Focus Your Faith on Christ (Matthew 14:22-33)

August 21, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

If you’ve ever taken a picture, then you know just how important focus is.  Whether you use a high-end camera with all the attachable lenses, a simple digital camera, or even a one-time use camera that can be purchased at just about any drug store, you know that if you do not pay attention to the subjects upon which you are focusing, your picture won’t come out clearly.  Instead it may turn out fuzzy, grainy, with streaks, or maybe even as something that resembles, but is not completely unlike, a Picasso painting.  Well the same is true for our faith.  When our faith is not focused on Jesus Christ our Savior, we find that our faith is fuzzy, grainy, and streaky, but when we are focused on Jesus, the object and provider of our faith, we easily find the courage to deal with all the distractions, hardships, and frustrations that life brings our way. In fact, as we focus our attention on the next window in our Stained Glass Window Series, we see a very familiar picture.  We see the miracle of Jesus walking on the water.  Yet, if we take a step back, so to speak, and examine the events that took place on either side of Jesus walking on the water, we see a number of other miracles that are designed to help us focus our attention and our faith on Christ. 

In fact, as we take a look at our lesson today, let me remind you of some of those events.  Just before the events of our lesson in Matthew 14, Jesus had feed about 5,000 men with two small fish, which were somewhere between the size of sardines and small perch, and five loaves of bread that were not much bigger than dinner rolls.  Jesus had taken the bread and the fish, given thanks for it and then began dividing it among the 5,000 + people who were there.  Though this miracle was designed to help the people focus their faith on Jesus as their Savior, their focus was blurry for they saw Jesus as some sort of bread king who would provide them with everything they ever wanted if they could just force him to be their king.  Thus, Matthew records for us in chapter 14 beginning with verse 22: “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”(Matthew 14:22–27, NIV84)

Rather than allow his disciples to catch the frenzy of the crowd and encourage Jesus to become a bread king for the people, Jesus instructed his disciples to get into the boat and head back across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  He did this because he knew that they would be safer on the lake, dealing with the storm, than they would with the crowd having their faith blurred by false ideas.  He also did this so that he could dismiss the crowd and send them away, so that he could spend time with his Father in prayer.  For the truth is, this temptation by the crowd to become a king without suffering was no different than satan’s temptation to Jesus to bow down and worship him to inherit the kingdoms without suffering.  Yet, Jesus defeated these temptations and went off by himself to be with his Father in prayer.  He went off to pray to his Father, possibly for strength for himself, very likely for the people whose focus was blurred so that through the Word their faith would be sharpened and they would learn to focus their faith on Jesus, and very likely for his disciples as they were out on the Sea of Galilee struggling against the wind and the waves of a storm that was buffeting their boat.

Now, if this were a TV show, this is where the commercial would be.  We would see a picture of the disciples struggling against the wind and the waves, the screen would fade to black, and the commercial would begin.  Well, this morning, our commercial focuses on the Sea of Galilee.  If you don’t know that much about the Sea of Galilee, I’m here to tell you a little bit about it.  The Sea of Galilee was actually a small lake, located in the northern part of Israel, which was actually about 700 feet below sea level.  It was roughly 13 miles long at the longest point and about 7 miles wide at the widest point.  It was a lake that was surrounded by high hills on either side, so when the wind started blowing over the hills, violent storms could come up without warning, which is what had happened to the disciples.  Though the water was undoubtedly calm when they started off, one of those very storms came up, and the disciples began struggling to keep the boat from capsizing.  Even though they were experienced fishermen who knew well those very waters, they found themselves struggling with the storm for hours.  Though they had left shore in the evening, probably while it was still light, by the time Jesus approached them, walking on the water, it was somewhere between 3 and 6 in the morning.  They had probably been on the water for something like 9 hours battling the wind and the waves, and they had only made it about 1/3 of the way across the lake.  They were tired from the stress of fighting the storm.  They were exhausted from battling the wind and the waves.  So when they saw Jesus, walking to them on the lake, their minds gave way to alarm, alarm gave way to superstition, and they cried out in fear.

Now, as we sit here this morning, it could be easy for us to think poorly of the disciples for letting their fears get the best of them, but how often doesn’t the same thing happen to us?  How often don’t we allow our fears to get the better of us and blur our focus on Jesus Christ our Savior?  If we are honest with ourselves, I think we’d all have to admit that it happens more often that we like?  In fact, how often hasn’t it happened that you’ve scarred yourself silly while walking down a dark hallway, in a dark room, or down a dark street?  How often haven’t you scarred yourself by almost superstitiously thinking that someone or something is going to jump out and get you?  How often haven’t we given way to fear and lost focus on our Savior, if just for an instant, when we see the darkening sky, the flashes of lightning, the peals of thunder, and hear the tornado sirens calling for us to take immediate shelter.  How often haven’t we lost our focus on Christ as we’ve been distracted by the waves of bills and other financial responsibilities crashing all around us?  How often don’t other fears take hold, strip us of our courage, and change the focus of our faith away from Christ our Savior?  How often don’t we find ourselves unable to relax as financial worries overtake us?  How often don’t we find it difficult to sleep as worries about job security, or worries about things we’ve said, our countless other fears take hold, bring fear to the forefront and move our focus from our Savior to ourselves?  How often doesn’t the guilt of things we’ve done or things we’ve left undone weigh heavy on our hearts until our eyes are no longer focused on our Savior, but are bowed down to the earth beneath?  How often don’t our fears even cause us to doubt the Lord’s forgiveness or even his gift of eternal life?

