With His Stripes We Are Healed

With His Stripes We Are Healed                                         

Isaiah 53:5

     When you think about the suffering and death of Jesus, there are probably some images that come to mind of the things that impress you the most about everything that took place.  Most of the images come from our childhood days.  When you first became aware of all that took place, either hearing the passion story read in church or in Sunday School or from a Bible story book at home, you probably had some kind of picture etched in your mind that remains with you today.  As you think about it now, what stands out for you?

     Was it the anger of the crowd?  I sometimes can picture myself standing up with Jesus and Pontius Pilate looking down on the angry crowd that is shouting, “Crucify Him!”  I can see the hatred in their eyes.  I think to myself, “How can they hate Jesus so much?”  Nothing seems to satisfy them but the death of Jesus.

     Perhaps it is the brutality of the crucifixion that sticks in your mind.  While the Romans are not credited with inventing crucifixion as a way of executing someone, they did perfect it, so to speak, to the point where it was the most painful and humiliating form of punishment.  The nailing of outstretched arms to the wooden beams must have been unbearable.  The nailing of the feet caused more pain and especially when the cross was upright and the weight of the body began to pull on those pressure points, the victim must have been in agony.  It is said that sometimes it took a couple of days before the person would die.  In the case of Jesus and the other two who were crucified with Him, the bodies had to be removed form the crosses by sundown because of the Sabbath laws.  Was it the agony of the crucifixion that impressed you the most?

     Perhaps it was the sorrow of the women who saw Jesus pass by on the way to Golgotha.  Perhaps you put yourself in the place of Mary, the mother of Jesus who saw her son die on the cross.  A mother’s sorrow at the loss of her son is only something that another mother could feel.  Perhaps you could identify with the disciples of Jesus who saw their teacher, their master, their friend, suffer and die.  Was it the sorrow of those who witnessed the crucifixion the thing that impressed you the most?

     All of these visual images that you have had had since your childhood are certainly a part of your faith life.  They are part of what you think of when you hear the words, “the suffering and death of Jesus.”  If all that you think of is the facts of the event, the fact that it took place, the fact that it was brutal, the fact that it was a miscarriage of justice, the fact that it caused great sorrow, then you have missed something.  You have not really caught the significance of the whole event.  You also need to look at why this happened.  It was not just because the leaders of the Jews were jealous of Jesus’ popularity.  It was not just because Pontius Pilate was pressured into giving in to the crowd’s demands. 

     The crucifixion of Jesus was part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  We know that it was part of God’s plan, not just from the comments of Jesus following the resurrection, not just from the explanations by the Apostle Paul as he proclaimed the Gospel to the world, but also from the Old Testament.  That may sound surprising but our Old Testament lesson from the prophecy of Isaiah makes it very clear to us that this was God’s plan.  All that Jesus did was for us. 

     In hearing the text that I read before you can’t help but be impressed by the number of times that Isaiah makes a reference to the fact that the Suffering Servant gave Himself for us.  In chapter 53:4-5 we hear, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities ; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed.”  That is an impressive passage.  That is really one of the most impressive things about the suffering and death of Jesus.  It was for you and me!  Jesus came into the world to suffer and die on the cross so that your sins could be forgiven.  Your rebellion, your stubbornness, your selfishness, your pride, your transgressions, your iniquities were punished on the cross by Jesus.  He took what you deserved.  By His wounds you are healed.

     When you think about that, you have to step back for a moment and try to take it all in.  God in His great love, sent His own Son to do all that for you and for the sins for the whole world. The blessings of that crucifixion are yours through faith, which itself is a gift from God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  You have to stand in humble awe at that great gift of love.  You have to ask yourself if there is some way that you can respond to that great love.  You would be a foolish, ungrateful person if you did not respond in some way.  You have been given the greatest gift that you could ever need.

     Martin Luther put it very well in the meaning of the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed.  “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.”  With your heart and voice you can respond to God’s great love by thanking and praising Him.   You can live with an attitude of thankfulness every day of your life.  You have been given the greatest gift.  The forgiveness of your sins is something that you could never work out for yourself.  It had to be something that was done for you and now it is given to you as a gift.  A thankful heart that expresses thanks in the things that you say and in the ways in which you respond to the blessings that God gives shows your praise and love to God.      

     You also show your thanks and praise to God with a life of service and obedience.  You serve your Lord as you serve others.  You can have that attitude of humble service that was demonstrated by your Lord Jesus Christ.  You obey the Lord’s will in your life.  You make the Lord’s will your will.  You make obedience to His will your first priority.  That is not an easy thing to do.  You still have to deal with your sinful nature but like the power to believe, the Holy Spirit also gives you the power to overcome your sinful nature.  He gives you the power to thank and praise, to serve and obey.

     As we conclude our worship with the traditional readings, the singing of the hymns, the prayers, the extinguishing of the candles, and the closing of the book, how will you respond.  Will you walk out in silence and only think of what an impressive service this was?  I pray that you will think also about the great love of God, the great sacrifice of Jesus, and the way that you will respond to that great love and sacrifice.  I pray that you will say once again with Martin Luther, “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey my Lord.”  O Holy Spirit, strengthen the hearts of your people through the Word and the Sacraments so that this may be our response now and forever.  Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Good Friday 

A Loser For Christ

A Loser For Christ
Philippians 3:8-14

     It’s no secret that I enjoy golf.  I like to play golf.  I like to watch golf.  I like to read about golf.  Those who follow professional golf even casually know that there are certain pros who are easily identified by just their first name.  There is Tiger and Phil that most people know.  Then the real fan knows about Sergio and Bubba.  Sports play a big role in our society today.  But ours is not the only time in history when sports were an important part of life.  The media helps by bringing all the major sports into our homes on TV but competitions of one kind or another have been around for centuries.  From the writings of St. Paul, we get the impression that he had some interest in sports.  Our Epistle lesson for today is one example of how he used the idea of running a race and winning and losing to speak about the Christian life.  As we move closer now in this Lenten season to the cross and the open tomb, may we be encouraged by Paul’s message to count everything as loss, in a sense, to be a loser for Christ as we press on toward the goal the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
     In these verses Paul talks about winning and losing.  In fact he actually makes the point that by our losing we become winners.  In the verse just before our text begins, Paul was speaking about the spiritual dangers of putting too much emphasis on your own accomplishments.  He uses himself as a good example of what he means.  If you want to talk about accomplishments particularly in your religious life there wouldn’t be many people who could match Paul.  In verse four he writes, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.”  He then lists things that he formerly saw as valuable in his spiritual journey.  He was circumcised on the eighth day; of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
     Then he adds, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”  All of what he mentioned before that gave him status and recognition in the eyes of his fellow Pharisees and in the temple he considered it a loss.  It made him a loser.  It makes anyone who seeks worldly acceptance a loser.  If your only concern is for the opinions of others in the world, you have lost the real focus of your life.
     The religious lives of the Jews had become a show of accomplishments.  This shouldn’t be surprise to anyone because that is the way your human nature operates.  You like to receive recognition.  You like to know that you can at least count on yourself.  You like to think that you can be responsible for earning your place in God’s kingdom.  The reality of all this is that if you think you can earn the approval of God through your works, you are the real loser.  You are a loser because God has made it clear to you that all have sinned and come short of His glory.  No one can achieve the perfection that God demands because you are sinful from the beginning.  To think that you can satisfy God’s righteous demands though your own merits is a sad deception.
     This was not just a problem for the Jews of Paul’s day.  This is still a problem that touches human beings of all time and the temptation to base your salvation on your righteous accomplishments is still around.
Just ask someone the old evangelism question, “ If you died tonight and were at the gates of heaven, on what basis would you hope to get in?”  Often the answer to that question starts out with something to do with earthly accomplishments.  You will hear things like, “I went the church often.  I helped take care of people.  I was confirmed.  I prayed a lot.  I tried to live by the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. I was a Christian among Christians.  I’ve earned my place.”  Paul would say, “I count all of that as loss.  Those things don’t make you a winner.  In the opening verse of the text we hear the words, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.  For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.”  What you have then is a case of winning through losing.  Earthly things lose their importance in your life, compared with the greatness of knowing Christ.
     A college chaplain told of a young Japanese student who had been a Christian for only a few years.  He encountered another foreign student who said to him, “You must have a very wealthy father back home.  You are always smiling and seem so very happy.”  The young Christian student told the chaplain, “He did not know that when I became a Christian, I lost my family and friends; my father cut me off from our family because I had left the religion of my ancestors.”  He thought a minute and then went on, “I told him that the only wealthy father I have was my Father who is in heaven, and the riches of His grace alone have made it possible for me to be a Christian in spite of all the loneliness I have suffered since being cut off from my relatives.”
     He was someone who really understood what it means to win through losing.  Too often you are tempted to think that you can be a winner in the sense that you are Christian without having to leave behind any of your earthly ideas about salvation.  The history of the Christian Church has been littered with false teachers who wanted to look to Jesus Christ for salvation but could not let go of the ideas that you somehow have to earn your salvation by your works, that you have to cooperate with God through your decision, or that you must abide by certain human restrictions.  The plain truth the Scripture teaches is that you are saved from the eternal punishment that you deserve because of sin by faith in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior.  Paul writes in our text, “I count them (referring to his earthly accomplishments) as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.”  When you are found in Him, then you become one with Him.  You share all the blessings that He has prepared for you.  Through His suffering and death, your debt was paid.  The price required to set you free from sin, death and the power of the devil was paid.  Through His death, you become like Him in His death.  That is, you are dead to sin and made alive to righteousness. Through His resurrection, you too have the hope of the resurrection to eternal life.  By faith, you win.  You are assured of victory through His suffering, death and resurrection.
     That makes a difference in the way you live your life.  You are still going to have to face the temptations and trials of life but you can continue on because you know the final outcome.  Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me His own.”  Christ has made you His own!  Therefore you live your life with that confidence.  You are not struggling against the devil, the world and your sinful nature alone.  Jesus already has you by the hand and is leading you to your heavenly home.  With Him by your side, you can press on.  “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  God had called you to be a winner.  He has the prize ready for you. Jesus has assured that it will be yours.  With that in mind, you can press on toward the goal.  You press on only through the power that He gives you.
     All your earthly accomplishments, while they may gain you status and recognition among your co-workers and friends, don’t really mean very much when it come to the race that has been set before you which leads to your heavenly goal.  It is only through Christ that you win the prize.  Now that you know that you have that prize you can live with new confidence and joy.  There is no need to worry about whether you
have done enough to receive the prize.  It is yours by faith.  There is no reason to suffer guilt because of past sins because they have been washed away.  You have been set free from all that would drag you down and hold you back from that upward call.  You are set free to serve the Lord and His church and answer the call to be His faithful and faith-filled people.
     You are a winner.  You win because the victory has been won for you.  Like Paul, you count all other accomplishments as loss in this world compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.  May this winning attitude be with you every day as you wait for the time when the final prize will be yours in heaven.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke
Zion Lutheran Church
March 17,2013

