You Have Heard It said, but I say to you: Matthew 5:21-37

Matthew 5:21-37

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Grace, mercy and peace are yours through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. The lesson for meditation is St. Matthew chapter five verses 21 through 37. The Gospel lesson which is already been read, why is your pastor gone today? Well, conventional pastor our wisdom is to get us up whenever thorny topics come up in the lectionary. Indeed, today one hardly feels like saying this is the gospel, the good news of our Lord after the gospel lesson. Here we read of anger, lust, divorce, and taking an oath in court. Again, I asked why is your pastor whisked away in the trunk of an unmarked car this week? Well, for good reasons at your service, but the strength of the law today prepares you for the full constellation of the gospel. Please be joined me then to see how these four topics anger, lust, divorce, in the oath, teach you to walk in the way of the Lord, and to seek Him with your whole heart. You have heard that it was said, but I say to you, with these words, Jesus interprets the law on the basis of his own authority. San Agustin said, The New Testament is in the old concealed, the old is in the new revealed. That is to say, the Old Testament you have heard gives you a shadow of the New Testament, and the new But I say to you gives us the fulfillment of the Old Jesus, then the New Testament in the flesh, amplifies the laws of old, he turns its volume all the way up. He moves from action to contrition, from outward compliance to inward attitude, by enlarge, to simplify from keeping the law with your hands, which is what the Jews of his day did to keeping the law with the penitent heart. And so Jesus preaches the law this way, again, turning the volume way up, to drive the religious Old Adam, yes, the sinner in you to despair, and to drop dead at the foot of the cross where there is life. And so you have heard it said, Do not murder, and whoever murderers will be liable to judgment. And now you're thinking to yourself, or you might be thinking, Well, I'm off the hook on that one, Jesus. I haven't strangled, stabbed, shot or any kicked anyone in the shins? Well, at least not since sixth grade recess back in grammar school. And I'm generally kind to people and I help the old ladies cross the street. And I would never purposefully harm anyone in his body. And then Jesus comes with his New Testament fulfillment. But I say to you, yes, I say to you that everyone who is angry, angry, yes, angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. And whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Yes, that little altercation that you had in the parking lot. That flash of road rage of the guy who cut you off on the eighth or the five, that simmering anger that you are harboring, overwhelmed, whatever, if Jesus had not become the murderer in your place, the hell of fire would be yours for yes, we have all been unrighteous really angry with our brother. Moreover, you have heard of old that it was said do not commit adultery. And again, you might be tempted to think well, I've got that one covered. You might be thinking I'm faithful in my marriage. I have never strayed, I've always come home on time and so forth. True story. A man once bragged to his pastor, I would never cheat on my wife. And the pastor actually said you just haven't met the right woman yet. And and he's absolutely write for no one is above temptation and the pride of saying I would never comes before the fall. Almost every man in the crowd who heard Jesus that day probably thought he was in the clear after all, they stoned adult urges they stoned adulterers to death. That is to say they set the penalty so high it made it unlikely anyone would ever be actually guilty of physical adultery. But again, I say to you Yes, I say to you, what about the heart? Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Yes, that's right. Even a look with a live or online at the beach at a club. It doesn't matter. Guilty as charged for the law has no loopholes, no mercy, no easy way out Guilty as charged. And more. You have heard that it was said, Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. The Jews of Jesus day, placed the certificate of divorce into the hands of the wife in front of three rabbis who served in witnesses. And then the man would say three times, I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you. Okay, sounds a little bit crazy. And yet we have something just as crazy, namely, no fault, divorce. Thank you, California. It's a detour around repentance for nobody is without fault and a moral failing that is divorce. But I say to you, yes, I say to you, once again, cutting through the outward justification what I have done with my hands to the heart, everyone who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Yes, in the thinking of the one who made us male and female and said, the two shall become one flesh. There is no divorce that can ever be legitimized much less sanctified by a piece of paper for divorce and adultery, go hand in hand and call us all to repent. You have heard that it was said, Do not swear falsely, but perform to the lord of what you have sworn? Well, once again, you might be thinking, Well, I do pretty well there Jesus, I tell the truth, nothing but the truth. So help me God. And when I pledge to give a certain amount of money, I do it. When I say I swear to God, I need it. And I do it. And I certainly would never ever cheat on my tax return. Thus the Old Testament, and its misunderstandings in Jesus day of thinking you could actually keep the law. But I say to you, yes. Jesus says to you, don't swear at all, by heaven, by the Earth, or by the hairs of your head. The very fact that you and I ever should place our left hand on the Bible and raise our right hand and say, so help me God reminds us that we are as senators, people of the line who could use a little legitimate fact checking now and then yes, that you have to put under oath, that sometimes we have to coerce the truth out of people says that we are by nature, liars, liars to the core and the half truth, the untruth, the big fish story and is called that comes out of the sinful mouth much more easily than the whole truth. And once again, it calls you not to say I've kept it but to read.

