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
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Commit Yoursevelves to the Lord's Service (Luke 9:51-62)
Dear friends in Christ.
What a blessing it is that today is Sunday and that today we are celebrating Independence Day. What a blessing it is that we have the opportunity to gather together in worship of the Lord our God who is solely responsible for bringing about our great nation. Though things could have gone a whole different way some 200 years ago, it was the Lord’s will to birth our nation and give us an annual weekend that we could take time to gather with family and friends for picnics, cook-outs, camping trips, and, of course, fireworks. But did you know that when the Declaration of Independence was signed and the revolutionary war began, only about 2% of the Colonists were behind the cause of revolution? Did you know that the vast majority of the Colonists, though they may have agreed that Brittan was wielding power in a rather unfair and abusive way, the majority of colonists were more content with the status quo than with committing themselves to the cause of independence? Why this was, exactly, I don’t really know. Maybe they were afraid of what they would have to give up. Maybe they were afraid of what they might lose. Maybe they were afraid of fighting a battle that seemed unwinnable. After all, if they committed themselves to the cause of independence, they would guilty of rebellion and high treason against the British crown. They would be worthy of death for their crimes, and, if caught, they would most likely lose their family, their wealth, their possessions, and even their lives, which is the very thing that happened to most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
As you may remember, there were fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and their convictions resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.
Well, in the same way that these men committed everything they had; their sacred honor, their fortunes, and even their own lives for the cause of freedom, so also, the Lord Jesus, our Savior completely committed himself to the service of the Lord God. He was the one whom the Lord God had chosen to be our Savior, even before the creation of the world. He was the one to whom the Lord referred when he promised that the Seed of the Woman would crush the head of the serpent. He was the one who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, and took on the very nature of a servant when he was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. He was the one who took on our flesh and blood and was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. He was the one who came to earth to completely and perfectly follow all of God’s Laws before he went to the cross to exchange his life in payment of our sins. He was the one who committed his soul to his heavenly Father before he gave up his life on the cross, and he is the one who took back his life on the third day, rising again to assure us that our sins are forgiven.
Now, as we meet Jesus in our text this morning, Luke gives us a very clear picture of how Jesus commits himself to serving the Lord. It is that very commitment, at which we want to take a look, so I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson, to Luke 9:51. While you’re turning to Luke 9:51 let me give you a little background. Though last week we had heard how Jesus had been staying out in lonely places where he could be alone with his disciples and teach them, that time was at an end. In fact, Luke 9:51 is essentially the beginning of the last six months of Jesus earthly ministry, and from this point on we see Jesus total commitment to the Lord as he now resolutely sets off for Jerusalem. As Luke writes in verse 51: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51–56, NIV)
Though it was just last week that we heard Jesus telling his disciples about how we would suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders; how he would be rejected by them, killed, and on the third day rise again, Jesus was now deliberately traveling toward Jerusalem to make these things happen. So committed was he to serving the Lord, that he willingly began to make his way to Jerusalem where he would lay out each and every one of our sins at the checkout counter of the cross before paying off our debt with his blood and blessing us with the rebate of his righteousness and holiness.
Well in the same way that Jesus willingly committed himself to the Lord’s service, he is also calling on each and every one of us as Christians to commit ourselves to serving the Lord with our lives. He is calling on us to do this right now, because today is the only day we have. Yesterday is already past and gone and we don’t know if tomorrow will ever come. This, in fact, is the very thoughts that Luke records beginning in verse 57: “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:57,58, NIV)
This man was truly excited and gung-ho about following the Lord Jesus. He was ready to travel with Jesus, wherever he went no matter what the cost or the concern. But when he conveyed his commitment to Jesus, Jesus answered him in a way that this man may not have expected. What Jesus simply said was, “Think about this.” He didn’t say, “No. Don’t follow me.” Instead he simply said, “Think about this.” In essence Jesus was telling this man to consider the best course of action. Would it be best for this man to follow after Jesus wherever he might go, or would it be best for him to follow Jesus by remaining where he was and committing himself to serving the Lord where he was. Either way he might be forced to give up a few things. He might face mocking and ridicule, but he would be serving the Lord in the best place for himself.
Jesus is saying the same thing to each and every one of us as he calls on us to commit ourselves to his service. He is not saying that we all have to run out and go back to school to become pastors or teachers. Rather, he is calling on us to make the most of every opportunity we are given in our situation in life to serve the Lord with our lives. Though we may face hardship or troubles, mocking or ridicule, Jesus will be with us as we serve him with our lives.
The second example: look at verse 59. He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59,60, NIV)
This time it was different. Jesus approached a man and called him to follow as one of Jesus’ disciples. This was a man who had undoubtedly followed Jesus before. This was a man who had been with Jesus and had been instructed by Jesus, as was Jesus’ practice before calling someone to be a disciple. The problem was that this call came at a very inconvenient time. The man had just lost his father, and was going to the funeral. He was essentially asking for a few days delay. But if you think about it, this invitation was coming as Jesus was passing through for the last time. This was the last time Jesus was coming through this village and Jesus is calling on this man to take hold of the invitation to serve today, because tomorrow might never come.
One last example: look at verse 61: “Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61,62, NIV)
Knowing this man’s heart, Jesus was concerned for him. He was concerned that if he went back to his family, they might steal his dream of following after Jesus. They might persuade him to remain at home rather than serving the Lord with his life. They might even challenge his faith or ask him to give up his faith in Jesus all together. The same is true for us. When we commit ourselves to the lord we may have to remove ourselves from some associations lest they seek to remove our faith and our commitment to the Lord, from us.
Though there may be times in life when we face hardships and difficulties because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, we know that our Savior will be with us. Though we may be mocked and ridiculed for what we believe, we know that our Savior will help us through. Though there may be times when we find that serving the Lord isn’t the most convenient, we know that that it is the most important thing that we as Christians can do with our lives. Though there may be times when friend or family seek to lead us astray, we trust that the Lord our Savior will give us the strength we need to continue in our commitment to him. For the truth is, because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, the Lord is always with us. He is the one who is by our sides. He is the one who will deliver us to eternal life.
That is our greatest comfort today. Though today is the fourth of July and the day we are celebrating our nation’s independence, more importantly we are celebrating our independence from sin and slavery to death. For it is through faith in Jesus that we have been freed from sin and death and are now able to commit ourselves to serving the Lord.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
What a blessing it is that today is Sunday and that today we are celebrating Independence Day. What a blessing it is that we have the opportunity to gather together in worship of the Lord our God who is solely responsible for bringing about our great nation. Though things could have gone a whole different way some 200 years ago, it was the Lord’s will to birth our nation and give us an annual weekend that we could take time to gather with family and friends for picnics, cook-outs, camping trips, and, of course, fireworks. But did you know that when the Declaration of Independence was signed and the revolutionary war began, only about 2% of the Colonists were behind the cause of revolution? Did you know that the vast majority of the Colonists, though they may have agreed that Brittan was wielding power in a rather unfair and abusive way, the majority of colonists were more content with the status quo than with committing themselves to the cause of independence? Why this was, exactly, I don’t really know. Maybe they were afraid of what they would have to give up. Maybe they were afraid of what they might lose. Maybe they were afraid of fighting a battle that seemed unwinnable. After all, if they committed themselves to the cause of independence, they would guilty of rebellion and high treason against the British crown. They would be worthy of death for their crimes, and, if caught, they would most likely lose their family, their wealth, their possessions, and even their lives, which is the very thing that happened to most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
As you may remember, there were fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and their convictions resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.
Well, in the same way that these men committed everything they had; their sacred honor, their fortunes, and even their own lives for the cause of freedom, so also, the Lord Jesus, our Savior completely committed himself to the service of the Lord God. He was the one whom the Lord God had chosen to be our Savior, even before the creation of the world. He was the one to whom the Lord referred when he promised that the Seed of the Woman would crush the head of the serpent. He was the one who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, and took on the very nature of a servant when he was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. He was the one who took on our flesh and blood and was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. He was the one who came to earth to completely and perfectly follow all of God’s Laws before he went to the cross to exchange his life in payment of our sins. He was the one who committed his soul to his heavenly Father before he gave up his life on the cross, and he is the one who took back his life on the third day, rising again to assure us that our sins are forgiven.
Now, as we meet Jesus in our text this morning, Luke gives us a very clear picture of how Jesus commits himself to serving the Lord. It is that very commitment, at which we want to take a look, so I invite you to open your Bibles to our Gospel Lesson, to Luke 9:51. While you’re turning to Luke 9:51 let me give you a little background. Though last week we had heard how Jesus had been staying out in lonely places where he could be alone with his disciples and teach them, that time was at an end. In fact, Luke 9:51 is essentially the beginning of the last six months of Jesus earthly ministry, and from this point on we see Jesus total commitment to the Lord as he now resolutely sets off for Jerusalem. As Luke writes in verse 51: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51–56, NIV)
Though it was just last week that we heard Jesus telling his disciples about how we would suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders; how he would be rejected by them, killed, and on the third day rise again, Jesus was now deliberately traveling toward Jerusalem to make these things happen. So committed was he to serving the Lord, that he willingly began to make his way to Jerusalem where he would lay out each and every one of our sins at the checkout counter of the cross before paying off our debt with his blood and blessing us with the rebate of his righteousness and holiness.
Well in the same way that Jesus willingly committed himself to the Lord’s service, he is also calling on each and every one of us as Christians to commit ourselves to serving the Lord with our lives. He is calling on us to do this right now, because today is the only day we have. Yesterday is already past and gone and we don’t know if tomorrow will ever come. This, in fact, is the very thoughts that Luke records beginning in verse 57: “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:57,58, NIV)
This man was truly excited and gung-ho about following the Lord Jesus. He was ready to travel with Jesus, wherever he went no matter what the cost or the concern. But when he conveyed his commitment to Jesus, Jesus answered him in a way that this man may not have expected. What Jesus simply said was, “Think about this.” He didn’t say, “No. Don’t follow me.” Instead he simply said, “Think about this.” In essence Jesus was telling this man to consider the best course of action. Would it be best for this man to follow after Jesus wherever he might go, or would it be best for him to follow Jesus by remaining where he was and committing himself to serving the Lord where he was. Either way he might be forced to give up a few things. He might face mocking and ridicule, but he would be serving the Lord in the best place for himself.
Jesus is saying the same thing to each and every one of us as he calls on us to commit ourselves to his service. He is not saying that we all have to run out and go back to school to become pastors or teachers. Rather, he is calling on us to make the most of every opportunity we are given in our situation in life to serve the Lord with our lives. Though we may face hardship or troubles, mocking or ridicule, Jesus will be with us as we serve him with our lives.
The second example: look at verse 59. He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59,60, NIV)
This time it was different. Jesus approached a man and called him to follow as one of Jesus’ disciples. This was a man who had undoubtedly followed Jesus before. This was a man who had been with Jesus and had been instructed by Jesus, as was Jesus’ practice before calling someone to be a disciple. The problem was that this call came at a very inconvenient time. The man had just lost his father, and was going to the funeral. He was essentially asking for a few days delay. But if you think about it, this invitation was coming as Jesus was passing through for the last time. This was the last time Jesus was coming through this village and Jesus is calling on this man to take hold of the invitation to serve today, because tomorrow might never come.
