Pentecost [Acts 2] (20-May-2018)

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

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

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

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

Today we’re celebrating the Day of Pentecost. So what happened on this day? We read about these wonderful miracles that happened: first of all, we read about something that everyone could hear—the sound of a mighty rushing wind that filled the place where they were sitting. And we read that this sound came from heaven. Secondly, we read about something that that everyone could see—divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And then we read about something that everyone could both see and hear—They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now on this particular occasion, we also have described for us exactly what this speaking in other tongues means. It says: There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

Can you imagine this? Here are a group of people who happen to be there in Jerusalem, and they all come from different countries, and they all speak different languages, but when they listen to Jesus’ disciples, they can hear them speaking in their own languages. And we might think: What an amazing thing! Is this really what happened?

Just to make sure that you fully understand that, yes, this is exactly what happened, we are also given some of the conversations that people were having on that day. We read: And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia,(these people were from the area that is now Iraq and Iran), Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia (except for Judea which is in modern-day Israel, all these places are in modern-day Turkey), Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, (we still have the countries of Egypt and Libya today in North Africa), and visitors from Rome, (all the way from Italy), Jews and proselytes (this means not just people who were born as Jews, but also people who were converting and preparing to become Jews), Cretans and Arabians (Cretans were from the Greek Island of Crete, and the Arabians were from the area anywhere on the Arabian peninsula, where today we find countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen)—you can see there are so many different people from all kinds of areas who in those days had travelled very long distances to be in Jerusalem. We read that they said: We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

So what’s actually going on? What’s the point of all of this? Well, before Jesus had ascended into heaven, he already promised that this would happen. In the beginning of the book of Acts, we read that Jesus while staying with them ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” And at the end of the Gospel of Luke we read: Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Can you see? Jesus promises to baptise them with the Holy Spirit, and to clothe them with power from on high. But why?

Because Jesus wants them to be witnesses, and to tell the nations that Jesus had died and risen from the dead, and they had seen these things with their own eyes. Jesus says: You are witnesses of these things. In Acts we read where Jesus says: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

And so, between this time, we read about only one thing happening, that the eleven apostles elected one more person to replace Judas, who had betrayed Jesus. And we read that they put forward two men, one called Joseph or Barsabbas, who also called Justus, and another man called Matthias. And read that the disciples cast lots, and prayed that God would choose one of them, and the lot fell on Matthias.

So now, on the day of Pentecost, we read that there is a full number twelve again. And then we read about these wonderful miracles that happen: the wind, the fire and the speaking in the different languages.

But why does all this happen? Firstly, God simply wanted to send the Holy Spirit to the new Christians, and to demonstrate this publicly. But also, because God wants to demonstrate that these apostles are the ones that are sent by Jesus, and now there is a new era of history, where all people everywhere are commanded to listen to these twelve apostles. And what do they have to say? They saw the risen Lord Jesus with their own eyes, and they have come to preach forgiveness of sins in the name of the risen Lord Jesus.

Now, so what does this mean for us today?

It means that these words that the apostles have to speak to us are powerful words, and that these words come with all the power of the Holy Spirit. We see on the day of Pentecost, that as soon as all of these wonderful miracles happen, the people ask questions about what is going on. And so Peter gets up and he preaches the first Christian sermon. And from there, Peter, James and John and all the other apostles were gradually sent out to preach in all kinds of different places. The part of the bible which we call the New Testament is actually the collected writings of the apostles that were also there on that day. Later in the history of the church, Christians understood very clearly that if they want to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit they have to learn and study and listen and preach what the apostles themselves said about Jesus, because Jesus had sent them out with the living power of the Holy Spirit.

So what this means for us today is that whenever we preach and learn and study the words of these apostles we are hearing the living voice of the Holy Spirit, with all the power of God. Here we come together week after week here in our little church, in our little corner of the world. And we listen to the word of God, read out loud, and preached. And when we hear these words that the apostles testify about Jesus, then we know that these words are the living voice of the Holy Spirit and have all the power and might of the Holy Spirit.

You can see what happens today on the day of Pentecost all happens because of the word of God. And we might think, is it really about God’s word? Is that really it? Isn’t it about something more than that?

