Archive for March, 2009

For Palm Sunday of Year B, the three assigned readings are Zechariah 9:9-12; Philippians 2:5-11 and Mark 15:1-47. The text chosen to preach about is Philippians 2:8, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

Humbling oneself is as difficult as deciding to fall in love with someone. Both are not acts of our will but that which happens to us passively. To a degree we are all like Texans who refuse to pronounce the Texas town “Humble” with an “h”. Instead, they say “umble” because they don’t want to give the impression that they are humble people. They are a proud people. And that is fine if it comes to your race, heritage or ethnicity but it is an error if it comes to your standing before God. For before God we all are to be like Isaiah in chapter 6 who said, “Woe is me” in the presence of God being a man of unclean lips.

Yes, the work of the Law is to make us humble as it diagnoses our true condition before God as one that is to confess we are poor, miserable sinners deserving nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. So it comes as a surprise that there was One Who indeed humbled Himself according to Philippians 2:8. This One is none other than the Christ; the second Person of the Trinity Who took on human flesh for the purpose of taking away the punishment you and I deserved. Being sinless, He indeed is the only One Who could humble Himself as the verse reveals by being obedient to the will of the Father to die for His enemies. In fact, about them He said to His Father, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

His being humbled or humiliated is not that He was embarrassed. Instead, His humiliation was a series of events He volunteered for including His being conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffering under Pontius Pilate, being crucified, dying and being buried. Because of that willing obedience to the Father, Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God through the events of descending into hell, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father from where He will return on that great Day of Judgment.

In His voluntary decision to be humiliated, the Christ took upon Himself the punishment that should have been ours. He became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. As the Gerhardt hymn (A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth) which is the hymn of the Day, moves us to sing, “O wondrous Love, what have You done! The Father offers up His Son. Desiring our salvation!”

For the 5th Sunday in Lent, not “of” Lent, the three readings are Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:1-10 and Mark 10:32-45. Chosen to preach about is Jeremiah 31:31-32, “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,” says the Lord.

This text is a great opportunity to demonstrate to the congregation how they get confused about how God thinks. As is our custom, we do so by asking questions which normally elicit a wrong answer on the part of the hearer. The first question is, “How is the Bible divided?”  Most people will answer that it is divided into the Old and New Testaments. After they answer, the second question is, “What is meant by the Old Testament and the New Testament?” Most people will answer that those refer to the books prior to the coming of the Christ and then those books after His resurrection.Of course, both of those answers are in error for the Bible is divided into Law and Gospel and nowhere in the Bible does the Old or New Testament refer to the books of the Bible.

This text from Jeremiah often uses the translation of “covenant” instead of “testament” even though in the Hebrew and Greek that word can be translated either way. The text also reveals that what God means by the Old and New Covenants or Testaments are two different agreements between God and human beings. The Old Covenant was established in Exodus 24 with the people promising to obey all the commandments of God. Those promises were indeed weak and useless for within a short period of time, the people were worshiping the golden calf. So much for the Old Covenant.

In Christ we have a New Covenant or Testament also established in the Old Testament books beginning with Genesis 3:15 (the promises of the Messiah), throughout the rest of the books with special reference to Genesis 12 and 15 in which God alone makes the saving promises no longer to remember the sins of His people. That’s is why the book of Hebrews speaks of the New Covenant as one established on better promises; that is, the promises of God alone.

These two covenants relate to Law and Gospel in that while both agreements were by God’s grace, the Old Covenant necessitated the consequential obedience of the people of God. It failed, or better said, “they failed.” The New Covenant or Testament is far superior because it no longer relies on any contribution from sinful human beings. It is a covenant of grace throughout as the sinful human being receives faith as a gift, repentance as a gift, forgiveness as a gift, the robe of righteousness as a gift, being sustained in the faith as a gift and heaven as a a gift. Under the Old Covenant obedience was a matter of meritorious works; under the New Covenant obedience is a matter of faith relying on the work of Jesus Christ in light of the cross and empty tomb. For indeed, it is a covenant whereby we are saved by grace, through faith apart from works, lest anyone be tempted to boast. The two covenants do remind us of the Law and Gospel distinctions between the theology of self-glory and the theology of the cross!

For the fourth Sunday in Lent, the three assigned readings of Series B are Numbers 21:4-9; Ephesians 2:1-10 and John 3:14-21. Chosen to preach on this week is Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

There are at least three uses for a woodworking magazine. One is by reading it you discover which are the best tools to purchase; the second is to learn how best to build some furniture and the third reason to subscribe might be in order to learn where all the woodworking shows are in the country. But what may work for a magazine does not work for the Bible. There are those who read the Bible to discover what they can do to get on God’s good side; there are others who read the Bible to learn principles of life in order to be successful in business and then there are those who read the Bible to clarify how God provides free salvation without any help from us.

A most important verse in the Bible for that latter purpose for reading the Bible is Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. One wonders how anyone reading that could possibly get it wrong. But if your concept of salvation includes how you contribute to your salvation, then verse 8 would be read in this way:  The free gift is not faith you receive from God but rather God’s grace in order that you might make a decision to believe in Jesus Christ.”

However, in this verse, God’s grace does not refer to some power substance that enables you to decide to have faith. No, grace refers to God’s gracious attitude towards you. Most people living under the Law (thinking that what they do makes a difference as to whether they go to heaven or hell) would transform this verse to read, “For by grace which God gave you, you have saved yourself by deciding to believe using that grace which was a gift from God and not of your works.” How sad.

Just as those who cannot accept infant baptism are living under the Law, so also those who regard grace as a power source to help get you saved live under a delusion. How many times does Jesus have to reveal, “You have not chosen me; I chose you!”? Why do Christians look to their works as a comfort? Because they cannot come to grips that sin is so bad that it took God Himself to take care of the punishment we deserved. Denying salvation as a free gift is a kind of defense mechanism that the Old Adam erects in order not to have to die. But to put to death the Old Adam is the proper purpose of preaching the Law which then can be followed by the glorious Gospel of salvation by grace–which is a gift, through faith–which is a gift. on account of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ–God’s gift to the world.

As you can see, this blog has been updated and revised as a part of the website www.lawgospel.com which means that you can access other parts of the website. Please email to your friends about the blog and how to access it by going to www.lawgospel.com/blog or by going to the website itself: www.lawgospel.com and then clicking on BLOG. By incorporating it with the entire website, there are a number of advantages.

First, you will notice that there is no longer an index of the various Bible passages about which we have written. Instead, click on SEARCH, type in what you are looking for and you will find a list of possible blogs. If you want to know all the passages in Mark we wrote of, simply type in Mark and they will appear in a list from which you may choose. Or, if you know a specific reading is from the 9th chapter of John, you can type in the SEARCH: John 9 and all the blogs with that passage will be in a list.

You can also find a specific blog of a pericopal reading because the titles are consistent. The first word is “sermon” then, year A, B, or C, followed by a colon for the 3-year reading cycle and then an abbreviation such as the first Sunday in Lent. Thus, the Search would read: Sermon B: 1S Lent.

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For the third Sunday in Lent, the three readings for Church Year B are Exodus 20:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and John 2:13-25. The text chosen on which to preach is 1 Corinthians 1:22, “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom.”

The most important part of the sermon is to make sure that Law and the Gospel reach the target audience. For a radio program the target audience is usually those who would best appreciate what is being said. For a cooking program, the target audience are cooks; for a landscapping program, the target audience are gardeners and so forth. But what is the primary target audience for a religious program of either sermon or Bible class?

Most preachers would suggest that the target audience are the specific individuals in the congregation or the listening audience. However, such a view would mean that the message needs to be used that best reaches that audience. According to verse 22 of 1 Corinthians, Jews are best reached if you can persuade by a sign, a miracle, or some evidence. And Grentiles are best reached if you persuade them by reason or logic. However, it is clear from this verse that such a means of persuasion cannot work with Christianity. For it is impossible to persuade an unbeliever by a sign or reason since what Christians believe offers no evidence and is totally unreasonable!

As the Bible reveals, even were someone to rise from the dead, no one would be persuaded. And even if the wisest of philosophers used reason and logic to the best of his ability, no unbeliever would be persuaded. Why? Because the message of Christianity is foolishness to those who are perishing (verse 18). Then, who is the primary target audience of the preacher. Our answer will surprise you.

