Greetings in the name of our Risen Lord. I went to Nebraska Friday and got to see a bunch of friends in both Seward and then in Exeter at a wedding Saturday. I drove back Saturday night and got back to Brookings at 3 in the morning. Then I had to get up Sunday for confirmation Sunday. It was a great day of nine kids getting confirmed and then spending the day at three receptions. However, I went to bed early last night to try to catch up on sleep. This week is busy already because this morning we delivered 76 Brain Food bags to the college students for Finals week. Then tonight is voter's meeting and tomorrow is call day at the seminary. We will find out who the vicar for next year will be and transition will unfortunately officially begin. Here is my second sermon from the Tre Ore service on Good Friday.
Good Friday Tre Ore Sermon
“I thirst” John 19:28-29
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Two little words. The fifth saying of our Lord from the cross is two little words. “I thirst.” These two little words may seem unimportant or less important that the other sayings. Can these two little words have much theological importance if any at all? I mean Jesus has been beaten, standing while on trial, forced to walk to the place called the Skull, and nailed to a cross. He has not had anything to drink since the last supper with His disciples. Most likely He is just actually thirsty from the pain and agony He has endured with no food or water.
Except I believe these two little words have great theological importance. First of all as the text tells us itself, they are the fulfillment of scripture. Christ very often in His life did things a certain way to be the fulfillment of Scripture. He did this to show He was indeed the Messiah, the Christ, the one promised throughout the Old Testament history, the one prophesied about by the prophets. This saying fulfills Scripture from Psalm 22, the famous Psalm for words Christ speaks from the cross of “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”, we also get verse 15 where it reads “my tongue sticks to my jaws.” This could also be the fulfillment of Psalm 69 verse 21 where it says, “they gave me vinegar for my thirst.” These words are prophesied about Him in these earlier scriptures, and Christ speaks them to fulfill these prophesies. However, I believe they have even greater importance than that yet. These words are the climax of a theological theme that can be seen from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation.
In Genesis 2 where the garden is described, there is the added detail of the river that flowed out of the garden and divided into four rivers flowing out into the world. This one river watered the garden and gave life to the garden, just as the four rivers that flowed out into the world gave life to all the areas they went out to. Plants need water, animals need water, every living thing needs water, and this river is where they get that water. The river, flowing water, is seen as a life source for all of creation.
In Ezekiel 47, the river or flowing water is coming out from the threshold of the temple, flowing out giving life to everything that is in contact with the river. This river, or flowing water is a life source, and it is coming directly from the temple, or the presence of God. Just as the river that came from the garden came from where God was with His people. This river is a life source that comes directly from the presence of God. So the river equals life, and the river comes from God’s presence; therefore, the river is life flowing from God’s presence out to His people and creation.
Then in John 1 we see that Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh who was with God and who is God. Jesus is the new tabernacle or temple. Jesus is the presence of God among His people. Jesus is now the life source of all creation, just as the river flowing from the temple in Ezekiel or the river flowing from the garden. Jesus is the life for all people.
And now as He hangs upon the cross, with all the sin of the world upon Him, He says, “I thirst.” The life source of all creation, the river of life that flows from the presence of God, Jesus Christ Himself who is that river of life, thirsts! He is dried up. He thirsts, because He as He hangs upon the cross with all sin that ever has and ever will exists placed upon His shoulders, the river of life is dry.
However, our hope is not lost, the only life source for all of creation is not gone! As He commends His Spirit to the Father and breaths His last, they stab the spear into His side and what comes flowing out? The new river of life, the new life source of His blood and water missed together. This is the new river that flows from His pierced side because all sin has been paid for, all sin is gone upon His death. He is the life source because through His death paying for all sins, His forgiveness now gives life to all believers. He is the new life source and the river of life flows from His pierced side.
This life source of water has been poured over us as the water was splashed onto our foreheads and the word of baptism spoken over us. We are now given our eternal life, we now have our eternal life because the river of life flowing from His side comes pouring over us in our baptism. We have our eternal life in Him, because He hung upon the cross, taking all the sin upon Him, allowing Himself to be dried up of life. He was willing to be dried of up all life, willing to die, so that we now have the life source of Him and the river of life flowing from Him for the rest of eternity.
Then we see this same thing in Revelation 22, in John’s vision into heaven. John describes it as seeing “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” This river is flowing directly from the throne of our God and the Lamb who is Christ our Lord, and this river of life flows out from His presence directly to us giving us our eternal life in Him. These two little words are so important because Christ who is the river of life, our only life source, was willing to be dried up, willing to die for us so that we may always live in Him. He said, “I thirst,” to show that He took the entirety of sin upon Himself, dying to rid of all sin once and for all, to give you the eternal life you have and are living in His name. He is your life source, He is the presence of God from which the river of life flows directly to you, giving you life for now and for the rest of eternity, because your Lord “thirsted” for you!
In the name of our life source, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Amen.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
"Father Forgive Them"
Here is my first Tre Ore sermon on the first words of Christ from the Cross:
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” – Luke 23:27-34
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” These are the powerful words of Christ spoken from the cross we are going to focus on for the next few minutes. What powerful words they are! To start with I want you to put yourself in the place of soldiers in charge of crucifying Jesus. You don’t know who this man is; you have no idea what He is actually capable of; you do not know what He has done to deserve death. All you know is that He is guilty of some crime and you have been given the task of crucifying Him. You have heard rumors that he is called the Christ, and that He calls Himself the Son of God. But you don’t believe those rumors, instead you have used those rumors against Him as placed a crown of thorns on Him and mocked Him by pretending to worship Him; then beat Him, slapped Him, spit on Him. You have heard the rumors that He healed people, taught with the authority of God, and preformed all kinds of miracles; and yet you as the soldier who scourged Him, the soldier who led Him to the place called the Skull, the soldier who laid Him on the cross and pounded the nails through His hands and feet, you have not seen Him do any kind of miracle, you have not heard Him teach with authority, you haven’t even heard Him defend Himself. Why would you believe these rumors that He has power and authority when He has not used any such thing to save Himself?
You have heard Him be called a teacher, a rabbi, a king, but you only see Him as a worthless criminal dying. Then all of a sudden you hear Him speak. As He is hanging on the cross, beaten, bloody, and weak, He speaks for the first time. Now inevitably you standing there witnessing all this will perk up and pay attention to what He says. And then you hear this, you who have beaten Him, whipped Him, spit on Him, mocked Him, slapped Him, and nailed Him to a cross, hear these words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Those words should be more painful for you to hear than the sound of the hammer driving the nails through human flesh into wood. The man you have demoralized with physical torture and verbal abuse of mockery who did not speak up to protect Himself, speaks words of forgiveness for you. The one who is killing Him, He prays for you.
Now I want you to switch and put yourself in the place of the followers who did know Him and were there watching all of this. The ones who followed Him around Galilee and Judea all the way to Jerusalem and now to the cross. Now these words should not have been that big a surprise. They have heard Him preach and teach words of forgiveness over and over again. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” He taught this to all those who followed Him, so why should it be surprising that now as He is being cursed and abused and hated, that He would pray for them, speaking kind words on their behalf. Jesus is not a hypocrite like the Pharisees who demand others to live in a way that they themselves do not live, no this truly is the Christ, the Son of God who teaches with authority, and then lives His own teachings. He actually does what He teaches us to do, even to the point of forgiving the very ones who are crucifying Him.
For the soldier, these words should have been stunning but also convicting. For the followers of Christ, they should have still been stunning, but more confirming than convicting. Confirming that He meant what He said and that His teachings are actually practical and doable. But how about for you sitting here in the pews on this very day, how do these words ring in your ears? Are they convicting, confirming, or comforting?
The answer for me is yes, all three. They are convicting because I know my sins are the reason Jesus had to be crucified. My sins are the reason He had to die. Because I am a sinner who fails each and every day to live as God demands, Christ allowed Himself to be crucified for me. And the same is true for your sin too. All of our sin and the sin of all mankind is what caused Him to be hung from a tree and die such a painful death. We are just as guilty as the soldier who actually held the hammer and pounded the nails in, so these words are convicting. These words are confirming because as a follower of Christ we do know His teaching on forgiveness, we know that He has taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, we know these words from Luke and from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and we have His living example showing us what this teaching exactly looks like. The one who teaches us to forgive others, shows us what that forgiveness looks like. He teaches us to live this life of forgiveness, forgiving others as He has forgiven us. They confirm His teachings.
