Holy Trinity [John 3:1-15] (30-May-2021)

                          

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

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

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

 
Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
 
 
Today, we celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity. This occasion is quite unusual in the life of the church, in that most of the church festivals commemorate some event. In the Old Testament times, the Jewish people celebrated Passover, which commemorated a particular event, when they were rescued from Egypt together with Moses. In the church today, we often celebrate particular events in the life of Jesus, for example, at Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, at Easter, we celebrate his resurrection from the dead, and so on.
 
However, on Trinity Sunday, we don’t commemorate an event, but we are commemorating a particular doctrine, a teaching. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity has to do with how Christians understand the fact that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, which are revealed in three persons. The teaching of the Holy Trinity comes to us right from the early times of the church, and teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods but one God. We read in many passages in the Scripture that there is only one God, and that to worship more than one god is idolatry, and false worship. At the same time, we read in many places that not only is God the Father true God, but also the Son. Many times, we read in the Gospels that Jesus himself claims to be God, for example, he says: I and the Father are one. Also, after Jesus rose from the dead, Thomas calls Jesus: My Lord and my God. Also, we read in many places that the Holy Spirit is not simply some kind of created spirit, but is actually the Spirit of the living God. We are very careful not to worship three gods, because that would clash with the teaching in the Scripture that there is only one God. But at the same time, we also believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equally true God. Therefore, Christians teach that we worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God.
 
But let’s come to our Gospel reading today, from John chapter 3, where we read about Nicodemus coming to visit Jesus, and ask God to send us the Holy Spirit to open our minds to understand the words of this reading, and also to recognise and confess the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
 
At the beginning of our reading, we read: Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
 
This man Nicodemus is called a Pharisee, and also he was a “ruler of the Jews”. He was actually a member of what was called the “Sanhedrin”, which was the ruling council of the Jews. Nicodemus comes up in a couple more of places in the Gospel of John. In John 7, we read where Jesus was teaching in the temple, and people are disputing about Jesus whether he is the Messiah or not. The chief priests and the Pharisees were discussing and arguing about this, and Nicodemus realises, as he listens to his colleagues, that some of them had already made up their minds that Jesus is a false teacher. We read: Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
 
You can see here that Nicodemus wants to be fair-minded about things, but he is under a lot of pressure. And so, we read in our Gospel reading today that he came to Jesus by night. That is, he came to Jesus secretly, at night-time, when his colleagues wouldn’t know about it. He is interested in Jesus, but he’s afraid of taking his stand with Jesus. He says: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. He recognises Jesus as a teacher from God, and also he realises that the miracles of Jesus must be empowered by God. Notice that he also says, “we”. We know that you are a teacher come from God. Who’s the “we” here? It seems like he’s claiming to talk on behalf of himself and his colleagues. However, Jesus knows, and we all know from the Gospels, that this is not entirely true. Not all the Jewish leaders know this, and even if they suspect it, they don’t want to believe it, and they resist it.
 
So Jesus says: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
 
Jesus teaches a profound mystery here about being born again. He explains what he means just afterwards. But notice here that with this one little sentence, Jesus exposes Nicodemus’s heart and shows us where he is at. He doesn’t understand what Jesus has said about being born again, and instead of asking him, “What do you mean? I don’t understand. Can you explain to me some more?”, or something like that, the voice of reason kicks in, and he makes fun of Jesus’ words because they don’t make sense to him.
 
When Jesus says that he must be born again, Nicodemus draws attention to the fact that he is an old man. How can a man be born when he is old? We have a saying in English, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!” The older we get, the more we like things to be stable and fixed, and don’t like to do new things too much. But also, Nicodemus makes fun of what Jesus is saying, as if it is ridiculous. He says: Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Of course, this is every mother’s worst nightmare. Once their child is born, they’re happy to be done with the whole process of giving birth, and now they can enjoy the child. The thought for a mother of having to go through the whole process again would be terrible! And Nicodemus knows that what he is saying is ridiculous.
 
However, what Jesus is saying is not ridiculous. And this passage shows us how our faith relates to reason. Our reason, and our capacity to think things through, is a wonderful gift from God. However, when it comes to the things of God, we always need to be careful that we don’t try and twist God’s word around, because we might think that something is offensive to our reason. Rather, we should sit, wait, be patient, and learn, and let God teach us the matter from his word. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, the devil twisted God’s word around, so that it said the exact opposite of what it said. God said: You shall surely die. And the devil said: You shall not die. In the parable of the sower, we read that the devil is like a bird that feeds on the word of God. He feeds on the word of God, in such a way that he twists it around to say the opposite of what it says, and in doing so he removes it, eats it, devours it.
 
So Jesus explains what he means. He says: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
 
In the first passage, Jesus talks about being born again: here he speaks about being born of water and the Spirit. Actually, in Greek the word, “again” (anothen), can also be translated as “from above”, as if to say: Unless one is born from above. Jesus here is speaking about Holy Baptism. And he also speaks about the Holy Trinity. Holy Baptism is our second birth, where we are born from water and the Spirit. We are born again, and we are born from above. All these things go together. Also, Jesus speaks about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He talks about entering the kingdom of God, of God the Father. He himself is the one who teaches this with divine authority, saying, Truly, truly, I say to you. And also he speaks about the Spirit coming from above to give us new birth. And these three, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, also go together.
 
This is exactly the same thing as when Jesus gathers his disciples before he ascends into heaven. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. On the one hand, he teaches them to baptise, but he also wants them to do it in the name of God, and to teach them his words. And Jesus says, the Holy Spirit will take what is mine and declare it to you. And so when we teach the words of Jesus, we know that this comes with the activity and power of the Holy Spirit. So what Jesus describes here is a baptism of water and the Spirit. And also, you can see very obviously in this passage the Holy Trinity: baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
 
Now, when we speak about baptism here, there is only one baptism. But there are two elements: water and the Spirit. In Ephesians, St Paul talks about it as a washing of water with the Word. This is the same thing, because the Holy Spirit always comes to us through the Word of God. We are not born three times: once from our mother, once by the water, and once by the Spirit. No, as Christians, we are born twice: once from our mother, and once by water and the Spirit. So when we baptise, we never baptise in silence, because without the Word of God being connected to baptism, it would not have the power of the Holy Spirit. So we also baptise and speak at the same time, and say, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When we baptise in this name, we know it comes with all of God’s authority, and with the power of the Holy Spirit.
 
It’s a bit like water and fire. Water washes and fire burns. But if you connect the two things together, by putting the water in a pot on the stove, the water takes on the heat from the fire, and then has the capacity to burn, just like the fire. So also, in baptism, through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is connected to the water, in such a way that Holy Baptism becomes a burning hot water, a water which does not just wash our bodies, but washes away the condemnation of our sin, and purifies us with the righteousness of Christ. The Holy Spirit then creates in us a living trust in that Word of God which was connected to the water. Our eyes see the water, our ears and our hearts hear the Word. And through baptism, we then trust that we have been received into God’s family, receive the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
 
Many Christians today can be quite dismissive about baptism, and sometimes we meet Christians who have gone along for years and never been baptised. This is because some Christians put a lot of emphasis on the personal experience of conversion, but not on baptism. They say: If I’ve been converted, why need to be baptised? Now, there’s a problem with this: first of all, if we read the Book of Acts, every person who becomes a Christian and converts is baptised. Second, if we put the emphasis on our personal experience of conversion as the basis of our salvation, we will always fall into doubts. Sometimes a person might dedicate themselves to God numerous times. Which one was the genuine conversion? The first, the second time, or the third time? Or maybe I haven’t been genuinely converted yet. Conversion is a work of God, but as far as we can see it, it always seems to get messed up in our hearts with our own works. All our decisions and our choices are all tainted with sin, and so we can’t look back and put the basis of our salvation on the fact that we chose to follow Jesus, or decided to follow Jesus. Baptism, on the other hand, is outside of us, and it is a gift from God, in such a way that we can look at it, and point to it, and say: On such and such a day, God made me his child. It’s a bit like citizenship. We might come from another country and make a decision to become an Australian citizen. However, even though we have made a decision, we only really become an Australian, when we are received by the nation of Australia, and have a citizenship ceremony. It’s not us that chooses Australia, if you like—Australia has to choose us, if we want to be a citizen! In the same way, in baptism, Jesus chooses us. And we pray that the Holy Spirit may change us and shape us and work in us in such a way that make choices and decisions in our life that are pleasing to God, but always realising that it is God who first has to come and convert our mind, our choosing, our decisions.
 
Sometimes, also, when it comes to baptism, people say: but the thief on the cross wasn’t baptised. He just asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus promised him the gift of eternal life. And we would say, yes, that’s true. However, this passage also teaches something about what baptism really is. The thief on the cross was there right next to Jesus, when he was dying on the cross. In that sense, it was a very unique situation. However, after Jesus rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, we people are not in the same position to be able to see Jesus in the flesh, look over to him and ask him something. At the same time, when Jesus told his disciples to baptise, he said: And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. That means, in baptism, Jesus is not absent, somewhere else, but he is right there. He promises to be with his church, when we baptise and teach. When we are baptised, we actually die with Christ, just like the thief. Our old self, and our old person is put to death, and each day we are called to put off that old person, and put it to death. So in baptism, Jesus actually comes to meet us in our life, just as he met the thief, and promises us eternal life, in such a way that we can trust Jesus to remember us when we come into his kingdom. If we play off baptism against the thief on the cross, it can often mean that we put our trust in our own prayers, since the thief prayed: Jesus, remember me. Rather, the thing that saves here is Jesus’ words and Jesus’ promise: Today you will be with me in Paradise. Of course, we should pray to Jesus and ask him to remember us when we die. But all our prayers are imperfect in a way. We need Jesus to clean them all up with his blood. We need to submit our prayers in the name of Jesus, meaning that they go to the Father through Him. He gets out his red pen, like a school teacher, and edits our prayers, and puts his blood all in between everything they say, and then Jesus presents them to the Father. When we trust in baptism, we trust in something that doesn’t involve us and all the things that go around and around in our minds and hearts. Instead, we are trusting in Christ, and his word, and the fact that he promises to give us new birth by the water and the spirit.
 
Another time, we will look at the rest of this passage from John 3. It is a wonderful passage, actually, where we see Jesus teach about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the meantime, on this Trinity Sunday, we commend our minds and hearts, together with our reason, with all its protests and corruption, into the hands of Jesus. Our old fleshly self only knows what it is to be born from our mother in the natural way. Our old mind and heart is conceived and born in sin. But Jesus gives us a new birth, a new birth of water and the Spirit, so that we can enter, and finally see, the kingdom of God. We commend ourselves to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, trusting in the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus, and asking God send us to the Holy Spirit to work and bless us in our lives. Amen.
 

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

Pentecost [Acts 2:1-21] (23-May-2021)

                         

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

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

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:2-4)

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Today, the church celebrates the wonderful festival of Pentecost, where we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit at Jerusalem. However, the event of Pentecost goes right back to the Old Testament. When we celebrate Easter Day, there is also a connection with the Old Testament. Maundy Thursday, the night when Jesus was betrayed, the day before Good Friday, Jesus actually celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Passover was that occasion when the people of Israel were rescued from Egypt, and they killed a lamb, and painted its blood on the doorposts of the houses. The angel of death then “passed over” their houses, and spared the lives of their oldest child.

In the church today, the Passover has been transformed into something new. Today, on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, which is celebrated at the same time as Passover, we commemorate the fact that God did not “pass over” his own Son, but subjected him to the angel of death. Jesus Christ—the Lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb, the Passover Lamb—gave his life as our ransom, as our atonement, as our Passover sacrifice. And on the night he was betrayed, he gathered his disciples together into the upper room, where he celebrated the Passover festival, and ate the unleavened bread together. During this meal, Jesus took bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: Take and eat, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He also took a cup of wine and said: Take and drink, this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

So, you see, Jesus here transformed the Passover, offering himself as the Lamb of God, dying on the cross on Good Friday, but also here, gave his true body and blood into the hands of his apostles, in such a way that they were to repeat this, not simply every year, like the yearly festival of Passover, but “as often as”. We as Christians, often celebrate it every Sunday, the day of the Resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead, it was clear to everyone that his sacrifice was acceptable to God, and that his atonement offering was perfect and sufficient and full. If Jesus had remained dead, it would have meant nothing. But the fact that he rose from the dead on the third day, that means everything, and it changes everything. 

Instead of painting the blood of a lamb on our doorposts so that the angel of death would pass over us, Jesus gives us his own body and blood to eat and drink. We paint his blood right inside of us, into our mouths, into our bodies, and when we trust in Jesus and his words, that this is his body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, the judgement of God passes over us.

So, now we come to Pentecost. Pentecost did not simply begin with us Christians, but it goes back all the way to the Old Testament. Pentecost is a Greek word that means “50”, because it is 50 days after Passover, or Easter, as we call it. But in the Old Testament, it was called the Feast of Weeks. The Feast of Weeks was a festival when the Jewish people were commanded to offer the first-fruits of their harvest. Also, it was the festival when the Jewish people commemorated the event where Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai.

Now there’s a connection between these two festivals, Passover and the Feast of Weeks, in the Old Testament. The people of Israel were rescued from Egypt and the Pharoah for a reason: they were to go out from Egypt and sacrifice to God. And so, they fled Egypt, they went through the Red Sea, and then they received through Moses, the Law of God. They were commanded how they should worship, how they should live, how they arrange themselves as a nation and as people.

In the New Testament, there’s also a connection between these two festivals, Passover and the Feast of Weeks, or as we often call them, Easter and Pentecost. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he died on the cross and he rose again, why? So that the Holy Spirit would come down, the Gospel would be preached, and people would be saved. And that’s exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost. It seems as though Pentecost very early on became a significant day that Christians remembered and celebrated. In Acts 20, we read that Paul was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. Also, he writes in 1 Corinthians: But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost. There’s no mention of Christmas and Easter in the New Testament! But it seems as though Pentecost was very much on the forefront of Paul’s mind as a central day of celebration for the new Christians!

So let’s remember what actually happened on this day. Jesus had prepared the disciples for this event actually, and told them to wait for it. At the end of Luke’s Gospel, before Jesus ascended into heaven, he said to the disciples: I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Between Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the Day of Pentecost, we read that the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. At the beginning of the Book of Acts, we read that Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This is not to mean that John the  Baptist had nothing to do with the Holy Spirit, or that the baptism of water is also empty of the Holy Spirit. In fact, far from it. In Titus, we read that God saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured our on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Jesus himself even taught his disciples to make disciples of all nations, by baptising them and teaching them. No: the point here is that Jesus is saying that just as John baptised on the earth, now Jesus who is seated at the right hand of God, promises to pour out the Holy Spirit, like living water, upon the apostles and disciples. The church throughout all time is not a church which is continually expecting a baptism of the Holy Spirit, while also practising an empty baptism with water. No: this baptism of the Holy Spirit happened once on this day, and throughout the rest history, the true church is the one which follows the teaching of these apostles, who were empowered to preach and teach on this day. This is what the Day of Pentecost is. Jesus says: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Here we are today, a fruit of God’s harvest, at the end of the earth, listening to the teaching of the apostles, just as Jesus had prophesied. To think that at the time of the apostles, they would not have even known that Australia existed!

