Advent I (Year A) [Matthew 24:36-44] (1-Dec-2019)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Ferryden Park, 10.30am.

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

But concerning that day and hour no one knows.

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

Today we begin a new church year, and we’re celebrating the first Sunday of the season of Advent. And the season of Advent has a particular focus on Jesus “coming”. We especially look to Jesus coming as a tiny baby in Bethlehem at Christmas, all those many years ago. But our Gospel reading today has a different focus. In this reading, Jesus is talking not about when he came as a baby, or when he comes to us constantly in the church, but when he will come at the end of the world to bring the whole of world history to a close, to a finish—and when he will judge the living and the dead, and those who believe in him will share eternal life with him.

Now, before we get to our reading—it’s very important for us to have a think about what this means: that the end will end. Many people in our country and in our world today don’t really think too much about this. I think it’s also the case that they never really think that the world ever began in some way.

Now, if we go back to many ancient peoples, like the Ancient Egyptians, or the Ancient Greeks, they were people who essentially believed that the world was eternal. They believed that it never really had a beginning, and it’s never really going to have an end. I think many people today believe this, even many of us Christians in the church. But I don’t think it’s necessarily that a lot of people have any serious convictions about it – it’s just that they don’t think about it too much. For example, people might think that life as we know it as evolved over millions and billions of years, all the way back to some kind of primeval blobs, some single-celled organisms. But you know, those things were supposed to have happened so long ago, that I don’t think people really care or bother to think about whether the earth had some kind of beginning, because it something that happened so long ago. So I think that it’s fair to say, that many people in our world today, don’t really believe that world had any kind of beginning.

But also, I think there are many people who don’t really think the world is ever going to end. People think that things are going to carry on as we know it for ever and ever, and people are just going to keep getting better and better. Some people, though, who have very strong views about climate change, think that the world very well might end soon, and that the way to stop it ending is to confront the problem of pollution on a national and world-world scale. But apart from these people, I think there are many people who just go along on their every day life, and don’t really think about what it might mean that the world could have an end.

Now, if we go to the Scripture, to the Bible, this matter is dealt with very clearly. If we open to the first page of the bible, we find it speaking about the beginning of the world. If we open to the last page of the bible, we find it speaking about the end of the world. And these two events, these two facts—the creation of the world which happened in the past, and the end of world which will happen in the future—have always been a part of the church’s confession of faith. So, when we come to church and say together the Apostles’ Creed, we start by saying: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. We start by saying that God existed before the world, and that he made it—the earth had a beginning. And we also say in the Apostles’ Creed, that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Now, if the world didn’t have a beginning, and if the world will have no end, then people have no choice but to believe that the world is eternal. But here’s the problem: the world isn’t God, only God is God, and only God is eternal. Mother earth isn’t the eternal God, only God is God. So we are also told in the Scripture that there is only one thing that had no beginning, and that has always existed: and that is the God who made us, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And over the whole course of the history of the world, God has been calling people into his kingdom. And so, when the world has ended, those who have been saved, who have trusted in God, and believed in his promises, will live with him in his kingdom. And what do we say about Jesus’ kingdom? We say: His kingdom will have no end.

In the verse before our Gospel reading today, Jesus says: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. He is talking about the signs of his coming: He says: Then will appear in the heaven the sign of the Son of Man. We know from what Jesus is saying here, that the world will have an end, and that when the world ends, Jesus will appear.

So Jesus says in our Gospel reading today: But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Now, this is a very important principle for our Christian faith. There have been many people throughout history, and many people still around today, who think that they know when the end of the world is going to be. So far, all of them have been wrong! How do we know this? Well, the world is still here! And Jesus doesn’t say that the when the world ends he’s going to come quietly, and we might miss it—he says, he will appear on the clouds, with power and great glory. There are some groups—like the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses—who have made prophecies about the end of the world, which didn’t then happen. When I was the pastor in Gippsland, I heard about a group of people who had moved to far-east Gippsland, at a place called “Noorinbee North”—way out in the middle of pretty much nowhere. They had thought that when the year 2000 struck, that it was going to be the end of world, so they went out there, bought property, built underground bunkers, to prepare for the end. They even built a church out there. But of course, since that time, many people have moved away, and the church has now closed, and been sold.

The thing that we must know about all these things, is that if we know someone who says to us that they know when the end of the world is going to be, we can immediately know for certain in our own minds that they are wrong, and that they are not telling the truth. How can be so sure of ourselves? Because, in our reading today, Jesus says: Concerning that day and hour no one knows. So if someone says that they do know, we know that they can’t be telling the truth, because Jesus says: no one knows.

But perhaps, someone might be particularly spiritual—you know, a real guru, a real holy person, someone with great spiritual insights. And this person says, “Listen, I had a very significant dream the other night, and an angel said to me that the world is going to end on such-and-such a day.” What do we made about this? The person claims that an angel spoke to them about it! Well, Jesus says: Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven. If an angel did speak to the person, it can’t have been an angel of heaven, but an angel of hell instead, an evil spirit trying to trick the person with lies. Remember, St Paul says that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Perhaps, someone around the time of the apostles went around saying that they had met Jesus personally, and that Jesus himself had told him personally, that the end of the world was such-and-such. Maybe, someone claims to have met Jesus himself on the side of the road one day, just like Paul had met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Well, Jesus says: Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Now, why am I making such a big point of this? Throughout my ministry as a pastor, I’ve often come across people who think that the world is going to end on such-and-such a day. Often people come to these conclusions from astrology—from trying to predict the future from looking at the stars. They think, there’s a strange moon on this day, Mars or Jupiter is going to be in a special position in Aquarius, or something like that. It takes up so much of people’s energy and time, and it’s such an embarrassment to them when nothing happens. There is such a simple answer to this: it’s all rubbish, because Jesus has told us ahead of time, that it’s all rubbish. No-one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Now, there’s a little question that comes to our mind when we hear these words, which says: “Hang on, I thought Jesus was true God, and I thought God knows everything. If Jesus is true God, how come he doesn’t know?”

This is a very good question. In many passages, Jesus is said to know all things. For example, Jesus says: All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. In John, it says that Jesus knew what was in the heart of man. Well, also remember, that Jesus is alive, and is the giver of life, and he is the Resurrection and the Life! But then he also dies. He is the King of King and the Lord of Lords, and yet, in the wilderness, he experiences hunger and thirst and weariness and temptation. So also, Jesus really does know everything, but he also during his earthly life is limited in his knowledge.

You see, Jesus came from heaven as true God, to become a human being. And even though he knew everything, he chose, by becoming a man, not to know some things. For example, he didn’t know how to talk, until Mary and Joseph taught him, and yet he was still God, and knew all things. As he grew up, he only spoke his mother tongue—he didn’t know or speak English, and yet he was still God, and knew all things. In stooping down to our human level, and becoming a human just like us, he also chose to put away certain knowledge from himself.

So for example, let’s say, a father buys some chocolate for his kids, and the children say: “Dad, dad, give us some chocolate.” The dad puts the chocolate away at the back of a shelf, and hides it. Then he says, “I don’t know where it is.” If the dad tells the children, “I’m not telling you where it is”, then the children would just keep pestering him, and say, “Come on, dad! Tell us!” until he gives in and tells them.

Now, in a similar way, Jesus says: No one knows…not even the Son. He has every right to know, but when he became a man, he chose to put certain knowledge away from himself. It’s a bit different from the dad with the chocolate, because the dad would be telling a little white lie. But Jesus is not telling a lie, he is telling the truth—he has chosen not to know this, by virtue of having become a man. And also, imagine if Jesus had said, “I do know, but I’m not telling you.” This would either make the apostles and the disciples sad, as if Jesus didn’t think they were any good, or they would think to pester him. Remember the Canaanite woman who asks for a healing for her daughter, and Jesus says: It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. Here Jesus is treating her almost a bit mean, but not because he doesn’t want to heal the woman’s daughter, but because he wants to draw out from this lady her great faith for the benefit of everyone, so that we can all learn how to pray like her. But when it comes to the end of the world, it’s as if Jesus says that this is an issue that you’re not going to know, if you ask me, I won’t tell you. If you ask me, and you think that I did tell you, then you know it wasn’t me, but the devil pretending to be me. No one knows.

Even though no-one knows the day or the hour, there are certain things that Jesus does let us know. He says: For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the one left.

What is Jesus teaching us here? He that before he comes, things will be like the days of Noah. Well, have a think—why did the flood happen, and why did Noah and his family have to go on the ark? Was it because everything was going so well in the world? No—absolutely not! Everything was going terribly. The world was corrupt, it was evil, and people were doing terrible things to themselves and to others. Now, in the same way, as the world gets older, and we get closer to the time when Jesus will return, do you think the world is going to get better or to get worse? Many people think that the human race is always evolving and getting better. It’s not the case at all! The human race is only getting worse and worse. The world is only getting worse. And as the world gets worse, we are called upon to ask ourselves: who are our friends? Do we want to be friends with Jesus, or the world around us? Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, but the world is corrupt, and decaying, and is just getting worse and worse. There will come a day when there will people next to each other—one will be taken and the other left. Perhaps it means that one will be taken up to heaven to be with Jesus. Or perhaps it means the one will be swept away, just like the evil people at the time of Noah.

Also, at the time of Noah, people scoffed at him, and mocked him. They thought he was an idiot. So also, as the world gets older, and we come closer to time of Jesus’ return, people will scoff at Christians, and mock them, and call us idiots for believing in that old-fashioned stuff. They will say: we are so much more enlightened than they are! We know better, we are not so stupid! One will be taken, and one will be left.

So, if you see around you and feel that the world is getting worse, then don’t be discouraged, but it means that you are coming closer to seeing Jesus with your own eyes—either when you die, or if you live long enough, to see Jesus when he returns. Jesus says: Straighten up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near. If you see around you a constant pressure from people not to be a Christian anymore, and to give up on Jesus, because people are mocking you, or scoffing at your beliefs, or calling you an idiot, also, don’t be discouraged, because again it means that you are coming closer to seeing Jesus with your own eyes. Jesus says: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

In the last part of our reading, Jesus says: Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

So, what do you think it means when Jesus says, “stay awake”, or when he says, “you must be ready”? What does it mean to be awake and ready?

Sometimes, I think people often think about this as being busy. We can’t rest, and we must always be active. We must always be doing good works, and working really hard. It’s like, if a mum says to her child, “sweep the floor before I come home”. Then the child forgets about it, and when they hear mum driving up the driveway, they get the broom, and pretend as though they’ve been working for hours!

Well, actually, we Christians should be busy with good works without even really thinking about it! If there’s someone in need, we should help them—and all that kind of thing. But actually, to be awake and ready for Jesus, simply means to trust in him for eternal life. It means to completely despair of our own actions, our own thoughts and words, and to completely despair of ourselves and all of our efforts, and to trust completely in him for everything, because he is the one who has taken the burden of every single one of our sins upon his shoulders, and has died for it all on the cross, and has risen again on the third day. We can trust in him for everything, and we are awake and completely ready when we have the total forgiveness of our sins. And we can be sure of this, because Jesus has said it, and has promised it.  He says: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but have eternal life. Or as Peter says it in his letter: Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

So, be encouraged, friends. Don’t worry about when the end will come, because no-one knows. It could come at any time, like a thief in the night. Therefore, we should always be ready to meet Jesus. Don’t be discouraged by the world getting worse in which we live, or by people mocking or scoffing at you. Stay awake and be ready to meet your Lord, and trust in his wonderful mercy and forgiveness which he won for you, and which he pours out into your lap even today. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for coming to this dark world as a tiny baby so many years ago. We thank you for the way in which you still come to us today—speaking to us in the church through your word, through preaching, through the absolution and forgiveness—coming to meet us and save us through baptism, coming to encourage and strengthen us with your body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. And we also look forward to wonderful and joyful day when you will bring this world to an end, and bring us to be with you in your kingdom. 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.

