Ephesians 1:3-14
We join with Paul in praising God for including us in His plan of salvation by choosing us in Christ by His glorious grace. Some of you may remember the action TV series back in the mid-80s called The A-Team. It was a show about a fictional group of ex-US Army Special Forces who now had become soldiers of fortune while on the run after being labeled as war criminals for a “crime they did not commit”. The 5-man team had names like Hannibal and Murdock and B.A. and Faceman, and, of course, Mr. T. Hannibal was the leader of the team and he always seemed to have the perfect plan for getting them out of any situation they got into. His favorite catch phrase, if you remember, was "I love it when a plan comes together". I was reminded of that show while I was working on these words of Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. You are I were once members of a team of war criminals. We were guilty as charged of rebelling against our holy God – not only because of what we were by nature but also because of the many times we still violate His holy will in our lives by our sinful words and actions. But God be praised that He had a plan. In love His plan included rescuing you and me from the team of the enemy and making us members of His team. And like the A-Team, the Lord’s plan came together to get you and me out of a terrible mess. Today, then, let us see that we have good reason to “PRAISE GOD FOR HIS AMAZING GRACE” 1. First of all, we praise God that already in eternity He included you and me in His amazing plan. Our text here is one of the major sections in the Bible from which we get the doctrine of “election” or “predestination”. This teaching is found in several other places in the Bible, but this is the longest and most thorough presentation of this teaching. If we could sum up the teaching on election in a few sentences, it might go something like this: election is the teaching that God already before the creation of the world chose certain people to be saved. He chose them, not because of anything He saw in them, but because of His grace and mercy alone and in view of what Jesus would do for all people. We can see this very clearly here in our lesson. Paul begins by praising God for blessing us with every spiritual blessing that He sends down to us from “the heavenly realms”. Day after day He literally showers us with His many good things. And then Paul tells us the reason why: “For He chose us in Him (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight”. In a little more than three months the people of our country will be choosing the person they want to serve as our president the next four years from two or more candidates on the ballot. Only one of them, of course, is going to be elected. That’s the purpose of an election – only certain ones are chosen. What Paul is saying, then, is that God has elected you and me out of all the people in this world to be His chosen ones. And then he adds: “In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One He loves.” Can you imagine that? God chose you! God chose me! Why would He do that? Was it because He saw there would be something good about us that He liked? Did He see that we would be better than most other people? Did He see that we would be more like the kind of the people He was looking for? No, no, and no – absolutely not! We are no different and no better than anyone else. What David said about himself in Psalm 51 also applies to all of us: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” And it is still true of us what Paul once wrote about all people: “There is no one who does good, not even one… All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. You see, there is only one reason God chose you and me. And Paul tells us what that is: because of “His pleasure and will”. What that simply means is that God chose you and me for no other reason than the fact that He wanted to. And the only thing that prompted God to want to choose us was His great love for us. That’s it. God chose us to be saved so that we might be “holy and blameless in His sight”. It’s not that you and I were “holy and blameless” by nature, but that’s what God Himself would declare us to be “in His sight”. Likewise God chose us so that we might adopt us as His sons. Only sons received the inheritance of the father. So you and I are in line to receive an inheritance that is beyond our fondest imagination. Yes, how truly blessed we are that God included us in His amazing plan. 2. But God’s plan for us could only come together because of Jesus. Does God simply overlook who we are and what we are like? Does He simply ignore and disregard the seriousness of our sin and pre-tend it doesn’t exist? No again. God cannot and will not do that. God is holy and He hates sin with a passion. All sin must be punished. But you see, that is exactly what God did - He punished all sin – our sins and the sins of all people of all time. Only He did not take out His anger over our sin on us. No, in love He punished His own dear Son in our place. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? And it wasn’t fair. Jesus did not deserve to be punished. Jesus was holy and blameless, without sin. Even His own Father testified to that when He said: “This is My Son whom I love; with Him I am well pleased”. But you see, punishing Jesus was all a part of God’s amazing plan to save us. God’s plan could only come together “in Christ Jesus”. No one can be or ever will be saved without Jesus. Ten times here in these 12 verses of our lesson Paul uses the expression “in Christ” or “in Him” or the equivalent. We have already mentioned two of the greatest blessings God has given us. One is that He has declared us to be “holy and blameless in His sight”. And the other is that He has “adopted us” to receive a glorious inheritance. But where do these blessings come from? And again Paul here gives us the answer: “In Him (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” That says it all, doesn’t it? In Jesus we have redemption. “Redemption” means that a ransom payment was made to set us free from the guilt of our sin and from a well-deserved eternity in hell. And the ransom He had to pay? “His blood”, Paul says. Yes, Jesus shed His holy and precious blood on Calvary’s terrible cross as the sacrificial payment for all our sins. And now, Paul adds, we have “the forgiveness of sins”. The word “forgiveness” basically means that all our sins which have offended our holy God have all been removed – they have been taken away forever. And in their place God has given us the “righteousness” or perfection of Jesus. His perfect life is now our perfect life so that you and I are “holy and blameless in His sight”. All of this is only because of “the riches of God’s grace”. Yes, how truly blessed you and I are - but only because of Jesus, our Savior. 3. But Paul also shows us here that God’s amazing plan had a purpose for our lives here and now. The good news about Jesus is called the gospel. Paul here also calls it “a mystery”. The gospel is a mystery in the sense that God’s plan to save us would be hidden or unknown if God Himself had not revealed it to us in His Word. Paul speaks about God pouring out “the riches of His grace on us with all wisdom and understanding”. A part of the teaching on election is the fact that all those God has chosen from eternity are the same ones He has called by the gospel to believe here in time. God has seen to it that you and I, in our lifetimes, have heard the good news about Jesus and now believe it with all our hearts. And yet, even that is not our doing, is it? That is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. God saw to it that we heard about Jesus and what He did for us. And the Holy Spirit used that gospel message to bring us to faith in Jesus as our Savior. Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as a “seal” of ownership, showing that we now belong to God. The Holy Spirit is God’s “deposit” or down payment that guarantees us that there is a lot more to come when this life is over. And all this is “to the praise of His glory”. You see, God chose you and me to be His own so that we might live for Him. “We love because He first loved us”. We thank and praise God for His great love toward us by the love we show toward others, especially those who are members of our own family and our church family. We thank and praise God as we produce the fruits of our faith in our daily lives and as we carry out our Savior’s mission by sharing His saving gospel with others through our personal witness, our invitation to the unchurched, and our generous gifts and offerings. You and I don’t know all those people out there in the world whom God has chosen from eternity to be His elect. That is why Jesus said that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”. Until the end of time comes when the last of God’s elect have heard about Jesus and been saved, you and I are God’s chosen ones – chosen and called to be His witnesses in this sinful and corrupt generation. That, too, is truly a great honor and privilege if we realize just how blessed we really are to be a part of God’s amazing plan – a plan that has all come together in Jesus for our eternal salvation. Amen
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Amos 7:10-15
Let’s play a game called opposites. It’s a simple word game, but it is sometimes associated with psychological testing. Here is how it works. One person says a word. Then the other person responds as quickly as possible with a word that has the opposite meaning. For example, if I said "fast," most likely the first word that comes to mind is "slow." If I said "open," most people would quickly respond with "closed." Now, to yourself: White… Short…. Amos… Amaziah. There are two very different people in our text. They’re not as obvious as black and white and short and tall. And most people don’t know much about Amos, and even less about Amaziah. On the surface these two men appear similar. Both are Jews. Both claim to men of God. Amaziah was the priest at Bethel, and Amos was a prophet of the Lord. Their names even sound alike. Amos and Amaziah. But a closer look reveals that Amos and Amaziah are not so similar. They are from different countries. They have different agendas. They serve different masters. It is not a stretch to say that they are opposites. By the way, even though they has similar sounding names, Amos means “burden bearer” and Amaziah means “Yahweh is Almighty.” These opposites do not attract. They don’t get along. These two men are enemies. Our text is a conversation between these two men, a war of words between Amos and Amaziah. These six verses are the battleground, and the truth of God is at stake. These words, this battle remind us that the Battle For Truth at the House of God Rages On. Let’s talk about the accusations of Amaziah and the authority of Amos. 1. Again, Amaziah was a priest at Bethel. That’s a little confusing because we know that God established his temple in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place where Solomon built God’s temple. The temple was the place where the priests offered sacrifices on the altar. So, why did Amaziah serve as a priest at Bethel, some ten miles to the north? After King Solomon died, Israel was divided in two. The northern ten tribes rebelled against the house of David and formed their own government. The problem was that Jerusalem and the temple were in the southern territory. The rebel king in the north, a man by the name of Jereboam, didn’t want his people going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, so he set up an alternative worship site for them at Bethel. The Hebrew word, "Bethel," means "house of God," but what went on at Bethel was anything but God-pleasing. Jereboam set up a golden calf at Bethel to blend the worship of the true God with the idolatry of Israel’s neighbors. 