“The Trinity We Profess: The Son Who Redeems” Sermon 4--Basics of the Christian Faith Series, June ‘17

1.                               Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.    Today as we continue our sermon series on the basics of the Christian faith as we confess it as Lutherans we’re looking at “The Trinity We Profess:  The Son Who Redeems,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                               The story is told of a father in Spain and his teenage son who were at odds.  The relationship became so strained that the son ran away from home.  The father began a cross country search for his son.  Finally, in a last attempt to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper, “Dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon.  All is forgiven.  I love you.  Your father.”  The next day at noon 800 “Pacos” showed up in front of the newspaper office.  All were seeking forgiveness and love from their fathers.  Is your name Paco?  Often you and I have been rebellious sons and daughters, prodigals, running away from God’s love.  Even those of us who regularly spend time in God’s house sometimes rebel.  We run away from home in our hearts.  But our rebellion doesn’t stop our Heavenly Father, because it’s His nature to seek and save the lost.

3.                               Some people have said that believing in Christ is the best way to attain eternal life.  The Heavenly Father’s goal is the same as the goal Paco’s father had in mind--God wants a personal relationship with us.  “God is love,” the Bible says.  He’s chosen to love human beings and He wants us to have the joy of returning love to Him.  That relationship of love, founded in the forgiveness Christ has earned, love freely given, received, and freely returned is what the Bible calls eternal life.  Those that God has drawn to Himself by grace and given the gift of faith have eternal life.  The Bible says, “by grace you have been saved through faith.”  It’s already happened.  We’ve already received eternal life. (Ephesians 2)

4.                               But, in another sense salvation is a process going on in our lives right now as we become more like Jesus, as we receive more of God’s grace and as His love transforms us little by little so that we’re better able to love Him and to love each other.  The Bible tells us in 1 Cor. 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it’s the power of God.”  We are being saved.  Eternal life is at work within us.  This process will continue until the day we go home to live with our God forever.  That’s the day when we’ll receive the fullness of salvation.  Eternal life will be fully ours.  The Bible says we’ll be saved.  Remember our Savior’s promise in Mark 16:16?  “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”

5.                               Eternal life will be ours in heaven to be sure.  But it’s also ours in a very real sense right now.  Our salvation will be complete when we see our Lord Jesus face to face.  But this process of salvation is at work in us even now.  This brings us to our first question, “Is believing in Jesus the best way to attain eternal life?”  How does this eternal life come to us?  Maybe you’ve hear some people say something like, “All roads go up the mountain and they all get to the top.”  Or, “All religions are essentially the same.” Or, “One religion is as good as another.”  But, my friends the Bible is absolutely clear when it speaks of Jesus that He is the only way to salvation, the ONLY way to heaven.  Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

6.                               But, some people might say that believing that Jesus is the only way to heaven is a narrow-minded point of view.  Many have bought into the life of universalism.  That’s the idea that all people will be saved regardless of what they believe.  It sounds so “fair” and “logical.”  But, is it?  Isn’t it ironic then that the people who profess the belief that one religion is as good as another select their one doctor with great care!  They abandon their non-dogmatic ideals when the good of their physical body is at stake.  Is universalism really non-dogmatic, really non rigid?  Not at all.  There’s no such thing as a truly nondogmatic position.  No person is without having a certain set of beliefs that they hold to be true.  No one is totally objective.  Even the person committed to nothing is narrow-minded in that viewpoint.  The person who shifts moral values all the time is rigid in that approach to life.  The Christian isn’t the only “exclusivistic” individual.  Others aren’t more free, more enlightened, and open-minded in their beliefs.

7.                               In fact, when we say to our friends that “Christ is the only way to salvation,” we’re not being narrow minded.  We’re instead speaking for a God who is narrow.  Here are Jesus’ own words in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.  If there’s another way, we don’t know about it.  Without Jesus, God’s Son, we don’t have eternal life.  God doesn’t bind Himself, He’s bound us.

