The Word In Glory - New Years Eve - December 31, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year has been The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week as we celebrated Christmas Day and the birth of our Savior, we continued our theme as we talked about the word fulfilled, that is the Word accomplishing all that was spoken and written about Him including and especially the Word being born in flesh. This evening we take up the topic of the word in glory. As we have made note all along, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the word in glory.
 

As we have reiterated time and again, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completed defeat and destroy Satan.
 

In the beginning God created, soon afterward man sinned and immediately God made a promise. We heard the promise and it is not that we actually heard it with our own ears as we would hear anyone today speak, but we heard the promise of a Messiah through our ears of faith. Just as we hear our Lord continue to speak to us today yet even more so through the written Word, through Holy Scripture, so we have indeed heard our Lord’s promises through our ears of faith.
 

Not only have we heard our Lord’s promises, but because He gave His Word to be written by many and various prophets of old, so today we have also read the promises. As we read through God’s Word we read of the many times the Lord reiterated His promise to send a Savior to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, to Moses, to King David and so on down through the ages of the Old Testament. We heard the Lord speak His word to Zechariah of the one who would prepare the way and His word to Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah and to Joseph that it was okay for him to take Mary as his wife.
 

We have heard, we have read and we have seen the promise. Indeed, with eyes of faith we have seen Jesus. As Job reminds us, “25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another’ (Job 19:25-27). As Job was confident that he would see his Redeemer, but of course he was speaking about being in heaven, yet we have seen our Redeemer through His Word and we are confident we too will see Him in glory.
 

Finally we have tasted the promise. When we come to the Lord’s Table, we come to eat and drink the body and blood of our Lord. Just as the children of Israel would eat the sacrifices they would bring to the temple, thus participating in the sacrifice, so too, we come the Lord’s Table where we dine on our Lord, our Messiah who was sacrificed on the cross for us. We eat His body, we drink His blood, thus we participate in the sacrifice. His life becomes ours. His suffering and death becomes ours. His resurrection becomes ours.
 

Jesus was God and is God in the beginning at creation. He was and is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At no time is Jesus not God, and at no time is He separate from the Father and the Spirit. Now certainly we may not have a complete understanding of this relationship of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet we do have what He tells us.
 

Jesus is God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit and yet, for our sakes, because of His great love for us, His creatures, He gave up the glory that was His in heaven. As true God He was enjoying all glory, but for our sakes He gave up His glory and came down from heaven.
 

Jesus, true God, took on human flesh and blood, for us. He became one of and one with His creation. He came as one of His creatures in order to do for us what we could not do, yet what we were commanded to do, live perfectly. Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place because we can not. He then, of His own free will, and willingly, took our sins upon Himself and suffered the price for our sins.
 

Jesus died. Yes, our God died. Just as you and I will one day die, so Jesus and so our God in Jesus, died. And yet, death and the grave had no power over Him. He rose from the dead. He rose and He rose for us. His resurrection shows us that His promises are true and that we too will rise again, death and the grave have no power over us.
 

After His resurrection and showing Himself to be alive for forty days, Jesus ascended back into heaven, the place from which He descended. He ascending and there He is at this time in heaven, which does not negate the fact that as true God He is also always with us, as we say He is everywhere present, omnipresent.
 

At this time Jesus is in heaven watching over us, ruling over us, interceding for us. He is watching over our lives and caring for us. He is ruling over us and we find great joy and comfort especially in the fact that He is interceding, He is praying for us, because as we all know we can use all the prayers we can get.
 

Jesus is waiting until the last day when the Lord will send Him, when He will return to gather us and all the saints who have gone on before us. He will gather all people and He will judge the living and the dead. Those who have faith will be judged to eternal life in heaven. Those who have rejected Him will be judge to eternal judgement and hell.
 

We will see Jesus. We will see Him in all His glory. We will see Him with our own eyes, we will see Him and not another. Our hearts yearn.
 

Until our Lord returns, we wait and we spend our waiting time getting ourselves and others ready and being ready. We know we are ready as we live our lives ever expecting and anticipating His return. Which means that we keep our eyes focused not on this world and the temporariness, the fast and fading of this world, but we keep our eyes focused on the real world, the world to come, the everlasting eternal world of heaven.
 

We live our lives ever expecting and anticipating our going to Him. Our hearts yearn, not of this world and the things of this world, but our hearts yearn of being in heaven with Him. As many of my shut-ins often lament, our yearning is the same, “Why doesn’t Jesus just take me?” And as Paul so well said it, and I am paraphrasing, we would rather be in heaven which is far better, but while He has business for us here on this earth, we will work at the business He has for us, yet eagerly anticipating our going to be with Him in heaven.
 

When our last hour arrives either He will come to take us or we will go to Him, depending on if we are alive when He returns or if we pass on and go to Him. Either way, whether He comes to us or we go to Him, we will be judged and by His grace, which He has given to us, through faith, which He has given to us, we will be judge to eternal life in heaven. He will robe us with His robes of righteousness. He will invite us to be a part of His kingdom forever.
 

As we end this calendar year and are on the verge of a new calendar year, we are reminded once again that every year, yes even each and every day we get one day closer to our Lord’s return. We are reminded that it is imperative to watch and be ready. And we are reminded that God continues to get us ready through His means of grace. Thus we rejoice and look forward to seeing Him in all His glory and we say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

God’s Plan Is Not Coincidence - December 29, 2013 - First Sunday after Christmas - Text: Galatians 4:4-7

It was a cold night. You were on your way home from a friends house. It was late and the road seemed deserted. You had not seen a house or another car for miles. All of a sudden your tire blows, you swerve and find yourself in the ditch. You are not hurt, just a little shaken. You get out to survey the situation. Your mind is racing a hundred miles an hour as you see no way to move your car, and no house within miles. Behind you a car pulls up and stops. It is your neighbors who are on their way home. How relieved you are as you explain to them what happened. You all get in the neighbors car and marvel at the coincidence of the events that took place. I am here to tell you that it was not a coincidence. As a matter of fact, I do not believe in coincidence. God’s ways are not our ways. He works in our lives according to His plan and purposes. As I say that, however, let me remind you that God always has the best in mind for us in our lives. Pain, suffering, struggles, evil happen because we live in a sin filled world. Pain, suffering, struggles, evil happen because of sin. For God’s part, He always works to bring out the best in any and all situations. And the best may not always be what we perceive to be the best. Certainly we might not think of physical death to a very ill person as being the best, but in Godly terms, what is better than the perfect healing of eternal life in heaven? So, this story is not meant to suggest that God intends evil or “bad” things to happen, rather it  illustrates how God works good in our lives and so in our text this morning Paul explains the seeming coincidences of our salvation.
 

From the events at the end of the book of Malachi to the beginning of the events of the gospel of Matthew was a period of over 400 years. From the events of Genesis chapter three to Matthew was a period of over 4000 years. After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three, God immediately promised to send a Savior. God’s promise was that the Savior would come and would crush Satan, while in turn being crushed, that is in completely defeating Satan, God would suffer death Himself. God did not attach a time to His promise. And as we know, God’s time is not our time. God’s plan was that at the right time, the time He had set, this Savior would be born. Paul’s reference is that Christ’s birth, which we celebrated Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, was the right time, thus Christ Jesus was born. This was not a coincidence but was a part of God’s plan.
 

Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for the census of Caesar Augustus because he was a descendant of David, King David. Joseph was also a descendant of the line of promise of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mary was pregnant at the time of the news of the census. You remember also that Mary’s relative Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist the fore runner, the way preparer of Jesus, was also pregnant at this time. That all these things were taking place and that Jesus was born at this time was not a coincidence, but was a part of God’s divine plan.
 

One other aspect of this fullness of time is that as Paul says in Romans [5:6-8] “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinner, Christ died for us.” God did not wait until we could work out our own salvation. He did not wait for us to become good people. It was not a coincidence that He came while we were sinners, as a matter of fact this is the reason He came. He came in the fullness of time, while we were sinners, because we are sinners, Because we cannot save ourselves.
 

