We Believe in God the Father

Series: Growing Together in God's Grace 
January 6, 2013

Dear friends in Christ.

Every week, as we join together in confessing our faith in the Lord our God, we begin our confession by stating that we believe in God, the Father, Almighty.  Now, as you know, depending on which creed we use, we either say, “I believe,” or “We believe.”  The reason for this is that the Apostles Creed, which we use on non-Communion Sundays, was designed as a creed to be used and spoken by those who were confessing their faith as they entered into the membership of the church.  Thus the member to be would stand before the congregation—much like our Confirmands stand before the congregation today—and that member to be would confess before the entire congregation, “I believe in God, the Father, Almighty…”  The Nicene Creed, which we use on Communion Sundays because it speaks more fully about Jesus and the work that he did here as our Savior, was designed to be a corporate creed—a creed used by the congregation of believers to confess their collective faith in “God, the Father, Almighty…”  But now comes the logical question!  What do we mean when we confess that we believe in God, the Father, Almighty?  Though we speak these words each and every week and even though we hold them in our hearts as our confession of faith, the question still remains, “What do we mean when we confess that we believe in God, the Father, Almighty? 

Well, to answer this question, we want to turn to the Scriptures to better understand what we mean when we say, “We Believe in God, the Father, Almighty!  First, we turn to John 17:1-3 where John writes, “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:1–3, NIV84)

In such beautifully simple way, Jesus reveals that belief in God is knowing who the true God is through Jesus Christ our Savior.  Just as we talked about last week!  We believe in God the Father Almighty because we know who he is through Jesus Christ, his Son.  We know that the Father is one of the persons of the Trinity.  We know that he is not the Son or the Holy Spirit and yet he is at the same time our true God.  Now, the interesting thing about belief is that people in all parts of the world believe in all kinds of Gods.  Some gods are idols made up of wood or stone.  Some are gods made up by men who said they had a dream or a vision.  Though these may well be people who sincerely believe in their gods, they do not believe in God, the Father, because they do not know him, or Jesus Christ whom he sent.

Yet believing in God includes even more than knowing who the true God is!  Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 2:13, “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe." (1 Thessalonians 2:13, NIV84)

When we come to faith in the Lord our God, we come to know who the true God is and what he has done for us.  We come to know this from the lessons and the accounts that our Lord recorded for us in his Word, and from this we accept that the Bible is God’s Word.  We accept that the Bible is the only source of our Salvation and that the Bible is the only place where the Lord has recorded his word for us.  This is what believing in God, the Father, Almighty, is all about!  It is about knowing who the Lord our God is, and accepting that the Bible is his word!

Now, having said this, let me address the question that always comes up every single time that I teach this lesson.  “Pastor, how can you know this for sure?”  Well, the simple answer is, I can’t know for sure.  I can only accept that the Bible is God’s Word through faith in God the Father, and because I have come to know who God the Father is through the Bible I accept that the Bible is God’s Word.  Now, I can’t prove that the Bible is God’s Word.  There is no scientific proof to demonstrate this as a fact.  However, when I compare the message of the Bible to every other religious book in our world, the message of the Bible is always different.  No matter how motivational, encouraging, uplifting, or instructional all the other religious books of our world might be, it is only the Bible that teaches; that we are by nature lost in sin and enemies of our God; that our God loved us so much that he sent his one and only son to take our place and bear the punishment that we deserved; that through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior all that we did wrong has been forgiven, we are at peace with God, our Father, through Jesus Christ, his Son,  and now moved by that knowledge we seek to live for our God out of love for him.  Every other religious book and religious teaching in this world teaches that in order to find forgiveness or salvation we have to take part in the work and contribute something (even just the slightest thing) in order for forgiveness or salvation to be applied to us.  This is the difference between the Bible and every other book and teaching in the world.  This is the difference between the way the Lord our God reveals himself to the human race, and how the human race perceives and seeks to understand who God really is.