But they are comforting too. They are comforting because I know that if Christ is able to forgive the soldiers who are crucifying Him, He is able to forgive me, the one whose sins are guilty of putting Him on the cross, just as He forgives you for your sin that put Him on the cross. They are comforting because our Lord whom our sin killed forgives us too. He forgives you of all your sins each and every day just as he forgave those who were nailing Him to the cross.
Christ our Lord, is the Lord of forgiveness. The very reason He allowed Himself to be crucified and held Himself up on that cross to die was for the forgiveness of all mankind. The nails did not hold Him to the cross, His love for us did. He loved us enough to die for us, to give us His forgiveness so that we have salvation and eternal life in His name. He forgives you of all your sin, because He loves you. That is why these words are so comforting for us to hear, because He speaks these same words of forgiveness to you. You hear them in the words of absolution and you hear them in the words as you receive His Body and Blood at the communion rail. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” The same forgiveness our Lord speaks from the cross. He is the Lord of Forgiveness who speaks these words of forgiveness for you. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” Jesus is saying, “Father forgive them, for my name’s sake!”
In the name of Christ our Lord, who does love us and does forgives us, Amen.
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” – Luke 23:27-34
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” These are the powerful words of Christ spoken from the cross we are going to focus on for the next few minutes. What powerful words they are! To start with I want you to put yourself in the place of soldiers in charge of crucifying Jesus. You don’t know who this man is; you have no idea what He is actually capable of; you do not know what He has done to deserve death. All you know is that He is guilty of some crime and you have been given the task of crucifying Him. You have heard rumors that he is called the Christ, and that He calls Himself the Son of God. But you don’t believe those rumors, instead you have used those rumors against Him as placed a crown of thorns on Him and mocked Him by pretending to worship Him; then beat Him, slapped Him, spit on Him. You have heard the rumors that He healed people, taught with the authority of God, and preformed all kinds of miracles; and yet you as the soldier who scourged Him, the soldier who led Him to the place called the Skull, the soldier who laid Him on the cross and pounded the nails through His hands and feet, you have not seen Him do any kind of miracle, you have not heard Him teach with authority, you haven’t even heard Him defend Himself. Why would you believe these rumors that He has power and authority when He has not used any such thing to save Himself?
You have heard Him be called a teacher, a rabbi, a king, but you only see Him as a worthless criminal dying. Then all of a sudden you hear Him speak. As He is hanging on the cross, beaten, bloody, and weak, He speaks for the first time. Now inevitably you standing there witnessing all this will perk up and pay attention to what He says. And then you hear this, you who have beaten Him, whipped Him, spit on Him, mocked Him, slapped Him, and nailed Him to a cross, hear these words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Those words should be more painful for you to hear than the sound of the hammer driving the nails through human flesh into wood. The man you have demoralized with physical torture and verbal abuse of mockery who did not speak up to protect Himself, speaks words of forgiveness for you. The one who is killing Him, He prays for you.
Now I want you to switch and put yourself in the place of the followers who did know Him and were there watching all of this. The ones who followed Him around Galilee and Judea all the way to Jerusalem and now to the cross. Now these words should not have been that big a surprise. They have heard Him preach and teach words of forgiveness over and over again. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” He taught this to all those who followed Him, so why should it be surprising that now as He is being cursed and abused and hated, that He would pray for them, speaking kind words on their behalf. Jesus is not a hypocrite like the Pharisees who demand others to live in a way that they themselves do not live, no this truly is the Christ, the Son of God who teaches with authority, and then lives His own teachings. He actually does what He teaches us to do, even to the point of forgiving the very ones who are crucifying Him.
For the soldier, these words should have been stunning but also convicting. For the followers of Christ, they should have still been stunning, but more confirming than convicting. Confirming that He meant what He said and that His teachings are actually practical and doable. But how about for you sitting here in the pews on this very day, how do these words ring in your ears? Are they convicting, confirming, or comforting?
The answer for me is yes, all three. They are convicting because I know my sins are the reason Jesus had to be crucified. My sins are the reason He had to die. Because I am a sinner who fails each and every day to live as God demands, Christ allowed Himself to be crucified for me. And the same is true for your sin too. All of our sin and the sin of all mankind is what caused Him to be hung from a tree and die such a painful death. We are just as guilty as the soldier who actually held the hammer and pounded the nails in, so these words are convicting. These words are confirming because as a follower of Christ we do know His teaching on forgiveness, we know that He has taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, we know these words from Luke and from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and we have His living example showing us what this teaching exactly looks like. The one who teaches us to forgive others, shows us what that forgiveness looks like. He teaches us to live this life of forgiveness, forgiving others as He has forgiven us. They confirm His teachings.
But they are comforting too. They are comforting because I know that if Christ is able to forgive the soldiers who are crucifying Him, He is able to forgive me, the one whose sins are guilty of putting Him on the cross, just as He forgives you for your sin that put Him on the cross. They are comforting because our Lord whom our sin killed forgives us too. He forgives you of all your sins each and every day just as he forgave those who were nailing Him to the cross.
Christ our Lord, is the Lord of forgiveness. The very reason He allowed Himself to be crucified and held Himself up on that cross to die was for the forgiveness of all mankind. The nails did not hold Him to the cross, His love for us did. He loved us enough to die for us, to give us His forgiveness so that we have salvation and eternal life in His name. He forgives you of all your sin, because He loves you. That is why these words are so comforting for us to hear, because He speaks these same words of forgiveness to you. You hear them in the words of absolution and you hear them in the words as you receive His Body and Blood at the communion rail. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.” The same forgiveness our Lord speaks from the cross. He is the Lord of Forgiveness who speaks these words of forgiveness for you. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” Jesus is saying, “Father forgive them, for my name’s sake!”
In the name of Christ our Lord, who does love us and does forgives us, Amen.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Happy Easter - Maundy Thursday Sermon
Alleluia! Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Greetings in the name of our Risen and ever-living Lord, Jesus Christ! We made it through all the stress and craziness of Holy Week and finally got to sing loud and joyfully the Alleluia's of Easter morning. I preached Maundy Thursday and then two of the seven sermons for the Tre Ore service on Good Friday. This was my first experience of a Tre Ore service, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. For those of you who may not know, a Tre Ore service is from noon to three on Good Friday, (the three hours Christ is hanging on the cross) and there are seven mini services in this one big service focusing in on the seven sayings of Christ from the cross. Each service is about twenty minutes with some short readings, prayers, a sermon, and special musical pieces. Then there are about five minutes between each service for meditation and reflection. People are allowed to come and go as they are able and attend one or all seven. We had quite a few people who showed up and stayed for the whole three hours. We also had quite a few who stopped in for their lunch hour and sat through two or three. The service was so good though. It was extremely powerful to focus in that deeply on each one of the sayings; however, it was also neat because there were five pastors and myself who did the seven sermons (since I did two). So to see the different preaching styles and different preachers that I never get to see preach was a good experience. Also the special music was all fantastic. I lost it and broke down in tears as one of the ladies who has an amazing voice sang the Lord's Prayer after the seventh service. It was a great day. 18 people were involved in the service of preaching, organists, elders, and all the musicians. And even with that many people, it went smoothly and was done so well. Then we still had an evening service for Good Friday.
Saturday I slept in, did some house chores I was behind on, and just spent some time relaxing and trying to catch up on rest from the week before. It was a beautiful day though so I went for a drive in the country. In St. Louis I find there are times where I get homesick and almost depressed because I can't just go drive gravel roads with my windows down and see nature and fields and farms. So I went for a drive and enjoyed being in a rural area. I also walked some of our hunting grounds looking for shed antlers, but didn't find any. Then Sunday morning we had sunrise service at 6:30 A.M. The youth served breakfast at 8 and then we have second service at 9:30. We had trumpets and trombones playing with the organist which I absolutely love. It was an extremely joyful service with the beautiful Easter hymns I have been craving for awhile now.
