February 19, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
When I was in college, I became very familiar with
Intestate 90, especially the stretch between La Cross, WI and Rochester, MN,
which was both my favorite, and most frustrating part of the journey. It was my favorite stretch of the trip when
we were on our way back to school because it meant that we were done with the
55 MPH speed limit on Highways 14 and 52 and could start making some good
time. It was my favorite, because I knew
that no matter how flat the land seemed, we were slowly traveling downhill as
we made our way toward La Cross and the Mississippi River. But it was the most frustrating part of the
trip when we were traveling back to New Ulm, because in that stretch you are
traveling almost due west, and no matter when we left Watertown, WI, we always
seemed to be traveling due west on that stretch of road as the sun was
setting! Now, if you’ve ever driven into
the setting sun, then you know just how bright that light can be! For as you
drive, and the unblinking eye of the sun stares you in the face, it can be a
struggle to keep your vehicle on the road. Though you put on your darkest
sunglasses, pull down the visor, and sit in strange and uncomfortable positions
just to block out that light and keep from rear ending the car in front of you,
it seems that you can’t escape brilliance of the setting sun. Even though you
do everything you can to block it out, it seems that the light evades your
efforts and begins to fill the car itself until there is room for nothing else
except that light. In a way, that
brilliance is a picture of the brilliance that is revealed to us in the pages
of Scripture. For in the Scriptures we find the brilliant light of the Gospel
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Savior. In fact, as we study the lesson
before us from 2 Corinthians 4:3-6, we will take time to simply stand and
behold the brilliance of the Gospel.
Take a look with me at our lesson today and how the
Apostle Paul describes the amazing brilliance of the Gospel. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds
of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus
Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who
said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to
give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:3–6, NIV84)
How interesting it is that as Paul describes the
brilliance of the Gospel that has been revealed in our hearts, he begins by
telling us how the brilliance of the gospel has been hidden, veiled if you
will, among those who are perishing.
Yet, sadly, this is exactly what our enemy, the god of this age, who is
also known as satan, has done. Though
the light of the gospel continues to shine forth with the brilliance of the
sun, satan has caused the dark clouds of doubt and disbelief to form in the
hearts of billions of people in our world today. He has shrouded their vision with a
veil! He has blindfolded them and locked
them away in the dark and gloomy dungeon of unbelief so that they cannot
possibly see the light of the gospel and come to faith and be saved.
In one way he has done this with the false religions
that he is continually introducing into our world so that he might distract
more and more people away from the light of the Gospel. For example, long ago he introduced the
teachings of Hinduism to the people of India.
Though it is very possible that one of the Apostles traveled to India
and spread the Word of God there, as tradition suggests, the Hindu faith
teaches people to work and to serve many different gods in the hopes that they
might be one day delivered from this world to the state of eternal bliss. Again, it was satan who made sure the
teachings of Buddha spread so that now millions of people are looking for
enlightenment which is designed to free them from a world of suffering. It was satan who worked overtime to convince
the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and many others in the Jewish community
that Jesus really wasn’t the Christ.
Now, because of his efforts it is safe to say that the majority of the
Israelites of our day and age do not know who Jesus is, or simply reject Jesus
as the Messiah who came in fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. On top of that it is very likely that satan
or one of his demons who appeared to Mohammed back in 633 BC, bringing the
teachings of Islam to the Middle East.
But even closer to home, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one who
appeared to Joseph Smith, encouraging him to continue in the teachings that
have become Mormonism, a religious group that acts very Christian, and yet does
not believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
He is the one who undoubtedly sent some of his demons to appear to the
Native Americans who sought to speak with the spirits of their ancestors. He is the one who is constantly at work in
every single Christian church, working subtly to water down the teachings of
Law and Gospel, working to foster feelings of apathy toward God and his Word,
and even working to convince life-long Christians that they know it all and
really have no need to read and study God’s Word for themselves or even gather
in worship on a regular basis.
These are but a few of the ways that “The god of
this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2
Corinthians 4:4, NIV84) These are but a
few of the ways that our enemy, the devil, is working to blind even you and me
to the brilliance of the gospel. Even
now, as you are looking directly into the brilliance of the gospel as it is
being proclaimed to you, satan is working to place a veil over our eyes so that
we will no longer see the glory of Jesus Christ as our Savior. He is the one
who constantly sits on our shoulders in worship, whispering lies, doubts, and
distractions into our ears. He is the
one who seeks to seed our hearts with the dark clouds of doubt and unbelief so
that the brilliance of the gospel is slowly diminished and finally blotted out
completely. Though right here, right
now, we are basking in the brilliant light of the Gospel shining forth in all
its glory, he is trying to convince us that the brilliance of the gospel is
just as annoying as the setting sun that I used to drive into on my way home
from college. He is trying to convince
us that if we simply take the pair of sunglasses he is offering us and put them
over our eyes, then, we will be able to look directly at the brilliance of the
Gospel, and see it more clearly. He is trying to convince us that if we just
pull down the visor and sit in an uncomfortable position, we will be better
able to see the path before us. But if
we should willingly put on satan’s sunglasses, or pull down the visor, or sit
in an uncomfortable position, before we know it we will have allowed him to
completely block out the brilliance of the gospel in our lives. Before we know it, we will be blindly
following our enemy down the path that leads to his kingdom and the dark,
gloomy, and fiery dungeons of eternal death and damnation.