Advent I B [Mark 13:24-37] (3-Dec-2017)

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

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

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

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 is the First Sunday of Advent, which is the first Sunday of the Church Year. The calendar year begins on January 1, but the Church Year begins on December 1. Advent is a short season in the church year which leads up to the celebration of Christmas. Advent, though, is not Christmas yet. Already for a month now, there have been Christmas decorations in the shops, and Christmas events and Christmas shopping has already begun. But the church is not celebrating Christmas yet—but Advent. Advent means “coming”, and over the next few weeks we will be hearing a lot about Jesus coming: his coming to earth as a baby, his continual coming to earth to be with his people, and also his appearance at the end of the world.

In our Gospel reading, it is this last coming, the second coming of Jesus, that we read about today. Today in the creed, we say: He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Just before our reading begins, Jesus is talking about the terrible hardships that will occur, and how there will be many false prophets and even false christs will that come, performing false miracles. Then Jesus says: But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Jesus tells us here that before he comes, that the sun, the moon and the stars will be affected in very strange ways. If we are going to understand what this is about, let’s read from Genesis chapter 1, about when God created the sun, moon and the stars. It says: And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. We can see that the reason why the sun and moon exist is not just some kind of accident of the universe, but they have a particular purpose to mark times and seasons, days and years, and to shine light upon the earth. But Jesus now is pointing forward to the end of the world, where there will be no need anymore for a sun or moon, because there won’t be any need for time anymore, because he is talking about his eternal kingdom, which will have no end. In Revelation 21 it says: I saw a new heaven and a new hearth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. And so Jesus says: In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven. Even Jesus says: And the powers in the heavens will be shaken. When the bible talks about “powers in the heavens” it is often talking about angels. And so, in this passage, we read that even the angels will be shaken and moved and disturbed and amazed by what is about to happen. So what is this thing that Jesus is talking about that is about to happen?

Jesus says: And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

This is an amazing passage. Jesus says the sun, the moon, the stars, the angels will all be shaken and disturbed, and then he will appear. Jesus will outshine the lot of them. And it says that he will come in the clouds with power and great glory. Now in the Apostles’ Creed, we say that Jesus ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. What this means is that just as Jesus ascended into heaven, so he will also appear from heaven again to judge the world. In the book of Acts, where we read about Jesus’ ascension into heaven 40 days after Easter when he rose from the dead, it says: When [Jesus] had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

So just as Jesus entered into heaven on a cloud, so also he will return at the end of the world in a completely miraculous and supernatural way, on the clouds, with power and great glory. Just as it was the same Jesus that had lived among his disciples and had died and risen again who entered into heaven, so also it will be the same Jesus—the Son of Man­—who will return at the end of the world. We see here that Jesus is both true God and a true man. He will not return like some kind of ghost, but he will return in his human flesh, because it is Jesus’ in his human flesh that sits at the right hand of the throne of God. But he is also true God: he will not just return like any man, but with power and great glory, and he will also send his angels. The angels only belong to God. And so Jesus, who is both true man and true God, sends out his angels. He says: Then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. Now when we read about “the elect”, it means all those people all throughout history who have heard and listened to God’s word and the Gospel, and then the Holy Spirit has created faith in their hearts and caused them to trust in that word and God’s promises. Even we believe that those who believe in Jesus were chosen right from the beginning of the world. Now, sometimes people think, “But who are the elect? Maybe I simply haven’t been chosen, and I’m going to hell, and there’s nothing that I can do about it.” No—that’s not what Jesus wants you to believe. He calls you through his word to recognise first of all that you are completely and totally a sinner. Even your good words and good thoughts are tainted by sin, and that there is nothing good in you that can save yourself. But then he calls sinners like you to trust in him, and to believe that he is a faithful Saviour, that he has died for you, that he has paid not only for your sins but for the sins of the whole world on the cross, and that he has risen again from the dead for you. The Holy Spirit creates this living faith in you, and calls you to persevere in this faith every day of your life until your death. Even we ask God to keep us in this faith, because we don’t keep going in it in our own strength, but in God’s strength and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, trusting in Jesus and his righteousness and his holiness, and his atonement and his sacrifice, we look forward to that time when he will then send his angels to gather his elect from the four winds.

Jesus up until this point has been talking about things that are almost impossible for our tiny little earthly minds to comprehend. It’s hard enough for us to imagine what it must have been like at the beginning of the world, and now Jesus is talking about the end of the world! And so, now Jesus tells us a little parable from every day life, to help us understand what he’s talking about. He says: From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

Have you ever heard Aboriginal people (maybe on TV) talking about how they want to pass on their culture and their knowledge? I once saw something on the Aboriginal channel about a man in Arnhem Land talking about a certain flower on a certain tree, and over the centuries they had worked out that when the tree flowers, the crabs in the sea are ready to be fished for and caught. Isn’t that amazing? This is a bit like what Jesus says here. He says that when a fig tree’s branches become tender and put out its leavens, then you know that summer is near. In the same way, when we see the sun, and moon and stars being affected like this, and when the world gets worse, and when the world’s suffering gets worse, and when there are more and more false prophets and false Christs, then we know that Jesus will return soon. But when Jesus will return, for us who trust in him and his sacrificial death and resurrection, it will be like a glorious summer. What is happening in the world will look like a long, slow winter—but in actual fact, it is simply a reminder from Jesus that summer is not far away.

