan who tempted Jesus in the wilderness, hoping to cause Jesus to stumble and fall into sin so that he could no longer be our Savior. And it is the devil who tempts us still today. He is the one who whispers in your ear trying to convince you that what your doing really isn’t a sin if you don’t get caught. He’s the one who is sitting right next to you, trying with all his might to distract you from God’s Word. He is the one who constantly seeks to distract you by reminding you of all the things you could be accomplishing if you didn’t have to sit here in worship. He is the one who is constantly seeking a way to turn us away from the Lord, cause us to grow angry with him, curse him, and simply turn our backs on the Lord our God. He is the one whom Peter calls a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour, and he would have devoured us years ago had it not been for Jesus.
Yet it is because of Jesus that we rejoice today since we know that Jesus is the one who has defeated the devil and turned back our enemy. Already back at the beginning, shortly after he had completed the creation of the world, it was Jesus who turned back satan, our enemy, when he tried to mutiny against the Lord and take over heaven. It was Jesus who cast satan out of heaven and watched him fall, like lightning, to the earth below. It was Jesus who sent satan running when satan tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. It was Jesus who endured all the pains and anguish satan threw at him as Jesus hung on the cross. It was Jesus who crushed satan’s power when he died. It was Jesus whose victory march through the heart of hell showed satan that he was done for, and it was Jesus’ resurrection which publicly declared to the world that he had turned back our enemy for good. Though satan tried to defeat the Lord Jesus in heaven and he lost. Though satan tried to defeat Jesus on earth, he lost. Though satan tried to take Jesus out even while he was on the cross, satan lost. Though he continues in his effort to defeat Jesus at every turn, we can still rejoice because we know that the Lord, our Savior, has not only turned back our enemy, but he is always with us, just as Zephaniah tells us: “Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, "Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing,” (Zephaniah 3:14-17 NIV)”
What beautiful words these must have been for the people in that day. For with these words, the Lord was reminding his people that no matter what happened, he was with them. Even if the nation of Israel turned away from the Lord to worship idols, the Lord would remain with his faithful people. Even though they might face death and destruction at the hands of the Babylonians and other nations who attacked them, the Lord, the King of Israel was with them. Even if all the world turned against them, through faith in the Savior whom the Lord had promised to send, they had a promise from the Lord their God that he would stand beside them and be with them through all things.
The same is true for each and every one of us today! The Lord, our God, is with us! He is with us right now as we have gathered to praise his name. He will be with us as we gather in the narthex to talk with each other. He will be with us as we travel on our way home. He will be with us as we sit down to dinner, and he will be with us as we crawl into bed tonight and rest ourselves for our work tomorrow. No matter what happens the Lord is with us. Even if we should face an economic turn for the worse, the Lord will be with us. Even if we should feel the hardship, frustration, and worry of fishing for a job in a lake with no fish, the Lord is still with us. Even if we should be assailed by the swine fu this season, the Lord will continue to stand by us. No matter what we face in this life, we do not need to be afraid, we do not need to worry, because the Lord our God is with us today, tomorrow, and forever. Just as he promised his disciples that he would be with them to the end of the age, he has promised that he will be with us to the end of the age. Not only to the end of our age. Not only until the end of the world, but he will be with us until the end of eternity, because we are his chosen people. We are the daughter of Zion, and for that we rejoice today.
What a comfort to know that as Christians we can rejoice in any and every situation in life, because we belong to the Lord. We can rejoice, just as that porter did as he spoke with John Wesley. We can rejoice, just as John Wesley did on his death bed. We can rejoice, because we are the Daughter of Zion, from whom the Lord has removed punishment; for whom the Lord has turned back our enemy; and with whom the Lord continually dwells.
Amen
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
Showing posts with label Celebrate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebrate. Show all posts
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Prepare for the coming Savior (Isaiah 11:1-10)
Dear friends in Christ.
