Dear friends in Christ.
I believe it was Bill Gates who said, “In the future there will be two types of businesses, those online and those out of business.” Though I don’t know exactly when this particular phrase was spoken, these very words are being fulfilled in our hearing today! Whether you like it or not, it is pretty clear that everything in our world today is clamoring to get online. Business, who less than ten years ago, had no idea what they would do with a website, are now seeking to drive as much web traffic to their online stores as possible. Just a few months ago I heard an ad for a new Wal-Mart that had recently opened in the cities. The ad told of the special area where people who had ordered items online could come in and pick up the purchases they had made. Each and every day more and more people are going online to find their news and information. Though Amazon and Barns and Noble are still selling books, there is a greater push by these two companies to sell electronic books to people like you and me. Even our own bulletin has 9 different websites to which you can go to learn more about what was printed for you this morning. There can be no doubt! Whether you like it or not, whether you are ready for it or not, whether you understand it or not, the future is here! The prediction / prophesy that Mr. Gates made a number of years ago is clearly coming to fulfillment right here right now in our very hearing.
Well, in the same way that I can stand in front of you today and tell you that something Mr. Gates said is being fulfilled in your hearing, Jesus, our Savior is standing before us and telling us that today the Scriptures are being fulfilled in our hearing. In fact, this was the very message that Jesus spoke as he sat before the crowds in that synagogue in Nazareth so many years ago. Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing! That was the message that Jesus brought with him as he entered his home town for the first time in over a year. That was the message that Jesus brought with him as he returned to the town where he had lived since he was a very young child. That was the message he brought with him as he entered the town of Nazareth, the place where he was well known as the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James Joseph, Judas and Simon. It was in Nazareth where Jesus had lived and worked for so many years; where he had supported his family, as was his responsibility as the first born. It was there where Jesus had been until about a year earlier.
Though it hadn’t been much more than a year since Jesus had seen Nazareth, so much had happened in that short time. He had been baptized by John the Baptist, God the Father had spoken and the Holy Spirit had descended upon him in the form of a dove, and the news about him had spread. He had turned water into wine at the wedding of Cana, and the news about him had spread. He had traveled from Cana to Capernaum to spend a few days with his family and the news about him had spread. He had traveled with them down to the Passover in Jerusalem, where he drove the money changers out of the Temple, taught the people, healed the sick and drove out demons, and the news about him had spread. He spent the rest of that year working his way from Jerusalem, up through Samaria, and finally in to Galilee, preaching, teaching, gathering disciples, and performing many signs and wonders, and the news about him spread. Though a year earlier the people of Nazareth had seen him leave as nothing more than an ordinary man, now he sat before them as a respected rabbi with the fame of his deeds echoing throughout the land, and he simply says to them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
As Luke tells us, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:14-21)
As Jesus spoke these words, he clearly revealed to his fellow town’s people that he was the Messiah who had come into the world. He was the one who had come to fulfill the prophecy that Isaiah had written so many years ago. He was the one who had spent the last year of his life preaching the good news of salvation to the spiritually poor of Israel. He was the one who was proclaiming the freedom of forgiveness to those who had long languished in satan’s dark prisons of self righteousness and unbelief. He was the one who was opening the eyes of those who were physically blind as well as the eyes of those whose spiritual blindness had kept them from the peace and the salvation that Jesus was so freely offering. He was the one who had been chosen by the Lord to be his own, who had been anointed by the Holy Spirit who descended upon him in the form of a dove. He was the one proclaiming the Jubilee of the Lord’s favor—the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus the Messiah. He was the one telling them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!”
What greater comfort could there be for us today than those beautiful words that Jesus spoke some 2,000 years ago, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Though we may not have Jesus sitting before us and telling us how he fulfilled Isaiah’s beautiful prophesy, as we hear about it, we are reminded that he is the one who healed the sick and raised the dead. He is the one who spoke the comforting words of the gospel to those burdened by a weight of sin. He is the one who comforted his people in all their troubles, and he is the one who is doing the same thing for us today!
Even though we are living in a world where everything is changing and technology is allowing business to work faster and cheaper with fewer and fewer people, the Lord Jesus is still caring for us. Even though we find ourselves mere miles from a nation that has all but been destroyed by an incredible earthquake, the Lord Jesus is still working in fulfillment of those words from Isaiah. Through the efforts of organizations like the WELS Committee on Relief, the Gospel is being proclaimed and Jesus is once again proclaim the freedom of the forgiveness of sins to those who had long languished in satan’s dark prison of unbelief. Through the preaching of the gospel in Haiti, Jesus is opening the eyes of those who had been spiritually blind for much if not all of their lives. Through the preaching of the gospel more and more people are learning about their Savior and the salvation that they have and those words of Isaiah are continuing to be fulfilled in our hearing.
Even today, through this message of the Gospel, Jesus is continuing to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor to you and me. He is continuing to bind up those whose hearts have been broken by the ravages of their own sins and the sinful state of this world. He is the one who is using even this recession to open our own eyes to our own personal apathy, blindness, even resistance to his word, and he is calling us out of the prisons of our own making. He is the one calling to us with his word, preaching and teaching us that he is the Messiah who through his death and resurrection has freed us from all our sins, so that no matter what we might have done in the past, it is forgiven. We have been released from our bondage to sin and death and are now free to live our live in service to the Lord Jesus, our Savior.
Because Jesus has fulfilled this Scripture in our hearing, we know that we can turn to him in any and every situation in our lives. He is the one who forgives our sins so completely that they are forgotten by the Lord our God. He is the one who loves us so intently that he gave up his life in our place. He is the one cherishes us so entirely that he provides us with his Word, with opportunities for worship, with encouragement from the body of believers here, with opportunities to speak to him in prayer, and with the absolute assurance that through faith in him we have eternal life waiting for us.
That is our comfort as we hear today how our Savior has fulfilled this Scripture in our hearing. It isn’t like the fulfillment that is taking place in our world today as companies and the economy itself moves toward the Internet. Rather it is the sure and certain gift of the Lord our Savior who has freed us from our sins, opened the eyes of our hearts, made us his own, and given us the gift of eternal life.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Let me introduce you to the Lord, your Messiah (John 2:1-11)
This sermon was preached from the perspective of the Apostle John.
Dear friends in Christ.
If you’ve read the Bible, then you are probably already familiar with much of my life. You know how I was a disciple of the Lord Jesus. You may remember how my brother James and I were labeled as the Sons of Thunder because of our zeal for the Lord and our desire to call down fire from heaven in order to destroy a Samaritan village that did not welcome Jesus as he was heading to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51-56; Mark 3:17) You may remember how James, Peter and I were chosen to spend some very personal time with Jesus and see him perform miracles that the other disciples did not witness. We were with him when he raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. (Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:41-56) We were with him on the Mountain of Transfiguration when Jesus changed in appearance and when Moses and Elijah appeared to speak with him. (Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36) We were there in the Garden of Gethsemane, but a stones through from our Savior, unfortunately sleeping as he endured such agony of soul, without comfort from us or the prayers that he so eagerly desired. (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 15:32-42) You may even remember how earlier that evening I was the one who was privileged to sit next to Jesus at the Passover. Just a few hours later, I was blessed with the opportunity to care for the Savior’s mother, and years after that, I was even given an all surpassing revelation of the victory of Jesus over the devil in the last days of the earth.
