So That Those Who Do Not See, May See

Text: John 9:1-41

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

It has been said before that if mankind wants to understand the Bible accurately, a person should read it with a very commonsense approach, interpret it according to a most basic and reasonable way, and then completely reverse what they comprehended from the Bible.  What did you just say Pastor?  Yes, when reading the Bible mankind naturally reads it according to the wisdom of man; what sounds reasonable.  However, in order to obtain what the Bible is actually saying, mankind’s natural interpretation needs to be reversed, typically 180 degrees. 

Truly, the ways of God are not the ways of mankind and mankind’s ways are not God’s ways.  The way God sees things and defines reality, is typically the very opposite to how mankind sees things and understands reality.

Let me give you a couple of examples.  We believe that the greatest is the one who is first; however, the Bible says that the last shall be first and the first will be last.  We believe that one who wins is victorious; however, the Bible says that victory is found in surrendering.  We believe that the spiritually rich are blessed; however, the Bible says blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt.  We believe that those who laugh and have joy are the ones who are truly comforted; however, the Bible says that those who mourn shall be comforted. We believe that an example of greatness is an independent, autonomous, and self-sustaining adult; however, the Bible says that the greatest are dependent, subservient, and needy children.  We believe that mankind is intrinsically good; however, the Bible says that mankind has an evil heart.  We believe that mankind is free; however, the Bible says that mankind is bound.  We believe that life happens as we truly live; however, the Bible says that we must die to truly live. 

As I have already mentioned, the ways of God are not the ways of mankind and the ways of mankind are not God’s ways.  Indeed, the way that God sees things is the very reverse to how mankind generally see things. 

So, why is this the case?  It is because mankind is by nature spiritually blind.  Surely, from birth you and I are born spiritually blind; having eyes to see, but not truly seeing.  Yes, due to the sinful fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, you and I are stained with sin and have a warped capability to grasp who God is, what his temperament is to us, and what reality is all about.  Otherwise stated, your nature and mine is weak, our view of truth is tainted, our reason is warped, and our view of reality is distorted; mankind, which includes you and me, loves carnal things because mankind is blind in sin and easily enticed by the deceptions of the evil one.  Things that are evil according to God are perceived as good by us; things that are good according to man are typically perceived as evil according to God.  We make evil – good and good – evil.

What this means is that apart from God giving us eyes to see, apart from God revealing to us truth, apart from God speaking into us, we are blind people leading other blind.  We are blind people stumbling through the maze of life, not fully understanding sin, righteousness, ourselves, and especially the Gospel.  Apart from being given eyes to see, we are totally and utterly blind; we are helpless like the blind beggar in our Gospel reading from today. 

It is remarkable hearing our Gospel reading from today though, isn’t it?  In our Gospel reading Jesus and the disciples were passing by a blind beggar and Jesus approaches this smelly, dusty, sightless, beggar, and then spits on the ground.  He then takes this sticky, putrid mud and presses it into the blind man’s eyes and against his eye sockets.  Yes, the man is blind from birth and the Son of God is pressing spit and mud into his eyes.  But why? Mud and spit are not the exact same things as warm oil or warm water to sooth the eyes.  Rather mud and spit are messy, coarse, and most likely cold.  What this mud and spit do is that they acknowledge that the blind man is actually blind; that he can’t see; that he needs sight to be granted.  As Jesus applied the spit and mud to the blind man it was as if He acknowledged the man’s blindness, darkness, hopelessness, and predicament. 

Have you noticed that though?  In the scriptures, most of the people Jesus heals and encounters are those that were completely and totally helpless. 

Jesus encountered people with leprosy.  He met people who were lame.  He encountered people with disfigured hands.  He encountered people who were demonically possessed.  He met people who were blind and even people who were dead.  They were people with circumstances that were out of their control.  They did not possess the antidote to their predicament within themselves. And get this, Jesus, typically had a way of affirming their dilemma, not ignoring it.  Yes, He didn’t overlook their predicament but acknowledges it, and then He does something about it. Why do I mention this?  Is this not a tremendous picture of our spiritual condition apart from Christ?  Are we not blind; sick; dead; lame; and in bondage spiritually speaking?  Is this also not a tremendous picture of God’s Word and Sacraments granting us life and forgiveness; could I also say sight?

Consider this, because of the tragic sin of Adam and Eve, and its blinding consequences, God did not abandon His creation, rather He drew close to Adam and Eve immediately after they sinned and God continued throughout the ages to reveal Himself to His Creation as well.[1]  “Yes, the Holy Spirit has to work faith and give spiritual sight through God’s Word and Sacraments”[2] in order for anyone to truly see.  God doesn’t abandon but continually draws near to His Creation in its beggarly sightless and sinful status.  Otherwise stated, what this means is that we can’t see, we can’t understand, we can’t make sense of the things of God, we can’t discern truth, and understand reality unless we are given eyes to see, unless the Holy Spirit works faith in us through the Word and Sacraments, and unless the Lord continually sustains us through the Word and Sacraments.

Like the blind man in darkness who received spit and mud pressed upon his lifeless eyes, God’s precious Word of a Savior who was bloodied, crucified for sin, buried, and resurrected to life travels through the auditory canals of our ears, pierces the soul and grants us faith and forgiveness.  Like the helpless blind beggar who had mud and spit surged upon his eye sockets, Christ’s precious Body and Blood are surged and poured into our mouths and into our body.  Like the helpless beggar who washed the mud off of his eyes in the pool of Siloam to see, we have been washed in the waters of our baptism.  Yes, not dirt, but sin has been washed away and drowned, thus this water has taken us from darkness to light. 

Yes, Jesus’ saving and restoring work on the Cross, work that is delivered to us in the Word and Sacraments, gives us eyes to see.  Furthermore, the Word of God enables us to fill in the blanks of life; it defines reality; it shows us truth; it enables us to describe ourselves and the world around us honestly and forthrightly; and it liberates us from having to make and construct false theories in order for life to make sense.  Indeed, the Holy Spirit through the Word gives us eyes to see and places you and me in the light.[3] 

Indeed, Jesus came so that those who do not see may see.  He came so that you may see.

Now, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Robert Kolb and Charles Arand, The Genius of Luther’s Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2008), 144.

[2] Balge, R. D., & Ehlke, R. C. (1989). Sermon Studies on the Gospels (ILCW Series A) (p. 143). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House.

[3] The paragraph was a paraphrase of a section from: Robert Kolb and Charles Arand, The Genius of Luther’s Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church, 144.

Only The Death Of Christ Could Destroy Death Itself

Text: Hebrews 2:14-18

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

What do people say about death?  According to some, death is it; nothing else exists after death; the show is over.  For others, the mentality with death is, ‘whoever dies with the most toys wins.’ They approach death from the perspective of trying to squeeze the most out of life before the final curtain is drawn.  Well, whatever the flavor or understanding of death that a person has in our contemporary culture one thing is for sure, there is a consistent theme with death.  That consistent theme is that death produces fear.  Frankly, you and I as Christians are also not immune from this fear of death. 

Because of this fear of death, the typical reaction is that we turn inward towards self-preservation.  Let me give you an example.  Florence Nightingale's most famous contribution came during the Crimean War. On October 21, 1854, she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses, trained by Nightingale, were sent to the Ottoman Empire, where the main British camp was based.  She and her nurses found wounded soldiers being badly cared for by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. Medications were in tiny supply, sanitation was being ignored, and mass infections were common, many of them deadly. There was no equipment to process sustenance for the patients.  It has been reported that Nightingale reduced the rate of death from 42% to 2% either by making improvements in hygiene or by calling for the Sanitary Commission.[1]  Now, here is the reason why I share all of this with you.  Later on in life at the age of 37, Florence Nightingale became bedbound.   She was sporadically bedridden and grieved from depression.  Some believe it was due to health problems but other information specified that she was so crushed by witnessing death that she simply became overwhelmed and was basically emotionally paralyzed by the sight and memories of death, so paralyzed that she ended up in bed for the next 53 year.  She lived to be 90 years old.[2] 

My friends, the fear of death can cause us to seek self-preservation; we can turn inward with fear, preserve self and shut the world off from ourselves.  The result of being bound in fear can lead to a person not feeling alive, but being practically dead already.  We can become dead men walking. 

As a result of the sobering reality of death the cultural message of death is that we should throw off this fear of death, force it out of our minds, and say to ourselves, “Why should we worry.  When we are dead, we are dead.  Don’t worry, be happy.”  However, this ploy is not healthy for it dismisses the reality of death and it pretends that God’s wrath, hell, and damnation don’t exist.

If death cannot be dismissed and if we don’t want to be paralyzed by death we have another option and that option is to desensitize death and that is what our American culture has done.  In our media, death is portrayed in movies, books, and news so frequently that we have become numb to death; the reality and pain of it is not portrayed. It isn’t uncommon to turn the news on, pick up the paper, watch a crime drama, and experience the casual-ness of death. In fact when it comes to funerals, people often look better in the coffin than they did in real life.  Death is sanitized at funerals; the edge is taken off with flowers and the workings of the morticians.  This is society’s way of processing death.  This is the natural man’s way of processing death. 

Thus, what we see at the root of all these methods that attempt to respond to death, is essentially fear. 

As we contemplate death and its fruits of fear, does the Old Rugged Cross of Christ have anything to say to this issue of death?  Does the Old Rugged Cross of Christ do anything to death?  Yes, it does speak to death and it does do something to death.

Jesus became, and still is, a real human being and truly our brother.  In His birth, life and death He shared with our humanity yet without sin.[3]  But what does this have to do with our topic of death?  Let me explain, Satan initially planned death for humankind for he was a murderer from the beginning.  Death was to be the ultimate destruction of mankind.  However this device of devastation for mankind becomes the instrument of mankind’s exaltation and eternal life; thus the death brought in by Satan is counterworked and made powerless by the death of Christ.  The Cross, which is a picture of ultimate death, is now the solution for death.  Only the death of Jesus could destroy death itself. 

Yes, Jesus changes everything.  Christ’s cross shatters the power of Satan and it abolishes the sting of death.  Death was destroyed by an act of self-sacrificing love.  Thus, death may kill our body, but it cannot kill our soul.  Our soul is safe in Christ and even more, our mortal body will be raised anew someday. 

Yes, death may taunt us, but destroy us? No. Confine us to eternal death?  No. 

What this means is when we find ourselves coming face to face with the darkness of death, the key is not to deny our fear or cover our fear, but rather our fear be met by the one who partook of death, Christ crucified.  Death and its fruit of fear are to be met by Jesus’ words that death has been defeated; it is finished.

Yes, in Christ we can stare into the darkness of death and say, “What is death?  What is hell?  Christ, the Son of God, placed himself under God’s laws and died.  But Christ’s death defeated death and gave us life.”[4] 

My friends, in Jesus nothing is more certain than eternal life and the resurrection and this is certainly true, even when the shadow of death will encroach on you someday.  Indeed as Paul states in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  (39)  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ. Amen.

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[1] Wikipedia, “Florence Nightingale.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale (26 March 2014)

[2] Ibid.

[3] See Hebrews 2:14.

[4] Martin Luther.  Source Unknown.



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Living Water Poured Into Parched Souls

Text: John 4:5-26

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Water is indeed a great necessity for each and every one of us, is it not?  Consider this, how often don’t we have to drink water?  I’ve been told that the average person can go without water for about 3 days.  However, after 3 days we enter into the very serious stage of being dehydrated.  Indeed, we need water every day because we cannot live without it.  Thus, when we thirst, we logically seek out water to drink; when we drink water we are satisfied.  However, once we are satisfied by water, we begin to thirst again.  Around and around we go in this cycle of drinking, being satisfied, and then thirsting again.  No matter what sport drink commercials say, there is nothing available to us to completely and permanently alleviate our thirst.  We are always dependent upon water physically speaking. 

In our Gospel Reading from today, Jesus encounters a Samaritan Woman at a well.  The Samaritan Woman was most likely thirsty and needing water for that is the obvious reason why she came to draw water from Jacob’s Well.  Jacob’s Well was approximately 80-100 feet deep and the water in the well came from a spring.  Certainly, this well was a source of life for the woman, as well as hundreds of other individuals in the city of Sychar.  Hundreds of people would come to the well throughout the day, lower a bucket, and draw water. 

In our reading, Jesus uses the Samaritan Woman’s need for water to talk about a different kind of water, living water.  Otherwise stated, Jesus uses the reality of needing physical water and the certainty that mankind continually thirsts, as a platform to switch the conversation to different water, living water that quenches an eternal thirst.

My friends, material water, that is H20, will certainly quench your thirst for a while.  However, material water cannot permanently quench thirst eternally speaking.  Yes, like our bodies, the soul thirsts!  St. Augustine, an early Church Father, once said that the soul, which is created for God, will not rest until it rests in God.  Surely, God is complete and we are incomplete because of the curse of the fall, the sin of Adam and Eve.  Because of the curse of sin we are continually trying to make complete the incomplete.  After their fall into sin, Adam and Eve realized their nakedness and felt shame.  Sin poisoned and corrupted their completeness, thus driving them to sew fig leaves together to cover their shame and we have been acquiring fig leaves to cover our shame ever since. 

Whether we use the metaphor of sewing fig leaves to cover our shame or drinking water to satisfy our thirst, the point remains the same, we are not satisfied or complete as human beings.  We are in a state of thirst.  We are constantly trying to cover our shame.  We are trying to calm our fear by being in control.  Truly, because of sin we are off center, naked, shamed, thirsty, fearful, unclean, and restless.    Unfortunately this is the reality of sin and our fallen condition.  This reality is what we affirm each and every Sunday, as we confess our sins in the opening of our Divine Service.      

As a result of our status we are constantly driven and under compulsion to fix ourselves, to justify our condition, to quench our thirst, so that we might be able to have a sense of completeness and wholeness.  We are constantly seeking to make it back to the Garden of Eden where things were right and where mankind was once whole, where there was no thirsting of the soul.  But since we can’t travel back in time to the Garden of Eden, we are left constantly attempting to find freedom from this parching thirst.  We convince ourselves over and over and over that we are o.k. through thinking positive thoughts and by reinforcing our self-esteem.  We say to ourselves, “I am not thirsty, spiritually speaking. I have springs of refreshing water deep within me.  It is there; I am o.k.; I am not thirsty. I am satisfied!”  On the other hand, we are constantly trying to squeeze every drop of water out of the things of life to satisfy our thirst.  We desperately wrap our arms around money, sex, power, food, our property, our possessions, our egos, our jobs, and so forth.  We wrap our arms around these things to wring out every possible drop in order to wet the dryness of our parched condition. 

The problem though is that this doesn’t work my friends.  Unless you and I can rid ourselves of sin by making satisfactory payment for sin, which we can’t, you and I will never be rid of this unquenchable thirst.  This is what King Solomon found to be true in the famous Biblical book of Ecclesiastes.  Solomon, the cleverest of humanity, tried everything, every experiment and desire known to man; and his conclusion was that everything is worthless. In other words, Solomon teaches us that all of mankind’s counsels, plans, and undertakings are all useless and fruitless when lived apart from God.  Without the Lord, nothing can quench our thirst.   