So what actually happened on this day? Well, we read in Acts 2, that the disciples were all gathered into one place. And there were three wonderful miracles that came about. Firstly, there was a mighty rushing wind in the place where they were. Secondly, divided tongues of fire appeared on each of their heads. And thirdly, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages.

This all caused quite some stir, as you can imagine! People from all kinds of different countries were able to hear the apostles in their own language. Some people were amazed, some people mocked and thought that everyone was drunk. Then Peter steps forward, and he preached the first Christian sermon. He preaches that this event was prophesied in the prophet Joel, that in the last days, God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh. He preaches the death and the resurrection of Jesus, and also the ascension of Jesus. The man that they crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart, we read. The Word of God, in the preaching of the law, had a powerful effect on them, and they asked the apostles what to do. Peter said: Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgives of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. We also read that Peter encouraged them: Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

We read that 3000 people were baptised on that day, and that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Many miracles were performed through the apostles, the new Christians shared the possessions, and in the days following, new people were added to the church and were saved.

Today, I’d particularly like to focus on the miracles that happened that day.

But first of all, what is the purpose of these miracles? Why did they happen?

When pastors are called to preach, we call them through the means of the church. They go and study the bible, church history, doctrine, pastoral theology, and they are tested and approved, and receive a call to serve somewhere in the church, and then they are ordained in a public ceremony. This, for example, is what happened to me when I became a pastor. Something like this happened in the New Testament to people like Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Silvanus, Barnabas, Apollos, and other pastors we read about.

However, some people in history have received a call to preach directly from God. And when this happens, their ministry must be confirmed through miracles, and their doctrine must be tested against Scripture. This is the way God called Moses, and the prophets. You remember when Moses demonstrated his call from God to Pharoah, he threw his staff down to become a snake, he put his hand in his coat and it became leprous, he turned the water from the river Nile into blood.

Even Jesus showed his call as the Messiah through miracles: and a kind of miracle, different to Moses, which didn’t bring about fear and fright in people, but which brought about joy and comfort and peace. So Jesus healed people, raised the dead, made the blind see, etc.

So, also, the apostles received their call to preach directly from Jesus and from the Father himself. And so, their ministry, their call, is confirmed by miracles. St Paul writes in 2 Corinthians about himself: The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. This is all part of the way in which their authority is established. We say that the church is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”. To be an apostolic church doesn’t just mean that we follow the apostles in name only, but that we follow the apostles’ teaching. St John says about himself and the apostles: We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Now, remember, on the Day of Pentecost, the Jews celebrated the fact that God gave them the law. And when Moses was on Mt Sinai, the people had to draw back, there was darkness, and thunder and lightening. The law was a scary thing, because it finds people and condemns them. It fires at them like a laser, and there is no escape. But actually, God had already given his law when he created the world. In the Garden of Eden, there was law and order, and beauty and wonder, and everything good. The Law of God is actually a good thing – it is God’s beautiful, wonderful, order of his creation.

But when Adam and Eve fell into sin, then everything changed. The Law, instead of being their daily delight, became their curse. The Law instead of blessing them for doing right, now condemned them for doing evil. And so, when the Law was revealed again at Mt Sinai, it came with fear and trembling, because the Law now reveals people’s sin.

But on the Day of Pentecost, there is a kind of new creation. Firstly, there is a mighty rushing wind. In the very first verses of the bible, we read that the Holy Spirit hovered over the face of the waters, much like a wind. God created the world and saw that it was very good. Then people, made in the image of God, fell into sin, they wanted to be like God, and brought evil into the world. But now, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which won for us the forgiveness of sins, now, there is a new creation in the world at work. Christians are the people who are born twice. They are born of the flesh, into sin, but they also are born of the Holy Spirit, through Baptism, through the Water and the Word. And so, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes like a mighty rushing wind. Jesus says: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. So, also, when the first disciples heard Peter’s preaching of the Word, and when we hear the preaching of the Word, we hear the sound of the Holy Spirit, but like a wind, we don’t know where it comes from, where it goes, how the Word will effect us and touch us and impact us. This is what we learn from the mighty rushing wind.

Also, we read: And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. We read in the Old Testament, in many places, that God is a consuming fire. Fire shows to us God’s holiness. Fire is wonderful, exciting, it gives heat and light and warmth—but it is also dangerous. However, when Moses was called, he saw a burning bush. The fire was in the bush, but the bush was not consumed. Here we see a picture of God’s wonderful grace. He does not consume and burn up his people, but he is with them in all of his holiness, and yet they are not consumed. When Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, an angel was put at the entrance with the flaming, flashing sword. Fire was going in every direction. But here, on the Day of Pentecost, there is fire, but it shows God’s grace, and his peace. Jesus manifests his presence and stands with the apostles, but they are not consumed.

Third, we read: They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance. The people who heard it said: We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. It’s funny: the apostles full well knew the mighty works of God. Why did they need the Holy Spirit to talk about it? This is precisely the point: we can’t talk about the mighty works of God, without the Holy Spirit. The church prays that our mouths would be opened to speak with boldness and confidence, because we all know well that it can be a dangerous thing to speak God’s truth, and his mighty works, when people don’t necessarily want to hear it. But also, we see this gift of languages. Some people who are Christians talk about something called “speaking in tongues”, where they claim to speak in a language that no-one understands. However, this is not what happens here. The people do understand. There were people from all over the region. Jews had been scattered all over the place, when they had gone into exile in Babylon. And so there were all kinds of Jewish people who had come to Jerusalem who spoke other languages. But also, there were proselytes there, people who joined themselves to the Jewish people, from all different countries, because they wanted to worship the true God.

And now, God, in his might and his wonderful power and grace, shows a little picture of the future church, how people from all over the world, with all kinds of different cultures and backgrounds, come together to be part of Christ’s kingdom, just like us who are here today. In the Book of Genesis, we read about where people wanted to build a tower in Babel, to go right up to God. On that occasion, we read that the people were scattered into different languages and couldn’t understand each other, and their plans were thwarted. But now, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come down to meet us. He has become a human being like you and me, a true man. And he gathers people of all different languages and cultures and countries and nations together.

So, let’s give thanks to God today on this Day of Pentecost. Let’s celebrate it, and devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching like the first disciples. Let us receive the preaching of God’s law, from Mt Sinai, with all of its terror and fury, and let it cut us to the heart. But also, let us also confess and trust in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who died, rose, and ascended into heaven, and now, through his Holy Word, and through his life-giving Sacraments, pours out his Holy Spirit upon the church. Amen.

 

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

New Congregation: Third Sermon (16-May-2021)

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

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

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Today, I’m giving the third sermon in a three-part series, as we gather here together to lay the foundations of a new Lutheran congregation. It’s been my intention to outline some principles, under three headings, thinking about the picture of building a house. First of all, we lay the foundation, we pour the concrete. Then, we build the frame, the skeleton of the house, which holds everything together. Then, we make the house itself. The first week, spoke about three foundations: the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, sin and the atonement. Last week, I preached about justification, the Lord’s Supper, and also the authority of Scripture alone in the church.

But this week, for our last of three sermons, I’m going to talk about the life of the church. And once again, like last week, I’m going to speak about three topics: the first, the church’s confession of faith; the second, the liturgy or the worship of the church; and third, the doctrine of church fellowship. Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit that he may strengthen me as I preach his Word, and to open our hearts and ears to receive it. Amen.

