“Remember Wondrous Works” Psalm 111:4, March ’19, Lenten Midweek 2

1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word for our 2^nd Lenten Midweek Service is taken from Psalm 111:4 and is entitled, “Remember Wondrous Works,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2. “Spring ahead; fall back.” That’s the simple memory helper some of us might have used at the start of daylight-saving time. The ultimate daylight-saving time story is in Joshua 10. God’s people were fighting a battle and their leader, Joshua, needed a little more time. So he spoke to the Lord, “And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies… The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day” (v 13). 

3. That’s just one of the wondrous works that God did for his people. It’s also something people would tend to remember. This Lenten season, we’re looking at the way the Bible uses the word remember, and tonight we’re thinking about God’s wondrous works. Our text from Psalm 111:4 says: “He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful” (v 4). We’re always looking for the action that follows the remembering. What do people do when God causes them to remember his wondrous works? They believe. They believe that he’s still working.  God Causes His Wondrous Works to Be Remembered So That People Believe He Is Still Working Wonders Today.

4. The people of the Old Testament were reminded over and over of the wondrous works God had done for them. He worked miracles to get them out of trouble. Who could forget how God enabled their army to defeat a city by blowing trumpets? Who could forget how God fed his people with miracle manna while they traveled through the wilderness? But the granddaddy of all wondrous works—of all miracles—was God leading his people out of slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea and giving them a home in the Promised Land. Whatever bad spot they were in, whatever trouble, whatever danger, all they had to do was remember what God had done and believe that he would do it again. But they forgot. As soon as God led them out of Egypt, they forgot what God had so wondrously done. Instead, they remembered the food they had in Egypt. When they remembered, they did something. They complained. 

5. If this was a story made up by a human storyteller, the next chapter would have God give up on those people and start all over again. But it’s not a human story, and God is gracious. He wasn’t going to deliver those people and then abandon them because of something in them. He wasn’t going to quit working for them because of their unbelief, fear, and doubt. No, he was going to continue to work wondrously because of something in him: grace and mercy. That’s what God did. He kept working wonders. 

6. What about us? What has God done for us lately? In church on Sunday morning, we often hear about miracles God did. But do we hear these stories and wonder, “What has God done for us?” We could use a miracle or two, but we’ve likely never seen one. If we could walk on water, our faith would be so much stronger. But would it? If real believers could all walk on water, there should be a lot of people walking on the water. But if we couldn’t do it, we’d assume we weren’t real believers. Did God perform wondrous works to show us what we should be able to do if only we had enough faith? No. God performed wondrous works so we would know and believe that he is God. Just as God made a way for Israel to be delivered out of Egypt, God has made a way for us to believe. Rom 10:17 describes this miracle of God for us: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” In the Apostles’ Creed, we confess a miracle God has done for each one of us: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” To believe in God is not our accomplishment or our work, but God’s wondrous work. 

7. As wondrous as the exodus was, as great a work as it was for God to deliver his people out of slavery in Egypt, it was only a preview of God’s most wondrous work of all time for all people. That, of course, is Jesus delivering all people from sin by dying on the cross. That mighty act didn’t seem very mighty at all. The disciples wanted Jesus to do something really spectacular, but Jesus allowed himself to be betrayed, arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified. 

8. Even that wondrous work would only be part of history if God didn’t make a way to bring it to all people all the time. Do you remember how the word remember is used in the Bible? When God remembers his people, he does something. He acts to save and protect his people. But there’s even more in the word remember as it’s used in the Bible. When something was remembered, it wasn’t just a fond recollection. To remember a past event was to have it brought right up to the present time. How does God bring the crucifixion of Jesus from the past right up to the present time of any believer of any age? God puts his power in what we call the Means of Grace. God’s Word & God’s Sacraments are wondrous works that have been working since Jesus’ death and resurrection. They wondrously and miraculously bring the cross of Christ over the miles and through the years to each believer. From the cross, Jesus looked at those who were crucifying him and said, “Father, forgive them.” Think what it must have been like for whomever Jesus was looking at when he said those words! I would think that person would have felt and known a special sense of forgiveness. In the Word and Sacraments, God brings the cross and those words of forgiveness right to every believer. That’s God’s wondrous work so that you know a special sense of forgiveness.

9. St. John has recorded for every believer the assurance of Jesus and the continuing power of his Word. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (Jn 5:24). God’s wondrous work on the cross is conveyed through God’s wondrous Word.  St. Paul made this connection between the wondrous work of Christ on the cross and the wondrous power at work in the Lord’s Supper in 1 Cor 11:26: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” The apostle Peter connected one of God’s wondrous works of old, the saving of Noah’s family in the ark, to God’s continuing wondrous work of Baptism. In that ark Peter writes, “eight persons were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you” (1 Pet 3:20–21). God’s wondrous work on the cross is conveyed through God’s wondrous Sacraments. 

10.                  So, what wondrous work, what miracle has God done for us lately? The Gospel is working right now even as God’s Word is proclaimed here tonight. Your Baptism not only washed you once; it is a washing of regeneration, continuing to give you new life every day. The Lord’s Supper brings forgiveness and strengthening in faith to you each time you eat and drink the body and blood of Christ with the faith God gives. Those are wondrous works we can still see, because God has attached a visible thing to his wondrous Word. 

11.                  There are other promises of God that are still working wonders. We confess in the meaning of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “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.” We would call it a wondrous work if God healed my body from sickness, from my many allergies, or my nearsighted eyes. So, when we have healthy bodies and eyes that see and ears that hear, God leads us to rejoice in his wondrous work of preserving them. And one more thing. People sometimes tell of wondrous things done by a guardian angel to rescue them from danger. Is it any less wondrous that your guardian angel did such a good job of protecting you tonight that nothing dangerous happened to you at all? 

12.                  It was a miracle the night Jesus walked on water. It proved that he is God, with all the powers of God. But then Jesus performed an even more wondrous work. He made it possible for Peter to walk on water too. So, consider Phil 2:13: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God was at work in Peter! God is at work in you! What has God done in you lately? Amen.  Now the peace that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.