Saturday, May 19, 2012

The God We Worship--May 27th, '12 Sermon 1 in Series on "Back to the Basics"



1.             Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Today we begin a new sermon series on the basics of the Christian faith as we confess it as Lutherans.  We are looking at “The God We Worship.”   Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.             It was a Sunday morning in South America, in a little chapel on the border of Venezuela and Columbia.  As the worship service was beginning a band of soldiers armed with machine guns came out of the jungle and forced their way into the chapel.  The church watched in horror as the soldiers dragged their pastor outside.  Then the leader of the soldiers came back into the chapel and demanded, “Anyone else who believes in this God stuff, come forward!”  Everyone was silent.  Finally, one man came forward and told the soldier, “I love Jesus.”  He was tossed to the soldiers and taken outside.  Several other Christians came forward saying the same thing.  They too were driven outside.  Then came the sound of more machine gun fire.  When there were no more people left willing to identify themselves as Christians, the chief soldier told the remaining congregation to get out saying,“You have no right to be here!”  And with that he herded them out of the chapel, where they were surprised to see their pastor and the others standing.  The soldiers ordered the pastor and those who’d professed their love for Christ to go back into the church to continue the service.  Then the soldier warned the others to stay out until “you have the courage to stand up for your beliefs!”  And with that the soldiers disappeared into the jungle.
3.             Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when you go to church, “do you have the right to be here?”  Do you believe in this Christian stuff?  I mean, really believe enough to die for you faith in Jesus.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, are you totally committed to Christ?  And by His power alone, are you honestly living that way, being a “little Christ” to others?  Well, the answer my friends is that by God’s grace in Christ, you do have “a right to be here.”  For you are baptized into Christ.  In a Lutheran Slovak Communion liturgy just before giving the communicants the body and blood of our Lord, the pastor places his hands on the head of each person keeling before him and says, “Rejoice, child of God, because your sins have been forgiven through the precious, shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!”  Thanks be to God.   Who is this God that we worship as Christians? Well, in our sermon today we’ll answer this question about the God we worship.
4.             Some people think that God is an impersonal, remote being, the man upstairs, way out there in the clouds.  But, the Bible paints a different picture.  Through Scripture we know that God is both transcendent (above all things) and immanent (that is present) in our daily lives.  Far from being a “distant” God He’s shown Himself to us in Jesus Christ.  God’s Son Jesus assumed fully your responsibility to your Creator. He fulfilled the Law perfectly in your place.  Listen to what this means, “So by the obedience of one, (that’s Jesus) shall man, (that’s you) be made righteous (Romans 5:19).  When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law…that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).
5.             But, Jesus didn’t stop at keeping God’s law in our place.  Jesus also took upon Himself the punishment for your sins.  As your Substitute, Jesus suffered and died on the cross to make full payment for your sin.  And this Jesus continues to be with you in every respect of your being and life.  Having lived on earth fully as a human being as well as God, Jesus understands and sympathizes with you in your human predicament.  The Scriptures tell us that He “was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).
6.             Jesus is ever present with us in our daily walk.  He knows your anxieties, your pains.  There are always footsteps ahead of us in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and they are His.  We know Jesus as a personal God as we use the Word and Sacraments, the means by which He has promised to come to us.  To walk more closely with our Savior we can search the Scriptures daily, reflect on the meaning of our Baptism for our everyday life, and partake of the Lord’s Supper with joy whenever it’s offered.  Through these means of grace, the Holy Spirit sustains and strengthens our walk with Jesus. 
7.             But, some people might ask, “Does God expect me to change before I become acceptable to Him?”  Well, were it not for what Christ has done on our behalf, God’s close presence to us would make us terrified, since we’re sinful human beings.  A close, personal God sees how I live my own life from day to day.  A close personal God knows the thoughts of my heart.  He knows, even better than I do, those actions, thoughts and intentions that shame me.  My guilt, apart from the grace of God in Christ, would drive me away from an immanent God, not to Him.
