I want to begin by asking you to be tolerant of my good behavior this morning. I would like to ask that you be tolerant of what I pray will be good theology, good law and good gospel. Now, doesn’t that sound rather absurd? We do not need to ask for people to be tolerant of our good behavior. When someone is asking us to be tolerant of their behavior it is because they are going to do something that is not good, meet, right and salutary. So, usually we are asked something like this, “will you be tolerant of my homosexual behavior/lifestyle?” “Will you please be tolerant of my drug abuse, spouse abuse . . . etc.?” “Will you be tolerant of my misuse of law and gospel and lousy theology?” And you get the idea. Let that float around in your mind for a minute.
In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul is writing because there is a problem. Perhaps the problem is that they are not being tolerant enough of one another? I wonder what their problem might have sounded like in one of our district or synodical conventions today? We are following church growth principles. We are following the principles of Rick Warren. We are following the principles of Bill Hybels. We follow the principles of Joel Osteen, he will bring out the champion in us. We are following the principles of the Fuller Institute. We are following the principles of Kent Hunter. We are following the synod guidelines. We are following Luther. And you know it will happen, someone will get up and say, “Why can’t we just get along?”
“Why can’t we just get along?” That is code for, “Why can’t everyone agree with me?” Of course my response is, “If you will agree with me then we can get along.”
The problem is, we cannot all get along. We are sinners. We are conceived and born in sin. Every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. And, of course Satan knows this and uses this to his greatest advantage pushing and pulling us against one another, tempting us with this or that false teaching, heresy and easy way to “success.”
As a pastor I know that, unfortunately, not all the laity actually realize what the pastor is called to do. Perhaps some people confuse what we do as members of the congregation; anything that needs to be done at times, taking out the trash, fixing the copy machine and so on, we confuse this with our calling to preach the Gospel, administer the sacraments and forgive and retain sins. God calls us to be faithful and to faithfully carry out our calling. No where in Scripture does God indicate that He expects anything from Pastors or from Christians except faithfulness. And actually, the only place Scripture speaks about success has to do with a military campaign and the success is not a human success but is God’s success.
God calls us to be faithful and He knows that even that simple expectation is difficult for us because of our nature. Paul says he was glad he did not baptize anyone (and then he begins remembering the ones he did baptize), but his point is this that he was called by God to preach the Gospel, to preach Christ, to preach Christ crucified, what folly.
Everyone knows that the winner is the one who defeats and comes out on top in the end. The Super Bowl is coming on Sunday and we believe the winner will be the greatest team (when we know the Cowboys are the best, did I say that out loud, sorry). Perhaps the winner will be the best team, at least for a few months until it starts over next season, but his point is, this idea is a human idea.
Paul, and for that matter I, pray all good pastors preach Christ crucified. I believe what some people fail to understand is that we will understand how great is God’s grace and forgiveness only as we understand what miserably, awful sinners we really are. If we follow the tolerant schemes of the world, then we think we are not so bad and perhaps Jesus only had to die a little for me. Not much grace there. Perhaps we can believe in ourselves and the champion in us will come out so that really, we won’t need Jesus at all. No grace there.
One little sin condemns to eternal death. Let alone the fact that we are great sinners indeed. Have you ever thought about it. Suppose we only sinned 3 times a day, when the actual figure is more like 30. So, 3 or 30 times 365 days in a year equals 1000, or 10,000 sins in a year, times how old we are. No, we are not pretty good people. We are rotten, miserable sinners. And God is not tolerant of sin, thus, God is not tolerant of us. The price for sin was set, eternal spiritual death and that price had to be paid. We cannot get along with God because our sin has separated us from Him. There is only one way and that way is not the easy way, that way is the hard way, the death way, the cross way, the Jesus way. There was no quick fix. There was no tolerance. There was no getting along. There was no success, except that Jesus was successful, after all, He did defeat Satan, sin and death, completely. No matter how you look at it, there is only one way and that way is Jesus. And it’s not me and Jesus, it’s just Jesus. Me and Jesus takes way from Jesus. Me and Jesus puts me in the drivers seat. It’s just Jesus. Jesus lived perfectly, obeying all God’s laws perfectly for me, because I cannot. Jesus fulfilled all God’s promises perfectly for me. Jesus saved me because I cannot save myself. It’s just Jesus and even then, Jesus pours out everything on us. He graciously gives us His good gifts and blessings. He graciously pours out His bounty on us giving us gifts upon gifts, the whole lot of His gifts and a whole lot more. With Jesus, we have no need for anything more! Amen.
