Put on the full armor of God.

Sermon for Trinity 21, October 27, 2019

            Well, I’m ready to go into battle.  I’ve got my sword, my shield, and my helmet on.  So, how do you think I’ll do against smart bombs, anti-tank missiles, armor piercing bullets, and nuclear weapons?  For that matter, how do you think I would do, armed like this, if fighting against the steel swords, daggers, and bronze spear points of the ancient Roman soldier?

As ridiculous as this looks, history is littered with the dead bodies of warriors that went into battle against armies that had much superior weaponry.  My little toys, here, wouldn’t defend me, for even a second, from a real attack by a committed foe.  I am defenseless and would soon be dead.  Yet, how many times do we enter this world’s spiritual battles without being fully equipped?  And, how many people do we know wandering in this world of spiritual warfare, armed with no better protection than I am carrying here, while under constant assault by forces that intend to destroy their souls for eternity?  So, recognizing the dangers around us, let’s listen when the Holy Spirit teaches us to Put on the full armor of God.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Ephesians 6:10-17  ¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil.  ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  ¹³For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand.  ¹⁴Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, ¹⁵and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals.  ¹⁶At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.  ¹⁷Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (EHV)

Dear fellow soldiers in the battle for life, the One true God rescued us from sin and death, and He doesn’t want our rescue to go for naught.  Furthermore, God is keeping you and me in this foreign land, for a time, for His good purpose of bringing salvation to more and more people. 

In the letter to the Ephesians, we receive excellent instruction on how we should live our lives in this spiritually war-ravaged-world, but the Lord knew that left on our own, we would be slaughtered like helpless sheep, so Paul begins the conclusion of his letter by instructing, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”  By our own strength, we are as helpless against the powers of evil as lambs before wolves.  So, for the spiritual battle going on in this world, we need to be equipped by the only true source of power and might, which is the Lord God Almighty.  Because the Holy Spirit knows the danger that surrounds us, He urges us through St. Paul to Put on the full armor of God.

Can you imagine a Roman soldier going out to battle with only part of his equipment?  Perhaps with only his shield but no helmet or sword, or perhaps with his helmet but no shield, or with a sword but no protective armor at all?  The idea is ludicrous!  Any soldier worth his salt will take the best available armament to protect himself from the thrusts and blows that will come from his enemy, and he will take the best available offensive weapons so he can drive away the savage attacker.  Thus, Paul tells us, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil.” 

Make no mistake; we face an incredibly cunning and evil foe.  The devil knows our weaknesses.  He knows and misuses the Scriptures, and he will use any deceit, any lie, any advantage, and every vulnerable spot he can find to cause our destruction.  He will come at the most unexpected times, and least expected places, to try to catch us unawares.  We must always be fully prepared.  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

So often, we find ourselves worrying about all the troubles of this world.  We worry about our earthly life, about being physically hurt or killed, or dying from cancer or other horrible diseases, from accidents or criminal attacks.  Yet, Paul reminds us that the real danger, that each one of us faces, is the deadly attacks on our eternal souls.  Not to discount the physical troubles we all will face, but this life is short, regardless, so we need to be protected from those things that can rob us of eternal life. 

While we may well worry about human enemies, it is instead the spiritual forces of evil behind them that pose our greatest danger.  Satan and his evil hordes will not stop trying to steal away everyone they can from the Lord’s protection.  Thus, they use the rulers, authorities, and world rulers of this darkness that Paul mentions, here, all those people, things, and authorities, that, whether they know it or not, serve the devil’s horrible plans.  We are continually locked in a life and death struggle with the forces of evil.  So, lest we succumb to the demons’ weapons, we must Put on the full armor of God.

Now, it is a fact that the devil can no longer win this war for our souls, because Christ has already won the eternal victory on the cross.  Jesus’ resurrection declares with power that the eternal victory has been won.  Therefore, when we are armed with His word, God has ensured that we will have no weak spots, no vulnerable place that the devil can use to his advantage. 

But be warned, in spite of suffering complete defeat, the devil continues to roam this world until Jesus returns, and he will use every form of guerilla warfare he can dream up to steal away those who are weak in the faith.  The evil one considers it his personal glory to murder as many souls as he can.  The devil’s hatred, and jealousy, of the Lord Jesus makes that evil angel our formidable enemy.  There is no soft way to say this; the devil would like nothing more than to entice away from Jesus as many blood-bought souls as he can steal.  We need God’s perfect protection.  We need the full armor of God.

