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
Showing posts with label Heaven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heaven. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sing Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Peter 1:3-9)
May 1, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
If I could choose only one season out of the entire church year as my favorite, I would have to choose Easter. I love Easter. I love how the whole church seems to transform from a veil of sorrow to a veil of joy. I love how we beautify our church with all sorts of different flowers as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus. But most of all I love how joyful our celebrations are as we gather to sing praise to the Lord our God on Easter Sunday. It is always so fund to gather and raise our voices together in song as we sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as we did last Sunday, with songs like, I know that My Redeemer Lives, Amazing Grace, Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle, and even a couple of stanzas of How Great Thou Art! As I’ve said before, I do wish that all of you could sit where I do and hear how beautiful you all sound as we raise our voices together, singing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For, as we gathered on Easter Sunday and as we’ve gathered here again this morning, we have gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who raised his Son from the dead. We’ve gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who freed us from our sins and made us his own through the death and resurrection of his Son, our Savior. We’ve gathered to sing praise to our God and Father because he has redeemed us, restored us and forgiven us. In short, we have gathered to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the great things that our God has done for us, just as Peter explains to us in our lesson for today.
Now, if you haven’t already opened your Bibles to our lesson for today, I invite you to open to 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning with verse 3 and we’ll take a look at all the reasons Peter gives us to sing praise. Now, as you are turning to 1 Peter, let me give you the back story, so to speak. As Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, the year is somewhere between 62 and 64. The Apostle Paul is most likely traveling in the region of Spain, and Peter, perhaps at the request of Paul, sits down with Silas to write a letter of comfort and encouragement to the believes in the cities where Paul and Silas had traveled on Paul’s second Missionary Journey. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in Bible Class that it was Luke who had written 1 Peter along with Peter, however, that was not correct, as Peter tells us in chapter 5 that it was with the help of Silas he had written this letter (1 Peter 5:12) And who better than Silas, the man who had visited these congregations with Paul, to aid Peter in writing this letter of praise!
Take a look at what Peter writes beginning with verse 3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
What better message could there be for us to hear on the heels of Easter than this message, giving us every reason to praise our God who has brought us into a new and living hope. What greater message could there be than the assurance that we have hope in any and every situation, especially when we take a look at the world around us. It is no secret that our economy is struggling. It is no secret that people are scared. It is no secret that more and more people have entered survival mode and are on the brink of losing hope? How many of us are in the same boat? How many of us are finding ourselves scared about the future? How many of us are sacrificing little things here and there to keep from having to enter survival mode too soon. How many are looking at the world around us and beginning to wonder if hope will hold out?
This is why Peter is writing as he is this morning! He is writing to assure us that in the midst of our economy we have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father. We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because even though we had once been lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief, God the Father willingly handed over his one and only son to death so that we would not have to die. Before we were even born, God the Father loved us and planned for our salvation. Before he even created the World, God the Father laid out his plan for our eternal salvation which centered on nothing that we could do for him, but everything that he could do for us. Now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior, we have been given new birth in to a new and living hope. No matter what might be happening around us, the hope we have is secure, because our hope is in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us. Our hope springs from the waters of Baptism that have washed us clean through the work of the Holy Spirit in connection with the Word of God. Our hope is certain because Jesus Christ who died in our place, rose again from the dead to assure us that our sins have been completely washed away.
Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we have been made children of God and heirs of eternal life! In the midst of an economy where people are concerned about their investments, 401k’s, stock options and other retirement funds, we have no concern whatsoever. We have no concern because we know that our retirement benefits are not only safe but they are out of this world. We are confident because we know that our inheritance is kept for us in heaven, where no thief can ever break in. No moth can ever destroy. No rust can ever corrupt. Nothing can ever spoil it, nor can it fade away, nor can it be lost because the stock market takes a turn for the worse. Thus we sing the praise of our God and Father because he has secured our inheritance through his mighty power with which we are shielded even now, until our salvation will be revealed when the Lord calls us home.
Because of this, we have every reason sing the praise of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if that’s the case Pastor, if we can rejoice in the Lord our God, if we can sing his praises because he has redeemed us, made us his own, and even protects us in this life, why do we still have to face sorrows and hardships? Why do find ourselves suffering at the hands of others? Why do face difficulties in this life? Peter answers that question for us beginning with verse 6 where he says, “6 In this [that is all these things with which God has blessed you] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
Though no one likes hardships or suffering, we can still rejoice in them because we know that they come to us so that our faith might be proven to be genuine. They come to us to draw us closer to the Lord. They come to us to make us take our eyes off the things of the world and refocus our vision on the things of eternal life. They come to us because Jesus promised that when we followed him the world would hate us and we would be persecuted just as he was. They come to us because satan is looking for any and every opportunity to distract us from our faith, cause us to despair, lose our hope, and finally fall away from the faith. They come to us because sometimes the Lord sends them into our lives, as he did when he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, so that we can learn what we are made of; so that we can learn the caliber of our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Though they are never easy to cope with, James tells us that we can consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds because it will produce perseverance of faith. (James 1:2) Though they are never the most easy thing to cope with, Paul assures us that we can rejoice in suffering because produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3) Though they are never easy to cope with Peter assures us that they come to help us look forward to our living hope in a better future with the Lord our God forever in heaven.
This is why we have every reason to sing praises to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because he is the one who freed us from our sins by sending his Son to be our Savior. He is the one who crushed Jesus and caused him to suffer (Isaiah 53:10) so that we would never have to. He is the one who forsook his own son on the cross so that he would never have to forsake us. He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead to assure us that not only have all our offenses been cleared, but that he will also raise us, just as he raised his Son. Thus we have gathered together on this Sunday after Easter, to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the one who has made us his own and has given us a sure and certain living hope in eternal life through his Son, our Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
If I could choose only one season out of the entire church year as my favorite, I would have to choose Easter. I love Easter. I love how the whole church seems to transform from a veil of sorrow to a veil of joy. I love how we beautify our church with all sorts of different flowers as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus. But most of all I love how joyful our celebrations are as we gather to sing praise to the Lord our God on Easter Sunday. It is always so fund to gather and raise our voices together in song as we sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as we did last Sunday, with songs like, I know that My Redeemer Lives, Amazing Grace, Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle, and even a couple of stanzas of How Great Thou Art! As I’ve said before, I do wish that all of you could sit where I do and hear how beautiful you all sound as we raise our voices together, singing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For, as we gathered on Easter Sunday and as we’ve gathered here again this morning, we have gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who raised his Son from the dead. We’ve gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who freed us from our sins and made us his own through the death and resurrection of his Son, our Savior. We’ve gathered to sing praise to our God and Father because he has redeemed us, restored us and forgiven us. In short, we have gathered to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the great things that our God has done for us, just as Peter explains to us in our lesson for today.
Now, if you haven’t already opened your Bibles to our lesson for today, I invite you to open to 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning with verse 3 and we’ll take a look at all the reasons Peter gives us to sing praise. Now, as you are turning to 1 Peter, let me give you the back story, so to speak. As Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, the year is somewhere between 62 and 64. The Apostle Paul is most likely traveling in the region of Spain, and Peter, perhaps at the request of Paul, sits down with Silas to write a letter of comfort and encouragement to the believes in the cities where Paul and Silas had traveled on Paul’s second Missionary Journey. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in Bible Class that it was Luke who had written 1 Peter along with Peter, however, that was not correct, as Peter tells us in chapter 5 that it was with the help of Silas he had written this letter (1 Peter 5:12) And who better than Silas, the man who had visited these congregations with Paul, to aid Peter in writing this letter of praise!