Then I headed home and saw the nephews, Tim, JoAnna, Grandma, and Mom and Dad. It was good to be home even if it was just for such a short time. Then yesterday I drove back up north. We had two softball games yesterday. I sat one because we had too many players, but then played the second one and actually played really well. I love softball and can't wait to hopefully one day be in one place all summer so I can join a league.
Today it's back to work, but much more relaxed and stress free as I do my normal stuff and try to work ahead for VBS and such. Nonetheless, Easter is not over and the joy of Easter continues on into every day as we know and always know our Lord is Risen and living!
Here is my Maundy Thursday Sermon and then I will try to get my two Tre Ore sermons up here this week too. Enjoy:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for this evening is Psalm 143, looking specifically at verses 9 through 12:
“9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! I have fled to you for refuge. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! 11 For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! 12 And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.”
Saturday I slept in, did some house chores I was behind on, and just spent some time relaxing and trying to catch up on rest from the week before. It was a beautiful day though so I went for a drive in the country. In St. Louis I find there are times where I get homesick and almost depressed because I can't just go drive gravel roads with my windows down and see nature and fields and farms. So I went for a drive and enjoyed being in a rural area. I also walked some of our hunting grounds looking for shed antlers, but didn't find any. Then Sunday morning we had sunrise service at 6:30 A.M. The youth served breakfast at 8 and then we have second service at 9:30. We had trumpets and trombones playing with the organist which I absolutely love. It was an extremely joyful service with the beautiful Easter hymns I have been craving for awhile now.
Then I headed home and saw the nephews, Tim, JoAnna, Grandma, and Mom and Dad. It was good to be home even if it was just for such a short time. Then yesterday I drove back up north. We had two softball games yesterday. I sat one because we had too many players, but then played the second one and actually played really well. I love softball and can't wait to hopefully one day be in one place all summer so I can join a league.
Today it's back to work, but much more relaxed and stress free as I do my normal stuff and try to work ahead for VBS and such. Nonetheless, Easter is not over and the joy of Easter continues on into every day as we know and always know our Lord is Risen and living!
Here is my Maundy Thursday Sermon and then I will try to get my two Tre Ore sermons up here this week too. Enjoy:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for this evening is Psalm 143, looking specifically at verses 9 through 12:
“9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! I have fled to you for refuge. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! 11 For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! 12 And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant.”
In the Wartburg Castle, there is a dark stain on the wall in the room where Luther spent his days studying. It is said that Luther threw the ink jar at the Devil who was in the room with him, and the ink jar hit the wall, broke, and left an ink stain that is still there today. Now it is never officially documented anywhere that this is where the stain actually came from. However, Luther did believe and make it very clear that the Devil is constantly around us, tempting us, taunting us, and trying to get us to fall. Both Luther’s morning and evening prayer include the line, “that the evil foe may have no power over us.” Luther knew exactly how dangerous the foe, or the Devil is in our lives.
In our psalm for tonight, our psalmist is also dealing with the foe or the enemy, and he feels completely surrounded, trapped, and crushed by this enemy. In verse three he states, “For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.” The psalmist is crying out to God for refuge from this enemy that has his crushed and sitting in darkness.
However, I feel that many of you probably do not feel this way on a regular basis. Do you often feel like you are surrounded by the enemy, trapped by his presence, and crushed by his pursuit of your soul? Do you ever feel like the devil is in the room standing right there beside you? In my mind, one of the most dangerous things we as Christians in today’s world do is not acknowledge how real and present the Devil is around us. We know the Devil is an enemy and we know he is able to tempt us, but we don’t think of him as a constant enemy who is always right there lurking around us. We instead blame ourselves for the times when we find ourselves too weak to resist his temptations. We think we are the problem. If I was just stronger in my faith, if I was a more pious person, if I worked harder to fix my bad habits, if I wouldn’t let myself keep making the same old mistakes, I would not give into MY temptations so much. We don’t even acknowledge that the temptation comes from the Devil, but rather simply our sinful nature.
We need to take a lesson from our psalmist and from Luther and realize we are at war, a very real spiritual war. And we are fighting a real enemy. A real enemy who is right there in the room with us, tempting us, whispering doubts and lies in our ears. I am not ashamed to admit I actually have had times much like Luther where the devil’s presence was so strong I swear I could have actually reached out and grabbed him standing right there beside me. I have yelled out loud at the devil to leave me alone. And there have been times where as soon as I fell to the temptation I knew he was standing right there beside me, smiling from ear to ear. I actually have described this to one of my friends before, but every time the devil tempts me to fall into one of those old sins I commit over and over again, even though I know they are wrong, he gets me again, and I can just picture him kicking his feet up laying back in a big easy chair with a big cigar in his hand, smiling and chuckling, and saying to himself, that was too easy. It’s too easy to get you sinners to sin. Except there is one mistake with this picture. The devil never rests, not for one second. You see the devil knows his time is limited here on earth, he knows if he truly wants to do as much damage as he possibly can with the short time he has, he can never stop, he can never rest, he must work 24 – 7 – 365! The devil is our enemy who is always around us, lurking around every corner, waiting for our weakness to show, waiting for us to give him an opportunity when he knows his strike will hit. And our biggest mistake is to pretend he isn’t there, or ignore the fact that he is a true enemy trying to destroy us.
To make matters worse, notice in verse 9 the psalmist switches from the enemy to enemies in the plural. The Devil is our real enemy, but the world around us who hates us for Christ name sake, sin, and death are also our enemies. The secular world, the illogical sin, and the ever presence of death are all as much of an enemy as the devil himself. People who bash Christians and persecute them are obviously an enemy, but so are the ones you may not expect. Maybe it’s a coworker who tries to get you to understand that his sinful lifestyle is actually OK because of the situation he is in. Maybe it is a close friend who tries to get you to forget your faith just for one night so you can have a little fun together. Maybe it is even a family member who isn’t in the faith and makes you choose between your faith or them. These are all real enemies who are either intentionally or possibly even unintentionally trying to lead you astray from your faith. Sin and death are also very real and extremely present enemies. Our sinful world that just never seems to make sense can cause us to doubt our faith or question God. An man who has never been a believer his whole life, but who drinks, smokes, cusses, and is mean to everyone lives a long healthy life, but the single mother who brings her children to church every Sunday and works two jobs to support them gets cancer. A drunk driver causes an accident and he walks away without a scratch, but the people in the other car that was hit are either killed or crippled for life. The loss of a loved one at a young age, or a child who dies as an infant. All of these things that seem to make no sense and have no answer other than sin and death exist in our world can cause us to wonder what God is really doing, is He even there, is He really in control or not?! And the devil will use these opportunities to whisper that much more in our ears, stir up our doubts, play off of our anger, let our emotions get the best of us. These are all enemies that face constantly in our world.
However, our psalmist teaches us how to handle these situations, how to handle all of these enemies. He cries out to God asking God to hear him, he acknowledges that the enemy is too great for him and has overpowered him, but he knows where his help comes from and he knows where his refuge is. In verse 9 the psalmist says, “Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge.” God is the one who is able to rescue and deliver us from the enemy and his powers. God is our refuge where we find our relief. He is the one who in His steadfast love cuts off our enemies and destroys the adversaries of our souls.
God knew the devil would always be an enemy to us. From the very moment he tempted Adam and Eve and caused them to sin, God promised to take care of this enemy, God promised to send His Son to not only defeat this enemy, but ultimately destroy him. God kept that promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our refuge and deliverer. Jesus was tempted by the devil Himself in His life, but unlike us who fall to the lies and temptations, Christ did not. Christ used the Word to overpower the Devil and resist His temptation. Christ lived an entire life of resisted the devil. He also resisted the other enemies of sin, the world, and death. When the Pharisees and scribes tried to cause Him to stumble with trick questions, He outsmarted them and remained faithful every time. When the illogical sin of this world presented itself, Jesus showed His power over sin by healing the lame, curing the sick, and forgiving them all of their sins. When death took its turn by taking Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, Christ showed His power over death by calling Lazarus back to life with His Word. Then when the devil, the world, sin, and death all joined forces for one final attempt to get rid of Jesus by having one of His one own disciples betray Him, soldiers arrest Him, the Chief priests falsely accuse Him, all of them beat and mock Him, before finally nailing Him to a cross to kill Him, Christ showed His ultimate power over all the enemies of this world. He did die and it looked like for a short time the enemies had won. But Christ did defeat them, He did overcome them all by rising from the dead three days later. He has defeated them, He has the power over all of them, the devil, the world, sin, and death, all enemies we will ever face, Christ has defeated and has control over. And one day He will lock them all up and they will be gone forever, never to tempt us or harm us again. Christ is our deliverer, He is our refuge because by His death and resurrection He shower His power and authority over all of our enemies.
