We too must preach the Gospel.

 

Sermon for Epiphany 4, February 2, 2025

Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Luke 4:38-44  ³⁸Jesus got up, left the synagogue, and went into Simon’s house.  Simon’s mother-in- law was suffering from a high fever.  They asked him to help her.  ³⁹He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.  Immediately she got up and began to serve them.  ⁴⁰As the sun was setting, they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases.  He laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.  ⁴¹Demons also came out of many people, crying out, “You are the Son of God!”  He rebuked them and did not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.  ⁴²When it was day, he went out to a deserted place.  The crowds were looking for him.  They went up to him and were trying to prevent him from leaving them.  ⁴³But he told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is why I was sent.”  ⁴⁴And he continued to preach in the synagogues in the land of the Jews. (EHV)

We too must preach the Gospel.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            Happy Groundhog Day!  If it strikes you as rather odd that I would say this, well, it should.  Now, Groundhog Day is a rather innocuous, silly, semi-reverent event, or superstition, a day people pretend that a cute, hairy rodent of rather large size can predict the future.  And, as long as it isn’t taken seriously, it can be a bit of fun entertainment in the middle of the cold days of winter.

Yet, we may ask ourselves, how many distractions and superstitions come along in our lives that interfere with what is truly important?  Our sermon text teaches us many things that are important—important in Jesus’ life, and important for our eternal lives, but primarily, it teaches that We too must preach the Gospel.

As we consider this text, we could certainly focus on Jesus’ demonstration of His Almighty power in the miracles He performed.  We well note that Jesus was becoming acquainted with Peter and his friends before He called them to serve as disciples and apostles.  We also recognize that Peter was a married man and that did not prevent him from serving the Lord in ministry.

Therefore, what problem might be found that would apply to our lives as well as it presented itself in the lives of those people surrounding Jesus in this account?  It certainly wasn’t wrong of the people to put their trust in Jesus for help and healing.  Indeed, Jesus has invited us to come to Him with any trouble and in any time of need.  The danger comes when people forget the true mission Jesus had in coming to this world.  Here, Jesus shows that He didn’t come to be a healer of physical ailments.  Furthermore, Jesus didn’t enter this world just to benefit a few people or a particular place.

All of the miracles Jesus was performing served His main mission of saving souls from eternal condemnation.  That also is the purpose of the Gospel.  One of the grave dangers facing the Christian Church in our times is the temptation to focus mostly on physical or political problems.  Some people even go so far as to assume that the purpose of a church is to help people in some earthly need.  Some churches have declared themselves sanctuaries for foreign nationals.  Some focus primarily on serving meals to the poor or providing temporary shelter for those in need.  Others have claimed that our role in life is to guide the government in order to correct every ill that afflicts our world.

Now, by all means, let it be granted that Christian believers should be helping our neighbors in need.  When the crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do then?”  He answered them, “Whoever has two shirts should share with the person who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.” (Luke 3:10-11)  God has compassion on those in need, and He provides for us all we need plus more so that we may help those around us who need help.  Consequently, Jesus never ignored the needs of those who came to Him for help or healing or brought someone to Him in need of a cure.

Yet, the point of this interchange is that Jesus’ real purpose was so much more.  He told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is why I was sent.”  “Because that is why I was sent.”  Jesus came into this world to be our Good News.  He came to suffer and die for the sins of the world, for all people.  Jesus came to live the holiness we need to stand before God in judgment.  Jesus came to rescue us from clutches of Satan who does his best to convict us of many evil things: selfishness, greed, spite, envy, hatred, fear, and distractions, and self-righteousness, too.

So, what kind of distractions might Satan be using against us?  Might that serpent whisper in the believer’s ears that God fell asleep when an airplane and helicopter collided in mid-air?  Might the devil use our good works against us by leading us to imagine that we deserve God’s favor for how diligently we serve Him?  That is one temptation that was very common among the Jews of Jesus’ day, and it is more than a little common in our times as well.  How often does that devil come slandering the Holy Spirit by pretending that our efforts to proclaim Christ’s salvation in this world of sinners aren’t accomplishing God’s goals.

As many of our congregations shrink, do we find ourselves growing fearful or timid?  When others attack us with false accusations against the teachings of our Church, are we ready to respond with the truth of God’s Word, or do we shrink in fear that we will embarrass ourselves?  As we view the tragic events that our so extremely common in this sin-broken world, has our confidence in God’s care suffered as well?  Lot’s of questions that may distract us from the truth of our Savior.

