I AM the Good Shepherd - Lent Mid-week 5 - March 30, 2022 - Text: John 10:7-18 (esp. v. 11)

When God called Moses and sent him to deliver His people, the Children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, “13Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:13-14). This year during the season of Lent through to Easter morning we are exploring the “I AM” words of Jesus, especially as John expounds on God’s telling Moses that His name is “I AM.” Today we are looking at Jesus’ words as He declares, “I AM the Good Shepherd.”
 

Again, as we have been doing, we begin with God’s name as He tells Moses, His name is “I AM.” His name declares Him to be God from eternity, living outside of time, in the eternal present. As we heard over the hast weeks, Jesus declares Himself to be the Light of the world so He says He too is “I AM,” in other words He proclaims His divinity, from Exodus. Jesus declares Himself to be the door, the only entrance into heaven.
 

And again let me reiterate that Jesus is true God in the eternal present. Jesus is not a God who was as He has no beginning. He is not a God who is to be as He has no tomorrow, at least not in the same sense of time which He created for us, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Rather He is God who is I AM such that He lives in the eternal present thus all things with Him are concurrent and outside of time as you and I sense time.
 

Now, here in our text Jesus declares that He is the Good Shepherd. In order to better understand Jesus as the Good Shepherd He compares Himself to the hireling. The hireling is the one hired to take care of the sheep. The hireling is one who has no interest nor stake in the sheep or the lives of the sheep. The hireling is more interested in his position, his status, his pay, his following. When danger draws near, rather than protect the sheep, the hireling seeks to protect his own life, he runs away.
 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. As the Good Shepherd He knows His sheep intimately. He knows His sheep by name and His sheep know Him, they know His voice. While they will run from the voice of the hireling they will run to the voice of the shepherd. As the Good Shepherd He leads the sheep into good pastures so that they might have good grass to eat. He leads the sheep to find good water so they have good clean water to drink. And He stands guard to protect the sheep. The Good Shepherd has ownership of the sheep. The Good Shepherd loves His sheep and cares for His sheep. He is more concerned about His sheep than His position, His status, His pay or His following.
 

Jesus the Good Shepherd risks His life, even to the point of death for His sheep. Again, the Good Shepherd knows His sheep by name and even calls them by their name and the sheep recognize and know the voice of the Good Shepherd. They respond when the Good Shepherd calls. While the sheep may run from anyone not the Good Shepherd, even the hireling, they know that the Good Shepherd is there to care for them, to feed, water and protect them.
 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus is also God in flesh. When John the Baptist sees Jesus he points to Him and declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Thus, not only is Jesus the Good Shepherd, He is also the Lamb of God.
 

In the Garden of Eden, immediately after Adam and Eve sinned bringing a curse, death and hell on all creation, God stepped in and promised that He would take care of the sin of Adam and Eve, He promised a Savior. When God called Abraham He promised him that through his family the Savior of the world would be born. When God called Moses to lead His people, the Children of Israel out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt when they reached the wilderness God gave to Moses the Moral Law of the Ten Commandments and the Ceremonial Law of the sacrificial system.
 

In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden God told Adam and Eve that the price for disobedience, for sin, for eating of the forbidden fruit, the fruit in the middle of the garden, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was death. More specifically the price for sin was human life for human sin. God’s promise, however, was that He would take care of their punishment. The Ceremonial Laws God gave to Moses were animal sacrifices, but those sacrifices did not pay for sin. Those sacrifices were merely a reminder that the price for sin was death, that blood had to be shed. Those sacrifices were meant to point the people to the one ultimate sacrifice of a human, the Savior of the world, God in flesh.
 

Jesus was born, God in flesh, true God conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and true man, born of the human woman, the Virgin Mary. Jesus came as the Good Shepherd who would take care of His sheep, His people, us. Jesus came as the Lamb of God. As Jesus declares, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus declares, I am God in flesh. I am the One who cares for my people. I am the One who will die for my people.
 

Jesus is true God in human flesh. He had to be true God in order to be born in perfection and to live the perfect, obedient life demanded of us. Jesus had to be truly human in order to trade His life for our life, the price for sin, human life for our human sin.
 

