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
Showing posts with label God the Son. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God the Son. Show all posts
Sunday, June 19, 2011
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, 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
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Jesus Is Our Servant Leader (Luke 22:19-24; John 13:2-5, 14)
April 21, 2011
Maundy Thursday
Dear friends in Christ.
The phrase, “Servant Leadership” is a phrase that was originally coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in an essay that he published back in 1970. In that essay he said, “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead” Since that essay was written there have been many people who have sought to practice principals of servant leadership in their homes, businesses, and industries.
Yet, throughout all of history, there is no greater servant leader than Jesus Christ, our Savior. For it was Jesus himself who told us that he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45) and that is exactly what Jesus did. He served the Israelites by traveling from town to town and proclaiming the message of salvation through faith in him, the Savior of the world. He served the people by meeting their needs with the condemnation of the law and the comfort of the gospel. He served his people, and indeed the whole world, as he prepared himself on this night to give up his own life so that we might live. In fact, as we meet Jesus in our lesson from John 13 we see him leading his disciples by serving them. For in John 13, Jesus and his disciples are in the upper room celebrating the Passover. But, as we find them, the disciples were all arguing about which one of them was the greatest. So Jesus showed them, through an act of servant leadership, what being the greatest was all about. Take a look at what John has to tell us in chapter 13, beginning with verse 2: “The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him…14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:2-5, 14, NIV84)
How humbling it must have been for the disciples, and how embarrassing, to see Jesus, their Lord and Master displaying his love for them by humbly washing their feet, even as they had been so recently arguing about their greatness. Yet, how often don’t we act exactly like the disciples did? How often don’t we jockey among ourselves to see which one of us is the greatest in the church? Oh, we may not openly argue about our own greatness, but how often don’t we subtly or even overtly point out our own over all service record? How often don’t we like to review how long we’ve served in one position or another, or even how long we’ve been members of this congregation? How often haven’t we, as volunteers, voiced our anger and frustration against all those others who simply don’t do anything for the congregation? How often haven’t we complained about the running of a committee or organization within the church, speaking about its members or leaders behind their backs? How often haven’t we expressed our own ideas in the church and then been hurt when our ideas are not used or voted down? How often haven’t we seen something that needed to be changed, but kept quiet about it, until finally we couldn’t stand it anymore and burst forth in anger, exercising authority over a situation with anger and frustration? How often haven’t we been just like the disciples, self righteously stepping ever closer to our secret desire to be called greatest in the Kingdom of Christianity?
Jesus knows exactly how many times we have done these things and even more than that, just as he knew it about his disciples. Yet, Jesus never switched tracks. He never deviated from his course. In fact, Luke 22 tells us that Jesus continued traveling the path that would lead him to the cross in just a few short hours. Luke 22 tells us how Jesus revealed the identity of his betrayer, how Jesus was setting in motion all the events that were unfolding before him, even how he instituted a new meal of forgiveness for his disciples who were still struggling to understand what servant leadership was all about. Take a look at Luke 22 and well read verses 19-23: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. (Luke 22:19–23, NIV84)
In such an amazing way, as they partook of that holy supper, Jesus gave them to eat and drink the very events that would play out before them in roughly 12 hours time. He gave them his body together with the bread. He gave them his bold together with the wine. He gave it to them for the forgiveness of their sins. He gave it to them to help them understand what his mission was all about. He gave it to them to help them grow in their faith, be strengthened in their faith, and be moved to live in their faith in Jesus, their Servant Leader.
In the same what that Jesus gave this special meal to his disciples, he made sure that they passed it down from generation to generation so that we too could participate in the events of Good Friday. He made sure that through the Apostle’s preaching, we too would learn about this marvelous meal of Christ’s body and blood given and poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins. For tonight, as you approach this table to eat the bread and wine—in a special way I cannot understand but only believe because Jesus tell me that this is how it is—you will be eating the very body that was broken for us on the cross. You will be drinking the very blood that Jesus poured out for us for the forgiveness of all of our sins. In this meal, Jesus body together with the bread, and Jesus blood, together with the wine, come together to assure us that our sins have been completely and totally washed away. Those sins of jockeying for position with our words; those sins of voicing our anger against all those who don’t volunteer as often or as willingly as we do; those sins of complaining against others and speaking behind their backs; those sins of feeling unduly hurt when our own ideas are not accepted; those sins of bursting forth with rage and anger rather than working to fix a problem; all our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus. All our sins are forgiven by Jesus’ body given for us. All our sins have been forgiven because the Son of Man came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)
What greater attitude of servant leadership could there be than that of Jesus’ willing sacrifice for our sins! Though he knew what was to come, he willingly went forward to the cross in our place. Though the phrase “Servant Leadership” was only really coined some 40 years ago the concept has been around since even before the time of Christ. Yet as we have studied the People of the Passion, we can truly see how Christ our Savior stands out as our Servant Leader. So, as you leave here today with the taste of your Savior still on your tongues, live in the forgiveness that he has so lovingly bestowed upon you and seek to emulate him with your lives.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Maundy Thursday
Dear friends in Christ.
The phrase, “Servant Leadership” is a phrase that was originally coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in an essay that he published back in 1970. In that essay he said, “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead” Since that essay was written there have been many people who have sought to practice principals of servant leadership in their homes, businesses, and industries.
Yet, throughout all of history, there is no greater servant leader than Jesus Christ, our Savior. For it was Jesus himself who told us that he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45) and that is exactly what Jesus did. He served the Israelites by traveling from town to town and proclaiming the message of salvation through faith in him, the Savior of the world. He served the people by meeting their needs with the condemnation of the law and the comfort of the gospel. He served his people, and indeed the whole world, as he prepared himself on this night to give up his own life so that we might live. In fact, as we meet Jesus in our lesson from John 13 we see him leading his disciples by serving them. For in John 13, Jesus and his disciples are in the upper room celebrating the Passover. But, as we find them, the disciples were all arguing about which one of them was the greatest. So Jesus showed them, through an act of servant leadership, what being the greatest was all about. Take a look at what John has to tell us in chapter 13, beginning with verse 2: “The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him…14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:2-5, 14, NIV84)
How humbling it must have been for the disciples, and how embarrassing, to see Jesus, their Lord and Master displaying his love for them by humbly washing their feet, even as they had been so recently arguing about their greatness. Yet, how often don’t we act exactly like the disciples did? How often don’t we jockey among ourselves to see which one of us is the greatest in the church? Oh, we may not openly argue about our own greatness, but how often don’t we subtly or even overtly point out our own over all service record? How often don’t we like to review how long we’ve served in one position or another, or even how long we’ve been members of this congregation? How often haven’t we, as volunteers, voiced our anger and frustration against all those others who simply don’t do anything for the congregation? How often haven’t we complained about the running of a committee or organization within the church, speaking about its members or leaders behind their backs? How often haven’t we expressed our own ideas in the church and then been hurt when our ideas are not used or voted down? How often haven’t we seen something that needed to be changed, but kept quiet about it, until finally we couldn’t stand it anymore and burst forth in anger, exercising authority over a situation with anger and frustration? How often haven’t we been just like the disciples, self righteously stepping ever closer to our secret desire to be called greatest in the Kingdom of Christianity?