As Christians who believe in God, the Father, Almighty, we know who the true God is, because he has revealed himself to us in his Word—the Bible—and because he has revealed himself to us in the Bible, we trust that all his promises are true just as the Centurion did.  Matthew tells us about him in chapter 8, beginning with verse 5: “When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” 7 Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour." (Matthew 8:5–13, NIV84)

In faith, the Centurion trusted that if Jesus simply said the word, his servant would be healed.  He trusted that Jesus’ words were a bond, a promise of what would happen, and it did.  His servant was healed at the very moment that Jesus spoke the Words.  The Centurion trusted Jesus’ promises in the same way that Abraham trusted the Lord’s promise that one day he would have a Son.  Though Abraham had to wait 25 years until Isaac was born, though he listened to his wife’s plan to have a son through her slave Haggar, and even though by the time the promise would be fulfilled their bodies were to the point that they were no longer able to have children, Abraham trusted the Lord’s promise that he would have a Son, and when he was 100 years old, the Lord fulfilled the promise and gave him a Son. 

This is what believing in God, the Father, Almighty, is all about.  It is about knowing who the true God is; the true God who has revealed himself through the Bible which we accept as his Word.  It is about trusting the promises that the Lord has give to us through his word—promises that the Savior has come; that the appearing of the Gentile  Wise Men is assurance that Jesus came even for the Gentiles like us; that through Jesus death and resurrection all our sins have been forgiven and we are at peace with our heavenly Father; that through faith in Jesus he will take us to be with him forever when he calls us from this life to our life by our Father’s side forever in his heavenly kingdom.

What a comfort it is to know that God, the Father, Almighty, is also our Father.  Though we have all had earthly Fathers who have affected our lives in one way or another, it is God, our heavenly father, in whom we believe, who longs to father us, nurture us, and help us through this life.  No matter what type of earthly father we may have had, we believe in God, the Father, Almighty, who is our heavenly Father, because, as we know from the prophet Malachi, he is the one who created us! (see Malachi 2:10)  We know that God is our Father because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who was sent to the earth by God, our Father, when the time was right.  He sent Jesus to the earth to be born under the Law so that he might redeem we, who were under the Law, that we might receive the full rights of sons and daughters of God, our heavenly Father. (See Gal 3:26 – 4:7).  Now, that we have been called to faith God our heavenly Father, by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, we have come to know Jesus, our Savior and our Brother, who has made known to us our heavenly Father.  Now that we have come to believe in God, the Father, Almighty, we find comfort and assurance that God our heavenly Father loves us, cares for us, strengthens us, disciplines us, teaches us, encourages us, and calls us his own. 

Now, if you would like to understand this concept of our heavenly Father’s fathering activity in your life, I have two books that I can suggest which can help you.  Now, you know that I don’t do this all that often. In fact, this is only the 2nd time I’ve suggested outside reading to you.  You also know that these are books that I have read and found to be a blessing to me and my family.  The first book is:  Wild at Heart, by John Eldridge.  This is a book written primarily for men, but it can also be a benefit for women to read.  It is a book that helps men better understand the wild heart that the Lord placed inside them, and how the Lord longs to father the heart of that son.  The second book is: You are Captivating, by Stasi Eldredge.  This book is written primarily for women, but an also be a benefit for men to read.  It is a book that helps women better understand their feminine hearts and the amazing strength with which the Lord has blessed them.  It is a book that helps women better understand how the Lord loves them and longs to father his beloved daughter.

Now, these books are by no means, Scripture.  They simply are written from a Christian and biblical point of view to help people better understand how God, the heavenly Father, works in their lives.  I recommend them to you because I have read them and they have helped me better understand my heavenly Father all the better.  They have taken me back to the Scriptures and made me study up on my heavenly Father and how he reveals himself in his Word.  They have even helped me foster a greater appreciation for all that my heavenly father has done for me in my life.  Thus, in reading these books, my faith in God the Father has been strengthened because they drove me back to God’s Word, and caused me to study it all the more.  I share them with you today so that you might do the same.

But regardless of what you do, you leave here today with a stronger belief in God, the Father, Almighty!  You leave here with a stronger faith in your heavenly Father.  You leave here, knowing all the more who the true God is because you know how he has revealed himself to you in the pages of the Scriptures which you have accepted is his Word.  You leave here with a greater trust and assurance that all the promise the Lord has ever made are true and have either been fulfilled in the past, or they will be fulfilled when Jesus comes again.  You leave here knowing that God, the Father, Almighty, is your heavenly father who longs to be a father to you, and help you to grow in his grace.  You leave here knowing that the God in whom you believe is the Father of your Lord Jesus who freed you from your sins so that you might live with your heavenly father forever.  Though today we won’t be confessing, “We believe in God, the Father, Almighty” in the Apostles Creed, we will be confessing that very faith as we join together to sing our faith in Hymn 270 on page 7 of your service folders.  Please stand and we will join together in singing our believe in our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Build Your Hope on Christ's Ascension (Acts 1:1-11)

