Sunday, January 29, 2012

Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus! (Hebrews 3:1-6)


January 29, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

How many times hasn’t it happened to you that as soon as you have arranged the covers just right and you are ready to drift off to sleep, you think of something that you absolutely have to remember to do first thing in the morning?  You think of something that the rest of your day simply hinges on to the point that if you forget this one thing, nothing is going to go right.  So what do you do?  Do you get up and write it down?  Do you worry about it and toss and turn all night?  Or do you do what most people do and repeat that thought over and over in your mind so that it is fixed there as the last thought you have as you fall asleep and the first thought you have when you wake up in the morning?  Well in our text today, the writer to the Hebrews is calling on us to do the very same thing.  Now that doesn’t mean we have to go to bed thinking only about our Savior so that he is our last thought and our first thought every day, although that is a very good idea.  But it does mean that the writer wants us to fix our thoughts on Jesus, so that no matter what temptation or hardship we face, he is always first and foremost in our minds.

This, in fact, is the very thing that the writer to the Hebrews was calling on the Jewish Christians to do in text today.  In fact, I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Hebrews 3:1-6 and see how the Author is urging us to fix our thoughts on Jesus.  Now, when the writer to the Hebrews wrote these words in Chapter 3, Jewish Christians were undergoing a great deal of persecution.  They were being mocked and ridiculed.  They were dealing with raiding parties who came into their homes to haul some of them away to prison, or simply to wreck up the place.  They were being black listed to the point that if you were a Christian, no one was allowed to hire you and you would have no real way to provide for your family.  Because of all of this, there were many who were beginning to wonder if they had made a big mistake by leaving their Jewish religion for the new Christian religion.  There were many who had simply begun to slide back into their old worship lives of sacrifice, offering, and patient waiting for the Messiah to come.  There were even many Jewish Christians who had reverted to their lives of Judaism who were now seeking to lead their fellow Jewish Christians out of Christianity and back into the religion of Moses.  It was because of this that the writer wrote as he did in our text.  Take a look at Chapter 3:1-6:  “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.” (Hebrews 3:1-6)

With these words the writer to the Hebrews lays it all on the line as he tells them to fix their thoughts on Jesus their Savior.  He tells them that if they should revert to their former religion of Judaism, they will completely miss out on all that Christ has done for them.  If they should turn back to their Jewish system of offerings and worship, they would lose out on the salvation that Christ one for them, and the comfort of the forgiveness of sins.  If they should fail to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and instead, turn them toward Moses, they might well avoid the hardship of persecution, but they would, in fact, be taking their eyes from the one to whom Moses pointed, and placing them on Moses himself.  This would not be a good thing for them, as the writers tells them, because even though the Lord gave Moses an important job as leader of the Israelites, Moses’ main job was to point people to Jesus, the prophet who was to come.  Moses’ job was to tell people about the Savior who was to come and encourage them to place their trust in him.  Now that Christ had come, going back to Moses and believing that a Savior was coming would be to no avail. 

In fact, as the writer tells the Hebrews to fix their thoughts on Jesus, he gives them three very clear reasons why Jesus is far superior to Moses. 

The first comes in verse 2:  “He [Jesus] was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.”  Though Moses was indeed a faithful servant in God’s house, his job, as we said, was to point to Jesus.  Jesus’ job was to come and live a perfect, sinless life for all of God’s people, suffer and die an innocent death on behalf of his people, and rise again from the dead to assure us that his death had indeed paid the price God demanded for our sins. 

The second comes in verse 3 – 4: “Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.”  Though Moses was indeed part of the construction crew that has been at work on God’s house of believers, it was God who planned his house of believers, who sketched out the plans, who ordered the materials needed, and who hired his workers who do their work of proclaiming Jesus, the author and architect of God’s house.

The final reason comes in verse 5 – 6:  “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”  This is the final and the greatest difference between Moses and Christ.  Moses, though he was a faithful servant in God’s house, was still a servant.  He was not the son, he was not the heir, he, was not even able to distribute inheritance to anyone because he was a servant.  Christ, on the other hand, is the Son and heir of God’s kingdom.  He is the one who adopted Moses and all believers into his family.  He is the one who has distributed the inheritance of eternal life through faith in himself to all who believe.  He is the one who has taken his believers and built them up as living stones in a house for his glory.