Jesus once said, " My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-29)  The idea of sending defenseless sheep into battle against a powerful foe, might seem ludicrous to the world, but God has provided us with all the shielding armor and powerful weapons necessary so that we cannot be defeated or lost.  Paul wrote, “For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand.” 

God, through Christ, made us victorious over Satan, that liar and murdering thief.  Likewise, God provides us with everything we need to defend ourselves from the attacks of the evil ones.  Fully equipped as God’s soldiers, we are prepared to ward off every attack; we cannot be harmed.  Instead, having Put on the full armor of God, we will stand victorious on the day our King returns in triumph and eternal glory to judge the world.

So, what is God’s armor?  Paul tells us as he says, “Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals.  At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.  Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  The Holy Spirit is telling us to stand ready for victory.  The eternal triumph is already ours when He equips us for the battle.

Paul speaks of being protected by truth.  The truth he mentions is not some nebulous opinion of this world’s imagination, or a truth that is conditional upon various opinions.  No, this truth is God’s holy word.  In God there is nothing false.  Whether His word lines up with human reason isn’t open to question.  God’s truth stands far above anything of this world.  It is made perfectly reliable by God’s perfect constancy, and so it is reliable for our protection from the devil’s lies.  No matter what falsehood the devil or this world wants to throw against us, God’s Word stands forever. 

Remember how Jesus responded to the devil’s temptation?  Jesus didn’t try to reason with that slanderer.  Jesus simply defeated the devil with Scripture, because the devil cannot overcome that truth.  Therefore, should Satan come whispering in your ear that you are so good that God must love you, you can repeat God’s truth with the prophet, Isaiah, that “We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way,” (53:6) thereby confessing that we have, indeed, sinned against God.  But then, when the devil turns and accuses us of our sinful wandering, we can also reply with the prophet, “And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (53:6)  The devil and this world love to tempt us and throw lies in our faces.  God’s truth destroys the lie.

We wear “the breastplate of righteousness,” simply by believing in Christ Jesus as our one and only Savior.  His perfect righteousness is our protection us from the devil’s accusations, for “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  All of our sins were removed from us and put on Christ Jesus.  He paid for our sins with His death on the cross.  Christ’s resurrection declares with power that the devil can no longer accuse us before the Judge.  Through Jesus’ holy life and innocent death, you and I have been counted not guilty.  God remembers your sins no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)

Paul mentions, “the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals.”  His point is that God protects every part of our being with His Gospel of salvation through faith in Christ.  The soldier of Paul’s picture would never go into battle without as much protection as possible—every vital area was covered.  Likewise, complete saving coverage is put on us through the Gospel of peace between God and men.

Paul wrote, “At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.”  When you were in confirmation class, you maybe didn’t like having to memorize Bible passages, but by committing them to your memory, the Holy Spirit is working in God’s Word, both to give you saving faith in the Triune God and to equip you against the flaming barbs of all the evil forces that attack us.  The devil will certainly send his burning arrows at us, but we don’t have to suffer the devastating wounds they try to inflict.  When we hold up our God-given faith in Christ Jesus, the devil’s attacks can’t harm us.  As Luther wrote in his great hymn, “One little word can fell him.”

“Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  At your baptism, God dressed you in His protective armor, covering you from head to toe with His name.  He wants you to wear that armor every moment of your life until He calls you home to heaven.  The helmet of salvation protects your thinking.  The person who does not know Christ has no defense for the devil’s lies.  Therefore we need to be armed with all the tools of God’s Word.  Every word the Holy Spirit caused to be written for us in the Bible was given for one purpose: that we might know and believe in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, that we might believe and trust in Him for the forgiveness of all sins, for our adoption into His eternal family, so that we never need fear the assaults of Satan and his evil minions, but rather rejoice in the face of any trouble because Jesus has put His protective armor over us to preserve us through the spiritual battles of this world and to bring us safely home.

In the Word of God, we have both defensive and offensive weapons, the perfect tools both for our protection and to drive away the wicked foes.  We need to know God’s Word and make it part of our everyday existence.  When the devil attacks with his temptations and lies, there isn’t always time to run home and pick up your tools of war.  We need to be dressed in them continually so that we do not fall. 

