God Sees Sinners in Black and White - Mar 9, 2008

May the undeserved love which comes from God be yours. May your hearts be filled with the peace which comes through Christ Jesus our Savior.

During Martin Luther’s time the Catholic Church falsely taught that Christ’s sacrifice was not enough to cover over all the sins of a person. The Catholic Church taught that to get rid of the sins Christ’s sacrifice didn’t cover, one must also to do specific acts of penance. If a believer didn’t get all their make-up work done before they died, then they had to go to a place called “purgatory” where their remaining sins were taken away through personal suffering.

The Catholic Encyclopedia describes purgatory as,

“…an intermediate state in which the departed souls can atone for unforgiven sins before receiving their final reward” (The Catholic Encyclopedia).

“…their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments…” (The Catholic Encyclopedia).

We might explain this false thinking with colors: God sees unbelieving sinners in black. God sees really good Christians in white. God sees not so good Christians in grey.

This thinking is thoroughly un-Biblical and therefore false. God does not see anybody as, “somewhat forgiven”. The innocent suffering of God’s own Son on the cross of Calvary completely paid the debt of all sinners. Those who trust in Jesus are dressed in the white of full forgiveness. Those who refuse Christ through unbelief remain dressed in the blackness of their own sins. There is no grey. There is no purgatory.

Today’s reading from God’s Word makes it very clear that God see sinners in black and white.

The prophet Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus was born. During Isaiah’s lifetime, God destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel because of their unbelief. They had expressed this unbelief through their continual idol worship.

Through His prophet Isaiah, God spoke a message of warning to the southern Kingdom of Judah. Their sinful behavior and faithless worship in God’s Temple had set them on the same path to God’s judgment. Today we read God’s warning to the people of Judah as recorded in…

Isaiah 1:10-20 (NIV)

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD,

you rulers of Sodom;

listen to the law of our God,

you people of Gomorrah!

¹¹ “The multitude of your sacrifices—

what are they to me?” says the LORD.

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,

of rams and the fat of fattened animals;

I have no pleasure

in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

¹² When you come to appear before me,

who has asked this of you,

this trampling of my courts?

¹³ Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

¹⁴ Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts

my soul hates.

They have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even if you offer many prayers,

I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood;

¹⁶ wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds

out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,

¹⁷ learn to do right!

Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow.

¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,”

says the LORD.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the best from the land;

²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

▬

In the first five verses of our reading, God clearly describes His anger over the faithless worship that was going on in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The whole tone of this section is grim and black.

God begins His rebuke by addressing the people of Judah as, “you rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah”. Sodom and Gomorrah were cities that were utterly destroyed because they turned away from God and embraced their own sins.

The people of Judah had also turned away from God. Though they still brought sacrifices to God’s Temple, they had abandoned true worship. Their hearts were not involved as they went through the motions of their cold religion.

When asked where God pleasing worship takes place, Jesus responded by saying,

“…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24 NIV).

Without faith it is impossible to worship God, even if we were to bring all the money of the world as an offering. The people of Judah were certainly spending plenty of cash on their worship. They were sacrificing lots of animals on God’s altar. They were burning incense and holding festivals at God’s Temple. But all these were meaningless to God because they were not accompanied by a simple trust in God.

Because their worship was an empty shell, God says that His inmost being, His very soul, HATED their worship. That’s some striking and frightening communication from God! But what is more unsettling is how God talks about the festivals and celebrations that He had commanded.

All the worship events that the people of Judah were observing had originally been commanded by God. They were meant as times and events through which God could speak to His people and then hear their heartfelt response to Him. But God says that all these festivals had become a burden which He was tired of bearing. The false worship of Judah had worn God out. He was saddened by their fake worship.

Because they had closed their ears to His voice, God told them that He would now close His ears to their voices. As long as their folded hands remained full of the blood of their unrepentant sins, their prayers would remain unheard by God Almighty.

This is a timeless warning from God. In the book of Revelation, Jesus extended this same warning to the Christians worshipping in first century Ephesus. Jesus said,

“…You have forsaken your first love. ⁵Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Revelation 2:4-5 NIV).

