Sermon Dec.1-2, 2012

Title: In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

Text: Jer. 33:14-16

14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

In the Antarctic summer of 1908-9, Sir Ernest Shackleton and three companions attempted to travel to the South Pole from their winter quarters. They set off with four ponies to help carry the load. Weeks later, their ponies dead, rations all but exhausted, they turned back toward their base, their goal not accomplished.

Altogether, they trekked 127 days. On the return journey, as Shackleton records in The Heart of the Antarctic, the time was spent talking about food -- elaborate feasts, gourmet delights and sumptuous menus. As they staggered along, suffering from dysentery, not knowing whether they would survive, every waking hour was occupied with thoughts of eating.

Jesus, who also knew the ravages of food deprivation, said in Matt. 5:6,

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS!"

We can understand Shackleton's obsession with food, on his long return and food deprived journey. We too long for the day when the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, returns in glory for His bride, the church; and as we wait, we also prepare during this Advent season to welcome the babe in the manger who came to fulfill all righteousness and is … our righteousness, because:

Source Unknown.

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

Jeremiah had a tough job. As the court prophet for King Zedekiah he brought God’s word to the King. At times God’s word through Jeremiah could proclaim blessing and joy and at other times it could proclaim judgment and sorrow.

Judah was in bad shape. They had been falling away from God and His word and trusting in their own righteousness. Even Zedekiah’s name in Hebrew means “Just” and “Righteous.” I thought, just for fun, I’d look up my own name, Russell, only to find out it simply means “Ruddy” or “Red Haired” you can see my parents got that one wrong. But I’ll take just a little joy in my name and its meaning when we consider King David’s description in (1 Samuel 16:12):

12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

For this is right, that David was anointed to be King called by God as one after God’s own heart. But King Zedekiah was hearing judgment from God through Jeremiah’s proclaiming and it was only a matter of time before God’s judgment would come, in the form of King Nebuchadnezzar and the entire Babylonian Army, carrying the entire nation away into exile.

So what do you do if you’re the King and you don’t like what God’s word says? You continue to trust in your own righteousness and your own reason and understanding and lock God’s prophet up in prison of the palace so you don’t have to hear it.

It’s what Zedekiah did and at times it’s what we do. But the joy that our lesson today proclaims … and the blessing we wait in anticipation for this Advent season is that:

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

Don’t you too at times shut up God’s word in your own prison of indifference or rejection? When God’s word condemns your sin, it is often easier to reject the truth God’s word points out than to turn in repentance, asking for forgiveness and receiving the forgiveness and absolution God so desires to give you and for you to hear.

For Zedekiah the judgment of God would come through the Babylonian Army. Where might your judgment come from? For you and for me and through the ages, the Army that many times caries us away is found in our own wisdom, understanding and reason. What God’s word says and that which we can’t understand or wrap our arms around we often reject as foolish or only intended for a certain place and at a certain time. We set ourselves up as God’s judge and determine what is and what is not relevant to me. Our society, or Kingdom if you will, is being judged by God’s word. The truth is we are falling short as a nation. We are all going our own way, as Israel did in the  Book of Judges, having everyman doing what was right in his own eyes so that only a generation or two later … they neither knew the Lord or what He had done for them. How or when we get carried away into our own exile as a nation remains to be seen. But, understanding and reason is a constant battleground.

As Martin Luther stated in one of his Table Talks:

He said:
“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but—more frequently than not—struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”
—Martin Luther, Table Talks in 1569.

But even though we fall short there is still reason to rejoice because:

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

In those days, as also today, God’s word brought judgment and blessing and for those who needed to hear, just as we need to hear, listen:

14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

The promise of a savior, Christ the Lord, would spring forth from the righteous branch of that ruddy rascal King David. He, Jesus, would execute justice, fulfilling at the cross God’s work of redeeming mankind from sin and the works of the Law which cause many to stumble and fall short, trusting in their own works and own righteousness but you … are FREE because by the power of the Holy Spirit you have been brought to faith and trust in a foreign righteousness, one outside yourself and by that same Spirit you cling to Christ and the eternal hope for which He came.

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

The Lord is our righteousness indeed! He has come for you and as we wait in joyful anticipation this Advent season for the coming of the babe in the manger … which is Christ the Lord, we know that He came for you.

But how, you might say, can I know and be sure that he came for me?  By faith through baptism and the preaching of the gospel, God has called you to believe and be His child.

As the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor.5:17-21:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (in Christ) we might become the righteousness of God.

That is the blessed Good News; that is the blessed exchange that you cling to that:

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

The Lord is our righteousness … that we might become the righteousness of God!

So, just as Sir Ernest Shackleton and his three companions in their hardship and suffering on Antarctica hungered and longed for the feast that would satisfy their earthly need. So to, Christ has come … calling you to faith and to His banquet feast, turning you back to Him, and making you His beloved child who feasts on the righteous truths of His word and believes and holds fast the blessed hope as we wait and long for during this Advent season.

The days are coming … when I will fulfill the promise … And those days have come in Jesus Christ our Lord and savior, who having redeemed you from sin, death and the power of the Devil now clothes you with His righteousness now and forever more.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Sermon Nov. 24-25, 2012

Title: God gathers His elect and you are gathered!

