Category: Sermons

Categories
Sermons

The God Who Rights All Wrongs (Obadiah)

[Listen to an audio version here]

There are many things that we can suffer in this world, but none is worse than what we can suffer from our fellow human beings. Animals may fight for food, territory, and mates, but the imagination of human beings can come up with endless ways to inflict cruelty on one another. The injustice of humans toward one another is truly astonishing.

Once people get their eyes on something, they can commit almost any cruelty in order to achieve it. They can harm anyone without mercy. I spoke to a person not too long ago who started a business after years of hard work. Then, their spouse left them for another person and stole everything they had. The business collapsed. They went to court, but there was no way to get it back because both their names were on the account. The world is filled with things like this.

These things justly make us angry. Anger is a legitimate response to injustice and prepares us for action. However, in many, many cases, there is nothing we can do about it. Then, it just sits in our hearts. When it does this, it eats away at us and can embitter everything in our lives. We know about some of this anger, but we also have a lot of anger hidden in the depths of our spirit.

The question is, what do we do with it? How do we keep the wrong-doer from harming us twice? From the wrong that they commit against us and from turning us into bitter, angry people? The prophet Obadiah provides for us a vision of God that can enable us to move past the injustices of the past, not by ignoring the wrong but by committing it to the God who rights all wrongs. We will see this here in the wrong of Edom, its reckoning with God, and the restoration of Israel. So, we will see the wrong, the reckoning, and the restoration.

The Wrong of Edom
The kingdom of Edom was to the south of Israel. There lived the descendants of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. If you read the book of Genesis, you will find that Jacob and Esau wrestled with one another. Even in the womb, they were so active that Rebekah, their mother, considered them to be wrestling in the womb. This continued throughout their lives, and this wrestling manifested itself in their descendants and their nations. Just look up the word Edom in a concordance or on Biblegateway.com, and you will find that their relationship was not a good one.

Continue reading “The God Who Rights All Wrongs (Obadiah)”
Categories
Sermons

The Lion Roars (Amos)

    [Listen to an audio version here

    Does God care about this world at all? Sometimes we look at the world, and it feels like God is completely silent and unconcerned. For the prophet Amos, the world looked very different. For Amos, God was speaking. He was concerned about the world and His words were like the roaring of a lion. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel put it, “Most of us who care for the world bewail God’s dreadful silence, while Amos appears smitten by God’s mighty voice” (The Prophets, 35).

    At first sight, we might think that God’s concern for the world will comfort us, but this might not be the case. We assume God is on our side, but God is on His own side. He is the Lord. He is the commander. He is the lion. When the Lord comes, He will challenge us in our complacency. What have we made of ourselves? What have we done with what God has given us? Meeting God might not be so easy or comforting as we think. That’s the power of the vision of Amos, and it’s one that we want to explore in this sermon. Here, I want you to see some important points about the context of the book and then a summary of the content of the book. After that, there are important considerations we should take from the book. So, the context, content, and considerations.

    Context
    To appreciate this prophecy, we need to understand three things about the context.

    The first thing is to understand that the people of Israel were divided into two nations. Remember that God had raised up David to reign over His people and that under his son, Solomon, the united nation had done amazing things. However, when King Rehoboam son of Solomon succeeded to the throne, 10 of the tribes revolted. They formed the northern kingdom which was called “Israel” with its capitol in Samaria. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to the house of David. This is the southern kingdom, and it is called “Judah” with its capitol in Jerusalem. This is crucial background information for much of the work of the prophets.

    The second thing to understand is that Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah, but he preached a severe message to the northern kingdom of Israel. So, why would Amos go to those who would regard him as a foreigner and give a message they would almost certainly not like? Answer: God told him to. In chapter 7, we read, “Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: ‘Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words'” (7:10). We then read, “Then Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there'” (7:12). Here is what Amos replied, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (Amos 7:14–15). Amos had a message from the Lord, and he could not hold it in. As he said, “The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken—who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8). He would do this in spite of the challenge of being from a different kingdom.

    Continue reading “The Lion Roars (Amos)”
Categories
Sermons

The God of Hope (Joel)

[Listen to an audio version here]

In 2016, fires from Chimney Tops sped down through the mountains into Gatlinburg, TN. All around the Parkway, the fire blazed and threatened to consume the town. The fire moved quickly toward Pigeon Forge. The result was thousands displaced, more than a dozen killed, and countless structures destroyed. People here had never experienced anything like it. By the morning of November 29, people were in shock and uncertain of what or who had survived.