But even though you know all of this, you may not be all that familiar with how it all began. For me personally, it all started roughly 6 weeks after Jesus had been baptized. As you heard last week, the skies opened to reveal the glory of the Lord, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and God the Father spoke those beautiful words, “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22, NIV) Immediately after these miraculous events, Jesus went out into the wilderness to fast, pray, and be tempted by the devil for 40 days. It was after those days were over when everything began for me. You see, originally I had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and I was with him on the day Jesus returned from the wilderness. I can still remember it as if it were yesterday, as John saw Jesus approaching he said to everyone there, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ … “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:29-34, NIV)
I can still remember my amazement and my excitement as John pointed out the Messiah for whom we had waited for so many years. I can still remember how badly I wanted to meet him, get to know him, and learn from him who is my Savior and my God. But the best memory I have of the Savior is how Andrew and I spent the day with him. You see, that first day when Jesus appeared and John introduced us all to the Messiah, I did nothing. I simply looked on with the rest of the people who were there, but the next day, when Jesus came walking by again and John once again introduced the crowds to the Lamb of God, Andrew and I followed him. We talked with him. We accompanied him to the place where he was staying. We sat down and learned from him. I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but I remember Andrew going out to find his brother Peter, bringing him back to meet Jesus, and then there were three of us.
The very next day, Jesus decided to travel to Cana in Galilee for a wedding to which he had been invited. On the way he found Philip and simply said, “Follow me.” Philip ran off to find Nathaniel and invited him to come and see the one whom Moses and the prophets had written about, and when Nathaniel came, he too was introduced to Jesus, the Messiah. Now, the really cool thing about this was that not only did we have an incredible opportunity to follow after and learn from the Messiah, but we were all pretty good friends already. Nathaniel was from Cana in Galilee (John 21:2) Philip, Peter, and Andrew were from the town of Bethsaida, right there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, (John 1:44) and my brother James and I were fishing partners with Peter and Andrew. (Luke 5:9) So, in three short days, there were six of us following after Jesus as his disciples, traveling with him on the way to a wedding.
When we arrived at the wedding feast, we had the opportunity to meet Jesus’ mother. Now, I don’t remember exactly what Mary was in charge of, but I do remember she was helping out quite a bit, which was why she told Jesus about the wine situation. His answer was simple and polite as he told her that he would act accordingly in the proper time frame, which is exactly what Jesus did. When the time came for him to act, he had the servants fill the six large stone water jars that were standing nearby. Now, these stone jars were huge! Each one held between 20 and 30 gallons, and it took some time for the servants to draw roughly 180 gallons of water from the well, carry it over to the stone jars and fill those jars all the way to the brim. (John 2:1-7) If you think it takes forever to fill up a bathtub, you would be amazed at how long this took. Then, once the jars were filled, Jesus gave instructions that made absolutely no sense to me! “Draw some out,” he said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.”
I hate to say it, but I thought he had lost his mind! The bride and groom had run out of wine and Jesus was sending the servants to the banquet master with a cup of water! But something miraculous happened; the water was changed into wine. When the banquet master tasted the water that had been turned into wine, he was amazed. He had no idea that he was drinking water that had been changed into wine, but the servants who brought the water to him, they knew what had happened. All that the banquet master knew was that this was the best wine he had ever tasted. He called the bridegroom over and expressing his amazement, said: “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:8-10)
It was because of this miraculous sign, the very first one that Jesus ever performed, that the disciples and I placed our faith in him as our Savior and our God. It was because of this miraculous sign that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I had found the Messiah for whom I had waited for so many years. It was because of this miraculous sign that I knew I needed to learn everything I could from the Son of God, my Savior. In fact, it is because of this miraculous sign that I have traveled to Le Sueur, Minnesota for the opportunity to introduce you to the Lord, your Savior, and to tell you about all that he has done for you!
For you see, in the same way that Jesus blessed the marriage of this couple in Cana with his very presence, so also the Lord Jesus is the one who continually showers his blessings upon your own marriages, families, and households. He is the one who lives in our hearts and in our homes, as the old saying goes: “Christ is the head of this House, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation.” He is our Lord and Savior who continually provides all that you have and even more than that. As we learned in the explanation to the first article of the Creed, he is the one who provides us with clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all that we own, and all that we need to keep our body and life. He is the one who defends us against all danger and guards us and protects us from all evil.
He is the one who used his miraculous powers to change water into wine not merely so that the other five disciples and I could place our faith in him, but he also did it so that each and every one of you would be strengthened in your faith and assured that he is your Messiah. He is the one who gave such a tremendous gift of wine, somewhere around 180 gallons, something like 960 bottles, to demonstrate that he is the Son of God, the Savior of the world who can do all things by his almighty power. He is the one who performed this miracle so that later on we would have no problem believing that the bread and the wine given to us in communion is at the same time his body and his blood. Though this is something that we cannot comprehend, or understand it, it is something that we accept through faith believing that the bread and wine are at the same time Jesus’ body and blood, simply because he says they are. Jesus changed the water into wine and recorded it for us so that we would have no doubts, whatsoever, that when we were washed in the water of baptism, and that water was applied to us in connection with the Word of God, through that washing the Holy Spirit entered our hearts, created faith in Jesus, our Lord and Savior, bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us, and gave us the sure and certain hope that through faith in Jesus Christ, when the Lord finally calls us from this life, we will go to live by his side forever in his heavenly kingdom. Jesus changed the water into wine to assure us that if he could do such a simple thing that no other human being can do, then he could surely serve as our substitute. He could surely carry our sins to the cross and pay the price God demanded by his death there on that altar. He could surely sprinkle his blood upon us and wash us clean from every spot and stain of our sins. He could surely give up his life on one day and then on the third day take it back in all power, strength and glory!
Through this simple miracle of changing water into wine, the Lord Jesus, our Savior calls us to believe that he is the God who cares for us and loves us. He is our God who watches over us and comforts us in all troubles, trials, and temptations. He is the one standing beside each and every one of us, especially as we have all been affected by the economic downturn that has become a great recession and is now threatening to become an even greater depression than the Great Depression of the 30’s. He is the one to whom we can turn in any and every situation and he will help us, because when he was on earth he was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) When he was on earth, he endured the most abject poverty, so that even if we might find ourselves in the lowest position of society, we could take comfort in the fact that he faced even worse. He was rejected again and again, in the worst way, by his own people, so that when we are rejected by friends, relatives, even the company that we worked at for so many years, so that by his experience he would be able to comfort us in our sorrow, pointing us ever to himself who loves us and has never turned away from us. He is the one who even now is extending his hand to the men of this nation who have lost their jobs and thus lost their self image, because they feel that they are no longer able to be the bread winner and the provider for their family since much of who they are was tied up in that position. He is the one extending his hand to the women of this nation who have been laid off from their positions and are worried about feeding their family. He is the one who is extending his hand to each and every child and family in this time of need and assuring them that he will continue to provide for all their needs. He is the one who is continuing to extend his hand to each and every one of you, assuring you that just as he has already provided for all of your spiritual needs by giving you the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life through faith in him, so also by this miracle Jesus introduces himself as the Messiah who will also continue to provide for all your physical needs today.
