Faithfully follow your Savior! (Mark 9:30-37)

October 7, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

I don’t know why it is, but little children love to play follow the leader.  They love to walk around a play ground following behind and doing everything exactly the same as the person in the lead.  If the leader takes big steps, those following take the same type of big steps.  If the leader steps up on a tree stump and them jumps off, everyone who is following steps up on that same tree stump before jumping off.  If the leader spins in a circle three times, shouting I’m the greatest while waving his hands above his head, then everyone who is following recognizes that it is now their turn to reflect everything the leader does as they faithfully follow him around the playground.  Well, in our lesson today, we are being urged to faithfully follow our Savior.  Though we are not being asked to play follow the leader with him, we are none the less being called on to recognize his great service for us and reflect that service in our lives as we faithfully follow after Jesus Christ our Savior.

Following their Savior was something that the disciples had become quite good at over the past two or so years.  They had grown used to following Jesus wherever he led them, and they had learned a great deal from him as their teacher.  The problem, however, was that they had still had not come to recognize that Jesus’ life was not a pursuit of greatness, but rather, it was a life of service that he performed for you and me.  Take a look at how Mark records this in our lesson today!  “They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.” (Mark 9:30-32, NIV84)

Shortly before our lesson opens, Jesus had been in the region of Caesarea Philippi, about 50 miles to the Northeast from where he was now.  He had begun to plainly teach the disciples that it was necessary for him to suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders, that he would die, and on the third day rise again.  On that occasion Peter had taken him aside and tried to convince Jesus that he didn’t really need to go through all that suffering, to which Jesus had responded, “Get behind me satan!”  As we meet Jesus and his disciples today, about 2 weeks has passed and Jesus again teaches his faithful followers that he would soon have to suffer, die, and rise again.  Though Jesus had quite likely taught the disciples this very thing over the past two weeks, take a look at the disciples response in vs. 32, “They did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.” (Mark 9:32, NIV84)

Though Jesus had explained it quite clearly, the disciples simply didn’t recognize or perhaps they simply didn’t want to recognize that Jesus’ life was not leading to a glorious earthly kingdom, but that his life had been a great act of service which he had provided for the people of the world.  His life had been a great act of service, at the end of which, he would give his life on the cross to free all people from the curse of their sins. 

But even though this was something that the disciples didn’t recognize at this point in their lives, as Jesus followers, this was something that they would come to understand and take comfort in after Jesus rose from the dead, just as we recognize it today.  For today, as we seek to follow our Savior, we do take great comfort in the fact that our Savior served us by living a perfect life on our behalf.  We recognize how Jesus served us by living the perfect life that we who have been forever tainted with sin could not live.  As we follow him, we recognize how he served us by allowing his people to make fun of him, spit on him, beat him and abuse him, reject him, and finally crucify him.  We recognize how Christ served us by enduring the excruciating weight of the countless sins of every single person in creation that were heaped upon him in that moment.  We recognize how Jesus served us by bearing in our place the full punishment of God’s righteous anger over our sins.  We recognize how Jesus served us by willingly committing his spirit to his heavenly father and dying the death that we deserved to die.  But best of all, as his followers today, we recognize and take comfort in the fact that Jesus rose again from the dead to assure us that our sins had been forgiven!  It is because of this that we who are his followers are now willing to serve him with our lives.  It is because of this that we, his followers seek to reflect his love and his service in our own lives.  It is because of this that we who seek to faithfully follow our Savior do indeed seek to reflect his service in all that we say and all that we do.

For the disciples, who were still struggling to make peace with the fact that Jesus’ mission as the Messiah was not to seek glory and greatness for himself, or to seek to establish an earthly kingdom, the idea the idea of reflecting Christ’s service in their lives was still a foreign concept.  It was still a foreign concept because they were still convinced that by following Jesus they would become his right hand men in his earthly kingdom.  This is why, as Mark tells us, the disciples argued along the way about who was the greatest.  Take a look at Mark 9 starting at verse 33: “They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” (Mark 9:33-37, NIV84)

Though the disciples were willing to faithfully follow their Savior, at this point they did not yet understand that following him was not about who was the greatest, but about serving him with their lives.  Unfortunately, this is something that even we faithful followers of Jesus Christ still have trouble with today.  For even though we know that a Christian life is a life of service, so often we would rather seek our own glory and greatness, however, when we are reminded of all that Christ did for us, it becomes that much easier for us to live our lives in such a way that we reflect our Savior’s service in all that we do!

