Matthew 15:21-28

²¹ And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²² And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” ²³ But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” ²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵ But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶ And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷ She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸ Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

No one likes being insulted. I remember playing kickball in 7^th grade and kicking a home run. One of the 8^th grade girls on the other team complained to her teammates about not getting me out. I can still hear her saying, “Come on guys, we can’t even get string bean out!” It hurt, but, in her defense, calling me ‘string bean’ was probably accurate. I think I had just reached 6’ 2”, probably weighed all of 120 lbs. when soaking wet, and was as coordinated as a linguini noodle. And if I remember right, it wasn’t a home run because it was some high, majestic kick that cleared a fence. The ball probably made it to the outfield and they tried to throw it at me a couple times, but I was too skinny of a target. Back then, I was basically two dimensional.

Insulting words can hurt from certain people’s lips, but there are times words can feel insulting and we should not be offended because those words are simply true. A prime example of this is when God Himself doles out insults in Scripture. Jesus said that He came to call not the righteous, but sinners (Mt. 9:13). Yes, Jesus came for everyone, so Jesus is calling all of us ‘sinners.’ Jesus says that He came to seek and save the lost (Lk. 19:10), that means you and I are the ‘lost.’ When you read Ro. 3[:10b-18] there is a whole series of insults for all people. Here’s a few for you: no one understands, no one seeks for God, together they have become worthless, no one does good, their throat is an open grave, the venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

In our text today, we have this Canaanite woman whose daughter is severely oppressed by a demon; she gets ignored, rejected, and even insulted by Jesus. But then Christ holds her up before us as an example of great faith because she continues to beg and pray to Jesus – the only One who can help her. In fact, she is only one of two people in all the Gospels whose faith is praised by Jesus. The other person whose faith is praised by Jesus is the Gentile centurion who had a sick servant (Mt. 8:5-13). Not even the disciples, who were personally called by Jesus, get praised for their faith. Because she has great faith, she has something to teach us. As Christians and disciples of Jesus, we should always learn from Christ, and here today, Jesus tells us to be learners and disciples of this Canaanite woman.

So, settle down class. Let’s all learn from our guest lecturer visiting us from the Canaanite School of Beggary.

This Canaanite woman comes to Jesus asking for mercy because, again, her daughter was severely oppressed by a demon. She is going to the right place – to Jesus – and asking Him to do exactly what He came to do. 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” But what does Jesus do? “He did not answer her a word.”

According to this woman’s experience Jesus is completely ignoring her. But rather than letting her experience discourage her so that she goes away, she keeps crying out. She cries out so much that the disciples become embarrassed and tell Jesus to send her away. Not only is her experience with Jesus harsh, but this foreign Rabbi’s disciples are actually praying against her. And notice that still Jesus doesn’t address her. He answers the disciples. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

So now, this woman is not only fighting against her experience, she is also fighting against the disciples’ prayers and Jesus’ own words. When Jesus says that He’s only sent for Israel, it is reasonable to think that Jesus is saying that He was not sent for her. But she fights against what reason would say and stubbornly clings to her hope in Jesus. She kneels before Jesus and gives Him a command, “Lord, help me.” Finally, Jesus gives her some attention, but it’s devastating. He replies, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” And that is as insulting as it sounds.

I think it’s safe to say that if most people heard Jesus say this to them, they’d be looking for another god. But this woman knows there is no other help for her, so look what she does. She takes the insult, holds on to it for dear life and says, “Yes, Lord.” Then our translation, the ESV, does something weird here (so do all English translations); they translate the next word as ‘yet.’ Some other translations will use the word ‘but.’ (I think I understand why all the English translations use ‘yet’ or ‘but’ as their translation.) But the word there means ‘for.’ It’s one of the most common words in the New Testament, and of the 1,009 times it’s used in the New Testament this is the only place the ESV translates it as ‘yet.’ The problem with using ‘yet’ or ‘but’ is that it sounds like she is disagreeing with Jesus. She isn’t disagreeing with Jesus. Instead, she agrees with him. She confesses that she is a dog. “Yes, Lord, for even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Basically, she is saying, “Ok, Jesus. You call me a dog? Then a dog is what I am. I don’t need the bread You give to Your children. You’re correct. It isn’t right to give Your children’s bread to a dog like me. Treat me like a dog and I’ll be more than content to get the crumbs that dogs get. The crumbs that the children drop without realizing it are enough for me.”

I think the first lesson we learn in the Canaanite School of Beggars is that we can be bold in our prayers.

I love what Luther says when he preached on this text. (I included this quote in your bulletin insert.) “When we feel in our conscience that God reproaches us as sinners and judges us unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, then we experience hell and think that we are eternally lost. Whoever has this woman’s ingenuity should catch God in His own judgment and say, ‘Yes. Lord, it is true. I am a sinner and unworthy of Your grace. Nevertheless, You have promised forgiveness to sinners.’”

Dear saints, have the ingenuity of this woman. When God’s Law comes to you and says, “You are lost,” we take God at His Word and cry to Him. “Yes, God. I’m lost. Find me.” When God’s Law says, “You’re a sinner,” we say, “Yes, God. I’m a sinner. Save me” (Mt. 9:13). When God says, “You’re dead,” we cry to Him “Raise me.” And we can be bold when we pray these things. God has promised to do these things for the lost, the sinner, and the dead in sin. So we can take those promises, hold them in front of God’s face, and demand that He be true to His Word.

We actually had a little debate about this in our family this past week. I ran through this idea during our Bible time, and my family had a consensus that we should add a ‘please’ to these prayers. I’m glad my family has manners, but there might be times when we get frustrated with God because He appears to be continually denying our prayers for things He has promised to give us. In this text, it appears that Jesus isn’t going to answer this woman’s prayer.

Now, this whole event with might have lasted an hour or it might have been as short as fifteen minutes. But there is no denying that Jesus puts this woman through the ringer. In our lives, there may be times where it might seem that God is denying our prayers for days or weeks or years. Don’t stop praying. Grab God’s promises and hold them in front of His face like this Canaanite woman did. That’s faith, and Jesus praises that faith.

When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus gives them the Lord’s Prayer. There isn’t one, “Please,” in that prayer. All the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are imperatives – they’re commands. “Make Your name holy. Bring Your kingdom. Do Your will. Give us our daily bread.” Even the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses,” is a command. “Don’t lead us into temptation. Deliver us from evil.” Every last one of them is a command addressed to your Heavenly Father. Dear saints, be bold when you pray. Hold God to His promises. Like Jacob in our Old Testament lesson (Gen. 32:22-32), don’t let God go until He blesses you. According to Jesus, that is great faith.

Also, you can be consistent and constant in your prayers. After being bold in our prayers, I think that’s the other important lesson we should learn from the Canaanite School of Beggary. God wants you to annoy Him with your prayers. In fact, Jesus teaches two parables to this effect. The first one is in Luke 11[:5-8]. The parable is about a guy who knocks at his neighbor’s door at midnight asking for some bread to give to a guest who has just showed up. And because the guy keeps knocking the neighbor will get out of his bed, get dressed, and find some bread to give to him.

The other parable is Lk. 18[:1-7] where a widow keeps going to a judge to ask for justice. And the judge gets so tired of her asking, he finally gives her what she wants so she doesn’t beat him down with her continual requests.

This text is those two parables played out in real life. She keeps going to Jesus until He gives her what she needs.

Dear saints, like this Canaanite woman, you can take God’s insults because we are all beggars before God. And even when God seems indifferent, when He seems distant, and even when He insults you, you can keep asking boldly. You can do all this because God has sent His Son Jesus to die and rise again for you.

Because Jesus has done this, He has taken us beggars and made us His children. God is your Father, and He won’t let His reputation as your Father be tarnished. He will answer your prayers. It is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Lk. 12:32). He will remember His mercy and steadfast love for you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Flight to Fight – Sermon on Matthew 2:13-23 for the Second Sunday of Christmas

Jan3

Listen here.