Though it is satan, our enemy, who is continually
seeking to blind us to the brilliance of the Gospel, as we have gathered here
this morning, it is our Savior who is revealing the full measure of the
Gospel’s brilliance to each of us who believes!
Just as Paul wrote in our lesson, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it
is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the
minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but
Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For
God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our
hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:3–6, NIV84)
Though satan continually seeks to blind us, it was
the Lord our God who made known the light of the knowledge of his glory in
Jesus Christ our Savior. It was Jesus
Christ himself who came to us and gently replaced the visors and removed
satan’s sunglasses so that we could once again see his light. It was the Lord Jesus, our Savior who shined
the brilliant light of his Gospel into our hearts and burned away the dark
clouds of doubt and disbelief that satan seeded there. It was our Savior who used his own blood to
polish our stained and tarnished hearts so that they would once again be
radiant reflectors of the brilliance of the gospel message of salvation. It was Jesus Christ our Savior who enabled us
to look into the brilliant light of his glory revealed to us in the gospel
message of our salvation. It was Christ
our Savior who saw to it that the brilliance of the Gospel was revealed to us
so that we might be his disciples. He saw to it that his Word was proclaimed to
us so that we also might believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin. For it
is in that Word that we learn about our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is in that
Word that we learn how Jesus came to earth as a little baby. It is in that word
that we learn how Jesus in wisdom. It is in that word we learn how Jesus went
through out all the towns of Israel proclaiming the message of repentance for
the forgiveness of sins. It is in that word that we learn how Jesus revealed
his glory in his miracles of healing the sick, raising the dead, and driving out
demons. It is in that word we are assured that Jesus truly is the Son of God,
our Savior. But best of all, today we
had the opportunity to see the full measure of that glory as Jesus was
transfigured before Peter, James, and John on the top of that mountain. As Jesus was transfigured before them we saw
the brilliance of his glory and the glory of the Gospel that has been revealed
to each and every one of us who believes.
For it is the brilliant light of the gospel that
assures us that our sins have been forgiven.
It is that brilliant light of the gospel that assures us that Jesus’
life of perfectly following all of Gods commands and decrees has been applied
to us. It is the gospel that assure us
that when Jesus went to the cross he went carrying the weight of each and every
sin of each and every person on the face of the earth, even yours and
mine! It is through the message of the
Gospel that we are assured that all our trespasses, transgressions, and
iniquities have been completely blotted out.
Even the guilt of our sins has been removed. Now, it is through that brilliant light of
the Gospel, which has been clearly revealed to those who believe, that we are
moved to take that message to the world.
Just as the Lord shone the light of the gospel into
our hearts and created faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, it is the Lord who
enables us to reflect the brilliance of the gospel in our lives. It is the Lord Jesus who moves us to share
the brilliant message of salvation in all that we say and do so that many more
might be able to see the salvation that is theirs through faith in Jesus their
Savior. It is the Lord who calls us to
shine the brilliance of the gospel into the darkness of our world because there
are still millions who do not know that their sins have been forgiven. There
are millions whom satan has blinded to the brilliant light of the gospel which
the Lord has revealed to us, and now it is our turn to tell them. It is our
turn to preach Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as his servants. Because if
we don’t, those whom satan has blinded will suffer the punishment of eternal
death and damnation in the fires of hell. This is why we need to continue to
support the mission work of our synod. Even though we may be a smaller
congregation in our synod, and even though we face budget concerns and
shortfalls ourselves, as Christians, it is our responsibility to support
mission work, so that we might send Pastors and Teachers into nations who do
not know Jesus as their Savior.
Though there may be times when we are afraid to
start talking about Jesus, it is our God who gives us the courage we need. For the very light we now proclaim to the
world is the light which the Lord himself has shinned into our hearts. It is the light of the Gospel which is even
more brilliant than the light of the setting sun that I continually drove into
on my way home from college. But even
though it is that much more brilliant, it is also that much easier on the
eyes. It is in the gospel that we find
our Savior Jesus Christ revealed to us!
Though this brilliance has been veiled to those who are perishing, it
has been clearly revealed to you and me who believe. Take that brilliance with you. Reflect it in your words and actions, and
shine even as you share it with the world.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
