220424 Sermon on Acts 5:12-32 (Easter 2) April 24, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

It is very common for Christians to conceive of their Christianity merely as a way to avert disaster. The key word for why this is not a correct view is that word “merely.” The statement is true without the “merely.” Christianity is, in fact, the only way to avert disaster. Disaster is the devil, death, evil, and hell. There is no way to overcome these things except through Christ who is given to those who believe the Gospel. So what is the problem, then, if we have that word “merely” in there? What’s wrong with saying that Christianity is merely a way to avert disaster?

The answer is that it betrays an entirely wrong attitude and focus. The mind and the heart remain firmly fixed on the things of the flesh. God’s ways, God’s commandments, what pleases God, is not what is front and center. The desire is to get around God—not having to obey him, or, perhaps, minimally obeying him—in order to forestall disaster.

The focus, the loving attitude is towards the things of this earthly life. A Christian can end up having the very same goals for life as an unbeliever. The goals might be merely to enjoy creature comforts, to make a name for one’s self, to have a painless death, and so on. Perhaps we could sum this all up as a desire to maximize our pleasure and minimize any suffering. That is where Jesus can fit in and do his part. Jesus is just kind of an insurance policy that things won’t go south after you die. He is merely a way to avoid disaster.

With this mindset it is not possible to give up anything of this life unless it is pried out of our cold, dead hands, so to speak. Jesus’s requirement that we take up his cross is either ignored, or one goes in search of the lightest, most comfortable cross one can find. We want full coverage, but for the cheapest premium possible. Then we can invest our time, talents, and treasures in the things that we actually love instead of God whom we merely fear.

This mentality is always going to produce a cheap, hap-hazard, pathetic, and infertile Christianity. More robust examples of Christianity won’t make sense to those who live in weak times. The exploits of the apostles, such as we heard in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, is going to seem very far away from us indeed.

In our first reading today you see Christians who are eager to live their new life in Jesus, which operates by different rules. Just before our reading something very dramatic happened—something that you would think would discourage people from becoming Christians. A husband and wife, named Ananias and Sapphira, sold some property in order to make an offering. Nobody forced them to sell this property or to make this offering. However, when they made the offering, they pretended that they were giving the full proceeds from the sale when in actual fact they had kept back a portion for themselves. Peter asked them why they had lied to the Holy Spirit. Then God killed them. They were buried side by side for giving an offering.

This deeply impressed upon the people at that time that membership in Christ’s church is no laughing matter. The Jerusalem congregation amazingly was not ashamed, fearing that they had gotten wrapped up in some kind of cult. Instead they feared God. This incident also kept people away who were merely shopping for insurance. This premium for this policy was way too steep. Only those who were daring enough to want to meet God retained any interest. And so in the wake of this incident the life of the Christian congregation had never been more vigorous. People were being baptized. The faithful wanted to learn, to worship, to pray. The blessings of Pentecost were very evident among them. Something that we think would be very, very bad for evangelism—namely, the death of a couple of their members—only served to heighten their piety and to keep the luke-warm away.

The vigor of this Christian congregation did not go unnoticed. The Christians kept testifying to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the Christ who would save his people. The same people who nailed Jesus to the cross because he said that he is Christ were now hearing about his disciples saying the same thing. Here they had thought that they had solved that problem—they killed the leader and figured that the disciples would be too intimidated to carry on—but the Holy Spirit had other plans. Instead of just one man preaching, Jesus, now there were dozens of preachers preaching salvation in Jesus’s Name. They had to be dealt with. So, again, they try to decapitate the movement. They arrest the apostles.

Now let’s think about what’s going on here. In a sense the apostles weren’t doing anything wrong, and yet, in another sense, they were inflicting the most serious of injuries. The apostles weren’t harming anyone’s body. They weren’t taking other people’s property. (In fact, they were giving away and sharing what they had.) But on the other hand, they were assaulting people where people cannot stand being assaulted. They were attacking people’s religion. We must understand how serious this is.

Everyone has a religion because everyone believes in something. Everyone has a god, or, more likely, many gods. Everybody has his or her own beliefs about what will make a person happy, that is to say, blessed. Everybody has his or her own ideas of what makes a person cursed. We are not accustomed to talking in terms of “blessed” or “cursed” because we have been thoroughly taught that the only religions that exist are formal religions. If you aren’t Christian or Muslim or Hindu, etc., then you are someone who doesn’t have a religion.

This, however, is not true. Everyone believes in stuff. Everyone believes that certain things will make them happy or blessed. Everybody has things that they fear. These things that people put their fear, love, and trust in are those people’s gods. When you start attacking the things that provide meaning in in people’s lives, what people believe in, what they worship, what they sacrifice for—and when these attacks hit home—you are going to get an exceedingly strong reaction.

Some might turn away from their worthless gods that have no power to save them from death and rottenness. Some will get exceedingly angry that these things they have held so dear are pointed out as being impotent and that only the Lord is God. He alone can truly save.

When we think about what is going on with these early Christians we must understand that they were not just handing out candy and “Jesus loves you” stickers. They weren’t selling insurance policies. They were going for the jugular, spiritually speaking, so that those who heard them might die to themselves and their worthless, stupid idols, and be raised incorruptible in Jesus.

So, again, the apostles weren’t harming anybody. And yet, in another sense, they were inflicting the worst wounds as they were tearing people away from their idols. This activity is why the prophets were put to death in the Old Testament. This is the most common reason for Christians to be put to death in the New Testament. It was for the witness to Jesus that John was exiled to the island of Patmos. It was for the witness to Jesus that the apostles were put in prison in Jerusalem.

But then, as we heard, the most extraordinary thing happened. During the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison. He told the apostles to go preach in the temple. The apostles gladly obeyed.

I’d like to you notice how daring and unusual this is. If the apostles were like us, if they were only interested in maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain, then the last thing they would do would be to comply with the angel’s instructions. Maybe they would make a break for it after the doors were opened for them. They could flee to where they assumed they would be safe.

Or they could have stayed in prison. The Jewish authorities are already so angry with them that they have thrown them into prison. A Sanhedrin had been called—the very same kind of Sanhedrin that had sentenced Jesus to death in the middle of the night not long before this. Maybe if the apostles would show themselves to be obedient, to be easily cowed, and if they would tone down the rhetoric a little bit, they could be released after just a slap on the wrist. The sure-fire way to make these angry, dangerous people even angrier is to go to the most public place in Jerusalem and carry on with what got them thrown into prison in the first place.

Love and joy and peace is what prompted the apostles to do what they did. The Holy Spirit gave them their boldness. They are lively. They are making in-roads. Like a soldier they are on the move. They are not playing it safe. They are not selling some pre-packaged spiritual product that is supposed to occupy some little piece of the people’s lives who would believe their message, while the rest of their lives can remain untouched.

No. The work of Jesus is victorious and vigorous. It is like leaven. If leaven is added to just one little part of a lump of dough it is going to work its way through the whole thing. So also Jesus’s victory over sin, death, and the devil is going to work its way through our whole life. All the parts of our life are to be infused with divine love. The great guide in this endeavor is the 10 commandments, which require of us love towards God and love towards our neighbor. The work that Jesus has done is such that it overturns the old order. He has given us a new life. There is an adventure in store for us where we can be daring and loving—not playing it safe, not being a coward—but going on the offense against God’s enemies.

Realize, of course, that when you go on offense, you are going to stir up some trouble. We all get awfully comfortable with the evil in our life. We don’t want it taken away from us. When the boat gets rocked, we want things to go back to what is normal and comfortable. Folks can get violent with this resistance to change. To the kingdom of God’s action there is going to be a reaction. This is why the apostles were put in prison again and again.