Matthew 2:13-23

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵ and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. ¹⁷ Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

¹⁸ “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

¹⁹ But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, ²⁰saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” ²¹ And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. ²³ And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We don’t always understand God’s ways. That’s the understatement of the year – young though it is. God’s ways and thoughts are too high and too wonderful for us to understand (Is. 55:8-9).

For example, take the Old Testament promises of the Messiah. When the wise men first came seeking Jesus because of the star, Herod asked the chief priests and scribes where the Christ was to be born (Mt. 2:1-6). The scholars told Herod that the Scriptures taught that Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). We also just heard that the Messiah would come out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1), and He would be called a Nazarene. Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazarene – no wonder people had a hard time recognizing that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah. You can see how it would be hard to wrap your mind around all this without the Gospel of Matthew mapping out the fulfillment point by point.

While all of that fulfillment of Scripture could be its own sermon, that isn’t what we are going to focus on today. Instead, we are going to focus on how God’s ways and actions are so different from ours – especially when it comes to how God deals with evil.

The slaughter of the boys of Bethlehem who were two years old and under is one of the most horrific events in all of Scripture. Jesus is protected while those boys are killed. Their only “crime” is that they resemble Jesus in gender and age. We hear this and our minds are often filled with questions. “Couldn’t God have intervened?” “Why didn’t God warn all the fathers of Bethlehem in dreams?” “Why does Jesus get spared while the rest of the boys aren’t?” “Why couldn’t God just kill Herod and spare the baby boys?”

Whenever we stand face to face with evil, we ask the “why” questions. Many people use the presence of evil to argue that God is weak or doesn’t even exist. They will say that if there is a God, He certainly wouldn’t let things like this happen. If God is merciful and loving, if He is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present), and omnipotent (all-powerful), why doesn’t God use all those “omnis” to do something about evil?

These questions have been something that humanity has wrestled with ever since the Fall into sin. Part of the reason we ask those questions is because we aren’t those “omnis” and could only deal with one evil at a time. And because we could only deal with one evil at a time, we would handle it only with punishment. But because God is all of those “omnis,” He can address evil with grace and forgiveness.

Also notice that those questions only focus on the evil of this world and spend no time considering if God has done something about evil – which He has. It’s like when a kid is having a rotten day and emphatically states, “Nothing good ever happens to me.” (I’ve been that kid.) You can try to point out the good things that have happened, but the kid dismisses all of those. And sure, if you don’t count anything good that happens in your life, it will be filled with badness and evil.

The whole book of Job deals the problem of evil and God’s goodness. I highly recommend you read Job, but when you do, know that Job’s three friends are all off base – they give wrong answers. And even Job can go a bit too far at times. But make sure listen to Job’s fourth friend, Elihu (Job 32-37). And especially listen to how God answers Job at the end of the book. Hopefully, this sermon will be a help to understand both the book Job and the goodness of God in the presence of evil. And to get to an answer to how there can be a good God when there is so much evil, you have to go back to the fact that God’s ways and thoughts are higher and more wonderful than ours.

First of all, when we consider evil in the light of God’s goodness, we have to remember that we cannot blame God for the evil in the world because God is not to blame. Secondly, and more importantly, God has addressed, overcome, and defeated evil, but not in the way we would expect. In fact, the infant Jesus being whisked away to Egypt was part of how God addressed the evil of this fallen world.

Jesus ran to Egypt to be God’s answer to all evil. One of the key verses to understanding all of this is Romans 12:21 which says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Hear that again, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is how the Gospel always works and how it has to work because you cannot force good into evil.

In His omnipotence, God had the power to wipe out sin right away when Adam and Eve fell. But He is not that kind of god. That kind of god would not be the God of the Bible. The God who created you is a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Ex. 34:6-7). So, to overcome the evil in this fallen, sinful world, God did something unimaginably good. And in His goodness, He came to earth to deal an eternal blow to all evil.

Jesus fled from Herod, not because He was allowing Herod to continue being an evil, bloodthirsty, power monger. Instead, Jesus came to save even wicked King Herod from his evil.

On His journey to and from Egypt, Jesus passed by Mt. Sinai where He gave the Law which condemned the sins of Herod and your sins. And Christ came to keep and fulfill that Law because you and the Herods of this world couldn’t keep it. Because of His love for you, Jesus fled from His homeland so that you and all sinners could return to yours. Jesus made Himself a sojourner and refugee so that you and all humanity could have an eternal home.

The flight to Egypt looks like weakness, but it is not. It shows Christ’s almighty power. Don’t forget that the humble, helpless Infant traveling through the wilderness is the Creator of heaven and earth. In His extreme humility, God came down to earth, to stand in your place, to fulfill the Law on your behalf, and to suffer and die with your evil and sin laid upon Himself. Without His humility, everyone would be eternally bound to our sin and evil. In other words, Jesus’ flight to Egypt is how God fights evil. He flees this evil in order to fight and defeat all evil for all time. Again, His ways are not our ways.

Whenever you see and experience evil, resist the temptation to focus and dwell on the evil. Instead, focus on Jesus. And in the context of this text, focus on that Child who is the object of God’s attention. Jesus is whisked off to Egypt to escape the sword of Herod. Christ couldn’t die by Herod’s sword; He had to die on the cross. Jesus is God’s Child, the promised Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent and deal decisively with sin, death, and evil once for all.

Saving those baby boys of Bethlehem would have spared them and their mothers’ tears, but it would not have saved them or the world from sin and damnation. If we can discern anything at all about God’s plan and agenda, it’s that He’s committed to saving the entire world – not just bits and pieces of it. God isn’t content with saving just a handful of people here and there – He’s after the world, the entire cosmos. He created everything by His Word, He intends to redeem and save all people from their sins by Jesus, the Word made flesh.

Seeing how God delivers the world from evil by overcoming it with the good of Jesus dying and rising again, that stands as a call for us to follow His example. We are so quick to want to get back at those who have wronged us, but that is precisely why we are in the mess we are in today.

So, what do we do with the baby killing Herods who appear to become more and more emboldened? How do we defeat their evil designs? How do we join with God to overcome the evil of our day?

We do it with good. We love who persecute and slander us (Mt. 5:44; 1 Pet. 3:9). We love the sinners for whom Jesus died (Ro. 12:20; 1 Tim. 2:1-4). We pray for their conversion to the truth while we confess the saving truth to them. And as our Epistle text (1 Pet. 4:12-19) said when we suffer according to God’s will we entrust our souls to our faithful Creator while we do good (v. 19).

Just as the almighty God hid His power under the appearance of weakness while Jesus fled from Herod’s anger, God still today hides His almighty power under the humble forms that the Gospel takes among us. God’s Word is still powerful to save sinners and to usher them into Christ’s kingdom of grace.

And here and now, God brings the power of the Gospel to us sinners. Here, Christ feeds you with His Body and Blood to deliver to you the forgiveness He has won for you. And with this holy Sacrament, He strengthens you to go and do good to your neighbor even when it is difficult. So, come. Be fed, be forgiven, and be strengthened to overcome evil with the goodness that Christ pours into you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Forgiven Forgivers – Sermon on Matthew 18:21-35

Nov8

Listen here.

Matthew 18:21-35

²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

²³ “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. ³² Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. ³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We need to start with some context before we dive in to what Jesus says here. Earlier in Mt. 18, Jesus makes it clear that His disciples will always struggle against sin in this life. Christ says, “If your right hand or right eye causes you to sin, cut it off and pluck it out” (Mt. 18:8-9). Then, Jesus goes on to establish a process for restoring and forgiving those who have sinned against you by talking to them privately, bringing one or two witnesses, declaring it to the church, and finally expelling them from the congregation if they still refuse to repent (Mt. 18:15-17). I would be negligent if I didn’t mention that this process is always intended to restore the sinner back into fellowship. Finally, right before this text, Jesus promises that when sins are loosed from sinners in the Church, they are loosed in heaven (Mt. 18:18).