This is Jesus, your Lord and Savior, the Messiah, to whom I have come to introduce you, this morning. So, as we close, I would like to close in the same way that we began; with an introduction. I want to share with you an introduction of Jesus made by comedian Steve Harvey, who as he introduces our Savior echoes and expands on the very things I have told you today.
Steve Harvey’s Introduction can be found on youtube.com or quickly link to it at: http://intro.grace-leusuer.org
This is the Lord, our Savior, your Messiah, whom I have come to introduce today.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Dear friends in Christ.
If you’ve read the Bible, then you are probably already familiar with much of my life. You know how I was a disciple of the Lord Jesus. You may remember how my brother James and I were labeled as the Sons of Thunder because of our zeal for the Lord and our desire to call down fire from heaven in order to destroy a Samaritan village that did not welcome Jesus as he was heading to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51-56; Mark 3:17) You may remember how James, Peter and I were chosen to spend some very personal time with Jesus and see him perform miracles that the other disciples did not witness. We were with him when he raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. (Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:41-56) We were with him on the Mountain of Transfiguration when Jesus changed in appearance and when Moses and Elijah appeared to speak with him. (Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36) We were there in the Garden of Gethsemane, but a stones through from our Savior, unfortunately sleeping as he endured such agony of soul, without comfort from us or the prayers that he so eagerly desired. (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 15:32-42) You may even remember how earlier that evening I was the one who was privileged to sit next to Jesus at the Passover. Just a few hours later, I was blessed with the opportunity to care for the Savior’s mother, and years after that, I was even given an all surpassing revelation of the victory of Jesus over the devil in the last days of the earth.
But even though you know all of this, you may not be all that familiar with how it all began. For me personally, it all started roughly 6 weeks after Jesus had been baptized. As you heard last week, the skies opened to reveal the glory of the Lord, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and God the Father spoke those beautiful words, “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22, NIV) Immediately after these miraculous events, Jesus went out into the wilderness to fast, pray, and be tempted by the devil for 40 days. It was after those days were over when everything began for me. You see, originally I had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and I was with him on the day Jesus returned from the wilderness. I can still remember it as if it were yesterday, as John saw Jesus approaching he said to everyone there, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ … “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:29-34, NIV)
I can still remember my amazement and my excitement as John pointed out the Messiah for whom we had waited for so many years. I can still remember how badly I wanted to meet him, get to know him, and learn from him who is my Savior and my God. But the best memory I have of the Savior is how Andrew and I spent the day with him. You see, that first day when Jesus appeared and John introduced us all to the Messiah, I did nothing. I simply looked on with the rest of the people who were there, but the next day, when Jesus came walking by again and John once again introduced the crowds to the Lamb of God, Andrew and I followed him. We talked with him. We accompanied him to the place where he was staying. We sat down and learned from him. I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but I remember Andrew going out to find his brother Peter, bringing him back to meet Jesus, and then there were three of us.
The very next day, Jesus decided to travel to Cana in Galilee for a wedding to which he had been invited. On the way he found Philip and simply said, “Follow me.” Philip ran off to find Nathaniel and invited him to come and see the one whom Moses and the prophets had written about, and when Nathaniel came, he too was introduced to Jesus, the Messiah. Now, the really cool thing about this was that not only did we have an incredible opportunity to follow after and learn from the Messiah, but we were all pretty good friends already. Nathaniel was from Cana in Galilee (John 21:2) Philip, Peter, and Andrew were from the town of Bethsaida, right there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, (John 1:44) and my brother James and I were fishing partners with Peter and Andrew. (Luke 5:9) So, in three short days, there were six of us following after Jesus as his disciples, traveling with him on the way to a wedding.
When we arrived at the wedding feast, we had the opportunity to meet Jesus’ mother. Now, I don’t remember exactly what Mary was in charge of, but I do remember she was helping out quite a bit, which was why she told Jesus about the wine situation. His answer was simple and polite as he told her that he would act accordingly in the proper time frame, which is exactly what Jesus did. When the time came for him to act, he had the servants fill the six large stone water jars that were standing nearby. Now, these stone jars were huge! Each one held between 20 and 30 gallons, and it took some time for the servants to draw roughly 180 gallons of water from the well, carry it over to the stone jars and fill those jars all the way to the brim. (John 2:1-7) If you think it takes forever to fill up a bathtub, you would be amazed at how long this took. Then, once the jars were filled, Jesus gave instructions that made absolutely no sense to me! “Draw some out,” he said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.”
I hate to say it, but I thought he had lost his mind! The bride and groom had run out of wine and Jesus was sending the servants to the banquet master with a cup of water! But something miraculous happened; the water was changed into wine. When the banquet master tasted the water that had been turned into wine, he was amazed. He had no idea that he was drinking water that had been changed into wine, but the servants who brought the water to him, they knew what had happened. All that the banquet master knew was that this was the best wine he had ever tasted. He called the bridegroom over and expressing his amazement, said: “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:8-10)
It was because of this miraculous sign, the very first one that Jesus ever performed, that the disciples and I placed our faith in him as our Savior and our God. It was because of this miraculous sign that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I had found the Messiah for whom I had waited for so many years. It was because of this miraculous sign that I knew I needed to learn everything I could from the Son of God, my Savior. In fact, it is because of this miraculous sign that I have traveled to Le Sueur, Minnesota for the opportunity to introduce you to the Lord, your Savior, and to tell you about all that he has done for you!
For you see, in the same way that Jesus blessed the marriage of this couple in Cana with his very presence, so also the Lord Jesus is the one who continually showers his blessings upon your own marriages, families, and households. He is the one who lives in our hearts and in our homes, as the old saying goes: “Christ is the head of this House, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation.” He is our Lord and Savior who continually provides all that you have and even more than that. As we learned in the explanation to the first article of the Creed, he is the one who provides us with clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all that we own, and all that we need to keep our body and life. He is the one who defends us against all danger and guards us and protects us from all evil.
He is the one who used his miraculous powers to change water into wine not merely so that the other five disciples and I could place our faith in him, but he also did it so that each and every one of you would be strengthened in your faith and assured that he is your Messiah. He is the one who gave such a tremendous gift of wine, somewhere around 180 gallons, something like 960 bottles, to demonstrate that he is the Son of God, the Savior of the world who can do all things by his almighty power. He is the one who performed this miracle so that later on we would have no problem believing that the bread and the wine given to us in communion is at the same time his body and his blood. Though this is something that we cannot comprehend, or understand it, it is something that we accept through faith believing that the bread and wine are at the same time Jesus’ body and blood, simply because he says they are. Jesus changed the water into wine and recorded it for us so that we would have no doubts, whatsoever, that when we were washed in the water of baptism, and that water was applied to us in connection with the Word of God, through that washing the Holy Spirit entered our hearts, created faith in Jesus, our Lord and Savior, bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us, and gave us the sure and certain hope that through faith in Jesus Christ, when the Lord finally calls us from this life, we will go to live by his side forever in his heavenly kingdom. Jesus changed the water into wine to assure us that if he could do such a simple thing that no other human being can do, then he could surely serve as our substitute. He could surely carry our sins to the cross and pay the price God demanded by his death there on that altar. He could surely sprinkle his blood upon us and wash us clean from every spot and stain of our sins. He could surely give up his life on one day and then on the third day take it back in all power, strength and glory!
Through this simple miracle of changing water into wine, the Lord Jesus, our Savior calls us to believe that he is the God who cares for us and loves us. He is our God who watches over us and comforts us in all troubles, trials, and temptations. He is the one standing beside each and every one of us, especially as we have all been affected by the economic downturn that has become a great recession and is now threatening to become an even greater depression than the Great Depression of the 30’s. He is the one to whom we can turn in any and every situation and he will help us, because when he was on earth he was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) When he was on earth, he endured the most abject poverty, so that even if we might find ourselves in the lowest position of society, we could take comfort in the fact that he faced even worse. He was rejected again and again, in the worst way, by his own people, so that when we are rejected by friends, relatives, even the company that we worked at for so many years, so that by his experience he would be able to comfort us in our sorrow, pointing us ever to himself who loves us and has never turned away from us. He is the one who even now is extending his hand to the men of this nation who have lost their jobs and thus lost their self image, because they feel that they are no longer able to be the bread winner and the provider for their family since much of who they are was tied up in that position. He is the one extending his hand to the women of this nation who have been laid off from their positions and are worried about feeding their family. He is the one who is extending his hand to each and every child and family in this time of need and assuring them that he will continue to provide for all their needs. He is the one who is continuing to extend his hand to each and every one of you, assuring you that just as he has already provided for all of your spiritual needs by giving you the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life through faith in him, so also by this miracle Jesus introduces himself as the Messiah who will also continue to provide for all your physical needs today.
This is Jesus, your Lord and Savior, the Messiah, to whom I have come to introduce you, this morning. So, as we close, I would like to close in the same way that we began; with an introduction. I want to share with you an introduction of Jesus made by comedian Steve Harvey, who as he introduces our Savior echoes and expands on the very things I have told you today.
Steve Harvey’s Introduction can be found on youtube.com or quickly link to it at: http://intro.grace-leusuer.org
This is the Lord, our Savior, your Messiah, whom I have come to introduce today.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Friday, January 8, 2010
A simple question reveals the Lord’s Messiah (Luke 3:15-17, 21, 22)
Dear friends in Christ.
A friend once asked Isidor I. Rabi, a Nobel prize winner in science, how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn't so much interested in what he had learned that day, but she always inquired, "Did you ask a good question today?" "Asking good questions," Rabi said, "made me become a scientist." Well, in the same way that a simple question asked by his mother eventually revealed Isidor Rabi as a scientist, so also a simple question asked by a group of Israelites on the banks of the Jordan River was the avenue the Lord used to reveal his Messiah to his people, as our text tells us: “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.” (Luke 3:15 NIV)
Now, as our text opens, roughly 30 years have passed since last week. The Magi had come, worshiped the Savior, and returned to their home by another route. The Lord had sent an angel to warn Joseph to take his family to Egypt so that they might all be safe from Herod and his murderous plot. Herod had died, Joseph and Mary had returned to Bethlehem, discovered that Herod’s son was now ruling in his place, and quickly moved back to Nazareth because they knew no one would be looking for them or their son in what was essentially the smallest and poorest community in all of Israel. Though the Bible mentions how Jesus traveled to Jerusalem with his family when he was 12 years old, it says nothing else about him until a simple question reveals him to be the Lord’s Messiah. It was the question that all the people were wondering, because John had done his job so well!
So expertly had he prepared the way for the coming Messiah that the people wondered if John might actually be him! After all, John was the first Prophet the Lord had sent to the Israelites in nearly 400 years. He came, wearing the traditional marks of a prophet, garments made out of camel’s hair and a leather belt, just as the Prophets of the Old Testament had warn (see: Zechariah 13:4 and 2 Kings 1:8), and even though there were undoubtedly others who were traveling as prophets throughout the land of Israel, John preached with such authority that the people were drawn to him. He was the one who called the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. He was the one who condemned the people’s superstitious notion that they would be saved simply because they were descendants of Abraham. He was the one who so forcefully preached the message of God’s law that the people were moved to repentance and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. He was the one who so lovingly and so regularly preached the gospel of forgiveness that the crowds continually asked him for advice on how they could live their faith in their everyday lives. In short, as John prepared the way for the coming Messiah, the people were simply buzzing with anticipation, expecting that in any moment the Messiah might come walking down the road, step out from behind a tree, or simply miraculously appear right before them. So primed were they for the Messiah’s appearing that they began wondering if the Messiah might already be standing before them.
Well, even as they asked their simple question, wondering if John might possibly be the Messiah, he simply told them that he wasn’t and once again called on them to prepare for his coming, as our text tells us, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’” (Luke 3:15–17, NIV)
Unlike we Lutherans, who will simply look in the guest book if we really want to know who a visitor is, the crowds directly asked John their question, and through their simple question John had the opportunity to once again prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. In short, his answer was a resounding, “No. I am not the Messiah.” Rather, he was the voice of the one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” He was the one who was constantly pointing the people toward the Messiah, encouraging them to look for him, and calling on them to put their faith and their hope in him. John was not out to make a name for himself, no! His sole purpose was to bring glory to the Lord by preparing the people for their Messiah, and that is exactly what he did with his answer! For even as he answered, John told them that he was merely the Lord’s humble servant! He was the Lord’s humble servant who wasn’t even worthy to stoop down and untie the Messiah’s sandals. Even though John was a powerful and authoritative preacher, his mission was to point to the one who was more powerful than he, the Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Now, when people hear this statement, that the Messiah would come to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, so often, they get all bent out of shape. They begin to think that John’s baptism wasn’t up to scratch and they now need a special baptism by the Holy Spirit in order to be faithful Christians. The thing that they don’t realize is that with this simple sentence, John is summing up the entirety of the Savior’s mission on earth. When the Messiah came, he would come to his people in love and grace proclaiming the message of salvation to all who believed. He would be gentle with those of weak faith and build them up in their trust in him, just as Isaiah had prophesied: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4, NIV)
Jesus was the one who would come as the Lamb of God to be the sacrifice for all people, just as the Lord had demonstrated through all of the sacrifices he had commanded. He was the one who would take back his life and return to heaven, and only then, after he had been gloried, on the Day of Pentecost, would he baptize the people with the Holy Spirit and Fire. For it was on that day, as I said last week, when all the nations were gathered in Jerusalem that the Lord Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit on his disciples. Not merely the 12, but all the disciples who had gathered together in that house, and they were given the opportunity to proclaim the message of the Messiah to the peoples of the world right there in Jerusalem. He is the one who would winnow and separate the believers from the unbelievers and at the end of days take the grain into the barn and the chaff into the fire. Right now the harvest is taking place. Each day the workers harvest more and more grain from the harvest field of the world and bring it to the threshing floor of the Lord’s presence, where the oxen of the Lord’s Word continually walk its prescribed path, breaking up the kernels, beginning the separation of the grains from the chaff. Each day our Savior stands with his winnowing fork in his hand, observing the process, and waiting for the exact moment to begin the winnowing. On the Last Day, he will use his fork to toss the kernels into the air so that the grains might fall back to the ground and the chaff be separated landing elsewhere. When the winnowing is done, all the grain will be gathered up and taken into the store house of heaven, but the chaff—those who did not believe in Jesus as their Savior—they will be burned up in the unquenchable fires of damnation.
