“Are You Ready?” Luke 3:1–6, Nov. 27, 2011--1st Sunday in Advent

1.                    Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  During this Advent season, we get ready for the coming of baby Jesus. As God provided us the ultimate present in his Son, we prepare presents from our hearts also. For each of you, this preparation has had different beginnings. I have already begun to shop for Christmas presents even before Black Friday. I’m almost done shopping for presents. Maybe some of you have yet to begin. Maybe I should say, “You have not yet begun to fight.”

2.                    Now, in addition to the presents, I would suggest that you also prepare useful phrases for responding to Christmas presents you’d rather not have received. You know—honest but polite.  So Advent is a time of preparing presents to share—and choice words to say—but, of course, more important, it’s a time when we are being prepared for Christ. So, are you ready? Are you ready for Christ? Are you ready not only to receive the gift of Christ, but also to speak choice words about that gift? Are You Ready to Share
the Good News of Christ?

3.                    In Lk 3, we hear from John the Baptist, or using another nickname, John the Preparer, preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  This is what Luke 3:1-6 says, “¹In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:  ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight,  and the rough places shall become level ways, ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”      

4.                    Most of us can identify with what John the Baptist is saying. We, too, were baptized. We, too, were washed out of our sins and into new life with Christ. We, too, experienced a turning away from sin and a turning toward God.  This is what little Mackenzie Schmoll will/has receive(d) today when she is baptized into the Christian faith in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

5.                    Advent is a time when we’re reminded of being in a constant state of readiness. As Scripture teaches us in Matthew 24, Christ will return to us like “a thief” in the night. If you fall asleep at the wheel, there’s bound to be trouble. If we are not vigilant when we stand watch, then Satan and our other enemies can be upon us, and it’s often too late to defend against the attack.  But why must this be so? You might ask, “Why doesn’t God just tell us when he’ll return—date and time?” Then we could be more relaxed, instead of vigilant and stressed out.  There’s that famous line from the movie A Few Good Men. The prosecutor, played by Tom Cruise, screams, “I want the truth.” The colonel on the witness stand, played by Jack Nicholson, shouts back, “You can’t handle the truth.”

6.                    Indeed, we can’t handle it. If God told us when his coming would be, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. With that knowledge in hand, many of us would lead unseemly lives. We would plan a “repentance” shortly prior to the announced date of Christ’s return. But would that planned repentance be a true repentance?  Repentance is a complete change, a reversal of previous thinking, feeling, and conduct. As John the Preparer shares, in Luke 3, repentance is about valleys being filled in, mountains made low, crooked roads rendered straight. Indeed, the proud are humbled. Repentance is not a simple adjustment you make. Repentance is not something you plan to do later. If you’ve repented, you are, at the core, in your essence, different. You cannot help but be different. You cannot help but want to follow Christ.

7.                    I often hear, “Pastor, I’m too busy now for church and God. I’ve got marital problems, problems at work, financial challenges, psychological issues. When I retire, put my kids through college, I’ll see you then.” My response, “Brother, if you’ve got problems, that’s why the church is here. It’s a place for people with problems and issues. It’s not for those who think they’re healthy. The church is for the sick, the wounded, the sinners. If you’ve got issues, Christ is here for you. He will see you through the problems. Christ will heal you, forgive you, and empower you.”

8.                    Rather than denying our need for the Savior—or pretending we don’t need him just now—let us heed the John the Baptist’s call to repent. You are ready for Christ’s coming—and for sharing the Good News of Christ—through repentance.

9.                    Brothers and sisters, there are not too many guarantees in life. One is that, unless Christ comes beforehand, our time on earth will have an end in death. We will all die. Tragedies occur. Our health is brittle. There are “term limits” for all of us. Sadly, as it seems, some of us even outlive our children. Just as Christ will return like a thief in the night, so can death. Let us be ready. Let us help others be ready too.

