Trinity XXV [Matthew 24:15-28] (6-Nov-2022)

            

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.

But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

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. 

In the church today, it is rare to hear about the last things. And at this time in the church year, the readings are particularly dedicated to the end of the world, the final judgment, everlasting life, heaven and hell, and all these kinds of topics.

Today’s reading comes from one of Jesus’ last sermons which he gave the week before he died, where he talks about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and also how those things that happened in those days, also apply to us today as we set out eyes forward to the time when the world will end.

So, at the beginning of our reading, we read these words of Jesus: When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, an let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

There are two things that we see in this passage: first, we see what Jesus calls the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. And then we see the coming destruction, which follows it. So, we can see that the abomination that Jesus speaks of is a warning from God of the coming destruction, and that when the people see it and recognise it, they should flee and escape what will be a terrible time of tribulation.

Now let’s have a look at these things in detail. Jesus says: When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)… What is Jesus speak about here? Firstly, he speaks about: the abomination of desolation. What does this mean? An abomination, normally refers to something that is abhorrent, or repulsive, or detestable, or objectionable to God—often in the Bible, when it speaks of an abomination like this, it is talking about idol, or something like that, something to do with false worship, false gods, idolatry, and that kind of thing. But in this case, Jesus talks about an abomination of desolation. Jesus is talking about an abominable thing that causes or makes things desolate, or deserted, it makes things into a desert waste, where there are no people there anymore. Jesus also talking about a kind of deserting, a kind of desolating, that is also abominable, abhorrent, repulsive to God and which should also be repulsive to his people. The people should also recognise as abominable what God has also called abominable.

Such an abomination of desolation will stand in the holy place. Normally, the holy place refers to the temple. So, Jesus is speaking of a particular sign, where something abominable, or disgusting, will be in the temple, and that such a thing has even been spoken of by the prophet Daniel. In Daniel chapter 9, we have a passage which speaks like this, where it says: And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.

Now, in Luke’s gospel, we also get a further clue about what Jesus is talking about. In that Gospel, it says: When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.

Now, the interesting thing about this warning is that there would have been many people who simply wouldn’t have believed these words of Jesus. They thought that the temple in Jerusalem would last forever, and that everything would continue as it always had. However, we know from history, that in the year 70 AD, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Jerusalem was surrounded by the Roman armies, and was destroyed in completely terrible and destructive situation, unlike anything that has ever happened before. Even from the history books, we read, that people during these times even resorted to cannibalism. Jesus says: For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

Now, before this complete and total destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, there was also a warning. As Jesus said: An abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place. Even Jesus wants people who read the book of Daniel, to take special note of all this, and he says: Let the reader understand. So, in the Jewish temple, leading up to this terrible time of destruction, there were many of the Roman emperors, like Caligula, and Nero, who set up their own statues in the Jewish temple in the holy place, next to the Ark of the Covenant. Of course, this is a terrible thing, and would have made the Jewish people very angry. But it didn’t just happen on one afternoon, it happened over many years. And when one Caesar died, another one did the same thing. It kept happening and happening. Even many Jewish people protested about it, and they were threatened to be executed by beheading, and they willingly laid down and let themselves be beheaded rather than see such a terrible thing happen to their temple.

So, there were these idolatrous statues of the emperors that were placed in the Jewish temple continually, until that time when things became so heated, that the Romans sought to end it all by sending their armies to the city of Jerusalem, and burning it and destroying it, in a period of terrible bloodshed and misery and pain.

Now, at this time, there would have been many people who remembered what Jesus said, and recognised that his prophecy had come to light, and then they would have fled, as Jesus said. He said: Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is one housetop go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on a Sabbath.

So, what is the reasons for this terrible desolation and tribulation? Why does terrible desolation come upon places and cities, like it came upon Jerusalem here? It comes as a judgment of God because of various things. Firstly, because of the idolatry, which so many of the prophets often preached to the people about. Also, at the time of Jesus, there began a terrible persecution of the church, of Christians, of pastors, of the apostles. We can read about this constantly in the book of Acts. So, we see that many people in Jerusalem received their Messiah, but many people rejected him too. And this rejection of Jesus as the Son of God, and as the one whom God sent, does not go unnoticed by God. Also, because of unrighteousness, when justice is not administered fairly, and rich people and poor people are not treated as equal before the law. Also, because of the ungodly lives of people, and especially sexual sin, and disregard of marriage and the family, as we see in the example of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. And also, Jesus says: A kingdom which is divided against itself will be laid waste. So destruction may also come when there is discord and disharmony among people and revolts and revolutions and bloodshed.

Now, just as there was a warning sent by God before the city was destroyed, so also there were also special comforts and blessings sent by God, which Jesus speaks about here. First of all, Jesus says that there will be a means of escape. Just as when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Lot’s family were given a means to escape, so also, in the case of the downfall of Jerusalem in these days, Jesus also provided for them a means of escape, and says: Flee to the mountains. He says: Don’t go back to your house to get your things, or back to your field—just get out, just run. This will be the escape that God provided for you at the proper time.

