Why Watch?

[Below is the sermon prepared for this past Sunday's worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. You can also view live-stream videos of both worship services. Have a good week!]

Matthew 24:36-44

Back in the days before cell phones when I was a new pastor, I was late for a wedding. Ann will vouch for me that on this occasion, my lateness wasn’t my fault. (There’s a long story about that which I won’t tell at this time.)

I’ll never forget the frenzy I was in to get to that wedding!

I drove at seventy miles an hour on country roads in Defiance County to make it.

Once I’d arrived, I saw the entire bridal party, including the bride and the groom, already standing before the altar while the organist, stalling for time, improvised the world’s longest version of Here Comes the Bride.

At last, sweaty and disheveled, I took my place before the couple. The groom leaned forward and whispered to me, “I knew you’d make it, pastor.”

I patted him on the hand and said, “You have more faith than I do.” 

The word advent, for which this season is named, means arrival or appearance. During Advent, we remember the first appearance of God among us in Jesus Christ on the first Christmas.

We also remember that Jesus will one day appear again.

In His second coming, He will judge the living and the dead and He will fully establish the Kingdom of God.

To those who have rejected Jesus’ gifts of forgiveness and new life, Jesus will say, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41)

To those who have lived in the daily repentance and faith to which the crucified and risen Jesus calls all people, He will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

For believers in Jesus, His second advent on what the Bible calls the Day of the Lord, will be vindication for trusting in Him. Jesus will prove good for His promise: “....the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)

In today’s gospel lesson, Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus calls us to believe in Him not just to take care of us when we die, rise, and go to Him, but also to trust that one day, He will return to this physical universe He created and make all things right.

The crucified and risen Jesus intends to make His whole creation, from human beings made in His image who trust in Him all the way down to the smallest atom, new, eternal, healthy, sinless, pulsing with the very life of God!

Four times in today’s lesson alone, Jesus promises that He will be back. This is a gospel promise.

Jesus calls us to be as watchful for and certain of His return as that bride and groom were for me on their wedding day.

Jesus says that the people of Noah’s day were so caught up in living their everyday lives, like we can be, that they weren’t ready for the flood. They weren’t watching for God to act. As a result, they were all taken away and only eight faithful people who anticipated God’s action were left behind to live in God’s provision and grace.

Jesus tells us that no one knows the day of His return, but that we should always be watching for it. You “must be ready,” He tells us, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Matthew 24:44)

So, why? If the day of Jesus’ return is in His hands, not ours, why do we need to be watchful for it?

New Testament scholar Jeffrey Gibbs rightly says that we can only speculate as to why Jesus tells us to watch for Him. But Gibbs offers five possible reasons that, I hope, will help you watch for Jesus not just in Advent, but in your whole life.

First: If we fail to watch for Jesus, we can lose our faith and fall away from Jesus. When we forget that Jesus is returning to judge the living and the dead, we can make ourselves “open…to distraction and temptation.” The time between Jesus’ first advent on the first Christmas and His second advent is, as Gibbs says, a time of great spiritual danger for all Christians.

A pastor Ann and I knew was well-loved by his family and congregants, a magnet for new members, an excellent preacher. But over time, being successful and comfortable became more important to him. He annually charmed his congregation into big pay increases, took up hobbies that occupied chunks of his time, seemed always to be buying or wanting something new, and eventually, left his wife for another woman. Quite simply, he had stopped watching for Jesus. I don’t know if that pastor ever repented, I pray he did. But when I learned of his death several years later, I couldn’t help reflecting on how sad it is when we Christians take their eyes off Jesus!

The apostle Peter tells us: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

A second reason to keep watching for Jesus: We can forget what we’ve been given to do as disciples. Every baptized believer in Jesus has been given a mission and the ability to do our part in it. We’re to make disciples by sharing Christ and His gospel with others. But if our focus is always on our careers, our kids, our happiness, our leisure, we’ll forget all about our mission as Christians. Christ empowers us to care about whether our neighbors know that Jesus is coming back one day. When we forget Christ, we lose our power to love as we’ve been loved.

Third: When we forget to watch for Christ, we can start to think that the world around us doesn’t matter. But it does matter! The Bible says: “​​This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9) When Jesus comes back, it will be to save the world, the cosmos. He cares about it and calls us to care about it too.

