Author: TechCommittee
Sermon Text 12.1.2019 — Time For A Beating
December 1, 2019 Text: Isaiah 2:1-5
Dear Friends in Christ,
We have all been on guided tours. Where do you like to position yourself when on these tours? Toni, Karson, and I just toured a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Kankakee. There were only five of us so positioning wasn’t so important but if in a large group your position is vital to your view.
Since we are a cross-section of human beings in this church, there are some who like to be at the front of the tour. You can hear better, preferably see better and you like to be the lead dog. Others of you take the middle. You don’t want to crowd to the front but you need to be close to hear and you like that human contact. Then some of you are like me. You like the back of the tour. Gives you time to linger, gives a non-crowded view and there is no jostling. Yea, this is the view I like!
Go ahead and position your minds where you want to be. We are going to take a tour this morning and we can see that it’s . . .
“TIME FOR A BEATING”
We as Christians have the best view today because we are on the Mountain of the Lord. God promises that this mountain on the last day will be a place of supremacy. This isn’t a spot of real estate; Isaiah is speaking of God’s dwelling with His people, the church. On this mountain we will have a perfect view of God’s loving face that assures us of life and peace. On this mountain will be no war or strife. On this holy mountain will be believers from every nation who are unified around their Lord and Savior. Yea, this is the view I like!
Why can we be so sure that we will like the view? Because Jesus has given sin and death a beating. When the spear pierced Jesus’s side, it looked like Jesus was beaten. In fact, it was Jesus who gave the beating. He beat that spear into a pruning hook by his death on the cross, a death that pruned away all our sin.
On Easter morning Jesus demonstrated that he had given sin, death, and Satan a beating. Through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus we gain forgiveness and acceptance into the family of God. Through Baptism into Jesus’ victory we have been called to our place on God’s holy mountain.
Through faith in Jesus we now have an unobstructed view of salvation. No sin, guilt, present hurt, or scheme of Satan will be able to block our view of God’s shining face because Jesus has given every such obstacle a beating, sharing his triumphs with all who believe in Him.
“Let us walk in the light of the Lord.” That is Isaiah’s admonition to us in verse 5. That can be hard when we know the offerings on Netflix better than the Scriptures. It can be hard when the darkness of our troubles and challenges overshadow us. It can be hard when pain and sorrow obstruct our view of the light. Put aside your deeds of darkness in order to walk in the light.
Time for a beating. What better way to walk in the light than to give people on earth a glimpse of what life will be like on God’s holy mountain. Start now to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.
What are some of the “swords and spears” we sometimes wield? The sword of a grudge over another person. Especially prevalent over the holidays with family we don’t see on a regular basis. The spear of our words that cut like sharpened steel. The weapon of deafening silence and callous indifference to those who might need our help and understanding.
We have wielded these weapons with skill, but our skill hardly fits our status as saints. Those of us who have seen the shining face of Jesus wish to walk on the path of his instruction.
Thus, Advent reminds us that it’s time for a beating. It is not time for God to beat us for our sins, oh no. Jesus took the beating for us on Calvary. He beat sin and death once and all for us.
Advent instead reminds us to give a beating to our old ways of sin. We do that by repenting of them and knowing Christ will forgive them. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance we beat that grudge-sword into the plowshare of forgiveness. Those spears of hurtful words turn into pruning hooks of words that build up. Our silence and indifference show themselves in love and mercy.
Yes, it’s time for a beating. The beating of sin that comes by the Gospel of Jesus. Receive that Gospel message yourself in faith. Then put the love of Jesus to work in your life. By the power of the cross beat down your sinful habits. Your new tools of peace and love will give witness to the kingdom of God. In doing so, you will call all those around you to come to God’s holy mountain, to walk in the light of the Lord, and to behold the best view of all: Jesus and his love. It’s time, isn’t it? Time for a beating.
Amen.
Stewardship Corner December 2019
Stewardship Corner
Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, is teaching those who follow Him that worrying about the necessities of life is idolatry: worshipping a false god. This is because worry and anxiety show what we care about. Our anxiety reveals what we love and to what we’re devoted. It reveals what we trust in.
This is why our Lord begins this section with an overarching principle: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
But you say: “I must eat and drink. I must have clothing to wear and have a home in which to dwell.” Yes, all these things you need. And Jesus says that your Father in heaven will ensure that you have them. He demonstrates this with a simple argument.
Your Father in heaven feeds the birds of the air, who neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. He clothes the lilies of the field, who neither toil nor spin but are arrayed more luxuriously than Solomon in all his glory. If, then, your Father in heaven feeds the birds and clothes the lilies, how will He not also feed and clothe you when you are worth more than they are?
For you know that you are worth more than them You are worth infinitely more. You are worth the price of the eternal Son of God. Did the Son of God come down from heaven and become a lily? Did he descend and take on the form of a bird? No!
He came down from heaven and became a man: flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. He is one of us, our brother. And what did He do when He became flesh to dwell among us? He gave His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death, that you might be His own and live under Him in His kingdom forever.
God became man in Christ Jesus. He lived the life we failed to live, and He died the death we deserve because of it. He was raised again on the third day to overcome sin and death … for us. He was crucified for our transgressions and raised for our justification. So, if your Father in heaven has given His Son to die for us in order that we might live with Him eternally, how will He not also give us all things to support this body and life?
To be anxious about the necessities of life, to devote yourself to food and clothing, to care about this and find security in it, is to serve another god. It is to deny that you will live forever because Jesus, the Son of God is risen from the dead, lives and reigns for all eternity. It is to believe that God – who created you, redeemed you by the death and resurrection of His Son, and sanctifies you by His Spirit – will not keep His promises of sustaining you in this life.
Jesus says this: Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. God’s kingdom is His rule among us. His rule among us comes when our Father in heaven gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. This is what we ask God to do for us in the prayer Jesus taught us.
Your Father in heaven knows what you need – food and clothing, house and home, etc. – and He promises to give it to you. Chief of the things you need is His grace and mercy in His Son, Jesus Christ. So, seek after that. Those who seek will find. And all the necessities of life, our Lord says, will be added to you.