What does this mean? Jesus is true God in human flesh who created us. He created us to love us. He lives in the eternal present so He already knew what was going to happen, that Adam and Eve would sin, that He would have to give His life for us, His creation, He knew all this even before He began creating and yet, we see His great love in the fact that He created us anyway. He created all things and at our conception, He created each one of us, individually as a special person. And He created us to love us, to lavish us with all the good gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

Jesus is true God in human flesh who redeems us. The price for sin was set at death, human death for human sin. We are conceived and born in sin. At the moment of our conception we are sinful human beings. Sin separates us from God. Sin taints our will such that our complete desire from conception is to refuse and reject God and His good gifts and blessings. However, Jesus came to redeem us, to buy us back, to trade His perfection for our imperfection. At our Baptism God washes us. He forgives us, He puts faith in our hearts, He writes our names in the book of Life. He makes us His own. On the cross He traded His life for ours. Of His own free will He laid down His life. It was not taken from Him. By His stripes we are healed.
 

Jesus is true God in human flesh who sanctifies us. We are made right by God, through faith in Jesus, faith given to us at our Baptism, faith strengthen through His Word and Holy Supper. We are brought back into a right relationship by the forgiveness of sins in Holy Absolution. Having been made right with God He continues to work in and through us to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. He works in and through us to imperfectly be the people He would have us to be. Indeed, just as our justification points to Jesus and His work, so our sanctification points to Jesus and His work in and through us.
 

And ultimately our response of faith is given to us. As we read and hear God’s Word, as we remember our baptism, as we hear our Lord’s word of forgiveness, “Your sins are forgiven,” and as we taste our Lord’s body and blood in His Holy Supper so we are filled to the point where we simply cannot help ourselves, but we must respond with words of thanks and praise and works of service, serving Him through our service to others, living as priests in the priesthood of all believers, offering our lives as living sacrifices. We live in such a way that as others see us they say, not what a great person we are, but what a great God we have.
 

As we continue on in this Lenten season, as we continue to hear Jesus proclaim that He is true God in human flesh, and today as we hear Him declare that He is the Good Shepherd, we are also reminded of John the Baptists testimony that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thus, we rejoice in our salvation, purchased and won for us by Jesus, true God in human flesh, the Lamb of God and our great Good Shepherd. And our response, as moved and worked in us by Jesus Himself is to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Using up Good Soil - March 20, 2022 - Third Sunday in Lent - Text: Luke 13:1-9

Very often the question is asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” and yes, we have addressed that question here before. Sometimes the question is asked, “Why are some saved and others are not?” And perhaps we have answered that question as well. At other times the question is stated as, “Is there a correlation between sin and suffering in this world?” In our text for today Jesus does not solve the mystery of why things happen, either bad or good, rather He uses these instances as a call to all for repentance.
 

C. S. Lewis wrote a book titled, The Problem of Pain. Over the years, many people have asked the question, “If God is all powerful, how come there is sin and pain in the world.” The implication being that God is not all powerful, or there would be no sin, pain or suffering in the world. And the statement has been made that, “Either God is not all powerful, or He is not all loving.” Again, the implication being that if God where either all powerful, or all loving, then there would be no sin, pain or suffering in this world. The problem of pain and suffering in our world brings about many questions about what kind of a God we do have. Today, with the help of the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God we will address this issue of pain and suffering and we will see that we do have both an all powerful, and an all loving, gracious God even in the midst of all the sin, pain, and suffering in our world.
 

First, we see the wrong approach. Luke writes, “1There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 1-3). The thought among the people was that these people who were killed must have really been sinful to suffer such a horrid death. Now, although that thought might not be spoken out loud in our world today, I would suggest that it is often on our minds. How often do we equate something uncomfortable and even bad happening to us as a punishment for our sins? How often is it on our minds when we are extremely ill, or have something stressing on us in our life, that we wonder what we did that God would be punishing us in such a way? I would go so far as to suggest that we might even have such thoughts on our minds concerning our family and friends, wondering what they did that they are having struggles in life.
 

Notice Jesus answer, “but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Jesus does not put a rank or degree on sin. As a matter of fact, His words remind us that in His eyes, sin is sin is sin. All sins are equal in Jesus’ eyes. This should not surprise us, because we know, since the Garden of Eden, that all sin equally merits, not just some temporal or physical punishment, but eternal punishment, namely eternal death and hell. Each one of us is deserving of eternal death and hell.
 

But just in case we do not understand, Jesus goes on to say, “4Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 4-5). Here again, the thought among the people was that these people too must have really been sinful to suffer such a horrid death. Again, the connection is made between one’s sins and the type of earthly physical, temporal punishment a person would receive.
 