Just as the writer to the Hebrews gave these three reasons for the Hebrew Christians to fix their thoughts on Jesus, he gives them to you and me today.  For today, we seek to keep our thoughts fixed on Jesus because it is through faith in him that we have the forgiveness of sins and the assurance of eternal life.  Though we can learn a great deal from Moses, we do not look to Moses for salvation, but the one about whom he prophesied.  Though each week I stand before you and proclaim God’s Word to you, your faith does not rest in me or what I have done.  Rather, your faith rests in Jesus Christ your Savior. 

Yet how often don’t we fall into the same trap into which the Hebrew Christians fell?  How often don’t we allow ourselves to fix our thoughts on something that seems to be so much more important than our Savior?  How often doesn’t it happen that we avoid persecution by keeping quite when the subject of religion comes up?  How often doesn’t it happen that we ignore sin just so that we can keep peace within our congregation?  How often doesn’t it happen that we allow sleeping in on a Sunday morning or some other activity to come as of first importance rather than gathering together for Bible Study or worshiping the Lord?  How often doesn’t it happen that we sit and complain about anyone and everything and therefore cast sinful judgment upon each other, the church, and our pastor, and yet we avoid God pleasing judgment by not going to the person with whom we are frustrated or by telling ourselves that we have no right to judge a fellow Christians sins according to the Bible?  How often don’t we get all bent out of shape by the way in which the church spends its money and how far in debt she is, but at the same time we hold back our offerings because we are so over extended our selves, or worse yet, are so greedy that we simply cannot or will not give any more to the Lord?  How often hasn’t it happened that each and every one of us has focused our thoughts and our minds on anything but Jesus Christ our Savior?

If we are honest with ourselves, we have to say that it has happened far too often.  Yet even though we have allowed one thing or another to distract us from our Savior, it is our Savior who calling on us today to refocus on him our alone.  He is the one who is reminding us that there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, other than his and his alone.  He is reminding us that he is the one who forgives our sins and remembers our offences any more.  He is the one who assures us of that forgiveness by building us as living stones into his house, the Church.

So then let us all keep our thoughts fix on Jesus Christ our Savior, for he is the foundation of our faith, and he is our salvation.  Let us change our thoughts so that Jesus is the last thing we think about every night and the first thing we think about when we wake up.  Let us do all that we can to give our Savior the first place in our thoughts so that we are focused on him throughout our day.  Let us keep our thoughts focused on Jesus Christ our Savior, for he is the one who has freed us from our sins and given us the gift and the blessing of life and salvation through faith in him.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Learn from God's Lessons (1 Samuel 3:1-10)


January 22, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.

In my short time on this planet, I’ve learned quite a few lessons.  “I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.  I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back. I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it… I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.  I've learned that no matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides.  I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be…I've learned that you can keep going long after you think you can't.  I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.  I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.”[1]   These are but a few of the lessons that I’ve learned in my short time in this world, and truthfully, this is a list that could go on and on.  But if it did, we would never have the opportunity to learn from the lessons that our God wants to teach us this morning.  For as we take a look at our text from 1 Samuel 3, we begin to see clearly the lessons that our God is teaching us today.  So, as we begin our lesson, so to speak, we take a look at God’s lesson for us from Israel’s history as we read 1 Samuel 3:1, “The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions,” (1 Samuel 3:1, NIV84). 

Though it is an amazing thing to read about Samuel as a young boy serving in the Lord’s temple under Eli in fulfillment of the very promise that Samuel’s mother had made before Samuel was even born, it is very sad to hear the religious state of affairs that was common in that day.  “The word of the Lord was rare, there were not many visions.”  Though Israel had closely followed the Word of the Lord under the leadership of Joshua, and though they had faithfully promised him and the Lord that they would follow the Lord their God with all their hearts rather than turn away from the Lord, roughly 350 years had passed since the days of Joshua.  Nearly 350 years had passed and the nation of Israel had grown lax in their following of the Lord. They had grown lax in their following of the Lord because they had failed to listen to the Lord 350 years earlier and had not completely destroyed the nations the Lord told them to destroy.  They had fallen away from the Lord, worshiping the false gods of the nations around them, and one of the results was that the Lord was withholding his Word from them by neither sending prophets nor visions to his people.  This was the situation when Samuel entered into the service of the tabernacle under Eli, the priest.

