Sermon manuscript:
God is in control of all things. Day by day he gives us our
body and soul, eyes, ears, and all our members, our reason and all our senses.
Day by day he gives us our clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home,
wife and children. Day by day he gives all that we need to support this body
and life. What is more fundamental to being God than this activity? God being
God means that he gives and works everything.
This extends to things that can make us nervous, to say the
least. God is not evil. The devil is evil. God tempts no one. And yet God is
the one who keeps this world going. If God didn’t sustain the devil, the devil
would be no more. If God didn’t sustain evil-doers, the evil-doers would be no
more. If God didn’t sustain viruses, they would be no more. And so God is
involved in whatsoever should happen on this earth. If God wasn’t behind
everything that happened on this earth, then he actually would either not be
God, or there would have to be other gods besides him who are working these
things.
Most people do not enjoy thinking about how God is the one
who works everything. Cancer, for example, is bad enough. The thought that
somehow God is behind it can be terrifying. Perhaps you were nervous about what
Jesus said in the Gospel reading this past Sunday. He made it seem that God was
behind Pilate’s mixing of the worshippers’ blood with the sacrifices. He made
it seem that God had made the tower fall. Jesus concluded both of these things
by saying, “Repent, otherwise you will perish too.”
Unfortunately this truth, that God is in control of
everything, that God works everything, has been withheld from you and me even
though it is not hard to find in the Bible. It has been withheld because it has
been thought that God needs some better public relations. God needs to be sold
to people, otherwise they won’t extend the curtesy of believing in him.
That is totally backwards, however. It’s as though we are
gods, and we get to pick whether or not God should be recognized. That is
utterly stupid and so unbelievably unbiblical. The only way people have gotten
away with thinking such things is because they never read the Bible.
God exists. God is in control of all things. Not one sparrow
falls to the ground apart from him. The hairs on your head are numbered. It’s
not like God goes on vacation when bad things happen. He works all in all.
Whether you like this fact or not is beside the point. Whether you like God or
not doesn’t change the fact that he exists and works all things. He is going to
continue existing. You not liking him just means that you are his enemy and not
his friend.
If this frightens you, then that’s good. It means that you
are paying attention and taking this seriously. The Bible says dozens of times
that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Now it might sound as though I’ve been trying to unload on
you all kinds of bad news. It might sound as though I want you to think
negatively about God. That is not my intention. God is good. My intention is to
show you that you are not God. There are no other gods besides the one true God.
It is neither safe nor right to ignore God, or the fact that he is in control
of all things. You are not in control. Your money is not in control. America is
not in control. We and all things are under God’s control.
When you accept that God is in control of all things it is
going to change your perception of what is going on. When God sends you good
things, and you recognize that they come from him, you can give him thanks. Our
fallen, sinful flesh makes this very hard for us. (We are much more prone to be
blind to God’s goodness, to grumble, or even to attribute good things to our
own powers and abilities.) Nonetheless, when good things happen, you can thank
God.
When bad things happen, you can know that God is in control
of them. He will place a boundary on them. We do not know how everything will
go, but it will go how God wants it to go. And we know by the good news of God,
by the Gospel, that we are justified before God for Jesus’s sake. By baptism
and through faith in Jesus we have a loving Father. The difficulties and
troubles he sends our way is his discipline. We don't know the way it will go,
when it will end, or how much it will hurt, but God, who loves us, is the one
who does it. He will remain faithful to his promises to us. Therefore, we
should also love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.
Let us now apply this to Peter. A bit of knowledge that is
helpful to know about Peter is that before this he had sworn up and down that
he would never leave Jesus. He would die, if need be. Jesus could count on him.
Jesus responded, “Peter, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three
times. The Shepherd will be struck and the sheep will be scattered.”
In whom did Peter believe? He believed in himself. We like
believing in ourselves. It makes us feel strong and good. Unfortunately, the
truth is that we are neither strong nor good.