So, first, let’s talk about

I. The church’s confession of faith.

In Matthew 16, we read about a very special event in the life of Jesus, where he asks his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? We read: And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and other Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

This is a very famous text, and at its heart, it shows to us what it means to be not just a church, but a confessional church. You see: Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers on their behalf, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He makes a confession of faith. In the church, we listen to the words of our Good Shepherd, but he also puts a question to us: What do you think? What do you say? What is it that you believe?

Jesus asks to speak his words back to him, and confess the faith which he has taught us before each other, before the hosts of heaven, and before the world. Jesus says to Peter on this occasion, that this confession of faith did not come from him, or from any other human being. He says: Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So, when we make our confession of faith, we simply speak the words which God himself gave to us.

Throughout the church’s history, confessions of faith have arisen and come about at various stages. Actually, rarely did people ever make a confession of faith at a time when there were no problems. The confession came about to make it clear what Christians believe at a time when there were difficulties. For example, the first main confession that Christians were called upon to make was that there was one God. Jesus had sent his apostles and their followers out into every nation, and many of those nations worshipped multiple gods, like the Romans, the Greeks, the Egyptians, whoever. And many of the first Christian martyrs, those who died for the faith, were thrown the lions because they only believed in one God, not multiple gods.

Later, especially in the fourth century AD, there was a particular dispute about whether Jesus was truly God, or not. Was he equal to God, or less that God? The dispute brought about the clear confession of faith, that Jesus, as Thomas says a week after Easter, is: My Lord and my God.

In these early times, there was a great peak of confession, of confessing the Christian faith in the face of many enemies, and many adversaries, where Christians confessed that Jesus was God, and that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, the Holy Trinity, as we say. At the time of the Reformation, in the 1500s, there was also another great peak of confession, where Christians had to confess that salvation does not happen by our human works, but by God’s grace and is received by faith. Also, at this time, the Lutheran reformers confessed the truth of the Lord’s Supper, that it is Christ’s body and blood, in accordance with his words: This is my body. This is my blood. All this is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian, and also a Lutheran. We are placed on this earth, God has put us here, in order to confess the faith.

You can see, that first of all, Jesus asked the disciples: Who do people say that I am? And they said: Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. You can see that people didn’t all agree. There was a dispute. There were all kinds of human answers. But there was only one answer that came from God, which Peter then spoke. The church does not give a multiplicity of options, and a variety of answers. The true church does not teach unity in diversity. No: The true church must speak the truth that is given to it from God, no matter what other people think.

Now, for us also, in our own times, we are also called to confess the faith, and we have many, many enemies to the Christian faith, both within the churches and outside of the churches. We cannot mellow the faith or soften it or water it down or weaken it, to make it more palatable or more accessible to those who don’t believe it. The faith doesn’t belong to us: Flesh and blood have not revealed to this us, but our Father in heaven, and it is upon this rock that Christ promises to build his church. So we must speak, because it is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who puts these words into our hands and holds them in our mouths. When Jesus sent out his disciples just before his Ascension—the event 40 days after Easter, which we are commemorating today—he said: Teach them everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. What an encouragement, what a blessing this is! Jesus says: teach everything, not some, not part, but everything. And when we do this, Jesus promises to walk with, and be with, and bless his church, right in our midst.

It’s not easy to speak sometimes. Sometimes we have a difficult word to speak which the world, and sometimes the church, doesn’t want to hear. Jesus will help. He will not abandon his sheep. We pray, and commend our weakness to him, and ask him to strengthen us, and to open our lips that our mouth will declare his praise. Psalm 27 says: The LORD is my light, whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? So be encouraged. This is the great task of church, her great privilege, her great honour, to listen to the words of Lord, and then to speak them ourselves, even if no one in the whole world wants to listen!

Let’s come to the second topic, and this is:

II. The liturgy, or, worship.

There is a word which we use in the church, which is the word “orthodox”. The word “orthodox” is often used to mean, “right believing”, or “right doctrine or teaching”. But literally, the word “orthodox” means “right praise”, or “right worship”, something like that.

I’d like to read some quotes from the Augsburg Confession, which is actually the Lutheran Church’s first and primary confession of faith, which was made before the Emperor Charles V in 1530. The Lutherans presented this confession before the Emperor of the Roman Empire, as a confession of faith to bring together and unite Christianity into one unified church. The Lutheran confessions of faith are all gathered together into one book, called, “The Book of Concord”. “Concord” means unity, harmony, coming together.

Anyway, let me read: Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence. (AC XX 1). We also read: We do not abolish the Mass, but religiously keep and defend it… The usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other such things. (Ap XXIV 1) We also read: In doctrine and ceremonies we have received nothing contrary to Scripture or the Church catholic. (AC Conc 5).

Now, what’s all this about? First of all, in the Roman Catholic Church, they believe that the Mass is a sacrifice, which is made for the sins of the living and the dead. When we say, “mass”, that’s not what it means. However, the church throughout the whole of its history has celebrated the Divine Service, or as it’s called here, the Mass.

The way we worship is not insignificant, it cannot be simply a side issue. Today, many Christians have quite informal get-togethers, where they read the bible and preach and sing. What is common today is a view of worship which assumes that Jesus Christ is not really here. When he ascended into heaven, it doesn’t mean that he is stuck up in the clouds. No: remember, he said: I am with you always. We read at the end of the Marks’ Gospel, that the Lord worked with them with accompanying signs. Jesus said: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them.

So when we read the bible, and preach, and pray, and when we receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Supper, we are doing something with the Lord, in his presence, as he stands in our midst, as our Saviour, our judge, our Redeemer, our God, our Shepherd. And if we capture just a slither of what this means, it changes the way we see everything.

It’s common in many churches today throughout the world, to use singing as a means to work people up into an emotional connection with God. And music and singing is a wonderful gift of the church. However, we are not reaching up to God: he has already come to meet us here. He is the one who speaks his word, he is the one who places his own body and blood on the altar, and who feeds us with these holy and precious gifts.

Many Lutherans today are guilty of abolishing the old service, the Mass. We celebrate the Divine Service, the Liturgy, as we call it, of the Word and the Sacrament, not because there is any law about it, but out of the complete and total freedom of the Gospel, because it is our desire to worship in the way in which the church of all times and all places has done so. And this is not just the church of the New Testament, but this goes all the way back to the Old Testament, where God instituted the Divine Service for the Jewish people, with ceremonies, with music, with vestments and all kinds of things like this. All we need to do is look at the book of Exodus and see what pains God went to to make sure all these things were done in a certain way. Our service today comes from this time, it comes from the services too that were celebrated in the synagogue. We don’t have any animal sacrifices, or anything like that anymore. Christ’s death brought an end to all these things, and to the ceremonial aspects of the Jewish religion. But Christians in the early centuries recognised full well that just as God descended in a cloud upon the tabernacle in the time of Moses, and just as he came down upon the temple in the time of Solomon, so also in our time, God descends upon our worship in human flesh, in the risen and ascended body of his Son. As it says in the Gospel of John: The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. The law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. When we come together in worship, though our words, our actions, our gestures, our voices, we declare our great weakness, and God’s great glory.

There is so much more that could be said about worship, the liturgy, the divine service, the continuity in the church of its historic worship. But I’d like to move to our third topic, and this the teaching of

III. Church fellowship.

This is a big topic, and it’s not easy to explain, especially in a time today, when many Christians all over the place don’t seem to think about this matter at all. This is also a matter which separates what we’re doing here from the Lutheran Church of Australia. So, the foundation I’m seeking to lay here is a foundation that hasn’t been laid for years.