In such times, we need comfort as we feel the loss of the normal things that support us. But these tragedies are the sorts of events that can transform us and shape our lives. These sorts of events can help us see beyond our ordinary daily lives and look to the end of life and eternity. They can help us think more seriously about who we are and what we are doing and should be doing.

That’s just what happened with the prophet Joel and with other prophets. They considered the tragedies of life deeply, and as they looked, they got a vision. They saw beyond the ordinary. They saw the big issues of life. We want to look at one particular vision today, that of the prophet Joel. I want you to see three things in this book: the God of wrath, the call to repent, and the God of Hope.

The God of Wrath
We do not know much about the prophet Joel at all. What we do know is that something terrible happened in his lifetime, an event like they had never seen. “Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?” (Joel 1:2). And what had occurred? Locusts or grasshoppers had come into the land and were eating everything. They were leaving nothing behind. “What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten” (Joel 1:4). These people depended on the yearly crops just to survive, and now the locusts were eating everything. “Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed” (Joel 1:11). This is a disaster on a scale that is difficult for us to imagine.

I always had a hard time visualizing what this sort of thing would look like until I lived in South Dakota. One year, the grasshoppers just kept multiplying. They covered everything. There were literally dozens of them per square foot in our backyard. Our kids didn’t want to go outside because they would be wading through grasshoppers. The spiders also multiplied greatly because they could eat the grasshoppers. I had never seen so many in my life. This was a small taste of what it was like to experience this terrible plague of locusts that the people of Israel experienced in the time of Joel.

So, what did they do with such an experience? The prophet Joel reflected on this event, and it enabled him to see the wrath of God coming on this world. He saw it as a vision of the final judgment where God would come back and settle all accounts and deal with every wrong in every human heart.

Continue reading “The God of Hope (Joel)”
Categories
Sermons

Hosea: The Faithfulness of God

[Listen to an audio version here]

The prophets were sometimes seers because they could see. They could see beyond the ordinary things of life and see the God who was above them. When other people could not see Him, the prophets saw Him. Once they had that clear vision, they could not help but speak about Him. Once they heard the voice of God, they could not hold it in. As the prophet Amos put it, “The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken—who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8).

In our day, we get so focused on the sights in front of us. We get busy working and doing and playing and enjoying the many blessings God has given us. In the midst of it, we forget God. It’s not that we are necessarily actively opposing Him. We just forget Him. We don’t see Him. The result is that we live lives that miss a huge portion of reality. This leads us to experience lives that often seem devoid of meaning and purpose. We get focused on ourselves and miss the wider world. We get fearful of the problems of the world as if there was not a God ruling over the world. We look for love in humans that they can never give. In our busy-ness, we bypass the bigger and most important issues of life.

So, we need the vision of the prophets. We need to see God. That’s what we are going to try and do this summer. We are going to try and see the vision of the prophets. We want to see the God that they saw so that we can live more in the light of His presence.

This is not always easy. Some of the things they say can seem strange to us. They seemed strange to the people of their time. So, we are going to take a look at what are called the twelve Minor Prophets in order to understand the message of each book. They are called minor because their books are smaller than those of the major prophets, not because they are less important. In some ways, it is an arbitrary division. Nevertheless, we are going to use this ancient division over the summer and look, by the grace of God, at these twelve prophets and their messages.

Today, we turn to the book of the prophet Hosea. You will remember that the kingdom of Israel had split in two after the reign of King Solomon son of David around 931 B.C. The southern kings, the descendants of David, sometimes did what was right. The northern kings have no king that is commended for doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord throughout his lifetime. The northern kingdom is called Israel and the southern kingdom is called Judah. Hosea prophesied from about 170 years after the split until about 210 years after the split, from 760 B.C. until about 720 B.C. His book is most likely a summary of the many messages he preached during this time.

The message of Hosea is very interesting and somewhat shocking. God tells Hosea to take as his wife a prostitute named Gomer. In this message, I want us to consider this marriage and then summarize what lessons we can learn from it. As we consider the marriage, we will see what God tells Hosea to do, what Gomer did, and how Hosea responded. After that, I will draw out some lessons that can help us see more clearly who God is.

Continue reading “Hosea: The Faithfulness of God”
Categories
Sermons

Tools for Transformation: The Lord’s Supper

[Listen to an audio version here]

On September 13, 1814, British navy ships began the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Fort McHenry guarded the entrance to Baltimore, Maryland. The British were trying to force the fort’s surrender and open the way to occupying Baltimore. From that evening until the morning of September 14, 1814, the British launched about 1,500 bombs on the fort.

The commander of the Fort, Major George Armistead, refused to surrender. After all the bombs, he made it clear that he would not surrender by taking down the small flag and hoisting a 17′ by 25′ flag over the fort. The British realized that they would not be able to take the fort and gave up.

Nearby, on a British boat, an American who was there due to a prisoner exchange, witnessed the battle. Francis Scott Key saw the bombs and the first use of rockets on the continent, noticing the “rocket’s red glare.” Then, he saw the flag raised. It led him to write a poem with the following words: “Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” And the answer came back in the next stanza: “Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: ‘Tis the star-spangled banner!”

So, why do I bring all this up? Think about the star-spangled banner. It’s just a piece of cloth, right? In one way, yes, but in other ways, that is completely false. It is so much more. It is a symbol, and symbols have power! They really represent and convey the thing they represent. They have deep meaning. So, when we see that flag as Americans, it moves us deeply. It has a real power.

The Lord’s Supper is a sort of flag that Jesus has planted to powerfully represent and convey to us all that He is. It is a tool that He has given us to bring about transformation in our lives. That’s what we want to consider here in this text. I want you to see three things in this text: what God says about this supper, how God can say that about the supper, and how the supper transforms us. My goal is that you would see that the Lord’s Supper is a powerful tool to transform us and reshape us into the image of God, reflecting His glory.

What God Says About the Supper
In this letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is dealing with a variety of issues which had arisen in the church at Corinth. One problem these early Christians faced was the presence of idolatry. The worship of the gods was not something simply practiced in people’s private lives or in the temples. It was part of everyday life. So, the question was, how do you engage in society and retain your faith?

Continue reading “Tools for Transformation: The Lord’s Supper”
Categories
Sermons

Tools of Transformation: Prayer (Luke 11:1–13)

[Listen to an audio version here

As you all know, this is my first week back in the pulpit since returning from Egypt. One thing that is present everywhere in Egypt is prayer. There is prayer, prayer, prayer everywhere. At 3:30, there is a man calling people to prayer: “God is great, come and pray!” When I went to the fish market, there was a group of men praying together in a little place set aside for that purpose. When Anna and I went to lunch, our guide went to a place to pray several times. Prayer is everywhere in Egypt!

And maybe it’s an experience like that which led the disciples to say, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). I look at John’s disciples, and they are praying. Why am I not praying? Jesus, help me know how to pray.

They made this request to Jesus this when Jesus Himself was praying. You see, Jesus was a man of prayer. He was always seeking His Father. He was always praying. Read through Luke’s account of Jesus’ life. You will find that Luke always notes that Jesus was praying. For example, when Jesus was transfigured or changed on the mountain, Luke tells us that this happened while Jesus was praying! The other accounts do not add this detail. You will see this everywhere in the book of Luke.

So, Jesus’ disciples knew that Jesus prayed. They wanted to become like that. They wanted to be people of prayer! That’s what led them to ask Jesus to make them people of prayer. They wanted to live in communion with the Father like Jesus did. They needed help! Do you need help becoming a person of prayer? Jesus is still ready to teach you! I want you to see this in the text today. We are going to look at it backwards, though, for reasons that I think will become clear. I want you to see the God of prayer, persistence in prayer, and the content of prayer. These are the things that Jesus wants us to understand in order to learn to pray.

Continue reading “Tools of Transformation: Prayer (Luke 11:1–13)”
Categories
Sermons

Tools for Transformation: The Word (2 Peter 1)

[Listen to an audio version here]

Where We’re Going
Our passage teaches us that human beings have an amazing destiny: to participate in the divine nature. This idea goes back to Genesis. We are made in the image of God. God is the most glorious being who is creative, all wise, loving, powerful, and good, and the overflowing fountain of all good. Human beings are made to reflect that glory in a very unique way.

Now, how can human beings participate in the divine nature? Have you ever been walking along on a sunny day and not been looking up into the sun, then it’s like the rays of the sun come into your eye, and you have to look away. How can this be? Well, the sun’s light reflects off of a metal surface, and it’s like the light of the sun. That’s sort of the way that humans participate in the divine nature.

That’s the image that Peter saw when he was on the mountain of transfiguration and saw Jesus shining like the sun. He said:

For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

Jesus provides a glimpse of His coming in glory. He also provides a glimpse of our coming glory. Those who belong to Jesus will shine like stars in the heavens to all eternity.

Thinking about this glorious destiny of human beings, though, inevitably makes us realize that human beings often do not reflect the glory of God. Instead, they experience “the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Pet. 1:4). Instead of becoming what we are supposed to be, we are “corrupted.” Every few years, I get a new lawn mower, it seems. When I first get it, it runs just fine. However, by the next season, it doesn’t run as well. It’s been corrupted. Now, no doubt this is due in part to my failure to maintain it properly, so I don’t want you to become too angry at the lawn mower. However, that’s the idea of the corruption. It’s not working correctly for the purpose for which it was intended. That’s corruption.

Continue reading “Tools for Transformation: The Word (2 Peter 1)”
Categories
Sermons

Better Than I Deserve

Steve Bain was a man who loved to study the Bible and know more about God. But he wasn’t always that way. He didn’t grow up studying the Bible, and, for much of his adult life, he didn’t have much interest in God.

So, what led him to change? His wife. She came to a crisis that led her to realize that the only thing that could give her meaning was a relationship with God. It was really God working with her that led him to Norcross Presbyterian Church. When he got there, he found that there was more to the Christian faith than he ever realized. He saw that it was really meaningful and helpful. At Norcross, he gave his life to Christ and became a follower of Jesus.

After that, Steve wanted more and more. When he went to Perimeter Church in Atlanta, he enrolled in the multi-year course, Theological Foundations for Leaders. He told me many times how helpful this was in his life. He was always active in small groups. When I first came here, he was involved in a group that was studying Henry Blackaby’s book, Experiencing God. He kept going, though. He got involved with Bible Study Fellowship. I would often ask our elders at our meetings, what is God teaching you these days? Steve would give an insight from the book of Joshua or another book that he was studying. I always appreciated that about him.

One thing Steve understood, though, was that the foundation of the Christian faith was a simple message. You have it here in 1 Timothy 1:15. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” Now, I want you to see three things based on this passage: Steve’s Savior, Steve’s example, and Steve’s praise.

Steve’s Savior
All around the world, you will find a surprising symbol. A cross. It was an instrument of capital punishment and even torture in the Roman Empire. Yet millions upon millions look at it and see hope. Why? Because on that cross was the man whom Steve called Savior and Lord, Jesus.

Christianity begins with a message that God created the world good and created human beings for harmonious fellowship with Him and with one another. However, humans have gone their own way and become alienated from God, one another, creation, and even themselves. They have sought to make themselves the center of the universe rather than submitting to God.

Continue reading “Better Than I Deserve”
Categories
Sermons

An Ever Present Help (Mt. 28:20b)

[Listen to an audio version here]

Christians today look at the world and are anxious about it. The world seems to be becoming more and more hostile to our faith. Our values seem to be under assault.

In addition, things are changing so fast. The past year has accelerated so many trends that were already underway. Power is shifting throughout the world.

What are we to do about it? Most people are afraid to even bring up these topics with their neighbors. We often look out on the world as if we just have to watch it with a sense of foreboding and doom. What are we to do?

Matthew West captured this sentiment well in a song that he wrote a few years ago.

Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”

He said, “I did, I created you”

That song was called, “Do Something.”

We are not called to sit passively back and let the world slide into destruction. God calls us in this text to get involved in changing the world. Particularly, He wants us to make disciples of all nations.

The Presence
Now, that seems daunting. Who are we to do something about the big problems in the world? You might say, “I’m scared even to talk to my neighbor about Jesus.” You might say, “I have a hard time even talking to people at all.” You might say, “I’m young and can’t do anything.”

I’ll never forget a conversation I had a few years ago with a man in our church. He felt like he should be a deacon, but he was scared. He didn’t think he could do it.

So, I asked him, “Do you know what God always says when He calls people to do something?”

“Get going?” He responded.

“No,” I replied. “He says, ‘I will be with you.'”

Continue reading “An Ever Present Help (Mt. 28:20b)”
Categories
Sermons

Present to Guide Us in Living Well (Matthew 28:19–20a)

[Listen to an audio version here]

In times of crisis, how are we going to live? How do we find help, strength, and comfort in the midst of sickness, job losses, political division, and death? In such circumstances, we can often turn to religion in order to help us.

But what about when the crisis subsides? What happens if we are in good health, are reasonably well off, and enjoy relative peace? Then, what are we going to do with our lives? What is our life really for? Put another way, if you didn’t have to worry about securing your life, then what would you do with your life? If you knew you were secure to live, then, what would you do to live well?

That’s one of the big issues of our time. Industrial farming and manufacturing and the growth of capitalism have provided for the people of this planet like never before. All over the world, poverty is being reduced. The middle classes are growing. Free time and leisure are increasing. The nations of the world are beginning to enjoy the prosperity of the West.

So, the question arises for more and more people, now that we have leisure and relative prosperity, what are we supposed to do with it? Where can we find a guide to help us live lives of lasting meaning and purpose?

The answer in our text is that Jesus has not only given us guidance, but He is actually present with us to guide us in times of peace and in times of crisis. Jesus will teach us the way to live and live well. We simply have to be ready to follow Him as He leads us. That’s what our text teaches us today. I want you to see three things. We will see, first, Jesus’ guidance of His followers while He was on earth; second, Jesus’ plan for making more followers while in heaven; and third, His presence to guide His future followers.

How Jesus guided His followers while He was on earth
In order to understand what Jesus is saying in this passage, it is helpful to look at how Jesus guided His followers while He walked on this earth.

Consider how Jesus met Peter, James, and John. They were fisherman, and so they were out fishing. Jesus told them to follow Him. What did this mean? It meant that they would literally and physically be with Him. They left their nets, and they followed Jesus.

Another example is that of Matthew, whom the Holy Spirit inspired to write this book that we are reading. Matthew was a tax collector. He was working for Rome, the foreign power that had conquered Israel, and doing very well with it. In the eyes of His people, he was a traitor, and they despised him. That didn’t seem to bother Jesus. Jesus saw him at the tax collector booth, and He said simply, “Follow me.” We learn from the text that Matthew got up and followed him (Mt. 9:9).

Jesus asked all sorts of people to follow Him like that. It didn’t really matter who they were or what they had done or how people viewed Him. He just collected followers. The tax collectors were part of a group of people who were scandalous to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. But Jesus told them, He was all about gathering all sorts of people to Him, anyone who needed healing and restoration. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12–13). It was truly remarkable. Jesus accepted followers from every type of people in society with every type of background.

But following Jesus wasn’t merely about being with Him physically. He would teach them. He would explain to them what the way to eternal happiness was and how they could live in a right and good way, and they would put what He said into practice. They would hear His words and do them. Some people, though, would follow Him physically, but wouldn’t put into practice His words. So, Jesus said to them, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).

So, following Jesus was about being with Him, going where He went, listening to His words, and putting them into practice.

We should not suppose, however, that this was merely something they would do on their own. This is what Jesus explained to His disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). It was living fellowship with Jesus that would enable them to put His words into practice and live a very fruitful life. And how would they live in fellowship with Jesus? Through His Word! “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (Jn. 15:9). He said, “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:9). Note, it was through Jesus’ words and commands that they would experience a living fellowship with Jesus and thus with His Father and Spirit as well. The words were alive!

This is what Jesus explained to His disciples after He had given the strange command that people were supposed to eat His flesh and drink His blood! Many of His followers turned back at this time. He tole the twelve disciples, though, that this was not meant to be taken in a literal, physical sense. He said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:62–63). Then, He said, “Do you also want to go away?”

Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Jesus’ plan for making more followers while in heaven
What Jesus told the eleven disciples in Galilee was that He was going to continue to make followers, even though He wasn’t present on earth. How? They, the disciples, were going to turn people into followers! This had to require a radical reorientation in their thinking. They were going to make disciples of Jesus without Jesus’ physical presence.

Before I explain what that was like, let me explain to you the word that Jesus used to describe His followers. He used the word “disciple.” This word meant “student,” a learner. In those times, the learners or the disciples would follow their rabbi or teacher around, commit their words to memory, and seek to live them out. That’s what disciple means. Notice that Jesus says that they are to teach these new disciples to obey everything He commanded them. That’s exactly what you would expect of new disciples. They would learn what their teacher was telling them, and they would learn to live it out.

How were they to do this? Before we understand the how, I want to explain the “who.” Who would become Jesus’ disciples? Jesus told them to make the nations, the Gentiles, into followers of Jesus. They would do just what Jesus did. They would go to people who were the wrong type of people doing the wrong types of things and living the wrong sort of life, and none of that would matter. Whoever they were, whatever they had done, they could become followers of Jesus. The disciples had a hard time getting this. Read Acts 10. Even though Jesus told them this, He had to sort of beat them over the head with it to get them to go and actually begin making disciples of any Gentile who was interested.

Now, how would they do it? They would do it through a simple rite called baptism and the words of Jesus. They would make Jesus present to them so that they could follow Him by telling them what His words were. They would explain to them the sort of life Jesus was calling them to live. Note this very carefully. They would teach them not simply what Jesus said, but they would teach them to obey what He said.

This is an important distinction. So often we say that people are Christians. This can mean a lot of things that it didn’t originally mean. It may mean something like an outward connection with the Christian religion. It may mean that someone has accepted Jesus as their Savior and is going to heaven. These are not wrong. However, you will notice that the call here is not simply to become “a Christian.” It’s not just a decision that will provide fire insurance. It is the embrace of a specific person as your Savior, Lord, teacher, and guide. It is saying, “I used to do what I wanted. Now, I am going to do what Jesus wants me to do. I’m going to follow Him.”

When someone made that commitment, the followers of Jesus would baptize them. This refers to washing with water. They were to sprinkle or pour water or immerse them in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This meant that they were saying publicly that they were followers of Jesus and devoting themselves to the service of the one, triune God. It also meant on God’s side that He was accepting them as His followers. Whoever they were, whatever they’d done, they were welcomed as one of Jesus’ disciples.

Then, the followers of Jesus would continue to teach them. Those who were already followers of Jesus would help those were new followers of Jesus become the type of people who obeyed what Jesus commanded. That was Jesus’ plan for continuing to make disciples.

Jesus’ presence to guide His future followers
Now, this is a truly amazing thing. We should not miss how wonderful this is. It’s a big task, but it’s also really amazing. Jesus is not physically present in His body on earth, but He continues to be present by His Spirit working through the Word and the sacrament.

We don’t have to wander around not knowing what to do. We have Jesus available to guide us. If we are in a crisis or struggling, Jesus has the Words for us. If we are doing well, Jesus has words to guide us to live a meaningful life and cash in on our health and strength in a way that benefits everyone and glorifies Him.

We can access the power, guidance, and leadership of Christ. We don’t have to make a long journey. We don’t have to beat ourselves. We don’t have to climb a high mountain. We don’t have to go search in the depths of the seas. We don’t have to go digging in the earth. What we need to know to live a happy and blessed life is available to us: in Jesus’ words! They are right here. He is right here! He is guiding, leading, and governing us!

We should not think of the words of Christ as mere words on the page. They are full of the Spirit, and they are full of life! By these words, we abide in Jesus. We experience His power, guidance, and leadership.

What would we do if we believed this? We would seek to get more of His word into us. That means that we would read it. We would make it a priority. We would try to learn it. We would memorize it. We would think about it. If we believed that Jesus is with us through His Word, then we would make it a priority to meditate on it each day. Want more of the presence of Jesus? Get more of His Word!

But if we believed Jesus was present through His Word, we would not only listen to it and read it, we would put it into practice. We would make Jesus’ agenda our agenda. If He told us to stop doing something, we would stop doing it. If He told us to start doing something, we would start doing it. If He told us to be a certain way, we would seek to be that type of person.

Jesus described hearing and doing his word as two types of people. The person who heard His words and didn’t put them into practice is like the person who built their house on sand. When the winds and rains came, it washed away. The person who heard Jesus’ words and put them into practice was like a person who built his house on the rock. When the winds and rain came, the house stood firm.

Let me just give you an example. I often have an agenda for the week. I have lots of things that I want to do. But what would my week look like, if I followed Jesus’ agenda? There are many things that need to change. However, one thing that Jesus has been teaching me is to remember the least of these. If we followed Jesus’ priorities, we would make blessing those who are least capable of blessing us back a priority. It is ministry to the least of these: those who are sick, in prison, outside of our age group, the orphan, the widow, those rejected by society. If Jesus’ words were guiding us, we would not simply connect with our friends or those we were comfortable with. We would go to the new, the outcast, the poor, the weak, to those Jesus called “the least of these.” I think I need to adjust my schedule. I’ve got to think differently about it. And where do I get the strength to do that? All authority and power in heaven and earth has been given to Me, Jesus says. He has the power to enable us to love where we were not loving before and do things we were not doing before.

Conclusion
Think about the disciples. They had experienced Jesus’ physical presence for the past three years. He had been their leader and guide. What were they going to do when He left? How would they connect with Him? Through His words, which were not mere principles or precepts but a power and a connection with the risen, living Christ. And so it is for us. Whatever we are struggling with, in good times or in bad, Christ is here. Christ is present. Christ is risen. His Word is His power and presence available to us and with us, right here, right now, every day, all the time. Amen.

________

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash