He was raised for our Justification.
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Winter Haven, FL 33884
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GOD WILLING THE AUDIO OF THIS SERMON WILL BE AVAILABLE AFTER IT IS PREACHED on this wedsite.
Trinity XVII, October 13, 2019, W.H.
Hebrews 3:1-6
In the name of him who is always faithful,
Dear Fellow-Redeemed:
Last week, we considered “Bethel”, the house of God and how to properly use it. Today’s text speaks about God’s family, those who gather in God’s house. These words from God
encourage us as we learn about those who gather as people…
We are partakers of the heavenly calling.
This is our theme. Two points follow. God's family is faithful and
we enjoy the high calling as the family of God. The text affirm:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful.
The writer points us to Jesus. He calls Jesus faithful. Jesus was faithful for a for a purpose. An Apostle is one who was sent. Jesus was sent for a purpose; be faithful on behalf of faithless people. Jesus is faithful because we are not. He did it for us.
We strive but we struggle. We think faithfulness is some-thing we can achieve but we fail. We fail God. We fail each other. Being unfaithful is our nature. It is no surprise.
God speaks words hard to hear. Through Paul, God says,
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, we shall be saved by his life." and again, "For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Rm 5:6&10
God says we are enemies, without strength. In matters between ourselves and the holy God, we are helpless. It is our nature.
God is our strength. God is our help. God reconciles us to
Himself. He sets before our eyes, the Son, His Son.
Consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. He was found faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.
Jesus is God. He is the Son of the household. He had power we do not have. He was born perfect. He was faithful for us.
An apostle is someone sent like an ambassador. Jesus said,
As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. Jn 20:21
God sent Jesus as the Apostle of God’s love. Jesus said,
No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. Jn3: 13 And again, He who has seen Me has seen the Father. Jn14:9
The Son saw the splendor of the holy God. He saw the glory of heaven. He was sent to show us what we could not even imagine, treasures beyond our dreams. He came to show us the Father, the face of God. He is the face of God.
God also appointed Him our High Priest. A priest is involved in sacrifices. A priest is the go-between for sinners with God.
Jesus is that priest. He not only offered the great sacrifice for all sins. He, Himself, was the sacrifice. Upon the altar of the cross, He shed His blood, the blood of the spotless Lamb of God shed in payment for a world of sinners.
God vented His anger on Jesus instead of us. We are cleansed and forgiven. In Christ, God can call us holy brethren.
We are holy because Jesus was holy for us. We are the family.
For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over the house.
God compared His Son to Moses. Actually, the comparison is
backward. Through Moses, God made a promise to His people:
The Lord Your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers-it is to Him you shall listen. Deuteronomy 18:15:
We respect no one man, honor no one man, glorify no one man as Israel did Moses. Israel never forgot Moses. In Israel in Jesus' day, no one had more influence, respect, or honor than Moses. He was the great man of history, faithful to God’s household. He was a faithful servant. Even God granted him
honor. But through it all Moses was simply a servant.
Greater than Moses is Jesus Christ. He is the Son of the household of God. He is the builder of the household itself. He built God's church by being a faithful servant.
This is truly remarkable. He, who had the glory of being God, humbled Himself unto death, even death on a to bring honor and glory and peace and salvation to us, people who had been God's enemies. He became our servant so that we, who served sin, could be God’s children. Such was Jesus' faithfulness. And this is His reward. He has all the glory of all creation.
His faithfulness inspires us to be faithful. We read again,
Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
The hardest thing in the world to believe is that God loves us in spite of what we have done. The evil one would trap us in sin. He would even have us behave decently while doubting God's love than have us become a murderer. A murderer can be forgiven. An unbeliever is always outside God's family.
Consequently, God regularly and in many ways reminds us of
His love. We are reconciled to the Father. God says it so well.
You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air...we were by nature children of wrath...but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved,) and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Eph 2:
This, we have in God’s house as His family of believers. We are saints without having done anything. We are holy people in God’s kingdom without qualification. We are members of the purest, most wonderful kingdom there is. We are God's church. His love, His dedication gives us the certain hope of life eternal.
Jesus inspires us, to be faithful. He inspires us to be happy to be His brothers and sisters. He inspires us to be grateful. He inspires us to live as members of His household should live.
Because He loves us, we will want to behave. We have the privilege of behaving. We are the most faithful when we hold fast to the hope we have in Christ, the hope of eternal life, His love. When we have that hope, we live that hope.
There is one last thing to say, based on this text. It is the characteristic of those of the household of God to persevere, hold out until Judgment day. This may seem to be the tough part. We are always being tempted to stray. The devil is strong.
In His house, God promises to keep us in the faith to which He has called us. We, on our part, listen to His promises. We flee temptation. We let him give us strength by hearing His word. We come to His house and received the faith building food of His supper. We allow him to keep us in the faith unto the end.
It is not hard. It is the privilege of the faithful to be in the
house of the holy God. It could be our motto:
Be thou faithful unto death and I will thee a crown of life.
Amen. Soli Gloria Deo.
September 23, 2019, Audrey Walsh, W.H.
Psalm 23:
In the name of the Good Shepherd who leads His sheep to His eternal home in heaven,
Dear Fellow Redeemed, dear friends and family of Audrey Walsh:
This is most difficult. Little magnifies feelings of love more than death. The pain is evidence of our love. Audrey is loved. Wife, mother, grandmother, sister, Audrey is loved. And her death causes pain. Death always causes pain.
Audrey dearly loved her husband. She said, “He treats me like a princess”. She dearly loved her family: Children, Grand children and sister. She was a great mom and grand-mom. All magnifies our sorrow. Our hearts ache because we love.
God, her heavenly father, loved her even more. I have chosen the favorite Psalm to let God walk with us through our pain. God loved Audrey and all the rest of us so much that He sent His only begotten Son not only to experience the sorrow of death as one of us, he also experienced our death in our place. Think of the pain in our heavenly Father’s heart as He watched His Son suffer crucifixion as if He were a criminal
because we had sinned. We walk with Jesus to glory.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
The valley takes different forms. We expect to make the journey when we have reached old age, whatever that means. Audrey suffered a long, lingering and frustrating illness. Her walk was a grievous trial, difficult to understand.
Death did not come to her as a surprise. But she resolved to endure. Almost always, she would greet us with her bright smile. She remained amazingly positive through it all. She rarely complained. And Jesus walked with her.
Jesus is our good Shepherd to whom we pray. He walks with us all the way. He protects us. He gives us strength through the valley of death’s shadow. He is with us now to wipe the tears from our eyes as we mourn.
Richard: You walked with Audrey many years. You doted upon her. Your love could be seen in your actions. It was so frustrating as she struggled with this mysterious illness. We were helpless. Men don’t like to be helpless but you did all you could. Someone stronger was always with you.
The hymn, “Abide with me,” is based on the Easter story of the Emmaus disciples. They walked with a man they didn’t recognize as they sorrow over Jesus’ crucifixion. All Jerusalem was astir because of the crucifixion. The stranger seemed aloof from the sorrow. But He walked them and talked and opened the Scriptures to them. And when He took the bread and broke it and took the cup and blessed, their eyes could see who had been walking with them the whole.
Whether we can see or not, Jesus is with us as His
promise reminds. David’s little psalm tells us of Jesus:
“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”
Jesus said:
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep.
God did not create us to die. He certainly does not want
us to die alone. And God died for us. Jesus promised:
Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Jesus carries us through death. We don’t understand Audrey’s
illness. Jesus understood. He suffered for her. He suffered with her. He was her strength. He is her Savior and ours.
God baptized her in the washing of regeneration in her baptism. Audrey lived and died in faith in Jesus. A sinner, she rejoiced in Jesus’ forgiveness. She rejoiced in divine strength.
That same Jesus is with us now in our sorrow. Jesus is our strength and comfort. He is our joy who wipes the tears
from our eyes. Jesus gave His life for us. As so this is truth:
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Hebrews 4:
God in human flesh, become one with us to conquer this our greatest fear. Jesus took the sting, the teeth out of death by
taking that sting to Himself. God explains:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the universal Savior, the only Savior. By His life, His crucifixion, and His resurrection, He earned for each one of us, the full and free forgiveness of all our sins. He conquered our death. He assures us of our eternal life in heaven.
As we fear dying, Jesus takes by the hand. He assures us we are going home where we will feast with our God. We will enjoy the fellowship of all the saints. we live life as
God intended it to be lived. This is what He about it:
What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they?...These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall fee them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Rev. 7
David proclaimed…
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
By faith in Jesus we will join Audrey and dwell in the house of the Lord forever. It is the great promise of His resurrection.
One could wish simple words would ease your pain. We all wish there were something more we could do. Our words fall short. But this we can do. We can commend you to Jesus’ love. We are here to hold your hand. More importantly, He holds your hands. And your life goes on. Each day gets a little easier, but your sorrow will remain until we are all with Jesus. It is because we love. Love is a very good thing. God
loves you and will help you with the hurt. It is His promise:
I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
Amen. Soli Deo Gloria!
Copyright 2009 Resurrection Lutheran Church - Winter Haven. All rights reserved.
4620 Cypress Gardens Road
Winter Haven, FL 33884
ph: 863-324-7263
alt: 863-221-8893
cjohnk