If we are honest with ourselves, then we must admit that too often our fears get the better of us.  Too often our fears cause us to lose focus on the source of our strength and our Salvation.  Too often our fears lead us to doubt, despair, and even depression over the state of our forgiveness.  But that is when our Lord Jesus calls to us and says, “Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”  This is when we hear the voice of our Savior, calling to us, and helping us to refocus our faith in him.  We hear our Savior reassuring us that we are his and there is nothing that can snatch us out of his hand.  We hear him assuring us that all our sins have been completely washed away.  We hear him calling to us in the midst of our hardships and struggles and fears, helping us to readjust the focus of our faith so that it points to him, rather than all those other things.

This is exactly what Jesus’ words did for his disciples, for when he called out to them and told them, “Take courage! It is I.  Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27, NIV84)  For as soon as Jesus spoke these words, Peter’s faith was refocused, as Matthew tells us in verse 28: “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”(Matthew 14:28–31, NIV84)

When Peter stepped out of that boat, he was focused on his Lord.  He had no fear and he had no doubts.  He knew the water would hold him up, because Jesus allowed him to walk to walk to him on the water.  While he focused on Christ, he was able to walk on the stormy seas and the waves didn’t crash over him or threaten to knock him off his feet.  But when he took his eyes off his Savior and focused on the waves, they threatened to wash over him and sink him, and he began doubting that Jesus would protect him.  When he allowed the distractions of the wind and the waves to become his focus and lost focus on his Savior.  That was when he started to sink.  His fears and his doubts got the better of him and he began to sing.  But in the very next moment his focus cleared, he was fixed on his Savior, and he immediately called for Jesus’ help.

Well, just like Peter began to sink when he lost focus on Christ, so also we begin to sink when we take our eyes off of our Savior.  When we take our eyes off our Savior and are distracted by the world around us, troubles and hardships loom over us like ten-foot high waves, which threaten to crash down upon us.  We are hit by wave after wave of trouble, hardship and grief, which spin us around and we too start to sink and must cry out with Peter, “Lord save me!”  That is when our Lord reaches out his hand and catches us.  He pulls us back to him, re-focuses our faith on him, and helps us to fight the distractions around us!  We are able to deal with troubles and hardships that come, because they are not able to wash over us or knock us off our feet.  We are able walk a straight path through life. 

So dear friends, my prayer for you today is that the focus of your faith has been made that much sharper today.  I pray that in the same way photographers will carefully dial the focus on their cameras to get the best pictures, so also through Jesus’ word and his miracles your faith has been made that much sharper as your faith and your trust reside in the your Savior who has freed you from your sins and given you the gift of eternal life.  Though the Lord has never promised that it everything would work out perfectly when we are focused on him, when our focus is on our Savior, our walk is a straight path through troubles and hardships.  Continue to focus your faith on Christ so that your faith life does not resemble something like one of Picasso’s paintings, but rather clearly resembles and reflects your Savior, Jesus.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

GraceEvangelical 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

We Are Saved by God's Grace! (Ephesians 2:4-10)

March 20, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

If I were to ask you the question, “What is the most beautiful portion of the Scriptures?” What would your answer be? Would your answer be a simple, “Job 19:23-27” where Job confesses his knowledge that his redeemer is living and that one day Job himself will see him standing upon the earth. Would your answer be, “Psalm 23” or, “Psalm 46” where the Psalmists speak of the Lord as our Shepherd and the Lord as our Fortress? Would your answer be, “Isaiah 53” Where Isaiah prophecies about the coming Christ? Would your answer be, “Luke 2” where Luke speaks about all the events surrounding Jesus birth? Or would your answer be, “Ephesians 2:8-9” because there is such great comfort in knowing that our salvation comes by God’s grace and it is not based on anything that we have done! Well, if you’re like most people, these words from Ephesians 2:8-9 are very familiar to you. Even if they are not your favorite section of Scripture, they are words that we have learned since we were little children. They are words that we learned over and over in Sunday school, Confirmation class, and they are words that regularly come up in Bible Study. In fact, these very words that Paul includes in our text, are words that assure us beyond that shadow of a doubt that we have been saved, not by anything we have done! Rather, we have been saved by God’s great love for us. We have been saved by God’s grace!