Now, we get to Peter’s question which immediately follows all of that. “How often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter was being generous. Most rabbis in Jesus’ day had a three-strikes-and-you’re-out approach to this question, and Peter more than doubles it. The essence of Peter’s question is, “How much do I have to put up with? When do I get to quit being taken advantage of?” Peter wants practical advice from Jesus, but Jesus doesn’t give any. Instead, Jesus says that we are to forgive as often as sinners repent.

There is some debate as to whether the phrase Jesus uses here means ‘seventy-seven’ or ‘seventy times seven.’ Either way, the point Jesus is making doesn’t mean we count to seventy-seven or four-hundred-ninety, “I forgive you’s.” Jesus doesn’t want us counting the sins of our neighbor. Christ wants us to keep on forgiving even as we are forgiven. Those forgiven by God are to be forgivers. The parable Jesus tells illustrates this innumerable forgiveness.

The king in the parable wants balanced books, clean accounts. And he’s completely happy to forgive enormous debts rather than demand payment. Settled accounts is the goal, and erasing debt is the quickest way to get there. In the parable, when the king forgives this ten-thousand talent debt (equivalent to two-hundred-thousand years’ salary), Jesus shows that the kingdom of heaven is not like any earthly kingdom.

The kingdom of heaven is established and sustained only by God’s generosity and His ongoing, ridiculous, extravagant forgiveness. No one is a citizen of the kingdom of heaven without the forgiveness of Christ, the King of kings. And if you are not shaped by this forgiveness, if this forgiveness doesn’t change you and you still hold back forgiving others, you are not truly citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Instead, God will hand you over to the devil. Those forgiven by God are to be forgivers of those who have sinned against them. According to Jesus, God the Father will deliver you straight to eternal hell if you do not forgive your brother from your heart (v. 33).

This text should make us squirm, and I know that many of you don’t particularly like this parable. It causes the Law to shine clearly on our hearts so that we recognize that forgiveness doesn’t flow out of us as well as it should. We are more likely to hold a grudge, demand repayment, and want those who have sinned against us to be punished. Even though God promises, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Ro. 12:19; Dt. 32:35), we desperately want to have a part in that vengeance. We don’t want to be a doormat. We don’t want to be taken advantage of. We want justice for the sins committed against us. So, when Jesus says that God will deliver us to hell if we do not forgive others from our heart, we should be bothered, we should be agitated, and we should be afraid.

If the final verse of this text – and several other verses like it (Mt. 6:15; Mk. 11:25-26; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; Jam. 2:13; 1 Jn. 3:10) – if this teaching doesn’t bother you, repent. It should. The only people who think that they don’t need to forgive are those who do not value or do not believe they have Christ’s forgiveness. In other words, if you refuse to forgive others, you will not be forgiven.

This teaching from Jesus is hard and bothers you. It doesn’t bother you because you think Jesus is being ridiculous. It bothers you because you actually want to forgive. You want to be like God – in a good way. You want to forgive others as He has forgiven you, but you aren’t quite there. So, you feel conflicted and convicted.

Please know that if you struggle with this, it is not a sign of doubt. It is a sign of faith. It shows that you do indeed love the forgiveness of Christ. You love His word. You want His forgiveness and you want to be defined by that forgiveness. The whole reason that you are bothered is that you recognize that you do not fully live up to Christ’s calling. The fact that you are bothered is evidence that you still need forgiveness. You areforgiven, but you are not yet without sin so you need ongoing forgiveness.

Take heart! If you recogniae this, it means that the Holy Spirit continues to work on you forgiving your sins – even your sins of unforgiveness. Live in that forgiveness and continue to strive to forgive. Try to let go. Try to stop obsessing about getting back. Quit daydreaming about vengeance. End your passive aggressive remarks. Put the sins committed against you into God’s hands because all sins are ultimately committed against Him (Gen. 39:9; Ps. 51:4).

Remember that Jesus died for the sins of the world (1 Jn. 2:2) and that God Himself wants to forgive all sinners (1 Tim. 2:4). You also want what God wants. You love what God loves. You trust what He says so you want to be reconciled to your enemies and those who hurt you. You want them to be saved, and you work at forgiving as you have been forgiven.

Of course, our old nature doesn’t want to forgive. On this side of glory, faith is always a struggle against our sinful flesh. Our good works and our forgiveness of others is always going to be imperfect, but it is still real and it is still good.

But know this: Your struggle to forgive and to live like Christ is a sign that His Word is true and that your sins are forgiven. He is the one who taught you to pray that you would forgive the trespasses of others as you have been forgiven, and Christ will answer that prayer.

All of that being said, Jesus doesn’t get into all the exact specifics of what this looks like exactly. There are nuances of forgiveness that aren’t dealt with here. Jesus isn’t saying that a person who steals your bicycle shouldn’t give it back or pay and be punished for his theft. Jesus isn’t saying that a child who hits her sibling shouldn’t have consequences when she repents.

There are consequences for sin on this side of glory. Those consequences are godly punishments, and they do not negate forgiveness but should be understood as merciful penalties and helpful tools for curbing further sins.

For example (and this is very important): When someone steals and cheats but repents and asks for your forgiveness, you forgive them and don’t hold a grudge against them. But that doesn’t mean you are required to put them in a position where they can repeat their sin. If a drunk driver crashes into you and paralyzes you, you don’t have to send them a bottle of wine when they ask for forgiveness. You forgive them, but you can still, as a Christian, have them prosecuted and even seek restitution from them. In fact, that might be the most loving thing you do for them.

Finally, as we heard in our Old Testament lesson (Mic. 6:6-8), God isn’t pleased with our offerings no matter how great and costly they are. We cannot even begin to make repayment on the debt we owe Him. Instead, God has shown what is good and what He requires: Do justice. Love mercy. And walk humbly with your God.

In the end, that humility comes when we remember the overarching principle and defining character of Christ’s Kingdom. What defines Jesus’ kingdom is the fact that He does not remember our sins and iniquities (Jer. 31:34). All our transgressions have been set down upon Jesus. He settles your account by His forgiveness. We can stand in this mercy and grace and have hope. For with Christ there is forgiveness that He may be feared (Ps. 130:4). Amen.^[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

^[1] This sermon is an adaptation of a sermon by Rev. David H. Petersen of Redeemer Lutheran Church Ft. Wayne, ID.

Holy Deliverance – Sermon on Luke 18:31-43 for Quinquagesima

Feb23

Listen here.

Luke 18:31-43

³¹ And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. ³² For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. ³³ And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” ³⁴ But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

³⁵ As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶ And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. ³⁷ They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” ³⁸ And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ³⁹ And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁰ And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, ⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” ⁴² And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” ⁴³ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is on His way to Jerusalem. He plainly says that He is going there to fulfill everything that was written about Him in the Scriptures. He is going there to be delivered to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spit upon, flogged, and killed. But on the third day He will rise. Jesus says this plainly and clearly. But notice how carefully Luke records the reaction of the disciples. They understood none of these things. The saying was hidden from them. And they did not grasp what was said. That’s the long, emphatic way to say, “They didn’t get it.” The text then notes that Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem takes Him through Jericho where a crowd was waiting to meet Him.

Now, Christ’s name in Greek is Ἰησοῦς and it gets brought into English as ‘Jesus.’ But if you said Jesus’ name in Hebrew it would be יְהוֹשׁוּעַ, and when that gets brought into English it is ‘Joshua.’ If I asked you what city most goes with the name Joshua, I would bet you would say Jericho. It was Joshua who “fit [sic.] the battle of Jericho.” When Joshua went to Jericho, it was to destroy and kill. Joshua and the Battle of Jericho Joshua lead God’s people marching around those thick, fortified walls for six days, and on the seventh day, the people shouted and “the walls came a-tumbilin’ down.” Afterward, they burned the fallen rubble and reduced the city to ashes.