Jesus was warning the Ephesian Christians not to stray away from the core of Bible teaching: Jesus is our Savior from sin. As Christians that is our first love. As the Ephesian Christians turned away from this Good News, their lives would show it, and God would eventually take away their church.

This warning still stand for us today. Look around at the churches of our time. So many churches that call themselves “Christian” either deny the Gospel of Christ or at least put the church’s focus on something other than sins forgiven through Christ.

The largest “Lutheran” church in this country, the ELCA, openly denies clear teachings of Scripture like the virgin birth. They also deny that Jesus rose from the dead. Where Christ is denied, worship is worthless, and sinners cannot truly be comforted. Retaining the title, “Lutheran” or even “Christian” does not guarantee faithfulness to our Savior’s saving message.

May the Holy Spirit keep the Good News of sins forgiven through Christ as the central gem in the crown of this church. And may our worship NEVER be a burden to God, but always the joyful song of His redeemed people.

▬

God did not send Isaiah only to preach a black message of condemnation to the people of Judah. In verses 16-18 of our text, God directs the people of Judah to turn away from their sins, so they might receive God’s forgiveness.

God told them,

“¹⁶ wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds

out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,

¹⁷ learn to do right!

Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow.

¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,”

says the LORD.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:16-18 NIV).

When I was in sixth grade, I used to clown around in class. When my teacher, Mrs. O’Donnell, would yell at me I’d respond with a quick, “Sooorry.” She would shoot back, “If you were really sorry, you wouldn’t do it.” In a way, she was right. True sorry-ness is followed with evidence of repentance.

John the baptizer told the Pharisees,

“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance...”(Luke 3:8 NIV).

When God told the people of Judah to “Stop doing wrong” and “learn to do right”, He was pointing them to the fruits of true repentance. He was telling them to stop embracing their sins and prove their sorriness by embracing the good things that God commanded. Things like seeking justice, encouraging people who were being oppressed, defending the needy. If the people of Judah repented of their sins, these good actions would serve as an outward confession of their inward repentance.

God pointed the people of Judah to repentance because true repentance is followed by full forgiveness.

In the book of First John it is written,

“…the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9 NIV).

Through the suffering and death of God’s Son, the sins of the repentant are covered over with the pure white of Christ’s righteousness. No longer does God see the black of faithless worship. No longer does God see the red of sin staining our hands. Through Christ, God sees us in white.

Did you know that it snowed on Mt. Calvary when Jesus was crucified? In drawings and paintings that help us visualize our Lord’s crucifixion we see dark clouds and flashes of lightning, but seldom do we see precipitation of any kind, especially not snow. And truth be told, none of the Gospel writers record anything about snow.

But that doesn’t change the fact that with every twinge of pain in Christ’s body there came down another flake of pure, white snow. It was a snowstorm, not just a flurry. We might even call it a blizzard. For when Jesus had felt all the pains of body and soul that our sins had earned, there over the blood red field of the world’s sinfulness lay a thick blanket of white. This snowy blanket of Christ’s suffering covered all the misspoken words and misshapen deeds that mankind had ever created. By the time the storm had subsided the snow was so deep, that not even the pudgy shapes of those evil things could be seen from above. All was smooth, and white, and pure, and new.

Perhaps you feel a reoccurring twinge of regret over some foolish word you once spoke. Perhaps you are saddened by some hurtful thing you once did. Remember the snow of Mt. Calvary. Even the outline of that sin in gone, buried in the avalanche of Christ’s suffering, covered over by the blanket of His righteousness.

“Come now, let us reason together,”

says the LORD.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;” (Isaiah 1:18 NIV).

And this gift is not only meant for us, it is also meant to be applied by us, to others.

Perhaps you have a hard time forgiving the foolish words directed your way by someone else. Perhaps you can’t seem to forget some hurtful thing someone else has done to you. Remember the snow of Mt. Calvary. To God, even the outline of those sins is gone, buried in the avalanche of Christ’s suffering, covered over by the blanket of His righteousness.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV).

▬

In the final words of our text, God says to the people of Judah,

“¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the best from the land;

²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 1:19-20 NIV)

With these words God made it abundantly clear to the people of Judah that He sees sinners in black and white. There were only two paths from their faithless worship. They could refuse God’s loving offer to cover over their sins, or they could turn around in repentance to feel the warm embrace of the forgiving God.

