Sermon Seventeenth Sunday A0er Pentecost The Rev. Mike Moffi;, September 11, 2016 Mercy the True Heart of God Text: Luke 15:1 10 LamentaLons 3:22 23 ²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; ²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Father in Heaven, I thank you that it is your desire to always show mercy to those who come to you in brokenness, crying out by faith for forgiveness. As we consider your Holy Word this morning and see how you delight in showing mercy, let this be our modvadon for faithful obedience and grateful service to you. Open our hearts and our eyes to the richness of your blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, for in him do we see the uldmate example of the mercy of the living God. Through Christ our Lord! Amen. As you may have nolced, I really enjoy trying to find the common theme that runs through the Scripture readings from the leclonary. SomeLmes it s not readily apparent and other Lmes it s crystal clear. This week I found that it took some inveslgalon and prayer but once I saw it I found it overwhelming and felt a real sense of gratefulness to our God. Our primary text today is our Gospel reading from Luke 15:1 10 but we will briefly consider the main theme from our other passages first. Let s begin with our Old Testament reading from Exodus 32. This passage is so rich that we could mine from it for weeks but this morning I want to focus on one major point. In verse 1 we read, When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man
who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. The children of Israel have grown impalent due to Moses being up on the mountain for so long. He had been up on Mt. Sinai for 40 days receiving the law of God, all the instruclons for living before God and other nalons and how to set up the tabernacle for worship. Israel wasn t asking Aaron to make them a god to replace Yahweh but one that they could see now and bow down to in addilon to Yahweh. Because of all the Lme that they had spent in Egypt learning about all their gods this probably seemed like a good idea to an immature and spiritually weak people. Moses is unaware what has happened as the children of Israel bow down and worship a golden calf made by Aaron, Moses brother, but God has seen it clearly. NoLce what he says to Moses in verses 7 8, the Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt! The Lord in his anger is calling Israel Moses people thereby disowning them because they have commi;ed such blasphemy. A0er all that God had done for them they had very quickly turned their back on him in idolatry. Then God makes an amazing offer to Moses, And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a slff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nalon of you. The fact is that God could have destroyed this slff necked people and slll fulfilled
the promise that he had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It would have changed everything for Moses as he would have become the new Abraham of God s plan for Israel. Moses had the opportunity to be as revered as Abraham was, and honored by every generalon from then on. However Moses showed his heart for both the glory of God and the children of Israel. But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the EgypLans say, With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. I love the prayer of Moses here and the response from God that it invoked. God was disowning the people of Israel and giving them to Moses but Moses gave them right back to God. Lord, they belong to you, not me. Only you can be their God and only you could have successfully brought them out of Egypt. Had it been le0 up to me I could have done nothing. They didn t deserve to be brought out of Egypt in the first place. You did it by your grace and mercy regardless of their unworthiness. Lord, don t stop dealing with us by your grace now. Then Moses appealed to God on the basis of His glory. Lord, what will the nadons say who have witnessed what you did to Egypt and how in your power you brought Israel to safety? If you really want the nadons to know of your glory then don t destroy your people now. The result of this passionate pellon of Moses was that God turned away from His anger: And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. Some translalons say that God changed his mind, or in the King James it says that God repented of the evil that he thought to do to his people.