Well, let’s have a look what actually happens on the Day of Pentecost. First of all, Peter gets up and he preaches the gospel. He preaches the facts about Jesus life, who he was and what he did. And he shows to the people that this was already prophesied by the same Holy Spirit long ago in the prophets. So Peter quotes three passages, one from Joel. In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. And then he preaches from Psalm 16, teaching them that it was impossible for Jesus to remain still dead in the grave. And then he preaches from Psalm 110 that Jesus has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, and now he is pouring out the Holy Spirit, just as they can all see.

Can you see? Peter is preaching God’s word. It’s the first Christian sermon. Now today, we are not called to listen to any old sermon. We are called to listen to the preaching of Christ’s death and resurrection, and the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The twelve apostles were called in a special way, by God directly. But they weren’t called to do nothing—they were called to preach. They had a particular calling to speak God’s word and witness to Jesus. Also in the New Testament, we read about people who were called to preach, who weren’t called directly, but were called indirectly. They were trained to preach, and tested, and then hands were laid on them, and they were sent to preach somewhere. These people are called pastors. And so, even today, in the church, pastors are trained and tested, and then they are ordained and sent out. And this also is the work of the Holy Spirit. But we have to stick absolutely to the message that the apostles also taught. If we don’t stick to these words, we won’t be teaching the words of the Holy Spirit.

We pastors are only called to preach God’s word, because this is the only thing that pastors are called to preach. Do you see? God’s word and God’s call go together. And this is also what happens with the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Peter and the other apostles are called by God and this call is demonstrated by the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit, and they are called to preach and to speak what they have been given to speak. And they are called to preach the death and resurrection of Jesus from God’s word, and to call people to repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

And so, what happens then after Peter finishes his sermon? It says: Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Here we can see another work of the Holy Spirit, where he cuts to the heart. The Holy Spirit comes to these people and shows them their sin and awakens them to their need for Jesus.

And then Peter says: Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

Isn’t this amazing? Here we have these miracles about the Day of Pentecost at the beginning of the chapter, but then, how does Peter say that they should receive the Holy Spirit? He says they should repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins.

And this shows us something that is highly offensive to our culture today. We can’t believe that the Holy Spirit would make such a fuss just so that a whole group of people should be baptised. Yes, yes, people say, we know we’re baptised. We know Jesus died for us. We know he rose from the dead. But we want something more… His word is not enough, people say.

And yet, it was enough for Peter. He simply got up and preached the word of God, showed the people their sin, and told them to come and be baptised. Even today in the church, we still preach God’s word, we still preach Christ crucified, we still preach the resurrection of Jesus, we still preach about sin and our need for Jesus, we still preach the forgiveness of sins, we still baptise people. And all this happens in the church today because it was done just like this on the Day of Pentecost, and when we continue these things today, we know that this comes with all the power of the Holy Spirit just like it did on the first Day of Pentecost, when the room was filled with wind and tongues of fire.

Later, we read: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Here we see the beginning of Christian worship—listening to the teaching of the apostles, and dedicating themselves to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. We still dedicate ourselves to these things in the church, because this is what happened on and after the Day of Pentecost. I would like us to think how we can dedicate ourselves to true Christian fellowship though – and I don’t mean just holding social events and such like, but how can we build each other up in Christian love and unity, in the true fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Notice there that there is also the prayers. The disciple dedicated themselves to prayers. And also the breaking of the bread. This is the Lord’s Supper. And the Lord’s Supper is that wonderful place where we come to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ. And as we come to the Lord’s Supper, it’s almost like a bicycle wheel—as the spokes come to the middle, they all come closer to each other. Also, as we come to learn more about the Lord’s Supper, and we draw near to receive these wonderful gifts, we draw closer to each other. This is true Christian fellowship at work, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the world still needs these things. We still need to hear God’s word, and forgiveness of sins that comes from Jesus and his death and resurrection. We still need baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This is what we read took place on the Day on Pentecost. And when we still hear God’s word, and we still hear the preaching of the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus, and we still come and receive Holy Baptism and we still come and receive the Lord’s Supper, we know that all these things come to us with all the power and might of the Holy Spirit.

But do you need them? If not, why not? Jesus says that you do. And if you reject these things you reject the only way in which Jesus is going to speak to you. Our problem so often is that we look for the Holy Spirit in the wrong places. We look for him in our emotional highs, we look for him in a crowd of sweaty human bodies as if the church is nothing more than attending a Christian football match, we look for him in our plans and visions for the future rather than words of Jesus, we look for him in personalities and cult figures, we look for him in glitz and glamour and novelty, when all the way along the Holy Spirit was always to be found in the word and in the sacraments, in baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

God is doing something in our world—we must simply recognise this. Just see what has been happening within Islam during the previous few years. On one hand, many Muslims are becoming militant and engaging in terrorist acts. On the other hand, many others are becoming increasingly embarrassed at the religion they held for generations and are beginning to question it. Now, it’s not just Muslims, but all kinds of people—even here in our local area—of rethinking things, and asking what they should do with their lives. And yet, we Christians in Australia will be no use to them or to anyone as long as we think that God’s word and the preaching of God’s word is boring. We will be no use to anyone if we teach our children that God’s word is boring and increase in them a hatred for listening, a hatred for forgiveness, and increase in them a love for whatever the latest fad happens to be. As long as we think baptism and the Lord’s Supper are useless, we are no use. As long as we think prayer is a waste of time, we are of no use. We so often want to fly off and chase whatever new fad comes along, chasing false miracles and false prophets, quick fixes and emotional rushes.

And yet, all the way along, the Holy Spirit has been quietly working through the preaching of God’s word, and in the wonderful miracle of Holy Baptism, and in the wonderful miracle of the Lord’s Supper. Don’t you know how wonderful these things are? Learn these things. Learn God’s word. Learn what it means to be a baptised child of God. Learn what it means to enter into the presence of Jesus and to eat his body and his blood. Come and drink deeply from the wells of the Holy Spirit.

And this word of God does two things: Peter preaches to the people: repent. He says: Save yourselves from this crooked generation. He cuts the people to the heart. But once he has cut them to the heart, then there is a word of healing, of peace, of forgiveness for them. Peter also preaches that Jesus has died and risen again, and has won the completely and totally free forgiveness of every single one of their sins. And that message doesn’t just apply to those people all the way back then, but that same forgiveness is for you even today. And with that forgiveness comes the joy of entering into God’s presence, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life.

Let’s rejoice in the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit so generously pours out on us today—the gifts of his word, the gift of Jesus here in our midst today, the gift of the free forgiveness of all our sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit himself poured out on us and our children in Holy Baptism, and the gift of the body and blood of Christ given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Come Holy Spirit! Amen.

Lord Jesus, we ask that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon us today as you have promised, and that you would equip us with everything that we need to be useful in service to you. Forgive us for our many failings, and encourage us. Teach us to hear your word, and strengthen us in the calling of our baptism. Lead us and guide us, dear Jesus, wherever and however you will. Amen.

Epiphany III B [Mark 1:14-20] (21-Jan-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.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

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.

There’s a place in John’s Gospel where we read that John the Baptist has been baptising, and some of John’s disciples come up to him and tell him that many people have stopped following him and now they are following Jesus instead. It’s almost like they think that John would be annoyed by it—John has been pointing to Jesus and preaching about him, and now people are following Jesus and not listening to John anymore. But John is not upset by this, and he tells them that he is only the friend of the bridegroom, but Jesus is the bridegroom himself. And he says: He must increase, but I must decrease.

It’s as if we were at a wedding reception, and everyone is waiting for the bride and groom to arrive, and in the meantime the MC—the Master of Ceremonies—is talking, and then all of sudden, they arrive. And the MC tells everyone to stand up and welcome the wedding party and the bride and groom. The MC is not the important person anymore, the bride and groom are. When we remember back on our life, and think about all the weddings we might have been to, we eventually forget who the MCs were at the weddings, we might even forget who the best man was and the matron of honour. But we don’t forget who is was that actually got married! And so John the Baptist uses the same picture. He says to them that he is only the bridegroom’s friend, like the MC or the best man. But Jesus himself is the bridegroom.

And so in our reading today we read that Jesus begins his ministry of preaching the Gospel. Jesus has been baptised, and straight after that he went out into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. But now he comes back, and he begins his ministry. But the reading says: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the Gospel of God. It says that John was arrested. John had had a very fruitful ministry, and he got into trouble for it, and so he was arrested. And it’s at this time, when John was arrested, that Jesus begins his ministry. John has done his job in the whole scheme of things, and now Jesus takes over. In fact, John the Baptist is completely taken out of the picture.