Several centuries ago, a Japanese emperor commissioned an artist to paint a bird. A number of months passed, then several years, and still no painting was brought to the palace. Finally the emperor became so exasperated that he went to the artist's home to demand an explanation. Instead of making excuses, the artist placed a blank canvas on the easel. In less than an hour, he completed a painting that was to become a brilliant masterpiece. When the emperor asked the reason for the delay, the artist showed him armloads of drawings of feathers, wings, heads, and feet. Then he explained that all of this research and study had been necessary before he could complete the painting. Well, in the same way that the artist spent years preparing himself to paint a picture for his emperor, so also we as Christians spend all our lives preparing ourselves for the coming of our Savior. In fact, during the next few weeks of this Advent season, not only will we be preparing ourselves for the return of our Savior on the Last Day, but we will also be preparing ourselves for the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem, just as Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before he was even born when he wrote, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1 NIV).
Now, when Isaiah spoke these words, he was actually speaking both a threat and a promise. For in Isaiah’s time, the family tree of Jesse, which had begun to grow when David became king, had indeed grown tall and wide as each succeeding generation yielded king after king to sit on the throne of Israel. But even though that family tree had grown tall and wide, it had not grown strong in the Lord. In fact, just the opposite had happened. The farther removed the kings were from Jesse and his son, David, the more wicked each king became. For years the Israelite Nation had suffered under one wicked king after another, and now, as Isaiah spoke these very words, there were maybe six kings left who would sit on the throne of Israel before the Lord would cut down tree of Jesse, leaving it as nothing more than a stump—a stump from which no other king would come for over 600 years. And that is exactly what the Lord accomplished when the Babylonians came and conquered Jerusalem.
For when the Babylonians came in and conquered the Israelites, the Lord set in motion the very events that would leave Israel without their own king for hundreds of years, and leave the mighty house of Jesse as nothing more than the stump of a tree. For after the Babylonians came the Persians. After the Persians came the Greeks. After the Greeks came the Hasmoneans, and after the Hasmoneans came the Romans. Yet, it was in the time of the Romans that the Lord caused a shoot to come up out of the stump of Jesse. In the same way that a seemingly dead tree stump will suddenly send out a shoot that will quickly grow into a branch, Jesus was suddenly born as the shoot that came up from the stump of Jesse. In the same way that shoot in your back yard will slowly grow, adding twigs and leaves and finally becoming a new trunk for the tree that had been cut down, Jesus grew into a new tree. Jesus grew into that new tree as the branch of Jesse that would bear much fruit. He was the one who was born in fulfillment of the promise. He was the one who came as the Savior of the world. He is the one who has produced us as the fruit which the Lord our God is harvesting for eternal life. He is the one in whom we place our hope and our trust. He is the one who to whom we look for our Salvation and he is the one for whom we prepare, Jesus, the branch of Jessethe Righteous Savior of the world.
When that Japanese artist in our introduction was commissioned to paint a bird for his emperor, he spent the next years of his life studying every aspect of birds so that when the time came for him to produced the commissioned work, he would be completely prepared to offer his emperor his very best work. During the Season of Advent, we Christians do much the same thing as that Japanese artist. We continue to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Savior, so when our Savior finally does arrive, we are, through faith, prepared to meet him. Even though we do not know exactly when that day will be we are looking forward to it, because we know on that day we will meet our righteous Judge and Savior, and until that time comes we prepare ourselves for his arrival. We prepare ourselves for his arrival by preparing ourselves for the coming of our Savior as the Christ Child in Bethlehem. Even though we know that Jesus was born some 2000 years ago, we look forward to the night when we celebrate Jesus coming into this world, because we know that when Jesus came as our righteous Savior, he fulfilled the very words that Isaiah had prophesied about him when he said; “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on himthe Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORDand he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” (Isaiah 11:2-5 NIV) .
Now, when Isaiah spoke these words, they would have been a great comfort to those who were still clinging to the Lord their God in faith. For as I have already said, the kings who served after David grew more and more wicked, the farther removed they were from David. In fact, of the five kings who reigned in Isaiah’s time, only two of them sought to act in accordance with the Lord’s Righteousness. So when Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would send his own king who would rule in righteousness, the people were glad to prepare themselves for the coming of their Righteous Savior. And that is what Jesus was, for when he came to earth, he fulfilled every single word of this prophesy. He was the one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rested, when he was baptized in the Jordan river. He is the one who delighted in the fear of the Lord. There was never a time when he did not do what the Lord wanted him to do because he always followed the Lord’s will. Never did he judge on the basis of how someone looked or decide a matter on what people said. Rather, he judged with his righteousness through the use of the Law and the Gospel, just as he still does today.