By One Man's Obedience

By One Man’s Obedience 

Romans 5:19

     Basketball season is heating up.  College teams will soon be having their tournament.  High Schools will soon begin March Madness.   The girls’ team from Our Shepherd is playing in a state Lutheran School Tournament in Marysville this weekend.  If you are a basketball fan like me, you try to follow as much of the excitement as you can.  One of the things that can be crucial to a team’s success is the way in which the coach brings in a substitute for a player who needs a rest or for a player that fouls out of a game.  The performance of the substitute can make a big difference especially if the game is close. 

     As we continue our journey through Lent, one of the themes that stands out is the importance of Jesus as our substitute.  The Epistle lesson that we read responsively ended with a statement about how the disobedience of one man made us sinners but then in God’s great love, by the obedience of one man, namely Jesus, many were made righteous.   As we think about that for a few moments today, may we come to appreciate the blessings that we have because Jesus came into the world to be our substitute.

     We can break down that passage into three important parts.  The first is “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.”  This takes us right back to the beginning.  In Genesis chapter 3, we hear the account of Adam and Eve and the temptation to disobey God.  Adam and Eve were God’s special creation.  When God created the animals and birds and fish, He did so by His will.  No special acts were necessary in order for those creatures to be brought to life.  God said, “Let there be” and there they were.  But when it came to human beings, God took greater care to form Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.  To create Eve, God took a rib from Adam and formed Eve around that rib in such a way that she would be the ideal companion and helper for Adam.  He placed them in a wonderful garden and provided all they needed.  They were made in His image, meaning that they were without sin and perfectly dedicated to one another and to God.  Everything was wonderful until Satan deceived them into eating the fruit of the tree that God had commanded them not to eat.  Here we find the meaning of that part of our text that says, by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.  By the disobedience of Adam, sin came into the world and became part of the reality of life for God’s special creation.  All people since then who were born of a human father and mother  would have that condition of original sin, inherited from Adam and Eve.  In fact the New Testament even refers to our sinful nature as the Old Adam.  By one man’s disobedience many would be made sinners.  It really doesn’t matter much what sins you committed, you are sinful by nature.  That is the truth of God’s Law.  If you aren’t willing to admit that you are sinful by nature and that your sinful nature leads you to all kinds of sinful thoughts, words and actions, you find yourself a lost and condemned creature.  If you are not willing to acknowledge your sinful condition and the sins that follow from that condition, you see no need to for the love of God that is offered through the One Man who came to be your substitute.

     That brings us to the second part of the passage.  “So by the one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.”  Even when God was confronting the serpent and Adam and Eve in the garden after that first sin of disobedience, He already had a plan for the salvation of His special creation.  Because of their sin they would be unable to make themselves right with God again.  They would need help. It is just like when a basketball player gets in foul trouble early in the game, a substitute has to come in and do what that player is unable to do sitting on the bench.  God spoke about the seed of the woman, a future offspring, who would crush the head of the serpent, destroying his control over God’s special creatures.  That was the first promise of a Savior who would come and rescue mankind from their fallen condition and restore them to their place in God’s eternal kingdom.  He would be your substitute.  He would do for you what you were unable to do because of that condition called original sin. 

     The Apostle Paul describes the action of that Savior by saying, “by one man’s obedience.”  Jesus was totally obedient to the Father when He took on human flesh and blood.  As the Son of God, He was true God from all eternity.  He was a spirit, just as God is a spirit.  But He became a human being, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.  Because He was still true God, He was able to live a life without sin.  As we heard a couple of weeks ago, He was subject to temptation by the devil but He had the power to resist.  His perfect life is the perfect substitute for you.  You are unable to live that perfect life because you were born with that inclination to sin, the condition that affects us all.  Jesus was called in to substitute for you under the Law. 

      But that was not all.  He wasn’t a player who just stood along the sidelines in order to avoid getting into any foul trouble Himself.  He got in the game and faced the attacks of the enemy.  He took His role as your substitute all the way to the cross.  There He suffered the pain and agony of a horrible execution for something He did not do.  He took your punishment.  He suffered and died as the price for your sins.  That is what our Lenten observance is all about: One Man’s obedience.