One last example: look at verse 61: “Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61,62, NIV)
Knowing this man’s heart, Jesus was concerned for him. He was concerned that if he went back to his family, they might steal his dream of following after Jesus. They might persuade him to remain at home rather than serving the Lord with his life. They might even challenge his faith or ask him to give up his faith in Jesus all together. The same is true for us. When we commit ourselves to the lord we may have to remove ourselves from some associations lest they seek to remove our faith and our commitment to the Lord, from us.
Though there may be times in life when we face hardships and difficulties because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, we know that our Savior will be with us. Though we may be mocked and ridiculed for what we believe, we know that our Savior will help us through. Though there may be times when we find that serving the Lord isn’t the most convenient, we know that that it is the most important thing that we as Christians can do with our lives. Though there may be times when friend or family seek to lead us astray, we trust that the Lord our Savior will give us the strength we need to continue in our commitment to him. For the truth is, because we have committed ourselves to the service of the Lord, the Lord is always with us. He is the one who is by our sides. He is the one who will deliver us to eternal life.
That is our greatest comfort today. Though today is the fourth of July and the day we are celebrating our nation’s independence, more importantly we are celebrating our independence from sin and slavery to death. For it is through faith in Jesus that we have been freed from sin and death and are now able to commit ourselves to serving the Lord.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Confess Your Faith in Jesus Christ Your Savior (Luke 9:18-24)
Series: Cultivate your faith in the Lord
Week 4: Confess your faith in Jesus Christ your Savior
Dear Friends in Christ,
For the past four weeks we’ve been following the series: Cultivate your Faith in the Lord. In our first week we learned a lesson about faith from the faith of the Centurion whose servant Jesus healed by merely speaking the words. In our second week we planted our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power and authority over death, as we witnessed him raise that young man of Nain from the dead. Last week, we grew in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows as we heard about the woman who came and anointed Jesus feet first with her tears and then with perfume. Today, as we come to the conclusion of series of cultivating our faith in the Lord, we have essentially come to the point of the harvest. We have come to the point where we have been well fed for the last few weeks, and now we are being given the opportunity to go out and exercise our faith, if you will, by confessing our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.
Now, if you think about it, confessing our faith is something that each and every one of us does on a daily basis. We constantly confess our faith in some product or service to just about anyone who will listen. Whenever we get a good deal on clothes, cleaning supplies, vegetables, newspapers, magazines, or anything else we purchase, we are very quick to tell anyone about the great deal we got and encourage them to go to the same store so that they can get the same great deal. Whenever we go to see a great movie, the first thing we want to do is talk to all our friends about it, compare notes with them, confess to them our most favorite parts and encourage those who haven’t seen it to see it so that they can share in the experience with us. In fact, just think about what you’ve talked about in the last 7 days, and I’d be willing to bet you talked to someone about the BP oil spill and confessed your frustration and your annoyance about the situation and your desire that someone should do something about it. For the truth is, we are very social people at heart. We are constantly communicating and confessing our thoughts, ideas, and beliefs about anything and everything, and now that the world has changed, we are doing all this and more in the comfort and style of modern technology. We are accessible to our friends and family 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We blog and facebook, we tweet and twitter, we myspace, youtube, text, email, and socially network with each other in ways that I simply cannot keep up with. We are constantly talking on our phones, even while we are out walking, biking, rollerblading, and yes, of course driving. We even take the time to text when we’re doing those very same activities. In fact, on Friday while I was checking my facebook page, I saw a picture of a church sign that said, “Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet him.”
These, are but a few of the examples of ways that we are constantly communicating with each other and constantly confessing our thoughts, feelings, ideas, opinions, moods, emotions, and beliefs with friends, family, classmates, relatives, and even with people on the other side of the world 24 hours a day. But even though we are constantly confessing things like these, how often are we taking time to confess our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior? How often, other than the hour we spend in worship, are we opening our mouths to confess our faith in Jesus as our Savior to a friend, a family member, a relative, a stranger, or even a person on the other side of the world? I’m not talking about those “religious” emails that travel around cyberspace on a daily basis. I’m not talking about those spiritual things that we post on our facebook walls. I’m not even talking about those religious pictures and ornaments that we have adorning the walls and the shelves or our homes. What I’m talking about is simply, “When was the last time that you openly confessed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” When was the last time you stood up for your beliefs when you found yourself in a religious conversation? When was the last time that you found yourself explaining why you belong to Grace, when you could go to any other church you wanted? When was the last time you explained that you are certain that you will have eternal life in heaven because you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior who freed you from your sins by his death and resurrection from the dead?
If we’re like most people, then the truth is it may have been some time since we have confessed our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior in a venue other than worship. Yet, confessing our faith in Jesus our Savior, is the very thing that Jesus wants us to be doing, just as Jesus himself tells us in our text this morning. I invite you to turn with me to our Gospel Lesson, to Luke 9:18-24, and we’ll take a look at what Jesus has to say. Now, as you are looking up Luke 9:18-24, let me give you a little bit of background. The disciples had been with Jesus for nearly 2 ½ years, and life was changing. Jesus was spending more time in the wilderness between towns, spending time with his disciples, taking time to teach them the precious truths of salvation, preparing them for the service to which he would call them after his ascension, and simply cultivating their faith in him so that they would be prepared to confess their faith in him as their Lord and Savior. Luke writes, in chapter 9 beginning with verse 18: “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” 19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” 20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” (Luke 9:18-20, NIV)
Now that the disciples had been with Jesus for nearly 2 ½ years, following him, witnessing his miraculous signs, and growing in their faith as they heard him preach and teach, Jesus sought to evoke a confession from them. He asked them to tell him who the people thought he was, and from the answers the disciples gave, it was clear that the majority of the people thought of Jesus as a mere man, a great prophet, most likely the forerunner to the Messiah, but not the Messiah himself. The disciple, on the other hand, had come to a different understanding of who Jesus was, and through Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, it was clear that they knew he was the divine Son of God whom the Lord had sent to be the Savior of the World. The problem, however, was the misunderstanding that the people had for the titles of “Christ” and “Messiah.” Though both titles were interchangeable because they simply meant “Anointed One” those titles were politically charged. In fact, the truth is that the majority of the Israelites had been taught that when the Messiah came, he would be a political Savior. He would be the one to overthrow the Romans and restore physical peace to Israel by reestablishing their ability to rule themselves. It was because of this, that even though Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ was true, Jesus warned him not to tell people that he was the Christ, but to confess him as Savior with words and actions. This is the very thing that Luke brings out as we continue with verse 21: “Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” 23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (Luke 9:21–24, NIV)
With this strict warning, Jesus made it clear to his disciples that he wanted them to confess him as their Lord and Savior as they spoke about him. He wanted them to confess their faith in him as the one who would free them from their sins. He did not want them making a confession that would confuse or mislead people into a false understanding of who Jesus was. He wanted them to make a clear confession with their words and actions—a confession through which people would come to know Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world.
Well, the same thing is true for each and every one of us here today. Jesus wants us to be ready to make a clear confession of our faith in him as our Lord and Savior. He wants us to use our words and our actions in such a way that every aspect of our lives reveals our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Though there have been many times when we have failed to do this, it is Jesus who forgives us. Though there have been opportunities that slipped past us because we were either too afraid to say anything or too worried that we might say the wrong thing, it is Jesus who has washed those sins away. Though there have been times when we cowered in a corner rather than standing up for our religious beliefs, or times when we have simply run away from a religious conversation in which we knew we would be called on to confess our faith and the reason why we have the hope of eternal life, even these episodes have been expunged from our record.
Now, armed with the knowledge that our Savior has taken our hearts and submerged them in the river of his blood, allowing his forgiving blood to permeate every crack and crevice and dissolve away every spot and stain of our sins; armed with the knowledge that through his death and resurrection we have been forgiven not merely for our failure to confess him but also for every single sin with which we have ever offended him, we begin to feel the fire of faith in our hearts yearning to be let out. When we realize that Jesus, our Savior loved us so much that he willingly went to the cross in our place, our hearts begin to burn with the need to tell others about their Savior from sin and death. When we begin to realize that we may be a person’s only chance to hear the gospel of salvation we cannot help but be moved to confess our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
So now as you leave this place today, make a clear confession of your faith in Jesus through your words and actions. Set aside 15 minutes for yourself each day and sit down to read the Bible so that your faith will grow, and you will be all the more ready to confess your faith. Pay attention to the words that are coming out of your mouth and judge them according to their effect on your ability to confess your Savior. Take note of your actions. Are you one person at church and a different person during the rest of the week, or do your words, actions, and faith go hand in hand. Take a look at your budget and ask yourself, “Am I giving my first and my best to the Lord? Or am I simply giving him what’s left over after I pay my bills?” Take a look at your relationships. Do people know you are a Christian by the confession of your life? Or do they only have a vague idea that you might be? Reflect on your own life. Does your life clearly confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Or does your life offer an unclear or confusing confession of your faith?
Though each and every one of us has work to do in different areas of our lives so that we might continually offer a clear confession of faith in Jesus our Savior, each and every one of us has been given the tools we need to change. The greatest tool we have is the manual of faith recorded for us in the Scriptures that will lead us to catch hold of our Savior and go out and confess his name to everyone we meet. And just think about what our church would look like if each and every one of us caught hold of this message today! Just think about what this congregation would look like if we all began clearly confessing our faith in Jesus in every aspect of our lives. Just think how each of you would be encouraged in your faith not merely by what you hear on Sunday morning, but in what you hear from your fellow members who are regularly confessing their faith. Just think about how worship attendance would change as more and more of our members gathered here in worship because they were encouraged by your life’s confession of faith. Just think about how many people of our community would be affected by our confession. How many people in our community would be strengthened in their faith, built up in their faith, and even called to faith because of our confession of Christ Jesus our Savior. Just think about how your own life would be affected! You would find more time to grow in your faith, to trust in the Lord, and to look forward to the kingdom of heaven. In short, you would be on fire and excited by the work that the Lord was doing through your confession of faith and you would be ready to continue on confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior before anyone who would listen.
So take to heart the lessons we’ve learned over the past four weeks and continue to cultivate your faith in the Lord. Take time to learn from him, plant your faith in him, grow in him and of course, confess him as your Lord and Savior who has freed you from your sins by his death and resurrection from the dead.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Week 4: Confess your faith in Jesus Christ your Savior
Dear Friends in Christ,
For the past four weeks we’ve been following the series: Cultivate your Faith in the Lord. In our first week we learned a lesson about faith from the faith of the Centurion whose servant Jesus healed by merely speaking the words. In our second week we planted our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power and authority over death, as we witnessed him raise that young man of Nain from the dead. Last week, we grew in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows as we heard about the woman who came and anointed Jesus feet first with her tears and then with perfume. Today, as we come to the conclusion of series of cultivating our faith in the Lord, we have essentially come to the point of the harvest. We have come to the point where we have been well fed for the last few weeks, and now we are being given the opportunity to go out and exercise our faith, if you will, by confessing our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.
