Let's
pray:
This
morning, I simply want to go back to the basics of the faith. I want
to look at what we call the good news of Jesus, at the Gospel –
which means good news. What happened with Jesus? What happened that
first Good Friday and Easter? What was it that God did then, and
why? We know that Jesus, a Jewish teacher, lived briefly, died
violently and rose unexpectedly. But why did he do that? What was
accomplished by his death and by His resurrection?
Pastor
Daniel D. Meyer, wrote this: Years ago I travelled to Ecuador
and spent a couple of weeks travelling in the mountains. The Quechua
Indian people I met there lived amidst the most mind-numbing squalor.
The disease and disfigured bodies were heartbreaking. The bugs and
stench were everywhere. People were living in a hole in the ground
and calling it a house. They were feeding on rotten food and prizing
garbage as possessions. But they didn't know it.
Why? Because everyone lived that way. They had never been given a
picture of what it means to be a genuinely healthy human being. They
did not know what an abundant life truly looked like.
That's
our problem, too. It's the reason we think of ourselves as largely
innocent people—people who have little to do with bringing about
the death of Jesus. We don't realize how sick and undeveloped we are
spiritually. In Psalm 14, David says that the one fully-healthy
Being in the universe views the human race as we might view those
Quechua villagers—only the gap between his life and that of our
village is so much larger. "The Lord looks down from heaven on
the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek
God. But all have turned aside. They have together become corrupt.
There is no one who does good, not even one." In other words,
we are condemned, and we don't even know it.
Our
sin condemns us. We couldn't stand before God, not because of His
anger – God loves us – but because of our sin. Why
should God care about us and our little sins?”
God does care,
because our sin makes us unable to come to Him or be in His presence.
Remember both Isaiah in the Temple and Peter with Jesus in the boat
after the great catch of fish (Luke 5)? Both men came face to face
with God in His power and holiness. And aware of the holiness of
God, the holiness of Jesus, both men were made so greatly
aware of their sin. “Woe is me,” Isaiah said, “for I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.”
Peter threw himself down at Jesus' knees. "Go away from me,
Lord; I am a sinful man!"
We
are, all of us, people of unclean lips and hearts and lives. We
can't stand before God or come to him. We are lost, condemned by our
own lives - our own actions, our own inaction - by our own hearts and
our own minds before God. What was God to do? Our unholiness
condemned us before God's holiness. The justice of God demanded
payment for wrongs done, for good things not done. How is God going
to get us out of this pickle? Here's how: From before the
beginning, God knew what needed doing. The right judge of the
universe would Himself pay the penalty for sin.
From
the beginning, when people rebelled, God said a Saviour is coming.
“A child of yours, Eve,” God said, as he drove them from the
Garden, “A child of your will crush the serpents head. All will be
made well. The serpent will bruise the child's heel, but all will be
made well.”
Christians
believe that child of Eve, that child promised so long ago, is Jesus,
who lived briefly, died violently and rose unexpectedly. Jesus, the
bible says, “set his face toward Jerusalem” in order to die and
take the penalty of our sin and rebellion. That's what happened on
that Friday we call Good. We hated God and His mercy. We continued
to choose rebellion rather than God. We wanted to sit on God's
throne, so when God came – doing good, teaching about the kingdom
of God coming – we killed him by nailing him to a piece of wood,
strung up on another piece of wood driven into the ground. And
that's exactly what God in His love had planned all along.
Presbyterian
pastor and writer says it this way: Here's
the gospel: you're more sinful than you ever dared believe; you're
more loved than you ever dared hope. More
sinful but more loved.
Through
the death of Jesus, his innocent death, we are made right with God.
Jesus died to pay in full the penalty of sin. An innocent suffered
in our place on that Good Friday. So, when we stand before God when
time is rolled up like a scroll and put away, on that judgement day,
we can stand innocent of sin, because of what Jesus did for us.
But
wait! Does that mean everybody gets in, regardless of having faith
or not? Does that mean the killers and the cruel, the child
murderers and the rapists, the financial swindlers and the con men
will all get in? Well, they have the opportunity to stand in the
benefits of Jesus' death – forgiveness of sin, being made Children
of God - if they trust that Jesus died for them.
So.
Simply trust Jesus. Easy. But our sin is so strong, we can't even
believe that. Martin Luther wrote this about faith: “I believe
that I cannot, by my own understanding or strength, believe in Jesus
Christ my Lord or come to Him” What? Sin is so strong that left
to myself I can't even trust - on my own I can't have faith in
Jesus, can't even come to God.
But
God comes to us. Luther goes on: “I cannot believe in Jesus
Christ my Lord or come to Him,
but the Holy
Spirit has called me through the Gospel – that's
the Bible, the Good News of God's love in Jesus – the
Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me – that
is, opened my eyes through his gifts, sanctified – that
is, made me holy, like Jesus - and kept me in the true
faith. In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies
the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ
in the one true faith.”
This
is totally the work of
God to bring us to him. Jesus died to save us, condemned sinners
that we are, not with silver or gold, but with his own innocent
suffering and death, in order that we might be his own possession,
live under Him in the Kingdom of God, in lives of innocence,
righteousness and blessedness. God calls us through the Word –
allows us to hear that Jesus' death was for us. We are grabbed by
God. Don't know if you believe in God? Well, God believes in you.
Everyone has the gift offered to them. It's like God put money in
the bank for us. We receive it or reject it.
Mom
and her mineral rights. My mom unknowing owned mineral rights under
the little town I was born in. At first, she didn't believe it when
she found out. But, with no oil or gas found, we remain middle
class. We have rights given by God, that many are unaware of. The
gift of Jesus is forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
But
what about sin – we still sin. We still sin, even those of us
grabbed by God. Well, Luther says: In this Christian
Church he daily and fully forgives all sins to me and all believers. It's a part of the Christian
life that we bring our sin daily to God for forgiveness. In 1521,
Luther wrote this about the life of believers: "This
life is therefore, not righteousness, but growth in righteousness,
not health, but healing, not being, but becoming, not rest, but
exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward
it, the process is not yet finished but it is going on, this is not
the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all
is being purified." “All
is being purified,” by the work of the Holy Spirit in us, through
God's Word and the sacraments. God nudges us into Jesus' image
And
what about the end? Well, we know Jesus rose from the dead. For
believers – for those grasped by the grace of God in Jesus –
God's work at Easter bring new creation – and the resurrected Jesus
is the beginning of new creation. God has turned the grave from a
dead end road into a doorway into eternity with the God – a new
heaven and a new earth. “When we were baptized,” Paul wrote in
Romans 6, “Don't
you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.“
And
the end of time? Luther says On
the Last Day he will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life
to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true. We
need not fear the future. The one who has grabbed hold of us in
baptism, who grabs us with the Word, grabs us in His supper, that
one
has both us and the future in his nail scarred hands. Thanks be to
God. Amen
