Tag: Word

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Our First Priority: What Loving God Looks Like (Dt. 6:4–9, part 4)

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Whenever we love anything, it comes to our mind readily. Theologian Thomas Watson said well, “He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object.” Think of how many songs and poems have been written about love. Love captivates the heart and leads us to song.

If we think about that, it should not be too hard for us to think about what it looks like when someone loves God. However, Moses does not leave it to our imagination. He fleshes out here what it means to love God. We know God through creation, but we also know God through His Word. What we do with His Word is an indicator of our love for God. God makes it about His Word. First, we want to see what the presence of the Word should be in our lives. Then, we’ll try to understand the connection between the Word and our Love. Third, we will see that our love is indicated by the proclamation of the Word out of love.

The Presence of the Word in Our Lives
Immediately after Moses had commanded the people to love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and strength, he said this, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts” (Dt. 6:6). What this means is that the Word of God should not only be something we hear, but it should go down deep into our hearts. This is one of the most important ways we show our love for God.

Now, how does this happen? First, we have to hear the commandments of God. The commandments will not be on our hearts if we don’t listen to them. In our case, we can also read them. In those days, they did not all have a copy of the Word of God, but we do. There is no excuse for not reading or listening to the Word of God on a regular basis, at least daily! We have it in great abundance. We have apps to remind us. We have cheap copies of the Word of God. If we don’t like to read, there are innumerable ways to listen to the Bible each day.

Here is what God says, if you love me, you need to have my commandments on your hearts. How can you say that you love Him, if you make no effort to know what He is saying to the world?

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Tools for Transformation: The Word (2 Peter 1)

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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.

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

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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

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Power to Live a Life of Joyful Service (1 Thess. 1:4–10)

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“Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.” Tom Bombadil is a mystery in the book The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson left him out of his film entirely.

But Tom Bombadil is a character that has always fascinated me. On the surface, he seems so simple, but he is complex. He is merry, full of joy. He delights in his wife and hills and home and food. He seems like he would be easily overcome, but the Ring cannot tempt him. In the midst of his joy, he is happy to serve.

He is a sort of picture of an unfallen human being, a human being not tainted by sin. I think such a person would be very different than we imagine. That person would be open to the world yet clearly defined. He would be a slave to none but a servant to all. He would be content and joyful yet always willing to serve. He would be transparent and simple yet complex and deep. I think Tolkien gave us a glimpse of this in his character of Tom Bombadil.

Sometimes, we think that joy and service do not go together. The Bible and this passage teach us something very different. Those who want to save their lives will lose them, and those who are willing to give them up will find them. Joy and service go together.

Some of us serve because we fear saying no. Some of us try to preserve ourselves but end up being self-centered. How do we get to a place of joyful service? That’s what the Thessalonians had found. They found joyful service to God and to their fellow human beings that made the world stand up and notice. How did it happen? In this sermon, I want to talk about the source, the means, and the effect of joyful service.

The Source of Joyful Service
How did the Thessalonians become joyful servants of the God of Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ? How did these servants of Aphrodite, Zeus, and Apollo who intertwined the worship of these gods into the fabric of their lives become servants of the God of Israel? The answer is clear in our text. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The first thing we notice is that the Apostle Paul gave thanks to God for their response to the Gospel. This means that their response was due to the grace of God. The reason why they accepted the message about Jesus was due to God Himself.

Paul says, “For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction” (1 Thess. 1:4–5). In other words, it was God’s choice and the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled them to respond. Paul and Silas could preach the Gospel, but it was God who gave the response.

This is what we see elsewhere in the Bible. It is God who makes our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh to respond to His Word (Ez. 36:26–27). The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).

This means that even though the Thessalonians had faith, hope, and love, the one who got the ultimate credit for it was God Himself. Even their good use of God’s gifts was a gift from God.

Human beings have turned away from the joyful service of God that they were created for. Instead, they exalted themselves in their pride. This is what we all do unless God intervenes. This is why we all need God’s grace.

Why do we struggle so much in this life? In part, because we start on a wrong principle: making ourselves the center of the universe. It’s only God that turns this around, and so it is only the Holy Spirit that begets joy. “You welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:6).

This was evidence of God’s special love and the choice that He made of the Thessalonians. Their response was not due to their merit or their works but to God’s electing, eternal, gracious love. This is something that all who believe can say: “I believe because of the unmerited love and choice of God Himself.” That’s a rock on which we can rest our hearts and lives.

The Means to Joyful Service
Even though it was God’s Spirit that empowered them for joyful service, this did not mean that God did not use things and people to bring the Thessalonians to that condition. He used a message to bring them back to Himself, and He used the messengers who brought that message.

First, there was the message. They received what he will later call the “Word of God” because it came, as it were, from God’s mouth. In the next chapter, he will say, “when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).