Jesus knows exactly how many times we have done these things and even more than that, just as he knew it about his disciples. Yet, Jesus never switched tracks. He never deviated from his course. In fact, Luke 22 tells us that Jesus continued traveling the path that would lead him to the cross in just a few short hours. Luke 22 tells us how Jesus revealed the identity of his betrayer, how Jesus was setting in motion all the events that were unfolding before him, even how he instituted a new meal of forgiveness for his disciples who were still struggling to understand what servant leadership was all about. Take a look at Luke 22 and well read verses 19-23: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. (Luke 22:19–23, NIV84)
In such an amazing way, as they partook of that holy supper, Jesus gave them to eat and drink the very events that would play out before them in roughly 12 hours time. He gave them his body together with the bread. He gave them his bold together with the wine. He gave it to them for the forgiveness of their sins. He gave it to them to help them understand what his mission was all about. He gave it to them to help them grow in their faith, be strengthened in their faith, and be moved to live in their faith in Jesus, their Servant Leader.
In the same what that Jesus gave this special meal to his disciples, he made sure that they passed it down from generation to generation so that we too could participate in the events of Good Friday. He made sure that through the Apostle’s preaching, we too would learn about this marvelous meal of Christ’s body and blood given and poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins. For tonight, as you approach this table to eat the bread and wine—in a special way I cannot understand but only believe because Jesus tell me that this is how it is—you will be eating the very body that was broken for us on the cross. You will be drinking the very blood that Jesus poured out for us for the forgiveness of all of our sins. In this meal, Jesus body together with the bread, and Jesus blood, together with the wine, come together to assure us that our sins have been completely and totally washed away. Those sins of jockeying for position with our words; those sins of voicing our anger against all those who don’t volunteer as often or as willingly as we do; those sins of complaining against others and speaking behind their backs; those sins of feeling unduly hurt when our own ideas are not accepted; those sins of bursting forth with rage and anger rather than working to fix a problem; all our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus. All our sins are forgiven by Jesus’ body given for us. All our sins have been forgiven because the Son of Man came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)
What greater attitude of servant leadership could there be than that of Jesus’ willing sacrifice for our sins! Though he knew what was to come, he willingly went forward to the cross in our place. Though the phrase “Servant Leadership” was only really coined some 40 years ago the concept has been around since even before the time of Christ. Yet as we have studied the People of the Passion, we can truly see how Christ our Savior stands out as our Servant Leader. So, as you leave here today with the taste of your Savior still on your tongues, live in the forgiveness that he has so lovingly bestowed upon you and seek to emulate him with your lives.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Return Your Love to the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
Dear friends in Christ.
This morning I want to share a story with you. It’s a story that I told the students of Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School when I conducted chapel there this past Thursday. It’s even a story that I have permission to tell, because I asked Joshua if I could tell it. I asked Joshua if I could tell it because it’s his story. It’s the story of our son and how he started having seizures when he was just two years old. Though Laura and I knew something wasn’t right, at the time, we didn’t know that he was having seizures. Though from time to time we would see him just stop doing what he was doing, stare off into space and start smacking his lips, almost as if he was trying to breath like a fish, we really didn’t understand what was happening at the time. Though we saw his lips turn blue while this was happening, we thought he might be holding his breath through the pain of something like acid reflux, because the lip smacking instances happened mostly during meal times. (It was only later that we would learn that those are text book symptoms of seizures.)
So, we did what any parent would do when something isn’t right with your child, we took Josh to our local doctor. Though our local doctor was actually a Physician’s Assistant, he had always taken good care of us and we trusted him. Though I remember him saying something about seizures, there was something in what we said to him that suggested these symptoms might be heart related. So we started Josh out on a range of tests for his heart, which he passed with flying colors. He was given a clean bill of health, and his lip smacking episodes even stopped, that is, until around his 3rd birthday; for it was around his 3rd birthday that the seizures began again. However this wasn’t the lip smacking we had seen a year earlier. This time his eyes would move to the left corner, his face would grow slack, and he would simply be unresponsive for anywhere between as little as 30 seconds and as long as 3 minutes. After a series of tests, an EEG and an MRI, the Doctors discovered that it was a brain tumor, a brain tumor that he had been born with, that was causing Joshua’s seizures. You might remember the whirlwind of activity as we quickly set everything in motion and headed up to Children’s Hospital where Joshua was scheduled for a 3 – 3 ½ hours surgery. He spent a day and a night and part of another day in the ICU, and then 3 more days in the hospital. Though these were some traumatic days for our family, we cannot help but thank the Lord and return our love to him for all the love that he showed us even through those difficult days.
We cannot help but thank the Lord and return our love to him for all that he has done for us! If you think about it, what better theme could there be for a Christian’s life! My life is all about returning my love to the Lord, because of all the love that the Lord showed me. For the truth is, when it comes right down to our natural born condition we were not much different than my son. In the same way that he was born with a tumor growing in his brain, we were all born with the tumor of sin, so to speak, growing in our hearts. Each and every one of us, were, at one time controlled by our sinful nature in the same way that my son was controlled by his seizures. But unlike my son who was controlled for only a few minutes, we were controlled for every second of our lives. There was no relief for us! There was no nope for us! We were residents of the hospital ward of this sinful world, being wheeled down the hallway of life on our way to our rooms, the rooms of eternal death and damnation that were prepared for us at the end of the hall. There was nothing we could do to change our condition! There was nothing we could do to change our fate! We needed radical surgery, and that is exactly what Jesus provided when he went to the cross.
As we’ve been taught since we were little children, God’s solution to our inborn problem of sin was to simply remove it; completely! When God our Father sent his Son to the cross, our surgery was begun as the Father applied the suction of his grace removing every single sin from our hearts. Those sins of lying, cheating, stealing, cursing, swearing, speeding, and every other sin we ever committed; they were removed from our hearts and placed on our Savior Jesus. Every single sinful thought and sinful action—all of them!—were removed from our hearts and placed upon our Jesus our Savior! Each and every sin that we had ever committed, are committing even now, or will commit until the day we die; every single spot and blemish of in within us was removed and placed upon our Savior’s shoulders! Our Savior, who, without any form of anesthesia endured the punishment of hell itself, in our place, so that we would be forgiven. In his grace, God, our Father, burned his Son at the stake of the cross, with the flames of hell so that our sins might be forever burned away forever, and we would be declared not guilty in the eyes of the Lord our God. However, that is not the end of the story. For when the Lord our God made his exchange, removing our sins and placing them on Jesus, he did not leave us empty. Rather, the Lord our God filled us with our Savior’s righteousness, innocence, and holiness. He filled us with our Savior’s holiness so that through faith we would be declared not guilty of any of our sins, we would marked brothers and sisters of Jesus our Savior, and known as God’s righteous children through faith in Jesus.
This is the love that the Lord Jesus our Savior poured out on us, and this is the love that now moves us to return our love to Jesus Christ our Savior. This, in fact, is the love about which Paul is writing as he writes in our lesson today, “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
As Christians, who all their lives have been taught about what Jesus did for us, we cannot help but be moved by the Love that Christ Jesus our Savior poured out upon us. We cannot help but be moved to live for our Savior now that he has freed us from our sins and brought us into a right relationship with our heavenly Father. Though we were once residents of the hospital of this sinful world, being wheeled down the hallway of life to the room of eternal death and damnation that had been prepared for us, because of the surgery the heavenly Father performed on our hearts, we have been moved to the recovery ward. We are free to move about the hospital. We are free to talk to those who have not yet received the surgical message of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection. We are even looking forward to the day when we will be completely healed by death so that we might finally leave this hospital and return home to the rooms that Jesus, himself has prepared for us in the halls of heaven.
This is the great love that the Lord our God has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who called us to faith in Jesus our Savior. This is the great love that now burns within our hearts as a great fire, heating the boiler of our actions until the Holy Spirit throws the throttle and the locomotive of our love begins its return journey to our Savior. For the truth is, the love which Christ has poured out on us is the very love that compels us to return our love to him by making the most out of Sunday morning; sending our children to Sunday School, gathering for Bible Study, and gathering together in worship. Even though activities like this might take 3 – 4 hours on a Sunday morning, it is through these very activities that we hear the Word of God and are strengthened in our faith. It is Christ’s love for us that moves us to return our love for him by watching our words and our actions, whether we are here in church, walking down the street, talking on the telephone, texting, facebooking, emailing, youtubing, playing with our friends, or simply sitting in the comfort of our own homes watching TV. It is Christ’s love that moves us to return our love for him by folding our hands in prayer to thank him for all the blessings he gives us day after day, to express to him our joys, our sorrows, our hardships, our heartaches, our frustrations, and yes our thankfulness. It is Christ’s love for us that moves us to open the Bible for ourselves to read what is recorded on those amazing pages so that we might grow in our faith all the more. This is the love that Christ poured out on us when he went to the cross. This is the love that now burns in our own hearts, kindled by the love our Savior has given us, and this is the love that we long to return to the Lord in everything we say, think, and do.
This is the kind of love that Laura and I have expressed to the Lord on many occasions for returning to us a healthy, energetic, and loving son. Though his surgery was completed over four years ago, every time I see that mark of victory, that beautiful mark of God’s love and faithfulness on the side of his head, I cannot help but thank the Lord for all that he did for our Son. A surgery scheduled for 3 – 3 ½ hours was done in 45 minutes. A hospital say that was scheduled for 7 days lasted only 5. All the complications and problems that could have arisen, because of your prayers and the Lord’s blessings they were all put to rest as the surgeon was easily able to access and remove the tumor completely. Though I know that some of you have been through even more difficult things than we I pray that you, like we have seen our Savior’s love, revealed in those situations. I pray that you have been moved, like we have been, to return your love to your Savior. I pray that in the same way that we see our Savior’s love in the victorious scar that now adorns the left side of Joshua’s head, you see all your Savior’s love in the arms of the cross. I pray that each and every time you look at this, or any cross, you are reminded of the amazing love that the Lord poured out on you through Jesus’ death and resurrection. I pray, that moved by that love, you continue living your life, making every effort to return your love to Jesus Christ, your Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
This morning I want to share a story with you. It’s a story that I told the students of Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School when I conducted chapel there this past Thursday. It’s even a story that I have permission to tell, because I asked Joshua if I could tell it. I asked Joshua if I could tell it because it’s his story. It’s the story of our son and how he started having seizures when he was just two years old. Though Laura and I knew something wasn’t right, at the time, we didn’t know that he was having seizures. Though from time to time we would see him just stop doing what he was doing, stare off into space and start smacking his lips, almost as if he was trying to breath like a fish, we really didn’t understand what was happening at the time. Though we saw his lips turn blue while this was happening, we thought he might be holding his breath through the pain of something like acid reflux, because the lip smacking instances happened mostly during meal times. (It was only later that we would learn that those are text book symptoms of seizures.)
So, we did what any parent would do when something isn’t right with your child, we took Josh to our local doctor. Though our local doctor was actually a Physician’s Assistant, he had always taken good care of us and we trusted him. Though I remember him saying something about seizures, there was something in what we said to him that suggested these symptoms might be heart related. So we started Josh out on a range of tests for his heart, which he passed with flying colors. He was given a clean bill of health, and his lip smacking episodes even stopped, that is, until around his 3rd birthday; for it was around his 3rd birthday that the seizures began again. However this wasn’t the lip smacking we had seen a year earlier. This time his eyes would move to the left corner, his face would grow slack, and he would simply be unresponsive for anywhere between as little as 30 seconds and as long as 3 minutes. After a series of tests, an EEG and an MRI, the Doctors discovered that it was a brain tumor, a brain tumor that he had been born with, that was causing Joshua’s seizures. You might remember the whirlwind of activity as we quickly set everything in motion and headed up to Children’s Hospital where Joshua was scheduled for a 3 – 3 ½ hours surgery. He spent a day and a night and part of another day in the ICU, and then 3 more days in the hospital. Though these were some traumatic days for our family, we cannot help but thank the Lord and return our love to him for all the love that he showed us even through those difficult days.
