Sermon “Jesus, Savior and Leader”
Guide us by your Word. Your Word is truth. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
What do we do when the lights go off? Maybe there's a flash of lightning, a crash of thunder, and everything turns off. Sometimes it doesn't do that much, but our lives change for a moment. But sometimes we really count on those lights. I remember years ago driving an old church bus. It was quite old at the time. We were on a trip somewhere, with some of the college students, and we had all decided to pile into the little bus for the trip. We were returning after dark and a light came on – the generator light. Many of you know what this means. The bus can still drive perfectly well, but it is no longer recharging the battery. The lights will become dimmer and dimmer until it's all over. Eventually there won't be a spark to run the engine and we'll coast to a halt. This was, of course, before the days of cell phones. Calling for help was difficult. We gritted our teeth and drove on, making it into the church parking lot in time. But I'll tell you, the last half hour or so was pretty dark. We couldn't see much of where we were going on those curvy rural roads. We were almost groping our way. If we'd needed to read a road sign we would have been out of luck. With no light leading us, we can get lost, and it can happen fast.
What does this have to do with the Christian life? Jesus, the light of the world, has come. He has shone his light on us. He enlightens all of us and we can look to him for our salvation and our guidance in this life and into eternity. All we do is look to him in love, realizing that he has done exactly what he said he would. He himself is light, in him there is no darkness at all, and that light is the life of men. We confess that along with the apostle John, who wrote that for us in John 1. But are we looking to Jesus? Is he the one who guides our paths? Is he the one whose light we pursue? Or do we go some other direction?
Consider with me a for a moment the children of Israel, as we read in Numbers. They were in the wilderness on their way to God's promised land. They were being fed by God. He gave them what they needed to eat and to drink. Their clothing and equipment were not wearing out because God was supernaturally sustaining them. And they were haters of God, grumbling against the Lord who gave them bread in the wilderness. Even though they were his covenant children they were backbiters, slanderers, saying all sorts of evil against God and his servant Moses. With those serpents the people of Israel got exactly what they deserved. Actually, they got much better than they deserved, because it was possible to run, it was possible to try hiding, not everyone was bitten, though all deserved it. And what did the Lord do? In his mercy he raised up a bronze serpent on a pole. He raised up that which was deadly to them, and he told them to look at it in trust. Now we all know that looking at a bronze snake does not cure a snakebite. Looking at a picture of that which kills you does not stop you from dying. But in God's mercy he was showing them that they were saved by grace through faith. They could look at that which was raised up for them and they could live.They received what they needed. They had one they could look to and live. The light shone on the people of Israel that day. God rescued his covenant children who hated and despised him.
What about Ephesians 2? When we were rebellious, sinful, disobedient, Jesus made us alive in him by giving himself for us. And he saved us not only from the evil that we were capable of, but he saved us to appoint us to good works. Did you see that in verse 10? Sometimes we are intent on learning verses 8 and 9, and those are important, they are the foundation. We are not saved by what we do, but we are saved entirely by God's grace. But what are we saved for? What does God do with us, his people, his instruments? He does good works through us. He created us in Christ for good works, to show his blessing to our world. Even though we were haters of God, backbiters, people like the people of Israel who would grumble against God's providence, he has made us so that we can show his mercy and grace.
Now you might be saying that you're really glad those other people came to church today, right? Those people who don't seem to think much of God. They really need to get going, doing their good works, living actively for Jesus. I agree that there are people who need to be doing those works God created them for. But we all need to ask ourselves who the apostle Paul is talking to. Is he talking about the other people, those we think don't like God very much? Yes, he is. He's talking about all those people, just like us, who don't seem to want to obey our Lord. Ephesians is talking about other people, but it is talking about everyone. We're included, even when we are busy about our Christian life he is talking about us, exhorting us to be diligent for Jesus. Paul uses words like “we” and “you” and it is talking to people who are Christians. He's talking to us. When we were objects of God's anger Jesus came and took that anger upon himself, dying in our place so that we could be saved from sin. He gave his life for us so that we could do his will, bringing the grace of our Lord into every situation. He, Jesus Christ, the light of the world, shone his light on us and still shines his light in this world, so we can look to him, so we can follow him, so we can be his instruments.
