Transfiguration (Year A) [Matthew 17:1-8] (23-Feb-2020)

This sermon was preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Semaphore, 8.45am, and Good News Lutheran Church, Albert Park, 10.30am.

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

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

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 are celebrating the event of Jesus’ transfiguration. This is the wonderful event in the life of Jesus where he took Peter, James and John up a mountain, and his clothes and face began to shine with bright heavenly light. We are also told that Moses and Elijah appeared next to Jesus, talking with him about his departure, his journey to Jerusalem to die as the Lamb of God for the sin of the world. We are also told that when Peter, who was completely amazed by this appearance and had no idea what to do, was suggesting that he make three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, a cloud came and covered over everything. And God the Father spoke from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

This is such a wonderful event, and yet many Christians don’t often think about it too much. We have a custom in our church of remembering this event, and celebrating it on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season. The Epiphany season is that time of the year after Christmas, which begins by remembering the visit of the wise men to the baby Jesus, and the Baptism of Jesus. The word Epiphany means to “show”, or “manifest”, or “display”. We see God making a wonderful “showing” when he sent the wise men a star to lead them to the country of Israel, and also when he “showed” himself as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the Baptism of Jesus: The Father spoke from heaven, the Son was being baptised in the water, and the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove. Today, as we celebrate the Transfiguration, we remember the wonderful way in which God showed to us the power and the divinity of his Son, Jesus Christ—he shows us that he is truly the powerful Son of God himself—by speaking his voice from the cloud, as wonderful light radiates and beams forth and shines from Jesus face, and body and clothes.

Actually, the two events of the Baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration form a kind of pair of bookends to the Epiphany season: we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus at the beginning of the Epiphany Season at the beginning of January, and we celebrate the Transfiguration at the end of the Epiphany season. And both of these events have something in common. On both occasions, God the Father actually speaks his voice in the hearing of all the people who were present at these events. In fact, at both events, he says the same thing: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. However, at the Transfiguration, he says something extra: Listen to Him! It’s this command of God to listen to Jesus that I’m going to focus on today, and I think that these words of God the Father actually give us a wonderful interpretation of everything that goes on. In fact, these words are the centre and the focus of this event at the Transfiguration – Listen to Him!

 So firstly, today, I’d like to take us back to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18. Now, the book of Deuteronomy is a particularly special book in the Old Testament, which contains—if you like—a long sermon or speech from Moses, just as all the people are about to cross the River Jordan and enter into the promised land of Canaan.

Now, during the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives the people all kinds of warnings to the people about what they should do and not do when they enter the Promised Land. Particularly, they must remain faithful to God, and not start worshipping the false gods of the people in the land. But not only that, but the people were not allowed to copy to worship practices of the people who worshipped other gods, and use these practises to worship the true God. For example, you might remember in the book of Exodus, when the people worshipped the Golden Calf. Not only did they worship this statue, but Aaron said that the calf was in fact God himself, and that through worshipping this statue of the calf, they were worshipping God himself. Do you see? Aaron made it look like they weren’t worshipping some other god, but that they were actually worshipping the God of Israel. But the people weren’t allowed to do this—they weren’t allowed to use idols, and such like, in such a way that they could gain access through them to God. The way to meet God was not to worship a calf statue made out of gold.

So, in Deuteronomy 18, this is what Moses preaches to the people. He says: When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.

Let me read to you this last verse again. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. Moses is saying that God will raise up a prophet like himself, from his brothers, from the Jewish people. Now, there are a number of places in the New Testament, where this verse is taken to be talking about Jesus. After Pentecost, Peter uses this passage to speak about Jesus in one of his first sermons, after he heals a man sitting outside the temple. Stephen, the first person to be killed for the Christian faith, uses this passage from Deuteronomy to refer to Jesus. It’s as if to say, that since the people entered the Promised Land all those hundreds and hundreds of years ago, after Moses had died, they have been waiting for a prophet. And Christians say, that this prophet that the Jewish people had been waiting for centuries, is in fact, Jesus.

Let me read the prophecy again. Moses says: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. Now, let’s have a look at the Transfiguration, and see how this prophecy is actually fulfilled in our reading.