8.                               With this being true, what can we say to those who say that this is unfair of God?  How do we answer those who ask how God can condemn to eternal death those who “never had a chance”--the billions who have never heard of Jesus?  First, we do whatever we to get the Word out to those who don’t know Christ, “How shall they hear without a preacher?”  The Apostle Paul asks in Romans 10:14.  We need to repent daily of our lack of concern for the lost.  Claiming the forgiveness that is ours in Christ, we pray, give and work to see to it that workers are sent into God’s harvest field.  We also look for ways to be faithful witnesses ourselves--in our families, workplaces, and communities.  By our words and our deeds we call our non-Christian friends to “repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1:15).  We proclaim the truth that “we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” (Romans 14:10).  But then like John the Baptist we point them to Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29).

9.                               We say to those who continue to doubt, “I don’t have to answer for God.  But you will answer to Him.  So join us as we come before His throne of grace while there is still time.  Thank Him for the salvation He gives in Jesus.  Join us in sharing His love with all the world.”  Will they listen to us?  Some will.  Some won’t.  But we continue to intercede for our friends whether they come to faith or not.  And we continue to speak the truth to them with all the power and all the winsomeness the Holy Spirit provides.  He’s the one who convicts hearts of the truth of Jesus.  He’s the one who leads people to faith in Jesus as the only way of salvation.  As we continue to witness and as we see the Holy Spirit use our weak words to speak His Word to the hearts of others, we lose the attitude that somehow we’re better than others because “we have the truth.”  We become more humble and thankful to God for bringing us to faith in Jesus.  And we become more concerned about those who are still trapped in eternal death.  We become faithful ambassadors of our Lord.

10.               Some people wonder if Jesus was more God than man, or more divine than human?  Even as we say that Jesus is the only way of salvation, we find ourselves wondering all kinds of mysteries.  Mystery is the word the Bible uses to describe the truths about God we would never have guessed on our own--He’s revealed them to us.  If He hadn’t, we never would have grasped them.  As we think about the salvation won for us by Jesus, we confront what the Bible calls the great “mystery of godliness:  God was manifest in the flesh.” (1 Tim. 3:16).  The word manifest means revealed or shown.  Human beings had sinned.  We owed a debt so great we could never dream of paying it back.  And so God became a human being, someone who could take our place and pay the penalty we owed.  A mere human being couldn’t conquer Satan.  Or death or hell.  So God remained God, in the person of Jesus Christ.  Was Jesus God?  Or human?  Both.   Christ was and still is fully God and fully man.

11.               But, some people believe that Jesus is our helper and guide through life, just an example to demonstrate for us what the Christian life is like.  Many people in our world would be willing to accept the idea that Jesus was a “good man” a “great teacher.”  Jesus was these things.  But, He was much, much more.  Jesus isn’t just our “example.”  He’s our prototype.  Because Jesus was true God and true man, because He died for you and rose again from the dead, because He lives forever, we now live in God’s forgiveness.  And we will live with our heavenly Father forever when our life on this earth ends.  Jesus is our prototype.  Listen to what John the Apostle says about this in 1 John 3:2, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

12.               Jesus isn’t simply “our assistant” in this process of sanctification, of becoming like Him.  No, He actually lives in us.  “Christ in me”--Paul uses this phrase in the New Testament in Gal. 2:20 and Col. 1:27.  His life and power are at work in us even now.  The Holy Spirit is at work, using His means of grace so that more and more we serve God and the others around us.  None of us can fully understand the great mystery of God’s love for us in sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins!  But that mystery changes us, that love transforms us so that we become “little Christs.”

13.               We know Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, but did Jesus descend into hell to take the eternal punishment we deserved?  On the cross Jesus suffered our punishment in our place.  There he struggled in mighty combat with the nightmare of hell itself.  He who was from all eternity true God was in a way we can’t comprehend abandoned by God--My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?  Jesus cried.  And heaven was silent.  But, the story doesn’t end there.  Our Savior Jesus spoke one last word, a word that’s forever silenced Satan’s accusations against us, “It is finished.”  Jesus shouted and He died.  And He descended into the jaws of hell to snatch the keys of death away from Satan.  Then our Savior rose from the dead and brought with Him in that resurrection each of us.  We died with Jesus in our baptism and we rose with Jesus in our baptism.  We live with Jesus because of our baptism.  No wonder the hymn writer shouted these words of praise, “Mighty Victim from the sky, Hell’s fierce pow’rs beneath you lie; You have conquered in the fight, You have brought us life and light.  Alleluia!  Amen. 