What we are talking about here, specifically, is that when we receive the Lord’s Supper together as Christians, there are two things that go on. One: We come to receive the gifts of the Lord, his body and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We make use of the Lord’s Supper to strengthen our faith, in the face of whatever we come across in our world and in our lives. However, there’s also a second thing that we do when we take the Lord’s Supper: we make a confession of faith, and we take our stand. Firstly, as recipients, when we come to the Lord’s Supper, we are saying that we take our stand at this altar, and we believe everything that this church teaches. Secondly, as pastors, when we give the Lord’s Supper to people, we are saying that we are united with this person in our confession of the faith.

Now, we all agree that there are many Christians all throughout the world, who are part of all kinds of churches, who are true Christians. The church in this sense, the identities of the true Christians, is hidden from our eyes, it’s not seen, we can’t find it, unless we meet individual Christians here and there. However, Christ did not institute his church in such a way that it should be invisible, but he gave to his church certain marks: The Gospel, the Word, Baptism, the forgiveness of sins, the Lord’s Supper, etc. And when we recognise these marks to be present in a particular church, then we should join it. If a church ends up in such a way that it hold truth and error to have equal standing and position, then it no longer presents these marks to the world with clarity and with truth. St Paul says: The church is a pillar and bulwark of the truth. Martin Luther, for example, when he separated from the Roman Catholic Church, did not desire to see a church where every opinion in permitted and where anything can be taught. Such a church would not be Christ’s, but the devil’s. And so, when we find ourselves to be part of a church which has fallen into a partial apostacy, we should remove ourselves from it, and stand up for the visible church, because we recognise in a particular place the marks of the true church. That is what the intention and desire of this congregation in this place is: to shine forth the marks of the church, so that people can recognise it, and gathered by the Holy Spirit around it.

St Paul writes: Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Celebrating the Lord’s Supper together with sincerity and truth is what the early Christians sought to do. For us, it also means that when we come to the Lord’s Supper, we should first join this church, and join together in its confession of faith. This is the proper way, of eating the bread of sincerity and truth. Otherwise, we give a mixed confession of faith, and we will create resentments and problems with each other. This teaching and practice in the history of the church has been called, “Altar fellowship”, or “Communion fellowship”, or “Closed communion”. The term, “closed communion”, can be a little bit misleading, because it gives the impression that we’re wanting to exclude people, or even that we’re excommunicating everyone who is not part of our church. This isn’t true. We don’t want any spirit of judgmentalism or legalism or stinginess with the Lord’s Supper, as if we think we’re holier than the rest. Absolutely not.

What we want to build is a true Christian fellowship, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, which is united in truth, united in its confession of faith, and united in love. We’re not talking about a perfect church: the church has never been perfect. But we have a perfect Lord who speaks his perfect words. And he has given his church visible marks, so that we imperfect people, wandering sheep, throughout the world can gather under the Lord’s banner.  

In my lifetime, short that it is, I have seen an incredible amount of hatred come about. Hate is now trendy. Vilifying people, cancelling people, hating people is fashionable. People hardly know how to tolerate, to put up with people, let alone love them. Everyone in this world must be loved, even our enemies must be loved and prayed for. They must be loved, because Christ loved them all enough to die for them, even if they reject him.

Everywhere in the New Testament where there is a significant passage about love, there is a passage about truth. You know, when he instituted the Lord’s Supper, Jesus said to his disciples: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Love doesn’t come to life where there is a fundamental disunity in teaching and in faith. The truth must be fought for, it must be defended, it must be guarded. How could the apostles have love for each other, as Jesus says, if they would always be arguing about the truth? On the day of Pentecost, the new converts dedicated themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. But when we are united in faith, true Christian love grows.

St Paul has a wonderful chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 about love. Love is patient and kind, love never ends, etc. But we read in the middle: Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. St John has a wonderful chapter about love in his first letter, where he says: God is love. Perfect love casts out fear. But at the beginning of this chapter, he says: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world… We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

So, when we talk about church fellowship, what we are talking about is that when we come together and receive the Lord’s Supper, we do so in unity, in peace, in integrity, with sincerity and truth. And then together, we receive this food, the body and blood of the Lord, for the forgiveness of our sins, for the strengthening of our body and soul, for our earthly and heavenly journey.

Let’s commend ourselves to Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, and ask him to bless our fellowship, our prayers, and strengthen us in our confession of faith, and in our worship in the living presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

New Congregation: Second Sermon (9-May-2021)

This sermon was preached at St Peter's Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am.

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

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. 

Today, I’m giving the second sermon in a three-part series, as we gather here together to lay the foundations of a new Lutheran congregation, here in Adelaide, which lights a candle and shines the light of Christ and his Word throughout our city, our state, our country, and to the world. A small group of people should never be afraid of shining their light too far, because we are with Jesus Christ, and he is the Light of the world.

So in this little sermon series, it has been my intention to outline some principles, under three headings, thinking about the picture of building a house. First of all, we lay the foundation, we pour the concrete. Then, we build the frame, the skeleton of the house, which holds everything together. Then, we make the house itself. Last week, spoke about three foundations: the Scripture, sin and the atonement. Next week, I intend to preach about the life of the church together.

But this week, for lack of a better way to describe it, I’m going to talk about what I’ve called the frame or pillars of the house. And once again, like last week, I’m going to speak about three topics: the first, justification by faith; the second, the Lord’s Supper; and third, the authority of the Word of God in the church. Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit that he may strengthen me as I preach his Word, and to open our hearts and ears to receive it. Amen.

So, first, let’s think about

I. Justification by faith alone.

Justification by faith alone is considered one of the real pillars of the Reformation, the central teaching. We might say, it is the Reformation’s great gift to the Christian Church of all times. Last week, we were thinking about the atonement, the fact that Christ died on the cross to make a perfect, full and sufficient sacrifice for each and every sin of every single person in the whole world. Now, many Christians throughout history have all agreed that Jesus died for the sin of the world. But there has always been the question: how can we be saved? How do I know that this death, this atonement, applies to me? What exactly did this sacrifice of Jesus actually achieve for me?

Now, when we consider the whole question of “justification”, we are talking about things that have to with standing before God as our judge, and entering into his courtroom, as if we are on trial. We confess in the Apostles’ Creed, that at the end of time, Christ will come to judge the living and the dead. Jesus speaks quite a frightening parable about this, where he speaks about separating the people of all nations, putting the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The sheep are the ones he has prepared for eternal life, and the goats are the ones that then depart into eternal death and darkness.

So, the question is: how can we be saved? How can I enter into eternal life? Can I even be sure of entering eternal life?

There are many different answers to this question, but only one that is true. Firstly, some people think that there’s really nothing wrong with us in the first place, and that there really probably won’t be a judgment. And if there is a judgment, we don’t really anything to worry about, because in the end, everyone will be saved. This is what we call “universalism”. It’s close to the truth, but it’s not the truth. It’s true, that Jesus died for everyone. It’s true that God wills that all people be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. However, we human beings have a sinful, corrupt will that goes in the opposite direction. We have hearts that have tremendous power to choose things which are evil. And actually, we are all born in this state, not even being able to choose that which is good. God is love, and he is the fountain of love, the beginning and the end of love. But also, he is just. If he weren’t just, it would mean that he doesn’t care about anything, or even about you. But he is also so loving that he wants to demonstrate that his justice has been satisfied.

The other answer to this question, is that some people think that if we want to be saved, we have to earn our salvation by our good works. We have to show to God that we have demonstrated sufficient love, that our hearts have sufficiently changed, in order to deserve to enter his presence. Instead of being confident in the blood of Jesus and his atonement and his sacrifice, we instead are pointed in direction of ourselves when it comes to our salvation. Every false religion in the world is actually a religion of works, a religion that does stuff in order earn stuff before God. The reality is that even the greatest works that we do in our own eyes are but a tiny drop in the ocean when it comes to God and his justice.

