Tag Archives: Way

The Way – Sermon on Proverbs 4:10-23 for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Proverbs 4:10-23

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

If you had to get from here to Lowe’s, you have many different options as to which route to take. And your route might depend on where your car is parked in our lot. From here, you’d have to decide whether to go east to 220 or west to take River Rd. Let’s just assume you go to 220. As you approach Gateway, you have to start making more decisions. Your main options for going west are Gateway, Demers, or 32nd. And your options for going south are Belmont, Washington, Columbia, or I-29. If it weren’t for the construction, you could also pick 42nd.

There are advantages to each—fewer railroad crossings, less traffic, fewer stoplights, faster speed limits, fewer turns. The decisions you make for your route would probably depend on your preferences. As I was writing this sermon, I pulled up directions from here to Lowe’s not because I need directions but so I could see what route the app recommended as the shortest and which was the fastest. By the way, the shortest isn’t the fastest. Between Apple Maps and Google Maps, there were seven suggested routes. And both apps changed their suggestion as the fastest route multiple times.

Scripture regularly talks about how there are only two ways to go through life. One is the path to life, and the other is the path to death and destruction. Basically, the first nine chapters of Proverbs are a father letting his son know that there are only two routes, two paths, two ways.

Just to be clear, the father isn’t trying to help his son make wise decisions on what career to pursue, where to live, whom to marry, how much to save for retirement, and so on. Those bits of wisdom will come in chapters 10-31. The first nine chapters are mainly about these two ways. Only after the father has given his son a clear understanding of those two ways does he get into all that other stuff. It isn’t that those other things don’t matter. They do. But what matters most is the son being on the right path—the path to life. Everything else in his life can serve being on that right way.

Scripture is clear. You are either allied with your Savior and trusting in Him, or you are against Him. There are no other options, and there is no neutrality (Dt. 30:15; Jer. 21:8). You’re familiar with Jesus saying exactly this, “Whoever is not with Me is against Me” (Mt. 12:30). God is always working on you. You are either being built up in faith toward God or being harmed by whatever else is going into your soul. This is why the father’s instructions here are so clear and urgent. Six times in v. 14-15, the father commands his son to shun the way that is contrary to God. 1) Do not enter the path of the wicked. 2) Do not walk in the way of evil. 3) Avoid it. 4) Do not go on it. 5) Turn away from it. And 6) Pass on. Could the father be any clearer or more fervent?

None of this means that the way of life is easy. Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat it. “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life” (Mt. 7:14). We know from experience that it is through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of God (Act. 14:22). Yes, that way and path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until full day (Pr. 4:18). But look again at what Proverbs 4:19 says, “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.” Notice that the text doesn’t say anywhere that the righteous will never stumble. Believers still stumble. We still fall into sin, but the believer knows what caused that stumbling. So, the contrast between the two ways is obviously the destination, but along the way the main difference is the amount of illumination.

When the evil man is stumbling, he doesn’t even know what makes him trip. There’s a foolishness to him. He doesn’t know what is and what isn’t good for his soul because he doesn’t know his Lord. The righteous man is different, but not because he does everything perfectly and never falls into sin.

Dear saints, you aren’t different from unbelievers because you are sinless, have it all together, or have everything figured out. Life is confusing and hard for everyone. The difference between you and an unbeliever is that when you stumble, you know the sin that tripped you up. Even more importantly, you know that you are walking on a narrow way with the One who has saved you from your sin. That’s a big advantage.

The unbeliever doesn’t even know what he’s stumbling over. You do. You can look back and see that root or crack that tripped you up. And even though it causes you to fall—even if it’s a colossal fall—you know the problem. Better than knowing the problem, you know the Savior who is beside you. The Savior who is there to pick you up. The Savior who is there to tend your wounds and heal… you.

This is why the father here doesn’t stop after telling his son to avoid the other way. He presses his son to keep listening. “Be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh” (Pr. 4:20-22). This is how Christ heals you. He puts His Word in your heart. Then, the father closes with the command and promise: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Pr. 4:23). In other words, the way of life isn’t a route to memorize and master. Instead, it’s a Word that you keep.