Christ is our refuge and our deliverer, but how does this help us when He is in heaven sitting on His throne and we are done here in the battle zone? Well, Christ is not distant, and He has not left us here to fight on our own. He has given us His Holy Spirit to remain in us to give us the strength we need, He gives us His Word to read and be strengthen and to use both as armor and as a sword. And He even gives us Himself. On the first Maundy Thursday when He spoke the words of Institution to His disciples, the very same words we will hear here shortly in our service, He gives us His true Body and Blood in with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of sins and for the strengthening of our faith. He forgives us of all the times we have been weak and fallen to the enemies temptations, and He gives us Himself in us to prepare us and strengthen us for the next round of battle. By having His Holy Spirit in us, keeping us in the faith, keeping our baptism alive in us, by giving us His Word to hear and be strengthened in our faith, and by giving us His actual body and blood in His Holy Supper, He is our refuge that gives us the strength to remain in the faith, to cling to Him in times of weakness, and to have the power of His Word to use against our evil enemies. He is our refuge and our deliverer who is with us, protecting us, keeping strong in the faith, not letting the enemies overpower us.
As St. Paul writes in our Epistle for tonight, “If God is for us, who can be against us.” We have the almighty, all powerful, one true God on our side, it doesn’t matter what enemy is lined up against us on the other side, he has already lost! Nothing can separate us from the love of God, because through the death and resurrection our of Lord Jesus Christ, He has defeated all enemies. And by the power of His Spirit, His Word, and His Body and Blood, He is our refuge who is ever present, ever with you, always protecting you, forgiving you, keeping you strong in the one true faith, until the day He calls you home. Christ is your refuge, remain in Him, cling to Him and no enemy of this world can ever harm you!
In the name of our refuge and our deliverer, Jesus Christ, Amen.
In our psalm for tonight, our psalmist is also dealing with the foe or the enemy, and he feels completely surrounded, trapped, and crushed by this enemy. In verse three he states, “For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.” The psalmist is crying out to God for refuge from this enemy that has his crushed and sitting in darkness.
However, I feel that many of you probably do not feel this way on a regular basis. Do you often feel like you are surrounded by the enemy, trapped by his presence, and crushed by his pursuit of your soul? Do you ever feel like the devil is in the room standing right there beside you? In my mind, one of the most dangerous things we as Christians in today’s world do is not acknowledge how real and present the Devil is around us. We know the Devil is an enemy and we know he is able to tempt us, but we don’t think of him as a constant enemy who is always right there lurking around us. We instead blame ourselves for the times when we find ourselves too weak to resist his temptations. We think we are the problem. If I was just stronger in my faith, if I was a more pious person, if I worked harder to fix my bad habits, if I wouldn’t let myself keep making the same old mistakes, I would not give into MY temptations so much. We don’t even acknowledge that the temptation comes from the Devil, but rather simply our sinful nature.
We need to take a lesson from our psalmist and from Luther and realize we are at war, a very real spiritual war. And we are fighting a real enemy. A real enemy who is right there in the room with us, tempting us, whispering doubts and lies in our ears. I am not ashamed to admit I actually have had times much like Luther where the devil’s presence was so strong I swear I could have actually reached out and grabbed him standing right there beside me. I have yelled out loud at the devil to leave me alone. And there have been times where as soon as I fell to the temptation I knew he was standing right there beside me, smiling from ear to ear. I actually have described this to one of my friends before, but every time the devil tempts me to fall into one of those old sins I commit over and over again, even though I know they are wrong, he gets me again, and I can just picture him kicking his feet up laying back in a big easy chair with a big cigar in his hand, smiling and chuckling, and saying to himself, that was too easy. It’s too easy to get you sinners to sin. Except there is one mistake with this picture. The devil never rests, not for one second. You see the devil knows his time is limited here on earth, he knows if he truly wants to do as much damage as he possibly can with the short time he has, he can never stop, he can never rest, he must work 24 – 7 – 365! The devil is our enemy who is always around us, lurking around every corner, waiting for our weakness to show, waiting for us to give him an opportunity when he knows his strike will hit. And our biggest mistake is to pretend he isn’t there, or ignore the fact that he is a true enemy trying to destroy us.
To make matters worse, notice in verse 9 the psalmist switches from the enemy to enemies in the plural. The Devil is our real enemy, but the world around us who hates us for Christ name sake, sin, and death are also our enemies. The secular world, the illogical sin, and the ever presence of death are all as much of an enemy as the devil himself. People who bash Christians and persecute them are obviously an enemy, but so are the ones you may not expect. Maybe it’s a coworker who tries to get you to understand that his sinful lifestyle is actually OK because of the situation he is in. Maybe it is a close friend who tries to get you to forget your faith just for one night so you can have a little fun together. Maybe it is even a family member who isn’t in the faith and makes you choose between your faith or them. These are all real enemies who are either intentionally or possibly even unintentionally trying to lead you astray from your faith. Sin and death are also very real and extremely present enemies. Our sinful world that just never seems to make sense can cause us to doubt our faith or question God. An man who has never been a believer his whole life, but who drinks, smokes, cusses, and is mean to everyone lives a long healthy life, but the single mother who brings her children to church every Sunday and works two jobs to support them gets cancer. A drunk driver causes an accident and he walks away without a scratch, but the people in the other car that was hit are either killed or crippled for life. The loss of a loved one at a young age, or a child who dies as an infant. All of these things that seem to make no sense and have no answer other than sin and death exist in our world can cause us to wonder what God is really doing, is He even there, is He really in control or not?! And the devil will use these opportunities to whisper that much more in our ears, stir up our doubts, play off of our anger, let our emotions get the best of us. These are all enemies that face constantly in our world.
However, our psalmist teaches us how to handle these situations, how to handle all of these enemies. He cries out to God asking God to hear him, he acknowledges that the enemy is too great for him and has overpowered him, but he knows where his help comes from and he knows where his refuge is. In verse 9 the psalmist says, “Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge.” God is the one who is able to rescue and deliver us from the enemy and his powers. God is our refuge where we find our relief. He is the one who in His steadfast love cuts off our enemies and destroys the adversaries of our souls.
God knew the devil would always be an enemy to us. From the very moment he tempted Adam and Eve and caused them to sin, God promised to take care of this enemy, God promised to send His Son to not only defeat this enemy, but ultimately destroy him. God kept that promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our refuge and deliverer. Jesus was tempted by the devil Himself in His life, but unlike us who fall to the lies and temptations, Christ did not. Christ used the Word to overpower the Devil and resist His temptation. Christ lived an entire life of resisted the devil. He also resisted the other enemies of sin, the world, and death. When the Pharisees and scribes tried to cause Him to stumble with trick questions, He outsmarted them and remained faithful every time. When the illogical sin of this world presented itself, Jesus showed His power over sin by healing the lame, curing the sick, and forgiving them all of their sins. When death took its turn by taking Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, Christ showed His power over death by calling Lazarus back to life with His Word. Then when the devil, the world, sin, and death all joined forces for one final attempt to get rid of Jesus by having one of His one own disciples betray Him, soldiers arrest Him, the Chief priests falsely accuse Him, all of them beat and mock Him, before finally nailing Him to a cross to kill Him, Christ showed His ultimate power over all the enemies of this world. He did die and it looked like for a short time the enemies had won. But Christ did defeat them, He did overcome them all by rising from the dead three days later. He has defeated them, He has the power over all of them, the devil, the world, sin, and death, all enemies we will ever face, Christ has defeated and has control over. And one day He will lock them all up and they will be gone forever, never to tempt us or harm us again. Christ is our deliverer, He is our refuge because by His death and resurrection He shower His power and authority over all of our enemies.