So, let me explain what this is all about. You and I and everyone in this world is on trial before God. God is the judge. And there is even an accuser in the courtroom, the devil. I am, you are the culprit. And all the accusations are true: even our hearts gives a testimony against us, and the Holy Spirit gives a testimony against us. The guilt which we bear is great, and the punishment which we deserve is endless. The Law by which we are judged by God, he gave with thunder and lightening on Mt Sinai.

But, into the courtroom, comes the Lamb of God, our High Priest and Advocate. His name is Jesus Christ. He presents before the Father his own life and his own blood. He offers himself in our place, and pleads for the criminal on trial. His atonement, his sacrifice, his work, has achieved our salvation, and the salvation of everyone in the whole world.

And so, God speaks his wonderful, powerful voice from his throne in heaven. Tear up the sentence! The guilty person on trial is set free and acquitted from all guilt and punishment because of Jesus Christ and what he has done. You are justified, and without price, completely and totally freely, Christ’s righteousness is given to you.

And, this whole matter is exactly what the church is here for. What God has spoken in heaven, is to be proclaimed on the earth. Jesus didn’t just die, but he rose from the dead, and sent out his apostles with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why? So that what God has spoken in heaven, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, may be spoken on the earth. This is the forgiveness of sins on earth as it is in heaven.

And so, in the church, we speak this Word of God to the world. We preach it to you, we give it to you, we bestow it upon you, we apply it to you. We say: I forgive you all your sins, I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And when we speak this message, and tell you what Christ has done for you, we actually apply it to you and put it into your hands, so that you can believe it, and when you believe it, apart from anything that you have done, or anything that you have achieved, it is yours. It is a free gift of God, given freely. The cost was Christ’s life, but you take it for free.

And so, it is not a prideful thing, to trust in God’s forgiveness, to trust that the words he spoke to you in your baptism are true, that you are his forgiven, precious child. It is not a prideful thing at all to trust confidently and certainly and surely in these things. No, it is the greatest humility to take God confidently at his Word, and to believe what he has said and declared.

Now, I could talk about justification all day, but I’d like to move on to our second topic, which is

II. The Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is at the very heart of the church. Not only did Christ die for us, and rise from the dead for us, and send his apostles and his church to preach and bestow the forgiveness of sins, but he also gave to his church a wonderful, precious inheritance if you like. You might have been in a situation where someone close to you died, and then you gathered to hear the person’s will read, and then different people receive various things from the dead person’s property.

Well, on the night when Jesus was betrayed, on the night before his death, he gathered his disciples and gave to them his will, as it were. But it’s quite a different will from any other will: we read a person’s will when they’re no longer here. However, Christ is alive, he is risen from the dead, he walks and guides and leads his church, and so we read this will of Christ, and we share his gifts, not in his absence, but in his presence.

You see, Jesus ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God. And this doesn’t mean that he is stuck up in heaven for the rest of the world’s history. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. He promises to be with his church, personally, physically, in his flesh and blood, right up until the end of the age. Nothing we do as Christians is done without Christ being here. We preach in his presence, we sing in his presence, we pray in his presence. And so the wonderful gift that Jesus gives to his church is his actual body and blood, hidden and concealed under bread and wine. And he gave these wonderful gifts for us, to strengthen us in all of our weakness, in all our weakness of faith, of mind, of heart, of body even, as he wills. He says: This is my body, given for you. This is my blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.

It is not the case at all as if we just have bread and wine here, and that we simply eat bread and wine to remember Jesus. No – he, the Lord of heaven and earth, who created you and everyone, descends in all his glory into our very midst to feed us with the precious gifts of his own body and blood. And it is eating his body and drinking his blood, in his holy and living presence—that’s what we do in remembrance of him.

I would love to speak for hours on the Lord’s Supper, but there’s plenty of time for that in future sermons, and on future occasions.

But I’d like to speak about our third topic, which is:

III. The Authority of the Word of God in the church.

Now, there was a wonderful teacher in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, who also spent some of his ministry here in Australia, in Toowoomba, by the name of Pastor Kurt Marquart. And I heard a recorded talk that he gave, where he said that there are two great pillars of the Lutheran Church: Justification by faith, and the Lord’s Supper. And I think he is totally right.

However, I think there is a third doctrine which may also have a similar weight or standing in the church. That is, that the only authority in the church is the Word of God, and any other authority is simply not God’s authority.

Now, what does this actually mean? There are only two kinds of authority that we can have in the church: we can only have divine authority, which comes from God’s Word, or we can have human authority, which comes from people. Now, sometimes, we might think, “Yes, there’s a lot of politics in the church.” And yes, where there are people, there are personality issues, and all kinds of things. Even Paul the Apostle and Barnabas had a disagreement where they decided that they had to work separately.

But, human authority cannot be enthroned in the church, because it always seeks to dethrone Christ and his Word.

Now, what I’m about to say, I want to say not in order to point fingers, but simply to let what I say be a warning, that we can all receive in a spirit of repentance and with a humble attitude.

This was what was going on at the time of the Reformation with the pope. It was taught that the pope has supreme authority in the church, and that all Christians must submit to him. No pope, no church. Now, it was not the case, that Luther or Lutherans simply were rebels who did not respect proper authority. No, the issue was that this was an authority that did not belong in the church, and that was not from Christ’s authority.

You see, if we actually believe that Christ is here in and with his church, we believe that there is no need for anyone to represent him in his absence. When we speak the word of God, and administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, this is not our human work. This is Christ himself ruling and guiding and leading his church. Christ is not absent from his church, but he is present with it. So we cannot simply replace his authority with human authority, because it works against him.

Now, I would like to say in this pulpit, in the presence of Almighty God as my judge and witness, that this is one of the reasons why I felt compelled to leave the Lutheran Church of Australia. The Lutheran Church of Australia for many years has had a lot of difficulty in trying to balance between a more conservative faction and a liberal faction. But, when I was ordained, and when pastors are installed, they are asked to “submit to the pastoral and doctrinal oversight of their bishops”. This vow wasn’t always there—the older pastors never had to take it. But when I wrote my Open Letter to the bishops at the beginning of February, I renounced this vow. Actually, even Anglican priests make a vow to submit to their bishop, but only insofar as the bishop speaks the Word of God. The vow I was asked to take had no caveat like that. We all made our excuses, and we all had our own ideas about what was meant by it, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what we actually said in public. One lady contacted me and said that she thought that this was the most significant thing I had written, because I had put myself under the authority of Christ and his Word, and put away the authority of men. And I think she was right. Today I hereby reiterate and emphasise this renunciation of this false and troubling vow. I made this vow in public, and I now renounce it in public.

In the church, it’s okay to have senior pastors and bishops. And there’s nothing wrong with them being showed respect. That’s okay. However, like pastors, the only authority a bishop or senior pastor might have is the Word of God. We can’t submit to human authority at the expense of the Word of God.

Let me put it this way. On Easter Sunday, in the evening, Jesus went and breathed on his Apostles, and said: As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you. What he did not say on that occasion was: When you go and preach in the temple, remember that the High Priest is put there by God, and if you and he have a disagreement, you must do what he says.

Now, it’s true, the High Priest, was put there by God. Even before Jesus died, the High Priest Caiaphas prophesied that it was better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation should perish. He didn’t probably know the full weight and significance of his own words, but he was still the High Priest, and he was put there by God.

However, after the Day of Pentecost, when the apostles went out and preached the Gospel in the temple, the High Priest and the leaders of the Jews, prohibited, forbade, the apostles from speaking about Jesus. Could you imagine if the Apostles at that time had a bad conscience about it all, and said to each other: Well, we really must do what we’re told. The mission of the church would have ended there!