Your heart isn’t a room that you do your best to keep tidy and neat. It’s a spring, and whatever is in it will flow out of it. You’ve been given a new heart by your Savior who does not leave your spring empty.

Christ Himself is the Wisdom that the father has been teaching his son. Jesus is the Way that leads to life. He entered the creation that our sin had darkened. On the cross, the Light of the world (Jn. 9:5) was covered, and it looked like the darkness had won, but it hadn’t.

Easter morning is the dawn mentioned in v. 18 of our text. The light of Christ’s resurrection shines brighter and brighter until it will reach full day when Christ returns. Until then, He keeps walking with you on a way that, yes, is narrow and hard. But it isn’t a way that you walk alone.

So, when you fall this week—and you will, I will, we all will—you aren’t in the dark about what hit you. You know the cause. So, repent of that sin. And know the Savior who puts His Word of forgiveness back into your ears and His Body and Blood into you again. He keeps your heart by filling it.

Your navigation apps will keep changing their mind about the fastest way to Lowe’s. But your heavenly Father doesn’t recalculate the way to life. Jesus is and always remains the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn. 14:6).

Keep hold of His instruction. Do not let go, because there, and there alone, is Life. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:7). Amen.

I Am the Way, the Truth, & the Life – Sermon on John 14:1-7 for Midweek Lent 4

The Scripture readings for tonight’s service are Psalm 25:4-10; Isaiah 30:19-23a; Colossians 2:6-10; and John 14:1-7.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This text is so rich and beautiful. If it were a gemstone, it would glimmer and glisten in the light. If it were a meal, it would be a perfectly seasoned, 90-day dry aged ribeye cooked to a perfect medium rare. If it were a touch, a two-hour massage on a pristine beach. You can add any other sensation you’d like. This text is so comforting that it is has been used in a high percentage of the funerals I’ve officiated. In this text, Jesus, your Lord and Savior, says to you, “Let not your hearts be troubled. I’m preparing a place for you, so you can be with Me forever.” It’s absolutely wonderful and beautiful.

Sadly, unbelievers hate it. They find what Jesus says here utterly offensive. It chafes and grinds on them because of Jesus’ “I Am” statement. “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” For pagan unbelievers, that’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. And sure, to a degree, the reason they recoil from it is the exclusive nature of what Jesus says. Today, people get really uneasy when it comes to right vs. wrong. They hate the idea of exclusive claims and objective truth so much that they’ll say absolutely absurd things like, “You have your truth, and I have mine,” and “Two plus two may equal four for you, but it can equal five or three or 1,743 for someone else.” It seems like that kind of ridiculous, radical relativism is on the decline, but it still has a powerful hold on many in our culture.

But I think people hate Jesus saying, “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” for a different, but related, reason than its exclusivity. They find it offensive because they realize that statement implies something is deeply wrong with them, so wrong that there is only one way to fix it. If you walked up to a random person and shared the simple Gospel truth, “Jesus forgives you of your sins” (1 Jn. 2:2; Tit. 2:11), they won’t hear that as good news. Instead, they’re going to hear what lies behind it and will push back, “You’re calling me a sinner? You’re not perfect! Who do you think you are? You’re not the judge of me. I’m basically a good person.” When they hear, “No one comes to the Father except through Me,” they understand what lies behind it. What lies behind it is that they are so broken that it literally takes an act of God Himself to fix them. And that’s offensive to them.

They might not have minded if Jesus said, “I am a way, a truth, and a life,” as though there were alternative ways, truths, and lifes [sic.]. They will grossly accuse God, “If God were really loving, he wouldn’t be so closed minded. If he really loved people, he’d make sure there were many ways to be saved.” Sigh. Dear saints, you can’t out-Gospel God. You can’t out-love the God who is love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16).

Imagine everyone in the world was out wandering in the desert. It’s hot. Dry. We’re all getting sandblasted because of the wind. Suddenly, we see down in a valley, this beautiful city with pools and gardens and barbecue restaurants (see Is. 25:6). That city is where we want to be. But we see this tall, thick wall that goes all the way around it. We start to think that there’s no way to get in there. We start walking around the city scrounging for a way to get inside. Then, there it is. A door. A gate in that massive wall, and it’s wide open. There is a way in.