First of all, Moses calls Jesus a “prophet like me”. Actually, at the transfiguration, Moses is there. In fact, we’re not entirely sure whether this is Moses in his spirit, or in his body, because at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, it says that nobody knew what happened to Moses body. Mysteriously, here is Moses, talking to Jesus. And after Moses had received the law, we read that his face began to shine with bright light, such that he even had to put a veil, a cloth, over his head, because the people just couldn’t cope with and withstand this wonderful light. In the same way, Jesus’ face shines, but not only that, but his whole body shines, and even his clothes. But Jesus doesn’t normally appear like this, but he is always the Son of God, he is always God of God, Light of Light, but most of the time when people saw Jesus, this light was not hidden by a cloth or a veil, like Moses, but is was hidden simply by his human flesh. So Jesus is like Moses, in that his face also shone like Moses’ face.

Also, Jesus was like Moses, in that both of them performed miracles. But they performed very different types of miracles. Moses performed miracles that were frightening and scary for people. They were miracles that revealed God’s anger and his judgement and his wrath. For example, Moses put his hand in his coat, and it was full of leprosy. He put his staff on the ground, and it became a snake. He poured water on the ground, and it turned to blood. He brought about many plagues in Egypt—flies, frogs, darkness, death—you name it!

Now, when Jesus came, he also performed miracles, but miracles that were comforting and encouraging and which strengthened people. For example, he turned water not into blood, but into wine, for people’s enjoyment. He didn’t bring about leprosy, but he healed lepers. He healed many people, he cast out demons, he gave sight to the blind, and allowed the deaf to hear, and raised the dead. So Jesus’ miracles were of a different character to Moses’ miracles. But the fact that they both performed miracles like this, means that Jesus is very much like Moses.

But also, Jesus was a prophet like Moses, in the way that he spoke. Moses brought the 10 Commandments to the people. But then Jesus applies and comments on the commandments in a way that had never been done before.  He says: You have heard that it was said, “You shall not murder”. (Jesus quotes the 10 Commandments). But then he says: But I say to you, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. So Jesus is also like Moses in the way that he speaks. Moses spoke the thunder of God’s law, and brought the people in a limited way into God’s presence through all the laws and details about worship, about the tabernacle, and the priests, and the food regulations, and all that kind of stuff. But Jesus also speaks the thunder of God’s law, but he does so in order to lay them bare and to bring them the forgiveness of sins, which he won for them through his suffering, his blood, and his death on the cross. That was something that Moses didn’t bring, but Jesus did bring. So in this way, Jesus is very much like Moses, and he is a wonderful teacher of both the law and the Gospel, but especially the Gospel. We read in John’s Gospel: The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Now, if we look back through the bible, we read that there were many great prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. And if we were to name the greatest of these prophets, we would probably say, Elijah. Elijah was an amazing prophet, and he spoke God’s word clearly and boldly at a time when very few people wanted to hear it. However, we believe that Elijah was not this prophet that Moses spoke about, but that Jesus is this prophet.

And we realise this at the Transfiguration, because not only is Moses standing there with Jesus but also Elijah. And together Moses and Elijah testify by their presence, that the prophet that the Jewish people are looking for is not Elijah, but Jesus Christ. Can you see this wonderful way in which Moses and Elijah point to Jesus here? And together they show that Jesus is the fulfilment of these words from Deuteronomy: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers—it is to him that you shall listen.

But there are two more things in the Transfiguration that relate to this prophecy. First, it says that Jesus will come from among you, from your brothers. Moses means that Jesus will come from the Jewish people, not from some other people. And so, we see Jesus here, just like an ordinary Jewish man, amongst his three friends, Peter, James and John. He takes them up the mountain, these three fishermen, who grew up similarly to him, and to whom Jesus talks to as an ordinary person to ordinary people. Jesus came from among them, from among the Jewish people. But then, when they arrive at the place, a separation occurs—Peter, James and John are over there, and Jesus is over there. Jesus is shining with brilliant light, with all the light of his divine nature, brighter than the light from heaven itself, and Peter, James and John are completely dazzled by it. Because Jesus is not just a normal Jewish man, but he is also the Son of God, and in fact, true God of true God. At the end of the reading, when the cloud has gone, and everything is back to normal, Jesus touches his disciples, like a brother, like a friend, and he says: Rise, and have no fear. Don’t be afraid, it’s me, let’s go, let’s walk together. And so, Jesus comes from among his people, from the Jewish people, from their brothers.