As we live our life as Christians we must be prepared with appropriate expectations. If we are expecting that we are going to be loved and thanked and praised for attacking what is evil, then we better have a second thought coming. But we must understand this for what it is. It is not bad. To suffer for doing good is not a bad thing. It is a good thing. It is following the lead of our master Jesus. It is taking up our cross and following him. So don’t be scared off by that.

Realize, also, that you will be attacked by fear and dread. The apostles experienced the same thing. Paul plainly tells us that he did his work in weakness. He did it with fear and trembling. God likes to do his work through imperfect and weak vessels. Therefore you must not think that since you feel inadequate or frightened to attack evil in your own life or in the lives of the people you love, that this means it’s something you should not do. You need to wait until you are stronger. As the Lord said to Paul, “My grace is made perfect in weakness.”

The easiest thing in the world is to do nothing. But then the kingdom of God is also inactive in us. During this season of Easter, and Christ’s ascension, and Pentecost we must grasp that Christ’s kingdom is a living and active thing. Christianity is not merely a way to avert disaster. Christianity is a new life fighting against the forces of death. You are privileged to take your place in that fight according to the opportunities that God puts into your life. This is how Jesus reigns and rules in his spiritual kingdom.

220417 Sermon on John 20:1-18 (Easter) April 17, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Have you ever said to yourself: “What am I going to do now?” Usually that is not a very happy situation. I have my plans set. I have my expectations set accordingly. Maybe I have a best case scenario and a worst case scenario. Then, all of a sudden, out of the blue comes something I wasn’t expecting. The forecast I made for my life is not going to turn out. “What am I going to do now?”

The lady in our Gospel reading today, Mary Magdalene, probably was asking herself this question. The biggest blow came for her on Friday. Mary Magdalene was one of the very few disciples who were present when Jesus was crucified. The rest of them ran away. They didn’t want to get in trouble. If the governing authorities had done this to Jesus, then guess who is going to be next? His disciples. So Mary Magdalene, a couple other women, and the apostle John are the only disciples mentioned as witnesses to Jesus’s death.

Jesus’s death was a tremendous blow for Mary Magdalene. Jesus had cast out seven demons from her. Anyone who is possessed or oppressed by demons suffers greatly, is unstable, and is tempted towards despair. Jesus had cast these out and set her free. Then he had taught her the way of justice and truth. He taught her who God was and his commandments. The Word of God became a lamp unto her feet and a light unto her path. Most importantly, I’m sure that Mary Magdalene believed that Jesus was the Christ. She believed that Jesus was the king who was going to change everything for his people. Like King David of old, he would gather the people of God together in God’s righteousness and salvation.

This Jesus, whom Mary had been following ever since he cast out those seven demons, died before her very eyes. There was no mistaking it. She knew Jesus was dead. She had helped with the hasty preparations for his burial before the Sabbath came at sundown on Friday. She saw his color. His corpse had cooled. The soldiers had stuck a spear into Jesus’s side after he died, just to make sure that he was dead. He didn’t move. Blood and water came out. Mary knew all this, and Mary loved Jesus.

Since she loved Jesus she wanted to be doubly sure that he should receive a proper burial instead of the hasty one that they were forced to do on Friday afternoon. It was forbidden to work on Saturday, however, because that was the Sabbath. The first opportunity she had to come back to the tomb was sunrise on Easter morning. It was an unpleasant shock. The stone was rolled away; the body of Jesus was nowhere to be seen.

Imagine what that would have been like for her. They had safely put Jesus into the tomb. She saw the stone rolled in front of the entrance. Now he is gone. That would be like us going to the funeral home after someone we loved had died, but the people at the funeral home tell us that the body is gone. We don’t know what happened to it.

The main thing that is on Mary’s mind is “where is his body?” That’s what she tells Peter and John. “We don’t know where they put him.” The two angels she sees in the tomb ask her why she is weeping. She says, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.” When Jesus speaks to her, and she figures that he is the gardener, she says, “Sir, if you carried him off, tell me where you laid him, and I will get him.”

Throughout this whole awful ordeal Mary Magdalene might have asked herself many times: “What am I going to do now?” The reason why we say, “What am I going to do now?” is that we are bewildered and at a loss. What is going on? How am I going to survive? What is going to happen to me?

Something that we should learn from Easter is that the most fundamental and important issues—the things that matter the most for what I am going to do now—have been settled for us by God. It is not a question of how I am going to survive or manage. It is a matter of God settling what is otherwise impossible to overcome—the worst sorts of things that make us ask ourselves, “What am I going to do now?”

Some of you have faced the possibility of dying. Maybe you’ve had a dread disease. Maybe you were in an accident. Perhaps the thought has gone through your head: “I might be dying.” Maybe some of you are facing that question right now today: “I might be dying.” “What am I going to do now?”

Dying and death is pretty bad. Most people don’t think of anything worse than death. But there is something worse than death: hell. What is going on with hell? Our sins and evilness is what make us deserving of hell. The Bible teaches us a truth about this that we certainly aren’t going to get anywhere else—and that is that each and every one of us should go to hell. We are guilty. We have broken God’s commandments. Everyone wants to poo-poo this away as being just part of our human condition. We figure—or perhaps more accurately, we hope—that it is just the really notoriously bad people, the monsters, who go to hell.

With all the sins that you have committed, and with all the consequences of those sins that have attached themselves to you, you could very well wonder, “What am I going to do now?” Precious few entertain this bracing thought: “God is going to judge me. What am I going to do now?” What this feels like is when we’ve done something wrong, and we know that we’ve been found out, and we’re just waiting for the hammer to fall.

However, that dread and condemnation of yours was voluntarily taken up by Jesus when he suffered and died in our place. Justice had to be done for your sins, and it was done on the God-man, Jesus Christ, and it killed him. Justice was satisfied thereby.

So in these greatest and most horrifying ways that we could possibly ask ourselves, “What am I going to do now?” We conclude that God has settled them for us. He didn’t snap his fingers or wish such a change into existence. He sent his only begotten Son into human flesh, to suffer, die, and rise from the dead on our behalf.

I’m sure you’ve heard of John 3:16, which tells us of God’s will towards us: Jesus said, “God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

God has sorted out and settled things so that you don’t have to figure out for yourself how you are going to survive or manage. God is well pleased with you for Jesus’s sake. Death has been defeated. You may be at peace in Jesus. This is a peace that the world cannot give and it is beyond our understanding.

Think again of Mary. What a change must have come over Mary when she had been wondering about and looking for Jesus’s body, but then she recognized him when he said her name. He said her name in love. This is not just an experience that is locked in the past and could never happen to you.

There’s no reason to think that our Lord Jesus will not also say your name to you one day too. Perhaps when it is time to rise out of our grave our Lord Jesus might use our name to bring our body back to life. Perhaps when we close our eyes in death we might open them to Jesus saying our name. Jesus saying our name, knowing that he loves us and is well pleased with us, is about the best thing that I can imagine happening. All our doubts and worries should pass away like they did with Mary.

With Jesus as our Savior I’d also like to consider this question we sometimes ask ourselves from a different angle. We ask ourselves, “What am I going to do now?” at sad and shocking times. We also can ask that question at very happy times.

Who can forget that feeling when the long-awaited summer vacation from school finally arrived? The first day of summer vacation you could wake up, knowing that you could do anything you wanted. You had the whole summer ahead of you. “What am I going to do now?” Far from being trapped by your circumstances, the circumstances set you free.

Or the way it is with young love. A young man and a young woman want to spend all their time together. They have their whole life before them. “What are we going to do now?”

These are times of life and joy. They come from the Source of life and joy. That Source of life and joy is well pleased with you. He has justified you in Jesus. Jesus is risen from the dead. God, with all of his riches, is for you. “What are you going to do now?”

You have been put on a great adventure. While you live in this life you may set your mind on the things that are above, as Paul says in our Epistle reading, because you have been raised with Christ. You are no longer enslaved to the desires of your flesh. When Jesus died, your flesh died too. Being defeated by sin is no longer simply inevitable. When Jesus was raised, you were raised too. You are set free from what we suppose to be our need to have everything for ourselves. You are free to grow in the image of Christ by daily dying to sin and being raised to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

But even with the very best Christian life, taking full advantage of the spiritual gifts God gives you, this earthly life is awfully like school. Our sinful flesh never stops fighting against the Holy Spirit. The devil never stops tempting us. We do a lot of things that we do not enjoy doing, just like getting up in the morning, being bored in class, and then having to do it all over again the next day. We have not yet entered into the fullness of our inheritance and the devil and evil are still on the loose. They have not yet been forever confined in hell.

But the day is coming when school’s out—not just for the summer, but for eternity. How’s that for a different way of looking at our death day. Every kid has an intense awareness of that last day of school. It can’t come quick enough. In the meantime school grinds on. In like manner God has a death day for each of us (unless Jesus comes back first). We don’t know when that day will be, but it is as certain and irrevocable as if it were chiseled in granite. Our flesh looks to that day with dread, because our flesh doesn’t want to die. The last thing our Old Adam wants is to die. But Jesus has defeated death for you. At your death you will not lose, but gain. The struggle, the crosses, the disappointments, even merely the boredom of this present life will be done. It’s like getting out of school.

Then you might ask yourself: “What am I going to do now?”

220416 Sermon on 1 Peter 3:17-22 (Holy Saturday) April 16, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

The apostle Peter says that it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. That is not the way that we are accustomed to thinking. What we learn from a very young age is that if you do good you will be rewarded. If you do bad, then you will be suffer. If you do what Mom and Dad want you to do, then they will be happy with you. If you do what they don’t want you to do, then they will be unhappy with you. They might also punish you.

But we all know that sometimes you want to do things that are bad. Sometimes you want to do things that you know your Mom and Dad either wouldn’t let you do or have specifically told you not to do. Although you’d like to do these things, you’d prefer not to get punished for them. What you need to do, then, is hide or lie or in some other way cover up the bad thing. It is amazing how early in life we learn how to do this. Nobody has to teach it to us. It comes naturally.

Something that is kind of interesting is that if you do what is right, you will almost certainly suffer. What I mean is this is that if you’ve done something wrong, and then you go and tell mom or dad what you’ve done (which is good and right), they are going to be angry, or disappointed, or what-have-you. They might punish you. We’d like to avoid that, so there is a very strong compulsion to hide, or lie, or try to figure out a way to make what we did not sound so bad. But then we would just be adding evil to the bad that we have already done. It is better to suffer for doing good, for doing the right thing, than for doing evil.

But in order to believe this, we have to believe in God. The lying and the hiding and the what-not that is done is only because we don’t believe in God. If we believed in God, then we’d understand that we are always walking in his sight. Our most sophisticated adult efforts at covering our tracks to him look like a toddler who goes into the corner to poop in his diaper, thinking that nobody knows what he’s doing. If we believed in God we wouldn’t think that our lying and hiding are going to work, because, of course, God knows.

Positively speaking, we have to believe in God in order to know that we will be blessed with our suffering for doing what is good. This requires a lot of faith. Think again of that child who has done wrong. To go tell Mom and Dad is going to hurt. The child is going to suffer. Seemingly all that can be dispensed with if only the child is clever enough to cover his tracks. To go to Mom and Dad and tell them what you have done seems like a terrible idea. You have to believe in God in order to believe that you will be better off doing such a thing. Kids, without much life experience, are just going to have to take God’s Word for it that they will be blessed.

You who have some experience under your belt might be able to see things a little more clearly. We adults have no doubt done our fair share of crime. We’ve thought that we will be better off if we lie and hide. We still very often think that way. But even if we’ve never taken the right path, I think we can sense that there is a price to pay for not doing what is right. What if we would be one of those good people who own up to what they have done, who tell the truth? I think we can sense that this is a better way to live.

If only we would think more about things, I think we can see that this is how it has to be. Lying and hiding only delay the inevitable. The best possible outcome is that the grass grows over the offense, and we forget about it, (and here’s what’s really important:) that we quit lying and hiding. That is not what happens though. What inevitably happens when we have “success” with our lying and hiding is that we grow more and more in our wickedness. And why shouldn’t we? If it worked once, it might work again. If we get better at our wickedness we might get more of what we want.

But whom are we learning from? Who is our master and teacher? Is it not the father of lie, that murderer the devil? Like the pied piper all he is doing is leading us off to our destruction, giving us little treats along the way where we thing we are getting away with things.

How different it is to learn for our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered for doing what is good rather than for doing what is evil. This is even a step beyond what I’ve been talking about thus far. What I’ve been talking about is the way that we will suffer for stepping out of our evil ways and doing the right thing by fessing up. But Jesus did not do anything wrong, and yet he willingly suffered. He suffered for people who are no good, for us, who have lied and hid, gladly being trained by the devil. And tremendous good has come out of this suffering because God exists. He brought about the salvation of mankind by his suffering and attained everlasting glory for himself.

At the time of Jesus’s suffering—when he was actually suffering—it did not look this way. What it looked like is that a mere man died unjustly. It looked like the lying and hiding Jewish authorities got their way—they got rid of that annoying Jesus. Today, on Holy Saturday, Jesus lies dead in a cool tomb, cut into a hill side. On Holy Saturday no good seemed to have come from what he did, and certainly no power or glory.

But you know Christian doctrine well enough to know that it will not stay this way. Jesus rose from the dead. He descended into hell and proclaimed his victory. He left the cold dark tomb. He appeared to his bewildered disciples. He proclaimed peace and salvation to them. He ascended to the right hand of God the Father and reigns and rules there in glory.

This is very instructive for our lives as Christians. Just before where our reading starts the apostle Peter encourages us Christians to do good to those who are in our life. Each of us have been given roles and responsibilities by God. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife or worker? In all these callings and stations in life we have the opportunity to suffer for doing what is good.

What that means is that you do what is right. You do what God wants you to do. You work hard. You don’t antagonize. You forgive when others hurt you. So much as it depends on you, you live peaceably with everyone. You suffer for doing is what is good, following your Lord and master Jesus Christ, believing that God will bless you.

Chances are you will not be exalted in this life for following Jesus. You might! There are examples of that in the Bible. Daniel, whom we heard about, was such a one. He was a great man in Babylon and Persia for doing what was good. Another example is Joseph in Egypt. Already in this lifetime they were exalted although he suffered. What is much more likely, however, is that you will be like our Lord Jesus Christ. His glory was hidden while he lived this life. His glory appeared to be completely nonexistent on Holy Saturday. Now he is highly exalted.

So it will be also in heaven. There will be lots of surprises in heaven. The great and glorious ones in heaven will probably not be the preachers and church leaders. They often already have their reward. The great ones are going to be those who lived quiet Christian lives. They believed in Jesus. They followed him. They suffered for doing what was good. They were honest, kind, and helpful. Their works were never spectacular or unusual to human beings, but they were precious in God’s sight. For all intents and purposes they looked as powerless and ineffectual as our Lord and Savior looked while he lay dead in the tomb on Holy Saturday. But in the life to come they will receive their reward.

So here’s another thing that you can think about. We do well to strive after this heavenly glory. People are striving after earthly glory all the time. Everyone wants to be known as the best. Nobody thinks about the glory that will never fade away in heaven. How can we obtain this glory? By seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We can gladly suffer for doing good. We can forgive as we have been forgiven. We can seek to serve rather than being served. We can take the lowest spot, trusting in God, that he will raise us higher when the time is right.

The good life is not the one where we use and abuse everybody else towards our own ends. That seems like it should be the best life, but it is not. The best life is the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his suffering for doing what is good he set free all creation from its bondage to the devil and corruption. Our best life, therefore, is following after him. You will be blessed. You should not have a shadow of a doubt about that.

In fact, there should be no doubt either way. If you follow the arts and practices of the devil you will most certainly not be blessed. I don’t care if you manage to accumulate the whole world and eat it as dessert. Nothing good can come from our hating, lying and hiding, even though it seems like it works like a charm, because God exists.

Then, on the other hand, there is no doubt whatsoever that the good that we do will be blessed. Jesus is blessed. Jesus is glorified. We will be too if we follow after him. Do not shy away, therefore, from those times when you are called upon to suffer for doing good. You are going to have to fight against your flesh, because your flesh is going to tell you that you will fail and be miserable for suffering for good. The Bible tells you that you will be blessed. You are following the pattern set by your Master.

220415 Sermon for Good Friday, April 15, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

The Good Friday service is probably the most unusual service we do all year. The candles get snuffed out. The lights get lowered. The book gets slammed. A person might come to this service just to have an experience.

I’ve been to a few Good Friday services in my life. More often than not I keep an eye out for something in myself—an experience, a reaction. On this day we recall how our Lord suffered, was crucified, and died. I must confess that I’ve often held up a mirror to myself: Am I sad? Am I stirred? Maybe what I’m really looking for behind those questions is: Do I believe? If I’m really moved, then I must have a really strong faith. I’m pleased with myself when I’m saddened.

It’s hard to imagine a more narcissistic thing a person could do. It’s like a person being happy that something bad has happened, because then he or she can get some attention—even if that attention be from one’s own self. It’s like being moved to tears, and then immediately running to the bathroom mirror to see what you look like. Here today we are talking about the Son of God dying because of our sin. And what am I looking for? How I’m feeling. How disgusting.

But now I might say to myself, “That’s it Preacher! Keep it up. You’re disgusting! You’ve manage to squeeze some kind of experience out of that cold dead soul. Let’em have it! Then we can go home feeling good about how bad we felt.” How shallow and disgusting.

There’s a line from the service of Corporate Confession and Absolution that we used last night that I quite like. In that lengthy exhortation that I read to you it says, “It is proper that we diligently examine ourselves.” But then it goes on to say, “But when we examine our hearts and consciences, we find nothing in us but sin and death, from which we are incapable of delivering ourselves.”

No kidding. When we examine ourselves on this Good Friday we aren’t going to find anything good. Maybe we are sufficiently pleased with ourselves for how sad we feel. Maybe we were hoping for more of an experience. Regardless, however we feel is beside the point. If we are digging around within ourselves the best conclusion we can come up with is that we are sinners—narcissistic liars. Our feelings, even at their very best, are going to be tainted. We aren’t going to find any assurance of salvation in here.

What on this day must be pointed out, in fact, is that Jesus does everything himself for our salvation. He didn’t ask for our permission. He didn’t ask for our cooperation. You can see this already at that time. His disciples at the time were certainly saved by their Lord and Savior. Jesus says so. What, however, did they contribute towards that salvation? Nothing good. On that Good Friday, they were not dependable or helpful. The closest disciples, the eleven, ran away, except for John. Peter ran away after cursing and swearing that he didn’t know anything about this Jesus of Nazareth.

Some folks might point to the women as cutting a better figure. Mary, the mother of our Lord, Mary Magdalene, and a couple other women were at the cross. As respectable as that might have been, their faith didn’t hold out. None of them believed what Jesus had told them beforehand—that he was going to rise from the dead. The reason why the women were coming to the tomb on Easter was not to welcome the resurrected Lord, but to finish the hasty job of preparing his body for burial that they didn’t have time to do properly before the onset of the Sabbath on Friday afternoon. If we want to talk about any contribution of the disciples it’s going to be nothing but sin and death from which we are incapable of delivering ourselves.

But Jesus knew all this. Our salvation is not at all dependent upon us. If it were dependent upon us we could never be sure that we’ve done well enough. If you put your trust in yourself and your tender Christian feelings, then this just might come back to haunt you on your deathbed. Even if you’ve managed to live a somewhat, outwardly respectable life, you might remember there on our deathbed how bored we were at all those Good Friday services. Or, what’s probably worse, how pleased we were with ourselves at all those Good Friday services. “All glory, laud, and honor be to me. Look at me. Look how well I’ve done.” This would be dreadful because you’re not good enough, no matter what you might tell yourself.

Our salvation was worked completely by Jesus the Christ. From beginning to end it is all him. He became man so that he could fulfill all righteousness, so that he could suffer and die. He took upon himself the sin of the entire world. He became the propitiating sacrifice—that means the atoning sacrifice for all sin. The punishment that the Law requires for our transgressions was placed upon him. The Law, therefore, is completely fulfilled. Jesus lived a perfect life in our place, which the Law requires, which is credited to us. Jesus was punished in our place, which the Law demands for our breaking of the Law. The Law has no claim on us anymore because Jesus has fulfilled it.

We must go one step further: All people have been forgiven by what Jesus did for us. This is what Paul teaches in Romans chapter 5. He compares Jesus to Adam. Through one man, Adam, sin entered the world and through sin death entered the world. There’s no exempting yourself from that. If you are mortal, then you are descendant of Adam no matter how you might feel about that.

The same thing is true with Jesus. Paul says that we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. This is something that God did, entirely apart from you. All people have been reconciled to God by the death of Jesus. All people have been justified by his blood. Just as by one man all people sinned and are going to die, so also through the one man, Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Lord—through him justification, righteousness, and life is an accomplished fact for all people. Adam’s action had its effect, whether you like it or not. Jesus’s action had its effect, whether you like it or not.

Now our Old Adam, our reason, immediately howls in protest: “Wait just a minute,” it says. “If Jesus had justified all people completely and perfectly, then why aren’t all people saved? How can the Bible talk about anybody going to hell if all people are justified and forgiven by Jesus’s death?” We have a Bible verse for that. Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, whoever does not believe will be condemned.” The reason why not all people are going to go to heaven is because not all people believe that they are justified for Jesus’s sake.

“Aha!” our reason pops up again. “So we do have to do our part! We do have to believe!” Our reason is really inept when it comes to spiritual things! Even just an earthly example can show how stupid it is to say that we have to do our part in order to be saved.

Let’s say that our house has caught on fire. We are unconscious in our bed. The fireman comes in, picks us up, carries us out to safety, and revives us. What credit is this to you that you have been saved? What part did you play? None. It was all the fireman’s doing.

The Bible, however, does not just describe us human beings as unconscious. It describes us as being dead. Ephesians 2 says that we all were dead and lost in our trespasses and sins. What can a dead person do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But, as that passage goes on to say, “even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ.” This was not our own doing. It was God’s doing.

This shows us precisely the thing that we must come away with tonight: All people are forgiven in Christ. All people are reconciled to God by Christ’s death. Not all people are going to believe that, and so it won’t be of benefit to them, but that is a different matter. Their unbelief doesn’t undo what God has done. What God has done is he has worked forgiveness and justification for all people in Jesus’s death.

If all people are forgiven and justified by what Jesus has done, then that means that you have been forgiven and justified. But what about your sins? Doesn’t matter. What about how you are feeling? Doesn’t matter. There is literally nothing that you can do to undo what God has done. All people are forgiven and justified by what Jesus has done. Therefore you are forgiven and justified.

This is why Good Friday and Easter are such a devastating defeat for the devil. Jesus has completely demolished him and taken away all his power. It’s not like Jesus found some little loophole or some crazy way that we are to be saved. All sin is atoned for. The truth is on our side. We are saved by Jesus’s death. No doubt this is why the devil has to lie and lie and lie some more to keep people from embracing the truth.