So, my friends, when the Word is preached, come and hear it.  Regularly eat and drink Christ’s true body and blood by which He himself strengthens your faith so that no attack of the devil can harm you.  At every opportunity, open your Bibles and continue to dress yourself in the armor God gave to keep you safe.  The Father put His seal on you at your baptism—don’t throw away His protection by abandoning His holy Word.  Rather, immerse yourself in it.  Carry it with you wherever you go, tucked firmly in your mind.  Then, whatever battle comes your way, you will have God’s strong protection, not only lying handily nearby, but covering you from head to toe with faith in His Son, our Lord Jesus.  May the God of salvation and eternal life walk with you always as you daily continue Putting on the full armor of God.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Rejoice in God’s gracious invitation.

Sermon for Trinity 20, October 20, 2019

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)  So said Jesus to His disciples as He trained them to go out into the world with His gracious invitation to salvation.  Last Sunday, I told you that we have no reason to fear anything in this world because “The Lord never forgets you.”  Yet, it is also true that those who do not fear the Lord God of heaven and earth will never enter His heavenly celebration.  This morning, our sermon text tells us how God fills His heavenly home.  Therefore, now and forever,

Rejoice in God’s gracious invitation.

Matthew 22:1–14  Jesus spoke to them again in parables.  He said, ²“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  ³He sent out his servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come.  ⁴“Then he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner.  My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready.  Come to the wedding banquet!’  ⁵“But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business.  ⁶The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them.  ⁷As a result, the king was very angry.  He sent his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.  ⁸“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  ⁹So go to the main crossroads and invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’  ¹⁰Those servants went out to the roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  ¹¹But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  ¹²He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’  The man was speechless.  ¹³Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

            Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            Our sermon text this morning really addresses the first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)  To love the Lord your God means to give Him your greatest respect, to honor Him, to gladly and willingly serve Him, and to regard your relationship with Him as your greatest treasure.  Jesus also instructed us to fear God—but why?

True fear involves two aspects.  The first is, of course, terror of causing that greater, more powerful being to become angry with you.  This is the fear that often strikes us when the flashing, colored lights appear behind us on the road as a police officer pulls us over.  On the other hand, true fear also indicates a loving respect for God’s providence, which is what we all hope for in our relationships with our children.  We want them to love and respect us not because we could punish them, but because we hope they comprehend all our service and the sacrifices we make for them.

Our text teaches how we enter into the kingdom of heaven.  But, notice the lack of fear among so many of those invited to the wedding banquet.  Most of the people didn’t care that the king had honored them with his invitation.  Nor did they care to honor the son at his wedding.  In their minds, they had more important things to do, which is the same way so much of the world has always reacted to the proclamation of the Good News of a Savior from sin for the world.

Jesus’ parable was certainly aimed at the Judean population of His day.  At the same time, it applies to every people from the time of Adam and Eve, and it bullseyes us well.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent out his servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come.”  Jesus gave us an earthly picture to help us understand a truth about God’s domain and who will enjoy His celebration in heaven.  From the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, God has sent out His gracious invitation to believe in Jesus and live in glory, but many people don’t care.  So many people rejected God and His initial promise of a Savior that He sent a great flood to wipe most of them off the face of the earth. 

In Israel too, the gracious invitation came through a long list of prophets from Moses on down, but many didn’t care.  In fact, Israel had gained a reputation for killing God’s prophets, so God would at times allow the armies of surrounding nations to rain down His judgment upon those rejecting His mercy.  Many of the Jews of Jesus’ time still rejected His invitation to believe, and it is an historical fact that Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside was destroyed by the Romans around a.d. 70.  Yet, for us, what this all means is that there will come a time of judgment when God will cast those who reject His invitation into the outer darkness of eternal torment.

Throughout history, there have always been those who receive God’s invitation with fear and trembling and great joy.  They enter the marriage feast of the Lamb by faith and continue to enjoy that celebration for the all the eternities to come.

At the same time, though, there are the many who just don’t care.  Jesus’ parable shows us two types of those who reject His kindness.  He said, “Then he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner.  My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready.  Come to the wedding banquet!’  But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business.  The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them.  As a result, the king was very angry.  He sent his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.” 