Numbers 23:19 says, God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Some might (and actually have) raise the queslon from this passage in Numbers about our passage in Exodus 32:14. If God does not change His mind then how do we reconcile these two passages? I think the answer is that God did not destroy Israel because he never actually intended to. He deliberately put Moses in the place of an intercessor, so that he could display and develop God s own heart for this people, a heart of love and mercy. Moses prayed just as God wanted him toas if heaven and earth, salvalon or destruclon depended on his prayer. This is how God wants us to pray, with fervor and intensity, not with the aktude, Oh Well, God s going to do what he s going to do. There s nothing I can do about it. Also, we can say that God did not go back on His word to either Moses or Israel. As we study the Scriptures we soon understand the principle that God's promises of judgment are inherently meant to call men to repentance and prayer and therefore avert the judgment. God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel in 33:13 16: Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injuslce, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injuslce that he has done he shall die. ¹⁴ Again, though I say to the wicked, You shall surely die, yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, ¹⁵ if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injuslce, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ¹⁶ None of the sins that he has commi\ed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live. We shouldn t think of Moses as altering God's purpose towards Israel by this prayer, but as carrying it out: Moses was never more like God than in such moments, for he shared God's mind and loving purpose. Clearly Moses was the
one to be leading this group of rebellious misfits because God had given him a sacrificial love for them, even when he was angry with them. What God demonstrated in our story and indeed throughout all of Scripture is that he is a God who delights in showing mercy. God revealed to Israel Lme and again that he wanted to bless them and even foretold the extent that he would go to provide such blessing. Moses through the inspiralon of the Holy Spirit prophesied to Israel in Deuteronomy 18:15, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers it is to him you shall listen The writer of Hebrews says of Jesus the promised prophet like Moses, Consequently, he is able to save to the u\ermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 The way that Moses interceded for Israel was a foreshadowing of the role that Jesus would play in the life of those who were called his people. He lives to pray God s blessing and proteclon on them conlnually. Why, because he is the God who loves to show mercy. We read of Jesus teaching this principle in our gospel reading this morning from Luke 15. Verse 1 reads, Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. We should nolce that the last verse of chapter 14 reads, He who has ears let him hear. So we see those who the Pharisees and scribes found objeclonable were the very ones that Jesus was speaking to and they were listening. The rabbinic law stated, One must not associate with an ungodly man and the rabbis would not even teach such a person. The rabbis taught that God would receive the penitent sinner who came to him but these parables from Jesus were teaching
that it was God who actually sought them out and that God s people should rejoice with the angels when sinners repent. It s important for us to see that Jesus was teaching tax collectors and others who were deemed unworthy. The religious leaders could not see the opportunity for ministry because they did not have God s of heart of mercy for the lost. Let s look at the parables: So he told them this parable: ⁴ What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go acer the one that is lost, unll he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. As I read this parable I must confess that my first aktude was apathelc as I thought to myself, Stupid Sheep. I realized that my first impression was because I don t have the context in my life for taking care of animals and I wasn t looking through the informed lenses of a shepherd. Jesus begins with a pastoral scene that would have been familiar in PalesLne. A shepherd had a hundred sheep a count that would indicate he is modestly wealthy, since the average flock ranged from twenty to two hundred head. Such flocks were an economic resource, since they provided wool and mu;on. During the count as he gathers the sheep at day's end, the shepherd nolces that one is missing. Jesus' original hearers probably assumed that the shepherd asks a neighbor to keep an eye on the ninety-nine so he can search for the missing sheep, though the story does not offer this detail. The sheep needs to be found; otherwise it may be permanently lost or a;acked by hungry predators. It is very risky to be a lost sheep. The search proves worth it: the shepherd finds the sheep and li0s it onto his shoulder to bring it home. Given the possibility that the sheep could have been devoured, the shepherd rejoices at finding it.