The primary target audience is not human–the primary target audience is the Holy Spirit! What does that mean? Glad you asked. As host of Law and Gospel on radio station AM 850 KFUO for over a dozen years, the question is asked as to how many people I have converted. The answer is always the same–none! Conversion is not our job–it is the work of the Holy Spirit. If converting people made a preacher successful, then Jesus was the worst preacher of all time unable to persuade even His own hometown. Yet the Father still considered Him as One in Whom He was well pleased. How so?

Because the success of the witness is not in the results but in the proper use of the means of grace. Jesus was successful always regardless of the response on the part of listeners but because He clearly and accurately spoke the Word of God. Today our message needs to be stated in such a way that the Holy Spirit can make use of the Word of God in creating a new heart and renewing a right spirit. God does not work through false doctrine.

It is not that the listener is never a target audience. It is just that the listeners are secondary targets. First get the Word straight and then use that part of the Word of God which best touches the lives and problems of the listener. That is, to a listener at a funeral, use the Gospel promises dealing with the sure hope of those who trust in Jesus Christ. To a listener at a wedding, use the Gospel promises that deal with Jesus Christ as the third person in every marriage and the promises He brings to such a covenant.

While the temporal realm may properly use evidence and reason to persuade, in the realm of Christianity the only sure means of salvation is the pure Word of God and the proper use of the Sacraments. In fact, those are not only the proper tools for the Holy Spirit to convert, they also are where the Church in its mission truly exists.

This being the 2nd Sunday in Lent, the readings are Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Romans 5:1-11 and Mark 8:27-38. The text chosen to preach on is Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

While this text may be helpful to most Christians, for those uninitiated in Bible-speak, it appears that Christ’s death is somehow for us because while we were still sinners, God demonstrates His love toward us. Some have taken that to mean that God so loved us that He wanted us to follow the example of Jesus Who died and suffered for others so that we can be saved by our suffering.

The question to ask is what does it mean that “Christ died for us”? The text itself actually provides four answers. The first is Law; the last three are Gospel. The first answer as to the necessity of Christ’s death is verse 6 that Christ died for the “ungodly.” That just doesn’t mean that we are bad sinners; it also means that there was nothing we could do to get saved. Ungodly as we were and are, there was and is nothing we could do to invite, choose, decide, work, speak or think properly to climb up to heaven.

Christ HAD to die for us because there was no way that we could do anything to take care of our problem with God. But precisely what was that problem? Most people would say that sin is what separated us from God. No, verse 9 says that what really brought us under His Judgment was His wrath. Christ’s death somehow saved us from God’s wrath. How so?

The wrath is the result of the curse of the Law that in the day we sin, death is the result. God’s wrath is the spiritual death that Eve and Adam realized when they fled from the Almighty in the Garden. Jesus’ death substituted for our death in that He took upon Himself all the wrath of God that could have been leveled at us. The evidence that Jesus experienced that wrath is heard from His lips, “…why have You forsaken Me?”

Saved from His wrath means we are forgiven. But that needs to be understood with all the radical input that can be provided. Throughout the Bible, (eg. Psalm 32), being forgiven means that God is no longer holding the world accountable for sin. It was that accountability that really separated us from God. Now, according to 2 Corinthians 5, God is reconciled to you, as verse 11 reveals. No longer is the problem God–as in all other religions of Law. The problem is you and me who prefer not to be reconciled to God!

Which leads to another piece of the Gospel promises as found in verse 1 that we have “peace with God” through our Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His dying for us. This is not a peace promised between nations or quarreling family members. This is the peace between you and God. Recall the first words spoken by the angels to the shepherds and the first word of Jesus on the night of His resurrection–”Peace be to you.”

Since every Christian is a teacher-in-training, we need not just to learn about the Bible but also to teach the reason God reveals for the death of His only-begotten Son. That death was not for an example for us to follow. No, it took care of every reason for separation from the holy Trinity as Jesus became sin in order that you might be the righteousness of God in Him. That’s a Lenten theme worth sharing!