Jesus then says: Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Now this is the heart of our reading today, and is a very important passage for us as Christians today. Jesus says: This generation will not pass away until all these things take place. What does he mean when he says: “This generation”? Who is “this generation”? He is not talking about the people who were alive back then: they have all died now. He is not talking about the apostles. He is talking about his own Christian people, made up of believing Jews and Gentiles all throughout the world, and all throughout history. Jesus promises that there will always be a church on his earth. This is the generation of people that will not pass away.

Now, this is so important for us today. Many people say that the church is old-fashioned, and needs to keep up with the society. No—it doesn’t. All throughout church history, where Christians have tried to keep up with society, the church has died out. The church has outlived many civilisations. In the year 300 or so, North Africa—today’s Tunisia and Libya—was one of the strongest places for Christianity. Not any more—there are very few Christians in those countries today, and most of the people there are Muslims. But the church on earth didn’t die out—the church is still here. And so it’s of such great importance for us today that we keep the faith, and pass it on. Who knows where the people we pass it on to will take it? Jesus says: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. What makes a church survive? If we want to make allegiances with this earth, then we will pass away with it. The thing that makes the church the church is God’s word. God’s word will not pass away. The world will pass away. Australia will pass away. Queensland will pass away. Maryborough and Childers will pass away. But not God’s word. And so at the beginning of a new church year, it’s of such great importance that we build our lives and our church on this foundation and on no other foundation, because when we stick with the word—with God’s law which shows us our sin, and with the Gospel which shows us the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—when we stick with this word, then we will be part of that generation that will not pass away until the end of the world. As Jesus says: Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And also, when Peter made a faithful confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus said to him: On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Now, at the end of our reading today, Jesus says: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. No-one knows when the end of the world will be. Only God the Father knows, not the angels and not even the Son. Now—here’s a question? If Jesus is true God, and knows everything, how come he doesn’t know that day or that hour? Well, let me try explain. Jesus is true God, and he has every right to know everything that there is to know. But also, when he became man, he chose to become like us, in such a way that he would have had to learn things from his mother, like how to talk, how to feed himself, how to wash himself, and so on. He could have done these things without being taught, but he chose to learn them. As soon as Jesus was born, he didn’t begin preaching sermons, even though he could have, because he was true God. But Jesus chooses to put away certain knowledge from himself, such as when the end of the world will be. He has every right to know, but even if he did know, he wants to make it very clear to us that we will not know. And when Jesus says to his disciples: I don’t know, it means that the disciples won’t ask him. If Jesus said, “I know, but I’m not telling you,” then they would beg him to tell them. Imagine if I put some chocolate at the back of a cupboard, and said to my children, “I know where it is, but I’m not telling you”. They would beg me to tell them. But if I said, “I don’t know where it is,” then they wouldn’t bother asking me. Now, Jesus isn’t lying to us here, but even though he has every right and every power to know as true God, there are many things he choses not to know when he became man, and this was one of those things.

Now, this is also very important, because we often hear about people who think they know when the end of the world will be. We always know that they’re wrong, because Jesus says here in our text that they don’t know. Even some people think they have a secret method of reading certain numbers in the bible, and in the book of Revelation, or they make certain predictions, like horoscopes, about the stars, and all kinds of things like that. Even this year, there were some people who thought that the world would end in September. Well—they were wrong! But we should have known that they were wrong before September, because fortune-telling, or divination, as we might call it, is forbidden in the bible. It’s even forbidden to use the bible in a mystical, secret way, to do fortune-telling. This mystical numerology and astrology and horoscopes are also forbidden. The word “occult” means “secret” – it means when people want hidden power and information that God hasn’t told us. We can’t use the devil’s means for God’s purposes. So if anyone is saying that the world will end because “Jupiter is in Pisces”, don’t listen to them. Deuteronomy 18 says: There shall not be found anyone among you who…tells fortunes or interprets omens…for whoever does these things in an abomination to the LORD. And also in Isaiah 48, we read where the prophet speaks about those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. So when Jesus spoke at the beginning of our reading about the sun, moon and stars, he’s not telling us to listen to horoscopes.

So what is he telling us? He’s telling us to watch. Jesus calls us to watch very carefully that we don’t mix in anything with the Word of God that doesn’t belong there. Otherwise, we will mix in false belief with our faith. Our faith needs a solid, pure, completely trustworthy word to hang onto. And so, Jesus says to us: Watch. Watch. Stay awake. He says: Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

And so this watching, this staying awake, means, being stubborn in the faith. It means, hanging on to Jesus and his words that will never pass away. It means, testing and sifting things and checking to make sure we have not muddied God’s word with our human opinions. It means, to keep coming back to Jesus again, to remember the wonderful gift of baptism, to receive the forgiveness of sins, and to receive afresh his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. We will never know when the end will come, but in the meantime, we hold to his word. And we hold to this word, because it contains the Gospel, and the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. Let’s place ourselves in Jesus’ hands at the beginning of this new church year, on this First Sunday of Advent, and pray that he would bless our lives, our homes, and our church with his Holy Spirit, that we may stay awake and stake our lives on the pure clear word of God and the wonderful message of the Gospel of the free forgiveness of our sins. Amen.

Dear Jesus, keep us steadfast in your word, your word that will never pass away. Create in our sinful hearts a living trust in you and forgiveness, so that we may look forward to your glorious appearance at the end of the world. Amen.

Pentecost XXII (Proper 27 A) [Matthew 25:1-13] (12-Nov-2017)

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.

But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

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

In our Gospel reading today, we read a very rich parable of Jesus, the Parable of the Ten Virgins. We read: Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. The scene that Jesus paints here is one of ten virgins who are bridesmaids waiting for the groom to arrive so that they can go into a wedding reception, or a wedding banquet. At weddings, it is always important that things run on time, and there are a lot of jokes about brides running late. If a bride arrives early, the car might drive around the block a few times so that they arrive at the church at the right time. But in our parable, it is a groom—a bridegroom—that everyone is waiting for, and he is so late that everyone falls asleep.

In our reading, we read that the ten virgins went to meet the bridegroom. And later we read: At midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ So who is the bridegroom in this reading? The bridegroom is Jesus himself. One of the first things we read about in the book of Genesis is the marriage of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God himself as the match-maker and the celebrant. And then, right at the end of the bible, we read in the book of Revelation: I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A couple of chapters earlier, we read where an angel says: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Right back in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah, we read about a faithful servant of God speaking of God like their husband: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. In Ephesians, Paul has a lot to say about this: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

And so you can see this wonderful reality described in the bible here of Christ as the bridegroom, and the church as his bride. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2: I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. He is not speaking only to the Corinthians who were outwardly celibate and virgins, but to the whole church here. And in the church at Corinth, there were virgins and widows, married people, and also people who had converted to Christ from prostitution, who were adulterers and who had slept around, and also Paul even mentions people who had converted to Jesus after having committed incest. But when these people repented and turned to Christ, they became virgins again, not because of themselves and their own righteousness and purity, but because of Christ’s righteousness which covered them. As it says in Isaiah: He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

In our reading, we read about the ten virgins: Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

On one hand, in the bible, the church is always depicted as Christ’s bride. But in this reading the bride isn’t mentioned, only these virgins, these bridesmaids. And so, we learn from this that in this life, in the church on earth, the bride of Christ is hidden, veiled. The church is often not a glorious place at all. It often seems quite ordinary, even a bit uninteresting and boring and commonplace. Sometimes in the church, there are fights and disagreements. From the outside, the church seems to have a lot of hypocrites. Many people don’t want anything to do with the church, because they see a community of ordinary sinners, and if God were really in charge of the world, why would he bother wasting his time with that lot?

But in this life, we don’t see the bride in all her glory. We only see ten virgins, five of them are wise and five of them are foolish. On one hand, the church is found wherever Christ’s word and the Gospel is preached in its truth and purity and where his sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are carried out according to Christ’s command and institution. The Word and the Sacraments are the Holy Spirit’s means that he uses to create faith in people. But on the other hand, not everyone who hears the gospel believes it. But faith is not something that you produce in yourself, but it is something that the Holy Spirit works in your heart. You might even think: “I want to believe, but I can’t”. St Paul writes that God wills and works in us to his good pleasure. If you want to believe, it means that God is already working in you, and you didn’t even know it. Thank him for working in you—he will continue to work in you, and he has already produced faith in your heart.

Now, the Holy Spirit is not a toy. He is the living God himself, and the Spirit of the Living God, and the Spirit of the living Jesus, who has risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit will not be manipulated. And so he works whenever and wherever he pleases in those who hear the Gospel. In John we read: The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. What this means is that just as we might be sitting inside one day and can hear the wind outside, so also when we hear the Word of God, we are listening to God’s own wind, the Holy Spirit. But just as you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going, so also we can’t see the Holy Spirit coming, and we can’t see the Holy Spirit working in this person and that person. As Paul says: I preached, [someone else] watered, but God gave the growth.

And so, we see this happen on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes down upon the disciples, but not everyone who sees this happening believes it or recognises it. We read: All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Some were interested, but some mocked. When Paul preached in Athens, we read: Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So what we learn here is that we never know how the Holy Spirit is going to work. We should never second-guess him and say: That person’s never going to listen. We simply speak the word and go home, but the Holy Spirit then continues to work and create faith in people.

So on one hand, the word of God and the Holy Spirit comes to us from outside of us. And all of us hear the word of God altogether. But God doesn’t speak his word in such a way that it hits you on the head like a rock and bounces off. He calls you to believe it. And so, even though all kinds of people might come to church and hear the word, God calls each individual to be saved personally. Later in our reading we read: As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterwards, the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

We learn a few things here. Firstly, we learn that Christ calls us to receive the gift of salvation personally. When the time comes, it will be too late for the individual virgins to share their oil with each other. We can’t rely on others. We can’t say: I’m saved, because I go to church with bla-bla-bla, and he’s a good guy. Or: I’m saved because my grandma is a Christian. Or: I’m saved, because my grandfather, or my son, is a pastor. Or: I’m saved because I go to the church Martin Luther started, and he knew what it was all about. Or: I’m saved because come from such-and-such a country. No: we can’t get our righteousness from each other. We can only receive our salvation from Jesus and him alone. Now, sometimes, when a person dies, we don’t about their salvation, and so we might commend them to God in prayer and to his mercy. But this does not mean that our good works or our prayers can earn salvation for someone else. Some of you might have a relative or a friend who is not saved and is an unbeliever. Of course, we should pray for them every day and not give up. But we don’t pray that we would be their saviour, but that Jesus would be their Saviour. So salvation is through Jesus and Jesus alone. Peter says in Acts: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So the oil cannot be shared between fellow virgins. It can only be received from Christ and the Holy Spirit, through the living and active word of God.

But secondly, there is a very important teaching here that not everyone will be saved. This is a very unpopular thing to say, but we must learn from the Scripture and not from our own ideas that there will be a judgment, and that each person will be judged by God. There are a number of parables where Jesus teaches this: one of them is the wheat and the weeds, where at the end, the wheat and weeds are separated into different piles. Another parable like this is about the drag net which pulls in all kinds of fish, and then they are sorted into the good and the bad. And here in the parable of the ten virgins, there are two types of virgins: the wise and the foolish. The wise virgins are ready and prepared and they go into the wedding feast, but then there are the foolish virgins who are not ready and it is too late for them, and then the door is shut. So you can see that there is a judgment.

Now today there are many people who don’t believe this. First of all, many people say that there is no distinction between God and his creation. They say that God is everything, God is the universe, or that God is in everything. The first verse of the bible contradicts this and says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God is the creator, and the heaven and the earth are his creation. Second, many people say that the Holy Spirit is in everyone. This is not true. Everyone is born with a conscience, everyone is born with a soul, but to be saved, Jesus says you must be born again, a second time, in Holy Baptism, and God gives the Holy Spirit as a gift. Instead of being united around Jesus and his word, many people today just want to be united in their feelings and experiences, and so there would be no difference between the Christian faith and any other faith. But Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If this isn’t true, then Jesus is a liar, and he’s not the true God. If the words of Jesus are not absolute truth, then nothing in this world is right or wrong, there is no good or bad, no heaven or hell, and of course, the church has no mission, and the missionary zeal of the church completely dries up.

Instead, the bible teaches us that God is the Creator, and he has made heaven and earth as his creation, which is distinct from him. Jesus is true God who entered into this creation and took on human flesh, and then died on the cross and made a payment and an atonement for sin. Through faith in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit. In the end, we will be judged; but through Jesus, forgiveness and eternal life has been won for us, and is ours through faith. Jesus is our Mediator, our Advocate, our Defender. The Holy Spirit brings us the Gospel, and through the Gospel the Holy Spirit creates faith in us. The Holy Spirit is the oil in the lamps, and the light of the Gospel in our hearts is the light. And so while we have the light of the Gospel shining among us on this earth, we need to make good use of the time we have to fill up our flasks with God’s oil. If we leave it, and refuse to believe the Gospel, there may be a time, then, when it is too late for us.

And so, at the very end of our reading, Jesus says: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Jesus here is calling us to repent and to reconcile ourselves with God now, in this life, while we have the Gospel. Psalm 95 says: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Isaiah says: Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. St Paul says in Romans: The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. And in Galatians we read: As we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone. The time for acquiring faith, and believing in Jesus, and receiving the Holy Spirit is now. It is not next year, not next month, not tomorrow. When we hear the Gospel, we can’t guarantee that it will be there for us when we need it. We might say: I’ll read the bible at home another day, but who knows if later you’ll go blind in your old age? People might say: I won’t listen in church all that carefully, but then later on they go deaf and it’s too late? They might say: I’d like to come to church, but then later they find themselves unable to come when they want to.

Or someone might say: I’m going to church at Easter. I haven’t gone to church for a long time. And then they go along, and the preacher tells everyone that Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead after all. It’s too late – the Gospel isn’t preached in that church any more, and the glory of God has departed from that place. They rejected God earlier, and when they sought him later, they couldn’t find him anymore. They might call for a pastor to come and see them on their deathbed, but then they can’t find anyone to come, because by that time, either no Christians live there anymore, or the Christians who do are too lazy and apathetic to come.

The time of grace is now. And while we have the Gospel, our Lord Jesus doesn’t call us to be apathetic, but to fill up, to stock up our vessels, and to keep our lamps burning. And when our lamps burn brightly, and when they burn with the wonderful light of God’s word and his Gospel, then the words will be fulfilled: Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Others may see the light in the lamps, and will say: I want to go and fill up on the same oil as they. I want to fill my lamp with the same word of God, and the same Gospel, and the same Holy Spirit.

And so, let’s be ready and prepared. Let’s continually learn God’s word, receive the free forgiveness of sins, and to fill up our vessels continually, so that when the time comes we can wake from our sleep and hear the words: Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him’. And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. Amen.

Dear Jesus, our loving bridegroom, keep us watchful and ready, and continually fill our lamps with your precious Word and your Holy Spirit. Wake us up from our sleep, forgive us all our sins, and lead us into the wedding banquet of eternal life. Amen.

Sermon on Reformation III: God's work in the Reformation (29-Oct-2017)

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

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

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Prayer: Sanctify us in the truth, Lord; your word is truth. Amen.

Today we are celebrating the 500^th Anniversary of the Reformation. And today in our church, we are using the colour red. In most Lutheran Churches today, there are only generally two days when we use the colour red. One is the day of Pentecost, and the other is today, when we celebrate the Reformation. Red has to do with fire and the Holy Spirit.

Now the colours themselves are not all that important, but I’d like to talk in our sermon today what Pentecost and Reformation have in common. Now there are a lot of things we could say that are different about them: Pentecost is mentioned in the book of Acts, it is an event which is mentioned in the bible. It is the day when Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, and when the first Christians were baptised and believed in Jesus. On the other hand, the festival of the Reformation is a day which is not mentioned in the bible at all, it commemorates a day much later in church history, where a Catholic monk nailed his 95 theses on the door of the church of Wittenberg against the teaching of indulgences.

Do you know what happened on Reformation day? Martin Luther was a pastor in Germany, a Catholic priest and a monk, and a teacher of theology at a university in a town called Wittenberg. At that time, in the 1500s, the pope was building a large church, the St Peter’s church in Rome. Part of the money-raising activities included selling something called an indulgence. Many Christians at that time believed that after they died they could not go to heaven straight away, but would have to spend some time to pay off their sins in purgatory, which was a halfway-place between heaven and hell. But you could make your time in purgatory a bit shorter by buying an indulgence, which was a certificate from the pope which cancelled some of this time in purgatory. The church was cheating people into giving money to the church, and they were, let’s say, selling the forgiveness of sins for a price.

Martin Luther became convinced that this practice was wrong, and wrote 95 brief statements about the issue, and he nailed them to the church door in Wittenberg for public debate. Now, what does this have to do with the day of Pentecost? What do the two things have in common?

Well, let me come forward now to today. Have you ever heard the term, “the end times”? Have you ever heard anyone talk about the “end times”? Have you ever thought that maybe we are living in a time close to the end of the world? Have a think – if you look back on history and think about the last thirty years, how do you think it might compare to the next thirty years? Do the next thirty years make you worried? Look at what has happened in the world in the last fear years—we have had so many things change in the world, there is an enormous amount of suffering going on in the world that makes us all wonder where it is all going to end. Jesus says that in the last days there will be wars and rumours of wars, distress of nations, people fainting with fear…

I have heard many Christians recently say to me that they think we are living in end times. What do you think? Do you think the “end times” are now, or do you think they are still centuries away?

Well, let me tell you something – the bible talks a very different way about the “end times”, or we might say, “the last days”. Let’s go back to think about the day of Pentecost: the disciples were all gathered together and there was a great wind, and the disciples all received fire upon their heads, they spoke in different languages and tongues, and there were people from all over the place who were there who could hear the disciples speaking in their own languages. And we read: All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Isn’t it an amazing thing that there were all these things going on, and yet not everyone was convinced by it? Some were amazed and perplexed. Some thought the apostles were drunk.

But then Peter, the apostle, stands up and he begins the first Christian sermon. He says: Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. The third hour is 9 o’clock in the morning. Peter refutes those who thought that they were just drunk. But then he gives an explanation about what was actually happening. He says: But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. What Peter says is that what these people could all see happening before them, where the Holy Spirit was being poured out, was the exact thing the prophet Joel had said many hundreds of years before. And the prophet Joel said: In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Did you hear that? Joel says that God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh. And Peter says, this is exactly what is happening right now, today. But… did you hear when it would happen? Joel says, and Peter quotes, that it will happen in the last days. In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.

What this means is that according to the bible, according to Jesus’ own apostles, it is already the last days, right from the day of Pentecost. Of course, we might say, the last days have been going on for a long time. Well, we can leave the timing of things up to God. But according to the bible, the last times is not particularly now, it is not particularly in the future, but it has always been the last days, since Jesus himself poured out his Holy Spirit on the church. The time of the Holy Spirit is the last days of the world. It is the last days, because Jesus has died and risen again. Sin has been paid for. We are not looking forward to some later days when sin will be paid for again. All the sin of the world has been taken upon the shoulders of Jesus your Saviour, and he has already died for it. It has been done, and it is finished, as Jesus himself said on the cross. And now, we are simply looking forward to Jesus’ return at the end of the world.

The whole time there has been a church, the whole time where the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the church, is a time which the bible calls the last days, the end times.

Now, if we go now to the first letter of John, he says something very strange about the last days. In 1 John 2:18, John writes: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist has come, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

This is a very strange statement to our ears today. What is John talking about? He says, just like Peter said on the day of Pentecost, that it is the last hour. And he says that there is something going on in the church that proves to us that we know that it is the last hour. What is this thing? He says: As you have heard that the antichrist has come, so now many antichrists have come.

What is the antichrist? Well, the antichrist is a false Christ. It is a replacement Christ. It is a christ who is not Jesus Christ. In the Gospels, Jesus says: False christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. So what is this false Christ? What is this antichrist?

Let me explain. Everything good that God creates, the devil always tried to make a fake. He always tried to make a counterfeit, like a criminal who makes counterfeit money. So even the devil tries to copy God the Father.  We have our loving heavenly Father, but then Jesus calls the devil a father too, he calls him the father of lies. We have the Holy Spirit, but then the devil also has a team of spirits too, not the Holy Spirit, but evil spirits, unclean spirits, or demons.

But then the devil also tries to make a fake christ. We have Jesus Christ, who is our wonderful Saviour from sin, who made an atonement and paid for our sin through his holy, precious blood and his perfect sacrifice on the cross. But then the devil wants to point us to another christ, a fake christ, a christ who does not need to atone for you but makes you do the atoning, a christ who does not pay for your sin, but makes you pay, a christ who does not shed his blood for you, and does not make a sacrifice for you, but demands all kinds of destructive sacrifices from you.

Jesus Christ is true God and he became a true man. And the devil also wants to use real people, true men, true human beings, as his agents, to do his work. Jesus Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. The word “Christ” means someone who is anointed. Jesus Christ was anointed to be our high priest, our prophet and our king. And so, the devil wants to try and make a pretend Christ, an antichrist, who is not anointed by the Holy Spirit, but by an evil spirit, and is not a priest who prays for us, but is a false prophet and a false king.

But St Paul also has something to say about this antichrist, in his second letter to the Thessalonians. He calls the antichrist “the man of lawlessness”. He writes: The man of lawlessness…takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

Now, what is St Paul saying here? Today, there seem to be a lot of people talking about who they think the antichrist is. Some people said that Hitler or Stalin is the antichrist. Some people thought Barak Obama was the antichrist.

But St Paul says that the man of lawlessness takes his seat in the temple of God. This means that we find the antichrist, not outside of the church, but inside the church. Yes, the antichrist can even be a leader in the church, even a pastor, even a bishop, or even a pope.

You might sometimes look at all the things that happen in the church, and you might think: I thought the church was supposed to be the place where people love each other, just as Jesus taught. Well, you’re right, but I’ve got news for you—the church is full of sinners. There’s no one else here. We are all sinners who need forgiveness and salvation. Sometimes, sin takes over the church in some way. Or sometimes, there’s a terrific Christian person who makes a wonderful contribution to their congregation, and the other people, and even pastors, are jealous of them and want them out. People shake their heads and despair about that lovely little thing which we call “church politics”!

Let’s go back to Martin Luther. He lived in a time where people didn’t know what the gospel was, because the church taught something else. People were incredibly burdened, because the church taught them about God, but in such a way that they were not sure that he loved them. People knew about Jesus, but not in such a way that he knew him as their loving Saviour. People knew about heaven, but only as a faraway place which they had to climb up to, and as a place which they just had no certainty at all that they could ever achieve getting there. Nobody knew God’s grace and his forgiveness, they only knew about earning their way to heaven and doing good works. A time of great spiritual darkness had come over the church. Another spirit was at work in the church. Jesus was taken away from sinners, and he was replaced with human rules, human righteousness, human efforts.

But meanwhile, the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the day of Pentecost. And he was not finished with the church. He had raised up little people all throughout the centuries who noticed something was wrong and who said something. One of these people was an English man called John Wycliffe. He was one of the first people to translate the bible into English. Also, you might have heard about a man called John Huss. He was from Bohemia, which is now where the Czech Republic is. But he was burned at the stake.

Then later there was a man in Germany called Martin Luther. And the Holy Spirit had pushed down very hard on him. Martin Luther knew the great darkness that was around him—and we’re not talking about moral darkness. There has always been moral darkness—I’m talking about spiritual darkness, about the darkness of false teaching. Luther knew his sin well, and when he measured it against God’s righteousness and God’s commandment, and all he could see was his failure, he thought that no matter what he would do, he could only go to hell. He thought God was torturing him, that God was an angry monster.

But then, he read the bible. And what did he find there? He found the simple clear teaching that a person is not saved by their works, but by God’s grace, and this wonderful grace of God is not earned by us but it is received through faith.

St Paul says in Romans: 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… He also writes: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me also read what it says in Ephesians: For it is 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.

Now there are some amazing things that then happened in Luther’s time. Can you imagine living without the forgiveness of sins? Can you imagine it? Maybe you have had a time in your life where all you could see was your sin, and nothing else, but then you realised in a new way that you had a Saviour! Maybe you came to Jesus later in life, and you know very well what the darkness from before feels like! Maybe you have gone through a dark period of suffering, and you cried to God, wondering where he was, and what he was doing, and maybe you thought that Jesus had abandoned you!

But can you imagine the whole church everywhere having to live in nothing but that darkness! Can you imagine everyone everywhere having to live without the gospel, without hope? And then the Holy Spirit used an unlikely person like Martin Luther to bring it to light again. And at the same time, the pope rejected it. He wrote that Luther was a wild boar let loose in God’s vineyard. Just like the day of Pentecost, where some people thought that the apostles were drink, some people thought that Martin Luther was nothing but a drunken German. And in a way that still impacts our lives today, instead of listening to their powerful human leaders who wanted to exert their mere human authority without the Word of God, many people listened to the word of God, they listened to Scriptures, they listened to God’s voice. St Paul says in 1 Thessalonians: When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. Instead of listening to the words of men, they listened to the words of the Holy Spirit which he inspired. What happened at the time of the Reformation was that the Holy Spirit showed that he still cared about the church, and that he would not keep silent, but still wanted to comfort poor sinners. The Holy Spirit wanted to make sure that Jesus’ words would ring true: You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What a wonderful thing it is to know the truth of the Gospel, and to be set free from the condemnation of the law!

You remember we were talking about the antichrist in the church. Still today many people believe in a false christ. They seek a Jesus who is not described in the word of God. They paint their own image and their shape their own statue of a Jesus that suits them, and they fall down and worship it. People look to church leaders as its saviours, in world councils of churches, in shallow empty documents, instead of the real Jesus as its saviour. We seek empty human unity, instead of the real unity around Jesus and his word. Instead of seeking church unity around the word of God, and unity in teaching and in doctrine, people seek a unity of their experiences—and say that all religions are basically the same, we all say that our religions basically make us feel good, and we don’t need Jesus. If we think we can come to God without Jesus, then we are basically saying that Jesus isn’t God, and that he’s just a wise man, a kind of mystic, or a good example. St Paul said to the Corinthians: If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with readily enough. The message of the Reformation is a call to repentance. The first of Luther’s 95 These were the words: When Jesus said, “Repent”, he meant that our whole lives should be one of repentance. All the great movements of renewal in the church have been ones of repentance. John the Baptist said, “Repent and believe the Gospel.” Jesus said: “Repent and believe the Gospel”. And today, the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation should call us to turn back to the word, to put away our fake Jesus and fake Christ that we make for ourselves, and turn back to the real Jesus, who has baptised us, who feeds us with his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, and preaches to us the forgiveness of every single one of sins. The reformation calls us to recognise our sinful condition for what it is, and to receive our Saviour for who he is, without any works or any contributions from us whatsoever.

So what about the fake and pretend Christ whom the devil seeks to create? What does the bible say about him? St Paul makes this wonderful prophesy that the Lord Jesus would slay him with the breath of his mouth.

What is the breath of Jesus’ mouth? It is the wonderful preaching of the Gospel! It the powerful breath of the Holy Spirit. And wherever the word of God is preached in its truth and purity, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, wherever the free forgiveness of sins is shouted from the rooftops, the darkness is destroyed, the devil is cast out, and all the ideas of mere men crumble to dust. This is the wonderful event that we are commemorating in the church today: when the Gospel after so many years of darkness was preached in all its clarity again. No wonder many people have thought that the Reformation was like the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit first came down! That is the great victory and the reason to celebrate the Reformation.

We don’t believe a human word, but we believe in a word that comes from God. The gospel is God’s own voice from heaven which says: I have sent my Son, he paid for your sin, and now I want you to hear my voice loud and clear all throughout the church on earth: I forgive you all your sins! Amen.

Lord Jesus, in these last days, keep the pure and clear light of your word burning strong in your church on earth. Bless us and uphold us until that time when we see you finally face to face. Amen.