10.                Now just as John the Baptist’s preaching, teaching, and baptizing aroused the people to wake up, smell the coffee, and stir the pot, we, too, encourage each other into a state of readiness. If Christ comes today, are you confident that he will deem you righteous?  Are you ready? Don’t answer those questions by looking at the accomplishments in your life. Don’t answer the questions by going through a laundry list. Don’t respond by looking at your good deeds and misdeeds and lack of deeds and come up with a sum total. If we respond with these kinds of answers, none of us in this sanctuary is ready. None.

11.                Instead, respond by looking at what the babe Jesus would someday accomplish. Look to the perfect, righteous life Christ lived in your place. Be comforted today by the death he died so you wouldn’t die eternally. Christ has won your salvation for you, in your stead. By believing in him, you are ready.  Part of being ready is to be prepared to share the Good News. Christ gave us that responsibility before ascending into heaven. So, are you ready to share the Gospel?

12.                When I ask that question, I get a variety of answers, but they amount to this: no, not now, not ever, maybe, yes, and (very often!) barely yes. So I ask other questions to clarify. Are you baptized and do you partake in Communion? Yes. Then, you’ve been refined and are undergoing refinement, through the Means of Grace. This is good. Do you believe that your sins are forgiven? Yes. Do you trust in Christ as Lord and Savior? I do. Then, you are ready. Does God continue to equip you as you attend church services regularly so that you hear the Word and become involved in the life of a church? Yes. Does he hone you as you study Scripture? Yes. Does it help to get some training for Gospel outreach? Yes, but the bottom line is, you are ready.

13.                What are the usual excuses? I didn’t go to seminary. I’m not equipped to do that. I need to do more Bible study before I’m ready. I don’t have an outgoing personality. I’m too tired just surviving. I might hurt someone’s feelings when I mess up during the attempted sharing of the Gospel. These are the same kinds of excuses used by the brother who said that he’ll go to church when he retires. Brothers and sisters, you need not be John the Baptist or the apostle Paul to share the Gospel.  Sometimes all it takes is just to invite someone to church or to offer to pick them up to take them to one of our Advent Midweek services or our Sunday morning services.

14.                My brothers and sisters in Christ, God is so gracious that not only did he send his only Son to die in our stead, but he even sent John the Baptist, the Preparer to ready us for his coming. God is so gracious that he has still not returned for close to two thousand years, giving us every possibility of becoming ready for that return. We fall asleep during our watch, and yet he wakes us from our slumber to be vigilant. He even allows us to take part in helping others become ready. What a joy it is for us to have the opportunity to help prepare others!  Are you ready? I pray you are, by the grace of God.

“Remember God’s Faithfulness” (Deuteronomy 8:1-10) Thanksgiving Sermon Nov. 24th, 2011

