Peace Lutheran Church
Posts Tagged "Death"
Ascension of our Lord (Observed)
May 12, 2024
Lord will you at this timeText: Acts 1:1-11
Theme: Living in the Lord’s blessing
Outline:
1. We like to know things
2. We cannot always know everything
3. Rest in the blessings the Lord has given to us while waiting for His return as He has promised.
Sermon
Alleluia! Christ has Risen!
He has Risen indeed! Alleluia!
Boys ad girls, I pray that you are doing well today. What do I have here? I have here a homework assignment. Why do your teachers give you homework? They want to test you. They want to make sure that you remember everything that they have taught you today. Sometimes the homework is easy, 2+2= ? 4! Right. Sometimes the homework is hard. “What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the day, and three at dusk? That’s a hard one. Did you know that God gives us homework? Depending on His grace and mercy, we, like the disciples, are His witnesses throughout the earth. How can we do this homework? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. We like to know things
At our Lord’s ascension, the disciples ask, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Is now the establishment of the forever kingdom promised to David? Will you now rule and reign forever as the eternal King of kings and Lord of lords? You have all power and authority. You died and are alive forever more. Will you now fulfill all things? The disciples desire to know when everything will be accomplished. They are still thinking in earthly terms of earthly kingdoms and they wish to know.
How often are we likewise? Do any of you like to admit that you do not know something? None of us like to admit that we do not know. From something as simple as how to wash the dishes, change the oil in the car, how to do house repairs, what temperature water to wash clothes in. Admitting that we do not know something is hard to do because we want to know. There is a lot that we simply do not know. We have to learn it. We do not know exactly how the universe works. We do not know what holds an atom together. How black holes work. There is a whole subsection of science called theoretical physics which is just guesses as to how physics, mathematics, and other sciences work in the world around us. We do not know when or how our natural lives will end. None of us know when we are going to die. In not knowing, we are in good company with all the rest of humanity.
2. We cannot always know everything
Our Lord’s reply is clear. “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Effectively, Jesus says, that knowledge is not yours to know. It is known to the Father. He has fixed it by His own authority. He knows. You do not. Know that He is in control and be content with the work that He has given you.
We cannot always know everything. Our minds are frail and fragile. How often have we known something just to forget a detail or call someone by the wrong name mere moments after you hear them say it? Many times the best answer that we can give is I do not know. We then leave things into the hands of those who do know. The contractor who knows how to fix the house, foundation, or driveway. The doctor who knows your body, how it interacts with various medications, and the best ones to give in order to bring you speedily to fullness of health again. In faith we trust in God who established everything at His word, and daily sustains it. He knows our natural ends and everything else about our lives.
Just look at what He has done for the salvation of our souls. The Father in love sent Jesus to take upon Himself all of our sins. He lived and perfect life in our place. He suffered and died upon the cross to give us the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls, and life with Him forever. How do we know this? God the Fathe raised Jesus from the dead as proof that His perfect sacrifice upon the cross was accepted once and for all in the sight of God.
1. Rest in the blessings the Lord has given to us while waiting for His return as He has promised.
9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” So what do we do? We do not, we cannot, know everything. We cannot see our Lord physically like the disciples did. They looked on as Jesus ascended into heaven.
Yet, notice what our Lord does while ascending? He ascends hands still raised in blessing. Still giving his people all the blessings of heaven.
In one sense, our Lord’s work is not done but continues on. As Luke opens our text, began to do and teach—a very important statement, dividing the work of Christ into two great branches: the one embracing His work on earth, the other His subsequent work from heaven; the one in His own Person, the other by His Spirit; the one the “beginning,” the other the continuance of the same work; the one complete when He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the other to continue till His second appearing; the one recorded in “The Gospels,” the beginnings only of the other related in this book of “The Acts.” “Hence the grand history of what Jesus did and taught does not conclude with His departure to the Father; but Luke now begins it in a higher strain; for all the subsequent labors of the apostles are just an exhibition of the ministry of the glorified Redeemer Himself because they were acting under His authority, and He was the principle that operated in them all” [OLSHAUSEN]
Jesus continues to be present and to speak and act in the world through His people. With all disciples of every age, we are now waiting for His return in glory as He promised. In the meantime, we are living under His rule, knowing that He is with us. We do not continue to stand looking skyward twiddling our thumbs. Rather knowing that He is still with us, who are still bound by time and space, in his Word and Sacraments, as well as in our neighbors through their everyday relationships and responsibilities. We are strengthened to do the work He has given us to do.