Instead, they said: Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. They said: We must obey God rather than men.

The reason why they said this is not because they didn’t respect people in authority, or that they wanted to thumb their nose at them. They were very clear about what their authority was, and what they were to do. It was actually one of the first obstacles they encountered on their way in their mission.

Now, we might say: but Christ didn’t send the High Priest, in the same way that he did send the apostles. But Jesus does speak about this. There is an occasion in the Gospels, where the mother of James and John came to Jesus and wanted her sons to sit at Jesus’ right and left in his glory. Now, Jesus tells her that it is not his to grant. But then he teaches his apostles something very important. He says: You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great one exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Jesus teaches that there is no exercising of human authority in the church over people. Of course, we have pastors, who have authority, and of course, these apostles, whom Jesus was talking to, had authority. But it’s not their authority, it’s the authority that comes simply from the Word of Christ.

I pray that one day the Lutheran Church of Australia would take away that terrible vow, because it takes away from pastors the real confidence in the face of all difficulties and troubles to be able to speak the clear word of God. Of course, we know that there is a problem with the liberal, modernist, progressive, false spirit in the church. And this spirit doesn’t have the Word of God—it only has human power. If there comes a day when they decide to remove this vow from the ordination and installation rites, it will be a wonderful day for Australia and its Lutheranism. People have criticised me for leaving the Lutheran Church of Australia and its ministry, but the only way I could serve a parish again was to violate my conscience and submit to an unclear, undefined, unbiblical human authority which I could not accept. This vow taught me to fear man rather than God. At the end of the day, at worst, it means that the Word of God does not rule the church, but only humans, and merely sinful, human ideas.

In saying all this, I don’t do this to pat myself on the back. I lived under this vow myself for 12 years. It took me a long time to see that this is not what the bible teaches, that it is not what the Reformers fought for, and it took me far too long a time to do something about it. Luther and the Reformers didn’t come out from under the pope, just so that they would end up with another one.

Luther said in the first of his 95 Theses: When the Lord said, “Repent”, he meant that the whole of a person’s life should be one of repentance. Let this be our attitude: not one of smugness, of self-righteousness, of pride. Let’s take upon ourselves the Holy Spirit’s gift of humility, and go forward with repentant hearts, with vigilance, with watchfulness, so that this kind of human authority would not take root in our midst as well, but that the Word of God would have full effect and full power and full authority and free course in the church as we speak it to our sinful and fallen world. 

Let’s cling to our Saviour, Jesus Christ, trusting in his righteousness alone. Let’s taste and see that the Lord is good in his Holy Supper. And let us praise our risen and ascended Lord, as he rules and guides the church through his holy and precious Word. Amen.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

New Congregation: First Sermon (2-May-2021)

This sermon was preached at the Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am. 

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

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

My dear Christian friends, we have gathered here together today to begin something new: to lay the foundations of a new congregation (and with God’s grace and blessings, of new congregations, and possibly even a church body or synod), a congregation which is Lutheran, and yet is independent of the Lutheran Church of Australia. 

And so, as we begin this task and venture, if you like, it’s worth our while to think and study how we might go about it. What will be the same? What will be different? Whatever we do, we should do it with God, with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and in accordance with his Word. We should do it with the apostles as our teachers and not simply according to the spirit of the age. It’s a sign of a healthy fish when it swims against the current. With this task will come the cross, will come trials and temptations and attacks, but also with this task, despite all of that, will come great blessing, and peace, and unity, provided that we walk with our Lord according to his Word. 

So over the next three weeks, it’s my intention to give three sermons outlining some fundamental principles which we should take into consideration now and into the future. Where I live, I often drive past some houses that are being built, and it’s always a marvellous thing to see the work of the builders achieve a new milestone in their work. So I’m going to talk about these things under three headings, as if we are describing the building of a house: first of all, we lay the foundation, we pour the concrete. Then, we build the frame, the skeleton of the house, which holds everything together. Then, we make the house itself. This week, I’m going to speak about the foundations. Next week, the frame, the pillars. And the third week, the life of the church together.

And so, this week, I’m going preach about three topics: first of all, the Scripture. Secondly, the doctrine of sin. Thirdly, the atonement, that is, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit that he may give great strength to me as I preach his Word, and to open our hearts and ears to receive it. Amen.

I. The Holy Scripture.

The Holy Bible is a book which is totally unique in the history of the world. It is unique because it is the only book which has been simultaneously written by human authors, and also by God himself. We believe that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Now, we might ask, how come there is only one book like this? How come other books are not like this too? Actually, the Bible is a single book because we recognise in it the single authorship of the Holy Spirit. But also the Bible is made up of 66 individual books, which are separate because of the human authorship. There are many different human authors which the Holy Spirit used in bringing to us the Bible.

Because of this inspiration which the Holy Spirit gave in producing the Bible, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God. As a result, we believe that it contains everything that is necessary for salvation, and also that it is the sole authority in the church.

There’s a few of characteristics of the bible, though, that I’d like to mention particularly. The first is, that the bible is clear. Of course, sometimes because we are separated by many centuries and also by differences in culture and such like, sometimes many things in the bible don’t appear clear to us. But the problem is not with the Bible, but with us. The Bible doesn’t need a light to shine on it, to make it clear. St Peter says that we the Scripture is a lamp shining in a dark place. We don’t need a light to shine on the Bible to make it clear. Rather, the Bible, because it is God’s Word, shines its own light, and makes everything clear. This is also what the Bible says about itself. Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and light to my path. The unfolding of your words gives light. And there’s many other things that say the same thing.

But the second characteristic is that the Bible is what we call “inerrant”, which means, it is without mistakes, and without errors. When we say this, we are saying nothing less than what the Bible actually says about itself. For example, in Proverbs 30:5, we read: Every word of God proves true. Also, in John 10:35, we read where Jesus says, that the Scripture cannot be broken. Also, right at the beginning of St Paul’s letter to Titus, he says, that God is a God who does not lie. There are many other passages that I could cite which deal with this matter.

Many people, actually, think that the Bible is full of contradictions and mistakes. We know, for example, that God used human authors: like Matthew, Mark, Luke, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and so forth. And so, sometimes people think that because human beings were involved in the writing of the Scripture, it must have human mistakes in it. This is not the case. There is an old saying, which says: “To err is human”, which otherwise means, “every human being makes mistakes”. However, not every human being made mistakes. For example, our Lord Jesus Christ became a true human being, he became a man. But, in Hebrews, we read the Jesus was without sin. In the same way, because the Scripture is God’s Word, even though he used human authors, we can also say that just as Jesus was without sin, that the Scripture is without errors and mistakes.

Now, of course, sometimes we come across passages in the bible that present us some kind of problem, and we don’t know necessarily how to reconcile it. IF we say that the Bible is without mistakes, it doesn’t mean that we are too naïve or dishonest to recognise these problems. We shouldn’t just throw up our hands and say, there’s a contradiction, there’s a mistake, it must be a myth. Rather, we should assume that the problem is with us and with our understanding. Sometimes these problems can be easily resolved if do a little bit of research, or look something up in a dictionary or a grammar book, or we don’t have access to these things ourselves, we can ask someone who does for some help. This whole question has to do with our attitude towards the Scripture. And if in the church, we don’t have this common attitude towards the Scripture, we can’t really do anything, and we can never really solve any problems in the church, because we end up enthroning our own reason and intellect and book-smarts, and such like, instead of God’s Word.

So, when I was ordained as a Lutheran pastor, over 12 years ago, I said publicly in my ordination vows that the Scripture is inerrant. Now, I always thought that inerrant means inerrant, that is, either the Bible has mistakes or it doesn’t. Sometimes, some people say: What the Bible says about theology is without mistakes, but what it says about geography or history, or whatever, is sometimes wrong. This is a bit dangerous, because if we read and confess the Apostles’ Creed, for example, most of the things we say there are things that actually happened at a particular time and in a particular place. They have to do with history and geography. For example, the central claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ died on a certain day at a certain place, and three days later he walked out of the tomb, risen from the dead. This is a claim about historical facts. Many people don’t want to believe it, because it has consequences which change your life. But Christians believe that this is a fact of history. So once again, we want to say: let’s always ask ourselves, is the problem with the Scripture, or is it with us? Is the problems without lack of understanding? Is the problem with our presuppositions, that creates a bias against what God is saying to us? Even we read the whole life of Jesus: most of the things we read about we don’t see happen down the street on an everyday basis, like lepers being healed, blind people seeing, deaf people hearing, dead people being raised from the dead. But just because we haven’t seen it happen in our own lives, doesn’t mean that what the Bible says happened at a certain time in history isn’t true.

One other thing: sometimes people say, “The Bible says that Jesus is the Word of God. Therefore, we shouldn’t say that the Bible is the Word of God. When we talk about the Word of God, we’re really talking about a person.” Now it’s true: In the Gospel of John, Jesus is called the Word. He is the Word who was with God, and who was God, the Word who became flesh. However, Jesus is not the Word of God in such a way that he doesn’t speak. He is not a silent Saviour. Rather, we read in the Bible all kinds of things that Jesus, the Word of God, actually said. And then he told his disciples to preach and teach, and they wrote all these things down for future generations, and Jesus says: I am with you always. Whoever hears you, hears me. Jesus promised that the words of his apostles and evangelists, and even the prophets who were before him, are also his words. So, the Word of God in the Scripture is the words of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, because Jesus Christ is the God of heaven and earth, who inspired these writers by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, if the Bible is God’s Word, it means, that we should study it, that we should learn it, that we should immerse ourselves in it as best we can, because these are words of life. Maybe you’re not much of a good reader: well, do your best, and don’t be discouraged. You don’t have the read the whole thing in a day. There are also good recordings of the bible today which can listen to, and which are easily accessible too. It’s not just important for pastors to study the bible, but also for laypeople too, because you need to keep your pastors to account, and test them, and challenge them if there’s anything wrong, or doesn’t sound right. And pastors should always be humble enough to receive questions and criticism about things, because you never know when God sends a person to correct a person for the benefit of everyone.

Of course, if you do study the bible, and read it, and try to learn it, it will change your life. And sometimes, this is a frightening thing. Hebrews says: The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. But also, we say with the Apostles, just as they said to Jesus: You have the words of eternal life. We say with the words of Psalm 19: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord, enlightening the eyes. So when we come to the Scripture, to learn it, to hear it, to understand it, to digest it and to even devour it, the whole purpose is the Scripture is to encourage us, to show us our Saviour, and to point us to heaven. Be encouraged, and let your soul be revived, let the Scripture make simple people like you and me become wise, let your heart be made to rejoice, let your eyes be enlightened. All these things are promised to us in the Scripture, because it is the living and active Word of our Holy God.

Now, I’d like to come to the second part of our sermon, which is about

II. Sin.

If we have this kind of opinion about the Scripture, then we can allow the Scripture to show us the truth about ourselves. And if we didn’t have the Scriptures, we might get some idea, some kind of inkling that there’s something not quite right about us humans, about the human race. But we will never be able to put our finger on it. For example, in Hinduism, people believe that everyone is divine. Christians believe the opposite: we believe that we are fallen. None of us really understands what sin is: only God knows, and only God reveals in his Word the full extent and the full scope and full weight and force of sin.

We believe though that things weren’t always like this. The first chapters of Genesis speak about a time when human beings were perfect and good, and lived in peace and harmony, with no fighting, no disease, no death, no sin. But then there was a fall, where the human race fell into sin. And because we are descended from those first parents, we all come from the same tainted loaf, we are all cut from the same soiled cloth. As Psalm 51 says: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and sin did my mother conceive me. And when we know just how wonderful things were in the Garden of Eden, it is such a tragedy, such a terrible, awful thing that we are in the condition we are now. We come into this world without the fear and love of God, and what is worse, we even desire and want to sin, in such a way that our whole heart and nature now inclines and directs itself in that way.

As St Paul says: Let God be true, though everyone be a liar. Genesis 6 says about the human race that every intention of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. St Paul makes a list of passages in Romans 3: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

Even we Christians, who believe in Jesus, who strive to live a holy life, still have this sinful flesh which we carry around with ourselves. It is shocking thing to look at the great evil of our world and of history, and then to realise that each one of us is completely and totally capable of all of it. That is the sinful human heart that we all have. By virtue of the fact that we are all part of this sinful human race, that we have a sinful human heart, means that we are born into this world totally lost and condemned.

Now, this brings me to the third part of our sermon, which is about

III. The atonement.

When we talk about the atonement, we are speaking about the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We worship a holy God, who is completely perfect, and just, and good. And it is a frightful thing to enter into his presence, because nothing sinful, such as you and me, is allowed to stand before him, without being completely consumed. But in we in Romans 5, that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We believe that Jesus Christ, the true Son of God and true man, is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He took the weight, the guilt, the shame of every single sin, every single sinful action, thought, gesture, every sinful look in a person’s eye of every single person who has ever lived from the beginning of the world to its end. He took all of that upon his own shoulders, and died for it. He made the one, true, perfect sacrifice for your sin, my sin, everyone’s sin, and the sin of the whole world. He offered his life, his breath, his body, his blood, as a sacrifice for sin. And when he did this, he won a wonderful and glorious victory over sin and death and hell, and paid the price that we owed for our sin, and satisfied the wrath and the anger of God. God sent his Son into the world, because he is righteous, he is just, but he is also good and merciful. When Jesus died and rose again from the dead, he won the forgiveness of sins. And this forgiveness of sins belongs to you, simply when you believe it. And so, we read in John’s Gospel: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This is the centre of the Christian faith. And we become right with God, justified in his sight, not because of our works, or because we earn it, and do something, or love someone, or whatever. God gives it to you freely as a gift. Luther says in the Small Catechism: I believe that Jesus Christ…has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, death and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom.

So, when we speak about sin, we call this the preaching of God’s law. The law drives us to despair of ourselves. It always finds us, and kill us. But when we speak of the atonement of Christ, when we speak of Christ’s death and resurrection, when we speak of the forgiveness of sin, and the promise of eternal life, we call this the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel drives us to Christ, and to trust in him. It makes us into new people, into holy people, saints, who are born anew and afresh, because we become clothed with the purity and the holiness and righteousness of Christ.

Now, all these things go together: the Scripture, the Law (or the preaching of sin) and the Gospel (or the preaching of the atonement). If we lose the Scripture, we start to assume that we really are all okay after all. We start to put ourselves in the place of God, we desire to become like God, and we think that our words and our ideas are so important and so holy and so valuable. We start to think we are gods, little gurus. Then we forget the atonement, we ignore it, we despise it, we hate it, because we don’t need Jesus anymore, when we’re doing quite well by ourselves.

No—turn everything on its head. The complete opposite is the truth! The Scripture is perfect! The Law convicts us of our sin right to the depths! The Gospel shows us the wonderful grace and mercy of God in sending his Son to atone and make payment and die for each and every single one of our sin. Let us take heart, learn the Scripture, repent of our sin, and trust in our wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead.

Amen.

Heavenly Father, sanctify us in the truth: your Word is truth, and let the blood of Christ, your Son, cleanse us from all sin. Amen.