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.  The message from God’s Word this Thanksgiving Day is taken from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 8:1-10, it’s entitled, “Remember God’s Faithfulness,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.             When we celebrate Thanksgiving Day each year we must always keep in mind that the day really is all about remembering. Turkey, stuffing, and stories get handed from person to person. While the platters and gravy boats empty, the stories get filled out with new details. Some of the stories are as old as the pilgrims; others might’ve happened just last week. You can relive the past year simply by looking down the dining room table. Where grandma or a cousin once sat, there’s now an empty chair.  Or, maybe where there was just one chair, now there are two or three and the dining room is full with new members. The gray hairs, the lined faces, the round cheeks—all tell the story in their own way.  You Can Sum Up the Day like This: Thanksgiving Is about Remembering.  The person who has no memory, who doesn’t know where he or she comes from, can’t really give thanks. That person doesn’t know what to be thankful for or whom to thank.
3.             And this thought that giving thanks in everything is all about remembering is what the Russian novelist and essayist Aleksander Solzhenitsyn gives to us to think about in his Templeton Address of 1983.  Listen to his words that still speak to us today almost 30 years later, “"I heard a number of older people offer this explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened'…. If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God.'"  "What is more, if I were called upon to identify the principal trait of the entire 20th century, I would be unable to find anything more precise than to reflect once again on how we have lost touch with our Creator." (Footnote 1: Quoted from Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, "Men Have Forgotten God" condensed by Readers Digest (September 1986), 21.)
4.             Did you notice how Solzhenitsyn pains over what the forces of atheism and secularism have wreaked upon our world: Men and women have forgotten God. Yet the Scriptures bear witness to us that forgetting God even characterizes the journey of God's own people through the ages as well. 
5.             We especially see this theme in the book of Deuteronomy, leading one commentator to say that the book "develops a theology of remembering." (Footnote 2: Colin Brown, ed., "Remember" in NIDNTT, v.3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 232.) Upon giving Moses the Ten Commandments and the covenant, God declares in Deuteronomy chapter 8, "Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today" (Deut 8:11, NASB). We’re warned twice more in Deuteronomy 8 about forgetting God (see vv. 14 and 19), and elsewhere in Deuteronomy about forgetting his covenant and his gracious provision (see e.g., Deut 4: 9, 23, 31).  And the beginning of Deuteronomy 8:1-2 says, "The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
6.             To remember God is to remember his faithfulness.  It is to remember His "steadfast love"—and our response is to faithfully submit ourselves to him. For just as the past shapes the present, so our remembering God—and yes, our forgetting Him—shapes who we are.
7.             And so here in Deuteronomy Moses sets out to remind you who you are and where you come from, to help you remember. You hear him speak today that you belong to the Lord. This is what the Lord has done for you: He sent you a prophet greater than Moses—Jesus Christ, his Son—to deliver you by his death and resurrection. He brought you out of slavery to sin. He rescued you from the reign of death and the devil. He drowned your enemies in baptismal water and called you to be his people. He has led you year after year through the wilderness of this life, a land in which you are a pilgrim and a stranger. Remember.
8.             But Thanksgiving isn’t simply about remembering facts. The mental exercise of recalling dates and names might be good enough to pass a college exam, but it won’t do for Thanksgiving. I might know all about 1621, the Plymouth Plantation, Squanto, and William Bradford, but no one would say that I’ve in essence remembered Thanksgiving, at least not until I’ve made a Pilgrim hat out of construction paper, enjoyed a whole lot of turkey and pumpkin pie, and loosened my belt a notch or two.  Instead, an appropriate remembrance of Thanksgiving involves the whole person, not just the mind. The same goes for a wedding anniversary. There’s more to remembering an anniversary than knowing the date. Dinner and flowers are a good start.
9.             So when Moses says, “Remember,” he isn’t reciting a set of historical facts for you to know. He wants your entire life to be one of remembrance, for you to remember the Lord with your heads, your hearts, and your hands. Through Holy Baptism, you are a member of the heavenly Father’s family, and you now remember the Lord your God by living as his child.
10.             But, sometimes it’s difficult to live as God’s child.  When we hear Holy Scripture telling us, "In everything give thanks," we may find ourselves a bit confused at that statement. Reading the daily newspaper even as we celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving is so strange when we compare the great abundance of possessions that we have to the great needs and hardships of the rest of the world. Global unemployment soars. Giving to charity is at its lowest in many places. Wars and rumors of wars terrify many, and it’s a wonder that it’s even possible to give thanks for anything. But, to hear others giving thanks, particularly from those who struggle in really difficult circumstances, where we would be stretched to find any reason for praise, always lends itself to beauty and shows to us a gratefulness that goes way beyond our own personal possessions.
11.             That’s why it’s so amazing to see not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament Scriptures, a spirit of thanksgiving that characterized God’s people. In the New Testament the early believers were so overjoyed at the Spirit's work among them that they shared meals, their property and possessions, and were continually praising God. The Apostle Paul even exhorted the Philippian Christians to offer their prayers and supplications, "with thanksgiving.”  In fact, the apostle Paul insists that giving thanks in everything is the will of God.
12.             It’s true that Thanksgiving doesn't always come easy as you wrestle with the difficulties and sorrows of a world with so much need. And yet when you give thanks for the faithfulness of God remembering all that He has given to you spiritually and physically, there’s no room for jealousy over what others have.  No room for complaining about what you lack.
13.             The truth is that we’re always in danger of forgetting who we are. In spiritual matters, as in the rest of life, we’re prone to be forgetful. But Thanksgiving makes us remember, and Moses here in Deuteronomy helps us to jog our memories. He reminds us who we are: the Lord’s people, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ through His death on the cross. Remember this by receiving his gifts. Make the sign of the cross to remember your baptism. Listen to his Word preached. Come soon to this Table to eat and drink the body and blood of your Lord Jesus Christ. Remember who you are by living as one who has been redeemed by Christ the crucified. Remember it with your heads, hands, hearts, ears, and mouths. With such remembrance and thanksgiving, go forth, pick up the platter, tell your stories, pass the gravy, and enjoy all that the Lord has given you.  Remember God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ for you. Amen.