But secondly, God the Father wants to make it especially clear that these words from Deuteronomy apply to Jesus. Moses says: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers—it is to him that you shall listen. At the Transfiguration, God the Father himself hides his voice in a cloud, and speaks his voice to all who are there: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him! Moses said: It is to him that you shall listen. And now God the Father says: Listen to him! It’s as if God the Father is coming with his own finger, and pointing to his only Son, and saying to Peter and James and John: This is the one that you’ve all been waiting for, this is the one you should listen to. In fact, every Sunday, this is what we Christians actually come here to do. We come to listen to Jesus. We don’t come to listen simply to a pastor, or to listen to each other over morning tea. We come to listen to Jesus, as he speaks his own words to his people, through the absolution and the forgiveness of sins, whenever someone is baptised through the words that are spoken, in the Lord’s Supper when we hear that this bread and wine is in actual fact his body and blood, and in the sermon, when the word of God and the words of salvation are proclaimed and spoken to you. So listen to God the Father’s voice, when he says to you: Listen to him! Listen to Jesus!

Now, there’s another aspect to the Transfiguration that we haven’t really spoken about yet. What happens here is an amazing vision. And Jesus himself calls it a vision, but it’s not like the disciples were dreaming or day-dreaming, and what they saw wasn’t actually real. It was real, it happened. They saw it, and they saw it as something that was happening right there in front of them, they didn’t imagine it, and it didn’t happen in their heads.

But also, there’s something very mysterious in the way that Moses and Elijah appeared. Because in one sense, they were dead—but also, there was something very strange about the deaths of both these men. With Moses, nobody knew where he was buried. In the book of Jude, it says that there was some kind of dispute between the archangel Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. We don’t really know much about it, but it’s a strange thing that nobody knew where Moses’ body was, and yet, here at the Transfiguration, here is Moses. Also, Elijah was taken into heaven on a chariot—he didn’t die a normal death, and he also didn’t have a grave site. And yet, at the Transfiguration, here is Elijah. All this is very mysterious, and strange, and is a holy mystery that we leave in the hands of God. We don’t want to delve into it too much, because if we do, it can even become dangerous to us. When Peter starts to ask about these things, God brings down a cloud. It’s as if he puts all these things off limits. Sometimes Christians are deceived into thinking that they need to penetrate through this cloud of unknowing to discover God in the darkness there. No—the cloud comes down, the mysterious things are off-limits, and God the Father points us to Jesus.

Now, there are actually many people in our country and in our society who are interested in spiritual things. In the 60s, many hippies went to India to find spiritual enlightenment. Many people still go to wellness clinics in Asia to find spiritual health. Many people want to receive visions, and they want to contact the dead, and cross over into other dimensions, and they start to wonder about all these things. People even today, just like superstitious people in ancient times, look up at the stars, and practice astrology, and try to derive meaning from them, as if the stars and the zodiac are telling us messages about our lives.

Well, Moses spoke about these things in Deuteronomy: Earlier, I read where Moses said to beware of the practices of the nations when they entered into the Promised Land. Moses says: The nations, which you are about to possess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. Moses makes a long list of these strange practices of the nations: fortune-telling, sacrificing children, practicing divination—which is, let’s say, “trying to get a message from something that doesn’t give messages”—, interpreting omens (like reading stars, or tea-leaves, or bird-calls, or whatever, to get some warning), sorcery (which is witchcraft, or occult), charming (which is attaching some spiritual power to something that doesn’t have that power—like saying, “this magic rock will protect you”). Moses also mentions, “mediums” (who are people who claim to give messages from the dead), or “necromancy” (which is talking to dead)… all these things, Moses says, the nations listen to these people. But the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. Instead, who should you listen to? Moses says, “It is to him you shall listen!” To the prophet like me! God says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!

What Moses describes with all these strange practices things, is basically the traditional religions which are found all across the world. If you go to India, you’ll find talking to the dead, reading omens, fortune-telling in Hinduism. If you go to Africa, you’ll find it there with the witch-doctors. If you go to South America, you’ll find it there with the shamans, or whoever. And this stuff is making a strange come-back in Australia. If you start take notice, you’ll see this stuff everywhere, and realise just what a pagan country Australia.

What you need to know, and what Moses teaches, and what God the Father teaches at the Transfiguration, is that, if you hear a message from any of these people, who practice this stuff, it is not Jesus. It is not the voice of Jesus. The Word of God does not come through these people, and these practices. It is mutually exclusive to listen to the fortune-tellers, and to listen to him!

So we don’t become distracted by the wonderful spiritual vision at the Transfiguration, and go off trying to chase our own personal spiritual vision, through whatever means. We don’t become distracted by the presence of Moses and Elijah who are there, and start trying to build tents for dead people, and try to talk to them, and get messages from them. King Saul wanted to talk to dead Samuel, and he was rejected by God.

And so, at the Transfiguration, there are so many comforts for us. We don’t need to embroil ourselves in all this complicated, mystical stuff. We are simply told to listen to Jesus, to hold fast to his Word, and never let it go. When we have the Words of Jesus, we have everything we need. We have everything we could ever possibly want, and we will never be disappointed. He is our true Saviour, our true God, our true Light, who has won the true forgiveness of our sins, and promises us eternal life with Moses and Elijah, and all his saints, in wonderful glory, just like we see in the Transfiguration. Our bodies will be transformed to be like his. The forgiveness of sins which receive even today through the absolution and the Lord’s Supper is the beginning of that wonderful Transfiguration that will happen to us on the last day so that all our sins will be completely erased and we will shine like Jesus. So let’s listen to him, and take tremendous comfort in this event! Amen.

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.

Ascension [Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:9-11]

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 when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9)

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’re celebrating one of the most significant festivals of the church year, which is Ascension. Today we commemorate that event which is summarised in the Apostles’ Creed: He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. In the New Testament, Matthew and John don’t mention the Ascension. But Mark tells us about it at the end of his gospel, Luke tells us about it at the end of his, and also Luke writes about it again at the beginning of the Book of Acts. Today, we’re going to focus on the event of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and we’re going to look at all three of these passages, from Mark, Luke and Acts.

 First, let’s look at Luke 24, where it says that Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. This gives us a wonderful picture. Here Jesus has come to the end of this period of forty days after he rose from the dead, and now he is about the ascend into heaven. And just before he does so, he raises his hands into the air, and he blesses them. We are so used to this gesture, since in the church, a pastor will do the same thing, and lift up his hands and bless the congregation. In fact, this is the place where our custom of doing this comes from. Many people have said to me over the years that the blessing at the end of the service is one of their favourite parts of the service.

But one of the most important things about the blessing is that we’re not simply copying Jesus, but we do this because we believe that it’s not just a pastor who gives us a blessing at the end of our service, but Jesus himself. In fact, there’s a sense in which the whole service is here for one purpose: to receive the blessing of Jesus. There’s a kind of sense here too in which Jesus raises his hands to bless his disciples, and as he ascends into heaven he doesn’t put his hands down, but continues to bless them and all of his disciples right up to the very end of the world, when he will bless us forever and ever.

So now we read about the actual ascension itself. Mark writes: So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Luke says: While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And in Acts we read: When they had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. We see so many similar but different ways of saying the same thing: he was taken up, carried up, lifted up.

In being taken up, carried up, lifted up, Jesus reveals to the disciples the great power of his natural human body. You see, Jesus is not just any human being, like you and me. He is both true man and true God, and he can allow his human body to do whatever he wants it to do, and to be and to go wherever he wants it to go and to be. With you and I, we might imagine travelling overseas or to a faraway place, but our desires alone won’t be able to take us there. But with Jesus, it is different. His human body is transformed and glorified and transfigured by his divinity, by the fact that he is true God. And so, if he wants his body to ascend, then it can.

Many people think for example that the Ascension of Jesus, and the presence of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper are two mutually exclusive things. People think that he can’t be here in the church on the altar in the Lord’s Supper, because he is in heaven at God’s right hand. But God himself is everywhere, and his right hand is everywhere. And if Jesus says that this is his body and blood, he has the power and the ability to make it happen just as he says, and to be in the place where he has promised to be. Just as when Jesus was on the mountain and was transfigured and his body shone with divine light, so also in the Ascension Jesus’ body is alive and active with all the fulness of divine power.

Now Luke also says: [Jesus] parted from them. And in Acts, Luke writes: a cloud took him out of their sight. It is such a wonderful mystery that occurs when Jesus ascends into heaven, that there comes a point when we can’t imagine it anymore, and the disciples can’t watch it anymore. The whole event is too great, too mysterious, too high and lofty, that Jesus is hidden in a cloud. You see, on one hand, Jesus is removed from them. But on the other hand, Jesus does not leave them. Beforehand, the twelve apostles had all had to continuously gather altogether wherever Jesus was. But soon, Jesus is going to send these twelve apostles out to all the nations to speak the good news. And so Jesus ascends into heaven, not so that everyone will need to travel and come to meet him in Israel, but so that he can go out with the twelve apostles and his missionary church, and lead them and be with them wherever he sends them.