For the truth is, when we faithfully follow our Savior and remember all that he did for us, we are naturally moved to serve him in all that we say and all that we do.  We are moved to serve him by gathering regularly for worship.  We are moved to serve him by gathering together to study his Word with our fellow Christians.  We are moved to reflect his love for us as we care for the needs of friends, family, neighbors, and even strangers.  We are moved to serve him by fighting against the sinful desires that affect us on a daily basis.  So do just that!  Let your love for Christ reflect in all that you say and do.  Let your lives as followers of Jesus be a reflection of the life of service that he undertook to free you from your sins.  Serve the Lord by giving to him not only the first and best of what he has give to you, but also of yourselves.  Serve the Lord by getting involved in your own congregation.  Serve the Lord by participating in worship.  Serve the Lord by serving your neighbor.  Serve the Lord by telling others about Jesus their Savior.  Serve the Lord by giving to him of your time, of your talents, of your effort, and of your attention. 

These are but a few of the ways that we can reflect our Savior’s service in our own lives as we follow him.  For we who are his followers today do indeed seek to follow just like children follow each other as they play follow the leader.  Though our Savior does not take us on crazy circuitous routes through a playground, as we follow him we easily recognize the great service he accomplished for each and every one of us, and we, as his followers seek to reflect that service through every aspect of our lives.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

As for Me and My Household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:14-15)

Series: What I'd Like to Know Is… (6/6)

September 2, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

On October 11, 1987, my Grandfather, Edwin Breiling, died.  Only a few days before he had been working in his yard, hanging storm windows in preparation for the coming winter, when he collapsed.  He collapsed because an aortal aneurism had ruptured while he was doing his work.  I remember when we got the news that Grandpa had collapsed and that he had been moved to the Hospital in La Crosse.  I remember my parents traveling to La Crosse to help Grandma, and I remember them coming back on Sunday afternoon and giving us the news that Grandpa had gone home to be with the Lord.  I was 15 that day.  I was a freshman in high school and even though I had been to a number of funerals in my young life, this was the first time I had felt the sharp sting of death so personally.  I can still remember the trip to Wisconsin, gathering in the funeral home with the family, sitting and listening to the words of comfort that the Pastor gave before everyone came to pay their respects. 

But out of all of these things, the clearest memory I have is sitting in church and hearing the very words of our lesson today being used as my Grandfather’s funeral sermon.  You see, Edwin Breiling was a Pastor who had served the Lord faithfully for over 40 years, and his final words to his congregation were the very words of our lesson today, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”" (Joshua 24:14–15, NIV84)  Through the pastor who conducted his funeral service, Pastor Edwin Breiling stood before his congregation one last time.  He stood before his congregation as Joshua stood before the Israelites in Shechem.  Grandpa stood before his congregation and told them, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  As Christians, these words are very important to us.  Many of us have them prominently displayed in our homes in one form or another.  My son has these words on a sticker which he has attached to the inside of one of his school folders, and I have a framed copy of these words hanging on the wall in my office. These words are very important to us as Christians because they so clearly convey our desire to be like Joshua.  They clearly convey our desire to stand firm in the teachings of the Lord.  They clearly convey our desire to stand against idolatry and unbelief, and to choose to serve the Lord with our lives.  Even if everybody around us should forsake the Lord, as Christians we long to cry out with Joshua, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Now, the interesting thing about these words is the situation in which they were given.  You see, when Joshua spoke the words of our lesson today, he was very near the end of his life.  He had led the Israelites for many years, and under his leadership the Lord had subdued the nations before them, and they had conquered the majority of the Promised Land.  Though there were still areas of Canaan to be conquered, by the time that Joshua spoke these words, the land had already been divided among the tribes.  The people were living in cities and homes that they had not built.  They were eating the fruit of vineyards that they had not planted.  They were enjoying the blessings of the good land that the Lord had given them, and they and the land were at rest.