For all we have to do is glance in the direction of the Ten Commandments, and we know that we have sinned. We know that we have not lived up to the Lord’s standard of Righteousness, because we have not only broken every one of his commandments, we have shattered them into thousands of tiny pieces by our inability to keep even one of them perfectly. But even though most would be terrified by the prospect of a righteous judge coming into the world, we welcome him gladly and prepare for his coming because we know that he is the one who came to save us. We know that when Jesus was born, he was born as the one who would be sacrificed to pay for the sins of the entire world. He was the one who gave his life that we might be forgiven of all the wrongs, which we have done. He is the one whose blood has washed our hearts and made them clean. So now through faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord’s righteousness becomes our own. For through his death and resurrection, our Righteous Savior has declared us to be righteous. He has declared us not guilty of any of the sins we have committed. He has made us righteous through the blessing of his righteousness which he himself has given us. Now, as we prepare ourselves this Advent season for the coming of our Righteous Savior, we take comfort in his righteousness and look forward to the peace that he will bring.
As we prepare ourselves this Advent season for the coming of the Christ child, we cannot help but notice that there are countless Christmas specials and TV shows that seeking to bring us peace in the Holiday season. They are talking about peace on earth and good will toward men. They are seeking peace in countries like Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Palestine. Though we might be seeking some of the same types of peace for ourselves while here on earth, the true peace, which Jesus brings is the peace we have in the forgiveness of sins and the promise of life forever with him in heaven. This is the peace which Isaiah was describing as he prophesied concerning our homes in heaven. “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9 NIV).
This is the peace we have already in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus has given us. For through that gift, we are now living at peace with God our Father. Through that peace, which Jesus has brought to us, we have the confidence that we can approach our heavenly Father with all of our prayers and requests. We know that he will hear us, and we are certain that he will answer. But this peace that we have in the forgiveness of sins is but a foretaste of the peace in which we will live in our heavenly home. For there, in heaven, the peace that Jesus brings will be complete! There will never again be any who harm or destroy on all of God’s Holy Mountain. Those who may have once been mortal enemies because of color, race, or even geographic region will live peacefully and securely in the Kingdom of our God’s salvation. This is the peace for which we look forward this Advent season as we prepare ourselves for the coming Saviorthe peace which only Jesus can bring to us.
During the next few weeks we will take a little more time than we normally do to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Savior. We will be reminded of how our Savior has already come to the earth and how he will soon be coming again. We will look forward to his second coming as we begin to prepare ourselves to celebrate his arrival in Bethlehem so many years ago. But it is in this way that we will prepare ourselves for our coming Savior as the Righteous Branch of Jesse who will bring us his lasting and endless peace.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Several centuries ago, a Japanese emperor commissioned an artist to paint a bird. A number of months passed, then several years, and still no painting was brought to the palace. Finally the emperor became so exasperated that he went to the artist's home to demand an explanation. Instead of making excuses, the artist placed a blank canvas on the easel. In less than an hour, he completed a painting that was to become a brilliant masterpiece. When the emperor asked the reason for the delay, the artist showed him armloads of drawings of feathers, wings, heads, and feet. Then he explained that all of this research and study had been necessary before he could complete the painting. Well, in the same way that the artist spent years preparing himself to paint a picture for his emperor, so also we as Christians spend all our lives preparing ourselves for the coming of our Savior. In fact, during the next few weeks of this Advent season, not only will we be preparing ourselves for the return of our Savior on the Last Day, but we will also be preparing ourselves for the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem, just as Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before he was even born when he wrote, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1 NIV).