But again, Jesus’ answer is, “but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Notice that Jesus is not explaining why bad things happen, why some are saved and others or not, He is simply using these examples to encourage each one of us to look at ourselves, at our own lives and our own sins and see that we too need to repent. The wrong approach is to put sin and suffering into a human scale of what is right and just and fair, instead, what our Lord wants us to understand is that we are all guilty of sin and we all stand before God worthy only of eternal death and hell.
 

So, how do we approach this subject of sin and suffering? Luke continues, “6And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down”’” (v. 6-9).
 

In this parable we are introduced to the man who owns the vineyard. This person is God the Father. God the Father is the Creator and now Preserver and Sustainer of all creation.
 

Next, in this parable, there is the vineyard. The vineyard is the children of Israel and, as we will make note, the vineyard is also us. In this parable the children of Israel are reminded by Jesus that God created them, God chose them from all the nations of the world and made them His own people. God chose them, not because of anything special within them, but by His grace, God chose them. God gave them all that they needed to support their lives. And He promised to send them a Savior to save them from their sins. He gave them faith, forgiveness of sins and eternal life and His will for them was that they would bear fruit, in other words that they would live their lives doing the good works which He had for them to do.
 

We want to be careful with this next part of the parable because we do not want to turn this parable into an allegory, but I believe we can make a good case that the three years mentioned in this parable are a reference to Jesus three years of ministry on earth.
 

The three years include the present year, the next year in which the vinedresser would dig around it and fertilize it and the third year in which there would be fruit, or no fruit. This “three years” as a reference to Jesus years of ministry on earth is seen best when we understand the last character, the vinedresser, is Jesus. Jesus is the one who goes before God the Father and pleads for His people. Jesus’ plea is this, that God would give His people one more chance. This last chance is Jesus’ ministry on earth. If this last chance bears fruit, if the people believe, fine. If this last chance does not bear fruit, then cut it down, in other words, give someone else a chance. It is these last words which come as a real warning to the children of Israel, and to us because these last words remind us that the time of grace has a limit. The limit of God’s grace is our time on this earth. We have from the time of our birth, or even the time of our conception, until the time of our death to take part in God’s grace, which is given to us and which is ours only through faith in Jesus, which is given to us as well.
 

Now let us apply this to ourselves. First, we want to understand that suffering, temporal and physical suffering, is a result of sin. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden our world has been infected with the ugly results and curse of sin. Cancer is a punishment for sin. AIDS is a punishment for sin, as well as earthquakes, tornadoes, monsoons, flooding and the like. Thorn bushes and weeds are a result of sin. Now please do not misunderstand, although these things are punishment for sin, there is not always, nor necessarily, a direct correlation between one’s sins and one’s punishment. Let me say that again, there is not always, nor necessarily, a direct correlation between one’s sins and one’s punishment. In other words, just because something “bad” happens to someone does not necessarily mean that person has done some hideous sin, remember, that was how the people of Jesus’ day were thinking. Unfortunately, one person may suffer even though they are a really “good” person and another person may not suffer even though they may be deemed to be a horrible individual. A child may suffer with AIDS contracted from a blood transfusion, but a mass murderer may not be caught and prosecuted. The point is that the whole world often suffers the temporal punishment for all sins.
 

Thanks be to God, however, that no one need suffer the eternal death penalty of hell for sin. Notice I said that no one need suffer this penalty. No one need suffer the eternal death penalty of hell because Jesus suffered all eternal punishment for us in our place, by sacrificing Himself on the cross for us. That is why Jesus came to this earth, to take all our sins upon Himself and to suffer the eternal death penalty of hell, to pay the price for sin, for us, for you and for me, in our place.
 

So, now, as we look at this parable we understand that, as always, Jesus is speaking to us. God has done everything for us. God the Father is the Creator and now Preserver and Sustainer of all creation. He has created us, given us all that we need to support our lives, given us His Son to save us from our sins, given us faith, forgiveness of sins and eternal life and His will for us is that we will bear fruit, in other words that we will live our lives doing the good works which He has for us to do. Yes, Jesus expects us to bear fruits of faith, to do good works, not because we have to, not in order to earn eternal life, not in order to keep from being punished for our sins, but because of and as a response to all that He has done for us.
 

Two more observations, to put sin, pain and suffering into its proper Gospel context we come to understand that the ultimate purpose for suffering is ultimately to give glory to God. The examples we have from Holy Scripture are many. Why was the blind man born blind, was it because of his sin or the sins of his parents? Neither, but so that the glory of God might be revealed. Why did Jesus not make it in time to heal Lazarus? So that we would see the glory of God. Why do we have struggles, pain, and suffering in our lives? So that we might give glory to God.
 