Series: The Stained Glass Series 

October 2, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

On Christ's ascension I now build The hope of my ascension. This hope alone has always stilled All doubt and apprehension; For where the head is, there as well I know his members are to dwell When Christ shall come and call them. (CW:173 St. 1)

These beautiful words, which we have sung as part of numerous Ascension services were first published in 1636 by a man named Josua Wegelin.  They were part of a devotional booklet that Pastor Wegelin had written for his congregation in Augsburg Germany after he had been forced to leave his pastorate and move to Pressburg because of the Thirty Year’s War.  Though the people were facing destruction and untold hardships caused by the war all around them, these beautiful words would have been a great comfort to them.  These beautiful words would have reminded them that no matter what they were facing their hope of salvation had been built on Christ, their Lord and Savior, who had not only risen from death, but had also ascended to his Father’s throne in heaven.  Because Jesus had done this, they would have been reminded and assured that their sins had been forgiven, that they were right with God, that no matter what they faced, the Lord was with them, and that one day the Lord Jesus would return just as he said, and just as the angels had reminded the disciples in our lesson today.

“In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”(Acts 1:1–11, NIV84)

As Luke writes these words, he is reminding us of the amazingly miraculous events that took place on the Mt. of Olives that day.  He reminds of what Jesus told his disciples before he was taken from them.  Then, Luke tells us that while Jesus was blessing is disciples he suddenly began to rise up into the sky. Though they had been assured that Jesus had truly risen from the dead by his many appearances during the past 40 days, now as Jesus was ascending back into heaven, He was assuring them that His work here on earth was finished.  He was visually demonstrating to them that he was returning to his Father’s throne in heaven, and as he went, they simply watched.  They watched as he rose higher and higher off the ground.  They watched until a cloud came and hid him from view, and then they still continued craning their necks and looking up into the sky even long after Jesus had been hidden from their sight.  They may well have stood there for the rest of the day simply staring up into the heavens had those two angels not appeared to them, assuring them that this same Jesus whom they had seen go into heaven, would one day return from heaven in the same manner in which he had departed.  With great assurance and with great joy they returned to Jerusalem and stayed in the temple worshiping the Lord.  They stayed in the temple worshiping the Lord and praising his name because they had built their faith and their trust in Jesus their risen and ascended Savior.

Well, that same joy that filled the disciples is the joy that continues to fill us as we built our faith, our trust, and the hope of our own ascension on the Ascension of Jesus our Savior.  For as we have gathered in the Lord’s temple today, we, like the disciples have been filled with the knowledge that when Jesus ascended into heaven, he returned as the conquering hero who had completed his work of Salvation.  We have been filled with the knowledge that He returned to be given the place of highest honor that God the Father had prepared for him because he had conquered death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  We have been filled with the knowledge that we have built the hope of our own ascension on the Ascension of Jesus our Savior who has not only returned to his Father’s throne in heaven, but will one day return just as his disciples saw him go.

It is this knowledge, this joy, and this assurance that Josua Wegelin captured in the second stanza of his beautiful hymn when he wrote: “Since Christ returned to claim his throne, Great gifts for me obtaining, My heart shall rest in him alone, No other rest remaining, For where my treasure went before, There all my thoughts shall ever soar To still their deepest yearning.” (CW:173 St. 2)

Yes, because we have built the hope of our own ascension on the facts of Jesus’ ascension, our hearts rest in Christ alone.  Our thoughts soar to our Savior in heaven and the place his is preparing for us, even as we look forward to the day when he will return to take us to be with him forever.  For now that we have come to faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we look forward to the day when that trumpet will sound and we will see him returning in the clouds.  We look forward to that day, because we know that when Jesus returns, he will take us to live with him forever in his heavenly kingdom.  Though here on earth we will always be filled with sins just as the earth is filled with air, Jesus ascension assures us that all our sins have been covered over.  His ascension assures us that now through faith in Jesus Christ, whenever our God looks at us, he sees us as his children completely free of sins.  Completely free of sins in the same way that water is free of any calories whatsoever.  But even more than that, Jesus ascension also assures us that this same Jesus whom we have seen taken from us will return one day, just as we have seen him go!

