The Beginning

[Here's the message from this past Sunday's worship services from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. You'll also find live-stream video of both worship services. (I personally feel that the sermon at the second service went better than the one at the first.)]

Mark 1:1-8

Last Sunday, as we began the season of Advent, we talked about the End. Today, we talk about the Beginning.

Mark opens the gospel lesson for today by saying, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah [or, the Christ, God’s Anointed One], the Son of God…” (Mark 1:1)

In these few words, Mark does several things.

First, he gives you the title of the book that the Holy Spirit has inspired him to write. I’m convinced that if Mark were here with us right now, he would be horrified to learn that we refer to his book as “the Gospel of Mark.” Mark is not the Gospel. He’s not the good news. Mark presents the good news of Jesus, even if it’s helpful to refer to the Gospel of Mark to distinguish it from the other three books that tell us about Jesus. But truly, this book is about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

From Mark’s perspective, his whole narration of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is “The Beginning of the good news [or Gospel] about Jesus the Christ…” Even at the end of Mark’s book, the Gospel, the saving good news that Jesus, the Son of God, second Person of the Trinity, has died to take God’s wrath for sin and sinners onto Himself, then rose from the dead to tear open eternity with God for all who repent and believe, is just the beginning of what Jesus’ Gospel will do.

This Gospel will keep going, bringing new beginnings to all who believe, until Jesus returns.

But in his opening verse–”The beginning of the good news about Jesus”--Mark also tells you that Jesus didn’t just spring out of nowhere unexpectedly. Jesus was promised long ago.

The beginning of the gospel goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, God said that One would come Who, on behalf of us all, would crush evil underfoot to give us life. (Genesis 3:15)

And we see that promise repeatedly in the Old Testament. Job lived about the same time as Abraham, two-thousand years before the birth of Jesus, and kept trusting in God when he suffered unbearable horrors. He confessed his faith in God to his fickle friends and said, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God…” (Job 19:25-27)

The Gospel began then, when God, His heart broken over the refusal of the first humans to keep trusting in Him, wanting to be gods themselves, issued His promises–His good news or gospel promises–of restoration, forgiveness, and life through patriarchs, preachers, prophets, and ordinary believers.

We hear this promise to us again in this morning’s Old Testament lesson. God, through Isaiah, who lived 700 years before Jesus’ birth, delivers promises of the Savior to come, saying of Him, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart…” (Isaiah 40:11)

Back in today’s gospel lesson, Mark quotes two Old Testament passages to describe the beginning of the unveiling of the Gospel about Jesus, the anointed King of kings, Who is also God the Son. He cites God’s promise from Malachi: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way…” (Malachi 3:1) Then, from Isaiah: “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” (Isaiah 40:3)

So, not only do the prophets foretell the coming of the Messiah, but they also foretell the coming of the forerunner who would prepare for the revelation of the Messiah, the Savior.

And here we come to the crux of what Mark is telling us today. The Gospel of new life with God that never ends begins to come to the whole world, Gentiles as well as Jews, when this strange man who dresses like the Old Testament prophet Elijah–who wears “clothing made of camel’s hair…[and eats] locusts and wild honey” not the kind of person you’d likely invite to the Christmas party–the Gospel begins to come to us when John the Baptizer starts his ministry.

Mark says that John “appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…” (Mark 1:4)

Now, if you think I’ve duped you with a bunch of talk about good news and God’s love for you only to start talking about repentance and are thinking of checking out of whatever else I have to say, you may misunderstand what repentance is. So, hear me out, please.

Repentance does entail sorrow for our sin. But if you think it’s all about wearing a solemn face, putting on sackcloth and ashes, or crying tears for sins you enjoyed and will only regret if you have to, you need to know that repentance is more than grief over wrongdoing.

As a boy, I started taking trumpet lessons. My cousin Gary, who was about fifteen years older than me, had been a talented trumpet player, gave me his trumpet. I did well practicing. At first. But one weekend, I left the trumpet at school and when Mr. Barnard, the band director, asked me if I’d practiced on Saturday or Sunday, I lied, telling him I had. He then produced my trumpet. It happened that day that Gary was at our house and came to the school with my mom to pick me up. Mr. Barnard went with me to the car to tell my mom about my failure to practice and about my lie.

I was filled with sorrow, not so much because I got caught, but because I hadn’t wanted to disappoint my cousin. Repentance begins with sorrow over disappointing the One Who gave you life and, through His death and resurrection, gave you new life.

But the repentance to which God calls us through prophets like John the Baptist and through His Word today doesn’t end in sorrow. Mark tells us today that John’s preaching brought throngs of people into the wilderness to hear his call to repent. Then Mark tells us, “Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” (Mark 1:5) They confessed their sins.