What work is that? The work of witnessing. We spread the same message as the disciples. While not being eyewitnesses ourselves, we spread the wonderous news of what we do know. That your sins, my sins, everyone sins have been forgiven. That death does not have the last say but Jesus does. He died and rose from the dead for you. Someday, He will return just as He has ascended, in power and glory. He will raise the dead and we will live with Him forever. What will that look like? I do not know. But I do know the One who does. The same one who rules at the right hand of the Father who was crucified and risen for me, and for you.
Do you know? Not everything, but you know the wonderous work that Christ had done, and continues, to do for you. Let us always be His witnesses, both in word and in deed, forever living in His grace and mercy until He returns.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Good Friday
March 29, 2024
Text: Isaiah 52:11-53:12
Theme: Gilded words of a Sin bearing Sufferer
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation tonight is the Old Testament lesson from the book of Isaiah the fifty-second and fifty-third chapters.
The pounding of hammer and nails. A constant cry of agony and pain…. a quick intake of breath before it is ripped away as his body slumps down with effort. The victim’s full weight borne by his wrists and feet and the points at which the spikes had been driven through them and into the wood. To breath in and out, Jesus would have to move up and down on the sipes. He would have to lift Himself up by pulling on His writs and pushing up on His feet. With any movement the spikes driven through His feet would have sent sheering pain up both legs. Likewise, with the movement upward to exhale, His arms would have rotated around the spikes causing excruciating pain to shoot through His upper body and arms. It is difficult to imagine the agonizing pain. Each breath forcing Jesus to push up on His feet, pushing His back against the cross. Shredded flesh and muscle grating against the trough timber. Every breath, exhaustion soon followed then death. Truly, crucifixion is a horrible and brutal process. One that the Romans perfected and made efficient and deadly use of, killing thousands of people. Many of those crucified were for their own sins that the criminals and murderers had brought upon themselves, harsh examples of what would happen to you if you tried to break the law against the might of Rome. A very effective deterrent to not commit a crime.
Yet, one crucifixion was different. That of Jesus our Lord. Still horrible in its agony, pain, and torment. Still brutal in its method and mockery. Jesus ”had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ” He had nothing that we should adore him. He was not strong. He was not handsome. He appeared just the same as any other human upon the earth. In fact, He was marred to the point of no longer looking like a human being. Why does this horrible pain and death happen to Him? Not because of anything sinful or wrong that He Himself has done. He is the spotless, perfect, Lamb of God. Yet, He dies.
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.5But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Did you catch it? As Luther writes, these are indeed words gilded in gold. Why does Jesus die such a horrible and painful death? Why is there a split within the Holy Trinity as the only begotten Son is estranged from His Father? Why has the Father forsaken the Son? Because of us, because of our transgressions, Our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities, our chastisement, the iniquity of us all is laid upon Him to give us peace. Our sins demanded payment in blood. Those vile deeds that we do. Our lies, our slander, our murder, our adultery, our covetousness, our stealing, our putting other gods in the place of the true God, and much more that I could name. All of this demand’s payment in blood, who pays? Because of us the Creator of the Universe is mocked, beaten, scorned, bleeds, and dies.
God established from before the foundation of the earth were laid, that He would have mercy upon us. He sends us His own Son. There, at the cross, Jesus takes our pain, our scorn, our shame, our guilt, every single one of our transgressions, our iniquities, everything is laid upon Christ. He bears it all on our behalf so that we, as sinful humans, are reconciled to a Holy and Just God now and forever. The price has been paid; Jesus’ gruesome death in place of ours.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.