Sermon for Pentecost 10: "Peace and Division" (Luke 12:49-56)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

 

[Intro]

 

Jesus tells us: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51).

 

Like Jesus, anyone who follows Him will face persecution from the sinful world. But, what about persecution within our own households? Or, persecution from within our own churches?

 

We rarely think about being persecuted by the ones we know best. I know I sure don’t.

 

But, many Christians do face persecution from their own families for following Jesus.

 

This is the case especially for Muslims who convert to Christianity.

 

Not long after Faraidoun Fouad converted to Christianity, he received death threats.

 

He said, “Directly after my conversion to Christianity, I received the first threats. People who I thought were my friends, became my enemies.”

 

At the same time, Christians can also be persecuted from within the church family. 

 

Well, how could this be? Well, in the past few decades, many churches have begun teaching a different gospel, instead of the true Gospel. This has left many in the pews wondering what to believe.

 

Now, this is nothing new. It’s sad, but again, this is nothing new. The Word of God cuts us to the core. God’s Word is both Law and Gospel. God’s Word afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted.

 

[Jeremiah]

 

Our Old Testament reading this morning dealt with this. In our reading, the prophet Jeremiah lamented about what was being told to God’s people from false prophets. In the reading, he warned the people that there were false prophets in their midst who were not speaking God’s Word at all, but were instead speaking visions of their own minds.

 

He wrote: “[These false prophets] say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you’” (Jeremiah 23:17).

 

So, what was going on here? Well, these false prophets and preachers were scratching the ears of their hearers. They were telling the people what they wanted to hear, rather than what God’s Word actually said. You see, God’s people were sinning in obvious and open ways, but instead of preaching the Law to bring about repentance, they said: “It shall be well with you.”

 

These prophets and preachers did not want to cause division amongst the people, but by not speaking the Law, they were perverting God’s Word and causing much more division between the people and God.

 

You see, these prophets and preachers were persecuting the church by not following God’s Word. They wanted to be liked. But, God’s judgment always comes upon sin.

 

[What about Today?]

 

Now, could this happen today? Well, we pray that it wouldn’t happen. In fact, this prayer was included in our Collect of the Day this morning. We began this prayer saying: “Merciful Lord, cleanse and defend Your Church by the sacrifice of Christ.” We also concluded our prayer saying that we would “daily follow in His way.”

 

In this prayer, we pray to God the Father to get rid of all impurities in the Church and defend the Church from false teachings.

So, could we pervert God’s Word? Yes, and very easily. As sinners, we want to be liked by the sinful world. It’s always hard to say tough words from God’s Word that don’t bring peace to our friends, but division.

 

And for our church leaders, especially our pastors, when we do not say God’s Word truthfully, what we are really doing is persecuting the church from within. When this happens, we are thinking of ourselves and our own self-interests, rather than “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2a).

 

[Division and Peace]

 

This is the division that Jesus is talking about in the Gospel text.

 

“Do you think I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51).

 

Now, division is nothing new to God. Ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve, there has been division between God and man.

 

And, now with Jesus walking amongst mankind, that division is very visible.

 

Some believed Jesus to be the Messiah and followed Him, while others — especially the Pharisees and Scribes — rejected Jesus.

 

Then, even within Jesus’ own family, they all didn’t believe Jesus to be the Messiah until His resurrection.

 

Likewise, even today, many people continually reject Jesus. He is as divisive as ever. Our own families are divided. All we can do is to keep witnessing to our loved ones and keep praying for them.

 

Last of all, even us. We would often rather listen to our own minds, rather than Jesus.

 

Even with all this division, Jesus desires to bring peace to all of mankind.

 

This is what Jesus came to do. He came to bring peace to this divided world. But, the peace that Jesus brings is not what the world expects. The world expected a worldly peace, not eternal peace between God and man.

 

[Christ’s Bloody Baptism Brings Peace to All Believers]

 

Jesus tells us: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:49-50)

 

At this time, there was much division, but here Jesus says that His baptism to come will bring further division.

 

His baptism to come would bring peace between God and man, but not peace between earthly enemies. This baptism is not a water baptism, but a bloody baptism. He is yearning for this bloody baptism to provide reconciliation to everyone who acknowledges Him as the Messiah.

