Lent III B [John 2:13-22] (4-Mar-2018)

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

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

                                                                                                                               

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

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.

In our Gospel reading today, we read about where Jesus goes into the temple in Jerusalem, and he throws out the traders. The second thing is where some Jewish leaders go to Jesus and question his authority. And these two things are going be to focus of our sermon today.

Let’s come to our first part, where

I.                   Jesus cleanses the temple.

We read: The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In John’s Gospel, this event is recorded early in Jesus’ ministry. But in the other gospels, it happens later on Palm Sunday, a week before he died. Now, we Lutherans believe that the Bible doesn’t have mistakes. Our congregation’s constitution states this, we pastors confess this at our ordinations, and also it is stated in our church’s confession of faith, the Book of Concord. In Luther’s Large Catechism, we read: We know that God does not lie. I and my neighbor and, in short, all people, may err and deceive. But God’s Word cannot err. However, it is common in the bible to find some difficulties and things which seem to contradict. We all recognise that these things are there and all scholars who are honest know about them. The difference between people who think the bible does have mistakes and we who believe it doesn’t is not simply that we are too naïve to see them or not honest. The difference is in how we deal with these differences.

So instead of chucking the bible out the window, it has always been the custom of Christians to propose a harmony of these difficulties, and give a possible explanation. Some writers in history believed that Jesus cleansed the temple twice, once earlier and once later. We read in the Gospels that Jesus performed similar miracles more than once: for example, at one time he fed 5000 people, and at another time he fed 4000. Other writers believed that it only happened once, but that John wasn’t too worried about the chronological order. Sometimes the different writers put things in a different order. Whatever the answer is, we know that this event really did happen, either once or twice.

We read in our reading: In the temple [Jesus] found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with

the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. Even in Mark it says: And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. Now, in this passage, Jesus is angry. In a culture like ours, where people often don’t believe that there is such a thing as truth, people emphasise that we always have to be nice. A person who loses his temper, loses the argument. But what about Jesus here? Here we see him not always mild and friendly, but also angry.

Sometimes people make the mistake of saying that in the Old Testament, is an angry God, and in the New Testament, he is a friendly God. People almost talk like there are two different gods! There is only one God, and he is both angry and friendly. Both of these things show that God cares: his anger shows that he cares about his law and his commandments. Sin makes God angry. But also, God cares about sinners, like you, and he wants to rescue you and win you. Even though Jesus here is angry and often speaks God’s law, he is also friendly, because he wants to save you with the Gospel.

Now in this reading we’re talking about the temple. Now, in the Old Testament there are some parts (which might not seem very interesting!) which describe in great graphic detail how God wanted his temple to be built. He planned it exactly to be a beautiful house of worship. In the New Testament, we don’t have a temple, because all of the old ceremonies of the Jewish people no longer apply. We don’t sacrifices lambs and bulls anymore, because we have a better sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed once and for all. But Jesus cares here about worship and about the temple. When he was a boy, he called the temple his Father’s house. And so also, we Christians too should dedicate ourselves to worship, and come to church, and hear the word of God.

We learn something here about the Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people had to keep all kinds of rules and regulations of ceremonies and worship. They were forbidden from working on Saturdays, they performed sacrifices, circumcisions, offerings, washings, and all kinds of things. In the New Testament, we don’t follow these things, because Jesus has fulfilled these laws and has brought them to an end. Sometimes today, we come across Christians who believe we still need to do these things, like worshipping on Saturday and eating certain foods. We believe that these things are now left free, including the day of worship. We worship on Sunday freely, because Jesus rose on Sunday, not because it is commanded. However, God still commands us to come together as Christians and hear the preaching of the word of God. The writer of Hebrews tells us not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some.

Jesus in our reading cares about the temple and about the worship. He lived a perfectly obedient life as a Jew. Just as Moses came down from the mountain when he saw the people worshipping the golden calf and became angry and even smashed the Ten Commandments, so also Jesus throws these traders out of the temple, because they hinder worship and prevent people from hearing the word of God. Jesus says: It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’. How can it be a house of prayer with all this going on? How will people learn to pray if all they think they need to do is pay God off with a few cheap animals?

Now these words: My house shall be called a house of prayer, are written in large letters at the front of our church in Maryborough, together with some beautiful wooden plaques depicting the different sections of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus says: It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers. Jesus says: Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade. Jesus doesn’t distinguish here between good trade and bad trade—he throws everyone out. There is a time and place for trade, but this temple is a place for prayer.

We Christians also need to realise that the church is not a business. God’s house is not a house of trade. Now, sure, every church has various expenses—we have buildings and property that need to maintained. Pastors also need to have a living. Paul says: the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the Gospel. However, we don’t preach the Gospel for a price, but freely, and sometimes pastors need to work on the side, if the church can’t support them. For instance, Paul made tents. But the problem of church finances is not getting more money out of people’s pockets, but getting the Gospel into people’s hearts. God is a living God, and he has already provided what we need, even if we can’t see it. The question then is how can we use our money, our gifts, and our abilities freely in the service of others.

John writes: [Jesus’] disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Here we see that Jesus’ anger is a holy zeal, it is pure and righteous. However, when we get angry, we always have some sin in it. We always get too angry. Parents know this well, and we parents have many regrets about this. We knew that we were right to be angry, but if only we hadn’t been so angry! Or sometimes we were wrong and we got angry. Remember Jesus died for bad tempers too. He died not just for the sins that are easy to fix, but especially for the ones that we hate ourselves for. Jesus covers over our excessive anger with his pure and righteous anger.

Now what if a pastor comes to a new parish (cough!) and finds things to be not as he would like it? Should he make a cord of whips and fix everything straight away? Let’s look at Martin Luther. When Luther went into hiding at one time, a man called Carlstadt thought that we have to fix everything in the church right now, and he made a real mess. Luther said, Just because some people in the world worship the stars, doesn’t mean we pluck them out of the sky! Wine, women and song make a fool of many a man, but that doesn’t mean that we pour out all the wine and kill all the women! A reformation must only happen through prayer and teaching, and Jesus himself must open the door for any change in his own time. He says: I am the door for the sheep.

However, sometimes the church is desecrated. I remember once seeing in recent years a situation in Germany where an imam was invited to sing the Muslim call to prayer in a church at the beginning of a concert. A lady in the audience shouted out and said that salvation was only in Jesus Christ, and that this act didn’t belong in the church. I think she was right for doing this. Sometimes, zeal needs to take over, and sometimes this kind of zeal comes from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, the only way in dealing with a problem in the church is to say, Begone, Satan!

Now, we come to the second part of our reading, about where

I.                   some Jews question Jesus’ authority.

We read: The Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Here Jesus calls his own body the true temple of God. In John 1 it says: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Literally, it says: He pitched his tent among us, or made his tabernacle among us. Just as God dwelt in a tabernacle and a temple in the Old Testament, Jesus teaches that God is now to be found in him. Colossians 2:9 says that in [Jesus] the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily. This means that Jesus’ human body is a house for the living God. But it’s not as if Jesus’ human body and his human flesh are a dead thing, like a house made out of bricks, but his human body is connected to God in such a wonderful way that Jesus is both true man and true God in one person. Jesus is not just a temple for God, but he is actually God himself, and he lives in perfect unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Now, you might know that Muslims always pray in the direction of the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Wherever they are in the world, they have to face in that direction. When we Christians pray, which way do we face? Now we might say, we can face anywhere, but that’s not the whole answer. When we pray, we always face towards Jesus, because he is our temple, he is our holy place. Jesus says: No-one comes to the Father except through me. So, because Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God, he is available and accessible anywhere, and he can listen to our prayers wherever we are. And because of this, we can pray anywhere and in any direction. But we also pray in the direction of Jesus, and in the name of Jesus.

Now, sometimes, New Age people say that their body is a temple. Normally, people mean that they should exercise and keep their body looking trim, taut and terrific. But what they never say is who their body is a temple for. Is it a temple for the Holy Spirit, or some other spirit? Jesus’ body is a temple for the living God, and he is also true God. Our bodies are also temples of the Holy Spirit. This is not to say something particularly special about bodies. We are weak and we are decaying. St Paul says: We have this treasure is jars of clay (not in jars of gold) to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Our bodies as Christians are not simply temples for anything, but temples of the Holy Spirit. St Paul says: Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God with your body.