When Jesus was ready to leave the area that day, the people tried to hold Him back.  They wanted Him to stay and keep helping them.  They loved that He could heal their illnesses and hurts.  They loved that even the demons had to obey.  However, the people were missing Jesus’ true mission.  They didn’t understand why He came.  When you are hurting or hungry or sad or lonely, do you ever forget why Jesus came into this world?  I think we would all be lying if we said that never happened.  The sin that afflicts our whole lives keeps us wondering if God really is good and loving all the time.

Here is why We too must preach the Gospel.  Satan isn’t about to stop his tempting and accusing ways.  Nor did God promise that He would make life in this world perfect.  In fact, Jesus warned just the opposite when He said, “In this world you are going to have trouble.”  Yet, Jesus didn’t leave His disciples hopeless when He said this, for He continued, “But be courageous!  I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  This world is under the curse of sin which is death.  That is the root of every problem we have to deal with, and every sorrow that ruins our days.

When the people tried to hold Jesus back, He “told them, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is why I was sent.’  And he continued to preach in the synagogues in the land of the Jews.”  Here is something you may not have considered; as Jesus was walking this earth, He didn’t cure every broken heart.  He didn’t heal every sick person in every land.  He didn’t raise every person who died all over the world back to life.  God doesn’t work that way.  He works in His own time and in His own good way to do the things that will bring those who believe in Him into His kingdom and into His everlasting home of heaven.  That is always God’s goal—to rescue sinners out of this broken, grief-laden world.

Jesus went about His work every day doing precisely His Father’s will.  That means Jesus was willing to heal anyone who came to Him for help and healing.  That also means Jesus obeyed those God had placed in authority over Him.  Imagine that—God placed humans, some of them awful sinners, in authority over His own dear Son.  One of them tried to murder the infant Jesus by killing all the babies in Bethlehem two years old and younger.  One of them, by washing his hands in front of an angry mob, signed the death warrant that sent Jesus to the cross to suffer and die for the sins of the world. 

All of those wicked men had the same need as you and me.  They needed a Savior who came from God to live perfectly holy so that righteousness could be credited to us who need it, and we all need a Savior who was willing to suffer and die in payment for the guilt of every time we have doubted God’s love, for every time we have ignored His commands, for every time we listened to the devil’s deceptions for even a moment, for every time we were scared, for every time we neglected to do our heavenly Father’s will.

Dear friends, We too must preach the Gospel, not so that we might earn salvation by doing that work (for our works cannot save us), but so that we might again be encouraged in hearing all that Jesus did so that we are now right with God, so that we can be sure that the devil is always lying, and that our sins are forgiven forever—because they are forgiven—washed away in Jesus’ blood.  We preach the Good News of what Jesus has done for us because of the joy we feel in knowing that sin, Satan, and death have been permanently overcome.

We too must preach the Gospel out of love for fellow sinners.  Whether they believe us, or not, we must preach because of the love God has poured out on us through His Son.  “This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)  From the day Adam and Eve sinned, God promised a Redeemer who would reconcile us with our Creator.  Jesus came into this world, not to make this world better, but so that we are now right with God and welcome in His presence eternally.

Jesus knew what He was doing as He left those crowds behind.  He was going about His Father’s business of saving souls from the devil’s lies and accusations.  After He had accomplished our redemption and rescue from sin’s curse with His suffering and death on the cross, Jesus rose triumphant from the grave, victorious over sin, death, and devil.  Jesus then returned to His Father’s side in heaven, and from there, He is ruling all things so that the Gospel can go forth in this world so troubled by sin and its curse.  That’s why Jesus sent those apostles He had chosen out of unlikely beginnings.  That’s why He continues to use us to testify with our lives of service, and with our willingness to declare our hope of eternal life even in the face of great sorrow and pain.

I am certain that many people in Judea still suffered the effects of sin even after Jesus passed through an area.  However, no believer in the Christ will ever miss out on the glories of heaven, because Jesus lived to give you righteousness.  He died to take away all your guilt and shame.  He rose from the grave, alive again, as sure proof that every promise He ever made is true and certain.  God grant that we never ever wonder or doubt about God’s love, or get distracted by the foolish things of this world, but rather, that We too will preach the Gospel to His glory and our sure hope of life everlasting.  Amen.

May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and in His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.  Amen.