Reconciled Ambassadors - Fourth Sunday in Lent - March 30, 2025 - Text: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

We are about half way through the Lenten Season. Let me remind you that the purpose of the Lenten Season is to take the time to contemplate our sins and the seriousness of our sins. We see how God views the seriousness of our sins when we look at the passion and the cross of Christ. So serious does God take our sins that Jesus suffered greatly for them. As we contemplate the passion of Christ certainly we contemplate that it was our sins, your sins and my sins that put Jesus on the cross.
 

Before we get to our text for this morning, let us take a brief look at the other lessons. The Old Testament lesson for this morning might rightly be considered an answer to the question of “how” we are to be ambassadors and that is by giving thanks to the Lord. And why do we give thanks to God, because of His salvation. Indeed, our sin makes God angry and yet, rather than take His anger out on us, He took it out on Jesus so that Jesus suffered God’s just punishment for our sins, for us in our place. Certainly we give thanks and praise to the Lord for His forgiveness and salvation.
 

Our Gospel lesson for this morning is the account of the prodigal son. This account shows us what great love the father has for his son. Rightly we might put ourselves in either of the brothers shoes. Certainly we are the younger son when we squander the gifts our Lord has to give to us. But, more often than not, as “older” Christians, we are probably more like the older son. We have a difficult time accepting newer Christians into our congregation, because we believe, because of our perceived faithfulness, that we deserve more. Yet in both instances we see what great love the Father has for both His Sons and what great love our Heavenly Father has for us, His children.
 

Getting to our text for this morning we are reminded that all our good gifts and blessings are indeed gifts and blessings and all this is from God. We read, “16From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (v. 16-19).
 

The word reconcile is an interesting word. And actually, it is a financial word. I have to admit, I never really thought much about the word reconcile, never even really used the word until I got my first computer checkbook and it asked if I wanted to reconcile my bank account. I never reconciled my account before, although I did attempt to balance my checkbook from time to time, as encouraged by my parents. The word reconcile means that one side of the equation must equal the other side. For my checkbook that means that the deposits must be equal to or be greater than the withdrawals, my checks, otherwise I have a problem. When it comes to God reconciling us, the problem for us is that our deposits are actually zero when it come to paying the price of our sins and the checks we have written, our sins, are beyond our imagination. For God to reconcile us means that He has made a deposit of as much as and even greater than our sins. He has reconciled our account by paying the price that our sins cost, death, indeed, eternal death, hell. He made us right before Himself, forgiving our sins, through Christ.
 

The fact that we are reconciled by God means that He paid the price for our sins. This is often stated as He made atonement for our sins. To make atonement means that one makes amends or pays the price for another. Christ made atonement for us. He made amends, He paid the price for us. Christ’s atonement was first an objective atonement, that means that His atonement was accomplished outside of us and was for all people. Jesus made amends, paid the price for the sins of all people of all places of all times. This was the goal, the objective in that no one deserves that He did this and even though some have and may refuse His gift of atonement, it was still accomplished for all.
 

Christ’s atonement was also a subjective atonement, that is it was meant for me. The fact that Jesus died for all is one thing. What makes His death for all important to me is that He died for me, personally. Even if I were the only person in the world, He would have and He did die for me. While He was alive, He had me in mind. When He took the sins of all people on Himself, He had me and my sins in mind. When He suffered on the cross for all sin, He had me in mind. When He died on the cross He had me in mind. He made amends for my sins. He paid the price for my sins.
 

And so we are recreated. The old is gone. We are no longer what we were before, that is we are no longer only complete lost and condemned sinners, but we are not yet what we will be in heaven, completely and only saints. We are somewhere along the road. While we continue living in this world we live being at the same time sinner and saint.
 

Thus, Paul reminds us, we regard no one according to the flesh, that is we no longer look at the outside of a person, instead we look into the heart of a person. This is especially true concerning Christ. Before his conversion, Paul viewed Jesus as merely a man. Now that he has been reconciled he knows Jesus as true God and true man, even the Savior of the world and his own Savior.
 