Take a look at what Peter writes beginning with verse 3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
What better message could there be for us to hear on the heels of Easter than this message, giving us every reason to praise our God who has brought us into a new and living hope. What greater message could there be than the assurance that we have hope in any and every situation, especially when we take a look at the world around us. It is no secret that our economy is struggling. It is no secret that people are scared. It is no secret that more and more people have entered survival mode and are on the brink of losing hope? How many of us are in the same boat? How many of us are finding ourselves scared about the future? How many of us are sacrificing little things here and there to keep from having to enter survival mode too soon. How many are looking at the world around us and beginning to wonder if hope will hold out?
This is why Peter is writing as he is this morning! He is writing to assure us that in the midst of our economy we have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father. We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because even though we had once been lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief, God the Father willingly handed over his one and only son to death so that we would not have to die. Before we were even born, God the Father loved us and planned for our salvation. Before he even created the World, God the Father laid out his plan for our eternal salvation which centered on nothing that we could do for him, but everything that he could do for us. Now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior, we have been given new birth in to a new and living hope. No matter what might be happening around us, the hope we have is secure, because our hope is in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us. Our hope springs from the waters of Baptism that have washed us clean through the work of the Holy Spirit in connection with the Word of God. Our hope is certain because Jesus Christ who died in our place, rose again from the dead to assure us that our sins have been completely washed away.
Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we have been made children of God and heirs of eternal life! In the midst of an economy where people are concerned about their investments, 401k’s, stock options and other retirement funds, we have no concern whatsoever. We have no concern because we know that our retirement benefits are not only safe but they are out of this world. We are confident because we know that our inheritance is kept for us in heaven, where no thief can ever break in. No moth can ever destroy. No rust can ever corrupt. Nothing can ever spoil it, nor can it fade away, nor can it be lost because the stock market takes a turn for the worse. Thus we sing the praise of our God and Father because he has secured our inheritance through his mighty power with which we are shielded even now, until our salvation will be revealed when the Lord calls us home.
Because of this, we have every reason sing the praise of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if that’s the case Pastor, if we can rejoice in the Lord our God, if we can sing his praises because he has redeemed us, made us his own, and even protects us in this life, why do we still have to face sorrows and hardships? Why do find ourselves suffering at the hands of others? Why do face difficulties in this life? Peter answers that question for us beginning with verse 6 where he says, “6 In this [that is all these things with which God has blessed you] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
Though no one likes hardships or suffering, we can still rejoice in them because we know that they come to us so that our faith might be proven to be genuine. They come to us to draw us closer to the Lord. They come to us to make us take our eyes off the things of the world and refocus our vision on the things of eternal life. They come to us because Jesus promised that when we followed him the world would hate us and we would be persecuted just as he was. They come to us because satan is looking for any and every opportunity to distract us from our faith, cause us to despair, lose our hope, and finally fall away from the faith. They come to us because sometimes the Lord sends them into our lives, as he did when he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, so that we can learn what we are made of; so that we can learn the caliber of our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Though they are never easy to cope with, James tells us that we can consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds because it will produce perseverance of faith. (James 1:2) Though they are never the most easy thing to cope with, Paul assures us that we can rejoice in suffering because produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3) Though they are never easy to cope with Peter assures us that they come to help us look forward to our living hope in a better future with the Lord our God forever in heaven.
This is why we have every reason to sing praises to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because he is the one who freed us from our sins by sending his Son to be our Savior. He is the one who crushed Jesus and caused him to suffer (Isaiah 53:10) so that we would never have to. He is the one who forsook his own son on the cross so that he would never have to forsake us. He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead to assure us that not only have all our offenses been cleared, but that he will also raise us, just as he raised his Son. Thus we have gathered together on this Sunday after Easter, to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the one who has made us his own and has given us a sure and certain living hope in eternal life through his Son, our Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Embrace the Flame that Jesus Kindled (Luke 12:49-53)
Dear friends in Christ.
When I was about 12 I became the grill master for our family. Though it started off rather slowly with only a few opportunities, I quickly embraced my new position because I loved everything about it. Though we didn’t have a gas grill, or even a Weber, I embraced every part of my task, but my favorite part was lighting the charcoal. Now, you have to understand, we didn’t use lighter fluid. We had a charcoal lighting cylinder type of thing. We placed crumpled newspaper on the bottom. Over the newspaper was a metal grate where we first put the charcoal we had used for the last grilling before we added the new stuff. I can still remember how fun it was to light the newspaper kindling and watch as the flames grew, lighting first the older charcoal before it light the new. I remember watching with amazement as the kindling gave way to glowing briquettes that eventually produced flames that leaped out of the top of that cylinder. Well, in the same way that I used to kindle the flames that cooked the food on our family’s grill, our Savior has kindled the flames of faith that we embrace in our hearts to this day, by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.
In fact, now that our Savior has done kindled the flame of faith in our hearts, our we hear our God calling on us to embrace the flame that Jesus kindled. To do that we want to take a closer look at our Gospel lesson in Luke 12:49-53, which can be found on page 1032 of your Bibles. As you’re turning to Luke 12:49 let me refresh your memories as to what has been going on. Though we’ve been studying chapter 12 for the last three weeks, we have not been wanting for good teaching. After all, it was in this chapter that Jesus warned us against all kinds of greed as he taught us to find our true wealth in the Lord our God. It was in this Chapter that we saw just how precious we are to the Lord our God and how the Lord invites us to rejoice as we look forward to the return of our Savior; knowing that our God has already given us the keys to the kingdom of heaven through faith in Jesus. Now, today, as Jesus continues his discourse with his disciples and the crowd of thousands he is revealing to us the very nature of his mission here on earth, and he is inviting each and every one of us to embrace the flame that Jesus himself kindled when he went to the cross. Let’s look at Luke 12:49-51 where Jesus is speaking and says: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” (Luke 12:49–51, NIV)
As Jesus spoke to the thousands who had gathered to hear him, he revealed to them the very purpose of his mission here on earth. Though so many had thought of the Messiah as the great peace bringer who would bring an end to the Roman tyranny, re-establish the sovereignty of the Jewish Nation, and rule on the throne for many years, returning the glory days of David and Solomon along with the same level of peace and prosperity, Jesus clearly revealed that his mission was not an act of peace, but an act of war! Jesus mission was to infiltrate satan’s territory, to seek out the lost sheep of Israel, and to proclaim freedom for the captives. This is what Jesus had been doing for the last three years as he cut a path of destruction through satan’s territory. Not actual destruction, mind you, but spiritual destruction; for everywhere that Jesus went he proclaimed the gospel of salvation. He preached the harshest law against the self-righteous servants of satan who thought that they did not need Jesus; and he preached the sweetest gospel of forgiveness to those whom he rescued from satan’s grip; soothing their wounds with the salve of his grace. Now, with only a few months left, Jesus is already preparing himself for the final showdown, the final battle between himself and satan, our enemy—the battle where Jesus would light the fire that will cover the earth. Look back with me at what Jesus is saying in verses 49 and 50: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” (Luke 12:49–50, NIV)
With only a few months before the conclusion of his earthly ministry, Jesus tells us that he is more than ready for the conclusion of his mission. He is more than ready to completely destroy satan’s power over us by his death and resurrection from the dead. This is the baptism of which Jesus speaks—his crucifixion where he would forgive the sins of the world, destroy the power of the devil, forever, and where he would kindle the flame that would burn in the hearts of every man and woman until the very last day. This is the flame that was struck when Jesus was crucified; the flame that burns in some hearts as the flame of faith and the flame that burns in other hearts as the flame of offense and unbelief. Though Jesus was by no means eager to see people turn against him in unbelief, he knew it was best to carry out his saving work so that some might believe, be freed from satan, be forgiven of their sins, and receive the gift of eternal life. Though Jesus was by no means eager for his disciples to suffer and be persecuted, he knew that the result of his death and resurrection would be that the message of salvation would be preached to all people. Though Jesus was by no means eager for us to suffer persecution and divisions because we have embraced the flame that Jesus kindled—the flame which now burns in our hearts as faith—he knew that we would find peace, comfort and strength in the message of salvation whenever we faced fiery persecution from those who do not believe. He knew that because we had embraced the flame of faith that Jesus himself had kindled in our hearts, we would take comfort in the knowledge that satan’s power had completely been destroyed. We would take comfort in the knowledge that our enemy no longer holds any power over us. We would take comfort in the knowledge that eternal life in heaven is waiting for us because Jesus’ death and resurrection has washed us clean of all our sins; lighting the flame of faith which we have embraced since we were little children!