Paul goes on to add that Christ was born of a woman. Something so obvious seems trivial, but Paul does not write to be trivial. Our Savior is our Savior because He was born of a woman. Only because He was a human being like us could He save us. Only because He was a human being could He be our substitute, trading His perfect life for our imperfect, sin filled lives. And, so that we do not go away mislead I must remind you that Jesus was also truly God, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit as we confess in the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed. He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, in order to fulfill the command of God to be perfect and in order to raise Himself from the dead. Before the time had fully come, at which time Christ became a man, He was true God with the Father and the Spirit in heaven enjoying all the glory that was His as God. When the time had fully come, when all of human history was at just the right point, when the nine months of gestation was completed, Jesus took upon Himself to be one of us, a human being. This was not a coincidence, but was part of God’s plan.
 

As a human being He was born under the Law, the civil law, the moral law and the ceremonial law. We remember that eight days after His birth His mother and father took Him to be circumcised and we remember that at the age of 40 days Mary and Joseph took Him to the Temple to offer the sacrifice to redeem the first born as prescribed by the Law. We remember that at the temple Mary and Joseph met Simeon and Anna. We remember that at the age of twelve Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. He followed all the Jewish Laws, perfectly. This was not a coincidence, but was a part of God’s plan. What the whole nation of Israel could not do; what we cannot do; Jesus did perfectly, for us, in our place. All that the ceremonial laws command, all that the ceremonial laws were intended to point to, Jesus fulfilled, completing and abolishing all the ceremonial laws so that they are no longer necessary. All this He did for us in our place because of His great love for us.
 

He did all of this to redeem us. Redeem, that is a big word. When I hear the word redeem I usually think of trading stamps. You might remember, the S & H Green stamps. You collect the stamps, paste them in a book and then take them to the “redemption” center where you redeemed them or “traded” them for some merchandise. Redeem is a good word to use for Christ’s work. However, Christ did not collect a bunch of trading stamps with which to redeem us. We have been born into this world in sin. Each of us is a sinner. We are conceived in sin and lost and condemned from birth. By ourselves we are lost. There is no way we can save ourselves. By God’s grace, His undeserved love for us, He sent His one and only Son born in the flesh for us. As God, Christ was born perfect. As man, Christ was born as one of us in order to save us. Christ lived the perfect life, under the Law. He suffered, physically, mentally, spiritually and eternally and He died, suffering hell for us. By His suffering He bought us back, redeemed us from sin, Satan, death, and hell. He redeemed us, He traded, His life for ours, His death for ours, His resurrection for our. Purely by His grace for us, not as a coincidence, but as a part of His plan.
 

Because we are redeemed, God’s children, with the Holy Spirit we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Paul is not making reference to some charismatic utterance with which we will respond. What he is saying is that because God has redeemed us, made us His sons and daughters, He has filled us with His Spirit through which we can call upon Him and worship Him. Our worship of God is not something we do of our selves and is not a coincidence, but is from God and is a part of His plan.
 

“So you are no longer a slave, but a son” (v. 7). A slave is subject to a master. In our case we were slaves to sin, ruled by our own sinful desires. Now, because we have been redeemed, we are no longer slaves, but God’s children. We are ruled by God, living our lives to please Him. It is not a coincidence that we live our lives for Him, this is a part of His plan.
 

In all His doings God made us His sons and daughters and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. He did it all. There is nothing left for us to do. As His sons and daughters, His children, we are His heirs. We are the one’s who are given and who receive the inheritance of eternal life in heaven. So that at the right time, when our time has fully come, He will take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity. This is not a coincidence, but this is a part of His plan.
 

The last two words of verse seven are very important. The last two words are “through God.” It is only through God and God in Christ that we are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Paul expresses this same idea in Romans [8:15-17], he says, “For 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.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Through Christ we are heirs. Through Christ we share in His suffering, death, and resurrection. Through Christ we are redeemed, bought back and made heirs. Through Christ we share in His glory in heaven not by coincidence but by God plan.
 

That you are here today, that you are a redeemed child of God is not a coincidence. As Paul says in First Timothy, “This is good, and pleases god our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth [1 Tim. 2:3-4].” God has chosen you. He has sent His one and only Son to die for you and to rise for you. It did not just happen but is a part of God’s plan. Thanks be to the Lord for He is good for His mercy endures forever. To Him alone be the glory, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

The Word Fulfilled - Christmas Day - December 25, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last night as we celebrated Christmas Eve and the birth of our Savior, we continued our theme as we talked about the word incarnate, that is the Word in flesh. Today we take up the topic of the word fulfilled and finally, next week, on New Year’s Eve, the word in glory. As we made note last week and last night, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the word fulfilled.
 

As we have reiterated time and again, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completed defeat and destroy Satan.
 

As John tells us in our text, in the beginning God created all things out of nothing. Of course we normally designate God the Father as the Creator and as the Preserver of all that He created. And yet, John reminds us, as we can read in Genesis as well. In Genesis we read the word “God” in the plural reminding us that our God is a plural God, yet a God who has complete unity and Oneness in His plurality, thus, at the creation of the world is God the Father and also with Him are God the Son and God Holy Spirit, three persons in one divine Godhead as we describe Him in our human language.
 

God created a perfect world. God created a perfect man and a perfect woman. God created a perfect Garden so that in the beginning everything was perfect. God gave Adam and Eve the ability to respond in faith by obeying Him, by not eating of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan, a fallen angel, kicked out of heaven, one hating God and all that is good, took the form of a serpent, tempted Eve and Adam so that they disobeyed God and ate of the fruit. Thus, sin entered and as a result, God cursed the world, yet, because of His love for us, God promised to send a Savior. This first promise was a spoken or an oral promise.
 

Later in history, God chosen Moses and in foreshadowing His salvation of the world, Moses lead the children of Israel out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt. Later, God moved Moses and had him write the spoken promises down so that now the promise was a written Word of promise. Throughout the Old Testament prophets came and went and their words of prophecy and promise concerning the Messiah, the Savior of the world were written down for all the world to read.
 

After many years, even some five hundred years of silence and having no word from the Lord, God appeared to Zechariah and announced the birth of a son, John the Baptist. The Lord sent an angel to announce to Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah and also to Joseph that he would be the adopted earthly father of the Messiah. John the Baptist was born and came to announce the birth of the Messiah.
 

As the Gospel writer John tells us, John was not the Messiah, but pointed to the Messiah. In his words John writes, “6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light” (v. 6-8).
 

John the Baptist came to prepare the world for the Messiah. As for this Messiah He is the one who is truly God and truly human. Jesus is God and yet because of His great love for us, His creation, He gave up the glory of being God in heaven in order to take on human flesh and blood.
 

Jesus is the light of the world, born with Jewish roots, yet not recognized, but denied by His own Jewish family. The Gospel writer John says it this way, “9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (v. 9-11).
 

And finally John tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (v. 14). Jesus is the Word, the spoken word and the written Word born in flesh fulfilling all of Holy Scripture.
 

This morning we celebrate. We celebrate God’s promises and especially His promises fulfilled in Jesus’ birth. The promises of the Old Testament pointed to this and to the subsequent events of Jesus’ life.
 

About this One of whom we celebrate His birth, this One is Jesus whose name means the Lord Saves. This Jesus is true God, along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, having been conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. This One Jesus is also truly human, true man, born of the human woman, the Virgin Mary. This One Jesus, came to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets. He came to fulfill all the promises concerning the coming Messiah. He came both in passive and in active obedience. He actively obeyed all of God’s laws perfectly and He actively took all our sins upon Himself. He passively allowed Himself to suffer the punishment for our sins and for the sins of all people of all places of all times.
 

Jesus is true God and true man. He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, in order to obey God’s commands to be perfect. And He had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, in order to make an equal trade of lives, His perfect life for our sin filled lives. He is the One who came to pay the price for our sin.
 

Jesus birth reminds us that the price for sin is death. Jesus was born to die. Yet, as we know the whole story, Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead. His resurrection defeated sin, death and the devil.
 

So now, by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, we have been adopted as His children and as children of Abraham. The Gospel writer John reminds us that the children of Abraham, the true Israel are not those who are descendants by birth, by DNA, by genetics, but those of faith as he says, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (v. 12-13). We are the new Israel, by God’s grace through faith in Jesus which He gives to us and works in us.
 

This morning we are reminded once again and assured that our salvation is dependent on Jesus, just Jesus. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot look inside ourselves for help. We must always look outside ourselves and when we look outside ourselves we see Jesus.
 