The parable pictures God's desire to find sinners and bring them back into the fold. Thus the owner throws a party, asking his neighbors to celebrate with him since the lost sheep is found. In the same way, Jesus says, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. When a sinner turns to God, heaven throws a party. The prospect of such joy keeps Jesus associalng with sinners and should be the molvalon for us as the body of Christ to pursue those that are lost. The second parable has a similar message: Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently unll she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. In this story a woman finds that she is missing one silver coin and it is templng by our concept of a coin to shrug our shoulders and say so what. The word used for coin is drachma which was for most people a full day s wage. If all you had was 10 coins then losing one becomes a serious loss. Even though both parables have the same message, this one seems to offer a li;le more intensity to the search because this was likely the woman s life savings. She is so relieved that she invites her neighbors to celebrate with her that she has found the coin that she lost. Jesus again points out that this is the heart of God and of the angels in Heaven when one sinner repents. Both of the passages that we have briefly considered this morning reveal to us two important points: 1: Those who are lost, no ma;er the seriousness of their sins, are important to the God who delights in showing mercy to those who come to him in repentance. 2. Those who are the people of God are tasked with the calling to pursue those who are lost because we want to be doing what brings delight to our Father who is in Heaven. We are not to be like the Pharisees and scribes who set back in judgment of those who didn t live up to their expectalons but we are to be like
Moses who interceded for Israel and like Jesus who went to the tax collectors and sinners to teach them. In the parables the shepherd who lost a sheep and the woman who lost a silver coin could have set down and mourned their loss and prayed to God that somehow they would be found. However, that is not the message to us this morning, is it? Our response to God pursuing us and bringing us to faith is that we join him in the pursuit of lost sinners like us. That is a primary role of the church. We have another example of someone that God pursued and brought to repentance and faith in our Epistle reading from 1Timothy 1:12 17. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appoinlng me to his service, ¹³ though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. ¹⁶ But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect palence as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷ To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. We have talked a lot about Paul s story over the last three months and how his response to God s mercy was to give his life to the spreading of the gospel to the GenLle nalons. He became like Moses and more importantly like Jesus as he laid down his life for those who were lost and pursed them with great intensity even though it cost him everything that he once held dear. He didn t lay everything down to follow Christ because he felt that he was the best choice. In fact he saw himself as one of the foremost sinners because of his perseculon of the church but he followed Jesus once he saw clearly who he really was. Out of a profound
graltude Paul obediently followed the direclon that Jesus sent him and he believed that God would provide him with all that he needed to succeed. It never was about Paul s worthiness but God s love and mercy flowing through him. In Psalm 51 this morning we read David s prayer of repentance to God for his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, her husband. He was confronted by Nathan the prophet and this Psalm is David crying out to God for forgiveness. He begins: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. ² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Here was David the King of Judah and of Israel, a man profoundly blessed by God. God had raised him up from being a shepherd boy and made him a mighty warrior King. God promised him that from his kingly lineage the Messiah, the hope of Israel would come. How could he turn away from God and commit such a horrendous sin against him? And yet when he turned to God in repentance, he cried out for mercy because he knew that it was God s delight to pour out mercy on those who come to him by faith in repentance. He was counlng on God to see the sincerity of his repentance and have compassion on him. He knew that if God were to destroy him for what he had done that it would be juslfied but his plea was to the nature and character of God which was loving and merciful. Why is it so important that we get this? There are possibly some here this morning who think that God would never forgive them for things they have done, possibly they have gone too far. There are hundreds, maybe thousands on the Northern Neck that have lost hope that they can know peace or joy and certainly doubt that God would even consider hearing from them. We have a country that is being torn apart because many have lost hope that life can ever again be enjoyable and safe. Who will take the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who would never think to darken the door of a church? What about those who once were in the church but turned away? Are they afraid to come back because they feel they might not welcomed? How about you, do you believe that
God could delight in showing mercy to you? There are so many Lmes in my life that the enemy has whispered accusalons in my ear, reminding of past failures or quesloning the truth behind current molvalons. He is always challenging whether or not I am worthy of being a pastor and suggeslng that I would be be;er suited to know my place and go back and driving a truck. As I read the examples of those in God s Word who he used in spite of themselves, I realize that the enemy is afraid of me because I know that I am nothing in myself but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). Every one of our readings this morning should remind us that we serve a God who delights in showing mercy and restoring those who are lost to a right relalonship with Him. This message of Good News must be spoken and lived out in the lives of those who have been forever transformed by it because many in the world don t know of the hope that is only found in Christ. Lord, let us be the vessels that carry the good news of your mercy to those who don t yet know you. Teach us that it has nothing to do with our worthiness or talents but on your desire to reveal your mercy for your glory. In Jesus name. Amen. 2016 Rev. Mike Moffi;