On the one hand are those who are content with life in this world.  They don’t harm the messengers, but neither do they give heed to the invitation.  This may be the greatest warning for us.  How many times do we find it more compelling to go about the business of life on earth rather than heed God’s invitation to come to His house to feast on the banquet of Word and forgiveness prepared for all whom He has called?  How often do vacations, jobs, field work, sleep, and other distractions keep us away from what God has prepared?  Now, I know this might sound judgmental in the middle of harvest in a tough year.  Yet, we need to maintain a healthy respect for God’s invitation.  This isn’t to say that one must never miss a Sunday in church, but how often do we allow our earthly tasks and temptations to steal away our time and attentions in the kingdom of heaven?  Because to be honest, God Himself has invited us to enter in to feast with His Son.

The other side to those who reject God’s messengers are those who are openly hostile to God’s invitation.  Our world today is full of groups that reject Christian faith, who refuse God’s invitation to forgiveness and salvation, and in bold arrogance some of those attack the servants God sends.  Now, here in our little town one doesn’t expect to lose his life by such arrogant rejection, yet we do run into some who might secretly wish we weren’t around to bother them, and the guilt of those thoughts is the same.

These two types were aimed pointedly at those in Judea who rejected Jesus and the prophets.  However, despite the rejection of so many, God has always, throughout time, moved on from those who reject Him to graciously invite others to come into His kingdom of grace.  Jesus tells us, “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  So go to the main crossroads and invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’  Those servants went out to the roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”  Those who were unworthy of the king’s wedding celebration weren’t deemed so by their deeds.  Rather, they marked themselves unworthy by their rejection of God’s grace. 

As we will soon see, none of us had the merit to be worthy to enter on our own.  The merit of the invitation belongs only to our merciful God.  But wanting all people to be saved, God continues to send out His gracious invitation.  And, this is where we enter in.  You and I are part of that vast throng found along the highways and crossroads of life, whom the messengers of God’s grace have led into the eternal celebration.  We had no royal merit or high-class standing in the kingdom of heaven.  Like every other person on earth, we were descended from those who also inherited the sins of Adam.  Still, to fill His house and honor His Son, God has invited us in purely out of His merciful grace.

Now, the whole Christian Church on earth is made up of those who were invited in off the roads of this world, but there is still one more warning for us in this text.  One man was dressed differently.  Jesus said, “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’  The man was speechless.  Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.”  This picture transcends what might happen at an ordinary festival here on earth, but there is nothing ordinary in Jesus’ message.

No one entered that heavenly hall by self-merit.  We all enter God’s kingdom by His gracious invitation and providing.  The warning, here, is against hypocrisy.  Though perhaps not visible to us, there are those in the church who view themselves as worthy of the invitation, or they imagine themselves so finely dressed in their own deeds that they don’t need the magnificent clothes Jesus has provided for us.  Yet, that is the warning.  What the crowds understood as Jesus spoke this parable is that a rich king of that time and place would have provided appropriate garb for the crowds invited in.  The ordinary class of folk couldn’t be expected to have the right apparel.  It is a picture of what Jesus has done for us.

That one man chose not to dress in the fine clothing provided by the king.  Maybe he thought his own clothes sufficient, perhaps even finer than what the king was offering.  Regardless, his action slandered the king and shamed the son.  The same is true of any who view their place at the banquet feast of heaven as something they have earned, or even that they have dressed themselves in such good works that they don’t need the cleansing and fine dress Jesus offers.  For those hypocrites, the destination is hell, right along with all those who completely rejected the invitation.

That brings us back to the message Jesus wants all people to have: Rejoice in God’s gracious invitation.  Those who fear and love God do so by the work of the Holy Spirit.  As the Spirit brings us to faith in God’s Son, Jesus, we are washed clean, purified of all sin by the cleansing water of Baptism, in preparation for the everlasting wedding feast.  The old tattered robes of our sinful past were thrown away in the dung heap of history when Jesus died on a cross and lay buried in a grave.  Right along with that, we are dressed in the immaculate robes of Jesus’ perfect righteousness, for the fine white linen of heaven woven together from Jesus’ perfect obedience, and purified by His blood, is draped over our eternal souls.  As the prophet wrote, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord.  My soul will celebrate because of my God, for He has clothed me in garments of salvation.  With a robe of righteousness He covered me.” (Isaiah 61:10)

Those who receive God’s invitation with joy believe every word He has prepared for us.  We consume that bread of life already, now, so that we can feast with our Savior forever in the banquet hall of heaven.  Believing this, we rejoice with glad hearts right here, and believing God’s gracious invitation, we will rejoice again every tomorrow of our lives.  Then dressed in the royal robes of Christ’s holiness, we will Rejoice in God’s gracious invitation for all eternity above.   Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Remember; the Lord never forgets you.