Now, when Isaiah spoke these words, he was actually speaking both a threat and a promise. For in Isaiah’s time, the family tree of Jesse, which had begun to grow when David became king, had indeed grown tall and wide as each succeeding generation yielded king after king to sit on the throne of Israel. But even though that family tree had grown tall and wide, it had not grown strong in the Lord. In fact, just the opposite had happened. The farther removed the kings were from Jesse and his son, David, the more wicked each king became. For years the Israelite Nation had suffered under one wicked king after another, and now, as Isaiah spoke these very words, there were maybe six kings left who would sit on the throne of Israel before the Lord would cut down tree of Jesse, leaving it as nothing more than a stump—a stump from which no other king would come for over 600 years. And that is exactly what the Lord accomplished when the Babylonians came and conquered Jerusalem.
For when the Babylonians came in and conquered the Israelites, the Lord set in motion the very events that would leave Israel without their own king for hundreds of years, and leave the mighty house of Jesse as nothing more than the stump of a tree. For after the Babylonians came the Persians. After the Persians came the Greeks. After the Greeks came the Hasmoneans, and after the Hasmoneans came the Romans. Yet, it was in the time of the Romans that the Lord caused a shoot to come up out of the stump of Jesse. In the same way that a seemingly dead tree stump will suddenly send out a shoot that will quickly grow into a branch, Jesus was suddenly born as the shoot that came up from the stump of Jesse. In the same way that shoot in your back yard will slowly grow, adding twigs and leaves and finally becoming a new trunk for the tree that had been cut down, Jesus grew into a new tree. Jesus grew into that new tree as the branch of Jesse that would bear much fruit. He was the one who was born in fulfillment of the promise. He was the one who came as the Savior of the world. He is the one who has produced us as the fruit which the Lord our God is harvesting for eternal life. He is the one in whom we place our hope and our trust. He is the one who to whom we look for our Salvation and he is the one for whom we prepare, Jesus, the branch of Jessethe Righteous Savior of the world.
When that Japanese artist in our introduction was commissioned to paint a bird for his emperor, he spent the next years of his life studying every aspect of birds so that when the time came for him to produced the commissioned work, he would be completely prepared to offer his emperor his very best work. During the Season of Advent, we Christians do much the same thing as that Japanese artist. We continue to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Savior, so when our Savior finally does arrive, we are, through faith, prepared to meet him. Even though we do not know exactly when that day will be we are looking forward to it, because we know on that day we will meet our righteous Judge and Savior, and until that time comes we prepare ourselves for his arrival. We prepare ourselves for his arrival by preparing ourselves for the coming of our Savior as the Christ Child in Bethlehem. Even though we know that Jesus was born some 2000 years ago, we look forward to the night when we celebrate Jesus coming into this world, because we know that when Jesus came as our righteous Savior, he fulfilled the very words that Isaiah had prophesied about him when he said; “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on himthe Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORDand he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” (Isaiah 11:2-5 NIV) .
Now, when Isaiah spoke these words, they would have been a great comfort to those who were still clinging to the Lord their God in faith. For as I have already said, the kings who served after David grew more and more wicked, the farther removed they were from David. In fact, of the five kings who reigned in Isaiah’s time, only two of them sought to act in accordance with the Lord’s Righteousness. So when Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would send his own king who would rule in righteousness, the people were glad to prepare themselves for the coming of their Righteous Savior. And that is what Jesus was, for when he came to earth, he fulfilled every single word of this prophesy. He was the one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rested, when he was baptized in the Jordan river. He is the one who delighted in the fear of the Lord. There was never a time when he did not do what the Lord wanted him to do because he always followed the Lord’s will. Never did he judge on the basis of how someone looked or decide a matter on what people said. Rather, he judged with his righteousness through the use of the Law and the Gospel, just as he still does today.
For all we have to do is glance in the direction of the Ten Commandments, and we know that we have sinned. We know that we have not lived up to the Lord’s standard of Righteousness, because we have not only broken every one of his commandments, we have shattered them into thousands of tiny pieces by our inability to keep even one of them perfectly. But even though most would be terrified by the prospect of a righteous judge coming into the world, we welcome him gladly and prepare for his coming because we know that he is the one who came to save us. We know that when Jesus was born, he was born as the one who would be sacrificed to pay for the sins of the entire world. He was the one who gave his life that we might be forgiven of all the wrongs, which we have done. He is the one whose blood has washed our hearts and made them clean. So now through faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord’s righteousness becomes our own. For through his death and resurrection, our Righteous Savior has declared us to be righteous. He has declared us not guilty of any of the sins we have committed. He has made us righteous through the blessing of his righteousness which he himself has given us. Now, as we prepare ourselves this Advent season for the coming of our Righteous Savior, we take comfort in his righteousness and look forward to the peace that he will bring.
