Dear friends in Christ.
“If you are a dreamer, come in, If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!” (Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends,(9) New York: Harper and Row. 1974.)
When Shel Silverstein published his first collection of poems in the book entitled, Where the Sidewalk Ends, he began with the poem I just read to you. He began with an invitation designed to connect to his audience and invite people into his world. He began with an invitation to simply sit by his fire and join him in spinning some flax -golden tails; and his invitation worked! For since 1974, more than 4.5 million copies of Where the Sidewalk Ends have been sold, making it the bestselling children’s poetry book ever. Since 1974 millions, maybe even billions of people have accepted his invitation to come in, to sit by his fire, and to join him in spinning some flax-golden tales. Well, in the same way that Shel Silverstein came to his readers with an invitation, so also our Savior is coming to us with an invitation today. Though Jesus may not be inviting us to sit by his fire and spin some flax-golden tales, he is inviting each and every one of us to come and sit at his feet so that we might be built up in our faith through the better thing, the one thing needful, the word of God.
But even though Jesus is essentially standing before us this morning and inviting us to come and sit at his feet so that we might learn the precious truths of salvation, how often do we actually accept that invitation? Though we have gathered this morning to sit at our Savior’s feet, will we take time to sit at his feet tomorrow and read through his Word for ourselves? Will we take time to sit down at his feet at regular intervals this week and listen to Jesus speak the precious truths of salvation through the Bibles we keep so securely stored on our bookshelves and coffee tables? Will we take time out of our schedules again next Sunday to gather in this place to sit at our Savior’s feet, or will the busyness of Giant Days distract us from time together with our Savior?
Why is it, do you think, that so many Christians are so distracted by so many things that they simply cannot find the time to sit at their Savior’s feet in worship, or in their personal Bible reading at home? Why is it that we can find all the time in the world to watch TV, or get lost in a good book, read the newspaper without distractions, catch up on our blogging, search Youtube, connect on Facebook, and yet we can’t find 5 minutes during the week to pick up the Bible and read it? Why is it that when Sunday morning rolls around 9 AM is too early to gather for worship in the Summer and 10 AM is too late to gather for worship in the Fall? Why is it that we find it so important to send our children to Sunday School, but we can’t be bothered to take time for Bible Study ourselves, or to stay for worship after we’ve picked our kids up from Family Education Hour? Why is it that when we actually make a plan to sit down at our Savior’s feet with Bible in hand, we find ourselves distracted by so many of life’s worries? Why is it that we start off with a good Bible reading plan and yet find it difficult to follow through? Why is it that when we actually begin to make headway in reading the Word for ourselves we get bogged down in books like Deuteronomy, or Chronicles, or Kings, and before we know it we simply stop sitting at our Savior’s feet because we got frustrated with what we were reading in his word?
Why is it? Because the very last thing that satan, our enemy, wants us to be doing, is sitting at the feet of our Savior and learning the precious truths of salvation. He doesn’t want us in church because then we might be strengthened in our faith not only through the word but by all the other believers who have gathered and who are struggling with similar problems. He doesn’t want us reading the Scriptures for ourselves, because we might read something that makes us all the more committed to sitting at our Savior’s feet every chance we get. So he distracts us and does everything he can to keep us from our Savior, just as he did with Martha in our Gospel lesson this morning. Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson, Luke 10:38 on page 1028. There, in Luke 10 we’ll take a look at how satan worked to distract Mary and Martha from sitting at our Savior’s feet and listening to the precious truths of salvation. As always, a little bit of back ground as you are opening to Luke 10:38. We’re not exactly sure when this event took place other than it was sometime after Jesus sent out the 72 and they returned. It has been thought that this event took place when Jesus came down to Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication, which took place in late November or early December. But all we really know for certain is what Luke tells us in chapter 10 beginning with verse 38: “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38–42, NIV)
Though these words are so very familiar to us, they still pack a huge punch today, because they so clearly show how satan seeks to drive us to distraction even as Jesus invites us to sit at his feet and listen. Just think about how satan was at work in the background through this whole account. Luke tells us in verse 38 “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.” (Luke 10:38, NIV)
Now, there really isn’t anything unusual about this. Jesus came to Mary and Martha’s home in Bethany and Martha opened her house to him. Yet, there are some commentators who suggest that this visit by Jesus and his disciples may not have been a scheduled visit. There are some commentators who suggest that the reason for Martha’s distraction was because Jesus had not called ahead to tell them that he and 12 others, at least, were planning to stay at her house this night. They suggest that Martha was so distracted because she had so many things to get ready now that Jesus had dropped in on them. While this may be the case, all we know for certain is that satan used this as an opportunity to keep Martha from sitting at Jesus’ feet as Mary was, and he used it as an opportunity to try to distract Mary who was so quietly sitting at Jesus’ feet. Just imagine the scene, Jesus and his disciples were welcomed into the home. Martha and Mary were probably quite busy making the preparations. Then Jesus sat down in a way that indicated he was going to do some teaching. Mary stopped what she was doing and sat down at Jesus’ feet to listen to what he had to say. However, as verse 40 tells us, “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (Luke 10:40, NIV)
Martha was becoming worried about setting a meal on the table that would be good enough for her beloved Master. Undoubtedly, out of love for her Lord, she wanted to put on the best feast for him and serve him the very best that she could possibly offer, yet doing this meant that she would be giving up the privilege of sitting at the Lord’s feet as her sister was. Can’t you just hear satan whispering in her ear, telling her how she was doing the right thing by forgoing her opportunity to sit at the Savior’s feet? Can’t you just hear satan planting seeds of jealousy and frustration against her sister who was just sitting there? Can’t you just see her going to Jesus, expecting that Jesus will agree with her and tell Mary to stop sitting there and get up and help her? Yet, as verse 41 and 42 tell us, something completely different happened. Jesus answered, “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41–42, NIV)
In such a simply and loving way, Jesus thanks Martha for all the work of preparation that she had been doing, out of love for him. He chides her, even rebukes her for her sinful thoughts and attempt at trying to pull Mary away from sitting at his feet. He assures her that she is his dearly loved child who has been forgiven of all her sins, even this one of keeping Mary form sitting at his feet, and he even invites her to come and join them; to come sit at his feet and listen to the precious truths of salvation.
This is what the Lord Jesus is doing to each and every one of us today. He is chiding us, even rebuking us for being so distracted by all the things in life that we just simply cannot find time to sit at his feet in worship or in personal Bible readings. He rebukes us for our own attempts at keeping others from sitting down at the Savior’s feet by encouraging them not to come to church or read their Bibles as well as for those times when we have simply allowed friends, family members, even children to remain behind as we went to sit at the Lord’s feet. Yet, at the same time he is assuring us that we are his dearly loved children, who have been forgiven of all our sins, even our failure of sitting at his feet. And once again our Lord invites us to come and join him; to sit at his feet here in worship and at home in Bible reading as we listen to the precious truths of salvation that he has to teach us today.