So when Jesus cleanses the temple, he knows full well that the temple will become redundant. Jesus himself is the new temple. When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. The temple is no longer needed. In the year 70 AD, the temple was destroyed by the Romans. Jesus is our new temple, and his word will never pass away. Just as Jesus got rid of all the hindrances in the temple to hearing God’s word, so also we should put away all hindrances in hearing Jesus’ eternal saving words.

Jesus says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” You know, it shouldn’t really take forty-six years to build a temple. But as with all building projects, they get finished when they get finished. Remember the Tower of Babel never got finished, because God didn’t allow it. The prophet Daniel had said about the rebuilding of Jerusalem that it would happen in a troubled time. This temple was actually the second one in history and King Herod had built it. He wanted to make a name for himself. Sometimes in the church, people want to make a name for themselves and start a building project, but then the project for some reason takes a long time to finish. Even though his building project took 46 years, Jesus’ building project—his resurrection from the dead—only took three days. It only took the length of time to show that he was really dead!

And so we see here that Jesus is a real human being. He has a real human body. In other places, Jesus says that he has flesh and bones, that he has a soul, a spirit, a will, flesh and blood. He is a true human being just like us. But he also shows us here that he is true God. He has the power to raise his own body from the dead. He says: In three days I will raise it up. This is Jesus’ building project, a building project like no other. He says: I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. Even on the cross Jesus says: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

So what an amazing person Jesus is! He is both true man and also true God. He lets us meet God the Father through him—he is our temple. The temple was destroyed on Good Friday, but on the third day, Jesus raised himself up again. Even today he speaks his gospel to us again, and draws us to himself through his friendly, gentle words. He shows his zeal and shows us how we should put away anything and everything that would hinder us from hearing this word and his voice. He has baptised you and made you a temple of his Holy Spirit. And he gives you that very same body, the temple of the living God, and his blood, the sacrifice which atoned for your sin, for you to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper even today. His body and blood is given for you and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This body and blood was destroyed on Calvary, and on Easter Sunday it was raised up with a power that is greater than all the power in heaven and earth. Let’s thank Jesus for the wonderful way in which he cares for us! Amen.

Dear Jesus, bless us with your Holy Spirit, and if there is anything unclean in us, then cleanse us out, and make us vessels and instruments for you and for service in your kingdom. Amen.

Epiphany II B [John 1:43-51] (14-Jan-2018)

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

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

Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

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 talks about Jesus calling to himself two disciples: Philip and Nathanael. We read: The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

There’s not much to this passage! We are told a few things about various places: Jesus was going to Galilee, and Philip, Andrew and Peter were all from Bethsaida. But all we are told about Philip’s conversion is simply that Jesus found him and said to him, “Follow me.” Already Andrew and Peter had followed Jesus. And now, in our reading today we read about two more: Philip and Nathanael.

Here we see a powerful word of God from Jesus himself, where he simply says to Philip: Follow me! This is almost the same thing that we read when Jesus called Matthew the tax collector. It says: Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. In the passage today about Philip, we don’t even read specifically that Philip rose and followed him. We do read that Philip went and spoke about Jesus to Nathanael, so it’s obvious that Philip did follow Jesus. But it’s almost not important that Philip obeyed Jesus, because that’s not the point. The point is that Jesus called him. And all the power of Philip’s conversion didn’t come from Philip, it came from the word of Jesus.

Sometimes we meet some Christians who want to tell everyone about their conversion. And it is a wonderful thing to convert to Christianity, and to come to Christ. But then for many Christians, they were raised in a Christian home by Christian parents, they were baptised as children, and each day has been a day of growth in the Christian faith, but they have had no massive turn-around in their lives. And so sometimes someone might say: “When did you become a Christian?” And we would say, “When I was baptised.” This answer often doesn’t satisfy these people, and so they say something like, “But when did you accept Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Saviour?” Now—here we see a problem. Yes, it’s a wonderful thing to have Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour. Without Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour, we can’t be saved. But they want to put all the focus on the question “when did you accept him?” Our accepting, and our receiving, and our conversion is a very shaky foundation to put our trust in, because our heart is still full of sin, and doubts, and all kinds of things. And so we might say, “How do I know that I really converted, that I am really, genuinely converted, and that it wasn’t all a show?”

Instead of putting your trust in your conversion, put your trust in Christ’s word to you: Follow me. And in each of our lives, there is a wonderful day when Christ said these words to us personally, and that was on the day of our baptism, when he said, I baptised you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When we were baptised, Jesus called us by name, just as he called Philip, he gave to us the forgiveness of sins which he won on the cross, he gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life. All the power of our Christian life comes not from us, and from our response to all these things, but from Jesus, and his words, and his promises.

In the second part of our reading, we read: Now Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Here we see Philip come to his friend Nathanael, and tell him that he has found Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now we know that Jesus wasn’t actually the son of Joseph, but that he was only the Son of Mary and that his mother was a Virgin. And also we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Philip calls him Jesus of Nazareth, because that was the place where he grew up. But there’s something else that we learn from these words about Philip and Nathanael.  Philip says: We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote. What does this tell you? It tells you that Philip and Nathanael were people who read the bible. They must have studied the Scriptures carefully in the synagogue, and they were eager to learn God’s word. They had read or heard the law of Moses and the prophets. And Nathanael asks the question: Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Now, it was well known by Jewish people that the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem, and Jesus was in fact born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah says very clearly that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem. Nathanael knew this too, and so when he heard from Philip that Jesus was from Nazareth, he asked the question: Can anything good come from Nazareth? And so Philip says to him: Come and see.

Nathanael is testing everything according to the Scripture. And when Nathanael comes to Jesus, Jesus says: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! Jesus praises Nathanael. Jesus knows that Nathanael is not being a smart-aleck, or being cynical, as if nothing of any worth can come from a small place like Nazareth! Many things of great worth can come from small places—small places even like Maryborough or Childers! No, Jesus knows that Nathanael is testing everything according to the Scripture, and Jesus praises and commends him for it. Jesus recognises that Nathanael is not being deceitful, but that he is honestly trying to work things out from the Scripture.

Now this is a very important thing, which we should stop and think about for a while. One of the greatest issues amongst Christians today is this one question: What is our attitude towards the Scripture? There are many things going on in the world, many things going on in the church, but they all seem to come back to one thing: Do we hold the Scripture, the bible, as the Word of God? Is the bible our authority? When we read something in the bible that doesn’t sit well with us, do we try to change the bible, or do we let the bible change us? Do we treat the bible as the word of men, or do we consider it the word of God?

In the last year, we have been celebrating the 500^th year of the Reformation. And one of the greatest achievements of Martin Luther was translating the bible into German, so that the people of Germany could understand it and believe it. Also, from that time, the bible has been translated into many different languages, and there are many different versions in English—probably far too many versions! In some parts of the world, especially in new mission fields, translating the bible is what gave the opportunity for people to write down their language for the first time. In some places, the only significant book that is published is the bible, which means that if people wanted to learn how to read, the only reason for doing that was so that they could read the bible.

So let me encourage you: we have been so incredibly blessed to be able to have great access to the bible, and the ability to read it. If you don’t have time to read it, remember that there are people in the world who are saving up every last cent they have just so that they can put their hands on one and read it every day. If you don’t feel as though you understand it all, don’t worry: just give it a go, and remember that there are a lot more people around the world who have a lot less education than you that try to read the bible constantly, even one word at a time.

I wonder whether one of the reasons why the Reformation was even able to happen 500 years ago is because people generally still believed that the bible was the word of God. Today in our country, there is no way that anything like that could happen so long as people say: That’s your opinion, I’ll have my opinion. When we realise just what it means to say: Thus says the Lord, then things are completely different, because everything we say comes with all the power and authority of God himself. We need leaders in the church today. We need a strong church. But we won’t have one, and we won’t have good leaders in the church if we don’t seek to learn the bible as best as we can. One of my seminary lecturers said to us students once that it is our duty as future pastors of the church to seek to be experts of the bible. But wouldn’t it be a great thing if not only our pastors would study the bible thoroughly, but also all the people in the church? What a church that would be! The Lutheran Church always used to be known as a church of the word. What about today?

Now, none of us are the people of the word that we should be. Jesus died for all our failures to learn his word too. And yet, that wonderful word teaches us and shows us our Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth, our Messiah, our Lord. The Scripture tells us of his wonderful work for us, his resurrection, our salvation.

And so we take notice of the wonderful example of Philip and Nathanael, as they study and learn the Scriptures, and seek to discern from the Scriptures whether Jesus is the Messiah. We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Now, we come to a part in our reading about the conversation between Jesus and Nathanael. We read: Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Now, this is a very strange conversation. First of all, Jesus compliments him on his respect and regard from the Scripture. Jesus calls him an Israelite indeed, not an Israelite in name and nationality only, but an Israelite who respected and regarded the word of God. But also remember, that Jesus wasn’t there when Philip and Nathanael were talking about this. And so Nathanael is puzzled by this compliment from Jesus. He says to him: How do you know me? Jesus says to him: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now, this is amazing. Jesus first of all knew, before Philip or Nathanael had said anything to him, that Philip had encouraged Nathanael to come and meet him. Also, Jesus knew who Nathanael was before he knew him, when he was standing under a certain fig tree. Nathanael knew that Jesus wasn’t there when he had the conversation with Philip, he knew that Jesus wasn’t there when he was under the fig tree, and yet Jesus says: I saw you.

This is an amazing thing. Here we see Jesus having a conversation with Nathanael, just like they have been old friends for many years. Jesus is so friendly and gentle with Nathanael. And yet, Jesus tells Nathanael about the miraculous way in which he saw him, even when he wasn’t there. And so, Nathanael is completely overwhelmed, and from this little detail he makes a wonderful confession of faith: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!

Now, how is it that Jesus was able to see Nathanael even when he wasn’t there? You see, Jesus wasn’t simply a man like any other man. He was both true man and true God at the same time. Earlier in the chapter we read: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And this man, Jesus, had a true human body and a true human soul, just like us in every way, except without sin. And at the same time, this man was also true God, so that his body and his soul were united inseparably with his divine nature. Sometimes in wonderful ways, we see Jesus’ human body transformed and glorified in such a way that it takes on particular powers above and beyond the normal laws of nature because he is also true God. And so, at the Transfiguration, Jesus’ face and clothes shone with the wonderful divine light that belonged to him. After his resurrection, he walked through closed doors to visit his disciples. We read that he walked on water, calmed the storm with his word, raised the dead, healed the sick, and so on. Even in the church today, Jesus’ lets his body and blood take on a supernatural ability to be present for us in the church in the Lord’s Supper so that we can eat and drink it. This all happens because Jesus is also true God, or as we say in the creed: God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God. Here in our reading we see how Jesus’ eyes and soul and heart could look straight into the heart and mind of someone far away and knew everything that was going on with him, and could hear all of his personal conversations. Normally, this is not possible for us human beings. But it is possible with this man Jesus, because he is also true God.

Sometimes there are people who claim to be psychic who try to “read people”, and give them hidden messages about their personality, or their future. They often do this by using astrology, or star-signs. This is not the same thing, because these people have to make use of demonic power in order to do things like this. Remember that the devil said to Eve when he tempted her: you will be like God. Sometimes the devil tries to trick people into giving themselves over to him, and giving them some strange powers and insights. Some psychics are frauds too. But some psychics who strangely know things that other people don’t. But they only know certain things—they don’t know everything. We need to avoid this kind of thing like the plague, and not make use of people like this. There are a lot of people in our society today who are interested in these things, and who try to look for these things. (Only in the last week, I saw prominent advertisements on TV for a large psychic expo in Bundaberg.)

Jesus is not like this at all, and he is not a psychic. He is true God, and he has access to everything and knows everything. He is not a psychic man, but he is true man and true God in one person. And so what Jesus does here is not simply a special superhuman power which he received from somewhere, but all power belongs to him as God. John writes about Jesus: All things were made through him. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

And so Nathanael recognises Jesus’ insight and his power, and he says: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel! Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jesus tells him that he is not just the King of Israel, but also the King of the world. And not only the King of the whole world and the whole earth, but the king of heaven as well. Jesus is the king of angels too. And we see so many times in Jesus life where the angels show up: at his conception, at his birth, when he was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, when he was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the empty tomb, and when Jesus ascended into heaven. And also, in the book of Revelation, we see the angels praising God continually before Jesus, the Lamb that was slain, in heaven. We praise Jesus even in our church today with the angels, the archangels and all the company of heaven. Jesus sends his angels to guard and defend you constantly day by day, because you have been saved by him and his blood, and the angels are ascending and descending on this Jesus, this Saviour, who has pledged and promised himself to you.