And also, Jesus comforts his disciples by giving them not just a means of escape from these terrible times, but also he gives to them the gift of prayer. He says: Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. We see that God gives protection to his people, but he also asks them to pray for his wonderful protection. We read in so many passages of the bible, especially in the Psalms, where God promises his protection for his people. He says: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty… Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honour him.

Now, we also learn from this passage, that when we find ourselves in a terrible situation, where there might be a plague or famine or war or something, it is permitted for Christian people to flee, and to run, and to go somewhere else, where they can be protected. We see many situations all throughout the world where there are refugees fleeing from their homelands because of famine or war, or something like this. To flee is often God’s means of escape, provided that we don’t have a duty to stay for some reason, and it doesn’t require us to abandon our faith. In this case, we might have some family who we have to look after, or we might only be permitted by some person in authority to leave, if we renounce Jesus and the Christian faith. In these situations, we must stay, and pray for God’s loving protection.

Now, this passage may seem very strange to us and to our ears, because in this country and in this part of the world, we have lived in relative freedom and comfort for many generations. But we must always keep it in mind that the nice things we enjoy in life, and the nice things we have, won’t last forever, but there will come a time when they will be taken from us.

And so, Jesus also tells us about a kind of spiritual abomination of desolation in the second part of our readings. Also, among Christians there is also the abomination of desolation, which is the Antichrist, with his false prophets and false doctrine, who stands in the holy place, who seeks to dethrone Christ in the church, and establish himself in his place.

Now, this also might seem very strange to our ears. But we are living in very strange times, even in recent years, where there have been many idolatrous and blasphemous things which have taken places in large and significant churches all throughout the world, similar to the way in which the statues of the various Caesars were places in the Jewish temple.

For example, during the last year, in Melbourne, in the Anglican Cathedral, there has been an enormous and imposing globe of the world hung there in the sanctuary, in honour of the Greek goddess Gaia, the earth goddess. (I don’t know if it’s still there or not.) So, they put a symbol of nature and earth worship in the church. This is an abomination, which is put in the holy place, in the church, where it shouldn’t be. About three years ago, in 2019, in Rome, there was a synod held there in the Vatican, called the Amazon Synod, where pagan worship—the bowing down in a circle to various idols—was conducted in the Vatican gardens, and statues to the South American goddess, Pachamama, were placed in various famous churches around the city. Once again, these idols don’t belong there, and they should never have been placed there. Sometimes, we read about certain exhibitions of art that happen in various cathedrals or churches, and everyone knows that this particular artwork doesn’t belong in this holy place. We are also seeing a rise in homosexual weddings in various churches throughout the world. In recent years, there have been many examples of Muslims being asked to give their so-called “call to prayer” in famous churches, for example, before a concert, or a special event. There are many examples we could name.

Even in Australia, it has become common now, almost a kind of national religion that nobody believes in, that we have a “welcome to country” or “acknowledgement of country”, before any public event. As Christians, and as Lutherans, we believe in the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. But in many of these ceremonies, people are required to “pay their respects to elders past and present”. There is an acknowledgement of the real presence of these past elders. Now, these are particularly religious words which don’t belong to our civil and public life, and should not be imposed on everyone, and these words certainly don’t belong in the church. Sometimes, some Christians (for example, in some Christian schools) have done a good job in trying to make the best of these situations, and turn it around to give a witness to the Christian faith. But many of these things happen slowly, slowly, so that when various abominations finally appear in the church, nobody notices it. And when someone points it out, they are often ridiculed as some kind of fanatic. But Jesus says that things like this will happen, and that when they do, we should notice it, because these things are a warning for a coming destruction, and we should escape from it as we can, and pray for our protection.

Now, in saying all of this, we might start to get depressed and lament and agonise over many things that are going on in our world today. And we always need to separate in our minds between things that are wrong, so that we can recognise them when we see them, but also for the people who are part of these things, who need to hear the Gospel, whom we should pray for, whom we should love and bless.

And so Jesus in our reading speaks about three things, three marks of abomination that Christians should be wary of even after the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, which will continue until the end of the world. He warns us about false Christs and false prophets. He says: For false Christs and false prophets will arise. A false prophet, of course, is a false preacher, or a person who prophesies or preaches from God, when it is not from God. Also, a false Christ, is someone who tries to sit in place of Christ, and replace Christ in some way in the church.

In the Lutheran Church, it was always confessed that the pope of Rome manifested most clearly the marks of a false Christ, or antichrist. Now, this is a big topic, and many Lutherans have abandoned this teaching. It’s worth our while to make sure that we study this topic and understand exactly what it is that the Luther and the Reformers, and Lutherans for many centuries had taught about this. Because, you see, Jesus Christ is the head of the church: he is the only head of the church, he is our only Saviour, he is our only Mediator, he is the only one who gives us our unity as Christians and prays for our unity, and he is our only atonement and sacrifice and offering for sin. The pope is not the head of the church, only Jesus Christ is. The true church is the one that is united under Jesus Christ as its head, not under human authority in his place.

In the meantime, Jesus also warns us about people who will come and point people to find Jesus in places where he has not promised that he will be. Now, we know that Jesus has instructed us that we should find him in the Word of God, and also in the Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. He has promised to be there in those places. But then Jesus says: If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. He also says: So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. So what Jesus is saying here is that we should not look for him in places where he has not promised to meet us. We cannot find Jesus in our own self-chosen works, however wonderful they might seem to us. We cannot find Jesus in our own spirituality, however glorious it might feel to us. We cannot find Jesus in our religious experiences, no matter what heights they might raise us to and all that kind of thing. Many times, Jesus has been calling us, and knocking on the doors of our hearts, through the simple words of Holy Scripture, which we hear read at church one day, or which we read in our bibles at home, and we ignore it, because we don’t realise that it is him. And then instead we go looking for him in all kinds of places where he isn’t to be found. People often find something there, but it isn’t Jesus.

The third warning that Jesus gives us is about false miracles. He says: For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Many times, people will point to various wonderful things and miracles as a kind of proof that their particular church or particular teaching has authenticity. Of course, even Jesus’ words were confirmed with miracles, and the teachings of the apostles were confirmed with miracles. But just because there is a miracle, doesn’t mean that the truth is to be found there. We have many churches in our country and all throughout the world, who claim to perform miracles on tap, but they don’t teach the truth. They point people to their own works, their own experiences, their own feelings, instead of to their Saviour.

So, we see that Jesus gives us these marks of abomination in the church: false prophets and false christs, finding Jesus in places where he has not promised to be found, and also the false miracles. And where there is abomination in the holy places, there is also the threat of a coming destruction. That is what our text is about today, and it brings a very serious warning for us.

So in light of this, there are a number of comforts for us in our reading. First of all, there is the comfort of God’s election, his choosing of us as his people, and as his followers, and as his children. Jesus says in our reading: But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Now, sometimes, when we hear the word “elect”, people think: “How do I know if God has chosen me? How do I know if he has called me to heaven or not?” Some people even despair and say: “Maybe God has predetermined that I should go to hell and there’s nothing that I can do about it.”

Well, God creates faith in us, not because of us, but through his Word and Holy Spirit. It is God’s word and the Holy Gospel that reveals to us the light of God’s face and his favour towards us in Jesus Christ. Jesus has died on the cross for us, and shed his blood for us, offered himself in our place as the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice for our sin and the sin of the whole world, and he has risen from the dead to secure for us and win for us the forgiveness of our sins. And all of this, God has applied to you, and poured out on you, by baptising you into his kingdom and making you his own. And so, when you are worried about things happening in the world, or when you are worried about your own salvation, put yourself in a situation where you can hear God’s Word and the Gospel, and remind yourself that you are his baptise child. When you were baptised, it was not your doing, it was God’s doing, and it was his Word that empowered it. And so we commend our faith—weak as it is much of the time—into the hands of our living Jesus, and we ask him to preserve us and protect us to the end.

Also, Jesus gives us another comfort in that he says that the time will be shortened. He says: But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. And so, it has been common for Christians all throughout the centuries, to pray during times of hardship, for Jesus to come quickly. As it says in Revelation: The Spirit and the Bride say: Come! Come Lord Jesus. And this is wonderful thing to pray together with the Holy Spirit for the Lord Jesus to come and rescue us, and to cut the time of difficulty short.

Now, in our whole reading today, there are many more things we could say about it. But in all these things, there is the message that we should not always look for better times to come in the future. There is no promise of that. Maybe we will see some good times in our lives, but overall, as the world gets older, we should assume that it will always get worse, because there is much sin in the world, and it will continue to manifest itself in all kinds of ways. But in all of these things, we should prepare ourselves in faith, and patience, and prayer, for whatever God sends us in our lives, whether as individuals, as families, or as Christians together in the church. God rescued Lot and his family in a time of great hardship. God rescued his people from Egypt through great difficulty. And so, also, St Paul writes to Timothy: Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Jesus in our reading even says: See, I have told you beforehand. Don’t be surprised by it, in other words. Don’t be too shocked. But also be comforted, and be strengthened in the knowledge and the fact that God himself will be faithful and will rescue us from it all, and take us from this valley of sorrows to himself in heaven. All glory and honour and wisdom and power be to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and who is seated on the throne! Amen.

 

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.    

 

Reformation [John 8:31-32] (30-Oct-2022)

           

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.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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. 

The festival of the Reformation is a wonderful occasion in the church year, which we particularly celebrate in the Lutheran church, where we remember those series of events in the 1500s in Europe, and in Germany particularly, where there was a tremendous theological and spiritual revival, the effects of which changed the course of history, and which are still felt today. At the heard of these events was a rediscovery of the Gospel, as the free forgiveness of sins, which was won by Christ alone in his death and resurrection, and bestowed upon lost and condemned sinners completely free for the sake of Christ, which we then receive by faith, apart from any works, contributions or efforts that we make ourselves. As St Paul says: By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, but it is a gift of God, apart from works, so that no one may boast. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

The 31^st October was chosen for this commemoration centuries ago, because on this day in the year 1517, Martin Luther, who was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, a monk of the Augustinian order and a professor of theology at the university of Wittenberg in Germany, is reported to have nailed a document to the church door in Wittenberg, his 95 theses. This document was against a certain practice that was alive and well in the Catholic Church of Martin Luther’s day, the selling of indulgences. Although we could talk at great length about what this “selling of indulgences” is, the short version is that it was a certificate issued by the Pope in Rome to cancel the punishments in purgatory for a person’s sins. Purgatory is a Roman Catholic belief, which is not held by other churches, that there is a kind of half-way station between heaven and hell. I won’t go into all the detail now, and I could explain all this much better than I have.