“The Sheep & the Goats” (Matthew 25:31-46)--Last Sunday of the Church Year--Series A, 2011

“The Sheep & the Goats” (Matthew 25:31-46)

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 comes to us from Matthew 25:31-46, it’s entitled, “The Sheep and the Goats,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                  There’s a book that came out this year by a Christian Pastor named Rob Bell entitled, “Love Wins:  A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person who Ever Lived.” There’s no reason to doubt that Bell wrote this book out of his concern for people who are put off by the doctrine of hell.  But, unfortunately Pastor Bell uses his communication skills to unravel the Bible’s message about heaven and hell.  He writes in his book: “A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”  That’s a huge statement! Rob Bell believes that the doctrine of the eternal punishment of unrepentant sinners in hell is keeping people from coming to Jesus. That is a disturbing thought.  Because, Jesus spoke clearly about hell. He warned of “him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” [Matthew 10:28]

3.                  In Love Wins, Bell does his best to argue that the church has allowed the story of Jesus’ love to be perverted by other stories. The story of an eternal hell isn’t, he believes, a good story. He suggests that a better story would involve the possibility of a sinner coming to faith in Christ after death, or hell being an end of a person’s existence, or hell being eventually emptied of all its inhabitants. But, the problem is that the Bible provides no hint whatsoever of any possibility of a sinner’s salvation after death. Instead, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” [Hebrews 9:27]  But, Bell’s book, “Love Wins,” goes most off-course when he describes the Gospel in these words:  “It begins in the sure and certain truth that we are loved. That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what has been done to us or what we’ve done, God has made peace with us.”  Missing from Bell’s Gospel is any clear reference to Christ, any understanding of our sin, any affirmation of the holiness of God and his pledge to punish sin, any reference to the shed blood of Christ, his death on the cross, his substitutionary atonement, and his resurrection, and, so any reference to faith as the sinners response to the Good News of the Gospel. There’s no Gospel here.

4.                  H. Richard Niebuhr famously once summarized liberal theology into this sentence: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”  Yes, we’ve read this book before. With Love Wins, Rob Bell moves solidly within the world of Protestant Liberalism. We dare not run away from all that the Bible says about hell. We must never confuse the Gospel, nor offer suggestions that there may be any way of salvation outside of faith in Jesus Christ. The message of the Gospel isn’t merely that love wins — it’s that Jesus saves.

5.                  This leads us to our text from the Gospel lesson today in Matthew 25 for the Last Sunday of the Church year.  Our Lord Jesus says in selected verses of Matthew 25:31-46, 31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.   32Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world… 41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

6.                  Martin Luther, in his letter to Hans von Rechenberg, on the “Question Whether a Person who Dies Without Faith Can Be Saved^[1]” writes along the lines what our Lord Jesus is teaching here in Matthew 25.  He says, “Now for our answer we have formidable passages of Scripture [to the effect] that God cannot and will not save anyone without faith. Mark 16 [:16] says, “He who does not believe will be lost.” Also Hebrews 11 [:6], “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Also John 3 [:5], “Whoever is not born of water and the Spirit cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Also John 3 [:18], “He who does not believe is condemned already.”  If God were to save anyone without faith, he would be acting contrary to his own words and would give himself the lie; yes, he would deny himself. And that is impossible for, as St. Paul declares, God cannot deny himself [II Tim. 2:13].”

7.                  As we see here near the end of Matthew 25 Jesus said a good deal about His return to judge the living and the dead.  The unbelievers will go to eternal fire in hell, while believers will go to eternal paradise in heaven.  Here in Matthew Jesus is giving us an account of the actual judgment and what will be consequences of it.  In this story Jesus is telling us that He’s coming again in glory.  Our Lord Jesus came the first time in deep humility when He was born in Bethlehem and died on the cross for our sins.  But, when He returns at the end of the age, He will come in His heavenly majesty and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is king of kings and Lord of lords.

8.                  As the peoples of the ages and time appear before Jesus, they will divide into two groups:  one on the right and one on the left.  Those on the right Jesus calls sheep.  Who are these sheep you may ask?  Jesus says in John 10:27-28, “My sheep here my voice and I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life.”  At the same occasion Jesus also said to others who were there listening to him in John 10:26, “But you do not believe because you are not part of My flock.”  The believers are called sheep.  They believe that Jesus, by the shedding of His blood on the cross, has redeemed them.  But, the goats are people who don’t believe and don’t accept Jesus as their Savior from sin.

9.                  So what does Jesus teach us here in Matthew 25?  The answer’s very simple.  That either belief or unbelief in Him as our Savior from sin, death and the power of the devil determine our destinies for all eternity.  Jesus says in Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” 

10.              Some non Christians may take false comfort in this text by saying that even though they don’t believe in Jesus, they still perform deeds of mercy similar to those listed here in Matthew 25.  And by all appearances some unbelievers may do just as much for those in need as any follower of Jesus.  This is what unbelievers hope will be a factor in determining their fate on Judgment Day.  But, look closely at what happens in God’s heavenly courtroom on Judgment Day.  The separation of the sheep and the goats occurs before and not after the listing of their works of mercy.  In other words, good works aren’t considered in God’s final judgment of believers and unbelievers. 

11.              Did you notice that the righteous ones were surprised when they were told by the Son of Man that they were really serving Him?  Their motives were pure.  They weren’t performing their acts for purposes of reward.  They didn’t say, “Yes, I was hoping you would notice.”  They were simply doing what they couldn’t help but do as the Holy Spirit was empowering them to serve their neighbor in love.

12.              This Judgment Day courtroom scene differs so much from our worldly standards of law, because it’s entirely focused on God’s grace towards us in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Good works and motive are both tied to God’s mercy.  As believers in Jesus we will show mercy to others because we’ve already received it from Him.  We will reach out to the least, lost, and helpless of the world because that was our spiritual condition before we were rescued by our Savior Jesus.  We’re now and forever numbered with the sheep at God’s right hand because He was the sacrificial lamb who offered His life in our place.  Jesus stands our worldly system of law on its head.  Through faith in Christ our sins are forgiven, we’re declared righteous, and our misdeeds are purged from our record.  Only fruits of faith, empowered by Jesus will remain.  Amen.

---

^[1]Luther, M. (1999, c1968). Vol. 43: Luther's works, vol. 43 : Devotional Writings II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (43:51). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (HarperOne, 2011).