But Joshua wasn’t done yet. He stood over the smoke and ruins of that city and pronounced a curse, “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates” (Josh. 6:26). Those ruins were to be a perpetual sign of God’s displeasure with the wicked inhabitants of that city. But about 500 years later, a man named Hiel, began to rebuild Jericho. And you don’t have to guess what happened. The foundation of the city was laid, and his firstborn died. And when the gates were raised, his youngest son died (1 Kgs. 16:34). It should serve as a warning to us not to mess around with what is cursed by God.

We need to remember that, as blessed as our country is, we live in a modern-day Jericho. Most people do not believe in God. Today, sins that would have caused our parents to blush with shame are celebrated. People worship their bank accounts, their careers, and their livelihood. In our land, nearly one million babies are sacrificed in abortions every year. But, while that should cause us to weep and mourn, how many more are sacrificed spiritually?

Kids are programmed by parents to aim for success in this life by getting good grades, playing hard in sports, and finding a good job. None of those things are evil by themselves. But how often are those things promoted to the neglect of teaching those children the fear and love of God? What good is any of that if those same children end up in hell? Yes, parents, give your children those good things, but make sure are secondary to faith in Jesus, the true, merciful God. No, you may not be trying to rebuild Jericho, but too often Christian parents are raising their children on cursed foundations that are protected only by cursed gates.

Repent. Repent, and know that if you are feeling the curse of your sins that the New Joshua draws near to Jericho.

The first Joshua came to curse and destroy the sinful city of Jericho, but Jesus, the new Joshua, comes to bless. Joshua came to hurt, but Jesus comes to heal. Joshua came to march around Jericho, but Jesus came to walk straight through it. Jesus came to rescue from the ruins and curse of sin and bring His holy deliverance into His heavenly kingdom. That holy deliverance will come as His own body is wrecked and the curse of our sin is laid upon Him.

So, the Lamb of God travels through Jericho. It would make sense if Jesus went through the city quickly passing by beggars on the street. Jesus is marching to do something bigger than to simply help a miserable beggar. And that is exactly what seems to be in the minds of some who are walking with Jesus. They tell one of those beggars to sit down and leave Jesus alone. But even though His eyes focused on the cross, Jesus doesn’t pass by this blind man. Jesus stands still, and He stands still to deliver holy mercy.

It is as though Jesus can’t help Himself. He never ignores cries for mercy because He is mercy embodied. Jesus stands still and tells them to bring the blind beggar to Him. And notice how Jesus treats the blind man with dignity and respect. Jesus knows he can’t see, but He goes to the blind man’s level and gives him something for his ears. He asks, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man answers, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus delivers him from his blindness.

This morning, Jesus passes through your Jericho. Christ has heard your cries for mercy too. In fact, this same scene played out today just as it does every Sunday you gather here. We beggars come into the presence of Jesus, and we cry for mercy. Jesus doesn’t turn away. Instead, He hears you. He stops and stands still. You confessed your sins, you cried out for mercy, and Christ answered you by absolving you.

Notice what Jesus does not say to the blind man. Jesus does not say, “I have made you well and restored your sight.” Instead, Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well,” or better, “Your faith has (lit.) saved you.” Yes, it was Jesus who saved him, but Jesus points the man to his God-given faith.

Remember, dear saints, that your salvation was won and purchased by Jesus on the cross some two-thousand years ago, but your salvation is not distributed there. Thank the good Lord that it isn’t distributed there because you and I weren’t there. Even if we were to go to Jerusalem today, we couldn’t be at the foot of the cross because there isn’t anything there anymore. Salvation Won and Delivered On the cross, Jesus did everything for your salvation. On the cross, Jesus won the victory over sin, death, and the devil. But God delivers what Jesus did on the cross to you here and now. God delivers the mercy, grace, life, and salvation of Jesus through the preaching of His Word (Ro. 10:17), through your Baptism (Ro. 6:3-11), and through the Lord’s Supper (Lk. 22:14-20). God brings His holy deliverance to you through all those things, and as you receive those gifts of God through faith, you are saved.

Finally, notice the blind man’s response. He follows Jesus. The blind man leaves his Jericho home and follows Jesus to Jerusalem. As we begin Lent this Wednesday, let us do the same as we follow Jesus by listening to His Word. Let us abandon our cursed state and follow Jesus to Jerusalem this Lent. He leads, and we follow with grateful hearts. Let Jesus lead you to Jerusalem, to the cross, and to the empty tomb on Easter. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Humble King – Sermon on Matthew 21:1-9 for the First Sunday of Advent

Dec1

Due to a winter storm, our service was cancelled 12/1. This recording includes an abbreviated service for use in lieu of gathering together.

Listen here.

Matthew 21:1-9

¹ Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

⁵ “Say to the daughter of Zion,

‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!”

In the name Jesus. Amen.

Happy New Year! Today is the beginning of Advent and the dawning of a new year in the Church. If you’ve been listening today, you can hear Christmas steadily approaching. And even though this Gospel lesson sounds like we are getting ready for Easter, since these events occurred on Palm Sunday, this Gospel lesson is intended to prepare us for Jesus’ coming. That’s what Advent means, by the way, “coming.”

The Church has always centered its life around Jesus – so much so that Christians have a unique way of telling time that is different from the rest of the world. The Church year is designed to retell the entire life of Jesus, but we don’t begin at Christmas – at His birth. Instead, we begin with Advent – four weeks of patiently waiting for and anticipating what happened in Bethlehem nearly two-thousand years ago.

Ever since the Fall into sin (Gen. 3), believers were expecting God to come and rescue us from sin. Adam, Eve, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and all believers in the Old Testament were waiting for the deliverance that Jesus brought when He was born, died, and rose again. Just like them we are waiting but with a difference. Since Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Christians like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, Augustine, Luther, and us have been waiting for Christ to come back as He promised (Act. 1:6-11).

Advent isn’t a time for us to prepare for Christ’s birth. He’s already been born; we know the story. It isn’t as though we don’t pretend that He wasn’t born so that we are surprised when we come to church on Christmas Eve and hear the passage from Luke 2 about His birth. Instead, we are patiently preparing our hearts to celebrate His birth while we also anticipate His future return in glory. Advent is also a time to rejoice in His coming repeatedly to us as we gather together and receive the Lord’s Supper where He comes to us here and now.

Since Advent is about how Jesus came to us in His birth, how He comes now in these last days, and how He will come again on the Last Day, we want to consider why He comes. What is He coming to do?

If we take a step back and think about it, the coming of God into our midst is not necessarily good news. If you were a pagan Greek and heard that Zeus is coming, it isn’t good news. Or of you are a Muslim and heard that Allah was coming, it wouldn’t be comforting. Instead, it would be frightful. Even the prophets in the Old Testament, when they would preach about God’s coming, it would often be a warning (Jer. 7:8-15).

Listen to these words from Amos 7:18-20 talking about God’s coming, “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?” Or think of Isaiah’s response when he found himself in God’s presence in the Temple (Is. 6:1-5), “Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” When you consider God’s holiness and purity, God showing up is bad news for all of us who are unholy, unclean, defiled, and sinful. God’s holiness and our unholiness cannot exist together.

Think about the last time you had to fix something that had been turned into a complete mess by someone else. Think about the time your brother or sister messed up your room. Or the time your kid, who really should know better, made the kitchen or bathroom explode in a flour-ery or fingernail-polishy mess. Or your co-worker undid days of your work on that task and messed up the whole project. You see that disaster, and you know that you are the one who has to clean it up, straighten it out, and restore everything to its proper place.

You’re upset. You’re angry. You’re mumbling or thinking like a sailor because now you have to spend hours of effort fixing that catastrophe when your time could have been better used elsewhere. Too often, we think God is the same. Because our reaction is to be angry and upset, we believe God’s only reaction is to be angry and upset. Well, He is. We provoke His anger because of our sin. Our sins have broken His creation and create havoc and chaos. Our iniquities harm our neighbor and others. Our transgressions break our fellowship with Him. All of this means that the coming of God into our midst should be terrifying for us.