Sermon for Trinity 19, October 13, 2019

“Can a woman forget her nursing child and not show mercy to the son from her womb?  Even if these women could forget, I will never forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15)  That was God’s promise to a straying and unfaithful Israel.  Despite the fact that His chosen people so often turned away from trusting Him to worship idols and to live in total disregard to the instructions the Lord had given for their earthly and everlasting welfare, God would not turn His back on His people.  Even when He felt it necessary to discipline and even rain down harsh punishment on them, God would not forget them.  He said, “Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:16)  Likewise, we should

Remember; the Lord never forgets you.

Dear sons and daughters of the Living God,

            Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

            Pretty much every society in the history of the world has struggled with some form of two questions: “Where did we come from?” and “Why am I here?”  You and I live in a place and time in which society has by and large decided that we are here by random chance, and the only real purpose in life is to make yourself feel happy, content, or at the least, enjoy some fleeting pleasure. 

Yet, this lack of certainty about where we come from, and the determination to satisfy the self, has led to rising tides of despair, hatred, anger, and fear.  It is very similar to the time and place of our sermon text.  Israel too had fallen into the trap of satisfying self and worshipping whatever pleasure they could find, and it led them to take advantage of each other, especially the weak, and to live in fear of what neighbors or enemies, especially the enemy nations surrounding them, might do to them.

Now, our fears may not be exactly like those of Old Testament Israel.  However, it is an inescapable fact that people today are scared, and perhaps we are too.  The general public is afraid of losing the many things it has come to enjoy: jobs, money, food, material things, and the climate it thinks it has.  It is even afraid of having its opinions disagreed with and wicked behaviors curtailed.

At the same time, the general public struggles with guilt, though it is often subconscious guilt, which may be why, in one of the most prosperous societies every known, we have extremely high rates of depression, covetousness, people young and old taking extreme risks just to feel some thrill in meaningless lives, the dreadful abuse of mind-numbing drugs, and rising rates of suicide and accidental death by overdose.  We have become so prosperous that even our impoverished poor are wealthy in comparison to many other places and times in the world.  At the same time, many ordinary, relatively well-off citizens claim they have never seen prosperity.

So, how about you and me, what fears and guilty thoughts trouble us?  Do we worry about whether we will be able to harvest a crop?  Are we afraid that God will for some reason stop blessing us as richly as He has in the past?  Are we afraid of illness, crime, poverty, or loneliness?  Do we look at the sins and failings we see in ourselves and wonder how God could possibly love such a sinner as me?  Do we wonder if so many scholars and scientists could be so wrong when seemingly almost all of them reject the Bible and make claims for the origin of man that are so far removed from what God says?  It is for times just like this that we need the word of our God in our sermon text:

Isaiah 44:21-23  ²¹Remember these things, O Jacob, because you are my servant, Israel.  I am forming you to be my servant.  You, Israel, you will never be forgotten by me.  ²²I am blowing away your rebellious deeds like a cloud, and your sins like a mist.  Return to me, because I am redeeming you.  ²³Shout for joy, you heavens, because of what the Lord is doing.  Make a joyful shout, you depths of the earth.  Burst forth with shouts of joy, you mountains, you forest and every tree in it, because the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel he will display his beauty. (EHV)

The first two verses of our text should really be in quotation marks because this is God speaking to His people.  And, while we might expect words of judgment and condemnation because of the sins of Israel, God instead offers hope.  Certainly, the northern tribes of Israel, and the southern state of Judah would suffer for their sins and willful disobedience.  God would send discipline upon them in the hope of drawing them back into His loving embrace, but He didn’t want anyone to despair while they had to undergo that discipline and punishment.  The same is true for you and me.

The world we live in will have trouble.  There are times for us, too, when God sends difficult things our way as a means of encouraging us to return to Him in faith and trust, and when the general populace has wandered too far from faith, that discipline from the Lord can be quite harsh.  We know, also, that because this world is so corrupted with sin and sinners, that many bad things happen to faithful people simply because sinners do bad things.  But Remember; the Lord never forgets you.