So, Joshua gathered all the people of Israel at Shechem, which was the perfect place to cast out idolatry and renew the Lord’s Covenant.  It was the perfect place because Shechem was the place where Abraham essentially got rid of all the gods his forefathers had served and served the Lord.  It was there at Shechem that Abraham built an altar to the Lord, which was the first altar to the Lord in the heathen land of Canaan, and worshiped the Lord who had chosen him by grace and promised him that his descendants would one day possess the Land of Canaan.  (Genesis 12:1-9).  It was there at Shechem, where all the Israelites had gathered, that each Israelite could look around and they could see the reality of that promise come to fruition.  Not only that, but Shechem was the place where Jacob settled after returning from his 20 years of service to his Uncle Laban (Genesis 33:18-20).  It was at Shechem that he bought the plot of ground where he pitched his tent.  It was at Shechem that Jacob called on all his family to get rid of any foreign gods and idols that they had with them, and they buried them under an Oak tree. (Genesis 35:1-5)  It was also from Shechem where Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers, thus beginning the movement of Israel to Egypt and ultimately their own years of slavery.  So, as Joshua gathered the people at Shechem, in many ways it marked for them a home coming.  It marked for them the ending of the chapters of slavery and wandering in the desert, as well as the beginning of a new nation under the blessing of the Lord.  So, there at Shechem, a place filled with so much history for the Israelites, that Joshua reminded them of the Lord’s great blessings to them and then challenged them, saying: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”" (Joshua 24:14–15, NIV84)

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  For Joshua it was very clear what his choice was.  No matter what any other Israelite would choose, Joshua’s choice for himself and for his family was that they would serve the Lord.  This was the same choice that my Grandfather made!  As for him and for his household, they would serve the Lord!  But this was not a choice made hastily or declared as an ultimatum at his funeral.  No, this was something that he displayed with his life.  Because he was the spiritual leader of his house, he taught his three daughters the truths of God’s Word, and to this day his daughters serve the Lord with their lives.  Those three daughters sought for themselves men who loved the Lord and men who served the Lord with every aspect of their lives, and together, with these men, they each started families that serve the Lord.  In each of these families the children were taught the precious truths of God’s Word.  Each family grew together in faith by gathering in church and worshiping the Lord on a weekly basis.  Each family lived their faith in word and actions.  Whether it was stated or not, each one of those families adopted Joshua’s declaration as their own, demonstrating by their words and actions that regardless of what others did, they would serve the Lord.  From those three daughters came eight grandchildren, and I know for sure that seven of the eight of those grandchildren live to serve the Lord. And even though I’ve personally lost contact with one of them I believe that she too lives her life in service to the Lord.  From those eight grandchildren, four are married and have brought five great-grandchildren into the world so far.  These five great-grandchildren are already being taught the faith of their great-grandfather.  They are already being taught the faith-walk of a Christian’s life, the importance of growing in the Word of God, and the strengthening of faith that comes from gathering for worship on a weekly basis.  All because a man named Edwin Breiling faithfully served the Lord and taught his household to do the same, nearly 25 years after the Lord called him home to heaven, it can still be said that he and his household are serving the Lord.

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  Can these words be said about you?  Absolutely!  It doesn’t matter what your family history might be.  It doesn’t matter if you are the first in your family to come to faith in the Lord or you are one in a longer line than I have displayed today.  It doesn’t matter because today, as we have gathered in worship, we have gathered before the Lord at Shechem with Joshua and the Israelites.  Today, we have Joshua calling on each and every one of us to throw away the false gods that our forefathers worshiped, and that we too have worshiped, and serve the Lord.  Today, the Lord is calling on each and every one of us to cast out whatever false gods and idols we’ve been carrying around in our hearts; false gods that have sought to replace the true god and who have, at times, succeeded at replacing him.  But what gods are you still carrying with you today?  Has greed become a god that rules your life?  Have you sat at the altar of selfishness and worshiped there for long periods of time?  Has pleasure filled your heat with the joys of this world and crowded out the joy of the True God.  Has obstinacy become your god as you refuse to heed the Word of the Lord that you learned as little children?  Have you given over to sexual indulgence, worldly wisdom, secularism, hedonism, consumerism, instant gratification, addiction, anger, frustration, or any other gods to claim your heart?  Have you allowed anyone or anything to take over God’s place in your heart?  We all have, this is why Joshua is calling each and every one of us to, “Fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:14, NIV84)

So, dear friends, let us all throw away these gods which seek to claim our heats by confessing them to the Lord in our hearts.  Take time during the offering to confess them to the Lord.  Take time during the silent prayer to confess them.  Take time after worship when you are at home and alone to write them down and confess them to the Lord. Then, when you have confessed them crumble up the sheet of paper, send it through the paper shredder, burn it on the grill before cooking your favorite meal, and live in the Lord’s forgiveness, and serve the Lord with your lives.  For you know that it is Jesus, your Savior who forgives all your sins.  You know it is Jesus, your Savior, who purifies your hearts so that you can grow in your faith and so that you can serve the Lord with your lives.  It is Jesus, your Savior, who moves your heart to action so that you begin to live your faith in the things you say and the things that you do. 

So, today, heed the words of Joshua and fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.  No matter what age you might be, no matter what your family situation might be, no matter how well you might have served the Lord to this point, serve the Lord by growing in your faith.  Make the Lord and his Word the highest priority of your life.  Grow in your faith through worship and Bible study, and as you do, you will be seen as someone who does indeed serve the Lord with your life.  Your children will see your example, and no matter what age they might be, they will see the importance of serving the Lord with their lives as you are serving the Lord with your life.  It may happen quickly, and it may happen slowly.  It may even happen so slowly that you cannot perceive it, and in some cases it might take your funeral until your children understand the importance of serving the Lord with their lives.  But regardless of the time it takes, today is the day for you to make the choice to continue serving the Lord with your lives, and making that choice you can say with Joshua, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  Since 1987 these words have resonated with me in a way that I never expected.  I can only thank God for the faithfulness of a man named Edwin Breiling who faithfully lived for the Lord and taught his family to do the say.  I pray that the Lord would continue to allow me to do the same so that my family might continue to learn as his family did.  I pray also that the Lord would bless you through his Word that each of you might live faithfully for the Lord as well, teaching your families to do the same, so that we might all grow in God’s Grace declaring with Joshua, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Fix Your Faith on Your Unchanging Savior (Hebrews 13:1-8)

Dear friends in Christ.

In 1893, engineer George Ferris built a machine that bears his name--the Ferris wheel. When it was finished, he invited a newspaper reporter to accompany him and his wife for the inaugural ride. It was a windy July day, so a stiff breeze struck the wheel with great force as it slowly began its rotation. Despite the wind, the wheel turned flawlessly. After one revolution, Ferris called for the machine to be stopped so that he, his wife, and the reporter could step out. In braving that one revolution on the windblown Ferris wheel, each occupant demonstrated genuine faith. Mr. Ferris began with the scientific knowledge that the machine would work and that it would be safe. Mrs. Ferris and the reporter believed the machine would work on the basis of what the inventor had said. But only after the ride could it be said of all three that they had personal, experiential faith.

In the same way that Mrs. Ferris and the reporter fixed their faith on Mr. Ferris assurances that his Ferris Wheel would work, so also the writer to the Hebrews is calling on each and every one of us to fix our faith on what he has to tell us. In fact, he is calling on us to fix our faith on Jesus our unchanging Savior as he writes in Hebrews 13:1-8. I invite you to open your Bibles to Hebrews 13:1-8 to hear firsthand what he is telling us. As you’re looking that up, let me bring you up to speed as to what has been happening. As I’ve told you before, the letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were seriously considering giving up their Christianity and going back to their old way of life in Judaism. For the first 10 chapters the writer demonstrated why belief in Jesus Christ was far superior to anything Judaism had to offer. In Chapter 11 he talked about how faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. In Chapter 12 he spoke about how God does discipline his children to bring them closer to him and to prepare them for works of service in his kingdom. Now in Chapter 13 he is calling on his hearers to fix their faith on their unchanging Savior as they live their lives according to his will. We read in Chapter 13 beginning with verse 1: “Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:1–8, NIV)

Wow! Those are some powerfully comforting words right there in verse 8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8, NIV) In fact, what greater comfort could we find than words that tell us that Jesus is our unchanging Savior! Though everything is constantly changing in the world around us, Jesus remains the same. Though we may find that some of our best friends are merely our good friends and sometimes even our worst enemies depending on the day and the fluctuation of their emotions, Jesus Christ, our Savior never changes. Though we grew up learning Acronyms like, “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles to help us remember the order of the planets, now that Pluto is no longer a planet, teachers have had to change their Acronym and so many of us feel the loss of our beloved planet named after Mickey’s dog. Yet, even though Pluto’s status has changed, the status of our Savior remains unchanged. He is still the Son of God. He is still our Savior. He is still the one who came to free us from our sins. He is still our unchanging Savior who is the heart of the Gospel message—the message that has been proclaimed from generation to generation.

What greater comfort could there be as we fix our faith on our unchanging Savior, than the comfort that comes from knowing that the message of salvation, the message of Jesus Christ has never changed! For the truth is, the message of salvation that you have heard me preach for the last 5 years is the same message that all the all the Pastors who have served this congregation have preached to you for the last 60 + years of Grace’s existence. The message of salvation that was preached to you is the very same message of salvation that so many immigrants brought with them when they came to the New World. The message of salvation that we hold today is the same message that Martin Luther struggled to return to the church as he fought to proclaim it to the people of Germany. This is the message that the disciples proclaimed as they went forth, making disciples of all nations. This is the message of salvation that Jesus, himself, taught and then fulfilled when he gave his life on the cross. This is the message of the Old Testament, which promised a Savior who would come to take away the sins of the world. This is the message that the prophets proclaimed to the Israelites time and time again. This is the message that Abraham believed when the Lord credited his faith as righteousness. This is the message of salvation that Adam and Eve were given when the Lord told them that the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.

Because Jesus is our unchanging Savior, whose message of salvation has remained constant since the beginning of creation, we can confidently fix our faith on Jesus and trust in him for eternal life. We can be certain that when Jesus went Jesus went to the cross for us, he was forsaken by his heavenly Father so that we would never have to be. We can be certain that he endured the punishment of our sins, suffering the pains of hell itself in our place so that we might never know the torment of eternal damnation. We can be certain that when he took our sins upon his shoulders, he completely emptied us of our sins; filling us instead with his own righteousness, declaring us not guilty in the sight of God our Father. Because of this, because of all that Jesus has done for us we can confidently fix our faith on Jesus Christ our Savior confidently trusting that he is our unchanging Savior who has indeed provided us with eternal life!

This is exactly what the writer to the Hebrews is telling us today! He is assuring us that Jesus is our unchanging Savior. He is assuring us that we can fix our faith in Jesus because he is the one who has provided us with the very salvation he has promised to all people and delivered to all who believe in him. He is assuring us that through faith in Jesus we have been declared not guilty in the eyes of the Lord our God. And now that we have fixed our faith on Jesus, our unchanging Savior, he is calling on us to serve the Lord with our lives! Let’s take a look, once more, at the first 6 verses of chapter 13: “1 Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. 4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”(Hebrews 13:1–6, NIV)

These are but a few ways that we can serve the Lord now that we have fixed our faith on our unchanging Savior! Let us not live as people who feel that they have put in their time and now they can coast on to eternal life. Rather, let us live as Christians, serving the Lord by putting our faith into action. Let us show our love for each other by greeting each other before and after church. Not just our friends or the people we get along with, but make every effort to get to know the members of this family of believers. Let us serve the Lord, especially during these troubled times, by setting aside a specific portion of our income, and giving what we have decided to give with a happy and a joyous heart out of thanks for all that our Savior has given us. Let us serve the Lord by honoring his gift of marriage! Not simply by living an honorably married life, but by helping couples in their marital distress rather than simply gossiping about them.; by keeping our lives free of the lust that movies, TV, and off color Internet sites hope to inspire in us; by keeping ourselves from crude jokes about sex, adultery, and married life.

Let us also serve the Lord by trusting him. For now that we have fixed our lives to our unchangeable Savior, we know that we don’t need to be worried about what we will eat or what we will wear, because we know that the Lord will provide for us. We can find confidence in his promise that he will never leave us nor will he forsake us. We can find confidence in this because this is the very same promise he gave to Abraham when he said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” (Genesis 15:1) This is the same promise that Isaac received from the Lord when he said, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” This is the same promise the Lord gave to Moses and all of Israel when he said, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6) This is the promise the Lord gave to Joshua when he said, “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5) This was the promise that Jesus gave to the disciples when he said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

There is great comfort in these assurances from Scripture that our Savior will never leave us nor will he ever forsake us! And, again, because he is our unchanging Savior we can be certain that what he promised to these believers also applies to us. We can be certain that everything he has told us is true. Thus, in the same way that Mrs. Ferris and a reporter fixed their faith on what Mr. Ferris told them about his wheel, we can fix our faith on our unchanging Savior.

Amen.

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

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