And so Jesus says: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

Jesus says: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. It’s as if he’s telling people that everything has now happened in the right order, and everything that has taken place has taken place. John has prepared the way of the Lord, he has been a voice crying in the wilderness, but now his ministry is finished. Now the time is right, and your Messiah is here. It’s also as if Jesus also says: There won’t be another Messiah, or another Saviour, sometime later in history. If you miss me, you won’t get another one. Here I am, now is the right time, and the God’s kingdom is right here with you because I am with you. So listen to me, and pay attention to what I have to say.

And so what does Jesus say? He says: Repent and believe the Gospel. These words that Jesus says here give a little summary of everything that Jesus says, and also a kind of summary of everything in the bible. Jesus speaks to us two words, two messages that go together. He tells people to repent. And also he tells them to believe. And he doesn’t simply tell them to believe anything, or simply to believe in him, but to believe a particular word that he is speaking to them. He calls them to believe the Gospel.

What Jesus is doing here is preaching the Law of God, and the Gospel of God. God’s law is God’s holy word and the Gospel is God’s holy word. The law of God is good, and the Gospel is also good. When Jesus says: Repent, this is a great and wonderful thing. When he says: Believe the gospel, this is also a great and wonderful thing.

But the law and the Gospel do completely different things, and they have a completely different effect on us. The Law of God is God’s perfect will, and it teaches us what God expects of us, and what we should do and what we shouldn’t do. We could summarise God’s law with the 10 Commandments. God’s law tells us to love God with all our heart and all our mind and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. It’s a wonderful message and a powerful message.

But we human beings fell into sin, and we read that each of us are sinners and we are conceived and born in sin. What this means is that when we hear the preaching of the law, we realise that we have already broken it. Even though God’s law is a wonderful message which shows us how we should lead our lives and how the world and society should work, we realise that it condemns us. When the law is preached, it kills us and leads us to despair.

And so Jesus says: Repent. “Repent” means to turn around or change our mind. It’s as if Jesus comes to us and whatever stage of life we are at, whether we are young or old, and he says to us: Whatever life you have been leading until this point is simply not good enough. You must live your life at a higher standard that what you have been living previously. What you have done before has been bad, and you must now do good. If you think you have done good, you must do better. Whatever a kind of life you live now, you need to know that you must change, and you must become a completely different person to what you are now, and you must act completely differently, you must speak differently, you must think differently. Everything must change. This is what Jesus says when he says: Repent.

God says in Jeremiah: Is not my word like a fire and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? When Jesus goes out and preaches repentance, he is pouring fire out on the people’s hearts, he is smashing their stony hearts. Because what God’s law expects of us is not the same thing as what we might expect of ourselves, or our parents expected of us. God’s law is completely above and beyond our tiniest ability or capacity to fulfil, because it is so perfect, and we are not even the slightest bit close to perfect. Even our individual thoughts are all completely corrupted by sin, and before we have even tried to fulfil God’s word, we have already failed, and we have already done less what than what God’s expects of us.

And so we might say the same thing that Isaiah said when he saw his wonderful vision of the Son of God sitting on the throne and the angels singing all around. He said: Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the LORD of hosts! And so we say to God: I was wrong, and you are right.

But now, Jesus has a completely different message to speak. It is so different to the law, that if we never heard the Gospel, we would never have imagined that such a thing were possible. Every religion has laws and rules and commandments, and basically tells people what they should do or not do. Jesus all tells people what they should do or not do, but he sharpens the standard in such a way that we can’t escape, and we can’t excuse ourselves, we can’t rely on scholars or good lawyers to get ourselves out of trouble. We must completely despair of ourselves of any hope to save ourselves. And so this is where the second thing comes in: and this is called the Gospel. Jesus says: Repent, and believe the Gospel.

The Gospel does not show us what we should do or not do, but it shows us our Saviour who has done everything for us. Jesus, the Son of God, has entered into the world, he has taken on human flesh, he has lived a human life like us. And now, Jesus will suffer and die for the sin of the world, he will make an atonement and a payment with his own blood for every single sin that has ever been imagined, so that when we simply look at him and believe in him, all our failures in keeping the law are completely washed over, our bill has been paid in full, the victory has been won over Satan so that he can’t accuse us anymore, we are completely free from the chains of failure and despair and disappointment, because we have a Saviour who has entered the world, a Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who has died for us, risen for us, and loves us.

