Tuesday, February 6, 2018

“It’s All About the Same Jesus” Heb. 13.8, Jan. ’18 N. Lutheran Schools week…





1.       Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The message from God’s Word this 3rd Sunday after Epiphany and the day we begin celebrating National Lutheran School’s week is taken from Hebrews 13:8 and is entitled, “It’s All About the Same Jesus,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.       Virginia, a “grandmother” figure for many children in the neighborhood, died unexpectedly. Saddened by the death of this special friend from her childhood, the teenager observed, “I wish things could stay the same as when I was little.” Don’t we all wish that things could stay the same as when we were little, when we were first married, when we were in high school, when we graduated from college, when our spouse was alive or when … ? Don’t we sometimes wish things could stay the same in our school, church, neighborhood, family or job? Obviously, many things don’t stay the same. Today we find life stability and eternal security in the proclamation, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
3.       While all of Scripture directs us to Jesus, the book of Hebrews does so most clearly and emphatically. He­brews includes over 20 different titles and descrip­tions of Jesus. The epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament begins, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God” (Heb. 1:1–3). Chapter two refers to Jesus as “for a little while … made lower than the angels … crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death” (Heb. 2:9). In chapter 9 (v. 15) Jesus is called the “mediator of a new covenant,” and Heb. 12:2 invites us to see Jesus as “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”
4.       In the first 12 chapters of Hebrews, we see all sorts of signs that say “Jesus.” Then, in chapter 13, it is as if we have finally reached our destination, as God’s inspired author summarizes, “Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.” What did the original readers and hearers understand with those words? What do we hear today in our own settings and circumstances?
5.       Jesus Christ is the same yesterday. The book of Hebrews takes us to the yesterday of the Old Testa­ment. It emphasizes that the covenant was fulfilled in Jesus. The role of the Old Testament high priest is perfected in Jesus, the holy High Priest. The faith of Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Moses and many other heroes noted in chapter 11 was a faith in Jesus, the Messiah. The Jesus of yesterday is the fulfillment of all that God promised.
6.       Yesterday to the Hebrew readers also included the accounts of the miracles of Jesus that they were still hearing about — the teachings still fresh in the decades after Jesus’ life on earth. This is the Jesus that perhaps some of them had even seen whipped, scorned, crucified, dead and buried. This was the Jesus witnesses had affirmed was alive again.
7.       This is the Jesus of our yesterday. This is the Jesus who in our yesterday called us in the waters of Bap­tism. This is the Jesus who came to us in His Word in our Christian home, Christian classrooms of our Lutheran School and Sunday School and nourished us in the faith. This is the Jesus who is the foundation of our church and school.
8.       This is the Jesus who came to us in the many and varied yesterdays of our disobedience, wanderings and unfaithful response to His love, only to forgive us for all our yesterdays and take us to today.
9.       Jesus Christ is the same today. The today of the He­brew readers included a time of temptation to return to the tradition and legalism of Judaism. It included an apathy toward the truths of the Christian faith and the life of a Christian. In response to those incli­nations, there is the encouragement not to give up worshipping together and to keep on living in love. There is the encouragement to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). Anticipating a time of persecution and hardship, the readers are encouraged to anticipate God’s discipline and to endure hardship. Into this today came a Jesus who was Lord of all and Savior for all. Into the Hebrew readers’ todays came a resurrected Lord who had conquered sin, death and the devil, and who would forever be victorious. Every day Jesus was there to say, “Today I am with you.”
10.   That same Jesus comes to us today. Today and every day we wake up as sinners. Today we are unsure. Today we face temptation. Today we may face ridicule and persecution for our witness. Today we have our family concerns and church and school frustrations. But today Jesus comes to us again in the assurance of our Baptism, in His Word of forgiveness, and at His table, where He gives His Body and Blood. Today Jesus Christ is the same at our Lutheran church and school.
11.   Jesus Christ is the same forever. Forever is tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Forever is reached one day at a time. Forever is having Jesus go with us through all the changes of the future. As I shared in the opening illustration, we often wish that things could stay the same. Things change.  Whether the changes are the result of detailed plan­ning or adjustments to unforeseen circumstances, Jesus is always part of the conversation and change.
12.   Forever certainly has eternal implications. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus(Heb. 12:22–24).
13.   We are thankful for all those who gathered in our church and school in the name of Jesus in the yesterday of our school history. We rejoice in every child and family that learns of Jesus in our school today. We are blessed that through God’s grace in Jesus we will be with Him forever.
14.    Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen(Heb. 13:20–21).



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