So there it is, anger, lust, divorce, and they taking an oath for tough topics. For guilty verdicts and date, I say not a confirmation verse to be found anywhere in today's Gospel lesson. And for good reasons for the coming 40 days of Lent. You have heard, but I say to you, so here you have a very deep diagnosis, don't you? The one that you probably don't want to hear, at least as a sinner. But sin is not superficial and topical, it is deep. And it is totally, totally an utterly corrupt. It's not just a matter of a bad word here, or a bad thought there a bad or sinful action now and then though that's part of the scheme. Sin is a deeply corrupted orientation of the heart since Adam's fall. And I dare say that no one left the sermon on the mount that day, at least this portion of it terribly happy feeling justified about himself. And anyone who left the Sermon on the Mount thinking, Well, I'm doing pretty well here. God must be pleased with me, was not listening very carefully. So Moses on Mount Sinai, about 1500 years before Jesus gave the Law in summary form, the 10 commandments that Jesus amplifies here, Jesus amplify them to make sure you understand their depth and you see the need for repentance. And let us add this morning that about 1500 years after Jesus, Martin Luther expanded on the 10 commandments, for the same reason, take a look at his explanations. In the Small Catechism, we should fear and love God so that we do not but we do again fear and love God and this is what you Do not to do. And this is what you are then equipped to do in Christ. And there's that little word, but again, we do not, but we do. So we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body in any way. Again, I dare say we've never murdered anyone, but you can hurt and harm your neighbor in various ways, but rather help and befriend him in every bodily need. So, for Moses in the 10 commandments, Jesus amplifying them on the Sermon on the Mount, and Luther explaining them in the Small Catechism, we see that not an iota, not a.we would say not a word or a continent would ever pass from the law until all was fulfilled. Why? Why do we Lutherans, best known for the fullness of the gospel also love the law. Because every loophole in the law, every erased Iota, or dot, every self justification takes away something from Jesus death on the cross, to chisel away at the law and say, well, this just doesn't apply to us in a modern culture or whatever the next excuse of the day may be to hate the law. Every one of those gradually chips away at the gospel as well, until the cross is no longer preached. In the fullness of the gospel then and for the sake of the fullness of the cross. Jesus came to fulfill the law completely, not just in the places where we need a little help even more. So. He came to save you from your unrighteous anger through his own righteous anger against all that is against God's word, especially in cleansing and clearing out the temple that would once again be a place where the Lord is worshipped. Jesus came to rescue you from pig and unholy lust, by making your salvation his greatest desire, the thing that he wanted the most was to save you for he does not want to live without you his own dear child, and divorce. Recall this language is used in the Epistles where we read that Jesus is faithful to you, his own bride, even when you are unfaithful to him, by your own sin, He loves you that much and he would never ever divorce you. And his work transcends any concept of taking an oath for JESUS IS TRUTH incarnate, and he simply cannot lie or deceive. I baptize you. He says, I forgive you all your sins. He says through your pastor, this is my body. This is my blood of the New Testament. Oh, this is no right hand on the Bible and take an oath but rather truthful words from the truth made flesh who stood before Pilate. And as you recall, Pilate asked, what is truth, unaware that the answer was standing right in front of him not so much in words, but in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, who is the truth made flesh. This, then, is the gospel in today's Gospel lesson. Jesus became sin for you dearly beloved, that you might become the righteousness of God. He died under the crushing weight of your sins which are many, and he rose from the dead triumphant over sin and death. And you in turn, live this out through daily repentance and faith for you, forgiven, lest and redeemed, live under Him in His kingdom, a kingdom where you are free to walk in his ways to seek Him with your whole heart. For His Word is your light and your salvation. God granted unto you this epiphany for Jesus sake, on the peace of God, which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The World's Wisdom Will Pass Away: 1 Corinthians 2

1 Corinthians 2

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Sermon transcribed by AI. Please forgive any errors.

We have been working our way through Paul's first letter to the Corinthians over the last few weeks, beginning right at the beginning. First Corinthians Chapter One. During this time we we saw a number of sermons the first one, in that opening sector was about how Jesus is enough that with all the things that people care about, the only thing you truly need is Jesus. When you have Christ, you have every gift that you ever need. The next section we talked about divisions in the church, whether divisions within our congregation, or divisions outside our congregation in denominations, and how the sad fact of it exists, even though Christ has made us one as a body, by baptism into him. Last time, we talked about what people expect from a Christian religion, how in America, we expect a religion that works. In other words, it makes our life better. And how that is not always the way the cross is right? Is the cross doesn't make life better. It just points us to Jesus. Today, St. Paul continues talking about the cross against the wisdom of the world, and how the wisdom of the cross is the only thing that remains when Christ returned. Let's take a look. And I when I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Here St. Paul begins to set up a distinction between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God in the cross, that He came proclaiming Christ crucified, and nothing else and he didn't want them following him, because he had a whole lot of worldly wisdom. That doesn't mean that that Paul was an anti intellectual. Paul was a learned man. And we know this because St. Paul quotes philosophers from the era in Acts chapter 17. He is speaking to the Athenians and equals two philosophers, one Epona, FM and IDEs, and a stoic philosopher auratus. You are all of course very familiar with their works. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Me to. St. Paul isn't saying that because he wants to get rid of all that book learning. No, he isn't an anti intellectual. He didn't come to Corinth, knowing Christ, and only him crucified. Because he was against learning. He became he came to them to preach Christ and Him crucified, because he wanted to make sure that their faith was not in the impressive, powerful looking worldly wisdom. But they had the message of the thing that lasted forever. Though he had an education, he didn't put that on display. Though he was wise in the ways of the world, he didn't show off. He just preached Christ, and Him crucified. And he says, that their faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And to get there, he demonstrated it with the Spirit and of power. When we look at x, we can see that wherever St. Paul went, when he got there, for the very first time, he was always doing miracles. He would heal the sick, he would cast out demons who do amazing things, just like the apostles did everywhere they went for the very first time. I kind of liken it to what happened when the allies invaded in D Day. You know the story right? D Day the Allies invade the beach at Normandy. Now when most of us think about that, we think about that Saving Private Ryan scene, right? They've got the guys running up to machine gunfire, there's all sorts of casualties. It's very scary, very bad. That's not actually how most of it went. In many places, the the Allies just walked on with little or no resistance. Why was that? Because they had spent a really long time with their battleships, firing artillery, at the fortifications to destroy it. So when they got there, they didn't have to do a whole lot. That's kind of how I see these miracles in the book of Acts. When St. Paul invades a new area to take that territory from Satan for Christ, he shoots off the big guns, heals the sick, cast out demons does all of those things. But it's not the healing that saves are the casting out demons that makes that makes it powerful. What he leaves with them after that is simple. The preaching of Christ, and Him crucified. And it's the preaching of Christ that remains afterwards as they go on. Because that is the power of God. The power of God to give salvation for everyone who believes it's this cross and the resurrection that delivers eternal life, both to the Corinthians and to us as well. Now, if you've been following along over the past several weeks, you've been seeing that St. Paul talks only about the cross in these things right? Here has not said anything about the resurrection, which I think is kind of weird, don't you? Because the cross doesn't make a whole lot of sense, without a Savior who rises from the dead. And of course, you can't rise from the dead without a cross. What is going on here? Why is St. Paul doing this? He's doing this because the cross is what defines the church for the Corinthians. And for us today. As we as we look at what the Corinthians were like, they wanted to be powerful and impressive. And if the resurrection defined the church and our life, we would be powerful, and impressive. All our lives would be amazing. Everything would be going really well for us, God would come down with his power and might and make the church way better than everybody else.