Text: Mark 13:26-27

26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

The Danish philosopher, Kierkegaard, tells a parable of a theater where a variety show is proceeding. Each show is more fantastic than the last, and is applauded by the audience. Suddenly the manager comes forward. He apologizes for the interruption, but the theater is on fire, and he begs his patrons to leave in an orderly fashion. The audience thinks this is the most amusing turn of the evening, and cheer thunderously. The manager again implores them to leave the burning building, and he is again applauded vigorously. At last he can do no more. The fire raced through the whole building taking the fun-loving audience with it. "And so," concluded Kierkegaard, "will our age … I sometimes think … go down in fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering spectators."

Resource, July/August, 1990

God gathers His elect and you are gathered!

The truth of that philosophical parable is a sobering reality to every person inhabiting the earth. The promise in scripture is that Christ will return but we don’t know … when the time will come. The text of our gospel in Mark tells us some important things:

24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark13:24-27)

There are end-time scholars that take differing views on when Christ will return. Some say Jesus Christ will come and rapture his church and that we His people will be gathered up in to heaven and that the world and all unbelievers will experience  the 7 years of the tribulation, popularized by the Left Behind series and other end-time predictors. They see this difficult to follow end-time timeline laid out in scripture where the church, God’s elect, are spared the suffering of the tribulation and where those who don’t believe are given a somehow second chance to repent and believe after the church has been raptured to heaven.

But the words of Christ here seem very clear in our reading: … after that tribulation … they will see the Son of Man … he will send out the angels and gather his elect … (not before the tribulation but after) … from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

When Christ returns it will be for the purpose of gathering His elect, those who believe and who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus uses the illustration of the fig tree:

28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. (Mark 13:28-29)

Our text today points to these things taking place but what things? It’s not what we’ve just read in the Gospel lesson but Jesus, earlier in chapter 13, from last Sunday’s reading tells us:

5 … “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines …

And we might add: hurricanes and nor-Easters as was just experienced on the East Coast.
…These are but the beginning of the birth pains. (Mark 13:5-8)

So when Jesus said, when you see these things taking place … that is what He, Jesus, was referring to. Don’t be lead astray by someone claiming to be the Christ; when you see wars and rumors of wars, nation rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and then add all the earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes … He our Lord and savior Jesus is near.

God gathers His elect and you are gathered!

He is near. He is very near. But are you ready? We’re told:

32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (And then we are told.) 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.

Are you ready? The signs are very clear. The indicators are present yet 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26-27)

It might be today, maybe tomorrow, next week, a month, year or two … are you prepared, will you as the elect of God be gathered unto Christ when He returns?

Because: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt.7:21)

In our country we’ve entered what many call a post-Christian world; a world-view that calls truth false and attempts to form God to our own likeness, casting Him in our image or at least in an image of our own choosing. As we make this country and our world into a place void of God’s precepts and principles; we open our world, our home, our family, even ourselves to the schemes of Satan and his minions (his demons) to take up residence in our lives … destroying the very fabric of the family, the definition of marriage, the life of the unborn and claiming a Christian worldview where none exists.

On that day:

23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matt. 7:23)

But God gathers His elect and you are gathered!

35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” (Mark 13:35-37)

This directive to His disciples was a warning to the lulling ability of the world the flesh and the Devil to draw them away from Christ and His word. It’s a word of warning to you too. It’s a warning to me as well. When the word of God becomes only part of my work, in service here and in the exercise of preparing a sermon … I lose the true value, the transforming devotional value of God’s word. You do too.

Ill.
The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels. A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream. Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity. One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on top or you can just Hot Spot your internet and smart phone. No more bother with dirt, no more smoke from the fire, no more drudgery of walking to the stream. Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go outside. We buy a motor home with the hope of seeing new places, of getting out into the world. Yet we deck it out with the same furnishings as in our living room. Thus nothing really changes. We may drive to a new place, set ourselves in new surrounding, but the newness goes unnoticed, for we've only carried along our old setting.
The adventure of new life in Christ begins when the comfortable patterns of the old life are left behind.


David Roher.
God gathers His elect and you are gathered!

God has called you by name. He has written your name in the Lamb’s book of life. You have been adopted into His family at your baptism and the promise of God is that Jesus will never let you be taken from the palm of His hand. He is among us now. Right here with you and me.

In our mid-week Bible class we’ve been talking about the Omnipresence of God, of God’s presence being everywhere at all times verses His Sacramental presence that is here for you now. Here as we gather together called by Christ in worship, we hear His word, we confess our sins and we receive the comfort that we are forgiven and have the favor with God on account of Christ.

In God’s Omnipresence, He is everywhere but for the person in the world outside of the Christian faith they receive many blessings from God in this life because the rain falls on the Just and the unjust alike but there is no comfort from God for the sinner in His Omnipresence, because he only receives Gods condemnation on account of sin … sin that has been paid for by Christ but which many refuse to acknowledge by rejecting the call of the Holy Spirit to repentance … continuing to live in sin and by sin mold their lives.