Here he calls it the gospel. The gospel in the ancient world was “news.” A messenger would proclaim a “gospel” when a king won a victory or a new king was crowned. Here, the “gospel” is that Jesus is crowned King and has won the victory over Satan, sin, and death.

Why did God use the Word or the Gospel to transform the Thessalonian Christians? It makes complete sense. What keeps us from joy? It’s the messages we believe such as, “You are unworthy”; “you can’t do anything right”; “things won’t ever work out”; and “I won’t ever get to enjoy good things” that keep us from joyful service. What leads us back to joyful service is God’s good message: “you are accepted”; “you are valued”; “you can do good things”; and “you will be blessed.” These messages believed and imbibed can lead us back to joyful service.

So, the message has to be the right message, but the right message won’t be received rightly unless the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. We need the Word and the Spirit. That’s why Paul thanks God that it did not come to them only with words but also with the Spirit and power!

Because it is the Word that transforms, people sometimes think, we just need to get the word out there, and that’s all that matters. This idea fails to notice that God not only uses the message, he uses messengers to transform people.

How the messenger lives and how the messenger conveys the message is very important. “You know how we lived among you for your sake” (1 Thess. 1:6). The Thessalonians’ conversion to joyful service was the work of people that they could imitate. They conformed themselves to the commandments of the message but also to the comportment of the messengers. “You became imitators of us” (1 Thess. 1:6). Paul says.

How we live and what we say matters in the work of transforming people. God uses the Word, and He uses His people who live out that Word to bring people to believe the Word. So, we need to ask, what am I teaching with my actions? What do I say about God by how I live? Do I communicate joyful service? Or, am I communicating angry grievances? The former brings about the righteousness of God; the latter does not.

The Effect of Joyful Service
When the Holy Spirit worked, it had effects. The Thessalonians changed. They who were followers of idols and the gods Aphrodite, Zeus, and Apollo gave them up to joyfully serve God and wait for Jesus to return from heaven. This meant more than a private decision. The worship of the gods was intertwined with their political, economic, and family life. It was a radical change.

This radical message was rooted in joy. They welcomed the message, but this was not a mere intellectual acceptance. It moved their hearts. “You welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:7). They welcomed this message with joy. It caused their hearts to rise up as they heard the good news about Jesus Christ.

Christianity has a negative message. It says that all are sinners and that God’s wrath is coming against all sin, the pride of the theologian as well as the perfidy of the thief. Christianity also has a Gospel, a positive message tat answers the negative one. We are delivered from the wrath to come by faith in Jesus Christ. Recently, I read again the Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 60. It asks: “How are you righteous before God?” It answers:

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, of never having kept any of them, and of still being inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without any merit of my own, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, and as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is accept this gift with a believing heart.

This is the beautiful message that can fill our hearts with joy in every situation.

Notice also this important point: they welcomed the message with joy in suffering. To enable us to live joyfully, we must have a foundation for joy that can last through suffering. The Gospel enables us to reinterpret our experiences of suffering in a way that preserves our joy. Even unbelievers can reinterpret suffering in this way to a limited degree, but we can do it in an ultimate way because Christ has experienced our sufferings and triumphed over them. Christ’s resurrection powerfully demonstrates that suffering is temporary but God’s love and power are forever for all His loved ones. The suffering is a refiner’s fire that brings out the pure gold of our faith more clearly.

So, they had joy. What did they do with it? They served. This joyful service means, first of all, that they served God Himself. In one sense, we all serve something. However, the true service that we are made for is service of the living God. We are not made to serve Aphrodite or romantic love, Athena or intellectual endeavors, Apollo or our talents, Zeus or our power, Bacchus or our pleasures. We are only properly aligned as human beings when we serve the living God.

Second, joyful service means serving God’s interests in the world. Joyful service means serving God in the everyday events of life. It means always and everywhere seeking to advance His kingdom and His interests in the world.

Third, joyful service means serving God’s people, His created people and His redeemed people. The Thessalonians served the people around them, and so their faith become known throughout the world. Our faith commitment is known by the love we have. It is always, “work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love” (1 Thess. 1:3).

God is recreating people to be the joyful servants He intended them to be.

Conclusion
All over the world, there are people like the Thessalonians, people who have left their previous way of life to serve God and wait for Jesus Christ. There are people like Michael. He was a Chinese student studying in Spearfish, SD, and I met him through a program connecting foreign students with local families. He had not grown up as a Christian but went to a church in South Korea. Through the work of his Pastor there, he came to welcome the message of Jesus Christ with the joy given through the Holy Spirit.

There are people like Charles Strohmer. He tried the American Dream and the New Age movement before the Holy Spirit took hold of him and brought him to Christ. You can read more about his transformation in the exciting book he wrote Odd Man Out.

There are people like me and many of you reading or hearing this. We do not know the time when we came to welcome the message with joy and enter into the joyful service of God, but for us and for Michael and Charles and all those like them, we sing with the church throughout the ages:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!

________

Photo by Fernando Hernandez on Unsplash