“The Trinity We Profess: The Father Who Gives” Sermon 3--Basics of the Christian Faith Series, June ‘17

1.                   Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.    Today as we continue our sermon series on the basics of the Christian faith as we confess it as Lutherans we’re looking at “The Trinity We Profess:  The Father Who Gives,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                   A famous engineer spent years designing a new bridge.  As time passed, he wondered if he would live long enough to ever see the completed structure in place.  The bridge was finally finished, but the designer had to be carried to the site to see it.  Staring at it in joy and satisfaction, he exclaimed, “It’s just like the plan!  It’s just like the plan!”  God has a design for the world.  He planned it from all eternity.  But, we as human beings have frustrated the master plan.  In this message from God’s Word this morning we will look at God’s original plan for His creation.  We will look at our part in it.  And we will think through the price our heavenly Father had to pay in order to accomplish His goals after we human beings ruined His original plan.

3.                   Some people think that the doctrine of the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has been created by human beings.  This is the first question that we need to settle.  Is there a divine Creator and designer of the universe?  The story is told of a pastor who visited a new member of his congregation.  He invited her to bring her husband along with her to church.  She responded, “Oh, he’s a scientist.  He doesn’t believe in God.”  “That’s not science,” replied the pastor.  “That’s philosophy.”  The Bible never tries to prove God’s existence.  It assumes it.  The very first words of the Bible are, “In the beginning, God…”  God is not a product of our own imagination or of our wishful thinking.  Instead, He’s revealed Himself to us.  He’s told us about Himself in Holy Scripture.

4.                   The truth God has revealed to human beings isn’t just interesting, it’s critical for our relationship with Him.  One day a student walked into a campus pastor’s study and said, “I’m an atheist.”  The pastor said, “Well, that’s very interesting.  Tell me what kind of a God you don’t believe in.”  And for an hour she told him.  When the hour ended, the pastor said, “Well, that’s all very interesting.  But you know, I must be an atheist, too.  Because I don’t believe in that God either.”  And then the pastor proceeded to tell her about the kind of God we have--God’s kind of God--a God who does reveal Himself in Jesus Christ as He works through the means of grace.

5.                   This revelation is critical for our relationship with God.  Do you remember from the first sermon in our series on the Basics of the Christian faith that I said that God is transcendent?  God is so different from what we would imagine on our own, so much more wonderful than we could ever imagine, that the pictures we make of Him and of our selves can’t help but be hopelessly distorted.  Take the fact that God is Triune.  Yes, yes, I know that the word Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible.  But, the concept is clearly there.  “Trinity” simply means, “three in one.”  God is one Being, but three Persons.  We worship one God--Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  Who can grasp that?  No human being or group of people could have come up with that teaching on their own even if they had studied for centuries.  Our God is bigger than our human minds.  He’s beyond our limited understanding.  But, He has chosen us to tell others about Himself.  And He’s done that because He wants a relationship with us.         

6.                   But, some people might ask the question, “Has science proven that the world came into being through evolution?”  Those who choose to reject God’s revelation of Himself face many unanswered and unanswerable questions.  Like, how did the universe come to be?  We’ve all heard various theories of evolution, ideas about what brought everything that we see into existence.  Most of these theories involve the idea of evolution.  The word “evolution” simply means “change.”  On the other hand, “atheistic evolution” is a theory, it’s a “faith,” that says that there’s no creator, that the world and all the human beings in it are simply products of chance.  I can say that atheistic evolution is a “faith” because it’s not scientifically proven.  True science deals with that which can be observed, measured and verified.  True science experiments can be repeated and the results compared with prior results so that the theories that the experiments are designed to prove can be tested.

7.                   But, no one can go back in time and observe the fossil record being laid down.  We can theorize about the origin of matter.  We can theorize about the way the various species of plants and animals have come to be.  But, we can’t prove these things.  We can’t copy the conditions that existed “in the beginning,” and test our theories about what happened.  Individual scientists who deny a Creator-God are just showing their personal non faith.  Their comments go beyond the scope of science.  Just as no scientist can prove atheistic evolution, no Christian can prove the Christian faith.  We simply believe it.  We believe God created everything that exists and that He made it from nothing, simply by speaking His Word.  We believe this because He has revealed it to us in the Scriptures.