Now, the Lord has not granted me the ability to prophesy our immediate future.  I can’t tell you what the weather will be like in the coming weeks, what the markets will do, or what will happen in politics and the public realm.  I do know that Jesus told us:

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.…Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.…they will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will put you to death.  You will be hated by all nations because of my name.  Then many will fall away from faith. They will betray each other and hate each other.  Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:6-12)

Lots of bad stuff will come our way simply because we live in the end times.  Society has been breaking down since Jesus ascended to heaven.  Modern man thinks we are getting better, yet, other than having fancier toys and technology, society is as bad or worse than at other times in history.

Terrifying as that sometimes is, we have no reason to despair.  Furthermore, our worries, fears, and despair are sin.  It is the evidence of a lack of faith in the God who created us and has been sustaining the world since He created it—all of us included.  Because that is the truth, God has been taking care of us every step of the way, and we truly have no reason to doubt that He always will.  But sometimes we do.

For those times, we read the word again, “Remember these things, O Jacob, because you are my servant, Israel.  I am forming you to be my servant.  You, Israel, you will never be forgotten by me.  I am blowing away your rebellious deeds like a cloud, and your sins like a mist.  Return to me, because I am redeeming you.”  God made us to serve Him, but not as slavish, fearful wretches.  Rather, as His servants, we are God’s family, His dearly loved people.  He created us to serve as a child might gladly serve a beloved parent.  And, God has the answer for all those times we fail to understand that.

Our translation puts the “redeeming” in the present tense; however, the original text has the verb in the perfect case.  What that means is that when God spoke these words to Israel, He was declaring the redemption Christ Jesus would accomplish as an already completed fact.  You see, God works outside of time as well as in it.  Therefore, everyone who has believed His promises has enjoyed the same benefit of His redemption—salvation unto life everlasting in heaven.

You have heard me say many times, previously, that Jesus came into this world to save sinners.  I am not the first to tell you that.  In fact, St. Paul wrote, “This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ of whom I am the worst.  But I was shown mercy for this reason: that in me, the worst sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his unlimited patience as an example for those who are going to believe in him, resulting in eternal life.” (I Timothy 1:15-16) 

God’s own dear Son came into this world to redeem you and me, to buy us back to God at the price of His own life and death, and it is by this purchase price that God blew your sins away like the clouds after a storm.  Our rebellious deeds, our wicked fears and worries, all of our guilt has been removed from God’s eyes.  Even though we still feel these effects of sin, God doesn’t see it or remember it any longer, because Jesus took the punishment for the guilt of the world.  And, that was a good as done already twenty-seven hundred years ago when Isaiah relayed God’s message to the tribes of Israel.

In response to God’s amazing grace, Isaiah cried out to the people, “Shout for joy, you heavens, because of what the Lord is doing.  Make a joyful shout, you depths of the earth.  Burst forth with shouts of joy, you mountains, you forest and every tree in it, because the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel he will display his beauty.” 

My friends, make a joyful noise to the Lord all you people, not because God has commanded it, but because He has redeemed you, cleansed you or every and all sin, and brought you back out of rebellion and everlasting death into life in His kingdom and household.  By the washing of your baptism, God marked you as His own dear child, servant, and friend.  There too, He drowned your sinful, fearful, wandering nature.  And, implanting in you a new heart of living faith, He raised you up alive and fully acceptable to our Creator.

Furthermore, God doesn’t want you to forget what He has done for you, so Jesus offers His own precious body and blood to be put on your lips and tongues as the certain assurance of His loving sacrifice on your behalf, and more than that to strengthen you and increase your trust in His promises.  Each time you come to the altar, Christ is again refreshing in you the forgiveness He won for all by His life and death.  God’s mercy and forgiveness comes to you from a never-ending fountain of grace, flowing from the side of His own dear Lamb sacrificed on the altar of the cross.

Dear friends, Jesus told His disciples, “In this world you are going to have trouble.  But be courageous!  I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  Jesus overcame everything that would have kept you separated from God.  When He took that burden on Himself, Jesus did it out of love for you, and if He loved you so much He was willing to suffer and die for you, even enduring the pains of hell on your behalf, don’t ever imagine He will forget you now, for as St. Paul reminds us, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him?” (Romans 8:32)  Our Lord will take care of you now, and give you peace forever.  Therefore, Remember; the Lord never forgets you.  Amen.

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.  Blessed be His glorious name forever.  May the whole earth be filled with His glory.  Amen.

When the Lord of Life says, “Get up!”