Yet Jesus our Lord tells us in John chapter 3 verse 18 that our world is condemned. He has given himself as the light of the world, but it is condemned. And what is that condemnation? `The light of the world has come but we loved darkness. We fled from the light because it would expose our evil. We reject Jesus because we know he shows us to be sinners. We'd be more comfortable in the dark. The Bible has some difficult teaching, after all. We don't have to go far to find parts of the Bible that make us uncomfortable. If you doubt me, walk through the ten commandments slowly sometime. See the ways you fail to love God entirely. See how you consider God's name and holiness. See how you value the time you get to rest from your labor and delight in the Lord who has provided for you. See how you feel toward your parents, your neighbors, your wife or husband, how you are enticed by things that belong to others or that you don't really have a right to have. One of the hot button issues in this day is adultery, people who don't take the sacred marriage vows seriously. There are a lot of people who want to have a sort of “trial marriage” by living together before getting married. They think they can use a trial period. I'll speak gently, there are children in the room. Studies have shown that a couple who acts married without being married is much more likely to break up later than a couple that doesn't do that. They also find that rates of child abuse and neglect are much much higher in familes where the adults are not married to one another or where the children are not the children of both parents. These are important issues of trust, commitment, and love. If you are involved with someone outside of the bonds of marriage then how are you going to trust that person to be faithful to you within the bonds of marriage? And what does it say about the promises we make when marrying? Last wedding I performed the bride and groom didn't say anything about pledging to each other until death or inclination would part them. No, it's until death. And I'm sorry, Mr. Robertson, dementia or any other sort of illness may be “a sort of living death” but it does not give any one of us reason to forsake the person we have pledged our life to. Those pledges are holy. We promise in the presence of God and witnesses how we will live a life to the glory of God. It's serious business.
Have I just hurt some people? Maybe you have left a marriage, maybe you have broken your marriage vows. Maybe you're involved in a relationship now which the Bible would speak against. We can end the sinful situation. We can end the relationship which brings shame to Christ. But our past, that's something we can't reverse. It's done and that's all there is to it. But it's also something that doesn't need to bind us. Jesus died for that as well. He has taken all our sin, all our shame, all our blame, upon himself. He has recreated us and we do not have to walk in the darkness of bondage any longer. We may still have to pay child support, we may still find that family gatherings are difficult because of past history, that may never go away. But we don't have to be bound by it. Jesus gives us repentance and he gives us forgiveness. He calls us into his light to follow him.
Do we start to see how big the Gospel is? The things I've messed up, and I've messed plenty of them up, all my life, all my past life, and today, tomorrow, and all the days I have left I'll sin against my Lord. I'll probably sin against you too. That's what we people who confess we are sinners do. But Jesus, the light of the world, has come to shine his light in the darkness, to dispel the darkness, to save us and to lead us out of this wilderness. We look to our Lord.
Today is our missions kickoff day. It's timely. If you're following the Bible reading challenge you may have wrapped up a reading of Acts recently. And you've seen how God leads his people to change the world. At the beginning of Acts there are a few disciples who are hiding out in Jerusalem. By the end of the book we see Christian believers all over the world. How did that happen? It happened because the first disciples looked to Jesus. They knew that his forgiving grace and love are greater than all their sin. They knew that Jesus died not only for their sins but also for the sins of the whole world. Is the gospel of Christ great enough for us? How about our families? Does Jesus love our relatives enough to save them? And our friends? Are any of those friends we have people who will be hurt by looking to Jesus? Not at all. What about our school, our classmates, our teachers, the administrators? Are they people Jesus died for? Yes, they are people who are to be recipients of God's grace in Jesus Christ. So are the people in our workplace. So are all the people we meet in the community. So are all the people in the world. Jesus gave himself for unjust people, just like we are, just like our whole world.
Missions, then, starts right here. It starts at home. It starts as we are partakers of the word of God. It starts as we look to Jesus who forgives all our sins and creates us for good works in Christ. And it spreads from here. It spreads through our words, our deeds, our offerings which support the words and deeds of others. The Gospel is too great to be hidden. It is too great to be overlooked. The heart of the Gospel is that Jesus died for the sins of the world, not just our sins. So we partakers of the Gospel can look to our Lord and follow his light. Unlike our old church bus, Jesus shines brightly, as long as this world lasts.
We stand to pray. Our Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world, who have given yourself to redeem us as your people, give us eyes to see you, a heart to believe you, and make us ready to follow you wherever you lead, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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