Christ is our refuge and our deliverer, but how does this help us when He is in heaven sitting on His throne and we are done here in the battle zone? Well, Christ is not distant, and He has not left us here to fight on our own. He has given us His Holy Spirit to remain in us to give us the strength we need, He gives us His Word to read and be strengthen and to use both as armor and as a sword. And He even gives us Himself. On the first Maundy Thursday when He spoke the words of Institution to His disciples, the very same words we will hear here shortly in our service, He gives us His true Body and Blood in with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of sins and for the strengthening of our faith. He forgives us of all the times we have been weak and fallen to the enemies temptations, and He gives us Himself in us to prepare us and strengthen us for the next round of battle. By having His Holy Spirit in us, keeping us in the faith, keeping our baptism alive in us, by giving us His Word to hear and be strengthened in our faith, and by giving us His actual body and blood in His Holy Supper, He is our refuge that gives us the strength to remain in the faith, to cling to Him in times of weakness, and to have the power of His Word to use against our evil enemies. He is our refuge and our deliverer who is with us, protecting us, keeping strong in the faith, not letting the enemies overpower us.
As St. Paul writes in our Epistle for tonight, “If God is for us, who can be against us.” We have the almighty, all powerful, one true God on our side, it doesn’t matter what enemy is lined up against us on the other side, he has already lost! Nothing can separate us from the love of God, because through the death and resurrection our of Lord Jesus Christ, He has defeated all enemies. And by the power of His Spirit, His Word, and His Body and Blood, He is our refuge who is ever present, ever with you, always protecting you, forgiving you, keeping you strong in the one true faith, until the day He calls you home. Christ is your refuge, remain in Him, cling to Him and no enemy of this world can ever harm you!
In the name of our refuge and our deliverer, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Psalm 130 Sermon
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Defense. Last Wednesday evening after church, I and a high school student drove down to St. Louis. We left at 9:30 P.M., drove through rain the entire way, and got to St. Louis at 8 A.M. I drove the whole way while Austin, the student, slept. I had to make several stops to get out and walk around, but we made it safely. We spent Thursday and Friday touring the seminary, going to chapel and a class, and hanging out with my friends. I think he got a pretty accurate taste of the sem life and the class we sat in on was an amazing one. Then Saturday I showed him around St. Louis. We ate at Pappy's BBQ, then walked around Busch Stadium and under the Arch. Then Saturday night we stayed at my friend's house who is doing his vicarage in Washington, Missouri. We had a fun evening with him and his wife playing board games and watching the basketball games. Then Sunday morning, my friend was preaching, so we attended church there and then drove back. We got back around 7 P.M. on Sunday evening. I was back just in time to go to Bible Study at 8.
Then I unpacked and had to immediately repack. Monday morning we left for Huron which is only an hour away and had District Pastor's Conference Monday and Tuesday. It was actually a really interesting presentation on catechizes. Always good to see the other pastors from the state as well. It is also unofficially official that Mt. Calvary will be getting another vicar next year from Fort Wayne. I was happy to hear they were getting another vicar to carry on the campus ministry, but I was hoping it would be from St. Louis purely for the fact that I would know him then. But I trust the Holy Spirit has the right guy.
Then Monday and Tuesday while I was gone, I got all new windows in my house. I love this because now they actually have screens and I can open my windows. However, the crew that put int he windows left a terrible mess under every window and throughout my whole house. So I spent five hours on Tuesday night after we got back from Pastor's conference Spring cleaning my whole house. It is nice to have a super clean house, but the five hours of cleaning was not fun. Tomorrow with my day off I plan to rake my yard really well and get all the leaves and dead grass off it so hopefully the new green stuff will start coming up. I also need to fold four loads of laundry from all my travels, take down Christmas lights, finish cleaning the basement, and then finishing sanding and routering my rocking chair pieces. Hopefully if I get them all sanded and routered, then after Easter I can stain and polyurethane them. Friday at 2 we leave for Pierre, which is three hours away for Bible Bowl on Saturday though so I will be gone Friday night and all day Saturday. Then I have three sermons next week for Holy Week! I am trying to enjoy how busy life is right now because after the first week of May, the college students will be gone, confirmation and Sunday school will be done, and I will have too much free time I am scared. So busy is crazy but it is still good.
Here is my sermon from last night on Psalm 130:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for tonight is Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let you ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you these is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning, more than the watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
I want you to imagine you are standing in a court room and now realize YOU ARE ON TRIAL! Yes, you heard me right, you are on trial. God the Father is the judge sitting on the bench, and the Devil is the prosecuting attorney. You are on trial for every sin you have ever committed in your life. So as you stand there, the Devil opens his briefcase and pulls out a stack of paper that seems three times as thick as his briefcase. He sets the stack down on the table in front of him and begins to read a list of every sin you have committed. He doesn’t just list general things like told a lie, said a cuss word, hit your sibling…. No, he reads the exact date and time and a very detailed description of each sin. “April 3rd, 7:46 in the morning, you were driving to work when you became very angry with driver in front of you for going ‘too slow’, broke fifth commandment by thinking hateful thoughts of your neighbor and therefore murdering him.” After hearing about three or four of these specific sins listed out in very formal fashion, with the Father the judge sitting there just listening the whole time, you finally decide to speak. You try to excuse or justify the last sin that the devil read with some weak pathetic attempt to make yourself look better, but before you can finish the devil not only yells out “Objection”, he flips to the last page of his stacks of paper and starts scribbling the new offense to use against you.
You see, in this trial you are going to lose, and you know it. Because every sin the devil reads off, you immediately know you are guilty of it. And in this court there is no jury of peers that you can plead to or try to play off of their emotions or hope they see it your way. In this court room you can’t spin the truth to look less offensive, you can’t use fancy words and an elaborate showing to make wrongs seems right. As you stand there you know that you are guilty and even worse you know the judge, the Father, knows you are guilty. You are guilty to the first degree a million times over. You by yourself have no defense campaign to stand on. You are guilty of being a sinner, 100% sinner, a first degree sinner. And you know that this guilty verdict comes with a sentence of being thrown to hell, cast out of God’s presence, and into the jailhouse of death for all of eternity. You have no defense to stand on. You are guilty, you deserve the sentencing, your only hope is to fall face down and beg and plead for the mercy of the judge. You know He has no reason to give you any mercy, you know you do not deserve your mercy, but your only hope, your only chance at all is if He gives you His mercy and sentences you as innocent.
This is what our psalmist tells us our God does for us. Our psalmist knows he is in this very circumstance; he is cast out of God’s presence and is begging and pleading for God to hear his cries for mercy. Then he says, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” He knows that if the devil really were to turn in Exhibit A, the list of all our sins, and God kept that long list, that official record, we truly would have no defense, no hope to stand on. God, being a just and fair God and judge, would have no choice but to find us guilty if He kept that record. However, as the psalmist tells us in the very next line, God does not keep that record. God does not keep that long list of all our sins in front of Him, adding to it every time we fail again. “With you there is forgiveness”. We do have a defense to stand on, but it is nothing we have done. The judge heard our cries for mercy, just as He heard the psalmist’s cries for mercy and He has answered our cries as we heard last week. God knew we would be found guilty, so He sent His Son to be our defense. Christ, took that long list of sins, that official record that has our name on the top of it, He crossed our name out and wrote His own on it. He made every one of our accusations and offenses His. He put Himself on the stand and pleaded guilty to every one of our sins. Jesus, the one who never sinned in His life, pleaded guilty to every sin of all mankind, including yours and mine alike. God being the just and fair judge sentenced His own Son with the sentence we deserved. Christ was sentenced to be put to death and feel the full wrath of God’s judgment. Christ took our sins, that long official list all the way to the cross with Him where the sentence was carried out. As He hung on the cross, bleeding, thirsting, dying, that record of sins was completely covered and stained the blood of our Lord so that it is no longer readable. It no longer is a list of sins we are guilty of, it is a blood stained certificate of our pardon.