But what about us?  Are we any different than the Israelites of old?  As you know, we live in a nation that is drifting farther and farther away from the true God each day.  We live in a nation where false gods abound.  We may not see idols to Baal and Dagon on every street corner.  But we see the false god of evolution everywhere we look.  We’ve seen how the worship of this false god and the belief in this false religion can worm its way even into the heart of a Christian, grow in his heart and finally supplant belief in the true God.  We see people who do not look to the truth of God’s Word for comfort and answers in this life, but rather look for those answers by consulting horoscopes, tarot cards, or calling up for a free psychic reading.  Cults and Eastern religions, such as Buddhism are growing in popularity and Americans are flocking to them to fill their spiritual voids.  Even many churches, which claim to be Christian, have turned away from teaching what the Bible says and have begun to preach a message, which minimizes sin to nothing more than a bad choice.  In so many ways our world is no different than the world of Samuel.  We have just as many, if not more influences, seeking to lead us astray from the Word of our God.

This is the lesson that the Lord our God is teaching us from the Israelites history.  He is teaching us that if we surround ourselves with the false ideas and false gods of our society and neglect the Word of God, we could very easily fall away from our God like many of the Israelites did; like a young boy named Andy did.  You see, when Andy was in 7th grade, he began playing with a Ouija board.  At first, he did it just for fun thinking that no harm could come of it.  But by the time he was in 8th grade, he was using it every week or so.  He also became interested in reading tarot cards and casting runes for reading fortunes.  By the time he was a freshman in high school; Andy had surrounded himself with these things and found himself trusting in them to give him the answers for life. Now, Andy knew better than to get involved with these things in the first place.  After all, he went to a Christian Day School.  He heard about his savior every day.  He had been learning and studying God’s Word since he was in kindergarten.  But, by the time he was in high school, he had fallen away from the Lord because he stopped studying God’s Word and surrounded himself with other things, which took God’s place. 

Though I realize that this is an extreme example, the lesson is still the same.  If we give up meeting together in worship, if we neglect partaking the sacrament, if we grow too lazy to read the Word of God for ourselves, all the false ideas of our world could easily surround us and overtake us.  We, too, could begin to fall away from the Lord our God as the Israelites did.  This is the Lesson that the Lord wants us to learn from the Israelites today.  Yet, even as the Lord is teaching us this lesson from the lives of the Israelites he is also teaching us a lesson from the life of Samuel his servant.  Take a look back at our text for today.  As we heard, “In Samuel’s day, revelations from the Lord were quite rare.”  This is why Samuel ran to Eli when the Lord called him. As our text tells us, “One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. Then the LORD called Samuel.   Samuel answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’   But Eli said, ‘I did not call; go back and lie down.’ So he went and lay down. Again the LORD called, ‘Samuel!’ And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’   ‘My son,’ Eli said, ‘I did not call; go back and lie down.’  Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.  The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am; you called me.’  Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, ‘Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening,’” (1 Samuel 3:2-10, NIV84). 

It wasn’t that Samuel had not learned who the Lord was.  Samuel’s parents and Eli had undoubtedly taught him about the Lord.  However, because visions and revelations from the Lord were so rare at this time, Samuel had not come to know the Lord through visions, nor did he expect to receive a vision from the Lord.  That is why when the Lord called to Samuel, he immediately ran to Eli.  Samuel was probably used to being called by Eli at any time, and when called he undoubtedly ran to Eli in the same way a son will run to his father.  But this time, when he got to Eli, Eli had not called him and he sent Samuel back to bed.  This happened two more times, and each time the Lord called Samuel’s name, he obediently ran to Eli.  But the fourth time the Lord called Samuel, Samuel listened to the Lord.