This is the hope that we have built on the Ascension of our Savior.  This is why we have taken time on this Sunday in October to remind ourselves of exactly what Jesus ascension means to us.  This is why we can take such comfort in the salvation that is ours through faith in Christ Jesus.  For as we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension we have been assured that his work of salvation was truly completed for us.  We have been assured that he did indeed return to his Father’s right hand where he now lives and reigns over us.  But most of all, we have been assured that Jesus our Savior will return one day, just as he promised.  So, then, as we close our sermon with this assurance, let us also close with Pastor Wegelin’s prayer for himself, for his congregation and for each and every one of us from the final stanza of his beautiful hymn: “Oh, grant, dear Lord, this grace to me, Recalling your ascension, That I may serve you faithfully, Adorning your redemption; And then, when all my days will cease, Let me depart in joy and peace In answer to my pleading.  (CW:173: St. 3)

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

See Your Triune God at Work! (Genesis 1:1 - 2:3)

June 19, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Did you know that today is a very special Day? Even though it is not Christmas or Easter, The Day of Jesus’ Baptism or the Day of His Ascension, the day of Transfiguration, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday or even the Day of Pentecost (which we celebrated last week) today is a very special day. It is a very special day because not only are we beginning a new sermon series based on the stained glass windows of our church, but most importantly because today is the day that we have specifically set aside in the Church Year to praise and worship our Triune God. Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, the day we take a closer look at the Work our Triune God has done as three persons in one God and one God as Three persons. Even though we regularly remind ourselves of the Work our Triune God has done and continues to do for us, today we specifically take time out of our lives to watch our Triune God at work as we take a look at the lesson before us in Genesis 1:1-2:3.

Now, normally, as you are opening your Bibles to Genesis 1, I would give you some background information and explanation as to what is going on so that you could better understand the context of what is taking place in our lesson. However, today, there is no background because before Genesis 1 there was nothing except for our Triune God. And even though we might have a fair number of questions as to what the Lord our God was up to during his time in eternity before he created the world, because he doesn’t tell us anything until he tells us about the beginning of us all. Take a look at Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NIV84)

If these aren’t some familiar words! After all, these are words that we have known by heart since we were little children. These are words that made our parents smile when we first learned them in Sunday School or Christian Day School. These are words that we have cherished as we’ve grown from Children to Teens and from Teens to Adults. But sadly, these are also words that have sometimes been drown out by the cacophony of worldly ideas that bombard us on a daily basis. Since we were little children Television has been assuring us that the world is millions of years old and that dinosaurs and humans couldn’t have possibly lived at the same time, even though we know that our Triune God created everything that exists in six, twenty-four hour days, so then they would have had to live at the same time. Not only that, but if you received an education in public school, even though you received an excellent education, you were taught, especially in the last 20 years or so, you were taught to believe that science is king and that the theory that all living creatures evolved from a puddle of primordial ooze millions and billions of years ago. You were taught either subtly or openly, you were taught to believe that science is true and what God says about creation is not as true as you might have once thought.

Just think about how many times you’ve been tempted to try to harmonize the Trinity’s Work of Creation with Science’s ideas of Evolution. Just think about how many of your children have come home from school openly questioning the truth of creation and favoring the “facts” of evolution because it is “scientific”. Just think of how doubting creation has led people to doubt other parts of the Scriptures and even caused people to fall from faith because they came to the logical conclusion that if one part is false the whole of Scripture cannot possibly be true. These are the reasons why we have gathered together to take a closer look at the work our Triune God did back at the beginning of Creation. Take a look again at Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2, NIV84)

Wow! In just a few short words Moses establishes the fact that it was our Triune God who began the world at the beginning! Now, if we take a look at the Hebrew for this passage, the first three words in Hebrew are, (spelled Phonetically) “beraysheet barah Elohim” Beraysheet means “beginning” or as we translate, “in the beginning.” Barah means, “he created” and Elohim, which is the subject of the sentence, means, “God.” So, in three short words, Moses tells us that until Elohim, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth, there was no time as we know it. There was nothing but our Triune God in eternity until the very beginning (Berahsheet) when he, Elohim (Barah), began his creating work, creating time and light out of nothing, and calling this world into existence, again out of nothing, as a formless and empty lump of clay, so to speak which he would then mold to his plan in the next 5 twenty four hour days. This is the work our Triune God began on day one!

“But Pastor,” you might ask, “how can you possibly know that the Triune God was at work? There really is no mention of the Trinity in these verses.” Now, if you asked me this question I would simply say, you are absolutely right! There are no specific mentions of our God being Triune or the Triune God at work. However, there are hints of God being Triune. Now, as I already said the name used for God here is, “Elohim.” This name is used 31 times throughout the account of creation. In Hebrew Elohim is actually plural and has been described as a plural of majesty, which means that God may be referring to himself as Kings and Queens of old referred to themselves as “we” rather than “I” like the common people did. Elohim has also been called a potential plural setting forth the vast potentialities of the Godhead, which would include mystery of the Holy Trinity. In themselves, these explanations cannot prove that our God is Triune, they can only hint at the fact that our God is Triune. However, when we take a look at the unity of the Scriptures and how our God describes himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, we can then look back and say that Father Son and Holy Spirit had to be at work in creation because our God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This would have been apparent to God’s people because, as we learn from reading the Old Testament, they believed in God as their Father. They believed that God would send his Son who would be there redeemer, just as the offerings foreshadowed. They even believed in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who worked in their midst. They knew and believed in God as three persons and yet they also believed that they only had one God as Deuteronomy 6:4 so beautifully confesses, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV84)

Today, we know and believe the same thing! Just as we will confess in the Athanasian Creed in just a few short minutes, we believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe that they are all co-equal in majesty and glory, yet they are not three who are God but they are one God in three persons and three persons in one God! So, as we look at these words from Genesis we see God the Father at work creating and calling things into existence out of nothing. We see God the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters, and we see Jesus at work as the instrument of creation because the apostle John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1–3, NIV84)

It is because of all of this (and many other passages of Scripture) that we believe, teach and confess that our Triune God was at work in creating the world for us. Just take a look at verse 3-5: ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:3–5, NIV84)

Verse 3 begins with the phrase “And God said,” which occurs ten times in the creation account. It shows us the manner by which God worked, namely, by his command and through his word (Hebrews 11:3). The phrase “God saw that the light was good” is noteworthy. In verse 4 it refers specifically to the light God created, but it also occurs six more times in the creation account. God is not telling us with these words that he was pleased with himself for what he had made, as if he were a human craftsperson stepping back to admire his work. He relates this information for our sake. He keeps us mindful of the wisdom and order that he put into his creation, which he was preparing for us to inhabit. He reminds us of the initial perfection of that creation, which is now spoiled by sin.

That was the first day. From there our Triune God went on to separate the waters on the earth and the waters in the sky. He called forth the dry ground and produced vegetation on it! Never planting see, but simply calling it forth with his word. He set the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens for the purpose of giving us light and helping us to tell time in weeks, months, and years. He filled the skies with birds and the waters with fish, and finally he created all the land animals, and then formed Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.

This is the work our Triune God did for you and me! He created the perfect world for us to live in and enjoy. Though our first parents ruined God’s creation when they brought sin and death into the world, our Triune God continued his work for us. He promised a Savior and sent prophets to renew and reiterate his promises for centuries. When the time came our Triune God saved us through the Work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, our Triune God continues to proclaim that message to you and me through his Word—the Bible—of which we have many, many copies. He continues to proclaim his message of salvation through pastors and teachers whose work it is to tell the story of salvation, teaching the young children and building up the faith of all the members of the congregation. And he continues to share his message of salvation through each and every one of you!

For now that you have seen the Trinity at Work in the creation of the world, you are reminded of all the work he has done to free you from your sins and bring you the sure and certain hope of eternal life. Who better than you to carry that message of salvation wherever you go? Who better than you to tell the work of the Trinity in your life calling you to faith, strengthening you with his Word, sustaining you in your faith, and leading you to your heavenly home? Who better than you to proclaim the Work that your Triune God has done? This is the work that our Triune God has given to each and every one of us—to make disciples of all nations, to teach them what Jesus taught us, and to baptize them in the name of our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is today is a very special day! Though it is not Christmas or Easter, or any other holiday of the Church Year, it is Holy Trinity Sunday. Today is the day that we have set aside to specifically remind ourselves of all the work our Triune God has done for us. Today is the day we specifically give thanks and praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all he has done for us. Today is the day we continue to carry the message of salvation with us wherever we go so that we are always ready to tell others the reason for the hope we have in our Triune God.

Amen.

