Sheep, Not Shepherds - May 11, 2014

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This Sunday’s Sermon was written by Pastor Mike Roehl and provided through “Ministry by Mail”. To read it online go to “Ministry by Mail” by clicking here. 

Your Enemy is Legion; Your Ally is One - Oct 17, 2010

This Sunday’s sermon was written by Pastor Mike Roehl and provided through “Ministry by Mail”. To read it online go to “Ministry by Mail” by clicking here.

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What's So Good About All the Same?

May God the Holy Spirit ever remain living and active in your heart, continually reminding you that you are a holy, sinless, child of God through faith in Jesus Christ and therefore an ambassador of that same Lord Jesus representing him to the world. Amen.

Fellow sinners—you who have been declared holy in Jesus Christ:

Have you ever had more or less the same supper two or three nights in a row? How did you react? In this I know that most of us are more than a little spoiled. Most citizens of third world countries would probably consider us to be rotten ingrates for even suggesting that eating leftovers for several nights in a row might be grounds for complaint. The point here is not that we are spoiled (which we probably all are), but that no matter how much we like any particular food our opinion of that food begins to wane rather quickly. Two nights in a row won’t usually do it, but after a week or two of eating nothing but one particular food—morning, noon, and night—most of us would probably not only start to grumble a bit, but that particular food would probably be stricken from the list of the top ten.
Now take this general idea one step further and imagine yourself eating nothing but manna and quail for 40 years. That means that anyone here who was born after 1968 would have eaten nothing other than manna and quail at every single meal over his entire lifetime—morning, noon, and night. Sound good to you?

In nearly every aspect of life, “always the same” is generally regarded as undesirable. How would you feel about every article of clothing exactly the same and exactly the same color? Every car...the same. Every house...identical. Every appliance, every day, every human personality, everything always and only exactly alike? Probably sounds horrible to you, doesn’t it? “Variety is the spice of life” and all that. Yet, today we are going to hear from God's Word about things that were and are all the same and how and why that sameness is good and desirable. The text in which we will find such truth is found in Paul’s great epistle to the Romans, the third chapter (Romans 3:21-25a 27-28 NKJV):

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness…Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
These are the words of our God, given to us through verbal inspiration by the Holy Spirit speaking through the apostles and prophets of old. Because these are God’s words we can and do have great confidence in them and in their ability to guide and direct us along holy paths. That our God would so fill and direct us we study these words with this prayer in our hearts: “Sanctify us through your truth, O Lord. Your Word is truth.” Amen.

Our text is one of those Bible jewels that stands out even in the midst of sublime perfection. If you can remember only one Bible reference to share on a moment’s notice with someone caught up in the mythology of work righteousness, this would be as good of a choice as any. It is one of those “Gospel in a paragraph” sections of Holy Scripture that not only lays out the truth of the Gospel with perfect clarity, it also reduces the error of work righteousness to a rather pathetic bit of fluff to which none but the diehard unbeliever would dare cling. With this introduction we take a closer look at these great words from the Holy Spirit through His servant Paul.

Since our text begins “But now…” there is obviously an implication or reference to something that came before. But now...what? What came before? What stands in opposition to that which exists now? The verses before our text tell us: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20).

You will recall that the general theme this morning has to do with sameness. These words begin to establish our theme. We are told that the “thing that came before” was the sameness of the Law. What does that mean? It means that when human beings are judged according to their keeping of the Law the exact same verdict is rendered in every single case. That verdict is, obviously, “Guilty.” The verse we just read could not speak more plainly: “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight.”

Note well that the Bible always speaks in universal terms when it comes to the Law and the breaking of the Law which is sin. So also here Paul lumps every single one of us together in one big mass of condemnation. When it comes to keeping the Law, or being judged by our keeping of the Law, every single one of us has failed miserably. No one could survive Judgment Day. In this we are all the same.

Here we obviously run into a bit of a problem in connection with our theme. Our theme asks the question: “What’s so good about all the same?” This verse tends to reinforce the position that there is little or nothing that’s good about all the same. We are all the same in that we have all broken God’s holy law. We are all the same in that not one human being will ever be able to earn heaven by doing good. We are all the same in that God would render the exact same verdict at every one of our trials: “Guilty!” So how or why could that sameness possibly be a good thing? How could there be any good at all in the fact that we are all equally and totally guilty before God?