What this meant in history is that this was the beginning of a great controversy where Martin Luther, as a student and teacher of the bible, came into conflict with the Pope in Rome and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. As a result, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, and many Christians throughout Europe who accepted his teaching as true and right became separate from the Roman Catholic Church, to form the Evangelical church, or as it is commonly called today, the Lutheran Church, or the Church of the Lutheran confession.

Now, on one hand, Martin Luther was a highly significant person in all of this history. On the other hand, the whole Reformation which occurred at this time was not about one man, or the teachings of one man. Rather, this whole event was about a return to the Word of God, in such a way that that the Holy Scriptures once again had pride of place in the church over and against every human word, every human tradition, every word of people, of man, every human idea.

In our Gospel reading today, we hear these wonderful words of Jesus, where he says: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten our hearts and minds, as we consider this verse today, and remember the wonderful events that occurred 500 years ago at the time of the Reformation. Amen.

Now, in our sermon today, I’d like to first of all talk about what the Lutheran Reformation was, and what it wasn’t. And then secondly, I’d like to talk about the significance of the things that happened at that time for today.

Firstly, at various times and places, in history, there have been all kinds of revolutions. For example, in 1789, in France, there was the French revolution, where the executed the king of France and all the aristocracy. There was a big revolution in Russia about 100 years ago, where communism came in, and they started the USSR. And people might look back at the time of Luther, and think that it was a kind of revolution. But it wasn’t.

The Reformation was not about revolution, or rebellion. It wasn’t some kind of anti-authoritarian event where all kinds of people wanted to drag down the social structures of the day.

The Reformation did have to do with authority, but it was not against authority. It was simply against false human authority in the church, and on the other hand, a return to the true authority in the church, namely, the Holy Scripture. In the church, wherever the authority of the Word of God is lost, it always means that mere human authority can replace it, because that’s the only other authority that there is.

So, the whole of the Reformation, was essentially a call to repentance, and it is one of the most amazing calls to repentance that has ever occurred in church history. When Martin Luther wrote his 95 theses and put them on the church door in Wittenberg, 504 years ago today, the first thing he wrote was: When our Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’, he meant that the whole of a Christian life should be one of repentance. This document spread like wild-fire throughout Europe at the time, and even reached the desk of the Pope. To think that a document like that made such an impact, with such a strong call to repentance right at the top.

You might remember that in the Scripture, when John the Baptist went out and preached at the River Jordan, he called people to Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When Jesus began his ministry, after his baptism and his temptation in the wilderness, he also said the same thing. The word, ‘repent’, means to turn around, to change one’s mind, or change one’s heart. It has a picture of a person walking in one direction and then turning around going back the other way.

When we are called to repent, what are we called to turn away from? And what are called to turn ourselves to? We are always called to turn away from our sin, and also our sinful mind, our sinful flesh, our sinful heart, our own ideas, our own human opinions, our own solutions. And we are always called to turn back to God, and to his Word, as he has wonderfully and marvellously revealed it in the Holy Scriptures.

And so right at the heart of the Lutheran reformation was a renewal of the Scripture in the life of the church. It was not philosophy that should direct the church, or human reason, or human tradition, or human leaders, such as a Pope. Instead, the Word of God, as it is revealed in the Scripture, should be the thing that directs and guides the church. The Scripture is clear fountain of Israel, the clear light of God which he shines on human darkness, a lamp which shines in a dark place, the light which is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path.

Now, just as that light of Holy Scripture then shone its light on human darkness and sin and evil, so also the Holy Scripture reveals to us how lost and condemned human beings can be saved. Human beings like you and me, who carry around with us our sinful human hearts, and are corrupted in our mind and in our thinking by sin, cannot save ourselves by doing things that are tainted by that same darkness. Only Jesus, the Son of God, can save us, and we can only be saved in the way that he prescribes.

And so, in a world that was full of people performing all kinds of works and deeds in all kinds of attempts to save themselves and make themselves acceptable and pleasing to God, the Gospel came to light. That Gospel is that people cannot save themselves by their own works, by their own efforts, by their own actions, and solutions devised by their own choosing and their own thinking, but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. His death on the cross alone was that wonderful event where the divine righteousness and justice and judgment of God was satisfied, where a full payment was made for each and every sin of the whole entire world, and where he defeated death, the devil and every power of darkness. His resurrection demonstrated to the world that this sacrifice and atonement that he made was acceptable to God the Father, otherwise this all would have meant nothing if Jesus was still dead and in the grave. For us, who believe in him, it means that we have the forgiveness of sins delivered to us and applied to us, not in such a way that we reach all the way back to him, but he actually comes to us. In holy Baptism, what Christ did on the cross all those many years ago is applied to us through water and the Word of God. And in the Lord’s Supper, we receive the wonderful body and blood of Christ as our food for this journey of life, until we reach our heavenly home with Christ in his kingdom. On our part, we simply receive these things freely, as a gift, without paying for them, without earning them, without working for them. We simply trust that God is faithful and that he has done these things and given them to us, and they are ours. This wonderful Gospel message was at the heart and centre of the Reformation, which was so long clouded and shrouded in all kinds of human ideas and philosophies. Still today, in many parts of the world, and even in churches, human ideas still prevail, and the Gospel still remains silent.

But also, sometimes we forget that because the Reformation was a biblical renewal, a rediscovery of the Holy Scripture, it also had an effect on all kinds of other things. So for example, in the Roman Catholic Church back at that time, and still to this day, when it came to the next life, they believed in heaven and hell, but also purgatory. Purgatory was a kind of half way place, where a person worked off the effects of their sins before they could enter heaven. However, at the time of the Reformation, they realised that this was not a teaching of Scripture at all. In fact, in the passage about Lazarus and the rich man, it says that there is a chasm fixed between where Lazarus was in Paradise and where the rich man was in hell, such that no one could cross between. So, another thing that came from the Reformation, was a renewed understanding of heaven and hell. This is extremely important when we come to understand faith, because when Christ calls us to eternal life, he saves us from hell, from the devil, and all of that. He saves us for eternal life in heaven. He doesn’t save us from purgatory, and he doesn’t save us for purgatory, because it doesn’t exist.

Also, the Reformation brought about a renewal in the way we understand prayer. At that time, many people prayed to Mary, and all kinds of different saints. And there were all kinds of different saints that were prayed to for all kinds of different reasons. Some of these reasons were quite superstitious, for example, it you lost something, you might pray to such and such a saint. In some sense, many of the old pagan ideas about prayer, from the old religions of Greece, of ancient Rome, of the ancient Vikings, came back into Christianity. People used to pray to different gods for all kinds of different reasons, just as they do today in Hinduism. However, with the Reformation, came a renewed understanding of prayer, because they rediscovered the teaching about prayer in the Scriptures, that we pray to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone, that we pray in the name of Jesus, and all that kind of thing. Luther summarises much of this in what he taught about the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism.

But also, at that time, many people thought that living a holy life meant that you had to become a monk or a nun, that you had to go on pilgrimages to holy places, and all that kind of things. This brought about an idea that marriage and having family was a kind of dirty thing. However, the Reformation brought to light the fact that Christians, wherever we are placed in our life, whether as a husband, wife, child, or a worker, or a boss, or as a soldier, or as a ruler or leader, or whatever, that we serve God as a holy person in those callings.

So, there are many things that we could talk about that were affected by the rediscovery of the Scripture, and the authority of Scripture. Of course, at the heart and centre of it all was the bringing to light of the Gospel in all of its glory. However, it’s also useful to see where all kinds of other things were impacted, because they often have some impact on how we understand the Gospel. For example, if people believe in purgatory, they often don’t have a need for the Gospel, because they think that at the end of the day, everything will be fine for them because eventually they’ll get out of purgatory, or they despair, because they think they’ll never get out purgatory. Many people who pray to the saints, often do so because they think they are not worthy to pray to Jesus himself. Of course, no one is worthy to pray to Jesus, but through Holy Baptism and through faith, God makes us his beloved child, and he asks us and commands us to pray to him, because of what he has done for us in making us his own. This is all effected by the Gospel too. If people think that living a life as a monk or nun gives us a special kind of holiness, this can also effect the way in which we understand the Gospel. You see, the forgiveness of sins is not given to us because of the austere life we might live, or because we’re married or celibate, or because of the spiritual exercises we choose to take on. It’s given to us freely for Christ’s sake. Of course, we are called to live a holy life, and some people who are single may choose to live a certain kind of life, but it’s not the life that they choose for themselves that saves them.

So let’s come back to Jesus’ words: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. These words of Jesus have a profound significance for us, as it had for Christians at that time, and for Christians today. First of all, Jesus teaches us that those who are truly his disciples are those who abide in his word. The disciples of Jesus are never guaranteed to always be his disciples, unless they abide in the words of Jesus. Jesus does not make us join a particular church who are always guaranteed to keep the word pure. No—we must always keep returning to the Scripture, and letting that clear light of God’s Word hold sway.

People might be attracted to a particular kind of music in the church, to a certain kind of style, to a certain feeling of being new, or to a certain feeling of being old, or to a church being ancient, or a church being really modern, or all kinds of things like that. But none of this makes the church the church. The thing that makes the church is the Word of God and abiding in that word. It is the word of God that makes the church and when people are gathered around that word, there God’s church on earth grows.

However, today, we live in very strange times. Jesus says about his Word: You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. In many parts of the world, in many parts of our country, in many of our towns and cities, in many of our homes and families, the truth is not known, and as a result people are slaves, bound, captive, and are imprisoned. They are slaves to their own selves, to their own sin. And as a result they are not free.

If we want to know the truth, we must go to Jesus Christ and his Word. We know today that there are many people who don’t hold to the truth about all kinds of things. The fact that a lot of people hold to a particular opinion doesn’t make it true. There are many people, for example, that don’t believe in God at all, and who don’t believe he created the world. There are many people who don’t believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. There are many people today who believe in abortion, who don’t believe that a baby in a mother’s womb is a human life worthy of our protection. There are a growing number of people who believe in the transgender philosophy, that sex and gender are completely interchangeable, and that men and women don’t really exist. This is a powerful lie, which is causing great problems especially among young people, and young women especially. There are many people who believe in communism, that people shouldn’t be allowed to own anything, and that everything should be the possession of the state. There are many people who believe in eugenics and transhumanism, that human beings are going to get better and better, and that technology is going to turn us into a kind of super-people. All of these things are lies—powerful, destructive lies—which many people believe. But just because many people believe them doesn’t make them true. Power and numbers is not the same thing as truth.

Rather, Jesus is the Truth. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through him. Jesus will destroy ever lie and error and falsehood in his path. And every lie and error falsehood stands in direct opposition to the Gospel, because every lie is from the evil one, who is the father of lies, and he concocts every lie and falsehood, because the Gospel rescues people from himself. Of course, every lie will be directed against the Gospel.

So when we have the Gospel, what a wonderful gift it is. It is something to rejoice in, but not to brag in, and boast, and be proud, in such a way that we think we are better than the people who don’t have it. No, the people who don’t have the Gospel are living in darkness, the darkness that each and every single person was born in. The Gospel must be kept, held on to, and shared. And every error, every lie, every falsehood, must be deconstructed and destroyed.

So let’s abide in Christ’s Word, so that we may truly be his disciples, so that we may know the truth, and that the truth may set us free. Let’s thank God for the wonderful event that the Reformation was, the wonderful gift of the Gospel that it brought to us through the rediscovery of the Word of God, and also for the wonderful example that is gives to us for our times. Amen.

 

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

 

Trinity XIX [Matthew 9:1-8] (23-Oct-2022)

          

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.

Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.

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. 

In our Gospel reading today, we read about an amazing event where Jesus heals a paralytic, a man who is paralysed, and unable to walk. And we read at the beginning of Matthew, chapter 9: And getting into a boat [Jesus] crossed over and came to his own city. And behold some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

Now, in the Gospel of Mark, we read a bit more detail about the magnitude of this event. We read: And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

It’s quite amazing! We have this man who was a paralysed, and he has heard about Jesus and his reputation, and he thinks to himself that he should go and present himself and his problem to Jesus too. But then, he can’t get there by himself. So he gets four of his friends to carry him on his bed. But then, when they get to the place where Jesus is, to the particular house, they realise that they can’t get to Jesus because there are so many people there. So, they take him up to the room, and start to pull apart the roof above Jesus and lower him down through the hole in the roof.

We read in our Gospel reading: When Jesus saw their faith… What is this faith that Jesus saw? Well, normally, faith isn’t something that we can actually see. It’s something that Jesus only can see, but we might see the fruit of people’s faith, we might see the actions that spring from a person’s faith. You see, when we say that we are saved by faith, and not by works, that is true. However, faith is always doing something: it doesn’t stay still, but it always produces something. So, for example, when faith has to wait for God’s blessings which are to come in the future, then faith produces hope. When a Christian person sees his neighbours in need, and shares with them the things that he himself has received from God, then faith produces love. When a Christian goes through a difficult time, and has to bear the cross, then faith gives birth to patience. When Christians start to sigh to God in their trouble, or thank God for blessings that God has given to them, then faith pours itself out into prayer.

And so, we see how faith is always producing new things, and pouring itself out into new Christian virtues, and actions, and characteristics and qualities and good works. However, these things in our life are only begun, and they are never finished. We are always learning what it means to hope, we are always learning to love, to bear the cross and to be patient, we are always learning prayer, humility, we are always learning the fear of God, and other things like that. In this life, these things are only begun and never finished.

But when it comes to faith, there is something about it that is unique, which is why it saves us. Because when we talk about faith, we are not talking about how strong or weak a person’s faith is. Rather, we are talking about the object of our faith, the thing which we put our faith in, the person whom we trust. And this person is Jesus himself. And with Jesus, his work is always finished. His work is never simply begun like our work, but it is always finished, complete, and perfect. Remember the wonderful words of Jesus on the cross, when he said, It is finished. And so, faith saves, not because of our strong or weak our faith is, but because of how strong Jesus is.

And so, we see here in our reading that there are these people who are busy, even tearing apart the roof. But the thing that Jesus sees is their faith. And we can see it too in our reading, because all of this travelling, all of this carrying the paralytic on his bed, all of this pulling the roof apart is directed to one thing and one person: Jesus. Jesus is the one they trust, Jesus is their only hope, the only one who can help them, and so they will do anything they can to come and see him. This is the faith that Jesus sees here.

