190512 Sermon on Lamentations 3:22-33, John 16:16-22 (Easter 4) May 12, 2019
The strength of our life of faith that we have as Christians
is the most important thing in our lives.
What I mean by the life of faith is the way that we trust in Jesus. When this is strong we are holding onto
Christ very firmly. When this life of faith
is weak, then we are not. It can even
get to the point where we might think that we are still holding on to Christ by
faith, but that turns out to be self-delusion.
It is possible that without our knowing it, without our intending it, we
have lost Christ in preference to other things.
The list is very long of the other things that can be held
dear in a person’s heart. Maybe we can
start to diagnose what is being held dear in your life by asking, “What makes
life worth living?” Most people are going
to answer that question with good things that have absolutely nothing wrong
with them in and of themselves. Making
discoveries, being productive, having a family, loving your spouse, eating,
drinking, buying, selling—the list is very long and depends on the person,
their background, and their temperament.
But these good things become evil for us in the way that
they make our hearts distant from God.
The first and greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with
all your mind.” What makes life
worth living? The Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. That’s how it was in
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
This truth was clear in the beginning before the fall into sin. It will be clear again when sin and all evil
is confined forever in hell. But it is
not so clear to us now except when it is made known by the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit everyone is going to
be devoted to the good things of creation and keep out of mind the
Creator.
This is what comes natural to us and is comfortable for our
Old Adam. It is comfortable for our Old
Adam to keep God at a distance while enjoying whatever progress we can make for
ourselves from the good things of this life.
It shouldn’t be this way, but sin has made it so. Our guilty consciences have made it so. Awareness of guilt makes us want to keep the
judge far away. And so we see this
tendency of our fallen human nature right away in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve wanted to continue to make a
life for themselves. They wanted to
continue to make lemonade out of the lemons that had brought upon
themselves. That was far, far preferable
to them than coming into the presence of the living God. Because they were devoid of faith and the
Holy Spirit, they would have preferred to go on with their lives as they were
and never had to face God.
This was very foolish, but it is a foolishness that we all
share. It was foolish because God did
not throw them into hell. He promised
them a Savior who would come from Eve.
He would crush the serpent’s head and set them and their children free
from their slavery to idolatry and unbelief.
The curse for sin was going to fall upon Jesus instead of upon the
sinners of the world. Through faith in
him they and all who would follow after them in faith would not experience
death in its fullness because the wrath of God for sin was poured out on Jesus
in our place. This was the very thing
that Adam and Eve were terrified about.
They were afraid that they had lost God forever and were stuck with the
devil. Glad tidings of great joy that is
for all people was proclaimed to our father and mother that day. They were reconciled to God even though they
were sinners because God was going to do the reconciling. Peace with God was already restored for Adam
and Eve right after the fall—a peace to be held to by faith.
This, then, for them was the most important thing in their
life just as it is for us their children.
Insofar as we hold to Christ firmly we are strong. Insofar as we fill our heart with other
things we are weak. Our weakness can
become such that unintentionally we choose other good things instead of
Christ. The goal of the devil, the
world, and our own sinful flesh is that we should do just that. The devil doesn’t care if we devote our lives
to high things that are respectable or low things that are shameful, so long as
we are not devoted to the one thing that is needful. Without God’s working in our lives and
without his Word and the almighty power of the Holy Spirit, nobody would
believe. But God has continued to
intervene in the lives of his saints so that they repent, and repent again and
again, and return to Christ the Savior as our highest good.
Our readings today give us the opportunity to learn about one
of the very important ways that God will work in the lives of his saints,
bringing about their salvation by keeping them in faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. What we shall consider today is
the way God often takes away things in which we put our love and trust so that
we may continue to believe and set our heart on him.
Our Old Testament reading is from the book of
Lamentations. This was written by the
prophet Jeremiah when the Babylonians destroyed God’s people. The Temple was torn down. The leaders were killed or carted away into
exile. Everything was lost. Seemingly even the one true religion was
lost, for how could a Church continue to exist without any leaders? The title for this book, “Lamentations,” was
not chosen by accident. The prophet is
full of sorrow and despair not just because of the loss of earthly treasures,
but also the loss of spiritual goods.
But as God was treading out the
winepress of Jeremiah’s heart he produces a fine vintage of good words that
have been a delight for God’s people ever since in their times of trouble: “The
steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come
to an end; they
are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” In the midst of sadness, despair, and misery
Jeremiah sings of God’s mercy and faithfulness.