Before we answer that, our text apparently wants to make absolutely certain that no one misses this point. This “mutually assured destruction” should not escape the notice of even the dullest or sleepiest among us. So Paul repeats this message of sameness in the bluntest of terms: “For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” [v.22b-23]

Are we getting the message yet? God looked down at sinful mankind—seeing every single human being as only God could—and He looked for some difference, anything at all really. He looked for something white and saw only blackness. He looked for something pure and saw only filth, something beautiful and saw only ugliness, something grand or noble and saw only depravity. Look carefully at that crowd and see it as God sees it. Examine the faces carefully until you come across one that is familiar for there you will find yourself. I am there. Your parents are there. Your spouse, children, and friends are all the same. God looked and everything He saw was the same and it was all bad, all sinful.

So what is so good about all the same when everything that God saw was always and only evil? Our text was actually setting up the answer by pointing out the equality and universality of our evil. Paul wanted to make absolutely certain that every single human being who heard or read these words understood his own depravity and condemnation because that is what forms the very basis for our shared good fortune. What in the world does that mean? Our text tells us that the very same group that shares in a common failure to keep the Law is the very group that is now declared not guilty by God. Remember the verse we just read? “For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That verse goes on to tell us that the exact same number of souls that shared in the failure to keep the Law also now shares in God’s pronouncement of sins forgiven. Our text says that all those who “sinned and fell short of the glory of God” are the very ones who are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” [v.24]

Now we begin to see what’s so good about all the same. The fact that we are all sinners means that every single one of us shares in the New Covenant that God has established with His Church. You and I can learn much from this simple truth. Ask yourself which individual is excluded from this promise? We here have been given God’s solemn declaration that as many as have sinned have now been justified in Jesus Christ. Are you a sinner? Then you are included.

Christianity is often condemned as exclusive and cold. What could possibly be more loving or more inviting and inclusive? Again, are you a sinner? Then know that God’s Word pronounces you justified in Jesus Christ. That means that your sins have all been forgiven.

Our text goes on to describe how such a thing could actually be possible: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness.” [v.24-25] The Devil would love to be able to point to something in this text that excludes you, something that would cause you to doubt that you too are included in God’s decree. That could well be why the Holy Spirit makes absolutely certain that the list is all-inclusive. No one is left out. No one is denied or rejected. In fact the only element to the whole equation that we human beings add is our own sinfulness. If you have sin then God’s plan includes you.

Contrast this certainty, this clarity, with the confusion, ambiguity, and contradiction that you see all around you. Here’s an example. About a year or so ago my wife and I received a tax refund check from the IRS. There was nothing unusual about that except that the return I submitted said that I owed taxes. There was no explanation, just a check. I held onto the check for several weeks assuming that I was not entitled to it. I waited for the notice telling me to return it. We finally deposited the check hoping that they had caught an error in our favor on the return we had submitted. Of course, the notice came the day after the deposit stating: A) We had made a mistake on our return and were entitled to the refund, B) The check that we got was a mistake, C) We had to return the un-cashed check immediately, D) We had to take no action as a result of the notice, and E) A clerical error had caused the problem and the delay in sending out the notice. Believe it or not I’m not making any of this up. If you can make heads or tails out of that official announcement I am still waiting for someone to explain it to me. I was entitled to the refund, but I had to return it, and I was to take no action!

By contrast, God’s plan, God’s official decision as outlined in our text leaves room for no doubt of any kind. That is what is so wonderful about “all the same.” It is precisely because we are all sinners that we are all included in God’s plan for forgiveness.
How is it then that not everyone is going to heaven? Our text also answers that question: “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.” [v.21-22]

Those who try to make their own payments for sin through their good works are, in effect, removing themselves from the pool of sinners. They reject Jesus Christ and the payment He made by attempting to make the payment themselves or by refusing to acknowledge that any payment is necessary. That is hardly what it means to be saved “through faith in Jesus Christ.” Faith in Jesus Christ means that you believe God’s promise concerning what Jesus did for us and that you trust his promise that Jesus paid also for your sins. Even this trust in Jesus is a gift given to us by God the Holy Spirit.

This brings us to yet another good thing about being “all the same”: There is not a single human being who has anything at all to boast about before God. If we had decided to believe in Jesus on our own, we could boast. If we had earned God’s love or forgiveness in any way, we could boast. If we were somehow better than anyone else, we could boast. Our text dismisses such nonsense in the clearest, simplest terms: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded.” [v.27] The salvation of any and every human being is from first to last a gift from our merciful God. We did not provide one single good thing to the plan.

What then is left to say? Just this: Look now with eyes of understanding and compassion to your fellow human beings. See every single one of them as your equal for God not only declared that we all shared a common, desperate need, He also said that His loving invitation extends to all equally. That is the simple message we are to carry to the world. We shared their condemnation, let us also share with them the message of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Amen.