250 years later when Amos arrived on the scene things had not changed. Or we could say that things had gotten worse. God’s assessment of his people in Amos 2:6,7: "They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name" Israel enjoyed a wonderful time of peace and prosperity, but beneath the surface the nation was in spiritual and moral decay. God’s patience with Israel was wearing thin, and he sent Amos to Bethel to warn the people of the Lord’s impending wrath. Because life was good for the people of Israel, life was also good for Amaziah, the priest at Bethel. The one thing Amaziah did not need was Amos making trouble in his own backyard, so he attacked Amos. He sent word to the king, saying: "Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words" Amaziah claimed that Amos was inciting a rebellion against Jereboam II ( the king who shared his name with the first king of Israel, the one who set up the golden calf at Bethel). Amaziah’s charge was a half-truth. Amos did predict that Israel would be destroyed, but he was not a part of any conspiracy against the king himself. Amaziah, however, was not interested in the truth. He wasn’t afraid to twist the facts to get rid of Amos, and his next attack shows that he was willing to get personal. He told Amos: "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there" (12). Amaziah assumed that Amos was a prophet for hire, not a prophet from God. He assumed that Amos prophesied to feed his own belly, not to feed other people’s souls. Did Amaziah make these assumptions because this was the kind of spiritual leader he was? In one way Amaziah was right: If Amos wanted to preach about the destruction of Israel, he would probably receive a much warmer reception (and a better a pay-day) in Judah, Israel’s rival to the south. Amaziah’s third and final accusation allows us to look inside his heart. He told Amos: "Do not prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom" (13). "Amos, Bethel is Israel’s most sacred place. Bethel is the seat of the kingdom. Don’t preach here anymore…or else." Amaziah did not serve God. He served the king, and anyone who opposed the king or the kingdom had to be destroyed. God’s Word and God’s people are attacked just as viciously today as Amaziah attacked Amos. God’s Word is dismissed as irrelevant. Negative labels are put on God’s people: Simplistic, naïve, intolerant, unloving. Jesus told us that we should actually expect this kind of treatment because people are by nature hostile to God and his Word. What’s very disturbing for us Christians is that this battle rages within the house of God. Pastors proclaim that the Bible is filled with errors. Churches believe that the mission of the church is to feed stomachs, not souls. How do we feel when on the receiving end of these attacks? Discouraged, distressed, depressed? How about encouraged? How about excited? How about blessed? That might sound strange, but Jesus says that very thing in Matthew 5: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me" (11). Christians don’t rejoice because they have to suffer. Christians don’t get excited when their convictions put them in an unpopular minority. But when we are persecuted, when the truth of God’s Word comes under attack, these attacks are evidence that God’s Word is at work. And that does give us a reason to rejoice. The same assurance of God’s presence gave Amos the strength to stand up to Amaziah, to stand up for the truth of God, and to speak with authority. 2. Amos had a difficult call from God. Amos was from Tekoa, a small village in Judah, but he prophesied at Bethel in the north. Judah and Israel were not on good terms. But the greatest challenge Amos had to face was that his message was pure law. He condemned Israel’s leaders for their wickedness. He predicted that Israel’s cities would be destroyed. He prophesied that Israel’s people would be carried into captivity. It would be like a Confederate preacher on tour in the North during the Civil War. Picture him proclaiming with a southern drawl: "New York & Boston will be burned. Washington D.C. will fall. Your sons will die in battle. And the Union will be destroyed." If a Southerner ever tried to talk like that in the North during the Civil War, how popular would he have been? How long do you think he would have survived? On top of this, Amos had been a sycamore fig farmer. To aid the ripening process, Amos would take a sharp point in put a hole in the bottom of the fig. Red juice would run out of the bottom of the fig and that red juice would stain his hands. Everyone knew Amos was a fig farmer, a poor occupation, just by looking at his hands. And he was ministering to a group of rich people who would not want to humble themselves before a poor fig farmer. A tough call from God, indeed. How would Amos survive? That might sound unrealistic. But that is exactly what Amos did. Amos was able to stand up to Amaziah. How was he able to do this? He was able to stand up to Amaziah because he had a greater authority standing behind him. Amos said to Amaziah: "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees" Amos was the first to admit he wasn’t anything special. He was a shepherd/farmer. He was much like Jesus’ disciples, all ordinary men. Ordinary men called to do great things. Amos went on: "But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’" Amos was able to speak with authority because of his calling. He wasn’t a prophet by trade. He wasn’t a prophet for hire. He was a prophet of God because he had been called by God. The same God who called Amos also commissioned him. The Lord said to Amos: "Go, prophesy to my people Israel." Amos didn’t work close to home where his life would be most comfortable. Amos did not go where his ministry would be the easiest. He went where God led him. Wherever God led Amos, he could speak with authority because he knew he was where God wanted him to be. God called Amos. He told him what to do. God commissioned Amos. He told him where to go. Finally, God guided the content of his message. He told him what to say. When Amos prophesied, he did not say to Israel: "You wicked people! Listen to what I have to say." Because God was speaking through him, Amos could look Amaziah right in the eye and say: "This is what the Lord says." It is clear that the battle still rages on for truth in the house of God. We are reminded today that we have been entrusted with that word today. “You are a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. There will be judgment. It’s called hell. In love we warn of the dangers of sin. In love we follow every word of the Lord. Jesus once prayed to his Father, “Your word is truth.” When we keep the truth to ourselves, are we not like Amaziah? When we don’t stand for every teaching in the Bible, are we not like Amaziah? When we decide we don’t like something the Bible teaches, and put up with those teachings because, for the most part we like the church, aren’t we putting ourselves above God? How serious is God about the battle over the truth? “I will destroy this kingdom from the earth,” he said about Israel, the Northern Kingdom. And to reject his invitation to seek him and live, “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem.” But just as serious is the Lord about his mercy, even in judgment. There will be a remnant, “I will destroy this kingdom from the earth—yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord. (9:8) The Messiah will come and his kingdom will extend to the ends of the earth. His rule is one of peace, joy, and contentment in the hearts of his people because the Messiah came to pay for all sin. His Father thundered his anger against Jesus. The enemies against Jesus and his church are great. Yet, the people of God enjoy forgiveness of sins in Jesus. God’s people enjoy the status of being sons and daughters in the kingdom. The people of God have the comfort of knowing his help in every trouble, the confidence to pray, the joy of worship, the privilege of serving him, assurance he will help us keep the faith, help against every temptation, victory over death and eternal life. Then use that knowledge to speak with the same authority as Amos. We can speak with confidence because that is what God has called us to do. We can speak with boldness because God has placed us where he wants us to be. We can speak with authority because God’s Word reveals what we are to say. And when we do that, we can stand up next to Amos and say: "This is what the Lord says." Amen. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Our text is a very sobering message for us and yet it is a very comforting one too. Sobering, because it tells us what things will be like for us. Comforting because of God’s precious promises. Our text reminds me of a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy says to Charlie Brown: “Sometimes I get discouraged.” And Charlie Brown responds: “Well, Lucy, life does have its ups and downs, you know…” Lucy shoots back: “But why? Why should it? Why can’t life just move from one up to another up? I don’t want any downs! I just want ups and ups and ups!” Truth be told, I’m with Lucy. I would imagine, you think that way too. But here’s the sobering part of our text: God wants us to be weak. We will be weak. God wants us to be weak so we can know his power. When there seems to be no way out; when there seems to be only trouble; when it seems we are completely overtaken by wants, right there is Jesus, and he promises. He promises his grace. He promises: “My Grace is Sufficient for You.” Paul had been talking about an intensely personal struggle. He speaks of it as a “thorn in his flesh.” Some people think it was some chronic physical problem, like malaria. It would make sense because one day he had to leave a low level city called Perga and move up to a higher elevated Antioch. Others believe Paul had a problem with his eyes. In Gal. 4 and 6 he hints about having eye troubles. Still others think it may have been a speech impediment, which the Paul’s opponents would have contrasted with their great speaking skills. You can find out in heaven what his thorn in the flesh was, but on this side of heaven we’ll never know. But what we can say is that it was some sort of physical problem. A painful one. A “thorn in his flesh.” But it was more than a physical problem. Paul calls it “a messenger of Satan to torment me.” And the original language tells us that Satan kept on tormenting Paul. So this problem troubled Paul physically, emotionally and spiritually. And Satan used it to bring evil upon Paul. But Paul’s body didn’t just deteriorate to the point that he now had a physical trouble. He wasn’t just getting older. “There was given me a thorn in my flesh.” God gave him his thorn. Satan used it to torment him. It was not an accident or a result of old age. The Lord wanted Paul to be weak. Satan wanted Paul to give up hope. But God used the thorn to bless him. Paul didn’t despair. He fell to his knees. Three times he called out the Lord for help. Three times he pleaded with the Lord to take the problem away from Paul. And the Lord always answers every prayer of the believer. But he answered it in a way Paul did not expect. He wanted Paul to be weak. Instead of taking the thorn away, and Almighty God could have certainly done that, Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” It was as if Jesus said, “No, I’m going to let you go on being weak, not because I want you to be tormented, but because I want you to have a better gift, something far better than a temporary fix for trouble. My grace is enough for you. You know the power of my love, Paul. Through my forgiving grace, my willingness to go to the cross for you, you have come to know the power of my unquenchable love. And that power of grace reaches its full strength in you only when you are conscience of nothing but your own personal weakness and my almighty strength.” God has this wonderful ability to make something out of nothing. Luther once said that if you think you are something, there’s not much God can do with you. Look at your big fat ego. How smart and strong you are. How dumb others are in comparison. Look at how often you rely on yourself, only when God gets you really far down on your knees do you look up. Look at your plans: is the Lord a part of them? If the Lord didn’t love us he’d let us go on thinking we didn’t need him. He’d let us think we were strong. But, again, God wants us to be weak. Weakness strips us of our egos. Weakness teaches us to give up on ourselves. It is true to say that sometimes God gives us the best of his gifts when it looks like he is not giving us anything at all. In weakness then, “My grace is sufficient for you.” My undeserved love is enough for you. This isn’t some generic grace, some generalized feeling of mercy that floats down from some sunny sky when all the warm summer breezes blow. This is located grace: It is located in Jesus and in him alone. It’s is the sufficient grace of our strong Savior who walked the darkness of sin and death. It’s the sufficient grace of a Savior who himself was willing to be weak for us our sakes. It’s the grace of a Savior who surrendered his will to die for love of his Father and for us. It’s the grace located on the tree where Jesus became a curse for our sin. It’s the grace of the empty tomb where God gives the heart to believe that we are now God’s children, forgiven and dearly loved. I pray that as we minister to one another at Crown of Life, that we don’t feel like we can’t talk about our troubles with one another. I also pray that we won’t feel like all we want to point to is our successes. Jesus’ power is made perfect in weakness. He wants us weak and we are. Jesus’ power is made perfect in our weakness. Paul had the ability to “delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” A sinful world says, or an unbeliever says, “Only when I am strong, when I have status, money, or influence am I strong.” God’s Word, and the believer, says, “Only when I’m weak, only when I realize that the world’s symbols of strength are nothing, only then am I strong.” “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you.” “He said to me.” In the Greek language it emphasizes how Jesus spoke this to him in the past and it stayed with him. “My grace is sufficient for you.” It continues to be enough. Let that play over and over in your minds. ‘The Lord said it to me and it still remains: His grace is enough for me.’ Paul’s thorn was much like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene. Jesus prayed for his cup of suffering to be removed. His Father’s will was not that the cup be removed, but that angels would go and strengthen Jesus to drink the cup. Just as the Lord brought good out of Paul’s thorn, good resulted from Jesus drinking his cup of suffering. By drinking the cup Jesus paid the ransom price of death to win forgiveness for the world. I haven’t talked much about the good that came as a result of Paul’s thorn in the flesh. I’ve talked about him being weak, but there’s more to it. The first verse of our text says, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh.” Paul could have become proud because of the number of revelations the Lord gave him, so our text says not once, but twice (in the original language Paul says this twice, in the English just once): “To keep me from becoming conceited there was given me a thorn in my flesh…to keep me from becoming conceited.” So, life will be up and down. But the Lord wants us weak. When we’re weak, then we are strong. Remember what this is all about. Paul is a missionary for Christ. Could Paul have moved about the world better without the thorn in his flesh. Ever see a map of Paul’s travels? Three missionary journeys caused him to travel thousands of mile to witness Christ, without an automobile. Could he have served his Lord better without his thorn in the flesh, obviously not! Life isn’t about us. It’s about God and his strength and salvation and that strength is made perfect in our weakness. And may this remain in your hearts and minds: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Amen. Psalm 78:1-8
This is wonderful day on a number of levels. The Lord invites us into his presence where he serves us with his Word. We respond with prayers and praises. The installation of our new Kindergarten in our worship service, follow by fellowship with cake and ice-cream in the fellowship hall. You can tell it’s a special day: we normally don’t have someone sitting in the front row. And we don’t normally cancel Bible Study for fellowship. It is a different day. It is a special day. The man who writes this psalm, speaks as a father. “O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.” The psalmist, the pastor, the teacher, the witness, the father, the mother has a privilege to speak and be heard. But when he says “Listen to the words of my mouth,” Asaph isn’t on his little soap box. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old—what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.” And since he is sharing God’s Word this is how he wants us to listen. “Hear my teaching,” yes, the NIV translates, but literally, “Incline your ears.” Lean forward, turn your neck and listen closely, so that not one word from God’s mouth falls to the ground. Study the words deeply, explore their meaning, and practice his teachings. So, children of God, and especially you, Melissa Thrams, listen to the Word of God. Asaph is going to share what God’s people have always known and heard. And take to heart especially these words in our text: “We Will Tell the Next Generation.” “He decreed statutes…which he commanded our forefathers to teacher their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.” Which is why we started a preschool and now are adding Kindergarten. We join in with Asaph. We Will Tell the Next Generation. “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” “…so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.” What praiseworthy deeds will we teach? Obviously, you have a curriculum you will be implementing and teaching little children. But every subject matter can be taught through the lens of Jesus, and ever every subject learned through that same lens. What makes our school different is that Crown of Life wants to know Christ and makes Christ known. Israelite parents were not at a loss when it came to relating praiseworthy. Their watched as God piled the water into high walls in the Red Sea and walked through on dry land. Then the water unleashed like a tsunami on the enemies who were trying to attack. Not long after that, God’s people were thirsty and God allowed water to rush out of rocky crags like a river. He split rocks on the earth and gave them water as abundance as the seas. He guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He rained down manna, “the bread of the angels,” and he rained down meat from heaven, flying birds like sand on the seashore. He led them safely through the desert; he guided them safely so that they were unafraid. He drove out nations before them. All this is from Psalm 78. How did God’s people respond? They forgot what he had done. They continued to sin against him. They willfully put God to the test. The kept on sinning. They would flatter him with their mouths but lie with their tongues. Again and again they put the Lord their God the test. They did not remember his power. They rebelled against the most High. They did not keep his statutes. All this is from Psalm 78. And talk about praiseworthy deeds! God kept forgiving them. He would slay them, afflict them, and they would return to him and everything was fine again. He was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. He restrained his anger and did not stir up his wrath. It would have been easier to herd cats than lead sinners through the wilderness. How did God not completely destroy them? All their rebellion was paid for, by their Redeemer. Their redeemer, the one who led them into the promised land, would be the one who would shed his blood to redeem them once they were established in the Promised Land. How could he forgive again and again? Every sin would be washed in the blood of the Messiah and even though the Messiah’s blood had not yet been shed, his coming was certain and his work of redemption was certain. So completely would the Messiah deliver from sin that they were even delivered from the guilt of their sins and the fear of death. One generation saw deliverance by Jacob’s family going to live in Egypt because of a famine. Another generation saw God’s deliverance by God releasing Israel from slavery in Egypt. Another generation saw God deliver his people in the land of Canaan. Another generation saw God’s might acts of deliverance from the Philistines, then the Arameans. One generation saw God’s delieverance from captivity in Babylon. Simeon and Anna, another generation saw the deliverer come to the temple as an eight day old boy. Another generation got to see the risen Christ. And each generation of believers was to tell the story the deliverances of their forefathers, and then add their own. No wonder they wanted to tell the next generation. We are so much like the Israelites. We forget his mercy. How many times a day we tempt him to just leave us with our sin and rebellion? How many times we forget God’s power? How many times we forget that God is greater than our latest problem, or latest bill. And how often we live as though the biggest, most important thing in our lives is not the Lord. We make him jealous by putting other things ahead of him. We flatter with our mouths, but the praise doesn’t always come from the heart. Why he doesn’t just torch us with the flames of hell is because… Of the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. On top of all the praiseworthy things recorded in Psalm 78, we take our heads hung in shame to visit an animal feedbox in Bethlehem and see God who became a tiny baby. We open up the gospels and walk the dusty paths of Palestine with a teacher from Nazareth who performed miracle after miracle. We crane our necks to look up at the blood stained wood on a hill outside of Jerusalem. We run along with Peter and John to the tomb were Jesus once lay and see that he rose again. Let these children learn their numbers and colors and letters and words, pretty big words at that. But what makes your ministry different, Melissa, is the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. Crown of Life wants to tell the next generation. You teaching a number of God’s children in our name. I see five generations spoken of this text. 1. Fathers. 2. Their children. 3. The generation to come. 4. Their children. 5. And then their children. I never met my great grandfather. But I heard he was a neat guy. He was town president in McMillan, and the family history says he hated politics. He had a great sense of humor and he was a devout child of God. He’s the one who donated the land upon which sits St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in McMillan, WI. He raised my grandfather Ruben. I don’t think I ever saw him frown. He was always smiling, always giving thanks to God for his blessings, always encouraging. He would always say “If it is the Lord’s will, we’ll see you at Christmas.” “Lord-willing, we’ll see you at Easter.” He would always ask me about Jesus, and tell me about Jesus. Ruben got himself taken out of a rich uncles will because he wouldn’t stop talking to him about Jesus. At his funeral, the pastor who buried him said he never known anyone to be such a wonderful leader in the church. He raised my father, who has been in the public ministry for over 40 years. My father has been in the public ministry for over 40 years. Read any verse in the New Testament and he’ll give you chapter and verse. Read any verse in the O.T. and you’ll get book and chapter. Our publishing house loves him because they don’t do any revising on his writing. I’m proud of what God made him to be. My father raised me, which I won’t talk much about. But So I’ll move on to my boys. Rotten sinners though they may be, if you talk to them about spiritual things, they have a lot of substance. I’m amazed what God can do with some Sunday School teaching, faithful attendance, and lots of Christ centered talk in the home and a lot of boring preaching and teaching from their pastor dad. I’m proud of what God has done and I’m and grateful to God. I’m proud of my Christian heritage. I’ve got my own five generations and as far as I can tell, it all started with a good-natured, great-grandfather, farmer John. We Will Tell the Next Generation. Each of the five generations in my family valued Christian education, and it shows. Which is why we called you Melissa to be our Kindergarten teacher. Will God be working with the first generation believer in some of your children, or the second generation believers? And how many generations of believers will benefit from the Word of God you will share with your children? Martin Luther wrote of the importance of Christian education, “Nothing can more easily earn hell for a man than the improper training of his own children; and parents can perform no more damaging bit of work than to neglect their own offspring.” We will tell the next generation. Asaph had good insight into human behavior. He knew what happens when one generation failed to tell the next. The result is disastrous. The history of the nation of Israel is a sad tale of slipping away from the Lord. And why? Because they didn’t focus on the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord and share those with the next generation. We want to tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord so that they in turn will tell their children. Persistent proclamation of Jesus leads to perpetual praise of Jesus. To know Christ and to make Christ known. You’ve heard of our mission statement already. As you prepare your lessons and teach your lessons you are getting an opportunity t o know Christ even more deeply. And as you teach your lessons you have the opportunity to make him known. Melissa, you are blessed with the opportunity before you. Asaph would have wholeheartedly agreed with our mission statement. Asaph’s commitment is our commitment. We say to God and to one another this morning, “We will not hide (what God as done); we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD.” Amen. Mark 4:35-41
When I think about the storms of life, when I think about the times I’ve been afraid, and I mean really afraid, I flash back to a number of things. When I was 10 I was picking blackberries when I realized that a black bear was picking blackberries about 10 feet away. He didn’t know I was there. I ran like the wind to find my dad and never left his side. When I was fifteen our family had a cancer scare. My mother had a lump. My mother was, to me, the glue that held our family together. In all my life I don’t ever remember praying so boldly and telling the Lord what my will was. Eight years ago, I lost my way in the mountains. Ever been on a mountain ridge in a blizzard, lost, trying to figure out which way to go? Before you get a fire going, that’s not a good feeling. What are your storm stories? When has life-threatening fear set in, or life-altering fear, set in for you? Maybe you are living through one of those storms right now. Fear is one of the basic emotions of human life. Sometimes fear is good. A healthy fear will keep you out of a lot of trouble. A fear of breaking the commandments will keep you out of a lot of trouble. But there is a fear that is not healthy. Jesus calls this fear a weakness in faith. And not just a weakness of faith, but Jesus calls this fear a sin against the first commandment that denies God’s power. When we don’t have control over what’s happening, the result can be fear. We fear failure, poverty, the breakup of a marriage. We fear losing our health or our lives. We can’t sleep at night. We might lose our appetite. We feel helpless. We don’t laugh like we used to. You can see worry, and depression, in peoples’ faces. “It is a mother’s prerogative to worry,” I’m told. It is a mothers prerogative to stop fearing, loving and trusting in the Lord above all things. Worry, like outright fear, is contrary to faith. Worry is opposite of faith. It is unbelief. Jesus said, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?; or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matthew 6:31). It’s one thing when the unbeliever trembles in fear. And understandable because they have no one to but helpless human beings to turn to when the storms of life hit. But, and I say this not with a shaking finger, but with heaviness of heart. How sad, how pitiful, when God’s people fear. “Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” We say the same thing, don’t we? “Lord, don’t you care that this is happening to me?” “Don’t you care that I am in the struggle for my life?” Don’t you care that I am afraid of what might happen?” At least the disciples didn’t say, “Don’t bother waking Jesus, he can’t do anything about it.” No, they believed he could. But they also believed that Jesus stopped caring for them, stopped loving them. What led to their fear was that they believed Jesus stopped loving them. “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Is there anything that can separate us from the love of God? “Shall trouble, or hardship…” Paul says “No.” “Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” If God stopped loving he would cease to exist because he is love. For the child of God, there is never a cause for fear. Paul wrote to the Romans, “You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:5). In the midst of temptation to fear we can call upon the Holy Spirit to remind us that we have a Father in heaven who loves us with an infinite love. Knowing our Father and knowing his love drives out all fear because as John writes in his first epistle, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). The ultimate cause of all fear is God’s punishment. But God’s perfect love for us, his grace, removes any idea of punishment. And if the punishment is removed then the fear is removed. John had written earlier, 1 John 4:7-10. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” The reason there is no punishment, and the reason we have no fear, is that God sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. Yes, to live without fear of punishment, without worry, without anxiety. Yes, to live in peace and joy and hope. We don’t love God the way he demands, but God loves us in Christ and that perfect love is all we need to know to drive out any fear. Think about this for a moment. In this crisis situation the disciples come to their Lord not with prayer, not with a respectful request, but with an accusation. What were they thinking? “Here we are almost dead, working our tails off to keep this boat afloat and you’re just sleeping away as if we don’t mean anything to you! Perhaps, if it does not interfere with your nap, we could use a little help, thank you please.” “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Of course Jesus cared. And Jesus knew the Father cared. With perfect trust in His Father, Jesus could sleep. With that perfect trust in His Father, with his perfect life, with His dual nature of God and Man, he became the perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus proves the Father’s love. Jesus knew he wasn’t going to drown, he knew he was going to die on a cross for all sinners. Jesus knew the Sea of Galilee and wind weren’t in charge, he knew His Father was in charge. Another truth that removes fear is that Jesus is control of all things. “He (Jesus) got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still.’” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’” What we forget sometimes in the storms of life is that there is one who controls the wind and waves and earthquakes and tsunamis. There is one who is the master over all of disease and draught and economies and wars. He is the one who created this world using only His Word and someday will bring it to an end when the last believer comes to faith. The wind and waves obey the Lord Jesus, ruler over heaven and earth. I think the key to this text lies in these words, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Why were they afraid? Simple. Because they didn’t understand the nature of Jesus, and they didn’t understand his mission. Jesus wasn’t supposed to die drowning in the Sea of Galilee, he was supposed to be the cursed one on the tree. The sleeping Jesus didn’t have a human father. When he asks “Do you still have no faith?” he specifically means faith in him as the Old Testament Messiah, the Savior of Israel and the world. Trust in Jesus’ work of redemption takes away fear, no matter what the circumstance may be. So here’s what out text boils down to: If Christ took away sin and is the Savior of the world—we have no reason to fear dying. If Christ is in control of all things, then there is no reason to fear what happens before we die. If God loves us in Christ, and if “nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus,” then again, there is no need to ever fear. The clouds are always gathering. Personal tragedy. Nagging problems which defy human solution. A burden placed on the family. Finances. Each one of us sees the storm clouds gather. And sometimes the clouds just blow over. But sometimes it rains. Then the waves get bigger and the boat starts to take on water. The remedy: Know his love. Trust he’s in control. “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” People of faith wrote these words for you, people of faith to find calm during storms: “When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.” (Psalm 56:3-4). “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1). “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man to do me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. (Psalm 118:6,7). The storms of life serve a very useful purpose. They show we are not in control. Storms move us to ask God to intervene on our behalf. Storms show us how much we need God. Storms remind us of how much he loves us in Christ. Which means we can sing with conviction the hymn verse we just sang: Be still my soul; your God will undertake To guide the future as he has the past. Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still my soul, the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while he lived below. Amen. Mark 4:26-32
Of Jesus’ hand-picked twelve disciples, one betrayed him and the eleven who remained were pretty ordinary, uneducated men. At Jesus’ Ascension, the number of his followers was 120. Today, there are about that many on Crown of Life’s membership roster. And today, about 1/3 of the world’s population declares allegiance to Jesus as Lord and Savior. From such a small beginning has grown a kingdom that extends to all the ends of the earth. And this kingdom will never end, but will endure through all ages until the glory that never ends. How did that happen? Jesus told his disciples many parables and each parable instructs how the kingdom of God works. The parable of the sower shows us how the word is received. The parable of the weeds teaches us that the kingdom of God isn’t identical to the visible church. The parable of the hidden treasure and of the priceless pearl tell us that the kingdom of God is our most valuable possession. The parable of the net teaches us to cast the net of the gospel and let the Lord take care of the results. In our text for today, Jesus tells two parables: The parable of the Growing Seed and the parable of the Mustard Seed. He tells these parable so that we will Trust in the Word to Do Its Work. Now both of these parables have to do with the growth of the kingdom. In the growing seed parable Jesus said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” What makes the kingdom grow? “Night and day, whether he sleeps or not, the seed sprouts and grows, though he doesn’t know how.” Just as the seed has a wonderful power to grow and produce a harvest, so does the Word of God. The Word of God has a wonderful power to be planted and then grow in the hearts of people and produce a harvest for the Lord. Once the farmer gets his seed into the ground, isn’t he relieved? Aren’t farmers confident that once their seed in their fields they can wait for a harvest? In confidence in the power of the seed, the farmer begins to do other things while he waits. He drives around to see if others farmers have their seed in. They fix their machinery. They cultivate. In the chapters before Mark 4, our Savior plants the seed of the word in Galilee, along the Sea of Galilee, in Capernaum. In Capernaum he planted the seed of God’s Word in the synagogue, and at the tax collector’s booth. He planted the seed publicly, and in individuals’ homes. One morning Jesus got up early to pray by himself and when they found him he said, “Everyone is looking for you!” He said, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” He also prepared his disciples to continue the work that he started. “Come follow me,” he said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Follow they did. Plant they did. Read the book of Acts and you’ll see where Jesus’ disciples went to plant the word. In this first parable Jesus talks about the kingdom of God spreading through the word, the powerful word. And before he ascended into heaven he said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus was confident his Word would work. The word has always worked. God said about his word, “My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” “Is not my word like a hammer that breaks rock into pieces?” “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword.” A double edged sword cuts in every direction. The disciples and apostles were confident too. “They preached the word wherever they went.” “…the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain.” If the word of God is so powerful, then why does the Bible collect so much dust? If we believe in the power of God’s Word, why is it so hard for us to witness the truth of God’s Word? If we are God’s children, and God’s children listen to the Savior in his Word, then why don’t we believe what God wants us to believe? Why don’t we obey the way God wants us to obey? Is the fault in me? Or it the fault in the Word? If we are trusting in the Word of God to do its work, then why is there so much pressure in visible churches to change their teachings so the kingdom can grow? How amazing that this Almighty God comes to us for reconciliation. We doubt him and comes to us? We don’t believe him and he wants back into our hearts? After what Adam and every week, but there was Eve did to him? After what I do to him every day? God seeks us out and saves us with his powerful word. The Bible says that God’s Word saves our souls. James says that the Word of God “can save you.” (Ja. 1:21) Paul says that the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ who came to save sinners is the “power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” God’s Word reveals to us the righteousness that is ours in Christ. After revealing to us that there is no righteousness in us, the Bible assures us that there is righteousness earned by Christ, through his innocent suffering and death, that delivers the sinner. The Word of God has the power to save, because it tells us of the one who came to save us. The Word of God also has the power to bring us to faith. “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.” (Ro. 10:17) The Word of God has the power to nourish this faith. After assuring us that there is an inheritance in heaven waiting for us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter tells us that we “through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming…’of the last day.’ (1 Pe.1:5) The Word of God has the power to work regeneration and new life. We are born of corrupted seed, born to die because we are born in sin. But Peter tells us (1 Pe. 1:23) “For you were born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” Imagine a holy God coming to damnable sinners like us and making us his children through the Word of truth. James 1:18 says, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth.” Jesus said, “The words I spoke to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63) Is there enough time today to talk about the power of God’s Word to grant us the hope of heaven after this life? As crowded as our lives are, we his children still look forward to the blessed goal of our God-given faith. The Word of God not only tells us about this hope of heaven, but it also has the power to change our outlook on life, our point of view. Our home, our destination is heaven. Finally, the Word of God is a source of strength for every issue of life. You sinned terribly? God saves mightily! The blood of Jesus his Son purifies us from every sin. You feel alone. God is with you and will never leave you. You feel overwhelmed. He tells you his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And while a dying world yawns at the message we graciously granted life. While a dying world questions critically the truths of the Bible, we are granted life. While a rebellious world persecutes the believer, the gospel has the power to make that conviction even stronger in the face of persecution. The growth of the kingdom comes through the word. Jesus was confident in His Word. Jesus preached and taught his Word. The disciples preached and taught his Word because they were confident in its power. And Jesus’ second parable talks about the incredible growth of the kingdom through the word. In the parable of the Mustard Seed, Jesus says, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all the garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.” The mustard seed was the smallest seed in Jewish gardens, but it grows to 10 or 15 feet high. In America mustard plants don’t grow over four feet tall. All other plants were dwarfed by the mustard plant. Birds could sit on its branches in its shade. When this seed grows it grows fast and it can crack concrete. The seed is the kingdom of God. Who would have thought that a boy born in such lowly circumstances would have a rule that extends over heaven and earth? Who would have thought that a handful of disciples preaching the good news of the kingdom of Christ would spread into a religion of followers on every continent and in every century? While the world yawns and persecutes, the kingdom grows. While the church wonders why it doesn’t grow faster, the kingdom grows, inwardly and outwardly. Our own WELS has grown into a synod of 385,321 baptized members; and 305,558 communicant members, with 1,286 congregations, and 1,349 pastors, 1,594 teachers, in twelve districts. Our own WELS has 20 congregations which have signed services. All within the lower 48. We started with four pastors in Milwaukee in 1849 who wanted to start a synod. Did you know that today they are over 200 Lutheran synods in our world today? How did it happen? The word. The Holy Spirit using the word. Worldwide our missions include 533 congregations, 86,502 baptized members, 132 preaching stations, 8 teachers, 146 national pastors, 17 student pastors, 197 national evangelists, 13 national vicars, 220 Bible Institute students, 145 seminary students. We run one of the largest Christian prison ministries in the nation, distributing hundreds of thousands of Bibles and Bible correspondence courses to inmates across the United States over the last 20 years. I conducted a prison ministry for about six years in WI. Had a number of guys that came a revolving door of inmates who needed to hear about Jesus who heard about Jesus. Like others who do such work, my Bible Classes never made it onto any statistical report. We support work in world mission fields like Malawi, Zambia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. We also support mission work in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies. Our congregations—either individually or as federations—operate one of the largest Lutheran school systems in the country with 324 Lutheran elementary schools; 403 early childhood ministries; 23 area Lutheran high schools; and Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, Wis. We maintain Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minn., Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wis., and two preparatory high schools: Luther Preparatory School in Watertown, Wis., and Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw, Mich., for the education of our pastors, teachers, and staff ministers. One tourist in Israel said when he examined some mustard plants he found that a typical pod contained two or three seeds, rarely four. He determined one seed may have grown to become more than a hundred seeds. One species of brown mustard produced on average 250 times more than what was sown. In Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed Jesus says that the Word that fell on good soil produced “a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Let’s remember whose seed this is. God’s. Oh, one more thing. The mustard plant is not a real attractive plant, especially when it gets brown. To me its scraggly and rough in appearance. But it’s the Lord’s illustration and parable. “…the seed sprouts and grows.” And when the mustard seed is planted, though it is the smallest seed Jews planted, “Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all the garden plants.” When Jesus left this earth visibly he left 120 followers behind. Today, in Fort Myers, there are that many at Crown of Life who believe in Jesus. Trust the Word to do its work. Amen. 2 Corinthians 4:13-18
Every sermon has a theme. And because the preacher wants his listeners to remember the theme, he will try to be creative. My theme this morning isn’t clever. It isn’t creative. It isn’t original. I took it word for word out of the text. “We Believe, Therefore We Speak.” No apologies to the Apostle Paul for stealing his theme because it didn’t originate with him either. In our text, Paul was quoting Psalm 116. The psalmist composed these verses after he had gone through a time of great affliction: “The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow” (3). This time of trouble was followed by a great deliverance: “You, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling” (8). And then the writer went on to express his gratefulness for God’s grace and mercy: “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me” (12)? “I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord” (17). Paul knew exactly how the psalmist felt. He had been stoned. He had been flogged. He had been thrown in jail. And time after time, the Lord had delivered him. In spite of the troubles, in spite of the dangers, even in the midst of the most severe trials, Paul trusted in God. So he was proud to make the words of the psalmist his own: “‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ With the same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak” (4:13). We feel the same way. Our faith is built on the same foundation. So along with the psalmist, and along with Paul, we say, “We Believe, Therefore We Speak.” Paul teaches us that 1. Death will give way to live. 2. Trouble will give way to glory. And 3. Time will give way to eternity. Since this is what we know and believe, we therefore, speak. 1. One of the things that can trouble Christians at a funeral, viewing a lifeless body and wondering how the lifeless body cnd possibly live again. Another thing that is troubling at a funeral is knowing that we all have to go through this process, unless Jesus comes before we go one by one. It’s a pretty harsh preaching of the law just to see a body in a casket. And the reason we die is that we are sinners. Sinners die. Sinners die because they deserve to die. “The wages of sin is death.” There would be no death if there was no sin. No one would die is he wasn’t sinful. But Paul says that death will give way to life. And it already has. “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (14). Some of Jesus’ followers went to the tomb on Easter morning to give him a proper burial, but they never had the chance, because when they got the tomb they realized that his body wasn’t there. The stone was rolled away. The open tomb revealed and empty tomb. The angel explained why: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6). Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning, but our celebrations don’t stop there. And the resurrections won’t stop there either. “The one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus.” How did Paul know that? How did he know that he wouldn’t just stay dead? Paul put his confidence in the one who called himself “the resurrection and the life.” Paul believed Jesus when he said: “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26). Jesus’ promise was all the proof Paul needed to believe. So, the body in the grave, or body which ashes have been scattered, is made alive when Jesus returns, the Bible says. The sinner dies, but because the blood of Jesus is the price God accepted for the guilt of the world, death is not the end of life. No, it is the beginning of life in heaven. So, we ache and cry at the loss of a loved one, but death is really the avenue to a better life with Jesus in heaven. Paul couldn’t keep this good news to himself. He believed, and so he spoke. And this is what he had to say: “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God” (15). Paul didn’t go on four missionary journeys to satisfy his thirst for adventure. Paul didn’t risk life and limb to show the Lord how committed he was. Paul didn’t preach the gospel wherever he went because he liked to hear himself talk. “All this is for your benefit,” he told the Christians in Corinth. He wanted everyone to know what he knew. He wanted everyone to believe what he believed. He devoted his life to preaching and teaching so that others would hear and believe and be saved. T. “Therefore we do not lose heart” (16). We do not lose heart because death will give way to life. And we do not lose heart because trouble will give way to glory. 2. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (16). Over time Paul’s occupation had taken a toll on his body. There were long nights and long hours. There were thousands of miles of travel. And then there were “the marks of Jesus.” Did people notice scars on his face from being stoned? Did people see bruises on his body? On the outside Paul could be in pretty rough shape, but the inside was a different story. Sticks and stones were able to break his bones and skin, but they couldn’t touch his inner being. God’s Word renewed Paul’s faith day by day. God’s promises gave Paul the strength to meet the challenges of every new day. God gave Paul the conviction and the courage to say: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (17). The word for “troubles” carries the idea of “weight” or “pressure.” We talk about the gravity of the situation. “Troubles” is described as a heavy burden. But according to Paul our weights are light. And momentary. Think of life as a scale. On one side is every sickness that made you feel miserable, every disease that took someone from you, everything that ever stressed you out, every problem that made you lose sleep at night, every time you struggled, every time you cried, every harsh word, every cold stare, each persecution, everything that you would label troublesome or burdensome in your entire life, and put it in that tray. You need a pretty big tray. As God looks down into the pan, do you know what he sees? A feather. And do you know what’s on the other side of the scale? All the eternal glory that awaits you and I is put on the other side of the scale, and it is heavy. So heavy, it is impossible to measure. The arrow spins round and round. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (17). Whenever Paul talks about bearing the cross, whenever he encourages Christians to bear up in midst suffering, he doesn’t say it could be worse. He doesn’t make an empty promise that everything will be okay. He doesn’t offer temporary solutions. He doesn’t suggest or promise quick fixes. T. He looks beyond this life. He looks beyond this world. He looks ahead to the Last Day, the day when death will give way to life, the day when trouble will give way to glory, the day when time will give way to eternity. 3. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (18). Would you go back to a doctor is he said, “Now there is a spot on your lung, or your brain, but don’t focus on your spot.” I’m guessing you would rightly lose confident in such a doctor. But this is what Paul is saying. It is very easy to focus all our attention on this world, but this world is not our final destination. This is a stop along the way. And so God does things to get our attention, to get us to lift our noses from the grindstone, to get us to look up. Not with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith. And Jesus is the lens that helps us see everything clearly. With the perfect vision of faith, we can see a place where there is no more sickness and sadness. With perfect vision of faith, we can see all of our loved ones who died in faith. With perfect vision, we can see the places God has prepared for us in heaven. The Bible is a big book, thousands of pages long. It can be intimidating, but at its heart and core it comes down to this. The Lord raised Jesus from the dead, and his resurrection guarantees our resurrection. Death will give way to life. Trouble will give way to glory. And time will give way to eternity. This is the hope we have. This is the hope we have to share. Along with Paul, we believe, therefore we speak. Amen. Deuteronomy 5:12-15
This is a great time of year for a lot of people. School is out. The weather is warming up. Summer arrives officially next week. This is the time when people think about slowing down, if not slowing down, at least taking some time off…get out of the desk…get out of the office…get out of the house…take a vacation…enjoy a little diversion from what we do throughout the year. We need to rest. People are not machines. We need time to recharge, rejuvenate and refresh ourselves. Sometimes you might think that if you didn’t work all the time, you would find yourself even more behind in your work, but in reality, taking a little time off makes you more effective when you work. Jesus rested. Rest is godly. Rest was commanded in the Old Testament. This morning our text tell us: Get Your Rest. To understand our text we have to know what the history is that surrounds it. And then we talk about the kind of rest God wants us to have. 1. Observe the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. The Third Commandment deals with the Sabbath, which is the Hebrew word for rest. God wanted His people to get their rest – both physically and spiritually. In fact, He demanded that they get their rest and if they didn’t get their rest, it was a capital crime. Why should they get their rest? Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. God is concerned about the well-being of his people. What this tells us is that God was concerned about the physical well-being of all His people. And not only the Israelites were to abstain from work, but this applied to their servants as well. One day a week they were not to work hard. God did not want his people exhausted from constant hard work. Later in Israel’s history the Jewish people began to misinterpreted this command., as is shown in the gospel lesson. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had focused on the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. The result of this was that they focused on what they were doing, instead of what God was doing for them, physically and spiritually, on the Sabbath. They went to great lengths to determining what was work. And over time an exhaustive system of rules governing proper Sabbath observance was developed and put down in writing. Almost every conceivable situation was covered. Here are a couple of examples. It was not lawful to boil an egg on the Sabbath. It was not lawful to climb a tree or swim or dance. It was lawful to pick up a chair, but it was not permissible to drag the same chair along the ground because it might produce a rut. Here’s a good one: Women were not allowed to look in the mirror on the Sabbath because they might discover a white hair and attempt to pull it out. It had to be exhausting to try and figure out how they could or couldn’t rest. Why would a person who claims to be a child of God go through so much effort to rest? What happens when you work when you’re supposed to rest? You don’t get your rest. These manmade rules were designed to keep people from violating the Sabbath. But these manmade rules distracted from the true meaning and purpose of the Sabbath. What happens though, when the focus is taken off God? In the gospel, you have the religious leaders accusing the disciples for breaking Sabbath because they harvested grain when they shouldn’t have. Today, you get people who say, “I go to church. I gave an offering. I’m not perfect, but at least I’m here. I do more than most people do.” brought my envelope. I may not be perfect, but at least I’m here. And as long as I do what I’m supposed to, as long as I do just enough, as long as I do a little more than the person next to me, then I’ll be okay.” If you are concerned about putting in your hour, or if you’ve ever compared yourself to others, you have taken God out of the picture and put the focus on you…That’s not the rest God has in mind for you. A focus on the sinner is poison for our souls. It’s sweet poison, but its poison. It tastes good going down, it feels good to focus on myself, but in the end the poison of focusing on myself can only kill. Everyone tastes this deadly poison. The person who never went to prison says, “At least I’ve never gone to prison.” Can you imagine what the prisoner says, “At least I know my sin.” And we all are dying because of our sins. Even preachers have this trouble. In Montana, we had Bible Class and Sunday School at 8 and worship at 9:15. I was usually out of church by 11 a.m., which meant one thing. I was grilling by noon: my boys have always loved burgers on the grill. So I’d change clothes, and ride my bike to the closest grocery store. When you walk into church at that time you walk in with Christians wearing their Sunday best. On many Sundays I would get looks like: He didn’t go to church. He’s not dressed like us. Here’s where I focused on myself: I was just waiting for someone to say something to me and if someone did I could say, “I just preached on the epistle lesson for the Second Sunday in Pentecost. What did you preach on?” I never found rest in comparing myself to someone else. There is an antidote for this poison. Jesus. He actually gave us to the Law so we would see what we have in him as our Savior. And this one who established the law that we could never keep has also kept the law in our place. Jesus observed every Sabbath. In fact no one ever preached like Jesus, taught like Jesus. Jesus proclaimed the prophesies of the Old Testament as he preached in the synagogues. Jesus proclaimed spiritual truth in the form of parables. Jesus also fulfilled every prophesy about him: born of a virgin. He would come out of Egypt. He would be sold for 30 silver pieces. He would be pierced. He was be assigned a grave with the wicked. He would rise again. He would ascend into to heaven. And because he did, Jesus has provided true rest, spiritual rest, and eternal rest. You don’t have to wonder if you have gone to church enough in your life—if Jesus did it for you. You don’t have to wonder if your guilt is gone—if Jesus has won your rest. You don’t have to worry about what will happen when you die—Jesus kept every law, including the Sabbath, so you can rest. You don’t have to wonder what God is thinking about when it comes to you—he speaks to you in His Word. From the book of Exodus we learn a second reason God had His people keep the Sabbath had to with the fact that He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Israel was to observe the same pattern in their lives as God did in Creation. But it was more than mere imitation; this is the day they were told to "keep holy." In other words, they were to set this day apart and make it special. This was the day that was to be devoted to reflecting on God and His Word. This was the time set aside for public worship and praise. They were to rest from the physical so they could concentrate on the spiritual. The Sabbath requirements were only for the people in the Old Testament. The Sabbath laws do not apply to us New Testament believers. The Sabbath pointed to Christ, and because he has come, the Sabbath is no longer needed. But the principle behind this command still remains. God wants us to spend time with him and His Word and enjoy true refreshing spiritual rest. “Come to me all you are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." You don’t have to wonder if you’ve done enough to get into heaven. You don’t have to wonder if you will stand before God and give an account for sins, Jesus already did that. You don’t have to doubt if your sins are forgiven—Jesus rose again and lives. Get your rest—take a trip to Calvary and see divine blood shed for your sin. Get your rest—open up the Psalms and pour out your heart to the Lord, and then, refreshed, wait for his deliverance. Get your rest—open up your Bible and see Jesus keeping the Sabbath. Get your rest—see Jesus’ love for the Word of God is your love for the Word of God, through faith in Jesus. God wants you to have that rest for your souls. He told Isaiah “Comfort, comfort my people…Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” Perhaps you didn’t take what you feel is enough time in God’s Word this week and your conscience bothers you. God hasn’t withdrawn his message of forgiveness. It’s still there for you to read and find rest in. Perhaps you were a bad example for your family this week. The Lord has taken that sin and thrown it into the depths of the sea where it cannot be found. And you may have another opportunity to be a good example this week. Get your rest. Will there ever be a day where you won’t want this rest? Will there ever be a day when you won’t need this rest? And for us Christians, every day is a Sabbath. The Sabbath provided God’s people with an opportunity to recharge their physical, and more importantly, their spiritual batteries. The Word of God provides us believers today that rest, here on earth, and forever in heaven, is found in Jesus. Get your rest. And enjoy. Amen. Psalm 150
There are some weeks when pastors struggle with their sermons. They study the text. They wrestle with the text. They ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance. But no matter how much they pray, no matter how many commentaries they consult, no matter how hard they try to make their creative juices flow, it can be a struggle to come up with a theme that is drawn from and leads to a deeper understanding of the text. This is not one of those weeks. As soon as I sat down to read Psalm 150, the theme literally jumped off the page. The same word is repeated thirteen times in six verses, and the same phrase is repeated at the beginning and at the end of the psalm. In Hebrew, it’s a word that you might recognize: Hallelujah. A simple translation of Halleluia is this command: PRAISE THE LORD! “Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.” Praise God in his sanctuary, which roughly translated means “holy place.” For the Israelites the “holy place” was the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was where God’s people came to worship. The temple was the place where the priests offered daily sacrifices. God-fearing Jews considered the temple to be God’s dwelling place on earth. For similar reasons we sometimes refer to this church building as God’s house. This is where we come to worship God. This is where God comes to us in his Word and sacraments. This is God’s sanctuary, or holy place. But God cannot be contained in a box, even a really big box with beautiful stained glass windows. God fills the heavens. The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), and God wants his people to do the same. Praise the Lord. The Lord wants his people to praise him wherever they are, in heaven and on earth and every place in between. Why we should praise God: “Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness”. You won’t have any problem finding examples of God’s power as you read the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That word for create is to create out of nothing. Then in response to man’s wickedness God destroyed the world with a flood. In response to man’s refusal to fill the earth, God introduced different languages. God allowed a 100 year old man and 90 year old wife have a baby. God used the sale of a little brother, Joseph, to bring about good for a world in danger of starvation due to a famine. God moved Joseph to understand that he was in charge and so Joseph could forgive his brothers and be a blessing for his brothers. That’s just a handful of examples, and I we haven’t even exhausted the book of Genesis. God gives his people many reasons to Praise the Lord. And the greatest thing about God is that the greatest thing he ever did didn’t appear to be all that great when he did it. Two thousand years ago God the Father sent his one and only Son down to earth. He didn’t come down in a blaze of glory. He didn’t come with an angelic entourage. He came in humility. He came to serve. He came to die. When Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb, there were no signs of life. There were no signs of victory. On Good Friday anything that looked like power or life was buried, hidden behind a stone that was rolled in front of Jesus’ tomb. But power and life was revealed just a couple days later. On Easter Sunday Jesus demonstrated his power over death. On Easter Sunday Jesus showed his triumph over sin. On Easter Sunday, as he appeared to people, the Bible tells us that he had just went and proclaimed his victory to the spirits in prison, that is hell. This was no trick, or illusion. Jesus died, but he became alive. Do you remember how Jesus’ disciples reacted when he appeared to them? They bowed down and worshiped him. They praised their living Lord. And because he still lives, because he lives triumphant from the grave, because he lives eternally to save, we want to praise the Lord too. But how? How do we praise the LORD? That’s a good question and this is Psalm 150’s answer: “Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals” (3-5). The first musical instrument mentioned is the trumpet, the ram’s horn that was traditionally blown by the priests. Next on the list is the harp and lyre, instruments that were commonly associated with the Levites. The rest of the ensemble, tambourines and strings and flutes and cymbals were played by the people. As we survey this grand orchestra we see a great diversity of musicians and musical instruments. There are professionals and amateurs. There are worshipers and worship leaders. There is a place for everyone. Everyone can praise the Lord. Every person was created to praise the Lord. In fact, the psalm concludes with that very thought: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD” (6). A couple of years ago, there was a concert, during which time those present were invited to join in singing the Halleluia Chorus. After the concert, one of my old pastor friends, a real jokester, said, “So, Martin, did you praise God by joining in the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus, or did you praise God by NOT joining in on the Hallelujah Chorus?” What he said was obviously a joke. But that thought has been expressed by other people. They don’t know much about music. They don’t think that they can sing. They might be intimidated. They might be embarrassed. And so they don’t participate. The devil enjoys that silence. He doesn’t want us to praise the Lord. He wants us to forget why we have so many reasons to praise the Lord. Satan doesn’t mind if we use God’s name, as long as we use God’s name in vain. He tempts us to use our voices to curse and swear and lie and deceive. And every time we do, he smiles. But the devil dreads a singing Christian. Whenever we sing God’s praises, every time we gather in this sanctuary and celebrate the forgiveness we have in Jesus, he can’t stand the noise. When you realize what God has done: rescued from the fires of hell; lost and now found; headed for eternal glory. How can we not praise God? Or how can a child of God turn up his nose at certain songs, or hymns? That praise can be expressed many different ways, but we are reminded today 13 times in this one psalm to Praise the Lord. “Praise the LORD.” The one God from eternity, who always existed, who never didn’t exist makes himself known as our Father. That the Father created this spectacularly beautiful world, that the Father continues to sustain this beautiful world. That the Father continues to bless us with the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the very air we breath: Praise the Lord. Is that enough reason? On top of that, because mankind didn’t appreciate the Father, but rebelled against a loving creator and provider, the Father determined to send his Son to be our Savior. And that the Savior, who is also eternal, along with the Father, equal in majesty, equal in glory and honor, set aside all that to be born of the virgin Mary, to suffer and die at the hands of sinners. How many of us would say, “Sorry Father, but they’re not worth it.” Jesus didn’t say, “They are worth it.” He came to make us worthy. That the Son reconciled a sinful world to the Father, that the Son took away every sin you’ve ever committed, that the Son ascended into heaven because his work of redemption has been completed, isn’t that enough reason to Praise the Lord? Why stop there? How about praising the Lord for the gift of the Holy Spirit? To know Jesus as Savior, to know the Father as a loving God and not some harsh judge, to have your consciences cleansed from guilt: yes to be given the gift of the Holy Spirit: does this not deserve our praise? Praise the Lord. There is one God. The Lord our God the Lord is one. The Lord is one, turn to me and be saved. And yet there are three persons. Three distinct persons, one God. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. The Father punished the Son. The Son died for humanity’s sin. The Holy Spirit produces faith to believe it. There is one God. Three persons, one God. And yet only the Son died. The Father did not die. The Son died. God died, but on the Son and not the Father and not the Holy Spirit. Does it matter that we cannot comprehend this? No, we are called to Praise the Lord. All three persons were active in the creation of the world. The Father created through his Word, the Son. The Spirit was there in Genesis 1:2 as he hovered over the waters. All three person of the Trinity activity sought your salvation. All three persons of the Trinity came together when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus went down into the water. The Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove. And the Father’s voice came down from heaven. All three persons were present at your baptism. The Father who created you was there. The Son who redeemed you was there. The Holy Spirit who made you holy through the washing with water and the Word was there. Because of who he is. And because of what he has done. Halleluia. Praise the Lord. Amen. “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?” They really had no good reason for standing there looking into the sky. Jesus had returned to the right hand of the Father. He told them he would go away so he could prepare a place for them. Waiting at the place where they last saw him wasn’t going to bring him back. And Jesus had told them what they should be doing. They were to wait for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon them. Then they would become witnesses for Jesus in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