All this is from God (v. 18) who does all and gives all. Notice, Paul takes himself completely out of the picture. In just the same way we take ourselves completely out of the picture. We have done nothing and we do nothing to reconcile ourselves to God. It has all been taken care of for us by God Himself. He lived the perfect life demanded of us. He took our sins and He paid the price for our sins, all our sins, the ones we have committed and the ones we have yet to commit. He gives us faith. He gives us forgiveness of sin. He gives us life, even eternal life and salvation.
 

Our response of faith, that is our response for all that our Lord has done for us is that we are ambassadors. Paul says, “20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v. 20-21). Our response is that we are made ambassadors. An ambassador is one who represents another. We represent Christ. How do we represent Christ? Well, sometimes we represent Him well and other times we misrepresent Him. Anytime we are not living as a reconciled child of God, we misrepresent Him. Anytime we speak ill of this congregation or members of this congregation or anytime we do anything that is not in the best interest of this congregation and the members of this congregation we are misrepresenting Him. Anytime we speak evil of anyone, even if it is the truth, anytime we fail to explain everything in the kindest way possible, we are misrepresenting Him.
 

It is only as God has His way with us, that is, it is only as the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace works in and through us that we are ambassadors living lives of faith. Again, this is not something we do on our own, this is something we do only as the Lord has His way with us through His means of grace.
 

Thus, as ambassadors, the most important thing we do is that we speak the Word of God. We speak the Word of God, not of our own, but on His authority. We speak the Word of God as He gives us even fills us with His Word through His means of grace. We speak the Word of God as He moves us. And we are ambassadors as we live lives of faith, that is as our actions speak for and attest to the faith that is in our hearts, the faith that He has given to us and that He nourishes in us. As you have heard me describe before, we are ambassadors as we live our lives as priest, offering our lives as living sacrifices for Lord, always being ready to give an answer for the hope we have in Jesus as our Savior. And we have God’s authority to speak and His promise that when the time comes He will give us the very words He would have us to speak on His behalf.
 

What Does This Mean? First and foremost this means that we sin, and we need to be reminded of our sin. We daily sin much. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, not doing the things God would have us to do, not living the life He would have us to live, and sins of commission, doing the things He forbids and commands us not to do. We sin and it is our sin that brought Jesus to earth. It was our sin that brought Jesus suffering. It was our sin, your sin and mine, which cost Jesus His life. And so, it is our sin which places us at the foot of the cross. When we look at the cross, that is when we seriously look at the cross, we do not see a pretty fashion statement. We do not see something that is simply a reminder that we are Christians. When we look at the cross we see an instrument of death, even an instrument of pain, suffering and torture. And when we look at the cross we see what great love our Lord has for us, a love that moved Him to actively, without hesitation, take our sins upon Himself and to pay the price, suffering all, even death for us, in our place.
 

The fact of the matter is that Christ never sinned. He was tempted, even beyond what we may be tempted, beyond what we might think or imagine, yet He never sinned. And although He never sinned, He made Himself sin for us. He took our sins upon Himself. And He paid the price for our sins, for all our sins and for the sins of all people, of all places of all times. He suffered eternal death, complete and utter separation from God the Father, He suffered hell for us, in our place.
 

Our response of faith is to live lives of faith. This is not something we do on our own. As a matter of fact, God never expects us to do this on our own. Remember Paul’s words in Ephesians when he tells us that “we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). We are Christ’s ambassadors created by Him, redeemed by Him and now walking as His ambassador being directed by Him.
 

What a great God we have and what wonderful words from Him through Paul this morning. We are privileged first and foremost to revel in God’s forgiveness earned, paid for and given to us by Christ because of His great love for us. We are privileged to be ambassadors for Christ because He makes us so. As always, God is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. He does and He gives and we are done to and we are given to. He gives us faith. He takes our sins and gives us forgiveness. He gives us the gift and promise of eternal life in heaven. And while we remain in this world He gives to us the privilege and responsibility to represent Him as His ambassadors. And all this He does out of His great love for us. What a great God, what a loving God we have. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Jesus, Forsaken by God - March 26, 2025 - Fourth Lent Midweek - Text: Matthew 27:45,46

Last week we saw Jesus fulfilling His Fourth Commandment responsibility by taking care of His mother, Mary. He completed the fulfillment of the fourth commandment by giving her to the disciple whom He loved, John to care for her. Last week Jesus became motherless. This evening we see Jesus become a complete orphan as He loses His Father as well. This evening we see Jesus completely alone, suffering for the sins of the whole world.
 