And so in our reading today, we have this wonderful simply call of two of Jesus’ disciples: Philip and Nathanael. We see his friendly conversations, one person to another. But we also have this amazing teaching about Jesus’ divinity, the divine insight into people’s hearts that he has, which Jesus uses not to condemn Nathanael, but to call him. Jesus knows our hearts too… he know the sin there, and the dirt, and the shame. But he is our Saviour who has died for us, and as true God he has the power to bring us with him to heaven, knowing that he has paid the price with his blood for us. He is the Son of God, the King of Israel, and the Lord of hosts, the King of the angels! Amen.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for calling us to be your people. Send your angels to watch over us and defend us, and keep us strong in your word and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St Paul says in Romans: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith… He also writes: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me also read what it says in Ephesians: For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sermon on Reformation II: The Lord's Supper (22-Oct-2017)

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

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

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor 11:23-24)

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’s sermon is the second of a three-part series on the teachings of the Reformation. This year, 2017, we are commemorating the 500^th anniversary since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church doors in Wittenberg. Next week, we are going to celebrate this anniversary. In last week’s sermon, we were looking at the Doctrine of Justification by faith alone. This is the teaching that we are saved by faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross and in his resurrection for us. We cannot earn salvation by anything that we do. This teaching is so foundation for us as Christians, and as Lutherans, because it answers the most important question anybody on this earth can ask: What must I do to be saved? We spoke particularly last week about the fact that God’s law exposes our sin, and the Gospel teaches sinners what their Saviour has done for them.

In our sermon this week, we are going to talk about Lord’s Supper. This is also such an important topic because the Lord’s Supper is right at the very centre of the church, and who we are as Christians. The Lord’s Supper is the wonderful food that Jesus prepares for us which continually strengthens us as we walk on our journey through life: it is our weekly banquet where Jesus gives us his own body and blood to eat and to drink.

So let’s first of all read the Scripture which most clearly speaks about the Lord’s Supper, and that is, the words of institution. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read there the history of when Jesus instituted his special supper. Also, we read these words in St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, which read like this: For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

In the church, we have all kinds of different names for the Lord’s Supper. In the Small Catechism, Luther calls it “The Sacrament of the Altar.” We don’t often use this name anymore, but it is a useful name to flesh out. A Sacrament is something which God himself has instituted—this means, it was his idea, he came up with it, he invented it, he started it off. And through this event, God brings us the forgiveness of sins through earthly elements, which are attached to his word. So in baptism, the earthly element is water, and in the Lord’s Supper, the elements are bread and wine.

Luther calls it the “Sacrament of the Altar” because the Lord’s Supper normally takes place at the altar. In the Old Testament, the altar was the place where the people offered their sacrifices to God, but for us in the church today, the altar is the place where God places the sacrifice of his own Son for our benefit. Already two-thousand years ago, Christ died on the cross and offered his body and blood as a sacrifice. Today, that same body and blood is placed by God himself on our own altar, so that we may come and partake of these gifts, and receive them into your mouths.

Sometimes, the Lord’s Supper is called the “Lord’s Supper”. This name actually comes from the bible itself, where Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for making a right mess of everything. He says: When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. It’s as if to say, it’s just your own supper. But then, Paul goes on to teach them about the Lord’s Supper and what it is. It’s called a supper, because Jesus first held it with his disciples in the evening.

We sometimes also call it “Holy Communion”, which comes from St Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10, where he says: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? That word, “participation”, can also be translated, a “communion”. This means we share in something—Jesus shares his body and blood with us in the bread and wine, so that we have this communion with him. Also, sometimes, people call it the Eucharist, which means “a thanksgiving”. It comes from the Greek word, “thank you”. It is a word that means something like the “thanksgiving dinners” which happen every year in America.

In Luther’s Small Catechism, we have a very clear statement about what our church believes about the Lord’s Supper. He says: The Sacrament of the Altar is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.

The most important thing to discuss when it comes to the Lord’s Supper is what it is. Our church believes and teaches that it is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, Luther has a very significant word which he puts there in the catechism. He says: it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now why does he put in this word “true”? Because there are many people who don’t believe that it really is the body and blood of Christ, and that it is only a symbol. Actually, if we take the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church (that means, the Greek church and the Russian church), the Oriental Orthodox Church (which is the Coptic Orthodox from Egypt and Ethiopia), and the Lutherans, this is the most widely held belief about the Lord’s Supper by Christians all around the world today, and the most widely held belief throughout Christian history.

However, many Christians today don’t believe it, and these are the churches which follow the Reformed opinion. Many—in fact, most—protestant churches hold this opinion. This is the opinion which says that the bread and wine only represent or symbolise the body and blood of Jesus. Lutherans don’t believe this—our church teaches that the Lord’s Supper is the body and blood of Christ. Why do we hold to this so strongly? The reason is, because on the night Jesus was betrayed, he said: This is my body. This is my blood. He didn’t say that it represented his body, and he didn’t say that it symbolised his body. He said: This is my body.

Now, there are three reasons why people often disagree with this. Firstly, people say: There are other passages in Scripture where Jesus talks in a figurative way about himself. For example, he says: I am the vine. Or: I am the door for the sheep. Now, yes, that is true. But this is a different context. In those passages, Jesus is using a picture of himself to teach his disciples something. With respect to the vine, he is not saying he represents a vine. Jesus is not some insignificant person who represents a cosmic, alien vine in outer-space somewhere. What he saying is that just as a vine has branches, so also we Christians and disciples of Jesus are members of Jesus, we are made part of his body, just like branches on a vine. And just as a vine sends the juice and sap out to all the branches and fruit, so also Jesus fills us with all the gifts of his Holy Spirit, and every gift that we need as we live in his kingdom.

But the Lord’s Supper is a very different thing. Firstly, this happened on the night when he was betrayed. This was his final meal with his disciples. Just as when Jacob was about to die and gathered his sons to give them a blessing, so also Jesus shares this supper with his disciples just as he is about to die. And what do you know about writing a will? You don’t mess around with language. You don’t talk in such a way that can be taken in two ways. Now, this is not just anyone’s will—this is Jesus’ will, and he is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is speaking straight here. He is not messing around with his words. When he says: This is my body, he means that it is his body.

Also, sometimes people say that the answer to the problem lies in the words: Do this in remembrance of me. Some people say: It can’t really be his body, because he says that it is for remembering him. So they say: The Lord’s Supper is simply nothing more than bread and wine, and when we eat and drink it, we remember Jesus. Now, recently, in another sermon, I was talking about this point. In English, when we say “remember” we often mean something that goes on in our heads. But in Hebrew, “remembering” is something that people do. A very clear example of this is when the thief on the cross says to Jesus: Remember me, when you come into your kingdom. He is not simply asking Jesus to think about him, when Jesus is in heaven and the thief has gone to hell. He is not saying, “Remember the good times we had when we on the cross together.” The thief is saying, “When you come into your kingdom, I want you to bring me with you.” I don’t want you simply to think about me, and remember who I was, but I want you to do something for me, and to take me with you. And this is exactly what Jesus does. He says: Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. That’s how Jesus remembers him. He brings him to heaven with him.

And so, in the Lord’s Supper, we do remember Jesus. We remember the wonderful things that Jesus for us and for our salvation. But we don’t remember him, while he is far away and we are all the way down here. He actually comes to meet us, and we remember him in his presence. We remember the fact that he is here! And when Jesus says: Do this in remembrance of me, what is the thing that we actually do? Is it just eating bread and wine? No… The thing that we do in remembrance of Jesus is to eat his body and to drink his blood. Just as Jesus remembered the thief on the cross and brought him with him into heaven, so also Jesus comes and meets us on earth, giving us his body and blood to eat and drink in remembrance of him.

The third thing that people often say is that it is simply not possible. They say: Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, so he can’t be here on earth in the Lord’s Supper. Yes, it’s true: Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. But the thing we need to come back to is the fact that Jesus said: This is my body, this is my blood. If that’s what Jesus said, then we need to leave it up to him to work out how this is possible. But not only that, remember that Jesus actually went and met Paul and converted him on the road to Damascus. Later when Paul was in prison, Jesus went and met him and encouraged him and said: Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome. Even though Jesus ascended into heaven, he could still come and encourage his people. Also, when Jesus gave his disciples the command to baptise, he said: I am with you always to the end of the age. He also said: Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Also, remember that Jesus is both true man and true God. We can’t make our body and blood present in churches all throughout the world, because we are not gods. But Jesus has all the power in heaven and earth in his hands, and he knows how to bring about what he promises in his own words.