“And so it is in life when it comes to trying to satisfy our spiritual thirsts.  None of the worldly things that we seek out in life can ever give us the peace that surpasses all understanding.  We’re going to the wrong source in an attempt to quench our thirst.  We’re not drawing Christ’s water of life.  Spiritually, we’re not drawing anything better than what we’d draw from a stagnated puddle downstream from the chicken house.  None of these things we sinfully thirst after can ever see us through into eternal life.  None of these things can ever quench the sinful thirst that was a part of us from conception as sinners and enemies of God.  This is why Jesus Christ had to come into our fallen world.  This is why Jesus has to make living water available to you and me.”[1]

In our Gospel Reading from today Jesus, talks about water that is better than the water from Jacob’s well.  This special water though does not need a bucket, it is not located in a deep well, and it is not water that you need to fetch for yourselves by your own doings.  No, it is water that is freely given. Yes, this water that Jesus talks about to the Samaritan Woman is a gift. This water was freely offered to her and it still flows to you and me today as pure gift. 

But where does this water flow from? This water does not flow from within us; it does not flow from any spring of our fallen world of sin.  Rather, this living water is the very Gospel itself.  This living water is Jesus and His Spirit. This living water is poured out upon you at your baptism.  This living water is lavished upon you from the very written and spoken Word of God.  This living water spills over your tongues in the Lord’s Supper. 

Not only is this water freely given and found in Jesus and all that He accomplished, it is living water that satisfies the parched soul; it quenches thirst forever.  It is life-giving water that gushes up to eternal life.  Yes, this living water of Jesus actually quenches thirst.  This fountain of living water is not some philosophical idea, but rather the Gospel that actually does stuff to us.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that which quenches thirst, clothes our nakedness, grants us rest, gives us esteem, washes us clean, and completes us.  Why?  Because Christ was indeed crucified for your sins, was buried, rose again, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father in glory—for you.  .

My friends, drink up and receive this water, it is for you! 

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the living water of eternal life. Amen.

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[1] Jason Zirbel ”Location! Location! Location!” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3719 (22 March 2014)

Christ's Cross Breaks And Destroys Sin's Shame And Guilt - For You

Text: Ephesians 1:7-8 & Revelations 1:1-6

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Several hundred years ago archers would shoot at targets.  When they missed the target, the judge standing next to the target would yell out the word, “SIN.”  Indeed, sin is the result of missing the target for an archer. 

But how does the Bible use this word ‘sin?’  Like in the case of the archer, sin is every thought, desire, word, and deed that misses God’s Law.  Sin was brought into the world by the devil in tempting Adam and Eve, who of their own free will yielded to temptation, they intentionally missed the target.  Thus, from our parents, Adam and Eve, we have learned to know that sin is our ‘turning inward’ on self; it is turning to our own desires, our own wisdom, and our own preferences.  It is ‘us’ wanting to become our own gods, desiring to be like God and thus not only totally missing the mark but attempting to eliminate the mark altogether. 

Not only are there dramatic eternal and spiritual consequences to sin, but there are also intense consequences of sin in the here and now.  In Psalm chapter 32 we receive an accurate picture of sin; sin that was un-confessed.  King David communicates to us that sin creates excessive grief; it can weigh down upon a person with deteriorating effects, as if bones decay.  Sin can figuratively wear out a skeletal structure.  Because of the guilt of sin, there can be tightness of throat; one becomes like a plant without moisture, being constantly exposed to the heat of sin’s guilt and shame.  Indeed, sin produces guilt, shame, and it drives us to fear, the feeling of being overwhelmed.

As a result of sin, we humans go to great lengths to handle and manage the guilt and shame of sin.  We deny sin (i.e., I didn’t do anything wrong); we legalize sin (i.e., well I haven’t done anything as bad as so and so); we shift blame for sin (i.e., the devil made me do it); we suppress the guilt of sin through substance abuse (i.e., we drink until we become numb); and we attempt to overcome the guilt of sin through our works righteousness (i.e., we coat our sin with spiritual cosmetics, good works).  All of these are merely band aids that ignore the much greater internal problem of the conscience, a conscience that has been damaged and condemned by sin.  Truly, these tactics are all intended to suppress the weight and avoid the effects of sin.  Left to self, this management of sin can consume a person’s whole life as they seek peace, absolution, and reconciliation to their sin and guilt. 

As we contemplate sin, does the Old Rugged Cross of Christ have anything to say to this issue of sin?  Yes, the Old Rugged Cross does speak to this issue of sin.  In Ephesians chapter 1 it says that we have redemption; Christ has purchased us out of slavery; through the blood of Christ we have the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.  Indeed, we are granted forgiveness, due to Christ’s cross.  Yes, forgiveness that is applied to us because of Christ. 

There is a hint of scandal with this incredible forgiveness though.  Now, let us consider the scandal.  Upon hearing this you may find yourself saying, “That is too easy; it doesn’t cost the sinner anything.  Should not the sinner have to earn this forgiveness or put just a little forth as a good faith down payment?  I mean, this forgiveness is a little too cheap!  This grace is a little too cheap if it is simply that easy and that free.”  My friends, you are correct that this forgiveness doesn’t cost you and me anything, but it cost the Father everything.  Yes, let us consider how much this forgiveness cost our Lord!  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.  Indeed, this is expensive forgiveness purchased at the cost of the blood of the Lamb.  God the Father unleashed His vengeance upon Christ and then gives up His ‘right’ to unleash vengeance upon us for our sins.  This. Is. Forgiveness.  It is expensive forgiveness for us. 