But that's not the life of the church is it? The life of the church is often filled with sacrifice.

life of the church is looking at sadness, and suffering through the lens of the cross. And so we see in the cross the wisdom for the church so that we can see victory in death, power in the weakness of a Savior who died on a cross and wisdom in the foolishness of what the world thinks is foolish, at least wisdom in the suffering that we see in our lives. And so it's the cross then that he preaches and proclaims. Because we need to see that as defining our lives now. So that when Christ returns, the resurrection will define us as He calls us from our graves. Let's continue. Paul says yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. Although it is not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, what no I have seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love Him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. St. Paul is reminding us something that we probably already know is that there is a division between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of the cross, and that the cross looks nuts to people who don't get it. That if you don't have an understanding of what it means, there is no way you can truly understand God's wisdom. Because the cross reveals to us the nature of reality, through Jesus Christ. And this should make sense to us, you can only see past the physical to the spiritual, if someone reveals it to us. Western philosophy has tried to figure out ways to explain the world around us. And we know many of the things that have been passed down through them. If you if you follow the traditions of Western philosophy, you basically get two different camps, there are the rationalists, the ones who believe that you can understand the nature of reality, by thinking about it really hard. These guys go back all the way to Plato. You may have heard of names like Descartes, they are a continental rationalists, who think if I think hard enough, if I work through the logic, I can understand creation. One of the other major schools were the empiricist, often coming out of out of England, and they passed down to us through science, that you can understand the nature of reality, by looking at things and measuring them. Your senses, your evidence, can give you all of reality. These have had a great deal of a measure of success, because you can actually understand reality by measuring it, right. That's what we call science. That's how we get computers and technology, and all of the things that have made our world what it is today. But at the same time, you still can't see beneath the stuff of creation, if you're trying to do that, despite their claims. When the Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin out into space, he was purported to have said when he came back, I looked everywhere, and I couldn't find God. And I go what? Who suggested that you would. But they were trying to make light of the Christian claims. Or the Guardian wrote an article where it says, quote, Russia had made it to the stars. And as the saying went, and there was no bearded old god, they're only science. Of course, not. Similarily evolution, Darwin's theory was simply a way to try to explain everything, by getting rid of God, rather than including him. So we got this wisdom of the world. And even now we have that we have this idea that spiritual truths are up to the person, because you actually can't be they can't be real. They say, whatever it is, as long as you believe or as long as it works for you. Which means nothing is true. This is the opposite of what St. Paul is saying. He is saying that there is a reality, a spiritual reality that God reveals to us through the cross. It is not speculation. It is the truth. That God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to reveal to us the nature of creation. What these other ways of explaining reality are is a little bit like what it would be like if I were to explain how a car works. Every once in a while my wife and I, we would our car would break down. It's happened a couple of times. And you know what you do when the car breaks down and you're a guy is you you get off to the side of the road, and then you go and you open the hood, because that's what you're supposed to do. Why did I do it? It wasn't because I could actually fix anything. I'd go out and I look and says you're still broken. I have no idea how a car works. If there was a cap off or something like that. I could be like, Yep, the caps off. Or a belt was broken. I'd be like, Oh, yep, there's a belt. And that's about it. be even worse, if I tried to write a manual about how a car works, just by looking at it. I could probably come up with some really fancy names for the different parts of the engine, the spinning thingy, the belty thingy, the thing that vibrates, write really good names. Even if I took it apart and examined everything piece by piece, I would not have enough knowledge to explain how it works. That's because I it hasn't been taught to me hasn't been revealed. Because these things are so complicated. No single individual knows all of it. I think that's what it's like with reality. The spiritual truths can only be revealed through Jesus Christ, that God is not floating somewhere in heaven. He is the essence of existence himself. And the only way to truly know Him is through a God who reveals Himself to us. God did that by sending His Son Jesus Christ, to teach, preach, and then sacrifice himself on the cross and rise from the dead. And it's only through this death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we can understand the narrative of all existence that begins with the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve and ends with Christ's return and raising us from the dead. And without the cross at the center, you know nothing about what God is doing. Nothing about his power in the church. And when Jesus comes back, all the speculation about reality will disappear. All of the things in the wisdom that that people think they know, will pass on. And all that will remain is Christ and His power for us. salvation that He gives us, when we are raised from the dead, to live forever with Him. We continue for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him. So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. And he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but as himself judge to be judged by no one, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ. St. Paul is telling us, but the only way to have this revealed to you, as the wisdom and power of God is that the Holy Spirit come to you, and do it. This should be pretty standard for you by now, because it is a a Lutheran teaching is that only the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ to us. And without his power, we can know nothing. As Luther writes, in his explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed, he

says, I believe that I cannot find my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way he calls gathers and lightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. What this means is that that should be no surprise, when the world rejects the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it doesn't make any sense. Without having the Holy Spirit. Without understanding the gifts that God gives us. It should make no sense to them. And so you need to have the spirit to be able to understand and to be able to believe it should it should make sense then, when even Christians struggle with the idea that the cross defines our reality. Because we're out there in a world that constantly tells us that it's wrong. That calls us that it's wisdom, it's truth claims, and everything it says, is better than what we have. But we need to cling to the wisdom of Christ, to the cross, because we know that it is the power of God. And we know that the only way to understand it is to get the spirit. So when we talk about it, we need to lead with Christ and Him crucified just as St. Paul did. Because that's how the spirit goes out. Not with powerful words or amazing wisdom, but the message of the cross it's what worked on us and what brought us here? That's what works on the world as well. Because it's the only wisdom that lasts all the way up through to the resurrection on the last day.