So now as we stand before the Father in the court room, we do have a defense. When the Devil no longer has that list of our sins, he tries to accuse us of old sins that he can remember from the list. But this time it is Christ our defense lawyer who stands up and yells “objection”. Christ objects to the accusation, presenting the record that once listed all our sins, but now is the blood stained certificate that is proof our sentencing has been paid in full. Christ offers His hands and feet where the nail holes are, His side where the spear was thrust into Him as His “Exhibit A”. He is the living proof that all of those sins have been paid for and the sentence has been served in full. Christ claims us as His own, our hearts and our foreheads where the sign of the cross was made on us at our baptism and presents us to the judge, His Father, as completely blameless. The Father, who is a fair and just judge, pronounces us as innocent of all charges. We have a defense to stand on, it is our Lord Jesus Christ and His forgiveness.
We are freed and clear from the guilty sentence we deserve because of our defense, Jesus Christ. And Christ tells us in our Gospel reading from John 8, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When we remain and abide in His word, coming to church every Sunday hearing His Word read aloud and proclaimed, when we read our Bibles and have our daily devotions, the Spirit strengthens our faith, ever reminding us of the truth. The truth that Jesus Christ is our sure defense, He is the one who came in steadfast love with plentiful redemption. He is the one who is our pardon from all sin. The truth that the Father heard us sinners who had no defense to stand on, heard our cries for His mercy, sent His Son to claim all sins as His own, to die on the cross to pay for the sin of all mankind, to stain our record of sins red with His blood to be our pardon, and to rise from the dead to be our redemption and new life. This is the truth that His Word teaches us and reminds us of, this is the truth that sets us free.
So we live our lives now in that pardon from sin, being claimed by Christ our defense, living in the forgiveness of sins. We live in this pardoned life, in His Word which is our hope, knowing one day we will stand in the presence of our Father, and hear Him pronounce over us, “In the name of my Son, Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, I pronounce you as innocent.” Christ truly is our defense, our pardon, and our innocence.
In the name of our Defense and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Then I unpacked and had to immediately repack. Monday morning we left for Huron which is only an hour away and had District Pastor's Conference Monday and Tuesday. It was actually a really interesting presentation on catechizes. Always good to see the other pastors from the state as well. It is also unofficially official that Mt. Calvary will be getting another vicar next year from Fort Wayne. I was happy to hear they were getting another vicar to carry on the campus ministry, but I was hoping it would be from St. Louis purely for the fact that I would know him then. But I trust the Holy Spirit has the right guy.
Then Monday and Tuesday while I was gone, I got all new windows in my house. I love this because now they actually have screens and I can open my windows. However, the crew that put int he windows left a terrible mess under every window and throughout my whole house. So I spent five hours on Tuesday night after we got back from Pastor's conference Spring cleaning my whole house. It is nice to have a super clean house, but the five hours of cleaning was not fun. Tomorrow with my day off I plan to rake my yard really well and get all the leaves and dead grass off it so hopefully the new green stuff will start coming up. I also need to fold four loads of laundry from all my travels, take down Christmas lights, finish cleaning the basement, and then finishing sanding and routering my rocking chair pieces. Hopefully if I get them all sanded and routered, then after Easter I can stain and polyurethane them. Friday at 2 we leave for Pierre, which is three hours away for Bible Bowl on Saturday though so I will be gone Friday night and all day Saturday. Then I have three sermons next week for Holy Week! I am trying to enjoy how busy life is right now because after the first week of May, the college students will be gone, confirmation and Sunday school will be done, and I will have too much free time I am scared. So busy is crazy but it is still good.
Here is my sermon from last night on Psalm 130:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for tonight is Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let you ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you these is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning, more than the watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
I want you to imagine you are standing in a court room and now realize YOU ARE ON TRIAL! Yes, you heard me right, you are on trial. God the Father is the judge sitting on the bench, and the Devil is the prosecuting attorney. You are on trial for every sin you have ever committed in your life. So as you stand there, the Devil opens his briefcase and pulls out a stack of paper that seems three times as thick as his briefcase. He sets the stack down on the table in front of him and begins to read a list of every sin you have committed. He doesn’t just list general things like told a lie, said a cuss word, hit your sibling…. No, he reads the exact date and time and a very detailed description of each sin. “April 3rd, 7:46 in the morning, you were driving to work when you became very angry with driver in front of you for going ‘too slow’, broke fifth commandment by thinking hateful thoughts of your neighbor and therefore murdering him.” After hearing about three or four of these specific sins listed out in very formal fashion, with the Father the judge sitting there just listening the whole time, you finally decide to speak. You try to excuse or justify the last sin that the devil read with some weak pathetic attempt to make yourself look better, but before you can finish the devil not only yells out “Objection”, he flips to the last page of his stacks of paper and starts scribbling the new offense to use against you.
You see, in this trial you are going to lose, and you know it. Because every sin the devil reads off, you immediately know you are guilty of it. And in this court there is no jury of peers that you can plead to or try to play off of their emotions or hope they see it your way. In this court room you can’t spin the truth to look less offensive, you can’t use fancy words and an elaborate showing to make wrongs seems right. As you stand there you know that you are guilty and even worse you know the judge, the Father, knows you are guilty. You are guilty to the first degree a million times over. You by yourself have no defense campaign to stand on. You are guilty of being a sinner, 100% sinner, a first degree sinner. And you know that this guilty verdict comes with a sentence of being thrown to hell, cast out of God’s presence, and into the jailhouse of death for all of eternity. You have no defense to stand on. You are guilty, you deserve the sentencing, your only hope is to fall face down and beg and plead for the mercy of the judge. You know He has no reason to give you any mercy, you know you do not deserve your mercy, but your only hope, your only chance at all is if He gives you His mercy and sentences you as innocent.
This is what our psalmist tells us our God does for us. Our psalmist knows he is in this very circumstance; he is cast out of God’s presence and is begging and pleading for God to hear his cries for mercy. Then he says, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” He knows that if the devil really were to turn in Exhibit A, the list of all our sins, and God kept that long list, that official record, we truly would have no defense, no hope to stand on. God, being a just and fair God and judge, would have no choice but to find us guilty if He kept that record. However, as the psalmist tells us in the very next line, God does not keep that record. God does not keep that long list of all our sins in front of Him, adding to it every time we fail again. “With you there is forgiveness”. We do have a defense to stand on, but it is nothing we have done. The judge heard our cries for mercy, just as He heard the psalmist’s cries for mercy and He has answered our cries as we heard last week. God knew we would be found guilty, so He sent His Son to be our defense. Christ, took that long list of sins, that official record that has our name on the top of it, He crossed our name out and wrote His own on it. He made every one of our accusations and offenses His. He put Himself on the stand and pleaded guilty to every one of our sins. Jesus, the one who never sinned in His life, pleaded guilty to every sin of all mankind, including yours and mine alike. God being the just and fair judge sentenced His own Son with the sentence we deserved. Christ was sentenced to be put to death and feel the full wrath of God’s judgment. Christ took our sins, that long official list all the way to the cross with Him where the sentence was carried out. As He hung on the cross, bleeding, thirsting, dying, that record of sins was completely covered and stained the blood of our Lord so that it is no longer readable. It no longer is a list of sins we are guilty of, it is a blood stained certificate of our pardon.
So now as we stand before the Father in the court room, we do have a defense. When the Devil no longer has that list of our sins, he tries to accuse us of old sins that he can remember from the list. But this time it is Christ our defense lawyer who stands up and yells “objection”. Christ objects to the accusation, presenting the record that once listed all our sins, but now is the blood stained certificate that is proof our sentencing has been paid in full. Christ offers His hands and feet where the nail holes are, His side where the spear was thrust into Him as His “Exhibit A”. He is the living proof that all of those sins have been paid for and the sentence has been served in full. Christ claims us as His own, our hearts and our foreheads where the sign of the cross was made on us at our baptism and presents us to the judge, His Father, as completely blameless. The Father, who is a fair and just judge, pronounces us as innocent of all charges. We have a defense to stand on, it is our Lord Jesus Christ and His forgiveness.
We are freed and clear from the guilty sentence we deserve because of our defense, Jesus Christ. And Christ tells us in our Gospel reading from John 8, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When we remain and abide in His word, coming to church every Sunday hearing His Word read aloud and proclaimed, when we read our Bibles and have our daily devotions, the Spirit strengthens our faith, ever reminding us of the truth. The truth that Jesus Christ is our sure defense, He is the one who came in steadfast love with plentiful redemption. He is the one who is our pardon from all sin. The truth that the Father heard us sinners who had no defense to stand on, heard our cries for His mercy, sent His Son to claim all sins as His own, to die on the cross to pay for the sin of all mankind, to stain our record of sins red with His blood to be our pardon, and to rise from the dead to be our redemption and new life. This is the truth that His Word teaches us and reminds us of, this is the truth that sets us free.
