Holy Trinity [Isaiah 6:1-8] (27-May-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

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

Text (Isaiah 6:1-13):

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Prayer: Heavenly Father, send to us all your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well and to all of us that we may hear well; in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today we’re celebrating the festival of the Holy Trinity, where we remember the particular teaching about God, that he is one true God, in perfect unity, but also reveals himself to us as three persons, or three individuals, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Today, for our sermon we’re going to meditate on the words from the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 6. And there’s a number of things that happen in this chapter:

I.                   Isaiah sees a wonderful vision of God.

II.                 He recognises his sin, and he receives forgiveness.

III.              Isaiah is called to be a prophet, and is given a word from God to speak.

So first, what did Isaiah actually see? First, Isaiah gives the time: he says that all this happened in the year that King Uzziah died. We learn here that kings comes and go; rulers die, leaders perish – but God does not. He is the living God.

And Isaiah says he saw him. And actually, Isaiah says very little about what he saw—he could have said much more, but he says just enough for us. He says: I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Can you imagine? The Lord is so far above our comprehension that the edge, the hem of his robe filled the temple. Imagine – Isaiah saw the Lord, and yet he says nothing about what he looked like, only that he was sitting on a throne and the hem of his robe filled the temple. What you think Isaiah is trying to tell us about God?

But then, Isaiah tells us about the living creatures, the holy angels, the seraphim who were there. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew.

Throughout the bible, we read about all kinds of angels and heavenly creatures that God has created. Right in the beginning of the book of Genesis, we read about when Adam and Eve fell into sin, that God appointed angels called cherubim to guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword flashing back and forth. –We read later about Jacob and his dream where he saw angels going up and down a ladder to heaven. – Ezekiel saw some wonderful living creatures of God.

Here Isaiah calls the angels he saw: seraphim. And we Christians sometimes talk about cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels. There is not just one kind of angel, but all different kinds. “Seraphim” means a spirit of fire, an angel of burning fire. In Psalm 104, it says that God’s ministers are a flaming fire. This is what we’re talking about here, who are standing in the presence of someone so wonderful, so magnificent, so glorious, so holy that with two wings they cover their faces and feet in reverence to him.

And we read that there is no silence in this vision. Not only does Isaiah see something wonderful, he also hears what this wonderful thing is. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

You probably recognise these words from when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, when we sing these words: Holy, holy, holy, together with these wonderful living creatures. Notice also there that there are three holies: holy, holy, holy, just as we say in the blessing: the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lordmake his face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favour and give you peace. The LORD, the LORD, the LORD – holy, holy, holy – just as in baptism we say in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And so then we read: And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Can you imagine if the words of the angel causes the foundations to shake, how much more the voice of God himself? These things are so holy that a cloud of smoke protects Isaiah from seeing anything further.

So what’s going on here? In the Gospel of John, chapter 12, we read a little explanation of what Isaiah saw. John says that it was Jesus whom Isaiah saw. And yet this same Jesus who had existed together with the Father and the Holy Spirit right from the beginning of the world is so holy that the angels can’t even look at him, and Isaiah says that the hem of his robe filled the temple.

And yet, this wonderful Jesus has descended from heaven and become a true human being just like us, a real man with real flesh and blood. Angels knew how wonderful this was that at his birth, they came tearing out of heaven to sing with the shepherds in the fields: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased.

And now, this same Jesus has died. His blood has been shed, and his hands, feet and side have been pierced. As we read later in Isaiah: This Jesus has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. By his stripes we are healed. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And this Jesus that Isaiah saw has now risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven. This same Jesus that Isaiah saw has descended and has sat back down on his throne, but now with a difference: sitting there with real human flesh and real human blood.

And yet, can you imagine—this same Jesus whose robe just barely scraped the temple, had people come up to him during his life and touch the hem of his robe. We read about a woman with a bleeding problem who said to herself: If I only touch his garment, I will be made well. Here today Jesus lets us touch the hem of his garment as he descends in all his majesty to baptise a child. What about when we hear the absolution? Jesus lets us touch his garment, by giving us his word and speaking his gospel – his free forgiveness of all our sins. And we touch this garment, his word, and like the lady, we are made well. What about the Lord’s Supper? He clothes himself in bread and wine—we touch these things and eat and drink them, and power goes out from them through the living and active words: This is my body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

But then here in the church, we are gathered with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven. Jesus is the LORD of hosts, the king of the heavenly armies. Remember “O come, all ye faithful” at Christmas time when we sing, “Come and behold him, born the king of angels.”

And these wonderful angels are singing the praises still of this same Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain to take away the sin of the world. They sing the words: Holy is the Father of this Jesus, Holy is this Jesus himself, and Holy is the Spirit that is breathed out of the mouth of Jesus.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.

But then remember that Isaiah said that when the voice called out, the thresholds shook. Do you realise that we would know nothing about Jesus at all if it weren’t for the word? It is the voice, the speaking, the word that makes the threshold, the foundations shake.

A church without the word of God is no church.

A sermon without the word of God is no sermon.

Baptism without the word of God is no baptism.

The Lord’s Supper without the word of God is a supper, a very light supper, but it not the Lord’s.

God had willed that his word be spoken here on the earth and it is this word that makes the threshold shake.

But then if we are going to hear God’s word here and enter into the presence of Jesus, how are we going to do it? What should we say? How would we be prepared?

Isaiah tells us: I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!

Woe is me! This is the word of a man who knows his sin, and that he is totally unworthy to be in the presence of God. What about you? Can you say, “Woe is me” – or would you rather say, “Yay for me!” Be careful what you say—when you stand before God, you must know which one of you is the holy God and which one of you is the sinner. Isaiah knows who he is. And he says: I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. Has God lost his way, or have you? Is God unclean, or are you? – Know who you are. If you are not lost, your Good Shepehrd cannot find you. If you are not unclean, then the blood of the Lamb cannot cleanse you. As St John says: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But there is something else, something new that God also wants to speak to us. We read: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

What a wonderful gift the angel gives to Isaiah! Isaiah says: Woe is me! and yet the angel gives God’s blessing, his forgives, his atonement. His guilt is taken away, and his sin atoned for. Isaiah says: I am lost, and yet the angel finds him. Isaiah says: I am a man of unclean lips, and yet those same lips are prepared and purified by the burning coal.

Jesus is very much like this burning coal. Here is a coal but it is also red hot with fire. Jesus is a true man, and yet he glows red hot with his divine nature. He is true man and true God in one person, just like this burning coal is both coal and fire together. And it is this Jesus who finds you, whose angels present him to you, who touches your lips. And he sets this water of baptism on fire with his word so that this baptism saves you. And the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper he sets on fire with his true body and blood. Why? Purely so that when these things touch your lips, that your guilt will be taken away and your sin atoned for. This is also the whole reason why we have preaching, and sermons, and readings, and pastors, and a church at all – so that the wonderful forgiveness of sins in all of its simplicity and in all of its richness can come to you. What a wonderful loving Saviour we have who still comes to forgive us even today, even now through his words and his own promises!