And finally, did you notice the optimism on the part of the vinedresser, Jesus? His is one of expectancy. He goes about His work hopefully, looking for the good results, not halfheartedly, pessimistically, thinking that there is no use. Jesus is an optimist when it comes to dealing with us sinners. What a beautiful example to us in our own lives when we are struggling with each other and our own unchurched family and friends, and especially with our perverse society. Do not give up. And for our own bit of encouragement, as we face trials and tribulations, Paul reminds us in our Epistle reading for this morning, “13No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor. 10:13). May the Lord give you such encouragement in your own lives of faithful service to Him as you rejoice in the forgiveness He has won and given to you. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

I AM the Light of the World - Lent Mid-week Three - March 16, 2022 - Text: John 8:12-20 (esp. v. 12)

When God called Moses and sent him to deliver His people, the Children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, “13Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:13-14). This year during the season of Lent through to Easter morning we are exploring the “I AM” words of Jesus, especially as John expounds on God’s telling Moses that His name is “I AM.”  Today we will be looking at Jesus as He declares Himself to be “I AM the Light of the World.”
 

Again, as we have been doing, we begin with God’s name as He tells Moses, His name is “I AM.” His name declares Him to be God from eternity, living outside of time, in the eternal present. As Jesus declares Himself to be the Light of the world so He says He too is “I AM,” in other words He proclaims His divinity, from Exodus.
 

And again let me reiterate that Jesus is true God in the eternal present. Jesus is not a God who was as He has no beginning. He is not a God is to be as He has no tomorrow, at least not in the same sense of time which He created for us, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Rather He is God who is I AM such that He lives in the eternal present thus all things with Him are concurrent and outside of time as you and I sense time.
 

In our text for today Jesus declares once again that He is God, I AM, and as God He also declares He is the Light of the world. In Genesis God tells us that before creation there was only darkness and chaos. Just as cold is absence of heat, so darkness is absence of light. Light means life and darkness means death. Light brings life, indeed, the sun shines and the grass grows, the flowers bloom, the world brightens. Dark means sleep even the sleep of death.
 

Jesus is God in flesh. He is the Light of the world. He is the antithesis of darkness, which leads to eternal death, hell. Sin is darkness. As one, usually, seeks the dark to hide one’s sin so darkness is away from light and the exposure of such sin. Satan, the father of lies, roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Satan hides in the shadows, lurking in the darkness, seeking opportunities to tempt and lure away from the Light.
 

As one attempts to hide in the darkness so when the Light shines it exposes sin. Light brightens up exposing what is hidden so that it is seen. What was once hidden in darkness is exposed when the Light shines on it, but as the Light of the world Jesus exposes the sins of the world. Thus, the Pharisees rejected Jesus claim to be the Light of the world even to being God, the great I AM, Himself. The Pharisees were more interested in their own positions of power and authority rather than submit themselves to God and His will. They only saw Jesus from their own human point of view. They only saw Jesus in His humanity. They thus rejected Jesus divinity and the true nature of His being.
 

Light shines in the darkness and exposes sin. Light also serves as a guide. Jesus is a guide. Indeed, we speak of Jesus as an example, but certainly He is more than just an example. If Jesus were only an example then we would fail miserably because we cannot be the people He would have us to be, indeed, we cannot be like Jesus. As a guide, Jesus is an example, but even more, He fulfilled the example He set for us in our place. As our guide He leads us perfectly, though we follow imperfectly, to be the people He would have us to be.
 

Jesus is the Light of the world. He is also the Light of Life. As we said, Light exposes sin and danger. Light exposes those trying to hide their sin even their unbelief. Light exposes flaws, chips, mars, damage, the muck and dirt of our lives. As the Light of the world, Jesus also exposes even our evil thoughts, intentions, words and actions. Jesus is the Light of the world, as the Law exposes our sin so that we might be moved to confess our sins so that we might be given His forgiveness, so that He might lavish His Gospel on us.
 