—Pastor Michael J. Roehl

You Have Been Brought to a Good Place - May 18, 2008

God grant you the grace to comprehend and appreciate ever more fully the gifts and blessings of our Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Fellow Christians:

Have you ever experienced total contentment? Have you, in other words, ever experienced a situation where you felt that all was right with the world and that there was really no other place you would rather be than right where you are at that moment? Though probably unrealistic, it is nonetheless my prayer that each one of us would experience that tranquility and contentment each Sunday as we gather here to hear the Word of God and to offer Him our praise and worship. So also here and now let this be the only place you want to be at this moment, and may God so bless each one of us with the joy expressed long ago by the psalmist David, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD’” (Psalm 122:1).

Today, however, I want you to try to picture another such place in the secular realm—outside of church and the worship of our God. Formulate in your mind the sort of place where you would feel as happy and content as is humanly possible for a Christian living in a sinful world. The setting that you picture would naturally fill you with joy and delight—a bright and shining place, full of beauty, peace, and harmony.

Do you have such a place in your mind? It doesn’t even have to be a real place. You get to make it up if you wish. Got it? Now imagine that such a place actually exists but, search as you will, you simply cannot find it. Even worse, if you could somehow manage to find it you would be denied entrance.

Not such a great fantasy is it? What you quickly discover is that no matter how grand, how idyllic such a storybook fantasyland might be, it is actually worthless to you if you cannot gain entrance. Discovering such a place would, in fact, be worse than useless because you would forever be tormented by knowing that such a place exists, yet it all remains inaccessible to you. It is unattainable. Access is denied!

Such a story is certainly not the stuff fairy tales are made of. In fact it is a rather disappointing little adventure all around. Yet it is all still just a story until you transfer these simple truths into the spiritual realm, to our very lives, and to the events we celebrate on this day.

Today is Trinity Sunday. This is the Sunday of the Church Year which we set aside to study and reaffirm our understanding of and belief in the triune nature of our God—one God yet three persons. This is also the Sunday of the Church Year that some congregations set aside as Confirmation Sunday – the time when we celebrate the confirming of the Christian faith by our youth together with our own recommitment to the vows we took in our youth.

With that introduction we turn to our text which will not only verify the triune nature of our God, but it will also demonstrate how we have indeed, even now, been brought to that very good place. Our text is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans, the fifth chapter:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

So far the very words given to us by our Triune God. Reminding ourselves of the source of these words will surely make them all the more precious and worthy in our hearts and minds. That our God would bless us through the study of these His words, so we pray, “Sanctify us through Your truth, O Lord. Your Word is truth!” Amen.

Dear servants and friends of Jesus Christ, having first imagined the perfect place of peace and tranquility, I want you now to go to the opposite extreme. Have you, in other words, ever experienced a problem or frustration in your life so profound that it spoiled not only your whole day but several days, even weeks? These are often the times when everything seems “bad” to you somehow. You find yourself upset, grouchy, out of sorts, and you don’t even know for sure why that is. And then suddenly it dawns on you that your personal problems have spilled over into every other aspect of your life. One source of frustration or one bad relationship has made your whole life miserable. On the other hand, how wonderful life can suddenly become when that deep and troubling conflict is finally resolved. It's like the sun suddenly breaking through after countless cloudy days and your outlook on everything takes on a sudden optimism.

The fact is we were all naturally full of turmoil, bitterness, and pessimism because we all have, or had, a terrible conflict in our lives that tainted every other relationship, every other thought, every other emotion. Try as we might we could not, on our own, get to the bottom of this turmoil. We needed very specialized help. With that specialized help we have now come to realize that the one thing that was causing such great turmoil in our lives was our relationship with our Creator God. The Bible tells us that “your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). Because of this alienation from our Creator God there was and could be no true peace in our lives. Always something deep within us recognized our need to be reconciled to God, and yet we were powerless to bring it about. We had become God’s enemies and because of this, nothing in our lives seemed complete or thoroughly good. There was always something missing until we came to know our Savior.

Here is where we return to the magical place described above. This is where we all wanted to be. We wanted to stand once again in God’s good graces, in God’s glorious, blissful presence. As we heard in Isaiah, our sins had caused God to hide His face from us. Yet we longed to stand accepted in God’s presence once again. We tried all sorts of things to accomplish this reconciliation on our own. We tried work righteousness—the futile attempt to make ourselves lovable to God by doing whatever we had convinced ourselves would please Him. We tried denial—refusing to admit that anything was really wrong. We tried to make up a god who would accept us “just as we are.” We tried it all and in the end nothing worked. When we looked at ourselves and our lives honestly we had to admit that we were not where we wanted to be, and by ourselves there was no way for us to get where we wanted to be. There was simply no way for us to return to the presence of our Holy God.