This is why we need the Scriptures. When Jesus rides into Jerusalem the first day of Holy Week, He is coming to fix the mess we have made of this world by our sin. But He doesn’t come riding a war horse and leading an army. He doesn’t come to annihilate everyone. He comes on a rescue mission. He comes to save and deliver you from sin, death, and the devil. To show that this is why He comes, He comes as the humble king in meekness. “Behold your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey” (Zech. 9:9). He comes to be rejected. He comes to take your sin. He comes to be spit upon, beaten, mocked, and scorned. He comes to be led outside Jerusalem. He comes to be crucified. He comes to suffer the wrath of God against your sin.

Dear saints, the Gospel is not the news that God is here. The Gospel is that God is here to save, and He is here to save you. In fact, that is what Jesus’ name means, “Yahweh saves.”

Here comes Jesus, right now, into our midst. He’s not riding on a donkey but on bread and wine to come and bless us. He comes to meet us with His salvation, mercy, and forgiveness. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Dependence – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct20

Listen here.

Matthew 22:34-46

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, Jesus and the religious leaders in the Temple

⁴⁴ “The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?

⁴⁵ “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

You’ve maybe heard the acronym about the Bible: “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.” Sure, it’s cute, but honestly, it’s horrible because it turns God’s holy and precious Word into a manual of what we must do. If the Bible is about what we need to do and not what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, we’re sunk because we simply cannot do what God commands us to do even if we wanted to, which we don’t.

That is why, when you read the Bible (which I encourage you to do), it is extremely helpful to look for two things – Law and Gospel. Look for God’s commands and His promises. Look for the threats and the blessings. Look for the instruction and for the forgiveness of sins. This Gospel text is a great place to practice this and see how both Law and Gospel depend on each other.

The text has two parts. First, the question the Pharisees ask Jesus along with His answer which is Law. Second, the question or riddle that Jesus gives to the Pharisees which is all Gospel. The text takes place on Holy Tuesday, merely three days before Jesus is crucified. And this day, this Tuesday, was the last day of Jesus’ public teaching. After Jesus silences the Pharisees here, His teaching is only directed to the disciples.

In order to trip Jesus up and get Him in trouble, the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, had asked Him several questions. First, He had been asked by the Pharisees about paying taxes to Caesar. Then, the Sadducees asked Him a question about marriage and the resurrection, and He answers it in a way that dumbfounded the Sadducees. And here, in our text, we get the third question.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And Jesus responds, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

For centuries, the rabbis had been talking, debating, and arguing about this question. They didn’t know how to answer it. But Jesus rattles off an answer quick as you please. If you want a summary of the all Commandments and condense them down into two statements, it is to love God and love your neighbor – on these two commandments depend (or ‘hang’) all the Law and the prophets. If you want, you can boil the Law down even further to one word, love. Paul says in Ro. 13:10, “Love is the fulfilling of the Law.”

A lot could be said here about the Law, but I’m going to keep it to six simple points.

Holy Spirit open eyes new hearts First, love is a beautiful summary of the Law, but that one word, love, does not replace the Law. Many people will say that since we have these two great commandments to love God and love our neighbor that we don’t need the rest of the Law. But that is false. Just because you think you are motivated by love does not mean that you are doing the right thing. We are so fallen that sometimes we try to pit love against the Commandments. Love is never an excuse to sin or an excuse to overlook sin. Instead, the Commandments define the shape of love, which is the second point about the Law.

Love takes shape according to the Commandments. Love is more than a feeling (thank you Boston). Love gives. Love serves. Love dies – greater love has no one than this, that one lays down his life for his friends (Jn. 15:13). If you want to love your neighbor, here is what it looks like: honor your father and mother; don’t murder; don’t commit adultery; don’t steal; don’t bear false witness; don’t covet. If you want to love God, don’t have other gods, keep His name holy, and keep the Sabbath holy. It doesn’t matter if what you do is motivated by love; if it violates or falls outside of these Commands, it is not love. In fact, we could go further and say that, when your actions fall outside of the Ten Commandments, they are motivated by selfishness and hatred toward both God and neighbor.

Third, love is defined by the Commandments, but it also finds and meets your neighbor’s need. What help and service can you give to your neighbor according to the Commandments? If your neighbor is hungry, feed him. If your neighbor is lonely, hang out with him or visit her. If your neighbor is trapped in sin, exhort them and encourage them to repent and ask God for mercy and forgiveness. If your neighbor is not a Christian and suffering spiritually, invite them to church.

Fourth, we love God by loving our neighbor. This is so important. 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” If you want to demonstrate your love for God, you do that by loving your neighbor according to the Commandments and your neighbor’s need. And this starts with those closest to you. Love your spouse first because that is the closest neighbor God has given you. Then, love your children, then your brothers and sisters in Christ, then your friends and coworkers, and so on and so forth.

Fifth, the command to love shows us our sin. There is no time in your life that you can say that you have loved God and neighbor enough. According to the Law, all of us are guilty lawbreakers and sinners. We constantly need to hear the Law tell us that we are sinners so that we are always repentant.

Sixth, and finally on the Law, the Law always shows us our sin, but beware of the temptation to not attempt good works because you are going to fail. When Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48), don’t just throw up your hands thinking, “Well, that’s impossible so I’m not even going to try.” Get after it. Work. Try. Attempt. And, yes, fail. Then pray. Ask God for forgiveness and mercy. Pray for strength to try again. Pray for wisdom to see your neighbor’s need and how to love them knowing that you are dependent on God’s Law to shape your love for Him and your neighbor.

Now, the Gospel. Jesus silences the Pharisees with His answer, but now He is going to ask them a question. “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

They answer correctly. In 2 Sam. 7, God had promised David to raise up one of David’s sons who would sit on his throne forever. There God promised that David’s offspring would be the Messiah, the one to crush the devil’s head, and the one to deliver God’s people. And the Pharisees know it. But Jesus asks a second question based on Ps. 110:1, which is one of the most quoted Old Testament verses in the New Testament, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

The Pharisees cannot figure out the riddle from Scripture. How can the Messiah be David’s Son and David’s Lord? The Pharisees were unable to answer this because they didn’t believe that the Messiah would be both God and man. They figured the Messiah would be a man who would get things right and save them.

incarnation of Jesus But, Christian, you know the answer. In fact, you have been taught this and have believed it for so long that you hardly think about it too much. But it is the most amazing thing. Jesus is man, born of His mother. And Jesus is God, begotten of His Father before all worlds. Jesus is man so that He can die, and He is God so that His death can be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Because of Christ, the Law has been fulfilled. Yes, it is impossible for you to keep the two great Commandments, but Jesus has done it for you. He has taken on your flesh and blood to deliver you from sin, death, and the devil and give to you everlasting life. This is the Gospel.

Yes, the Law to love God and neighbor is important; on that depend all the Scriptures. But the Gospel is importanter [sic.]. Christian, the Gospel is how and why you will be able to stand before God on the Last Day. Jesus has died for you and put all of your enemies under His feet triumphing over them on the cross (Eph. 1:21-23). On this mercy and grace of God in Christ Jesus you depend. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Manage – Sermon on Luke 16:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Aug18

Listen here.

Luke 16:1-13

¹He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. ⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹²And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

No getting around it. This parable is one of the most difficult texts in the Gospels and all of Scripture. A lot of pastor friends of mine were joking about how this text is the reason churches have associate pastors and interns so the ‘regular’ pastor can be protected from having to preach on this text. Unfortunately for me – and, maybe, you – I don’t have that luxury. Just so you know. I’m purposefully skipping Jesus’ words in v. 9. I’ve heard a few explanations and interpretations of v. 9 that may be right, but I’m not entirely convinced by any of them. So, I’m not preaching on it.