Darkness brings death. Light brings life and growth. The Light of Jesus, the words of the Gospel of God’s Word brings and even gives faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Jesus’ Words do what they say and give the gifts they speak. When Jesus shines the Light of His Word of Life on us, we have life. His Word gives life. Indeed, as we are reminded of the means of grace our Lord gives to us and the power of His Word through those means so we are reminded of all the good gifts and blessings our Lord so desires to lavish on to us. As He gives us life at conception, so He gives us new life through the waters of Holy Baptism as He speaks His name on us through the mouth of the pastor and puts water on us through the hands of the pastor. As He hears our words of confession of sin so, again through the mouth of the pastor Jesus speaks His Word of forgiveness on us and we know we are forgiven. As we hear His Word read and proclaimed we know that we are given the gifts His Word speaks. As we come to His table, as we eat the bread and His body and drink the wine and His blood, as the pastor so speaks, “take and eat, take and drink, the body of Christ, the blood of Christ,” so He becomes a physical part of us. Jesus’ life becomes our life. Jesus’ death become our death. Jesus’ resurrection becomes our resurrection. And Jesus’ eternal life becomes our eternal life.
 

Light and life go together. Light shines in the darkness and brings life. Just as a plant needs light to grow and flourish, so we need light, the Light to shine in our lives to bring us life, to help us grow and flourish, to strengthen and keep us in faith until Christ comes again.
 

What does this mean? “12Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” Jesus is, as He declares, true God. He was not created, but always has been. He was with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world. He created all things perfect and holy. He is true God conceived by the Holy Spirit, thus born in perfection.
 

Jesus is also true man, born of the human woman, the Virgin Mary. He was born as a human in order that He might do for us what we are unable to do. He was born as a human in order to be our substitute. Remember, the price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, human life for human sin. Because we are conceived and born in sin and because the price for our sin is death, thus from the moment of conception our bodies are dying. If not for the promise of a Savior and if not for faith in Jesus as our Savior we would also die a second death, hell.
 

Jesus is God in flesh. He lived the perfect obedient life demanded of us. Indeed, Jesus came to be Israel, that is He came to do what the whole nation of Israel could not do, be obedient to God. Jesus came to be us, to do for us what we are unable to do, be obedient and be perfect. After living a perfect life, obeying all of God’s Laws perfectly, after fulfilling all of God’s promises perfectly He then took our sins, all our sins, our sins of thought, word and deed, our sins of commission and omission, the sins we have committed and the sins we have yet to commit. He took all our sins and the sins of all people of all places of all times on Himself and He suffered. He suffered hell for us in our place and He died.
 

But we know the rest of the history. Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead. He rose victorious over sin, death and the devil and He gives us eternal salvation. Indeed, He gives us faith to believe. He gives us forgiveness earned and paid for by Himself. He gives us what He deserves, eternal life in heaven.
 

Jesus is the Light of the World. Jesus is and gives life, life in this world, life in the world to come, even eternal life. Today Jesus continues to give light. He is the light that guides us out of the darkness of sin and unbelief in this world to faith, forgiveness and life.
 

As we continue in this Lenten Season may the Word of God and the power of the Word of God continue to convict and convince us that Jesus is the great I AM, true God from eternity and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is the one promised in Eden. Jesus is the Light of the world and in Him and in Him alone is life, faith forgiveness and life, even eternal life. So that we respond with joy and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Temptation of Jesus - March 6, 2022 - First Sunday in Lent - Text: Luke 4:1-13

Today is the First Sunday in Lent. We began our Lenten Season Wednesday, which was Ash Wednesday, and now we begin the Sunday’s of Lent by beginning with the temptation of Jesus. Certainly this is fitting, mete, right and salutary, we might say, because the reason Jesus came to earth was to do for us all things that we are unable to do and one of those all things is to resist temptation and not sin. First, then, we want to put our text into its proper context. This text of the temptation of Jesus comes immediately following the genealogy of Jesus which declares Jesus to be the son of Adam, a true human being, and the son of God, truly God. This order of events is very important, because it establishes the fact that Jesus was tempted as a human being, as one of us. His being tempted as one of us is how He is our substitute, that is that He was tempted for us, in our place. He resisted temptation for us, in our place, because we are unable to do so. This morning we walk with Jesus as He suffers temptation, temptation like we suffer and even worse temptation, for you see, the weight of the salvation of the whole world is resting on Jesus’ shoulders as He undergoes His temptation.
 

Luke describes this first temptation, “1And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ 4And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’” (v. 1-4).
 

Notice that it was for the whole forty days that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. What we have before us are the “greatest hits” (if you will) of the devil’s temptations. In this first temptation we see the devil has not come up with any new temptations, he is merely reusing the first ones he used years ago, in the Garden of Eden. These temptations worked in the Garden so why not use them again and he does, but with a new twist. The deception and lie told to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was, “Did God really say...,” and now is translated and used on Jesus as, “If you are the Son of God...”
 