Now here’s the lesson the Lord wants us to contemplate.  Do you hear the Lord calling you?  Or have you forgotten the sound of his voice?  Do you hear the Lord speaking to your heart through his Word?  Or are you doing everything you can to ignore it and muffle his voice?  Though we live in a world where we are surrounded by the constant clamor of sin and false teachings, it is the still, small voice of our God that speaks to our hearts through his Word.  Though the Lord may not wake us up out of a sound sleep and stand before us to reveal his Word to us as he did with Samuel, he does stand before us and speak to us each time we sit down to read and study his Word.  He does speak to us and convict our hearts with his law whenever we sin against him, and he lovingly comforts us with his gospel whenever we repent.  This is the lesson our God is teaching us from Samuel’s life.  He is teaching us to treasure his Word and not let his message fall on deaf ears.  He is teaching us to cherish his Word and do not take it for granted.  He is teaching us just how important it is for us to remain connected to his Word, because it is only through the Bible that we find healing for our souls in the forgiveness of sins.

These are the lessons the Lord our God is teaching us this morning through Israel’s history and this brief account in the life of Samuel.  Though it may come to us in the same way that life experience comes, these lessons are far more important.  These lessons are far more important, because these are God’s lessons of life and salvation through faith in him and his Word.  Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN


[1] Janice T Hill of Kansas City Mo: Copied from http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/l/learning.htm

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Gospel Is for All People (Acts 10:34-38)


January 15, 2012
 
Dear friends in Christ.

When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence back in 1776, he included some words which are very familiar to just about every American. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Basically what Thomas Jefferson was saying was that every single person on this planet has been created equally, and every single person on this planet has certain rights which cannot be taken away from them.  Well, as Christians, we have a similar declaration in the words which Jesus spoke when he told us to go and make disciples of all nations… Basically what Christ was telling us is the message which the Bible proclaims to us from cover to cover—the message that the Gospel is for all people.  Yes, the Gospel is for all people!  This truly is the lesson that Peter learned in our text today, for as he himself said: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34-35). 

But what is it that led Peter to this sort of understanding.  What was it that made Peter realize just what the Lord had meant when he said “all”?  Well, to fully understand it, we must go back in time about four days where we will meet a man named Cornelius.  The Bible tells us that Cornelius was a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.  He and all his family were devout, God fearing people.  He gave generously to those who were in need, prayed to God regularly, and he was a gentile.  One day as Cornelius was praying, he had a vision in which an angel of God came to him and told him his prayers had been answered.  He was to send a messenger to Joppa, about 30 miles away, and ask Simon Peter to come to Caesarea.  So that’s what Cornelius did.  He called two of his servants and a devout soldier and sent them off to Joppa. 

Now if we were watching this happen as if it were a television program, we would see Cornelius giving orders to his men.  We would see them start their journey around four or five in the afternoon.  We would travel with them until they came to their camp site. Then, when they had bunked down for the night, the scene would change to the next day around noon.  A little subtitle would flash up on the screen saying, “Joppa” and we would immediately be taken to Peter’s house.  We’d watch as Peter grew more and more hungry.  We’d here him ask when lunch would be ready and then tell the people in the house that he was going up to the roof to pray while lunch was being prepared.  Then, as Peter was walking up the steps to the roof of the house, the shot would widen out so we could see Peter’s house in one corner and the three men whom Cornelius had sent in the other.  Then, while the men were coming into the city, Peter was up on the roof praying. While he was praying he fell into a trance and he saw before him a great sheet filled with all the animals that dwelt on the earth, both clean and unclean.  It was being lowered to the earth before him and a voice told him to slaughter an animal and eat it.  When Peter heard this he cried out, “Surely not, Lord I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”  (For even though there were clean animals in the sheet they had come into contact with unclean animals and had themselves become unclean.)  But the Lord responded, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean”

As Peter was sitting on the roof wondering about this vision, the three men came to his house asking for him, and the next day they left for Caesarea.  When they arrived at the house of Cornelius, Peter would have undoubtedly been a little hesitant, because he was about to enter the house of a gentile and associate with them.  This was something that was strictly forbidden by the laws of his people.  Just as eating ham was something detestable to the Jews, associating with gentiles was an abominable practice for his people.  Yet, as Peter came to the door he probably remembered the vision the Lord had given him, and it started to make sense.  When he went inside and asked Cornelius why he had sent for him, Cornelius told him that an angel of God had told him to send for Peter.  That is when Peter cried out, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34-35).  It was in this way that the Lord taught Peter the lesson that the Gospel was meant for all people.  Though it was undoubtedly difficult for Peter to go into the house of a gentile, he knew that he could not call them unclean, because the Lord had made them clean.  He knew that he could not deny the Gospel to them, because the Gospel was truly for all people.