As we prepare ourselves this Advent season for the coming of the Christ child, we cannot help but notice that there are countless Christmas specials and TV shows that seeking to bring us peace in the Holiday season. They are talking about peace on earth and good will toward men. They are seeking peace in countries like Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Palestine. Though we might be seeking some of the same types of peace for ourselves while here on earth, the true peace, which Jesus brings is the peace we have in the forgiveness of sins and the promise of life forever with him in heaven. This is the peace which Isaiah was describing as he prophesied concerning our homes in heaven. “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9 NIV).
This is the peace we have already in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus has given us. For through that gift, we are now living at peace with God our Father. Through that peace, which Jesus has brought to us, we have the confidence that we can approach our heavenly Father with all of our prayers and requests. We know that he will hear us, and we are certain that he will answer. But this peace that we have in the forgiveness of sins is but a foretaste of the peace in which we will live in our heavenly home. For there, in heaven, the peace that Jesus brings will be complete! There will never again be any who harm or destroy on all of God’s Holy Mountain. Those who may have once been mortal enemies because of color, race, or even geographic region will live peacefully and securely in the Kingdom of our God’s salvation. This is the peace for which we look forward this Advent season as we prepare ourselves for the coming Saviorthe peace which only Jesus can bring to us.
During the next few weeks we will take a little more time than we normally do to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Savior. We will be reminded of how our Savior has already come to the earth and how he will soon be coming again. We will look forward to his second coming as we begin to prepare ourselves to celebrate his arrival in Bethlehem so many years ago. But it is in this way that we will prepare ourselves for our coming Savior as the Righteous Branch of Jesse who will bring us his lasting and endless peace.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Celebrate Your Heritage! (Philippians 3:7-14)
Dear friends in Christ.
What was the last big event that you and your family celebrated? Was it a wedding, where you had the opportunity to celebrate the joining of a new couple in wedded bliss? Was it maybe a family reunion, where you had the opportunity to connect with any number of relatives that you hadn’t seen for a long time. Was it maybe a baby shower, where you had the fun of celebrating with the new and expecting mother to be? Was it perhaps a birthday, where you got a chance to shower one of your children with a few gifts and make him or her special for the day? No matter what it was, it seems that we need very little reason to celebrate events no matter how big or small they might be. Well, this morning as we celebrate the Festival of the Reformation, we will have the opportunity to celebrate with each other as we celebrate the heritage that we have together.
But what, some of you may be asking, is our heritage? Well, our heritage is a solid adherence to the teachings of the Bible. Our heritage is the time we spent unified with the Missouri Synod growing more and more conservative in our understanding of God’s Word until the time came when our paths split in the early 60’s. Our heritage goes back to 1850, almost 160 years ago when 3 German-American Pastors got together in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and formed the Wisconsin Synod. And yet, our heritage goes back even farther than that, because we can trace it back to October 31st, 1517, the night on which Martin Luther stealthily approached the doors of the castle church in Wittenberg and nailed his 95 theses—his 95 points for discussion or debate—to the door and set into motion the events that we celebrate as the Reformation. But that isn’t even the beginning of our heritage because we can trace our heritage all the way back to the first promise of a Savior delivered to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, just shortly after they had fallen into sin. It is that promise, fulfilled in the birth of our Savior, some 2000 years ago, that is the root and the source of the heritage that we are celebrating today! Today we are celebrating the fact that Jesus is our heritage, because Jesus is the one who freed us from our sins by his perfect life, his innocent death, and his glorious resurrection. We are celebrating the fact that when Jesus gave his life in our place and took it back again on the third day, by his actions he declared that you and I were completely innocent of any of the sins that satan had leveled against us. By his actions Jesus declared that we were completely righteous in his sight through the faith that he himself had created in our hearts. In fact, it is that very heritage of righteousness that the Apostle Paul is celebrating in our text as he writes, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” (Philippians 3:7-9).