So we read in Mark a very special detail about this whole event. It says: So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he didn’t simply go to heaven, just as we look forward to going to heaven. For example, Jesus promised to the thief on the cross: Today, you will be with me in Paradise. St Paul says: My desire is to depart and be with Christ. The old man Simeon says: Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace. All these people have a great desire to go to heaven. But what happens to Jesus is different; the thief, Paul and Simeon never sat down at the right hand of God.

In the book of Ezekiel, we read about Ezekiel’s vision where he saw the angels, the cherubim, these wonderful living heavenly creatures. But then above these living creatures is an expanse, with the throne of God on top of the expanse. This expanse is a kind of dividing line in heaven between the realm of the angels and God’s own throne. In Ezekiel’s vision, God sits above the expanse and the angels are below the expanse. When Jesus ascends into heaven, he doesn’t go there to be equal to the angels or the saints. He doesn’t enter heaven and dwell below the expanse together with all the angels. He enters heaven and sits above the expanse, at the right hand of God, ruling heaven and earth, not as God’s servant, but as God’s equal. Jesus is both true man and true God.

In Philippians chapter 2, we read a well-known passage which mentions the Ascension: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Here we see the great humiliation that Jesus went through in dying on the cross. But in the Ascension, we see this wonderful way in which God has highly exalted Jesus.

And so now, we’re going to look at these three passages, from Mark, Luke and Acts, and see what happens now. Mark, Luke and Acts tell us about three different things that happened after Jesus ascended into heaven. Mark, Luke and Acts don’t tell us about the same thing that happens after Jesus ascended. Instead, the three different books tell us about three completely different things that happened, and yet none of these three things contradict. Acts tells us what happened immediately after Jesus ascended into heaven—within seconds of the event. The Gospel of Luke tells us what the apostles were then doing after Jesus ascended over the next few days. But then in Mark, we read about what the apostles were doing for the rest of their lives.

So let’s first of all look at the Book of Acts. We read: 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.” Here we see two men in white clothes, two angels, come and speak to the apostles. The angels appear at all the major events in Jesus’ life: at his conception, his birth, his temptation in the wilderness, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and at Easter.

So they say to the apostles here: Why do you stand looking into heaven? Now is the beginning of the end times, when the Holy Spirit will be poured out, and there will be a holy Christian church on earth. Jesus has ascended into heaven, and now we will wait for him to return. This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Just as Jesus ascended into heaven in a cloud, so also he will return at the end of the world on a cloud. Even when Jesus was on trial, he said to the high priest, You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. So here were learn that the Ascension teaches us to eagerly and joyfully wait for that time when Jesus will appear and bring this sad world to an end.

But now, let’s look at what is recorded in Luke, which tells us what the apostles were doing in the days that followed. It says: And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. In this passage, we read about the great joy of the apostles, and about worship. When Jesus ascends into heaven, there is not a single drop of sadness. This is because Jesus doesn’t actually leave his disciples. The Ascension doesn’t mean that Jesus is now stuck up in heaven and is no longer here. Jesus says: Behold, I am with you always to the very end of the age. Jesus isn’t with them like a ghost, or simply spiritually. Jesus is physically with them, because he is both true God and true man, and he is actively working with them and leading them.

But then we also read that the disciples worshipped him, that they returned to Jerusalem, and were continually in the temple blessing God. Because Jesus is now seated at God’s right hand, it means that when they worship God, they worship Jesus. Wherever God is, Jesus is there too. Where God hears their prayers, Jesus also hears their prayers. And so when we come to church, we come here to worship Jesus, and we come to meet together in the presence of Jesus. When we hear the words of the Scripture, Jesus comes to speak these words himself. And Jesus gives us his own body and blood to eat in the Lord’s Supper. All this is possible because of the ascension, and so the apostles worship Jesus with great joy.

But the third thing we read about after the Ascension, is from Mark, where he tells us about what the apostles were basically doing for the rest of their lives. It says: And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. Jesus did not command the apostles to preach, and then abandon them. Jesus is not like a CEO of a large company, who sets his employees to work, and then leaves them to it. Jesus sends his apostles to preach, and then Jesus works with them. He promises them: He who hears you hears me. He who receives you receives me. He says: As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you. And so, on the day of Pentecost, the disciples dedicate themselves to the apostles’ teaching.

And so even today in the church, we confess in the creed that we believe in one holy Christian and apostolic church. The word “apostolic” means that we stick to the teaching of the apostles, because where we have the teaching of the apostles, there we have the teaching of Jesus. Jesus himself never wrote anything, but he commanded the apostles to bring the message of the Gospel to the world. And so even today, we Christians dedicate ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, just like the first Christians. And where we have the apostles’ teaching, then we know, from our reading that the Lord will work with them and confirm the message by accompanying signs. Amazing things will happen when we remain to this heritage, this legacy, this doctrine, this Gospel, that the apostles have given to the church.

Today in the church, we have the wonderful gift of the word of God, and the Sacraments. And Jesus promises to speak to us personally himself when we read and preach his word. When pastors speak the absolution, this is not the pastor’s word of forgiveness, but Jesus’ word of forgiveness. When we baptise people, Jesus himself comes into our midst and baptises them. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus feeds us with his very own body and blood. Jesus is ascended into heaven and he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Many people think that the Jesus abandoned the church, or that he is isn’t working, or that he isn’t here. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus’ ascension means the exact opposite of these things: he hasn’t abandoned us, but is right here every day with us. He is here, and he is living and active. He is our risen and ascended Lord, and he is the Lord who works with us and confirms his apostolic word by accompanying signs.

So we see in Acts the wonderful promise of Jesus return as the king of heaven on the clouds of heaven. In the Gospel of Luke, we see the great joy that Jesus gives to his church through his presence, so that they worship him, and continually bless and praise him in the temple. And in the Gospel of Mark, we see the wonderful way in which Jesus works with the apostles and confirms and strengthens their preaching. Even today, as we live in a world that seems to be getting worse, the message of Jesus’ return at the end of the world fills us with hope. The fact that Jesus is present in his church to bless us fills us with great joy. And the fact that Jesus works and strengthens the preaching of the word strengthens and encourages our faith. So let’s thank Jesus for the amazing and wonderful way in which he has ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God. Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful miracle of your ascension. Strengthen us while we walk here on this earth, until that time when you will take us to yourself, and transform our lowly bodies to be like your glorious body. Amen.

Easter V [Acts 8:25-40] (29-April-2018)

This sermon was preached at the Parish Picnic at the Lions' Park in Biggenden, 10am, and Woodgate Community Hall, Woodgate, 5pm. 

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

Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

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 in our sermon, we’re going to take a little break from our normal focus on the Gospels, and focus on our first reading from the book of Acts, which tells about the ministry of the evangelist Philip and the conversion of an Ethiopian eunuch. It’s a very interesting and rich passage, and it’s very helpful for us today, as many Christians like us would like to see many more people convert to the Christian faith, possibly like this man in our reading.

Now we read today about Philip. The book of Acts tells us what happened in the church after Jesus ascended into heaven, and we read about many key events as the church began to grow. In Acts 6, we read about seven men who were chosen to help the apostles and share their work, so that the apostles could dedicate themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. Philip was one of these men, and so was Stephen. Stephen was stoned to death, and after this time, there was a great persecution of Christians, and many people were forced out of Jerusalem. Philip was caught up in all of this, and ended up going to Samaria, and then we come to our reading today.

So we read: An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza”. And it says: This is a desert place. Humanly speaking, it doesn’t seem like Philip is about to embark on a very fruitful mission trip. Why would the angel send Philip out into the middle of nowhere? Often people think about mission in a wrong way. They think we need to plant a church in an area where there is a new booming housing development, or something like that. They think of the church like a secular business. Philip does not go to an area which is “financially clever”. Instead, he simply goes where God wants him to go.

We read: And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. We read that he was an Ethiopian…a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Candace was the title of the queens in an area of ancient Ethiopia, on the river Nile, called Meroë. This area today would be in the northern part of Sudan. The ruins of ancient Meroë are still there. It also says he was a eunuch. A eunuch usually refers to a man who has been castrated, and in many ancient cultures, this was done to court officials and soldiers. And because of this, the man himself probably had a high-pitched voice, like a boy, which is why it was probably obvious that he was a eunuch.

So Philip comes across this strange, wealthy man from a far-away country. In Acts chapter 1, Jesus says to his apostles: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In the book of Acts, we see this start to happen. The gospel is first preached in Jerusalem, and then when the persecution happens, the Gospel moves out to Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. At the end of Acts, Paul preaches the gospel in Rome. Here the Gospel was probably spread through this man back to Ethiopia. You can see the Gospel moving to the ends of the earth.

But also, in the book of Genesis, we read that Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth, and from these three sons the entire human race would have descended. The Jews were descended from Shem. But the Ethiopians, or the people from the kingdom of Cush, were descended from Ham. So as the Gospel moves from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, we also see the Gospel moving from the Jews, the descendants of Shem, to the descendants of Ham and Japheth. The Gospel is moving from the Jews to the whole human race.

So we read: The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Today it’s common for people when we’re reading the bible, not to ask, “What does it mean?” but “What does it mean to you?” Now this can be dangerous, because people think that they can twist the bible to make it say anything. But St Peter writes: No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

St Paul also says that all Scripture is inspired by God. This means that all of the bible was written by people, by human beings, but those people were all inspired by God, and lead along by the Holy Spirit. Here the Ethiopian man is reading Isaiah. Isaiah wrote this book, and it has Isaiah’s personality all over it, and it’s different from reading other prophets like Daniel or Jeremiah. And yet, the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah and Daniel and Jeremiah, and all the other biblical authors, so that their word is not just a human word, but it is the word of God. 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.

So for every book of the bible, we have two authors: we have the human author, in this case, the prophet Isaiah, and God himself, the Holy Spirit. Now, if someone writes something in the newspaper or a book, and we don’t understand what they mean, technically we could write to them or ring them, and simply ask what they meant. When a writer dies, we can’t do this anymore. So here, the prophet Isaiah is dead, but the other author of the book is the Holy Spirit, and he is still alive. And so we can still “ring up” the Holy Spirit if you like, and ask him to help us understand the Scriptures. Also, many times the Holy Spirit blesses particular people with a special gift of interpretation, and this is what happens here. Philip is an experienced interpreter of the Scripture, and the Ethiopian recognises this, and invites him to help him understand what he is reading.

We read: Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. Here we see how the Holy Spirit opens the door and gives Philip a wonderful opportunity to talk to him about Jesus, and from this text.

We see here how Philip carries out what Jesus had said: teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Philip teaches the man. The passage from Isaiah speaks about Jesus like a sheep led to the slaughter, not opening his mouth. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who makes atonement and full payment for all of our sins. When he was on trial, he remained silent, even though with one little word, he could have brought the whole thing to an end. We see how on the cross, his life is taken away from the earth. Jesus stretched out his hands on the cross, and breathed his last breath.

One of the most amazing things about the bible is the way in which we see such wonderful clear prophecies about the life of Jesus in the Old Testament. Two passages especially are Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, which the Ethiopian man was reading. You can’t help but read these two chapters and see how Jesus’ suffering and death is described in explicit detail. And yet, Psalm 22 was written around 1000 years before Jesus, and Isaiah 53 was written around 800 years before Jesus.

Psalm 22 says: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus prays these words himself on the cross. It says: All who see me mock me: “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him!” These are the exact words that people said when they mocked Jesus on the cross. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongues sticks to my jaws. Jesus’ mouth is parched when he says: I thirst. They divide my garments among them, and for clothing they cast lots. The Roman soldiers really did cast lots for Jesus clothes. But then if we go to Isaiah 53, it says: He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. Jesus face and appearance were disfigured through the torture he endured. He was a man of sorrows. We see Jesus deeply sorrowful in the Garden of Gethsemane. It says: He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, with his wounds we are healed. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. I could read so much more of this chapter, but we can see how clearly this chapter speaks of Jesus 800 years in advance.

Philip had many opportunities to speak about Jesus from this chapter that the eunuch was reading. But then as they were travelling along, it says: they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What presents me from being baptised?” There is something very special about this Ethiopian man. He doesn’t go away to think about it, he doesn’t weigh up his world-view or philosophy. He simply believes what Philip says to him, and he wants to be baptised immediately. It’s just like when Jesus says to Matthew, Follow me, and he immediately rose and followed him. When the eunuch hears Philip speak about Jesus, he is hearing Jesus himself, just as Jesus promised: I am with you always to the end of the age. Whoever receives you, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me.

Today, there are many churches that just don’t care about baptism very much. And sometimes we meet Christians who have gone to church for years, and were never baptised. In the New Testament, this just doesn’t happen. The eunuch here understands that being a Christian means being baptised, and being baptised means being a Christian. Period.

Sometimes someone might ask you: When did you become a Christian? Most Lutherans would say: When I was baptised. This eunuch would have said the same thing too. Maybe he was actually converted a few minutes before, but it doesn’t matter. The problem today is that many people put all the emphasis on their personal conversion in their heart. Now it is important that we are all converted, and that we are not just simply hypocritical Christians who go through the motions. However, it is common to hear Christians say that they became a Christian when they made a decision to follow Jesus.

Now the problem with this is that our decisions always have our sinful motives all mixed up with them. A young person might go to a youth camp and drinks far too much lemonade, and then later on that night, they give their heart to Jesus. Then later, they think: was I being genuine, or was it the lemonade talking? When people look to the heart, they start to doubt. But baptism is a solid rock, because it’s not your work; it’s God’s work. If you want to become a citizen of America or Indonesia, or whatever country, you can’t just decide to become one. You have to be received by those countries as a citizen. And so in conversion, we don’t simply choose to follow Jesus, because even our choices are corrupt. The Holy Spirit has to convert our will and our choices too. In baptism, Jesus receives us into his kingdom as a full citizen, and then we know that we belong to his heavenly country. The eunuch is our passage is a citizen of his own home country, Ethiopia, and works for a wealthy queen, but then after listening to Philip, he asks to become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, with Jesus the Son of God as his king. This baptism is the solid rock then on which he builds his faith. His faith may waver and sway in strength from day to day, but Jesus and his baptism will never move.

Also, even though the eunuch was reading the Scripture, his heart was still closed to it. It was an angel who sent Philip. The Holy Spirit urged and prompted Philip to go and meet this Ethiopian eunuch. God was the one who took the action in converting this man, and without that action of God, nothing could be done. You remember Lazarus was dead in the tomb for four days. He didn’t choose to rise from the dead. It was Jesus who chose to go there, and to raise him up. The dead man didn’t exert himself at all—he was dead! So also, Philip meets this man, with a dead mind, who couldn’t understand the Scripture without the Holy Spirit’s help. And he teaches him, he baptises him, and the man is raised from the dead.

Ethiopia today, by the way, has one of the largest populations of Christians in the world. It has 40 million members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and there are even 9 million Lutherans in that country, making it the largest Lutheran church body in the world. It is often said that this Ethiopian eunuch was the first then to bring the Gospel back to his own country. A man who was physically made a slave to his queen, by being castrated, and couldn’t have a family of his own, now through the Gospel goes home and becomes the spiritual father of a large nation. The man is given a new birth in holy baptism, and is given a new identity and a new calling, a new vocation, and a new task. So it says: He commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptised him.

There’s a wonderful way that this reading ends. It says: And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. It must have been quite some powerful teaching that Philip gave that man! As soon as the man was taught by Philip and then is baptised, Philip is immediately taken out of the situation. The Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away. I would think that Philip and the eunuch would like to have stayed friends and carried on the friendship long into their old age. But that wasn’t to be. Philip was there for one minute and then he was gone.

Sometimes when we as Christians want to talk to people about the Christian faith, we often make a big emphasis on building relationships with people. Now this is good, but sometimes we start to think that people’s conversion depends upon our relationships with people. But it doesn’t. Sometimes we meet someone for a few minutes, and we can say something that completely changes a person’s life, sometimes when we didn’t even realise it. The Holy Spirit might send us somewhere for a very brief time, and then as soon as we have been of whatever use God wanted us to be, we are removed from the situation, never to see the person again. This is what happens here too. But the Ethiopian is not sad that Philip has been taken away, but it says: he went on his way rejoicing. He has something even more wonderful that his friend Philip, he has Jesus with him. He has his Saviour, his Lord, his Redeemer, his King, with him, and if he has Jesus, then of course, he can go on his way rejoicing.

And so let’s give thanks to God for the wonderful way in which he has taught us through his Holy Spirit, brought us to holy baptism, given Jesus to us as our Saviour, who sacrificed himself for us on the cross, and made us part of his eternal kingdom. And we also pray that the Holy Spirit would use us and send us into whatever little corner of the world he chooses, however insignificant it may seem. Let’s commend ourselves to him for service in his kingdom! Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful way in which you called this Ethiopian man to yourself, and sent out your Gospel to the ends of the earth. We are gathered here today also at the ends of the earth, far from the city Jerusalem, and we pray that the Gospel would still go further and further and bring light and forgiveness to the hearts of many more people. 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.