There’s something I’d like to mention just before we finish. God actually calls Isaiah after this to be a prophet. He says: Here I am, send me! And then God sends him, but with a frightening message, and this is a message very much for our church today. God says: Go and say to this people: Keep hearing but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive; make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their hears and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

There are so many wonderful things that Isaiah has seen and heard, and yet many people will not hear, and yet he must preach, he must speak what God has told him to speak.

Many people are looking for a quick fix in the church today to all kinds of problems, especially in mission! What’s the one thing that could let the floodgates open up so that people could come flowing into the church again?

If only we realise what a wonderful Saviour we meet every Sunday when we sing his praises! If only we knew what a precious gift we have in the word of God and the sacraments! If only we knew that when we have the forgiveness of sins, we have everything and when we don’t have forgiveness we have nothing. And yet Jesus promises forgiveness to you and his word never lies.

But there will be many people who will simply be uninterested in this living Jesus, in the holy Triune God, in the holy Trinity. And yet, whether they believe or not, it is not us who converts them, but the Holy Spirit. We must stick to the word, and speak it in truth and hold to it with all our strength.

It is a great sorrow to many pastors of our church when people are just too lazy to read the bible, too uninterested in God’s word, bored with forgiveness—and yet God’s word is still powerful and his Spirit is living and active.

Many people have given up on God’s word and many pastors don’t preach it, because nobody expects God to call. God calls Isaiah here – and he calls him to speak a specific word. God has called me to be a pastor – and if it is him who calls, then his word is the only thing I can preach. God has baptised you, and if it is him who has called you as his own, then it is his word and nothing less and nothing more than his word that you are called to hear, to believe, and to help bring to the nations however and wherever God uses you.

Of course, when we have given up on God’s call, then the only thing we have left is dodgy church politics, we just intimidate others with the devil’s own power and use people to build up our own personal kingdom.

No—it is God who calls. And if it is He who calls, then it is His word which must be spoken, and no matter how many of how few people will hear it, Christ crucified must be preached, because it is this living Jesus and this living Jesus alone who finds our sinful lips and who speaks the living voice of His Holy Spirit into your ears to forgive each and every single one of your sins! Jesus says: Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.

Holy, holy, holy, LORD God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! Amen.

Dear Jesus, open our ears so that they hear, and our eyes so that they see. Give understanding to our hearts so that we may turn and be healed by your holy and powerful word, Lamb of God, Good Shepherd, thank you for taking away our guilt, and atoning for our sin. Take us, and use us, and send us as you will. Amen.

Transfiguration B [Mark 9:2-9] (11-Feb-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay-reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.

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

And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

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

Today we are celebrating an event recorded in the Gospels which we call the Transfiguration. In this reading we read about how Jesus appeared to Peter, James and John in a particularly amazing way, where his face and clothes became to shine with bright white light. We also read about how Peter, James and John also saw Moses and Elijah, two well-known figures from the Old Testament who have lived long ago, talking with Jesus. And then, we also read about how a cloud covered them, and God the Father spoke, declaring Jesus to be his Son, and giving the command that we should listen to him. And so, we’re going to look at these three things in our sermon:

I.                Firstly, the amazing light that came across Jesus and changed his appearance.

II.                 Secondly, the fact that Moses and Elijah appeared, and

III.              Thirdly, the words that God the Father spoke from the cloud.

So let’s come to the first part of our reading, where we read about

I.                   The amazing light that came across Jesus and changed his appearance.

We read in our Gospel reading today: Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and let them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. This is how the evangelist Mark describes it in his gospel which we read today. He makes a particular emphasis about Jesus and his clothes. Matthew also tells us that his face shone like the sun. And also Luke, says that Jesus was praying, and that the appearance of his face was altered.

This is an amazing thing that happened. John also makes mention of this event, when he says the well-known words at the beginning of his gospel: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory… Here in our reading today, we get a little picture of that glory that John saw, together with Peter and James. Peter, who was also there on this occasion, wrote about this event in his second letter, where is says: We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. Do you see what kind of an impression this event made on John and Peter? You can almost sense that their amazement hadn’t worn off even by the time they wrote it.

This event in our reading teaches us something wonderful about Jesus. It teaches us that Jesus is a human being whom we can see and touch, but that also he is true God. He is the light of the world, who existed right from the beginning of time together with his Father. The Book of Hebrews calls Jesus the radiance of the glory of God. Jesus is 100% man and 100% God 100% of the time, but he most of the time, he hides his glory and his majesty and his brightness under the humble form of a human being like us. It’s almost like a burning coal, or a hot piece of iron that a blacksmith uses. Jesus is true God, and this divinity of Jesus shines out through his human body, just like fire and heat make a charcoal or a piece of iron glow red hot.

But the miracle of the Transfiguration is not this happened to Jesus. The miracle is that the disciples were allowed to see it. Everything that Jesus did or said glows and radiates and shines with all of his wonderful divine power and energy. Here in our reading, Jesus makes it clear to the disciples exactly who he is. Like a true man, made in the image of God, he prays, he has a face, a body, clothes. But as true God, shining with brilliant light, he glows and shines and sends out his rays. When Jesus asked Peter who the Son of Man is, Peter replied: You are the Son of the living God. The Son of Man is the Son of God—this is who Jesus is. When Thomas after Easter saw Jesus standing in front of him, with the wounds in his hands and his side, what did he say? He said: You are my Lord and my God.

We learn here just who this Jesus is that we worship. He came down from heaven to live a life among us. This is the Jesus who lives with us each day, who baptised you personally, and who gives you the Lord’s Supper each Sunday. You are his bride, and he is your bridegroom. And all of this wonderful glory and power he shares with you, he uses this power to die and cancel your sin, he unites himself with you, and he shows you a little taste of what he will be like when you see him in heaven. But we might think: but I am so ordinary, so sinful. I carry a lifetime of burdens, and shame, and sadness, and worries and guilt. Does this Jesus with all of that brilliant heavenly light want to enter into my life? Yes—he has died for you, he has shed his blood for you, that body shining with light was nailed and pierced and whipped and crucified for you, and now he is risen from the dead. He gives you his forgiveness and his promise of eternal life and his victory as a wonderful robe and clothing of righteousness and holiness, so that you can stand before God, and wrap yourself up completely in that robe. You can stand before God the Father, not because you are so holy and perfect. Far from it—you are not holy and perfect. But this Jesus is—and let’s you wrap yourself up in his robe of righteousness, that righteousness, that holiness, that purity, that brilliance and radiance that belongs to him.

But also, we get a little taste of what our bodies will be like when Jesus raises us from the dead. In the Apostles’ Creed it says: I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Sometime after we have died and gone to be with Jesus in heaven, he will gather up all of the dust and ashes of our bodies and transform them and glorify them. Paul says in Philippians: Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. Just think about that for a moment—the wonderful glory that we see in our reading today of Christ’s body, he won’t only keep to himself, but he will share that glory with you, and transform your body at the end of the world.