In Jesus name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Does It Work? What Americans Want From Christianity

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We have been working our way through the book of First Corinthians. Lately, we began looking at the opening section of St. Paul's letter to the church in Corinth. And he talked about how Jesus is enough for the congregation in Corinth, that when they received Jesus, they had everything, all gifts, all power, all spiritual gifts, everything they needed from God. The next section was about divisions in the church. And we talked about what it means that the church is currently divided as it is, and how Christians should approach thinking about denominations in this divided Christian world. Today, we're moving on to the next section, verses 18 through 31. And it looks at the the cross. And the question of how crazy is the cross? When the world looks at it? It looks like foolishness, like nothing worse than nothing, like the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone. But to us, it is the wisdom of God, and the power of God for our salvation. St. Paul gives us some words about what it would have looked like to the people who were there at the time to the Corinthians, their congregation would have been made up of Greeks, and Jews, right. And so he tells us the kinds of things that they saw as powerful. He says, For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. He asked about the debaters of the age describes the powerful and amazing people. We know enough about Greek society to know what St. Paul is talking about, at this time. And through much of Greek society, it is the the scholar, the wise person, the philosopher, who is the peak of society. You know, some of their names Plato, right? You've heard that one before. I'm sure. He is the one who said that the perfect King, the ruler was supposed to be the philosopher king. Right? The wise man who knows the truth about reality. Socrates, also, Aristotle, big names even now. You might not know people like dioxygenase, who started the school of the cynics, or Zeno, who began the school of the stoics. The stoics are making a comeback right now. Many people are recommending reading the journal of Marcus Aurelius, who was a Roman Emperor 100 years after Jesus ascended into heaven. Still following this school that would have existed at the time Paul is writing to big deal, what these these different schools of philosophy were doing, and they lasted for centuries past the founder, who made them. We know that this is a big deal in the Bible, because it talks about it. Actually, when Paul goes to Athens and acts 17, it says, now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time and nothing except telling or hearing something new. That's kind of the Palestinian way of coming to Athens and saying, What are they doing debating philosophy all day long. Jews also had expectations, the things that they thought were powerful. It wasn't the wisdom that the Greeks had, it was signs. We see that in the Gospel of Matthew when they come to Jesus, Matthew 16, verse one says, and the Pharisees and Sadducees came and to test him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. happens over and over again through the Bible. Show us a sign to sell what authority you have to do these things Jesus, and he almost always replies with no, you're not going to get a sign from me. I don't dance to your tune. But you can see why if you look at the Old Testament, why they would say that Deuteronomy points back to Egypt and says You saw the signs and wonders Deuteronomy 622. And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes are Joel Chapter Two with this expectation, And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions, and even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. Wouldn't that be a sign? Wouldn't that be a wonder? That is what they were expecting. And so anything that is powerful, anything that is good, you would see Jews expecting the miraculous to accompany it, like it did with the prophets. That was their expectation from God. And with that, we read these words, for Jews demand signs, and Greek seeks wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And again, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Sometimes I think we, we forget how strange the cross actually is, how horrifying. It is, stripped of all of our history and tradition. One of the ways that we see this is the way that Matthew chapter 20, is interpreted. This is the story where the the mother of James and John comes to Jesus and says, Jesus, I want you to give me a favor. And he's like, What do you want me to do? She says, When you come into the kingdom, put my sons one on your right and one on your left. When you come into your kingdom, Jesus says, You don't know what you're asking. He turns to them and says, Can you drink the cup that I drink? They say yes. And he says that, then he says, It is not my place to to, to give tell you, one of my right ammonia in the left, that is for those that it is prepared for. Now, most of the time, when we talk about that, and this is how I was taught when I was young, we think we don't know who will be sitting at Jesus when He comes in his glory when he's on his glorious throne, who will be in his right and his left. We have no idea it's prepared for someone. Probably someone that we don't expect. And that is absolutely wrong. And you want to know why? Because we don't read Matthew like a book, we read it Peric up right by Peric up. But if you actually read Matthew, you know, we know exactly who is that Jesus is right and left when he comes into his kingdom. It says in Matthew 27. And over his head, they put the charge against him which read, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with Him. one on his right, one on his left. When Jesus comes in glory, and enters into His kingdom, it's already happened. His glorious throne was across his amazing crown was thorns. And his wise counselors were robbers who died next to him. Kind of weird, right? That's not a glorious throne. An amazing crown. That doesn't sound like a kingdom I want to be in. Consider what it is that we have. Right up here. Look at that thing. We've added all sorts of beautiful stuff to it right. We made it nice and smooth. This cross in front of us we added some varnish, there's a little metal and it's pretty shiny. It's big and beautiful. It fits in our architectural style so it looks really amazing. I want you to strip it of that in your mind.

Get rid of the metal That is nice and shiny and beautiful. Take off the beautiful varnish. Make it instead rough wood, cut hastily, without any thoughts of beauty, not sanded, so there's plenty of splinters on it. Now add a body right up there. Not back in Palestine right in front of you. A man with nails through his wrist, a crown of thorns on his head and blood dripping down from the arms. flowing like a river, down the center. A head bowed because he is too weak, to lift it. Feet mangled by the nails. That's something you put up in front of a group of people. Is that beautiful?