So we live our lives now in that pardon from sin, being claimed by Christ our defense, living in the forgiveness of sins. We live in this pardoned life, in His Word which is our hope, knowing one day we will stand in the presence of our Father, and hear Him pronounce over us, “In the name of my Son, Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, I pronounce you as innocent.” Christ truly is our defense, our pardon, and our innocence.
In the name of our Defense and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Psalm 102 Sermon
Greetings in the name of our Intercessor and Lord Christ Jesus. The last week has been crazy since I have only been home one or two nights for the whole week. I am going to post my sermon from last week on this post and then I will give a little catch up on what I have been doing plus last night's sermon on the next post. So here is my Lent 5 sermon on Psalm 102:
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for tonight is from Psalm 102 looking specifically at verses 1, 2, 16 and 17. Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For the Lord builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; 17 he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.”
When I was a kid I had a reoccurring nightmare. I think I only had it two or three times, but it scared me every time. See as a child I was extremely scared of dogs, stupid I know but it was part of my childhood. So my dream was that I was walking down the street we lived on and when I would get to the alley which was about half a block away from our house, a pack of several big, scary dogs would come running at me from down the alley. I would run as fast as I possibly could around our house, into the backyard headed straight for the basement door. As I ran through our yard around the house there were several people from the community, our church, or school, adults from around town that I knew rather well. And as I ran past all of these people I would open my mouth and try to scream as loud as I could for help from them. However, as I tied to scream, nothing came out. I could feel my throat trying so hard to scream but no scream ever came. And it was so frustrating having people right there to help but because I couldn’t get any screams to actually come out, they didn’t notice me or the dogs. This is when I would wake up in a panic though because in my dream I was scared out of my mind that these dogs were going to kill me, and the people who could help me couldn’t hear my cries for help.
Luckily, it was just a dream and mom would be able to calm me down and get me back to sleep. However, what if it wasn’t a dream? I don’t mean the pack of ravage dogs chasing me, I mean being in a situation where you are utterly distraught and cry out for help with all your might, begging and pleading for help, but it seems like no one is listening. Would that not be a nightmare? Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever actually experienced a time in your life where you feel like absolutely no one is hearing your cry for help?
In our Psalm for this evening, this is exactly what the psalmist is experiencing. He starts his psalm by saying, “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!” Notice though who he is crying out to, who is the one not hearing his cries? He is not just calling out to those around him, people he knows who he thinks can help him. No, he cries out to God, the Lord! He calls on the highest power he knows, the creator of heaven and earth, the all-power, almighty LORD! And yet this is the one who he feels is not hearing his cries, he feels that the Lord has hidden his face, looked away from him, not allowing the cries and pleas of distress come to His ears. Have you ever felt THIS way? Have you ever experienced a time in your life where you took your troubles to God, crying out to the one and only Lord of all, and it seems like He is not hearing your cry for help?
See it normally takes a lot for us to finally turn to the Lord. We let our problems get to the extreme worst before we turn our cries to God. Just like when we looked at Psalm 32 a couple weeks ago where we wait until our sin is eating away us before we finally turn to Him in confession releasing our sins to Him, with problems and difficult situations we do the same thing, letting them build up and lead us farther into the muck and mud before we finally realize we are stuck and have no way out.
Then we finally decide that we have no other options, nobody else to call on, no one else who could be of any help besides God. Our problem is finally big enough for Him to worry about, so we turn to Him in prayer. Most of the time, we literally hit our knees, fold our hands, and close our eyes. Even though our normal bed time prayers are usually said laying in bed, half falling asleep, this utter desperation of the mess or situation calls for a special prayer. We get on our knees, fold our hands, close our eyes and pray like we were taught as children. Now we let everything out. We confess that we have gotten ourselves into this mess, we acknowledge that we should have turned to Him much sooner than we did, we explain exactly what the situation is, why it is so bad and why we feel so trapped or stuck, our raw emotions are freed and we hold nothing back, giving the entire scenario to Him, placing all trust in His hands, begging for direction, for the wisdom to know what to do, guidance to get us out of this mess in the best way possible. We go to sleep feeling a little better thinking that now God is going to take care of us and fix everything. Only to wake up the next morning and be just as lost and confused as before, just as stuck and helpless as we were. Did God not hear my prayer? Is He hiding His face from me, not inclining His ear to my pleas? I finally turn to Him for help, and now He doesn’t hear my cry? This is as frustrating as my dream where the people are right there in front of me, but with all my might and effort I can’t get them to hear me. God is supposed to always be there, always listening to my prayer, why now at the time I need Him most am I not able to get Him to hear me? What do I do now to get out of this mess? Who can help me if God doesn’t even hear me? Have you ever felt this way like our psalmist?
However, unlike the dream where I could actually see that the people could not hear me, in real life when it comes to God, we just assume He doesn’t hear us because it seems like He isn’t answering or responding. But why do we assume He doesn’t hear us? Look at what our psalmist, the very one who feels this way says in verses 16 and 17, “For the Lord builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; 17 he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.” He knows God hears his prayers. The same way when Jesus prays at the tomb of Lazarus He starts His prayer by saying, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me, I knew that you always hear me.” Christ Himself knows the Father is always listening. God does always hear our prayers. He not only hears them but does not despise them either. God loves it when we turn to Him in Prayer. In Psalm 50 we hear the Lord tell us, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.” He not only hears our prayers but He answers us too. So if God always hears our prayers, and He promises to deliver us, then why does it seem like He is not answering us, nothing changes and we are still stuck in the middle of the same mess or suffering?
God does always hear our prayers. He does always answer our prayers. He does deliver us when we call upon Him in the day of trouble. However, when He promises to deliver us, He doesn’t promise to make everything immediately perfect, He doesn’t promise to completely remove the mess or situation from our lives. Just like He doesn’t answer the Israelites cry to be saved from the poisonous snakes in the wilderness in Numbers by removing the snakes. No, instead He leaves the snakes, lets the people endure the bites and pain, but He does deliver them. Call upon me in the day and trouble and I will deliver you says the Lord. What He is saying is I will deliver you from being overtaken or over powered by the suffering and pain, I will deliver you from being driven to utter despair and being sent to your own doom or harm. I will deliver you from ever escaping my control and protection. He doesn’t promise to make the messes go away or give us the exact answer to solve the problem. Sometimes he leaves the poisonous snakes in our lives causing us pain and suffering, confusion and helplessness. Nevertheless, He did still deliver the Israelites by giving them the lifted up bronze serpent to look at and be saved. In the same way He delivers us by giving us the Son of Man lifted up to look to and be saved. We may still have to endure the pain of this life, but we know when we look up to the Son of Man who was lifted up, we are saved and God has delivered us. Even Christ Himself asked God to take from Him the cup in the garden of Gethsemane. He asked His heavenly Father to deliver Him from the suffering and painful situation He knew He was about to endure. However, He includes, not as I will, but as you will. Jesus knows the most important thing is for the will of the Father to be done, because He knows best. Christ did not want to have to go through the pain and suffering, but He trusted that if that was the Father’s will, it was what was best. And the Father’s will is not to remove the cup from Jesus. The will of the Father is to let His Son die in order to save all of mankind. He lets His own Son, Jesus Christ, go through the pain and suffering of the crucifixion on the cross to forgive you of all your sins, to give you your salvation, and be the Savior who does indeed deliver you. Our Father does what He knows is best and lets His Son die to save you. He lets His Son be lifted up on the cross so that you have your deliverance from the poisonous snakes in your life. He delivers you by giving you the forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life. That may not include always removing the messes and suffering from your life, but it does include Romans 8, that no suffering, no messes, no poisonous snakes, no enemies, not even death can separate us from the love of God. This is His will that we ask be done. That no matter what we endure in this life time, His will be done not ours. And then when we find ourselves in those messes, in the suffering an pain, we know He hears our every prayer, we know He will deliver us, because we have His Son lifted up to look at and know we are saved and nothing, no amount of messes or pain or suffering can take that away from us. Our God does indeed hear our prayers, He does always answer us, maybe not in the way we wanted Him too, but we trust that His will is done, that He is in control and knows what is best. We know His will is to deliver us and keep us in His love, and we have the Son of Man lifted up to always look to for that deliverance. Our God who did not spare His own Son, but let Him die for us, will always deliver us from anything this life can throw at us.