It is then that God the Father provided us with an entrance. That door is Jesus Christ. He Himself once said, “I am the gate (door); whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture” (John 10:9). We wanted to stand in God’s grace. Our text tells us that it is only through Jesus Christ that this can be done: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace…” [vv.1b-2]

Oh, to what a blissful place we have been led! Millions upon millions have died trying to find the door to this good place that we now occupy only to know utter and eternal failure in the end. You and I have been told that there is only one door. What is more, we have been told exactly where that one door is to be found. Jesus is our access to God the Father.

How has He done this? That which separated us from our God was our own sin. That was the obstacle that barred our entrance. But now our text tells us that “we have been justified through faith.” [v.1a] To be justified means to be declared “not guilty” by God. It means that our sins have been removed by God because he placed the punishment for those sins upon His own Son. Our text says that it is “through Jesus” that “we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” [vv.1-2] Access could not be gained by trying to do good. We couldn’t talk our way in, bribe our way in, charm our way in. The door was Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ Heaven would be of no value whatsoever to us sinners. The most beautiful paradise is useless if it has no entrance through which a human being can enter. So too heaven is of no value to us if we are denied entrance.

Without question then we see the need for both God—the Father and for God—the Son. Both, of course, have infinite value for God the Father created and provides for us, and God the Son saved us by erasing our sin debt. Yet isn’t it interesting that neither has value to us personally without the other? Without God the Father we have no existence. Without Jesus Christ we remain God’s enemies and thus could never enter eternal paradise with the Father. This we know and believe, but what of the Third Person of the Trinity? What of God the Holy Spirit?

To introduce the work and value of the Holy Spirit think of the last time you locked yourself out of your car or house—frustrating, isn’t it? What’s really frustrating is when you lock yourself out of your car and it’s really nasty outside. Through the glass you can see the keys dangling from the ignition only inches away inside the car where you want to be—inside where it is warm and safe. The truth of the matter is that those keys might just as well be Botswana for all the good they do you. You are outside where it is cold, raining, and miserable. You know exactly where the door is, but you can’t open it. The cozy dry interior of your car is useless to you without the key or someone to open the door for you.

This is where the third person of the Trinity comes in. The Holy Spirit is the one who alone can open the door to us from the inside. It is only through the Holy Spirit that we have been brought to saving faith. It is only through the Holy Spirit that we have been born again of water and of the Spirit. Our text puts it this way: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” [v. 5] Heaven itself would be worthless to us if not for the Holy Spirit. No matter how hard we struggled, no matter how fervently we wished for Heaven and to be living in the presence of God the Father, entrance would be denied us if not for the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us to saving faith in Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who keeps us in that faith. It is the Holy Spirit who thereby opened the door to heaven.

Can you now see just how destructive it is to downplay or to deny the triune nature of our God or any Person of that triune God? Our God is of no comfort or value to us without all three persons. The Father created us and we long to live forever in His presence. The Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who has removed the great sin barrier and reconciled us to the Father. The Holy Spirit opens the door to Paradise by bringing us to faith.

Praise God that our full and complete Triune God has worked completely in you! That is why Paul in our text says “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” [v.2] Hope should be thought of as “confident expectation.” With confidence we now look forward to Judgment Day because we even now have eternal life within us. We even now are in that good place. Jesus told us that “...he that lives and believes in Me shall never die!” (John 11:26). Though we do not now enjoy Heaven, we are at this very moment standing in God’s presence with our sins forgiven by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

This represents the heart and soul not only of Trinity Sunday, but also of Confirmation Sunday for it is the beating heart of the Christian faith. These things you parents have taught to your children. Well done! But see in the confirmands not your marks upon them but God’s, see them not as the proud product of your labors, but as the handiwork of our Triune God. Today we honor our God for the grace shown to our children, for it is our God who has brought both them and us to the good place where both we and they now stand holy and righteous in the sight of their God. Having brought us to this good place, may that same God continue to preserve both them and us. Amen.

—Pastor Michael J. Roehl

(Sermon written by Pastor Michael Roehl and provided through ”Ministry by Mail”. For more “Ministry by Mail” sermons, go to http://lutheransermons.org)

What Pentecost Is and What It Is Not - May 11, 2008

Grace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you from God our Father and Creator, from our Lord Jesus Christ, and from the Comforter, God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Fellow Bondservants of the Triune God:

Each week an offering is collected during the worship service to be used in the work of the Church. Each week that offering is counted by volunteers from the congregation. Each week the offering is deposited by the Church Council member entrusted with that task, and each week a deposit slip from that transaction is passed along to the Church Treasurer. Understanding therefore the system that is in place, answer this question: What is the function or value of the deposit slip that is presented each week to the Treasurer, especially in relation to the money it represents?

The answer is that the deposit slip really only has value in the area of information or verification. You can’t buy anything with a deposit slip, yet that same slip might verify that a small fortune has been deposited into your account.