That's the God of the Christian church. Paul says, We preach Christ crucified. You can see why it would be a stumbling block for Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles. And for us, as well. It is the same for every culture that has ever come to it. Because it looks like nothing worse than nothing. But for us, this horror, this torture and death is the power of God and the wisdom of God it is salvation itself. When we look on the pain and death of Jesus Christ, we see only glory. And it has to rework what glory actually means. In our mind, Jesus is true throne is torture. His true crown bites into his flesh. And from that cross, He reigns over his church. Until the day he returns. The church he won by this holy sacrifice the church, he marks with his holy body and blood and gathers us together to receive this death for our eternal life. And he came down to do it, so that he could enter into our life so much that even when we go down into our graves, he can be there with us in death. So we can bring us through that grave to the resurrection on the last day. And it's that cross that defines the church in the here and now until Jesus returns. I found myself in a strange confluence of events lately. All of my media consumption has randomly pointed me towards the Vikings, which is really weird. I've been playing god of war on my PlayStation. It's all about a guy who goes and fights the Norse gods pretty amazing. Lots of background about tear and Loki and Thor and all that stuff. I've been listening to podcasts, about the Viking Age, just sort of randomly came up in my normal podcast feed. And of course, the North man just came out on streaming services. I watched that too. That's interesting. Looking at their perspective on Christianity. In the north, man, they had a little scene where they had Christian slaves there. And one of the guys said, they have a corpse God. Isn't that right? We have a corpse. God don't wait. Jesus who died on a cross and when they want them to go somewhere, they say come on blood drinkers. That's what the world thinks of our craziness. Right? It's baffling because it doesn't make sense. They needed a God who would go and slay people. The high purpose of their life was to go and die in battle so they could go off to valley Halla. Foolishness is this cross where you would go and die for nothing? But what about us? What about in America? If Jews seek signs if Greeks want wisdom, if Vikings want valor, what do Americans want? We want our religion to work. I think that's it right? We're a very practical people. We don't care about highfalutin theories, and book learning, right? We want our religion to do what it's supposed to do, to function in our lives. And if it doesn't work, we jettison it, and we find something that does. Right. And I think many Christians see Christianity as an instrument, towards gaining something for life. We look at our religion as instrumental in making life better. And this isn't just me talking. This is what surveys have shown. There was a book called soul searching the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers, it came out in 2005, which means that the people they surveyed and the interviews they did, they're no longer teenagers, their parents themselves. And one of the big findings in this was everybody they interviewed, except for a vanishingly small number of people saw that religion is there to get something done for us. A 14 year old from Massachusetts, said this. I think it's just important to have a belief system, because I think it helps you what you believe is how you live. Any belief system is good, as long as you have one. It's about fulfillment. A 16 year old Catholic from Florida said, quote, the important thing in a religion is connecting yourself to the spiritual side of yourself and fulfilling that. As long as you feel fulfilled, you have a spiritual experience, and you're good to go. Right. Another one said, talked about therapy, almost, quote, it's important that it's important. Religion is not like major important, but religion can help you get through a bad day. They summed it up with this, quote, what our interviews almost never uncovered among teens, was the view that religion summons people to embrace an obedience to truth, regardless of the personal consequences or rewards. Now, these are teenagers from 15 years ago, but where do you think they learned it? That they invent it? No, we taught it to them. The problem with this, is I want you to think about those quotations and throw it up next to a Savior who died on a cross. That horror that we saw before. To have a belief system, do you need a savior? who sacrifices his life? Now, to find spiritual fulfillment? Do you need a death on a cross? Absolutely not you can find that sitting around and meditating. To get therapy. Do you need torture and death? Of course not. You can go by that. We have to be sure that we don't have an instrumental view of our Savior Jesus Christ. Is he there to cope with your problems? Is that why Jesus came? Is Jesus here to make a better society to fight a culture war? And make sure America stays a Christian nation? Is he here to establish morality for your children? Is he here to make you feel good when you leave church on Sunday? But those thoughts next to the blood of Jesus dripping down that cross. Jesus did not come to make your life better. He did not come to give you therapy or to feel good. He did not come to bring you fulfillment. He came to die for you and raise you from the dead on the last day, and call you to the cross, like him. Bless it are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely, on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. A while back, there was a series of shootings in churches, insurance companies emailed out all sorts of things that you could do lock your doors when the worship service darts, hire guards, develop a system with the police figure all these things out so you can stay safe. My Church discussed that. You know what they didn't discuss this, if only we could be found worthy of martyrdom, of proving to be true disciples who could die for his name, if only.

That's what the apostles said. When they were whipped for Jesus, they rejoice that they were counted worthy of suffering for the name. This is the foolishness of the cross. This is the craziness of a God who dies for us. And it's the power of God for your salvation, to follow someone who took up suffering, who died for you who went up onto a cross and was tortured to death so we could enter your life so you can live forever our life will look like the cross and it's the power of God for you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

I Follow Luther? Divisions In The Church

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Sermon:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Last week, we started a walk through the beginning of Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the first letter he, in the order of our, of our Bible, we looked at his opening, where he talked about some of the problems that were going on in Corinth, to let them know that Jesus was enough for them, that they didn't need all of the extra things to fight over spiritual gifts, or power or status, that having Jesus was enough. Today, we're continuing to go through this letter, and see the problems that St. Paul is addressing in the church in Corinth, and looking at how they can apply to church life here. Because the letter to the Corinthians is about our life together as Christians, whether in a congregation or relating to each other around the world. And that's what St. Paul is talking about to them. Today, he talks to them about divisions. He says that he does not want them to be divided, but that you but, “That you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”

He says that there has been a report by Chloe's people, whoever they are, that they are divided into factions. Now, this isn't just a debate within the church. This is real fighting going on, that they are divided into tribal groups. What it reminds me of is the old Greek schools of philosophy. You know, what they would do is they would have, like a founder, like Zeno was a founder, or Plato or Aristotle, and they would found these institutions where they would have this school of learning, and they would go on for centuries sometimes, and he would go, Well, I am a stoic, or I am an epicurean. Sounds a little bit like that in the church. I follow Paul, I follow a Paulus. I follow Sisyphus, or I follow Christ. It's a little bit like they all had joined up in a team. And then maybe the last one were those people who are sick of it all and say, I'm an independent. Right? Now, I just follow Jesus. Come on, guys. And the thing is, is that St. Paul is urging them that having these factions in the church, divisions in the Church of God undermines the unity that Christ wants his church to have. Unity is a big deal. In the letter to the Corinthians, it goes over and over and over again, we see this theme, whether it's unity in communion, unity in the body of Christ, unity in love. Paul wants to make sure that they know the church is supposed to be united. And he tells him You are to be united in the same mind and the same judgment. Chapter 12 gives us the best image of this, the one that we know pretty well, I'm sure where it says, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves are free. And all were made to drink of the one Spirit. So there's unity isn't just an organizational thing, but there is a spiritual unity being brought together in the body of Christ. Or as he puts it, in Ephesians four,

there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is overall and through all and in all.