Fourth: When we forget to watch for Christ’s return, “we can get discouraged,” deciding just to pull back and just survive.

Early in one of my favorite movies, Casablanca, its main character, Rick, says, “I stick my neck out for nobody.” That’s the motto of a person who’s given up all hope in God. You even hear it from people who call themselves Christians. The preachers of false gospels lie to you and tell you that if you just “believe in Jesus,” your life will be trouble-free, even prosperous. But God’s Word tells us, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 16:19)

When we watch for Jesus’ return, we can face the challenges and adversities of this life, even stick our necks out for our neighbors, knowing that Jesus will give eternity to those who watch for Him!

Fifth: In watching for Jesus’ return, we look for the One everyone secretly longs to see. Billy Graham told the story of a missionary in China who was stopped by an elderly man on the streets. What brought the missionary to China, the man wondered. The missionary began to tell Him about Jesus: how God so loved the world He sent His one and only Son so that all who turned from sin and believed in Him would have everlasting life with God. The old man began to weep. He said, “All my life I knew He was there, I just didn’t know His name.”

Dear friends in Christ, you and I know the name of Jesus.

We have been blessed to be baptized into His name, His death, and His resurrection.

We have heard His Word of all Law that calls us to repentance and His Word of Gospel that assures us of His love and teaches us that we can trust in Him for life and wholeness, forgiveness and peace.

We know that one day, He will return, as the Bible tells it, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead [who have trusted in Christ, watched for Him], will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:52)

Today, Jesus tells you that as surely as He died and rose for you, He will return for you!

When we see Him, all who have watched for him will be able to say, “I knew you’d make it, Jesus.”

Watch for Jesus, dear friends, because, out of His infinite love for you, He is watching for you! Amen

The Old Testament Book of Daniel, Part 18

I got off to a skittish start on this one, late getting to my computer after running an errand following tonight's midweek Advent Vespers worship and subsequent kindness outreach. But I think I clarified things along the way. 

Chapter 8 of Daniel, which this study examines, is often overlooked. It deserves our attention as it assures us that God is acting even in the most trying circumstances of life and history to give life and forgiveness to all who trust in Him!

The Old Testament Book of Daniel, Part 17

The Old Testament Book of Daniel, Part 16

The King on the Cross

[Below you'll find the message shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville Ohio, earlier today. You'll also be able to view both worship services. Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church Year.]

Luke 23:27-43

In today’s Gospel lesson, we read what may be the unlikeliest prayer ever. One of the criminals crucified with Jesus says to the Lord, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42)

Here, the second criminal to speak at Jesus’ crucifixion confesses his belief that Jesus is the King of all kings.

More than that, we see he believes that Jesus, beyond death, will claim His eternal kingdom.

There are two things that make this prayer so unlikely.

The first is that a dying man, like Jesus, doesn’t look like someone about to claim a crown.

The second is that at this moment, the whole world seems to be mocking Jesus. The Jewish religious authorities, the Roman soldiers, and the other criminal being crucified all mock Him, challenging Jesus to save Himself as He had saved others. Even the sign on Jesus’ cross mocks Him. “I-N-R-I,” it says, abbreviating the Latin phrase, “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum,” “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

Yet, the second criminal prays to Jesus as his King, God the Son, and asks to be part of Jesus’ eternal kingdom. How does this man know that Jesus is King and that even he, who Luke describes in the Greek in which he wrote his gospel, as an “evil doer,” can be part of Jesus’ kingdom?

The second criminal knows these things for the same reason you and I–and anyone else–can know that Jesus is King and that we can be part of His kingdom. On the cross, Jesus preached the good news of new and everlasting life with God for all who repent and believe in Him. This happened when Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Now, it’s obvious that this is an incredibly gracious prayer. Jesus is praying that the Father will forgive those who are killing Him! But who exactly is killing Jesus?

We find our answer in the three predictions Jesus makes of His crucifixion as recorded by Luke.

