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.
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