The other thing that happens in our reading today is that it’s not just Jesus’ face that shines with brilliant light, it’s not just his body, but it’s also his clothes. Our reading today says: His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. Now the wonderful thing about Jesus is that, now that he has ascended into heaven, he still wants to meet us and speak to us and be with us even now, here in this lifetime, on this side of the grave. And so he clothes himself. He hides himself here on earth, in such a way that you would only know he were there if he told you. Do you know what these things are, where Jesus clothes himself? First of all, he clothes himself in the words of the bible, the Holy Scripture—not just in the printed words on paper, but also when we read it aloud, and preach it, and sing it, and pray it, and think about it. Jesus clothes himself in the words of the Scripture, and these clothes of his shine with all the brilliance of his divine light. We read: Your word is a lamp—a bright, shining lamp!—to my feet, and a light—a brilliant light!—to my feet.

Also, he clothes himself in the words and the water of Holy Baptism. To us, it looks like just a bit of water in a bowl. But this water and the words of Jesus that we speak—I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—this baptism is full of wonderful divine light and energy and power, because your baptism gave to you the forgiveness of sins, rescued you from death and the devil, and gave you eternal life. You can put your trust in this solid rock, because Jesus himself has promised that he will clothe himself there, and hide himself there. Also, on Sundays, we hear those wonderful words of absolution spoken by the pastor: I forgive you all your sins. Jesus had said to his apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness, they are withheld. And so, Jesus has promised to hide and clothe himself in these words of forgiveness, so that when we hear them we know that this is not the words of a mere man standing on earth, but the words of the Lord of heaven and earth himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. And if he has clothed himself with these things, we know that his clothes shine with brilliant divine light.

But then also, he has promised to give us his body and blood to eat and to drink. He clothes himself in this bread and wine, and this bread and wine shines and glows in such a way that they are connected and united to the body and blood of Christ himself, so that when we eat this bread, we are eating Christ’s true transformed, glorified and life-giving body and when we drink this wine, we are drinking Christ’s true, transformed, glorified, and life-giving blood. And Jesus knows that if we came on our own, we would die and be completely overwhelmed by his holiness. Jesus knows our sin and our weakness, so he says to us not just, This is my body, but that it is given for you. He says not just, This is my blood, but that it is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And so we can trust him and his words and joyfully receive the wonderful gifts that he gives to us.

So there are so many wonderful things that we learn in our reading today from the fact that Jesus was transfigured, that his face shone like the sun, and that even his clothes become radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

Let’s come to the second part of our reading where we read about where

II.                 Moses and Elijah appear.

Moses and Elijah were two historical figures which we read about in the Old Testament. Moses lived about 1500 or 1600 years before this event, and led the Jewish people out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Elijah was a prophet who lived many years later about 800 or 900 years before this event, during the years of one of the worst kings in Israel’s history, King Ahab. And in our reading today, they show up, and they are standing there on the mountain with Jesus.

One of the very strange things about Moses and Elijah is that nobody knew where Moses was buried. His bones were never found. Also, Elijah didn’t die in the normal way, but was carried into heaven with chariots and horses of fire. We also read about another figure in the Old Testament, Enoch, who also didn’t die in the normal way. It simply says: Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.

In our reading today, we get a little glimpse of two saints of the Old Testament, who enjoy being in the presence of Jesus and talking with him. This gives us also a little picture of the way in which we who believe in Jesus will one day enjoy being in the presence of Jesus and talk with him.

Peter at this point, just goes a bit crazy for a while. He is completely overwhelmed and dithers around and doesn’t know what he’s doing. He says to Jesus: Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. Mark also tells us: For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Of course, they were terrified! Here was Moses and Elijah! Did Peter, James and John think that maybe they were even entering into heaven itself?

But there is one thing that Peter’s ramblings teach us. Peter recognised Moses and Elijah—he had never met them before, but when they were there, he recognised them. And this is a wonderful comfort to us about when we enter heaven is that we will recognise people: we will recognise all those people we loved who died with Jesus and that we now miss, and we will recognise all the saints and all the apostles and the martyrs and the prophets, and everyone. It will be a wonderful family reunion, where we won’t need to wear nametags!

But also there is something else that is special about Moses and Elijah. Moses is the person who wrote down God’s law in the Old Testament. Elijah is considered to be one of the most important prophets. And often we read about the Law and the Prophets. In Romans 3, Paul says that Law and the Prophets bear witness to the righteousness of faith in Jesus Christ. Here we see Moses (who represents the law) and Elijah (who represents the prophets) pointing to Jesus. After Jesus rose from the dead, we read in Luke: Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. What this shows us is that the whole of human history, and all of God’s people, were all looking forward to this moment, and this person, Jesus Christ. And even today, he is our wonderful Saviour, our King, our Lord, our Mediator, our Advocate, and our Redeemer. When we look to Jesus and point to him, we even have Elijah and Moses on our side.

But let’s come to the last part of our reading, about where:

III.              God the Father speaks from the cloud.

We read: And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

Here is God the Father’s voice: and he points to his Son, and tells us not simply to look at him, or to touch him, but to listen to him. All the power is in Jesus’ words. John calls Jesus the Word of God. He says: The word became flesh. But Jesus is not the word of God who keeps his mouth shut. He is the word of God who continually opens his mouth. He was speaking even through Moses, and Elijah, and throughout the Old Testament. And when he rose from the dead, he sent out his apostles to give an eyewitness of him. He says: He who hears you hears me. And this Jesus calls takes every that Moses said and everything that Elijah said, all of God’s law and all the cries of the prophets, and preaches it right into the very centre of our hearts, and calls us to repent, to completely change our lives, and our whole way of thinking. But God the Father also points to his Son, and says: Listen to him, because of a new word that will be spoken. This word is the Gospel, and this word shows us Jesus as our Saviour, as the one who has fulfilled the whole law for us, and now gives forgiveness and eternal life as a gift completely and totally freely to everyone who believes in him.

And so, when God spoke to Moses, he gave him the Ten Commandments. The First Commandment says: You shall have no other Gods before me. And now the same God who spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai now speaks from the cloud and says: Listen to him. If you want to have me as your God, you must listen to my Son. You will get to me and come to me in no other way! This is my beloved Son. Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. Peter said: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

And so, the disciples look up and see Jesus by himself, alone. They see his kind face, and a gentle hand on their shoulder of a friend. But more importantly, they have a word from the Father: Listen to him. And Jesus says: Rise, and have no fear. Have no fear, for I will suffer and die for you, I will rise for you, and I will forgive you, and lead you, and strengthen you, and bless you, and be with you always to the end of the age. This is Jesus, our wonderful Saviour! Amen.

Dear Jesus, how good it is to be here with you today, together with all the angels and saints of heaven, in your glorious presence. Speak to us in your word, and fill us with your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Epiphany IV B [Mark 1:21-28] (28-Jan-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

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

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

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

Last week, we read about a specific message and a particular word that Jesus was preaching, where he said: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

Today we read: They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath [Jesus] entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

In our reading today, we don’t read about what Jesus was saying. The text simply says that he was teaching. But we do read the kind of effect that it had on people, and why it had this effect. We read: They were astonished at his teaching. But why were they astonished? We read: for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. Jesus was teaching not with simply human authority, like the scribes that the people were so used to. It is one thing to be a scribe, and to check and double-check words and grammar—this is a good thing. But it is another thing to teach. When Jesus teaches, he is not simply teaching empty words, or rhetoric. He is not saying a beautiful or a clever or a funny way of putting things. He is not showing off his ability to communicate, or his skills in giving a speech. This is all human authority. But Jesus’ teaching has authority, because he is not only a human being, but he is also true God at the same time, in one person. And so Jesus’ teaching is crystal clear, it is completely and totally true, and there are no half-truths. Sometimes people say things in a clever way so as to say two opposite things at the same time, and they end up saying nothing. In actual fact, they just want to say something to keep people happy, and to be politically correct, or to be diplomatic. But this is not how Jesus speaks: every word that he teaches is God’s word. Proverbs 30 says: Every word of God proves true. Jesus prays to his Father: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. He also says that the Scripture cannot be broken. St Paul also writes to Titus that God never lies. And because of this, we read in Hebrews that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And so when Jesus teaches, the people are astonished, they recognise the divine authority of Jesus, they recognise that there is something different about what he says that no one else has said to them before. They recognise that no-one has called them to repentance in the sharp, clear way that he has, and no-one has comforted them with the divine comfort of heaven in the way that he has.

But then, in the middle of Jesus’ teaching, something very strange happens. We read: Immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him.”

First of all here, we are told that there was a man with an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit is another name for a demon, or sometimes it is called an evil spirit. Now what is an unclean spirit? One of things we often forget when we read the bible is that creation includes things that we can’t see. In the Nicene Creed, we confess: I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, or seen and unseen. The visible creation is what we see around us, and the creation of these things is describes right at the beginning of the bible, in Genesis chapter 1. Visible things include light, water, the sky, the earth, land, the sea, plants, trees, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the solar systems and galaxies, birds, fish, animals, reptiles, insects, and also, of course, humans. But then there are also certain things that God creates that are invisible: this includes heaven and hell, and also angels. Angels are spiritual beings, spirits that are created by God, that don’t have bodies, don’t have flesh and blood. However, like human beings, angels also were created with a free will. God commanded human beings to love him and serve him, and he created the angels to do the same. Loving and serving God means that we do it willingly—God does not have us like puppets on a string, making us love him by force. That wouldn’t be love.

And so, we also believe that the devil decided to use his free will not for God and in service of God, but in hatred towards God, and in rebellion against him, and for evil. Then Satan tempted the first people into sin, and the human race became sinful too, because they listened to the voice of the devil instead of God, and also chose evil over good. But also, we read that the devil was not the only angel who fell into sin, but there was a large number, who form a kind of army with the devil as the leader.

In our reading today, we read that an unclean spirit had entered into a man. Now, in our culture, something has happened in the last two or three hundred years, which is called the Scientific Enlightenment. From this time onwards people have made all kinds of advances in science, which has been a very good thing. However, at the same time, people started to reject things in the bible that weren’t able to be proven by science, or weren’t measurable by science. People started to deny that there’s anything that exists that you can’t see. We can see this today, where many people don’t believe in the existence of heaven or hell, angels or demons, the devil, or even God himself. They look at the world with a set of rules that just completely does away with anything that they can’t measure or prove with science.

Many people in the church too have often read passages such as the one in our reading today in a scientific—or we might say a “rationalistic”—way. This isn’t to say that we don’t use our brains when we read the bible. Of course, we do.  But we shouldn’t use our brain and our reason to try and make the bible say something that it doesn’t say. Especially we shouldn’t try and make the bible say the opposite of what it doesn’t say! This is exactly what the devil did when he tempted Eve: God had said that if they ate the fruit, that they would surely die. What does the devil do? He interprets God’s word in such a way as to make it say the exact opposite of what God actually said. The devil says: You will not surely die.

And so, it is common for people to read a passage like this in our reading today and to say that this man didn’t have an unclean spirit, but that he had a mental illness. However, this is not what the text says. Mental illness does exist, and sometimes there are certain mental illnesses that have symptoms which look similar to demon possessions. But they are not the same thing. Later in chapter 1 of Mark, we read that Jesus healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. There are two things here: Jesus was healing people who were sick, and he was casting out demons. They were not always the same thing. So there are two mistakes that people make: sometimes they think that there is no such thing as demon possession, and that everything is mental illness. Sometimes people think that there is no such thing as mental illness and everything is demon possession. Both of these things are wrong. Sometimes a person can go to a doctor or a psychiatrist and be treated for their mental illness—no problem. However, there are also situations where medical treatment can’t help—the reason is that the person is not really mentally ill, but are spiritually troubled.

But let’s pretend that the man in our reading does have a mental illness. Let’s listen then to what the man says. He says: What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God. What kind of mental illness is able to recognise Jesus, and to speak hidden things about him that other people wouldn’t otherwise know? Also look at what Jesus does in return. We read: But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him.”

When we’re dealing with mental illness, we’re dealing with a person who is sick, and who needs treatment. And when anyone is sick, whether they have a physically debilitating illness or are mentally ill, we should pray for them, and they should go and seek treatment. And we pray that Jesus would bring healing to the person, either in a natural way through treatment or through medicine as God provides through a doctor, or in a supernatural way through a special miracle of God. We know that in this life, God may or may not give a miraculous healing. But we do know that for those who believe in Jesus, that he will heal us completely and totally in the next life and completely transform and glorify our bodies so that we will completely free of all of our sickness and troubles.

Sometimes people—especially some charismatics or Pentecostals—make the mistake of believing that when people become Christians, they become sinless. So every time they see and recognise sin at work in them, they think it must be an evil spirit. Now, it is true that because our heart is sinful, the devil has a close ally inside of us. But some people make the mistake of always wanting exorcism, when in actual fact, they need absolution, and forgiveness. They need to hear the words that Jesus has died and paid for each and every single sin and their whole sinful heart and their whole sinful condition, and even in the church today we can hear the words of forgiveness from God himself spoken to us. When we hear the words: I forgive you all your sins, the devil has no more power to make accusations. Jesus has pulled his teeth out, and the devil can’t bite us anymore! As St Paul says in Romans: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When we’re talking about demon possession, we’re talking about two beings: one is a human being, a man or a woman like you and me, and the other is an invisible being, a demon or unclean spirit, who has entered in and joined itself to the person. This unclean spirit can take control of the person, like in our reading, where it uses the person to speak its own words. In our reading the unclean spirit uses the person and says: What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us? The unclean spirit even gives the person a special insight into hidden things that the person otherwise wouldn’t know. In our reading the unclean spirit says: I know who you are—the Holy One of God. Notice here that the demon tells something that is true, but the means of know that truth is not right. The words are true, but the authority is not right.

And so we might ask the question: how did this man end up like this? Well the text doesn’t actually tell us. However, Jesus does say to his disciples: I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me. We know that outside of Jesus and his kingdom, life is a dangerous mess, and people are open and susceptible to all kinds of spiritual danger. However, in our reading, when Jesus is present there in the synagogue, and begins to teach, the unclean spirit is exposed.

Now, we read in the Scripture where God the Father’s voice comes down from heaven and says: This is my beloved Son: listen to him. This happens at the Transfiguration, when Jesus’ face and clothes began to shine with bright, white light. In the Old Testament, Moses had already spoken about the coming Messiah, and said: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. All throughout the New Testament, we read various passages that confirms this prophet to be Jesus, and even God the Father says: listen to him. Moses had said centuries before: It is to him you shall listen. But on the other hand, in the same passage, Moses says some other things. He says: There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.

So, do you hear that the nations listened to fortune-tellers and diviners, and lists a whole lot of occult practices that people did. All through the history of Israel and the kinds, we see that the Jewish people often mixed in the practices of the nations with God’s law. And so, what this passage teaches us is that fortune-tellers and diviners are not speaking with the voice of Jesus. Jesus does not use fortune-tellers and diviners to speak, but they use a different spiritual power. Moses says: Don’t listen to fortune-tellers and diviners. But God the Father says about Jesus: Listen to him.

In our culture, many people recognise that there’s more to life than what we can see. But then the mistake that people often make is that they think that everything spiritual is good. That’s not true. The truth is that the greatest good is spiritual good, but the greatest evil is spiritual evil. You can’t make use of a fortune-teller, or a psychic, or a clairvoyant, or a medium, and think that this is the Holy Spirit—it’s not. God has specifically said in his word that listening to Jesus Christ and listening to fortune-tellers and diviners are mutually exclusive things. And so when people open themselves up to these kinds of false ideas and false practices, and particularly occult practices, they also open themselves up to unclean spirits.

In the bible, an unclean spirit is also called an evil spirit or a demon. The bible speaks very negatively about them. But outside of the church, people use positive-sounding ways of speaking about them. People might say: I have an angel who speaks to me. Or: I have a spirit guide. Or: I try to hear what the universe is trying to say to me. Or: I communicate with my higher self. Even sometimes people can be mistaken and deceived for thinking that they are talking directly with God or the Holy Spirit, even when they reject and go against what the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Scriptures. All these things are examples of people trying to make contact with the unclean spiritual realm.

Now, the amazing thing about our reading today is that Jesus deals with this man very simply. We read: Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” The word “be silent” means to “get muzzled”. Jesus speaks to the unclean spirit like a noisy dog. And we read: The unclean spirit, convulsing him and was crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. Even in Luke it says that the man was done no harm. Jesus, being true God and true man in one person, knows exactly how to separate an unclean spirit from the person standing in front of him. And with his powerful and authoritative word, he simply casts the unclean spirit out.

And we read: And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” And at one his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

What is important here is Jesus’ words, and his authority. There is no spiritual wrestling match that goes on. Jesus is not addressing the unclean spirits as equals. He has complete and absolute authority over them.

In the church, Jesus has spoken his same authoritative word of power to you when you were baptised. And when we are baptised, we make a clear statement against the devil and say: I renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. We confess the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and we renounce the devil. This is who we are as Christians, and our whole life is a lesson in renouncing the devil and confessing Jesus Christ. In ancient times, when a person was baptised, they would rebuke the unclean spirit, and this excellent practice has been reintroduced into our churches in recent years to emphasise the power of Christ’s work against Satan in baptism. It’s no accident that as less people in our society are baptised, spiritual and demonic trouble have increased for people. In baptism, our Lord Jesus with his powerful word forgives us our sin, rescues us from death and the devil, and gives eternal life to all who believe this. Baptism is a wonderful defence and shield against all the attacks of the evil one, because we can continually look to Jesus and his promise to defend us from all evil. And when we are bothered and attacked by the evil one, we can simply say: Be silent! Get out of here! You don’t belong here!

Jesus is the one who has power over all spirits, and all the authority belong to him. We have access to his great authority because we have his authoritative word, which is a word of power. We are weak, but the word we speak is the word of Jesus. St Paul says: My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So every time we speak the word of God in its truth and purity, and preach it, and sing it, and read it, the devil is cleared out. The devil knows his time is short when the word is in play, because these words are the words of the living God and the living Jesus who has risen from the dead. We cannot do anything in our power and authority—Jesus is the only exorcist. We pray to him, and ask him to work together with us, and to use us where he sends us. As the people say in our reading today: He even commands the unclean spirits and they obey him. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for your word of authority and power. Protect us from all the power of the evil one. Amen.

Sermon on Reformation I: On Justification by Faith Alone (15-Oct-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

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

For 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.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

                                                                                                             

Today’s sermon is the first of a three-part series on the teachings of the Reformation. On 31^st October 1517—which at the end of the month will be exactly 500 years ago—Martin Luther went to the church door in the German city of Wittenberg, and nailed there his 95 Theses against the practice of indulgences. I won’t go into great detail now as to what indulgences were, and what this was all about, but this event was a kind of beginning of a series of shock-waves, which rippled not just in Germany, but all throughout Europe, and has left a permanent impact on the history of the world. This was also the beginning of a series of events which led to the beginning of the Lutheran Church as a separate entity from the Roman Catholic Church. So, you can see that the celebration this year, is a very important one for us. And so, for these three weeks in a row, I would like to give these three sermons about the distinctive teaching of the Lutheran Church, and why the things that happened 500 years ago are still relevant today. So today’s sermon is going to be about The Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone. This is such an important teaching, because until the time of Martin Luther, this teaching had basically died out and was silent in the church. Next week, we’re going to talk about the Lord’s Supper. And then the third sermon in our series is going to be about the Victory and the Celebration of the Reformation.

So what is “justification”? Justification is a word that has to do with courts and courthouses, and is the action where a person is declared righteous in the sight of God.

Let’s flesh this out a bit… Justification is a process[1], it is a trial that happens in a court, and this courtroom is heaven. God is the judge, and he is seated on his throne. The accuser, or the prosecuting attorney, is the devil. Actually, the name “Satan” means “accuser”. The person on trial is mankind, the human race, which includes you. And so the accuser accuses—the accuser makes his accusations. And the person on trial, the accused—this is us, this includes you—we know that the accusation is true because our conscience also witnesses against us. The Holy Spirit searches, and also knows that the accusation is true. And so when the accuser makes an accusation which is true, the person is guilty and there needs to be justice, and a punishment. The guilt is great, and the punishment is endless—because this is no ordinary law—this is no human law, like the law of Australia, or the law of some other country. This is God’s law. And God’s law says: You shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. God’s law says: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. God’s law says: Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And so, this is the situation we find ourselves in, in God’s courtroom, and our sentence is ready to be pronounced.

At this point, in the court process, something amazing happens. Into all of this, comes Jesus of Nazareth. He is the true Son of God, true God and true man, and he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is our High Priest and he is our Advocate, our Defender. And he sees us standing there—a wretched, lost and condemned criminal in God’s court room—and he says: I have suffered for this person, I have died in his place, I have taken the punishment that he deserve, I have done a great work and I have earned this person a place in God’s house, I have won the victory over the Satan, the Accuser, and all their enemies. What can you do in such a situation other than grab the feet of Jesus first of all in sorrow over the suffering that we caused him, but also in complete trust in him and gratitude, and complete joy for the wonderful blessing that he gives us.

And so, the voice of God comes from the Most Holy Place. This voice comes out of the Holy of Holies in heaven, from God’s mighty dwelling place, from his temple, from his throne room, and he says: Rip up the accusation. Tear up the charge. Burn it, bury it. Because of my beloved Son, the guilty person is free to go. You are acquitted from all guilt, and you are set free from every punishment. You are justified, you are set free. You have no price to pay whatsoever, because Jesus has paid everything on your behalf. This Jesus is perfect, he is perfectly righteous. Your sin, your guilt and your punishment is taken from your account and given to him, and his righteousness and his innocence and his perfect atonement is taken from his account and given to you. God does not count you guilty because Jesus’ righteousness is accounted to you.

And so, this word of God from heaven is actually spoken here on the earth, first of all, in the pulpit. Each Sunday, and whenever Christians gather, preachers are called to speak this word of forgiveness to you. It is also spoken to you at the altar, when we give you the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, and say that this is given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And it is spoken to you whenever you receive the absolution, when the forgiveness of sins is directly applied to you, whether it is in public, like we heard it today, or privately, in private confession. All of this is the forgiveness of sins on earth as it is in heaven. You have everything that you need. And so St Paul says: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what we’re talking about when we’re talking about justification by faith alone. This teaching shows us where the church is. Where there are sinners receiving the free forgiveness of their sins because of what Christ has done, without any contributions or works of their own, that is the church. And anything else in the whole world that looks like a church but doesn’t have this one teaching is not the church. Because this teaching of justification shows us the answer to the most important question that anyone on this world could ever ask: What must I do to be saved? The answer is: You cannot do anything. You can only make matters worse, you can do nothing but condemn yourself further. Jesus has done everything. He stretched out his arms on the cross and said: It is finished. He has done everything, and he gives it all to you for free. All you need to do is put out your hand and take the gift that he gives you. God’s word is true, and he never lies.

St Paul says in Ephesians 2: You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Here you see St Paul describing the state of affairs outside of God’s kingdom, outside the church. This is life without justification: we are dead, and children of wrath. But then St Paul goes on: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now listen to what St Paul says: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. You can see how central this teaching was when Paul was writing to the Ephesians.

Now, let’s go through this doctrine in a bit more detail. If we want to understand this doctrine really well and much more sharply, then we should also make sure that we understand about God’s law and the Gospel. The Law is God’s powerful word which shows to us our sin: it doesn’t make us a sinner, but it finds sinners. It’s like a spotlight in the night, a laser beam, that comes and finds you, and exposes you for everything that you are. But then there is another word which God speaks only to sinners: it is the word which shows you your Saviour. It doesn’t find a saint, but it makes you a saint, and not because you did anything, but because Jesus did everything. The gospel is the word spoken to you exposed in the dark with that laser beam, the law, and covers you over with new clothes, with the wonderful spotless garment and robe of Jesus’ righteousness.

Now it’s not true that the Law is the Old Testament and the Gospel is the New Testament. The Law is found in both the Old and the New Testament, and the Gospel is found in both the Old and New Testament. But in the Old Testament, the most important thing is where God reveals his law on Mt Sinai. And in the New Testament, the most important thing is where God gives up his Son, the Lamb of God, on Mt Golgotha, on Calvary.

So what does the Law say? It says: The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. It says: We know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. The law says: When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin.

The Law convicts us and the law accuses us. It shows us our sin. In Jeremiah we read: Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? God’s law shatters our stony hearts, and smashes up our pride like a hammer and burns up our self-righteousness like a fire. It shows us that we are by nature children of wrath.

And then in the Gospel of Mark, what is the first thing that Jesus says, when he goes out to preach? He says: Repent, and believe the Gospel. When he says, “repent”, he is preaching to you the law. He is saying, no matter who you are, and what you have done, you must become different than you are now, you must change your ways. But then Jesus says: Believe the Gospel. In other words, He says: Trust me, trust my promises, I will save you. Before Jesus came, John the Baptist went out preaching, and saying: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. In other words: Every valley must be lifted and every hill made low. John says: Let your hearts be crushed, and hear about your sin. But then comes the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Then God’s voice will say: This is my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. And so, the law prepares us for Jesus. The preaching against sin prepares us to meet our Saviour, who saves us from sin. After Jesus is raised from the dead, he commands his apostles to go out and preach the Law and the Gospel. He says: Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

So if all we do is go and preach the law by itself, then it brings nothing but hell and despair and death. This is what happened to Judas: he knew the law of God, but he didn’t know the Gospel. Romans 7:10 says: For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

But then once the law has been preached, the Gospel then brings consolation, and forgiveness. The door of heaven is opened for us. And Psalm 130:7 says: With the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. It doesn’t just say: redemption, but plentiful redemption, abundant, overflowing. The Gospel affects us and touches us in so many different ways in our whole lives that we never would have expected. Anyone who thinks: “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard the Gospel before”, has never heard the Gospel before, because the Gospel is always fresh, it is always new, it is always creating, it is always life-giving. And God doesn’t just give us the Gospel in one way, but he gives it in many, many different ways. Firstly, he gives us the Gospel through the spoken word, through which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world. Second, he gives us the Gospel through Baptism—he gives us the physical sign of water on our bodies together with his word to bring us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. God wants to make sure that we know that our salvation depends not on our choosing, and our feelings, and our experiences, but on his word, on his promise. That’s what baptism is—it is God taking everything that Jesus accomplished on the cross and in his resurrection and he puts it on you, right now, in your life, in the history of you. Third, God also gives us the Gospel through the Lord’s Supper—if you thought baptism was enough, God also wants to give you living food for the road, to strengthen you all the way through your Christian life, by giving you the body and blood of his Son for you to eat and to drink. He doesn’t only give you to forgiveness of sins in the word and in baptism, but also in the Lord’s Supper too, as a living medicine. Also, God gives you the Gospel through the Office of the Keys, when the pastors of the church speak absolution, and open the doors of the kingdom of heaven for you, by declaring to you the free forgiveness of your sins. And also, God gives you the Gospel through your fellow Christians, through the comfort and consolation and conversations that we can have to build each other up, just as Jesus says: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. So what a generous, abundant God we have who lavishes his Gospel upon us in so many different and wonderful ways!

So, the Gospel is the word of God that speaks to us that Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification [SA II I 1-2]. St Paul says that God raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Jesus alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and God has laid on him the iniquities of us all. Now, all of us, every single person who has ever lived, except Jesus himself, is a sinner. St Paul says: 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…by his blood. Now what does this mean, “by his grace”, or “as a gift”? It means that the only thing you can do is believe it. You can’t do anything to achieve this. You can’t do anything to get it by any work, or law, and you can’t earn it, or merit it, by anything that you do. And God won’t even give you the power to be able to earn it or achieve it. If you pray to God, and say: “God, send me the power to be able to work for and earn your forgiveness”, he won’t answer it. Because you would be asking him to make yourself your own Saviour, and you wouldn’t need Jesus. So it is faith alone that justifies us: not faith plus love, not faith plus works, not faith plus being holy, not faith plus all your prayers—no, just faith, just good old-fashioned faith—faith which might be strong, or faith that might be weak. Whether faith is strong or weak doesn’t matter, because you’re not saved by strength or weakness but by faith in Jesus, and He is the strong one.

And so St Paul says: We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. And we must be the most stubborn of all people when we have learnt this teaching, and we must compromise not an inch on this teaching, or budge the tiniest amount, because otherwise we would be mixing our Saviour’s work on the cross with our filthy second-rate work. And when we have made ourselves into a Saviour, we have lost the faith. It’s so easy for the sinful flesh to take over in the church, it’s so easy for outward friendliness to want to prevail over truth, it’s so easy for the church to drown God’s voice out by speaking the same message as the world. But there is no other name—no other name—given under heaven by which we must be saved.

And so God has given us a new and a clean heart. God will and does account us completely and totally righteous and holy because of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our Mediator. When God looks at you, he doesn’t see you and all your sin, he sees you with your Saviour, and he’s sees Jesus’ righteousness completely covering you over. And even though we still struggle and live with sin every day, God does not punish it or bring it to mind, because Jesus has already dealt with it and Jesus has already paid for it.

So take heart. Be of good cheer! God says to you: You are my beloved son and daughter. He says this just as he said it to his own Son at his baptism and when his face and clothes shone in the transfiguration. You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. Amen.

Dear Jesus, how can we thank you enough for everything that you have done for us? There is nothing that we can bring you, there is nothing that we can offer you, that could be anywhere close to equalling the great sacrifice that you have made for us. Strengthen our faith, dear Jesus, and keep our eyes always fixed on you. Amen.

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[1] See Wilhelm Loehe, Questions and Answers to the Six Parts of the Small Catechism of Martin Luther, Columbia: Duffie, 1893, p 118.

Pentecost XV (Proper 19 A) [Matthew 18:21-35] (17-Sep-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

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

The servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant forgave him the debt.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

I.                   We are reluctant to forgive people.

We sinners don’t find it easy to forgive people. We are reluctant to forgive people. Last week, in our gospel reading we were reading about Jesus’ advice to his disciples about how they should go about reconciling with people. 

And in today’s reading, we read: Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, Jesus is saying to the person, forgive the person, and don’t stop. Don’t count. Just keep forgiving, again and again.

Now this is the topic of our whole reading today. Jesus is talking about forgiving other people. And this topic comes up in the Lord’s Prayer, where it says: Forgive us our sins [or trespasses], as we forgive those who sin [or trespass] against us. And so as Peter looks at his own capacity to forgive—maybe he’s prepared to forgive seven times at a stretch—but Jesus sets the bar much higher: seventy-seven times. Jesus shows us his great capacity to forgive, but our great weakness to forgive. We do not have this capacity in ourselves to forgive, it must come to us from Jesus. Without Jesus, we can’t forgive.

In our reading today, we read about a king who forgives a servant’s debt. But once the servant refuses to forgive his fellow servant, Jesus even issues a very strict and very harsh warning at the end of the reading: We read: Then the master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

These are very harsh and very sharp words indeed from Jesus. When we refuse to forgive others, we become hardened to God’s forgiveness. Jesus even threatens us with hell here, because our debt is endless, and we can never, ever pay God off.

But this brings us to the second part of our sermon, where we learn about

II.                 The forgiveness of sins.

Jesus says: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

Now this is a tremendous passage which gives us some powerful comfort. Look at what the master does in this passage. There is a debt, which the servant can’t pay, which is ten thousand talents. A talent was about 20 years wages for a labourer. A labourer’s yearly wage in Australia can be around $50,000 or so—times that by 20 is ten billion dollars in today’s money. And this man’s not a wealthy man—he is just a servant. This is an impossible debt to pay off. Even selling himself and his wife and family into slavery is not even going to pay off the debt.

But the master forgives him the debt. And get this—not only is the man released of his debt, but he doesn’t receive any punishment for it. The master could have forgiven him the debt, but then put him in jail so that he won’t do it again. No—he does nothing of the sort. The man is free from guilt, and he is free from punishment.

Now, have you ever heard of people speak about a thing called “karma”? The idea of karma has its origins in Hinduism, and this is where people are always judging people when things go badly for them, and they say: “it must be their karma. They must have deserved it”. Karma is a terrible idea, and it turns people into such hateful people. If the teaching of karma had its own statue in town, I would suggest that we would daily go and throw some tomatoes, or mud, or dung at it, so that it topples over! Some people say: “You made your bed, now you sleep in it.” Some people also say: “He got his come-uppance.” “What goes around comes around”, and this kind of thing.

Now God is not like this at all. Sure, sometimes it happens that our sin has earthly consequences. But when we turn to God, we know that any earthly consequences of our sins will just melt away once we have died. And earthly consequences are not a sign of God’s curse, or his punishment. This may be our cross to bear, but it isn’t our punishment. For example, someone may become a Christian in gaol, and they will still have to serve out their sentence, but they know that their sin is forgiven by God. St Paul says: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When Jesus died on the cross for you, he took upon himself your guilt, your debt, but he also took upon himself your punishment. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, we read: For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin. This means that even though Jesus had no sin, and was completely and totally sinless, he took all of your sin upon himself, and died for it, just as if he were the worst sinner on earth. But then in Galatians 3:13, it says: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. So Jesus didn’t just become sin for us, but he also became a curse for us. Becoming a curse means he took on himself the punishment. So you can see that Jesus didn’t die for us in such a way that he forgives us, but still punishes us. No—he forgives us, he cancels our debt, and he sets us free, and doesn’t punish us. Our debt is on Jesus, and our punishment is on Jesus.

We also read about this in Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament. It says: He was pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. When Jesus died, he completely wiped away our transgressions, our iniquities. He brings us peace and healing. But he also takes the punishment, he is pierced, he is crushed, upon him is the chastisement, and he is wounded.

So this is a really wonderful, comforting word of God for us. It means that in the reading, there is no need any more for the servant to be sold. And we learn this from other readings in the bible too. When the prodigal son returns to his father, he doesn’t have to pay back all the money he squandered. He is received back with open arms! His father doesn’t flog his son, or belt him, or lecture him, but there is only joy, only celebrating! When then shepherd leaves the 99 sheep in the field and goes and finds his lost sheep, he comes home and celebrates. He doesn’t chain the sheep up and break its legs so that he doesn’t run off again! There is no punishment, there is only celebration. In John chapter 8, we read about a woman who is caught in the act of adultery. All the people want to shame her, and even stone her to death. But Jesus says: Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And then, they all left. And Jesus didn’t then punish her himself, and put a ball and chain around her foot. He said: Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.

This is the real heart of our reading, that when the master forgives his servants debt, he also releases him from any punishment, or retribution. There is a big red stamp that comes down on this servant’s account, that says: PAID IN FULL. And the same goes for us. Jesus has died for you, and over the list, the account of your sins and debts to God, there is a big red stamp made with his holy precious blood that says: PAID IN FULL. And paid means “paid”. In Isaiah, we read where an angel comes to the prophet with a burning coal and says: Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

Now, we come to our third part of our reading, which is about

III.              Forgiving others.

We read: But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

Here we see the servant has been freed from his debt, but now that he is let off the hook, he thinks to himself, “That was a close call! I better make sure that I never have to go through all that again.” A debt of hundred denarii is a very small debt compared with the 10,000 talents.

In Matthew 6:14, we read about the Lord’s Prayer: For if you forgive others their trespasses, you heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So what does this mean? It means, that if you forgive others, it means that you have a wonderful comfort and assurance that your sins are forgiven in heaven. But we might think: Hang on… aren’t we forgiven freely, by grace, without our works? Yes, you’re right. Forgiving others doesn’t earn you forgiveness with God. God doesn’t forgive you because of your works in general, or even because you have forgiven other people. He forgives you completely and totally freely, without any conditions whatsoever, out of pure grace, because His Son has died for you, and because He has promised it. That’s it. But he wants to encourage you to forgive other people, so that when you do forgive others, this can be a little sign for you, a confirmation and an assurance, that your sins are forgiven by God. So Jesus says in Luke 6:37: Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Jesus wants to encourage us when someone has wronged us to forgive them, and when we do this, we know that this forgiveness that we pass on to them came to us from God. St John says: We love because he first loved us.

Now, at the end of the parable, Jesus says: And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

Now, I don’t know about you, but those words really cut me to the heart: from your heart. You have trouble forgiving people, don’t you? You say: “Forgive and forget”, but you know deep down that you don’t forget. In Jeremiah 31:34 God says: I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sin no more. How can we completely forget the wrongs that people have done to us?

Let me explain something here. In English, “remembering” and “forgetting” often means something that we do in our heads, or in our minds. It has to do with our memories. But in Hebrew, remembering means something that you do. So for example, when Joseph was in prison, he interpreted the dreams of two men. One man was released from prison and went to work for Pharoah, and Joseph said: Remember me, when it is well with you, and do me the kindness to mention me to Pharoah, and so get me out of this house. Remember here, doesn’t mean that the man should simply think about Joseph in prison, but he means that he should actually go and say something to Pharoah. Another example is in 1 Samuel, where it talks about the prophet’s Samuel’s parents, Elkanah and Hannah, who had wanted a child for many years. We read: Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered here. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. When it says, the Lord remembered her, it means he actually did something for her and made her pregnant. Another example is in the Lord’s Supper, when Jesus says: Do this in remembrance of me. It doesn’t mean that we simply think about Jesus in our heads while we eat nothing but ordinary bread and wine with our mouths. Remembering here means doing something: it means eating his body and drinking his blood in remembrance of him. Or what about the thief on the cross? He says: Remember me when you come into your heaven. He doesn’t mean think about me, when you’re in heaven and I’m in hell. He means, bring me to heaven with you! In English too, sometimes we talk like this, like if someone has a wedding anniversary. If a man doesn’t do anything, his wife will say: “Um… did you forget something today?” And he’ll say, “Yes, I remembered.” But that’s not good enough! He has to do something: he has to congratulate her, kiss her, give her a card, chocolate, breakfast in bed, flowers, or whatever else people do on their wedding anniversary. Remembering the anniversary means doing something.

So when it says that God will not remember our sins, it doesn’t mean that he has a bad memory. It means that he won’t do anything about them. He won’t act on them, he won’t punish us for them. Psalm 103 says: He does not deal with us according to our sins. And so, we might have bad memories about something that someone did to us, but forgiving them from our hearts doesn’t mean that we suddenly have memory loss, but it means that we don’t act on it, we don’t punish them for it, we don’t think up ways to make their lives miserable so that we feel better.

Luther says this really well in the Small Catechism: We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

Do you see those words: “gladly do good”? God gives us everything we need every day. He gives us our daily bread. But when we sin, he still gives us our daily bread, and doesn’t hold it back from us. Now we Christians also do good to those people who are good to us, but we are also called to forgive and do good to our enemies and those who hate us and those who have sinned against us and hurt us. Sometimes this takes strength that we feel we don’t have, but Jesus will provide it for you when you ask him.

Think about a person who has hurt you deeply—Jesus died them just as he died for you. It’s not Jesus’ desire to punish him—it is yours?

When we receive absolution, and the forgiveness of sins, this absolution begins to take effect in our life. And as it takes effect, hatred begins to melt away. We are saved by faith alone, without any works of ours. But then this faith, like a tree, grows up and begins to produce all kinds of fruits. When Jesus was on the cross, he prayed: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. The first Christian martyr, Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, said: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. In other words: don’t punish them for this, he prays. And what happened? Well, one of the men there was Paul, and the Lord didn’t hold his sin against him, but appeared to him on the road to Damascus, converted him, changed his heart, and then he wrote the most wonderful books in the bible which teach us about how God doesn’t hold our sins against us, just as Stephen prayed.

Now who has hurt you personally? Or who are the persecutors of Christianity? There are many people at the moment who have a lot of hate-speech to say about Christians. Why don’t we pray for them, and for their forgiveness? Have you ever prayed about the members of ISIS who have killed many Christians in Iraq, and even crucified two-year-olds on soccer ovals? Those people need our prayers for forgiveness too.

Even when we come together as a church, one of the first things we do as a church is pray for forgiveness. Our whole life-blood as Christians is the forgiveness of sins. When we receive the Lord’s Supper, we drink Christ’s blood for the forgiveness of sins. We receive forgiveness, and our whole mission as Christians is to forgive others. Let’s pray that Jesus may help us in this and inspire and change our hearts, so that we may forgive those who have sinned against us. Amen.

Lord Jesus, thank you for cancelling our debt to us, and taking on yourself our guilt and our punishment. Let this forgiveness sink in to our hearts and inspire everything that we do, so that we may spread this forgiveness to others. Amen.