So, since the parable is already difficult to preach, I’m going to double down. I’ll deal with the parable first, and then I’ll preach about money, stewardship, and tithing. A double-whammy.

First, the parable. A rich man, who owns a lot of land and leases it out to farmers, has a manager who keeps the books, and the manager is a crook. He cooks the books and is swindling his boss, the rich man. When the manager is confronted by his boss, he has no response because he’s been caught red-handed. So, the rich man fires him, but the rich man is also generous. He doesn’t have the guy thrown straight into prison. Instead, the rich man is gracious and lets the manager head back to his office to get the books and turn them in for the last time.

On the way to his office, the manager is worried about his future well-being. He realizes that he’s too weak for manual labor and too proud to beg. But he recognizes that he has a window of opportunity which is only open until he turns in the books. So, the manager secretly calls in his master’s debtors and decreases their debts in order to make friends with them. It is interesting to note that the fifty measures of oil and the twenty measures of wheat are both roughly equal to the same amount of money – about five-hundred denarii (or 500 days’ wages).

H-63 Trinity 9 (Lu 16.1-9) This reduction was, of course, not legally binding. The rich man could have simply said, “Hang on everyone. I fired that guy before he lowered your debt. You still owe the original amount.” But that isn’t the character of the rich man. Instead, the whole town is singing the praises of the rich man because he is so generous. And the rich man isn’t willing to harm his reputation as a merciful guy. So, what does the rich man do in the parable? He tells the fired, scoundrel of a manager, “Dude, you’re shrewd. You knew I’d rather be known as a merciful person rather than hold on to my wealth. And by your shrewdness, you’ve helped yourself.”

That’s the key to understanding the parable. The rich man in Jesus’ parable doesn’t praise the sinfulness of the fired manager. Instead, he praises how shrewd the manager was. The manager put all his eggs in one basket – the basket of the rich man’s generosity and mercy. And it paid off. By betting on the mercy of the rich man, the manager made himself some friends before everything was taken from him.

And notice that Jesus wishes we were more daring with what we have been given. In the last half of v. 8, Jesus says, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”Christian, you have been given mercy, forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, eternal hope, eternal joy, eternal peace, eternal love – all things that cannot be taken from you. But you still are careful about sharing those things with others. Repent!

Why are you so careful about sharing God’s love for you with others? Don’t be ashamed! Christian, you have Jesus, and you have the Gospel. You have God’s unfailing, unending love. You have been entrusted with the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Ro. 1:16).

Stop being afraid of losing friends if you share the Gospel with them. God has given you the perfect righteousness and perfect obedience of Christ. Be faithful with what God has given you for your life and salvation. Be willing to give it away. Be faithful in your stewardship of the Gospel. That’s the parable.

Now, we move on to stewardship because, notice what Jesus says (v. 12), “If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”

If you aren’t faithful with the grace you have been freely given in Jesus Christ, why would God trust you with lesser things, things like money? God is right to not trust you with money if you cannot be trusted with the Gospel. This is a shift in gears here, but stick with me.

God often deals with sin and idols by using those sins and idols to be their own punishment. In Daniel, some pagans planned on getting Daniel thrown into the lion’s den and killed for disobeying the king and praying to God. But they are the ones who end up being eaten by the lions (Dan. 6). Or do you remember the book of Esther? The wicked Haman plans on killing faithful, God-fearing Mordecai by hanging him on a pole, but then Haman ends up being executed on that very instrument of death. This happens with unbelievers, but it also happens with believers. David’s sin of lust plagues him the rest of his life after he commits adultery with Bathsheba. The same thing happens with the most common idol in the world – money.

There have been studies on income and happiness, and a correlation has been found about how much you make and how happy you are. The interesting thing is that once you make a certain amount, happiness actually decreases. What do you think the amount is where happiness starts to decrease? It’s probably lower than you think – somewhere around $70,000. If you have little money but think that just a bit more will make you happier, money is your idol, and you will always be discontent with how much you have. But if you idolize money when you have lots of it, you still aren’t happy and spend all your time trying to hold on to it.

Greed Now, Jesus is absolutely clear, “You cannot serve God and money.”It can’t be done. If you trust in money, you do not trust God. So, repent of your love of money.

One of the best ways to protect yourself against idolizing money is to be generous – recklessly generous. Remember, everything you have – your life, your house, your clothes, your food, your finances, your money – everything is a gift from God. As Creator of everything, it all belongs to God.

You are merely a manager, a steward of what God, the Rich Man, has given and entrusted to you. And God is extremely loose and permissive in how much freedom you have in managing what is entrusted to you. God is actually pleased when you use the things that He has given you to manage and you take those things and use them to care for your family. God is even pleased when you enjoy things that might even be considered frivolous – like expensive coffee, or a gourmet steak and lobster dinner. God is pleased to give those things to you especially when you recognize that He is the One who has given it to you.

But God doesn’t want you to hoard everything He has given you to pamper yourself. He wants to use you and your management to provide for others as well. So, ask yourself, “What is the most important thing God wants to provide for others?” Yes, people need food and water and clothing. But the most important thing God wants people to have is the Gospel. The Gospel which provides for others not just in this life but for all eternity.

So, I would encourage you. Take a look at your finances. Yes, look at how you spend your money, but more importantly look at how much you give away – and where are you giving that money. Are you providing for people’s temporal needs by giving to the food shelf, the homeless shelter, etc.? Good. But you should be shrewd enough to give more to provide for people’s eternal needs. First, you should be giving to this congregation to make sure that both you and your brothers and sisters will be fed with the Gospel. Then, you should be giving to missionaries who call people to repentance and faith in Christ. Then, give to those other places as well.

I hope you know that what you give in the offering plate does go out from here too. As a congregation, we tithe 10% of what you give in the offering plate to provide for missionaries, the promotion of the Gospel, and to agencies in our community that provide temporal needs to others in our community.

If all this talk about tithing and money makes you squirm because you realize that you have not been a faithful manager of what God has given you, repent. Repent and amend your ways. And if you hear this and think to yourself, “I’m glad pastor is finally telling other people to give the way that I give.” Or if you’re thinking, “I wish so-and-so was here to hear this.” You repent too because this is law. And the law should always make us squirm. Your bank ledger isn’t what matters when it comes to your salvation.

Cross and Communion The only thing that matters for your salvation is what Christ has done and completed for you upon the cross. Even when you are stingy and fail to be generous with what God has given to you, God was not. He gave what was most valuable to Him for your salvation. God, in His mercy, gave Jesus to die upon the cross for you. Don’t trust in your stewardship of what God has given you. Instead, trust in Christ’s giving of Himself completely for you and for others. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Council of the Lord – Sermon on Jeremiah 23:16-29 for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Aug11

Listen here.

Jeremiah 23:16-29

¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”

¹⁸ For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened?

¹⁹Behold, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,

a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his heart.

In the latter days you will understand it clearly.

²¹ “I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;

I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.

²² But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,

and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds.

²³“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? ²⁴Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ ²⁶How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, ²⁷who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? ²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. ²⁹Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I was talking to a few other pastors about this text and mentioned that I was having a hard time with an introduction for my sermon. One of them suggested that I start by saying, “I had a dream from God the other night…” He was joking of course, but it provided an introduction.

In this text, we heard about a very important theme in the Scriptures, and that is the theme of the council of the Lordor sometimes called the heavenly council. And it is important to differentiate here that this is the council with a ‘c’ which means a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, and make decisions. We are not talking about counsel with an ‘s’ which is giving advice.

Through His faithful prophet Jeremiah, God is warning the people against listening to the false prophets who are not preaching faithfully. If you are following along in our chronological Bible reading plan, you started Jeremiah a few days ago and know about the evil in Jeremiah’s day. If you aren’t following that plan (or aren’t caught up), here’s a brief summary.