This is the lesson that the Lord God is teaching us today as well!  He is teaching us that the Gospel is for all people.  Yet how often don’t we forget that?  How often don’t we forget that when God says the Gospel is for all people he means all people?  All too easily we grow content in our little church circle and think to ourselves, “If someone wants to hear about God’s Word, why don’t they come to church?”  All too easily we fall into the notion that we really shouldn’t be bothering people with this religion stuff because they all must belong to one church or another.  All too easily we start to think that since we are giving money to Synod to send missionaries out into the world to spread the news of the Gospel, we don’t need to do any kind of mission work at all.  Yes, when we get complacent in our religious lives and grow comfortable in seeing only the same faces Sunday after Sunday, we start to forget God’s lesson that even we are missionaries commissioned to spread the Gospel to all people. 

What better place for us to start than right here in Le Sueur!  For as you already know, we have a world mission field right out side our front doors.  We have an opportunity to take the Gospel to another culture, just like Peter did.  Though the idea of teaching the Gospel to the Hispanic people in our own city might be as nerve racking to us as it was for Peter to go into the house of Cornelius, the Gospel is for all people. Salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.  Without faith in Christ there is no salvation, and anyone who claims to have faith and yet does not know their Savior, will completely miss out on the salvation that the Lord promises to all who believe.

This is the lesson that the Lord Jesus is teaching us today.  He is teaching us that the Gospel is for all people. This is the lesson the Lord taught us when John baptized Jesus.  This is the lesson that Isaiah explained us as he prophesied about the Lord’s servant who would bring justice to all the nations.  This is the lesson that Peter learned when the Lord sent him to the house of Cornelius, and this is the lesson that we are learning today.  And the application of that lesson is quite simple. 

For now that we have come to the understanding that the Gospel is truly for all people, it quickly follows that it is now our mission to proclaim that Gospel message to the World.  And if you think about it, who better to take that message to the world than you and me! [We] “know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. [We] know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached-- how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.  ‘We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen--by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.  All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’ ” (Acts 10:36-44). 

This is the message of salvation that you and I know better than the back of our hands.  This is the message of salvation that we heard the children proclaim to us only a few weeks ago as we celebrated our Savior’s birth yet again.  This is the message of salvation which we will relive as in just a few short weeks we once again journey with Jesus through his suffering, death and resurrection.  So now it is our mission to go out spread this message.  Spread it by simply inviting the people in your neighborhood, your friends at work, or even your friends from school to come to church with you, so that they might hear God’s Word for themselves.  Spread that message by reading from your Bibles on a regular basis.  For when you do, you are not only building up your own faith, but you are preparing yourselves to confess your faith in Jesus Christ to anyone who might ask you.  Spread that message by openly talking about the Lord and how he has blessed you.  Spread that message by assuring others that you will and do keep them in your prayers.

This is the application to our lesson today!  For now that we have learned that the Gospel is indeed for all people, the application is simply that it is our mission to take that message to the world.  Let us do that very thing.  Let us begin right here in Le Sure and take that message to those who do not yet know. For just as Thomas Jefferson believed that all people are created equally and are endowed with certain unalienable rights, so also the Bible declares that the Gospel is for all people. 


Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN



Sunday, January 8, 2012

Proclaim Christ to the World! (Isaiah 60:1-6)


January 8, 2012 
 
Dear friends in Christ.

About six months ago, Logos Bible Software released Proclaim Church Presentation Software.  Now, the purpose of this new software was to make it super simple for churches to put together worship presentations.  It was designed as a centralized solution for church leaders, worship teams, and others to arrange lyrics, worship notes and outlines, and even other images to be used for worship.  This software was designed to use the latest technology to allow people to collaborate online as they designed all the presentations needed for worship.  Then, during worship, not only would everything be projected on the screen for the worshipers to see, but members with smart phones would be able to view the slides on their phones as well.  So, through the use of proclaim software, not only would worship presentations be that much better, they would also be that much more personal for those members who chose to view the presentations on their own electronic devices. 