Why in the world, you are probably wondering, would we be talking about deposit slips on Pentecost Sunday? Deposit slips, believe it or not, can teach us something about Pentecost. How so? When Christians today hear mention of Pentecost, many conjure up images of ecstatic utterances known today as “speaking in tongues.” In fact Pentecost itself has been diminished in the minds of countless Christians to images of strange and somewhat frightening outbursts of emotional religious fervor.

What we are then left with is a situation where the outward manifestation or proof of Pentecost has been promoted to the point that it has almost become the event itself. The Bible teaches us, however, that Pentecost is not all about tongues, or faith healings, or handling snakes, or any such thing. Pentecost is about the personal, indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out upon the New Testament Christian Church on this day.

Here is where deposit slips come into play. Tongues are to Pentecost what deposit slips are to money in the bank. In other words, just as deposit slips are nowhere near as important as the funds they verify, so too the gift of tongues was intended as the outward verification that the incalculable gift of the Holy Spirit had truly been “deposited” into Christian hearts on the Day of Pentecost. How foolish then to focus upon (and assign top billing to) the deposit slip (tongues) rather than to the infinitely more valuable commodity it verifies (strength of faith, wisdom, and insight).

With this understanding we begin our study of Pentecost–both what it is and what it is not. Our text for this Pentecost Sunday is found in the New Testament book of Acts, the second chapter:

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“³⁷Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

³⁸Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

⁴⁰And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” ⁴¹Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. ⁴²And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”(Acts 2:37-42 NKJV)

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So far the very words of God the Holy Spirit. This is, of course, the same Holy Spirit who gave those special gifts to the Church on the first Pentecost, and who is celebrated among us today. With true reverence for these words of God we pray, “Sanctify us through Your Truth, O Lord. Your Word is truth!” Amen.

Dear Fellow Christians, this is the Sunday we dedicate to God the Holy Spirit, the third—and all too often neglected—person of the Trinity. This is Pentecost Sunday. It may sound strange, but Pentecost has always been one of those “hard to get a good handle on” church holidays. Many holidays are easy for us to understand. Christmas, for example, is easy: Jesus was born – God was made man. Good Friday and Easter are simple: Jesus died for my sins so that I don't have to die, and He rose again as proof that His payment was and is sufficient in the eyes of God the Father. Ascension is a bit more difficult, but we can see that event as the moment when Jesus returned to the bliss and glory of heaven and look forward to the day when He will come again in much the same way to gather His children and carry us to the heavenly mansions.

But what about Pentecost? How should we feel? What is it all about? How should we thank God for Pentecost? The interesting thing is that the original New Testament Pentecost is not at all difficult to understand. It is not difficult to see what God did for the Church on that particular occasion. Our confusion comes as a result of what man has said and written about Pentecost since that time. Man has turned Pentecost into something that it is not, or at least something that is less than what it really is and therein lies the confusion. The first thing we will note is that the most common perversions of this day were probably created, at least in part, by spiritual laziness.

In a society that lives and breathes for instant gratification in everything from food to the purchase of a car or home, it should not surprise us that the craving for “instant” has crept into the spiritual. Understand this well. There is only one source through which all of the mysteries of God are learned—the Bible. There is no shortcut. God works not directly from Heaven to man, but has chosen to work through “means.” Think of the water that comes out of your faucets. That water doesn’t go directly from the well or reservoir into your cook pot. The “means” it takes to get the water from the ground to your kettle is a pipe. The Holy Spirit has chosen to work through means instead of working directly. The “pipe” or means through which He works is the Gospel in Word and in Sacrament. That is why the Bible says, “Faith comes through hearing the message” of Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 10:17). That is also why Peter in our text said, “Repent and be baptized...for the forgiveness of sins…” [v.38] God has chosen not to work directly from Heaven in man. He has chosen to work through the Gospel.

The problem with the modern misconception of Pentecost is that mankind wants to believe that it is some sort of shortcut to spiritual knowledge and growth—a notion that is nonsense born of pure spiritual laziness. The reasoning seems to be that since the first Apostles learned a foreign language without first studying it, therefore we can even today obtain an instant grasp of the Word of God directly from the Holy Spirit. We should therefore never have to go through the time-consuming process of studying the Bible. The simple fact is that’s not the way it works. Satan, however, loves this sort of reasoning. What more fertile grounds for the corruption of God’s Word can you imagine than several generations of spiritual leaders who have never really studied the Word? How the Devil must fairly quiver in anticipation whenever he hears that men are relying not on the Word of God, but on their “personal inner light” to guide their understanding. How many churches are even now paying the price for allowing themselves to be guided by an “inner light” which they mistakenly believe to be God the Holy Spirit working in them?