“That’s the way it is”, said the mouth of the LORD. And that’s the way it is today. Black and white. There is no grey of purgatory. There is no grey of partly forgiven. All is white in the Kingdom of Christ our Lord. Therefore, all thanks be to God for leading us out of the blackness of unbelief and covering over our sins with the white of full forgiveness in Christ.

Amen.

The Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

-Pastor Caleb Schaller

The Word of Fulfillment - March 5, 2008

- The Seven Words From the Cross -

THE WORD OF FULFILLMENT

John 19:28-29

Grace and Lenten peace be multiplied unto you in the knowledge of our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for this fifth of our midweek Lenten meditations comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 19, verses 28 and 29, as follows:

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So far our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Who perfectly fulfilled all that the prophets spoke concerning our salvation, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

One of the marvels of modern medicine is the ability to quickly re-hydrate the human body. When you come to the hospital with the flu or pneumonia, or with an injury, one of the first things they do is hook you up to an IV. Since our bodies are 2/3 liquid, having proper hydration is directly related to how we feel and how well we heal. Physiologists say that when you lose 2% of your body's water supply, your energy will decrease by 20%. Lose 10% of your body's water and you will be too weak to walk. I can't say how accurate those numbers are. I can say that, from visiting people in the hospital, the visible results of re-hydration are incredible, almost miraculous.

Tonight we consider the fifth word of Jesus from the cross. It's only one word in the Greek. You get the impression that it was audible only to those who were standing close-by. Of all the incredible physical pain that Jesus had endured, this word points us to what was perhaps the most agonizing of all. Yet even in this brief word, there is hope and comfort as well for us Christians. Tonight we listen to another of our Savior's Words from the Cross - this one the very significant

Word of Fulfillment:

"I THIRST"

There's something unique and unexpected about this fifth word from the cross - I wonder if you noticed. This is the first time in the whole grinding ordeal that Jesus mentions anything about physical discomfort. That, in itself, is amazing. The last liquid that crossed His lips was almost 18 hours earlier in the Upper Room. Then came the Garden of Gethsemane, where He lost precious liquid while engaged in prayer - you remember that His sweat was described as being "…as it were, great drops of blood." For hours, from the time of His arrest on Maundy Thursday evening until Pilate sentenced Him on Friday morning, Jesus has been on His feet. He had been beaten. A crown of thorns had been pressed into His scalp. With blood running down His face and streaming from His lacerated back, Jesus struggled beneath His cross along the road to Calvary and finally collapsed in exhaustion. For six agonizing hours, He hung on the cross, with wounds in hands and feet. With every drop of blood that fell, He became more and more dehydrated., and terrible thirst added to His torments It would seem to us only natural that Jesus would utter the plaintive statement, "I thirst."

Was Christ was finally thinking of His own needs on the cross? After praying, "Father forgive them," after saying, "Woman behold your son," after assuring the thief, "Today you shall be with me in Paradise," is Jesus finally thinking of Himself. It would certainly be understandable if He were. But there is much more to this statement than meets the eye.

The apostle John is the only evangelist to record this fifth word. He may have been the only one close enough to hear it. But notice the connection John makes: After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" So in the first place, this passage tells us something about Who Jesus is. By the way, the word "knowing" here is interesting. It's not the word that means to know by experience or to come to know something by research and study. This is the word that means to know intuitively or innately -- to have the facts already logged within one's memory, and then be able to call them instantly to mind. What Jesus knew instinctively was that every Old Testament prophecy up to this point had been fulfilled. Everything that was supposed to happen had happened. There was only one Scripture left to be fulfilled before He shouted, It is finished -- his expression of thirst.

By fulfilling every Scriptural prophesy of the coming Christ, Jesus proved beyond any doubt that He was the Christ. The fulfillment of prophesy proved that He was the promised Messiah, true God and the Savior of the world. Consider: there are 332 specific prophesies about the Messiah in the Old Testament. What do you think the chances are of the events of Jesus' life coinciding with all of them, just by accident? Well, if you like statistics, one writer calculated that the odds of a random human being fulfilling even eight of those prophecies would be about 1 in 10 to the 17th power (that's a 1 with 17 zeros after it). If 48 of those prophecies were true of one man, then the odds increase to 1 in 10 to the 157th power. Coincidence? Clearly not.

As Jesus hung there, He knew that before He died, there was one thing left to do. In spite of all that He had been through, His omniscience as true God enabled Him to know that all those hundreds of prophecies had been fulfilled but this one. Anyone other man might have been delirious by this time, if not frankly driven mad by the tortures of the cross. But Jesus wasn't just another man. He was the almighty, all-knowing God come in the flesh. Dying, and soon to be dead, was the very Creator of heaven and earth!

But there's something else this short word teaches us. Jesus was also true man.

In October of the year 451, an important church council was held in the city of Chalcedon, near Constantinople. False teachers had been distorting the truths of Scripture, saying that Jesus could not have been true God and true manta the same time. This council produced a historic document refuting their heresies. The opening lines of that statement read: "We...all with one consent, confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He is perfect in Godhood and perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man." Jesus, they said, was not a deified man or a humanized God. He was and is true God and true man at the same time.

Throughout His life, you could see that Jesus was both God and Man. As a human being, He was tired and fell asleep in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. As true God, He spoke the word and the storm abated. At Lazarus' tomb, Jesus wept when He saw the pain that death brought to Mary and Martha; then He spoke and Lazarus walked out of the grave alive. And here on the cross, too: as God, Jesus knew and fulfilled His Father's will perfectly -- but as a man He also suffered the full agony of crucifixion.

So what does that mean for you? The fact that Jesus was truly human, as we are, is a very comforting truth. For the Bible says that we have a High Priest who was tempted in all points like as we are and yet is without sin. That means we have a Savior who understands and sympathizes with our weaknesses. That means that when no one else seems to know how you feel, Jesus always does. Look at your Savior on the cross -- He is forever God from eternity, so His sacrifice is sufficient to cover all your sins. He purchased you, not with gold or silver, and not with blood of bulls and goats, not even with human blood - for that would not have paid the price. For the ransom of their souls is precious, Scripture says. No, Jesus spent the only currency sufficient to atone for all your sins, His own holy precious blood, and His innocent suffering and death. That's why Jesus deity is important. But His humanity is equally important, for as a human being He could serve as your substitute, keeping God's commandments for you in a life of perfect obedience. Since His incarnation, Jesus is now forever Man - who understands the sorrows and pains of life in this sinful world - who understands your sorrows - and has the power to answer your greatest needs.

Finally, the words, "I thirst" teach us that Jesus is concerned about the integrity of His Word.

How did the soldiers respond to Jesus' request? By filling a sponge with vinegar and reaching it to His lips with on a hyssop reed. This was not like the narcotic mixture of myrrh offered Him hours earlier. It was simply vinegar. It would not re-hydrate Jesus, but simply allow Him to shout His next words for all to hear.

What prophesy was being fulfilled by the words "I thirst"? The 22nd Psalm comes to mind. It opens with, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It goes on to say, "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws." In Psalm 69 David writes, "They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." And there's another Old Testament scene that finds distant echoes here. Do you recall where else the hyssop plant is mentioned Scripture? It was at the first Passover. Hyssop was the "paintbrush" used by the Israelites to paint their doorposts with the blood of the lamb. And now the hyssop plant appears again, just as the Lamb of God is shedding His blood for the sins of the world.

Even at the point of death, Jesus shows a deep concern about the integrity of God's Word. That should mean a lot to you. Because Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures, you can rest assured that God keep every one of the promises He makes to you in His Word. Because Jesus said, "I thirst" you can be certain that not even the smallest detail of what God promised you will fail to come true. Aren't you glad that John heard those words? Aren't you glad that the Holy Spirit inspired him to write them down? For Jesus wanted us to hear them as well. Jesus wanted you and me to know that all His promises to us are "yea" and "amen," including the promise of everlasting life through His blood!