I probably would have continued stare too. Jesus had been everything to these people. Now their teacher is gone. Their friend is gone. Now what? How will they know what to say when they get the chance to witness? It would be ten more days before the Holy Spirit would be poured out on these people at Pentecost. So, “Now what?” and “Who’s going to lead us?” were probably questions going through their minds. The angels proclaimed what the sky-gazers needed to hear. “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Jesus left them visibly, but he didn’t leave them forever. Luke’s Gospel tells us after this happened, “Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continuously at the temple, praising God.” (Luke 24:51-52) Tonight we join our voices with those disciples who praised Jesus after his Ascension. Tonight we join with the Sons of Korah who wrote the words of our text to praise Jesus with, and we join with all of God’s people who over the years praise God who through Jesus has given us deliverance from our enemies. Tonight, we Sing Praises to Our Ascended King. We sing because our God rules. We praise him for what he has done for us and we praise him for what he continues to do for us. Most of the psalms were written by Jews for Jews, but the scope of this psalm stretches far beyond the nation of Israel: “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy” Psalm 47 was written for all people. That means this psalm was written for you and me. Clapping and shouting aren’t exactly the norm when it comes to Lutheran worship, but we need to remember that the setting of these verses isn’t a church sanctuary or even a synagogue service. Instead picture the glorious procession of a triumphant ruler: “How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth” (2)! The Lord most high is awesome. What is awesome? Pizza is not awesome. Fourth of July fireworks are not awesome. Natural wonders like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, they aren’t all that awesome when they are compared with the God who created them. The Lord Most High is truly awesome, and over the course of human history he has done things that have filled his people with awe. “He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet”. The psalm itself doesn’t explain how and when God subdued nations and peoples, so I will. How about the time when the armies of Egypt had the poor, defenseless Israelites trapped with their backs against the Red Sea? What did God do? He directed Moses to part the waters so that the people could cross over on dry ground. And then he commanded those same water walls to crash down and destroy the forces of the Pharaoh (Exodus 13 & 14). How awesome is that? Or how about the time when the Israelites came up against the city of Jericho? What did God use to bring down the walls? A battering ram? A massive siege ramp? A series of underground tunnels? The Lord directed his people to march around the city seven times and blow their trumpets, and the huge stone walls just collapsed (Joshua 5 & 6). How awesome is that? Or how about the time when Joshua led an army against a group of Amorite kings? Not only did God give his people a great victory, not only did he send a hailstorm that killed more soldiers than Israelite swords, but he also made the sun stand still so that Israel’s enemies could not escape (Joshua 10). How awesome is that? God gave his people many military victories like these, but these conquests were only a means to an end. Every army that was defeated, every king that was conquered, brought Israel one step closer to possessing the land God had promised them. “He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved” (4). When Abraham pitched his tents in Canaan, he was a stranger living in a strange land. And still God promised him that his descendants would call that land their own (Genesis 15). When Jacob stole the birthright from his brother Esau, he was forced to leave the Promised Land and flee for his life. And still God promised Jacob that he would return (Genesis 28). It didn’t happen for a few hundred years, but the Lord made good on his promises to Abraham and Jacob. He transformed the land of Canaan into the nation of Israel. And even more important than that, God fulfilled this far-reaching promise: “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3, see also Genesis 28:14). We are included in “all peoples,” and we are blessed. We are blessed through Abraham’s offspring. We are blessed because God kept his promise to send a Savior. We are blessed because Jesus gave up his throne in heaven to become one of us. We are blessed because Jesus gave up his life to take away our sins. We are blessed because our King “has ascended amid shouts of joy” (5). We are blessed because we will rule with him in heaven. How awesome is this?! Psalm 47 pictures Jesus as a king returning to his palace after winning a war. This scene has been played out countless times throughout history. Trumpets blast. Citizens shout and clap. Confetti and flowers rain down from balconies. But the King doesn’t always fight the battles. His men fight for him. And a king doesn’t usually go into battle unless there is a personal benefit for him. But Jesus is different. Jesus is a king who went to war, not for his benefit, but ours. Jesus left the glory and splendor of heaven, and the praise of his angles, to live in a world that rebelled against him. A king puts down a rebellion. A king normally kills rebels. This King sought the rebels. This King came to save the rebels. His weapons? H told Peter, “Put your sword away.” The weapons he used: the Word of God, humility, obedience and trust in his Father. While fighting for the rebels in our world, Jesus blessed his followers: he provided for them. He protected them from physical and spiritual enemies: the yeast of the Pharisees, the attacks of Satan, and from themselves. Jesus knew his final battle would be in Jerusalem. He once said “No prophet can die outside of Jerusalem.” He told his disciples “We are going to Jerusalem…and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” (Mark 10:33-34) Sure enough, while in Jerusalem, his enemies caught up with Jesus after Judas’ betrayal. As he was arrested by the temple guard Jesus followers fled into the darkness and his enemies had their way with Jesus. Jesus was mocked, spit on, and lost his life on that and die on the battlefield of earth. But this is why Jesus went to Jerusalem. To defeat Satan, Jesus must trust in his Father, meet temptation head on. To defeat sin Jesus offered a perfect sacrifice. To defeat death, Jesus rose again. Having finished this world of bringing back the rebels into his kingdom, God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. T. Tonight we join our voices with those disciples who praised Jesus after his Ascension. Tonight we join with the Sons of Korah who wrote the words of our text to praise Jesus with, and we join with all of God’s people who over the years praise God who through Jesus has given us deliverance from our enemies. All of God’s people praise our Ascended King for all eternally for what he’s done. We also praise him for what he continues to do for us. 2. If anyone pictures Jesus’ ascension as retirement from work, that is far from the truth. “God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne” (8). Simply put, God rules over nations and God rules over rulers over nations. God rules over rulers. The powers of every nation every government on earth belong to him. He is calling the shots each day. God is the only true superpower because every nation and every citizen of every nation is subject to him. Everything belongs to Jesus. And even the president of our country answers to Jesus. But the Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth isn’t a tyrant or a dictator. Our King is our Father. Our King is our Savior. Jesus reigns over the nations. The Apostle Paul stated that God the Father, “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Mighty powers fight against Jesus and his salvation and against the Church, but this King of ours works out all of history for the good of His Church. Our Great King uses all his power for our benefit. No retirement for Jesus. He’s as busy as ever. And he has made us citizens of his kingdom. “The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham” (9). Do you understand what that verse means? Let me read it again: “The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham” (9). The Israelites were physical descendants of Abraham. The Jews boasted because they were the children of Abraham. But they weren’t special because they had Abraham’s blood coursing through their veins. They were blessed because they held onto the promises God had given to Abraham. And those promises were not exclusive to them. The Bible tells us that Abraham was saved by faith, and so are we. By faith we are the children of Abraham. By faith we belong to the God of Abraham. By faith we belong to God and live in the kingdom of his grace. By grace this King’s rule extends to us Gentiles. And even now he is ruling in our hearts. And not only does he rule in our hearts, but as the “nobles of the nations, he includes us in his plan of extending his kingdom to other hearts. This former rebel is every privileged to address you fellow nobles with the message from of our gracious King. But it doesn’t always seem like God rules all things, does it? If we are honest with ourselves, there are probably times when we wonder if God is really in control. Sometimes we’d rather not have the Lord be in charge because the Lord’s wisdom and our wisdom doesn’t always match up. Sometimes we wonder if the Lord uses all of his power for the benefit of his people. And let’s face it, being a noble in God’s kingdom isn’t real impressive in a world full of rebels. Sometimes we want more than knowing we have an eternal inheritance to look forward to. We’d like to reign now. We’d like the glory now. We don’t know why everything happens, but God does. We can’t always explain why things happen, but God can. And sometimes he does. But even when he chooses to keep his plans hidden from us, his love for us always remains in view. And even if his visible presence has been taken away from us, his Ascension only serves to convince us that his work of salvation has been completed. When Jesus was crucified, Pontius Pilate had this notice affixed to his cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). That was an accurate statement, but it wasn’t complete. Jesus was the King of the Jews, but he’s our King too. His perfect life and sacrificial death give us the answer to life’s most important question: How can I be saved? Jesus’ resurrection proved that he had paid for sin and conquered death. But his ascension strengthened the awesome truth that his victories were complete. If Jesus still had work to do for our salvation he wouldn’t have returned to heaven. And now our risen and ascended Savior guides and directs our lives. Our King will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Our King will never permit us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (I Corinthians 10:13). Our King will never allow the gates of hell to overcome his church (Matthew 16:18). Our King is intimately involved in every aspect of our earthly lives, and everything he does for us now brings us one step closer to eternal life. “All’s well that ends well.” The person who coined that phrase wasn’t talking about Jesus’ Ascension, but Jesus finished his work and now all is well. And all will be well for all eternity. Therefore it is our honor and privilege to sing to our King. We praise him because of what he has done for us. We praise him because of what he still does for us. Amen. Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. 2How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! 3He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet. 4He chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved. Selah 5God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. 6Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. 7For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalma of praise. 8God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. 9The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kingsb of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted. |
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