Now, you might be wondering why I’m telling you all this, especially since we don’t project the liturgies or hymn stanzas on a screen, and we don’t see too many presentations along with sermons.  Well, I’m telling you about Proclaim Church Presentation Software because Proclaim Church Presentation Software is designed to help churches proclaim the message of Christ to the World.  I’m telling you about it because as Christians our mission is to do exactly what the name of that software says.  Our mission is to proclaim the message of Christ Jesus to the World!  As Christians, our mission is to proclaim the light of the Gospel—the message of Christ Jesus—into the darkness of this sin filled world!  In fact, this is the very thing Isaiah is telling us in our lesson today as he writes, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 “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. 5 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. 6 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 60:1–6, NIV84)

What more comforting words could there be for us to hear on this Epiphany Sunday, as we celebrate how the Wise Men came from a far to worship the light of the World—Jesus Christ, their Savior!  What more comforting words could there be for us to hear on this day, especially as we contemplate all the reasons we have to proclaim the message of Christ to our World today.  In fact, what greater mission could there be for us today than the mission of proclaiming the light of salvation, the message of Christ, into the darkness of our world!  After all, there can be no doubt that we are living in some very dark days.  Over the past few years, we have heard of civil unrest in countries across the world.  We have heard about wars and prayed for our warriors who are fighting in countries where Christ is barely known.  Even in our own nation the darkness of unbelief is creeping ever closer us; claiming the hearts and minds of more and more people every day.  We are living in a nation where road rage is a serious problem in major cities and its effects are trickling down into the smaller towns as well.  Pornography is readily available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.  Sex has become so popular in this country that even children in middle school have admitted to being sexually active in a recent nationwide survey.  When we hear reports like this it is easy to become overwhelmed by the darkness of sin and unbelief in our world.  Yet, even as it seems that this darkness is closing in around us, the Lord assures us that just as he has shined the light of the gospel into our hearts so also his light is still shining in this world through the proclamation of the message of Christ!  As Isaiah tells us in the first two verses of our lesson today: "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.” (Isaiah 60:1-6, NIV84)

Though we were once part of that darkness of sin, death, and unbelief, it was the Lord who shone the light of his saving Gospel into our hearts.  It was the Lord who illuminated our hearts with his saving love and made us his own through faith.  Now it is our turn to share what we have learned with the world.  Now it is our turn to shine the light of the gospel into the darkness by proclaiming Christ to the World.  “But Pastor, how can I shine the gospel’s light into the darkness?  I always get tongue-tied when I try to tell others about Jesus.”  “I’m stuck at home and can’t get out to talk to others and tell them about their savior.”  “I have children who depend on me.  I can’t just pick up and move to another country to teach others God’s Word!”  “Who can I talk to?  Everyone in town already goes to church anyway?”  But what does the hymn writer say?  “If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus you can say he died for all.  If you cannot rouse the wicked with the judgments dread alarms, you can lead the little children to the Savior’s waiting arms.” (CW 573 St. 2).

Maybe you do get tongue-tied, but God has promised to be with you always.  He has promised that you need not worry about what to say, he will give you the words to say.  Maybe you are stuck at home and can’t get out to tell others about Jesus, but you can still pray for all those who are proclaiming the message of Christ here at home, and all those who are serving as missionaries in other countries and spreading the gospel in your stead.  Maybe you do have children and aren’t able to move to a foreign country, but you can teach those little ones about their Savior and pass the light of the gospel on to them.  Now let me ask you a question: “Does everyone in town actually go to church?  Is there someone you know who needs to learn about his Lord and Savior?  Are there people whose lives can be brightened by you shining the light of the Gospel in to their hearts as you simply confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior?  In this way, you too can proclaim the message of Christ, just as the Wise Men did as they followed the star to find the Christ child, the savior of the world.