Lies can make the truth hard to believe, because we’re constantly being hounded by the thought that it is too good to be true. There has to be some catch. Our reason wants to master how all of this can be, but our reason can’t master it. We’re not God. We can’t understand all things. Plus our reason is fallen and sinful. How can you expect such a defective instrument to work well at all?

It is much better for us to stick with the plain and simple truth. Our faith is to be like that of a child’s. What we are to believe is that Jesus saved us completely and totally on Good Friday. As God’s Word says, “God reconciled us to himself by Jesus’s death.” Period. That’s what God did. You are his workmanship. You are in his hands.

 

220414 Sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 14, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Have you ever had the experience of dreading a day that was coming? Maybe you have dreaded the day when you have to go to the dentist or the day of surgery. Maybe you have dreaded the day when your child is going to leave home. The date is right there on the calendar and only gets closer. Each passing day increases the anxiety.

This was Jesus’s experience this Holy Week. Did you notice this past Sunday how Jesus was troubled on Palm Sunday? There were some Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. Greeks wanting to see Jesus is different than Jews wanting to see Jesus. Greeks weren’t the blood descendants of Abraham. And yet, here they are, wanting to see the Christ. Jesus knew that the hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Jesus said in our Gospel reading on Sunday, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour.” Jesus knew that he had to drink the cup that the Father gave him to drink. He was going to save all people by being crushed with their iniquities. He isn’t looking forward to doing it. He knows he needs to be done. His soul is troubled.

On an almost infinitely smaller scale we can understand that. That is how it can be for us when we are dreading that thing in the future. We know we need the surgery. There’s no other choice. Sometimes we manage to forget about it, but then, all of a sudden, it hits us again. The soul is troubled.

Our reading tonight is from the Thursday of Holy Week. At the beginning of the reading it says, “Jesus was troubled in his spirit.” Yet another thing was falling into place for the dreadful thing that was coming. Jesus was to be betrayed by one of the twelve. Judas sold his soul for a mere thirty pieces of silver. Satan entered him when he took the bread from Jesus. Although he sold his soul so cheaply, he would come to loathe even that paltry sum. When he saw how Jesus was condemned to die he despaired. A horrible, black, pit of despair overtook him. He threw that money back to the Jewish officials and went and hung himself. God save us from despair in this life and in the next!

With Judas gone, on his way to the officials who would arrest him, Jesus knew it was just a matter of time. Maybe it’s a tiny bit like arriving at the hospital and entering a room where you have to change out of your clothes and into a hospital gown. There’s no stopping it now.

When Judas left the upper room where Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover, it was already dark. Evening had come on that Thursday of Holy Week. Jesus and his disciples left that upper room that evening, walked across the Kidron valley, and up on to the Mount of Olives. There was a garden there name Gethsemane. Jesus liked to go there with his disciples. Now he wanted to go there in order to pray.

He asked Peter, James, and John to please stay up and watch and pray with him. He said his soul was sorrowful, even unto death. Then he went on a stone’s throw to pray by himself. He said, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but your will be done.”

This is holy ground. We have to take the shoes off of our understanding. We won’t be able to grasp it completely. Jesus, who is God, asks that the cup should pass from him. Jesus, unlike us, is perfect and remains perfect. Jesus, unlike us, is delighted to fulfill the will of God. Here he asks that the cup might pass from him. How the Son of God could say something like that is beyond our comprehension, but that is what he said. What we can know for certain is that his soul was troubled. His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. The weight which was going to crush Jesus was coming. Our sin was going to kill God.

Three times Jesus came back to his apostles, but he found them asleep. Jesus’s sorrow had rubbed off on them and they were overcome by sleepiness. The third time Jesus returned to the apostles he could see Judas coming with a whole bunch of people. The Jewish authorities were there. They had brought along a whole bunch of soldiers. They had their torches and weapons. Jesus was being sucked down into the Maelstrom. From here he would go to the chief priest’s house, from the chief priest’s house he would be brought to Pilate’s house, and from Pilate’s house he would be nailed to a cross. By 9 o’clock, Friday morning, the Son of God would be lifted up, and, to use Jesus’s expression, “glorified.”

In the midst of all of this, in the midst of Jesus’s soul being troubled, on this Thursday, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper which we continue to observe to this very day as Jesus’s disciples. We very easily take this sacrament for granted and think nothing of it. What a shame. This sacrament came at the last possible moment for Jesus. Twice Jesus says, with both the body and the blood, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

What we can remember of Jesus is how his soul was troubled. In addition to everything that we have talked about tonight, Jesus knew that he was going to be all alone. Even his heavenly Father would turn his back on his Son, for Jesus cries out from the cross: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was troubled. The burden that Jesus bore was absolutely unique. Nobody has experienced anything like it, and nobody will ever experience anything like it again. This Jesus did for our redemption.

As we do this in remembrance of Jesus we might also remember that Jesus wanted to do all of this for us. Jesus said to his disciples when he instituted the Lord’s Supper that he passionately desired to have this Pascha with them. If we were to put that into more colloquial language he said that he “really, really wanted to have this meal with them.” The day of dread was drawing near and was on his mind, but something else was also on his mind. Jesus was really looking forward to the Lord’s Supper with his disciples.

The reason why Jesus desired to have this sacrament with the disciples must be learned from the Words of Institution. Jesus himself defines this sacrament. He is very specific about it. “This bread is my body which is given for you.” “This cup is the New Testament, the new arrangement between God and man, in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

This sacrament is the sacrament of Jesus’s death for you. It was instituted at the last hour before the processes that would lead to his death were put into motion. Paul said in our Epistle reading that the sacrament is a proclamation of Christ’s death until he comes again in glory. And it is for you. Jesus wants you to have this. Why? So that you may know that you have been reconciled to God by Jesus’s death. So that you may have peace on account of Jesus being troubled, chastised and crushed.

By this sacrament, by faith in Jesus’s words, we may therefore rise above whatever day or event we could possibly be dreading. No matter how dreadful that thing might be, we can rise above it through faith in Jesus, because he has overcome it. – Jesus wasn’t able to do that. Jesus wasn’t able to transcend his troubles. He bore the full brunt of everything. He drank the cup to its last dregs. We, however, can rise above whatever comes our way.

It does not matter if it is disappointment, or sadness, or shame, or death or anything else in all creation. In Jesus God is for us. Who can be against us? Jesus wants us to know this. He really, really wants to have this sacrament with us in order that we may be at peace through faith in him.

220410 Sermon on John 12:24-26 (Palm Sunday) April 10, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Gymnasiums have been around for a long time. They are older than Jesus and the apostles. They come from ancient Greece. Gymnasiums were for training men to compete in athletic games. The word, “gymnasium,” comes from the Greek word, “Gymnazdo,” which means to train, to practice, to drill. The young men would train to become faster and stronger and more skilled. Good training increased the chances of success on the field or the mat.

The apostle Peter uses this Greek word, “Gymnazdo,” in an interesting way. When he is describing the characteristics of the ungodly he says that they have “hearts which have been trained [gymnazdo] in covetousness.” But let me say a little bit about that word “covetousness” too. At its root it means having an abundance, and, especially, “getting more.” So Peter says that the ungodly have a heart which has gone to the gym in order to be trained at getting more.

Since I am a child of the 80s I can’t help but think of the training that takes place in Rocky or Karate Kid. “The eye of the tiger” is playing in the background. But instead of running through a train yard or catching flies with chop sticks different drills are being run. This is a training in getting more. So the exercises are like this: $5 or $20, which one are you going to pick? $20, good! A candy bar is split in two, which part are you going to take, the bigger part or the smaller part? The bigger part, good! I’m going to try to trip you up now: 4 quarters or 9 dimes? 4 quarters? Bam! Got it! I can tell you’ve been working out.

Of course we do not really need training in this regard. It is in the nature of training that we learn to do things that we otherwise wouldn’t naturally do. We might not automatically know to plant our feet, or square up, or keep our eye on the ball. We naturally aren’t fond of having muscles ache or our hands get blistered. When it comes to getting more for ourselves, that does come naturally. If we have to choose between having lots of what we enjoy or having little or none of what we enjoy, we naturally are going to pick the one over the other.

Although the concept is simple and natural so that no training is required, there is a complicating factor that makes training in covetousness advantageous. Other people, your competitors, are being trained in covetousness as well. So what do you do when you both want the larger part of the candy bar? Here some training can be useful. There are different tools you can use. You can manipulate the other person. You can deceive the other person. Grand productions can be put on in order to get more for yourself. The true virtuosos are the ones who take what others have, but the other person smiles and thanks them for the favor.

At the root of all of this activity is the lie. Those who want to learn how to get more for themselves need to learn how to become good liars. It would be more honest to just club the other person over the head and take it all for yourself. But then you might not get away with it. Part of our training in covetousness is that you have to get what you want without negative consequences for yourself. Siblings are often very good for training in this regard. You learn to take advantage of your sibling, but you have to make sure that you don’t go so far that they’ll tell mom or dad.

Now let’s go to the end of how this story goes, to the end of one’s life. You work out at the gym. You learn how to cut costs and maximize profits—to hell with whomever it might affect. Slowly but surely you accumulate a mountain of advantages for yourself. The one with the most wins. Maybe, if you are really good and perfectly trained, you can accumulate enough for yourself that you don’t care about money anymore because there’s no way you’ll ever run out of it. Then you can give away a few spare millions and you can get your name on some building.

While it seems like such a one is a big winner, ultimately it will turn out that he or she will be the biggest loser. While we live on this earth we can all deceive ourselves into thinking that what we think must be true. We can think that we set the game, and the name of the game is: Who can get the most? The way the game is played is that you cheat and manipulate and seek your own advantage until you get to the top of the heap.

If the devil were god, he would probably say to such a one at the end of his or her life: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” Then maybe you’ll get to club and rape and cheat for all eternity. Of course, you’ll be clubbed and raped and cheated too, but business is business.

However, the devil is not God. God is God. He is the one who sets the terms. He says how the game is to be played. Ever since the Garden of Eden human beings have thought that they can safely ignore God, play their own game, and everything will be just fine. But this evil time in which we are living—this evil time where there is so much lying that it can be impossible to know what is true—this evil time will not go on forever. Maybe that’s how things will be in hell, but Jesus did not come to inaugurate a deeper and darker hell.

Jesus came to reveal God to us. His eternal life is different. Forgive me for saying this yet again. (I’ve said it several times the last two times I’ve preached already.) Jesus says in John 17: “This is eternal life: to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.” There you have the definition of eternal life: Knowing the only true God.

So what is this God like? There is no finer week to learn what God is like than this one we are entering into—Holy Week. Let me encourage you to come to all the services this week, unless you don’t care what God is like. Then you might as well not come. But if you want to know what God is like there’s no avoiding especially Good Friday and Easter. On Good Friday and Easter we learn that God is not interested in accumulating as much as he possibly can for himself. It’s exactly the opposite. How much can he give?

Here we have quite a different game with quite different rules. Listen to what Jesus says in our Gospel reading: “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain. Anyone who loves his life destroys it. And the one who hates his life in this world will hold on to it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

In a way, Jesus’s words can sound rather gloomy. He talks about dying and being buried in the ground. He says that whoever loves his life destroys it; whoever hates his life in this world will keep it. But Jesus’s words can remain sounding gloomy only if we think his cross is bad. It is only gloomy if we think Jesus’s cross is pure tragedy. Then it will sound to you as though Jesus is telling you to die, to hate life, and if you should happen to love life, then you’re in for a world of hurt.

But Jesus’s cross is good. We do not call this Friday Bad Friday or Sad Friday. We call it Good Friday, and for very good reason. Jesus poured out everything that he had until there was nothing left. He gave and gave and gave. Then he gave some more. He was not dealing with dollars and cents, or other, similar, created things. His giving had to do with guilt, with responsibility, with divine justice. There was a huge yawning hell of evil that we collectively and individually are responsible for. It was God’s good pleasure to fill that void by the suffering and death of his beloved Son. Like a grain of wheat he died. He hated his life in this world to the point where he screams out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

But, having hated his life in this world, he keeps it for eternal life—not just for himself, but for everyone. He sets us free. He breaks the curse. We are not consigned to an eternity where the stronger preys on the weaker, where there are so many lies that we can never be certain of what’s true. Jesus’s death and resurrection opens up the ability to live a different and new life—a new adventure. A life that is not hostile to God, but a life in Jesus where we may know the only true God without fear.

Jesus died like a grain of wheat that fell into the earth. Had he not done that, he would have remained alone. However, by doing so, he created much fruit. Good Friday is followed by Easter. Jesus did not stay dead. He gloriously rose from the dead.

From the accounts of the witnesses to his resurrection, you can tell that things have changed. His appearance was different. He did not want Mary Magdalene to touch him yet, because, he says, “I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Jesus does not just give us a mulligan, a do-over, or a pardon so that we may live our life of crime. He gives us eternal life. And eternal life is to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

And so, as the Bible says, you are new creatures. Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and give us the ministry of reconciliation.” Paul really means it when he says that we are new creations in Christ. The old is gone. The new has come. The game has changed, and so have the rules.

According to these new rules greatness is no longer the ability to accumulate as much as you possibly can for yourself while telling the most sophisticated lies you can come up with. That was greatness according to our old lord, the devil. We have a new Lord. Greatness is defined by him. He fell like a grain of wheat into the ground and produced much fruit. He gave. He was willing to lose, and thereby he won.

You, as new creatures, are invited into this life of your God. Do not seek your own advantage, but the advantage of others. If someone wants to win against you, let them win. That is what Jesus means when he says that if someone strikes you on the one cheek, turn so that he may strike you on the other. This is also what Paul means he says that we are to be living sacrifices. We should not avenge ourselves. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

These are not the rules for life that come naturally to us. To play according to these rules it requires faith. We have to believe that God will protect us. God will bless us. If our coat or our shirt are taken away, then God, who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field, will take care of us.

And not only do we need to believe that we will survive, we must believe that we will thrive. Jesus said that the grain of wheat the fell into the earth was all by itself. When it died, it produced much fruit. So also your new life in Christ: it is going to produce much fruit.

The possible examples of this are countless, but let me give you just one so that you can see what I mean. Why is there such strife and hatred between certain individuals? Isn’t it because they both refuse to budge? They both have been hurt. They both demand apologies and reparations. What if the Christian involved allowed himself or herself to “lose”? What if the Christian allowed himself or herself to be humbled and take the form of a servant? What if the Christian sought out reconciliation? This, of course, would be a miracle, worked by the Holy Spirit, but this is also what it means to be new creatures. And if a Christian were to risk that, what might happen?

Who’s to say? I certainly can’t guarantee that the other person would be broken and love in return. But I think you can see with merely human logic that love is a whole lot more likely to materialize if the other party is no longer demanding apologies and reparations. Regardless of what we might anticipate happening, however, we have Jesus’s promise: our sacrifice will produce fruit. Maybe that fruit won’t come to maturity as quickly as we think it should. Maybe our peace and reconciliation won’t come until eternal life. But Jesus promises fruit.

How different this is from the old life. The training in covetousness that we naturally believe in can only produce sour fruit that is no good for anyone, including ourselves, for very long. It is destined to be thrown out and trampled. The training that we have with our new Lord and Savior will produce fruit that abides.