Our text for this morning reminds us that Pentecost was indeed given to the Church for a reason. That reason was not to encourage spiritual laziness, but to give incredible gifts to God’s Church. Today’s Old Testament lesson (Genesis 11:1-9) provided the background for the need of the special gift of languages given to the Apostles on the first New Testament Pentecost. God had to confuse the speech of the people at the Tower of Babel so that they would obey his command to disperse and fill the earth. At the first New Testament Pentecost, God gave to His Church the means to instantly overcome this obstacle by blessing the apostles with the ability to speak those different languages instantly. Unfortunately, as we noted earlier, mankind has since elevated this one small aspect of that first New Testament Pentecost into superstar status.

This gift of languages, or tongues, was in fact a relatively small part of the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was both a visible proof and a means to communicate. In fact only when the apostles started to communicate were the real gifts of Pentecost revealed to mankind. Remember the nagging idea that the Jews (including the apostles themselves) could not get out of their heads? They clung tenaciously to the idea that the Messiah was to be an earthly ruler. Even after Jesus had re-educated His men for three years, even after he had told them countless times that His kingdom is not of this world, even though He had allowed Himself to be killed and then to rise again, still what was the very last question they asked him before His resurrection? “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Note too that the disciples were timid and fearful prior to Pentecost. They spent their days locked away in seclusion.

And then came Pentecost—the gift of the promised Holy Spirit. The proof that something was different was the speaking in different languages. The far greater gifts, though not so obvious, were also very evident. First of all the disciples, from this point on, never again appeared uncertain or unclear about the Gospel. Secondly, they no longer hid in fear. Finally, these first missionaries no longer hoarded the Word of Truth but freely and boldly shared it with a dying world.

How foolish and superficial it is to dwell on the speaking in different languages to the exclusion of the far greater wonders that were worked by God the Holy Spirit on that day. How magnificently, for example, the Apostle Peter divided Law and Gospel in his sermon. This was a direct manifestation of the greatest gifts given at Pentecost. First he spoke pure Law to his audience, pointing out and then condemning their sins. The text says simply and yet profoundly, “They were cut to the heart.” [v.37] What joy to read that those men, through the Word spoken by Peter, gave up on themselves and stood crushed by the weight of their sinfulness. Only then did those sinners speak the words that every witnessing child of God longs to hear: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” [v.37] The Law had done its job. It was time for the Gospel.

What happened next? Peter masterfully laid aside the Law and pointed those crushed sinners to the good news of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. The people had asked what they could do. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit’s gift of spiritual wisdom, informed them that they could not do anything. “Repent and be baptized,” [v.38] he told them. The doing would not come from man but from God the Holy Spirit who would work faith through the Gospel, whether in the spoken Word or in the Sacrament of Baptism. This is not Law (man working or doing) but pure Gospel (God working, God doing.) What pure sweet joy this Gospel message must have produced in these men and women—those who could well have been part of the very crowd that had called for the crucifixion of the Son of God. The Man they had crucified had Himself died to pay for their sins.

Here we see the true gifts of Pentecost. Here we stand as witness to the Holy Ghost living and working in man. Here we find the Spirit of God where He has promised to be found, fulfilling the promises made by the Savior before His resurrection. The speaking in different languages converted no one. In fact, it confused those who heard causing some to suspect that alcohol was at work at nine in the morning—hardly the stuff that mass conversions are made of. But the Word, the powerful message of Law and Gospel that Peter spoke with the wisdom and confidence of Pentecost, that did have a powerful effect—then and now.

Peter’s own inspired words bear out the truth that this was the greatest gift of Pentecost. He said, “Repent and be baptized.” The purpose for being baptized? “…for the forgiveness of your sins." God the Holy Spirit here promises to work faith through the Means of Grace in Baptism. He goes on, “And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” [v.38] Would everyone who heard Peter speak in tongues? No. Yet everyone, according to Peter, would most certainly receive “the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That great gift then must be something other than the speaking in tongues. By these words we can know that the greatest gift was and is the wisdom and insight that is ours through the Holy Spirit working in us through the Means of Grace.

Dear Christians, on this day we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Thank God in particular for the greatest of His gifts that day —the faith, wisdom and understanding to receive the truth of God's Word, especially the Gospel message of salvation in Christ Jesus. Pentecost does not offer us any kind of direct, unstudied revelation from God the Holy Spirit. Do not allow Satan or the world to mislead you into chasing that which is not, to the abandonment of that which truly is. Abandon the quick fixes and shortcuts and turn daily to the Word. Let that life-giving Word be the true joy and delight of your heart from this day forward. Live and breathe that Word of God day by day for in that Word the Holy Spirit has promised to meet with you and to shower you with gifts whose true worth man is not able to calculate.

