Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA

by Pastor Gregory S. Kaurin

8:30 & 11 AM Morning Promise services, 5/23/04

 

Texts: Luke 24:44-51, John 20:30-31, & John 21:24-25

Sermon:

A Biblical Sermon

 

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In Genesis, at the beginning of the Bible, God thought, he imagined, he said, “Light” and what happened?  Light happened.  God’s words take on physical form. 

God thought, God imagined, he said, “Life,” and what happened?  Life began. 

Throughout all the Old Testament, God tells us that he wants to have a relationship, a loving and worshipful, relationship with his people, and to get that God has always known that he needs to save us from ourselves.  God thought, God imagined, God said, “Salvation,” and then what happened?  Mary got pregnant.  That’s what happened.  Jesus Christ happened.

That’s why we say in our Creed that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Virgin Mary.  The point is that the Holy Spirit, the power of God, called Jesus into the form of a human embryo who was born like any other human being, and grew up to be Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, but also the Christ, the anointed Son of God; he is the Salvation that God wanted and promised here in the Old Testament.

 

Verse 44 of our lesson tells us that [1^st slide]:

 

“Everything written about me must be fulfilled.”  Jesus was God’s plan, God’s Word and Will, in physical, living flesh.  That is why we say that Jesus Christ is the Living Word.  Now, I know that you will hear preachers, including me, lift up this Bible and say that this is the Living Word of God, when in truth what we mean is that it points to Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word, Jesus Christ, above and beyond the Bible, Jesus Christ is the Gospel, the Good News of God’s salvation in the flesh.  The Bible presents Christ; it bears the Living Word.

We are introduced to Jesus, not just in the New Testament, but even before Jesus was born, here in the Old Testament.

 

 

The Old Testament shows us the need for a Savior from God, the Laws of Moses, the prophets convict us of our sin and promise us a way of salvation, the psalms sing of a God who loves his people and of a God who will defeat everything that keeps us away from him.  So Jesus said in today’s lesson, that all these things were about him, pointed to him, and called him into being.

 

[3^rd slide] Martin Luther said it this way:

I am so inspired by that idea, for all kinds of reasons.  First, the simple image that this, a book, brings and introduces you to the living breathing God who was in the flesh of Jesus.  We don’t get to be with Jesus like the disciples did.  We don’t get to see him in swaddling clothes like the shepherds, but the Bible is here to do the same thing that Christ’s cradle and Christ’s cross did, it is here to hold up Jesus to our noses and eyes, telling us to look and see with our minds and hearts, to see Jesus coming to us through these pages, and in seeing Jesus, we meet God.

I also like that image of the Bible as a cradle because it places the emphasis where it should be.  If we just have a beautiful cradle like this one, we can admire its construction, how well it fits together, we can admire the craft and art of whoever made it.  We can say, “Boy that carpenter was sure inspired!”

But what happens when I put a living, breathing child in it?  Where is your attention now?  You might notice the cradle, but first the child in it.  And now you see its function, its real purpose is to present and hold, protect and keep this child safe and alive.  No matter how valuable this cradle is, which is more important?  The living child.

Somewhere between us and the pages of the Bible, is the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.  He’s not buried under the Bible; he is not bound by the Bible, or pressed down by it.  He is there on top of everything we read, a living presence right here, between us and the pages, constantly whispering in our ear his Living Word, if we would listen to him.  While we look at these words on the page, there is another Living Voice whispering both through, and also alongside of what we are reading.

 

There is a hint of what I mean in the second Bible text in your bulletin from near the end of John’s gospel.  Let’s read that together—

 

 

John was saying that he never intended this as just a biography of Jesus, or a complete, finished and perfected listing of all that Jesus did and taught.  There’s more that Jesus did and said and more that Jesus meant than John wrote or believed that he could write.  There was so much more, that a little later, in the 21^st chapter John added that if even if he could have written everything that Jesus did and taught the whole world wasn’t big enough to hold them.  Instead, John said, “I picked these things,” just enough that you might come to believe that the man Jesus was actually the Messiah promised by the scriptures.

The Bible fulfills a purpose: to lead to Christ.  That is its inspiration.  Inspiration is not a state of being.  The Bible does not lie there on your coffee table in a state of inspiration.  Inspiration is an action that happens when you read from the Bible and listen to the voice of God somewhere between you and the page.

 

So, how do you ever know if you are reading and interpreting a passage the right way…and listening for God? 

[5^th slide] The preacher Robert McCheyne once said this:

When you read scripture, to really get at what God wants you to hear, place Jesus, the born, crucified and resurrected Messiah, between yourself and the passage.  What might he say about it?

 

When you read the Bible, ask how that passage leads to Christ.  How does it show our need for Jesus, or the love of God that Jesus showed, or the love that Jesus commanded us to show each other?  I’m not saying the message will suddenly or automatically fly up at you.  It often takes time.  And sometimes a passage will never seem to make sense for you in light of Jesus Christ.  —It will only be in the next life that everything will finally make complete sense.

But when you ask yourself these kinds of questions, you are talking God, and he will use the Bible—even the confusing passages—to lead you to deeper understanding, a greater sense of presence and peace. 

 

To read the Bible is one of the most important ways to pray.  Bible reading is prayer.  It is talking to and listening to God.  But you’ve got to open your Bibles to do that. 

[7^th slide] Listen to what Pastor Herrick Johnson said nearly 200 years ago:

Don’t expect Sunday morning sermons to do all your Bible reading and others to do all your Bible study for you.  If God speaks through the Bible, he wants to talk to you, to you personally.

I know that there is lots of confusing stuff in there.  I miss and get confused by many things that I read in the Bible.  In fact, I can get so busy with interpreting and assuming, that I forget to simply listen for God’s voice.  But I do read the Bible, everyday.  And in the strongest way that I can, I ask you to do the same.  Set aside a time, or at least one a day in the week, to sit with your Bible and with God.

[8^th slide]  As I have read the Bible, I have found all these things to be completely true:

 

That last quote helps a lot.  If you really want to benefit from reading the Bible, come to it like a child each time, with humility, an openness to learn, a belief that you don’t know what God might tell you today.  And have “faithfulness,” trust that God will keep his promise: he will be there, and he will speak through it, and strengthen you.  “Do not desire the repute of learning.”  Don’t come to the Bible hoping to become more scholarly or impressive.  When we read we need to be like Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus.  Listen to him; ask questions, and then listen some more.

 

Let’s finish by taking one last look at the passage from John, the 20^th chapter:

 

This is a passage where I think John’s original Greek is better and talks directly to us.  For each of those bold-face verbs, the original Greek Bible used a verb tense called present, active, subjunctive.  All that means is that something already started and will continue to happen from this time onward.  Using that, here’s what John actually wrote:

 

Your Bible cannot be a once in a lifetime happening.  It has and can continue to deepen your faith, your sense of God’s presence.  Remember that it’s a conversation.  That means that forcing yourself through so many chapters in such an amount of time might not be the best idea.  You might read one verse, or you might read twenty or more. 

But this is your time with God.  Don’t make it a drudgery or a chore.  Lighten up when you read, but dig into it, and do it out of curiousity, out of desire to hear more about your God, about your faith, and about your Jesus.

And then, stop and listen.  Stop and think and listen before plowing ahead.  If nothing comes, let it be and read the next verse.

Read or listen to the Bible on your own; study it in groups; read it on your lunch break.  Maybe read one verse for your day in the morning.  Or occasionally sit with a single verse for a week, and see where God takes you with that one.  But always remember, it’s not just you and the Bible.  It’s you, the Bible and Jesus Christ, the Living Presence of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit—everytime you read it.

 

God has done more, said more, and will say more than can ever be written in a book, but these things and this Book was written so that you can keep on believing, that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, was truly the Messiah promised by the scriptures.

Jesus Christ is Lord.  And that truth is the only reason why this was a Biblical Sermon.  Amen.

 

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