Just as the message of Christ had been proclaimed so that men from the east took a journey to find the light of salvation in the promised Savior; so also the light of salvation is revealed in the darkest parts of the world each time the message of Christ is proclaimed.  For each time we proclaim Christ to the world we are shining the Gospel into the darkness.  Each time we proclaim Christ to the world, we know that the word of God will drive back the darkness of sin and unbelief—just as God has promised.  But that is not all that it will achieve, for we know that when we proclaim Christ to the world we will also be gathering believers from the ends of the earth.  They will hear the message of the gospel and be attracted to the light it offers.  They will come to the Lord and be gathered from the ends of the earth.  Just as God promises through the prophet Isaiah, “. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 “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. 5 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. 6 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 60:3–6, NIV84)

This is our goal when we proclaim Christ to the World, to gather believers from the ends of the earth.  In fact, this was the goal of a very conservative Lutheran Church, which was located across the street from a major university.  The members at that church always came to church dressed in their best suits and dresses, but they had a problem. They wanted to reach out to the students across the street, but they didn’t know how.  They had meetings about this, they formed an evangelism committee to work on the problem, but they never actually went across the street to invite anyone.  After almost a year of deciding what they were going to do, Jeff, a member of the church and a sophomore at the university started talking to his friends and inviting them to come to church with him.  The first few weeks, no one came, but Jeff was happy because he was actually doing something.  Then one Sunday morning Bill showed up at church.  His hair looked like he just got out of bed.  He was wearing an old T-shirt with holes torn in it, no shoes and torn jeans.  As he walked into church, everyone was singing.  So bill quietly walked down the center isle looking for a place to sit.  When he got to the front of the church and saw that there were no spaces available he simply sat down on the floor to worship.  The well-dressed congregation was shocked that such an unkempt young man from the university would dare come into their church and sit on the floor.  They were uptight and upset by Bill’s very presence.  In the silence after the hymn the pastor sees one of his eighty-year-old members making his way up the aisle.  When he reaches Bill, he slowly lowers himself to the floor and sits by him so that Bill won’t have to worship alone. 

As we proclaim Christ to the world, it is our goal to gather believers from the ends of the earth.  Though they may look different, though they may think in a different way, they are still God’s children.  They are still God’s children who need to hear the message of Jesus Christ their Savior, so that they might be gathered into his loving fellowship of believers.  This is why we have missionaries in Africa, Central America, Russia, Taiwan, Japan and many other countries across the world who are spreading the gospel on our behalf. 

But have you ever realized just how blessed we are in this area?  We have a whole nation of people right on our doorstep who also need to hear the gospel.  They too are God’s people to whom we can proclaim Christ.  They, too, need to heart the message of Christ proclaimed to them.  They too need to hear the sweet message of the gospel.  It is our mission to proclaim Christ to the world and then gather believers from the ends of the earth.

After all, had it not been for the Israelites, none of us would be here today.  If it had not been for them sharing the message of the coming Savior, the Magi never would have come to the Savior, and we may never have had the opportunity to hear the Word of God proclaimed to us.  So let us take our turn today to shine that light of the Gospel so that many more might be gathered to our Savior as we continue to proclaim Christ to the world. Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN


Sunday, January 1, 2012

Why is Jesus' Name So Special? (Luke 2:21)


January 1, 2012

Dear Friends in Christ

What do you like best about your name?  Do you like the way it sounds?  Do you like the meaning that it holds?  Do you like the fact that your parents chose it especially for you?  Or do you like the fact that your name is everything that you are?  For that, if you think about it, is exactly what a name is and what it conveys.  In most cases, names are a simple, one, tow, three or perhaps four word summary of everything that we are and have been.  Well, this morning, as we celebrate this New Year’s Day, we will also celebrate the festival of the Name of Jesus.  We will take a close look at the name Jesus and see everything that it contains and tells us about Jesus as we answer the question, “Why is Jesus’ name so special?

So, let me ask you then, “Why is Jesus’ name so special?  Is it because of its sound?  Is it because the name Jesus is simply the Greek version of the Hebrew name, Joshua?  Or is Jesus’ name so special because it is the name that tells us who Jesus is and everything that he has done for us?  The answer is obvious, for we know that wrapped up on those 5 simple letters is a summary of everything our Savior is and all that he has done for us.  This, in fact, is the very reason why we could go so far as to say that the text before us is one of the most comforting texts in the Bible!  Though on the surface, what I just said might seem like a gross overstatement, the simple sentence which Luke recorded in verse 21, “On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived,” show us why Jesus name is so special.

These simple words, “On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived,” (Luke 2:21) are so comforting to us, because wrapped up on them is everything that Jesus is and everything that he has done.  Let me show you what I mean!  Take out the Bibles in front of you and turn to Luke 1:31-35, which can be found on page 1013.  About 9 months before Mary and Joseph had embarked on their Journey to Bethlehem, the angel had appeared to Mary and said to her, verse 31: “31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called a the Son of God. (Luke 1:31-35)

With these beautiful words, the Angel Gabriel assured Mary that this child, whom the Lord had named Jesus, would be no ordinary child.  Instead, he would be the Son of God himself, born by the power of the Holy Spirit.  He would be born in fulfillment of all the prophecies spoken about him, as we celebrated on Christmas Eve, not more than a week ago.  This Jesus, whom we see as he is receiving his Name in our text is the very Jesus who came in fulfillment of the prophecies that Isaiah spoke about him.  Turn to Isaiah 7:14 found on the bottom of page 681 and see what I mean.  For this prophecy, which the Lord made through Isaiah, was a prophecy made to evil king Ahaz who simply refused to ask the Lord God for a sign, even when the Lord was commanding him to do it.  So, Isaiah prophesied, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you  a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

In this prophecy, the Lord God marked the coming Savior as Immanuel, which Gabriel told us means, “God with us.”  In this stunning prophecy, the Lord God promised that he would come and physically dwell among his people Israel.  But not only that, just a few chapters later the Lord spoke about what the coming Savior would do among his people.  Turn to Isaiah 9:1-2 on the bottom of page 683 and see what I mean.  For here Isaiah tells us, “1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:1,2)

Seven hundred years before Christ was born, Isaiah prophesied that the Savior would proclaim the Gospel message to the people living in what had been the Northern Kingdom of Israel before the Assyrians had come and destroyed it, taking the people into a captivity from which they never returned.  In these verses, in verse 2 especially we see Jesus as he withdraws to the region of Galilee after John the Baptist was arrested by King Herod and how he proclaims the message, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  In this way, as the gospels record, Jesus brought these beautiful words into fulfillment as he brought many to the Light of Gospel from the shadow of unbelief and death. 

Yet this was not the only purpose that Jesus was born to, for Isaiah tells us in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 9, “6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,  Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6,7)

These words remind us that when Jesus was born, he was indeed born with the government on his shoulders.  Not that he was born into such a high position that he was heir to the throne of Israel, but that he was born under the authority of the Law as Paul tells us in Galatians 4:4,5 which I have printed on the screen for you: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:4,5)

It was to redeem us, to buy us back from the slavery of sin that Jesus was born under the authority of the Law.  For when he was born as a little child, he was born to perfectly keep the entire law which we have never been able to keep.  Though Jesus was the very one who established his covenant with Abraham, and given Abraham the sign of circumcision, Jesus himself was circumcised, and marked as a child of the covenant.  He was circumcised and declared to be the Seed of Abraham-the promised Messiah whom generations looked forward to expectantly.  He was circumcised and thus empowered the Old Testament right which the Lord had commanded in Genesis 17:12, “For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring.” (Genesis 17:12)

Not only did he do this, but through his willing obedience, Jesus became our substitute as Isaiah prophesied he would.  Turn with me if you would one more time to Isaiah.  We will look at Isaiah 53:1-6 which can be found in the middle of page 731.  1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:1-6)

Though there was nothing special that made Jesus stand out of a crowd, he is the one who carried our sorrows.  Though he had no special beauty or majesty to attract us to himself, he is the one who was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.  He carried our punishment, and we have been healed by his wounds.  Though we see him today as a little 8 day old baby, wrapped up in the name Jesus is everything that he will become and everything that he will do for us.  Wrapped up on that name Jesus is the man who proclaimed to the Pharisees, “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58)  He is the Lord God who proclaimed, “I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.” And again, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:11, 25)  He is the Lord who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and again revealed his glory before Moses as he covered Moses face with his hand so that Moses might only see his back.  In short, this Jesus whom we see as an 8 day old baby in our text, is the Lord our God who came to free us from our sins by his perfect life and innocent suffering and death.  For in the same way that the Lord appointed Joshua to lead the people Israel into the Promised Land and receive their rest, the Lord our God appointed Jesus to lead his people into his Rest in the Promised Land of eternal life.

This is why Jesus’ name is so special to us today.  For like our own names are summaries of all that we are, Jesus name is a summary of all that he is.  For wrapped up in that simple name of five letters is the Lord our God who willingly came to the earth so that he might take our place and free us from our sins forever.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church