 

At His bloody baptism, Jesus would receive the fire of God’s wrath against our sin. He would face the suffering we deserve and die for you and me. Three days later, He rose from the dead to show that His sacrifice for our sins was accepted by God the Father.

 

Because of His bloody baptism upon the cross and His resurrection from the grave, everyone who trusts in Jesus as their Lord and Savior is at peace. We are at peace, because by grace through faith in Jesus, we have received forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation.

 

Now, this is not worldly peace, but everlasting peace.

 

We will continue to face persecution for our faith in Jesus until that day when Christ returns for the final judgment. But, don’t let your hearts be troubled, everyone in Christ is already at peace with God the Father. And, in the life to come, there will be no more divisions, but perfect peace and unity.

 

So, Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word; Curb those who by deceit or sword Would wrest the kingdom from Your Son And bring to naught all He has done. Amen. (Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word LSB 655, stanza 1)

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

Sermon for Pentecost 9: "Seek His Kingdom" (Luke 12:22-34)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro]

O little flock, fear not the foe
Who madly seeks your overthrow;
    Dread not his rage and pow’r.
And though your courage sometimes faints,
His seeming triumph o’er God’s saints
    Lasts but a little hour.

(O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe; LSB 666, stanza 1)

The United States Public Health Service issued a statement some time ago about the tendency of worry to weaken and shorten life. It reads in part: “So far as is known, no bird ever tried to build more nests than its neighbor. No fox ever fretted because it had only one hole in which to hide. No squirrel ever died of anxiety, lest it should not lay by enough for two winters instead of one, and no dog ever lost any sleep over the fact that it had not enough bones laid aside for the declining years.”

As Americans, we find things to worry about. Life is good, but it could be better. Life is never good enough is the thought of society. And, we often think that way.

So, how are you responding to Jesus when we hear Him in our Gospel lesson today saying, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear” (Luke 12:22)?

Why not fear? Why not be anxious?

Well, today’s Gospel lesson picks up where last Sunday’s left off. If you recall, last week Jesus told the parable of the rich fool. Today, Jesus is speaking right to His disciples – you and me – about how we are to live as a follower of Christ.

Now, Jesus isn’t telling us to be careless in our lives, so that we don’t care for ourselves. But, He is teaching us about faith and God’s promises.

Today, Jesus is catechizing us – His disciples – to not worry about food, drink and shelter as the godless people continually do.

So, to remind you of last week: A rich man produced a bountiful crop and so he thought to himself that he needed larger barns to store his abundance crop for many years to come. But then God said to this rich man: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you” (Luke 12:20).

You see, this rich fool was more concerned with his possessions, which he thought he earned all by himself. This rich fool never thought once about when he would die and he never thanked God for his bountiful crop. It was all about him. He was living in the present and never thought about the future.

Now, the very opposite of the rich fool is presented in today’s Gospel lesson — the raven.

Jesus teaches us: “Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” (Luke 12:24). 

You see, the raven is satisfied with leftovers and would not think of storing up food for the future.

Now in ancient times, ravens were regarded as careless creatures that even failed to return to their nests. But in Psalm 147:9, God teaches us that He provides food for the young ravens when they call.

Then in today’s reading, Jesus teaches us that we should imitate the raven, rather than the rich fool. Jesus teaches us what our proper attitude should be.

[Our Proper Attitude]

Elsewhere, Jesus teaches us our proper attitude through prayer. In the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray saying: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

In Martin Luther’s Large Catechism, Luther goes into great detail on what this looks like in our life.

“Here, now, we consider the poor breadbasket, the necessities of our body and of our temporal life. It is a brief and simple word, but it has a very wide scope. For when you mention and pray for daily bread, you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy daily bread. On the other hand, you also pray against everything that interferes with it.”

So, what out there interferes with our daily bread?

Luther answers that, as well.

“This petition is specifically directed also against our chief enemy, the devil. For all his thought and desire is to deprive us of all that we have from God or to hinder it. He is not satisfied to obstruct and destroy spiritual government by leading souls astray with his lies and bringing them under his power. He also prevents and hinders the stability of all government and honorable, peaceable relations on earth.”

You see, the devil desires that we do not look to God for our daily bread, but instead to ourselves. He doesn’t want us to remember that God provides all our needs of body and soul. He wants us to look inward, rather than outward toward God for nourishment.

[Prosperity]

Now, we are fortunate to live in the most prosperous country in the world. Yet, for most of society, we would rather associate ourselves with the rich fool than the raven.

We desire more and more things. Just look at all the storage units sprouting up across the fruited plain. We don’t have enough room in our homes, so we build storage units, like the rich fool.

Now, I’m not preaching against storage units, but the question is why do we need the storage units? You may have a good reason. You may have a small home. But, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, we have a hard time letting go of things that we don’t need, and I for one am guilty of that.

Also in the last decade, I have become aware of food storage programs – now I’m not talking about storing your leftovers in Tupperware containers; but instead buying meals that you have no intention on eating until a disaster.

At one time, Christians thought this was something that only Mormons did, but today more and more Americans are buying meals to store in their basements that supposedly last up to 25 years in storage.

One such company promoting this is “My Patriot Supply” which is promoted by various television and radio shows. This company promotes their food as ideal for economic collapse, global conflict, major natural disasters, and as a suitable food in the event of a power grid collapse. They claim that these meals are tasty, but who really knows?

You may think this may be a good idea, but remember what Jesus tells us. We are not to worry about tomorrow. We are to be like the raven.

But, even as disciples of Christ, we can fall into this trap of becoming a “Doom’s Day prepper.”

This is what Jesus was reminding His disciples. It’s not about our life now. It is about our life to come. Jesus is reminding us to not worry about tomorrow, but to seek His kingdom.

So, what does that mean? How do we seek His kingdom? How do we not worry?

Well, as an example to us, when Jesus sent out the twelve apostles and the 72 disciples, He told them to take no food along. They were to eat in homes along the way. They were to live a day-to-day existence.

We, too, are to live a day-to-day existence. But, also don’t take it too far. We just have to remember that God provides. He provides food to the birds of the air and remember: “Of how much more value are you than the birds!” (Luke 12:24b)

[Fear Not]

Remember, God knows everything we need – even before we even realize what we need – and He always promises to provide. So, through our vocations in our life, God cares for us. He gives us food, clothing, shelter, and so on.

Jesus tells us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

It is also good to remember that faith isn’t us getting over anxieties. Faith is knowing that God will take care of us. Faith is remembering that God provides.

So, how is your faith today? Are you putting your faith in God that He will provide? Or, are you putting your trust in yourself?

The unbelieving world fears that they will not have enough this or that, or that the world will end if we don’t do this or that. But the attitude that Jesus looks for us is one of faith and trust in the Heavenly Father.

So, fear not and receive God’s promise!

In our life now, God provides our daily bread, but in the life to come, He will provide us even more. He will provide us the kingdom. In fact, this is God the Father’s good pleasure to give us His kingdom.

You see, we became royalty when the Triune God adopted us at our Baptism when we drowned to sin and rose to new life. It was at that moment that we became in Christ and so we share in His death and resurrection.

This is why God the Father sent His Son so that by grace through faith in Jesus we could enter His kingdom as heirs.

Now, our faith isn’t always strong. But, God the Father gives us strength to live out our days on the way to His kingdom through the Means of Grace as we hear God’s Word and receive forgiveness, life, and salvation through remembering our Baptism and receiving the very Body and very Blood of Jesus under the bread and wine.

God does this for you and for me. So, fear not, and receive God’s grace. Fear not, and receive by faith God’s promise of His kingdom!

[Our Hymn of the Day]

 

I began today’s sermon with the opening stanza from hymn 666: “O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe.” When the Lutheran Service Book went to print in 2006, this hymn was placed here on purpose. This hymn reminds us that we have nothing to fear – not even Satan – because of God’s promise.

O little flock, fear not the foe
Who madly seeks your overthrow;
    Dread not his rage and pow’r.
And though your courage sometimes faints,
His seeming triumph o’er God’s saints
    Lasts but a little hour.

Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

Sermon for Pentecost 5: "The Good Neighbor" (Luke 10:25-37)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

 

[Intro]

 

“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25b)

 

This is the question at the heart of today’s Gospel lesson.