But how do we do that? How do we answer his invitation to come and sit at his feet? The answer to that question is simple. First and foremost, we make the most of every opportunity to gather for worship on a Sunday morning, be it here at Grace, or at one of the congregations in our fellowship while we are on vacation. We make the most of every opportunity to encourage our children to seek out and find a congregation in our fellowship when they are away at school, or work, or have simply left the house. We make the most of every opportunity to sit at our Savior’s feet each day through worship and personal Bible reading each week. Maybe that means we take a paper copy of the sermon home with us, or we re-read it off our sermon site online. Maybe that means we schedule personal time each week when we can sit down and read the Bible for ourselves, or simply listen to it as we are commuting to and from work. Maybe it means that we set up a personal check list for the day including Bible Reading, and make sure that we are spending 15 minutes in the Bible each day, or simply reading through it a chapter at a time.
Now, understand that when you make a commitment to sit at your Savior’s feet, satan will do everything he can to distract you. There will be some days that you face quite a few struggles designed to keep you from sitting down and reading or listening to the word. There may be days when you wake up in the morning and realize that you missed the past day or the past few days, and satan has succeeded in keeping you from sitting at your Savior’s feet. When that happens, forgive yourselves immediately and pick up where you left off and continue on from that day forward. Continue on from that day forward because the more you are in the Word, the more your faith will grow. The more time you spend sitting at your Savior’s feet, the better you will understand the gift of salvation that your Savior has given. The more time you spend reading or listening to the Word, the more enjoyable worship will be each week, because you will begin to see connections you never saw before, like the connections that branch out from this lesson. In just a few months Lazarus will die, and both Mary and Martha’s faith will be intently tested. Yet through all that testing, they will confess their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior because they spent time on this day sitting at their Savior’s feet.
So, do just that. Make the most of every opportunity you have to sit at your Savior’s feet. If you haven’t been in the habit of reading the word for yourselves, use the 90 New Testament reading plan printed in your bulletins as a starting point for your own personal feet time with Jesus. For this is his invitation to us today. Though it may not be to sit by his fire and spin flax-golden tales, it is an invitation to sit at his feet as Mary did and learn from him. I pray that you would take hold of this invitation and make use of every opportunity you have to sit at the Lord’s feet and learn from him.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Listen to the Word of God (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23)
Dear friends in Christ.
When I was growing up, my mom was an avid follower of the TV show M*A*S*H*. Each week she made time to watch the new episodes as they came out, and then, when the re-runs began airing each afternoon on channel 9, she could be found watching them as she had the opportunity. It was because of her love for the show that I found myself constantly watching the show. Though I can’t say I was ever as big a fan as she was, because of the pattern of viewing M*A*S*H* episodes every afternoon, I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen most of the episodes. In fact, of all the episodes aired in the afternoons, the one I remember the most is the episode where Alan Alda’s character, Hawkeye Pierce, temporarily lost his eyesight. At first, he was scared and angry that he had lost his eyesight because a gas from a heater stove had flared back in his face, and he was worried that he might never regain his eyesight. Yet, as the episode went on he began using his other senses in ways he had never used them before; especially his hearing. In fact, in one conversation with his tent mate, he told how he had grown to simply love listening. He had spent the entire morning just sitting and listening to the rain as it fell. As he listened, he heard the different textures of sounds as the rain fell on the canvass of the tent and splashed into puddles. He even spoke about how funny it was to hear the sounds of someone slipping in the mud, falling, and splashing into a puddle. Because he wasn’t able to use his eyes, he began relying on his ears and he focused on intently listening to the world around him.
When it comes to God’s Word, we could take a lesson from this episode of M*A*S*H*. For the truth is, there are times when each and every one of us needs to lose our eyesight for the word of God, so to speak, so that we are forced to pay attention and listen to what the Lord has to say to us in his word. For the truth is, so often we see what the Lord has to say, or we hear what he has to say, but we don’t really pay attention, because in some ways, God’s Word has become something that we take for granted, as many of us take our eyesight for granted. Sometimes, it seems that what we really need to do is take time to close the eyes of our sinful logic and actively listen to what the Lord is telling us with his Word.
As we study the Word of God before us today, I invite you to do just that. I invite you to close the eyes of your logic and reason as you actively listen to the Word of God with me by opening your Bibles to our Gospel lesson today, which can be found on page 968. Now, as we read just a few minutes ago, Matthew 13 is the very familiar account of Jesus teaching the crowds of people by the Sea of Galilee. It was one of those days that so many people had gathered to hear the Word of God that Jesus had to step into a boat and push off from shore a little ways so that he could be certain that the people would be able to hear what he was saying, because as he spoke the words of the parable to them. He was telling them exactly why it was so important for them to listen to the Word of God. We read in verse 3 and 4 of Matthew 13: “A farmer went out to sow his seed and as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up” (Matthew 13:3,4).
As you know, farmers no longer walk up and down their fields scattering seeds. Instead we see them driving their tractors up and down, planting something like 16 rows at a time. But not even this guarantees complete safety for the seeds as you can often see flocks of birds circling the skies over a field that is being planted. You can watch as those birds start flying right behind the planter, land in the field and snatch up any of the seeds that they can after the planter has gone by. This is the danger that Jesus is warning us against as he calls on us to listen to the Word of God. As Jesus says in verse 19: Jump down to verse 19 with me and listen to Jesus’ explanation. He says, “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path,” (Matthew 13:19).
In the same way that the birds longed to snatch the seeds form the sower, so also satan is always eager snatch the gospel away from us. That is his goal right now, even this morning, as the Word of God is being sown into your hearts. He is eagerly seeking ways to keep you from listening to the Word of God this morning so that he can snatch it away from you. He is looking for ways that he can snatch it away from you so that you will not hear it and will not grow in your faith and be strengthened in your faith. And yet, this is not his only goal. Though satan is patient and constantly seeking ways to distract us and snatch the Word from us, he also knows that he won’t be able to snatch it away from every one. He knows that there will be many in whose hearts the Word of God will be planted because they have listened to that Word, so for them he forms other plans. These are the plans that Jesus explains to us in verse 5-7 of chapter 13: Jesus tells us, “Some [seeds] fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants,” (Matthew 13:5-7).
I’d be willing to bet that you’ve noticed things like this as you drove passed different fields. Perhaps you’ve noticed a spot in a field of corn, or wheat, or soybeans that was a whole lot shorter than the rest of the field. Maybe it was a spot in the field that was simply dead. Though you could tell that the crops had once been thriving there, now there was nothing left, or if there was anything left it was just a huge patch of weeds. Again, these are descriptions of what satan longs to do to our faith when we take time to listen to the Word. As Jesus explains in verse 20-22 of chapter 13: Jesus says, beginning with verse 20: “The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful,” (Matthew 13:20-22).
Because we have listened to the Word of God and faith has been planted in our hearts, our crafty adversary will stop at nothing to destroy that faith. He will do everything he can, use every weapon in his arsenal, as he seeks to scorch our faith with hardship and choke it out with temptations. How often haven’t we felt the scorching heat of sickness, broken bones, terminal illness, job loss, financial troubles, bankruptcies and all the other hardships that seek to cause us to stop listening to God’s Word and doubt his love and promises? How often hasn’t satan sought to wither our faith as even our most trusted friends turn against us and laugh at us for belonging to a church like Grace? How often haven’t we been surprised by how many weeds satan has planted in our hearts; weeds that he hopes will wind their roots around the roots of our faith to choke it out from beneath even as its quick growth is designed to keep our faith from the light of God’s Word? How often don’t those weeds begin as simple little weeds that quickly grow into huge weeds of worries and despair that grow so dense all we hear is the rustling of our problems and we are long longer listening to the Word of God?