But the other thing we need to remember is this: Jesus body and blood is not dead flesh and dead blood. We are not cannibals or vampires here. Jesus is risen from the dead, and his whole body is glorified in a wonderful and amazing way because he is also true God. And so, Jesus did not say: This is my arm, or this is my fingernail. At the same time, he didn’t say: this is my spirit, or this is my soul. He said: This is my body, and this is my blood. This is his miracle which he performs, and he gives these things to us in a glorious, invisible way.

Now, if we actually believe that Jesus comes to meet us in the church, to give us his body and blood in this way, this completely changes the way we think about what the church is, and why we are here. I once heard the story about an American theology professor, who visited a Lutheran church in Latvia. Now Latvia was part of the U.S.S.R. for a long time, under communism, and during those years it was very difficult to be a Christian because the church was outlawed in certain ways. So this professor went early to church and sat in the back, and saw a young woman come into the church and she got down on her hands and knees and prostrated herself on the floor to pray, and then got up. The American professor was quite stunned, and said to the young woman, “Why did you do that?” The young woman said, “Why didn’t you?” It’s as if to say: If you know whose house this is, and who it is that comes and meets us here, wouldn’t you be completely in awe?

There’s a wonderful event in the gospels where a blind beggar hears the sounds of a noisy crowd and asks about it. We read: They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” This is exactly what happens in the Lord’s Supper: Jesus of Nazareth passes by and he comes right into this place to meet us and to feed us. If you were alive in those days, you wouldn’t sit at home and say: “Never mind, I’ll see him some other time”, or “I’ll pray to him later.” No—you’d go out and meet him, just like the blind beggar did! The problem is, so many people don’t realise that they are blind, and they don’t know that Jesus is here and comes to meet them. But this is what Jesus promises when he says: This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me.

There’s so much to say about the Lord’s Supper, and we can’t say it all in our sermon today. In fact, the great gift of the Lord’s Supper is something that we can spend our whole lifetimes learning, and we still won’t fathom its depths! It is my prayer that the Lord’s Supper—together with Baptism and God’s word—is the thing that is right at the centre of our life together as Christians here in this place. And old Christian writer once called the Lord’s Supper “a medicine of immortality, an antidote, that we may not die but live in God through Jesus Christ, a cleansing remedy through warding off and driving out evils.” (Ignatius of Antioch). Or another old Christian writer said: “If those who touched the hem of His garment were properly healed, how much more shall we be strengthened if we have Him in us whole?” (John Chrysostom)

But before we finish, we need to realise something very profound. If Jesus is going to come and enter into us in this wonderful way, how is it going to happen without him completely overpowering us with his majesty and even destroying us? How is it going to happen that Jesus does not completely crush us with the weight of his glory, he being so perfect, are we being so weak and sinful? It can only happen in one way: He has to forgive us our sins. And this is exactly what Jesus does. He says: This is my body, which is given for you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord’s Supper, not only gives us Jesus’ body and blood, but he also gives us the promise of the forgiveness of sins connected to it. And this word of Jesus commands faith from us, it calls us to believe this and to trust in it.

And so, it is not the sinless who are worthy to come to the Lord’s Supper, and to feast on these gifts. It is those who know their sin, and want to change their lives, and lead a completely new one. If we are honest, we realise that our old self is always a complete disappointment, and we are always failing to lead the Christian life we know we should. And so, we come to Jesus, with everything that is on our hearts and our minds, with all our failures and all our griefs and sorrows, and we place them all into his hands. And he gives us his body and blood to eat and to drink, given for you, and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This is his last will and testament, he reads it allowed to you his family, and he gives you your inheritance right into your mouths. If only we could understand what a precious gift this is! As we often say in our service: May he strengthen you with his Sacrament that your joy may be full! Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you for the wonderful gift of the holy supper of your body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Help us to treasure this wonderful gift which you have given to your church on earth, as we sing and praise your name together with the angels, the archangels and with all the company of heaven. Amen.