Though there had been a time in Paul’s life that he actually though he could earn his own salvation, once he had been called to faith in Jesus Christ, he realized that the righteousness he had was not of his own making, rather it was the heritage that Jesus himself had bestowed upon him as a gift through the faith created in Paul’s heart by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Well, the same thing is true for each and every one of us today! Though there may have been a time when we counted our good deeds as something that we could lay at Jesus’ feet and somehow gain eternal life by our own efforts, now that we have been declared righteous by our Savior’s death and resurrection, we consider all that stuff as loss. We consider it to be completely worthless; as useless to us as the garbage that we put out at the curb each week so that the garbage men can haul it away. In fact, when we compare all our own efforts to the surpassing greatness of our Christian Heritage of faith in Jesus Christ, our own works are no useful than that of burned up newspaper. In fact, when we are reminded how Jesus completed the transaction of our salvation with the payment of his blood, it makes all the more clear how our righteousness is his declaration to us—not as a result of our own actions, but as his gift to us through the heritage of faith. A gift which he himself bestowed upon us as he declared to be innocent and now, through faith, makes us perfect.
What an incredible heritage we have! For, today, as we celebrate the heritage that we have in Jesus Christ our Savior, we find that it is Christ our Savior who makes us perfect. It is Christ our Savior who makes us perfect in the eyes of our God—not merely acceptable, passing, good enough, sufficient, or even above average! It is Christ our Savior who makes us perfect in the eyes of the Lord our God through the faith he created in our hearts; the faith through which he applied to us the power of his resurrection and the righteousness that he won for us in the World Series of Calvary. This, in fact, is the very heritage that the Apostle Paul was celebrating as he wrote in our text, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:10-14).
As Christians, this is the goal to which we are pressing. This is the heritage we celebrate in Jesus Christ our Savior—the perfection that will be ours when God our Savior calls us heaven ward in Christ Jesus. We are looking forward to the day when our Lord Jesus will finally and forever make us perfect when he calls us out of this world of sin to our lives by his side in his heavenly kingdom. Though we have not yet achieved it, we know that through faith the day is coming when we will never again experience sin. We will never again deal with frustration. We will never again face suffering or pain. We will never again face any of these things because on the day when we are made perfect by our Savior’s side in heaven, we will have escaped the sorrows of this life. On the day when we are made perfect in our Savior’s kingdom, we will gather around the throne of our God and serve him day and night in his holy temple. On that day when we are called to live in perfection with our Savior, we will rest from all our labors and we will enjoy the gift of eternal life that our Savior longs to bestow upon us.
This is the Christian heritage we are celebrating today; the heritage that has been passed down to us since the days of Adam and Eve. It is the heritage of the forgiveness of sins won for us by Christ our Savior through which we have been declared completely innocent and will one day be made perfect in eternal life. Though the celebration may not be the same as a Birthday party, wedding, or even baby shower, it many ways our celebration today is like that of a great family reunion—a family reunion to which we have all been invited though faith in our brother, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
What was the last big event that you and your family celebrated? Was it a wedding, where you had the opportunity to celebrate the joining of a new couple in wedded bliss? Was it maybe a family reunion, where you had the opportunity to connect with any number of relatives that you hadn’t seen for a long time. Was it maybe a baby shower, where you had the fun of celebrating with the new and expecting mother to be? Was it perhaps a birthday, where you got a chance to shower one of your children with a few gifts and make him or her special for the day? No matter what it was, it seems that we need very little reason to celebrate events no matter how big or small they might be. Well, this morning as we celebrate the Festival of the Reformation, we will have the opportunity to celebrate with each other as we celebrate the heritage that we have together.