     The last part of that verse then explains for us why Jesus did all this as our substitute.  “By one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.”  It’s really exciting when a sub comes into a game and is able to make a difference in the outcome.  If the sub can get some important rebounds and score some points down the stretch, the crowd will recognize that and cheer even louder.  The substitute will be recognized as the hero of the game and everyone will feel like a winner.  With Jesus as our substitute, St. Paul concludes that many will be made righteous.  Often when you hear statements that use words like righteous or justification or propitiation like we have heard in our Bible readings lately, you are tempted to just pass them by as nice religious words that don’t mean a lot.  It’s just more theological jargon that preachers use.  But this is the real heart of the message of the Gospel for you.  If you don’t appreciate the importance of a statement like this you have really missed the Good News.  Through Jesus’ obedience under the Law and on the cross, allowing Himself to be nailed to the wood, you have been made righteous before God.  Your sin has been covered over by the robes of Christ’s righteousness.  You are no longer considered guilty because of your sinful condition and because of your many sins of omission and commission, your sins of thought, word and deed.  You are declared righteous because your punishment has been paid.  You are not righteous because of what you have done.  You are made righteous.  It’s almost as if every word of that passage has an important meaning for your eternal salvation.

      One man’s sin brought that sinful condition to you.  One man’s obedience made you righteous.  That is reason for you to praise and thank God for His mercy every day of your life.  It’s like when a team wins a close game over their rival.  More and more you see the fans storm the court and celebrate the victory.  As a child of God, you are in a wonderful position to celebrate the victory over sin, death and the devil every day of your life.  Your attitudes and behaviors, your songs and your words can give glory to God in everything that you do because you know that you have been saved by your substitute, Jesus.  In God’s great love, Jesus came into the game.  He took your place.  By His obedience, you were made righteous.  He is your hero.  To Him be the praise now and forever.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

March 3, 2013

The Third Sunday in Lent

Lenten Meditation--Facing the Cross: Temptation

Facing the Cross:  Temptation                            

I Corinthians 10:12-14

        When you hear the Old Testament lesson for tonight about Adam and Eve being tempted in the Garden of Eden, you sometimes want to shake your head and say, “How could they?” “How could they disobey their Lord in this wonderful paradise where all their needs were being taken care of and they were living in harmony with God and each other?”  In our world today, it would be very common to analyze the situation to the point that you could understand and even excuse that first sin and call it a weakness. You might be tempted to say, “After all, they weren’t used to temptation.  They didn’t know how to handle it.  Their punishment should not have been so severe.”  But the fact remains that God had told them not to eat of that particular fruit.  The consequences for all mankind were catastrophic.  Knowing what you know now, you might wish you could have looked Eve straight in the face when she was about ready to take a bite out of that fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that they were forbidden to eat and say, “Stop it!” But the truth is that you find yourself in similar situations when you are tempted to do something that disobeys God and after considering all of the options, you went ahead and disobeyed him, just as Adam and Eve did. You have disobeyed God who has so lovingly given you everything you need on this beautiful earth.

         When you hear the other readings for tonight and you think about your own struggles you are reminded that temptation is not a thing of the past or something that you don’t need to worry about anymore. It is something that is still a part of your current sinful existence in the fallen world, and it is something you must face head-on.

          You, too, like Adam and Eve, are drawn to what looks pretty, what is pleasing to the eye, that promises something better than what you think you have now, but at the same time is something that is ultimately not good for you spiritually and is not in line with God’s will for your life.

          The devil knows just how to trip you up, too. He knows your weaknesses. For some it is passing on that juicy bit of information about someone that could ruin their reputation. For some of you it is eating something you know you shouldn’t, for others it is looking at something online you know is not healthy for you. You know that this is your weakness and you also know that in those situations where you are going to be tempted, you need to put your guard up extra high.

    Some things are easy for you to turn away from and say, ‘No!” But there are other things that keep your head turning back and keep your eyes distracted. And those are the things that you try your best to keep away from not only during this season of Lent but every day of your life.

     Specifically committing to giving up something these forty days of Lent is one very good way to fight temptation as long as it is something that is truly a temptation for you. Another way is to come up with a strategy for dealing with temptations when they come your way, no matter what they are. When you are drawn to look at something tempting, for example, have a Bible close at hand to look at and read instead of engaging in the temptation before you. Or when tempting thoughts start entering your head, you might also want to have a list of healthy, holy thoughts that you can ponder instead, like times you felt close to God, a favorite hymn, people who have helped you in your faith. A guiding principle in making a list like this is found in the words of Philippians 4:8-9: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

     Living with these thoughts in your mind and dwelling on the fact that the God of peace is with you always have the added benefit of helping you resist the urge to fall into temptation because your focus has shifted from you and your needs to God and what he desires and what you can do to bring glory to Him.  That is really the key difference when it comes to considering your attitudes and actions.  Is this going to glorify God or is it simply going to satisfy my curiosity or my sinful desires.  It is much like the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness that we heard in the gospel Lesson. The devil tried to tempt Jesus to use His divine power to satisfy His hunger.  If He gave in to that temptation it would only be for His own good.  It would not glorify God.  The good thoughts that Jesus employed in that situation were from Word of God.  He countered the devil’s temptations each time with the words, “It is written.”

     Sometimes you may feel like you are the only one who is being tempted.  You feel alone in your battle against the devil and you wonder if there really is hope for you.  The words of our text for this evening give us a warning and a word of comfort.  “Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.  Never get the idea that you are so spiritual and so strong in your faith that you will never be tempted.  Think about it.  Who do you think the devil works hardest against?  He’s got the unbeliever in his hand already.  The weak Christian is an easy target.  It’s the confident believer that the devil works hardest on.  If you think you are above temptation, be careful.  The next line then reminds us that we are not alone in facing temptation.  “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.”  Even Jesus was tempted with three common temptations, giving in to human desires regardless of the consequences, temptation to power and wealth, and the temptation to popularity and fame by putting God to the test.  You have all faced those temptations in your life.  They are common to all.  But there is hope for us in those times of temptation.  St. Paul adds, “But God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

     For the times when temptations do creep into your life, even in your strongest periods of faith, you know you have your Savior, Jesus, who can provide you with the strength you need to emerge victorious from any battle you might have with Satan. You can take comfort from the words of Hebrews 4:15-16, which say, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” His triumph over the devil becomes your triumph today because of the cross. Christ’s death on the cross, even more than his resistance to temptation in the wilderness, strips Satan of the power of his tricky, tempting ways. Because of the cross, you have the confidence of knowing that the power of Jesus is within you to face temptation and you will come out as the winner.

          As a result, there is no longer a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness when it comes to dealing with temptation, because the death and resurrection of Christ has done away with the devil’s power over you. Because of Christ, it becomes easier and easier for you to turn away from temptation and move on. So move on and move away from the wiles of Satan, and be energized in your ability to live a life that constantly looks up to the cross.  A life focused on the cross is a life that is filled with trust in the power of the cross, a life that is focused on Jesus and not on yourself, a life that considers the desires of life on earth not worth comparing to the life yet to come in heaven, where the triumph over the devil will be complete and secure forever.       Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Lent 2013

      

It Is Written

It Is Written 

Luke 4:1-13

     A consideration of the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is a good way to start the Lenten season.  Since Lent is a time of meditation on our sins, it is comforting for us to know that even Jesus faced temptation.  The big difference is that we so often give in to the temptations of the devil but Jesus never sinned.  But we can certainly learn something from Him.  It was our sin that caused Jesus to have to come into the world to be the sacrifice to pay the price for us.  Therefore, this is a time of solemn reflection on our sins that caused Jesus to die.  

     This is also a time of repentance. Repentance actually involves several steps.  You first have to acknowledge your sin.  That can be hard for many people because your sinful nature has become so skilled at making excuses and denying the serious nature of your sins.  If you are not willing to be honest with yourself you will never feel the need to take the next step and be sorry that you have sinned against God and against others.  This is more than just saying the words that you are sorry that you did something wrong.  True repentance realizes that you have disobeyed God and you have fallen far short of what God expects of you.  Having acknowledged and confessed your sins, a repentant heart then will have a desire to remove that kind of sinful behavior or sinful attitude from your life through the power of the Holy Spirit.  You are reminded of your Baptism which gives you the power to begin each day anew.

     Lent truly is a time of repentance and renewal.  We have no better example of how to resist temptation than Jesus Himself.  As you heard in the Gospel reading for today, Jesus was tempted three times by the devil and each time He was able to throw that temptation right back by using the power of God’s Word.  The devil simply cannot stand up against the truth of God’s Word.  As we look more closely at what Jesus did in the face of temptation, may you learn to make use of the power of the words, “It is written.”

     When we look at the three temptations that the devil set before Jesus, we can see that those temptations were really the three basic kinds of temptations that the devil uses on all of us.  They fit into three categories.  The first was to turn the stones into bread in order to satisfy His hunger after fasting in the desert for forty days.  To do so would be to use His divine power for His own benefit to satisfy His earthly desires at a point in His life when He was preparing Himself for His earthly ministry.  You are often tempted to satisfy your earthly urges without giving any concern for the consequences of your actions for yourself and for others.  Instant gratification has become a way of life in our world.  Advertising tells you that you deserve to have everything and you need to have it now.  But Jesus countered that temptation by telling the devil, “Man does not live by bread alone.” He drew from the Scriptures a passage that tells us that our priorities are not always about satisfying our earthly desires.

           The second temptation was one that you face at one time or another to some degree. The devil offered Jesus wealth and power.  All Jesus would have to do is bow down and worship the devil.  What a temptation!  You would probably think through the implications.  Writers have had a field day with this one.  Plays, movies and operas have all explored the possibility of selling your soul to the devil in order to get the one thing they always desired.  Jesus on the other hand commanded the devil leave with the worlds, “It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
          The third temptation touches on a couple the basic sinful desires.  The devil tried to get Jesus to jump off the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem, telling Him that God would send His angels to catch Him.  Wouldn’t that create a buzz around Jerusalem!.  If Jesus could jump off the temple and land unharmed, He would be an instant celebrity.  He would attract all kinds of attention and be the biggest thing to hit Jerusalem since the days of David and Solomon.  Think of what that could do for His ministry.  He would have more followers than anyone else.  They would all think that He was something very special, maybe even the promised Messiah.  It could all happen if He simply would put God to the test and challenge Him to keep His promise to send angels to protect Him and see to it that He wouldn’t hurt Himself, even if it meant doing something foolish.  The devil even tried to use the Scriptures to make this temptation more attractive.  That tricky devil conveniently left out part of the passage.  From Psalm 91, he said, “He will command His angels concerning you to guard you, and they will lift you up in their hands.”  He left out the part that said,  “to guard you in all your ways.”  Jumping off the temple was not something that a person would normally do.  That would be foolish.  Once again you have to ask yourself, “Who would be helped by this miraculous event?”  No one would benefit except Jesus and we know that this was not have Jesus operated.

     Acceptance and fame may not be at the top of your list of desires but you are often tempted to put God to the test.  You try to make deals with God.  “God, if you would do this for me, then I will do something for you.”  Or you might say, “God if you really love me, then prove it by giving me what I want.” You are putting God to the test.  Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6, “It is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

      That was it.  The temptations were over at that point.  The devil was forced to leave but we know that he didn’t give up.  He continued to try and put roadblocks in Jesus’ way to try and prevent Him from carrying out His purpose of giving His life for us.

     What is most interesting is that Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil with the power of God’s Word,  In each case, Jesus drew from the well of God’s wisdom that had been revealed through the prophets down through the ages.  God had spoken to His people and addressed every aspect of life.  Jesus now was demonstrating for us the power of that Word.  You can use that same power to resist the temptations that come your way.  The Word of God has power because the Holy Spirit works through that Word.  It is the Holy Spirit who makes a difference in people’s loves.  He gives you power through the Word to come to repentance.  He gives you power through the Word to change your sinful patterns.  He gives you power through that Word to resist temptation and do good works.   

     The Word is easily available to you.  God has directed His writers to put His will in human language.  God has also guided the scholars and translators down through the ages to put the Word in understandable language so that anyone can hear or read His Word.  All you have to do is make use of that Word and you will be able to have that storehouse of wisdom that has the power of the Holy Spirit in it to help you through your life.  Think of what you hear in church.  You hear the Old Testament.  You have learned the Ten Commandments.  You have heard the writings of Paul and Peter and John in the Epistle lessons that tell you how to live your Christian life.  You then have heard the Gospel lessons that tell about the life and teachings of Jesus.  You have heard His Sermon on the Mount, for example, where He gave a commentary on the Ten Commandments.  He also spoke about various other aspects of Christian living like prayer and witnessing.  It’s all there in the Bible.  It is God’s Word.  When you are familiar with your Bible, you can also confront the devil by saying, “It is written.”

     You also know that there are times when you don’t use the power that God makes available to you and you fall into sin.  But God has blessed you by giving you not only His Law but also the Gospel in His Word.  He has assured you that all is not lost even though you have sinned and fallen short of what He expects.  He has sent Jesus to take your place under the Law and then also on the cross.  He died so that your sins could be forgiven.  He rose again to show you that you too can have new life now as well as life with Him forever in heaven.

     As a result, you can live with the sure faith that trusts in your Savior Jesus alone for  the forgiveness of your sins and that trusts in the power of the Holy Spirit, working through His Word, to guide and direct you throughout your life.  You can trust that His power is greater than the temptations of the devil.  You know that when the devil tempts you, you can follow Jesus’ example and confidently proclaim, “It is written…,” and then you can fill in the rest from your knowledge of God’s Word and through the power of the Spirit, the devil will have to back down until the next time.  What a great power God has given to you!  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

February 17, 2013 

Without Love I Am Nothing

Without Love I Am Nothing  

I Corinthians 12:31b-13:13

     What was the first thing you thought of when you heard the Epistle lesson for today?  I would guess that for many of you those verses brought to mind a wedding, either your own or one you have attended.  Those verses may have been read or may have been used as the text for the pastor’s message.  Many couples have asked for that passage to be read as a part of their wedding ceremony because of what it says about the nature of love.  It has such a wonderful application for a man and a woman who are about to become husband and wife.  When you get to the part about love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it speaks to your human nature.  It is actually a warning for you about letting your human nature take control of your relationships.  When that happens, you are headed for trouble and the statistics that you hear about failed marriages seem to back that up.  Most of the time when marriages end in divorce it is because there was not a willingness to be patient, kind, trusting and self-giving.  This is a great text for a wedding if it is understood properly.

     Having said that, it is also interesting to point out that the context of these words aren’t really speaking of a marriage.  Paul had been talking about life in the church in the verses that come before the love verses.  In the Epistle lesson from last week from I Corinthians 12, we heard about the body of Christ.  “You are the body of Christ and each of you is a part of it,” Paul wrote.  He talked about the importance of each part of the body.  In comparing the church to a body, he mentioned that no one part can exist on its own.  The various parts of the body need each other and each part plays an important function in the body.  Not all the parts have the same job.  Some are more out front that others.  Some are in the background.  Yet it is important for the whole body to realize that it is one body.  When one part suffers the rest of the body suffers with it.  When one part rejoices the other parts rejoice with it. 

     He continues with a summary of this line of thinking and then makes a direct application to the church.  He mentions a number of functions in the church and makes the point that we don’t all have the same task.  Not all are prophets, not all are teachers, not all are miracle workers and so on.  We are not to become jealous of the gifts that others have and ignore the gifts that we have.  Instead we are to use the gifts that the Lord gives us in His church in love.  It is in that context then that he speaks about the importance of love.  Paul summarizes his point by saying, “Without love I am nothing.”  As we think about that statement today, may you come to realize the importance of God’s love in your life and may you be moved to put God’s love into action as you serve your Lord by serving His church and your community.