In the name of the Son of Man who was lifted up for us, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text for tonight is from Psalm 102 looking specifically at verses 1, 2, 16 and 17. Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For the Lord builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; 17 he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.”
When I was a kid I had a reoccurring nightmare. I think I only had it two or three times, but it scared me every time. See as a child I was extremely scared of dogs, stupid I know but it was part of my childhood. So my dream was that I was walking down the street we lived on and when I would get to the alley which was about half a block away from our house, a pack of several big, scary dogs would come running at me from down the alley. I would run as fast as I possibly could around our house, into the backyard headed straight for the basement door. As I ran through our yard around the house there were several people from the community, our church, or school, adults from around town that I knew rather well. And as I ran past all of these people I would open my mouth and try to scream as loud as I could for help from them. However, as I tied to scream, nothing came out. I could feel my throat trying so hard to scream but no scream ever came. And it was so frustrating having people right there to help but because I couldn’t get any screams to actually come out, they didn’t notice me or the dogs. This is when I would wake up in a panic though because in my dream I was scared out of my mind that these dogs were going to kill me, and the people who could help me couldn’t hear my cries for help.
Luckily, it was just a dream and mom would be able to calm me down and get me back to sleep. However, what if it wasn’t a dream? I don’t mean the pack of ravage dogs chasing me, I mean being in a situation where you are utterly distraught and cry out for help with all your might, begging and pleading for help, but it seems like no one is listening. Would that not be a nightmare? Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever actually experienced a time in your life where you feel like absolutely no one is hearing your cry for help?
In our Psalm for this evening, this is exactly what the psalmist is experiencing. He starts his psalm by saying, “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you! 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!” Notice though who he is crying out to, who is the one not hearing his cries? He is not just calling out to those around him, people he knows who he thinks can help him. No, he cries out to God, the Lord! He calls on the highest power he knows, the creator of heaven and earth, the all-power, almighty LORD! And yet this is the one who he feels is not hearing his cries, he feels that the Lord has hidden his face, looked away from him, not allowing the cries and pleas of distress come to His ears. Have you ever felt THIS way? Have you ever experienced a time in your life where you took your troubles to God, crying out to the one and only Lord of all, and it seems like He is not hearing your cry for help?
See it normally takes a lot for us to finally turn to the Lord. We let our problems get to the extreme worst before we turn our cries to God. Just like when we looked at Psalm 32 a couple weeks ago where we wait until our sin is eating away us before we finally turn to Him in confession releasing our sins to Him, with problems and difficult situations we do the same thing, letting them build up and lead us farther into the muck and mud before we finally realize we are stuck and have no way out.
Then we finally decide that we have no other options, nobody else to call on, no one else who could be of any help besides God. Our problem is finally big enough for Him to worry about, so we turn to Him in prayer. Most of the time, we literally hit our knees, fold our hands, and close our eyes. Even though our normal bed time prayers are usually said laying in bed, half falling asleep, this utter desperation of the mess or situation calls for a special prayer. We get on our knees, fold our hands, close our eyes and pray like we were taught as children. Now we let everything out. We confess that we have gotten ourselves into this mess, we acknowledge that we should have turned to Him much sooner than we did, we explain exactly what the situation is, why it is so bad and why we feel so trapped or stuck, our raw emotions are freed and we hold nothing back, giving the entire scenario to Him, placing all trust in His hands, begging for direction, for the wisdom to know what to do, guidance to get us out of this mess in the best way possible. We go to sleep feeling a little better thinking that now God is going to take care of us and fix everything. Only to wake up the next morning and be just as lost and confused as before, just as stuck and helpless as we were. Did God not hear my prayer? Is He hiding His face from me, not inclining His ear to my pleas? I finally turn to Him for help, and now He doesn’t hear my cry? This is as frustrating as my dream where the people are right there in front of me, but with all my might and effort I can’t get them to hear me. God is supposed to always be there, always listening to my prayer, why now at the time I need Him most am I not able to get Him to hear me? What do I do now to get out of this mess? Who can help me if God doesn’t even hear me? Have you ever felt this way like our psalmist?
However, unlike the dream where I could actually see that the people could not hear me, in real life when it comes to God, we just assume He doesn’t hear us because it seems like He isn’t answering or responding. But why do we assume He doesn’t hear us? Look at what our psalmist, the very one who feels this way says in verses 16 and 17, “For the Lord builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; 17 he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.” He knows God hears his prayers. The same way when Jesus prays at the tomb of Lazarus He starts His prayer by saying, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me, I knew that you always hear me.” Christ Himself knows the Father is always listening. God does always hear our prayers. He not only hears them but does not despise them either. God loves it when we turn to Him in Prayer. In Psalm 50 we hear the Lord tell us, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.” He not only hears our prayers but He answers us too. So if God always hears our prayers, and He promises to deliver us, then why does it seem like He is not answering us, nothing changes and we are still stuck in the middle of the same mess or suffering?
God does always hear our prayers. He does always answer our prayers. He does deliver us when we call upon Him in the day of trouble. However, when He promises to deliver us, He doesn’t promise to make everything immediately perfect, He doesn’t promise to completely remove the mess or situation from our lives. Just like He doesn’t answer the Israelites cry to be saved from the poisonous snakes in the wilderness in Numbers by removing the snakes. No, instead He leaves the snakes, lets the people endure the bites and pain, but He does deliver them. Call upon me in the day and trouble and I will deliver you says the Lord. What He is saying is I will deliver you from being overtaken or over powered by the suffering and pain, I will deliver you from being driven to utter despair and being sent to your own doom or harm. I will deliver you from ever escaping my control and protection. He doesn’t promise to make the messes go away or give us the exact answer to solve the problem. Sometimes he leaves the poisonous snakes in our lives causing us pain and suffering, confusion and helplessness. Nevertheless, He did still deliver the Israelites by giving them the lifted up bronze serpent to look at and be saved. In the same way He delivers us by giving us the Son of Man lifted up to look to and be saved. We may still have to endure the pain of this life, but we know when we look up to the Son of Man who was lifted up, we are saved and God has delivered us. Even Christ Himself asked God to take from Him the cup in the garden of Gethsemane. He asked His heavenly Father to deliver Him from the suffering and painful situation He knew He was about to endure. However, He includes, not as I will, but as you will. Jesus knows the most important thing is for the will of the Father to be done, because He knows best. Christ did not want to have to go through the pain and suffering, but He trusted that if that was the Father’s will, it was what was best. And the Father’s will is not to remove the cup from Jesus. The will of the Father is to let His Son die in order to save all of mankind. He lets His own Son, Jesus Christ, go through the pain and suffering of the crucifixion on the cross to forgive you of all your sins, to give you your salvation, and be the Savior who does indeed deliver you. Our Father does what He knows is best and lets His Son die to save you. He lets His Son be lifted up on the cross so that you have your deliverance from the poisonous snakes in your life. He delivers you by giving you the forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life. That may not include always removing the messes and suffering from your life, but it does include Romans 8, that no suffering, no messes, no poisonous snakes, no enemies, not even death can separate us from the love of God. This is His will that we ask be done. That no matter what we endure in this life time, His will be done not ours. And then when we find ourselves in those messes, in the suffering an pain, we know He hears our every prayer, we know He will deliver us, because we have His Son lifted up to look at and know we are saved and nothing, no amount of messes or pain or suffering can take that away from us. Our God does indeed hear our prayers, He does always answer us, maybe not in the way we wanted Him too, but we trust that His will is done, that He is in control and knows what is best. We know His will is to deliver us and keep us in His love, and we have the Son of Man lifted up to always look to for that deliverance. Our God who did not spare His own Son, but let Him die for us, will always deliver us from anything this life can throw at us.
In the name of the Son of Man who was lifted up for us, Jesus Christ. Amen.