In such a simple, and yet straight forward way, John answers their question, revealing that he was not the Messiah, and yet preparing them for his immediate arrival. However, when the Lord answered their question, he clearly revealed Jesus as the Lamb of God, the Messiah for whom they had been so well prepared. Our text tells us, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” (Luke 3:21–22, NIV)
At the very height of John’s preaching career, while all the people were coming to be baptized, in a rather quiet and unassuming way, the Messiah appears on the scene to be baptized. Though it doesn’t tell us here, from the other gospels we learn that John was so surprised that Jesus would come to him to be baptized that John was rather hesitant to do it. Instead, John insisted that he needed to be baptized by Jesus. Though John would have been correct on any other occasion, Jesus showed him that it was necessary now, at the start of his earthly ministry that John baptize Jesus in order that Jesus might be anointed and revealed as the Messiah who had come to his people!
It was in that moment, after Jesus had come out of the water and was praying on the shore that the Lord answered the people’s question revealing Jesus to be the Messiah. For in the same way that characters in a play will be lit by spotlight in order to emphasize their performance, the God the Father tore open the heavens revealing his glory. The Holy Spirit descended from the heavens in the form of a dove, lighting on Jesus, and remaining with him, as the Father proclaimed, “You are my most beloved Son, with whom I am completely pleased!”
How incredible it must have been on that day when the Lord God simply pointed at his Son and said, “Behold! Here is your Messiah!” How incredible it must have been to have the question of Messiahship answered. How incredible it must have been to realize that the Lord who had sent John into the wilderness, baptizing the people for repentance, just gave his seal of approval to their baptisms by using the baptism of his Son to mark him as the Savior of all people. How incredible that on this day, when Jesus was baptized there would have been at least a few people who had heard the message of the shepherds and seen the Magi come to town some 30 years before. But how much more incredible that the Lord our God saw to it that this account was recorded for our learning! For from these words, our question of who the Messiah is, is clearly answered. We are assured that Jesus is the one whom God the Father chose to be our Savior.
Now, because Jesus’ baptism was given the approval of God his Father, we can take comfort and assurance in our baptisms, because our baptism today is no different than Jesus baptism by John. In fact, by John’s confession that he needed to be baptized by Jesus, baptism was marked even then as a Sacrament by the Authority of Jesus from whom baptism derives its divine power. Even though the Lord Jesus did not command baptism to be carried out by all believers among all nations until the day he returned to heaven, those who were baptized by John and by Jesus’ disciples received the same blessings as we do today, the forgiveness of sins, life, and the assurance of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.
What an amazing question we have answered today! Though it isn’t a question from our mothers asking us about school or if we asked good questions today, it is a question of utmost importance. For today we have asked a simple question about the Messiah and learned who he truly is and all that he has done for us.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
A friend once asked Isidor I. Rabi, a Nobel prize winner in science, how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn't so much interested in what he had learned that day, but she always inquired, "Did you ask a good question today?" "Asking good questions," Rabi said, "made me become a scientist." Well, in the same way that a simple question asked by his mother eventually revealed Isidor Rabi as a scientist, so also a simple question asked by a group of Israelites on the banks of the Jordan River was the avenue the Lord used to reveal his Messiah to his people, as our text tells us: “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.” (Luke 3:15 NIV)
Now, as our text opens, roughly 30 years have passed since last week. The Magi had come, worshiped the Savior, and returned to their home by another route. The Lord had sent an angel to warn Joseph to take his family to Egypt so that they might all be safe from Herod and his murderous plot. Herod had died, Joseph and Mary had returned to Bethlehem, discovered that Herod’s son was now ruling in his place, and quickly moved back to Nazareth because they knew no one would be looking for them or their son in what was essentially the smallest and poorest community in all of Israel. Though the Bible mentions how Jesus traveled to Jerusalem with his family when he was 12 years old, it says nothing else about him until a simple question reveals him to be the Lord’s Messiah. It was the question that all the people were wondering, because John had done his job so well!
So expertly had he prepared the way for the coming Messiah that the people wondered if John might actually be him! After all, John was the first Prophet the Lord had sent to the Israelites in nearly 400 years. He came, wearing the traditional marks of a prophet, garments made out of camel’s hair and a leather belt, just as the Prophets of the Old Testament had warn (see: Zechariah 13:4 and 2 Kings 1:8), and even though there were undoubtedly others who were traveling as prophets throughout the land of Israel, John preached with such authority that the people were drawn to him. He was the one who called the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. He was the one who condemned the people’s superstitious notion that they would be saved simply because they were descendants of Abraham. He was the one who so forcefully preached the message of God’s law that the people were moved to repentance and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. He was the one who so lovingly and so regularly preached the gospel of forgiveness that the crowds continually asked him for advice on how they could live their faith in their everyday lives. In short, as John prepared the way for the coming Messiah, the people were simply buzzing with anticipation, expecting that in any moment the Messiah might come walking down the road, step out from behind a tree, or simply miraculously appear right before them. So primed were they for the Messiah’s appearing that they began wondering if the Messiah might already be standing before them.
Well, even as they asked their simple question, wondering if John might possibly be the Messiah, he simply told them that he wasn’t and once again called on them to prepare for his coming, as our text tells us, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’” (Luke 3:15–17, NIV)
Unlike we Lutherans, who will simply look in the guest book if we really want to know who a visitor is, the crowds directly asked John their question, and through their simple question John had the opportunity to once again prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. In short, his answer was a resounding, “No. I am not the Messiah.” Rather, he was the voice of the one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” He was the one who was constantly pointing the people toward the Messiah, encouraging them to look for him, and calling on them to put their faith and their hope in him. John was not out to make a name for himself, no! His sole purpose was to bring glory to the Lord by preparing the people for their Messiah, and that is exactly what he did with his answer! For even as he answered, John told them that he was merely the Lord’s humble servant! He was the Lord’s humble servant who wasn’t even worthy to stoop down and untie the Messiah’s sandals. Even though John was a powerful and authoritative preacher, his mission was to point to the one who was more powerful than he, the Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Now, when people hear this statement, that the Messiah would come to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, so often, they get all bent out of shape. They begin to think that John’s baptism wasn’t up to scratch and they now need a special baptism by the Holy Spirit in order to be faithful Christians. The thing that they don’t realize is that with this simple sentence, John is summing up the entirety of the Savior’s mission on earth. When the Messiah came, he would come to his people in love and grace proclaiming the message of salvation to all who believed. He would be gentle with those of weak faith and build them up in their trust in him, just as Isaiah had prophesied: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4, NIV)
Jesus was the one who would come as the Lamb of God to be the sacrifice for all people, just as the Lord had demonstrated through all of the sacrifices he had commanded. He was the one who would take back his life and return to heaven, and only then, after he had been gloried, on the Day of Pentecost, would he baptize the people with the Holy Spirit and Fire. For it was on that day, as I said last week, when all the nations were gathered in Jerusalem that the Lord Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit on his disciples. Not merely the 12, but all the disciples who had gathered together in that house, and they were given the opportunity to proclaim the message of the Messiah to the peoples of the world right there in Jerusalem. He is the one who would winnow and separate the believers from the unbelievers and at the end of days take the grain into the barn and the chaff into the fire. Right now the harvest is taking place. Each day the workers harvest more and more grain from the harvest field of the world and bring it to the threshing floor of the Lord’s presence, where the oxen of the Lord’s Word continually walk its prescribed path, breaking up the kernels, beginning the separation of the grains from the chaff. Each day our Savior stands with his winnowing fork in his hand, observing the process, and waiting for the exact moment to begin the winnowing. On the Last Day, he will use his fork to toss the kernels into the air so that the grains might fall back to the ground and the chaff be separated landing elsewhere. When the winnowing is done, all the grain will be gathered up and taken into the store house of heaven, but the chaff—those who did not believe in Jesus as their Savior—they will be burned up in the unquenchable fires of damnation.