Grant to us, Lord, the true gifts of Pentecost. Amen.

—Pastor Michael Roehl

(Sermon written by Pastor Michael Roehl and provided through ”Ministry by Mail”. For more “Ministry by Mail” sermons, go to http://lutheransermons.org)

God’s Gift of Illumination - Feb 3, 2008

Grace, mercy and peace be yours in the certain knowledge that Jesus Christ exists right this moment in Heaven with all of the glory witnessed by the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. He is forever our glorified and ascended Savior. One day we will see Him as he is, and live forever in his holy presence. God preserve us all until that great day. Amen.

Dear Fellow Christians:

Cyrus and the whole vast Persian army were camped outside the walls, but Belshazzar felt secure within the confines of mighty Babylon. To ridicule the would-be attackers he called a feast and brazenly ignored the army camped without. Starvation was the greatest enemy of a city under siege so for Belshazzar to declare a feast in the face of a siege was an uniquely boastful taunt.

His great walls (there were both inner and outer walls) were over 130 feet thick and impossibly high—taller than could be scaled by any enemy. They enclosed a city of some 170-200 square miles through which flowed the Euphrates River. With fortifications like this, together with an unending water and food supply, a handful of defenders could hold off an entire army. And so Belshazzar and the rest of the lords and nobles celebrated. They trusted their bricks.

But the handwriting, quite literally, was on the wall. In fact it is here that the expression first began, for on this fateful night Belshazzar saw a hand writing on his wall. The words were from God and conveyed doom to Belshazzar—his reign was about to end. The message, you may recall, was interpreted by Daniel: “And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:25-
28).

Unknown to Belshazzar, or at least of little consequence to him, Cyrus the Persian was busy diverting the Euphrates River (so certain historians and archaeologists believe) into those imposing walls, dissolving the bricks. Belshazzar’s security turned to mud. That very night the entire Persian army marched into the city and captured it intact, killing Belshazzar.

As Belshazzar ignored Cyrus just before the end, so today we toy with sin. We are well aware that it is “out there,” but we feel safe and secure inside the walls of our faith. Feeling fairly invincible, we taunt sin, flirt with it, or ignore it. This is a most dangerous game we play. We imagine that the Devil will never breech the walls of our faith, just as Belshazzar believed Cyrus was powerless against the massive walls of mighty Babylon. How ironic that the very walls that Belshazzar thought would save him, served instead to insulate him from reality. He could not see the Persian army from his palace, so the threat became less real.

God forbid that we fall into such foolishness. The Holy Spirit did not create saving faith in our hearts so that we might ignore the sin that continually assaults us. Faith is the wall from which we continue to do battle with the Devil and his minions and against the sins that tempt us. The world around is blind to the sin that possesses it. Let it not be so with us, for the light of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus has not only been revealed to us, it has also served to awaken our hearts and minds to the dangers all around us. In this, and in so many other ways, our merciful Father has provided us with sublime illumination. So we read in our text for this morning, found in the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the fourth chapter:

“2But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:2-6 NKJV).

So far the very words of Almighty God. With reverence and awe, and in complete trust that these are indeed the Words of God, so we pray, “Sanctify us through Your Truth, O Lord. Your Word is truth!” Amen.

The opening verse of the text denounces “handling the Word of God deceitfully.” [v.2] What does this mean to “handle deceitfully”? The most obvious offense is the manipulation of Scripture to make it say what God never intended it to say. We obviously condemn such a practice. Yet it is also true that a great deal of all Bible study done today (perhaps even a majority of all Bible study) has as its goal the proving of a man’s opinion about God’s Word, rather than the discovery and establishment of God’s Word itself. Understand that the two may be identical (what a man believes might be in harmony with what God actually says), but this is indeed a backward and dangerous way to approach God’s Word.

Why then do we study Scripture in that way? Circumstances at times dictate that we do so. It begins when someone challenges this or that doctrinal position of Holy Scripture. How do we defend what we teach? Obviously, we want to establish all truth with passages from the Bible. Therefore, we ransack our Bibles to find passages to prove that what we teach is correct. This kind of study is, of course, necessary and good, but it can also be very dangerous. This is especially true when we do little of the other kind of Bible study—when we spend little or no time simply reading and studying the Scriptures in an effort to hear and learn what they say (rather than what we hope or believe they say).

The real problem is that when we study the Scriptures in an effort to prove what we already believe to be right, we tend to ignore passages that seem to disagree with what we are trying to prove. We call them “dark” or “unclear” and focus instead on those that seem to support our position. This tendency can easily deteriorate into “handling the Word of God deceitfully” as it is named in our text. It results in robbing God’s Word of its position of final authority, and instead sets man up as the ultimate judge. Carried to its extreme, this is just one more way that mankind can serve to veil the Gospel, and our text is all about the unveiling of the Gospel. It is about letting the light of Jesus Christ—the light of truth and of His glory—shine in all that we say and do.

