“UN-BLINDED BY THE LIGHT”

            John 9:39–41 ³⁹Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

            I get it if I keep myself in the dark then I can deny what is true and make up my own truth.  What works even better is if the truth is kept hidden then those in the dark will be trapped in the dark and force fed an untruth to be seen as a truth.  Christ came for the unbeliever and the sinner.  That is, Christ came for the unbeliever who was blind of their actions and situation with God to make them believers and a repentant sinner.  A repentant sinner is one who believes in Christ and knows and admits to their sin.  These believers who now are repentant sinners are no longer blind of their actions and situation with God, now Christ has made them see.  

            We know we are sinners because we know of God’s law and how it works.  It is not that we have found a way to not break the law; that is impossible because we have a sinful nature.  But we are not bound by the laws demands.  We are still expected to work at trying to follow the law, and we are also to feel the guilt the law brings; these demands are still intact.  However, we are no longer bound by the effects of the law.  For those still blinded and not knowing their sin; they, like the Pharisees will be judged by the law.  Therefore those who will be judged by the law will have to follow the law perfectly.  Only the blinded see themselves without sin and keep themselves in the darkness.

            Romans 2:12 ¹² For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

            Those of us who read and study God’s scripture know that the law does not save us though the law is still very important to follow.  The law is there to help us grow in the likeness of Christ not that we should judge others by it, but we use the law to govern our own lives. 

            Most people love to use the law thinking this is the sword of God that we should swing at each other.  But these actions show us that we are blinded from the truth of God’s word, and this

 

blindness is caused by being in the dark.  That is, those in the dark don’t know the light of God’s Holy and good Word.

            Ephesians 5:8–14 ⁸for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

            Christ came to heal us from our blindness and He uses the Holy Spirit and God’s Word in today’s world to accomplish that healing.  But like anyone whose comfort place has been in the dark, finds the word of God hard on the eyes and on their will that fights to keep them in the darkness. 

            Though God wants to see all of us actively in the study of His word, He also realizes that just because you go to church or attend a bible study, doesn’t mean you are not still blinded by the darkness.  Just because one has read some of the scriptures doesn’t mean one has studied and digested God’s word’s and wants for us.  God in all of His true glory and His hopes for us wishes to expose His truth to us through the light of Christ.

            Ephesians 5:13–14 ¹³But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

            Christ makes himself visible to us through the Holy Word of God, and not only does He reveal Himself but also reveals and makes visible the light that He shines on us.  Truly if you attend a bible study you have nothing to boast about unless you are boasting about God’s works.

            Romans 3:27-28 ²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

            The light that we have been given by Christ is our faith, and this faith is in the works of our Lord and Savior.  We were clothed in the light of Christ when He brought us out of our guilt that the law demands.  Through Christ we are guiltless in the visibility of God the Father because we are clothed in the light of Christ.

           

Christ died on that cross holding on to each of our sins as they were nailed to His hands.  Christ died on the cross carrying our sins when they were nailed to His feet.  Christ died with our sins and then our sins pierced His side to show Christ fulfilled the needs and demands of the law for all.

            Christ died for our sins, and then being raised from the death that sin and the law gives Christ showed us a glimpse of the life to come for all who believe.  We are now un-blinded by the light, the light of Christ.  The light of Christ made this visible to all; that we will have eternal life and an eternal relationship with Him forever and ever. Amen.

“IS THE LORD AMONG US OR NOT?”

            Exodus 17:1–7 ⁷And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

            Last week we talked about God calling us to leave our comfort place to be brought into a better place.  In truth in the last 50 plus years we left one comfort place after another and entered into other comfort places.  I left family and friends to study at the seminary, I left the single life of 8 years and got married, graduated from seminary and moved to the Snow Belt of Ohio, and from engineering moved to ministering.  I left all that I loved before God called me to love anew through faith in the call of God and you.

            You have all come here to Peace Lutheran Church with a story to share as well.  And, Peace Lutheran Church has a story to tell also.  From the time that a group of people were called to step out and be the founders of Peace Lutheran Church, to those who put their faith in God and built the building that we worship God in.  The congregation of PLC has stepped out of one comfort place into another many times.  Peace Lutheran Church called 5 pastors and each time you called a pastor you stepped out of one comfort place into another.  And me being the latest pastor to be called and prayerfully not the last you most certainly have been lead out of a comfort place and prayerfully into a comfort place that will enrich us through growth in God’s word and in growth of God’s kingdoms.

            Once we get used to the new surroundings we start to get comfortable, settled, and complacent.  In your secular life that might be the way to go, but in the kingdom of God, the body of Christ, we need to stay alert and continuously exercise the gifts God has so graciously given us.  Here is the good news God has shown us in the last 50 years that you have stepped out of your comfort place and you have shown yourselves that with God you are capable of doing much and what you have done you have made a difference in the lives of the community around you.  Yet we have seen turmoil, and a lack of great growth, and we might even be asking right now as the Hebrews did, “Is the Lord among us or not!”

           

Maybe we have more comfort places to step out of and other comfort places to step into.

            Romans 5:1–8 ¹Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

            The Hebrews out in the wilderness roaming around in a desert certainly had left the comfort of having a home with shelter, food, and even a means of making a living.  Their means of making a living was painful at times and even dangerous, but it was still a living and they knew what each day had to give.  However, Moses had to come and ruin it all.  Who did he think he was?  Someone called by God?  What right did he have to tell us we had to leave all the comforts of slavery and tyranny of the Egyptians?  What will we do out there in the desert besides dying younger than we should?

            We ask the same things, why should we give up our precious time in our lives and spend more time with God?  When we look at the Hebrew people we have to be seeing ourselves.  To the Hebrews it was more important to whine to Moses about their situation then it was to go to God and pray together for His intervention.  Instead of being in the word of God and seeing how God’s intervention works, it is easier to ask, “Is the Lord among us or not!”  God is with us still and the Comfort Place He wants to share with you is His Word.  I can tell you how much His Word has made a difference in my life.  What I can’t tell you is why you don’t want to take that step to find out what joys and comfort await you by getting together with others to share in that Comfort Place God calls you to enter into.

            John 6:45 ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

            Philippians 1:3-6 ³ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, ⁴ always in every prayer of mine for you all making my

 

prayer with joy, ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

            God calls us to fellowship in learning from Him, which is learning the joys he has bestowed upon us through His word by being in His word through fellowship.  Those who are already in the fellowship of God’s word can witness to the joys they receive.  I tell you the truth I experience joy every time I study God’s word, and that joy is multiplied every time I study God’s word with others.  And here is just part of that joy.

            Romans 5:1–8 ⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

            You can’t imagine the joy you witness through God’s word unless you experience it firsthand.  Christ even in our worst times of sin died with those sins on His shoulders. Christ taking the full weight of all “my” sin, and all of “your” sin went to the cross being obedient to the Father and suffered and died not for the pain but for the love to be poured out on all of us.  This is awesome, this is the greatest love. This is the very word of God to be experienced in great joy.  Our God, Lord Jesus died so that we may all live in the eternity of God’s joy in having an eternal relationship with each and every one of us.  What Awesome Joy is this!?

“Reborn; Re-Justified through Forgiveness”

            Genesis 12:1–3 ¹Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

            God asks us to leave our place of comfort, and we struggle with it.  Our struggle is the unknown, what will happen if I leave this place of comfort?  What if I get to this new place and find it hostel?  What if I find opposition from the indigenous community that has been there all of their lives?  How will I be able to cope with being an outsider who comes not to fit in, but to cause change?  Abram was called by God to leave his place of comfort and to take a leap of faith, trust God and see change.

            Abram was called to take a journey meant to change his life, the life of those who traveled with him, and to change the lives of those they will meet on their way and when they get to their final destination.  Their journey was not meant to be a walk in the park; a walk in the park would not cause the emphatic change that was planned by God.  The change that was planned by God was not about Abram, it was about those God wants to call His own. 

            God took Abram and those who traveled with Abram out of the old nation so that they could be reborn into a new nation.  The new nation was to bring God’s kingdom back to earth.  God’s purpose was not for Abram’s name to be great but to spread blessings to all nations through him.  It is not that every nation would come from the blood line of Abram.  God says “every family of earth,” which encompasses all the people of the earth.  This makes it God’s blood line, and the flow of God’s blood line comes from Christ.  That means from the time of Adam and Eve to Abram and even now God’s plan was to bless the offspring of His creation who fell into sin and gave birth to the flesh of what we now call mankind.

            Romans 4:7–8, 16 ⁷“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered; ⁸blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

¹⁶That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

            Born of the flesh, used in scripture as another means to say we are born with a sinful nature, we are born of sin.  When God chose Abram, God did not look for one who was perfect; rather God looked for one who was humble, honest, and with faith.  It might not have been as random as we might believe that God selected Abram.  God knew the heart of Abram and this may be the reasoning God used to choose him over others.  God chose Noah because He knew the faith that lived in the heart of Noah, and believe it or not God chose Paul because He knew that his heart was for God too.  Abram was not perfect; he lied about his wife because he feared the Pharaoh of Egypt and caused the Pharaoh grief through his sin.  Abram now Abraham also fell in his faith and tried to take matters in his own hands to force an offspring with Hagar because Sara felt she would fail to give birth to the son God had promised them.  How many times do we take matters into our own hands thinking that God will not come through for us?  It has happened more times than we would want to admit.

            God did come through for Abraham, and Isaac was born.  Maybe Abraham learned something from the experience of Isaac’s birth, because through faith Abraham was willing to follow God even when God told him to sacrifice his son.  Through faith we receive the grace that was also given to Abraham.  Abraham received grace and Isaac’s birth still came at the time God wanted it to happen.  Through grace God did not count Abraham’s sin and continued giving the promise through the covenant He had made with Abram.  An old nation was left behind and through the grace of God a new nation was reborn.  Adam and Eve fell to sin and we are born to sin, now with Christ we are reborn to God, kind of a re-forgiveness, or re-justification through forgiveness.

            John 3:4–6 ⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

            Jesus is speaking of baptism, but not for the sake of baptism, rather for the sake that anyone who is forgiven will enter the kingdom of heaven, and anyone who is not forgiven will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  What is flesh is sin; the sin is to fall to our desires that are not of the spirit but of our cravings.  If we live only in the flesh we do not seek forgiveness and repentance does not happen.   We all are in need of the rebirth that comes from the Spirit, our baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the act of Christ on the cross, which is forgiveness.  And what is great is that our God sees rebirth in these ways; baptism, the Lord’s Supper and Jesus Christ who died for our sins to bring us forgiveness.

            Our place of comfort is many times to try and take matters into our own hands including our salvation not realizing that we cannot succeed.  Abraham thought he could succeed with the birth of Ishmael, but God made His plan succeed through Isaac.  We cannot be reborn on our own, but only through the works of Christ, the word of God, and the Holy Spirit.   We can leave our place of old comfort and now enter into a new everlasting comfort from Christ, and not being like the old comfort our new comfort will never change.

            John 3:4–8, 17 ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

            This is the good news, this is great news, Christ did not come to denounce us but rather He came to save us.  God so loved the world that He leads us to be reborn through forgiveness freely given because Christ paid in full the price and gives it us as a free gift.

 

 

 

“Tempted to Blame the Other Guy”

            Genesis 3:1–21 ¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ²And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

            This is Lent, it is a time for reflection on our selves, and it is a time to repent, admit, be sorry, be fearful of our Lord, and ask for His grace and mercy.  The truth is God’s grace and mercy are a free gift, however He leads you to be fearful of Him so that you may be sorry for your own sin.  This is looking at our need for a savior, and knowing that we have one.  Lent is that journey Christ took to the cross for each of us and all of us.

            It was simple all he had to do was to make sure that no one would eat from the one tree that God had commanded not to eat from.  One rule, one request that caused more than one mess from the time it was broken and the mess continues to grow even now.  Sin, we are all riddled with it and we all like to point out the failures and sin of another person to take the focus off ourselves following our predecessors from the beginning.  Adam blamed Eve, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  Eve blamed the serpent, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Notice God didn’t ask the serpent what he had done.  The serpent was not the concern of God’s affection.

            The serpent was not the one who disobeyed God’s rule and the serpent had already sealed his fate with God during the fall of the prince of the world.  The serpent was not the one who chose to go against what God commanded Adam.  The serpent, though a creature that chose to be against God, certainly committed the sin of tempting but is not guilty of Adam’s and Eve’s sin nor their choices.  Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the Serpent, and we blame anyone or anything like Adam and Eve to twist the focus of the sin.  Adam and Eve did not have the law written for them and we are quick to forget the words our Lord commands us when we point the finger at others.

            Deuteronomy 5:20 ²⁰ “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

            Luke 6:41-42 ⁴¹ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

            John 8:7 ⁷ And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

            This is why forgiveness is so important, forgiveness from each other and especially from God.  We like to blame, and this too is falling to temptation.  Temptation is not the cause of your sin; it is the choice you make to fall to the temptation that is the sin.  Adam was looking for an excuse to say he was not at fault.  Adam wanted the attention drawn off him and on to Eve so that he might escape God’s anger.  Adam knew he had disobeyed God’s command and that he might die now because of it.  Not only did Adam disobey God but he also didn’t try to stop Eve from making the wrong choice.  Desire is the tempter; the serpent was just the vessel it used to disperse itself on Eve and Adam.  Adam stood in fear of God and death.  He was going to be separated from His beloved creator.

            Romans 5:12–19 ¹²Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

            The temptation is to blame Adam, Eve, our weaknesses, or our sinful nature, but it still comes to this, it is we who choose to sin and therefore we are the ones to blame for our own sin.  Adam and Eve both sinned because their desire was for themselves.  We too sin because we let our desires take over.  Certainly there are good desires, but what we might think is a good desire might not be good to God.    Good desires are measured in that they go with God’s will rather than against His will. 

            From the time of the fall of Adam and Eve though there was no written law sin happened, blame happened, separation from God flourished, and forgiveness to those who believed happened too.  Look at Cain, Noah, Abraham and Lot, Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, and even Moses and Elijah.  They all were examples of those who believed and were forgiven.  Each knew of their own sin, each repented of their sin being sorry for their transgressions, and asking God’s forgiveness.  Each in their way with God were a type of the one to come and showed the world that they were a Jesus like figure as they each led God’s people towards Him.

            Romans 5:17–19 ¹⁵But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

            Matthew 4:1–3a ¹Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³And the tempter came

            Christ was one who took the blame as He took upon His shoulders the sin of all the world past, present, and future.  Christ being tempted while in His weakest state of being in human form felt the pains and the pull of temptations we would feel, and while cast into a grievous hunger He still chose to turn away from the tempter.  Christ showed us that we have a God who knows our pains and tribulations, and therefore gives us His grace and mercy as a free gift.

            Our transgressions are forgiven, by God, through Christ who took the cross as a means to save all whom God loves and God loves us all.  Our reward for being forgiven is eternal life and relationship with our God.