Notice the devil’s attempt to plant seeds of doubt in Jesus’ mind and heart and notice the challenge to Jesus. Today we, you and I, hear such temptations with questions like, “Does the Bible really say that?” or “Did God really mean that?” or “Do you really trust in God?” or even “I dare you to trust in God.” Today we live in a society which continually challenges us to live by faith. We know and believe that God has provided for all our needs up to this point in our lives, our physical needs and our spiritual need, but, and here is the temptation to doubt, will He continue to do so and how do you know? Can you trust God in His Word? For Jesus the temptation was even greater. The devil was challenging Him as to whether or not He really is God and can He really save us? Satan is suggesting that Jesus can rest assured that He is God by simply telling the stones to become bread. A simple miracle and one which would also provide food for Him to eat, yet at the heart of this temptation is a lack of trust in God the Father.
 

Jesus’ answer is Scripture, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” And with those words of Scripture the devil’s first temptation is dismantled. Here we are reminded of Paul’s description of the armor of the Christian (Eph. 6:10-18) and the one offensive weapon which we Christians wield, the sword of the Word of God. The devil cannot stand up to the Word of God and so He is summarily defeated in this temptation attempt. But, although Jesus has won this battle, the war is not yet over.
 

Luke describes the second temptation, “5And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ 8And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve”’” (v. 5-8).
 

In this second temptation we see the audacity of the devil, thinking he is God himself. He takes Jesus up to a place where, in an instant, he shows Him all the kingdoms of the world. Actually these kingdoms and all things already belong to Jesus, yet the devil’s temptation is that he will give up his rights to all these kingdoms if Jesus will worship him. This is a temptation to Jesus to forgo the suffering and death on the cross. Suffering and death which, most certainly, were always on His mind. The devil’s temptation, “Why go about saving the world the hard way? Why not do this one little thing of bowing down to the devil and he will give up all his rights to all the kingdoms of the world?”
 

How often do we find ourselves tempted to do the easy thing in life, to take the easy way out? We are tempted to compromise our faith, to suggest that the Christian religion is only one way of many ways to heaven. We are tempted to “just get along.” We are tempted to be tolerant of other people’s lifestyles, religions, habits and sins. We are tempted to believe that there is a difference between a big sin and a little sin and that a little sin might be okay. We too are tempted to bow down and worship the devil with his promise that he will then make it easy for us. Satan’s deception to Jesus is his deception to us. He would have us believe that he is God.
 

Jesus’ answer is, again, Holy Scripture, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and, and him only shall you serve.’” And again, the devil cannot stand up to the Word of God and so he is summarily defeated in this temptation attempt. But, again, although Jesus has won this battle, the war is still not yet over.
 

Luke describes the third temptation, “9And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,  to guard you,” 11and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”’ 12And Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ 13And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time” (v. 9-12).
 

Well, it worked twice for Jesus, so this time the devil turns to the Word of God to use against Him. In this temptation, along with the temptation to test Jesus faith in God the Father’s faithfulness to His Word, we also have a temptation to grandeur. If Jesus will throw Himself off the temple and everyone sees that He is not hurt, the crowds will throng after Him. And certainly Jesus believes His Father will protect Him, the devil urges.
 

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull” we are told in our world today. How often do we try to be “super Christians” to our unchurched family and friends, thinking that what they need to see is how invulnerable we are as Christians, then, we think, they will want to be a Christian too. Yes, the devil tempts us too to delusions of grandeur in our efforts at sharing our faith with others, so that when we fail we get discouraged and we might lose hope as well.
 

Jesus’ answer, again, this third time is Holy Scripture, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And again, for the third time, the devil cannot stand up to the Word of God and so He is summarily defeated in this temptation attempt. But, again, although Jesus has won this battle and these three battles, the war is still not yet over. During Jesus’ life the devil was constantly tempting Jesus and always standing by in case Jesus should fall.
 

The question often comes, “so, why do we have the account of the temptations of Jesus?” As we have alluded to, Jesus came to live for us which means, suffering temptation as we suffer temptation. Yet with Jesus’ temptation the stakes were so much higher, because, if Jesus had succumb to the devils temptation our faith would be useless. We would have no hope.
 