But what, some of you may be asking, is our heritage? Well, our heritage is a solid adherence to the teachings of the Bible. Our heritage is the time we spent unified with the Missouri Synod growing more and more conservative in our understanding of God’s Word until the time came when our paths split in the early 60’s. Our heritage goes back to 1850, almost 160 years ago when 3 German-American Pastors got together in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and formed the Wisconsin Synod. And yet, our heritage goes back even farther than that, because we can trace it back to October 31st, 1517, the night on which Martin Luther stealthily approached the doors of the castle church in Wittenberg and nailed his 95 theses—his 95 points for discussion or debate—to the door and set into motion the events that we celebrate as the Reformation. But that isn’t even the beginning of our heritage because we can trace our heritage all the way back to the first promise of a Savior delivered to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, just shortly after they had fallen into sin. It is that promise, fulfilled in the birth of our Savior, some 2000 years ago, that is the root and the source of the heritage that we are celebrating today! Today we are celebrating the fact that Jesus is our heritage, because Jesus is the one who freed us from our sins by his perfect life, his innocent death, and his glorious resurrection. We are celebrating the fact that when Jesus gave his life in our place and took it back again on the third day, by his actions he declared that you and I were completely innocent of any of the sins that satan had leveled against us. By his actions Jesus declared that we were completely righteous in his sight through the faith that he himself had created in our hearts. In fact, it is that very heritage of righteousness that the Apostle Paul is celebrating in our text as he writes, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” (Philippians 3:7-9).
Though there had been a time in Paul’s life that he actually though he could earn his own salvation, once he had been called to faith in Jesus Christ, he realized that the righteousness he had was not of his own making, rather it was the heritage that Jesus himself had bestowed upon him as a gift through the faith created in Paul’s heart by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Well, the same thing is true for each and every one of us today! Though there may have been a time when we counted our good deeds as something that we could lay at Jesus’ feet and somehow gain eternal life by our own efforts, now that we have been declared righteous by our Savior’s death and resurrection, we consider all that stuff as loss. We consider it to be completely worthless; as useless to us as the garbage that we put out at the curb each week so that the garbage men can haul it away. In fact, when we compare all our own efforts to the surpassing greatness of our Christian Heritage of faith in Jesus Christ, our own works are no useful than that of burned up newspaper. In fact, when we are reminded how Jesus completed the transaction of our salvation with the payment of his blood, it makes all the more clear how our righteousness is his declaration to us—not as a result of our own actions, but as his gift to us through the heritage of faith. A gift which he himself bestowed upon us as he declared to be innocent and now, through faith, makes us perfect.
What an incredible heritage we have! For, today, as we celebrate the heritage that we have in Jesus Christ our Savior, we find that it is Christ our Savior who makes us perfect. It is Christ our Savior who makes us perfect in the eyes of our God—not merely acceptable, passing, good enough, sufficient, or even above average! It is Christ our Savior who makes us perfect in the eyes of the Lord our God through the faith he created in our hearts; the faith through which he applied to us the power of his resurrection and the righteousness that he won for us in the World Series of Calvary. This, in fact, is the very heritage that the Apostle Paul was celebrating as he wrote in our text, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:10-14).
As Christians, this is the goal to which we are pressing. This is the heritage we celebrate in Jesus Christ our Savior—the perfection that will be ours when God our Savior calls us heaven ward in Christ Jesus. We are looking forward to the day when our Lord Jesus will finally and forever make us perfect when he calls us out of this world of sin to our lives by his side in his heavenly kingdom. Though we have not yet achieved it, we know that through faith the day is coming when we will never again experience sin. We will never again deal with frustration. We will never again face suffering or pain. We will never again face any of these things because on the day when we are made perfect by our Savior’s side in heaven, we will have escaped the sorrows of this life. On the day when we are made perfect in our Savior’s kingdom, we will gather around the throne of our God and serve him day and night in his holy temple. On that day when we are called to live in perfection with our Savior, we will rest from all our labors and we will enjoy the gift of eternal life that our Savior longs to bestow upon us.
This is the Christian heritage we are celebrating today; the heritage that has been passed down to us since the days of Adam and Eve. It is the heritage of the forgiveness of sins won for us by Christ our Savior through which we have been declared completely innocent and will one day be made perfect in eternal life. Though the celebration may not be the same as a Birthday party, wedding, or even baby shower, it many ways our celebration today is like that of a great family reunion—a family reunion to which we have all been invited though faith in our brother, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
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