Greetings to you in the name of our King, Christ Jesus! I had a great weekend. Thursday night we had a blast at the Lock-In playing laser tag and dart ball. We were done by 12:30 because the students were tired and had class the next day. So that was good because I needed sleep. However, by the time I got everything picked-up and the church locked up it was 1, and then it took me until 2 A.M. to fall asleep. So when the alarm went off at 5:30, it felt like I had just fell asleep. I and three students drove down to Sioux Falls to take one of them to the air port. The other two and I got breakfast and came back. Then I had to get ready for the funeral that went really well. Luckily, I was pretty wide awake for the service and really didn't hit the tired wall until after the committal.
I did get a nap before I went to the high school play. They did the music man, and both the male and female lead are members of our church. There were several other members from our church who were in the play too, and they all did an amazing job. I was thoroughly impressed by the talent level in both the acting and the singing. Then after the play JoAnna and Steven came to visit for the weekend.
We stayed up pretty late Friday night talking and playing ping pong. So we slept in Saturday morning, before I showed them the church, a quick tour of the town, and then some antique shopping. We had a great day together. Then Saturday night we went to a birthday party for one of the elders at the church. He is turning 30 so he is a pretty young elder. Then I had to work on my sermon.
Sunday morning I preached both services and Mom, Dad, JoAnna, and Steven were at the second service. Luckily for not putting as much time as normal into learning my sermon, both times it went pretty well. Then we all went out for a nice lunch together. It was a fun day to celebrate a little early my birthday and just to spend the time together. Now it is a short week until I preach Thursday morning and then head home.
Here is my sermon from yesterday, hope you enjoy:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Text: Malachi 3:17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.”
In Old Testament times, kings had a common practice of gardening. They would have their palaces, and then behind their palaces would be giant court yards. They would fill these courtyards with grand, gorgeous gardens. These gardens were the king’s prized possession. The gardens were so important to them for two reasons. First, these gardens were a representation of their kingdom. See when a king would conquer a new area or people, he would have some of the trees, crops, and plants that grew in that area brought back from that area and transplanted to the gardens in his court yard. When a king would have visitors or guests of honor, he would take them out onto the balcony of his palace and be able to overlook these gardens. He could quickly show off how big and diverse his kingdom was by the representation of the gardens all together elegantly laid out. Second, it was a way of reminding the conquered people that this new king controlled them and could have the fruits of their land any time he wanted. He could demand a share of their crop just as easy as he could walk out to his garden and pick it off of the tree or plant growing in his own court yard. These gardens would have care tenders who took care of them and would even dig hand dug canals to give each type of plant just the right amount of water. The king wanted to make sure the gardens were always flourishing, producing abundantly, and looked as beautiful as possible. It truly was the king’s prize possession that he would take great pride in.
Now we live in a country where we do not have a king and a palace. We do not have that one king who is over all of us deciding every detail of everyday life. We have a government and president, and as good or bad as you may personally feel about our government and its policies, it is still far different than having a king. So today is Christ the King Sunday! But does that really mean anything for us who have never lived under a king? It should because Christ is still our King, and He reigns over us because He has come and conquered us. Our victorious king has come to our land and has conquered all other kings, authorities, and powers through His death and resurrection. Now some people might think of a king coming in and conquering as a bad thing. This stems from the tradition of human experience that when human kings would conquer a people, they would generally treat them poorly, making them almost slaves under high demands of taxes, exports, or other cruel ways of making them dependant on the king. However, Christ is not just any human king who has come to conquer and then rule with a dictative force. He was born as a human in order to become the victorious king; nonetheless, He is still 100% God and His conquering is a good thing, in fact it is the best thing.
Even here in America in 2013, people are still held captive to kings, and evil kings at that! Three evil kings continue to reign in our world: King Sin, King Death, and King Satan. King Sin has his kingdom covering the entirety of creation. There is no mountain, no depths of the sea where you can hide or be free from sin and his rule. We were all born into his kingdom through original sin, being sinners from birth. From zygote to the corpse in the casket we are held captive to sin. King Sin has us in his grasp, never letting go. Even the most faithful people you could think of are still sinners living under King Sin. We as the people can never overcome this king and live captive to his reign.
We are also captives to King Death. We live our entire lives knowing at any moment King Death could strike and we would be gone from this world forever. He is constantly prowling at our door, watching us at all times. He lurks around the corner causing most people to live in constant fear of his reign. King Death respects no one. Age, race, gender, size, build, health, nothing matters to King Death. Sooner or later he comes to every person and takes what he thinks is, our life. He demands the highest payment from us, and we as the people can never overcome his demands and live in constant fear of his power.
