Saturday 3 December 2016

Mission Festival [Luke 24:44-53] (20-Nov-2016)

This sermon was preached at St Stephen's Lutheran Church, Rainbow, Victoria, 10.30am.

Click here for PDF version for printing.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


It’s a wonderful thing to be gathered here today to have a Mission Festival. It’s strange that today every organisation seems to have a mission statement: some kind of statement that describes what the organisation is there for.

Now the church is not a company or an organisation. It is the living body of Christ. And the church actually has a mission. It has a purpose for which it exists on this earth. We also live in confusing times where people use words to mean a whole lot of different things which they didn’t always mean.

When you think of the word “mission” what do you think of? What is the church’s mission? Well, sometimes people talk about mission as being charitable work, either here or overseas. There might be a program to dig a well for a poor village or to put a roof on a school. Some people might go overseas to help with a project like that. Now, something like this is very helpful—it’s work that needs to be done, but it’s not actually the mission of the church. This is work that Christians can do, but it is work that Christians can share with all kinds of other people too. It’s not a distinctively Christian thing to do.

Or sometimes there are situations where Christians might bring medical supplies to people, like penicillin or syringes or eye-glasses. This is very useful work to be done, but providing health services and medical supplies is not properly the mission of the church. This is work that Christians can do, but it is work that Christians can share with all kinds of other people too.


But in talking about mission today, we have in our Gospel reading a very clear word from Jesus. Jesus is talking particularly about the Gospel being preached to all nations. This is what the church is: it is the place, or we might say, it is the people whom the Holy Spirit gathers, to hear the Gospel. So let’s have a look at our reading.

We read where Jesus says: These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
                                                               
This Gospel reading for today comes right at the end of the Luke’s gospel. It describes the events after Jesus has died and risen from the dead and where he meets his disciples after all those things had happened. In fact, right at the end of our reading, we read about where Jesus ascends into heaven.

In the book of Acts, we read that Jesus appeared to his disciples during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. In the church year, we commemorate this time by celebrating the Easter season. We celebrate Easter, and then forty days later, we have Ascension, where we remember Jesus ascending into heaven. But in the bible itself, there is very little written down about those forty days.

But Jesus says here: These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. Isn’t this a strange way to speak? Jesus is obviously there with his disciples, standing there, talking to them, and yet at the same time, he talks about another time while I was still with you. This is as if Jesus is saying, I have finished my teaching before I died – I have no need to teach you anything new. There are many things you didn’t understand before, but I taught you all those things anyway. Now that I have risen from the dead, it is time for you to learn what I have already told you again in a new light, with a new perspective. Sometimes there are certain events in history, where we might look back and think just how different everything was beforehand. In the sixties, people might have thought about the first man walking on the moon, or when President Kennedy was shot. In the recent 20 years, we might ask people: where were you when Princess Diana died, or where were you when September 11 happened? You can remember what a great impact those things had on the world, and those events change the way you look at certain things that happened before. Well, can you imagine listening to Jesus and being one of his disciples, but then, what does he do? He dies for the sins of the world, and then he rises again from the dead. What happened now changes everything that happened beforehand.

So Jesus says: These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Jesus talks here about the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. By doing this, Jesus is actually talking about all the books of the Old Testament. The Law of Moses refers to the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In German bibles, these books are simply called the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth books of Moses. And then in the Bible, we have the writings of various prophets: for example, we have Samuel, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Daniel, and all the minor prophets. And then Jesus mentions the Psalms. Jesus is probably talking about the Psalms to stand for all the books of Poetry in the Old Testament, like Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Jesus mentions the psalms though as a particularly important book. Of all the books in the bible, it is probably the one book which we read from every single Sunday in the church.

But here’s an amazing thing: Jesus says that in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms there were all kind of things written there about him. There were all kinds of things which were prophesied, and looked forward to Jesus’ coming in the future. And there were all kinds of things that didn’t make sense until Jesus came. And there were all kinds of things that were closed and inaccessible until Jesus had suffered, died and risen.

So Jesus says: that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. We might think of Jesus’ wonderful words on the cross: It is finished. We might also say: It is accomplished, or it is fulfilled. When Jesus died on the cross, and stretched out his arms, everything that was written about him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms was fulfilled. Now, when we read the whole of the Old Testament, we need to realise that everything points us to Jesus. Jesus is hidden in the Old Testament.

And we might say: Really? There are so many things in the Old Testament that don’t really seem to be about Jesus.

Well, maybe the disciples also thought the same thing. We read: Then [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. The disciples’ minds were closed, and unable to understand the Scriptures, but then Jesus opened their minds. Let’s read the next part of our reading:

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

There’s a number of wonderful things that we read about here in this passage. Firstly, let’s think about what it says that Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. I think this kind of talk has been hijacked today. You might find that as a Christian, people call you closed-minded. People think that being open-minded is a good thing. But there was a famous Christian writer who once said, “An open mind and an open mouth should be shut on something solid.” Jesus does not simply want to open their minds, but he wants to open their minds to understand the Scriptures. It’s funny that when we come to understand the Scriptures, people say we are closed minded. That’s because their minds are closed to the Scriptures.

But also, there are a lot of Hindu and Buddhist mystics, and yoga teachers, who might say to people to open their mind. No—for goodness sake! Don’t open your mind to anything! You might not know what will come in! Jesus speaks about evil spirits entering a person like a squatter entering a house. When it says that Jesus opened their minds, we’re not talking about some strange mystical experience here, as if Jesus is a mystical yoga guru. Jesus opens the disciples’ minds here, by teaching them something. And when Jesus speaks a word, it always creates something, and dispels the darkness. Just as on the first day of creation, God said: Let there be light, and there was light, so also Jesus here, who is true God, speaks a powerful word, and the disciples’ minds are opened to understand the Scriptures.

So what does Jesus say? He says: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Jesus first of all talks about his own suffering, and that on the third day he will rise from the dead. But then he says that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name.

This is such a wonderful thing for us as Christians to learn. Right at the centre of our mission as Christians is the fact that Jesus has died and risen again. But why did he suffer and die? He suffered and died to make a full atonement for the sins of the whole world. And why did he rise? He rose in order to defeat death, and to show to the whole world that the sacrifice he made was acceptable to God. If there was no resurrection, if Jesus’ bones were still in the tomb, then Good Friday means nothing. Jesus not only had to suffer and die, but he also had to rise. But then how does this event make a difference to us?

Jesus says: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

As Christians, we might see all kinds of people around us who are in need. And we may be stirred to show mercy to someone. But there are two kinds of mercy: there’s physical mercy, mercy for the body, and there’s spiritual mercy, mercy for the soul. Sometimes if someone has financial problems, or doesn’t have enough to eat, or to wear, we might like to help them out, and clothe them or feed them. God is merciful to all of us like this each and every single day: he clothes us, and feeds us, and gives us everything that we need to support our bodies and our lives.

But then there’s another kind of mercy, the mercy which God shows to our souls. And this is something that is completely unappreciated by the world. It is the mercy where God comes to us with his word and Holy Spirit and sets us on the narrow path. The Holy Spirit does this by leading us to repentance. Jesus in our reading talks about repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Repentance for what? You might say. Isn’t this strange? Jesus doesn’t actually tell us what people should repent of. Well, people might have different problems. Someone might be a thief, someone else might be an adulterer, someone else might disobey their parents. Jesus calls us to repent of all these things, to acknowledge that we have broken God’s law. But you know, if someone has a pet sin, and then stops committing it, it doesn’t make them a Christian. A thief who simply stops stealing isn’t automatically saved.

When God the Father brings us face to face with God’s law and his commandments, he demands nothing other than absolute perfection. He doesn’t let us tick things off like a checklist, and say: I’m alright, Jack. He also shows us things that we haven’t done that we should. James says: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

We are accountable for all of it. One flat tyre makes the whole journey undrivable. One slip up still lands you on the floor. God’s law, and what he demands of us, show us how much we need Christ. It shows us the depths that Christ needed to go to win us back to himself. Each blow of the whip, each nail in Jesus’ hand, each thorn into his brow shows us the extent of our sin, and just how serious it is. And so, Jesus wants repentance to be preached. He not only wants us to turn away from one or two slip ups, or one or two pet sins, but to turn away from our whole sinful existence as we know it.

And yet, Christ’s suffering also shows us something else. Jesus’ death on the cross not only shows us the depth of our sin, but it also shows us how richly and how wonderfully Jesus has paid for all of it. He has atoned for everything. He has offered his whole self, for our whole selves. And he has risen from the dead, and won a wonderful victory, and now he wants his apostles to go out as witnesses and to preach what? the forgiveness of sins in his name.

It’s done in his name, and it comes with all of his authority. And how far should they go to preach this word? To all nations. There is not one single person anywhere throughout the whole world to whom the message of Christ’s death and resurrection should not be spoken. There is not one single person who does not need repentance and forgiveness of sins. Sometimes local missions are played off against overseas missions—people say: we can’t go to all nations, because we need to look after our own backyard. The church has always done both together, and it should be a great prayer for us that our church will once again receive the zeal to go to the ends of the earth wherever the preaching of the Gospel is needed.

Those nations, though, the sinful world, so often doesn’t want to hear any of it—they often want simply to be accepted instead of forgiven. They sure don’t want to repent. The world doesn’t like this mercy for the soul that God wants to show us and to bring to us.

But if you go swimming in Lake Hindmarsh, and you start to drown, and the person rescuing you pokes you in the eye and pulls your hair on the way up, won’t you thank them for it? If you get your leg run over by a tractor, and the only way to save your life is to amputate it, aren’t you grateful to be alive? And yet, if we see someone in need, wouldn’t you help them?

Jesus knows full well that the simple preaching of his death and resurrection looks easy, but it isn’t easy. Jesus knows full well that bringing people to repentance and declaring God’s forgiveness sounds easy enough, but that people don’t really want to hear it. Jesus knows full well that when God’s word of grace and mercy and love is brought down on our heads, all the anger and the bitterness of the world is poured out on us too.

I’m sure you know what it’s like to have a friend who isn’t Christian, and yet if you said something to them about their soul, you could completely lose their friendship, and this fact really causes you some pain, and you worry about it. How do you think the first missionaries to Papua New Guinea felt when they had no baptisms for 13 years? How do you think Paul felt when he got locked up in prison?

And so Jesus says: Behold, I am sending you the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Jesus knows that his church needs help. He knows that we human beings are pretty hopeless in doing such wonderful work. So he promises to send them the Holy Spirit, the promise of his Father. And he wants them to stay and wait for the Holy Spirit. He wants them to know that none of this will be done on their own strength, but they need to be clothed with power from on high.

And the same with us—Jesus brings us his word. He shows us our sin, and he preaches to us the forgiveness of sin. He wants to place this seal of forgiveness on us, and so he baptises us. He wants us even to be strengthened in this forgiveness by eating his body and drinking his blood. And we receive these gifts, not by earning them by things we do, but simply by believing in God’s trustworthy promise. And through all of this, through the word and the sacraments, Jesus fills you with His Holy Spirit, and he prepares us to be useful in serving him in whatever corner of the world he places us. He clothes us with power from on high. Sometimes he sends us to speak, sometimes to serve, sometimes to pray. But wherever he will send you this week, you know that as a Christian your work is pleasing to God, and it is done with all the power of the Holy Spirit. And even if the world hates you, you have God’s approval.

Isn’t it a wonderful thing that Jesus should clothe his disciples with the Holy Spirit? We have been gathered by the Holy Spirit as his holy people, to hear the preaching of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and to hear repentance and the forgiveness of sins preached in his name. And this is what the church is here for, and this is what the church’s mission is. Let’s pray to the Lord of the harvest, that many more people may come to know this same Jesus, and this same forgiveness, so that when they die they may enter the same heaven! Amen.



Lord Jesus, we thank you for sending us preachers and even all kinds of Christian friends to speak to us about your suffering and resurrection, and we thank you for revealing to us our sin, and also for the wonderful free forgiveness of our sin that you have won for us. Expand your church all throughout the world, and send out evangelists anew and afresh, that your kingdom may grow into a wonderful, bountiful harvest. Amen.

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