We have been saved by God’s grace! Now if you really sit down to think about it, that is a very powerful statement! That is a very powerful statement, because by telling us that we have been saved by God’s Grace, the Apostle Paul is assuring us that our salvation did not come by anything we had done! Rather, it was motivated out of God’s great love for us, as he tells us in verses 4 and 5 of our text. Paul writes, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Even though we didn’t deserve it, our God saved us by his grace. Even though we were at one time dead in our transgressions and sins, our God made us alive in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Even though we were nothing but his enemies who wanted nothing to do with him, our God loved us so much that he willingly sent his son to be our Savior. Even though we were once nothing more than a lifeless corpse lying on a mortician’s table, unable to do anything for us because we were thoroughly and completely dead, the Lord God loved us and cared for us. The Lord God in his mercy treated us in a way that we did not deserve. The Lord our God looked upon us poor, reached, dead, damned and detestable sinners, and he showered us with his grace when he sent his Son to make us alive. Though we were dead in our trespasses and sins and couldn’t reach out to our God, couldn’t turn to him, cry out to him for help, or even turn our eyes toward him because we were powerless, in his great grace, the Lord Jesus came to us and made us alive in him by creating faith in our hearts. Through his great grace, the Lord Jesus, our Savior, breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, and through faith in him we became his living children!

But that isn’t the end of the story! For Jesus didn’t simply make us alive in himself and then leave us trapped in the tomb of our own sinfulness! Rather, in his great grace, the Lord our God raised us up with Christ, as Paul tells us, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6-7)

What an incredible picture Paul is painting for us! For here, with these very words, Paul is assuring us that in the very same way that Jesus was raised from the dead through the glory of God the Father, we too have been raised from the death of our sins to life in Christ Jesus our Savior. In the same way that Jesus escaped the prison of the tomb that sought to keep him in, so also Jesus released us from the tomb of our sins when he raised us up with him through his grace. In the same way that the angel rolled the stone away so that all the world would see that Jesus was no longer dead, but risen, so also the Lord has rolled the stone of our transgressions away from the tomb of our iniquities so that all the world might see that by his grace, we have been raised from the death of our sins to life with Christ!

Now, just as Jesus has been seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly realms, our God has seated us there with him! Not that we are actually and physically sitting with our God in heaven or that our faith has projected us to that place as if we were holograms, rather this is simply another assurance for us as forgiven children of God’s grace, that because we have been raised with Christ, heaven is our home. Because we have been raised with Christ, heaven is the place where we will spend eternity. In fact, we can go so far as to say that we have crossed over from death to life because of God’s grace! Though here on earth we will always be plagued with sin and tempted to do evil, because we have been saved by God’s grace, we have already been declared not guilty. We have already been declared citizens of heaven, and we are simply waiting until the day when the Lord Jesus himself will open the door of death so that at his invitation, we can step from this life into our eternal life with him!

What a comfort! What a great comfort it is to know that we have been saved by his grace! What a great comfort it is to know that Christ Jesus, our Savior, has raised us from the death of sin to life by his side, here on earth and forever in heaven! What a comfort it is to know that our salvation has absolutely nothing to do with us, but everything to do with God and his grace! Just as Paul tells us in the last few verses of our text: “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Now, let me illustrate that point with a brief video.

Just like this simple little video showed, we are saved by grace through faith. We are not saved by anything we have done. Rather, we are saved only by the works and the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior. Now that we know that we have been saved by Grace through faith, it is our faith that moves us to go out and show our faith in everything we say and do. Just as Paul tells us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

What better way could there be for us to show our love for God than the way that Paul just suggested! What greater honor could our God have given us than the honor he gave us in creating us to do the very good works which he himself prepared in advance! What greater thanksgiving could we show the Lord our God who saved us by his grace than the thanks we show in serving the Lord with our lives! For it is true! The Lord our God created us to do good works! Not good works designed to earn us eternal life, as some people believe and teach! But good works that flow out of hearts that are thankful to their God for saving them by his grace.

These are the works that you and I do so naturally as an expression of our faith and our thankfulness to the Lord our God who saved us. These are works that you and I do so naturally that more often than not we don’t even realize we are doing them. These are the works that spring out of our eagerness to serve the Lord with our lives, our willingness to support his work with our gifts, offerings, and our prayers. These are works that spring out of our excitement to tell others about the Lord who has saved us! For now that we have been saved by God’s grace, our love for our God moves us to serve him as we serve each other. In fact, these are the very things that I see in our congregation on a regular basis. I see it in the way we give our gifts and offerings to the Lord. I see it in the way that so many of you give gifts to each other, spend time with each other, volunteer and help in the church, and simply pray for each other. These are but a few of the ways that we accomplish those good works which God prepared for to do to show our great love to him, and there are many, many more.

So then, let us live our lives out of love for our God. Let us be moved by the Lord God who so graciously saved us, and show our love for him in all that we do. Let us go out those doors today and take every opportunity we have to show our love for the Lord by the things we do for him. Not motivated by a need to procure our salvation! Rather moved by our God’s love for us that in his great grace he made us alive in Christ, raised us up, with him, and created us in Christ Jesus to do good works out of love for him.

Though this may not have been one of your favorite sections of Scripture when we began our sermon, has its status changed? I wouldn’t be surprised if it had! After all, what greater news could there be than the news that we have been saved by the Grace of the Lord our God!

Amen.

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