Sermon for Trinity 16, October 6, 2019

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Amen.

Luke 7:11–17  ¹¹Soon afterward Jesus went on his way to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd were traveling with him.  ¹²As he was approaching the town gate, there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother.  She was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.  ¹³When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not cry.”  ¹⁴He went up to the open coffin, touched it, and the pallbearers stopped.  He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”  ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.  ¹⁶Fear gripped all of them, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us” and “God has visited his people!”  ¹⁷This was reported about him in all of Judea and in all the surrounding countryside. (EHV)

When the Lord of Life says, “Get up!”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            It would not be too surprising if today’s service has thus far left you feeling just a bit uneasy.  Most of us don’t feel all that comfortable thinking about death, especially our own.  Yet, every one of us is on the same collision course that brought two groups of people together that long-ago day outside the gate of a town called Nain.  There, just outside the town gates, Jesus met a funeral train, and likewise, a day is coming when each of us will meet Jesus face to face in death.  There, at Nain, no one was expecting what would happen when death met the Lord of life.  But do we know?  Do we know where we stand with Jesus?  Are we prepared for When the Lord of Life says, “Get up!”?

Before we get to the miracle of this event, we should know where this incidence fits in Luke’s Gospel account.  Just before Jesus journeyed to Nain, He had an encounter with a Roman centurion.  It is eye-opening!  That man sent friends to Jesus asking Him to come help his treasured servant who was severely ill.  Yet, before Jesus even got to his house, the centurion sent another message: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.  That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.  But say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." (Luke 7:6-8)

Jesus was astonished at the man’s faith.  Understand what those words mean.  First, they indicate the centurion’s true humility before the Lord, but even more important, that man, most likely a gentile and former pagan, recognized Jesus as He truly is.  The centurion had authority over other soldiers, but He recognized that Jesus had authority over all things, and that can mean only one thing, that he believed Jesus is the true Son of God He claimed to be.  Out of all the people who followed Jesus hoping to learn from Him, this one Roman centurion really got it.  Jesus is true God in human flesh.  Jesus is the author of life and God of life and death.  Therefore, we and everyone else should bow humbly before Jesus looking forward to the day When the Lord of Life says, “Get up!”

By the way, that ailing servant was healed before the second set of messengers could return to the centurion’s house.  But, a far greater healing happened the next day as Jesus journeyed to Nain.  “As [Jesus] was approaching the town gate, there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother.  She was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.  When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not cry.’” 

Consider the awfulness of that scene.  A young man had died.  That alone always stirs up sympathy.  Yet, to make matters even more severe for this grieving woman, he was an only child, and she was already a widow, which meant that not only was her heart broken at the loss of her son, but even her livelihood was at risk with no one to take care of her.  She had to be feeling all alone in the world.  She had to be terrified for her future.  Her neighbors understood the gravity of her situation.  Likely they had seen others like her reduced to begging to survive, so they grieved with her.

It wasn’t just the neighbors who saw the widow’s miserable situation.  In just a day, Jesus had walked twenty miles so that He could meet that funeral procession.  Before He spoke to the widow, Jesus knew what He intended to do, and still, His insides were stirred up at the sight of her pain. 

Dear friends, never underestimate the love Jesus has for you.  When you are hurting, Jesus sees it, and He hurts for your pain.  Never imagine that you are alone in grief, because Jesus cares for you too, and He knows the troubles and sorrows that afflict us.  Even more so, Jesus knows the death we, too, must one day face.

“When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not cry.’”  It might sound callous to our cynical, modern minds, but Jesus’ words are anything but harsh or callous.  Jesus issues a command, but with the most tender intention.  He says, “Don’t cry,” not because He doesn’t think it appropriate to weep, but because Jesus had come to take away her grief.  Jesus says, “Don’t cry” because He brings the cure for her pain.  And Jesus worked the cure for our pain, as well.

“He went up to the open coffin, touched it, and the pallbearers stopped.  He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’  The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”  Jesus addressed that young man, personally, or who knows how many others might have risen from their graves right there.  But the important point is that Jesus had the full power to give life to a dead body, to heal whatever condition had caused the death, and to do so with only the spoken word.  Furthermore, Jesus didn’t have to seek help from anyone not even His Father in heaven.  Yes, we know that ancient prophets had raised children from the dead by seeking God’s intervention.  Read about Elijah and Elisha and their work, but the fact that Jesus, by Himself, restores life to one who was dead and heals whatever affliction was there, shows us who Jesus really is, the Son of God about whom St. John would write, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:3-4)

The centurion had recognized Jesus, but what about Jesus’ countrymen, and what about people of our time?  Who do we say Jesus is?  I am continually amazed, and saddened, that so many people today don’t know that Jesus is true God, the One through whom the world was created and is continually sustained, and that He has done everything needed to take away our fear of death. 