This is the Gospel, and this is the message that is completely different from the first message that Jesus preaches. When Jesus preaches repentance, or when he preaches God’s law, it is like a laser beam which searches us out and finds us. The Law doesn’t make us sinners, but it finds sinners, and when it does, it kills us. But then he says: Believe the Gospel. This is a completely different message, because it creates something completely new. The Gospel doesn’t find any saints, but it makes and creates people into holy people, not because they have earned it, or deserved it, but because Jesus has done everything for them, and now they slate has been completely wiped clean. They are completely pure and holy, not because they are pure and holy because of what they have done, but because of what Jesus has done for them. When God looks at us, all of sudden there is Jesus standing with us, with his hand around our shoulder and he says: It’s OK. This person is with me. Jesus’ blood and his righteousness and his holiness completely cover us over, and it covers over all our sin and shame and failure. This is good news! And that’s what the word “gospel” means: it means good news.

Now, these words of Jesus, Repent and believe in the Gospel, are so incredibly helpful, because the whole bible could be divided up into these two things. When Jesus went out preaching, there’s a sense in which Mark is saying that Jesus was preaching all kinds of things, and speaking about all kinds of things from Moses and the prophets before him. But he was dividing up everything in a very sharp way, and focussing everything, so that things very intensely clear. And so when we read the bible, we should ask ourselves the question: Is this passage law or Gospel? If it is law, then where is this passage calling me to repent? Where is it calling me to acknowledge what I have done wrong? How is this passage calling me to change my life? But then there is another message in the bible: the gospel. So we should then ask: Does this passage show me my Saviour? What is this passage calling me as a lost sinner to believe?

You see, when Jesus calls us to faith, just as he does in our reading today, that faith is always a faith in God’s word. Some people might say: but it’s not faith in God’s word that saves us, but faith in Jesus that saves us. But that’s only half true. Sure, Jesus is our Saviour, and he is the one who has done everything for us in history to save us from sin, from hell and from the devil, and to bring us to eternal life with him. But how do we know this? And how would we know it if Jesus hadn’t said anything? Jesus is not a Saviour who keeps his mouth shut. He is a Saviour who speaks, who calls, who invites, who preaches, who blesses. And so in our reading, our Saviour speaks. And as our Saviour he gives us a wonderful gift: he gives us the gift of the Gospel, the completely free forgiveness of every single on our sins. But the way in which he gives it to us is by speaking it to us, and when we believe this word, we receive this gift from him completely and totally freely, without anything that we have done or anything that can contribute. He calls us to trust in his word, and particularly to believe in the Gospel.

Now, we might also say: When Jesus tells us to believe, isn’t he also expecting something of us again? Isn’t he telling us to do something? Isn’t he telling us to use our own efforts to believe in him and to trust in him? Not at all. That would be like as if someone gave someone else a Christmas present, and they were about to open it and they said: Hang on—you can only have this present on one condition… that you take it and open it! Of course, the person would take it and open it! What’s the point of having a present, if you can’t take it? But then it would be like the person going to their friend and says: Thanks for the present, and also I’d like to thank myself for making the effort of taking it from you and opening it. The person giving the present would think their friend was mad!

But also, remember Jesus went to a deaf person and said: Be opened! And they were opened! The deaf person made no effort, but as soon as Jesus spoke this word to them, they could hear! Jesus went to Lazarus when he was dead in the tomb for four days. And Jesus said to him: Lazarus, come out! The word of Jesus was powerful to raise him from the dead. Lazarus didn’t make any contribution! He was dead.

So you can see, when Jesus says: Repent, he knows us flat, his word lays us in the dust of death. But then Jesus has another word, just for dead people, and only for dead people. He says: Believe the gospel. And this word has all the power in it to make us alive. Nothing depends on us, everything depends on him.

Now in the second part of our reading. We read that Jesus goes and calls some fishermen. He calls Simon and Andrew who were brothers. And then he also calls James and John, who were also brothers. And we read that they immediately left their nets in the boats, and followed Jesus. And Jesus says to them: Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.