We should also notice in our reading that it says, not just that Jesus saw this one man’s faith, but that Jesus saw their faith. It was not just the paralytic who was involved here, but also his friends. This also gives us a wonderful example in our own faith. Sometimes, we have a problem in our life, whatever it may be, and we often keep the matter to ourselves. We might talk to Jesus about it and pray about it, but deep down, it is almost as if we want Jesus to answer our own prayer, without anyone else’s help. Of course, there are many things that could tell Jesus that we don’t tell anyone else about. But when Jesus answers our prayer, and we have kept the matter to ourselves, then the whole thing is of no benefit to anyone else. In our reading, it is not just the paralytic who is encouraged and healed, but everyone who is involved in the whole business is strengthened and is encouraged by it all.

Also, we read in many places in the Gospels that Jesus sends out his disciples two by two. Or he says: If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. This is also part of the reason why we present the names of sick people in our own midst in the prayers each week in church. We come to Jesus, carrying our paralytic friends on their stretchers to Jesus, we pull apart the roof to lower them into Jesus’ presence! So when our burdens and our needs are shared between Christians, also the encouragements and the joys are also shared, because we see and witness the work of Jesus together.

Also, in our reading, Jesus says to the paralytic: Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. Jesus first of all says to him: Take heart. Jesus is our wonderful Good Shepherd, and he constantly leads us, sharing with us his encouragement. He is always wanting to share his victory with us, his joy, his encouragement. Jesus does this because he is our true friend, our ever-present help in trouble.

And so, Jesus is the answer to every problem. Sometimes, we Christians are tempted to think that it is arrogant of us to think that Jesus is only the solution to spiritual things, but has nothing to do with anything else. No – Jesus knows every problem, and he knows the solution to them all. Even we might think of someone we know, and we know they have a problem, and also we know that almost no-one in our country knows how to fix it, or how to solve it. Don’t be ashamed to ask Jesus to solve the problem. We should never be ashamed to pray in such a way that we can’t possibly imagine what the answer could be.

But also, Jesus is not a solution, he is not a fix. He is a living person, our living and resurrected master, our Lord, our Good Shepherd, our doctor, our counsellor, our friend, our God. There is always a temptation among us to think of Jesus and Christianity as a kind of system, an equation, a piece of mathematics, a piece of engineering, a machine. No—when we meet Jesus, we meet a living person, who comes to people and he says: Take heart, my son, my daughter, my child.

Now, the thing that Jesus then says to this paralytic man might strike us as a bit unusual. He says: Your sins are forgiven. The man comes to Jesus with his paralysis, he comes to Jesus with his disability, and Jesus forgives his sins. Now, why is this? We might scratch our head and think: had the paralysed man done something wrong, or committed a particular sin in his life, which then caused him to be paralysed? No, that’s not the case at all.

Even this topic comes up in John’s Gospel where it says: As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Sometimes, people ask this question, but it is not for us to speculate why this person or why that person has this problem, or sickness, or need, or disability. However, we are all conceived and born in sin, in such a way that in this life, we are always living with many problems. And these problems simply wouldn’t be there if it hadn’t been for the fact that Adam and Eve had eaten that fruit. Even we can see when we cut our finger or something, the wonderful way in which our body works and directs itself in such a way that the blood congeals and then it all dries up, and then over the next few days it heals up. It’s as if we were built to live forever. The reason why we will die, and that one day our time will be up, is because of sin.

And so, when we have some sickness, or injury, or some problem in our life, that hinders us from doing what we want to do, and being who we want to be, or whatever, it should always be for us a call to repentance. I don’t mean that we should go digging for dirt in such a way that we think, “What specific sin did I commit which caused me to have this problem?” We can never really know that. But at that same time, when we come to Jesus with our needs, we must always come to him with our sin, and with the recognition and acknowledgement on our part that we are first of all not paralytics in need of the ability to walk, but sinners in need of grace, in need of atonement, in need of forgiveness. We must always come to Jesus as people who need to be washed in his blood, and who need to be clothed with his righteousness.

And so, when Jesus says to this man, Your sins are forgiven, he shows us two things. First of all, that when we come to him, we should always come to him in repentance, confessing our sins to him. But also, it shows to us that all of his blessings come from the forgiveness of sins.

So, for example, in our reading, the man is healed of his paralysis, and this shows us something wonderful for our own life. We get older, we get sicker, we get weaker, we become more deaf, more blind, we get injured, and all that kind of thing. But one day, when the world comes to an end, Jesus promises us that there will be a resurrection of the body, and that he will raise all people from the dead, and that our bodies will be transformed in such a way that our bodies will be strong, and healthy, and we will hear and see Jesus with our own eyes, and leap and dance for joy. All of this comes from the forgiveness of sins. In the Creed, we say that we believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. The forgiveness of sins, and the wonderful washing with the blood of Jesus, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism, in this life, means that in the future, there will be a complete and total healing of our bodies and souls.

So, as people who have received the forgiveness of sins, and look for the wonderful promise of the resurrection and eternal life—it’s on this basis that we commend our weaknesses and disabilities into the hands of Jesus, and pray for ourselves, or for others. Even in the early days of the church, the apostles were sent out by Jesus in such a way that performed similar works to Jesus, and healed the sick, and laid their hands on them. We read at the end of Mark’s Gospel where it says: And Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. Notice the wonderful way in which Jesus worked with his apostles in encouraging his people in this way. Also, at the end of the letter of James, we read: Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the son who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Here we see in both these passages, the forgiveness of sins, faith, and the healing of the sick altogether. Now, in those days, the Holy Spirit worked in a wonderful way to confirm and establish the ministry of the apostles. Today, we still go and visit the sick, lay our hands on them, pray for them, even anoint them with oil, as it says in the reading, and also we should pray for people’s healing, even in a miraculous way, and for the coming of the Holy Spirit with his power and with his gifts to do wonderful things. After all, the God we worship is a living God, and nothing is impossible with him. Even in the Lord’s Supper, we come there to present ourselves with all our sin, but also to receive from him the wonderful medicine of body and soul.

However, if we are miraculously healed or not is completely up to the will of our heavenly Father, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus also teaches us about bearing the cross, and sometimes, it is good for our souls to live with some physical trouble. We should always commend our weak bodies to Jesus, that he may use us in his service. As long as we have troubles in this life, we should use these troubles to be an impetus for us to pray and commend ourselves to Jesus. And so, we say, “If it is your will, that I should be healed of my disease, or my disability, or my problem or trouble, then let your good and gracious will be done, to your glory. But if it would glorify your name that I should still live longer with it, then I pray that you would glorify your name in such a way that I can bear the cross to your glory.”

Often our troubles can arouse and make us sin, and be angry with God. But we shouldn’t do this. It is sin to be angry with God – we pray and we don’t get what we want, so we go and sulk like Jonah sitting under his fig tree, saying, “Yes, I’m angry, angry enough to die.” No, let the troubles we have in this life push us in all of our desperation into the presence and the arms of Jesus, even it means calling upon our friends to tear apart the roof for us. Jesus says: Take heart, child; your sins are forgiven.

In our reading, we see that it says: And behold, the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”

There are some grumblers who are present on this occasion. Once again, we see that these words, “Your sins are forgiven”, do not just strike some people as a bit strange, but even wrong, sinful, blasphemous, sacrilegious. After all, they think, only God can forgive sins!

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home.

Now, here we see a number of things which reveal to us the true divinity of Jesus, the fact that he is truly God.

First of all, he knows their thoughts. He knows that they are thinking evil in their hearts. Just as Jesus saw the faith at the beginning of the passage, he also sees the evil. His eyes pierce into our hearts with a sharpness and clarity and a precision which belongs to him as true God. This is why when we come to Jesus, in our lives as Christians, in our prayers, in our worship, there is no messing around. He knows our sin much better than we know ourselves, and so we should come to him in repentance, confessing our sins to him.

But also, he demonstrates the fact that he really does have the power to forgive sins. His forgiveness is confirmed by the miracle which is bestowed on the paralytic man. He says: That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—he then said to the paralytic—Rise, pick up your bed and go home. And so, at this event, in this situation, the healing confirms the forgiveness. This is a very powerful thing for us, because when it comes to our forgiveness, it is not just that Jesus simply says it, but he also acts and does something. So, many people often think: Why did Jesus need to die on the cross? Why doesn’t God just forgive people? Well, yes, he forgives people, but he wants us not just to rely on his mind, but to look at his mighty works, and to say: Jesus died for me, he suffered for me, he offered his life in my place, he has shed his blood, he has poured out his life, he is my sacrifice, my offering, my atonement, he is my righteousness, he is my Saviour. The forgiveness of sins is revealed in real, visible, physical demonstrations of God’s power in history. Even Baptism and the Lord’s Supper also have the forgiveness of sins attached to them in the Word of God, because God wants not just to put the forgiveness of sins into your ears, but he wants you to see it come down on your head, he wants you to see it go into your mouth.

But also, in our reading, there is something which we could easily miss. In all of this, Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, and demonstrates in this miracle, and through the forgiveness of sins, that he is the Son of Man. He says: That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… This title, The Son of Man, comes from the book of Daniel, and shows to us the fact that Jesus existed even before he was in his mother’s womb. This is just what John says in his Gospel. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Daniel writes: I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. This is what Jesus is talking about when he calls himself the Son of Man, when he forgives the man’s sin, and sends him home healed of his disability.

So, we read at the end of the reading: When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Yes, even today, this whole event should awaken in us and arouse in us such a great fear and reverence and awe when we are in the presence of Jesus. But also, it should open our lips and hearts to glorify God, and to thank him for the wonderful gift of the forgiveness of sins which he still gives to us on earth. And we look forward to that wonderful time, when we shall see him with our own eyes, completely transfigured and transformed and healed, having received from him, our Good Shepherd, the Son of Man, his grace, his blood, and the forgiveness of all our sins. Glory to God in the highest! Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.