8.             Only God knows how many souls have agonized over the changes they thought they had to make in themselves before they could come home to the heavenly Father.  And God does expect that Spirit worked change will flow from repentance and trust in the merits of His Son.  But, God doesn’t expect us to change ourselves.  And neither does he expect us to change who we are.  Instead, He accepts us as we are--with our unique personality and our own weaknesses.  Romans 5 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…But, God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).
9.             Maybe you might wonder if we “cooperate” with God for our salvation.  This brings us to the third lie--the one about “cooperating” with God for our salvation.  Not only don’t we cooperate, we can’t cooperate with God to bring about the “new birth” that Jesus speaks of.  Did you hear Paul’s words a moment ago--“when we were still powerless” and “while we were still sinners”?  Can a dead man dress himself?  Of course not.  And in a real sense, those without Jesus are every bit as powerless to do anything to meet God halfway.
10.         Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.”  And in Ephesians 2:5 the Apostle Paul says, “God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression--it is by grace you have been saved.”  And also in Ephesians 5:14, “For it is light that makes everything visible.  Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  That’s what the Holy Spirit of God does--He wakes us up from death to newness of life.
11.         But, you might ask, “Must I change my life before God will forgive me?”  We Lutherans reject “if-then” theologizing.  Instead, the Bible teaches us the gracious teaching of “because-therefore”.  Your salvation isn’t something God might do, but something He’s done on the cross for you in Jesus.  Remember Jesus’ words, “it is finished” in John 19:30.  This redemption that Jesus did on the cross was done for you, he died for you so that you can live with Him eternally in heaven.
12.         Our Lutheran theology doesn’t say “if you want to be right with God, then there are things you should do.”  This kind of “iffy” theology opens the door for doubt.  It puts the burden of working out our salvation on our own shoulders.  That burden is too heaven for any of us to bear!  This kind of theology is moralistic and synergistic, it is work righteousness and gives the individual credit for working out his own salvation.  As we’ve seen, the credit for your salvation belongs solely to your dear Savior! How dare we in pride assume even an ounce of the glory that Jesus deserves for His great work on the cross for us!  Instead, the Bible teaches us, “Because of God’s grace as worked out in the saving work of Christ…this therefore is what you can do.  Become what you already are in Jesus!”
13.         And finally, maybe you think that God’s forgiveness has limits.  All of this may sound too good to be true.  Surely there are limits somewhere!  But, the Scriptures make it clear that God’s forgiveness has no limits.  We can’t bargain for it.  It comes to us by God’s grace:  the undeserved love of God in Christ Jesus.  This means that you don’t need to carry guilty feelings over past sins.  When God forgives, he forgives completely.  Yes, He’s all knowing, but that doesn’t change the fact that when we drag past sins before God’s throne, sins for which we’ve already repented and been forgiven, God doesn’t know what we’re talking about. He assures us in Isaiah 43:25, I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”  And so we can pray the prayer, “O God, forgive me the sin of coming back to You and asking for forgiveness for a sin you forgave--and forgot--a long time ago!” (OP Kretzmann)
14.         Is God an impersonal, remote being “way out there in the clouds?”  No.  He’s the God who has made Himself known to you in His Son Jesus Christ.  Does God expect you to change before you are acceptable to Him?  No.  And you couldn’t do that if you tried.  He accepts you in Christ just as you are, even with your own weaknesses and sins.  Do you “cooperate” with God for your salvation?  The idea that we could do that is a lie.  God has already done everything needed so that you might have eternal life and live in relationship with Him.  Must I change my life before God will forgive me? God has already forgiven you in Jesus.  That forgiveness now makes your growth toward Christ-likeness, possible.  And does God’s forgiveness have limits?  It doesn’t.  You and I may fail many times each hour or even each minute as we mature in Christ.  But, we need not fear those failures.  Jesus has erased each one, canceled each debt, taken on Himself the punishment for them all.  Freed from guilt, you can drop the burden of guilt and let the Holy Spirit do His transforming work in you as He comes to you through His Word and Sacraments.  Amen. 

No comments:

Post a Comment