Has this sermon made you thirsty? It wouldn't surprise me. We've all been thirsty. Perhaps it called to mind some incident in your life when you were extremely thirsty. But I'm sure none of us has ever endured the kind of thirst our Savior knew on the cross. And that's an important point, for while we can't understand his suffering and sorrow, the Bible assures us that He can and does understand all of our suffering and sorrow. Why not try this: the next time you're thirsty, let it be a reminder to you of your Savior. Truly God, and also truly man. The one who fulfilled every prophesy, for you. The one who suffered to save your life. The one who makes this promise, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." --Jn 4:14. Amen.

-Pastor Paul Naumann

Under the Wing of God Almighty - Mar 2, 2008

Grace and Peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us about Jesus crying on three occasions. Outside of Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35). In the garden of Gethsemane (Hebrews 5:7). And when He came to Jerusalem for the last time (Luke 19:41).

The donkey that Jesus was ridding on came up over a little rise, hooves clopping quietly on palm branches and people’s clothing laid out on the road before him. And then, over the dusty brow of the hillside appeared the high walls of Jerusalem. Jesus could see God’s Temple gleaming in the sun. But instead of shouts of joy, this sight made Jesus cry. For He knew Jerusalem’s future. Surrounded. Besieged. Destroyed for its failure to receive God’s Son (Luke 19:41-44). Jerusalem would be judged justly, but that brought no comfort to Jesus, only tears.

Later, after Jesus’ tears had time to dry, He said the following words,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. ³⁸Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37 NIV).

Jesus cried for Jerusalem because they refused the sheltering wing of God. Today we consider the illustration that Jesus used: God as the loving, protecting mother hen. Our sermon theme for today is, “Under the Wing of God Almighty.”

We read from…

Genesis 41:25-45 (NIV)

²⁵Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. ²⁶The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. ²⁷The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.

²⁸“It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. ²⁹Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, ³⁰but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. ³¹The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. ³²The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.

³³“And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. ³⁴Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. ³⁵They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. ³⁶This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”

³⁷The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. ³⁸So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”

³⁹Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. ⁴⁰You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”

⁴¹So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” ⁴²Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. ⁴³He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

⁴⁴Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.” ⁴⁵Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt.

▬

In college a friend of mine showed me an interesting website set up by a local power company. A mother eagle had nested right next to a power box and the company had set up a camera so you could view the nest online, twenty-four hours a day.

It is heartwarming to view a big mother eagle tending to her little hatchling eaglets, hovering over them with strong wings and watchful eye. But there were also many hours when she was absent. In those hours those fragile little fluffy birds did little other than breath and look around, waiting for their mother to return.

I wonder if those little birds felt fearful and lonely when their mother first lifted her wings and flew away from them. The viewing public knew that she was leaving with a purpose – to bring them back much needed food. But I doubt they understood.

And while I am unsure what kinds of emotions birds feel, I can’t help but think that Joseph felt fearful and lonely as he sat at the bottom of the dry well that his brothers had cast him into out on the pasturelands near Dothan (Genesis 37:17). Joseph’s brothers were jealous of Joseph because their father loved him more than them. We remember the special coat that their father Jacob had given Joseph. We remember the brother’s hateful words to one another when they saw Joseph approaching them from a distance.

Instead of welcoming Joseph they had thrown him down into an empty cistern and sat down to eat their lunch.

Surely Joseph must have been afraid down in that deep, dry well. Perhaps it seemed to him that God had lifted up His Almighty wings and flown away.

But, in truth, God had not abandoned Joseph, He had merely gone to prepare things that were to come. God’s Almighty wing was hovering over Joseph in that well, though is was unseen. And God was working in the background so that he might not only provide for Joseph, but for many people.

As the account goes, Joseph was sold to a caravan that was heading west to sell their goods in Egypt. And like one more commodity, in Egypt Joseph was sold to a man named Potiphar. And there too, it seems as if God departs from Joseph. For when Joseph had earned the respect of his master, he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of trying to sleep with her. Into another dark pit, the pit of prison, Joseph was thrown.

But again, God had not abandoned Joseph. He would cause these evil events in Joseph’s life to turn out for his good. Inconceivably, Joseph would become ruler over all Egypt through the working of God’s unseen but mighty wing.

In our Psalm for today, the Psalmist wrote,

“In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;

let me never be put to shame;

deliver me in your righteousness” (Psalm 31:1 NIV).