Today we celebrate faith, forgiveness and life. We celebrate that our God loves us so much. That our God created us to love us. That He gave His promise and fulfilled that promise to take care of our sin for us, because of His great love for us. That Jesus is our salvation and that there is no other name on earth, given among men whereby we must be saved. We celebrate our salvation and we are moved to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Word Incarnate - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week we talked about the tangible word. This evening, as we celebrate Christmas Eve and the birth of our Savior, we continue our theme as we talk about the word incarnate, that is the Word in flesh. Tomorrow we will take up the topic of the word fulfilled and finally on New Year’s Eve, the word in glory. As we made note last week, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the word incarnate.
 

As we said last week, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completed defeat and destroy Satan.
 

Jesus is the Word spoken by God and He is the Word God moved Moses to write speaking of the promise of a Messiah. God gave to Moses to write the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, those words which give us the history of the world, God’s promise of a Messiah, the civil and moral law as well as the ceremonial laws which all pointed to the one Lamb of God that would be slain, that would be sacrificed, crucified on the cross to pay the price for sin.
 

God sent the angels to announce to the shepherds that the birth of the Messiah had taken place. The angels made a spoken announcement that the One about whom all of Holy Scripture speaks was born in Bethlehem.
 

Jesus is the spoken word, the written word, the tangible word and now we begin to celebrate that He is the Word incarnate, that is the Word made flesh. As John tells us, “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God” (v. 1,2). Jesus was there at the creation of the world, with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the trinity in unity and the unity in the trinity.
 

Jesus, the Word, is true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, was in heaven enjoying all that it means to be true God in heaven, and yet He gave up the glory that was His in heaven in order to take on human flesh and blood. He was conceived in the human woman, the virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit so that what was conceived in her was truly human and truly divine as we confess in the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed.
 

Thus, the Word, spoken and written, the One promised from the fall into sin, became in carinate, in carnal, in flesh in the person of Jesus. As John tells us in his version of the nativity story, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (v. 14).
 

John fills us in on the details of the Messiah as he says, “9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15( John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.”’) 16And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (v. 9-18).
 

Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness. Jesus is the light of truth, of perfection shining in the darkness of an imperfect world infected with sin and death. Jesus is the light which came into the world to expose the darkness of sin. And yet, even as is the case in our world today when those living in sin would rather continue living sin, so even in Jesus day, those exposed as living in sin rejected the One who came to save them, to bring them forgiveness and life.
 

Jesus, the light was born through the line of those promised, the Jewish nation, the children of Israel, and yet His own nation, His own culture, His own people refused and rejected Him, at least many of His own nation did, especially the ruling counsel of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
 

Too many of His own people did not recognize Him. His own family, His brothers and sisters, and even at times it seemed His own mother did not recognize Him, at least not as the Messiah. Many rejected Him and yet many also did believe, not simply of His own people, but of the various cultures and nations to whom He came into contact in His life on this earth those He also came to save.
 

As Jesus spoke so well, to those who believe in Him, we are all a part of His family. It is not flesh and blood, it is not DNA, it is not genetics that make us brothers and sisters of Christ, and a part of His family. It is not our being born, nor our own human will that make us a part of His family. It is God who makes us a part of His family. It is God who gives us faith, forgiveness and life. It is God who has given His Son, even His own life, to be born as a human being in order to trade His life for ours.
 

This evening we begin our celebration of the Word, spoken, written, tangible, becoming flesh for the purpose of fulfilling our salvation. We begin our celebration of God taking on human flesh and blood, obeying all of God’s laws perfectly as our substitute, because we cannot. We begin celebrating that Jesus is the Messiah and He showed Himself to be the Messiah by fulfilling all God’s promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah, who He would be and what He would do. We being celebrating the fact that this child is God in flesh who was born for a purpose, to die, to reconcile our account with Himself, to give His life so that we might not die but have eternal life.
 

Yes, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word took on human flesh in order to fulfill the spoken and written Word concerning Himself. We rejoice and give thanks that this Word became flesh, became incarnate because of His great love for us. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Tangible Word - Advent Midweek 3 - December 18, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week we talked about the written word. This week we continue our theme as we talk about the tangible word. Next week we will take up the topic of the word incarnate, followed by the word fulfilled and on New Year’s Eve, the word in glory. As we made note last week, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the tangible word.
 

As we said last week, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completely defeat and destroy Satan.
 

And we have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in the Old Testament prophecies and promises. The promise of a Savior was reiterated to Noah after the flood and the ark landed. The promise was reiterated and the line of the fulfillment of the promise was made to Abraham. The promise was reiterated to Moses as he was chosen, not only to lead the children of Israel out of bondage of slavery, but also to write down the words and promises of God which He did in the first five books of the Bible.
 

We have already identified Jesus as the one who came to fulfill all the law and the promises perfectly. Not only did Jesus fulfill and obey all of the civil and moral laws perfectly, never being disobedient even once, but He also fulfilled all the ceremonial laws perfectly as well. It was these ceremonial laws which were given to remind the people that the price for sin was death, that blood had to be shed and it was these laws that in fulfilling, Jesus made them obsolete. No longer do we have the ceremonial law which simply pointed to Jesus on the cross, because Jesus has already died on the cross, thus completely fulfilling those laws making them no longer necessary.
 

And, we have already identified Jesus as the one who came to be our substitute. In order to save us, in order to be our substitute, Jesus had to be truly human and He was, being born of the human woman, the virgin Mary, as we confess in the second article of the Apostles’ creed.
 

This evening we want to talk about the fact that today, Jesus is the tangible Word. What does tangible mean? To be tangible means to be something we can handle, or hold. God is Spirit. Jesus is God in flesh. After His life, suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. If Jesus has ascended into heaven, how then can we handle and hold Jesus? How can Jesus be tangible for us today?
 

To understand the tangibleness of Jesus we must first go back to the first Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. On Maundy Thursday Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples. Jesus celebrated the same festival that the Jews celebrated since the angel of death passed over the blood marked houses in Egypt. Jesus ate the bitter herbs, the matzah, the lamb, and drank of the four cups of wine as prescribed by the Passover celebration. But Jesus did not simply celebrate the Passover with His disciples, rather, from the Passover He gave them and us His Holy Supper.
 

In the Passover, the family slaughtered the lamb, put the blood on the door post and lintel, the up and down motion and the side to side motion making the sign of the cross, a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ. The family then ate the lamb as well as the unleavened bread, standing and in haste, ready to leave Egypt. The houses that were marked with the blood of the lamb were so marked so that the angel of death passed over their houses.
 

Out of this Passover Seder Celebration Jesus gave His disciples and us His Holy Supper, the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper, the slaughtered Lamb of God is Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is the Lamb of God who shed His blood on the cross. He won forgiveness of sins for us, paying the price for sin on the cross. Now at His Holy Table He gives us His body to eat and blood to drink for forgiveness of sins so that the angel of eternal spiritual death will pass over us.
 

Jesus is the Word. He is the Spoken Word as we hear about Jesus, the promises and prophecies. He is the Written Word as we read about Jesus, the promises and prophecies. There truly is no denying that the one spoken about in the Old Testament is none other than the One spoken about in the New Testament, Jesus Himself, the very Word of God
 

Jesus is the spoken Word, the Written Word and now we understand, we see, we know that Jesus gives us Himself to handle, to hold, to eat and drink, not symbolically, but in a real presence, in, with and under the very ordinary means of the bread and wine way, connected to the very Word of God so that through our eating and drinking we participate in His life, death and resurrection. Just as the Children of Israel participated in the sacrifice by eating the sacrifice, so we participate in Jesus life, death and resurrection by eating Jesus. We participate in the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. We participate in Jesus so that His life becomes our life. His suffering and death become our suffering and death. His resurrection and life become our resurrection and life.
 

We get it right, we get our theology right, we get God’s Word right, spoken, written and tangible, when we get Jesus right. It is God in flesh, God in Jesus who gives us Himself to eat and to drink. And even more than our receiving these gifts from God is the fact that we are given to. Receiving implies an act on our part, a none rejecting, which is our only option. So, take yourself out of the proposition, take yourself out of the equation. God gives and we are given to.
 