The crowd that saw this miracle was greatly astonished.  In fact, the presence of such power terrified them.  Luke reports, “Fear gripped all of them, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us’ and ‘God has visited his people!’  This was reported about him in all of Judea and in all the surrounding countryside.”  Luke says that fear took hold of the people.  They were amazed, yet many of them weren’t really gratified.  They didn’t really know what to make of such a great happening, and some saw in Jesus only a great prophet.  Oh sure, they knew His power came from God and they praised God for that, but how many really grasped that Jesus is the Son God had promised would end death forever? 

We know that many of those who had been following Jesus eventually turned away.  We might marvel that anyone could see such a miracle and still not believe that Jesus is true God, but perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge ourselves above them.  How many of us have stood grieving at the grave of a loved one and wondered, “Where is Jesus, now?”  How many of us have contemplated the future and wondered what lies ahead for us at the end of our days?  How many of us have been terrified of dying, or even worse, of being mocked by the unbelieving neighbors around us for believing that Jesus saves?  That is why it is so important for us to contemplate death before we must face it in time.  We need to know who holds our future in His hands.

The truth is, Jesus didn’t enter our world to spare everyone from physical death.  Instead, Jesus became a Man to destroy Satan’s rebellion that ends in permanent death in hell.  Therefore, Jesus lived the life of holiness and faithfulness His Father desires for all people.  Then, having lived the holy life we need, Jesus took the death our sins had earned, experiencing the punishment and exile from God’s love that we all deserved.  As St. Paul wrote, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  That’s God’s “great exchange”—God counts Jesus’ righteousness as ours, and our sin was credited to Jesus so that the only begotten Son of God, having lived holiness for us, could then die to pay the debt for our guilt

Jesus told His disciples, “The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.  I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.  This command I received from My Father." (John 10:17-18)  Because Jesus truly is the Son of God, and because He sacrificed Himself so we could live, He has become our hope, because He not only raised that young man at Nain, but He rose Himself from death and the grave so that we too can one day be raised up to live forever in heavenly peace.

That, dear friends, is our unwavering assurance as we contemplate death, whether ours or a loved one’s.  This world is not our end.  Life on earth isn’t all there is.  These few years we have in this troubled world can’t compare to the glory that awaits those who believe in Jesus.  Whatever joys or sorrows we experience here, cannot in any way be compared to what comes after that day arrives When the Lord of Life says, “Get up!” 

You see there is a day coming when all the dead will be called out of their graves.  Our great Prophet, Priest, and King has declared, "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn.  They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30)  Those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will on that day rise at Jesus’ command, restored to live with God forever in glory. 

On the other hand, those who do not believe will also rise from the grave, but not to enjoy life—rather to eternal banishment in hell.  This is why we must continue in the one true faith.  Jesus is the only way to heaven.  Only He can take us there.  Only Jesus can raise us to life everlasting, and so we teach this to our children.  We tell it to our friends.  We speak it even when enemies put a gun to our heads, a knife to our throats, or speak whatever enticing schemes and lies they might dream up to try to lead us away from the Son of God.

Jesus promised, “In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)  On Easter morning, Jesus threw off His grave clothes and rose triumphant over every evil, over the devil, death, and the tomb.  Jesus lifted His human body from the grave so that He could welcome us into the mansions of His Father’s house prepared for those who believe in Him.

Dear Christian friends, that is our sure confidence as we look toward the end of our physical journey, that Jesus will on the last day call us up to life everlasting.  Your sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake.  You have peace with Your Creator God because Jesus lived, died, and rose again for you.  So take heart through any trial, suffering, sorrow, or pain this world throws against you, because even though our bodies may very well lie resting in the grave long before Jesus returns to judge the world, there is a blessed, glorious, triumphant day coming in which you, too, will rise from the dead healed and fully restored—When the Lord of Life says to you and to all, “Get up!”  Amen.

Glory be to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  Amen.