These are but a few of the ways that satan is constantly trying to distract us from the Word of God so that he can destroy our faith, and these are the very reasons why we need to be continually listening to the Word of God. We need to be continually listening to the Word of God, because it is God’s Word alone that strengthens our faith in our Savior and enables us to guard against our enemy. We need to be constantly listening to the Word of God for the strengthening of our faith as well as the comfort we receive in knowing that we belong to the Lord who has freed us from our sins, and will one day gather us into the store houses of heaven along with the rest of the harvest. Let’s take a closer look at that very assurance that the Lord gives us in verse 8 of Matthew 13: Jesus tells us: “Still other seed fell on the good soil where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown,” (Matthew 13:8).
If you’ve ever driven through the United States of America, you would have noticed that each state seems to have a different color soil. In Wisconsin the soil color varies from reddish-brown to sandy-brown. Down in Southern states like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia you will often find soil with a reddish hue. Over in South Dakota they have some good dark colored soil, but I still haven’t found dark rich soil like we have here in Minnesota. Now, you can say that I’m biased, having grown up here, but truthfully, I have never seen any richer soil than what we have right here. This is the kind of soil that produces not merely abundant cops but often times produces a super abundance of what is planted in it. This is the kind of soil that our Savior is speaking about in his parable, and this is the type of soil into which the seed of the word was planted when it was planted into our hearts. Just as Jesus tells us in verse 23, “the one who received the seed that fell on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it,” (Matthew 13:23).
Though satan continually seeks to scorch our faith and choke it out with weeds of sorrow and temptation, Jesus assures us that we who have listened to his Word, have had that Word planted in the rich soil of our hearts and it has been growing there ever since. Now that the Lord has planted the seed of faith in our hearts, Jesus calls on us to be constantly listening to his Word, because it is that Word which waters our faith so it will grow. It is God’s Word that pulls out all the weeds that satan plants in our hearts so that our faith might stretch toward the light of the Word and continue to grow. It is the Word of God that continually cultivates the soil of our hearts so that the roots of our faith can grow down deep, so that not even the windstorm of satan’s temptations can uproot our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.
So as you continue on in your Christian service, continue to listen to the Word of God. Make God’s Word a priority for your lives and set aside time each day to read it, study it, meditate on it, and listen to it. In the same way that Hawkeye Pierce was forced to utilize his other senses, especially his sense of listening, when he was accidentally blinded, so also we need to take time each day to close the eyes of our human logic and reason and open our ears to listen to the sweet message of the Gospel. When we do this there may be times when we will be surprised to hear what the Lord is saying, there will be times when we are shocked. There will be times when we will be convicted. But every time we read we will find comfort in the gospel, assurance of the forgiveness of sins, and the comfort that comes from knowing we are God’s people destined for the harvest home of heaven.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
When I was growing up, my mom was an avid follower of the TV show M*A*S*H*. Each week she made time to watch the new episodes as they came out, and then, when the re-runs began airing each afternoon on channel 9, she could be found watching them as she had the opportunity. It was because of her love for the show that I found myself constantly watching the show. Though I can’t say I was ever as big a fan as she was, because of the pattern of viewing M*A*S*H* episodes every afternoon, I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen most of the episodes. In fact, of all the episodes aired in the afternoons, the one I remember the most is the episode where Alan Alda’s character, Hawkeye Pierce, temporarily lost his eyesight. At first, he was scared and angry that he had lost his eyesight because a gas from a heater stove had flared back in his face, and he was worried that he might never regain his eyesight. Yet, as the episode went on he began using his other senses in ways he had never used them before; especially his hearing. In fact, in one conversation with his tent mate, he told how he had grown to simply love listening. He had spent the entire morning just sitting and listening to the rain as it fell. As he listened, he heard the different textures of sounds as the rain fell on the canvass of the tent and splashed into puddles. He even spoke about how funny it was to hear the sounds of someone slipping in the mud, falling, and splashing into a puddle. Because he wasn’t able to use his eyes, he began relying on his ears and he focused on intently listening to the world around him.
When it comes to God’s Word, we could take a lesson from this episode of M*A*S*H*. For the truth is, there are times when each and every one of us needs to lose our eyesight for the word of God, so to speak, so that we are forced to pay attention and listen to what the Lord has to say to us in his word. For the truth is, so often we see what the Lord has to say, or we hear what he has to say, but we don’t really pay attention, because in some ways, God’s Word has become something that we take for granted, as many of us take our eyesight for granted. Sometimes, it seems that what we really need to do is take time to close the eyes of our sinful logic and actively listen to what the Lord is telling us with his Word.
As we study the Word of God before us today, I invite you to do just that. I invite you to close the eyes of your logic and reason as you actively listen to the Word of God with me by opening your Bibles to our Gospel lesson today, which can be found on page 968. Now, as we read just a few minutes ago, Matthew 13 is the very familiar account of Jesus teaching the crowds of people by the Sea of Galilee. It was one of those days that so many people had gathered to hear the Word of God that Jesus had to step into a boat and push off from shore a little ways so that he could be certain that the people would be able to hear what he was saying, because as he spoke the words of the parable to them. He was telling them exactly why it was so important for them to listen to the Word of God. We read in verse 3 and 4 of Matthew 13: “A farmer went out to sow his seed and as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up” (Matthew 13:3,4).
As you know, farmers no longer walk up and down their fields scattering seeds. Instead we see them driving their tractors up and down, planting something like 16 rows at a time. But not even this guarantees complete safety for the seeds as you can often see flocks of birds circling the skies over a field that is being planted. You can watch as those birds start flying right behind the planter, land in the field and snatch up any of the seeds that they can after the planter has gone by. This is the danger that Jesus is warning us against as he calls on us to listen to the Word of God. As Jesus says in verse 19: Jump down to verse 19 with me and listen to Jesus’ explanation. He says, “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path,” (Matthew 13:19).
In the same way that the birds longed to snatch the seeds form the sower, so also satan is always eager snatch the gospel away from us. That is his goal right now, even this morning, as the Word of God is being sown into your hearts. He is eagerly seeking ways to keep you from listening to the Word of God this morning so that he can snatch it away from you. He is looking for ways that he can snatch it away from you so that you will not hear it and will not grow in your faith and be strengthened in your faith. And yet, this is not his only goal. Though satan is patient and constantly seeking ways to distract us and snatch the Word from us, he also knows that he won’t be able to snatch it away from every one. He knows that there will be many in whose hearts the Word of God will be planted because they have listened to that Word, so for them he forms other plans. These are the plans that Jesus explains to us in verse 5-7 of chapter 13: Jesus tells us, “Some [seeds] fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants,” (Matthew 13:5-7).
I’d be willing to bet that you’ve noticed things like this as you drove passed different fields. Perhaps you’ve noticed a spot in a field of corn, or wheat, or soybeans that was a whole lot shorter than the rest of the field. Maybe it was a spot in the field that was simply dead. Though you could tell that the crops had once been thriving there, now there was nothing left, or if there was anything left it was just a huge patch of weeds. Again, these are descriptions of what satan longs to do to our faith when we take time to listen to the Word. As Jesus explains in verse 20-22 of chapter 13: Jesus says, beginning with verse 20: “The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful,” (Matthew 13:20-22).
Because we have listened to the Word of God and faith has been planted in our hearts, our crafty adversary will stop at nothing to destroy that faith. He will do everything he can, use every weapon in his arsenal, as he seeks to scorch our faith with hardship and choke it out with temptations. How often haven’t we felt the scorching heat of sickness, broken bones, terminal illness, job loss, financial troubles, bankruptcies and all the other hardships that seek to cause us to stop listening to God’s Word and doubt his love and promises? How often hasn’t satan sought to wither our faith as even our most trusted friends turn against us and laugh at us for belonging to a church like Grace? How often haven’t we been surprised by how many weeds satan has planted in our hearts; weeds that he hopes will wind their roots around the roots of our faith to choke it out from beneath even as its quick growth is designed to keep our faith from the light of God’s Word? How often don’t those weeds begin as simple little weeds that quickly grow into huge weeds of worries and despair that grow so dense all we hear is the rustling of our problems and we are long longer listening to the Word of God?
These are but a few of the ways that satan is constantly trying to distract us from the Word of God so that he can destroy our faith, and these are the very reasons why we need to be continually listening to the Word of God. We need to be continually listening to the Word of God, because it is God’s Word alone that strengthens our faith in our Savior and enables us to guard against our enemy. We need to be constantly listening to the Word of God for the strengthening of our faith as well as the comfort we receive in knowing that we belong to the Lord who has freed us from our sins, and will one day gather us into the store houses of heaven along with the rest of the harvest. Let’s take a closer look at that very assurance that the Lord gives us in verse 8 of Matthew 13: Jesus tells us: “Still other seed fell on the good soil where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown,” (Matthew 13:8).
If you’ve ever driven through the United States of America, you would have noticed that each state seems to have a different color soil. In Wisconsin the soil color varies from reddish-brown to sandy-brown. Down in Southern states like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia you will often find soil with a reddish hue. Over in South Dakota they have some good dark colored soil, but I still haven’t found dark rich soil like we have here in Minnesota. Now, you can say that I’m biased, having grown up here, but truthfully, I have never seen any richer soil than what we have right here. This is the kind of soil that produces not merely abundant cops but often times produces a super abundance of what is planted in it. This is the kind of soil that our Savior is speaking about in his parable, and this is the type of soil into which the seed of the word was planted when it was planted into our hearts. Just as Jesus tells us in verse 23, “the one who received the seed that fell on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it,” (Matthew 13:23).
Though satan continually seeks to scorch our faith and choke it out with weeds of sorrow and temptation, Jesus assures us that we who have listened to his Word, have had that Word planted in the rich soil of our hearts and it has been growing there ever since. Now that the Lord has planted the seed of faith in our hearts, Jesus calls on us to be constantly listening to his Word, because it is that Word which waters our faith so it will grow. It is God’s Word that pulls out all the weeds that satan plants in our hearts so that our faith might stretch toward the light of the Word and continue to grow. It is the Word of God that continually cultivates the soil of our hearts so that the roots of our faith can grow down deep, so that not even the windstorm of satan’s temptations can uproot our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.
So as you continue on in your Christian service, continue to listen to the Word of God. Make God’s Word a priority for your lives and set aside time each day to read it, study it, meditate on it, and listen to it. In the same way that Hawkeye Pierce was forced to utilize his other senses, especially his sense of listening, when he was accidentally blinded, so also we need to take time each day to close the eyes of our human logic and reason and open our ears to listen to the sweet message of the Gospel. When we do this there may be times when we will be surprised to hear what the Lord is saying, there will be times when we are shocked. There will be times when we will be convicted. But every time we read we will find comfort in the gospel, assurance of the forgiveness of sins, and the comfort that comes from knowing we are God’s people destined for the harvest home of heaven.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Serve the Lord by sharing your faith (Luke 10:1-12, 16-20)
Dear Friends in Christ
The story has been told about the great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, who willed his marvelous violin to Genoa, the city of his birth. The only condition he applied to this bequeathal was that his violin was never to be played. This was a very unfortunate condition because as long as wood is handled and used, it shows little wear, however, as soon as it is discarded it begins to decay. Today Paganini’s beautiful, mellow-toned violin has become a worm-eaten, useless relic in a beautiful case. Well, in the same way that Paganini’s violin fell apart because it did not continue in the service of making beautiful music, so also as Christians, if we do not continue on in our Christian Service, we might find that our capacity for usefulness in the Lord’s kingdom has been seriously hampered if not destroyed. It is because of this very reason that the Lord Jesus our Savior is calling on us as his servants to serve the Lord by sharing our faith.
Now, if you think about it, sharing our faith is the very thing that we were born to do. After all, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savoir. For the truth is, most of us, if not all of us, have been Christians since the day that we were baptized as little children. Our parents first taught us about Jesus through songs like, “I am Jesus’ Little Lamb.” As we grew, our faith in Jesus grew right along with us as our parents first brought us to church, and then, when we were old enough, sent us to Sunday School. Our knowledge of salvation through faith in Jesus continued to grow as we continued on in Sunday School or as some of you continued on in Lutheran Elementary School. We learned even more about Jesus our Savior when we came to church week after week to study the Catechism under the direction of the Pastor. Even after confirmation our faith continued to grow as we gathered for worship each week and had opportunity to gather with others to Study the Bible every Sunday morning. Whether we’ve been on this earth for a mere 8 months or 80 plus years, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. We all know everything we need to know in order to go out and serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others.
Yet, how often don’t we simply fail to do this? Though we know the joy that fills our hearts because our sins have been forgiven, how often don’t we hide that joy deep within our hearts and only take it out to look at when we are in the safety of the church or maybe the safety of our own homes? How often haven’t we run across someone who absolutely needs us to hear the good news of salvation, but we chicken out and don’t say anything about the hope that we have? How often haven’t we seen the sorrowful eyes, the pained expressions, the slumped shoulders as a co-worker trudges through life, looking for the answers he just simply can’t seem to find anywhere and wondering how in all the world he’s going to make it through today when another day just as bad filled with just as many stresses is coming tomorrow, yet we can’t seem to work up the nerve to tell him about the joy we have in Jesus? How often hasn’t it happened that a perfect opportunity to share our faith with a classmate passed us by because we simply didn’t feel prepared to share our faith by in school with so many other people milling about; people who might hear what we were saying and ask us questions we didn’t feel ready to answer? How often haven’t we had a dear friend, maybe even a fellow believer in Jesus, open up to us and emotionally fall apart because so many worries of life had weighed them down, yet rather than encouraging them and building them up in their faith by talking about your Savior, rather than taking time to pray for them that the Holy Spirit would strengthen them and comfort them with the comfort that Jesus himself offers, all we do for them is pat them on the back, offer encouraging sounding words, and tell them, “I’ll be praying for you.”
How many times haven’t we simply failed to serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others? If we’re honest, we have to say that we don’t know. We don’t know because we’ve failed to share our faith on so many different occasions that simply cannot count them all. Though I hate to admit it, I am just as guilty of failing to share my faith in the Lord with others when opportunities came my way. To this day there are faces that haunt my thoughts because I failed to serve the Lord. I was too afraid to share my faith with them, and I still pray that I was not their last or only opportunity to hear the message of salvation. As Don Piper writes in his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, “If you saw a little kid run out in the street, you’d dash out there and try to save the child’s life. Human nature is like that. We try to preserve life, and I will do that any time I get the opportunity. So would you. Yet, here we are sitting in this [restaurant], surrounded by people, many of whom are probably lost and going to hell, and we won’t say a word about how they can have eternal life. Something is wrong with us…We’re willing to save someone in a visible crisis, but a lot of folks are in a spiritual crisis and we don’t say a word about how they can get out of it.” (Piper, Don. 90 Minutes in Heaven. p. 131)
But even though we may have failed at serving the Lord and failed miserably at sharing our faith, there is hope even for us. In fact, it was just last week that we heard how Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. It was just last week that we heard how Jesus had entered into the last six months of his earthly ministry, and he was heading to Jerusalem where he would step up to the plate of the cross and belt our sins out of the park with the cry of “It is finished!” It was there, in Jerusalem, with the soldiers nailing him to the cross that Jesus prayed, “Father, forgiven them. They do not know what they are doing.” It was there in Jerusalem that Jesus showed how much he loved us. Though people taunted him and tempted him to come down from the cross, it was his love for us that caused him to remain there. It was on that cross that Jesus stretched out his arms and died in our place. For in the same way that the Mighty Mississippi begins as a small trickle from Lake Itasca, so also the river of Jesus’ blood that has washed us clean of every spot and stain of our sins began at that cross in Jerusalem! Though we don’t deserve it by any means, it was the Holy Spirit who immersed our heats in the river of Jesus blood on the day that he called us to faith. It was the Holy Spirit who sealed us as members of the Father’s house through the forgiveness that Jesus won for us. Even now, as we sit here in worship, it is the Holy Spirit who is assuring us that our past failures have been forgiven. Those missed opportunities have been washed away, even those times we were too afraid to speak up or simply didn’t feel prepared enough to speak; they have all been forgiven by through faith in Jesus Christ who now calls us to go out and serve him once again by sharing our faith.
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson today in Luke 10 beginning with verse 1; Luke chapter 10, which begins on page 1027. Last week we heard how Jesus set out on his way to Jerusalem, how he was refused lodging in a Samaritan village because he was headed to Jerusalem. We also heard how he spoke to three different people along the road whom either expressed a desire to follow him or whom he invited to follow him. Now, after all those events our text opens with Luke writing in chapter 10 beginning with verse 1: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. 8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ (Luke 10:1–11, NIV)
Now, when Jesus sent these 72 disciples out to share their faith and proclaim the kingdom of God, Jesus had only 6 months left in his earthly ministry. Jesus didn’t have much time left and he passed that urgency on to his disciples. Their mission, in fact, was so urgent that Jesus wanted them to leave from right where they were. They didn’t have time to go home and grab extra money, pack an overnight bag, grab an extra pair of sandals, or even greet people on the road because that could easily suck them into a long conversation that would delay their mission. Rather Jesus wanted them to simply go and preach the message of salvation showing their complete dependence on the Lord in what they said and how they lived.
The same thing is true for each and every one of us. As Jesus disciples, he is sending us out to serve him by sharing our faith, and just like the mission was urgent for the 72, the mission is urgent for us, because we are living in the last days. We are living in a time when Jesus could be returning at any time. We are living in a day and age when satan seems to be winning the battle and more and more people are falling away from the faith every day. We are living in a day and age where each and every one of us is standing guard on the front lines of the kingdom of heaven as we advance together into a sinful world to share our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Though we still may not feel ready, we are ready through faith in Jesus. Though we may be worried about what to say, Jesus has promised to give us the words. Though there may be times when we are afraid to go on, Jesus has not sent us out alone, for just as he sent out the 72 in pairs of two, so also Jesus goes with us wherever we go. Though we might be afraid of rejection, well, Jesus covers that as well. Jump back up to verse 8 and we’ll continue from there:
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (Jump down to verse 16) 16 “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:8–12, 16, NIV)
Though the disciples could have faced some rejection as they shared their faith in Jesus, Jesus assured them that the rejection they faced was not a mark against them, but a mark against Jesus and his Father. The same thing is true for us today. Though there may be times when people laugh at us or ridicule us when we share our faith, their laughter and ridicule is actually against Jesus. Though we might have to bear the physical brunt of their rejection, the truth of the matter is that they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Jesus as their Savior and God the Father as their God. Though it may pain us to do so, shaking the dust off our feet and walking away will serve as testimony against them that they had the opportunity to hear the Word and the rejected it. It may even serve as such a testimony that one day they turn from their ways and repent at a later time. But just as time was short for the disciples whom Jesus sent out, time is short for us. As we share our faith in the Lord’s serve, we simply don’t have the time to fool around with those who don’t want to listen, be they friends, relatives, neighbors, or even members. There are so many millions of people who need to hear the Word of God that we simply have to keep going and pray that those who reject today may come around tomorrow.
What else can we learn from Jesus sending those 72 disciples out? Look at verse 17: “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17–20, NIV)
When they returned, they were overjoyed because the demons had submitted to them in Jesus name. Though this was indeed an amazing thing, Jesus immediately refocuses them on what is most important. He tells them to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. As we serve the Lord and share our faith with the people around us, this also is our comfort. Our names are written in heaven and no one can change that. Though we may be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected by those with whom we share our faith, our names are still written in heaven. Through faith in Jesus our names are written in heaven. Our sins have been forgiven by Jesus our Savior. Eternal life is waiting for us when the Lord Jesus calls us out of this life. Until then, we have been given the opportunity to serve him by sharing our faith.
So dear friends, as you leave here today; continue on in your Christian service. Take your personal sermon study sheets with you and during the week consider answers for the last two questions that I chose not to answer today. I’m sure that I could have answered them if I kept on preaching, but I can tell that I’ve already spoken long enough and you are not ready for me to go another 20 minutes or so. But take those with you, continue on in your Christian service, always looking for ways to serve the Lord by sharing your faith.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
The story has been told about the great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, who willed his marvelous violin to Genoa, the city of his birth. The only condition he applied to this bequeathal was that his violin was never to be played. This was a very unfortunate condition because as long as wood is handled and used, it shows little wear, however, as soon as it is discarded it begins to decay. Today Paganini’s beautiful, mellow-toned violin has become a worm-eaten, useless relic in a beautiful case. Well, in the same way that Paganini’s violin fell apart because it did not continue in the service of making beautiful music, so also as Christians, if we do not continue on in our Christian Service, we might find that our capacity for usefulness in the Lord’s kingdom has been seriously hampered if not destroyed. It is because of this very reason that the Lord Jesus our Savior is calling on us as his servants to serve the Lord by sharing our faith.
Now, if you think about it, sharing our faith is the very thing that we were born to do. After all, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savoir. For the truth is, most of us, if not all of us, have been Christians since the day that we were baptized as little children. Our parents first taught us about Jesus through songs like, “I am Jesus’ Little Lamb.” As we grew, our faith in Jesus grew right along with us as our parents first brought us to church, and then, when we were old enough, sent us to Sunday School. Our knowledge of salvation through faith in Jesus continued to grow as we continued on in Sunday School or as some of you continued on in Lutheran Elementary School. We learned even more about Jesus our Savior when we came to church week after week to study the Catechism under the direction of the Pastor. Even after confirmation our faith continued to grow as we gathered for worship each week and had opportunity to gather with others to Study the Bible every Sunday morning. Whether we’ve been on this earth for a mere 8 months or 80 plus years, we are all experts on the subject of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. We all know everything we need to know in order to go out and serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others.
Yet, how often don’t we simply fail to do this? Though we know the joy that fills our hearts because our sins have been forgiven, how often don’t we hide that joy deep within our hearts and only take it out to look at when we are in the safety of the church or maybe the safety of our own homes? How often haven’t we run across someone who absolutely needs us to hear the good news of salvation, but we chicken out and don’t say anything about the hope that we have? How often haven’t we seen the sorrowful eyes, the pained expressions, the slumped shoulders as a co-worker trudges through life, looking for the answers he just simply can’t seem to find anywhere and wondering how in all the world he’s going to make it through today when another day just as bad filled with just as many stresses is coming tomorrow, yet we can’t seem to work up the nerve to tell him about the joy we have in Jesus? How often hasn’t it happened that a perfect opportunity to share our faith with a classmate passed us by because we simply didn’t feel prepared to share our faith by in school with so many other people milling about; people who might hear what we were saying and ask us questions we didn’t feel ready to answer? How often haven’t we had a dear friend, maybe even a fellow believer in Jesus, open up to us and emotionally fall apart because so many worries of life had weighed them down, yet rather than encouraging them and building them up in their faith by talking about your Savior, rather than taking time to pray for them that the Holy Spirit would strengthen them and comfort them with the comfort that Jesus himself offers, all we do for them is pat them on the back, offer encouraging sounding words, and tell them, “I’ll be praying for you.”
How many times haven’t we simply failed to serve the Lord by sharing our faith with others? If we’re honest, we have to say that we don’t know. We don’t know because we’ve failed to share our faith on so many different occasions that simply cannot count them all. Though I hate to admit it, I am just as guilty of failing to share my faith in the Lord with others when opportunities came my way. To this day there are faces that haunt my thoughts because I failed to serve the Lord. I was too afraid to share my faith with them, and I still pray that I was not their last or only opportunity to hear the message of salvation. As Don Piper writes in his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, “If you saw a little kid run out in the street, you’d dash out there and try to save the child’s life. Human nature is like that. We try to preserve life, and I will do that any time I get the opportunity. So would you. Yet, here we are sitting in this [restaurant], surrounded by people, many of whom are probably lost and going to hell, and we won’t say a word about how they can have eternal life. Something is wrong with us…We’re willing to save someone in a visible crisis, but a lot of folks are in a spiritual crisis and we don’t say a word about how they can get out of it.” (Piper, Don. 90 Minutes in Heaven. p. 131)
But even though we may have failed at serving the Lord and failed miserably at sharing our faith, there is hope even for us. In fact, it was just last week that we heard how Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. It was just last week that we heard how Jesus had entered into the last six months of his earthly ministry, and he was heading to Jerusalem where he would step up to the plate of the cross and belt our sins out of the park with the cry of “It is finished!” It was there, in Jerusalem, with the soldiers nailing him to the cross that Jesus prayed, “Father, forgiven them. They do not know what they are doing.” It was there in Jerusalem that Jesus showed how much he loved us. Though people taunted him and tempted him to come down from the cross, it was his love for us that caused him to remain there. It was on that cross that Jesus stretched out his arms and died in our place. For in the same way that the Mighty Mississippi begins as a small trickle from Lake Itasca, so also the river of Jesus’ blood that has washed us clean of every spot and stain of our sins began at that cross in Jerusalem! Though we don’t deserve it by any means, it was the Holy Spirit who immersed our heats in the river of Jesus blood on the day that he called us to faith. It was the Holy Spirit who sealed us as members of the Father’s house through the forgiveness that Jesus won for us. Even now, as we sit here in worship, it is the Holy Spirit who is assuring us that our past failures have been forgiven. Those missed opportunities have been washed away, even those times we were too afraid to speak up or simply didn’t feel prepared enough to speak; they have all been forgiven by through faith in Jesus Christ who now calls us to go out and serve him once again by sharing our faith.
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson today in Luke 10 beginning with verse 1; Luke chapter 10, which begins on page 1027. Last week we heard how Jesus set out on his way to Jerusalem, how he was refused lodging in a Samaritan village because he was headed to Jerusalem. We also heard how he spoke to three different people along the road whom either expressed a desire to follow him or whom he invited to follow him. Now, after all those events our text opens with Luke writing in chapter 10 beginning with verse 1: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. 8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ (Luke 10:1–11, NIV)
Now, when Jesus sent these 72 disciples out to share their faith and proclaim the kingdom of God, Jesus had only 6 months left in his earthly ministry. Jesus didn’t have much time left and he passed that urgency on to his disciples. Their mission, in fact, was so urgent that Jesus wanted them to leave from right where they were. They didn’t have time to go home and grab extra money, pack an overnight bag, grab an extra pair of sandals, or even greet people on the road because that could easily suck them into a long conversation that would delay their mission. Rather Jesus wanted them to simply go and preach the message of salvation showing their complete dependence on the Lord in what they said and how they lived.
The same thing is true for each and every one of us. As Jesus disciples, he is sending us out to serve him by sharing our faith, and just like the mission was urgent for the 72, the mission is urgent for us, because we are living in the last days. We are living in a time when Jesus could be returning at any time. We are living in a day and age when satan seems to be winning the battle and more and more people are falling away from the faith every day. We are living in a day and age where each and every one of us is standing guard on the front lines of the kingdom of heaven as we advance together into a sinful world to share our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Though we still may not feel ready, we are ready through faith in Jesus. Though we may be worried about what to say, Jesus has promised to give us the words. Though there may be times when we are afraid to go on, Jesus has not sent us out alone, for just as he sent out the 72 in pairs of two, so also Jesus goes with us wherever we go. Though we might be afraid of rejection, well, Jesus covers that as well. Jump back up to verse 8 and we’ll continue from there:
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (Jump down to verse 16) 16 “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:8–12, 16, NIV)
Though the disciples could have faced some rejection as they shared their faith in Jesus, Jesus assured them that the rejection they faced was not a mark against them, but a mark against Jesus and his Father. The same thing is true for us today. Though there may be times when people laugh at us or ridicule us when we share our faith, their laughter and ridicule is actually against Jesus. Though we might have to bear the physical brunt of their rejection, the truth of the matter is that they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Jesus as their Savior and God the Father as their God. Though it may pain us to do so, shaking the dust off our feet and walking away will serve as testimony against them that they had the opportunity to hear the Word and the rejected it. It may even serve as such a testimony that one day they turn from their ways and repent at a later time. But just as time was short for the disciples whom Jesus sent out, time is short for us. As we share our faith in the Lord’s serve, we simply don’t have the time to fool around with those who don’t want to listen, be they friends, relatives, neighbors, or even members. There are so many millions of people who need to hear the Word of God that we simply have to keep going and pray that those who reject today may come around tomorrow.
What else can we learn from Jesus sending those 72 disciples out? Look at verse 17: “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17–20, NIV)
When they returned, they were overjoyed because the demons had submitted to them in Jesus name. Though this was indeed an amazing thing, Jesus immediately refocuses them on what is most important. He tells them to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. As we serve the Lord and share our faith with the people around us, this also is our comfort. Our names are written in heaven and no one can change that. Though we may be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected by those with whom we share our faith, our names are still written in heaven. Through faith in Jesus our names are written in heaven. Our sins have been forgiven by Jesus our Savior. Eternal life is waiting for us when the Lord Jesus calls us out of this life. Until then, we have been given the opportunity to serve him by sharing our faith.
So dear friends, as you leave here today; continue on in your Christian service. Take your personal sermon study sheets with you and during the week consider answers for the last two questions that I chose not to answer today. I’m sure that I could have answered them if I kept on preaching, but I can tell that I’ve already spoken long enough and you are not ready for me to go another 20 minutes or so. But take those with you, continue on in your Christian service, always looking for ways to serve the Lord by sharing your faith.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Commit Yoursevelves to the Lord's Service (Luke 9:51-62)
Dear friends in Christ.
What a blessing it is that today is Sunday and that today we are celebrating Independence Day. What a blessing it is that we have the opportunity to gather together in worship of the Lord our God who is solely responsible for bringing about our great nation. Though things could have gone a whole different way some 200 years ago, it was the Lord’s will to birth our nation and give us an annual weekend that we could take time to gather with family and friends for picnics, cook-outs, camping trips, and, of course, fireworks. But did you know that when the Declaration of Independence was signed and the revolutionary war began, only about 2% of the Colonists were behind the cause of revolution? Did you know that the vast majority of the Colonists, though they may have agreed that Brittan was wielding power in a rather unfair and abusive way, the majority of colonists were more content with the status quo than with committing themselves to the cause of independence? Why this was, exactly, I don’t really know. Maybe they were afraid of what they would have to give up. Maybe they were afraid of what they might lose. Maybe they were afraid of fighting a battle that seemed unwinnable. After all, if they committed themselves to the cause of independence, they would guilty of rebellion and high treason against the British crown. They would be worthy of death for their crimes, and, if caught, they would most likely lose their family, their wealth, their possessions, and even their lives, which is the very thing that happened to most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
As you may remember, there were fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and their convictions resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.
Well, in the same way that these men committed everything they had; their sacred honor, their fortunes, and even their own lives for the cause of freedom, so also, the Lord Jesus, our Savior completely committed himself to the service of the Lord God. He was the one whom the Lord God had chosen to be our Savior, even before the creation of the world. He was the one to whom the Lord referred when he promised that the Seed of the Woman would crush the head of the serpent. He was the one who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, and took on the very nature of a servant when he was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. He was the one who took on our flesh and blood and was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. He was the one who came to earth to completely and perfectly follow all of God’s Laws before he went to the cross to exchange his life in payment of our sins. He was the one who committed his soul to his heavenly Father before he gave up his life on the cross, and he is the one who took back his life on the third day, rising again to assure us that our sins are forgiven.
Now, as we meet Jesus in our text this morning, Luke gives us a very clear picture of how Jesus commits himself to serving the Lord. It is that very commitment, at which we want to take a look, so I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson, to Luke 9:51. While you’re turning to Luke 9:51 let me give you a little background. Though last week we had heard how Jesus had been staying out in lonely places where he could be alone with his disciples and teach them, that time was at an end. In fact, Luke 9:51 is essentially the beginning of the last six months of Jesus earthly ministry, and from this point on we see Jesus total commitment to the Lord as he now resolutely sets off for Jerusalem. As Luke writes in verse 51: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51–56, NIV)
Though it was just last week that we heard Jesus telling his disciples about how we would suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders; how he would be rejected by them, killed, and on the third day rise again, Jesus was now deliberately traveling toward Jerusalem to make these things happen. So committed was he to serving the Lord, that he willingly began to make his way to Jerusalem where he would lay out each and every one of our sins at the checkout counter of the cross before paying off our debt with his blood and blessing us with the rebate of his righteousness and holiness.
Well in the same way that Jesus willingly committed himself to the Lord’s service, he is also calling on each and every one of us as Christians to commit ourselves to serving the Lord with our lives. He is calling on us to do this right now, because today is the only day we have. Yesterday is already past and gone and we don’t know if tomorrow will ever come. This, in fact, is the very thoughts that Luke records beginning in verse 57: “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:57,58, NIV)
This man was truly excited and gung-ho about following the Lord Jesus. He was ready to travel with Jesus, wherever he went no matter what the cost or the concern. But when he conveyed his commitment to Jesus, Jesus answered him in a way that this man may not have expected. What Jesus simply said was, “Think about this.” He didn’t say, “No. Don’t follow me.” Instead he simply said, “Think about this.” In essence Jesus was telling this man to consider the best course of action. Would it be best for this man to follow after Jesus wherever he might go, or would it be best for him to follow Jesus by remaining where he was and committing himself to serving the Lord where he was. Either way he might be forced to give up a few things. He might face mocking and ridicule, but he would be serving the Lord in the best place for himself.
Jesus is saying the same thing to each and every one of us as he calls on us to commit ourselves to his service. He is not saying that we all have to run out and go back to school to become pastors or teachers. Rather, he is calling on us to make the most of every opportunity we are given in our situation in life to serve the Lord with our lives. Though we may face hardship or troubles, mocking or ridicule, Jesus will be with us as we serve him with our lives.
The second example: look at verse 59. He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59,60, NIV)
This time it was different. Jesus approached a man and called him to follow as one of Jesus’ disciples. This was a man who had undoubtedly followed Jesus before. This was a man who had been with Jesus and had been instructed by Jesus, as was Jesus’ practice before calling someone to be a disciple. The problem was that this call came at a very inconvenient time. The man had just lost his father, and was going to the funeral. He was essentially asking for a few days delay. But if you think about it, this invitation was coming as Jesus was passing through for the last time. This was the last time Jesus was coming through this village and Jesus is calling on this man to take hold of the invitation to serve today, because tomorrow might never come.
One last example: look at verse 61: “Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61,62, NIV)
Knowing this man’s heart, Jesus was concerned for him. He was concerned that if he went back to his family, they might steal his dream of following after Jesus. They might persuade him to remain at home rather than serving the Lord with his life. They might even challenge his faith or ask him to give up his faith in Jesus all together. The same is true for us. When we commit ourselves to the lord we may have to remove ourselves from some associations lest they seek to remove our faith and our commitment to the Lord, from us.
Though there may be times in life when we face hardships and difficulties because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, we know that our Savior will be with us. Though we may be mocked and ridiculed for what we believe, we know that our Savior will help us through. Though there may be times when we find that serving the Lord isn’t the most convenient, we know that that it is the most important thing that we as Christians can do with our lives. Though there may be times when friend or family seek to lead us astray, we trust that the Lord our Savior will give us the strength we need to continue in our commitment to him. For the truth is, because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, the Lord is always with us. He is the one who is by our sides. He is the one who will deliver us to eternal life.
That is our greatest comfort today. Though today is the fourth of July and the day we are celebrating our nation’s independence, more importantly we are celebrating our independence from sin and slavery to death. For it is through faith in Jesus that we have been freed from sin and death and are now able to commit ourselves to serving the Lord.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
What a blessing it is that today is Sunday and that today we are celebrating Independence Day. What a blessing it is that we have the opportunity to gather together in worship of the Lord our God who is solely responsible for bringing about our great nation. Though things could have gone a whole different way some 200 years ago, it was the Lord’s will to birth our nation and give us an annual weekend that we could take time to gather with family and friends for picnics, cook-outs, camping trips, and, of course, fireworks. But did you know that when the Declaration of Independence was signed and the revolutionary war began, only about 2% of the Colonists were behind the cause of revolution? Did you know that the vast majority of the Colonists, though they may have agreed that Brittan was wielding power in a rather unfair and abusive way, the majority of colonists were more content with the status quo than with committing themselves to the cause of independence? Why this was, exactly, I don’t really know. Maybe they were afraid of what they would have to give up. Maybe they were afraid of what they might lose. Maybe they were afraid of fighting a battle that seemed unwinnable. After all, if they committed themselves to the cause of independence, they would guilty of rebellion and high treason against the British crown. They would be worthy of death for their crimes, and, if caught, they would most likely lose their family, their wealth, their possessions, and even their lives, which is the very thing that happened to most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
As you may remember, there were fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and their convictions resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.
Well, in the same way that these men committed everything they had; their sacred honor, their fortunes, and even their own lives for the cause of freedom, so also, the Lord Jesus, our Savior completely committed himself to the service of the Lord God. He was the one whom the Lord God had chosen to be our Savior, even before the creation of the world. He was the one to whom the Lord referred when he promised that the Seed of the Woman would crush the head of the serpent. He was the one who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, and took on the very nature of a servant when he was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. He was the one who took on our flesh and blood and was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. He was the one who came to earth to completely and perfectly follow all of God’s Laws before he went to the cross to exchange his life in payment of our sins. He was the one who committed his soul to his heavenly Father before he gave up his life on the cross, and he is the one who took back his life on the third day, rising again to assure us that our sins are forgiven.
Now, as we meet Jesus in our text this morning, Luke gives us a very clear picture of how Jesus commits himself to serving the Lord. It is that very commitment, at which we want to take a look, so I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson, to Luke 9:51. While you’re turning to Luke 9:51 let me give you a little background. Though last week we had heard how Jesus had been staying out in lonely places where he could be alone with his disciples and teach them, that time was at an end. In fact, Luke 9:51 is essentially the beginning of the last six months of Jesus earthly ministry, and from this point on we see Jesus total commitment to the Lord as he now resolutely sets off for Jerusalem. As Luke writes in verse 51: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51–56, NIV)
Though it was just last week that we heard Jesus telling his disciples about how we would suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders; how he would be rejected by them, killed, and on the third day rise again, Jesus was now deliberately traveling toward Jerusalem to make these things happen. So committed was he to serving the Lord, that he willingly began to make his way to Jerusalem where he would lay out each and every one of our sins at the checkout counter of the cross before paying off our debt with his blood and blessing us with the rebate of his righteousness and holiness.
Well in the same way that Jesus willingly committed himself to the Lord’s service, he is also calling on each and every one of us as Christians to commit ourselves to serving the Lord with our lives. He is calling on us to do this right now, because today is the only day we have. Yesterday is already past and gone and we don’t know if tomorrow will ever come. This, in fact, is the very thoughts that Luke records beginning in verse 57: “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:57,58, NIV)
This man was truly excited and gung-ho about following the Lord Jesus. He was ready to travel with Jesus, wherever he went no matter what the cost or the concern. But when he conveyed his commitment to Jesus, Jesus answered him in a way that this man may not have expected. What Jesus simply said was, “Think about this.” He didn’t say, “No. Don’t follow me.” Instead he simply said, “Think about this.” In essence Jesus was telling this man to consider the best course of action. Would it be best for this man to follow after Jesus wherever he might go, or would it be best for him to follow Jesus by remaining where he was and committing himself to serving the Lord where he was. Either way he might be forced to give up a few things. He might face mocking and ridicule, but he would be serving the Lord in the best place for himself.
Jesus is saying the same thing to each and every one of us as he calls on us to commit ourselves to his service. He is not saying that we all have to run out and go back to school to become pastors or teachers. Rather, he is calling on us to make the most of every opportunity we are given in our situation in life to serve the Lord with our lives. Though we may face hardship or troubles, mocking or ridicule, Jesus will be with us as we serve him with our lives.
The second example: look at verse 59. He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59,60, NIV)
This time it was different. Jesus approached a man and called him to follow as one of Jesus’ disciples. This was a man who had undoubtedly followed Jesus before. This was a man who had been with Jesus and had been instructed by Jesus, as was Jesus’ practice before calling someone to be a disciple. The problem was that this call came at a very inconvenient time. The man had just lost his father, and was going to the funeral. He was essentially asking for a few days delay. But if you think about it, this invitation was coming as Jesus was passing through for the last time. This was the last time Jesus was coming through this village and Jesus is calling on this man to take hold of the invitation to serve today, because tomorrow might never come.
One last example: look at verse 61: “Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61,62, NIV)
Knowing this man’s heart, Jesus was concerned for him. He was concerned that if he went back to his family, they might steal his dream of following after Jesus. They might persuade him to remain at home rather than serving the Lord with his life. They might even challenge his faith or ask him to give up his faith in Jesus all together. The same is true for us. When we commit ourselves to the lord we may have to remove ourselves from some associations lest they seek to remove our faith and our commitment to the Lord, from us.
Though there may be times in life when we face hardships and difficulties because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, we know that our Savior will be with us. Though we may be mocked and ridiculed for what we believe, we know that our Savior will help us through. Though there may be times when we find that serving the Lord isn’t the most convenient, we know that that it is the most important thing that we as Christians can do with our lives. Though there may be times when friend or family seek to lead us astray, we trust that the Lord our Savior will give us the strength we need to continue in our commitment to him. For the truth is, because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, the Lord is always with us. He is the one who is by our sides. He is the one who will deliver us to eternal life.
That is our greatest comfort today. Though today is the fourth of July and the day we are celebrating our nation’s independence, more importantly we are celebrating our independence from sin and slavery to death. For it is through faith in Jesus that we have been freed from sin and death and are now able to commit ourselves to serving the Lord.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
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