We start telling everyone else, “We can go in now. We can get out of this desert. We can cool off and wash and eat and live forever in the city!” But most of the people say, “I don’t want to go in that way. I want to go in over here.” We object, “But there’s no door over there.” “I know, but I’m not going through that gate.” “Why? It isn’t dangerous. You don’t have to crawl through a bunch of sewage or anything.” “I know, but I still don’t like it. Maybe the city council will put in another door over here. Or I’ll just keep walking into the wall and hope it disappears.”

There is a way to salvation and eternal life. Jesus is that way, and He is the only way. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Act. 4:12). When you talk with people who are offended and think there should be many ways, show them how ridiculous that is, but do it in a manner that is loving and kind. Don’t let them be deluded thinking that ‘one way’ is equivalent to ‘no way.’ There is a Way, and that Way is Jesus.

To get a better idea of why there is no other way, we have to do a little groundwork. Look at Jn. 14:2 again. Jesus gives this great promise, “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” When Jesus says He’s going to prepare a place for you, He isn’t saying that there was something wrong with heaven. The problem wasn’t that Jesus needed to put an addition on because there wasn’t enough space. The problem wasn’t that heaven was messy and needed to get tidied up. The problem wasn’t that Jesus had to put new linens out and mints on the pillow. The problem wasn’t anything wrong with the Father’s house. The problem was in us. Jesus says this the night before His crucifixion, not His ascension. He is ascended as the King and Ruler of all creation. Right now, He is actively governing all things for your benefit (Mt. 28:18; Eph. 1:20-22; 1 Pet. 3:22). He isn’t doing some heavenly housekeeping.

This going to prepare a place refers to the cross. Jesus has to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house because God’s holiness and perfection is in that house. Sinners like us can’t survive that. The Father’s house is only for the holy, the perfect, the righteous. That isn’t us. Our sinful nature excludes us, and the fact that we continue to fall into sin slams the door in our face. 

So, when you hear Jesus say, “I go to prepare a place for you,” you can hear that as Him saying, “I go to prepare you for that place.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “I’m going to win your forgiveness. I am going to do everything necessary for your salvation. I’m going to take all your sin into Myself and pay for it all. Anything that would exclude you from being in My place by My side, I’m going to destroy. In return I’m going to give you My righteousness, My holiness, My perfection so that you belong there. By My work, you’ll fit right in.”

That’s the fix. That’s the solution. That’s the Way, and the only Way.

Because Jesus has died and risen again, He is the Way. All your law-breaking, all your sin, all the love you have failed to give has been taken from you (Jn. 1:29) and brought to the cross. There Christ prepared you for a place in the Father’s house.

Believer, when you die and show up at the door of the Father’s house, you’re going to find the door wide open. The angels will carry you in across the threshold saying, “This is where you belong,” because through faith, you are part of God’s family now. You heard in tonight’s Epistle (Col. 2:6-10), you have received Christ. You have been filled in Him, who is the Head of all rule and authority. Continue to walk in Him. Let Him gently guide you. I love how our Old Testament reading (Is. 30:19-23) put it, “Your Teacher will not hide Himself anymore…. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way. Walk in it.’”

Dear saints, your Savior is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. As the Way, He guides you to and in the Truth. As the Truth, He establishes you in Life. Tonight and every day of your life, Jesus says to you, Amen. “Let not your heart be troubled. I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:7). Amen.

Implanted – Sermon on James 1:16-21 for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

James 1:16-21

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Even as we live in a broken and fallen world, God continues to shower His good gifts upon us. Everything good in your life – your family and friends, the air you breathe, the tasty food waiting for us downstairs, the green leaves on the trees, and the cushioned chairs under your posteriors – all of it comes from the Father of lights, the almighty Creator of the universe. And your heavenly Father isn’t stingy. His good gifts started immediately at the beginning of your life, the moment of your conception. He intricately weaved you together in your mother’s womb, and He has and will sustain you all the days of your life with His good gifts (Ps. 139:13-16). And God still gives more.

