Sermon Oct 31, Nov 1, 2015 All Saints Day

Title:  Blessed are you … in Christ!
Text: Matt. 5:1-12

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Archaeologists digging in the remains of a … school in Rome found a picture dating from the third century. It shows a boy standing, his hand raised, worshiping a figure on a cross, a figure that looks like a man with the head of an [donkey]. Scrawled in the writing of a young person are the words, "Alexamenos worships his God." Nearby in a second inscription: [It reads] "Alexamenos is faithful."
Apparently, a young man who was a Christian was being mocked by his schoolmates for his faithful witness. But he was not ashamed; he was faithful.

Lieghton Ford, Good News is for Sharing, 1977, David C. Cook Publishing Co., p. 78.

Blessed are you … in Christ!

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

The followers of Jesus were drawn to him.

Today [this weekend] we celebrate All Saints Day. The Saints, those who have followed Christ - you and me - who have been made Saints … not as in some earthly human rite where we are declared a saint by the church because of the life we’ve led or the things we have done but a Saint as in a disciple … a follower of Jesus.

Alexamenos was reviled by his classmates in ancient Rome for being a Saint. You and I might have times in our lives where we have been persecuted for our faith and for you and me it most probably like Alexamenos, being teased or made fun at for being a Christian. Real persecution goes way beyond that and Christians around the world know that all too well. We though, also see growing persecution in our day whether it is job, community, or societal and political persecution and pressure. What had been only teasing in my life has now real consequences for all who name Christ as there Lord and savior.

Jesus addresses those Saints who were following him:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The psalmist begins in Psalm 1 with this proclamation:

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1-2

Blessed for those connected to Christ means joy because the Kingdom of heaven is theirs. We see this joy in our reading from Revelation today.

This heavenly picture has some wonderful and awesome truths depicted as well. There is an uncountable multitude – more than you can even imagine. This multitude is made up of people like you and me … real flesh and blood people. And they come from every nation and tribe – people from around the world – dressed not in the rags of their own unrighteousness but covered in white robes, the robes of Christ’s righteousness … and carrying palm branches!

Wow! It sounds like Heaven is a very tangible place too. Because to speak of palm branches … we might reasonably assume palm trees, but the image that also comes to my mind is the glorious ride of Christ into Jerusalem and the waving of palm branches by the people:

9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt 21:9)

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

And blessed are you … in Christ!

In this life we do have trials that can block our joy. In the midst of the trial it seems insurmountable that joy can result. But with God all things are possible.

[Michelle's story of the loss of her boyfriend in a motorcycle accident.]

He promises to hear our prayers and to be with us and never forsake us so that even we who mourn will be comforted.

Certainly in life we mourn for those who have gone from this life to their eternal home but we also mourn for ourselves as sinners in need of a savior. It is what we proclaimed as we celebrated the Reformation last weekend. Being a sinner caught between God and the Devil being both condemned by God and tormented by Satan. But through Christ’s substitutionary work we have peace with God and are comforted.

Ill.

Robert Louis Stevenson tells of a storm that caught a vessel off a rocky coast and threatened to drive it and its passengers to destruction. In the midst of the terror, one daring man, contrary to orders, went to the deck, [and] made a dangerous passage to the pilot house and saw the [pilot], at his post holding the wheel unwaveringly, and inch by inch, turning the ship out, once more, to sea. The pilot saw the [man watching] and smiled. Then, the daring passenger went below and gave out a note of cheer: "I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well."

Robert Louis Stevenson.

It is the pilot of our life Jesus Christ who guides us through this life as the hymn Jesus Savior Pilot Me says:

1. Jesus, Savior, pilot me,
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treach’rous shoal;
Chart and compass come from Thee:
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
Blessed are you … in Christ!

Blessed are the meek and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because you will inherit the earth and be satisfied.

In Psalm 37 King David writes:

10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
    though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land
    and delight themselves in abundant peace.

As we together hunger and thirst for just a bit more sanctification … being conformed into the image of Christ … we can know that we indeed are being sanctified.

Ill.

There was a video posted online and the caption reads “Sanctification.” There was an old man standing at the foot of an escalator. And there is an age where old men should not wear shorts. In one hand was a satchel and his other grabbed the handrail. As he prepared to step on the escalator the step caught his feet. He started to fall slowly backward, holding the handrail as his feet went before him. Slowly he was upside down slowly spinning as he headed to the next floor turning on his side until he was on his rear end on a step reaching the next floor backwards … no thanks to himself.

You see, the work of Justification [making us right with God as Luther found] and the work of Sanctification [conforming us to Christ] is all of God’s work. We’ll get there – flipping and turning and even going backwards – but God will get us there.

Blessed are you … in Christ!

Those who are merciful receive God’s mercy and those with pure hearts will see God.
“Luther says well that in all the beatitudes faith is presupposed as the tree on which all the fruit of blessedness grows.” It is not mere natural mercy as it is occasionally found among men generally [but grows out of personally experiencing God’s mercy of forgiveness in our lives, being pure in heart, by the working of the Holy Spirit and seeing God.]

God’s mercy makes his you and me, his Saints, merciful too.

R.H. Lenski, Gospel of St. Matthew Pg. 191

Finally, through Christ, in the battle of persecution that rages, we become peacemakers showing forth the son ship given us called the sons of God, and children of our heavenly Father.

Though persecuted, poor in spirit, mourning, and meek; though hungry for righteousness God’s mercy shows fourth in us as we remain pure in heart, being his sons by his gift of faith … in Christ, working through the Holy Spirit in us, giving us the great reward his won by his Son Jesus on our behalf.

Heaven … our eternal home!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen