Archive for August, 2009

For the 13th Sunday after Pentecost the three readings chosen are Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Ephesians 6:10-20 and Mark 7:14-23. The text to be preached is Mark 7:20, “And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.”

When Jesus first says this, we think of rancid food or poisons that would enter the body and certainly defile the body and make it sick. However, the word “defile” used by Jesus means to be defiled in the sight of God as a person not worthy of heaven. That is to say, the Christian is no longer defiled by eating unclean meat from a ceremonial point of view because Jesus has abrogated all ceremonial laws. What alone defiles us is not that which enters us but that which comes out of us.

Now that is interesting because one would have supposed that what defiles a man are his sinful works which he does outside the body. However, God doesn’t measure a work the way we do. That is, we need to begin to think like God and He has given us plenty of information as to how He thinks. The human being regards another person as good because of his works. However, those good works God may regard as defiling us. How so?

Two people see a woman drop her groceries. Both stop to help pick them up. However, the work of the one God considers as wonderful whereas the work of the other God regards as having defiled him. Why? Because as Jesus says, God judges not by outward signs but according to verse 19, by the heart! What does that mean? The person God appreciates for picking up the groceries is one who does it out partially out of love for Jesus Christ. The other, who is an unbeliever, only can do what appears to be a good work from a motivation of self-interest. That self-interest might be to impress those around or even that it makes him feel good about himself when he helps someone else.

What Jesus is saying is that before the deed is done, the thought is considered. That is why He points out that all manner of sin comes “from within, out of the heart of men.” (verse 21) We therefore deserve temporal and eternal punishment because of our evil heart. In fact, in every other religion in the world the evil heart moves them to attempt to placate or appease a wrathful god by their works thinking thereby that they can manipulate God. How foolish!

Now even the Christian has evil motivation because the old Adam is involved in every one of our works, thoughts and words. However, through faith in Jesus Christ, the Christian receives the dual gifts of the forgiveness of sins and the robe of righteousness. Like Paul in Romans 7, we are in a constant struggle against the Old Adam but because of what Christ has done for us on the cross (Romans God regards the believer as having fulfilled the requirements of the Law. The new transplanted heart we received by grace (Psalm 51) is what God now regards in judging whether we are defiled or not. With the sins of the old heart forgiven in the blood of Jesus and with the fruit of the Spirit taking place in the new heart, God looks upon the believer as righteous in His sight.

For the 12th Sunday after Pentecost the three assigned readings for Series B are Isaiah 29:11-19; Ephesians 5:22-33 and Mark 7:1-13. The text for analysis is Mark 7:7 which reads, “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

It is fairly obvious what charges Jesus is bringing against the leading spiritual leaders of His day. But is it that easy for the pastor to levy similar charges against the members of the congregation today? While it is true that the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were by and large unbelievers in Him as the fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah, it is not true that believers also cannot be charged with teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

First, let’s examine what Jesus means by “doctrine” in this conversation. “Doctrine” is not simply anything the Bible says but that which is God’s revelation to mankind as to the path of salvation. For example, it would not be a “doctrine” that Nimrod was a hunter (Genesis 10:8-9) but it would be a “doctrine” that we are saved by grace, thorugh faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Where the problem arises is that Judaism was substituting the Word of God doctrines with man-made traditions. Some of them are listed by Jesus in verses 8 and following.

The teachings of Judaism were different that the Old Testament faith of true Israel. It is thought that Judaism began when the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 583 B.C. resulting in synagogues replacing the temple, rabbis replacing priests and teaching of the law replacing sacrifices. Judaism became a man-made religion of works from which the prayer of the Pharisee in Luke 18 could take place thanking God that he wasn’t the sinner as were others.

While Christians today may not be following ceremonial laws to boast of their meriting heaven, there are definite instances when the Word of God is replaced with the tradition of certain men. For example, the denial of infant baptism, the denial of the true body and blood of Jesus being in, with and under the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and a decision theology by which unbelievers can choose to invite Christ into the heart are all ways in which man’s ideas have replaced God’s inerrant doctrine.

Yet even members of congregations which do not reject these doctrines of God can still be seen as replacing the Word of God with the commandments of men. There are pastors who appear to set aside the teachings of God when they do not speak forthrightly against the sins of our day such as abortion, same sex marriage, homosexuality and the like. So the sin can take place not only by speaking contrary to the Word of God but also when remaining silent about the Word of God.

This is a Law and Gospel problem for when the Law of God is not used properly to accuse people of their sinful condition, the Gospel loses its importance in being received. And the sinful condition of members of a congregation are not evident only from disobedience against God’s clear Word but also as to how one regards the “good works” he does. For anytime the Christian concludes that God loves him or her more because of frequent church attendance, volunteering in the congregation for various tasks or through large donations, such “good works” are seen as a plate of worms by God. How so?

When you do not realize that none of your “good works” ever reach the level of sinlessness because of your old Adam, to attempt to impress God with such works is to add to the cross of Christ. And when you add to the cross of Christ, you subtract from the cross of Christ. Yes, the problem of sustituting our commandments with God’s doctrine continues to take place every time we sin. That is why as theologians of the cross, the maturing life of the Christian is one of daily repentance and a return to the blessed promises connected with our having been baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

For the 121th Sunday after Pentecost, the Series B lectionary offers these three readings: Proverbs 9:1-10 or Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 5:6-21 and John 6:51-69. We will examine the text of John 6:66, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”

Isn’t it interesting that the 666 passage of John (6:66) is indeed a work of the devil himself? For anytime that anyone makes a decision to walk no longer with the LORD Jesus Christ, that is following the footsteps of Satan himself. The goal of this sermon would be to help the listeners determine how they also have refused to walk with Jesus and what causes such a decision to be made.

This text is primarily about Jesus speaking of Himself as the living bread from heaven and that whoever eats of the “flesh of the Son of Man and drinks My blood has eternal life.” (verse 54) Now while this saying of Jesus was a hard saying for many of His disciples, it appears that it was not the statement that “broke the camel’s back” so to speak. Just before verse 66 which indicates that many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more, we have verse 65, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

From a Law and Gospel perspective this is a harder statement to swallow than the one about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. How so? Because while the eating and drinking statement appears to go against the ceremonial prohibitions in regard to cannabalism, the statement that no one can come to Jesus unless it has been granted to him by the Father hits the old Adam where he lives.

This statement is not Gospel; it is Law as it attacks the old Adam of every disciple that desires to be given some credit for either contributing or cooperating with one’s own salvation. In fact, this statement rightly understood can be seen as the key element of the 16th century Reformation. For the theologians of self-glory taught that the natural fallen man was able to make some small decision in turning to God that would result in blessings of gracious power and appreciation from God Himself.

The Reformers, on the other hand, considered the ability of the unbeliever to cooperate in his salvation by an act of his fallen will as impossible. The unbelieving natural man is dead in sin and as 1 Corinthians 1:14 reveals, “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” It is not that Lazarus was having a hard time in making the decision to rise from the dead until he heard the invitation of Jesus to come out of the grave! No, Lazarus was dead and apart from the Word of the Christ, his body would still be dead in the grave!

What may be surprising to members of the congregation, is that everytime they sin by thought, word or deed, they join with those who now walk away from Jesus to do their own thing by their own will and decision. Sin can be understood as “me first” theology or “theologian of self-glory” theology simply by spelling it and finding that the center of “sin” is “I”.

The theologian of self-glory turns aside from the path of Jesus while the theologian of the cross walks with Him because He has the “words of eternal life.” (verse 68) The sermon would first show how every member of the congregation is in the head a theologian of self-glory followed by the Gospel revelation that such is precisely the kind of sin for which Christ died. Through repentance (contrition over sin and faith in Jesus Christ) the theologian of self-glory dies to his sinful self and becomes a theologian of the cross not by following his head of reason by his heart of faith which clings to the only hope Who is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (verse 69)

With the next Sunday being the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, the 3 readings in Series B are 1 Kings 19:1-8; Ephesians 4:17-5:2 and John 6:35-51. Chosen to preach on is Ephesians 4:24, “…and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.”

It’s a verse like this that gives a bad name to the Christian faith. How so? Because a cursory reading results in an interpretation that is decidely contrary to Holy Writ. In fact, the Reformation came about because of the living under the Law understanding of this verse as follows. “Now that we have been forgiven our sins, we are to put on the new man and thus act in true righteousness and holiness.” In other words, the thinking is that while being saved was a gracious act, it is now up to us to put on the new man and with the help of the Holy Spirit become more and more sinless in our personal lives.

Working out for you, is it? Or, is the pesky law still moving you to conclude that even filled with the Holy Spirit we still need to confess that most times we are poor, miserable sinners deserving nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. What then, does it mean to put on the new man? Perhaps we can explain that by understanding first what it would mean not to put on the new man. That would result in the old man still having the upperhand in our lives. However, because we continue to be sinners whether saved or unsaved, keeping on the old man cannot mean to just keep on sinning anymore than putting on the new man results in a sinless life of works, thoughts and words!

So, what is the difference between the old man and new man? The difference is found in verses 17 through 19 when the old man is described as walking in the futility of our minds, having our understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of our ignorance and the hardening of stubbornness of our hearts, while being beyond sensitivity to the ways of God giving ourselves over to licentiousness, uncleanness and greed. That’s more than just being a sinner. That is being an unrepentant, unbelieving sinner.

Here we find the essence of the old man and new man in that the Christian life is not one of perfect sinless works but one of repentance. And what is repentance? Biblical saving repentance is not just contrition over sin but also faith in the promises of Jesus the Christ! The Christian in his new man is one who sincerely desires to put away lying and not give place to the devil and through fruit of the Holy Spirit does achieve that at times. But when we fail, as we do everyday, we no longer need to rely on our own righteousness and holiness but the received righteousness and holiness won for us by Jesus Christ in our new man.

In our baptism the glorious exchange takes place whereby we give God our sins and He gives us the righteousness of Jesus Christ won for us by His perfect obedience to the Will of the Father while He was here on earth prior to His ascension. Through the power of the Holy Spirit the Christian can indeed walk in a loving relationship with others not possible for the unbeliever. And when we do fail, our life is characterized primarily as one of repentance in returning daily to the cross, the empty tomb and our holy baptism in which we were adopted as forgiven children by God into the family of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.