Goal: That the hearer is comforted by the work of Christ on their behalf.

Transcription

1 Goal: That the hearer is comforted by the work of Christ on their behalf. 1 st Sunday in Lent Year C Luke 4:1-13 Live and Be Fed in Christ Gradual: Oh come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2). Luke 4:4, Man shall not live by bread alone. You ve done something this morning. You got up and got dressed. You probably had something to eat. You drove here. You walked in here. You sat down. You have sung a few hymns. You have witnessed a miracle in the Baptism of Orrin. You have heard the Word of God read to you. You are now hearing me proclaim God s Word to you. God s Word is not ordinary. God is placing His reign and authority upon you. Through His Spirit, He is placing a flag on your soul and claiming your mind as conquered territory. Yes, you are claimed and conquered by God. Your soul is captive to Him. You have done nothing to deserve this. It is all His gracious action done and then given to you. So, what should the Christian Church on earth be doing? If you think about it, the answer to that question is rather simple. The church is called to proclaim the truth of God s Word. Through the Word, the church on earth exists for God to expose and then remove our sin through the life, suffering, and death of His beloved Son. (Pause) If your life is perfect; if you haven t had one bad thought or spoken one bad word the entire week; if your marriage is perfect, your children are perfect, your health is perfect, if school is perfect, if nothing breaks down, nothing hurts, nothing disappoints, if everything is milk and honey for you, then I want to give you an opportunity to go ahead

2 and excuse yourself from the rest of worship this morning. Go on. You won t offend me or everyone else. Just take your things, get up, and go on home.that s what I thought! If we don t think that our sin is serious and deadly, then we certainly don t need the Church because we don t need Christ. What good is a bloody Savior no one needs? Think about that if we don t think that our sin is serious and deadly, then all we end up doing is going through the motions of religion. Church is redefined as a social club or charitable organization where you can do nice things for others who really need it. The idea here is that I m fine, it s those other people who need the deliverance of Christ. Now, don t get me wrong. The Bible says that every person is our neighbor, and every neighbor needs our mercy and charity. But, please hear me say this there have been times in our lives when coming out of church, we have said to the Pastor or we have thought to ourselves, I sure wish that such and such would have been here to hear your sermon today. God s Word exposes who we really are. He is holy. We are not. You are a poor miserable sinner conceived into sin and then living that sin out. You are most guilty. Your sin sent Christ to the Cross. You have thought that you have deserved God to give you things because of who you are or because of the things that you have done for others. Repent. You need personal deliverance from your sin. You see, you have tried to live before God by bread alone. You have tried and you are dying. You need the church to proclaim and give the forgiveness of Christ to you. Your spouse, your children, your neighbor, and your co-worker need this same personal deliverance of Jesus as well. (Pause) What purpose does Faith Lutheran Church serve in Abilene, Kansas? If we were to close our doors today after service, would anyone miss us?

3 Our mission statement is printed every in the worship bulletin. I would invite you to read it every time that we gather for worship. It says, Together in Christ s love, we joyfully serve, actively witness and dedicate ourselves to caring, teaching and growing through the Word. Everything that we do is connected to God s Word. God has put this Church, in this town, in this very place, for you, so He can remove your sin. That s why a Pastor in this case me, at this moment in time of this Church s history must truthfully speak the word of Christ to you. Sin has infected you with death. You can t escape it or ignore it or buy it off. Sin rots and destroys you. Without Jesus and the gifts that He wants to give to you, you will die. Of course, there are some people who will still say we re mostly good deep down. Did you hear that? They re trying to live on bread alone again. But, have you ever been sick? Have you ever mistreated anyone? Have you ever or are you right now holding a grudge against someone else? Have you ever been rejected or scorned? Have you failed to worship God as you have been called to do? If you answered yes to any of these, then you have failed. You have sinned against God. So, if you re a sinner which you are if you re not perfect which you aren t and, if you re life isn t perfect which it will never be then listen up, because I ve got Good News for you today! God is not the cause of your grief and pain. God is peace and not the chaos around you. He is love, not hate. He is life, not death. If chaos and hatred and sickness and suspicion and death have invaded your life and family, then you ought best recognize it for what it truly is sin. Yes, sin has ruined God s Eden, and, it s a wilderness in which we live today.

4 (Pause) Luke 4:1 reads, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. Why is Jesus out there in that wilderness alone? Starving and miserable, He is stalked and hunted as Satan seeks to devour him. Yet, Jesus is the Son of God. He has never sinned. He is pure and holy. Why is He in a place like this? He is out there for you, for me, for all. Jesus is Israel reduced to one. Where God s chosen people failed, this Chosen One of God would get it right completely, sinlessly not for Himself, but for sinful, rotten pieces of junk like you and me. Wherever Jesus is, new life springs up. It is the life from heaven given from God to you. Yes, long after the first Adam blew it by eating from the Garden tree, Jesus, the Second Adam, gets it right for you through the tree of the Cross. So, Jesus must go to that wilderness of temptation, not only to fulfill the Scriptures, but to prove that what He s about to do will be for the salvation of all people. You see, Jesus isn t here to empathize with you. He s not here to pat you on the back and say, This world is pretty bad, isn t it? No! Jesus is here to re-create you and take you back to heaven to His Father. He brings down the life of God, the holiness of God to sinful people, so that we might be and live in His holiness. He gives the food of heaven, which are for your healing for your hurt mind and heart, your bruised body and soul. His Word brings life to you. His Baptism recreates you and joins you to Himself. While sin wrecks and death claims you, Christ heals you of death and forgives. Take, eat and drink, He says. I forgive You all of your sins. (Pause) The story is told of a Church-goer who wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. I ve gone

5 for 30 years now, he wrote, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can t remember a single one of them. So, I think I m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all. This started a real controversy in the Letters to the Editor column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today! (Pause) Sin, death and the devil that is the unholy Trinity. Even though these three enemies are all around us and are attacking us all the time, we have the promise that our Savior is always with us in the wilderness of life. You are His baptized in the Name of the Holy Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, what does your wilderness look like? What pain are you carrying? What sin do you need to confess? Christ fought the devil and won with the truth of God s Word. You do the same as well. This Church exists to proclaim the truth of God s Word to you. Christ is crucified and risen for you. This church is here to baptize you and to help you remember that you are baptized. It is here to feed you with the Bread of Life Christ Himself giving Himself to you in the unleavened bread and wine of Holy Communion. The life of Christ is fully yours. Don t miss it. Don t make excuses of why you can t be here to receive the gifts of Jesus. By faith, we stand firm in Christ s Word, and that truth is something the devil and this sinful world can never take away from us! Amen.