We also confess the unity of the church when we confess the apostles are the Nicene Creed, where it goes I believe in one holy we use the word Christian here, but the original word is Catholic, which means universal, I believe even one holy catholic or universal church, and the communion of saints, which means we are in a whole church bound together in this spiritual unity that we have with Christ. You and I, we are united in Jesus, because He has come to us and adopted us into His family and given us this one Spirit. We are bound together deeper than any other kind of bond. And we should be committed to that kind of unity inside our congregation and with Christians outside as well. On a congregational level, it means that we should always be committed to loving one another, and solving disputes between this doesn't mean we can't debate at all. In fact, sometimes we do quite vigorously. And that's a good thing. As we discuss our future or think about life, we should disagree sometimes. But always come back together as the Body of Christ and love each other, and serve God towards his mission. When that unity breaks, when we actually have real problems we need to solve, we actually should solve them. Not just cover them up, not hide them, not pretend like they're not there. Because the mystical unity of Christ demands that we actually solve our divisions. So that we have, as St. Paul says, that one mind, and one judgment. So we can come together as a congregation and take Christ's holy body and blood and say we are truly united in him.

But of course, I think when we read this, when we say, when we see what Paul's examples where he goes, I follow Paul a policy first, or I follow Christ, the first thing that we have to think about, at least I do in my head is what are we doing in a Lutheran church? Because if there is any place where we say I follow Luther, maybe it's in a Lutheran church, right? This almost seems like a direct challenge to us does? Well, first, what we have to say is, we didn't give ourselves that name. In fact, we never wanted to be kicked out of the Catholic Church to begin with. If you look back at the history of this, Martin Luther himself said, no, no, let's not do this. He says, quote, what is Luther? After all, the teaching is not mine. Neither was I crucified for anyone. How then Should I pour stinking maggot fodder than I am? Come to have men called the children of Christ by my wretched name. He had a way with words, right. When you look at the history of our church, you can see that the first document that the Lutherans put out, the Augsburg confession was a was presented to the Catholic Church as a way of saying, Don't kick us out. We are really good Catholics. And they did anyway.

Many people assume Luther wanted to go out and was like, I will be an entrepreneur and start my own church. And it was the opposite of what he wanted to do. What he wanted was to have a debate within the Catholic Church, call a council bring out God's word and have everybody talk about it so that we could get back to the way it's supposed to be. Even at the end of his life, when he's writing the small called articles, this is what he was hoping to do. That the church would gather together a council of everyone so that they could finally have the debate he always wanted. It never happened. How did we get the name Lutheran? Well, it was because other people called us that. That happens a lot, doesn't it? People looked at at the the evangelicals. That's what they called themselves, gospel centered people, and they call them Lutherans, and eventually, we took it up as well. instead.

Yet, we still know that there are problems in the division that there is right. But when we look around, we know that there is a lot of division within the church. In fact, there are all sorts of names. There are Baptists, and Methodists, and Lutheran there are divisions within the Lutherans. It's actually kind of kind of crazy. And one of the great big problems of the church, perhaps the most tragic thing that the church has happened is this division, that we have been divided ever since the Great Schism. And ever since then, we have been cracking and breaking until now, just about every church is its own denomination, with its own mini Pope. How do we deal with this unity? How do we come together with the same mind and the same judgment? I used to talk to people who've been in the Lutheran church their whole lives who grow grew up in the 50s and 60s, and they would tell me that many of the divisions that happened in between the different groups at the time, mostly seem tribal, you know, you would never go to a Catholic church because they were Catholics, and we were Lutheran. And that was pretty much the theological division, like they do. They do weird stuff, and we do our own thing. I remember as a young child, having someone explained to me that one of the big differences about why we have an empty cross and Catholics have a crucifix in the front of their church is because we believe Jesus is risen from the dead, and they believe he's still on the cross. Ridiculous, right? Of course, they don't believe that. But it was mostly about stereotype, and, and misunderstanding. And now that most of us have moved past some of those things, that things that divide us are actually real in our different denominations, and our different groups. Because these aren't just tribal stereotypes or different practices, but there's real theological division. We can't pretend they're not there. Just like in a congregation that is fighting, you can't pretend that those divisions don't exist. We have to approach these in a faithful way. Because Paul tells us, we should be of the same mind and the same judgment. How do we do that? Perhaps the history of the church can help us out with this. If you look at the early church, they did their best to make sure that the church was united and bound together in the same judgment. And all you have to do is go to Acts chapter 15. And find when the church was rocked by the circumstances cision scandal, when Jews were going around telling the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised to be saved, what did they do? They called a meeting. They got together, they talked about it. And one guy stood up James and said, Here's what we're going to do. Gentiles don't need to be circumcised or follow the law of Moses. They talked about God's word. They had a debate, they heard what was going on, and they made a decision and the church came together. The same thing happened a few 100 years later, in the Council of Nicaea. There was this guy named Arias who was going around and teaching that Jesus was not God. That he was a created being, maybe the most powerful and first of the created beings, but still just a created being. So what did they do? They called a meeting, the gathered in all of the bishops. They talk talked about God's word, they debated they figured out what it really had to say, and they came up with the Nicene Creed to show us what a unity is. And after that, the church said this is the same mind in the same judgment. Jesus is truly God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, god of God, Light of Light, very God, a very God and begotten not made. In 431 AD, the church College Council of Ephesus there was this bishop named Nestorius, who wanted to preserve the divinity and humanity of Jesus so much, he kind of separated the two and acted as if the that marry wasn't truly the Mother of God, but only the mother of the human nature. And that the two natures didn't really interact, which is a big problem, because if the two natures don't interact, then there's no body and blood right up there in communion. So what did they do? Cyril of Alexandria, he was the patriarch of that area, who was very aggressive about dealing with this. What he did was, he split communion until they could have a meeting, which they called in for 31 ad. They got together, they made some decisions, they debated God's word. And they came together around what the true interpretation of God's word is. They were dedicated to preserving that unity. They were dedicated to making sure they understood the truth, and came together around it to preserve the unity of the Body of Christ. But they did it by being united in the word in doctrine, and not just covering up these things. And I think that's the challenge for us, as we look at the different groups and churches around us, is that it's very tempting just to say, we want to be nice to each other. So we'll act as if we're all the same. But we can't. Because we are different. Lutherans have a different way of understanding the gospel from Baptists or Methodists were Catholics or the Eastern Orthodox. In fact, we're talking about those things in our Bible study in between services right now, helping us understand what are these differences. And they're important, we can't cover them up. The Paul was pretty, pretty aggressive. When people were doing things that weren't right. When they didn't understand the gospel correctly. Listen to what he says in Galatians chapter one, he opens up the letter he writes to them, he does his intro thing. And the first thing he says is, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel. pretty aggressive, right? Yikes. Or maybe Second Peter chapter three, where Peter talks about interpreting God's word.