When the protecting wing of God Almighty seemed gone, Joseph trusted God all the same. And God did not disappoint Joseph. God recorded these events in Joseph’s life for our benefit. When it feels as if God has left you naked and vulnerable, remember God’s working in Joseph’s life. Remember that God is good, and trust that He has not left you, but is preparing your future. As was true with Joseph, God provides for those who trust in Him.

▬

Not all birds nest their young in high places. Some build their nests right on the ground. If you watch a mother duck with her ducklings, you might see her loving care expressed with a nip to the tail and a rough prodding with her wing. A mother duck is sometimes rough with her little ones to gather them to where they need to go.

God sometimes roughly brushes us along in this same way. But he also provides His word to show us His purpose in doing so. Only through God’s Word made clear by the Holy Spirit do we come to understand God’s plan for our life.

In His wisdom, God was going to send seven years of extremely productive harvests to Egypt. But then God would send seven years of severe famine on the land. With these seven years of famine God would roughly move the people of Egypt to know that He was God Almighty.

It might seem strange that God would show His love to Egypt through seven years of famine. But by preparing them for this hard time through the mouth of His prophet Joseph, God would do just that.

When the famine set in and people began to need food, Egypt would seem to miraculously have huge quantities of stored grain! When asked why they had stored up all this food, the finger would be pointed to Joseph, and to God. The God of Joseph had provided for Egypt when no one else had seen the famine coming. The magicians and wise men of Egypt had been unable to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, but Joseph’s God had.

It’s interesting to note that Joseph had not lost faith in God, even though he had been brushed along roughly by His wing and even imprisoned unjustly. Listen to what Joseph said when he was brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams:

“¹⁵Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

¹⁶“I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires” (Genesis 41:15-16 NIV).

People sometimes think that they can determine how God feels about them by evaluating their life. If things aren’t going well, God must be angry with what they’re doing. If things are going well, God must pleased with what they are doing.

Sometimes people even try to establish what God wants them to do by looking solely at the events of their lives. They might say, “An opportunity to do this has opened up to me, so this is what God is telling me to do.” Or, “I’m having a hard time doing this, so God is telling me to do something else.” But in truth, God’s will can only be determined without a doubt, when we look to God’s Word.

Because of all the troubles in Joseph’s life, he could have come to the logical conclusion that God didn’t love him. But that wasn’t true. Because of the famine that would come on Egypt, the people could have come to the logical conclusion that God wanted them to starve to death. But that wasn’t true.

We understand that God worked through all the events of Joseph’s life only because we have seen that truth in the pages of God’s Word. We understand that God brought a famine on Egypt to show His love for them. But we only understand that only because the Holy Spirit has shown us that through God’s Word.

For us to move in the direction God is prodding us, we must listen to God speak to us through the Bible. Only then can we begins to understand why certain things happen in our lives. Only with a finger on the pulse of Scripture can we understand where and why God is directing us with His loving wing.

God provided for Egypt by giving Pharaoh a set of prophetic dreams about future events. But this vision would have been completely useless without the interpretation that came from the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, God shows us His plan for our lives, but we can only understand what He means by remaining in contact with His Word, and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us the way through that Word. If we do that, then when God’s wing directs us we will be able to move in the right direction, because we will understand the Father’s will.

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Baby birds find protection under the wing of their mother only in their youth. After a time, they must strike out on their own, leaving the safety of their mother’s wing.

This is one way that God is not like a mother hen. His wing remains over His children throughout their life and forever. When we look over the life of Joseph we see God’s protective influence over and over.

When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming to check up on them, they intended to kill him. But God molded the events that happened so that Joseph was sold into slavery instead.

In Egypt, when Potiphar’s wife had Joseph imprisoned, God molded the events so that Joseph eventually stood before the king of the whole land.

When Joseph announced to Pharaoh that God was going to send a seven year famine on Pharaoh’s land, instead of being upset with Joseph, Pharaoh elevated Joseph to second in command in Egypt. Again, God’s hand was molding the events of Joseph’s life.

Under the wing of God, Joseph could rest securely, for under the wing of the Almighty, everything that he needed was provided.

When I first looked at this selection from God’s Word, I thought, what a strange text for the season of Lent. I mean, shouldn’t we be looking into the life of Christ instead of the life of Joseph? But amazingly, when we look at Joseph’s life we see a foreshadowing of Christ’s life.

Joseph was hated by his brothers. Christ was hated by His people.

Joseph’s brothers plotted his death. The Pharisees plotted Jesus’ death.

Joseph was sold for the price of a slave. Jesus was sold to his enemies for the price of a slave.

Joseph served as a servant to Potiphar. Jesus served the people of Israel by healing their sicknesses.

Joseph was unjustly accused by Potiphar’s wife. Jesus was unjustly accused before Pontius Pilate.

Joseph was unjustly condemned and sent to prison. Jesus was unjustly condemned and sent to the cross.

Joseph was filled with the Holy Spirit. So was Jesus.

Joseph was sent to Egypt, by God, to save many people from death. Jesus was sent to Earth, by God, to save sinners from eternal death.

After Joseph was thrown into a lowly prison, he was elevated to a place of high honor by the powerful hand of God. After Jesus died on the cross, He was raised from the dead and was restored to His former place of honor and authority by the powerful hand of God.

All his life Joseph had placed His trust in God and His ability to provide. All His life Jesus trusted in the wise plan of His Heavenly Father. Even as He willing gave Himself into death, Jesus expressed His trust in the Father by saying,

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46 NIV).

And through His sacrifice on the cross, Christ has provided a spiritual refuge for all sinners. Under the mighty wing of God’s own Son we are protected from the just anger of God that would have fallen on us because of our sins. We will never feel God’s hammer of judgment, because Christ has come between us and that hammer.

Before the worlds were created, God looked forward in time and desired to save sinners from the death they would entangle themselves in. Through God’s Son, God has gathered us under His protection forever. Remain under the wing of Christ, dear Christians, for there your refuge is secure now and forever.

Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

-Pastor Caleb Schaller

The Word of Concern - Feb 27, 2008

Grace and Peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

One of the themes in the book of James is that faith produces action. Other books of the Bible stress that good deeds are no replacement for faith, but James stresses that where faith in Jesus IS present, good actions WILL follow. In chapter two, James writes,

“¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:15-17 NIV).

If our concern for others never leads to action, we might ask ourselves, “Am I really all that concerned?” Since God has placed the mountain moving tool of prayer into our hands, there is always something we can do. May the Holy Spirit remind us that the gift prayer is meant to be used. May the Holy Spirit also lead our concern for others to be true, and to always be followed by action.

In our reading for today we hear about what Jesus DID when He saw His mother Mary standing at the foot of His cross. His concern for her led Him to speak what tonight we call, “The Word of Concern”.

John 19:26-27 (NASB)

²⁶When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

²⁷Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.”

These are the words of God.
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Throughout Jesus’ earthly life His primary concern was to do what His Heavenly Father wanted. Jesus once said,

“…I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”(John 6:38 NIV).

The Father wanted Jesus to place Himself under the commandments, keep those commandments perfectly and give up His life to save sinners from eternal death.

We see Jesus’ concern for keeping the Father’s commandments in tonight’s reading. By providing someone to care for His mother, Jesus was keeping the fourth commandment. He was honoring His mother.

Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Jesus honoring His parents. The Bible tells us that Jesus was obedient to Mary and Joseph even in his youth (Luke 2:51). Though He was the very Son of God, Jesus recognized that His heavenly Father had given Him into the care of these two human beings, and therefore they deserved His respect and obedience.

The fact that Jesus always honored His parents was revealed at His baptism when God the Father spoke from heaven saying,

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:11 NIV).

No matter what the circumstances, Jesus’ concern for His Heavenly Father always led Him to do what was right. Even the excruciating pain of crucifixion was no excuse to Jesus for failing to do what was right. As blood and sweat trickled down His grimacing face, Jesus lived the Father’s Word –with His every word.

Here we see a great contrast between Jesus and ourselves. We often see our pain and frustration as an excuse for sinful behavior. Somehow a bad day makes it okay for us to snap at each other. Somehow a headache excuses us from politeness. Our mental and physical anguish draws our thoughts inward and centers our concern on ourselves.

But this was not the case with Jesus. Even from the cage of pain that was His cross, He still obeyed the Father’s commands.

Perhaps this was because Jesus understood that God designed every commandment to benefit both the person who kept it, and the persons it effected.

This dual blessing is easily seen in connection with the fourth commandment. When children honor their parents and treat them with respectful obedience, parents can raise their children up in the Lord, enjoying every moment. But when children dishonor their parents by their disobedience, the unpleasant but necessary act of discipline disrupts the joy of raising children.

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As Jesus sought to keep the Father’s will, so did His earthly parents. Indeed, Mary and Joseph were sinful, but they were also believers. They trusted the God the Bible and kept God’s law as well as sinful humans can.

In Luke 2 we are told that they took Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised on the eighth day after His birth. They did this because God had commanded the Jews that this should be done in the Old Testament.

Upon seeing and holding Jesus in his arms, an old priest by the name of Simeon told Mary,

“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:34-35 NIV).

At the foot of Jesus’ cross Simeon’s prophesy found its greatest fulfillment. Mary could only look on as her eldest Son suffered. Johan Gerhard described her anguish well when he wrote:

“She sees Him suspended, but can not touch Him; sees Him nailed, and may not loose Him; she sees Him dripping with blood, but can not bind up His wounds; she hears His pliant: ‘I thirst,’ and may not give Him to drink. As many torments in the body of Christ, so many wounds in the mother’s heart…” (“The Gospels”, Ylvisaker 743 )

When Jesus looked out on the taunting crowd below Him, He saw sinners who desperately needed the forgiveness that He was earning them. And when His eyes fixed on His mother Mary, He saw also a sinner who needed His word of grace right now. And so, even as Jesus was providing for Mary’s greatest spiritual need, He also provided for her physical needs.

There standing beside Mary, was John. John, the Spirit inspired writer of the Gospel of John. John, the writer who avoids mentioning his own name in his Gospel, choosing instead to draw all attention to Jesus by calling himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. To this disciple and dear friend, Jesus entrusted the care of His own mother.

Jesus would rise from the dead in three days, but his relationship with His mother would never be quite the same. She would always retain the honor of being Jesus’ mother, but in the kingdom of God she would stand on the same level as all other Christians.

The apostle Paul wrote about the kingdom of God, saying:

“²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28 NIV).

In a way, Jesus illustrated this fact by giving Mary to John and John to Mary. Mary’s privilege of being Jesus’ mother was great. John’s privilege of being Jesus’ close friend was great. But their shared privilege of being saved by His blood was greater.

From this point on the Bible tells us nothing else about Mary’s life except that she was one of those who continued in prayer and Christian fellowship at Jerusalem after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (Acts 1:14).

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With His “Word of Concern”, Jesus expressed both His desire to keep the Father’s commandments and His love for His mother Mary. We should mark this well and always remember it. For there is a diamond of truth that sparkles in this act of Jesus: The greatest way in which we can love each other, is by diligently seeking to do the Father’s will as it is expressed in the Bible.

With His “Word of Concern” Jesus left His followers a great example. This is always the case with Jesus. He does not only direct us to His Father’s commands, He also leaves us His example to follow.

Of course, as we hold up Jesus’ perfect honoring of His parents with our sloppy record of disrespect and disobedience, we are reminded of our many sins. We have not honored our parents perfectly. And since it is God who places these people over us, our every sin against them has also been a sin against our Heavenly Father.

Thank God that we see more than a good example when we see Jesus! On the cross we also see our Savior, who never sinned against the fourth commandment, and who pastes His perfect keeping of that commandment over our failure to do so. In the same way, all our failures to honor our Heavenly Father have been pasted over with Christ’s perfect righteousness. In this way, each loving act that Jesus did out of concern for others, was also done out of concern for us and our salvation.

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I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Concern leads to action. When we see Jesus’ concern for keeping the Father’s commands, we say, “Me too. I also want to honor God with my life.” When we see Jesus’ loving concern for His mother, we say, “Me too. I want to honor God’s representatives with my actions.” And when we see Jesus’ concern for us expressed in His patient suffering and death in our place, we say, “Thank You Jesus. As Mary continued in prayer and Christian fellowship with Your redeemed children, me too.”

Amen.

The Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

-Pastor Caleb Schaller