     “Without love I am nothing.”  What a powerful statement that is!  First before we consider anything else, we have to understand what this love is.  That word gets used and abused all the time in our world today.  We talk about loving everything from our spouse to our pets to a new outfit to a large pizza with the works.  Of course we mean different things as we use that word in different contexts.  Greek does the same thing only it uses different Greek words for different kinds of love.  The love that is mentioned here is a special kind of love that has its source in God.  It is a love that is completely familiar with the object of love and loves with a giving kind of love that expects nothing in return.  It is unconditional.  It is not a love that has all kinds of “ifs” or “whens” attached to it.  It is not “I will love you if you do what I tell you.” Or “I will love you when you start showing me some respect.”  It is a love that simply loves you because you are God’s special creation.  It is the love that Jesus spoke about when He said, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.”

     It is a love that caused Him to sacrifice His only Son as the punishment for your sins.  It was not deserved.  It did not require complete obedience on our part.  Without that love of God, you would be nothing. You would still be a lost and condemned sinner.  Without that love you would not be able to be called a child of God through your Baptism.  Without that love you would not be a part of the Body of Christ, the church.  Without that love from God you would not be able to show that kind of love to others and especially to those in need.  Your service to the church and to other people would mean nothing without the love of God in your heart.

     It is that love then that empowers and gives value to your service to the church.  There you see the context of these words coming in to play.  Paul mentions a number of things that happen in the church that would be of no value at all without the love of God in your heart.  He starts with the preacher.  “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am only a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.”  In other words, I could be the greatest speaker in the world but if I am not speaking out of love for my hearers, I am just a lot of noise.  It may be an impressive sound but it doesn’t really convey a message, much less the message of God’s love.  I could be the greatest intellectual mind in the church but if I am not operating out of love for God and for the rest of the body of Christ, I am nothing.  Even if I am generous to the poor and even sacrifice everything I have, even my life, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  If all I am concerned with is personal gain, a good reputation, making a name for myself, in other words, just concerned with myself, I really don’t have that love of God alive in my life.  I am nothing.

     Paul then continues with the description of love as it is demonstrated in your relationships with others.  It is patient.  It is kind.  It does not envy or boast.  It is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way.  It is not irritable or resentful.  It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Loves bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.  Once again, remember the context in which these words were written.  He is talking about your life together in the church.  How many churches down through the ages have been torn apart by people who did not allow this love to rule their hearts?  The fact that we have so many different denominations just might be traced to the fact that personalities did not show the kind of patient love that is not proud and self-seeking.

     That points out an important fact here. You are not perfect.  You sin. You let your human nature rule your life when you know better.  You are tempted and you have given in.  Yet the beauty of God’s love is still there for you.  Even when you rebel against God, He continues to love you with that never-ending love that knows all about you and loves you anyway.  With that in mind, when you receive forgiveness, you are empowered to take that same love into your life and demonstrate it in your relationships with those around you in the church and in the other areas of your life. You show it to those in the church because you are fellow members of the body of Christ.  You need them and they need you.  When the body is not working together, you can imagine all of the painful things that can happen.  Yet to show love to all the members of the body means that you are not resentful.  You are not irritable.  You do not insist on your own way.  You can bear all things, believe all things, hope for the best and endure all things no matter what happens. 

     Paul closes this section of his letter with some additional comments about our life together in the church.  First he says, “Love never ends.”  God’s love for you never ends and you will always have it to share with others.  Then he mentions that you need to keep in mind that your purpose here as a child of God is not just to satisfy yourself here on earth.  He said, “Now I see a poor reflection in a mirror; then I will see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known.”  The “then” that he is talking about is in heaven.  Your time here is short.  This is not your final destination.  You are looking forward to the completion of all things in heaven.  Your goal is heaven.  The goal of the church is to make disciples of all nations so that all people may know fully and see God face to face.  As you wait for all things to be completed, these three remain the key components of life in the church: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.   Amen.

    

Rev. Gerald Matzke
February 3, 2013

Did You Find Your Gift?

Did You Get Your Gift?    

I Corinthians 12:1-11

     In our Gospel lesson for today, we are told about the first sign that Jesus did.  He changed water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana.  As a result, he manifested His glory and his disciples believed in Him.  They saw something in Jesus that they hadn’t seen before.  It was a sign that He was something special and the number of followers grew.  In our Epistle lesson for today, we heard about how God continues to grow His church among us now.  Instead of miraculous signs and wonders, God uses the people of the church to carry out the work of building one another up and building up the number of believers.  St. Paul, God’s special apostle to the Gentiles, wrote to the Corinthians, the Romans and the Ephesians about how this was going to be done.  Our text for today is part of a letter to the church in Corinth where Paul explains how God works in us for the good of the church for the benefit of all.

     The church in Corinth was a troubled church.  They didn’t seem to understand how faith in Christ has an impact on the way they lived their lives.  They had a hard time letting go of the worldly ways that had ruled their lives before.  In addition to teaching them about the proper way to receive the Lord’s Supper, he also wanted to instruct them about spiritual gifts and how those gifts were to be used for the common good.  These gifts come from the Holy Spirit.  He wants to make it clear to them that the work of the Spirit is very important in their lives.  In verse three we hear, “No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, “Jesus is accursed! And no one can say, ”Jesus Christ is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit.”  New Testament scholars feel that this was the first creed in the Christian Church.  When someone was ready to become a part of the church, they would make a profession of their faith.  The profession of faith was, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” 

     When one would come to faith, in addition to the faith to proclaim Jesus is Lord, you would receive certain gifts from the Holy Spirit to be used for the good of all.  He continues by saying that there are varieties of gifts.  There are many gifts but they all come from the same Spirit.  In these verses and others in Paul’s writings we have some examples of the kind of gifts the Spirit gives.  Here he mentions wisdom, knowledge, and faith.  Wisdom is given to some to be able to understand the mysteries of God as we heard a couple of weeks ago.  God’s messages to us in the Bible are not always clear and we all benefit from the special ability that some have to make these difficult things easier to understand.    Knowledge is the gift to be able to transfer the mysteries of God into practical application.  Some have the gift to be able to see and apply the message of God into everyday situations.  The church benefits from that gift as people see how God works in their lives.  The gift of faith here means the special ability to move ahead with confidence especially when others see only difficulty.  This is a confidence in God’s promises to be with us and  direct us.  We all should have that to some degree but others have been given that particular gift to be able to say “Yes we can,” when others are saying, “It’s too hard.”  Without those people with extraordinary faith, the church could get mired in simply keeping things the way they have always been because that is the easy, comfortable way and those are usually the churches that are dying.

     The other gifts that were mentioned were important to the early church because they were signs of God’s presence and that this was truly the time of the Messiah.  As God’s revelation of His will in the Scriptures was made known through the sacred writers, the need for the sign gifts was no longer there.  Of that group, only prophecy, in the sense of speaking for God, and the discerning of true and false spirits are still needed in the church today.

     In later verses of this same chapter 12, Paul mentions  that the Spirit gives gifts to some to be apostles, prophets, teachers, for miracles, healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.  In Romans he adds, ministering, exhorting, ruling, showing mercy and in I Peter we hear about showing charity, hospitality and serving.  All of these back up the statement that there are varieties of gifts that the Spirit gives for the common good, for the building up of the church. 

     There is a very important point made in verse seven that touches the life of everyone here.  “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  Did you catch my emphasis?  Each one of you in the church is given at least one spiritual gift for the good of all.  That leads us to the question, “Have you found your gift and are you putting it to use.”

     Christmas wasn’t that long ago.  Think for a moment how bad you would feel if you bought someone a special gift and found out that the receiver of the gift put it in the closet and never used it.  You picked out what you thought would be the ideal gift for that person.  You were sure that they would use that gift and maybe even use it to help others.  Now the gift was being wasted.  What an ungrateful person they would be to ignore such a carefully chosen gift!  That’s just the way it is with you when you do not use the gift or gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to you for the good of the church.  God, in His wisdom, has gifted each of you and given you the responsibility to see that His work is done.  To not use your gifts is to hinder the work of God’s church here on earth. 

     The story is told of a man who came to the pastor and asked about joining the church.  He had just moved to the area and wanted establish membership somewhere.  He had one request though.  He said, “I want to join the church but I don’t want to have any jobs or responsibilities.  I am very busy and I don’t have time for any church work.”  The pastor said that he could understand his concern but he told the man that he was probably looking into the wrong church.  He gave the man directions to a church that was a few blocks away that might suit his needs a little better.  The man thanked the pastor and went to look for the other church.  He followed the directions and  found a run-down, boarded-up building that looked like it at one time had been a church.  If the people of the church are not willing to use their gifts, their special talents and abilities for the good of the church, the church might as well be boarded up and left to decay. 

     The question might be asked then, “If I have some gift, how can I find what that gift is and how can I put it to use.”  The first step would be to become familiar with what the Scriptures say about them in I Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and I Peter 4.  Then experiment with as many of the gifts as possible.  Try different things.  Try speaking to someone about Jesus, try teaching, try serving on a committee, try singing in the choir and the list could go on.  Be patient and try things out.  The next step would be to examine your feelings about what you tried.  Did you enjoy what you were doing?  Did you see that others were helped by what you did?  Did others recognize that you were successful?  Did they see that you have a gift for that kind of work?  You might be surprised what your gift really is.  The important thing is that you find your gift and use it for the common good.  You see yourself serving the Lord who gave His life for you in order to bring you back to God and save you from eternal punishment.  Too often in our modesty we say that we don’t have any special gifts but our text for today says just the opposite.  The manifestations of the Spirit are given to everyone.

     The last verse of the text then summarizes this by giving us one more statement about the way the Spirit distributes the gifts.  “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills.”  It is the Spirit’s decision who is to receive what gift.  They are not given out on the basis of merit.  You don’t earn special gifts because of your good works or good intentions.  Just as all you have is a gift from God, just as your salvation is a gift from God, so the spiritual gifts that God chooses to give you come out of His grace.  In fact the Greek word that is translated “gifts” in these verses is from the same word family as the word “grace”.  What a blessing it is that that distribution of gifts is in the hands of the Holy Spirit,  That then removes any possibility for complaint, envy or boasting.  The gifts I have to do God’s work are gifts from the Spirit.  The gifts that someone else has are also from the Spirit.  He has given them as He wills out of His divine wisdom.  It is up to each one of you to use the gifts that you have been given.  The end result then will be that the body of Christ, the Church here on earth will be built up, will be strengthened and then can grow.  Don’t waste the gift you have been given.  Find it, develop it, and use it for the glory of God and the benefit of the Body of Christ, the Church.  May God grant you the strength and the willingness to serve Him with your spiritual gifts.  Amen

Rev. Gerald Matzke

January 20, 2013