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

Take Comfort in these Last Days! (Joel 2:28-32)

June 12, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

If there is one thing that all Americans want for themselves and for their families, it is comfort. For the truth is comfort is something that we look for in any and every situation in our lives. We look for comfort when it comes to our linens, our bedding, and our sleeping arrangements. We look for comfort in our food, the ingredients we buy, and the things that we make at different times of year. We look for comfort in our technology, that perfect pair of headphones, the best mouse and the most ergo-metric keyboard for those of us who are constantly typing. We look for comfort in our vehicles, and in our traveling arrangements, and we look for comfort in our families and with our friends. However, comfort is not something that we are always able to find in every aspect of our lives! Though we’ve started to see gas prices retreating from the $4.00 mark, we all find ourselves wondering when the prices will start going back up. Though is seems that food prices may have stabilized for the time being, we all know that if the gas prices should start climbing our food prices will follow suit. We hear stories on the news about how many people are looking for jobs these days, and personally know at least a few people who are struggling in this way. We hear about banks foreclosing on houses and houses sitting on the market for years. Some of us have personally dealt with foreclosure, repossessions, bankruptcy, houses that simply won’t sell, and we wonder where we might find even the slightest bit of comfort in the midst of these overwhelming hardships!

Well, that is where the Lord our God steps in and speaks to us directly from his Word with his comfort and assurance. In fact, as we study the lesson before us we will hear the Lord our God calling on us to take comfort in these last days. He is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he is the one who has poured out his Holy Spirit upon us. He is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he is the one who has shown his signs and his wonders in the skies and on the earth below to remind us that the time is short. But even more than that, he is calling on us to take comfort in these last days, because he himself has assured us that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! Take a look with me at what the Lord our God has to say to us in our lesson today: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:28–32, NIV84)

Though we don’t know exactly when Joel wrote these words, we know that we are living in the fulfillment of this very prophecy of Scripture! We are living in the last days, which came to a beginning back on the Day of Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago. For on that day the Lord fulfilled this prophecy as he graciously poured out his Holy Spirit on the disciples who stood up and addressed the crowd of people who had gathered that day. The Lord fulfilled this prophecy as he poured out the Holy Spirit on his disciples, and the people heard them proclaiming the wonders of God in their own languages. The Lord fulfilled his prophecy as in one day some 3000 people were added to the number of believers! Yet this was not the end all and be all of this prophecy! Rather, it was just the beginning. For since that day when the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, he has not stopped pouring out his Holy Spirit on his believers or even on the people of the world!

For after that day of Pentecost, the disciples took that word of God to the nations as they were sent out to proclaim the wonders of God. They wrote letters and gospels for the churches to read and share and be strengthened by, and these have been gathered, collected, and compiled into the Bible that we have today! Today, some 2000 years after the day of Pentecost, the Bible has become the bestselling book of all time. About 10 years ago I read a statistic saying that the average American home has something like 7 Bibles in it. The Bible has been translated into nearly every language on the face of the planet. Each week Pastors proclaim the wonders of God in churches, on Television, over the Radio, and on the Internet. Today we can see the clear results of the out pouring of the Holy Spirit on all the people of the earth through the easy accessibility of God’s Word! Today, we can take comfort in that out pouring of the Holy Spirit, even as we are living in these last days, because we know that through the working of the Holy Spirit we have been prepared for the last days. We have been prepared by the Holy Spirit to recognize false claims of the last days, and we have been taught by the Holy Spirit to recognize the signs and wonders the Lord has revealed and will reveal in the heavens and on the earth below, as Joel tells us, “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. (Joel 2:30-31)

Though we are most certainly living in the last days, what a comfort it is to know that the Lord our God is in control! What a comfort it is to know that even as we see his signs and wonders marking the last days, he has not placed them there to cause us fear, but to turn us toward him in repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In fact, how many signs and wonders haven’t we seen that have driven us closer to him, causing us to look for comfort in the solace of his word? Since the beginning of this new millennium we have seen disasters that have tested the very fiber of our being. We have seen disasters that have caused us to look up at the skies and cry out, “Why?” We have seen disasters that have caused us to draw closer to the Lord in thanksgiving that we had not been affected in such a way, even as we pray for God’s deliverance of the people whose lives have been fundamentally changed by hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, lightning and hail damage. We have been shocked by that magnitude of destruction caused by floods, earthquakes, and even tsunamis. We have been horrified by the hatred of terrorist attacks throughout the world and even on our own soil, and we have even many of the prophecies of the last days being fulfilled in our own day and age.