Martin Luther writes in The Small Catechism that “confession consists of two parts. One is that we confess our sins and the other is that we receive absolution, or forgiveness, from the confessor as from God Himself, in no way doubting, but firmly believing that our sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.”

I was called to a hospital ER one night when a man who had been attending the church I served was found by a friend, just as he was about to take his own life. For all kinds of reasons, he was riddled by guilt, fear, and self-loathing. When he saw me, he begged me to go away at first. He couldn’t believe that God could love or forgive him. But over time, this man who had heard the gospel many times, and would, like us all, need to hear it in the word spoken, and read and need to receive it in Holy Communion would begin to believe that the gospel was for him too. He could accept that he too was a child of God for whom Jesus shed his blood and rose to open up life with God, both now and in eternity, to him.

John the Baptizer didn’t come into the world to lay an eternal guilt trip on us, friends. The Old Testament Hebrew word for repent is shuv, meaning turn around. The New Testament Greek word for repent is metanoia, meaning to have one’s mind changed.

John the Baptist came to bring the Word from God that will first bring us to sorrow for sin and then turn us around, change our minds, enabling us to see that God is not our enemy, but our best Friend.

God hates our sin and all that it does to us. Sin brings death, bloodshed, contention, hatred, selfishness, greed: all the things the bedevil and kill us. We need God’s forgiveness for sin, given to us freely in Christ. But when, through His Word and the Sacraments, the God we know in Jesus works repentance in us, He turns us from sorrow to the joys of life, freedom, reconciliation, and a hope beyond the grave that spills its blessings and wonders on each day we live in this world.

God’s Gospel promise is for you today: “Return to me...and I will return to you…” (Zechariah 1:3)

So Jesus says: “The kingdom of God has come near [in Jesus Himself]. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

Repentance isn’t something you and I have to do to please an angry God. It is a gift from God, given in His Word. Through His Word, He repents you, turning you away from separation from God and others. Repentance prepares you to receive another gift from God, the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life with God. As God turns us to Jesus Christ, we know, as God’s Word promises, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1)

In Jesus Christ, your sin condition, the condition that causes you to think of yourself over God and others, and all the sins you’ve ever committed because of that condition, are totally and forever forgiven, forgotten, destroyed, done away with.

As we live in daily repentance and faith, the old self dies and the new self rises to live with God “in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”

And that, friends, for all of us, is “the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,” a gracious, loving beginning that will never end for anyone who daily takes shelter in Jesus, our only King, our only God, and our only Savior. Amen

The Future is in Christ's Hands (Understanding Revelation, Part 2)

Revelation 5:1-14

Last Sunday, we began a five-part series called Understanding Revelation. Near the end of last week's message, I told you, “We can trust in Jesus no matter what.”

Today, we’re going to look at what God revealed to John to assure him and us that we can trust Jesus, even though before this world ends and even though in the course of our own lives, many horrific things are bound to happen.

The universe undergoes cosmic convulsions of evil even as God’s people, the Church, go about our business of making disciples and being His kingdom and His priests, His ambassadors to a dying world offering the only way to life: the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

God reveals this fact to John and through John, to us, so that we will never lose heart. In the end, God wins. And so do those who surrender their lives to Christ.

The first three chapters of Revelation recount the messages Jesus revealed to John for seven churches in Asia Minor, a place we know as Turkey today.

In the fourth chapter, the scene changes.

As he worships, John finds himself swept up into the heavenly throne room. There, God the Father sits on His throne, receiving the praises of four living creatures, who represent all of God’s creation praising and surrendering to God.

Whenever these creatures begin to praise God, twenty-four elders place their crowns at God’s feet, representing the total surrender of the human race, even the most powerful members of the human race, to God.

Angels and elders together, John saw, were praising God: “‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” [Revelation 4:11].

Nobody and nothing besides this God, heaven is saying, is worthy of our surrender, our praise. That’s important to remember as we shift to Revelation 5, where today’s second lesson is found.

Take a look, please, starting at Revelation 5:1. John is the writer: “Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?’”

In ancient times, kings and other officials would seal important or secret documents with wax or clay into which they would press their signets.

The scroll held in God’s right hand contained information on seven evils that will befall (and, I should add, have befallen and are befalling) this world before the day when Jesus returns and fully establishes the new heaven and new earth, the place that will be inhabited by His Church, the people who turn from sin and persist in trusting in Him for life with God.

A mighty angel asks who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and reveal its content to believers. If brute strength were what was required to break the seals, the mighty angel could have taken care of the job. But the question isn’t strength; the question is worthiness.

Listen: When we face problems in our lives, we often try to power our ways through.

Relationship issues? Our inclination is to either push to get our way or to give up.

Health or fitness? Our impulse is to rely on our willpower (which usually gives out) or to resign ourselves to whatever.

When we try to face life’s challenges or to unravel the meaning behind them with our own strength, or intellect, or willpower, we come up empty, no matter what the supposed self-made or self-made women of the world claim.