Before we get to Jesus’ words, let us take a moment to look at another significant event that is portrayed in this text, the event of darkness. Our text tells us that it was about the sixth hour, that is, about noon. During the middle of the day darkness covers the whole land for three hours, until the ninth hour, that is three in the afternoon. How can this be? This is nothing short of a miracle of God. Remember, it is the time of the month that there is a full moon. I am not an astronomer, but I am told that there can be no eclipse during a full moon. So, that would rule out any logical reason for darkness at midday. But there was darkness, and we, as Christians might actually say, by a miracle of God.
 

There was darkness because this was the darkest time for the world since before the creation of the world. At creation we are told that all was darkness and chaos. At the very beginning, the first thing that God does is that He called light out of the darkness of chaos. And we remember that the light was not the Sun as it was created on day four of creation. Anyway, following Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden the darkness of sin has infected the world. In the Gospel of John we are reminded that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the light that the darkness cannot understand nor can it overcome. The darkness of the devil in our sin filled world cannot understand the love of God, so much that He would give His life for His creation, nor can the darkness of the devil overcome the Light of Christ. And yet, there is darkness while Jesus is on the cross. It is no coincidence that this darkness is during the time that God forsook Jesus who became a curse on the cross.
 

In this dark hour we hear Jesus’ cry. He cries, “My God, My God.” Jesus cries out to God. Notice that He does not call Him “Father.” At this point Jesus has no Father. Jesus has no one. He is left on His own to suffer for the sins of the world. This is in direct contrast to just a few hours earlier when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to His Father in heaven. Now Jesus is in a different situation than when He was in the Garden. Now Jesus is cursed with the sins of all people of all places of all times.
 

Notice that at no time did Jesus forsake God, nor did He lose His God-ness, His divinity. He was still true God and true man. Jesus did not forsake God, but God forsook Him. In His humility, His humanity, in much the same way that you and I will one day face our own death, our own physical passing from this world, Jesus, as true man is suffering and is about to die.
 

As David prophesied and foresaw in the Psalm Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1). God the Father forsook Jesus, God the son on the cross. Why was Jesus forsaken? Jesus was forsaken because He was made to be a curse. On Jesus was placed all the sins of all people of all places of all times. Jesus became sin and as sin He could not be in the presence of God who is perfection.
 

Jesus was forsaken which is what suffering eternal death is all about. Hell, eternal death, is complete absence from God and His love. Jesus was forsaken by God. God’s love was taken away from Him and He was suffering eternal death on the cross. I am not sure we as human beings can completely understand the torment and suffering of hell. We may compare it to being depressed, down, burnout, or whatever human way we may think and yet magnifying such suffering to the degree of suffering for all people of all places of all times. But, the simplest way to understand hell is to know that it is total absence from God and His love or any love or that matter. Truly, it is not a place anyone would want to be.
 

Certainly we have days when we would like to ask why God has forsaken us, or at least we feel like He has forsaken us. Even David wrote in many of his Psalms that he felt as if God had forsaken or abandoned him. Yet, our feelings of being forsaken by God do not come anywhere near what it is truly like to be forsaken by God.
 

Jesus was forsaken by God. He suffered what we deserved to suffer. Our sins earn for us death, physical death, yes, but even more, our sins earn for us the eternal death penalty of hell. Left to our own devises to save ourselves we would be utterly helpless. Left to ourselves we fail miserably. Instead of working our way out of hell we tend to make things worse. We daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. We sin in our thoughts, with our words and in our actions, our deeds. We sin sins of commission, doing those things we should not be doing and we sin sins of omission, failing to do those things we should be doing. As God says in Genesis, every intention of our hearts is evil all the time. We are conceived and born in sin. Our very nature is to sin and we simply cannot help ourselves. And the price for our sin was set in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, the price for sin is death, human death, eternal death and hell for sin.
 