 

The man who asked this question was a lawyer. To us today when we read this, we may think of a defense attorney or a prosecuting attorney. We may think of those class action lawsuit commercials about what we deserve. But this isn’t the occupation of this lawyer. The lawyer in our gospel lesson is an expert on the Torah. He is an expert on the Old Testament.

 

In fact, he knows the answer to his own question. So, when he asks Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life,” this lawyer is just trying to see if Jesus really knows what He is talking about.

 

Shockingly to the lawyer, Jesus returns his question with a question from Himself: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” (Luke 10:26)

 

This is not what the lawyer was expecting. He was expecting to stump Jesus, but now he is the one who has to say the answer to his own question.

 

The lawyer responds saying: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). Jesus then says to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:28).

 

But, this lawyer wasn’t finished. He wanted some retribution. He wanted to justify himself. So, he says: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)

 

But, the lawyer’s real question is this: “Who isn’t my neighbor?”

[The Parable]

 

For this lawyer, he had many friends. Chief among his friends would be priests and Levites.

 

So it was quite a shock to him when Jesus responds to his latest question with a story. It was a story about neighborly compassion. It was a story about friends and enemies. It was a story that was unexpected to a high class Jew.

 

Jesus then speaks of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho on a road that would have been familiar to the lawyer. This road would have been familiar to everyone. You see, this road was dangerous. It was like driving in a bad neighborhood today, everyone knew to keep their windows shut and to keep moving.

 

So, running into robbers wasn’t a shock, but what happened after the robbers was shocking.

 

One might expect a man of God to have compassion upon a man who was stripped, beaten up and left half-dead on the side of the road, but the priest just passed by. The priest ignored a fellow man.

 

Then a Levite – an assistant at the temple – did the same.

 

Why didn’t they help their neighbor in need? Well, it is likely they were walking to the Temple in Jerusalem and they wanted to remain ritually clean. You see, if a Jew touched a dead man, that person wouldn’t be able to set foot inside the temple for days or months.

 

These men were more concerned with ceremonial law, rather than God’s moral law. They were more concerned with being ritually clean, than caring for their neighbor.

 

But, then the shocker of shockers, a Samaritan man showed compassion. This Samaritan stopped and went to this man in desperate need. He bound up his wounds. He poured oil and wine upon him. Then he brought this half-dead man to an inn so he could heal from his injuries.

 

For this lawyer, this was blasphemy. How could a dirty, sinful Samaritan do such a good thing? How is it that he is the one who cared? After all, Samaritans worship God at the wrong place. Samaritans are outcasts from Jewish society.

 

Then Jesus asks the question: “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (Luke 10:36)

The lawyer thought a moment and said: “The one who showed mercy” (Luke 10:37a). Jesus said, “You go, and do likewise” (Luke 10:37b).

 

[We are Dead in our Trespasses]

Now, don’t forget the question that ultimately led to the story of the Good Samaritan. Remember, the question was: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25b)

 

This is what the Parable of the Good Samaritan is all about. It is all about how we inherit eternal life.

 

So, what in this parable is about inheriting eternal life?

 

Well, we have this half-dead man lying on the side of the road. He is hopeless. He is stripped. He is beaten. He is bruised. He is bleeding. He is near death. He is us.

 

This is the point of the parable. We are the half-dead man.

 

Ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit, we have been beaten up constantly by Satan by giving in to our sinful desires. Satan bombards us on all sides. We are dead in our sins. We are dead in our trespasses. We are on the side of the road bruised, beaten and dying. We can’t get up to help ourselves.

 

But then Jesus shows up. This Jesus who was promised right after the Fall of Adam and Eve. God the Father showed compassion by sending prophet after prophet to tell of the coming Messiah. The Messiah who would rescue us from our foes: sin, death and Satan. The Messiah who remembered us all in our low estate.

 

We were all destined to hell. That was our inheritance.

 

But then Jesus came. Jesus fulfilled the Law. He showed us how to truly love our neighbors by taking on the wounds of our sin upon the cross. He died so that we could live. He rose from the dead to show that we, too, would rise from the dead.

 

Jesus picked us up from the side of the road. He bound our wounds and gave us eternal life. It is only by God’s grace that anyone could ever inherit eternal life.