Now, if you think about it, confessing our faith is something that each and every one of us does on a daily basis. We constantly confess our faith in some product or service to just about anyone who will listen. Whenever we get a good deal on clothes, cleaning supplies, vegetables, newspapers, magazines, or anything else we purchase, we are very quick to tell anyone about the great deal we got and encourage them to go to the same store so that they can get the same great deal. Whenever we go to see a great movie, the first thing we want to do is talk to all our friends about it, compare notes with them, confess to them our most favorite parts and encourage those who haven’t seen it to see it so that they can share in the experience with us. In fact, just think about what you’ve talked about in the last 7 days, and I’d be willing to bet you talked to someone about the BP oil spill and confessed your frustration and your annoyance about the situation and your desire that someone should do something about it. For the truth is, we are very social people at heart. We are constantly communicating and confessing our thoughts, ideas, and beliefs about anything and everything, and now that the world has changed, we are doing all this and more in the comfort and style of modern technology. We are accessible to our friends and family 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We blog and facebook, we tweet and twitter, we myspace, youtube, text, email, and socially network with each other in ways that I simply cannot keep up with. We are constantly talking on our phones, even while we are out walking, biking, rollerblading, and yes, of course driving. We even take the time to text when we’re doing those very same activities. In fact, on Friday while I was checking my facebook page, I saw a picture of a church sign that said, “Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet him.”
These, are but a few of the examples of ways that we are constantly communicating with each other and constantly confessing our thoughts, feelings, ideas, opinions, moods, emotions, and beliefs with friends, family, classmates, relatives, and even with people on the other side of the world 24 hours a day. But even though we are constantly confessing things like these, how often are we taking time to confess our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior? How often, other than the hour we spend in worship, are we opening our mouths to confess our faith in Jesus as our Savior to a friend, a family member, a relative, a stranger, or even a person on the other side of the world? I’m not talking about those “religious” emails that travel around cyberspace on a daily basis. I’m not talking about those spiritual things that we post on our facebook walls. I’m not even talking about those religious pictures and ornaments that we have adorning the walls and the shelves or our homes. What I’m talking about is simply, “When was the last time that you openly confessed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” When was the last time you stood up for your beliefs when you found yourself in a religious conversation? When was the last time that you found yourself explaining why you belong to Grace, when you could go to any other church you wanted? When was the last time you explained that you are certain that you will have eternal life in heaven because you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior who freed you from your sins by his death and resurrection from the dead?
If we’re like most people, then the truth is it may have been some time since we have confessed our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior in a venue other than worship. Yet, confessing our faith in Jesus our Savior, is the very thing that Jesus wants us to be doing, just as Jesus himself tells us in our text this morning. I invite you to turn with me to our Gospel Lesson, to Luke 9:18-24, and we’ll take a look at what Jesus has to say. Now, as you are looking up Luke 9:18-24, let me give you a little bit of background. The disciples had been with Jesus for nearly 2 ½ years, and life was changing. Jesus was spending more time in the wilderness between towns, spending time with his disciples, taking time to teach them the precious truths of salvation, preparing them for the service to which he would call them after his ascension, and simply cultivating their faith in him so that they would be prepared to confess their faith in him as their Lord and Savior. Luke writes, in chapter 9 beginning with verse 18: “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” 19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” 20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” (Luke 9:18-20, NIV)
Now that the disciples had been with Jesus for nearly 2 ½ years, following him, witnessing his miraculous signs, and growing in their faith as they heard him preach and teach, Jesus sought to evoke a confession from them. He asked them to tell him who the people thought he was, and from the answers the disciples gave, it was clear that the majority of the people thought of Jesus as a mere man, a great prophet, most likely the forerunner to the Messiah, but not the Messiah himself. The disciple, on the other hand, had come to a different understanding of who Jesus was, and through Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, it was clear that they knew he was the divine Son of God whom the Lord had sent to be the Savior of the World. The problem, however, was the misunderstanding that the people had for the titles of “Christ” and “Messiah.” Though both titles were interchangeable because they simply meant “Anointed One” those titles were politically charged. In fact, the truth is that the majority of the Israelites had been taught that when the Messiah came, he would be a political Savior. He would be the one to overthrow the Romans and restore physical peace to Israel by reestablishing their ability to rule themselves. It was because of this, that even though Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ was true, Jesus warned him not to tell people that he was the Christ, but to confess him as Savior with words and actions. This is the very thing that Luke brings out as we continue with verse 21: “Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” 23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (Luke 9:21–24, NIV)
With this strict warning, Jesus made it clear to his disciples that he wanted them to confess him as their Lord and Savior as they spoke about him. He wanted them to confess their faith in him as the one who would free them from their sins. He did not want them making a confession that would confuse or mislead people into a false understanding of who Jesus was. He wanted them to make a clear confession with their words and actions—a confession through which people would come to know Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world.
Well, the same thing is true for each and every one of us here today. Jesus wants us to be ready to make a clear confession of our faith in him as our Lord and Savior. He wants us to use our words and our actions in such a way that every aspect of our lives reveals our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Though there have been many times when we have failed to do this, it is Jesus who forgives us. Though there have been opportunities that slipped past us because we were either too afraid to say anything or too worried that we might say the wrong thing, it is Jesus who has washed those sins away. Though there have been times when we cowered in a corner rather than standing up for our religious beliefs, or times when we have simply run away from a religious conversation in which we knew we would be called on to confess our faith and the reason why we have the hope of eternal life, even these episodes have been expunged from our record.
Now, armed with the knowledge that our Savior has taken our hearts and submerged them in the river of his blood, allowing his forgiving blood to permeate every crack and crevice and dissolve away every spot and stain of our sins; armed with the knowledge that through his death and resurrection we have been forgiven not merely for our failure to confess him but also for every single sin with which we have ever offended him, we begin to feel the fire of faith in our hearts yearning to be let out. When we realize that Jesus, our Savior loved us so much that he willingly went to the cross in our place, our hearts begin to burn with the need to tell others about their Savior from sin and death. When we begin to realize that we may be a person’s only chance to hear the gospel of salvation we cannot help but be moved to confess our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
So now as you leave this place today, make a clear confession of your faith in Jesus through your words and actions. Set aside 15 minutes for yourself each day and sit down to read the Bible so that your faith will grow, and you will be all the more ready to confess your faith. Pay attention to the words that are coming out of your mouth and judge them according to their effect on your ability to confess your Savior. Take note of your actions. Are you one person at church and a different person during the rest of the week, or do your words, actions, and faith go hand in hand. Take a look at your budget and ask yourself, “Am I giving my first and my best to the Lord? Or am I simply giving him what’s left over after I pay my bills?” Take a look at your relationships. Do people know you are a Christian by the confession of your life? Or do they only have a vague idea that you might be? Reflect on your own life. Does your life clearly confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Or does your life offer an unclear or confusing confession of your faith?
Though each and every one of us has work to do in different areas of our lives so that we might continually offer a clear confession of faith in Jesus our Savior, each and every one of us has been given the tools we need to change. The greatest tool we have is the manual of faith recorded for us in the Scriptures that will lead us to catch hold of our Savior and go out and confess his name to everyone we meet. And just think about what our church would look like if each and every one of us caught hold of this message today! Just think about what this congregation would look like if we all began clearly confessing our faith in Jesus in every aspect of our lives. Just think how each of you would be encouraged in your faith not merely by what you hear on Sunday morning, but in what you hear from your fellow members who are regularly confessing their faith. Just think about how worship attendance would change as more and more of our members gathered here in worship because they were encouraged by your life’s confession of faith. Just think about how many people of our community would be affected by our confession. How many people in our community would be strengthened in their faith, built up in their faith, and even called to faith because of our confession of Christ Jesus our Savior. Just think about how your own life would be affected! You would find more time to grow in your faith, to trust in the Lord, and to look forward to the kingdom of heaven. In short, you would be on fire and excited by the work that the Lord was doing through your confession of faith and you would be ready to continue on confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior before anyone who would listen.
So take to heart the lessons we’ve learned over the past four weeks and continue to cultivate your faith in the Lord. Take time to learn from him, plant your faith in him, grow in him and of course, confess him as your Lord and Savior who has freed you from your sins by his death and resurrection from the dead.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Grow in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows (Luke 7:36-50)
Series: Cultivate your faith in the Lord.
Week 3: Grow in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows (Luke 7:36-50)
Dear friends in Christ.
As I’ve been riding my bike through the country side getting in shape for the ever nearing TRAM, I’ve been surprised at how much the crops in the fields have been growing. I’ve ridden past corn that is already at or above knee high. I’ve seen wheat that looks like it is nearly ready to start turning that beautiful golden color and be taken into harvest. I’ve even seen soybeans that looked like they were right on track and growing at a pace that will make them ready when harvest time comes. Though I suppose it shouldn’t be such a surprise to see how much everything has been growing already, with all the rain and cloudy weather we’ve had so recently, it can be easy to forget that we have nearly come to the beginning of July. Yet, when it comes right down to it, growth is the very thing that we expect plants to do whether they are crops planted in a farmer’s field, or vegetables planted in our own garden. Well, in the same way that we expect growth in our fields and gardens, so also the Lord looks for growth in the fields and gardens of our faith. In fact, as we have been cultivating our faith in the Lord for the past few weeks, we have been preparing for our faith to grow. Just two weeks ago we learned a lesson about faith from the example of the Centurion. Last week we planted our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power and authority even over death. Today we will have the opportunity to grow our faith as we grow together in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows on us.
Now, for most of us, growing in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows on us might seem like a pretty easy assignment, if you will. After all we have all been growing in Jesus’ forgiveness since the first day he bestowed it upon us at our baptism. From the very moment the water was applied to us as God’s Word was spoken over us, the seed was planted and a sprout appeared. That sprout soon became a shoot as we entered Sunday School or even Lutheran Elementary School. That shoot quickly became a definite stem as we entered into Confirmation Class and grew in our knowledge of the Lord’s forgiveness through a deeper study of the Lord’s Word. Even now we continue to grow in our Savior’s forgiveness as each week we are clearly reminded of how our Savior came to visit us in the prison of our sins, how he quickly exchanged his clothing for ours, switched places with us and allowed us to walk past the guards as free men and women while he went to his death in our place. Twice each month we are given the opportunity to participate in our Savior’s meal; his meal of bread and wine which are connected with his body and blood in a mysterious way that we cannot understand but merely accept by faith, through which Jesus himself places his hand on our hearts to assure us that we have been washed clean of every spot and stain of our sins by his blood; by his death and resurrection.
Each week we have the opportunity to grow in the forgiveness that Jesus has bestowed upon us through the very faith that he created in our hearts in one way or another. So by this time you might be asking yourselves, “Why, in all the world is Pastor calling on me to grow in forgiveness, when I’m already doing it?” Well, the answer to that question is simple. How often haven’t we simply began to take our forgiveness for granted? How often haven’t we simply taken the attitude toward sin that it doesn’t really matter what I do now because I can repent of it later? How often haven’t we sought out those dark and twisting trails that lead us off the path of righteousness and lead us into our favorite and most comfortable sins? How often hasn’t satan, the accuser of the brothers, accused our hearts of sins to the point we didn’t feel worthy to come up for Holy Communion? How often hasn’t so vehemently accused us of a particular sin that we feel that we have been separated from our God, that we are standing on a precipice ready to fall into the pit of eternal darkness, while our enemy accuses us and tells us that God couldn’t possibly forgive us for what we have done, even as we are being tempted to commit that same sin one more time? How often haven’t our sins piled up in the garages of our hearts until all the shelves are filled with gossip, lies, slander, anger, frustration, malice, and even grudges against other people? How often hasn’t it happened that these very sins have hindered our growth in forgiveness, because even though we regularly approached God’s throne for forgiveness we continued to hold on to at least some of these sins and we never really allowed God’s forgiveness to permeate our lives?