This recognizing, acknowledging and celebrating of the tangible Word this evening is what our whole Advent season of looking to and preparing ourselves for is all about. This evening we recognize that the celebration for which we are preparing is what the people throughout Old Testament times were awaiting. This evening we recognize that our celebration is to be a celebration of God taking on human flesh, and even more a celebration of our God giving Himself to us to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins, which is the greatest need we have and the greatest gift our Lord gives. Jesus is the Word, the spoken Word, the Written Word, the tangible Word in flesh. God gives us Himself in the person of Jesus. Jesus gives Himself to eat and drink, to handle and hold, to partake for the forgiveness of sins. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Word Written - Advent Midweek 2 - December 11, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week we talked about the spoken word. This week we continue our theme as we talk about the written word. Next week we will take up the topic of the tangible word, followed by the word incarnate, the word fulfilled and the word in glory. As we made note last week, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of written word.
 

One of the things we are taught in teacher education is that the way to get people to remember is to teach and reteach, in other words to say the same thing over and over in as many ways as possible and using as many of your senses as possible so that we remember what we are being taught. It is for this reason, so that you will remember, that you will keep hearing me say and reiterate the same thing over and over again. With that said, I will, again, remind you that last week we talked about the spoken Word of God. We have already identified Jesus as the one who was with and is God at the creation of the world. And concerning the spoken Word of God, I think it is amazing that it was simply by speaking that God created all things out of nothing, simply by speaking them into existence.
 

Along with identifying Jesus as God, we have also already identified Jesus as the one spoken of as the one to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. As John tells us, “4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (v. 4,5,9). And this light, this Messiah, the Savior is the one promised in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve sinned.
 

And, we have already identified Jesus as the spoken Word becoming flesh at His birth. Again, John’s own words, “11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (v. 11-14).
 

We have identified Jesus as the spoken word of God, the word of promise and the word of prophecy first spoken by God in the Garden of Eden and also later to Abraham, at which time God narrowed the line of fulfillment of the prophecy. This evening we move to a later point in Israelite history at which time God calls Moses to lead His people Israel and to give them His Law and His written Word.
 

Following the Garden of Eden, man continued to sin. God sent a flood to wash the world. God reiterated His promise of a Savior to Noah. And the world continued to sin. At the tower of Babel the people of the world disobeyed God and instead of being fruitful and multiplying and spreading out into the world, they remained and thought themselves as gods. God confused their languages so they had to separate into the world. Later God reiterated His spoken promise to send a Savior through Abraham and even later to Moses.
 

Not only did God use Moses to lead His people Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, He also moved Moses to write the first five books of the Bible, what is called the Pentateuch; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Now the spoken, the oral promises of God have become a permanent record, a written Word promising a Savior for God’s people.
 

When God gave Moses His Word and promises to write down, God gave to Moses the Law, the written Word which included the ceremonial, the civil and the moral law.
 

The civil and moral law were given for the protection of all people. The civil law is much like the civil law we have in our world today. The civil law regulates how we are to be in relationship with others in public, and most civil law is based on the moral law which is the Ten Commandments. In other words, it is the moral law which is at the heart of the civil law and which regulates the fact that we are obedient to those in authority over us, as stated in the fourth commandment. We do not hurt or harm our neighbor physically, mentally or emotionally, nor do we actually murder our neighbor, as stated in the fifth commandment. We do not lust after another man’s wife, nor fornicate with any unmarried people, as stated in the sixth commandment. We do not scheme, take or steal from our neighbor, as stated in the seventh commandment. We do not speak evil of others nor repeat gossip, we do not defame another’s character, as stated in the eighth commandment. And we do not covet anything that is our neighbors, nor begrudge them of what they have, as stated in the ninth and tenth commandments. As for the moral law, neither do we have other god’s before our one true God, we do not misuse His name, nor do we fail to be in divine service on the day of rest, as stated in the first, second and third commandments. Now, as I have listed these civil and moral laws, we must all admit that certainly we daily transgress all of these if not in action, we do so in thought and word and that is why we need a Savior.
 

Certainly many of you have heard it said that Jesus came to fulfill the law so that we are no longer bound by the law. While that statement is true, we must clarify that we are still under the civil and moral law. It is the ceremonial law which pointed to the Savior, which said that blood must be shed for sin. Although Jesus fulfilled all the law, civil, moral and ceremonial, it was this ceremonial law that Jesus fulfilled of which we are no longer under. We no longer offer sacrifices because Jesus has already offered Himself as the once for all sacrifice.
 

Jesus is the Word. He is the spoken, the oral word first promised by God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He is the one who came to fulfill all the spoken promises and all the written promises. He is the one who is God in human flesh, born as one of us, as one of His creatures in order to be a substitute for us.
 

Jesus was born to fulfill all the law, all the civil law, all the moral law and all the ceremonial laws and He did, perfectly. All that the law requires Jesus fulfilled. All the promises and prophecies about the Messiah, Jesus fulfilled, perfectly.
 

The fulness of the Gospel is that Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place as our substitute. Jesus then, freely took our sins, suffered and died, paying the complete price for our sins, for us in our place. He died and was buried, but death and the grave had no hold over Him as He rose on the third day. He ascended into heaven where He continues even today to watch over us, rule over us and intercede for us. He is awaiting the time that He will return to gather us and all the saints to take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity. And we will gather and stand before the Lord’s throne and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Word Spoken - Advent Midweek 1 - December 4, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18 and we will talk about the spoken word, the written word, the tangible word, the word incarnate, the word fulfilled and the word in glory. Of course, the Word is Jesus, God the Son, who was at creation with the Father, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. This evening we begin by talking about the spoken word.
 

The Gospel writer John is an amazing writer. He uses simple, down to earth words that are easy to understand and yet out of his simple words is amazing meaning. Rather than speak of the virgin birth in down to earth words, like conceived and born, John speaks of the nativity in words such as Light and Word. So, we begin with a little identification of the Word. John says, “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (v. 1-3). So, from these first three verses we know that whoever or whatever the “Word” is, He was at the creation of the world, meaning that He either was God the Father or is One in unity with God the Father.
 

Further, John says that this Word, was with God, and was God. Here again, as God has revealed Himself to us as a God who is three persons in one Godhead, and understanding that the three persons of the One Godhead are never divided, this means that whoever or whatever the “Word,” is, He was indeed God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
 

Again, still further, John says that this Word was the one who made all things and that there is nothing that was made that was not made except that He made it. We have attributed the Creation of the world to the person of God the Father and so here if the “Word,” is not God the Father, we at least know that He was there with God the Father at the creation of the world and that He is One with God the Father.
 

So, putting all this together, therefore we would understand John to be telling us that this “Word,” about whom he is speaking is One with God the Creator, that is that the “Word,” is One with God the Father making the “Word,” truly God and we would say, as we will continue to follow John that Jesus is God and Jesus is the Word.
 

In the beginning God created all things out of nothing and when God created all things all things were created perfect. God created a perfect world, a perfect garden, a perfect man and a perfect woman. God placed the perfect man and perfect woman He created into the perfect garden He created, the Garden of Eden. God gave the man work to do to care for the garden, not as toilsome labor, but good work as a response of faith. God also gave the man and woman another way to respond to all He had done for and given to them in that they were to obey Him by not eating of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
 

Sometime prior to these events, after God had created the angels, one angel, Lucifer, rebelled against God, thinking himself to be equal to and perhaps a god, and was cast out of heaven. This evil angel whom we refer to as Satan, hates everything that is good and from God and so, he came into the perfect garden taking on the form of a serpent and tempted Eve and Adam to disobey God. Satan tempted Eve and Adam with a false truth and a word of doubt concerning what God had given to them and said to them. They listened to Satan, disobeyed God and brought sin into the perfect world so that it was no longer perfect. As a matter of fact, because of their sin the world was cursed, so that it is no longer perfect.
 

At the same time that their sin brought a curse on the world, in His great love, God spoke a word of promise, that is that He would send a Savior, someone who would pay the ultimate price for their sin. Oh, I forgot to tell you, the price for disobedience had been set by God as death, that is that they would begin to die a physical death and ultimately, apart from God, they would die an eternal spiritual death of hell. God’s promise was not to keep them from a physical death, but that He would send a Savior to keep them from an eternal spiritual death in hell.
 

Although they did not know it specifically at the time, today we know that Jesus is the one that was being spoken of as the promised Savior. This is the one being spoken of in our text as John calls Him the Word.
 

Thus, in Jesus the spoken word of a promise made in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve and to all people was fulfilled at His birth. As John says it later in our text, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (v. 14). More concerning this becoming flesh, dwelling among us, and seeing His glory later.
 

Thus, Jesus is the Word made flesh, He is the Word that was born as the one promised to Adam and Eve, the One who would take care of their sin of disobedience, the One who would take care of paying the price for their eternal spiritual death, in other words the One who would suffer the punishment of hell for them. This Jesus is the Word who would also defeat the power of death that is physical death so that following the final day of judgement, when we reach heaven there would be no more threat of physical death. Yes, this Word made flesh in Jesus is the one promised to save Adam and Eve, His own people to whom He would be born, again as we will take up later, us and all people.
 

Finally, this Word, this Jesus brings grace and truth. Jesus brings truth because apart from Jesus there is and can be no truth. Satan brought, and continues today to bring, lies and deception, Jesus brings truth and forgiveness. This Word in Jesus also brings grace, God’s riches, God’s undeserved love. It is this Word of promise, first spoken in the Garden of Eden, made flesh in Jesus, who is Jesus, who is the Messiah, the Savior of the world who would reconcile, make right the world with Himself, God in flesh who created all things out of nothing.
 

What a great, holy, loving, almighty God we have. We have a God who created all things and us included, even though in His omniscience He knew that we would mess everything up. He then promised and fulfilled His promise to make everything better, which He did by taking on the very substance, by becoming one with and one of the creatures He created, by becoming incarnate, in flesh and living for us, by taking our sins, our mess upon Himself, by suffering and dying a physical death and an eternal spiritual death of hell for us, because of His great love for us. It is the birth of this Word, our God in flesh that we prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate. Greater love can no one have than our God has for us. And He even gives us the opportunity and moves in us to respond in faith, to give praise and glory to His Holy Name. To Him be all glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Pentecost, the Season of Growth (Last in the Series)

As it does every year, our Pentecost Season ends at the end of November and a new Church Year will begin. This year our new Church Year actually began on the last Sunday in November. But, let us move on to complete our look at what we have been learning and how we have been growing in our faith as we conclude this year’s Pentecost Season.

On the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, the Sunday we celebrated All Saints Day, we continued our reading through the Gospel of Luke as we heard the account of the tax collector, Zacchaeus. The Holy Spirit, working through the very Word of Jesus (the Word in flesh) brought Zacchaeus to faith and stirred in him the desire to run to be where Jesus was, to hear more of His Word, to be given more of His gifts and even to respond in returning what he had defrauded and even himself to the Lord. Would that the Word of God would have the same effect on us and our lives so our desire might be to always be where the gifts of God are given and most sure, in Divine Service!

On the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost, we were reminded of the fact that God’s Word comes to us through historical accounts. Our confessional documents, that is our Book of Concord, is intended not as a book to replace the Bible as some people would accuse, rather our confessional documents are a systematic approach, sorting through the historical records so that we have a concise understanding about who God is, who Jesus is, what is original sin, and most important what is justification. We were reminded how many in our world and even many of us today are like the Pharisees, the Scribes and the Sadducees in our misunderstanding of the Word of God and how often, rather than attending Bible Class in order to learn a correct understanding of the Word, we stay away attempting to use our ignorance as an excuse. We learned the difference between life in this world and life in heaven and the difference between the gifts God has given for us to use in this world which will be unnecessary in heaven. And we were reminded once again that we get it right when our focus is on Jesus and the gifts He has to give.

On the Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost, the second last Sunday of the Church Year, we were encouraged to be alert, to be awake, and to be watchful because the end of the world is coming soon, sooner than we know and sooner than we might imagine. We were reminded of the fact that the world has been cursed since the fall into sin, yet God’s promise was to send a Messiah, a Savior and He did. He sent Jesus who reconciled our broken relationship with Himself. Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place, obeying all God’s laws and commands perfectly, even fulfilling all His promises concerning the Savior showing Himself to be the Savior. Jesus suffered, died, and rose for us. God’s now sends His Holy Spirit to give, strengthen and keep us in faith which He does through the means of Grace, when and where He pleases. And we were reminded that as the end approaches we may be arrested and imprisoned for our faith, yet we are to rejoice in the opportunity to bear witness as we give a defense of our faith, a defense using the very words our Lord will give us at the time, words He speaks through us that He has given us during our lives through His means of grace.

Finally, on the Last Sunday after Pentecost, on the last Sunday of the church year we were focused on and reminded that all of history has as its center, Jesus, God in human flesh, and His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Those living before Jesus were saved by God’s grace through faith in Him as the coming Messiah or Savior and those of us living now in the end times, which is what Jesus ushered in, are also saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus, that He was and is the Messiah and Savior. We were also encouraged to make our New Church Year’s Resolution to desire to be where the gifts of God are given out, His Divine Service. God loves you so much and He has so much He wants to give to you! And so we are encouraged, again to be where He gives His gifts.

And that about catches us up for the third quarter of the Pentecost Season. It is amazing the gifts the Lord delivers to us through His Word each and every Sunday in Divine Service and in Bible Class. Thanks be to God!

Blessings - November 28, 2013 - Thanksgiving Eve - Text: The Apostle’s Creed and Explanations

God gives and we are given to. God gives first. He is the prime mover. In the beginning God created all things out of nothing. Nothing exists that has not been made by God. Thus, even we who are His creation have been given to by Him. We have been given life at conception, new life through Holy Baptism, even eternal life earned and paid for by Him. As Dr. Martin Luther so well states in each of his explanations of the three articles of the Apostles’ Creed that God’s gives. God has created me. “He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.” It is Jesus “who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death,” The “Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.”
 

As we said, God gives, and we are given to. God has created all things out of nothing so that all that is has been created and given to us by God to use in service to Him in His Kingdom. Certainly we understand that although in the beginning God created all things prefect and holy, because of man’s sin, we now live in a world that is under the curse of that sin so now all things are not perfect, but are imperfect. Yet, all things have their origin in God.
 

God gives. God gives life at conception. Along with life God gives us all our senses: hearing, taste, touch, sight, smell. God gives us a house and a home as well as clothing and shoes, meat and drink, wife and children and all that we have, all that we need to support our body and life. God even gives us each our vocations, that is those roles in life through which we serve Him by serving others, such as husband or wife, mother or father, carpenter or miner, banker or lawyer, doctor or plumber. All these vocations are given by God as He gives each of us gifts, talents and abilities to perform the various works of service in each vocation.
 

To understand how God is the prime mover, the beginning, the middle and the end in all giving to us, let us focus in on and trace how God gives using one physical item from God, that of food and in particular the food of oatmeal as our example. From where does oatmeal come, other than off our pantry shelf. Normally we purchase our oatmeal form the grocery store. But, what does it take for the grocery store to have oatmeal on the shelf. In order for a Grocery Store to function properly it must have an owner who must hire workers who stock the shelves as well as sell the items and keep the store clean and running.
 

In order to stock the store there needs to be trucks which deliverer the good to the store from the warehouse which must also have a staff of employees to make sure the warehouse is properly stock to fill the orders from the stores.
 

The warehouse gets its goods from the factory which produces the products it sends to the warehouse to be distributed to the stores to be sold to the consumer. The factory must have a staff of workers as well as the right equipment and packaging to produce and package the product. The equipment must be built and maintained in order for the factory to function properly, and the packaging must be available to appropriately distribute the product. Both the equipment and the packaging call for their own set of subroutines to function properly. And the factory must have workers to run the equipment.
 

The factory needs raw materials and in the case of oatmeal, the factory must purchase the oats it uses to make oatmeal from the farmer. The farmer must have good seed to plant as well as fertilizer and other farm equipment, workers, water and so forth to grow a good crop of oats. Ultimately the farmer depends on God for good weather and a good growing season in order to produce a good crop of grain.
 

Indeed the Lord blesses us with oatmeal and all we need through the labor and vocations, the gifts, talents and abilities of many workers, and yet we see it all begins and ends with the Lord.
 

God gives, and we are given to. God gives us all that we need for the support of our bodily lives, all we need, not necessarily all that we may want, because we can always want more. And yet, God gives even greater gifts. His greatest gifts are His spiritual gifts, those gifts and blessings that are given, freely given and that give eternal life. Very often we speak of the fact that God in Jesus rescues us from sin, death and the power of the devil. We speak of the fact that Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection defeated sin, death and the devil. We speak in terms of Jesus giving us the strength to resist the unholy three of the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh. We speak of the fact that God gives faith, forgiveness of sins, life in this world, eternal life, salvation, strengthening of faith and so on. So, the question we might ask ourselves is this, “How does God give us these gifts and blessings?”
 