Consider the following declarations for a moment. Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will remember your sins no more.”  Psalm 103:12 proclaims, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”  Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity; I said ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sins.”  1 John 1:9 states, “When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Yes, forgiveness is the removal of vengeance, it is the yielding of judgment, and it is the letting go of a wrong.  How is this possible?  Because your sin has already been judged upon Christ, the Father does not and cannot hold the debt of sin against you; your sin is forgotten.

What this means is that you are freed from the burden, guilt, and stronghold of sin upon you.  The word freed, carries with it the meaning of: to loose, to break; to destroy; to dissolve.  It can also communicate the idea of ‘washing.’  Simply put, the wage or result of sin as expressed by the Apostle Paul in the epistle of Romans is death.  However, through this Old Rugged Cross we are forgiven and freed from the verdict and stronghold of sin.  Through the Old Rugged Cross the eternal consequence of sin is destroyed and dissolved; sin does not dictate our eternal destiny.  In the cross of Christ, we are washed, the stain is lifted; sin no longer has damning authority over you and me. 

Baptized Saints, in Christ, you are forgiven; in Christ your sins have been cast into the ocean depth; in Christ your sins are distanced from you; in Christ you are totally and wholly forgiven. 

So, when the devil, the world, and your conscience throw your sins in your face declaring that you deserve death and hell, thus bringing forth shame and guilt, tell them this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it?  For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf.  His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, where He is there I shall also be!  He bled and died for me to grant me forgiveness.  Sin, your damning eternal power has been destroyed for the nailed scarred hands of Jesus are the proof of that.”[1] 

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Note: A paraphrase and adaptation of a Martin Luther quote.

You Must Be Born Again?

Text:  John 3:1-17

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

You must born again!  This phrase ‘born again’ is probably a familiar phrase to each and every one of you.  Maybe some of you remember the words, “You need to be born again,” rolling off of the tongue of Billy Graham.  However, what does it specifically mean and how is one to be born again?  How does this happen and what are its implications?

The phrase ‘born again’ surprisingly only appears four times in the Bible, the most familiar place is in our Gospel reading from today where Jesus says, “I tell you the truth that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is ‘born again.”

But what does this mean to be born again?  Take comfort for this phrase also puzzled a man named Nicodemus, the man who Jesus is talking to in our Gospel reading

In their conversation, Jesus clearly tells Nicodemus to be born again.  He does not direct Nicodemus to his Phariseeism, for Nicodemus was indeed a practicing Pharisee.  You see, the essence of first-century Phariseeism is that it pointed individuals to themselves.  Thus, when Jesus said that one needs to be born again, He doesn’t instruct Nicodemus to accomplish this by implementing the beliefs and practices of Phariseeism.  Jesus did not say, “Nicodemus, you need to be born again.  Simply find the strength to enact this change.”  Furthermore, Jesus does not call Nicodemus to go to the deep caverns of his heart and conjure up spiritual energy to mystically accomplish this spiritual task of being born again.  In other words, you cannot be born again by looking to ‘self’ or looking within, that applied to Nicodemus and it applies to you and me today.

But maybe this is some sort of physical change?  This is the reaction that Nicodemus had.  He said, “How can a man be born when he is old, surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb.” He is trying to figure out how ‘he’ can bring about this new birth through physical actions and physical works, as if it was something that was within his grasp. 

Now for those of you women who have had children, I would like to ask you a question for your assessment.  Imagine that after giving birth to your child that the doctor said, “Excellent.  What a healthy baby.  Now we need to put the child back into the womb so that it can be born again.”  What would be the probability of this happening?  Clearly you would have serious problems with the doctor.  Maybe you would say, “That is crazy, do you know how tough it was to get that child out!”  In all seriousness though, to be born again is not something that we physically do or something that we can do.  Thus, Nicodemus didn’t understand how it was possible for a person to accomplish this work of being born again when a person is completely helpless to bring it about.  In other words, to be born again is impossible for us to do in our own strength.  To be born again is not something that we bring about.  Just as it is impossible for us to take credit for our own birth, and just as it is impossible for us to enter our mother’s womb to be born again, so it is impossible for you and I to be eternally born again.  As human beings, we can’t accomplish this eternal feat by our own human strength or doings. 

My friends, to be born again does not mean that we should look to ‘self’ or look within.  To be born again does not mean that you need to jump back into your mother’s womb.  To be born again is not something that you initiate or do.  Rather, to be born again involves death and life; a rebirth.  It is like this, we don’t need a redo in this life.  Rather we need a new life.  Our lives that are continually mucked in sin do not need continual reform, but continual death and continual rebirth.  It isn’t as if God needs to reform and adjust our sinful nature. No, the sinful old Adam is the problem and needs to be put to death and we need a completely new and out of this world birth.