Because God lives in the eternal present He is omniscient, that is He is all knowing. For God there is no yesterday and there is no tomorrow, there is only the now. For God, He is omniscient because He sees all of our history and time, which He created for us on day one with the creation of light marking night and day. Thus, God knows all that will happen even before it happens. We call this knowledge God’s foreknowledge. Yet, just because God knows all before it happens does not mean that God predetermines or predestines things to happen. And here in God’s foreknowledge we see just how much God truly loves us. Knowing that Adam and Eve would sin, knowing that we would be conceived and born in sin, knowing that God would have to take care of the sins of all people of all places of all times, and even knowing that many would reject Him and His forgiveness, He created the world anyway.
 

Fortunately we do not get what we deserve. Instead we get what Jesus earned for us. We get forgiveness. We get life. We get these gifts because God gives them to us. We get these gifts because Jesus has earned them for us. Yes, we can refuse and reject these gifts. We can try to go it alone. We can try to get to heaven of our own works and merit, but as we have seen, our good works and merit amount to “digging” our hole deeper in hell.
 

As bad as it sounds, we rejoice in the cross of Christ. We rejoice, not because we like to see Jesus die for us; not because of Jesus’ death. We rejoice because His death earned our forgiveness. His death earned our new life, renewed life here on this earth and eternal life in heaven. We rejoice because we know the rest of the story. Jesus did not stay dead, but rose on Easter morning.
 

We do not like the dark. As children we grow up afraid of the dark. Darkness is frightening, maybe because it is under the cover of the dark that many bad things happen. Darkness is one way of hiding our wrongdoing. When we are down, when we are depressed, when we think we are all alone, we feel like we are in the dark. Jesus’ suffering and death were the darkest hours of this world. Jesus, true God and true man, took on all our darkness. He, who knew no sin, became sin for us. Jesus, the light of the world, died the most cruel death, death on the cross. Jesus died that we might have life and have it to the fullest. Jesus died that we might have faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And Jesus rose, the first fruits of all who died showing us that as He rose, we too will rise again. Thanks be to God and to Him alone be the glory. Amen.

Jesus Becomes an Orphan - March 19, 2025 - Third Lent Midweek - Text: John 19:26,27

Two weeks ago we began our Lenten Season and our Midweek series as we heard Jesus speak the words of forgiveness, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Last week we heard the result of the forgiveness in the words spoken to the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” This evening we come to hear Jesus as He keeps the Fourth Commandment and as He speaks words of care, concern, and comfort for His mother.
 

As you constantly hear me say, God’s Word is a word with power. God’s Word does what it says and gives the gifts of which it speaks. And as we know, Jesus is God and thus, His word is also a word with power to do and give what He speaks. As Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples He told them they would all desert Him. Now, here on the cross we see that they have deserted Him and He is left alone to die on the cross. Everyone deserted Jesus, but as things had calmed down, Mary, His mother and John, the disciple whom He loved, came near the cross. They came near to watch with the others.
 

Again, while in the midst of His suffering and death, Jesus thinks not of Himself, but of His mother. This time He thinks of His Fourth Commandment duties to take care of His mother. Yes, even as Jesus is suffering for the sins of the world, for your sins and mine, He continues to do what Adam and Eve could not do, what the whole nation of Israel could not do and what we cannot do, He continues to be obedient to the Law. Notice, that it is not Mary who has come to the cross to “help” Jesus in His suffering, nor to be a “co-redeemer” with Him. Mary, as a human being, and as Jesus’ mother is as impotent in her abilities to do anything, just as everyone else. Mary comes to the cross as the woman, the mother who gave birth to this one who is suffering for her sins. And yes, Mary was a sinner just like you and me and all people as we are all conceived and born in sin. As His mother, certainly Mary comes as one with a broken heart knowing that her son is innocent. As He is suffering on the cross Jesus thinks of His mother because of His love for her.
 

Jesus calls Mary, “woman,” not out of disrespect, but out of a sense that at this very moment He is Her Savior. Again, note what the Bible says, Jesus is there on the cross giving His life for all people of all places of all times, including His mother. Mary is not there in any way to help lessen or to take from Jesus His suffering. She is there as we are there, standing at the foot of the cross on which Jesus is dying because of her sins and ours.
 