Jeremiah was living and preaching to God’s people just before and through the time when the kingdom of Judah fell and was taken captive into Babylon. The kings were sacrificing their sons to pagan gods and abandoning the worship of God. Even though God was sending faithful prophets like Jeremiah and others, the people would not listen. And the kings would kill the faithful prophets who were calling the people to repentance.

The false prophets would tell people who despised the word of God, “Everything will be fine,” and to sinners they would say, “Don’t worry about punishment, God doesn’t mind.” Well, God did mind, and punishment was coming. And yet those false prophets ran and spoke false messages to the people claiming that God had sent them even though they had not stood in the council of the Lord.

Picture it like this – this council of God is like a heavenly throne room or courtroom where important matters are discussed. This picture about the council of God appears all over the Bible.

The council of God began back in creation. In the very beginning, there was a conversation between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creation of Adam.jpg Out of that conversation came creation, and most importantly, out of that conversation came the creation of humanity. We get to hear that conversation in Gen. 1:26 where the Triune God says, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” It was so, and it was good – very good.

After Adam and Eve were created, they become part of that heavenly conversation. God would come walking and talking with them in the cool of the day, and they would hear God’s Word and speak back to God. But there was another voice in that conversation – a voice of discord, violence, and evil. Satan, the devil, had been part of that council of God and had rebelled against the Lord. The devil comes to Adam and Eve and speaks to them about faithlessness, evil, and death. From that conversation, Adam and Eve fall.

After the Fall, the topic of discussion in the council of God changes. The council is no longer focused on the creation of mankind. But, thank God that, in His mercy, the conversation doesn’t change to destroying us. Instead, the conversation is now about the redemption and salvation of mankind. The conversation is about the death of Jesus. And Adam and Eve get to hear this when God says to the devil that the Seed of the woman would crush his head (Gen. 3:15).

Now, we can’t hear this council of God with the ears that God has given us, so God sent His faithful prophets to declare what is being discussed in the heavenly council. Amos 3:7 says, “The Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.” And from the text here before us, God says of the false prophets, “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people, and they would have turned the from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds” (Jer. 23:21-22). This was the job of the prophets. Prophets are those who stand in God’s council and bring God’s Words to God’s people. Words of Law and words of Gospel.

When you were growing up, did you ever get sent out of the room so your parents could have a conversation? They might have done this to figure out how to punish you and your siblings for something you had done wrong. Or they might have done this to plan a vacation or get a puppy or some other good. Whatever the reason was, they were having an important conversation that would impact you. But you weren’t invited into the conversation – at least not initially.

But then your parents call you into the conversation. They would tell you what they were talking about and send you to announce it to your siblings. “We’re getting a puppy,” or, “We’re going to Disneyland.” And you get to be their spokesperson and proclaim it. That’s what the all the faithful prophets of Scripture did.

Sometimes, the prophets were to bring news of judgment and destruction. “There won’t be rain,” or, “The Babylonians are going to come and destroy our capitol.” Sometimes, the prophets were to proclaim news of Gospel and deliverance, “A remnant will be saved. God will send a Savior who will bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, and with His wounds we will be healed.”

Heavenly Council One of the most amazing things is that God even gives His prophets a seat and a voice in this council. You remember when God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham speaks up and gets God to agree to not destroy the cities if ten righteous people are found there (Gen. 18:22-33). Or, when God is going to destroy the Israelites for making the golden calf, Moses speaks up in the council and says, “God, if You go down and destroy them, the Egyptians will say that You only brought them out of slavery to destroy them.” And God relents of the disaster He had said He would bring on the people (Gen. 32:1-14).

This idea of the council of God is important for us to understand the Old Testament, but it even comes into the New Testament. Probably the most important glimpse of the council of God we get in the New Testament is in Luke’s account of the Transfiguration (Lk. 9:28-36). You remember that Peter, James, and John are there. They see Jesus’ face change and His clothes shine like the sun. Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus and are talking with Him. There is the council of God on earth, and Luke says that they are talking about Jesus’ ‘departure’ (lit.His ‘exodus’) which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

In other words, they were talking about Jesus’ death and resurrection. They were talking about Jesus’ redemption of creation and mankind. When Peter later recalls being at the Transfiguration and overhearing that council of God, he concludes that having the Bible is even better, “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed…. No prophecy of Scripture come from someone’s own interpretation or was produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:16-21).

What this means, dear saints, is that when you hear the words of Scripture, you are hearing the council of God. You are hearing God’s call to repent of your sins, and you are hearing about God delivering you from sin, death, and the devil through Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is important for us to always remember. God is constantly calling us to repentance and faith through His Word.

Over the last week, there has been a lot of chatter in our country about politics and guns and all sorts of things because of the evil and wickedness in El Paso and Dayton. Those conversations are important and necessary. But there is something you won’t hear in the media, and that is a call to repentance and faith after evil has struck those parts of our country.

In Luke 13:1-5, some people were with Jesus and asked Him what He thought about some Galileans who had been killed by Pilate. The people thought that Jesus should speak out against the leaders in government, but Jesus has a different take. He says, “Do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”And Jesus mentions another event when the tower of Siloam fell and killed eighteen people. Jesus says the same thing, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Dear saints, according to Jesus and according to the council of God, when you see evil in the world – whether it is the evil acts of the wicked or the evil brokenness of creation – know that God is calling you to repent. He is calling you to repent and trust in His mercy won and given through faith in Christ Jesus.

Council of God Now, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father. Today, your Savior is talking with the Father, your Creator, and with the Holy Spirit, your Sanctifier. And do you know what they are talking about? They are talking about you and the cross. They are talking about how Jesus won your salvation there. How His blood shed there made a place in heaven for you forever. And the Holy Spirit is there, translating your prayers and interceding for you with groanings too deep for words (Ro. 8:26). The Holy Spirit whispers into your ear that you are an adopted child of God and heir with Christ. And you respond by crying, “Abba, Father” (Ro. 8:12-17).

And know that, whenever you hear the Scriptures, God is inviting you into that conversation, into that council where He calls you Himself through Jesus’ sacrifice. This is what the council of God is always about. This is God’s focus and intention, that you turn from your sins and that you trust in His Son, your Savior, Jesus Christ.

As we hear the Scriptures, may we heed God’s council. May we repent of our sins and believe in Christ. Amen.[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] I am thankful for an interview that Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller did with Pr. Warren Graff on the heavenly council for portions of this sermon. https://wolfmueller.co/table-scraps-heavenly-council-with-warren-graff/

Your Savior & the Law – Sermon on Matthew 5:17-26 for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Jul28

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Matthew 5:17-26

¹⁷“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Jesus Preaches the Sermon on the Mount ¹⁹Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

²¹“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²²But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. ²⁶Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Three weeks ago, we heard the three great parables of Luke 15 – the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. And, I hope you remember, the reason Jesus told those parables was that the scribes and Pharisees grumbled when they saw Jesus eating with scoundrels and said, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Lk. 15:1). Jesus was attracting and associating with shadowy characters and the known sinners of society. So, there in Luke 15, the scribes and Pharisees are thinking that Jesus is either removing the demands of the Commandments or, at least, lowering the bar of what the Law demands. They figure Jesus is some sort of liberal universalist who says that people can live however they want and still get in to heaven. In their minds, Jesus is, by His actions, saying that God doesn’t really care about sin.

Now, we don’t know for sure, but it is very possible that Jesus told the parables in Luke 15 about three years after He preached the words of our text today. Today’s text comes from the Sermon on the Mount which was very early in Jesus’ ministry. I mention this chronology for one reason. This sermon of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, was preached to great crowds that were following Him (Mt. 4:25-5:1). So from the very beginning of His ministry Jesus, your Savior, made it clear that He was not coming to abolish the Law. Those throngs of people heard Jesus very adamantly and very clearly say, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to do away with them but to fulfill them.” He says that not the littlest part of the Commandments will pass away. He warns against relaxing any of the Commandments or teaching others that the Law is not important. According to your Savior’s clear teaching, the Law stands.

We always need to remember that Jesus’ death on the cross takes away the guilt of the Law, but it does not remove the Law’s requirements. Let me say that again because it is important. Jesus’ death on the cross takes away the guilt of the Law, but it does not remove the requirements of the Law. And we need to remember that the Law always points its finger directly at you and at me.

Jesus goes on in this text and afterward to spell out the requirements of God’s Commands. According to Jesus, the holy Son of God, murder is committed without guns, knives, axes, forceps, vacuums, and syringes. Bloody hands Sure, you aren’t Lady Macbeth yelling at the blood of Duncan to wash off your hands, but you are guilty of murder before God. You have been angry with others. You have called others, “Fool.” You have held grudges. You have refused to ask your neighbor for forgiveness. And Jesus goes on to the other Commandments as well – lust is adultery and fornication, gossip is perjury, etc.

But you say, “Pastor, you can’t be serious to compare my anger to murder, or my lust to actually having an affair, or my gossip to perjury.” Well, your issue is not with me. I’m just the messenger. Your issue is with God’s holy and perfect Law. You can argue the morality of your sinful actions all you want, but those two tablets of stone only point at you and declare, “You are the sinner.”

Repent. Remember, Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”And, honestly, our righteousness doesn’t measure up to the low bar of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You might appear very moral and look good outwardly, but the Law is like an x-ray or MRI that exposes every sinful thought and feeling which is just as damnable as the outward action. Unless you keep the Law perfectly as Jesus did, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Repent, but do not lose heart. There is a righteousness that exceeds the outward, visible righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ who did indeed fulfill the Law for you. And through His death and resurrection, His righteousness now belongs to you.

As our Epistle text (Ro. 6:1-11) said, you have been united by your Baptism to Jesus’ death. In your Baptism, you were buried with Jesus into death. If Christ doesn’t return first, you will most surely die. But do not fear. Just as Jesus’ death didn’t last, neither will yours.Because you have been united to Jesus’ death, you can know without doubt that your death will not last. In Baptism you have died with Christ and been set free from sin. Your body of sin has been brought to nothing, and you are no longer enslaved to sin. Christian, you must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

And still in this life you need the Law. You need to hear the accusations of God’s Commandments so that your sin is exposed, and you are left with nowhere to flee except to God for His mercy. And God, in His mercy, freely and fully forgives you for the sake of Jesus. Christian, you are free from the Law; Paul will go on to say that very thing in Romans 7:6.

When it comes to your salvation, the Law has nothing to say to you because the Law is not the way to eternal life and peace with God. But that does not mean your Savior says do not need to listen to the Law any more. I’d like to close with an analogy from a faithful pastor[1] that, I think, is very helpful to express how you relate to the Law as a Christian who is fully saved by Christ’s grace but still has a sinful nature.

Imagine that your heart is like a big mansion with all sorts of rooms, hallways, and secret passages. There are certain rooms where the Law must be allowed and given full access; however, there are other rooms where the Law should never be allowed.

The Law should never be allowed to access into your ‘How do I stand before God?’ room, your ‘Am I good enough to go to heaven?’ room, your ‘Does God love me?’ room, your ‘Does God think I am a good person?’ room, or your ‘assurance of salvation’ room. The Law should never be allowed to enter those rooms because Jesus has made you as good and as righteous and as perfect as He is.

But the Law is like a three-year-old boy who is always trying to get into the rooms where he isn’t allowed. So, you have to lock those doors and childproof those knobs to keep the Law from entering them.

But don’t think that you can deny the Law access into the other rooms of your heart. No, the Law must have full access to those other rooms. The ‘how I parent my children’ room, the ‘how I am at work’ room, the ‘how I treat my spouse’ room, the ‘how I live as a citizen of my city, state, and country’ room, etc. In those rooms, the Law must have full, complete, and even unsupervised access so you are convicted of your sin.

The Law is right when it declares that you have failed your neighbor and sinned. However, that does not, and it never will, determine your standing before God. Jesus does. Your Savior determines your standing before God.

Always remember that you don’t have to make yourself right with God. Christ has done that. Before you ever thought to get things right with God and even before you took your first breath, God loved you and sent Jesus to make you right with Himself. And through faith in Him, you have His perfect, complete righteousness.Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Analogy from Pr. Jared Melius that can be found here: http://wolfmueller.co/law-not-go-sermon-preached-pr-jared-melius/.

Even Now – Sermon for Ash Wednesday

Mar7

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The texts for this evening were Joel 2:12-19 and Matthew 6:16-21.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In our Old Testament lesson, God called to His people (v. 12-13), “Yet even now, return to me with all your heart with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.”

Let’s break this down. “Yet even now.” Those are such beautiful words of Gospel. “Even now.” After everything you have done and left undone. After failing again and again into the same sin over and over. After refusing again and again to do the good God put you there to do for your neighbor. After you have broken trust, broken relationships, broken the hearts of those you should mend, even now, return to the one, true, holy, God.

But repeatedly in Scripture, God’s holy presence is the last place that sinners want to be. Adam and Eve hid from God’s holy presence after they had sinned and realized their nakedness. Standing in God’s holy presence, Isaiah said, “Woe to me, for I am undone.” Jonah fled from God’s holy presence when God called him to preach to Nineveh. Peter asked the holy Son of God to depart from him because he was a sinful man.

Holiness and sin cannot coexist. Just as light destroys the darkness, the brightness of holiness destroys the darkness of sin. But if we think that our sin has forever separated us from God, we are defying the very words of God in this text, “Yet even now, return to Me,” says your Holy God. This returning is repentance.

Return and repent with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Return and repent because the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Repentance has us saying, “Amen,” to God twice. “Amen” simply means yes, truly, absolutely, correct, right. We say “Amen” when God’s Law tells us that we are guilty of sin, when the Scriptures tell us that we deserve God’s wrath and punishment for our sins now, in this moment, and for all eternity. But repentance doesn’t stop there either.

Repentance says, “Amen,” when God speaks His Gospel over us, when God says that we are forgiven for Christ’s sake. That the suffering and death of Jesus has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west.

The first “Amen” is not easy to say. We don’t like to admit our failures and sins. We don’t like to admit that the wages our sin has earned is the bitterness, sickness, and hardships we face in this life. Instead, we blame others for the burdens we bear.

But the second “Amen” isn’t really any easier than the first. The devil and the world scream at us that the sacrifice of Jesus isn’t really enough. Our own flesh even says, “Well, it can’t be so easy as simply believing in Jesus.” But dear saints, that is when we need to say, “Shut up,” to the devil, the world, and our own flesh.

Just as God means it when He speaks the Law to say that your sins harm you and your neighbor, and more importantly that your sins separate you from Him, God also means it when He says that for the sake of Jesus He has forgiven you and blotted out your sins.

Through this Lenten season, we are going to be considering the Ten Commandments, and this will give us ample reasons to weep, lament, mourn, and rend our hearts because of our sin. However, we will also see the great gifts God is giving to us in each Commandment as well. But most importantly, we will see how Jesus has delivered us and calls us, “Even now, return to Me. Return to Me for I am gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”

Your God has no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. Instead He would have you repent. Say, “Amen,” to His Law and to His Gospel. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Pastorsamwise

"Don't the great tales never end?"

Tag Archives: Gospel

The Canaanite School of Beggary – Sermon on Matthew 15:21-28 for the Second Sunday in Lent

Flight to Fight – Sermon on Matthew 2:13-23 for the Second Sunday of Christmas

Forgiven Forgivers – Sermon on Matthew 18:21-35

Holy Deliverance – Sermon on Luke 18:31-43 for Quinquagesima

The Humble King – Sermon on Matthew 21:1-9 for the First Sunday of Advent

Dependence – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Manage – Sermon on Luke 16:1-13 for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity

The Council of the Lord – Sermon on Jeremiah 23:16-29 for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Your Savior & the Law – Sermon on Matthew 5:17-26 for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Even Now – Sermon for Ash Wednesday