The Lord will not cast off his people forever. He causes grief—and Jeremiah was certainly a
witness to the terror the Lord can bring—but he will have compassion according
to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of
men. That means the same thing as what
God says elsewhere: “God does not take delight in the death of the wicked,
but that they should be turned from their evil way and live.” When God punishes for sin, it is meant for
repentance and faith and joy in his mercy.
At the time of Jeremiah God
humbled his people with dreadful severity.
But it was better that that should happen, than that things should go on
the way that they had. His people were
rich and happy and long-lived up to this point, but their hearts were far from
God. When God smote them with his
chastising rod it was not because he hated them. To be sure, he was angry with them for their
sin, but he did not hate them. A good
and loving father will be angry when his children go astray, but that is
because he loves them. It is when a
father does not love his children that he will ignore them when they sin.
So it is also with God. So long as God continues to discipline us and
humble us we should consider ourselves blessed, but if God withdraws himself
from us and lets us do and get away with whatever we want—that is when we
should be worried. The worst of God’s
wrath is not when he smites us with diseases and disasters. The worst of God’s wrath is when he says, “Fine! Have it your way: If that’s the way that you
want to think, believe, and act, then just go right on doing that. Fill your heart with idols. You will not be called back. You will know nothing of the true God.” That is the hardening of heart. May God afflict us with whatever else, but
not that!
Just as God dealt with his
people in the Bible, so also he deals with us his people today. He chastises and afflicts to humble us and
bring us into sorrow and contrition for our sins. He takes away those things that clog up our
hearts so that we may return to him. But
the chastisement is not enough. In order
for God’s chastising hand to be for our good we must above all have God’s Word
so that we can understand it. Without
God’s Word people think that stuff happens by random chance. Or they are not brought to awareness of their
sins and their great need. Or even if
people were to know these things, they wouldn’t know anything of the steadfast
love of the Lord that never ceases, and so they wouldn’t know to turn to the
one who has laid his heavy hand upon them and to ask him for mercy. Without God’s Word we are worse than blind
and deaf. Without God’s Word we cannot
rightly understand what happens in our life whatsoever. We will continue our pursuit of happiness
apart from God instead of facing him.
Facing God will bring you
blessing. Don’t hide in the bushes. Don’t hide behind luck or chance or medicine
or progress or any other way you might construct meaning out of this life for
yourself. Our father and our mother were
afraid to face the God whom they had offended with their sins. They were terrified. But it was particularly in their terror and
despair that God filled their heart with Jesus who restored to them more than
they could have possibly hoped for.
When misfortune comes your way,
or when the cross is laid upon you—when you are persecuted or rejected, when
you are laid low with disease, disaster, and failure—when these afflictions
come upon you, you should not consider yourself cast off from God as though
your quality of life were your god. It
may just be that the quality of your life has been too rich for your good and
for your salvation. When affliction
comes upon you examine your life, confess your sins, and put your hope in
God.
There will be a lot of people in
heaven who will realize that they were saved by being humbled in just such a
way. They will see that if they had not
been brought low by this or that, then they would have continued on their merry
unbelieving way. But what they
discovered against their will with their afflictions was the God of all
comfort, who comforted them in their troubles.
Praise trickled out from the winepress of their heart: “The steadfast
love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new
every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And now in heaven their joy is full.
With all the bitterness that we
experience as a result of our sin in this life it is important to remember the
fullness of joy that awaits us. Jesus
gives us a powerful picture of that in our Gospel reading today that mothers
might understand better than the rest.
Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to go away and that they will
weep and lament. But then he will see
them again and their joy will be full.
He likens it to a mother who is giving birth. She has sorrow and sadness and pain when the hour
has come to deliver the child. This is a
frightening experience. There’s no going
back. There’s only going forward. And going forward means more pain and
danger. But once the baby is born she
forgets all about the pain because of the joy that she has in the new life that
has come into the world.
That’s a good picture. Were you joyful at the birth of your
children? Was your heart filled with
love? Well realize that this isn’t good
enough to convey what happens in heaven.
With this picture we are only dealing with something partial and earthly
and limited. When we see Jesus face to
face in the joys of paradise we will be in communion with the source of all
goodness and love. Then the troubles and
afflictions and disappointments of this earthly life will be forgotten. However bad they might be they are blotted
out by the joy that is set before us in Christ.
And so you should not despair
when these labor pains come upon you.
They are the signs that God is bringing about your birth as children of
God into your final inheritance. They
last but a little while. When they come
to an end, the fullness of your life will be given to you. In this way your heavenly Father is keeping
you strong in the life of faith—firmly clinging to Jesus. Even if we are surrounded by pain and
sadness, firmly clinging to Jesus is the best possible spot for us to be in.
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