Jesus speaks, “Dear woman, here is your son.” Jesus gives John to Mary to be her son. Jesus knows that life is not over for Mary or for John. He knows that Mary will need to be cared for, especially as she grows older. Jesus knows that He will not be there as her son to give her the care that she will need, thus He gives John to be her son in His place.
 

Then, Jesus turns to John and says, “Here is your mother.” To complete the adoption, Jesus gives Mary to be John’s mother. And we are told that “from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” John did take care of Mary as his own mother.
 

Jesus’ suffering is not what we would call typical suffering. Most of us would say that we have had times in our lives when we suffered. What happens in the midst of suffering? Most people in times of suffering tend to turn inward, to thoughts of self. Often these times become times of self pity, “how bad I have it.” “I have it even worse,” we hear people say, or even brag. When we are in the midst of suffering we want sympathy, not help. We want to blame others even God, “God why are you doing this to me, what have I done to deserve this?” More often than not we want to make excuses and blame others and cry out that we being punished unjustly. Of course we know that the truth is that we are sinners and any suffering we may encounter is justly suffered.
 

Not so with Jesus. Jesus is being punished most assuredly unjustly. He was born sinless, as He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He obeyed all God’s Laws and command, perfectly. He never sinned, even once. Of His own free will He took our sins and the sins of the world on Himself. No one was there to take His life, He gave it freely. In the midst of His suffering Jesus thought of others. He saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved and thought of them. His concern was for the well being of His mother, that she would be cared for through her life and so He provides for her by giving her a new son, His disciple John.
 

I have to repeat it again so that we do not get confused. Mary was at the cross, not to help Jesus in His suffering, not to take any of the suffering on herself, and not to alleviate His suffering, but because of her love for Him as a mother loves her son. She was there, just like the others, as one who helped put Jesus on the cross because of her sins.
 

As we look at Jesus’ actions on the cross we are reminded once again that Jesus is an example for us to follow, but He is not just an example, because we would never be able to follow His perfect example. Not only is He an example, but praise the Lord, He fulfilled His example. This evening as we hear Him care for His mother we are reminded that suffering does not excuse us from our disobedience or our faithlessness.
 

Jesus’ actions this evening also remind us that He came to and did fulfill all the Law and the prophets perfectly. The Sunday before Ash Wednesday we celebrated Transfiguration Sunday, the day Jesus appeared on the mountain with His disciples, Peter, James and John and there with Him were Moses and Elijah. Moses the Lawgiver and Elijah the prophet. Perhaps they were there reviewing Jesus’ life to make sure He had indeed fulfilled the Law and the prophecies completely and fully. And perhaps they were there to give Him encouragement as the cross and suffering were always before Him and very near at that time. Jesus left nothing undone. He did what we were unable to do, what has always been commanded and demanded of us. He lived perfectly and then gave His life for ours so that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
 

And one thing we must keep reminding ourselves, Jesus work was for us and it was enough. One of the greater enemies of Jesus are those people who do not deny the cross, but say that it was not efficacious, in other words, that it had no effect on our eternal standing with God, that we still need to do something in order to be saved. Anytime we hear anyone put conditions on our salvation, “all you gotta do,” “if you do this or claim this or dedicate this or make this decision,” those are demands of the Law and do nothing for our salvation. Indeed, those are works and we know that our good works do not save us. Mary does not and did not save us. Jesus’ work, His life, His suffering, His death alone is what saves us.
 

We might well summarize this third time Jesus spoke from the cross by saying, “Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary,” completes and fulfills all that Law and the prophets completely, including and especially, while on the cross of thinking of His love for His mother and the fourth commandment in providing for her and supplying her with a care giver, His beloved disciple John. May Jesus’ love for His mother remind us of His love for us, so much that not only did He provide for us care and protection in our every day lives, but He also provided for us forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven. To Him be the glory. Amen.

Stand Firm in the Lord - Second Sunday in Lent - March 16, 2025 - Text: Philippians 3:17-4:1

A few years ago, alright, a lot of years ago, I was invited to Camp Lone Star, our Lutheran Camp in LaGrange, to try out their new “team challenge” course. The “team challenge” course is a course of obstacles that must be overcome by individuals as well as teams. There are low obstacles, about a foot off the ground, and there are high obstacles, about thirty feet in the air. Over the course of a couple of days the ten members of our team covered a lot of obstacles. I also found out that there are many companies, big businesses, that will send their employees to these courses and video tape their going through the challenges to see how they operate, that is how the individuals work as individuals and how they work and cooperate together as a team. The theory is that the way each individual reacts and interacts on the course is the way they will react and interact while working for the company. At any given obstacle people come forward as leaders, as motivators, or as just followers. The theory is that  how people react and interact on the course is most likely how they will react and interact to challenges in the “real” world and so they are assigned jobs in the company accordingly.
 

There was one challenge in particular that made an impress on me, especially in the sense of its life application. The one challenge that I want to describe is the one that helped a person to understand how and where one must focus their attention, and in a human or business way, we might say to focus one’s attention in order to be successful. The challenge looked simple. There was a large log hanging horizontal above the ground about a foot or so. It was hanging from two trees, one on each end, by a cable attached to each end, so that the log was able to swing and move between the two trees. The object of the obstacle was to jump up on the log at one end and walk to the other end. The difficulty was that the log was free to swing, so in the process of jumping on the log it would swing to knock you off. Some participants jumped on the log only to immediately fall off. Some participants were able to jump onto the log, but after only a few steps fell off. Others were able to jump up onto the log and walk the distance of the log and then jump off. The solution to the challenge was in one’s focus. Where do you focus your attention? You could either focus your attention on the log below your feet or something else. The participants who focused on the log always fell off. The solution was to focus on something that was not moving, like a tree in front of you. The life “lesson,” or life “application,” of the challenge was that when we have struggles in life if we focus on the struggles, the swinging log, we do not get very far, but if we focus on a solid firm foundation, like the sturdy tree, and as Christians we would say, like Jesus Christ, then we can make it through the struggles. This morning Paul talks to us about our focus. Where is our focus? Is it on the things of this world, or is it on the things of our eternal life in heaven?
 

Paul begins by putting himself up as an example for the people. He does not do so as a braggart, that is he is not bragging about himself, saying look at how wonderful I am. He simply says to imitate himself and others. We are to see the good in his example as well as the good in the example in others and imitate that good.
 

Paul suggests that we imitate him. Well, we might first be reminded that Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was a persecutor of the church, even putting Christians to death. Obviously this is not the parts of Paul’s life he wants us to imitate. Certainly, then, to be encouraged to imitate Paul would be to forgive his sins and faults and to look to follow his good example. Paul’s words remind me that I am to live in such a way as to be an example to you, the members of this congregation, as well as to others, and I try to do that with the help of God. Certainly, I, too, am a sinful human being and I am not a perfect example, but I know I am forgiven and by God’s grace and with the help of the Lord I strive to set a good example. I think Paul’s words remind all of us that we are all to be examples and particularly, the stronger Christian is to be an example for the weaker brother or sister.
 

The difficulty in following the example of others is the fact that there are not many good examples left in our world today. It would seem that there are more bad examples than good examples and as sinful human beings we tend to move more to follow the bad examples rather than the good examples. That is just our nature, as God reminds us, every intention of our heart is evil all the time and this has been the way it has been since the fall into sin. This does not give us an excuse to sin, simply a warning to be watchful and alert.
 

Paul cites as particular bad examples the enemies of the cross. Who are the enemies of the cross? Anyone who says that the cross was not efficacious is an enemy of the cross. In other words, it is not only the person who denies that Jesus died on the cross, but the person who denies that it was worth anything, the persons who says that Jesus’ death did not earn our forgiveness or salvation. Thus, an enemy of the cross is anyone who states or even implies that Jesus’ death was not enough to earn our forgiveness and so we must do something to help pay for our sins, as if we could do anything.
 

The enemies of the cross are those who desire to continue to live life in this world more than to live life in heaven. I would suggest that this would apply to many of us at times. How often do we find ourselves thinking more of our lives in this world, planning what we will be doing now and then with no thought of our life in heaven? We often forget the story of the rich man who built bigger and better barns thinking, today I will eat drink and be merry and tomorrow I will concern myself with my spiritual needs. As you may remember the parable, we are told that very night his soul was required of him, in other words, he died. We tend to live life as if we will live here on this earth forever and forget that we are all just one breath away from death and our final judgement.
 

