Have You Heard?
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 1940 Loving—Whether Good or Bad
1940 Loving—Whether Good Or Bad
Mark Guy Pearse used to tell of the time he overheard one of his children admonishing the other, “You must be good or Father won’t love you.”
Calling the boy to him he said, “Son, that isn’t really true.”
“But you won’t love us if we are bad, will you?” the boy asked.
“Yes, I will love you whether you are good or bad,” Pearse explained. “But there will be a difference in my love. When you are good I will love you with a love that makes me glad; and when you are not good I will love you with a love that hurts me.”
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Aaron had just died, God’s judgment upon him for his part at Meribah, when the children of Israel murmured against God because they lacked water (Numbers 20:10-13) (Numbers 20:23-26).
After 30 days of mourning, and a successful battle with the Canaanite king of Arad, Israel departs Mount Hor, and again they complain against God regarding His love for them, saying that He was failing to provide for them. God responded to this rebellion with a judgment of fiery, poisonous serpents, whose bite was fatal.
The Children of Israel sinned repeatedly against God in this way. When we complain rather than praise God in the midst of the cares of this life, we follow in their footsteps. We do this out of our weakness, out of our pain, but most importantly, out of our sin. God could leave us in our foolish state, but in His stern kindness God leads us to repentance, if we don’t harden ourselves against it.
Our response to God’s righteous judgments
Rejection
Repentance
The Children of Israel repented, asking Moses to intercede for them. In response, God directs Moses to make a Bronze serpent and place it upon a pole. Whoever looked upon it would be delivered from the effects of the venom. The means of grace provided by God did not remove the serpents, but it did block the impact of their bite.
Ap IV:86 Since we receive the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation on account of Christ by faith alone, faith alone justifies. This is because those who are reconciled are regarded as righteous and children of God, not on account of their own purity, but through mercy on account of Christ, as long as they take hold of this mercy by faith.
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Jesus looks back to that day of judgment to teach Nicodemus the reason why He had come:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
What Jesus said that night to Nicodemus, His Church proclaims to the world through the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. We share the Good News that Jesus Christ died “for you.” God loved us with a love that hurt Himself. As we respond to that message in faith, we obtain peace, healing, and eternal life as our Lord loves us with a love that makes HIm and us glad - a love that God freely offers to us in Christ.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
This passage speaks of something called ἡ κρίσις - the crisis, traslated here as “the judgment.” It is that moment when we must choose between light and darkness, between the love of God and the love of the world. That light does not lead to the Gospel, it is the Gospel, for it is Christ. Christ comes to us, high and lifted up, and we must choose to either look upon Him and live, in the midst of this fallen creation, or look away and die. It is an issue, not of reasoning, but of letting go and clinging. Will you let go of your own understanding and cling to Christ, or will you reject Him and cling to Satan’s lies?
Being in the church house on Sunday is only part of that. Here, we remind you and refresh you with God’s promises, “which are yes and Amen in Christ.” If you leave those promises here, instead of taking them with you in to the world, they will do you no good, in fact, those words of comfort will be the witnesses at your condemnation on the last day.
Some ask, “why so many churches?” I ask, “why so much sin?”
Why, in the face of God’s clear love for us in the face of Christ, do we hate one another so much that we treat each other like prey rather than brothers and sisters for whom we pray? Why do we seek our own pleasure rather than our neighbor’s good? Why do we seek to be served rather than to serve? This is not what Christ did - instead, He gave His life as a ransom for many.
Look on Him and live. Be strengthened to live in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, to live as lights in the midst of darkness. To make peace instead of sow seeds of destruction. This is the reason why Christ came, in order to take away the sin of the world, not just the actions and refusals to act, but the very power of sin itself. He, the Lord of all, became the Suffering Servant of all, so that we could be set free from the slavery of sin and death. If that isn’t Good News, someone please tell me what is!
People say that they want a just world, a world where everyone gets treated with love, decency and respect. Then why do we reject the one message that transforms those who hear it? Why? The hardness of our hearts, not the weakness of God, is our problem.
20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
There may be hypocrits in the church, but the Gospel offers everything that the world admits that it needs, along with the one thing that nothing else has - the power of God to transform those who receive it by faith. That promise is something that no idea of man, no system of man, no philosophy of man can offer.
We have heard the joyful sound:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to ev'ry land,
Climb the steeps and cross the waves;
Onward! 'tis our Lord's command;
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Give the winds a mighty voice:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Let the nations now rejoice:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Shout salvation full and free,
Highest hills and deepest caves;
This our song of victory:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
To the utmost, Jesus saves! (2x)
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Jesus saves!
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.