“There are some things in them those scriptures that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. Therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people, and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him the glory now and to the day of eternity, amen.”

We want to be together and unite it with our brothers and sisters of Christ to understand God's word differently than we did.

And one of the great things is that we can know that on the last day when Jesus returns, and he raises us from the dead, all these labels will fall away, because we'll know face to face. And as we deal with the conflict, and the pain and the sadness of this, we can hold on to that hope. But until then, we have to use God's Word, to understand what God truly wants to help us come together. And it's the word of God. That word of the cross that St. Paul tells us is that it's supposed to bring us together, for it is the power of God for all of us. And so, that's what we do. As we deal with the differences. We use God's word to talk and debate and think and pray. But until these divisions are healed, we have to know that they're real and true. And as much as it pains me and makes me sad, as I'm sure it does. As you we can't overlook it in Jesus name amen

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Jesus Is Enough

Text transcribed from audio by AI. Please forgive any errors.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We're now in the epiphany season, getting ready for this season where we find out who Jesus is. During this time, we'll look at stories like the one we saw today where John points out Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And it will lead up to the miracles and the amazing things that Jesus does and then finally, culminate at the mountain of the Transfiguration, where we'll hear the voice from heaven say, This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him. Then we get to Ash Wednesday, and begin the march towards the cross. During this season, the lectionary assigns us the epistle readings from First Corinthians we began right at the beginning of the letter, and it's just sort of going to go section by section over the about the next month into the first couple of chapters until we get to Lent. So we're going to do that, walk through First Corinthians up until we get to this new season. So today, we're starting with the opening. It's interesting to get the beginning of a letter as a reading and church isn't it? It's like, dear James, as a reading, right. And that's interesting about what's going on that first line, it says Paul, calls by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother, sauce, the knees. This should remind us that the letters of Paul are Letters, written by Paul, I have to say this, because very often, when we read the Bible, we think that the Bible is written to me, not to me, James unik. But to me, every individual Christian. This line remembers that there was a real man named Paul, who wrote a letter with a guy named SAS Denise. And he did it at a particular time, and place. And then he sent it to a group of people, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, not to the Church of God in alcohol, or Chicago, or New York, or any other place to call it a particular group of people that met in a particular place, probably in a house owned by a guy named Gaius, just in case you were wondering, you won't be able to find him, don't worry, he's long gone. He writes these things to them to help us understand life in the church as well. Now, it's important to know this because you have to understand that there is some background to the church in Corinth, to help us understand what Paul is writing about. They were a Greek church, in a place that spoke Greek and lived in Greek culture. in Corinth, there was a great deal of competition between people, they would compete over things like status, and wealth, and wisdom. schools that were very famous in the Greek world were filled with with teachers who proclaimed great wisdom. There were people who would go around and tell you that they could teach you how to speak and convince anyone of anything. This was a problem in the church in Corinth, because it was then imported into their own church law. Something we'll talk about a little bit later, St. Paul writes to a group of people and talks about some of their moral failings as well. Later on in the book he talks about, about getting rid of believers who refuse to follow the dictates of the faith. There are questions about idols. There are divisions in the congregation. And all of these things are part of why St. Paul is writing a letter to this particular church in this particular place. So he continues, he talks about being part of the Church of God, together with all of those believers in every time and place, which is important for a congregation that sees itself as special, like the Corinthians. We're gonna get a little bit later on that when we get into the further readings. Now one of the things that I think is most important about this particular passage that I'm speaking on today is the competition inside the church. That is one of the reasons St. Paul is writing. Later on, you will see passages about the body of Christ, and how the congregation is one in Christ, there are not greater members and lesser members, there are not greater gifts and lesser gifts. St. Paul also writes this, this wonderful First Corinthians chapter 13, about the love of Christ at work in the body. Love is patient. Love is kind, you know that passage. The introduces the concept here, but there is no distinction or division within the congregation. Very simply, he tells us that Jesus is enough. Jesus gives us everything, the whole package of salvation. I want you to think back, imagine what it might be like in a congregation that worked like the Corinthians did. in Corinth, there were some people there who thought that they were amazing, outstanding Christians way better than the rest of them. And they could prove it, because they could speak in tongues. They had amazing spiritual gifts, they had a gift of prophecy. Some of them were amazing, outstanding speakers, and they held themselves up in front of the congregation as being the best. Can you imagine what it would be like in a church like that? People looking down on you all the time. People saying they had more Jesus points than you do. Right. Then of course, there will be some people who felt like they didn't get any of that. They must not be as powerful or spiritual or as wonderful as the the super prophets who stood up in front. And I want you to think about what this message would be that I'm about to read from St. Paul, if you were in those shoes. St. Paul says, I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift. As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. So this message is a message both to those super men who thought that they were the best Christians ever, spiritually powerful way better than the rest. And also for those who thought that they were a lower level of Christian. Jesus is enough, is what it says. You don't need anything more. You were in every way enriched in him and all speech and knowledge. You are not lacking any spiritual gifts, as you are waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is enough. That's because the salvation that every Christian receives by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the whole package. There are no greater or lesser spiritual gifts. There are no higher and lower status Christians. There is only Jesus and His salvation. St. Paul writes later in First Corinthians chapter two, that and I when I came to you brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. That's because Jesus Christ is all you need. His death and resurrection on the cross. The gift of faith that He gives you is what leads you to the very thing that we're all waiting for. The resurrection on the last day when he returns and reveals himself shows up. And everything that we see now is changed into the perfection that is to come. At that moment, everything else fades away. Powerful wisdom, the smart people of the world, will that be a thing anymore? No one will care. Prophecy? Well, that'd be a big deal. No, because it's all leading up to that day. Ella eloquent speech, the guy who gets to stand up in front of everybody and looks really good when they're talking. Well, that'd be a thing anymore. No. Because we will all see Jesus face to face when he raises us from the dead forever. That's why at the end of First Corinthians 13, Jesus, though St. Paul writes, faith, hope and love, these things remain, but the greatest of them is love. Because faith will disappear. On the last day, you don't need faith, when you can see Jesus hope will be gone on the last day because you hope for something you don't yet have, the only thing that will remain is love. And we who love in all things on that day. So St. Paul is writing to a divided and broken church, a church that is fighting with each other competing over power and status. And he says, You don't need any of those things. All you need is Jesus. And Jesus is enough.