The enemies of the cross are also those who try to lure us away from heaven. The devil, the world and our own sinful nature are constantly battling to seduce us into disbelief, despair, or other great shame or vice. And the devil, the world and our own sinful nature continue to win battle after battle as we are lead into sin, daily, in thought, word and deed, sins of omission and sins of commission. We are tempted to think that our lives are our own to live as we wish. We are tempted to believe what we have, the physical blessings of life are ours as if we have somehow earned the blessings God has given. We are tempted to believe that the commandments are simply suggestions. We are tempted and indeed we constantly act out the putting of ourselves before God, absenting ourselves from His gifts, taking His gifts for granted, refusing to acknowledge Him as the gift giver and indeed outright refusing and rejecting His gifts and then wonder why He does not bless us more. Indeed, left to ourselves we would be lost.
 

Thanks be to God that we are not left to ourselves. Paul’s remedy is to move our focus heavenward. We are to eagerly await for heaven. But really we do not wait for heaven, because heaven is a present reality, it is ours now. We may have to wait to move in, but heaven is ours now. As Paul says, our citizenship is in heaven. We are merely visitors here on this earth. As we can see, our citizenship is one with privileges and responsibilities. We have the privilege of knowing that our fellowship with the Father in heaven has been restored by Jesus, but we also have the responsibility, as we have been talking about, of being good examples for others.
 

We do eagerly await for heaven because we know that heaven is where we will be perfect. Everyone and everything in heaven will be like the world before the fall into sin, perfect. We will live in perfect fellowship with each other and with Jesus. There will be no more pain and suffering, no more sorrow or tears, no more temptation or sin. Only perfection, only holiness, only joy.
 

And heaven, like hell, is eternal. When the Lord returns or when we pass on, that is die the physical death we will all die, unless the Lord returns first, and leave this earth we will go to only one place or the other, either heaven or hell. There will be no movement from one place or the other. Upon our judgement we will either live in hell for eternity, remaining absent from God and His love. Or we will live in heaven for eternity, remaining in Jesus’ presence and love forever.
 

As we await our entrance into the Lord’s kingdom in heaven we continue to prepare ourselves for that entrance. We prepare ourselves by making use of the means of grace, by reading our Bibles, by remembering our Baptism, by confessing our sins and hearing those most beautiful words of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven,” and by making use of the Lord’s Supper, partaking of His body and blood and thus participating in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We prepare ourselves by continuing to focus our attention on the important things, the cross of Jesus Christ and His crucifixion. As we are reminded, there can be no glory without the cross. The Holy Spirit continues to work through the means of grace to point us to the cross of Christ so that we might be assured of our forgiveness and strengthened in our faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

As we await our entrance into the Lord’s kingdom in heaven we also continue to prepare ourselves for that entrance by looking at and following the example of Paul and all the saints who have gone on before us. Notice I did not say that we are to worship or pray to Paul and all the saints that have gone on before us, but we are to set their lives up as examples for us to follow. Besides, it would do no good to pray to them or to worship them because they would not be able to hear us anyway. Heaven is a place of perfection and it would not be perfection if all those in heaven could hear how things were here on earth. Only God can hear our prayers and our worship.
 

And finally, as we await our entrance into the Lord’s kingdom in heaven we also prepare ourselves for that entrance by, with the help of the Holy Spirit, being examples for others. Certainly we realize that we are not perfect, we are still sinful human beings, yet, with the help of the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace He does help us to be the good examples that He wants us to be, as we live our lives with our focus heavenward and to His glory. We are imperfect humans, yet good examples as we exemplify God’s love and forgiveness in our lives such that others know that although we fail, although we sin much we are forgiven as God’s grace abounds in our lives.
 

One last reminder. I have said it before and I will say it again, our actions do speak louder than our words and our actions often betray us. Our actions show if our life focus is heavenward or earthward. Our actions show if our life focus is on the things of God or on the things of this world. I would exhort you to remember that your citizenship is in heaven, that heaven is where we will live our real lives, for eternity, not just the short sixty, eighty or hundred years on this earth, and that the Holy Spirit will continue to stir in your heart to keep your focus heavenward as you make use of the means of grace. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.