The answer to “How does God gives us these gifts and blessings?” is that He gives them through external means, in particular through the Means of Grace: the Holy Word of God, Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Confession and Absolution. God’s usual way of working with us, of giving to us is through means. God’s unusual way is directly. Now certainly we know that after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, after the day of Pentecost God gave His apostles the ability to perform signs and wonders, to do miracles, and this ability was given as confirmation to attest to the words they were proclaiming. Yet, as the apostles died, so did the ability to do such signs and wonders.
 

Again, God’s usual way of coming to us and giving to us is external, through means. His unusual way is internal, directly. To direct one internally, that is to direct a person to look inside himself to find the answers to life’s questions leads either to despair because all we find inside ourselves is a sinful nature, or it would lead to self and works righteousness because a person might actually believe s/he could live by the demands of the law which, according to our conceived and born in sin nature, is impossible. And so we are directed to look outside ourselves. We are directed to the external means of grace. It is through the very means of Grace, the very means of God’s Word, Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and Confession and Absolution that God gives faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

Paul encourages us saying, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 12:3). Notice that Paul does not encourage us to look inside ourselves, rather his words are an encouragement to look outside ourselves to look to God the Holy Spirit. It is God the Holy Spirit who works externally through the means of His Word and Sacraments, in particular Holy Baptism to give us faith and to stir in us to say that Jesus is Lord.
 

Our doctrine, what we believe, teach and confess, determines our practice, how we live out what we believe. As momma used to say, we “Practice what you preach.” So, how does our doctrine look when we say that God gives His gifts through means? First and foremost God gives faith, and the faith He gives He usually gives soon after birth through the waters of Holy Baptism when water and His name are put on us. It is through these simple ordinary means that God does great and extraordinary things, namely giving us faith, forgiveness of sins, and writing our names in the Book of Life.
 

If we were not baptized and given faith as a child, certainly God works through the means of His Holy Word. The Holy Spirit working when and where He pleases works through our reading and hearing of the Word of God to give faith, forgiveness and eternal life.
 

Jesus purchased and won forgiveness of sins on Calvary. He distributes that forgiveness through His Word as well as through Confession and Absolution. When we confess our sins we hear the most beautiful words in the world, “Your sins are forgiven.” Those are the most beautiful words in the world because with sins forgiven we know we have life and salvation. And yet, God also distributes His forgiveness through Holy Baptism and through His Holy Supper.
 

If we were to be pointed inward, to look inside ourselves, to look internally for the gifts of God, we would live life looking for some inward sign, some manifestation of, perhaps being “slain” in the spirit, being able to do signs, wonders, even miracles. We would be disappointed, even in despair if we were not seeing such inward manifestations thinking that we are doing something wrong. Our worship service would be a time for spiritual manipulation, a time to be worked into a frenzy until we might “feel” something, even anything that would make us “feel” like we have been given something from God. Certainly to have an inward focus would mean pointing to ourselves, and the bottom line is that then we are indeed our own gods and idols.
 

Focusing on the means of grace looks like Divine Service, that is it looks like God’s service to us, first and foremost, and second would be our response of faith. Focusing on the means of grace means being reminded of our Baptism usually through an invocation. It means confessing our sins and hearing the words of absolution, wherein and through which the gifts of forgiveness are distributed and given to us. It means hearing God’s Word read and expounded. It means speaking back to God the very words He has given us to say through the words of the liturgy, not some man-made bit of pomp and circumstance, some rhyming poem or ode, but speaking God’s Word. It means being given God’s gifts through His Holy Supper wherein we partake of our Lord, participating in His life, death and resurrection. And it means concluding the service with God having His name put on us again.
 

Notice how our doctrine informs our practice which teaches our doctrine. Notice how God’s gifts are distributed through our practice which flows out of our doctrine. Notice how these all tie together and are the very means through which our Lord gives to us the gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

So, how are these gifts and blessing from God shown forth in our lives? Paul speaks of these gifts and blessings showing forth in what he calls the fruits of the spirit which he lists in his letters, especially as we read in Galatians. “16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:16-26).
 

Notice that Paul first speaks of the opposite of the fruits of the spirit by outlining the desires of the flesh. Certainly we can get a better grasp of the positive when set out against the negative. Notice that Paul shows us how the fruits of the spirit flow from the gifts of the spirit. It is faithfulness that flows out of the faith given by God through the means of His Word and Sacraments. It is love and forgiveness flowing out of God’s love for us and His first forgiving us.
 

When you plant a fruit tree, you take care of it, cultivate it, fertilize and water it. After a while you expect to harvest the fruit of that tree. Likewise, as our Lord has given us all the gifts and blessings He has to give; both physical: clothing and shoes, house and home, meat and drink, family and friends; and spiritual; faith, forgiveness, life and salvation; and as He continually cultivates, takes care of, feeds and waters us with even more gifts, the result is fruits of the spirit. Fruits of the spirit are those ways Christians, given to by God, show forth the faith that is in their hearts.
 

God called each one of us to life at conception. He calls us to faith through Holy Baptism. He calls us to live lives of faith what we call our vocation, using the gifts, talents and abilities in service to Him by serving others. He calls some men into the Office of Holy Ministry. As the Lord has called us and as He pours out His gifts and blessings on us, our response of faith is to live and serve in our vocations as priests in the priesthood of all believers. The work of a priest is to offer sacrifices, and so our work is to offer our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord with His help and to His glory.
 

How does this look in real life? It looks like faith and doctrine, what we believe, teach and confess, in action. Evangelism or better said, Lutheran Evangelism is basically one living one’s vocation always being ready to give an answer for the hope one has in Jesus, and that answer is given by God through one’s making regular and diligent us of the means of grace so that the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to bring others to faith so they too might be a part of His kingdom and live in Godly vocations as well.
 

In summary, or in other words, God gives life. God gives faith. God gives all we need to support our body and life, physically and spiritual. God gives through means, both physical blessings and spiritual blessings. As we partake of the physical blessings, we grow in our body. As we partake of the spiritual means of grace, making regular, whenever offered, and diligent, taking God’s Word seriously, use of the means of grace, our Lord works through those means to give us the words we will speak when asked of the faith and hope that we have as we live lives as priests in our vocations. God gives, and we are given to. Today, tomorrow, and always we are to give thanks to God for all His good gifts and blessings. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

He Is the God of the Living - November 10, 2013 - Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27) - Text: Luke 20:27-40

You may have noticed, or not, but our liturgical color is back to green this morning as two weeks ago we celebrated the reformation of the church and the work of Dr. Martin Luther and our liturgical color was the celebration color of red, and last week we celebrated all the faithful saints who have passed on before us and the liturgical color of white and purity were on the altar. This week we move back to continue our Pentecost season of growth with the color of green. Counting today, we have three more Sundays in this present church year and on Sunday, December 1 we will begin a new church year with the season of Advent, but more on that when we get to that Sunday.
 

I am fascinated by people of some denominations who make such interesting statements as, “We are a Bible church and we don’t have any creeds.” Usually this is a misunderstanding of our denomination and the fact that we do have our confessional statements of faith in what we call the Book of Concord which is what we are studying in Bible Class and I would invite everyone to come and study with us. Perhaps you will learn how to be better able to give an answer to such interesting statements. Personally, I would like to respond in a snide way and say, “Oh, we threw the Bible out.” And I would like to point out that their statement is a creed of sorts, a bad creed, but a creed, or a statement of faith nonetheless. But that would not be answering in a gentle way. Anyway, the reason we have our confessional books and statements is that, as we hear in our Gospel reading for this morning, God does not gives us a systematic description of Himself as we have laid out in our confession, rather God gives us a historical narrative of Himself and through that historical narrative we learn a little about Him at a time. Thus, as we hear in our text for this morning and as we have been hearing in our text throughout this Pentecost season, not only did the Pharisees and teachers of the law get it wrong about Jesus and the Bible, so did the Sadducees.
 

As we get into our text, as we have been touring along with Jesus, He has been teaching and preaching, doing signs, wonders and miracles as proof of His divinity and humanity, of His Messiahship and all along the way the Pharisees and Scribes had been questioning and testing Jesus. Of course, as we have been hearing, they have failed every step of the way as well, yet they remained unconvinced and unconverted.
 