In such a simple, and yet straight forward way, John answers their question, revealing that he was not the Messiah, and yet preparing them for his immediate arrival. However, when the Lord answered their question, he clearly revealed Jesus as the Lamb of God, the Messiah for whom they had been so well prepared. Our text tells us, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” (Luke 3:21–22, NIV)
At the very height of John’s preaching career, while all the people were coming to be baptized, in a rather quiet and unassuming way, the Messiah appears on the scene to be baptized. Though it doesn’t tell us here, from the other gospels we learn that John was so surprised that Jesus would come to him to be baptized that John was rather hesitant to do it. Instead, John insisted that he needed to be baptized by Jesus. Though John would have been correct on any other occasion, Jesus showed him that it was necessary now, at the start of his earthly ministry that John baptize Jesus in order that Jesus might be anointed and revealed as the Messiah who had come to his people!
It was in that moment, after Jesus had come out of the water and was praying on the shore that the Lord answered the people’s question revealing Jesus to be the Messiah. For in the same way that characters in a play will be lit by spotlight in order to emphasize their performance, the God the Father tore open the heavens revealing his glory. The Holy Spirit descended from the heavens in the form of a dove, lighting on Jesus, and remaining with him, as the Father proclaimed, “You are my most beloved Son, with whom I am completely pleased!”
How incredible it must have been on that day when the Lord God simply pointed at his Son and said, “Behold! Here is your Messiah!” How incredible it must have been to have the question of Messiahship answered. How incredible it must have been to realize that the Lord who had sent John into the wilderness, baptizing the people for repentance, just gave his seal of approval to their baptisms by using the baptism of his Son to mark him as the Savior of all people. How incredible that on this day, when Jesus was baptized there would have been at least a few people who had heard the message of the shepherds and seen the Magi come to town some 30 years before. But how much more incredible that the Lord our God saw to it that this account was recorded for our learning! For from these words, our question of who the Messiah is, is clearly answered. We are assured that Jesus is the one whom God the Father chose to be our Savior.
Now, because Jesus’ baptism was given the approval of God his Father, we can take comfort and assurance in our baptisms, because our baptism today is no different than Jesus baptism by John. In fact, by John’s confession that he needed to be baptized by Jesus, baptism was marked even then as a Sacrament by the Authority of Jesus from whom baptism derives its divine power. Even though the Lord Jesus did not command baptism to be carried out by all believers among all nations until the day he returned to heaven, those who were baptized by John and by Jesus’ disciples received the same blessings as we do today, the forgiveness of sins, life, and the assurance of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.
What an amazing question we have answered today! Though it isn’t a question from our mothers asking us about school or if we asked good questions today, it is a question of utmost importance. For today we have asked a simple question about the Messiah and learned who he truly is and all that he has done for us.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, January 3, 2010
See the Savior of the World Revealed (Matthew 2:1-12)
Do you know just how much your God truly loves you? I’m sure you do, because we are all very familiar with the events of Christmas Eve and how the Lord revealed his Savior to the world on that night so many years ago. But do you know all the effort that went into fitting all the pieces of history together so precisely? Do you know the vast amount of preparation that that the Lord patiently orchestrated so that he could reveal his Son, our Savior not merely to the nation of the Jews, but also to the myriad nations of Gentiles as well? If you aren’t fully up to date on everything the Lord did to make sure that we, the Gentiles, would know his Son our Savior, then permit me if you will to take you on a journey back in time. Back before the night the Lord revealed his Son to the nations; back to the days of 931 BC when Rehoboam was scheduled to take the throne of his father, Solomon. Though the people asked him to lighten their load, he refused and promised even heavier burdens on the people to the point that the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel rebelled against him, split off, set up Jeroboam as their king and proceeded down a path of idolatry from which they never recovered.
Fast forward from there about 200 years to the year 725 BC. It was in this year that the prophecies the Lord had spoken against the Northern Kingdom of Israel came to pass. For in that year Shalmaneser, the King of the Assyrian Empire, attacked, laid siege to the kingdom for three years, and finally brought it to an end in 722 BC. It was in that year that the Lord sent his people into exile, leading them off to the land of Media nearly 1000 miles away from their homeland—a land located just south of the Caspian Sea in modern day Iran. Though in those years the Assyrian Army quickly marched through Samaria adding Israel, Philistia, and even Egypt to their vast empire, the small nation of Judah was left untouched simply because they had not rebelled and had remained loyal subjects continuing to pay their tribute to the Assyrian King.
For the next 100 years or so, things remained roughly the same for Judah, until the Assyrians began to fall from power and Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians began to rise to power as the Lord had prophesied that they would. It was during that time while Babylon and Egypt were struggling for control of the Assyrian Empire that Judah found herself in a curious place, and she sought to throw off the fetters of the Assyrians by backing the Egyptians against the Babylonians. But that lasted for only a short time, for when Nebuchadnezzar had finally conquered the Egyptians and added them as part of his new empire; he turned his sights on Jerusalem. Then, in 586 BC after laying siege to the city for the second time, he broke down the walls of the city, destroyed the Temple, burned Jerusalem to the ground, and led the people of Judah off into captivity, just as the Prophets said would happen.
But even though Nebuchadnezzar enjoyed a long reign as King of the Babylonians, all was not peaceful in the rest of the world, as less than 40 years later, in 550 BC, Cyrus, the Persian (also known as Darius) began his conquest. Over a period of the next 10 years he began conquering nation after nation. He started with Media, where the 10 Northern Tribes had been exiled. He entered into Lydia—the land where the Apostle Paul did much of his missionary work and where the 7 churches mentioned in Revelation were founded. He conquered the Babylonian Empire on the very night that the Babylonians King Belshazzar saw the hand writing on the wall and called the Magi, Daniel, in to interpret those mysterious words of: “Mene, Mene Tekel Parsin.” (See Daniel 5) Then he moved on conquering even Egypt and forming the Persian Empire, just as Daniel had explained to King Nebuchadnezzar when he had the dream about the great statue. (See Daniel 2) Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold had fallen as the Chest and Arms of Silver, the Persian Empire, now took its place. It was this Cyrus who conquered Babylon who also issued a decree in 539 stating that all the Israelites living in the Persian Empire were free to return to their homes, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, the Temple of the Lord their God, even the Nation of Israel—as the Lord had promised through the prophets.
Then, after roughly 200 years, in 330, of the Persian Empire comes to an end and the belly and thighs of bronze—the Greeks—enter the world scene. Under the leadership of Alexander the Great, in 13 quick years the Greeks conquer what remains of the Persian Empire extending their language and culture to much of the world in preparation for the quick and easy transmission of the Scriptures. Yet, even as Alexander is conquering the Persians, the legs of Iron, the Romans, are beginning their conquest of the Western World until, in about 200 BC, they set their sights on Empire Alexander had conquered moving Eastward until they had control of much of the world by 27 BC when Caesar Augustus came to power. Though the Roman’s Empire encompassed a great deal of territory around the Mediterranean, by the time of Jesus birth they had not yet reached the land of Parthia, nor would they ever conquer it.