Jesus resisted temptation for us, in our place, as our substitute. Jesus came as Israel’s substitute. The Israelites were God’s chosen people. They were to follow His laws perfectly and to be His people, yet they messed up. Time and again they messed up. They were not able to be the people of God that He wanted them to be. Jesus came as the true Israel. Jesus came to do what the whole nation of Israel could not do, follow God’s laws perfectly.
 

Jesus did not come just to save His own people, the children of Israel. Jesus came to save us also. We are called to be the children of God, Christians, and we are to follow God’s Word and yet we too fail. We are unable to live and do as we ought. And so, Jesus came for us. Jesus came to do everything perfectly for us in our place. Our sin separates us from God and left in our sin we would have no hope, only eternal death and hell. Faith is what grabs hold of and makes God’s gifts ours. Unbelief is rejection of God’s gifts. Unbelief means eternal separation, faith means eternal life.
 

In our text we see Jesus’ use of Scripture as an example for us, not that we use Scripture against Scripture, but that Scripture interprets Scripture. The Bible is God’s Word. It is the sword which we use to fight the temptations of the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh, the unholy three as we learned them in confirmation. We use Holy Scripture, not to justify our sin, but to overcome temptation and sin.
 

Finally, Jesus helps us resist sin and temptation. We do not imagine that we can overcome temptation and sin on our own like Jesus does, but understand that because Jesus overcame temptation and sin that now He helps us to overcome temptation and sin. And of course, the ultimate overcoming of sin was His suffering and death on the cross for us, for you and for me, in our place, because of our sin and our inability to resist temptation and sin.
 

The question is not “if” we will be tempted, but “how often” and “how great is the temptation with which” we are tempted in a day. My prayer for us, for each one of us, for you and for me, is that God the Holy Spirit will lead us to take up the sword of the Word of God against temptation and sin and that we would then faithfully confess the Lord’s name in every circumstance! Yes, we have Jesus’ example of how He overcame temptation and sin, yet we must never think that, in and of ourselves, we might be able to emulate Jesus example. Instead, we will always want to go to Jesus to seek His help in all times of temptation, knowing that as He overcame, so He will help us in our time of need to overcome. He will bring us the victory, which He has already accomplished. And when we do fail and we will fail, He is there ready to give out the forgiveness He earned for us. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

I AM - Ash Wednesday - March 2, 2022 - Text: Exodus 3:13-22 (esp. v. 14)

God called Moses and sent him to deliver His people, the Children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, “13Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:13-14). This year during the season of Lent through to Easter morning we will be exploring the “I AM” words of Jesus, especially as John expounds on God’s telling Moses that His name is “I AM.”
  

  We begin our exploration of the “I AM” words by going back the very first time that God speaks His name as “I AM” and that was to Moses in the wilderness when He called Moses to be the one to deliver His people, the children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt.
 

Words and language have meaning. In some languages word order is important. In English we might understand “Have I hunger,” to be a question whereas in some other language it might be understood as someone saying “I am hungry.” In some languages punctuation is important. Certainly we have heard what is intended to be humorous illustration, “Let’s eat grandma” with the misunderstanding that the missing comma implies we are going to eat grandma, but with the comma, “Let’s eat, (comma) grandma” that we are encouraging grandma to eat with us.
 

As we look at words and language we also understand that words can be spoken in the past tense. Words can be spoke in the future tense. Words can be spoke in the present tense. In some other languages there are also other tenses, i.e., continuing action, incomplete action, and so forth.
 

As we begin exploring the “I AM” words of Jesus we begin here in the Old Testament with God telling Moses, “I AM” is His name. As you read through your Bible you will make note that very often you will see the word Lord in all capital letters. Lord with a capital “L” and lower case “o-r-d.” And you will see the word “lord” in all lower case letters. The word “lord” in all lower case letters is simply a designation of a person with power or authority, as in one is the lord of their house. The word “Lord” with a capital “L” and lower case “o-r-d” is a title such as Lord So and So. And the word “Lord” in all caps is God’s name, Yahweh. The reason for this “Lord” in all caps is because when the translators translated the Old Testament they did not want to break the second commandment and misuse God’s name, so instead of printing God’s name, Yahweh, they filled in the text with the word “Lord” in all caps. So, God tells Moses His name is “I AM.” “I AM” is a derivative of God’s name Yahweh. In essence God’s name Yahweh means “I AM.”
 

So let us explore God’s Name, “I AM” a bit more. What you might notice right off is that God’s name is not in the past tense. His name is not “I WAS.” Jesus even speaks of the fact that “Before Abraham was, I am,” meaning that Jesus was and is God who was from before the creation of the world. So, God’s name is not a name giving any inclination of His age or any indication of His life in time and eternity.
 