In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul is writing because there is a problem. Perhaps the problem is that they are not being tolerant enough of one another? I wonder what their problem might have sounded like in one of our district or synodical conventions today? We are following church growth principles. We are following the principles of Rick Warren. We are following the principles of Bill Hybels. We follow the principles of Joel Osteen, he will bring out the champion in us. We are following the principles of the Fuller Institute. We are following the principles of Kent Hunter. We are following the synod guidelines. We are following Luther. And you know it will happen, someone will get up and say, “Why can’t we just get along?”
“Why can’t we just get along?” That is code for, “Why can’t everyone agree with me?” Of course my response is, “If you will agree with me then we can get along.”
The problem is, we cannot all get along. We are sinners. We are conceived and born in sin. Every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. And, of course Satan knows this and uses this to his greatest advantage pushing and pulling us against one another, tempting us with this or that false teaching, heresy and easy way to “success.”
As a pastor I know that, unfortunately, not all the laity actually realize what the pastor is called to do. Perhaps some people confuse what we do as members of the congregation; anything that needs to be done at times, taking out the trash, fixing the copy machine and so on, we confuse this with our calling to preach the Gospel, administer the sacraments and forgive and retain sins. God calls us to be faithful and to faithfully carry out our calling. No where in Scripture does God indicate that He expects anything from Pastors or from Christians except faithfulness. And actually, the only place Scripture speaks about success has to do with a military campaign and the success is not a human success but is God’s success.
God calls us to be faithful and He knows that even that simple expectation is difficult for us because of our nature. Paul says he was glad he did not baptize anyone (and then he begins remembering the ones he did baptize), but his point is this that he was called by God to preach the Gospel, to preach Christ, to preach Christ crucified, what folly.
Everyone knows that the winner is the one who defeats and comes out on top in the end. The Super Bowl is coming on Sunday and we believe the winner will be the greatest team (when we know the Cowboys are the best, did I say that out loud, sorry). Perhaps the winner will be the best team, at least for a few months until it starts over next season, but his point is, this idea is a human idea.
Paul, and for that matter I, pray all good pastors preach Christ crucified. I believe what some people fail to understand is that we will understand how great is God’s grace and forgiveness only as we understand what miserably, awful sinners we really are. If we follow the tolerant schemes of the world, then we think we are not so bad and perhaps Jesus only had to die a little for me. Not much grace there. Perhaps we can believe in ourselves and the champion in us will come out so that really, we won’t need Jesus at all. No grace there.
One little sin condemns to eternal death. Let alone the fact that we are great sinners indeed. Have you ever thought about it. Suppose we only sinned 3 times a day, when the actual figure is more like 30. So, 3 or 30 times 365 days in a year equals 1000, or 10,000 sins in a year, times how old we are. No, we are not pretty good people. We are rotten, miserable sinners. And God is not tolerant of sin, thus, God is not tolerant of us. The price for sin was set, eternal spiritual death and that price had to be paid. We cannot get along with God because our sin has separated us from Him. There is only one way and that way is not the easy way, that way is the hard way, the death way, the cross way, the Jesus way. There was no quick fix. There was no tolerance. There was no getting along. There was no success, except that Jesus was successful, after all, He did defeat Satan, sin and death, completely. No matter how you look at it, there is only one way and that way is Jesus. And it’s not me and Jesus, it’s just Jesus. Me and Jesus takes way from Jesus. Me and Jesus puts me in the drivers seat. It’s just Jesus. Jesus lived perfectly, obeying all God’s laws perfectly for me, because I cannot. Jesus fulfilled all God’s promises perfectly for me. Jesus saved me because I cannot save myself. It’s just Jesus and even then, Jesus pours out everything on us. He graciously gives us His good gifts and blessings. He graciously pours out His bounty on us giving us gifts upon gifts, the whole lot of His gifts and a whole lot more. With Jesus, we have no need for anything more! Amen.
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