The problem is, however, that even though we have embraced the flame of faith that Jesus has kindled in our hearts by his death and resurrection, there are many others who have not embraced it. Instead they have embraced the flame of offense and unbelief where Jesus is concerned, which is exactly what Jesus is speaking about in verses 51-53 of our lesson today. Let’s take a look at what Jesus is saying in Luke 12:51-53: “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:51–53, NIV)
Sadly, this is exactly what we are seeing in our world today! We are seeing more and more divisions where Jesus is concerned. We are seeing more and more people who are embracing the flame of offense and unbelief. Though Jesus completely destroyed satan’s power when he went to the cross, satan still hasn’t given up! Unlike Lee who simply rode away after the surrender at Appomattox, satan has refused to surrender. Even though Jesus has completely forgiven all sin, satan continually works in the hearts and minds of people doing everything he can to cause people to take offense at the idea that 2000 years ago, some man died on a cross and rose again from the dead. Whenever the message of salvation through faith in Jesus comes up, he is right there whispering to the heart about how foolish it is to believe something like that. He is right there stoking the fires of logic against the idea that the death of some person could possibly forgive sins, because something like that is simply too easy to believe. He is right there in the brain, screaming about how difficult salvation truly is and that if we ever want to attain it we must get busy right now to make it happen for ourselves. Thus, more and more people each day embrace the flame of offense and unbelief rather than the flame of faith.
But what is even sadder still is that we see these very divisions coming to light in our own families! Some of you have seen your own children, who so firmly embraced the flame of faith begin to loosen their grip on that flame and allow the flame of doubt and offense to take up at least partial residence in their hearts soon after the day of their Confirmation. Some of you have seen teens on our own families begin to question the value of worship, fight against their need to go and be bored for an hour by the Word of God, and even begin to keep themselves from fueling the flame of faith that Jesus kindled in their hearts. Some of you have watched your children leave the nest for school or work knowing that now it is up to them to make the decision to embrace the flame of their faith or to allow the flame of offense and unbelief to grow in their hearts. Some of you have seen your adult children change as they began embracing the flame of offense and unbelief. Some of you have faced the frustration of divisions between you and your children or you and your family because these very divisions have taken hold and not every member of your family is embracing that flame of faith that you hold so dear. Some of you may even be at your wits end because of the heart ache you feel for your family, your children, or even your relatives and you are worried about what you can do. Some of you may even be angry with the Lord for allowing such terrible divisions to come from the flame he kindled when he went to the cross.
If you have ever faced divisions like these, or if you’ve ever been worried that they might happen to you, allow me to share with you an illustration of God’s faithfulness to encourage you as you embrace the flame of faith that God himself kindled in your hearts. This illustration comes from a sermon by James MacDonald, which I’m sure that God saw to it that I heard when I was running errands so that I could share it with you. (Clip)
Though some of you may be facing divisions in your families, always remember the faithfulness of our God. Though some of you may be facing difficulties with children who are beginning to embrace the flame of offense rather than the flame of faith, place them in the Lord’s hands through prayer. And trust what the Lord has to say. Look back at Luke 12:52-53 with me one more time, and as we read pay attention to what Jesus does not say. “From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:52–53, NIV)
Though our Savior tells us that divisions like these can come into our lives, he does not say that they are permanent. He does not say that once the flame of offense and unbelief begins to grow in your heart forever will it dominate your destiny. He also gives us the very weapons we can use against divisions like this. For even before we face divisions like these we need to live our faith as an example to our families, to our children, and even to others. We need to speak with our children and teach them the precious truths of salvation so that as proverbs says, “when they are old they will not turn from it.” We need to encourage our children as they grow, especially if they begin to fall from their secure footing of salvation. We need to pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, and pray for ourselves, for our children, for our families, for our friends, for those who are slipping, for those who are struggling to hold on to the flame of faith, for those who have begun to embrace the flame of offense and unbelief, for those who have fallen away from the faith completely, and especially for those who have not yet heard the message of salvation. We need to do this so that our Savior might kindle or rekindle the flame of faith in the hearts of those who are struggling, fallen away or who have never heard the message so that they too can live in the salvation that Jesus won for them and once again embrace the flame of faith that he first kindled in their hearts.
So, dear friends, heed the invitation of your God to embrace the flame of faith that Jesus has kindled in your hearts. Embrace it in the same way that I embraced the task of grilling and lighting the charcoal for my family. Embrace it, feed it, and watch it grow into an all consuming flame of faith; one which you will never set aside or let go of, ever.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church,--Le Sueur, MN
When I was about 12 I became the grill master for our family. Though it started off rather slowly with only a few opportunities, I quickly embraced my new position because I loved everything about it. Though we didn’t have a gas grill, or even a Weber, I embraced every part of my task, but my favorite part was lighting the charcoal. Now, you have to understand, we didn’t use lighter fluid. We had a charcoal lighting cylinder type of thing. We placed crumpled newspaper on the bottom. Over the newspaper was a metal grate where we first put the charcoal we had used for the last grilling before we added the new stuff. I can still remember how fun it was to light the newspaper kindling and watch as the flames grew, lighting first the older charcoal before it light the new. I remember watching with amazement as the kindling gave way to glowing briquettes that eventually produced flames that leaped out of the top of that cylinder. Well, in the same way that I used to kindle the flames that cooked the food on our family’s grill, our Savior has kindled the flames of faith that we embrace in our hearts to this day, by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.
In fact, now that our Savior has done kindled the flame of faith in our hearts, our we hear our God calling on us to embrace the flame that Jesus kindled. To do that we want to take a closer look at our Gospel lesson in Luke 12:49-53, which can be found on page 1032 of your Bibles. As you’re turning to Luke 12:49 let me refresh your memories as to what has been going on. Though we’ve been studying chapter 12 for the last three weeks, we have not been wanting for good teaching. After all, it was in this chapter that Jesus warned us against all kinds of greed as he taught us to find our true wealth in the Lord our God. It was in this Chapter that we saw just how precious we are to the Lord our God and how the Lord invites us to rejoice as we look forward to the return of our Savior; knowing that our God has already given us the keys to the kingdom of heaven through faith in Jesus. Now, today, as Jesus continues his discourse with his disciples and the crowd of thousands he is revealing to us the very nature of his mission here on earth, and he is inviting each and every one of us to embrace the flame that Jesus himself kindled when he went to the cross. Let’s look at Luke 12:49-51 where Jesus is speaking and says: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” (Luke 12:49–51, NIV)
As Jesus spoke to the thousands who had gathered to hear him, he revealed to them the very purpose of his mission here on earth. Though so many had thought of the Messiah as the great peace bringer who would bring an end to the Roman tyranny, re-establish the sovereignty of the Jewish Nation, and rule on the throne for many years, returning the glory days of David and Solomon along with the same level of peace and prosperity, Jesus clearly revealed that his mission was not an act of peace, but an act of war! Jesus mission was to infiltrate satan’s territory, to seek out the lost sheep of Israel, and to proclaim freedom for the captives. This is what Jesus had been doing for the last three years as he cut a path of destruction through satan’s territory. Not actual destruction, mind you, but spiritual destruction; for everywhere that Jesus went he proclaimed the gospel of salvation. He preached the harshest law against the self-righteous servants of satan who thought that they did not need Jesus; and he preached the sweetest gospel of forgiveness to those whom he rescued from satan’s grip; soothing their wounds with the salve of his grace. Now, with only a few months left, Jesus is already preparing himself for the final showdown, the final battle between himself and satan, our enemy—the battle where Jesus would light the fire that will cover the earth. Look back with me at what Jesus is saying in verses 49 and 50: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” (Luke 12:49–50, NIV)
With only a few months before the conclusion of his earthly ministry, Jesus tells us that he is more than ready for the conclusion of his mission. He is more than ready to completely destroy satan’s power over us by his death and resurrection from the dead. This is the baptism of which Jesus speaks—his crucifixion where he would forgive the sins of the world, destroy the power of the devil, forever, and where he would kindle the flame that would burn in the hearts of every man and woman until the very last day. This is the flame that was struck when Jesus was crucified; the flame that burns in some hearts as the flame of faith and the flame that burns in other hearts as the flame of offense and unbelief. Though Jesus was by no means eager to see people turn against him in unbelief, he knew it was best to carry out his saving work so that some might believe, be freed from satan, be forgiven of their sins, and receive the gift of eternal life. Though Jesus was by no means eager for his disciples to suffer and be persecuted, he knew that the result of his death and resurrection would be that the message of salvation would be preached to all people. Though Jesus was by no means eager for us to suffer persecution and divisions because we have embraced the flame that Jesus kindled—the flame which now burns in our hearts as faith—he knew that we would find peace, comfort and strength in the message of salvation whenever we faced fiery persecution from those who do not believe. He knew that because we had embraced the flame of faith that Jesus himself had kindled in our hearts, we would take comfort in the knowledge that satan’s power had completely been destroyed. We would take comfort in the knowledge that our enemy no longer holds any power over us. We would take comfort in the knowledge that eternal life in heaven is waiting for us because Jesus’ death and resurrection has washed us clean of all our sins; lighting the flame of faith which we have embraced since we were little children!
The problem is, however, that even though we have embraced the flame of faith that Jesus has kindled in our hearts by his death and resurrection, there are many others who have not embraced it. Instead they have embraced the flame of offense and unbelief where Jesus is concerned, which is exactly what Jesus is speaking about in verses 51-53 of our lesson today. Let’s take a look at what Jesus is saying in Luke 12:51-53: “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:51–53, NIV)
Sadly, this is exactly what we are seeing in our world today! We are seeing more and more divisions where Jesus is concerned. We are seeing more and more people who are embracing the flame of offense and unbelief. Though Jesus completely destroyed satan’s power when he went to the cross, satan still hasn’t given up! Unlike Lee who simply rode away after the surrender at Appomattox, satan has refused to surrender. Even though Jesus has completely forgiven all sin, satan continually works in the hearts and minds of people doing everything he can to cause people to take offense at the idea that 2000 years ago, some man died on a cross and rose again from the dead. Whenever the message of salvation through faith in Jesus comes up, he is right there whispering to the heart about how foolish it is to believe something like that. He is right there stoking the fires of logic against the idea that the death of some person could possibly forgive sins, because something like that is simply too easy to believe. He is right there in the brain, screaming about how difficult salvation truly is and that if we ever want to attain it we must get busy right now to make it happen for ourselves. Thus, more and more people each day embrace the flame of offense and unbelief rather than the flame of faith.
But what is even sadder still is that we see these very divisions coming to light in our own families! Some of you have seen your own children, who so firmly embraced the flame of faith begin to loosen their grip on that flame and allow the flame of doubt and offense to take up at least partial residence in their hearts soon after the day of their Confirmation. Some of you have seen teens on our own families begin to question the value of worship, fight against their need to go and be bored for an hour by the Word of God, and even begin to keep themselves from fueling the flame of faith that Jesus kindled in their hearts. Some of you have watched your children leave the nest for school or work knowing that now it is up to them to make the decision to embrace the flame of their faith or to allow the flame of offense and unbelief to grow in their hearts. Some of you have seen your adult children change as they began embracing the flame of offense and unbelief. Some of you have faced the frustration of divisions between you and your children or you and your family because these very divisions have taken hold and not every member of your family is embracing that flame of faith that you hold so dear. Some of you may even be at your wits end because of the heart ache you feel for your family, your children, or even your relatives and you are worried about what you can do. Some of you may even be angry with the Lord for allowing such terrible divisions to come from the flame he kindled when he went to the cross.
If you have ever faced divisions like these, or if you’ve ever been worried that they might happen to you, allow me to share with you an illustration of God’s faithfulness to encourage you as you embrace the flame of faith that God himself kindled in your hearts. This illustration comes from a sermon by James MacDonald, which I’m sure that God saw to it that I heard when I was running errands so that I could share it with you. (Clip)
Though some of you may be facing divisions in your families, always remember the faithfulness of our God. Though some of you may be facing difficulties with children who are beginning to embrace the flame of offense rather than the flame of faith, place them in the Lord’s hands through prayer. And trust what the Lord has to say. Look back at Luke 12:52-53 with me one more time, and as we read pay attention to what Jesus does not say. “From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:52–53, NIV)
Though our Savior tells us that divisions like these can come into our lives, he does not say that they are permanent. He does not say that once the flame of offense and unbelief begins to grow in your heart forever will it dominate your destiny. He also gives us the very weapons we can use against divisions like this. For even before we face divisions like these we need to live our faith as an example to our families, to our children, and even to others. We need to speak with our children and teach them the precious truths of salvation so that as proverbs says, “when they are old they will not turn from it.” We need to encourage our children as they grow, especially if they begin to fall from their secure footing of salvation. We need to pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, and pray for ourselves, for our children, for our families, for our friends, for those who are slipping, for those who are struggling to hold on to the flame of faith, for those who have begun to embrace the flame of offense and unbelief, for those who have fallen away from the faith completely, and especially for those who have not yet heard the message of salvation. We need to do this so that our Savior might kindle or rekindle the flame of faith in the hearts of those who are struggling, fallen away or who have never heard the message so that they too can live in the salvation that Jesus won for them and once again embrace the flame of faith that he first kindled in their hearts.
So, dear friends, heed the invitation of your God to embrace the flame of faith that Jesus has kindled in your hearts. Embrace it in the same way that I embraced the task of grilling and lighting the charcoal for my family. Embrace it, feed it, and watch it grow into an all consuming flame of faith; one which you will never set aside or let go of, ever.
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
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Serve the Lord by sharing your faith (Luke 10:1-12, 16-20)
Dear Friends in Christ
The story has been told about the great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, who willed his marvelous violin to Genoa, the city of his birth. The only condition he applied to this bequeathal was that his violin was never to be played. This was a very unfortunate condition because as long as wood is handled and used, it shows little wear, however, as soon as it is discarded it begins to decay. Today Paganini’s beautiful, mellow-toned violin has become a worm-eaten, useless relic in a beautiful case. Well, in the same way that Paganini’s violin fell apart because it did not continue in the service of making beautiful music, so also as Christians, if we do not continue on in our Christian Service, we might find that our capacity for usefulness in the Lord’s kingdom has been seriously hampered if not destroyed. It is because of this very reason that the Lord Jesus our Savior is calling on us as his servants to serve the Lord by sharing our faith.
Now, if you think about it, sharing our faith is the very thing that we were born to do. After all, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savoir. For the truth is, most of us, if not all of us, have been Christians since the day that we were baptized as little children. Our parents first taught us about Jesus through songs like, “I am Jesus’ Little Lamb.” As we grew, our faith in Jesus grew right along with us as our parents first brought us to church, and then, when we were old enough, sent us to Sunday School. Our knowledge of salvation through faith in Jesus continued to grow as we continued on in Sunday School or as some of you continued on in Lutheran Elementary School. We learned even more about Jesus our Savior when we came to church week after week to study the Catechism under the direction of the Pastor. Even after confirmation our faith continued to grow as we gathered for worship each week and had opportunity to gather with others to Study the Bible every Sunday morning. Whether we’ve been on this earth for a mere 8 months or 80 plus years, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. We all know everything we need to know in order to go out and serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others.