It's a good reminder for us today. We don't need anything. But Jesus, Jesus is enough. Last summer, we worked on a survey to do an assessment of our congregation and talk about our organizational health. We're working on trying to figure out what to do with that coming up with plans for our congregation, working on our programming, and all of those things. And all of these things are good things for us, as a congregation, trying to be figured out how to be more effective in connecting with our community and connecting with each other, and working on all those things to make ministry better. But one of the things that I've noticed in not just our church, but church generally, is that we tend to compare ourselves with other congregations. You've seen that it happens at every pastors conference I've ever been to. They go, where do you serve? And then the next question is always how many people do worship? Which is a great way to phrase that question because I want to say just one, Jesus, but they say how many people do worship because that's actually a really big deal to a lot of us. How many people show up on a Sunday. We sort of worship that. Sometimes, as we think of status in congregations, and we compare ourselves to the people around us, especially congregations in the midst of the land of the mega church, like us. You don't have to look very far to find the really big ones. Skyline foothills, the rock Shadow Mountain, you pretty much can't pick up a stone and throw it without hitting the rock somewhere right? There everywhere around here, especially compared to where I came from in Chicago. And often we compare ourselves to them. Interestingly, a new article came out from LifeWay Research and church answers.com that talks about the demographic statistics for churches around the country. And it divides churches up into four different groups, people who are have under 50 in attendance on Sunday, that's 31% of all the churches in America, you know that? Under 100, between 51 and 99 is 37% of all churches in America, meaning that attendance under 100 is 68% of all congregations. Between 102 149 is 24% of all congregations. Do you know how many churches have over 258% We who look from our place and we look around and we go there Are all these huge churches? What are we doing wrong? Those are the outliers. And yet, we look at ourselves and we say, we must not have the spiritual power. We must not be doing something right. We've got to fix it. But that's really doing the same thing the Corinthians we're doing, comparing ourselves and saying what we really measure our spirituality by is how powerful we look to the rest of the world. And St. Paul would reply, Jesus is enough. In fact, if a new person never walked in our doors, we would still be a successful congregation. If we kept on preaching and teaching and serving the sacraments and doing everything that we do now, and it was just slowly dwindling, until the last person out lock the doors. Jesus would still be here with everything. His law, his gospel, his grace, his sacraments, his words, giving you the full package of salvation. I hope that doesn't happen. Right? The locking the doors, the walking out and the dwindling, and we're going to do our best to not have that. But that's not the point of a congregation is. It's the gospel. It's Jesus, its salvation. It's not just in churches, where we worry if having Jesus is enough. It's in our lives as well. I can see it in the way we talk about work attendance versus church attendance. When I go to someone and say, hey, you know, we'd love to have you in church, and they say, Oh, I work on Sundays. And I think, Wait a second. Is that how it's supposed to be? Now I got people need to work. And sometimes there's a time in life where that happens. But if that is a an excuse in our lives, what we are saying is, money is more important than Jesus. Right? You have to ask the question, Is Jesus enough? Well, on the last day, will that job matter? When Jesus returns up in the clouds with power in Might, and he calls us up from our graves, and he judges the living in the dead, will He say, Well done, you earned a lot of money. He will not. What matters when we stand before our judge on the last day, is whether he saves us whether the gift of God has been delivered to you. And he provides you with this amazing food for that journey and rest until that day, by gathering here and hearing about him. But we accept that excuse. Because we think work is most important in our lives. That Jesus isn't enough that Jesus is a nice extra. The same thing works when we talk about school for our kids, and church. One of the things I often hear is, I want my kids to be happy coming to church. Like they're supposed to enjoy it the whole time. And I asked myself, What happens when they wake up on Monday morning? And they don't want to go to school? Do you say oh, I want my kid to be a lifelong learner and happy about it. So I'm going to let them stay home until they feel like going to school. Right? We don't do that. Nobody would do that. That's ridiculous. Because you need to learn how to read. You need to learn how to do math, right? Like basic stuff. You need to know how to do this. But then, on Sundays, we say You know what, if they're not happy, I want them to enjoy it. But I have to ask you on the last day when Jesus returns, will it matter if you can do math? Well done. You know how to do the square root of 23?

Of course not. It will matter if you can read. What will matter is that whether Christ will raise you on it from the dead to glory, or distraction. That's what we really need. No matter what you do with your life, Jesus is enough. Nothing else matters more than that. Whether it's the people who are fighting in Corinth, or what we do with our daily lives, we need to make sure that that is what we know. The most important thing you can ever do is be connected through Jesus through His Word and Sacraments. To hear from him, and be filled by the Holy Spirit. Nothing else matters next to that, because Jesus is enough. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai