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