Notice also that God’s name is not in the future tense, “I WILL BE.” Although God does express to His people that He will be their God and they will be His people this too does not indicate any reference to age or time. It is not as if God is not now in time, but will be at some time later.
 

Indeed, God’s name is in the present tense, “I AM.” God’s name declares His eternal existence. God’s name declares that He is God because only God can have an eternal existence. We human being have a moment of conception. We have a life. We have a past. We have present and we have a future.
 

God’s name declares His Essence of I AM. God is eternal. He was not created nor came into being. He always was and always will be. For God there is no past nor is there a future, but only the present. God created time for us human beings and you might recall He did that on day one of creation. Incidentally enough it was not until the fourth day that God created the Sun, moon and stars and then put them into the orbits of the twenty-four hour day He created on day one. For us there is a yesterday, a today and tomorrow. For God there is only the eternal now, the eternal present. If you have ever wondered why God can know all things it is because He sees all things, all our time, in His present time. You might think about time like this: for us time is linear. We are going through time one second, one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year at a time. For God time is like taking our linear time line and looking at it through one end to the other and seeing all points on the line at the same time.
 

As God created time for us, and as God lives outside of our time, so as God looks at our time from His eternal presence, to Him the past is happening at the same time as the present. Perhaps that will help understand the fact that there are times when God speaks a word of prophecy and His word of prophecy, of what will happen in the future is spoken in the past tense, as if it had already happened.
 

Even so, as God lives in the eternal present so it is that the future is happening at the same time as the present well. So here again, in speaking words of prophecy He might well express what will happen in the future as if it had already happened.
 

Understanding God’s living in the eternal present might help us to better understand what we call God’s foreknowledge, that is that before anything happens God already knows it is going to happen. And maybe then we can also better understand that God’s foreknowledge does not mean that He predestines certain things. In other words, just because God knows someone will reject Him, such as Judas, does not mean that Judas’ rejection was pre-ordained or predestined by God. It just means that God knew that it would happen even before it happened.
 

So, what does all this mean? First and foremost it means that God is God. About God and His name, the commentary writer Matthew Henry writes, “I am that I am. This explains his name Jehovah, and signifies, (1.) That he is self-existent; he has his being of himself, and has no dependence upon any other: the greatest and best man in the world must say, By the grace of God I am what I am; but God says absolutely—and it is more than any creature, man or angel, can say—I am that I am. Being self-existent, he cannot but be self-sufficient, and therefore all-sufficient, and the inexhaustible fountain of being and bliss. (2.) That he is eternal and unchangeable, and always the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever; he will be what he will be and what he is; see Rev. 1:8. (3.) That we cannot by searching find him out. This is such a name as checks all bold and curious enquiries concerning God, and in effect says, Ask not after my name, seeing it is secret, Jdg. 13:18; Prov. 30:4. Do we ask what is God? Let it suffice us to know that he is what he is, what he ever was, and ever will be. How little a portion is heard of him! Job 26:14. (4.) That he is faithful and true to all his promises, unchangeable in his word as well as in his nature, and not a man that he should lie. Let Israel know this, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
 

God is God and God’s Word is truth. As we heard back in Advent, God’s Word is a word with power, power to do what it speaks and to give the gifts of which it speaks. God’s Word is a Word made flesh in Jesus who is God in human flesh who came to live for us, take our sins, suffer, die and rise for us so that we might have life and salvation. Jesus is the One pointed to in the Old Testament and pointed to in the New Testament, the One through whom, by grace, through faith in Him is forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. Indeed, all of Scripture and all of time from B.C. to A.D. points us to Jesus so we know we get it right when we point to Jesus and Jesus alone.
 

This year, as we move through Lent, as we hear Jesus point to Himself and even speak of Himself as the great “I AM” I pray that we will be convinced by His Word that Jesus is God even as God declared to Moses and Israel that His name is “I AM.”
 

As the great “I AM,” as God in flesh, as the Word was in the beginning, so we can see clearly what a great, loving, gift given God we have. Knowing all things in advance, that man would sin, that Jesus would have to suffer and die, God shows His great love for us in that He created us anyway and He created us to love us and to give to us and that is exactly what He does, gives to us. He gives us life. He gives us faith. He gives us forgiveness and He gives us eternal life. And He even stirs in us a response of faith to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.