220406 Sermon on Pontius Pilate's attitude toward Jesus (Lent 5 midweek) April 6, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Pontius Pilate is often viewed in a positive light, especially in comparison to the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders were blood thirsty. They were going to get their crucifixion one way or another. Pilate is much cooler in all his interactions. He tries to get Jesus released. Thus he can appear to be better and kinder to Jesus than the Jewish authorities. I, however, do not think that Pilate is better than the Jewish authorities. If I were to judge, I would say that he is worse.

In my opinion, there is hardly anything worse than despising. To despise means that you simply can’t be bothered enough to get worked up. The matter is so unimportant that there is no reason to care. It seems to me that Pilate despises Jesus. He thinks Jesus is nuts. He thinks Jesus is wasting his life. The types of things that were important to Pilate were roads, armies, money, and the welfare of the empire. He was the Roman governor. He was an important man with important things to do. He’s annoyed that these Jews are making him decide about something that he doesn’t even begin to care about.

You can see this in his interactions with Jesus and with the Jews. Let me bring to your attention again something that we heard last week. Jesus was in an exchange with Pilate over whether he is the king of the Jews. Jesus says, “I am, as you say, a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Why was Jesus born? Why did he come into the world? It was to testify to the truth. How could Jesus more strongly amplify the importance of the truth? I don’t know what other words he could have used. But then Pilate sneeringly responds, “What is truth?”

Pilate might have just as well rolled his eyes. He might as well have said, “What a waste of my time. I have better things to do.” To me this has to be about the worst reaction a person could possibly have.

I think it is far more respectful to listen to Jesus and get angry at him like the Jewish authorities were angry at him, than to sweep him aside the way that Pilate did. Jesus either is the best thing that has ever happened to this world or he is among the worst things that have ever happened. To believe that he is indifferent is to refuse to listen to what he says. Jesus says that he is the truth. If he is the truth, then blessed are those who believe in him. If he is not the truth, then he is a charlatan, a misleader, a distraction, a truly evil and parasitic force that has been unnecessarily holding back the human race.

It seems to me that it is better to be a disciple of Jesus or an enemy of Jesus. Those who sit on the fence cannot be bothered to investigate whether Jesus is the Son of God. Although they see themselves as neutral, there is no neutrality when it comes to Jesus. He himself says, “Whoever is not with me is against me; whoever does not gather with me, scatters.” This puts all those people, including Pontius Pilate, who want to be more or less polite concerning Jesus, but do not want to believe in him, against him.

This is how it has to be if Jesus is, in fact, the truth. Jesus being the truth involves the biggest and most important questions of life. If Jesus is the truth, then our greatest problem as human beings is sin. Our greatest problem is not that we haven’t accumulated enough money, know-how, or will power. Our greatest problem is that we are rebels against God and his commandments. The greatest of God’s commandments is that we should love him with our whole being, and that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. But we are revolutionaries. We don’t submit to him. We only want to do what we want to do.

Furthermore, contrary to what is popularly believed, we are corrupt and rotten. Everything we touch decays. Nothing we build can last. The great pyramids of Egypt might be about the best we’ve ever done, but even they are wearing down, year after year. Every generation that gets born is sinful. We’ve never been able to get rid of meanness, of lust, of greed. The strong oppress the weak. Everyone only seeks his or her own advantage. Everyone lies. Our souls have leprosy. We’re rotten all the way down to the core.

But if Jesus is the truth, then this changes everything. If Jesus is the truth, then the very reason why he was born, the very reason why he came into this world, was to set us free from our slavery to sin, our slavery to death and rottenness, and our slavery from the devil and all the other powerful forces who do not want us to be free to love and being like God. Jesus came to die on the cross and rise from the dead to make a new beginning.

The new beginning is brought about by wiping the slate clean. Jesus brings about atonement, forgiveness, the justification of all people by his one great sacrifice on the cross. Paul says in Romans chapter 3: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Again Paul says, “God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The great truth that is above all other truths is that God has made a new beginning in Jesus. By death and by resurrection, the human race is to be brought into something different. We are to be given a new heart and a new spirit. Instead of ignoring God, we are to know him. Jesus says, “This is eternal life: that we should know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.” The best and most important thing in life is not that we should be healthy, wealthy, and wise. The best and most important thing is that we should know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent.

The glory of Jesus is like the sun. At night you can see the moon and the stars. These glories of the night are like all the many and otherwise glorious truths that we can know and discover about life. These are beautiful in their own right. They should not be despised. But when the sun rises, the glory of the sun is such that these things that otherwise have glory end up having no glory at all. The truth of Jesus outstrips all other truth. Those who are in Jesus are new creations.

I suppose a person can love the sun or hate the sun. A person can love the day or a person can love the night. What a person cannot do is make the sun into just another star. Jesus cannot be just one more truth alongside other truths. If someone wants to make Jesus into just another truth alongside other truths, like one star alongside other stars, then that person is not actually dealing with Jesus. They are not taking Jesus seriously. If a person listens to Jesus, it is clear that he himself says that he necessarily changes everything. It’s like going from night to day. To pretend that he is just one isolated part of our lives is to say that he is a liar, even if we are able to maintain the appearance of politeness and reasonability.

There is no more fundamental and important question than this one: “What do you think of Jesus?” You can love him or you can hate him. To be indifferent to him is the worst. It is to despise him utterly, because his own words won’t allow anyone who listens to him to be neutral toward him. Either he changes everything or he is a charlatan who is wasting people’s valuable time and resources.

It is frightful to think of how much Jesus is despised, even by those who see themselves as Christians. Pilate was annoyed that he had to deal with this ridiculous matter because he had better things he could be doing with this time. Isn’t it frightful to consider how we act toward Jesus? We do not think of him as the one who changes everything. We do not treat him as the sun, whose glory blots out the glory of everything else.

We must therefore take in hand the truth. God’s salvation is not of those who are righteous, but of those who are sinners. I can’t understand why God should put up with human beings, when even those who want to be good end up doing so poorly. But the truth is that God wants to save sinners. He isn’t waiting around for our permission or our cooperation. He just went and did it by the atonement, by the redemption, that is in Jesus Christ. God would have sinful human beings enter into the glorious sunshine of eternal life that outstrips everything else. I cannot understand this, why God should want to do such a thing, but it’s his truth not mine. This is the truth whether you like it or not.

220403 Sermon on Philippians 3:8-14 (Lent 5) April 3, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Unfortunately, the apostle Paul did not write dates on the letters that he wrote. That would have saved some people a lot of trouble. Big books have been written to defend one person or another’s dating and ordering of his letters. Although he didn’t write dates on his letters, sometimes there are statements or clues within the letter that make it clear when Paul wrote it.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is one of those letters that we can be sure about when it was written. Paul mentions in this letter that he is chains. The reason why he is in chains is because he has been taken prisoner by the Roman government. We know about that from the book of Acts. Since Paul is a prisoner who is in chains while he writes this letter we can be sure that he wrote this during the last years of his life. Eventually Paul would be put to death after having been a prisoner and after having been shipped to Rome.

Knowing the times and circumstances of Paul’s writing of this letter throws a different light on many of the things that he writes. For example, he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again, rejoice!” Rejoice always; not rejoice occasionally. And when Paul says this he is not sipping piña coladas on the beach in Acapulco. No. He is in chains. He is on his way to his death.

That’s another thing that’s helpful to keep in mind. Death is coming for Paul. He can see it. What, then, is on his mind? Is he thinking back on all the good memories? Is he wishing that he had taken a little more time for himself? Does he wish that he had taken that trip to Acapulco? No, it’s just the opposite. He is not looking backwards and admiring himself as though he were looking in a mirror. He is looking forward to the things that are ahead.