Rather than “handle the Word of God deceitfully,” Paul talked about “manifesting (making known) the truth” and “commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” [v.2] This is precisely what each one of us has been called to do. We have been called by Almighty God to make known, or “unveil” the Gospel to a world born blind. It is, therefore, the Gospel itself that must be unveiled.

It is only the Holy Spirit who can perform the miracle of truly enlightening someone. Only the Holy Spirit can call someone to faith through the Gospel, but that same Holy Spirit works through means. You will recall that the “means of Grace” is the Gospel, transmitted to human beings in Word and in Sacrament. Here we find a great irony. It is the Gospel alone that can lead a man to believe the Gospel. This is a bit like the bank requiring that you have money before they will give you a loan; or like needing your car keys to unlock the door so that you can retrieve your car keys from the ignition. Look again at what our text said, “But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” [vv.3-4] Our text pictures our condition without Jesus Christ as desperately impossible. We could not see the only thing that could make us see.

How foolish must man look in God’s eyes when we imagine that we had something to do with opening our own eyes or “accepting the Gospel.” The Gospel had to be unveiled for us by the Holy Spirit or we would have remained forever blind to it—damned to Hell for an eternity. This is the truth taught by our text with the words, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” [v.6] Here is the first message of our text: The Gospel had to be unveiled for us or we would have remained forever blind.

But now our text holds other insights for us. That same light of the Gospel, once it has revealed the Lord Jesus to us and brought us to saving faith in Him, also reveals to us a whole world of truth and light. It is, in a sense, the spiritual equivalent of learning to read. In much the same way that learning to read will open a whole new world to a human being, so too the Christian’s rebirth by the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to God’s truth. Even unbelievers understand part of this concept. What the secular world will never appreciate is the depth of meaning, understanding, and truth that is illuminated for us by the light of Jesus Christ shining in our hearts. They will neither understand nor accept the fact that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7).

Have you ever looked up at a cloud and recognized some sort of a shape. Or, have you seen a face or image in the wood grain pattern of a door? Someone else might look for a very long time at the same thing and never see what you see. The more insistent you are that it is there, the more certain they will become that there is something seriously wrong with you. So too the Bible tells us clearly that “natural man cannot comprehend the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Unconverted man will look right at these truths, just can’t see them. Christians, on the other hand, see so many things so clearly, and find it hard to believe that others cannot. Our text describes this illumination in verse 6: “God…has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Do not allow your Christian humility to overstep its bounds. It is not a virtue to deny that what God has said is indeed true. It is neither prideful nor sinful to acknowledge the gift of understanding and wisdom that God has given to you as His child. God has given you the gift of truth and wisdom in Jesus Christ—a rare and precious gift that we dare never take lightly.

What then can we now see so clearly that the world cannot? Perhaps a better question would be, “What can’t the Christian now see more clearly?” We may not understand politics or finances or military strategy as do the wise of this world, but we can, by God’s grace, understand the relative unimportance of all things temporal when compared to all things eternal. We may not be able to recite the emperors of the Roman Empire or write a volume on world history, but we do understand that all history is in reality His Story—the true account of how God has arranged the events of this world to allow for the birth, life, and death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Only the child of God can truly understand what it means that Jesus was not defeated by death, but triumphed over death by the cross. Only the child of God can understand such things as why certain actions are wrong and others right; why global cooling, global warming, and the overall fate of the cosmos rest in the hands of a much higher power than man; why the institution of marriage is not man’s to tamper with; and why simple morality is established and changeless.

Yet all of these things pale in comparison to the greatest illumination that is ours: the ability to see our Lord Jesus for what He truly is—our glorified and risen Savior!

It is only the eyes of faith that allow you to see Jesus standing on the Mount of Transfiguration and to recognize that He exists right now with that same glory. In Jesus Christ you now see the true and only God as your dear friend—a friend that loved you so much that He willingly gave His life to spare you from an eternity in Hell. The Holy Spirit has opened your eyes to the humbling revelation that every single one of your sins has been forgiven by God, the Father—the whole ugly mess having been carried by Jesus Christ to the cross of Calvary.

These are the facts that now stand as sure and certain in your heart and in your mind. Every single one is a gift of illumination from God, the Holy Spirit. On this Transfiguration Sunday (a day when we celebrate light and illumination) thank God for the precious light that illuminates your world, and continue, day by day, to walk in that holy light—the clean, bright truth of God’s holy will. Amen.

—Pastor Michael J. Roehl