Yet, how often don’t we simply fail to do this? Though we know the joy that fills our hearts because our sins have been forgiven, how often don’t we hide that joy deep within our hearts and only take it out to look at when we are in the safety of the church or maybe the safety of our own homes? How often haven’t we run across someone who absolutely needs us to hear the good news of salvation, but we chicken out and don’t say anything about the hope that we have? How often haven’t we seen the sorrowful eyes, the pained expressions, the slumped shoulders as a co-worker trudges through life, looking for the answers he just simply can’t seem to find anywhere and wondering how in all the world he’s going to make it through today when another day just as bad filled with just as many stresses is coming tomorrow, yet we can’t seem to work up the nerve to tell him about the joy we have in Jesus? How often hasn’t it happened that a perfect opportunity to share our faith with a classmate passed us by because we simply didn’t feel prepared to share our faith by in school with so many other people milling about; people who might hear what we were saying and ask us questions we didn’t feel ready to answer? How often haven’t we had a dear friend, maybe even a fellow believer in Jesus, open up to us and emotionally fall apart because so many worries of life had weighed them down, yet rather than encouraging them and building them up in their faith by talking about your Savior, rather than taking time to pray for them that the Holy Spirit would strengthen them and comfort them with the comfort that Jesus himself offers, all we do for them is pat them on the back, offer encouraging sounding words, and tell them, “I’ll be praying for you.”
How many times haven’t we simply failed to serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others? If we’re honest, we have to say that we don’t know. We don’t know because we’ve failed to share our faith on so many different occasions that simply cannot count them all. Though I hate to admit it, I am just as guilty of failing to share my faith in the Lord with others when opportunities came my way. To this day there are faces that haunt my thoughts because I failed to serve the Lord. I was too afraid to share my faith with them, and I still pray that I was not their last or only opportunity to hear the message of salvation. As Don Piper writes in his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, “If you saw a little kid run out in the street, you’d dash out there and try to save the child’s life. Human nature is like that. We try to preserve life, and I will do that any time I get the opportunity. So would you. Yet, here we are sitting in this [restaurant], surrounded by people, many of whom are probably lost and going to hell, and we won’t say a word about how they can have eternal life. Something is wrong with us…We’re willing to save someone in a visible crisis, but a lot of folks are in a spiritual crisis and we don’t say a word about how they can get out of it.” (Piper, Don. 90 Minutes in Heaven. p. 131)
But even though we may have failed at serving the Lord and failed miserably at sharing our faith, there is hope even for us. In fact, it was just last week that we heard how Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. It was just last week that we heard how Jesus had entered into the last six months of his earthly ministry, and he was heading to Jerusalem where he would step up to the plate of the cross and belt our sins out of the park with the cry of “It is finished!” It was there, in Jerusalem, with the soldiers nailing him to the cross that Jesus prayed, “Father, forgiven them. They do not know what they are doing.” It was there in Jerusalem that Jesus showed how much he loved us. Though people taunted him and tempted him to come down from the cross, it was his love for us that caused him to remain there. It was on that cross that Jesus stretched out his arms and died in our place. For in the same way that the Mighty Mississippi begins as a small trickle from Lake Itasca, so also the river of Jesus’ blood that has washed us clean of every spot and stain of our sins began at that cross in Jerusalem! Though we don’t deserve it by any means, it was the Holy Spirit who immersed our heats in the river of Jesus blood on the day that he called us to faith. It was the Holy Spirit who sealed us as members of the Father’s house through the forgiveness that Jesus won for us. Even now, as we sit here in worship, it is the Holy Spirit who is assuring us that our past failures have been forgiven. Those missed opportunities have been washed away, even those times we were too afraid to speak up or simply didn’t feel prepared enough to speak; they have all been forgiven by through faith in Jesus Christ who now calls us to go out and serve him once again by sharing our faith.
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson today in Luke 10 beginning with verse 1; Luke chapter 10, which begins on page 1027. Last week we heard how Jesus set out on his way to Jerusalem, how he was refused lodging in a Samaritan village because he was headed to Jerusalem. We also heard how he spoke to three different people along the road whom either expressed a desire to follow him or whom he invited to follow him. Now, after all those events our text opens with Luke writing in chapter 10 beginning with verse 1: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. 8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ (Luke 10:1–11, NIV)
Now, when Jesus sent these 72 disciples out to share their faith and proclaim the kingdom of God, Jesus had only 6 months left in his earthly ministry. Jesus didn’t have much time left and he passed that urgency on to his disciples. Their mission, in fact, was so urgent that Jesus wanted them to leave from right where they were. They didn’t have time to go home and grab extra money, pack an overnight bag, grab an extra pair of sandals, or even greet people on the road because that could easily suck them into a long conversation that would delay their mission. Rather Jesus wanted them to simply go and preach the message of salvation showing their complete dependence on the Lord in what they said and how they lived.
The same thing is true for each and every one of us. As Jesus disciples, he is sending us out to serve him by sharing our faith, and just like the mission was urgent for the 72, the mission is urgent for us, because we are living in the last days. We are living in a time when Jesus could be returning at any time. We are living in a day and age when satan seems to be winning the battle and more and more people are falling away from the faith every day. We are living in a day and age where each and every one of us is standing guard on the front lines of the kingdom of heaven as we advance together into a sinful world to share our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Though we still may not feel ready, we are ready through faith in Jesus. Though we may be worried about what to say, Jesus has promised to give us the words. Though there may be times when we are afraid to go on, Jesus has not sent us out alone, for just as he sent out the 72 in pairs of two, so also Jesus goes with us wherever we go. Though we might be afraid of rejection, well, Jesus covers that as well. Jump back up to verse 8 and we’ll continue from there:
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (Jump down to verse 16) 16 “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:8–12, 16, NIV)
Though the disciples could have faced some rejection as they shared their faith in Jesus, Jesus assured them that the rejection they faced was not a mark against them, but a mark against Jesus and his Father. The same thing is true for us today. Though there may be times when people laugh at us or ridicule us when we share our faith, their laughter and ridicule is actually against Jesus. Though we might have to bear the physical brunt of their rejection, the truth of the matter is that they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Jesus as their Savior and God the Father as their God. Though it may pain us to do so, shaking the dust off our feet and walking away will serve as testimony against them that they had the opportunity to hear the Word and the rejected it. It may even serve as such a testimony that one day they turn from their ways and repent at a later time. But just as time was short for the disciples whom Jesus sent out, time is short for us. As we share our faith in the Lord’s serve, we simply don’t have the time to fool around with those who don’t want to listen, be they friends, relatives, neighbors, or even members. There are so many millions of people who need to hear the Word of God that we simply have to keep going and pray that those who reject today may come around tomorrow.
What else can we learn from Jesus sending those 72 disciples out? Look at verse 17: “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17–20, NIV)
When they returned, they were overjoyed because the demons had submitted to them in Jesus name. Though this was indeed an amazing thing, Jesus immediately refocuses them on what is most important. He tells them to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. As we serve the Lord and share our faith with the people around us, this also is our comfort. Our names are written in heaven and no one can change that. Though we may be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected by those with whom we share our faith, our names are still written in heaven. Through faith in Jesus our names are written in heaven. Our sins have been forgiven by Jesus our Savior. Eternal life is waiting for us when the Lord Jesus calls us out of this life. Until then, we have been given the opportunity to serve him by sharing our faith.
So dear friends, as you leave here today; continue on in your Christian service. Take your personal sermon study sheets with you and during the week consider answers for the last two questions that I chose not to answer today. I’m sure that I could have answered them if I kept on preaching, but I can tell that I’ve already spoken long enough and you are not ready for me to go another 20 minutes or so. But take those with you, continue on in your Christian service, always looking for ways to serve the Lord by sharing your faith.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
The story has been told about the great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, who willed his marvelous violin to Genoa, the city of his birth. The only condition he applied to this bequeathal was that his violin was never to be played. This was a very unfortunate condition because as long as wood is handled and used, it shows little wear, however, as soon as it is discarded it begins to decay. Today Paganini’s beautiful, mellow-toned violin has become a worm-eaten, useless relic in a beautiful case. Well, in the same way that Paganini’s violin fell apart because it did not continue in the service of making beautiful music, so also as Christians, if we do not continue on in our Christian Service, we might find that our capacity for usefulness in the Lord’s kingdom has been seriously hampered if not destroyed. It is because of this very reason that the Lord Jesus our Savior is calling on us as his servants to serve the Lord by sharing our faith.
Now, if you think about it, sharing our faith is the very thing that we were born to do. After all, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savoir. For the truth is, most of us, if not all of us, have been Christians since the day that we were baptized as little children. Our parents first taught us about Jesus through songs like, “I am Jesus’ Little Lamb.” As we grew, our faith in Jesus grew right along with us as our parents first brought us to church, and then, when we were old enough, sent us to Sunday School. Our knowledge of salvation through faith in Jesus continued to grow as we continued on in Sunday School or as some of you continued on in Lutheran Elementary School. We learned even more about Jesus our Savior when we came to church week after week to study the Catechism under the direction of the Pastor. Even after confirmation our faith continued to grow as we gathered for worship each week and had opportunity to gather with others to Study the Bible every Sunday morning. Whether we’ve been on this earth for a mere 8 months or 80 plus years, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. We all know everything we need to know in order to go out and serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others.
Yet, how often don’t we simply fail to do this? Though we know the joy that fills our hearts because our sins have been forgiven, how often don’t we hide that joy deep within our hearts and only take it out to look at when we are in the safety of the church or maybe the safety of our own homes? How often haven’t we run across someone who absolutely needs us to hear the good news of salvation, but we chicken out and don’t say anything about the hope that we have? How often haven’t we seen the sorrowful eyes, the pained expressions, the slumped shoulders as a co-worker trudges through life, looking for the answers he just simply can’t seem to find anywhere and wondering how in all the world he’s going to make it through today when another day just as bad filled with just as many stresses is coming tomorrow, yet we can’t seem to work up the nerve to tell him about the joy we have in Jesus? How often hasn’t it happened that a perfect opportunity to share our faith with a classmate passed us by because we simply didn’t feel prepared to share our faith by in school with so many other people milling about; people who might hear what we were saying and ask us questions we didn’t feel ready to answer? How often haven’t we had a dear friend, maybe even a fellow believer in Jesus, open up to us and emotionally fall apart because so many worries of life had weighed them down, yet rather than encouraging them and building them up in their faith by talking about your Savior, rather than taking time to pray for them that the Holy Spirit would strengthen them and comfort them with the comfort that Jesus himself offers, all we do for them is pat them on the back, offer encouraging sounding words, and tell them, “I’ll be praying for you.”
How many times haven’t we simply failed to serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others? If we’re honest, we have to say that we don’t know. We don’t know because we’ve failed to share our faith on so many different occasions that simply cannot count them all. Though I hate to admit it, I am just as guilty of failing to share my faith in the Lord with others when opportunities came my way. To this day there are faces that haunt my thoughts because I failed to serve the Lord. I was too afraid to share my faith with them, and I still pray that I was not their last or only opportunity to hear the message of salvation. As Don Piper writes in his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, “If you saw a little kid run out in the street, you’d dash out there and try to save the child’s life. Human nature is like that. We try to preserve life, and I will do that any time I get the opportunity. So would you. Yet, here we are sitting in this [restaurant], surrounded by people, many of whom are probably lost and going to hell, and we won’t say a word about how they can have eternal life. Something is wrong with us…We’re willing to save someone in a visible crisis, but a lot of folks are in a spiritual crisis and we don’t say a word about how they can get out of it.” (Piper, Don. 90 Minutes in Heaven. p. 131)
But even though we may have failed at serving the Lord and failed miserably at sharing our faith, there is hope even for us. In fact, it was just last week that we heard how Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. It was just last week that we heard how Jesus had entered into the last six months of his earthly ministry, and he was heading to Jerusalem where he would step up to the plate of the cross and belt our sins out of the park with the cry of “It is finished!” It was there, in Jerusalem, with the soldiers nailing him to the cross that Jesus prayed, “Father, forgiven them. They do not know what they are doing.” It was there in Jerusalem that Jesus showed how much he loved us. Though people taunted him and tempted him to come down from the cross, it was his love for us that caused him to remain there. It was on that cross that Jesus stretched out his arms and died in our place. For in the same way that the Mighty Mississippi begins as a small trickle from Lake Itasca, so also the river of Jesus’ blood that has washed us clean of every spot and stain of our sins began at that cross in Jerusalem! Though we don’t deserve it by any means, it was the Holy Spirit who immersed our heats in the river of Jesus blood on the day that he called us to faith. It was the Holy Spirit who sealed us as members of the Father’s house through the forgiveness that Jesus won for us. Even now, as we sit here in worship, it is the Holy Spirit who is assuring us that our past failures have been forgiven. Those missed opportunities have been washed away, even those times we were too afraid to speak up or simply didn’t feel prepared enough to speak; they have all been forgiven by through faith in Jesus Christ who now calls us to go out and serve him once again by sharing our faith.
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson today in Luke 10 beginning with verse 1; Luke chapter 10, which begins on page 1027. Last week we heard how Jesus set out on his way to Jerusalem, how he was refused lodging in a Samaritan village because he was headed to Jerusalem. We also heard how he spoke to three different people along the road whom either expressed a desire to follow him or whom he invited to follow him. Now, after all those events our text opens with Luke writing in chapter 10 beginning with verse 1: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. 8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ (Luke 10:1–11, NIV)
Now, when Jesus sent these 72 disciples out to share their faith and proclaim the kingdom of God, Jesus had only 6 months left in his earthly ministry. Jesus didn’t have much time left and he passed that urgency on to his disciples. Their mission, in fact, was so urgent that Jesus wanted them to leave from right where they were. They didn’t have time to go home and grab extra money, pack an overnight bag, grab an extra pair of sandals, or even greet people on the road because that could easily suck them into a long conversation that would delay their mission. Rather Jesus wanted them to simply go and preach the message of salvation showing their complete dependence on the Lord in what they said and how they lived.
The same thing is true for each and every one of us. As Jesus disciples, he is sending us out to serve him by sharing our faith, and just like the mission was urgent for the 72, the mission is urgent for us, because we are living in the last days. We are living in a time when Jesus could be returning at any time. We are living in a day and age when satan seems to be winning the battle and more and more people are falling away from the faith every day. We are living in a day and age where each and every one of us is standing guard on the front lines of the kingdom of heaven as we advance together into a sinful world to share our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Though we still may not feel ready, we are ready through faith in Jesus. Though we may be worried about what to say, Jesus has promised to give us the words. Though there may be times when we are afraid to go on, Jesus has not sent us out alone, for just as he sent out the 72 in pairs of two, so also Jesus goes with us wherever we go. Though we might be afraid of rejection, well, Jesus covers that as well. Jump back up to verse 8 and we’ll continue from there:
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (Jump down to verse 16) 16 “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:8–12, 16, NIV)
Though the disciples could have faced some rejection as they shared their faith in Jesus, Jesus assured them that the rejection they faced was not a mark against them, but a mark against Jesus and his Father. The same thing is true for us today. Though there may be times when people laugh at us or ridicule us when we share our faith, their laughter and ridicule is actually against Jesus. Though we might have to bear the physical brunt of their rejection, the truth of the matter is that they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Jesus as their Savior and God the Father as their God. Though it may pain us to do so, shaking the dust off our feet and walking away will serve as testimony against them that they had the opportunity to hear the Word and the rejected it. It may even serve as such a testimony that one day they turn from their ways and repent at a later time. But just as time was short for the disciples whom Jesus sent out, time is short for us. As we share our faith in the Lord’s serve, we simply don’t have the time to fool around with those who don’t want to listen, be they friends, relatives, neighbors, or even members. There are so many millions of people who need to hear the Word of God that we simply have to keep going and pray that those who reject today may come around tomorrow.
What else can we learn from Jesus sending those 72 disciples out? Look at verse 17: “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17–20, NIV)
When they returned, they were overjoyed because the demons had submitted to them in Jesus name. Though this was indeed an amazing thing, Jesus immediately refocuses them on what is most important. He tells them to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. As we serve the Lord and share our faith with the people around us, this also is our comfort. Our names are written in heaven and no one can change that. Though we may be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected by those with whom we share our faith, our names are still written in heaven. Through faith in Jesus our names are written in heaven. Our sins have been forgiven by Jesus our Savior. Eternal life is waiting for us when the Lord Jesus calls us out of this life. Until then, we have been given the opportunity to serve him by sharing our faith.
So dear friends, as you leave here today; continue on in your Christian service. Take your personal sermon study sheets with you and during the week consider answers for the last two questions that I chose not to answer today. I’m sure that I could have answered them if I kept on preaching, but I can tell that I’ve already spoken long enough and you are not ready for me to go another 20 minutes or so. But take those with you, continue on in your Christian service, always looking for ways to serve the Lord by sharing your faith.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, May 9, 2010
What will heaven be like? (Revelation 21:10-14, 22,23)
Dear friends in Christ.
How many of you have ever been asked the question, “What will heaven be like?” How many of you found yourself giving an answer something along the lines of, “I’m not really sure.”? How many of you have wished that you had a better answer to that question, not only for the person who asked it of you, but also for yourself? Well, if you’ve ever been asked that question, or simply wished for a better answer, you are not alone, because the truth is, so often we simply aren’t exactly sure how to answer the question of what heaven will be like. We aren’t exactly sure how to answer that question so we take the most “heavenly” thing that we do here on earth and imagine that is what heaven will be like and use it to draw a picture for ourselves of what we think heaven might be like. Well, this is very much like what the Lord our God does for us as he gives us a glimpse into what heaven will be like in our text today. Though we may not find all the specific details about heaven that we might have hoped to find, we will certainly find that heaven is a place that is filled with the glory of our God and it is a place that the Lord our God designed specifically for his people. Just as John tells us in our text this morning: “And [the Angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb…I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ” (Revelation 21:10-14, 22–23, NIV)
What an incredible picture the Lord our God paints for us through the pen of the Apostle John. What a beautiful picture of the glories of heaven that are waiting for us, and what a beautiful sight it must have been for John to see. What an amazing thing it must have been for him to witness the City of God shining in all of its splendor and coming down from heaven. What an incredible vision of heaven as the place filled with the glory of God, and yet, even though you and I have never been blessed with such a remarkable vision as this, we have all still received a taste, a glimpse of the type of glorious brilliance that John saw when he saw exactly what heaven will be like; for the truth is, we have all seen the brilliance of the sun. We have all had many an opportunity to drive East as the sun is breaking the horizon and slowly creeping its unblinking way across our windshields. We have all had the opportunity of driving West as that unblinking eye grows redder and more weary, finally allowing the lid of the horizon to close over it for the evening. Though it can be more than frustrating to get locked into a staring competition with God’s great light in the sky, we have all seen how, during those special times of day, everything that the sun’s gaze touches seems to glow with its own special kind of radiance.
Though this is nowhere near the glory that was revealed to John in his vision, it does give us a taste of what heaven will be like as it gives us a glimpse into the glories that he saw when he saw the Holy City, Jerusalem, shining with the radiance of the glories of the Lord. For in that moment, he saw the brilliance that Moses saw on Mt. Sinai when he asked the Lord if he could see him face to face. He saw the same brilliance the Israelites saw as the glory of the Lord descended on the temple after Solomon had finished construction on it. This was the same brilliance that Elijah saw when the Lord God called him to be his prophet, it was the same radiance that John and the other two disciples saw as Jesus was transfigured before them, and this is the glory that John saw revealed in the kingdom of heaven which he has recorded for us in such beautiful pictures.
Yet, some of you might be asking yourselves, “Why in all the world does the Lord use pictures to explain what heaven will be like for us? Why doesn’t he just simply tell us?” Well, the answer to that is quite simple, we cannot fully understand what heaven is like because of our limited, sinful minds, so the Lord uses pictures to help us grab hold of and imagine the place where he dwells in glorious majesty. When Martin Luther described heaven to his 6 year old son, he described it as a garden where he could play with other children, ride ponies with silver saddles, and pick the best fruit from all the trees. When I’ve described it to my own children, I’ve talked about heaven as a place where their favorite toys will be, they can play games with their friends and relatives who are waiting for them, and even Jesus himself will sit down and join in the games with them. I’ve heard many other people describe heaven with many different pictures, but truly what better way to describe the place where our God dwells in all his glory than the way that John did in verse 23 of our text when he said, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (Revelation 21:23).
It is through these very pictures and images that the Lord our God helps us to understand the incomprehensible beauties of heaven. It is through these very pictures and images that the Lord our God makes the abstract nature of eternal life a concrete thing for us to focus on. Though we do not know the exact glories that await us in our heavenly home, we look forward to the day when our Lord will call us to shine with the brightness of his glory in the place that he has so lovingly and carefully designed for each and every one of his people.
Though there are many places in the Scriptures where the Lord reveals just how lovingly and carefully he has designed the halls of heaven for his people, I believe that one of the most beautiful descriptions can be found right here in our text as John writes beginning with verse 10: And [the Angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” and jumping down to verse 22: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.” (Revelation 21:12-14,22-27).
This is what the Lord has prepared for us—a place where we will live with the Lord our God, forever; a place where we will be reunited with all our friends and loved ones, who through faith, have been called home, before us; a place that Jesus himself has prepared for us. But even with such beautiful and stirring descriptions of what heaven will be like, I have actually had a few people ask me why they needed to be looking forward to the beauties of heaven and why the Lord needed to design such a beautiful home in haven if this earth is already such a beautiful place? Well, the answer to both of those questions can be summed up in one word, sin! Though the Lord did truly design a beautiful home for us here on this earth, when Adam and Eve listened to satan rather than the Lord our God it destroyed the perfect beauty of God’s creation and brought an end to the perfect relationship that our first parents had with the Lord their God. When sin came into the world it separated people from their God and because of sin, we continually fall short of God’s glory even though we daily struggle to follow his will.
Though we might strive to live perfect, sinless lives, constantly showing our love for our Savior by always obeying his will, because of our sins, we are simply unable to live the perfect lives our God demands, and we find ourselves kneeling at the foot of the cross begging forgiveness on a daily and even hourly basis. Though we know our sins have been forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we still face frustration and hardships in this life, pain and suffering, even heartache and pain. Though there are times when the stormy Navy blue skies are contrasted by the bright spectrum of the Lord’s rainbow, and we see great beauty in this world, it is nothing like the sinless beauty that our Savior designed for us in our heavenly home. Thus, we look forward to the day when the Lord our God will call us from this life to the life that is to come. We look forward to the day when we will be freed from this world of sins and delivered to the home of righteousness, which our Savior has so lovingly prepared for each and every one of his children.
What an incredible picture the Lord has painted for us through his servant John! What an incredible picture of the beauties of heaven which the Lord our Savior has designed for his people! What an incredible picture of beauty and peace where we will live with the Lord forever! For there, in the halls of heaven, we will be safe with the Lord our Savior forever. We will be free from the curse of sin. We will be free from our enemies. We will be free from all that is not God pleasing, and we will live with him forever serving our God in everlasting righteousness innocence and blessedness. We will be reunited with all our friends and loved ones who in faith have gone before us. We will live with the Lord Jesus himself. That is what heaven will be like!
What greater thing could there be for us to look forward to than the beauties of heaven which Jesus himself has prepared for us. What greater place could there be in all the world than the glorious kingdom of our God! Though we may not have received all the details we had hoped for, we have received a great picture of the glories of our heavenly home, which the Lord has prepared for us. If nothing else, hopefully we will be better prepared to answer that question when it comes, “What will heaven be like?”
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
How many of you have ever been asked the question, “What will heaven be like?” How many of you found yourself giving an answer something along the lines of, “I’m not really sure.”? How many of you have wished that you had a better answer to that question, not only for the person who asked it of you, but also for yourself? Well, if you’ve ever been asked that question, or simply wished for a better answer, you are not alone, because the truth is, so often we simply aren’t exactly sure how to answer the question of what heaven will be like. We aren’t exactly sure how to answer that question so we take the most “heavenly” thing that we do here on earth and imagine that is what heaven will be like and use it to draw a picture for ourselves of what we think heaven might be like. Well, this is very much like what the Lord our God does for us as he gives us a glimpse into what heaven will be like in our text today. Though we may not find all the specific details about heaven that we might have hoped to find, we will certainly find that heaven is a place that is filled with the glory of our God and it is a place that the Lord our God designed specifically for his people. Just as John tells us in our text this morning: “And [the Angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb…I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ” (Revelation 21:10-14, 22–23, NIV)
What an incredible picture the Lord our God paints for us through the pen of the Apostle John. What a beautiful picture of the glories of heaven that are waiting for us, and what a beautiful sight it must have been for John to see. What an amazing thing it must have been for him to witness the City of God shining in all of its splendor and coming down from heaven. What an incredible vision of heaven as the place filled with the glory of God, and yet, even though you and I have never been blessed with such a remarkable vision as this, we have all still received a taste, a glimpse of the type of glorious brilliance that John saw when he saw exactly what heaven will be like; for the truth is, we have all seen the brilliance of the sun. We have all had many an opportunity to drive East as the sun is breaking the horizon and slowly creeping its unblinking way across our windshields. We have all had the opportunity of driving West as that unblinking eye grows redder and more weary, finally allowing the lid of the horizon to close over it for the evening. Though it can be more than frustrating to get locked into a staring competition with God’s great light in the sky, we have all seen how, during those special times of day, everything that the sun’s gaze touches seems to glow with its own special kind of radiance.
Though this is nowhere near the glory that was revealed to John in his vision, it does give us a taste of what heaven will be like as it gives us a glimpse into the glories that he saw when he saw the Holy City, Jerusalem, shining with the radiance of the glories of the Lord. For in that moment, he saw the brilliance that Moses saw on Mt. Sinai when he asked the Lord if he could see him face to face. He saw the same brilliance the Israelites saw as the glory of the Lord descended on the temple after Solomon had finished construction on it. This was the same brilliance that Elijah saw when the Lord God called him to be his prophet, it was the same radiance that John and the other two disciples saw as Jesus was transfigured before them, and this is the glory that John saw revealed in the kingdom of heaven which he has recorded for us in such beautiful pictures.
Yet, some of you might be asking yourselves, “Why in all the world does the Lord use pictures to explain what heaven will be like for us? Why doesn’t he just simply tell us?” Well, the answer to that is quite simple, we cannot fully understand what heaven is like because of our limited, sinful minds, so the Lord uses pictures to help us grab hold of and imagine the place where he dwells in glorious majesty. When Martin Luther described heaven to his 6 year old son, he described it as a garden where he could play with other children, ride ponies with silver saddles, and pick the best fruit from all the trees. When I’ve described it to my own children, I’ve talked about heaven as a place where their favorite toys will be, they can play games with their friends and relatives who are waiting for them, and even Jesus himself will sit down and join in the games with them. I’ve heard many other people describe heaven with many different pictures, but truly what better way to describe the place where our God dwells in all his glory than the way that John did in verse 23 of our text when he said, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (Revelation 21:23).
It is through these very pictures and images that the Lord our God helps us to understand the incomprehensible beauties of heaven. It is through these very pictures and images that the Lord our God makes the abstract nature of eternal life a concrete thing for us to focus on. Though we do not know the exact glories that await us in our heavenly home, we look forward to the day when our Lord will call us to shine with the brightness of his glory in the place that he has so lovingly and carefully designed for each and every one of his people.
Though there are many places in the Scriptures where the Lord reveals just how lovingly and carefully he has designed the halls of heaven for his people, I believe that one of the most beautiful descriptions can be found right here in our text as John writes beginning with verse 10: And [the Angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” and jumping down to verse 22: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.” (Revelation 21:12-14,22-27).
This is what the Lord has prepared for us—a place where we will live with the Lord our God, forever; a place where we will be reunited with all our friends and loved ones, who through faith, have been called home, before us; a place that Jesus himself has prepared for us. But even with such beautiful and stirring descriptions of what heaven will be like, I have actually had a few people ask me why they needed to be looking forward to the beauties of heaven and why the Lord needed to design such a beautiful home in haven if this earth is already such a beautiful place? Well, the answer to both of those questions can be summed up in one word, sin! Though the Lord did truly design a beautiful home for us here on this earth, when Adam and Eve listened to satan rather than the Lord our God it destroyed the perfect beauty of God’s creation and brought an end to the perfect relationship that our first parents had with the Lord their God. When sin came into the world it separated people from their God and because of sin, we continually fall short of God’s glory even though we daily struggle to follow his will.
Though we might strive to live perfect, sinless lives, constantly showing our love for our Savior by always obeying his will, because of our sins, we are simply unable to live the perfect lives our God demands, and we find ourselves kneeling at the foot of the cross begging forgiveness on a daily and even hourly basis. Though we know our sins have been forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we still face frustration and hardships in this life, pain and suffering, even heartache and pain. Though there are times when the stormy Navy blue skies are contrasted by the bright spectrum of the Lord’s rainbow, and we see great beauty in this world, it is nothing like the sinless beauty that our Savior designed for us in our heavenly home. Thus, we look forward to the day when the Lord our God will call us from this life to the life that is to come. We look forward to the day when we will be freed from this world of sins and delivered to the home of righteousness, which our Savior has so lovingly prepared for each and every one of his children.
What an incredible picture the Lord has painted for us through his servant John! What an incredible picture of the beauties of heaven which the Lord our Savior has designed for his people! What an incredible picture of beauty and peace where we will live with the Lord forever! For there, in the halls of heaven, we will be safe with the Lord our Savior forever. We will be free from the curse of sin. We will be free from our enemies. We will be free from all that is not God pleasing, and we will live with him forever serving our God in everlasting righteousness innocence and blessedness. We will be reunited with all our friends and loved ones who in faith have gone before us. We will live with the Lord Jesus himself. That is what heaven will be like!
What greater thing could there be for us to look forward to than the beauties of heaven which Jesus himself has prepared for us. What greater place could there be in all the world than the glorious kingdom of our God! Though we may not have received all the details we had hoped for, we have received a great picture of the glories of our heavenly home, which the Lord has prepared for us. If nothing else, hopefully we will be better prepared to answer that question when it comes, “What will heaven be like?”
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
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