If you have ever felt this way, or have been dealing with issues like these in your lives, I can tell you that you are not alone. In fact, it is because each and every one of us has dealt with issues like this that the Lord included the comforting words of Luke 7:36-50. I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 7:36-50 and we’ll take a look at them together. As we heard when I first read these words as our Gospel Lesson, this is the account of a sinful woman who came to Jesus in sorrow over the many sins she had committed. Luke writes beginning with verse 36: “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” (Luke 7:36-38, NIV)
Now, to fully understand what’s going on, we have to remember that in Jesus’ day when people ate, they didn’t sit at a table like we do. Rather, they had a table that was near to the ground and they lay on a cushion that was something like a bean bag with their head near the table and with their feet facing away from the table. So, when this woman came up to Jesus, she was standing beside him. As she began weeping and her tears began falling, it seems that she quickly knelt behind Jesus in sorrow and repentance over her many sins. As her tears began to wet Jesus’ feet, she uncovered her hair in public, which was something that just wasn’t done, and began to wipe Jesus’ feet. She kissed them again and again and finally poured perfume on them in sorrow over her sins and in thanksgiving for her forgiveness. Verse 39:
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:39–50, NIV)
When this woman came to Jesus, she was like the debtor who owed 500 denarii. She carried a weight of sin that she could never pay. She knew the debt of righteousness that she owed to the Lord. She knew that there was nothing that she could do to make things right between her and her God. Yet, when she left Jesus she left in peace because she had grown in the forgiveness that Jesus bestowed upon her, and her actions were evidence of her love for the one who had forgiven her. For in the same way that we will say the ground is wet because it rained last night, so also Jesus said that her sins were forgiven because she loved much. In other words, her great love for her Savior was clear evidence of the forgiveness that Jesus had bestowed upon her. These were not things she had done to earn her salvation; rather these were evidence of her love for Jesus who had bestowed his forgiveness on her.
In the same way that this sinful woman grew in forgiveness that Jesus bestowed upon her, so also, each and every one of us can continue to grow in this same forgiveness that Jesus himself bestows upon us. Even though there are times when satan so vehemently accuses us of our sins that we don’t even feel worthy to approach the Lord’s house for worship or his table for his forgiving meal, Jesus turns to us and says, “Your sins are forgiven...your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Even though we may have felt that we sinned so badly that we can’t possibly be forgiven, our savior reminds us that in the same way the money lender canceled an un-payable debt of 500 denarii, so also the Lord has canceled and forgiven the un-payable debt of our sins. Though our satan, our enemy, continually seeks to lead us down those dark and twisting trails that lead us into our favorite sins; it is the Lord Jesus, himself, who comes to our aid, leading us back to the path to heaven, and helping us to grow in the forgiveness that he has won for us. Though there have been times when we have sat here wishing that so and so was here, never really allowing God’s Word to permeate our own hearts, today is the day that the Lord is looking us square in the heart, calling on us clean out the garages of our hearts, throw out all boxes of gossip and lies. Toss out those bags of slander and anger. Sweep out the dust of frustration and malice, and tear down those shelves filled with grudges. In this way you will be free to live and grow in the forgiveness that Jesus himself has bestowed upon you.
What an amazing sight that would be! What an amazing thing that would be if each and every one of us would show our love for the Lord by cleaning out our own hearts and growing in his forgiveness. What an amazing thing that would be if each and every one of our members would grow so completely in his forgiveness that we were moved by his love for us to release our grudges and anger with each other and live in his forgiveness! Can you imagine what this church would look like? I venture to say that we would look like the church recorded in the book of acts, where Luke tells us, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. ” (Acts 2:42–47, NIV)
So let me encourage you, as we come to a close, to grow in the forgiveness that Jesus bestowed upon you through his death and resurrection. Let the knowledge that he loved you enough to give his life for you permeate your heats so that Jesus love for you begins to move you to love each other and forgive each other. Let the love of Jesus and the assurance of his forgiveness which we hear every week be your motivation to show your love for your Lord in giving him the first and the best of your offerings. Let it move you to seek greater growth in his forgiveness as you pray to the Lord to help you forgive each other and release whatever grudges you may not even realize you are holding. Let your growth continue as you gather regularly for worship, bring your children to Sunday School in the Fall, and gather yourself for Bible Study before worship, only do not let your faith in the Lord grow stagnant or grow backward. Rather continue to cultivate your faith in the Lord as you continue growing in the forgiveness that he, himself, has bestowed upon you.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Week 3: Grow in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows (Luke 7:36-50)
Dear friends in Christ.
As I’ve been riding my bike through the country side getting in shape for the ever nearing TRAM, I’ve been surprised at how much the crops in the fields have been growing. I’ve ridden past corn that is already at or above knee high. I’ve seen wheat that looks like it is nearly ready to start turning that beautiful golden color and be taken into harvest. I’ve even seen soybeans that looked like they were right on track and growing at a pace that will make them ready when harvest time comes. Though I suppose it shouldn’t be such a surprise to see how much everything has been growing already, with all the rain and cloudy weather we’ve had so recently, it can be easy to forget that we have nearly come to the beginning of July. Yet, when it comes right down to it, growth is the very thing that we expect plants to do whether they are crops planted in a farmer’s field, or vegetables planted in our own garden. Well, in the same way that we expect growth in our fields and gardens, so also the Lord looks for growth in the fields and gardens of our faith. In fact, as we have been cultivating our faith in the Lord for the past few weeks, we have been preparing for our faith to grow. Just two weeks ago we learned a lesson about faith from the example of the Centurion. Last week we planted our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power and authority even over death. Today we will have the opportunity to grow our faith as we grow together in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows on us.
Now, for most of us, growing in the forgiveness that Jesus bestows on us might seem like a pretty easy assignment, if you will. After all we have all been growing in Jesus’ forgiveness since the first day he bestowed it upon us at our baptism. From the very moment the water was applied to us as God’s Word was spoken over us, the seed was planted and a sprout appeared. That sprout soon became a shoot as we entered Sunday School or even Lutheran Elementary School. That shoot quickly became a definite stem as we entered into Confirmation Class and grew in our knowledge of the Lord’s forgiveness through a deeper study of the Lord’s Word. Even now we continue to grow in our Savior’s forgiveness as each week we are clearly reminded of how our Savior came to visit us in the prison of our sins, how he quickly exchanged his clothing for ours, switched places with us and allowed us to walk past the guards as free men and women while he went to his death in our place. Twice each month we are given the opportunity to participate in our Savior’s meal; his meal of bread and wine which are connected with his body and blood in a mysterious way that we cannot understand but merely accept by faith, through which Jesus himself places his hand on our hearts to assure us that we have been washed clean of every spot and stain of our sins by his blood; by his death and resurrection.
Each week we have the opportunity to grow in the forgiveness that Jesus has bestowed upon us through the very faith that he created in our hearts in one way or another. So by this time you might be asking yourselves, “Why, in all the world is Pastor calling on me to grow in forgiveness, when I’m already doing it?” Well, the answer to that question is simple. How often haven’t we simply began to take our forgiveness for granted? How often haven’t we simply taken the attitude toward sin that it doesn’t really matter what I do now because I can repent of it later? How often haven’t we sought out those dark and twisting trails that lead us off the path of righteousness and lead us into our favorite and most comfortable sins? How often hasn’t satan, the accuser of the brothers, accused our hearts of sins to the point we didn’t feel worthy to come up for Holy Communion? How often hasn’t so vehemently accused us of a particular sin that we feel that we have been separated from our God, that we are standing on a precipice ready to fall into the pit of eternal darkness, while our enemy accuses us and tells us that God couldn’t possibly forgive us for what we have done, even as we are being tempted to commit that same sin one more time? How often haven’t our sins piled up in the garages of our hearts until all the shelves are filled with gossip, lies, slander, anger, frustration, malice, and even grudges against other people? How often hasn’t it happened that these very sins have hindered our growth in forgiveness, because even though we regularly approached God’s throne for forgiveness we continued to hold on to at least some of these sins and we never really allowed God’s forgiveness to permeate our lives?
If you have ever felt this way, or have been dealing with issues like these in your lives, I can tell you that you are not alone. In fact, it is because each and every one of us has dealt with issues like this that the Lord included the comforting words of Luke 7:36-50. I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 7:36-50 and we’ll take a look at them together. As we heard when I first read these words as our Gospel Lesson, this is the account of a sinful woman who came to Jesus in sorrow over the many sins she had committed. Luke writes beginning with verse 36: “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” (Luke 7:36-38, NIV)
Now, to fully understand what’s going on, we have to remember that in Jesus’ day when people ate, they didn’t sit at a table like we do. Rather, they had a table that was near to the ground and they lay on a cushion that was something like a bean bag with their head near the table and with their feet facing away from the table. So, when this woman came up to Jesus, she was standing beside him. As she began weeping and her tears began falling, it seems that she quickly knelt behind Jesus in sorrow and repentance over her many sins. As her tears began to wet Jesus’ feet, she uncovered her hair in public, which was something that just wasn’t done, and began to wipe Jesus’ feet. She kissed them again and again and finally poured perfume on them in sorrow over her sins and in thanksgiving for her forgiveness. Verse 39:
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:39–50, NIV)
When this woman came to Jesus, she was like the debtor who owed 500 denarii. She carried a weight of sin that she could never pay. She knew the debt of righteousness that she owed to the Lord. She knew that there was nothing that she could do to make things right between her and her God. Yet, when she left Jesus she left in peace because she had grown in the forgiveness that Jesus bestowed upon her, and her actions were evidence of her love for the one who had forgiven her. For in the same way that we will say the ground is wet because it rained last night, so also Jesus said that her sins were forgiven because she loved much. In other words, her great love for her Savior was clear evidence of the forgiveness that Jesus had bestowed upon her. These were not things she had done to earn her salvation; rather these were evidence of her love for Jesus who had bestowed his forgiveness on her.
In the same way that this sinful woman grew in forgiveness that Jesus bestowed upon her, so also, each and every one of us can continue to grow in this same forgiveness that Jesus himself bestows upon us. Even though there are times when satan so vehemently accuses us of our sins that we don’t even feel worthy to approach the Lord’s house for worship or his table for his forgiving meal, Jesus turns to us and says, “Your sins are forgiven...your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Even though we may have felt that we sinned so badly that we can’t possibly be forgiven, our savior reminds us that in the same way the money lender canceled an un-payable debt of 500 denarii, so also the Lord has canceled and forgiven the un-payable debt of our sins. Though our satan, our enemy, continually seeks to lead us down those dark and twisting trails that lead us into our favorite sins; it is the Lord Jesus, himself, who comes to our aid, leading us back to the path to heaven, and helping us to grow in the forgiveness that he has won for us. Though there have been times when we have sat here wishing that so and so was here, never really allowing God’s Word to permeate our own hearts, today is the day that the Lord is looking us square in the heart, calling on us clean out the garages of our hearts, throw out all boxes of gossip and lies. Toss out those bags of slander and anger. Sweep out the dust of frustration and malice, and tear down those shelves filled with grudges. In this way you will be free to live and grow in the forgiveness that Jesus himself has bestowed upon you.