But you and I don’t have to go it alone in dealing with the challenges of life. God is more than able and willing to help us every step of the way!

Who, the mighty angel asks, is worthy of breaking the seals on the scroll? Take a look at what comes next, starting at verse 3: “But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’”

The “Lion of Judah, the Root of David” is the one Who, in earthly terms, became David’s descendant, born in David’s city of Bethlehem, Whose earthly parents were descendants of David, Mary and Joseph. It was from this family tree that the Old Testament said that the Messiah, the Savior of the world, would come.

In Isaiah 11:1 and 10, written nearly eight-hundred years before the birth of Jesus, we’re told that a descendant of David’s father Jesse would be the world’s saving king:

• “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” 
• “...the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him…” 

Because Jesus has triumphed, one of the elders tells John, he can stop his weeping, and Jesus can open the seals. Jesus is the only One Who can open up the future to us.

Next comes a few verses with strange imagery. (As if what we've already read isn't strange, right?) Verse 6: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.”

You’ve got to keep your mind nimble here!

A slain Lamb doesn’t, on the face of it, seem like one who has triumphed. The world might call Him a loser. (A term we seem to be hearing thrown around a lot this year.)

But the Lion of Judah is also the Lamb. The Lion is the King of the jungle. A Lamb is weak and submissive. This is the paradox of Jesus that drives the world crazy when it comes to receiving Jesus.

How can the Lamb who was slain help anyone?

By bearing our sin for us on the cross.

By having the strength to bear the punishment we deserved and He didn’t.

“Look,” John the Baptist said of Jesus when he saw Jesus near the banks of the Jordan, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” [John 1:29]

In the end, it’s only the Lion Who is the Lamb Who can help us!

Read on, please: “The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” All we need to know here is that seven is the number of completeness. There is nothing that needs added to or taken away from Jesus for Him to be all that He is. He is perfect. He’s worthy of our worship.

Read again, starting at verse 7: "He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp [I really wish they had guitars instead!] and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people [Now you know why our Roman Catholic friends use incense in worship, symbolizing their worship and prayers ascending to God in heaven.]. And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’”

The worship and praise Jesus receives in God’s heavenly throne room looks a lot like the praises given earlier to God the Father.

That’s because Jesus is God.

When we trust in Jesus, we have direct access to God. We don’t need sigils, horoscopes, or Ouija boards. Through Jesus, we know that we don't need to do good works to get God's attention.*  All we must do is turn to Him trustingly, repentantly!

Whatever the future holds--whatever is revealed in the seven scrolls that Jesus alone is worthy to break open--we who trust in Christ belong to God.

God’s Word to ancient Israel is true as well to those who make up His Church, people who believe in Christ: “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” [Isaiah 49:16].

Even when we forget God, He never forgets us.

Even when we sin, He never forgets His love for us, and when we truly repent, He never fails to forgive us and restore our relationship with Him.

Even when we walk away from God, He tells us through Christ: “Return to Me, and I will return to you” [Zechariah 1:3].

Jesus is worthy to break the seals on the scroll because He died and rose for us. “You were slain,” the worshipers say, “and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Through His blood, Jesus has purchased us out of our slavery to sin and death and He has given us life. If He can do that--if He can set sinners free, if He can breathe new life into dead bones--then the Lamb of God can also give all who trust in Him the power to face whatever this life throws at us!

Do you trust in Him today? He can be trusted!

So, four take-aways from Revelation today.

• God is still reigning, still in control, even when it seems that the devil, the world, and our sinful selves have pushed Him off His throne. The present is in His hand. There’s no valley He can’t take you through, no sin of yours He can’t forgive. 
• Jesus is God the Son. The future is in His hand. Jesus, the Lamb of God, can make every part of your life new. 
• We who believe in Jesus are His kingdom and His priests. As His priests, we to tell the world the good news of new life for all who turn from sin and trust in Him as their God and King. As priests, we also to pray for the world, including the people who hate us, the people we find difficult, and the situations that seem hopeless. 
• In all things, in all ways, at all times, we are to worship the God we know in Jesus. Not just on Sunday mornings, but at work, at school, at leisure. We worship God whenever we choose to love God and love neighbor even when we don’t want to. When we choose to seek and follow the will of God, rather than doing what we want to do.

Maybe you thought Revelation was just about some grim future we must endure. The truth is that it’s really about trusting in Jesus Christ here and now no matter what because we know that He’s already triumphed over evil and He truly is the Lord of the universe. Amen

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio, yesterday.]

*Of course, the person saved by God's grace (God's charity) through their faith in Jesus Christ will want to do good works--works of love for God and love for neighbor--out of gratitude for God's grace which saves us from sin and death. In fact, God has already prepared good works for the saved person to do in His name and power. Check out Ephesians 2:8-10.