Indeed, to be born again is for you to die, and to die is also to be resurrected.  This death and new birth is something that is done to you, not something that you do.  And what has been done to you?  You were washed.  You were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  God wrote His name on you.  God’s Word connected to the water is powerful my friends.  At your baptism, the old sinful nature was violently drowned.  At your baptism, the old sinful nature, which is malicious, greedy, lethargic, proud, jealous, full of lust, narcissistic, and pathetic, was slayed.  Yes, your baptism has teeth, it is potent.  From this violent drowning massacre your old sinful nature was killed; death happened, yet what emerges is life.  Surely, in the waters of your baptism you die, but you are also resurrected; the resurrection of the new man happens because baptism works forgiveness of sins and gives eternal salvation accomplished by Jesus for you.  Thus, each and every day your life as a Christian “is nothing else than a daily baptism, begun once and continuing ever after.”[1]  Yes, each and every day there is a purging of whatever “pertains to the old Adam, so that whatever belongs to the new creature may come forth.”[2] 

To be born again means that in the waters of your baptism you were taken from death to life because of Jesus.  This new birth doesn’t come by manmade religion.  This new birth doesn’t come by our flesh. This new birth doesn’t come by our works. This new birth doesn’t come by us fulfilling lists. This new birth comes by you and me being washed by the Lord.

The implications of this are amazing.  Being born again means that you don’t belong to yourself and your life is no longer your own.  You are not defined by your first birth.  Because of your second birth, you have everything that you need in Christ.  You can rest with confidence that you are secure for eternity.  Therefore you do not have to be concerned about building a name for yourself for you have the name of God.  You do not have to worry about your spiritual temperature and your spiritual empires for you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm in Christ Jesus.  Indeed, being born again means that you are freed from looking inwards and freed from the constant burden of trying to acquire righteous.  In your new birth you have righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus in which you wear like a robe.  This means that you are freed to be concerned for the well-being of every neighbor. 

Otherwise stated, it is a waste of time and energy when we are shaped by our first birth, rather than our second birth. [3]  “This new life, to which we have been born again in Christ, is not normal or natural, and will not feel normal or natural to us.  Normal and natural to us is our sinful flesh, which remains the enemy of God and will be a pain in the neck until the end of our lives.”[4]   Nevertheless, we are called by God and by the new birth in Christ, into the life of being God’s children and servants.  This means that we are completely forgiven.  We are completely righteous for Christ’s sake.  We are completely free of all, slave to none yet servants to all.

“'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.’  This new life is lived in hope, the Christian hope, which is the confidence that what we cannot see, but God has promised, is true - and so we are confident in ourselves that we have forgiveness and life and salvation, and so we rejoice, and give thanks, and we live out this new life - not according to how things feel, or how things may appear to us, but according to the reality of God's blessings, forgiveness and protection of which He speaks to us in His Word.”[5]

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Martin Luther, The Large Catechism: The Book of Concord (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 465.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Robin Fish. “Born Again.” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=2267 (14 March 2014)

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

Christ Experienced Fury, Wrath, And Damnation - For You

Text: Isaiah 53:1-12

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen

There is a popular phrase that is used in evangelism in American Spirituality these days.  It is the term, “saved.”  It is common for an Evangelist to ask the question, “Are you saved.”  It is a question to discern whether or not one is a Christian or not.  However, this question begs us to ask the next question, “Saved from what?”  Indeed, “Christians speak of ‘being saved, ‘but all too often don’t follow the phrase to its logical reply: ‘Saved from what?’”[1]

If I were to ask you this question tonight, “Are you Saved?,” I am sure that you would reply that you are indeed saved.  If I were to ask you the next question, “Saved from what?,” I am sure that many of you would say that you are saved from sin, death, and the devil.  This is indeed true.  However, there is also one more thing that we are saved from, and the answer might surprise you.  What is that answer?  The answer is that we are saved from God and His wrath.  Yes, saved from wrath. 

What is wrath though?  Wrath is the outpouring of anger and indignation.  It is punishment for a wrong.  It is a verdict against a wrong.  It is rejection.

This idea that we are saved from God’s anger, indignation, punishment, and rejection is a contested and popular idea in our day and age.  A recent popular evangelical pastor and author named Rob Bell is pushes against the idea of God’s wrath.  He recently stated,

“What is God like?  Because millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus.  So what gets subtly taught is that Jesus rescues you from God, but what kind of God is that, that we need to be rescued from this God?  How could that God ever be good?  How could that God ever be trusted?  How could that ever be good news?”

On the other side of the extreme there is a church called Westboro Baptist Church that is led by Fred Phelps.  It is a fundamentalist church that can often be seen holding signs saying, “Thank God for 911; God hates America; The Jews killed Jesus; or Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”  This church is the church that has been in the news over the last couple of years due to their protesting the funerals of dead soldiers. 

With both of these examples, we can see an obvious problem; we find ourselves at an impasse.  If we embrace the teaching of Rob Bell, where God does not have wrath against sin, then God is not just.  If there is no wrath against sin from God, then there would be no demand for Jesus Christ to die on the cross.  If God does not have an issue with sin, then what’s the point of the cross?  On the other side, if God is totally wrath and He has no love then it would’ve been pointless for Christ to suffer and die.  Furthermore, if God is only wrath, where is our solution?  How hard do we have to try to get on God’s good side and avoid His heavy hand of wrath?   

So, who is right?  How do we solve this?

As we look to scripture we see that God indeed has wrath and a verdict toward sin.  God is an all-consuming fire and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.[2]  God’s attitude towards sin is one of anger and indignation.  God’s disposition isn’t a warm fuzzy feeling towards sin.  Sin deserves to be punished.  Paul says in his letter to the church in Rome that the wages of sin is death.[3]  The prophet Ezekiel says that the soul who sins shall die.[4]  In fact, one who has sin is under a curse.  This curse is God’s pronouncement of guilt.[5]  Sin makes a separation between you and your God; your sins have hidden God’s face from you so that he does not hear you.[6]  Yes, God does indeed have wrath.

You may ask though, “Can’t God just ease up and chill out?  Can’t God sweep this sin under the carpet, and ignore the errors?”  My friends, if He did do this, He would no longer be just.  God cannot relax His character; He cannot withdraw His punishment of sin for this would be unjust and unreasonable.  Otherwise stated, for God to be just, fair, orderly, and so forth, He has to release vengeance on sin.  To not do so would violate His very character of being a Holy, Just, Supreme, all-knowing God. 

This leads you and me down a difficult path.  How can we function with the knowledge of God being rightly angry with us due to our sin?  We can barely function when a neighbor, a friend, or a family member expresses anger towards us.  How will our conscience ever be at rest knowing that God curses sin?  How will we face the battles and struggles of life knowing that we are forsaken and reject?  How can we derive any assurance and comfort from God in this life when He is holy and we are not?  This leads us to fear, doubt, and uncertainty. 

The good news of the old rugged cross, this cross that we are focusing on during our Wednesday Night Lenten Services, is that at the cross there is a declaration that God’s wrath is not the final word for you and me.  You see, at the old rugged cross we have the end of God against us and the beginning of God for us.  Yes, at the cross, as our reading from tonight says, the Lord crushed the suffering servant.  Yes, Jesus was put to grief, His soul made an offering for sin.  This was the Father’s will, to crush the Son.  Did you hear this?  In Christ, God’s wrath was spent, not withdrawn.  It was the Father’s will to crush Christ, to spend His wrath, judgment, and vengeance upon Christ.  God does not withdraw His wrath thus becoming unjust but He spends it and unleashes it all upon Christ, our substitute.  Jesus, doesn’t cancel the wrath of God, but He absorbs it.  Christ on the cross experienced the full fury, wrath, and damnation from the Father and He did it for you!  This is the power of the old rugged cross for you.  Because of the old rugged cross, God’s wrath was satisfied upon Jesus for us, which means when we have Christ we don’t have to fear.  Because of the old rugged cross, the curse of sin has been satisfied.  No longer do our consciences have to be troubled spiritually speaking; Christ drank the poison for us and was damned for us.  Because of the old rugged cross, God will never leave us nor forsake us.  His face is towards us with favor and love because Jesus appeased and satisfied justice.

My friends you have been crucified with Christ, buried with Him in your baptism, established in Him, and saved from the wrath of God.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] R.C. Sproul, “Saved From What?” http://www.amazon.com/Saved-What-R-C-Sproul/dp/1433513420, 11 March 2014.

[2] See Hebrews 10:31, 12:29.

[3] See Romans 6:23.

[4] See Ezekiel 18:4.

[5] See Galatians 3:10 & Deuteronomy 27:26.

[6] See Isaiah 59:2, 64:7.

Lord Of Death, Hear The Word From The Mouth Of God

Text:  Matthew 4:1-11

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen

The Gospel of John says that the devil “was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  Furthermore, the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth says that the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. 

My friends all too often we naively believe that false truth and things of satan come prepackaged with red horns and the word ‘evil’ stamped on them.  However, the reality is that satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  “He can disguise himself as polite, caring, nice, helpful, and so forth.  He has the ability to make us think that right things are wrong and he has the ability to twist the way in which we understand love.  He makes the truth into a lie and the lie into a truth.  He spins the facts and as one pastor once said, “…he is always politically correct.”  He is the master of deception.”[1] 

Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is truth.  John 14:6 says that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life.”  Notice that it doesn’t say that Jesus is ‘a’ truth?  Rather, He is ‘the’ truth.  Jesus doesn’t spin the truth, but embodies it.  We see Him speaking the truth in the Gospels even when it is not politically correct or comfortable for His hearers and He speaks truth back to the lies of the devil.   

As we think back to our Gospel reading from today, we heard about a battle.  It is a battle between the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, and the lord of death, the devil.  In this battle we see that both Christ and the devil are not fighting with bombs, guns, or even supernatural spiritual powers.  Rather, as the Lord of Life battles with the lord of death, the weapons that are used may surprise you.  The weapons that are used in this great battle are words.  That is it, just words.

But you may ask, “Why the battle with words; why the war of words?”  The reason being, words are powerful, deeply powerful.  They have more power than we imagine.  They are much more powerful than deeds or actions.  You see, in our day and age, there is a pressure to focus on deeds not creeds.  Otherwise stated, there is a pressure for the church to put its mouth into actions.  The pressure is to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk.  While there is always some legitimacy to this, the church can never give up the proclamation of the Gospel, the Word of God; speaking words. 

Unfortunately, one of the failures in America is that we tend to underestimate the power of words.  However, if we take a moment to think about the power of words, all we have to do is contemplate the power of words in the history of Germany.  The power of words convinced German voters to elect Adolph Hitler to lead their country.  The power of words can convince young men to hijack an airplane and fly it into a building.  Words can convince men and women and even children to strap on explosive vests in order to kill people.  Yes, words are powerful.

So, it is of no surprise that the devil bends the power of words to his will.  He lies.  The devil even takes Holy Scripture and bends it to attempt to mislead Jesus.  Satan takes the words of scripture out of their original context and omits words here and there to try and tempt Jesus into sin.  Seriously, if you look closely at our Gospel reading, you will notice that satan is quoting scripture to Jesus in order to tempt Him.  However, he does so by changing them ever so slightly.  The devil is not interested in eliminating scripture; he is rather interested in twisting it ever so slightly.

The point for us to take note of is that the evil one has been around a long time and is very good at tempting us away from the truth.  The evil one typically does not come against you and me with a red warning label that says, “spicy.”  Rather he comes in deception.  He tells us to trust our emotions, feelings, and personal opinions over the Word of God.  He convinces us that false truths are really true by having us validate truth not on the basis of God’s Word but on whether or not something works.  He attaches glitter, prosperity and charm to false truths knowing that we find attraction in bright lights and the hopeful dreams of being successful.  As we have already noted, the evil one will even twist scripture, take it out of context, and omit important parts.  This is the way that he attacks you and me.  This is how he attacked Jesus.  He twisted and omitted. 

The harsh reality is that you and I in the midst of temptation and trial often turn to false words.  We are easily enticed by twisted truths; we are continuously deceived by the false truths of satan, our flesh, and the world.  Sadly, we don’t completely trust the Word of God.  Surely, we must all confess that we do not listen to the Word of God as we should.  We often pick and choose the lies of the devil, the world and our own sinful nature over God’s Word; we choose that which is easy to swallow.  We are selective in our hearing, choosing that which appeals to our sinful nature, that which is harmful and false for us.  We choose the sweet drink, that which is poisoned.

 

Never the less, there is comfort in today’s text for us.  In Jesus’ interaction with the evil one, we see that every time Jesus is confronted with temptation and lies He does what?  He returns to the Word.  Jesus could have used divine power to stomp on the devil, but He rather appeals to what?  He appeals to the Word of God.  He appeals to the written Word.  What does this mean?  Practically this means that in our battles of deception from the evil one, our truth and certainty is not found in our emotions, our experiences, our feelings, what works, what makes sense, what looks flashy, rather it is found in the Word.  Martin Luther once said that we are to be, ‘captive’ to the Word of God.  Otherwise stated, it is the Word that shapes and forms us, it is the Word that we stand upon and rest in when confronted by the false lies of the evil one.  

While this is good and true, our Gospel reading is not about us battling the devil in the wilderness, but Jesus.  Therefore, as we fix our eyes on Christ in this narrative we see that Jesus saw through the lies of the devil.  He never gave into the temptations that the devil placed before Him even though Jesus was hungry, weak, frail, vulnerable, unprotected, and unguarded in the wilderness.  The devil came to Jesus to tempt Him to sin.  He wanted Jesus to reject the Father.  He wanted Jesus to die.  The devil wanted the whole plan of salvation to crumble and fall apart, thus casting all of humanity and creation into the pits of hell.  He fired, attacked, launched, swung, and lunged at Jesus with twisted words that were bent to his hellish will.  However, the attempts of the devil are simply a joke.  Had the devil forgotten who he was dealing with?  Jesus is the Son of God.  He is the Creator by whom all things were made.  The devil doesn’t have anything to give to Jesus or us for that matter.  He is a taker.  He is a liar.  He is a murderer.  My friends, he only wants to take your soul and destroy your faith.  Christ on the other hand is our Lord who came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.  Christ came and endured temptation greater than any we will ever endure.  Where we often give into temptation to alleviate the pressure, Jesus stands against the temptations of the evil one, He remains faithful proclaiming the unchangeable Word.  He held steadfast in the face of temptation, lies, and deceit.  Thus, He lived a perfect life, a life without sin.  He remained pure and sinless so that He might be the righteousness that clothes you.  Yes, Jesus resisted sin, overcame temptation, and was perfect, so that we might be clothed in His obedience and perfection.  In this way, He has truly protected us and made us His own forever.

My friends, when the devil comes at you with his lies, perverted words, and filth, you tell him this,

“Listen to reality you evil foe!  You can certainly exhaust me, attempt to deceive me through twisted words, and I will even fall for your tricks.  However, hear this proclamation; hear these Words lucifer!  I am baptized into Christ.  I am a child of the Lord of Life.  Christ withstood you and your evil ploys in the wilderness, He crushed you at the cross, He fulfilled the Law, He died to forgive my sins, He saves me from you, and He saves me from death.  How do I know this to be true? Because I live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. His Word endures forever. BE AWAY SATAN! Long live the Lord of Life!"

 

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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[1] James T. Batchelor, “First Sunday In Lent Sermon,” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3146 (7 March 2014)