8.                   There are some people who think that God the Father takes more things away from us than what He gives to us.  The Bible attributes the work of creation to the person of the Trinity we know as God the Father.  The Bible reveals Him as kind, wise, and good.  He’s tender toward us, wanting the best for us.  Even though the title, “Father” can become a barrier for those who have had harsh or neglectful human fathers, it communicates a very important truth about God and His master plan:  God’s plan from the beginning was to create a family.

9.                   God began by designing a beautiful home for us--the universe.  And yet, the Apostle Paul says in Romans that the whole creation is now “subject to bondage” because of human sin.  In a way we can’t fully grasp, sin damaged the beautiful home the Heavenly Father planned for us.  And yet, our universe is a beautiful, wondrous place even now.  The Word that the heavenly Father spoke at creation holds the universe together even today.  Martin Luther writes in the Small Catechism that, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason, and all my senses, and still takes care of them.  He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have.  He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.  He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.” 

10.               Do you suppose this is the kind of God that the student from the story I told you about earlier wanted to believe in?  I don’t think so.  Our Heavenly Father gives good gifts to His children.  But because of our sinful hearts, we often find ourselves regarding Him with suspicion.  We sometimes wonder if He’s holding out on us.  We grumble and complain and think we deserve more than we have.  We worry about what we will eat or wear or about how we’ll pay this month’s bills.  And all the while our Heavenly Father invites us to bring our needs to Him so He can help us.  It’s part of His master plan for His family--to care for us.  If God hadn’t revealed this kind of love to us in the Scriptures we would never have guessed it on our own.  Our sin blinds us to His goodness.

11.               But, since the Bible calls God “Father” aren’t all human beings his children?  Well, this was God’s intention.  Maybe you’ve heard it said that God created Adam and Eve in His image.  The term “image of God” means a joyful knowledge of God and communion with Him, a state of perfection and peace.  But, the image of God was lost in man’s fall into sin.  From our very conception we’re dead in sin and in need of God’s forgiveness, grace, and the new life that only He can give.  And God does give it in Holy baptism, “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” as St. Paul puts it in Titus 3:5.  The Holy Spirit began the process of restoring the “image of God” in your heart and in mine.  We’ve been adopted into God’s family.  We’re His forgiven children.  This image won’t be perfectly restored within us until we reach our heavenly home.  But how confident we can be, knowing that God is at work within us even now to bring it about.  This adoption we have received through Holy Baptism makes us God’s children.  It means we can call God, “Father” in a sense that only Christians can.  The heavenly Father does want to bring all people into His family.  But, the New Testament makes it clear that only those who are part of God’s family by faith in the saving work of Christ can rightly call themselves the “children of God.”

12.               What about angels?  Are angels and devils outdated, are they even real?  What are angels and demons and how do they fit into God’s master plan?  The Scriptures describe God’s angels as powerful and many.  They worship God.  They act as His messengers.  They surround us and protect us from evil.  In fact, the angels watch over us personally.  You’ve heard the term “guardian angel.”  The Bible doesn’t use this term, but the concept is there.  In Matthew 18:10, Jesus says, “See that you don’t look down on one of these little ones.  For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”  Who are these “little ones”?  Children.  Those new to the Christian faith.  And, anyone who sees himself as insignificant in God’s kingdom.  Do you fit into these categories?  Yes.  All of us who have by the Holy Spirit’s power come to Jesus in faith can consider ourselves one of “God’s little ones.”

13.               And what does Jesus hint at here about the holy angels in the phrase, “their angels”?  He means that God assigns individual angels to individual believers.  Maybe even more than one angel to each of us.  What do these angels do?  They watch over us and protect us.  And we need their protection because the holy angels aren’t the only angels.  Countless demons constantly seek to tempt us, trap us in sin and pull us away from God.  The French skeptic Voltaire has said, “If there were no devil, it would be necessary to invent one.”  How else can we explain all the evil in this world?  The Bible abounds with references to Satan, a real being, who seeks to lead us and all people into eternal death, a very real hell.

14.               How thankful then can we be that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us the love that our Heavenly Father has for us.  How thankful we can be that He has placed His mark of ownership on us in our baptism and that He calls us His very own children, His heirs with Jesus Christ our Savior.  How wonderful it is that He sends His Holy angels to watch over us day after day.  How blessed we are that we can say with Luther, “My Heavenly Father defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.”  Why has our Father done all this and continues to do all this?  “Only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.  For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey him.  This is most certainly true!”  Amen.