On top of His good gifts, God gives perfect, complete gifts that also come ‘from above.’ In these verses, James uses language that echoes what Jesus says in Jn. 3. That only those who are born again, or ‘from above,’ (same word) by water and the Spirit will see the kingdom of God. The greatest and perfectest [sic.] gift God has given you is the new, from-above birth that James mentions in v. 18. This new, spiritual birth is yours through faith. “Of [God’s] own will, He brought you forth.” And God didn’t even wait for you to begin living to give you this gift of new birth and salvation. Before God created all things, even before the foundation of the world He had inked your name in the Book of Life (Mt. 25:34; Eph. 1:4-5; 2 Tim. 1:9).

Dear saints, you didn’t earn your place in God’s family. God freely gave it. That’s how you were and are and remain saved. It isn’t your work; it’s God’s perfect gift. Period. In your Baptism, God gave you the gift of faith as He implanted His life-giving Word into you. And the Holy Spirit has watered and nurtured that Word so that it would grow, mature, and bear fruit. Micah and SidaLee, today you aren’t earning God’s gift or approval. Instead, you are simply publicly acknowledging the gift you have received from Him as you stand, rooted where God has planted you.

Micah, SidaLee, and all you saints, count on God continuing to give His good and perfect gifts to you. Don’t be deceived into thinking that you can reach out and grab those gifts before God gives them. Our reading starts, “Don’t be deceived.” It’s a good translation, but the word James uses has a nuance to it of following the wrong path.

You would be utterly and sinfully deceived to think that you can snatch God’s good gifts before God gives them. That is the path of filthiness and rampant wickedness where those gifts cease to be gifts. It is the path of darkness that only leads to more darkness. The devil, the world, and your own flesh will try to lure you down that path of darkness to your eternal death. Do not go down that path.

But that is not the path you are on, Christian. Your path is to recognize the good and perfect gifts for what they really are – gifts from your Heavenly Father, your merciful Savior, and your comforting Holy Spirit. Your path is illumined by the true, eternal, inerrant, infallible, Word of God that is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Ps. 119:105). And you can know without a doubt that Word will never fail you.

Christ Himself is that Word, and there is no shadow, no shiftiness, no variation in Him. The sun sets, and the moon goes down. But Christ does not. Even though Christ describes this path as narrow and difficult (Mt. 7:13-14), you can confidently and safely run down that path with your eyes fixed your eyes on Christ, the Author and Perfector of your faith (Heb. 12:1-2). That confidence comes because He has implanted His Word in you.

I have to apologize for mixing metaphors about going down a wrong path on the one hand and being planted on the other hand. But it’s what the Holy Spirit inspired James to do. So, I guess, I’ll do it too.

Receive the implanted Word. A tree doesn’t need go off on a journey to find more nourishment to grow taller and bear more fruit. Instead, it stretches wider – both with branches and roots. That stretching enables that tree to receive more and more. And the more it receives, the more fruit it bears.

By God’s will, you were brought forth, planted, and are continually nourished because your God is a giver. With a giver, you can receive or reject, but you can’t make a deal. The giving-God doesn’t play around with negotiations, and you cannot make a deal with Him because you have nothing to offer that isn’t His already.

Be comforted. God doesn’t tire of giving. He just gives more. He would have all of you open your hands wider to keep receiving His good and perfect gifts. And if you are worried that His gifts will get too big and overwhelm you, there is a simple solution: Join God in His giving game.

Because God continues to pour out His gifts and blessings on you, you know that you are free to bless others and join God in giving His gifts away. Your giver-God pours out His good and perfect gifts on you because He has made you His child. With each gift, He nudges you to open your hands wider to both to receive from Him and give to others as well.

So, Micah, SidaLee, all you saints, open your hands wide to receive God’s good and perfect gifts (Ps. 81:10). Always continue to receive the implanted Word which saves your soul and delivers the righteousness of God to you now and always. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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