It was into this world, perfectly prepared by the Lord for the spreading of the gospel that he revealed his Son as the Savior of all people. Though he was first announced to the Israelites by the shepherd who had received the glories news from the angel, it wasn’t that much later when the Lord revealed him to the Gentiles as well, as our text tells us: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2) What an amazing thing it must have been for the Magi when they saw the star of the new born King rising in the sky! What an amazing thing it must have been for those men who had watched the skies for generations waiting for the fulfillment of Balaam’s prophecy: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. (Numbers 24:17)
Though we don’t know exactly who the Magi were, we know that they were Gentiles. Though we don’t know exactly where they came from, the simple fact that they were astrologers suggests that they may have hailed from the lands of Persia, lands located in modern day Iran and Afghanistan, a distance of some 800 to 1000 miles away from Jerusalem. Though we don’t know exactly how many Magi traveled to Jerusalem, we know that there were at least two because the Bible speaks about them in the plural. Though we don’t know exactly when they arrived in Jerusalem, we know from the Scriptures that they would have had to arrive by the time that Jesus had turned two. What a sight it must have been to see this caravan of Magi entering the city! Though a convoy like this may have simply been common place in a city situated on major trade routes, when they asked “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” I’m sure there were many people who sat up and took notice, and when they said that they had come to worship the one whose star they had seen in the east they confirmed the message that the shepherds had spread on the night that Jesus was born.
In this simple and beautiful way, the Lord used these Magi and the star they had followed to reveal his Son, the Savior of the world. In one simple episode, the Lord demonstrated to the Israelites that the Messiah whom he had sent into the world was destined to be the Savior of both Jew and Gentile alike. In bringing the Magi to Jerusalem the Lord once again revitalized among the Israelites the news about the birth of his Son—the Messiah for whom the people had been looking for many long years, and he stirred his people up so much that the only thing that seemed to be on everyone’s lips was the news about the Magi, the Gentiles who had come looking for the one who had been born as King of the Jews. In fact, the news was talked about so much that eventually King Herod heard of it, as Matthew tells us, “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” (Matthew 2:3-8)
Now, if you know anything about Herod the Great from History, you know that he was a very suspicious person by nature and was rather unstable when it came to things like people trying to usurp his throne. In fact, already by this time Herod had done away with his wife, three sons, and many other conspirators because they thought they might be after his throne. He was the one, who, in 40 BC had been named, “King of the Jews.” He was the one who spent the next three years fighting to claim his throne as “King of the Jews”. So, when he heard the news that a rival king had been born as “King of the Jews” you can imagine that Herod was about as agitated as a paint can on a shaker, or as a load of laundry in a washing machine. The last thing he needed was the people to catch hold of this message and rally themselves behind a Jewish baby that had been born, rebel against him and seek to over throw him. So he made his plan. He found out from the Sanhedrin that the Baby was to be born in Bethlehem. He secretly gathered the Magi to himself and learned when the star had appeared, ascertaining the approximate age of the child. He then instructed the Magi to find the child for him and report back so that when they had left, he could go out and do away with this rival king himself. Or if worse came to worse, and the Magi left him hanging, as they did, he could still get rid of this new King.
We know the results. We know who the Lord warned the Magi not to return to Herod. We know how the Lord sent an angel to Joseph to warn him to flee with his family to Egypt. We know how Herod slaughtered babies in Bethlehem, bringing about Rachel’s weeping in Ramah as Jeremiah had prophesied. (Jeremiah 3:15) We know how the Lord rescued his Son from the mouth of the great dragon, the devil, as John revealed in Revelation. (Revelation 12:4-5) We know how the Lord then called his Son out of Egypt and returned him to Nazareth. (Matthew 2:15)
It was this child that the Lord revealed as the Savior of the world that the Magi came to worship, as Matthew tells us: “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:9-12)
In this way the Lord set in motion the fulfillment of those very prophecies we heard and sang today! The prophecy from Psalm 72 telling us, “The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores will bring tribute to him; the kings of Sheba and Seba will present him gifts. All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him…Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him. May people ever pray for him and bless him all day long. (Psalm 72:12,11,15) And the prophesy from Isaiah 60: “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD. (Isaiah 60:4-6) He even set in motion the events that 30 years later would cause the lightning fast transmission of the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike as was begun on the day of Pentecost! For the Jews from Parthia, Media, and Elam, Mesopotamia and the rest of the Roman world carried the message of salvation back with them, they laid the ground work for the Apostles to go out and proclaim the message of Christ, the Savior whom the Lord God had revealed for the salvation of all people, of which you and I are the end result.
Now, because of the Lord’s great love for Gentiles like us, we are sitting here today amazed by all that he did throughout history to prepare the world for the revelation of his Son, the Savior of the world. Yet, if you truly think about it, how much more hasn’t the Lord done to see to it that his message is continually spread across the world so that Jews and Gentiles, alike, might hear that message, see the Son of God revealed, and believe in him as the one and only Savior form sin? We are part of that technological revolution that is enabling us to transmit the Gospel farther and faster than we ever have. We are part of the Gentile nation whom the Lord our God loved so much that he prepared the world so that we might receive the message of the New Born King, and we are the ones whom he is continuing to use to spread that message to other Gentiles and even back to his People, Israel as well. That is how much the Lord your God loves you. That is how far reaching his arm truly is. He is the one who moved the heavens and the earth themselves so that we might catch just a glimpse of his great love revealed in his Son, the Savior of the world.
Amen.
Pastor David M Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Fast forward from there about 200 years to the year 725 BC. It was in this year that the prophecies the Lord had spoken against the Northern Kingdom of Israel came to pass. For in that year Shalmaneser, the King of the Assyrian Empire, attacked, laid siege to the kingdom for three years, and finally brought it to an end in 722 BC. It was in that year that the Lord sent his people into exile, leading them off to the land of Media nearly 1000 miles away from their homeland—a land located just south of the Caspian Sea in modern day Iran. Though in those years the Assyrian Army quickly marched through Samaria adding Israel, Philistia, and even Egypt to their vast empire, the small nation of Judah was left untouched simply because they had not rebelled and had remained loyal subjects continuing to pay their tribute to the Assyrian King.
For the next 100 years or so, things remained roughly the same for Judah, until the Assyrians began to fall from power and Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians began to rise to power as the Lord had prophesied that they would. It was during that time while Babylon and Egypt were struggling for control of the Assyrian Empire that Judah found herself in a curious place, and she sought to throw off the fetters of the Assyrians by backing the Egyptians against the Babylonians. But that lasted for only a short time, for when Nebuchadnezzar had finally conquered the Egyptians and added them as part of his new empire; he turned his sights on Jerusalem. Then, in 586 BC after laying siege to the city for the second time, he broke down the walls of the city, destroyed the Temple, burned Jerusalem to the ground, and led the people of Judah off into captivity, just as the Prophets said would happen.
But even though Nebuchadnezzar enjoyed a long reign as King of the Babylonians, all was not peaceful in the rest of the world, as less than 40 years later, in 550 BC, Cyrus, the Persian (also known as Darius) began his conquest. Over a period of the next 10 years he began conquering nation after nation. He started with Media, where the 10 Northern Tribes had been exiled. He entered into Lydia—the land where the Apostle Paul did much of his missionary work and where the 7 churches mentioned in Revelation were founded. He conquered the Babylonian Empire on the very night that the Babylonians King Belshazzar saw the hand writing on the wall and called the Magi, Daniel, in to interpret those mysterious words of: “Mene, Mene Tekel Parsin.” (See Daniel 5) Then he moved on conquering even Egypt and forming the Persian Empire, just as Daniel had explained to King Nebuchadnezzar when he had the dream about the great statue. (See Daniel 2) Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold had fallen as the Chest and Arms of Silver, the Persian Empire, now took its place. It was this Cyrus who conquered Babylon who also issued a decree in 539 stating that all the Israelites living in the Persian Empire were free to return to their homes, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, the Temple of the Lord their God, even the Nation of Israel—as the Lord had promised through the prophets.
Then, after roughly 200 years, in 330, of the Persian Empire comes to an end and the belly and thighs of bronze—the Greeks—enter the world scene. Under the leadership of Alexander the Great, in 13 quick years the Greeks conquer what remains of the Persian Empire extending their language and culture to much of the world in preparation for the quick and easy transmission of the Scriptures. Yet, even as Alexander is conquering the Persians, the legs of Iron, the Romans, are beginning their conquest of the Western World until, in about 200 BC, they set their sights on Empire Alexander had conquered moving Eastward until they had control of much of the world by 27 BC when Caesar Augustus came to power. Though the Roman’s Empire encompassed a great deal of territory around the Mediterranean, by the time of Jesus birth they had not yet reached the land of Parthia, nor would they ever conquer it.
It was into this world, perfectly prepared by the Lord for the spreading of the gospel that he revealed his Son as the Savior of all people. Though he was first announced to the Israelites by the shepherd who had received the glories news from the angel, it wasn’t that much later when the Lord revealed him to the Gentiles as well, as our text tells us: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2) What an amazing thing it must have been for the Magi when they saw the star of the new born King rising in the sky! What an amazing thing it must have been for those men who had watched the skies for generations waiting for the fulfillment of Balaam’s prophecy: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. (Numbers 24:17)
Though we don’t know exactly who the Magi were, we know that they were Gentiles. Though we don’t know exactly where they came from, the simple fact that they were astrologers suggests that they may have hailed from the lands of Persia, lands located in modern day Iran and Afghanistan, a distance of some 800 to 1000 miles away from Jerusalem. Though we don’t know exactly how many Magi traveled to Jerusalem, we know that there were at least two because the Bible speaks about them in the plural. Though we don’t know exactly when they arrived in Jerusalem, we know from the Scriptures that they would have had to arrive by the time that Jesus had turned two. What a sight it must have been to see this caravan of Magi entering the city! Though a convoy like this may have simply been common place in a city situated on major trade routes, when they asked “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” I’m sure there were many people who sat up and took notice, and when they said that they had come to worship the one whose star they had seen in the east they confirmed the message that the shepherds had spread on the night that Jesus was born.
In this simple and beautiful way, the Lord used these Magi and the star they had followed to reveal his Son, the Savior of the world. In one simple episode, the Lord demonstrated to the Israelites that the Messiah whom he had sent into the world was destined to be the Savior of both Jew and Gentile alike. In bringing the Magi to Jerusalem the Lord once again revitalized among the Israelites the news about the birth of his Son—the Messiah for whom the people had been looking for many long years, and he stirred his people up so much that the only thing that seemed to be on everyone’s lips was the news about the Magi, the Gentiles who had come looking for the one who had been born as King of the Jews. In fact, the news was talked about so much that eventually King Herod heard of it, as Matthew tells us, “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” (Matthew 2:3-8)
Now, if you know anything about Herod the Great from History, you know that he was a very suspicious person by nature and was rather unstable when it came to things like people trying to usurp his throne. In fact, already by this time Herod had done away with his wife, three sons, and many other conspirators because they thought they might be after his throne. He was the one, who, in 40 BC had been named, “King of the Jews.” He was the one who spent the next three years fighting to claim his throne as “King of the Jews”. So, when he heard the news that a rival king had been born as “King of the Jews” you can imagine that Herod was about as agitated as a paint can on a shaker, or as a load of laundry in a washing machine. The last thing he needed was the people to catch hold of this message and rally themselves behind a Jewish baby that had been born, rebel against him and seek to over throw him. So he made his plan. He found out from the Sanhedrin that the Baby was to be born in Bethlehem. He secretly gathered the Magi to himself and learned when the star had appeared, ascertaining the approximate age of the child. He then instructed the Magi to find the child for him and report back so that when they had left, he could go out and do away with this rival king himself. Or if worse came to worse, and the Magi left him hanging, as they did, he could still get rid of this new King.
We know the results. We know who the Lord warned the Magi not to return to Herod. We know how the Lord sent an angel to Joseph to warn him to flee with his family to Egypt. We know how Herod slaughtered babies in Bethlehem, bringing about Rachel’s weeping in Ramah as Jeremiah had prophesied. (Jeremiah 3:15) We know how the Lord rescued his Son from the mouth of the great dragon, the devil, as John revealed in Revelation. (Revelation 12:4-5) We know how the Lord then called his Son out of Egypt and returned him to Nazareth. (Matthew 2:15)
It was this child that the Lord revealed as the Savior of the world that the Magi came to worship, as Matthew tells us: “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:9-12)
In this way the Lord set in motion the fulfillment of those very prophecies we heard and sang today! The prophecy from Psalm 72 telling us, “The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores will bring tribute to him; the kings of Sheba and Seba will present him gifts. All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him…Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him. May people ever pray for him and bless him all day long. (Psalm 72:12,11,15) And the prophesy from Isaiah 60: “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD. (Isaiah 60:4-6) He even set in motion the events that 30 years later would cause the lightning fast transmission of the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike as was begun on the day of Pentecost! For the Jews from Parthia, Media, and Elam, Mesopotamia and the rest of the Roman world carried the message of salvation back with them, they laid the ground work for the Apostles to go out and proclaim the message of Christ, the Savior whom the Lord God had revealed for the salvation of all people, of which you and I are the end result.
Now, because of the Lord’s great love for Gentiles like us, we are sitting here today amazed by all that he did throughout history to prepare the world for the revelation of his Son, the Savior of the world. Yet, if you truly think about it, how much more hasn’t the Lord done to see to it that his message is continually spread across the world so that Jews and Gentiles, alike, might hear that message, see the Son of God revealed, and believe in him as the one and only Savior form sin? We are part of that technological revolution that is enabling us to transmit the Gospel farther and faster than we ever have. We are part of the Gentile nation whom the Lord our God loved so much that he prepared the world so that we might receive the message of the New Born King, and we are the ones whom he is continuing to use to spread that message to other Gentiles and even back to his People, Israel as well. That is how much the Lord your God loves you. That is how far reaching his arm truly is. He is the one who moved the heavens and the earth themselves so that we might catch just a glimpse of his great love revealed in his Son, the Savior of the world.
Amen.
Pastor David M Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
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