 

You see, eternal life is a gift. Eternal life is not something that we can earn. Eternal life is given by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

[Carried Home]

 

Some years ago, the Western Oregon’s women’s softball team played against Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington.

 

During the course of the game, Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky hit the first homerun of her college career. She dropped her bat and started to make her way around the bases.

 

In the midst of her excitement, she forgot to tag first base. Immediately the first base coach brought the mistake to her attention and she quickly turned around.

 

To everyone’s horror, her right knee buckled. Crying, she tried her best to crawl back to first base.

 

To make matters worse, Tucholsky’s teammates were warned by the umpire that if they touched her, she would be called out. The umpire also said that if her team put in a pinch runner, the homerun would be changed to a single.

 

Then Mallory Holtman, the opposing team’s first baseman, turned to the umpire and asked, “Would it be okay if we carried her around the bases, and she touched each bag?”

 

The umpire gave the approval. Then Holtman and her teammate Liz Wallace picked up Tucholsky and carried her to second base. Once there, they lowered the injured player and gently touched her foot to the bag. They did the same for third base and home plate.

 

The Central Washington softball team displayed compassion. They may not have been thinking about Jesus, but they carried their softball enemy home.

Western Oregon went on to win the game, eliminating Central Washington from the playoffs.

 

[Enemies of God]

 

Each one of us was born as an enemy of God. But then God showed us compassion by bringing us into His kingdom. He brought us home. We didn’t deserve it. In fact, we only deserve eternal damnation, because of our sin.

 

You see, when we remain in our sin, we die in our sin. We are without hope.

 

But the Triune God loves each and every one of us for His steadfast love endures forever. Out of God’s steadfast love, whenever we repent of our sin of thought, word and deed against God, that sin is forgiven.

 

We were in the domain of darkness, but through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, He has brought us out of that darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

 

In fact, it was at our baptism when God rescued us from that ditch on the side of the road. It was then that all of our sin was wrapped in the righteousness of Christ. We have been given the gift of eternal life.

 

We are now in Christ’s righteousness. In Christ alone, we are sinless. We are reconciled; we are brought back into the Father’s love.

 

It is only you and me that can deny God’s love by not following God’s just decrees and His statutes (Leviticus 18-19). If we do not obey God’s will for our lives, we are choosing not to love God and choosing not to love our neighbor.

 

But, all the while God loves each and every sinner. He only desires that we repent and thus, love Him in return.

 

[Do Likewise]

 

At the end of the story, Jesus asks the lawyer: “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers.” The lawyer responds: “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus says: “You go, and do likewise.”

Jesus is the Good Neighbor. Jesus saved us from sin, eternal death and Satan. Through Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, He has created us anew. We are now in Jesus. We live in His grace!

 

So, as Jesus showed compassion upon us. We are to show compassion upon all people. This is our calling. This is our vocation. God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.

 

Now, there are no limits to who our neighbor is. Our neighbor is everyone we meet day in and day out.

 

The culture would say that compassion is accepting every person’s faults. The culture would say that each person is fine in their sin. But that is not compassion, true compassion is caring for one another, lifting each other up and guiding each other to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10).

 

This is what a true neighbor is. As Christians, we follow the footsteps of Jesus who saved us from death to bring us to His marvelous light. He has picked us up purely out of His grace to freely give all who trust in Him eternal life. Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

 

Sermon for Pentecost 4: "Send Out to Harvest" (Luke 10:1-20)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

 

[Intro]

 

One of the most enduring questions asked by human beings concerns the purpose of our existence: “Why are we here?” What are we supposed to do in life?

 

As Christians, we know that we are here because God loves us and wants us to be His own.

 

Our chief purpose is to be loved by the Triune God and, in response, to believe in Him and love Him. Yet, this is not the complete purpose of human existence. We are also here to love and serve other people.

 

Jesus continually reminds us in His Word that we are to serve other people in love. As Christians, we serve other people through our vocation.

 

So, do we serve people through our employment? What if we’re not employed? Well, that is not exactly how God uses the word “vocation.”

 

You see, although many people think of “vocation” only as a synonym for a job, this word actually has a much broader concept. According to God, the word vocation means “a calling.” As followers of Christ, we are called to do certain things, and not just your job.

 

God calls us to various tasks, relationships, and responsibilities. Some vocations come at different stages of life. For a time, a person may have the vocation of student, but later an employee, or even perhaps later the employer.

 

At the very least, our vocation is son, daughter or brother, sister or father, mother. We serve each other and we forgive each other. We do this because Christ served and forgave us. So, this is our vocation.

 

God calls each and every one of us to love Him and to serve our neighbor. God works through all the various vocations we each have. Each vocation is an opportunity to serve.

 

[Sending Out the 72]

 

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus calls an additional 72 men to be sent out ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He was about to go. He called them out to tell the people that the kingdom of God has come near. He sent them out to harvest.

 

Jesus said to them: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2a).

 

So what is this plentiful harvest? This harvest is all people who have not heard about Jesus. You see, Jesus came to save all people and not just a select few. The Apostle Paul through inspiration asks these questions in Romans 10: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15).

 

Here, Jesus is doing just that. He is sending out these 72 men to teach that the kingdom of God has come near. He is sending out these 72 men in addition to His 12 apostles.

 

Now, we don’t know very much about these 72 men, but what we do know is vitally important: They have been called and sent by Jesus, and they are given the task of sharing a message in His stead and by His command. And that message given can be summarized: “The kingdom of God has come near you” (Luke 10:9) and “Peace be to this house” (Luke 10:5).

 

This is their objective. This is their task. They are to proclaim that the kingdom of God is near because the King is near. Jesus is on His way.

 

These 72 men were trained by Jesus to tell of the kingdom of God. Jesus also prepared them to be urgent in their telling. These 72 were to have a single-mindedness of discipline on their mission to tell everyone “the kingdom of God has come near you” and “peace be to this house.”

 

The long-awaited Messiah is on His way. He is coming to bring peace. This peace is not an emotional sort of calm, but is peace that this world cannot give. This peace is the removal of hostility and hatred between God and man.

 

You see, by nature, were all born as enemies of God. We want it our way. We want to look out for our own self-interests, before we ever think about others. We were born lost and dead in our trespasses –our sin – that we could not do anything to save ourselves.

 

This is what the 72 are sent out to do. They are sent out to proclaim that true peace is coming. True peace is coming in Jesus!

 

[The Power of Jesus’ Words]

 

As Jesus sent out the 72, He also told them this: “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16).

 

These words from Jesus likely gave these 72 comfort. So, whatever reaction they received from the people, their reaction was to Jesus and not to them, good or bad.

 

Now, hearing such good news of peace, no doubt many of those who heard this message then shared it with others. We could say, they were gossiping the Good News.

 

When you hear good news, do you keep it to yourself? No, we want to tell as many people as we can!

 

The kingdom is near because the King is near, and the King is near to bring peace with God and man.

 

For those who embraced this message, they were embracing the Prince of Peace Himself. But for those who rejected this message, they were rejecting Jesus and the Father who sent Him.

 

These men certainly faced much rejection along the way, but remember they returned to Jesus with much joy saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (Luke 10:17).

 

The Word of Jesus had been effective that many who heard these men were healed and delivered.

 

[Jesus is Present and Promises to Return]

 

Today, the Triune God is indeed still present through His Word. We give thanks that Jesus brings us peace that is so desperately needed.

 

We all struggle with the sickness of a troubled conscience because of past sins. We experience restlessness and anxiety. We may worry about the troubled world we live in. But, it is Jesus who comes to rescue us from sins and worry. He brings us the peace that this world cannot give.

 

At the time of the sending of the 72, Jesus was ushering in the hope of peace. He accomplished that peace between God and man when He was nailed to the cross, suffered and died for you and me. He accomplished that peace between God and man when He rose from the dead three days later.

 

Through Christ’s death and resurrection, He has carried our sin to the cross and there He has paid our debt. There is no longer any division between God and man for all who trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That division is gone, all that remains is peace.

 

We were brought into this peace through the waters of Holy Baptism. There, we became a child and heir of His kingdom.

 

Christ continually comes to us to remind us of this peace we have been given. He does this through the office of the Holy Ministry and other church-work vocations. Christ speaks to us each Lord’s Day through pastors as He proclaims the Good News of forgiveness of sins, life everlasting and salvation.

 

We each receive this grace through the Means of Grace in hearing His Word and receiving His Sacrament.

 

We also know that Christ will come again. So, in the meantime, we ought to proclaim Christ’s coming in our various vocations as we love and serve our neighbor. We also pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest to tell of God’s peace with man through His Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

 

Sermon for Pentecost 3: "Don't Look Back!" (Galatians 5:1, 13-25)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

 

[Intro]

 

When the Holy Spirit brings us to faith, He sets us on the path to eternal life.

 

The early Christians described that path as “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 24:14), because Jesus is the Way. We walk on that path through our earthly life to the destination of eternal life, but this path is not always easy.

 

As we follow the path, we can become disoriented and end up going in the wrong direction.

 

One such thing happened back in 1995. A Detroit bus driver finished his shift on his route and was heading back to the terminal. But somehow he took a wrong turn. He didn’t arrive at the terminal and a short time later his supervisors started looking for him.

 

Meanwhile, the bus driver’s wife called the terminal to report that her husband might be disoriented from the medication he was taking.

 

For six hours, the bus and its driver could not be found. Finally the state police found the bus and driver – 200 miles northwest of Detroit. The bus was motoring slowly down a rural two-lane road, weaving slightly from side to side.

 

The police pulled the bus over, and the driver said he was lost.

 

The police news release later stated: “The driver had no idea where he was and agreed he had made a wrong turn somewhere. Apparently this had not occurred to him during the four hours he drove without finding the bus depot.”

 

We all have made a wrong turn in our life, but we should all strive to get back on the correct path. For this driver, and us, sometimes it takes an intervention to get us back on the correct path.

 

[The Situation in Galatia]

 

In our epistle lesson, the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul intervene to get the Galatians back on the correct path. He wrote: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:1, 13).

 

So, what was going on at the Galatian Church? Well, we heard last Sunday that many of the Galatian Christians were focusing upon their differences. So, the Apostle Paul reminded them that through faith in Jesus they have all become adopted as children of the Heavenly Father. 

 

Now, that wasn’t the only issue within the Galatian Church. In today’s epistle lesson, we learned that there were many in the Galatian Church who thought God’s moral law didn’t matter. They thought that the gospel meant that they could live any way they wanted as a Christian.

 

Now, Paul never taught them this. So, where did this idea come from? Well, after Paul left Galatia, some people began persuading the Galatians into accepting a different teaching. These persuaders, whom Paul called “trouble-makers” and “agitators”, convinced many in Galatia to abandon God’s moral law to instead follow their own personal desires.

 

In short, these persuaders were perverting the true Gospel of Christ. They were teaching the Galatians to focus upon their self-interests rather than care for each other. On top of that, they were trying to convince the Galatians to conform to worldly desires, rather than trusting in Jesus.

 

Does this sound familiar? Some things never change. Today, the world desires Christ’s Church to conform to the world. At the same time, our sinful flesh wants to give in to worldly desires.

 

We often want to compromise with our sinful flesh thinking, “It’s really not that bad.”

 

Our sinful flesh has an arrogant pride that resists the one true God. It is our natural tendency to desire to control our lives without direction from God Himself.

 

When we abandon what God reveals in the Scriptures, we make gods of ourselves. When we respect the opinions of others instead of God’s Word, we elevate their ideas above God.

 

This all leads in the wrong direction. Instead of following Christ, we look back and desire the works of the flesh.

 

You see, the sinful world is constantly bombarding us and trying to persuade us into thinking that sins against God are not all that bad. In fact, they say they are not bad at all. The world says following your every desire makes you free. In reality, remaining in sin only separates you from God and shackles you to Satan.

 

It used to be that it would be shameful to make many sins public. Today, many people announce their sin publicly. They are proud of their sin. They take pride in their sin.

  

They identify themselves by their sin, rather than acknowledge themselves as a child of the Heavenly Father. They become wrapped in their sin, rather than wrapped in Christ’s righteousness.

 

This was the attitude that was spreading within the Galatian Church. They believed that since they were free in Christ that they could act in any way they wished. They believed freedom to mean: “I can do what I want and I don’t care what anyone else thinks.” Now, this is not what Paul taught. This is not what Jesus taught Paul. This was not the freedom won by Christ.

 

[Works of the Flesh]

 

Paul is reminding the Christians in Galatia and us here today that we are not to use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but instead through love serve one another.

 

You see, by focusing on their sinful desires, their focus was upon themselves. They were thinking inward, rather than outward. They were thinking only of themselves rather than their neighbor.

 

This is what Paul was most upset about. You see, these persuaders, whom Paul called “trouble-makers” and “agitators” were infecting the church with lies. And these lies would only lead the Galatian Church away from salvation in Jesus and to damnation.

 

As the under-shepherd of this flock, Paul was not going to let this happen to his sheep.

 

So, he warns them as a loving father would warn his dear children of the works of the flesh. He writes a long list of self-centered vices that do nothing to support and care for one’s neighbor: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).

 

And as we know from Jesus, when we even think of committing a sin, we are guilty, because all sins come from the heart. When we hear Paul’s list of the works of the flesh, each one of us is guilty. Our sinful flesh wants us to follow the works of the flesh, rather than serve our neighbor.

 

Each of the works of the flesh separates us from the love of God. And don’t be fooled, it is not God leaving us, it is us leaving God. By following our sinful desires, we are choosing our own self-centered interests first.

 

But, remember, the Detroit bus driver? The police intervened to save him. Likewise, God intervenes to save His children. When Paul warns the Galatians and us about the works of the flesh, he is intervening for us to save us. Paul is writing this as a loving father would to his children.

 

Paul isn’t saying that if you have done works of flesh that you are bound to hell. But, Paul is warning all Christians that if we would continue in sin, we have chosen a different path from that of Jesus.

 

Now, all of us are guilty of works of the flesh. We constantly look out for our own self-interest above our neighbor. What are we to do?

 

Well, Paul is not talking about a single outburst of these sins, but rather an ongoing, characteristic pattern of behavior. So if you see yourself drenched in sin, also know that God has given you the Way out and His name is Jesus. You see, through His death and resurrection, He has forgiven the sin of all people who repent and follow Him. He died and rose so everyone who trusts in Him would inherit the kingdom of God.

 

But, if you do not confess and repent of your sin, you are refusing to follow Jesus and instead you have chosen a different path. You are refusing your inheritance of eternal life that has been won for you through Jesus Christ.

 

This is what Paul is warning his church about. Paul does not want to lose his flock to self-centered sinful desires. He wants his entire flock to inherit the kingdom of God.

 

[Fruit of the Spirit]

 

Now, as both saint and sinner, our faith and sinful flesh are constantly struggling with each other. We want to live as children of God, but our sinful desires often sneak into our lives.

 

What are we to do? How do we grow and become stronger in the Christian faith? How do we remain on the right path?

 

Through Baptism, we have become children of God. At your Baptism, the Holy Spirit also created a new attitude within us. This new attitude is the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

 

So, instead of putting the focus on our own sinful desires, the Spirit guides us in serving our neighbor, which is our God-given vocation, as we bear fruit and grow in the Christian faith.

 

And, in case we don’t know what exactly the fruit of the Spirit looks like, we can look to Jesus.

 

You see, Jesus unselfishly did what we could never do for ourselves. “For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He gave Himself for you and for me.

 

With the Spirit’s help, we live and act different from the sinful world. We follow a different path from the world. We follow Jesus who suffered the fierce punishment of our sins and rose again to provide victory over death. So, whoever repents and follows Jesus receives forgiveness, eternal life and salvation.

 

Now, our path following Christ is never easy. Jesus never said being a Christian is easy.

 

Our path is a struggle, our sinful flesh wants to look back, but God gives us strength knowing that whenever we fall into sin, He is there to pick us back up when we ask Him for forgiveness.

 

God also gives us His Means of Grace, which forgives our sins and strengthens our weak faith. So when we hear and follow God’s Word and receive His true body and true blood in the Sacrament, we are put back on the right path. We are forgiven and our faith is strengthened. We are right back on the path to eternal life as we follow Christ and love our neighbor. Amen.

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

 

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T