But you … who believe … you are the elect! You are the forgiven! You are the ones God in Christ will gather to Himself to be with Him forever; to live in the blessed peace of a heaven void of sin and forever illumined by Christ’s glory!

God gathers His elect and you are gathered!

"And so," as Kierkegaard concluded, "will our age and this world … I sometimes think … rather go down in fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering spectators … than to receive Christ and his call by the power of the holy Spirit?"

But not you, most favored child of God. You are forgiven and found in Christ and by His Spirit you believe. This is the Good News for today and for always.

26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
Because: God gathers His elect and you are gathered!

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Sermon Nov. 17-18, 2012

Title: Christ gives us life eternal in Him!

Text: Heb. 10:23-25

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Thinking of the fullness and duration of this wonderful life, W. B. Hinson, a great preacher of a past generation, spoke from his own experience just before he died. He said, "I remember a year ago when a doctor told me, 'You have an illness from which you won't recover.' I walked out to where I live 5 miles from Portland, Oregon, and I looked across at that mountain that I love. I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps, and I said, ' I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down pulling of the material universe!' "

W. B. Hinson.

Christ gives us life eternal in Him!

Eternal life is the antithesis of human reason. Antithesis is a word that means to put in opposition to … the exact opposite. Eternal life means that death is not the end but human reason sees death in only physical terms. Reason says: “When the body dies, life is no more.” But as Christians we have been bought with a price as our text in the book of Hebrews reveals:

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Heb 10:11-14)

In the words of the hymn that I wrote for my Baptism class the work of Christ is revealed.

Jesus Christ, true God and True man, heard repentance call. The sin of our first parents Adam and Eve brought about spiritual death. No longer were they to live in this paradise that God had given them. No longer would this Garden of Eden, where they were to live forever, living in fellowship with God himself and being cared for by this loving God as a father cares for a beloved child, be their home.

With sin came death; both their spiritual death which came first, separating them from God but also later the physical death of Adam and Eve that also is part of who we are and what we inherit. In God’s loving act of casting out our first parents from paradise and keeping them from eating of the Tree of Life and living forever in their fallen state, He place Himself as the once and for all sacrifice for sin and the bridge to life eternal in Him … for you and me.

Christ gives us life eternal in Him!

We continue in our Epistle for today:

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

The water and the word of life; unites us in the death of Christ.

In our Baptisms we have been reborn. In our first birth or the natural way we come into being we have been conceived through natural means and in this way are born in sin. This sin that has been handed down in the natural course of life is called original sin and through it our death and spiritual separation from God is secured. Again we are at first spiritually dead at birth and through the course of life will also physically die. If you think about it in this way:

We are born dead to God … and apart from God’s own intervening in our life … we will remain dead to Him until God calls us all to judgment on the last day. For those apart from the Spirit of God - this is their lot. But we who have been given newness of life through baptism have God’s promise that in Christ our sins have been washed away, He drowns our sin and we will forever live with Him.

Christ gives us life eternal in Him!

But, what do we do and how do we live? Do we take the light that we are given and place it under a basket?

21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Mark 4:21-25)

As you prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday this week and as a Christian look at what you have been given from Jesus Christ your Lord and savior. The Eternal life that you receive comes from the blessed blood given and shed for you at the cross by your Lord and savior Jesus Christ! He buries your sin and your guilt, he takes it upon Himself so that the spiritual death that you are born into is drowned in your baptism and is forever removed from the Fathers eyes. The grave holds no victory over you as in Baptism you are restored to that pristine relationship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God before sin, death and the Devil corrupted your world.

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Christ gives us life eternal in Him!

In remembering our Baptisms, we look to daily die and rise with Christ!

We can truly be thankful as the Holy Spirit comforts us with this blessed good news that our sins have been paid for in Christ! It should bring Joy and peace to us but at times the cares of this life define us and our thankful joy can once again fall to worry and despair. So, how does God stay active in our lives and continue to defend and uplift His children? - Through the word and by the work of the Holy Spirit.

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

We stay in the faith eternal through God’s word and through the sacraments as we partake together as the body of Christ, raised through the water and the word.

Martin Luther had this to say in his Large Catechism:

24] Therefore state it most simply thus, that the power, work, profit, fruit, and end of Baptism is this, namely, to save. For no one is baptized in order that he may become a prince, but, as the words declare, that he be saved. 25] But to be saved, we know, is nothing else than to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil, and to enter into the kingdom of Christ, and to live with Him forever." -- Martin Luther (Quoted from the Large Catechism)

This hope eternal we receive. By God’s Holy Spirit in our baptism we receive this blessed faith to believe. And this faith that we receive is faith in the finished work of our Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit who creates, redeems and brings to faith by the power of His Holy Spirit.

It is truly right to be thankful this Thanksgiving and everyday for all the blessings you have been given in this life and it is also right to thank the Lord for the saving Gospel message that in Christ you are marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.

Christ gives you life eternal in Him!

Even as the mountains will fall and rivers will run dry and the stars will no longer shine Psalm 119 reminds us:

89 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens and
90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast.
93 I will never forget your precepts, or by them that you have given me life.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen