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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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