We cannot help but thank the Lord and return our love to him for all that he has done for us! If you think about it, what better theme could there be for a Christian’s life! My life is all about returning my love to the Lord, because of all the love that the Lord showed me. For the truth is, when it comes right down to our natural born condition we were not much different than my son. In the same way that he was born with a tumor growing in his brain, we were all born with the tumor of sin, so to speak, growing in our hearts. Each and every one of us, were, at one time controlled by our sinful nature in the same way that my son was controlled by his seizures. But unlike my son who was controlled for only a few minutes, we were controlled for every second of our lives. There was no relief for us! There was no nope for us! We were residents of the hospital ward of this sinful world, being wheeled down the hallway of life on our way to our rooms, the rooms of eternal death and damnation that were prepared for us at the end of the hall. There was nothing we could do to change our condition! There was nothing we could do to change our fate! We needed radical surgery, and that is exactly what Jesus provided when he went to the cross.
As we’ve been taught since we were little children, God’s solution to our inborn problem of sin was to simply remove it; completely! When God our Father sent his Son to the cross, our surgery was begun as the Father applied the suction of his grace removing every single sin from our hearts. Those sins of lying, cheating, stealing, cursing, swearing, speeding, and every other sin we ever committed; they were removed from our hearts and placed on our Savior Jesus. Every single sinful thought and sinful action—all of them!—were removed from our hearts and placed upon our Jesus our Savior! Each and every sin that we had ever committed, are committing even now, or will commit until the day we die; every single spot and blemish of in within us was removed and placed upon our Savior’s shoulders! Our Savior, who, without any form of anesthesia endured the punishment of hell itself, in our place, so that we would be forgiven. In his grace, God, our Father, burned his Son at the stake of the cross, with the flames of hell so that our sins might be forever burned away forever, and we would be declared not guilty in the eyes of the Lord our God. However, that is not the end of the story. For when the Lord our God made his exchange, removing our sins and placing them on Jesus, he did not leave us empty. Rather, the Lord our God filled us with our Savior’s righteousness, innocence, and holiness. He filled us with our Savior’s holiness so that through faith we would be declared not guilty of any of our sins, we would marked brothers and sisters of Jesus our Savior, and known as God’s righteous children through faith in Jesus.
This is the love that the Lord Jesus our Savior poured out on us, and this is the love that now moves us to return our love to Jesus Christ our Savior. This, in fact, is the love about which Paul is writing as he writes in our lesson today, “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
As Christians, who all their lives have been taught about what Jesus did for us, we cannot help but be moved by the Love that Christ Jesus our Savior poured out upon us. We cannot help but be moved to live for our Savior now that he has freed us from our sins and brought us into a right relationship with our heavenly Father. Though we were once residents of the hospital of this sinful world, being wheeled down the hallway of life to the room of eternal death and damnation that had been prepared for us, because of the surgery the heavenly Father performed on our hearts, we have been moved to the recovery ward. We are free to move about the hospital. We are free to talk to those who have not yet received the surgical message of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection. We are even looking forward to the day when we will be completely healed by death so that we might finally leave this hospital and return home to the rooms that Jesus, himself has prepared for us in the halls of heaven.
This is the great love that the Lord our God has poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who called us to faith in Jesus our Savior. This is the great love that now burns within our hearts as a great fire, heating the boiler of our actions until the Holy Spirit throws the throttle and the locomotive of our love begins its return journey to our Savior. For the truth is, the love which Christ has poured out on us is the very love that compels us to return our love to him by making the most out of Sunday morning; sending our children to Sunday School, gathering for Bible Study, and gathering together in worship. Even though activities like this might take 3 – 4 hours on a Sunday morning, it is through these very activities that we hear the Word of God and are strengthened in our faith. It is Christ’s love for us that moves us to return our love for him by watching our words and our actions, whether we are here in church, walking down the street, talking on the telephone, texting, facebooking, emailing, youtubing, playing with our friends, or simply sitting in the comfort of our own homes watching TV. It is Christ’s love that moves us to return our love for him by folding our hands in prayer to thank him for all the blessings he gives us day after day, to express to him our joys, our sorrows, our hardships, our heartaches, our frustrations, and yes our thankfulness. It is Christ’s love for us that moves us to open the Bible for ourselves to read what is recorded on those amazing pages so that we might grow in our faith all the more. This is the love that Christ poured out on us when he went to the cross. This is the love that now burns in our own hearts, kindled by the love our Savior has given us, and this is the love that we long to return to the Lord in everything we say, think, and do.
This is the kind of love that Laura and I have expressed to the Lord on many occasions for returning to us a healthy, energetic, and loving son. Though his surgery was completed over four years ago, every time I see that mark of victory, that beautiful mark of God’s love and faithfulness on the side of his head, I cannot help but thank the Lord for all that he did for our Son. A surgery scheduled for 3 – 3 ½ hours was done in 45 minutes. A hospital say that was scheduled for 7 days lasted only 5. All the complications and problems that could have arisen, because of your prayers and the Lord’s blessings they were all put to rest as the surgeon was easily able to access and remove the tumor completely. Though I know that some of you have been through even more difficult things than we I pray that you, like we have seen our Savior’s love, revealed in those situations. I pray that you have been moved, like we have been, to return your love to your Savior. I pray that in the same way that we see our Savior’s love in the victorious scar that now adorns the left side of Joshua’s head, you see all your Savior’s love in the arms of the cross. I pray that each and every time you look at this, or any cross, you are reminded of the amazing love that the Lord poured out on you through Jesus’ death and resurrection. I pray, that moved by that love, you continue living your life, making every effort to return your love to Jesus Christ, your Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Rejoice! Your Father has Given You His Kingdom (Luke 12:32-40)
Dear friends in Christ.
Throughout the centuries, people have pursued joy in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not. But to fully understand where joy can be found, perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found: It isn’t found in unbelief— Voltaire was an infidel, an unbeliever, of the most pronounced type, and he wrote: "I wish I had never been born." It isn’t found in Pleasure -- Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: "The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone." It isn’t found in Money -- Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: "I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth." It isn’t found in Position and Fame -- Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: "Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret." It isn’t found in Military Glory -- Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, "There are no more worlds to conquer." So where then is real joy found? Well, you already know the answer to that question, because real joy is found in Christ alone! (Adapted from SermonIllustrations.com ) This is exactly what our Savior is teaching us in our lesson this morning! He is teaching to find our joy in the Lord our God. In fact, he is teaching us to rejoice because God our Father has already given us his heavenly kingdom!
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our gospel lesson; to Luke 12:32, which is found on page 1031. There, in Luke 12:32, some of the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are words calling on us to rejoice because our heavenly Father has given us his heavenly kingdom. Luke 12:32 tells us: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32, NIV)
Such beautiful words! Such comforting words! Though they could easily stand all by themselves as words of comfort and joy, in order to fully understand what Jesus is telling us here, we have to take a look back to Luke 12:13, where we find our text from last week; the Rich Fool. Though it was last week we heard Jesus teaching us to find our true wealth in the Lord our God and warning us against all kinds of greed and building our lives on the abundance of our possessions, what Jesus is telling us today is part of his discourse that began back in Luke 12:1. As we heard last week, as Jesus was speaking to his disciples a crowd of thousands had gathered to hear him, and there, already in verse 6, Jesus began teaching them the very reason why we can rejoice in the Lord our God and his gift of the kingdom. Take a look at Luke 12:6-7 with me: Jesus says, 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6–7, NIV)
Skip over the parable of the Rich Fool that we studied last week and take a look at Luke 12:22-24, 27-28: “Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” Jump to verse 27: “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! (Luke 12:22-24, 27–28, NIV)
Starting from the very beginning of this chapter, through the parable of the Rich Fool, all the way to our lesson today, Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to worry about food and drink. We don’t need to worry about our house or our home. We don’t need to be concerned about our property, our wealth, our life or even our clothes, because we know that the Lord our God will provide all that we need and even more than that. Because we know that God will provide all that we need for our lives and even more than that, we don’t need to worry, as Jesus tells us in verse 32! Instead, we can rejoice! We can rejoice because we know that the Lord our God has given us the kingdom. We can rejoice because in giving us his kingdom, God our heavenly Father is assuring us that he has called us to faith in him through the working of the Holy Spirit. He is assuring us that because we have been called to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit, we have received the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us on the cross. Because we have received the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won or us on the cross, we know that our Savior has prepared a place for us in his heavenly kingdom. We know that one day, when Jesus calls us out of this life, he will take us to live by his side forever in those mansions in heaven, the very mansions whose keys God the Father has already turned over to us by calling us to faith in Jesus Christ our Savior through the work of the Holy Spirit through God’s powerful Word.
This is why even now in some of the most frustrating economic times our country has seen for many years, each and every one of us can rejoice! Each and every one of us can rejoice because we know that our God has already given us the gift of his heavenly kingdom. We can rejoice, because if God has given us his heavenly kingdom we know that he will provide for all our needs here on earth. No longer do we need to be obsessed with storing up four ourselves. Instead, knowing that we are members of God’s kingdom through faith in Jesus, our thoughts begin to turn to storing up treasures for ourselves in our heavenly kingdom. Jump back with me to Luke 12:32-34: Jesus tells us: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:32–34, NIV)
Did you notice what Jesus did? In such a simple way he referred back to the Parable of the Rich Fool that we studied just last week. For as Jesus spoke in verse 33 and 34, he is calling on us not to be like the fool who only thought of storing up treasures for himself in this world, but to live in the joyful knowledge that the Kingdom of heaven already belongs to us. He is calling on us to recognize that everything we have is a gift of God, given to us for us to manage. He is calling on us to hang on to the possessions we have with open hands. Rather than clutching our fingers and our hands and our arms and our whole bodies around our possessions and holding on to them as tightly as we can, Jesus is calling on us to hold on to them with open hands, so that when he comes to us and asks for us to return one or more of our blessings, those blessings easily slide right out of our hands. In other words, as we rejoice in the fact that the Kingdom of heaven already belongs to us, we learn to recognize our possessions and wealth for what they truly are! Though we used to see them as something that we sought to possess and hold onto for as long as possible, Jesus is teaching us to see them as blessings from him that he gives us to manage for a time. He is teaching to understand that God is the owner of everything and we are but his servants who use those gifts, blessings, possessions, and wealth as our servants in service to the Lord. When we begin to understand that our greatest possession is not something that we have on this earth, but the keys to the kingdom of heaven that our God has given through his Son, we begin to live our lives in thanks and praise of the Lord our God. When we daily rejoice over the fact that our Savior will one day take us from this life to our home in heaven, we begin to understand that our true treasure lies in heaven, and the only thing we can take to heaven with us is other people.
When we begin to understand that, it becomes all the easier for us to set aside a portion of our income for the Lord before we do anything else with it. It becomes all the easier for us to part with money and possessions to help others who are in need. It becomes that much easier for us to make use of our money in the Lord’s service through extra gifts for our congregation, our synod, missionaries, and even other programs that we are able to support from time to time like Faith Comes by Hearing. When we find ourselves rejoicing in the fact that our God has already blessed us with the kingdom of heaven, then it becomes all the easier for us to live for the Lord, to follow his Words, and to prepare ourselves for our Savior’s return, which is what Jesus talks about in Luke 12:35-40 of our lesson today: 35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Luke 12:35–40, NIV)
Talking about our Savior’s return, a wise man once said, “When you expect him least, that is when you need to expect him most.” This is the picture that Jesus paints in the last verses of our lesson today. Like the servants needed to be prepared for their master to return at any moment, so also we must be ready for our Savior’s return at any time. And we are ready! For through faith in Jesus, we are looking forward to the day when he will return to take us home. Through faith in Jesus our hearts have been washed clean and we have been given the wedding garments of his righteousness which we wear even now as we wait the day when he will bring us to his heavenly kingdom. Through faith in Jesus, we seek to live our lives according to his will, serving him with all that we are and all that we have, because we know that heaven is our home. We know that no matter when our Savior returns, we are ready. We are ready because we are God’s children through faith in Jesus, and we are eagerly awaiting the kingdom to which we already hold the key.
Though there are many people who are seeking joy through many and varied means, as Christians we have found the source of true joy! Our joy is found in Jesus Christ our Savior who called us to faith and bestowed upon us the kingdom of our God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Throughout the centuries, people have pursued joy in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not. But to fully understand where joy can be found, perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found: It isn’t found in unbelief— Voltaire was an infidel, an unbeliever, of the most pronounced type, and he wrote: "I wish I had never been born." It isn’t found in Pleasure -- Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: "The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone." It isn’t found in Money -- Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: "I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth." It isn’t found in Position and Fame -- Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: "Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret." It isn’t found in Military Glory -- Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, "There are no more worlds to conquer." So where then is real joy found? Well, you already know the answer to that question, because real joy is found in Christ alone! (Adapted from SermonIllustrations.com ) This is exactly what our Savior is teaching us in our lesson this morning! He is teaching to find our joy in the Lord our God. In fact, he is teaching us to rejoice because God our Father has already given us his heavenly kingdom!
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our gospel lesson; to Luke 12:32, which is found on page 1031. There, in Luke 12:32, some of the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are words calling on us to rejoice because our heavenly Father has given us his heavenly kingdom. Luke 12:32 tells us: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32, NIV)
Such beautiful words! Such comforting words! Though they could easily stand all by themselves as words of comfort and joy, in order to fully understand what Jesus is telling us here, we have to take a look back to Luke 12:13, where we find our text from last week; the Rich Fool. Though it was last week we heard Jesus teaching us to find our true wealth in the Lord our God and warning us against all kinds of greed and building our lives on the abundance of our possessions, what Jesus is telling us today is part of his discourse that began back in Luke 12:1. As we heard last week, as Jesus was speaking to his disciples a crowd of thousands had gathered to hear him, and there, already in verse 6, Jesus began teaching them the very reason why we can rejoice in the Lord our God and his gift of the kingdom. Take a look at Luke 12:6-7 with me: Jesus says, 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6–7, NIV)
Skip over the parable of the Rich Fool that we studied last week and take a look at Luke 12:22-24, 27-28: “Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” Jump to verse 27: “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! (Luke 12:22-24, 27–28, NIV)
Starting from the very beginning of this chapter, through the parable of the Rich Fool, all the way to our lesson today, Jesus is telling us that we don’t need to worry about food and drink. We don’t need to worry about our house or our home. We don’t need to be concerned about our property, our wealth, our life or even our clothes, because we know that the Lord our God will provide all that we need and even more than that. Because we know that God will provide all that we need for our lives and even more than that, we don’t need to worry, as Jesus tells us in verse 32! Instead, we can rejoice! We can rejoice because we know that the Lord our God has given us the kingdom. We can rejoice because in giving us his kingdom, God our heavenly Father is assuring us that he has called us to faith in him through the working of the Holy Spirit. He is assuring us that because we have been called to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit, we have received the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us on the cross. Because we have received the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won or us on the cross, we know that our Savior has prepared a place for us in his heavenly kingdom. We know that one day, when Jesus calls us out of this life, he will take us to live by his side forever in those mansions in heaven, the very mansions whose keys God the Father has already turned over to us by calling us to faith in Jesus Christ our Savior through the work of the Holy Spirit through God’s powerful Word.
This is why even now in some of the most frustrating economic times our country has seen for many years, each and every one of us can rejoice! Each and every one of us can rejoice because we know that our God has already given us the gift of his heavenly kingdom. We can rejoice, because if God has given us his heavenly kingdom we know that he will provide for all our needs here on earth. No longer do we need to be obsessed with storing up four ourselves. Instead, knowing that we are members of God’s kingdom through faith in Jesus, our thoughts begin to turn to storing up treasures for ourselves in our heavenly kingdom. Jump back with me to Luke 12:32-34: Jesus tells us: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:32–34, NIV)
Did you notice what Jesus did? In such a simple way he referred back to the Parable of the Rich Fool that we studied just last week. For as Jesus spoke in verse 33 and 34, he is calling on us not to be like the fool who only thought of storing up treasures for himself in this world, but to live in the joyful knowledge that the Kingdom of heaven already belongs to us. He is calling on us to recognize that everything we have is a gift of God, given to us for us to manage. He is calling on us to hang on to the possessions we have with open hands. Rather than clutching our fingers and our hands and our arms and our whole bodies around our possessions and holding on to them as tightly as we can, Jesus is calling on us to hold on to them with open hands, so that when he comes to us and asks for us to return one or more of our blessings, those blessings easily slide right out of our hands. In other words, as we rejoice in the fact that the Kingdom of heaven already belongs to us, we learn to recognize our possessions and wealth for what they truly are! Though we used to see them as something that we sought to possess and hold onto for as long as possible, Jesus is teaching us to see them as blessings from him that he gives us to manage for a time. He is teaching to understand that God is the owner of everything and we are but his servants who use those gifts, blessings, possessions, and wealth as our servants in service to the Lord. When we begin to understand that our greatest possession is not something that we have on this earth, but the keys to the kingdom of heaven that our God has given through his Son, we begin to live our lives in thanks and praise of the Lord our God. When we daily rejoice over the fact that our Savior will one day take us from this life to our home in heaven, we begin to understand that our true treasure lies in heaven, and the only thing we can take to heaven with us is other people.
When we begin to understand that, it becomes all the easier for us to set aside a portion of our income for the Lord before we do anything else with it. It becomes all the easier for us to part with money and possessions to help others who are in need. It becomes that much easier for us to make use of our money in the Lord’s service through extra gifts for our congregation, our synod, missionaries, and even other programs that we are able to support from time to time like Faith Comes by Hearing. When we find ourselves rejoicing in the fact that our God has already blessed us with the kingdom of heaven, then it becomes all the easier for us to live for the Lord, to follow his Words, and to prepare ourselves for our Savior’s return, which is what Jesus talks about in Luke 12:35-40 of our lesson today: 35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Luke 12:35–40, NIV)
Talking about our Savior’s return, a wise man once said, “When you expect him least, that is when you need to expect him most.” This is the picture that Jesus paints in the last verses of our lesson today. Like the servants needed to be prepared for their master to return at any moment, so also we must be ready for our Savior’s return at any time. And we are ready! For through faith in Jesus, we are looking forward to the day when he will return to take us home. Through faith in Jesus our hearts have been washed clean and we have been given the wedding garments of his righteousness which we wear even now as we wait the day when he will bring us to his heavenly kingdom. Through faith in Jesus, we seek to live our lives according to his will, serving him with all that we are and all that we have, because we know that heaven is our home. We know that no matter when our Savior returns, we are ready. We are ready because we are God’s children through faith in Jesus, and we are eagerly awaiting the kingdom to which we already hold the key.
Though there are many people who are seeking joy through many and varied means, as Christians we have found the source of true joy! Our joy is found in Jesus Christ our Savior who called us to faith and bestowed upon us the kingdom of our God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
What is God Like?
May 30, 2010
Theme: What is our God Like?
Dear friends in Christ.
It has been said that what you know about a person usually affects the way that you feel about a person, and in most cases that seems to be true. Take, for example, Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of the United States. He was the President in Office during the Civil War. He was the one who was determined that the United States of America should remain together as a single nation. He was the one who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those who were salves from their forced servitude, and putting into motion the events that led to the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which finally Abolished Slavery in the United States. He was the one who was assassinated at Ford’s Theater a mere 5 days after the Civil War came to an end. Because of this knowledge, there are many who love Lincoln and hail him as one of the greatest Presidents our Nation has ever seen. Though he was continually ridiculed and spoken against in his time, because of what we know about him from history, we are able to form our own opinion about him, and our own personal feelings about him have been affected in many ways by what we know. Well the same thing is true about the Lord our God, our opinion of him is very much affected by what we know about him. Thus, as we study the Scriptures before us today we will seek to learn about our God and answer the question, “What is our God like?”
To answer this question, we want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about God’s Characteristics and learn two basic ways that God’s nature is different than ours. So, I invite you to grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28:19 which can be found on page 989. As you are looking it up, let me give you the context of this passage. It had been 40 days since Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus and his disciples were standing on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was giving them his final instructions and blessings before he would ascend into heaven. While he was speaking to them he told them, (and we’ll read Matthew 28:19 together): “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19, NIV)
Just as Jesus began his ministry with the Father’s blessing and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon him, so also Jesus returns to heaven instituting the Sacrament of Baptism, proclaiming that all of his disciples should baptize people in the name of the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus reveals that our God is three distinct and separate persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, when we look at our God we know that the Father is not the Son. We know that the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Yet, even as we worship our God in three separate and distinct persons, we know that we do not worship three separate Gods but we worship only one God, as Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4. Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 6:4, which can be found on page 178 of your Bibles, and we’ll read this passage together also. Again, as you look up the passage, let me set the context. The Israelites have completed their 40 years of wandering in the desert and they are preparing to cross the Jordan and take the land of Canaan. As they prepare, Moses is reminding them of all that the Lord has done for them. In Chapter 5 Moses reviewed the Ten Commandments and now, in verses 4 of Chapter 6, Moses speaks about the Lord whom we serve as we follow his commandments. And we read together: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)
With these words, the Lord God reveals a very specific distinction between his nature and our nature. He is one! Though, He is three separate and distinct persons these three separate and distinct persons make up one individual God. How this can be, we do not know we simply believe it and accept it by faith, because God himself has told us that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons yet one God. So, if we should ever take the Father out of the picture, would we still believe in the true God proclaimed by the Bible? No, because we would only have the Son and the Holy Spirit and not all three. What if we took the Son out of the picture and believed only in the Father and the Holy Spirit? The same thing would be true. We would not have the True God spoken of in the Bible. What if we took the Holy Spirit out of the picture and only believed in the Father and the Son, would we still have the true God proclaimed by the Bible? Again, the answer is no. even though the Bible never uses the word Triune to describe our God, the Bible makes it clear that the God we worship is three persons (tri) yet one God (une), which gives us our Triune God 3 person in one God, just as Jesus tells us in our Gospel Lesson today: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. ” (John 16:13–15, NIV)
From all of these passages, we can clearly see the two basic ways that our God’s nature is different than our own. Not only is the Lord our God Triune—Three Persons yet, One God—but also, as we have been taught since we were little Children, the Lord our God is spirit. Because the Lord is Spirit, he does not have a physical body. Even though Jesus came to the earth and took on our human flesh and blood, when he ascended into heaven, he returned to his spirit form. Yet, the Lord our God is not some distant force sailing around the galaxy, he is a real personal being who hears our prayers and understands our needs. He desires and even demands the most important place in our hearts and our lives. He calls on us to worship him, praise him, and thank him for all that he has done for us. He forgives us each and every time we fall in to temptation and sin against him, and he has chosen to reveal himself to us through the pages of the Scriptures so that we might gain a better understanding of who he is through the many characteristics that he reveals to us in his Word.
So, let’s take another look at the Scriptures to see if we might discover all that the Lord our God wants us to learn about himself. To do this, we will turn to Psalm 139 which can be found on page 618, and as you are looking up Psalm 139 on page 618, let me give you just a little bit of an introduction. Psalm 139 is one of the many Psalms that King David wrote by the inspiration of the Lord. It was given to the director of music for use as a song for worship in the temple. It has even been called the Psalm of the All knowing and Ever Present God, and the reason for this will become clear as I read. In fact, due to the length of the Psalm I invite you to follow along with me as I read: “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ” (Psalm 139:1–24, NIV)
In such a beautiful way the Lord so clearly reveals that he is omniscient—all knowing—and omnipresent—present everywhere. He reminds us that not only does he know everything that we say and do, he also knows us better than our friends, our family, even our own fathers and mothers. He knows what we need when we need it, and he is always present with us, watching over us, protecting us, helping us, and ready to comfort us. He is also the all-powerful God who created our inmost beings, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to punish those who do not believe in him in the fires of eternal damnation, and he is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to bring those who believe in him to the halls of eternal life where we will live with him forever.
What more beautiful and comforting words could the Lord give to us as he reveals himself to us through his Word! Yet, there are so many more passages we could chose today to teach us more about the Characteristics of our God. The problem is, we are running out of time this morning, that is, if we feel we must keep our service as close to an hour as possible. However, since that is our custom, perhaps just one final passage. Turn with me to Exodus 34:5-7 on page 88. Again, let me give you the background for these verses: Moses had been with the Lord on the Mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, during which time the people persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship. When Moses came down and saw what they were doing, he broke the tablets, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, sprinkled it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. Now, he had returned to the mountain with two new tablets of stone for the Lord’s commands where he had also asked the Lord to show him his glory, which is where we pick up as we read together: “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5–7, NIV)
In such a beautiful way, the Lord our God reveals to us some of his most incredible characteristics. We know of his compassion for us in his sending Jesus to be our Savior. We know of his Graciousness that he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but he shows his love and his patience for us by giving us this time of grace in which to come to faith. He shows his love and his faithfulness by continually protecting us from all harm and danger, and forgiving all our sins for Jesus’ sake. Though the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished, through faith in him, we live in his love and faithfulness. We see the Lord our God as the loving, caring, and gracious God he is.
Thus, today, in the same way we have learned about Abraham Lincoln from history, we have learned what the Lord our God is like. For from the pages of Scripture, we have come to know that our all powerful Triune God is a Spirit who reveals himself to us in the Scriptures.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Theme: What is our God Like?
Dear friends in Christ.
It has been said that what you know about a person usually affects the way that you feel about a person, and in most cases that seems to be true. Take, for example, Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of the United States. He was the President in Office during the Civil War. He was the one who was determined that the United States of America should remain together as a single nation. He was the one who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those who were salves from their forced servitude, and putting into motion the events that led to the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which finally Abolished Slavery in the United States. He was the one who was assassinated at Ford’s Theater a mere 5 days after the Civil War came to an end. Because of this knowledge, there are many who love Lincoln and hail him as one of the greatest Presidents our Nation has ever seen. Though he was continually ridiculed and spoken against in his time, because of what we know about him from history, we are able to form our own opinion about him, and our own personal feelings about him have been affected in many ways by what we know. Well the same thing is true about the Lord our God, our opinion of him is very much affected by what we know about him. Thus, as we study the Scriptures before us today we will seek to learn about our God and answer the question, “What is our God like?”
To answer this question, we want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about God’s Characteristics and learn two basic ways that God’s nature is different than ours. So, I invite you to grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28:19 which can be found on page 989. As you are looking it up, let me give you the context of this passage. It had been 40 days since Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus and his disciples were standing on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was giving them his final instructions and blessings before he would ascend into heaven. While he was speaking to them he told them, (and we’ll read Matthew 28:19 together): “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19, NIV)
Just as Jesus began his ministry with the Father’s blessing and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon him, so also Jesus returns to heaven instituting the Sacrament of Baptism, proclaiming that all of his disciples should baptize people in the name of the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus reveals that our God is three distinct and separate persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, when we look at our God we know that the Father is not the Son. We know that the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Yet, even as we worship our God in three separate and distinct persons, we know that we do not worship three separate Gods but we worship only one God, as Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4. Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 6:4, which can be found on page 178 of your Bibles, and we’ll read this passage together also. Again, as you look up the passage, let me set the context. The Israelites have completed their 40 years of wandering in the desert and they are preparing to cross the Jordan and take the land of Canaan. As they prepare, Moses is reminding them of all that the Lord has done for them. In Chapter 5 Moses reviewed the Ten Commandments and now, in verses 4 of Chapter 6, Moses speaks about the Lord whom we serve as we follow his commandments. And we read together: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)
With these words, the Lord God reveals a very specific distinction between his nature and our nature. He is one! Though, He is three separate and distinct persons these three separate and distinct persons make up one individual God. How this can be, we do not know we simply believe it and accept it by faith, because God himself has told us that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons yet one God. So, if we should ever take the Father out of the picture, would we still believe in the true God proclaimed by the Bible? No, because we would only have the Son and the Holy Spirit and not all three. What if we took the Son out of the picture and believed only in the Father and the Holy Spirit? The same thing would be true. We would not have the True God spoken of in the Bible. What if we took the Holy Spirit out of the picture and only believed in the Father and the Son, would we still have the true God proclaimed by the Bible? Again, the answer is no. even though the Bible never uses the word Triune to describe our God, the Bible makes it clear that the God we worship is three persons (tri) yet one God (une), which gives us our Triune God 3 person in one God, just as Jesus tells us in our Gospel Lesson today: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. ” (John 16:13–15, NIV)
From all of these passages, we can clearly see the two basic ways that our God’s nature is different than our own. Not only is the Lord our God Triune—Three Persons yet, One God—but also, as we have been taught since we were little Children, the Lord our God is spirit. Because the Lord is Spirit, he does not have a physical body. Even though Jesus came to the earth and took on our human flesh and blood, when he ascended into heaven, he returned to his spirit form. Yet, the Lord our God is not some distant force sailing around the galaxy, he is a real personal being who hears our prayers and understands our needs. He desires and even demands the most important place in our hearts and our lives. He calls on us to worship him, praise him, and thank him for all that he has done for us. He forgives us each and every time we fall in to temptation and sin against him, and he has chosen to reveal himself to us through the pages of the Scriptures so that we might gain a better understanding of who he is through the many characteristics that he reveals to us in his Word.
So, let’s take another look at the Scriptures to see if we might discover all that the Lord our God wants us to learn about himself. To do this, we will turn to Psalm 139 which can be found on page 618, and as you are looking up Psalm 139 on page 618, let me give you just a little bit of an introduction. Psalm 139 is one of the many Psalms that King David wrote by the inspiration of the Lord. It was given to the director of music for use as a song for worship in the temple. It has even been called the Psalm of the All knowing and Ever Present God, and the reason for this will become clear as I read. In fact, due to the length of the Psalm I invite you to follow along with me as I read: “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ” (Psalm 139:1–24, NIV)
In such a beautiful way the Lord so clearly reveals that he is omniscient—all knowing—and omnipresent—present everywhere. He reminds us that not only does he know everything that we say and do, he also knows us better than our friends, our family, even our own fathers and mothers. He knows what we need when we need it, and he is always present with us, watching over us, protecting us, helping us, and ready to comfort us. He is also the all-powerful God who created our inmost beings, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to punish those who do not believe in him in the fires of eternal damnation, and he is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to bring those who believe in him to the halls of eternal life where we will live with him forever.
What more beautiful and comforting words could the Lord give to us as he reveals himself to us through his Word! Yet, there are so many more passages we could chose today to teach us more about the Characteristics of our God. The problem is, we are running out of time this morning, that is, if we feel we must keep our service as close to an hour as possible. However, since that is our custom, perhaps just one final passage. Turn with me to Exodus 34:5-7 on page 88. Again, let me give you the background for these verses: Moses had been with the Lord on the Mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, during which time the people persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship. When Moses came down and saw what they were doing, he broke the tablets, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, sprinkled it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. Now, he had returned to the mountain with two new tablets of stone for the Lord’s commands where he had also asked the Lord to show him his glory, which is where we pick up as we read together: “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5–7, NIV)
In such a beautiful way, the Lord our God reveals to us some of his most incredible characteristics. We know of his compassion for us in his sending Jesus to be our Savior. We know of his Graciousness that he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but he shows his love and his patience for us by giving us this time of grace in which to come to faith. He shows his love and his faithfulness by continually protecting us from all harm and danger, and forgiving all our sins for Jesus’ sake. Though the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished, through faith in him, we live in his love and faithfulness. We see the Lord our God as the loving, caring, and gracious God he is.
Thus, today, in the same way we have learned about Abraham Lincoln from history, we have learned what the Lord our God is like. For from the pages of Scripture, we have come to know that our all powerful Triune God is a Spirit who reveals himself to us in the Scriptures.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
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