For we have seen the blood and the fire and the billows of smoke caused by wars throughout the world. Back in the mid 80’s we have witnessed clouds of radiation raining down over Europe from the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, causing waters to turn bitter and causing many to die from radiation poisoning. Back in the early 90’s we saw the skies filled with smoke from the oil fields fires in Kwait blocking out what some have said was a third of the sky so that a third of the day and a third of the night was without light. Most recently, we have seen the twin towers fall, and our nation rise to war in the Middle East, and just a couple of years ago the big news was the lunar eclipse that caused the moon to glow with a distinctive reddish hue, looking almost as if the moon itself was covered with blood.

While there are some who have linked the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl with the sounding of the third trumpet in Revelation 8, the Gulf War and the burning of the oil fields with the fourth trumpet, our current war with the sounding of the fifth trumpet, and even the most recent eclipse with the words of our text today, only time will tell if these are the very events the Lord had in mind or if there are others, more specific events to come. But no matter what the case is, from these signs and wonders on the earth below and the skies above, we can take comfort in these last days! We can take comfort in these last days, because we know that our Lord’s return is coming soon. We can take comfort in these last days, because even though we are seeing all sorts of signs and wonders around us, we know, as Joel tells us, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)

How wonderful it is to know that no matter what happens to us on this earth, through faith in Jesus Christ, we have salvation. Even if the world should fall apart around us, heaven is our home. Even if gas prices should sky rocket to over $4.00 per gallon! Oh, wait, we’ve been there and even when we were there the Lord was providing for us, caring for us and giving us a reason to take comfort in him! Even if all the prophecies of the last days suddenly came true and we found ourselves living in a completely different world, we would not have to worry, because we would know that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

What greater comfort could there be for us than this! Through faith in Jesus Christ, the debts of our sins have been paid in full. The mortgage payments of our iniquities, which we were making to this world have been done away with. The mortgage note was burned by Jesus blood and he, himself has handed us the deed to our mansions in heaven. Through faith in Jesus we can take comfort in these last days because we belong to the Lord. Now, no matter what might happen in this life, we can take comfort in the fact, that through faith in Jesus we have the sure and certain hope of eternal life by his side forever in heaven! Amen.

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

Text: Revelation 7:9-17 May 15, 2011
Theme: The Lord Is Our Shepherd


Dear friends in Christ.

If there is one picture that the Bible regularly uses to describe the relationship between us and our Savior, it would have to be the picture of a Shepherd and his sheep. This is the picture that King David used as he penned the well known, opening words of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd!” This is the picture that Jesus himself used again and again as regularly called himself the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. This is the picture that Peter used when spoke about how we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. And this is the description that the Apostle John records for us in our lesson for today. For this morning, our lesson comes to us from some of the most beautiful and most comforting words of the Scriptures. Our lesson comes to us from the Book of Revelation 7:9-17, which is John’s vision of Jesus Christ our Savior—the Lamb of God who will be our Shepherd!

Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our Lesson from Revelation 7:9-17. I’ve always felt that Revelation is one of the easiest books to find in the Bible because it is the last book. In fact, I often tease my confirmation students by telling them that if they don’t know where Genesis and Revelation are in their Bibles, then they fail my class. But all silliness aside, the Book of Revelation, and indeed our lesson from chapter 7 bring us some of the most beautiful and comforting words of all Scripture. In fact, as we look at these words, just think about what an incredible picture the Holy Spirit paints for us through the pen of the Apostle John! What an incredible picture for us to see with John as it were; the picture of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God our Savior serving as our Good Shepherd who will one day call us out of this troubled world so that he might forever shepherd us in his heavenly kingdom where we will finally have rest from all our labors! This is the incredible picture of the Lord our Shepherd that John reveals as he writes in our lesson, beginning with verse 9: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17)

How incredible that the Lord recorded this vision for us today! How incredible that the Lord our God knew the comfort we would need and centuries before we were even born he recorded this vision of comfort and assurance for us in the pages of Scripture. How incredible that the Lord our Savior reveals himself as our Good Shepherd who will one day call us out of this sin-filled and troubled world to our life of rest by our Shepherd’s side forever! What greater words of comfort could there be for us today, especially as we look around at the world in which we are living. In fact, with your permission, I would like to take a little informal survey. How many of you have found yourselves cutting back and stretching every single dollar you have? How many of you are trying to drive less or trying to combine your schedules so that you are traveling with more than just 1 person in the car? How many of you have felt the rising costs of prescription drugs or even found yourselves having to decide which prescriptions you really needed to pick up because all of them were just too expensive? How many of you have worried about insurance costs or wondered how you would get along without it? How many of you have found yourselves hoping and praying that the thing that just doesn’t seem to be quite right with your vehicle will go away, because you just can’t afford the time or the expenses of a break down? How many of you have faced unexpected bills that have eaten up more of your paycheck than you expected and have found yourselves struggling to cover all the other expenses while you wait for your next check to come?

If you raised your hand for any one of these questions, you are not alone. You are not alone because my family and I have faced each and every one of these questions again and again over the past 10 years, though in the last three years we’ve faced them more frequently. You are not alone because each and every person in this congregation has faced one or more of these questions on any number of occasions since our economy went sour. You are not alone because Christians throughout the world and throughout the centuries have faced these same frustrations or frustrations like them. Yet, even in the midst of these troubles, hardships and unrest, the Lord our Savior, our Good Shepherd gives us the most beautiful comfort in our lesson today. As John writes: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."…“Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” (Revelation 7:9-10,13-14).

This is the comfort our Good Shepherd pours out on us today! Though here on earth we deal with all sorts of frustrations and hardships, as Christians, we are even now wearing the white robes of righteousness won for us by Jesus on the Cross. Though we constantly feel the effects of sin in our lives and find that our garments are stained by our sins, each time we turn to our Savior in forgiveness, we are, in effect, washing our robes in his blood and making them clean once again. Though this is our daily practice here on earth, when our Good Shepherd calls us out of this troubled world to our home in haven, we will pass though the river of his blood one last time, and our robes will be made white forever. When the Lord calls us home to his throne in heaven, we will stand before him in eternal righteousness, innocence and blessedness, because Jesus has delivered us from death by his death and resurrection from the dead. There, we will praise our Good Shepherd because he has delivered us from this world of tribulation and sin. There, as we stand around the throne and the Lamb, we will give praise and thanks to our Good Shepherd who will give us rest in his kingdom forever. This is the picture that John paints for us as he records the Elder’s explanation of the great multitude: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17).

Here on earth, we have the exact opposite of rest. We feel the empty space between our ribs and hear the angry complaining our stomachs make when we don’t take time to feed them. We taste the clay of our cheeks and feel the crumbs of dirt that stick in our throats as our parched tongues cling to the roofs of our mouths. We are baked in the summer oven of this river valley as the flames of the sun descend upon us and the ever increasing humidity seeks to cook us from within. Though we seek the cooling shade of the trees where we might relax and find a cool glass of water, we know that that this rest will not last long. For before we know it, we will be forced back into the kiln of life where satan kindles the fires of temptations hoping that he might harden in our sins before he glazes us for eternal death and destruction in hell. But when our Good Shepherd delivers us to the rest he has promised us, we will know peace. When our Shepherd calls us home to his heavenly kingdom, never again will we hunger, never again will we thirst, the sun will not beat upon us nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be our Shepherd, he will lead us to streams of living water, and God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

Though we cannot fathom the beauty that heaven affords, or even begin to comprehend the rest that heaven offers us from the trials, temptations, and hardships that we face each and every day of our lives, we continue to follow our Good Shepherd as he leads us on the path to eternal life. Though we may not know exactly what we will do in heaven, or exactly what is waiting for us there, we do know one thing for sure. We know that heaven is where our Shepherd is, and heaven is where we will live with him forever. We know that in heaven, we will no longer have to deal with all the trials, and hardships that this earth affords. We know that satan and his evil angels will no longer be able to tempt us or lead us astray. In heaven, we will be free from sin forever, and we will live with the Lord our God, our Savior and our Shepherd who will spread his tent over us.

What better picture could there be for us than the picture our Savior uses of himself as our Good Shepherd. For in the same way that shepherds care for their sheep, Jesus, our Good Shepherd cares for us. Though here on earth we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil because our Shepherd is with us. He is the one who leads us to quiet waters, makes us to lay down in green pastures, and restores our souls. He is the one who gives us his comfort and his assurance in this life, and he is the one who will give us rest forever in his heavenly kingdom. What a day it will be when we join that multitude from every nation, tribe and people; a multitude that cannot be counted. What a day it will be when we stand before the Lamb, our Shepherd and serve him day and night in his temple. How amazing it will be when he spreads his tent over us, leads us to springs of living water, and wipes away every tear from our eyes!

Amen.

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