Finally, the King who sits on the throne above King Sin and King Death, King Satan himself holds us as slaves to his kingdom. King Satan is the one who works the hardest, following us around just waiting for us to make one mistake, one slip. He is like a lion waiting to devour us. He whispers words of temptation softly into our ears. He is creative and sly, knowing what we want what we shouldn’t and he tells us we can have it. King Satan is a deceiving king, making us think we are free under his reign, that we can do whatever we want and have whatever we desire. He is the tricky king who gives us just enough to lure us in and then snatches everything out from underneath us. He shows us false promises and fake beauty only to drop us into a pit of darkness and despair. He is always scheming, planning, devising ways to make us think he is a good leader, when he only has our worst interest in mind. We being captive to King Sin and fearing the reign of King Death are slaves to King Satan.
These are the three kings we live under, captive to in slavery with no freedoms or powers of our own. We cannot choose to ever get out from under their reign, we cannot defeat them or overpower them, and we on our own can do nothing but serve them in a life of misery and shame.
Nevertheless, God Almighty, who created us, saw that we were living captive to these three kings. He being a jealous God, could not stand the idea of His creation living captive to another king, let along three evil kings. So He took action! He knew we could not free ourselves, we could do nothing about the reign of these three kings, but He could! So He sent His one and only Son, the One He wanted to be the King of Israel, the King of His creation. So Jesus, who was obedient to the Father, left His throne in Heaven and was born in the flesh into this world. He entered the world as a baby and the three evil Kings began every trick, scheme, and tactic they could think of to kill this new King. These three knew exactly who this king was and what He was capable of. They tried to kill Him, they tried to tempt Him, and they tried to convert Him over to their side. However, King Jesus is a loyal, faithful king who would not fall into their traps. He did eventually die, but not by their doing. No, Christ laid down His own life sacrificing Himself for us, for the all people living captive to these Kings. For a short while it looked as though these evil kings had won, and they would reign forever. But three days later, Christ walked victoriously out of the grave, announcing His defeat of the other three kings once and for all. He defeated them, and won our freedom from under their reign. Now Christ is the true King, King of all creation, King of all power and authority, King of Kings having dominion over the three evil kings.
However, He did not kill them, ban them from the earth, or lock them away. No, He left to sit on His throne once again in Heaven and reign over all from there. He is in complete control, and yet the three evil kings continue to exist in this world. They continue to prowl, trying to take as many of us away from Christ’s kingdom as they can. However, we know that even though these three kings still exist, we are not captive to them, they have no power over us, and they cannot harm us, because we are Christ’s people. He has conquered us and we belong to Him and are under His reign. He does not hold us captive though, He makes us free to be His people, He gives us everything we need and asks for nothing back from us, He is the holy and righteous King who protects us, serves us, and loves us. This is the King who came to redeem us with His own life, and now gives us everything we need and more. He even gives us His righteousness, salvation, and eternal life to live under His reign. Christ is no ordinary king, but truly is the King of Kings being perfectly righteous and holy. Praise be to this King who has conquered us giving us our salvation!
Then in our text today, we see our King’s prized possession, what He takes the greatest pride in. “They, the ones who fear the Lord, shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession!” We are His treasured possession. How amazing is that. A bunch of dirty, rotten sinners who were captive to the three evil kings are His treasured possession! We see a beautiful image of this in Psalm 92. Psalm 92 verse 12 reads, “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.” The Hebrew word for planted is actually transplanted. You see, when Christ came to earth, died and rose again to conquer the grasp of the evil kings, to be our victorious king, He did it all for us, His prized possessions. He is our king, and He will transplant us from this evil corrupt world, into the gardens of His court yard. He gives us life, causing us to flourish forever. This is supported by Psalm 1 where we see the righteous as a tree planted by the stream of water, living water, producing its fruit in season, with leaves that do not wither, and prospering in all that it does. We are the righteous because of Christ who is our King and has conquered us. At our Baptism, He claimed us as His own, marking our heads and our hearts with His name in the water by the power of the Word. He is our King who gives us the streams of living water making us trees that flourish, not withering but prospering. One day we will be transplanted from this sinful world into the gardens of His court yard, because we are His prized and treasured possession. We are the ones He wants to show off and show that we are claimed by Him, in His control at all times. We are the treasured possession He takes the greatest pride in and he proved it by laying down His life for us!
In the name of our King Jesus Christ, Amen.
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