What an amazing sight that would be! What an amazing thing that would be if each and every one of us would show our love for the Lord by cleaning out our own hearts and growing in his forgiveness. What an amazing thing that would be if each and every one of our members would grow so completely in his forgiveness that we were moved by his love for us to release our grudges and anger with each other and live in his forgiveness! Can you imagine what this church would look like? I venture to say that we would look like the church recorded in the book of acts, where Luke tells us, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. ” (Acts 2:42–47, NIV)
So let me encourage you, as we come to a close, to grow in the forgiveness that Jesus bestowed upon you through his death and resurrection. Let the knowledge that he loved you enough to give his life for you permeate your heats so that Jesus love for you begins to move you to love each other and forgive each other. Let the love of Jesus and the assurance of his forgiveness which we hear every week be your motivation to show your love for your Lord in giving him the first and the best of your offerings. Let it move you to seek greater growth in his forgiveness as you pray to the Lord to help you forgive each other and release whatever grudges you may not even realize you are holding. Let your growth continue as you gather regularly for worship, bring your children to Sunday School in the Fall, and gather yourself for Bible Study before worship, only do not let your faith in the Lord grow stagnant or grow backward. Rather continue to cultivate your faith in the Lord as you continue growing in the forgiveness that he, himself, has bestowed upon you.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Plant Your Faith in the One who Holds Power over Death (Luke 7:11-17)
Series: Cultivate your Faith in the Lord
Week 2: Plant your faith in the One who Holds Power over Death (Luke 7:11-17)
Dear friends in Christ.
How old were you when you were first affected by the power of death? For me, I was 13. I was the one who answered the phone that Thursday afternoon when Grandma called to tell us that Grandpa was in the hospital. He had been hanging storm windows, getting the house ready for winter when he simply collapsed. The ambulance had come and taken him to the local hospital, but within an hour of admission he was flown to the major hospital in La Crosse. That evening my parents jumped into the car and left for Wisconsin, where they spent the next few days essentially living in the hospital with Grandma and mom’s two sisters. On Sunday evening, when Mom and Dad returned home, they told us that Grandpa had died earlier that morning, that we would be packing, getting a good night sleep, and heading out in the morning, on our way to a funeral. Though this is something that happened 25 years ago, I can still remember my shock and surprise at death’s power to separate me from my Grandpa. I can still remember looking for comfort and solace as the Pastor shared the Word of God with us, and I remember how that word helped cultivate my faith and encouraged me to plant my faith in Jesus as the one who holds power over death.
Since that day 25 years ago, I have seen the power of death at work on many, many occasions, just as so many of you have also felt it. For the truth is, most of us here have seen the power of death at work separating us from friends or loved ones. Some of us have stood guard at grave sites, honoring fellow members of our armed forces with the presentation of a flag, a salute, the firing of guns, and taps. We have gathered here in our sorrow to say farewell to parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends when death has wielded its power to separate us from our loved ones. Whether that death came expectedly after a long battle with a terminal illness or it came suddenly and unexpectedly through an accident, a murder, a suicide, a natural disaster, or even from natural causes, no matter how death might come, it’s power to separate us from our loved one is what causes us such great pain and sorrow, grief and heartache.
This is something that most of us have already experienced in a very personal way, as death has already separated us from dear friends or loved ones. But even if you have yet to experience the painful separation of death in such a personal way, the Lord knew that one day, each and every one of us would feel death’s power of separation, which is why he included the account of Jesus raising the young man of Nain from the dead. He included it as a comfort for us in the face of sorrow and an encouragement for us to do the very thing the people did who were present that day, namely plant their faith in Jesus who holds power over death. In fact, let’s take a closer look at that account today. Open your Bibles our Gospel lesson, to Luke 7 and we will take a closer look at how we cultivate our faith in the Lord by planting our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power over death. Luke writes in chapter 7 beginning at verse 11: “Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. ” (Luke 7:11–17, NIV)
Imagine the scene. Jesus and his disciples had been traveling with large crowds of people following after him ever since he preached the Sermon on the Mount, as we heard last week. In fact, as you remember, after Jesus finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount, he and his disciples together with a large crowd, traveled to Capernaum, where he was amazed by the great faith of the Centurion, whose servant Jesus healed without even stepping foot in the Centurion’s house. Now, soon after that, Jesus traveled with his disciples and a large crowd of people to Nain, a city about 20 miles Southwest of Capernaum. There, as Jesus was approaching the town gate with his large crowd of followers, a funeral procession was leaving the city with a large crowd of mourners following behind. The two groups of people met at that city gate, exactly as Jesus planned it, and there, hundreds if not thousands of people planted their faith in Jesus because they saw him demonstrate his power over death.
As soon as Jesus saw the widow who had lost her only son, his heart ached, he was filled with compassion for her, and he immediately sprang to action. After telling her that she no longer needed to weep, Jesus immediately gave her the ability to fulfill his command. He walked purposefully to those who were carrying the young man, placed his hand on the coffin in an authoritative way so that the men stopped in their tracks, and he spoke to the young man as if he was only sleeping, commanding him to get up. Immediately the young man sat up and began talking! This young man who had been completely lifeless was now alive! Though death’s power had separated him from his mother, Jesus revealed his power over death by reversing death, restoring life, and giving this son back to his mother, alive! Can you imagine the joy that now filled this woman’s heart as her son who had been dead, was given back to her alive! Can you imagine her amazement as death’s power of separation was broken by 8 simple words spoken by Jesus! Can you imagine the fear and the awe that passed through the crowd that day as hundreds, if not thousands of people saw a dead man brought back to life! For on that day, as Jesus demonstrated his power over death, many, many people planted their faith in him as they praised God saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us,” “God has come to help his people.” (Luke 7:16, NIV) Many, many people planted their faith in Jesus as the Messiah who so clearly displayed his power over death itself, and they spread the word about him wherever they went, so that news about Jesus spread throughout the entire land of Israel.
Well, just as so many people planted their faith in the Lord Jesus as the one who holds power over death, so, also as we cultivate our faith in the Lord, we seek to do the same. We seek to plant our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, because we know that he is the one whose power and authority far surpasses the power of death itself. And that is what we have done! In fact, since we were little children, the faith which the Holy Spirit planted in our hearts is the faith that trusts in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin and death. Since we were little children, we have been taught about Jesus Christ, our Savior. We have learned how he was born on earth as a little baby; how he grew in wisdom, stature and the fear of the Lord. We learned how Jesus regularly demonstrated himself as the Savior by teaching them to repent and believe the good news of the kingdom of heaven. We learned how Jesus taught the people that he was the Son of God, the Savior who had been promised, who had come into the world to save sinners. We saw the miracles that Jesus performed, turning water into wine, healing those who were sick, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk, driving out demons, and yes, even raising the dead. Since we were little children we have known and believed that this Jesus is our Savior, whose death and resurrection have freed us from our sins and the fear of death forever!
Now, with this miracle of Jesus raising the young man of Nain back to life, we are being given the opportunity to plant our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power over death. We are assured that just as Jesus raised this young man back to life, so also the Lord will raise us back to life as well. Though our sinful nature demands that we must all, one day, succumb to the consequence of death, as we have planted our faith in Jesus, we no longer have to fear death because our Savior has destroyed the one who holds the power of death, that is the devil. (Hebrews 2:14-15). We no longer need to fear death because God has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57) We no longer need to fear death, because our faith has been planted in Jesus, our Savior. Our faith has been planted in the one who took the slate of our sins and wiped it clean by his death and resurrection. Our faith is planted in the one who has transformed death into nothing more than a sleep—a sleep from which we will awaken, one day, in the halls of heaven.
Because of this, we can be certain that even though we must one day feel the painful separation that death brings, we know that it is but a temporary separation. We know it is but a temporary situation because we know that through faith in Jesus we will one day be reunited with all those who have gone before us to the halls of eternal life. We know that even though we have had to say farewell to parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, Aunts, Uncles, cousins and even friends, we know that those who planted their faith in Jesus have merely fallen asleep in him and have woken up by his side in the halls of heaven. Though it is painful to be separated by the ones we love, through faith in Jesus, we know that one day, when the Lord calls us home, we will be reunited with all those who have gone before us. We will be with the Lord forever!
So, dear friends, as you leave here today; continue cultivating your faith in the Lord. Plant your faith in the rich earth of Jesus Christ your Savior. Water it daily with the cool waters of the Word of Life. Till around it with the Law and fertilize it with the Gospel so that this simple plant of your faith, might grow into a great and solid tree of righteousness in the forests of the kingdom of God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Series: Cultivate your faith in the Lord.
Week 2: Plant your faith in the One who Holds Power over Death (Luke 7:11-17)
Dear friends in Christ.
How old were you when you were first affected by the power of death? For me, I was 13. I was the one who answered the phone that Thursday afternoon when Grandma called to tell us that Grandpa was in the hospital. He had been hanging storm windows, getting the house ready for winter when he simply collapsed. The ambulance had come and taken him to the local hospital, but within an hour of admission he was flown to the major hospital in La Crosse. That evening my parents jumped into the car and left for Wisconsin, where they spent the next few days essentially living in the hospital with Grandma and mom’s two sisters. On Sunday evening, when Mom and Dad returned home, they told us that Grandpa had died earlier that morning, that we would be packing, getting a good night sleep, and heading out in the morning, on our way to a funeral. Though this is something that happened 25 years ago, I can still remember my shock and surprise at death’s power to separate me from my Grandpa. I can still remember looking for comfort and solace as the Pastor shared the Word of God with us, and I remember how that word helped cultivate my faith and encouraged me to plant my faith in Jesus as the one who holds power over death.
Since that day 25 years ago, I have seen the power of death at work on many, many occasions, just as so many of you have also felt it. For the truth is, most of us here have seen the power of death at work separating us from friends or loved ones. Some of us have stood guard at grave sites, honoring fellow members of our armed forces with the presentation of a flag, a salute, the firing of guns, and taps. We have gathered here in our sorrow to say farewell to parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends when death has wielded its power to separate us from our loved ones. Whether that death came expectedly after a long battle with a terminal illness or it came suddenly and unexpectedly through an accident, a murder, a suicide, a natural disaster, or even from natural causes, no matter how death might come, it’s power to separate us from our loved one is what causes us such great pain and sorrow, grief and heartache.