So, now in our text it is the Sadducees time to have their turn. About the Sadducees we should make note that although they do believe in the Mosaic law and the Pentateuch they do not believe in the resurrection to eternal life. As one comedian punningly stated it, “the Sadducees are sad you see, because they do not believe in the resurrection.” As we will see, they do not believe in the resurrection because of their own misunderstanding of God’s Word, which reminds us, again as we have discussed in Bible Class, there is only one interpretation of God’s Word and a whole lot of misinterpretations because of the sinful nature of those who misinterpret God’s Word. So, how do we know we get it right? We know we get it right by going back to the Word which points to Jesus. We get it right when we point to Jesus and Jesus is running the show.
 

It is the Sadducees turn and so they ask a question in order to trap Jesus. The Sadducees poise a rather ludicrous scenario according to Mosaic law as proof of their denial of a resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30And the second 31and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32Afterward the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife” (v. 28b-32).
 

A man marries a woman and dies, his brother marries her then dies. All seven brothers were married to the woman. All seven died without leaving an heir. Then the question is asked, “Whose wife will she be in heaven?” The Sadducees think they have come up with the perfect scenario to prove their denial of a resurrection. You can imagine the smug look on their face after they asked this question as they wait for Jesus to squirm and be unable to answer. But their self-satisfaction is short lived.
 

Jesus responses, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him” (v. 34b-38).
 

As we said earlier, there is only one interpretation of the Word of God. There are many misinterpretations and here we see that the Sadducees have indeed misinterpreted the Word of God and Jesus, who is the author of all Scripture explains to them where they have failed in their understanding. First Jesus explains that the Sadducees do not understand the distinction between life in this world and life in the world to come, especially and including marriage. Marriage is God’s gift and blessing for this world. His blessing of companionship, chastity, and children. In heaven there will be no marriage because in heaven there will be no need to populate the earth, nor will there be a need for companionship and chastity as we will all be perfect and in perfect companionship with one another.
 

Not only does Jesus address the issue of the resurrection, but He also addresses another issue of misinterpretation of these Sadducees, that is of their lack of believing in angels. You may have missed it, but Jesus says that in heaven we will be equal with angels suggesting that in heaven there will be no marriage because we will be like the angels (v. 36), whom we know are perfect, sinless and sexless, in other words procreation will not be an issue in heaven.
 

The Sadducees do not understand marriage on earth or in heaven, they deny God’s creation of His messengers, that is His angles, and they also do not understand the resurrection. Jesus is attempting to teach the Sadducees, as if they have come to be taught. They are actually like many people in our congregations today, those who have a misunderstanding of what God says in His Word, but rather than attend Bible Class and learn appropriately they would rather stay away and remain in their ignorance so they think they have an excuse in being wrong. I cannot tell you how many times I have taught classes on church doctrine, such as why we have closed communion only to have those who disagree not attend so they might not hear the correct understanding and instead remain in their ignorance and complain about why it is not the way they want it. Anyway, Jesus reminds the Sadducees of Moses calling God the God of the living Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and this is after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had been physically deceased for over 2000 years.
 

And so, Jesus reminds the Sadducees that God is not a God of the dead, but a God of the living. Those who have passed on from this world, those who have physically died, are not dead, but their souls are in heaven with the Lord. There is a resurrection of the dead. There will be a day of judgement and the ignorance and denial of the Sadducees will not negate the truth and validity of the Word of God. Quite a warning to these Sadducees and to us even today.
 

Interestingly enough, although Jesus may not have convinced these Sadducees, He did gain some respect from the Scribes, who no longer dared to question Him. Again, a reminder to us, as we have been following along through this Pentecost Season, this season of growing in our faith and as an invitation to our regular Sunday Bible Class, it is through our study and hearing God’s Word that the Holy Spirit uses what we have heard and learned so that as we have the opportunity and as we are asked we too can, with God’s authority and promise to be with us, give an answer for the faith we have in Jesus as our Savior.
  

So, what does this mean? Jesus gives us instruction concerning the difference between this world and heaven, especially the explanation that marriage is a blessing for this world only, in heaven we will be members of the bride of Christ. This world is a place of imperfection and sin. We are conceived and born in sin in this world. Every intention of our heart continues to be evil all the time. Our nature is to sin and then to run and hide from God. Our nature is to not want to get up on Sunday mornings and be in Divine Service, rather our nature and our natural inclination is to stay away. Of course the devil continues to encourage our nature, because he does not want us anywhere near where the gifts of God are given out. Yes, we live in this world, but we are to remember that we are not of this world. This world is only a temporary weigh station for our permanent dwelling in heaven. Certainly while we live in this world we are to take advantage and enjoy the life our Lord has given us, but not to the detriment of our eternal well being. Thus, God has given us our day of rest. He has given for us to have an opportunity to be refreshed in our faith, to be strengthened in our lives so that we might bear up under the temptations of the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh. And His desire is that we desire to be where He gives the gifts He has to give.
 

God’s Word is so important to us and we see how important His Word is especially as we hear in our text for today. Apart from God’s Word we might end up like the Pharisees, the Scribes, and the Sadducees. We might end up with a complete misunderstanding of the Word of God. We might end up denying angels, and even worse, end up denying the resurrection even our own resurrection. Our text is important as we hear Jesus give proof of the resurrection in the lives of the previously earthly departed saints, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And notice how Jesus Himself uses His own Word as its own interpretation always pointing to Himself.
 

God’s Word is so important and that is why our making use of His Word is so important. God has given us His Word as a means through which He comes to us, as we have been learning over the past few weeks. It is through God’s Word that He comes to seek and to save the lost. It is God’s Word which tells us the correct and true account of human history including the creation of the world. It is God’s Word which speaks to us of the reason the world is in the mess it is in, because of Adam and Eve’s sin and the curse of the world. It is also God’s Word which tells us of God’s promise to make all things right, that is His promise to restore our relationship with Himself. It is God’s Word which tells us that it is only by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, faith given to us through that Word, by the Holy Spirit that we too have eternal life in heaven. It is not we who save ourselves, as we are conceived and born in sin. It is Jesus who is the one promised of old. Jesus who is the one who is the sinless Son of God, truly God and truly man. It is Jesus who fulfilled all the promises of the coming Messiah and who fulfilled all the ceremonial laws which pointed to Himself and the once for all sacrifice on the cross. It is Jesus who took our sins and paid the price, the eternal spiritual death penalty for us in our place. It is Jesus who suffered, died and rose and who has sent the Holy Spirit to come to us, to give us, to strengthen and keep us in faith and indeed to stir in us a response of faith. As we said last week, our faith shows itself in our desire to be given the gifts God has to give and to respond in giving ourselves, our first fruits, our tithes even offering our time and talents in service to our Lord, serving Him as we serve others.
 

As we hear Jesus Words this morning we rejoice in our loving, gift giving God who pours out on us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give and who stirs in us to respond saying, to Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Is Darwinian Evolution Science? Or is the Creation Explanation Really Science?

Science might be described as setting a hypothesis and then setting out to disprove the hypothesis as a way of attempting to prove it is true, by not being able to disprove it.

A cult is a group that banned together under certain beliefs so that no one is able to deny those beliefs and if anyone should attempt to disprove those beliefs they are ostracized from the community.

With those two definitions, think about the difference between Darwinian Evolutionist (scientist) and the Creation Camp (religion). Those of the Creation Camp hypothesis that God created the world in six literal days and continually seek to disprove this theory, to no avail. Darwinian Evolutionist on the other hand have dictated that everyone believe molecules to man evolution and if you try to disprove it or speak against it you are ostracized. So, truly, who are the real scientists and who are the real cultist?

To this day there is no real evidence of Darwinian Evolution. Sure we can see changes in finches, but they always change into other finches, never into any other species. Yes, we can see changes in viruses as they mutate, but the simply mutate into other viruses, never into anything else. This mutation and/or natural selection is proof, not of Darwinian Evolution, but in Creation the fact that nothing changes from one species to another. But, by saying this I am a Darwinian Evolutionist heretic!