In the first, Jesus says that His fellow Jews will crucify Him. (Luke 9:22)

In the second, He says that “men,” that is, all humanity, will put Him on the cross. (Luke 9:44)

In the third, Jesus says that Gentiles, non-Jews like you and me, represented by the Romans, will crucify Him. (Luke 18:32)

Every one of us, by our sinful natures, by the sins we commit and the righteous thoughts we fail to hold and the righteous deeds we fail to do, are responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion.

So, in this prayer, Jesus prays for the forgiveness of us all, the whole human race, including you and me. Jesus prays that all of us who crucify Him will be sheltered in the grace that He, the sinless King Who died and rose for sinners, can give. Jesus prays for you!

In Jesus’ prayer, the second criminal heard both the Law that condemns sin and the Gospel that sets those who believe in Him free from our common human slavery to sin. In response to the conviction of his sins by God’s Law by confessing his sin, just as we do every time we gather to worship. “We are punished justly,” he tells the other criminal, “for we are getting what our deeds deserve.” (Luke 23:41)

But in Jesus’ prayer, this man also heard the words of the King of all creation, “the image of the invisible God,” according to our lesson from Colossians for today, the One through Whom “all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:13, 16-17)

He knew that Jesus had power over everything! In the Word of Gospel Jesus spoke in His prayer, although His body was bloodied and broken, the second criminal saw the King and Maker of all things Who would not be deterred from loving His children or dying for our salvation even as He was dying at our hands. And so, the criminal confesses faith in Jesus, asking Jesus to remember him when He claims His Kingdom, which Jesus will do on Easter Sunday morning.

To this man, an inveterate evildoer and a criminal his whole life, Jesus speaks a Word of gospel promise: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) Notice that Jesus lays down no pre-conditions for the man to earn his salvation. The Word of God from Jesus has led the man to believe and that is all that sinners like you and me need to be assured that one day, we too will be with Jesus in paradise! 

The two criminals in our gospel lesson show us that there are really only two possible ways we can respond to Jesus on the cross. 

The first possible response is for us to hate Jesus. You see, if my sin and your sin is so serious that it requires the sinless Son of God to die for me, there’s no way I can deny that I’m a sinner. The death of the innocent Savior Jesus shows us that we all are, as the apostle Paul writes in Romans, “filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity…full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice…gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; [inventors of] evil;…[people with] no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.” (Romans 1:29-31)

I’ve read that passage to some people and heard them say, “Sounds like Congress.” But I say, we all need to look in the mirror. In truth, it sounds like every single one of us. 

You may say you don’t know anybody who hates Jesus. But, friends, have you ever heard anybody say—or, have you yourself ever said—“Jesus was a great teacher” or “Jesus was a good man” or some such nonsense? When human beings say things like this, they’re really saying they reject God’s verdict on the sinful nature into which each and every one of us was born.

The ancient saints knew this.

David, called out for adultery and murder, knew that while he was made a saint by God’s grace through faith in God, he was nonetheless a sinner. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5)

And Job, despite his faith in God, knew that he had inherited sinful impulses from a fallen human race: “Who can bring what is pure from the impure?” he asks, then answers, “No one!” (Job 14:4)

You see, we like to delude ourselves that we’re just good enough to earn God’s forgiveness, just righteous enough to earn a place in His kingdom. The King of all kings blows that foolishness to bits. You and I, folks, by our sinful nature and the sins we commit because of it are what drove the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet!

But, there is a second response we can have to Jesus hanging on the cross: We can hate our sins.

This was the response of the second evildoer. He knew that he deserved to die for his sins. He was horrified that his sins required Jesus to suffer so much. He was overwhelmed with gratitude that God would stoop all the way down to a cross because of His love for us. The man hated what he, by the decisions he’d made, the wrongs he’d done, and the good he’d failed to do, all of which had brought Jesus to this place of torment, mockery, and death.

When, by the power of God’s Word, we hate our sins enough to see the King on the cross as our God and Savior, we know to pray, “Jesus, remember me in Your Kingdom.”

And we can know that Jesus will remember us and does remember us even now!

God’s Word is clear: “…the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Dear friends in Christ, this gospel word is for you too.

Christ the King has died for you.

He offered Himself up as the perfect sacrifice for your sin.

He prayed and still prays that you might know God’s forgiveness.