This is something that most of us have already experienced in a very personal way, as death has already separated us from dear friends or loved ones. But even if you have yet to experience the painful separation of death in such a personal way, the Lord knew that one day, each and every one of us would feel death’s power of separation, which is why he included the account of Jesus raising the young man of Nain from the dead. He included it as a comfort for us in the face of sorrow and an encouragement for us to do the very thing the people did who were present that day, namely plant their faith in Jesus who holds power over death. In fact, let’s take a closer look at that account today. Open your Bibles our Gospel lesson, to Luke 7 and we will take a closer look at how we cultivate our faith in the Lord by planting our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power over death. Luke writes in chapter 7 beginning at verse 11: “Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. ” (Luke 7:11–17, NIV)
Imagine the scene. Jesus and his disciples had been traveling with large crowds of people following after him ever since he preached the Sermon on the Mount, as we heard last week. In fact, as you remember, after Jesus finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount, he and his disciples together with a large crowd, traveled to Capernaum, where he was amazed by the great faith of the Centurion, whose servant Jesus healed without even stepping foot in the Centurion’s house. Now, soon after that, Jesus traveled with his disciples and a large crowd of people to Nain, a city about 20 miles Southwest of Capernaum. There, as Jesus was approaching the town gate with his large crowd of followers, a funeral procession was leaving the city with a large crowd of mourners following behind. The two groups of people met at that city gate, exactly as Jesus planned it, and there, hundreds if not thousands of people planted their faith in Jesus because they saw him demonstrate his power over death.
As soon as Jesus saw the widow who had lost her only son, his heart ached, he was filled with compassion for her, and he immediately sprang to action. After telling her that she no longer needed to weep, Jesus immediately gave her the ability to fulfill his command. He walked purposefully to those who were carrying the young man, placed his hand on the coffin in an authoritative way so that the men stopped in their tracks, and he spoke to the young man as if he was only sleeping, commanding him to get up. Immediately the young man sat up and began talking! This young man who had been completely lifeless was now alive! Though death’s power had separated him from his mother, Jesus revealed his power over death by reversing death, restoring life, and giving this son back to his mother, alive! Can you imagine the joy that now filled this woman’s heart as her son who had been dead, was given back to her alive! Can you imagine her amazement as death’s power of separation was broken by 8 simple words spoken by Jesus! Can you imagine the fear and the awe that passed through the crowd that day as hundreds, if not thousands of people saw a dead man brought back to life! For on that day, as Jesus demonstrated his power over death, many, many people planted their faith in him as they praised God saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us,” “God has come to help his people.” (Luke 7:16, NIV) Many, many people planted their faith in Jesus as the Messiah who so clearly displayed his power over death itself, and they spread the word about him wherever they went, so that news about Jesus spread throughout the entire land of Israel.
Well, just as so many people planted their faith in the Lord Jesus as the one who holds power over death, so, also as we cultivate our faith in the Lord, we seek to do the same. We seek to plant our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, because we know that he is the one whose power and authority far surpasses the power of death itself. And that is what we have done! In fact, since we were little children, the faith which the Holy Spirit planted in our hearts is the faith that trusts in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin and death. Since we were little children, we have been taught about Jesus Christ, our Savior. We have learned how he was born on earth as a little baby; how he grew in wisdom, stature and the fear of the Lord. We learned how Jesus regularly demonstrated himself as the Savior by teaching them to repent and believe the good news of the kingdom of heaven. We learned how Jesus taught the people that he was the Son of God, the Savior who had been promised, who had come into the world to save sinners. We saw the miracles that Jesus performed, turning water into wine, healing those who were sick, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk, driving out demons, and yes, even raising the dead. Since we were little children we have known and believed that this Jesus is our Savior, whose death and resurrection have freed us from our sins and the fear of death forever!
Now, with this miracle of Jesus raising the young man of Nain back to life, we are being given the opportunity to plant our faith in Jesus as the one who holds power over death. We are assured that just as Jesus raised this young man back to life, so also the Lord will raise us back to life as well. Though our sinful nature demands that we must all, one day, succumb to the consequence of death, as we have planted our faith in Jesus, we no longer have to fear death because our Savior has destroyed the one who holds the power of death, that is the devil. (Hebrews 2:14-15). We no longer need to fear death because God has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57) We no longer need to fear death, because our faith has been planted in Jesus, our Savior. Our faith has been planted in the one who took the slate of our sins and wiped it clean by his death and resurrection. Our faith is planted in the one who has transformed death into nothing more than a sleep—a sleep from which we will awaken, one day, in the halls of heaven.
Because of this, we can be certain that even though we must one day feel the painful separation that death brings, we know that it is but a temporary separation. We know it is but a temporary situation because we know that through faith in Jesus we will one day be reunited with all those who have gone before us to the halls of eternal life. We know that even though we have had to say farewell to parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, Aunts, Uncles, cousins and even friends, we know that those who planted their faith in Jesus have merely fallen asleep in him and have woken up by his side in the halls of heaven. Though it is painful to be separated by the ones we love, through faith in Jesus, we know that one day, when the Lord calls us home, we will be reunited with all those who have gone before us. We will be with the Lord forever!
So, dear friends, as you leave here today; continue cultivating your faith in the Lord. Plant your faith in the rich earth of Jesus Christ your Savior. Water it daily with the cool waters of the Word of Life. Till around it with the Law and fertilize it with the Gospel so that this simple plant of your faith, might grow into a great and solid tree of righteousness in the forests of the kingdom of God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
Series: Cultivate your faith in the Lord.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Learn from the Centurion's Faith (Luke 7:1-10)
Series: Cultivate your Faith in the Lord
Week 1: Learn from the Centurion's Faith (Luke 7:1-10)
Dear friends in Christ.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us here, maybe even all of us, are rather familiar with the movie, The Wizard of Oz. After all, it is a classic story of Dorothy, a young girl from Kansas who finds herself transported to the land of Oz, a vibrantly colorful and magic land filled with all sorts of amazing characters. As she travels along the way to meet the wizard, she meets for interesting friends, has quite a few adventures, and learns a great deal about friendship, courage, wisdom, caring, and trust. Yet, even as she learns these lessons, at the end of the movie she learns that she already had everything that she needed stored up inside of her. This, in fact, is the very lesson that the movie, The Wizard of Oz seeks to teach. Although it is nice to have powerful friends like the wizard, at the end of the day, Dorothy already had everything she needed to get home. She merely had to look to herself, have faith in herself, and find what she needed inside herself. Interestingly enough, this is the very lesson that the world is constantly teaching us. As humans, we are constantly told that we can do anything we want. We have the power to affect our lives, all we have to do is look deep enough inside ourselves and we will find everything we will ever need. All we have to do is trust ourselves. But even though this is the lesson that the world is constantly seeking to teach us, our Savior teaches us a different lesson about faith in our text this morning, in fact, as we look at Luke 7:1-10, we will see Jesus teaching a lesson about faith from the example of the centurion.
“When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 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.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. ” (Luke 7:1–10, NIV)
Now, when the events of our text take place, Jesus was returning to Capernaum just after he finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 4, Luke records how Jesus had previously been in Capernaum and how he had carried out several healings which had completely amazed everyone present, and now Jesus was returning to the town that had become the center of his ministry in Galilee ever since his home town of Nazareth had rejected him. (Luke 4:28-30) In Matthew 8:1-4, we are told how Jesus healed a man with Leprosy, just before entering Capernaum, and now, as Jesus enters, our Lesson begins as we learn from the lesson of the Centurion’s faith, teaching us that faith is not self-centered, but God centered.
Now, if you think about it, the centurion in this account, must have been a rather important man. He was a Centurion, meaning that he was the commander of 100 men at Capernaum, which would have made him ranking officer in town, and the person who was essentially in charge of Capernaum under the Roman Leadership of the day. But not only does his position tell us something about his authority and importance, it also tells us about his character, as the Romans didn’t just pick anyone to be a centurion, they picked the best men. In fact, the historian Polybius, who lived 200 years before Jesus wrote that centurions must be “men who can command, (men) steady in action and reliable; they ought not to be over anxious to rush into the fight, but when hard pressed they must be ready to hold their ground and die at their posts.” This centurion was a man who was respected, who was courageous, who was a leader and who was resourceful. He was an important man. He was a man who surely had everything necessary to find his way back to Kansas by himself if he ever found himself stranded in Oz. Yet, this man was different. His faith was not self-centered, but God centered.
Though this man was a Roman Centurion and a Gentile, he had come to faith in the God of Israel. He had heard about Jesus as verse 3 of our text tells us, and he must have concluded that Jesus was the Messiah that the Lord had promised in the pages of the Scriptures. And it was to Jesus that this centurion turned for help when his “paralyzed and suffering servant” (Matthew 8:6) was facing death. Instead of believing the lie that he had the power to go back to Kansas, he courageously reached out to the one he knew had the power to heal. He reached out to Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ. As Luke tells us in verses 3-6, “The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them.” (Luke 7:3–6 NIV)
When the Elders came to Jesus they based their request on the Centurion’s merits. They came right out and said that he deserved Jesus’ help because, even though he was a Roman Centurion and a Gentile, he loved the Jewish Nation. He had even gone so far as to build them a synagogue with his own money, and so, as they entreated Jesus to come, they sought to persuade Jesus based on the Centurion’s merits.
How often haven’t we done the same thing that these elders did? How often haven’t we based our own requests for the Lord’s help on the basis of our own merits? How often haven’t we expressed our own feelings of entitlement when it came to God’s help, rather than prayers and petitions based in humble, God centered trust that the Lord would carry out what was best for us in his own time. I hate to admit it, but I know I’ve done it. I’ve done the mental arithmetic during prayers, praying while thinking that I’ve been pretty good this week so I should have earned enough brownie points with the Lord to ask for a big favor. There have been times that I have found myself trying to bargain with the Lord for what I wanted, rather than simply asking and trusting that he would do what is best, and if we are honest with ourselves, we all must admit that we’ve done it too. We have all tried to bargain with God. But the truth is, there is nothing that we can offer to God with which to bargain, because everything we have is what God has loaned to us already. Thus, everything that the Lord does for us is an act of his Grace. The answers he grants to our prayers, be they “yes” or “no”, are answers of his grace. The forgiveness that he gives, even when we pray in a self-centered bargaining way is an act of his grace designed to help us re-center our faith on him and humbly trust his divine authority, and that is the second lesson we seek to learn from the faith of this Centurion.
Though the Elders of the Jews had come to Jesus expressing just how much the Centurion deserved Jesus’ help, this was not the Centurion’s intent. Though he did indeed love the Jewish nation, and had used his own wealth to build a synagogue for the people, these were but acts of love flowing out of a faith that was God-centered; a faith that clearly and humbly trusted in the divine authority of Jesus. This is brought out ever so clearly by Luke’s words beginning in the second part of verse 6, where he says, “[Jesus] was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 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.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. ” (Luke 7:6–10, NIV)
Though, as we said before, the Centurion was an important man in Capernaum, he was not consumed by his own importance. He did not feel that he was entitled to the Lord’s help in any way, in fact, as a Gentile, he did not feel worthy to have Jesus come under his roof. Instead, he humbly placed his faith in Jesus’ divine authority to heal with but a single word. As a Centurion, this man knew what authority was all about. He, himself was under the authority of others, and had others under his authority. When he was commanded, he acted, and when he commanded, those under him acted. Thus, he understood that Jesus was a man of authority, which had been given to God. He understood that as a man of authority Jesus was able to give commands that would be carried out without question. Which is why the Centurion’s message to Jesus was: “Don’t trouble yourself in coming ... simply say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
At this, Jesus marveled at the humble faith that so clearly trusted in him and his authority over sickness and death. Here was a Gentile who had faith in God that outstripped even the Jews. Oh, the Jews had faith, but the centurion had great faith. It was great faith that wasn’t self-centered. It was great faith that humbly focused on God. It was great faith that trusted in God’s authority.
So, if I might quote Glenda, “What have you learned, Dorothy?” What have we learned about faith from the example of the Centurion’s faith? What have we learned about our own faith? Where is our faith centered? Is it centered on ourselves and what we have accomplished for God? Or is it centered on God and what he has accomplished for us? By taking time to be here this morning and learning from the example of the Centurion’s faith, I can say that your faith is humbly centered on your Lord and Savior, by whose authority you have come to know him and by whose authority your sins have been forgiven. By taking the time to gather for worship your faith and your trust in God has increased as the Holy Spirit has been at work in your hearts through the Words that you have heard today. By taking the time to worship the Lord, your focus has moved off of yourselves and on to the Lord, and you are now ready to go out into the world and let your faith shine in all that you say and do. By gathering here this morning, you have been built up in your trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, and assured of the salvation which is yours through the very faith the Lord has instilled in your hearts.
Though the world is constantly telling us that like Dorothy, we have the power within us to accomplish whatever we want, the Lord is calling on us to look to him in faith. Continue in his word, focusing your faith on him, your Lord and Savior as you humbly trust his divine authority. Amen.
Many of the thoughts and ideas in this sermon are similar to an excellent sermon written by David Elvery, "Great Faith & Great Humility in Action." His sermon was a great help in organizing my own thoughts on this text.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
Week 1: Learn from the Centurion's Faith (Luke 7:1-10)
Dear friends in Christ.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us here, maybe even all of us, are rather familiar with the movie, The Wizard of Oz. After all, it is a classic story of Dorothy, a young girl from Kansas who finds herself transported to the land of Oz, a vibrantly colorful and magic land filled with all sorts of amazing characters. As she travels along the way to meet the wizard, she meets for interesting friends, has quite a few adventures, and learns a great deal about friendship, courage, wisdom, caring, and trust. Yet, even as she learns these lessons, at the end of the movie she learns that she already had everything that she needed stored up inside of her. This, in fact, is the very lesson that the movie, The Wizard of Oz seeks to teach. Although it is nice to have powerful friends like the wizard, at the end of the day, Dorothy already had everything she needed to get home. She merely had to look to herself, have faith in herself, and find what she needed inside herself. Interestingly enough, this is the very lesson that the world is constantly teaching us. As humans, we are constantly told that we can do anything we want. We have the power to affect our lives, all we have to do is look deep enough inside ourselves and we will find everything we will ever need. All we have to do is trust ourselves. But even though this is the lesson that the world is constantly seeking to teach us, our Savior teaches us a different lesson about faith in our text this morning, in fact, as we look at Luke 7:1-10, we will see Jesus teaching a lesson about faith from the example of the centurion.
“When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 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.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. ” (Luke 7:1–10, NIV)
Now, when the events of our text take place, Jesus was returning to Capernaum just after he finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 4, Luke records how Jesus had previously been in Capernaum and how he had carried out several healings which had completely amazed everyone present, and now Jesus was returning to the town that had become the center of his ministry in Galilee ever since his home town of Nazareth had rejected him. (Luke 4:28-30) In Matthew 8:1-4, we are told how Jesus healed a man with Leprosy, just before entering Capernaum, and now, as Jesus enters, our Lesson begins as we learn from the lesson of the Centurion’s faith, teaching us that faith is not self-centered, but God centered.
Now, if you think about it, the centurion in this account, must have been a rather important man. He was a Centurion, meaning that he was the commander of 100 men at Capernaum, which would have made him ranking officer in town, and the person who was essentially in charge of Capernaum under the Roman Leadership of the day. But not only does his position tell us something about his authority and importance, it also tells us about his character, as the Romans didn’t just pick anyone to be a centurion, they picked the best men. In fact, the historian Polybius, who lived 200 years before Jesus wrote that centurions must be “men who can command, (men) steady in action and reliable; they ought not to be over anxious to rush into the fight, but when hard pressed they must be ready to hold their ground and die at their posts.” This centurion was a man who was respected, who was courageous, who was a leader and who was resourceful. He was an important man. He was a man who surely had everything necessary to find his way back to Kansas by himself if he ever found himself stranded in Oz. Yet, this man was different. His faith was not self-centered, but God centered.
Though this man was a Roman Centurion and a Gentile, he had come to faith in the God of Israel. He had heard about Jesus as verse 3 of our text tells us, and he must have concluded that Jesus was the Messiah that the Lord had promised in the pages of the Scriptures. And it was to Jesus that this centurion turned for help when his “paralyzed and suffering servant” (Matthew 8:6) was facing death. Instead of believing the lie that he had the power to go back to Kansas, he courageously reached out to the one he knew had the power to heal. He reached out to Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ. As Luke tells us in verses 3-6, “The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them.” (Luke 7:3–6 NIV)
When the Elders came to Jesus they based their request on the Centurion’s merits. They came right out and said that he deserved Jesus’ help because, even though he was a Roman Centurion and a Gentile, he loved the Jewish Nation. He had even gone so far as to build them a synagogue with his own money, and so, as they entreated Jesus to come, they sought to persuade Jesus based on the Centurion’s merits.
How often haven’t we done the same thing that these elders did? How often haven’t we based our own requests for the Lord’s help on the basis of our own merits? How often haven’t we expressed our own feelings of entitlement when it came to God’s help, rather than prayers and petitions based in humble, God centered trust that the Lord would carry out what was best for us in his own time. I hate to admit it, but I know I’ve done it. I’ve done the mental arithmetic during prayers, praying while thinking that I’ve been pretty good this week so I should have earned enough brownie points with the Lord to ask for a big favor. There have been times that I have found myself trying to bargain with the Lord for what I wanted, rather than simply asking and trusting that he would do what is best, and if we are honest with ourselves, we all must admit that we’ve done it too. We have all tried to bargain with God. But the truth is, there is nothing that we can offer to God with which to bargain, because everything we have is what God has loaned to us already. Thus, everything that the Lord does for us is an act of his Grace. The answers he grants to our prayers, be they “yes” or “no”, are answers of his grace. The forgiveness that he gives, even when we pray in a self-centered bargaining way is an act of his grace designed to help us re-center our faith on him and humbly trust his divine authority, and that is the second lesson we seek to learn from the faith of this Centurion.
Though the Elders of the Jews had come to Jesus expressing just how much the Centurion deserved Jesus’ help, this was not the Centurion’s intent. Though he did indeed love the Jewish nation, and had used his own wealth to build a synagogue for the people, these were but acts of love flowing out of a faith that was God-centered; a faith that clearly and humbly trusted in the divine authority of Jesus. This is brought out ever so clearly by Luke’s words beginning in the second part of verse 6, where he says, “[Jesus] was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 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.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. ” (Luke 7:6–10, NIV)
Though, as we said before, the Centurion was an important man in Capernaum, he was not consumed by his own importance. He did not feel that he was entitled to the Lord’s help in any way, in fact, as a Gentile, he did not feel worthy to have Jesus come under his roof. Instead, he humbly placed his faith in Jesus’ divine authority to heal with but a single word. As a Centurion, this man knew what authority was all about. He, himself was under the authority of others, and had others under his authority. When he was commanded, he acted, and when he commanded, those under him acted. Thus, he understood that Jesus was a man of authority, which had been given to God. He understood that as a man of authority Jesus was able to give commands that would be carried out without question. Which is why the Centurion’s message to Jesus was: “Don’t trouble yourself in coming ... simply say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
At this, Jesus marveled at the humble faith that so clearly trusted in him and his authority over sickness and death. Here was a Gentile who had faith in God that outstripped even the Jews. Oh, the Jews had faith, but the centurion had great faith. It was great faith that wasn’t self-centered. It was great faith that humbly focused on God. It was great faith that trusted in God’s authority.
So, if I might quote Glenda, “What have you learned, Dorothy?” What have we learned about faith from the example of the Centurion’s faith? What have we learned about our own faith? Where is our faith centered? Is it centered on ourselves and what we have accomplished for God? Or is it centered on God and what he has accomplished for us? By taking time to be here this morning and learning from the example of the Centurion’s faith, I can say that your faith is humbly centered on your Lord and Savior, by whose authority you have come to know him and by whose authority your sins have been forgiven. By taking the time to gather for worship your faith and your trust in God has increased as the Holy Spirit has been at work in your hearts through the Words that you have heard today. By taking the time to worship the Lord, your focus has moved off of yourselves and on to the Lord, and you are now ready to go out into the world and let your faith shine in all that you say and do. By gathering here this morning, you have been built up in your trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, and assured of the salvation which is yours through the very faith the Lord has instilled in your hearts.
Though the world is constantly telling us that like Dorothy, we have the power within us to accomplish whatever we want, the Lord is calling on us to look to him in faith. Continue in his word, focusing your faith on him, your Lord and Savior as you humbly trust his divine authority. Amen.
Many of the thoughts and ideas in this sermon are similar to an excellent sermon written by David Elvery, "Great Faith & Great Humility in Action." His sermon was a great help in organizing my own thoughts on this text.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
What is God Like?
May 30, 2010
Theme: What is our God Like?
Dear friends in Christ.
It has been said that what you know about a person usually affects the way that you feel about a person, and in most cases that seems to be true. Take, for example, Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of the United States. He was the President in Office during the Civil War. He was the one who was determined that the United States of America should remain together as a single nation. He was the one who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those who were salves from their forced servitude, and putting into motion the events that led to the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which finally Abolished Slavery in the United States. He was the one who was assassinated at Ford’s Theater a mere 5 days after the Civil War came to an end. Because of this knowledge, there are many who love Lincoln and hail him as one of the greatest Presidents our Nation has ever seen. Though he was continually ridiculed and spoken against in his time, because of what we know about him from history, we are able to form our own opinion about him, and our own personal feelings about him have been affected in many ways by what we know. Well the same thing is true about the Lord our God, our opinion of him is very much affected by what we know about him. Thus, as we study the Scriptures before us today we will seek to learn about our God and answer the question, “What is our God like?”
To answer this question, we want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about God’s Characteristics and learn two basic ways that God’s nature is different than ours. So, I invite you to grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28:19 which can be found on page 989. As you are looking it up, let me give you the context of this passage. It had been 40 days since Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus and his disciples were standing on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was giving them his final instructions and blessings before he would ascend into heaven. While he was speaking to them he told them, (and we’ll read Matthew 28:19 together): “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19, NIV)
Just as Jesus began his ministry with the Father’s blessing and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon him, so also Jesus returns to heaven instituting the Sacrament of Baptism, proclaiming that all of his disciples should baptize people in the name of the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus reveals that our God is three distinct and separate persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, when we look at our God we know that the Father is not the Son. We know that the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Yet, even as we worship our God in three separate and distinct persons, we know that we do not worship three separate Gods but we worship only one God, as Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4. Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 6:4, which can be found on page 178 of your Bibles, and we’ll read this passage together also. Again, as you look up the passage, let me set the context. The Israelites have completed their 40 years of wandering in the desert and they are preparing to cross the Jordan and take the land of Canaan. As they prepare, Moses is reminding them of all that the Lord has done for them. In Chapter 5 Moses reviewed the Ten Commandments and now, in verses 4 of Chapter 6, Moses speaks about the Lord whom we serve as we follow his commandments. And we read together: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)
With these words, the Lord God reveals a very specific distinction between his nature and our nature. He is one! Though, He is three separate and distinct persons these three separate and distinct persons make up one individual God. How this can be, we do not know we simply believe it and accept it by faith, because God himself has told us that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons yet one God. So, if we should ever take the Father out of the picture, would we still believe in the true God proclaimed by the Bible? No, because we would only have the Son and the Holy Spirit and not all three. What if we took the Son out of the picture and believed only in the Father and the Holy Spirit? The same thing would be true. We would not have the True God spoken of in the Bible. What if we took the Holy Spirit out of the picture and only believed in the Father and the Son, would we still have the true God proclaimed by the Bible? Again, the answer is no. even though the Bible never uses the word Triune to describe our God, the Bible makes it clear that the God we worship is three persons (tri) yet one God (une), which gives us our Triune God 3 person in one God, just as Jesus tells us in our Gospel Lesson today: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. ” (John 16:13–15, NIV)
From all of these passages, we can clearly see the two basic ways that our God’s nature is different than our own. Not only is the Lord our God Triune—Three Persons yet, One God—but also, as we have been taught since we were little Children, the Lord our God is spirit. Because the Lord is Spirit, he does not have a physical body. Even though Jesus came to the earth and took on our human flesh and blood, when he ascended into heaven, he returned to his spirit form. Yet, the Lord our God is not some distant force sailing around the galaxy, he is a real personal being who hears our prayers and understands our needs. He desires and even demands the most important place in our hearts and our lives. He calls on us to worship him, praise him, and thank him for all that he has done for us. He forgives us each and every time we fall in to temptation and sin against him, and he has chosen to reveal himself to us through the pages of the Scriptures so that we might gain a better understanding of who he is through the many characteristics that he reveals to us in his Word.
So, let’s take another look at the Scriptures to see if we might discover all that the Lord our God wants us to learn about himself. To do this, we will turn to Psalm 139 which can be found on page 618, and as you are looking up Psalm 139 on page 618, let me give you just a little bit of an introduction. Psalm 139 is one of the many Psalms that King David wrote by the inspiration of the Lord. It was given to the director of music for use as a song for worship in the temple. It has even been called the Psalm of the All knowing and Ever Present God, and the reason for this will become clear as I read. In fact, due to the length of the Psalm I invite you to follow along with me as I read: “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ” (Psalm 139:1–24, NIV)
In such a beautiful way the Lord so clearly reveals that he is omniscient—all knowing—and omnipresent—present everywhere. He reminds us that not only does he know everything that we say and do, he also knows us better than our friends, our family, even our own fathers and mothers. He knows what we need when we need it, and he is always present with us, watching over us, protecting us, helping us, and ready to comfort us. He is also the all-powerful God who created our inmost beings, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to punish those who do not believe in him in the fires of eternal damnation, and he is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to bring those who believe in him to the halls of eternal life where we will live with him forever.
What more beautiful and comforting words could the Lord give to us as he reveals himself to us through his Word! Yet, there are so many more passages we could chose today to teach us more about the Characteristics of our God. The problem is, we are running out of time this morning, that is, if we feel we must keep our service as close to an hour as possible. However, since that is our custom, perhaps just one final passage. Turn with me to Exodus 34:5-7 on page 88. Again, let me give you the background for these verses: Moses had been with the Lord on the Mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, during which time the people persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship. When Moses came down and saw what they were doing, he broke the tablets, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, sprinkled it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. Now, he had returned to the mountain with two new tablets of stone for the Lord’s commands where he had also asked the Lord to show him his glory, which is where we pick up as we read together: “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5–7, NIV)
In such a beautiful way, the Lord our God reveals to us some of his most incredible characteristics. We know of his compassion for us in his sending Jesus to be our Savior. We know of his Graciousness that he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but he shows his love and his patience for us by giving us this time of grace in which to come to faith. He shows his love and his faithfulness by continually protecting us from all harm and danger, and forgiving all our sins for Jesus’ sake. Though the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished, through faith in him, we live in his love and faithfulness. We see the Lord our God as the loving, caring, and gracious God he is.
Thus, today, in the same way we have learned about Abraham Lincoln from history, we have learned what the Lord our God is like. For from the pages of Scripture, we have come to know that our all powerful Triune God is a Spirit who reveals himself to us in the Scriptures.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Theme: What is our God Like?
Dear friends in Christ.
It has been said that what you know about a person usually affects the way that you feel about a person, and in most cases that seems to be true. Take, for example, Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of the United States. He was the President in Office during the Civil War. He was the one who was determined that the United States of America should remain together as a single nation. He was the one who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those who were salves from their forced servitude, and putting into motion the events that led to the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which finally Abolished Slavery in the United States. He was the one who was assassinated at Ford’s Theater a mere 5 days after the Civil War came to an end. Because of this knowledge, there are many who love Lincoln and hail him as one of the greatest Presidents our Nation has ever seen. Though he was continually ridiculed and spoken against in his time, because of what we know about him from history, we are able to form our own opinion about him, and our own personal feelings about him have been affected in many ways by what we know. Well the same thing is true about the Lord our God, our opinion of him is very much affected by what we know about him. Thus, as we study the Scriptures before us today we will seek to learn about our God and answer the question, “What is our God like?”
To answer this question, we want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about God’s Characteristics and learn two basic ways that God’s nature is different than ours. So, I invite you to grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28:19 which can be found on page 989. As you are looking it up, let me give you the context of this passage. It had been 40 days since Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus and his disciples were standing on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was giving them his final instructions and blessings before he would ascend into heaven. While he was speaking to them he told them, (and we’ll read Matthew 28:19 together): “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19, NIV)
Just as Jesus began his ministry with the Father’s blessing and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon him, so also Jesus returns to heaven instituting the Sacrament of Baptism, proclaiming that all of his disciples should baptize people in the name of the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus reveals that our God is three distinct and separate persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, when we look at our God we know that the Father is not the Son. We know that the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Yet, even as we worship our God in three separate and distinct persons, we know that we do not worship three separate Gods but we worship only one God, as Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4. Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 6:4, which can be found on page 178 of your Bibles, and we’ll read this passage together also. Again, as you look up the passage, let me set the context. The Israelites have completed their 40 years of wandering in the desert and they are preparing to cross the Jordan and take the land of Canaan. As they prepare, Moses is reminding them of all that the Lord has done for them. In Chapter 5 Moses reviewed the Ten Commandments and now, in verses 4 of Chapter 6, Moses speaks about the Lord whom we serve as we follow his commandments. And we read together: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)
With these words, the Lord God reveals a very specific distinction between his nature and our nature. He is one! Though, He is three separate and distinct persons these three separate and distinct persons make up one individual God. How this can be, we do not know we simply believe it and accept it by faith, because God himself has told us that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons yet one God. So, if we should ever take the Father out of the picture, would we still believe in the true God proclaimed by the Bible? No, because we would only have the Son and the Holy Spirit and not all three. What if we took the Son out of the picture and believed only in the Father and the Holy Spirit? The same thing would be true. We would not have the True God spoken of in the Bible. What if we took the Holy Spirit out of the picture and only believed in the Father and the Son, would we still have the true God proclaimed by the Bible? Again, the answer is no. even though the Bible never uses the word Triune to describe our God, the Bible makes it clear that the God we worship is three persons (tri) yet one God (une), which gives us our Triune God 3 person in one God, just as Jesus tells us in our Gospel Lesson today: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. ” (John 16:13–15, NIV)
From all of these passages, we can clearly see the two basic ways that our God’s nature is different than our own. Not only is the Lord our God Triune—Three Persons yet, One God—but also, as we have been taught since we were little Children, the Lord our God is spirit. Because the Lord is Spirit, he does not have a physical body. Even though Jesus came to the earth and took on our human flesh and blood, when he ascended into heaven, he returned to his spirit form. Yet, the Lord our God is not some distant force sailing around the galaxy, he is a real personal being who hears our prayers and understands our needs. He desires and even demands the most important place in our hearts and our lives. He calls on us to worship him, praise him, and thank him for all that he has done for us. He forgives us each and every time we fall in to temptation and sin against him, and he has chosen to reveal himself to us through the pages of the Scriptures so that we might gain a better understanding of who he is through the many characteristics that he reveals to us in his Word.
So, let’s take another look at the Scriptures to see if we might discover all that the Lord our God wants us to learn about himself. To do this, we will turn to Psalm 139 which can be found on page 618, and as you are looking up Psalm 139 on page 618, let me give you just a little bit of an introduction. Psalm 139 is one of the many Psalms that King David wrote by the inspiration of the Lord. It was given to the director of music for use as a song for worship in the temple. It has even been called the Psalm of the All knowing and Ever Present God, and the reason for this will become clear as I read. In fact, due to the length of the Psalm I invite you to follow along with me as I read: “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ” (Psalm 139:1–24, NIV)
In such a beautiful way the Lord so clearly reveals that he is omniscient—all knowing—and omnipresent—present everywhere. He reminds us that not only does he know everything that we say and do, he also knows us better than our friends, our family, even our own fathers and mothers. He knows what we need when we need it, and he is always present with us, watching over us, protecting us, helping us, and ready to comfort us. He is also the all-powerful God who created our inmost beings, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to punish those who do not believe in him in the fires of eternal damnation, and he is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to bring those who believe in him to the halls of eternal life where we will live with him forever.
What more beautiful and comforting words could the Lord give to us as he reveals himself to us through his Word! Yet, there are so many more passages we could chose today to teach us more about the Characteristics of our God. The problem is, we are running out of time this morning, that is, if we feel we must keep our service as close to an hour as possible. However, since that is our custom, perhaps just one final passage. Turn with me to Exodus 34:5-7 on page 88. Again, let me give you the background for these verses: Moses had been with the Lord on the Mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, during which time the people persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship. When Moses came down and saw what they were doing, he broke the tablets, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, sprinkled it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. Now, he had returned to the mountain with two new tablets of stone for the Lord’s commands where he had also asked the Lord to show him his glory, which is where we pick up as we read together: “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5–7, NIV)
In such a beautiful way, the Lord our God reveals to us some of his most incredible characteristics. We know of his compassion for us in his sending Jesus to be our Savior. We know of his Graciousness that he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but he shows his love and his patience for us by giving us this time of grace in which to come to faith. He shows his love and his faithfulness by continually protecting us from all harm and danger, and forgiving all our sins for Jesus’ sake. Though the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished, through faith in him, we live in his love and faithfulness. We see the Lord our God as the loving, caring, and gracious God he is.
Thus, today, in the same way we have learned about Abraham Lincoln from history, we have learned what the Lord our God is like. For from the pages of Scripture, we have come to know that our all powerful Triune God is a Spirit who reveals himself to us in the Scriptures.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
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