“God’s Saints” (Rev. 7:9-17) Series A, Nov. 6th, 2011—All Saints’ Day Observed

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.  What does it mean to be a saint of God?  That’s what we will answer today in our message from God’s Word in Revelation 7:9-17.  The message is entitled, “God’s Saints,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ. 
2.             One of our Lutheran missionaries to South America told an interesting story about how to get the stains from some red muddy soil out of his pants. He was visiting for several days at a small town in eastern Paraguay. It was a fairly new farming town that had sprung up. The soil was very rich in this area, but it was bright reddish-orange in color. It had rained a lot that week, and as he walked around the muddy streets, splashes of the red mud stained his khaki pants.  Someone from the village told him, “You have to be sure to wash those slacks here, with water from a well around here, before you return home, because only water from around here will wash out those red stains. If you try to wash them when you get home, they’ll never come clean.”
3.             You know what? They were right, because he said that he did get those pants washed when he was there, and all the red stains came out. But he said he had another pair of pants that he didn’t have time to get washed there and, you guessed it! For the rest of the time he owned those pants, those red stains never, ever came out, even after many, many washings back home in the U.S.  Only water from that area, where the red mud spots came from could wash out those stains. This is similar to being washed in the blood of the Lamb. Only the blood of the Lamb, the Son of God our Lord Jesus, who came to live right here on earth, among us, at the source of all our stains, blood shed on the cross, can cleanse us from the stain of our sin and make us pure. Nothing else will wash us clean. As John said of the saints in heaven in our first lesson, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14).
4.             That’s what we understand about being a saint of God on this day we observe All Saints’ Day.  Our Lord Jesus didn’t come into this world to make bad people good, no, he came to this earth to make dead people live.  For that is what we once were.  We were dead in our trespasses and sins deserving of nothing but eternal death and punishment in hell for our sinful disobedience to God our heavenly Father.  But, you have been washed, you have been cleansed by the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ that He shed on the cross of Calvary to make you clean and holy in His sight.  And what’s even better to make you a part of that great multitude that worships Him in His heavenly kingdom as we see here in our text from Revelation 7 today.
5.             You may have heard it said often enough that there are two kinds of people in the world. Sometimes they're described as "saints and sinners." Maybe a better description would be sinners that think they are saints, and saints that know they are sinners. Sinners it seems often shy away from claiming the title "saint." Yet today we’re remembering the saints who lived among us, and though we may not think of ourselves as saints, I would like each one of us to leave here today knowing that they are God’s saints. But in order to do that, we need to know where we fit in. Are we saint or sinner? St. John gives us a good description of saints so that we can answer the question: WHO ARE THE SAINTS OF GOD?  First, they are people whose sins have been washed clean by the blood of Christ, and second, whose faith brings them through tribulation into heavenly bliss.
6.             Earlier here in Revelation 7 we see that the angel seals God’s people, you and me.  They bear the seal on their foreheads.  They are marked as those belonging to our Lord Jesus Christ.  The number sealed is 144,000, a symbolic number representing the full number of believers from the Old and New Testament eras.  You too are sealed.  You’re included in the 144,000.  It happened in your baptism.  You received the sign of the cross upon your forehead and on your heart as a visible reminder of how you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.  You didn’t choose the seal.  You didn’t earn this seal.  This seal was placed upon you.
7.             And that’s not all.  Not only have you been sealed, you have also been clothed.  Clothed with the white robe that has been washed in the blood of the Lamb.  It’s a paradox.  Blood is one of the most difficult stains to remove from clothes.  But, washing these robes in the blood of Christ has made them pure white.  It’s the cleansing power of His blood.  Since you are baptized, you are clothed with a blood washed white robe.
8.             And since you are sealed and clothed with your blood washed white robe, you will stand before the throne of God.  What John witnesses in his vision is your future.  You will be numbered among that great multitude from every nation.  You will be in the presence of God.  You will never hunger or thirst.  Jesus, both the Lamb who was slain for you and your Good Shepherd, will lead you to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from your eyes. 
9.             This brings up another part of what it means to be a saint of God. Saints are those whose faith brings them through tribulation into heavenly bliss. This means that those who have believed in the cleansing power of Jesus' blood retain that saving faith throughout their entire lives, or at the very least they have it when they die. That faith must endure because without it no one will or can be saved. As Jesus says, ". . . but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."(Mark 16:16 NASB) 
10.             And faith is a living and growing thing. It either lives or is dead; either grows or it dies. God sees to it that our faith grows by sending us challenges, trials, problems, and sometimes even pain and sorrow. But these are merely tests to temper our faith, to point us back to God, to force us to lean on Him for our salvation – and for everything else for that matter!
11.             So far we've seen that saints are first of all sinners and that they have their faith tested throughout their lives. So what is the outcome? St. John now gives us his great "THEREFORE" that is, the result of remaining faithful, he writes in Rev. 7, "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes." 
12.             In other words, finally the faithful are taken to heaven. This is fitting.  Because God created them to be with Him forever, and now they will be. And what an existence it will be! Look again at that description. We will be always in front of God. No longer will He be only the God above us, but the God before us. We will see God, and speak with Him. We will serve Him, saying an everlasting "Thank-you!" for saving us from Hell. He will protect us; nothing bad will ever happen to us again, not even anything unpleasant will come near us. Jesus Himself will guide us in the joyful study of His Word, and all God's marvelous works. We will spend eternity learning the riddles and wonders of the universe, knowing things that only God can tell us and marveling at His power and glory. Finally, we won’t even remember the bad things that happened to us. The best thing is that we will not even remember the sins we committed. There will be no need to remember sin, it will be forgotten once and for all, not only forgiven but never brought to mind. Oh, what peace and comfort!! Surely this is a place for saints. This is where God's saints are right now. This is where we’re heading!
13.             You do not need to wait until you stand before the throne of God to participate in this heavenly worship.   You are sealed and clothed with Christ.  You are numbered with those who have inherited life.  You’ve received the salvation won for you by the Lamb who was slain.  Our response as the Church on earth is the same as that of the Church in heaven—to give our Lord Jesus the worship and praise He deserves.  Salvation is yours.  Heaven is your future.  And with the angels and saints in glory, you gladly join in their unending hymn of praise as God’s saints.  Amen.
    
    
    
    
           

The Word of the Lord Remains Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum, “The Word of the Lord Remains Forever,” was the motto of the Lutheran Reformation. Abbreviated as four letters, VDMA, the motto was sewn on to the sleeves of the clothing issued by two Lutheran territorial princes to every member of their staff. From the prince on down to the boy cleaning out the stables, they all proudly wore “VDMA” on their sleeves. This motto captured the bold Spirit-wrought confidence that animated our first Lutheran fathers in the faith. They knew precisely what they faced by defending and extending Luther’s Gospel-rediscovery: the loss of property, life, and earthly honor. And yet, so convinced were they of the powerful comfort of the Good News that God is a loving and merciful Father who calls, gathers, and enlightens through the Spirit’s use of the Word and Sacraments, that they were willing to take risks for the Gospel.

And what about us today? What is that we hold most dear and precious? In this month when we celebrate the Reformation, we recognize that no celebration can, or should, begin anywhere other than first with repentance. We hold ourselves up to the full measure of God’s perfect Law and recognize that we indeed deserve nothing but His punishment for the sins that so easily entangle. We repent of our apathy and lack of concern for the great Gospel-mission our Lord Christ has sent us on. We confess these sins and turn again to the confident motto of the Reformation and recognize that when all else fails, the Word of the Lord endures forever. For the last Word is never Law, but always Gospel, always the “good newsing” we need every day and which He so richly and daily provides, the assurance that your sin is forgiven. You are healed. You are loved. You are redeemed. You are justified, sanctified, and called to be His very own child.

May God bless your proclamation of the Word that endures forever! Onward, ever onward in His footsteps do we walk, where He leads. Happy Reformation!