And to those who turn to Him in repentant faith, He offers life with God that never ends.

Elsewhere, Jesus says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

May we daily listen to God’s Word that leads us to hate our sin and to love our King, Jesus, and so be assured of our place in His kingdom always. Amen

The Old Testament Book of Daniel, Part 15

The Old Testament Book of Daniel, Part 14

Two Great Promises for the Grieving

[This message was shared this afternoon at the funeral for Dorothy.]

Psalm 23

Romans 8:31-39

I only met Dorothy a few times at Baptisms. She was friendly and open. 

But last week, as I met with Loretta and Karen and some of the family, I learned of a warm and adventurous person who happily took on challenges–like making wedding gowns and bridal party dresses–and who dealt with life with good humor. 

She liked to mark holidays in a big way, putting up decorations and sending out cards with notes. She wrote Christmas letters and letters for special occasions. She did for others, including not just family members, but also neighbors and friends.

I loved hearing about how she and her family dealt with the inevitable conflicts that arise in any family. She spoke her mind and the other family member spoke theirs, then there would be peace between them. It reminds me of what God’s Word says: “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day.” (Ephesians 4:26, Good News Translation) In other words, dust-ups between people who love each other are inevitable; but by God’s power, our call is to resolve our disagreements, forgive each other, and move on. Dorothy seemed to live this.

She was well-loved. I like what Mason wrote in one of his notes to me during my meeting with the family last week: “She always cared for us…She never been rude to us…She is loved.” That’s a great eulogy by an eight-year-old!

But in the midst of your sorrow today, God’s Word brings you all both comfort and hope. Both of the Bible passages the family has chosen for today bring these two gifts from God.

Psalm 23 is the most famous of the 150 hymns that make up the Old Testament book of Psalms. Its composer, King David, was a shepherd. So, not surprisingly, David saw God as the shepherd of people who put their trust in God. 

Sheep, it should be said, are stupid. They easily get lost, wandering off for the next enticing thatch of grass, heedless of danger. They’re defenseless against predators, just like you and I are subject to the dangers of sin, death, and temptation. Just as sheep need shepherds, we need God, our good shepherd, to lead us away from sin, death, darkness, and despair, to lead us to forgiveness, life, hope, and peace.

Jesus, God the Son, called Himself “the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.” But ten centuries before Jesus’ birth, David could see that God wanted nothing more than to shepherd, to lead, anyone who trusts in Him through the hard moments of this life into an eternity with God beyond all grief, tears, or goodbyes.

David writes in our psalm, which is a kind of love song to God: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing…Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:1-4) The God we know in Jesus doesn’t run away when we grieve or hurt. He stands with us. He walks with us. And because He's been through grief and death, He understands us when we go through the same things!

But He does more than that. Psalm 23 also says: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies [even the enemies of death and grief and the sin that alienate us from God and others]. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows…” (Psalm 23:5) Because, as our other lesson from Romans 8, reminds us, nothing can separate us from the love the good shepherd Jesus has for us, we can know, with King David that God’s “goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6)

You and I have an advantage over King David. He knew God through God’s Word and God’s promises, to be sure. He had experienced God’s love and God’s power and God’s forgiveness in the depths of grief and heartache, as well as his own sin. But today, you and I can see and experience the greatness of God’s love for us more certainly. In Jesus Christ, God the Son, God took on our human flesh and He became our servant, dying on a cross bearing our sin and our death in His sinless body. God absorbed all our sin and death and grief into Himself on the cross so that, when God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, He could open up life with God for all who repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus told the grief-stricken Martha, and He tells you today: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die…” (John 11:25-26)

In the crucified Jesus Christ, God promises to be with you in every situation that life in this fallen, imperfect, and sometimes hurtful world may bring. 

In the risen Jesus Christ, God promises that He will be our good shepherd even beyond the gates of death, leading us to an eternity where there is no more grief, no more tears, and where all who have died trusting in Christ will be with God. 

Friends, as you trust in Jesus as Dorothy trusted in Jesus, you can be sure that you will live in God’s house along with her forever.

Who knows? She may already be planning what cookies she’ll bake for your arrival. May God bless and comfort you all in the promise of Jesus’ resurrection! Amen