It’s an amazing thing that Jesus calls a group of fishermen. He doesn’t go first of all to a university and choose his first disciples from the greatest and brightest minds of the day. By the way, that doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t value intelligent and learned people: after all, he also called Paul to be an apostle, who was a highly educated man. He calls different people for different purposes. But when Paul was called to be an apostle, who were his fellow workers? A bunch of fishermen. And Jesus calls a group of simple hard-working fishermen to show us that the power of God belongs to him, and to the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is for all people, and it is a simple message. And Jesus is happy to have a simple group of fishermen as his preachers, because he wants to show the world that the power of the Gospel is not in human beings, and in grand and lofty talk, but the power of the Gospel comes from the Holy Spirit. So that when one of these fishermen talks, like Peter or John or James or Andrew, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they can lay flat all the wisdom of the world. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says: Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

And so how were these fishermen going to become fishers of men? What did they do that would enable them to catch people? They would do it in exactly the same way that Jesus caught them, by preaching law and Gospel, by preaching repentance and faith, exactly as we were talking about before. And this is exactly what we read about at the end of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus had risen from the dead, and he meets with his disciples, and we read: Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. So what was the thing they had to preach? Jesus said: Repentance, and the forgiveness of sins. This is exactly what Jesus was saying earlier in our reading when he said: Repent and believe in the Gospel. And so here is the net, here’s the means by which people are caught, and drawn out of the wide-open sea, and brought into the kingdom of Jesus. These words are the fishing tools which catch people.

And so it’s a wonderful gift for us that we have been caught. And Jesus continually calls us to repent, and believe the Gospel. And it is also a wonderful thing to be equipped with Jesus’ own tools, so that we as a congregation, and I as a pastor, and all of us as individual Christians living wherever God has placed us in the world, know how it is that Jesus catches people, so that we can also join those fishermen in drawing others to Jesus not by own power, but with Jesus’ words, and with his power and the power of the Holy Spirit. So let’s thank our Saviour, Jesus, for the wonderful gift of the gospel which he has given to us, and which he still speaks to us today, the message of his death and resurrection, and the words which give to us the free forgiveness of every single one of our sins, and promise us the wonderful gift of eternal life with him. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for calling us to repent and to believe the Gospel. Continue to work a wonderful change in our lives, but also keep our eyes fixed on what you have done for us, and in your word of promise. Amen.

Advent II B [Mark 1:1-8] (10-Dec-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.

After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.

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.

Our reading today speaks about John the Baptist and his ministry. And this comes to us from the very first chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Mark writes: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The word “gospel” means “good news”. And particularly in ancient times, when there were various wars going on, the people of a particular city would have been waiting for some kind of messenger to come galloping on his horse down the road to the city gates to tell the people some news: either good news, or bad news. Bad news would be: “the enemy is coming”, “the king is dead”. But good news would be: “they did it!” “We won!” And all the people would shout, “Hooray!” And then they would prepare to get ready for a wonderful celebration for when their king and the army would return, and have music and dancing and food and celebrating!

In our world today, we are faced with a lot of bad news. There are tremendous things happening around the world: wars, famines, refugees. All these things are bad news. Our parliament this week has approved the marriage of two people of the same sex. This is bad news. Sex and gender are things which God has created in each one of us and are his gift, and taking the distinction of gender out of marriage is a serious thing. People in our country in the last year have wanted even to stop children giving Christian cards at Christmas, shops are discouraged from having nativity scenes, Christian Christmas carols are heard less and less on the radio and TV and in shops. This is bad news. But if we go and look back in the days of the Old Testament, we will see there many generations of kings, where God’s own people worshipped idols, golden calves, burned their own children as offerings to evil spirits, conjured up the dead, performed witchcraft, and all kinds of other crazy things. At one time things were so dark that Elijah the prophet despaired, thinking he was the only believer left in the world. Many Christians are feeling like that more and more today.