Did you notice what Paul said in our Epistle reading? God
gave him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to prevent him from
believing in himself. Paul didn’t like this thorn. He wanted to be rid of it.
But the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness.” Paul goes on to say that he will gladly, with
pleasure, take delight or boast about his weaknesses. Do people boast about
their weaknesses? I should say not. They boast about their powers. Paul,
however, boasts about his weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon
him. For when he is weak, then he is strong.
What happened with Peter was that when he was questioned
about being Jesus’s disciple, he was not content to be weak. He was afraid of
letting God direct him wherever that might be. He took the matter into his own
hands, he denied Christ, because he did not want to be arrested. After all, he
had cut off Malchus’s ear, right? Attempted murder. Assault and battery at the
very least. And so Peter lies. “I don’t know Jesus.” Jesus is the very linchpin
of our relationship with God who works all things, and here Peter throws him
away.
What would be the alternative? Peter could have kept the
commandments of God, entrusting himself to God, and let what happens happen.
Maybe he would have been arrested. Would that have made God cease to exist?
Maybe he would have been beaten to a pulp. Would that make God not be in
control any more?
Ultimately, many years later, at the end of Peter’s life,
this kind of thing happened again, except the outcome was very different. After
Peter sinned, Jesus forgave, restored, and strengthened Peter before he
ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit empowered Peter to preach a very
dangerous sermon about Jesus to the people of Jerusalem at Pentecost. Ultimately
Peter would be crucified for preaching the good news, the Gospel, that God is
well pleased with sinners for the sake of Jesus. What Peter was afraid of
happening to him on this night when Jesus was betrayed, actually happened to
him many years later, except this second time he confessed Jesus rather than
denying him. He, according to church legend, was crucified upside down.
There is something extremely practical and applicable here
for you. You probably don’t remember the first time that you lied, but you can
probably figure out why you did. Why did you lie? It was because you were
afraid of what would happen to you. You wanted to avoid it. And guess what? It
probably appeared to work like a charm. What you were afraid of happening
didn’t happen.
However, at the same time that you lied, what you were not
afraid of happening—what you probably didn’t even think about—did happen. By
your lying you were alienated from God. You managed things how you wanted them
to go, but at the same time you were disbelieving in God and you broke his
commandments. You cozied up, not to the heavenly Father, but to the father of
lies.
What more practical thing can I say to you than that you
shouldn’t lie? If you’ve done wrong don’t lie about it. Not lying about it may
very well mean that you will be punished. You will have some negative
experiences that you’d rather avoid. Do not let the fear of negative experiences
run your life. Will negative experiences somehow make God cease to exist? Of
course not! Will negative experiences make God cease to be in control of
everything, including your life, including your punishment? Of course not! God
will continue to exist. You will be much better off commending yourself to him,
putting your trust in him, believing that he accepts you and loves you for the
sake of Christ, than cozying up to the devil for your comfort by making use of
lies.
It is truly the case that we know not what we do. By nature
we are so utterly stupid and blind when it comes to spiritual matters. We think
that the truth is bad and the lies are good. God is bad and mean. The devil is
nice and lenient.
It is much better, much safer, much richer for you to
believe and acknowledge the truth. God is in control of all things. If this
makes you afraid, that’s okay. It’s a lot better to be afraid of God than to
think he is some stupid stooge of yours or that he doesn’t exist. But, in
truth, we shouldn’t be afraid. We have God’s promise of love to us in Jesus.
God loves us and is approving of us because of Jesus. Therefore, whatever
should happen to us, will be for our good—even if we don’t enjoy it for the
moment. As Paul says, “All things work together for the good of those who
love God.”
Peter was glorified, being loved by God, when he was
crucified upside down. I don’t know what is in your future. Know this: God is
in control. God is for you in Jesus, even if it doesn’t look like he is for
you. We know that God is for you because that is what he says, and God is not a
liar.
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