Salvation Has Come - November 3, 2013 - Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 26) - Luke 19:1-10

Last week we celebrated Reformation day and instead of using the Reformation texts I used the text for the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. This week, likewise, even though today we celebrate All Saints day, that is we celebrate the lives and examples of all those who have passed on in the faith before us, I am going to continue using the text for the Pentecost Season, today that is the Gospel reading for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. I have chosen to use this text because it continues with the theme of the Pentecost Season, that is a continuing reading of the Gospel of Luke for our growing in faith. Our text is Luke 19:1-10. (Read the text.) This is our text.
 

We have been following along with Jesus during these past twenty-three weeks and we have been listening to Him as He has been preaching and teaching, doing signs, wonders and miracles. Jesus was born into this world; the world He created prefect and holy; the world which became tainted by sin and cursed because of Adam and Eve’s sin; the world and the people of the world for whom God promised to send Him as their Savior. Jesus has been preaching and teaching, doing signs, wonders and miracles as proof of His true humanity and true divinity, indeed as proof of His being the one promised to save the world, true God in human flesh.
 

In our text for today Jesus continues His tour of teaching and preaching and today we read that He is passing through Jericho with no intention of stopping, perhaps because it was a major trade route and He did not want to get caught up in the trade of the city. Jericho was that city that was first destroyed by the children of Israel after marching around it once for six days and seven times on the seventh day, when the children of Israel first entered the promised land. Jericho has been rebuilt at the loss of the first and youngest sons of Hiel, the Bethelite as pronounced by the curse from Joshua at its destruction.
 

Our text tells us that Jesus entered Jericho and was simply passing through when we are introduced to a man named Zacchaeus. Of course, most of us remember Zacchaeus, because we remember that song we learned way back in Sunday School. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. But he was more than simply a wee little man. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and sinner. And tax collectors and sinners were despised especially by their own people. We can better understand this hatred when we understand the tax system. Those brave men, or thieving men who took up a career as a tax collector, enlisted with the government for the job. They were given a list of peoples names and the taxes they owned. The average person on the street did not know how much tax they owed, only what the tax collector told them. The way the tax collector made a living was that whatever money he collected over and above what was listed was his to keep, thus he made money by over charging those who owed. The kicker was that this tax collector was Jewish and he was collecting from his own Jewish people and the money he collected was for those who were Gentiles and not a part of the covenant. Thus they were seen as traitors and hated by their own people.
 

So, Zacchaeus was a wee little man and evidently not only had he heard about Jesus, perhaps the fact that Jesus did hang out with sinners, he actually had heard Jesus and the word He proclaimed. Just as our Lord does today, so even while on this earth, He works through means and in particular the means of His Word. As Jesus preached the Word, as Jesus taught the crowds, the Holy Spirit worked through that Word, when and where He pleased to give, strengthen and keep His people in faith.
 

Zacchaeus heard Jesus, was given faith and we see the faith he was given as his desire was to see Jesus. His desire was not some innate desire, not some seeker desire, not some inner spark, rather his desire was prompted by the Holy Spirit working through the Word he heard. Kind of like last week when I offered the free gift for the children and they all rushed forward, so is Zacchaeus’ desire and so is our desire to be in Divine Service every Sunday where the Word is preached, the sacraments are distributed and the gifts of God are given out. Indeed faith shows itself in the desire to be where the gifts are given and to be given those gifts.
 

Zacchaeus was a wee little man who knew he would not be able to stand behind the crowds to see Jesus so he ran ahead along the path where Jesus was walking and he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. Zacchaeus was no longer concerned about what others thought, nor about his tax collecting business. His only concern was to see Jesus, to hear Jesus, even to be given more of the gifts He had to give. Would that we would all be like Zacchaeus.
 

Indeed, Zacchaeus chose the right tree and as Jesus came along He stopped and He looked up in the tree and He said, “Zacchaeus you come down, for I’m going to your house today.” Yes, the children’s song captures the moment quite well. Jesus sees Zacchaeus. Jesus speaks to Zacchaeus. Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house.
 

The results of Jesus eating at Zacchaeus house are much like the results of Jesus eating at Matthew’s house a few weeks ago, the crowds grumbled that Jesus eats with sinners. When Jesus was at Matthew’s house and the Pharisees grumbled complaining “Why do you eat and drink with tax collector’s and sinners?” “Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31,32). Here at Zacchaeus’ house we see the same calling of Jesus, to sinners to repentance and this time it is Zacchaeus who is being called.
 

Jesus calls to faith and the Holy Spirit working through the very Word of Jesus gives faith. In the case of Zacchaeus, his response of faith was heard in his confession and desire to make amends. Zacchaeus pledged, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (v.8).
 

And our text concludes with Jesus rejoicing in salvation for the house of Zacchaeus. And Jesus reaffirming that He came to seek and to save the lost.
 

So, what does this mean? Again we are reminded that although we may live in this world, we are not of this world. We live in a world tainted by the curse, by temptation and sin. We live in a world where this is constant temptation from the devil, the world and our own sinful nature. We living in a world which is becoming less and less accepting of the Christian faith, indeed we live in a world that grumbles more and more about the Christian faith.
 

Why does the world grumble about the Christian faith? Why does the world even hate Christians? Simply stated, the world does not understand God’s grace. The world does not accept the exclusive claims of the Gospel. The world does not understand God’s intolerance to sin, nor the fact that the price for sin is death, physical death and apart from Jesus and faith in Jesus, eternal spiritual death. Most especially the world does not understand the loving call to repentance. How often do we hear the world speak such statements as: “It’s my life to live as I want.” “It’s my body to do with as I want.” “You can’t judge me, you don’t even know me.” “You can’t tell me what to do.” “What I do in private is none of your business.” “Who are you to tell me that what I am doing is wrong?” “My god is not like that.” “I don’t like calling it sin, I would rather call it something that doesn’t make it sound wrong.” Indeed, we live in a sin sick society and that society is continually pressing against the Church of God as we live in this world.
 

Yet, the fact remains that as Jesus came to seek and to save the lost as He says in our text, so that seeking and saving continues even today. Jesus continues to seek and to save the lost, you and I included. Last week we talked about the fact that we are sinners. We are conceived and born in sin. Every intention of our heart is evil all the time and the wages, the cost and price for sin is death, physical death and apart from Jesus eternal spiritual death. We were also reminded that until we realize how sinful we are, that is that the less sinful we think we are and the less of Jesus we think we need, indeed, to say it badly, the less forgiven we are. It is only as we understand the depth of our sin, the complete depravity of our nature, how we are complete beggars before Jesus that we can begin to comprehend the awesomeness of the good news of the Gospel of sins forgiven. If we believe ourselves to be good people and we only need a little forgiveness, then Jesus means little to us. Only as we understand our complete fallen nature can we understand the complete love and grace of Jesus. As Jesus Himself says, he who has been forgiven little loves little, but he who has been forgiven much loves much.
 

And yet again as we continue learning from Jesus we are reminded once again that the word of God is efficacious, especially in giving the gifts God has to give, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Through the very means of the Word of God the Holy Spirit works, gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. Through the very means of the Word of God the Holy Spirit works to stir in us a desire to come running to be given the gifts the Lord has to give. Notice in our text, we see Jesus giving faith and we see the response of faith, Zacchaeus giving himself to the Lord, giving to the poor and returning what he had defrauded.
 

As always, we get it right when we get our focus right. When we point to ourselves we get it wrong, When we point to Jesus we know we get it right. As we focus on Jesus we see that it is Jesus who calls us to life and to faith. Jesus calls us through the very means He has given to call us, His Word and Sacraments. He calls us to follow Him. He calls us to desire to be given the gifts He has to give. He calls us to respond in faith, giving ourselves to Him.
 

Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the Savior passed that way He looked up in the tree and He said, “Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m going to your house today, for I’m going to your house today.” The account of Zacchaeus and the song we learned so long ago are so instructive to us in understanding the love our Lord has for us. Jesus came, as one of us, one with us, one like us except without sin. Jesus came and lived for us, fully obeying all God’s commands and fulfilling all those ceremonial sacrificial laws which pointed to Himself and His once for all sacrifice on the cross. Jesus took our sins, suffered and died and paid the price for our sins. Jesus died and rose for us, in our place. And Jesus continues to come seeking and looking for us. Today He seeks us through His Word as it is preached and taught and especially as it is proclaimed in Divine Service were His Word is most sure. Jesus seeks us and He sends His Holy Spirit to work through the Word through which He seeks us to gives us faith, to stir in us a heart of repentance, and to give us all the good gifts He has to give, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And He stirs in us our response of faith, that is to say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.