There are so many passages in the prophets—whether it be Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel—where everything looks like all is lost. But God promises to remain faithful—he will always keep a faithful church on earth that holds to his word. You see, when all around us is nothing but sin and shame, we need to realise that the only people who will be part of the church are sinners. God will convert people just as he did to you, and change their hearts, and turn them back to himself. In Isaiah chapter 9 we read that it is not the people who already walk in light that see the great light, but the prophet says: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. And later the prophet says: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. We must remember as we prepare for Christmas that it is precisely to a sinful world with no hope from itself that Jesus our Saviour and our King comes. He comes to no other world than a sinful one, he shines his light on no other world than a dark one, and he brings his joy to no other world than a sad one. And so the angel came at Christmas and said: Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.

And so also in our reading today, we read about the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So how did this gospel begin? How did the good news begin?

Mark begins by quoting from two of the prophets. The first quote comes from Malachi: Behold I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way. The second quote comes from Isaiah: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ Mark applies these two passages to John the Baptist, so that we understand very clearly that the messenger that God sends is John, and the voice of one crying in the wilderness is also John. John is like the messenger who comes into the city after the battle on horseback, and says: “We’ve won! We did it!” He prepares the way for the king to come in so that the people will celebrate when he arrives. He’s like the MC at a wedding, who gets everyone to stand up, charge their glasses, and prepares them to welcome to bridal couple.

So John is a messenger, and a voice. It is so important for pastors when they preach to believe that it is not their ministry, or their word that they are to speak, but that it is God’s ministry, the ministry of Jesus, and it is his word that they speak. Jesus says to his disciples when he sent them out: The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me. And so John the Baptist is the voice of one crying the wilderness. John is the simply the voice, but it is not him who crying in the wilderness, but God who cries out in the wilderness using John’s voice.

Both of the prophets, Malachi and Isaiah, say that this messenger, this voice— John—is sent to do one thing: Malachi says that he will prepare your way. Isaiah says: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Do you hear this word “prepare”? Can you imagine if an army had won a battle, and the war was ended, but nobody knew about it in advance? Can you imagine if at the end of World War II if all the Australian troops simply came home and marched through the streets without anyone knowing about it? There would be no ticket parade, no celebration, nothing! They needed a man on the radio—a voice!—who says: “The war has ended!” And so he “prepares the way” for the troops!

And so, John also prepares the way for Jesus, so that when he comes, people are expecting him and they recognise him. And so, let’s read about what John was actually doing to prepare people. We read: John appeared, baptising in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

Some of you have told me about your travels out to Queensland’s “wild west”, and some of you might have visited the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service out at Longreach. Earlier this year, I visited the Royal Flying Doctor’s museum in Dubbo. And we watched a video there about all these “bushwackers” in the outback, and how they looked after their health. One man had cut a skin cancer off his own arm with a knife! The interviewer said: “Aren’t there germs on that?” And the man replied, “No, not at all! I once saw a couple of germs on my knife, but not anymore!”

Now, in some sense, this is the kind of person that John the Baptist is. He’s like one of those bushwackers from the outback! There is John, dressed in camel’s hair, a belt made out of home-made leather, and what was his food? Locusts and wild honey. When we think of locusts, we normally think of them as a pest. I’ve never been in a locust plague, but in the book of Exodus, we read that locusts were one of the plagues that God sent over Egypt. The crops would have been completely destroyed. A man once visited me in Victoria, a week after he had been driving through a locust plague. You can imagine the front of this car was just full of splatter!

And yet, in the book of Leviticus, God gave certain foods to the Jewish people as clean, and forbade them from eating certain other foods. You might know that Jewish people even today don’t eat pork. When it came to insects, there were also some that God forbade, and some that God allowed. In Leviticus 11, it says: You may eat… the locust of any kind, the bald locust of any kind, the cricket of any kind, and the grasshopper of any kind. But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you. Honey was also made by bugs, by bees! And so you can see how John survived in the desert right at the bottom of the food-chain, wonderfully trusting in God’s own hand to provide for him, relying on locusts for food, and bees for honey.

Now, what’s amazing about John is that God sends him (of all people!)—not a respectable, educated man from the city, but a bushwacker from the outback, the kind that has to cut his own skin cancers off with a knife! And so, we learn a powerful message here: When God sends a man to preach, we should take no notice of the man, but of the Word he preaches. Because it is God’s word that saves us, not the preacher. If the preacher offends us because of something about him we don’t like, then we need to be careful that we’re not cutting off from ourselves God’s word.

And so, what was John doing? First of all, he was baptising. But he wasn’t doing it without explaining it, and he wasn’t doing it in silence. The same goes for us in the church: when we baptise a person, it never happens in silence. But it always happens together with God’s word. So when we actually baptise a person, the pastor says: I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We use God’s word, and the exact words that Jesus told us to use. But also, we teach people about what baptism does and what it means for us, that baptism works the forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Jesus said: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them, but not only baptising, but also teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And so this is also what John was doing. He was preaching the word of God. It says, he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And we see that a wonderful series of mass conversions comes about because of this. Now, today people often think that the Holy Spirit can be manipulated and almost fooled into having revivals and mass conversions. And in our country, mass conversions like this rarely happen. In Africa, or in Asia, we might read about many stories of mass conversions. At the time of Luther, we read about how many, many people turned from the superstitious practices of the middle ages and started listening to the bible and heard the Gospel. One thing though that those people had that many people in our country don’t have is a conviction that the bible is God’s word. John the Baptist could have preached anything from the whole Old Testament Scriptures, because it says that he was preaching repentance for forgiveness of sins. The whole bible can be broken down into these two teachings: repentance and forgiveness, law and Gospel. And so it’s so important for us today to confess clearly that, as St Paul says: All Scripture is God-breathed, or inspired by God. That the writers of the bible were moved by the Holy Spirit, that the Word of God is truth, that the Scripture cannot be broken, as Jesus says. Proverbs 30 says: Every word of God proves true. Our congregation’s constitution says: We believe and accept without reservation the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as a whole and in all their parts, as the divinely inspired, written and inerrant word of God, and as the only infallible source and norm for all matters of faith, doctrine, and life. The reason why it’s so important to hold to this is because when we hear or read something that we don’t agree with, and that shows us our sin, if we don’t believe that this is God’s pure, clear word, then we will always harden our stubborn hearts, and we won’t change our minds and repent when God calls us to, because God’s Word is the only way that he calls us to repentance. There is never a time at any stage of our life when God does not say to us: You need to change, your life is not as it should be, it must be different from what it is now! Until our last breath, we will never be free from sin. And so, this is how John prepares the way for the Lord: he preaches God’s law, and his strict judgment against sin. We don’t prepare ourselves for the Lord through our own works, but the Holy Spirit himself prepares us by convicting us of our sin through his Word. Hebrews 4 says: The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…and no creature is hidden from its sight. And if we don’t believe that the Scripture is God’s perfect word, we will never know our sin, we can never be prepared, and never be ready for Jesus. Who needs a Saviour, when we don’t know what we are being saved from?

But also, when we’re crushed and burdened by the conviction of our sin, even more in those times we need to trust that the bible is God’s word, because the Word of God is the only means by which God applies to us his forgiveness. There is not one single sin that Jesus has not atoned for and died for and sacrificed himself for you for. Jesus is our Lord and our God, our perfect and faithful and trustworthy Saviour.

And so we read how the people went to John the Baptist confessing their sins. It is a daily task of us Christians to confess our sins to Jesus, just as he teaches us to pray: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

But also, John’s baptism is not just to call people to repentance, but it is for the forgiveness of sins. This is the same as our baptism. And why can John say that it is for forgiveness? Because he points to Jesus, and he says: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John himself does not give forgiveness, but he points to Jesus who gives forgiveness. He says: After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.

And so, the same goes for us. Pastors baptise people with water, but because of God’s powerful and inspired word, we trust that Jesus is also here baptising people not just with water, but also with the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said: Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for what?... for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive what?... you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here we can see that the baptism which is performed with water and the word by human hands in the church is the means by which Jesus the Lord of heaven and earth sends us his Holy Spirit. And so, what a wonderful privilege and a gift it is to continually hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in the word of God, through the preaching of repentance and forgiveness, through law and Gospel, to strengthen and ground us in faith until our dying breath.

Jesus is mightier than John, because John is nothing but a voice. John is the messenger, but Jesus is the king who has won the battle and the victory belongs to him! And so Jesus, our Lord and our God, comes into our city and shares with us the spoils of war: he has won the forgiveness of sins, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he is the one who sends and baptises [you] with the Holy Spirit. And that is good news, that is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the best news that could ever be spoken. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful gift of your Word, the knowledge of our sin, your word of forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.