The portion of his letter that was read for our Epistle reading today speaks about this. He is not looking back. He is looking forward. There are dark clouds on the horizon for him, but he is not deterred. It is almost as though the dark clouds don’t affect him, or perhaps that the anticipated trouble makes him even bolder.

Thus Paul has something to teach us. Some of you have somewhat of an idea of what those dark clouds might be for you. Others can’t be sure what dark clouds might be in store for them. One thing we can be certain of, is that the dark clouds are bound to come eventually, even if we don’t like thinking about that. In light of this prospect are we going to look backward to earthly things or are we going to look forward to heavenly things? Paul would have us look forward.

Although Paul would have us look forward, it was not as though he was ignorant of what can be achieved with earthly things. At the beginning of our reading Paul says, “But even more than that, I consider everything to be a loss because of what is worth far more: knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.” We are jumping into the middle of an argument that Paul is making. What is Paul referring to when he says, “I consider everything to be a loss”?

Paul had just gotten done talking about how his former life was, frankly speaking, excellent. Paul had excellent credentials. He was a man who was going places. He could have risen high in the ranks of Judaism. He had the right education. He knew the right people. He was a go-getter. Whatever he might have wanted to achieve, he had the talent and the energy to accomplish it. This is what people want. But these are the things that he is referring to when he says, “I consider everything to be a loss for the sake of knowing Christ.”

Let’s put what Paul says into more modern day terms. Paul possessed and was in the process of possessing the best Jewish life of his times. What Paul had, other people really wanted. We live in quite different times, and so people’s idea of what makes for a good life is also different. Just so we can understand the significance of what he means when he says that he considers everything to be loss, let’s put it into today’s terms.

Sometimes folks’ idea of a good life gets put onto decorations. I’ve seen decorations that say, “Faith, Family, Fun.” If we can check those boxes, then it is quite probable that our life is quite nice. Advertisements are always trying to sell us things that are supposed to make us happy. So in order to sell things advertisements will paint an idyllic picture of life for us. Good looking people having good times with good families and good friends. You can paint as idyllic of a picture as you might want. This is what Paul says he considers to be loss.

Why and for what? He considers all these excellencies to be loss because of what is worth far more: Knowing Christ Jesus, his Lord. His answer for why and for what he considers other things to be a loss contains few words, but the words are very important: “Knowing Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

We might think that knowing isn’t that big of a deal. We know lots of things about lots of things. But it’s different when you know someone with power, resources, and authority. When people say that they know the owner, or the governor, or the president, the implication is that such a one can give special treatment. Knowing someone carries with it the connotation that the one saying it is known and (this is important) liked by that person in charge.

There’s something similar with knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Along with Paul’s knowing of Christ is also his belief in being justified in him, of being right and approved in him. Paul goes on to say that being in Christ means that he does not have a righteousness of his own (which would be rather flabby, hit and miss). He doesn’t have a righteousness that comes from him, which comes from the Law, but that in Christ he has a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. This is not his own righteousness, but through faith he is given the very righteousness of God. (God’s righteousness is not flabby, but perfect.) So not only does Paul know the One who sits at the right hand of God the Father, with all power and authority, but he also knows according to God’s promises that he is known and liked by that powerful one. That is of great advantage. If we know the president or the governor, that’s one thing. Knowing Christ is more advantageous by orders of magnitude.

But this is where this analogy of knowing someone in the halls of power falls a little flat. When you know powerful people, that might be of great advantage to you, but you might not actually care that much about the person in power. Knowing the governor or the president might just be for the purpose of squeezing something out of that relationship. Knowing the powers that be is for the purpose of getting beyond them—using them—perhaps for wealth or prestige or some other advantage for yourself. That is not how it is with knowing Christ.

With knowing Christ there is nothing beyond him. When you know Christ, you know God. There is no wealth or advantage that is beyond God. Jesus says in John 17: “This is eternal life, knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent.” Knowing God by knowing Jesus is the end point and the goal. It is eternal life. Knowing God is beyond our comprehension and imagination, but it is the reason why Jesus was sent. It was so that we sinners, having attained a righteousness that is not our own, may know God.

Here we should address a common defect in the way that people look at Jesus. A lot of Christians do not think about knowing Jesus as the goal or the endpoint of their life as a Christian. They consider Jesus to be a means to an end. It’s like he’s someone in high places that you can use toward your own advantage. And so their thinking is like this: All their love, all their energy is in accumulating and enjoying the earthly pleasures of life. Jesus, for them, is just a handy way to have the slate wiped clean when they die. They get their sins forgiven and they don’t end up in hell. This makes Jesus of great advantage to them according to their way of thinking. However, all their love, all their zest, all their interest has nothing to do with God. They love the things of this earth. They want to suck all the marrow out of life so that they are left with nothing but a dry bone when they are through with it.

Knowing Jesus, believing in Jesus, just for the sake of staying out of hell is a very deficient way of thinking. It paints God as being only a judge, only someone who needs to be appeased, so that the good times can keep rolling. What is loved is what has come before—what is loved are the things of this earth. There is no striving and straining for the future. There is no desire to know God, the Creator. What is loved are all the created things. There is no love or very little love for the Fountain and Source of all goodness. “Eternal life is knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.”

Bring to mind, again, the times and circumstances in which Paul finds himself. He is writing in chains. Death looms on the horizon. And yet this man writes in this letter, “Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice.” Paul has his sights set on what lies before him. He is not looking back on his life. Although his life was none too shabby, he considers it to be loss and garbage and even dung compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. He is on his way forward. He is on his greatest adventure. He is on his way to meet God.

The slight bumps and hiccups that might happen on the way, such as having your head chopped off, are just that—slight bumps and hiccups. As far as you are concerned, it does not seem likely that you will have your head chopped off. The slight bumps and hiccups on your way to meet God might be chemotherapy or paralysis or the inability to breathe. These and many other things are dark clouds. They are going to cause some turbulence. But you are on your way. They are not going to stop you. You are going to reach your destination because God is going to see to it.

Paul says, “There is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I’d like to point out how different this is from how we normally operate, which is a shame, and what peace we often forfeit thereby.

The normal way that we operate is that we are always looking forward to the prospect of good earthly things happening. We look forward to having bad things go away, and for our future to be filled with pleasant experiences. Even when folks become terminally ill, they often desperately hold on to whatever earthly hopes they can scrape together for themselves. Then, when they are on their deathbed, or after they have died, all of a sudden everybody changes gears. Instead of looking forward to better days (which are no longer possible) they look back on the good days that have been had.

Notice how pretty much the opposite of the way that Paul is thinking. He is not desperate for a change in his fortunes. He’s in chains. He’s on his way to the executioner. If his situation would change and improve, undoubtedly he would thank God for that, but that is not where his sights are set. If it happens, fine. If not, he’ll be fine that way too. This is not of ultimate concern. Instead, his sights are set on what lies ahead. He’s going to meet God. He knows Jesus, therefore he knows God who sent Jesus. He knows that God forgives him and approves of him for Jesus’s sake. He’s on his way to him.

So we might all learn something from Paul today. It’s very different from what is common in general, and even in our own circles. We put too much value on earthly things and hardly consider the greatness of knowing Jesus and knowing God. As someone who knows Christ, and is known by him, you may look forward to your approaching death, not as some kind of screeching halt, but the door to eternal life. Again, as Jesus said, “Eternal life is knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.” Death is like turbulence you might experience on an airplane. Maybe the turbulence will be quite rough, distressing and painful. But we get on airplanes to go somewhere. Despite whatever turbulence God will have you experience, there is 100% metaphysical certainty that your plane is going to arrive safely. You are going to meet God.