Ephesians 5:8a (8-14)
"The Lord Lights Us Up"
Sunday, March 2, 2008; 4th Sunday in Lent
[Isaiah 42:14-21; John 9:1-41]
In the name of the Triune God-Father, X Son, and Holy Spirit. [Amen.]
(Eph 5:8 ESV) ". for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in
the Lord."
Introduction: Dear fellow lit-up saints of God.
We sometimes (perhaps for some of us, frequently) struggle with
motivation. It can be difficult at best to muster up the necessary energy
to tackle and accomplish what needs to get done. We often need to be "lit
up," so to speak.
That motivation comes in ways that are either Law or Gospel in nature.
What I mean is, Law-based motivation uses fear, threat, and demand to "light
up" people. Gospel-based motivation, however, uses encouragement,
compliment, and appreciation to "light up" people.
By the way, have you ever wondered about the significance of the number
40, if any, in Biblical use? Well, as with other much-used numbers in the
Bible (such as 3, 7, and 12) the number 40 signals something very important
and applicable to our Lenten journey. It signals repentance and cleansing.
Some of the more well-known 40's in Holy Scripture are: the 40 days and
nights of rain that flooded the earth, the 40 years that the Israelites
wandered in the wilderness and ate manna before entering the Promised Land,
the 40 days and nights Moses was on Mount Sinai, the 40 days the Israelite
spy group that included Joshua and Caleb spent exploring Canaan, and the 40
days and nights Jesus fasted in the desert during which Satan tempted Him.
We've now passed the halfway point of our 40-day Lenten journey of
repentant preparation for another formal celebration of our Savior's
resurrection from the dead, as signaled by only three of the Lenten
candelabra candles still burning. Perhaps for some of us this journey is
beginning to drag out . becoming borrrrrr-ing. We need some additional
motivation to continue and complete it.
So, today's Epistle Reading provides that motivation as we hear St.
Paul inform the Ephesians and us that .
Transition: Jesus Lights Us Up so we can and will Walk as Children of Light
and Avoid Unfruitful Works of Darkness.
I. Walk As Children of Light. [8b-10: "Walk as children of light (for
the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try
to discern what is pleasing to the Lord."] Walking comes very natural to
most of us here this [evening/morning]. Except for the infants, toddlers,
and infirm among us, we don't even have to think about what we're doing when
we walk. We just . walk.
I enjoy watching (or even studying) people's styles of
walking. I've noticed that they saunter, slink, strut, and even skip. The
way we walk may well indicate our mood or attitude . how we're feeling at
that particular time.
In fact, we often walk differently depending on who is with
us, and whether we're walking in the light where other people can see us or
in the darkness where no one can observe us. In that familiar hymn about
walking we sing,
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 CPH, #685:1)
"Let us ever walk with Jesus,
Follow His example pure,
Through a world that would deceive us
And to sin our spirits lure.
Onward in His footsteps treading,
Pilgrims here, our home above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Father's bidding.
Faithful Lord, with me abide;
I shall follow where You guide."
Isaiah instructed,
(Isa 2:5 ESV) "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of
the Lord."
St. Paul advised the Galatians,
(Gal 5:25 ESV) "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the
Spirit."
And, the Apostle John informed us in his first general letter,
(1 John 1:7 ESV) "But if we walk in the light, as [God] is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son
cleanses us from all sin."
The real challenge, then, is how do we accomplish that? How
do we "walk as children of light," "walk in the light of the Lord," "walk by
the Spirit," and "walk in the light, as he is in the light"? First and
foremost, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we strive to .
A. Discern what pleases the Lord. To discern is to examine or test
something in order to determine or recognize what it truly is. To this end,
St. Paul instructed the Romans,
(Rom 12:2 ESV) "Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern
what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
Regarding our partaking of the Lord's Supper, St. Paul
told the Corinthians,
(1 Cor 11:28-29 ESV) "Let a person examine himself, then, and
so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks
without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself."
That's why we spend so much time and effort instructing
adolescents and adults about God's Holy Word . namely, so we can examine
ourselves to discern the body of Christ in order to avoid eating and
drinking judgment on ourselves.
The same apostle Paul told the Thessalonians and us,
(1 Thess 5:21-22 ESV) ". test everything; hold fast what is
good. Abstain from every form of evil."
In other words, .
B. Do what pleases the Lord. The best, safest, and most certain
way to know what pleases the Lord is to hear His own instruction. St.
Matthew recorded the very words of Jesus Himself when He warned against
make-believe hypocritical Christians, who would presume to tell us about
faith items,
(Matt 7:16-18 ESV) "You will recognize them by their fruits.
Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every
healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A
healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good
fruit."
St. Paul clarified that for us when he wrote to the
Galatians,
(Gal 5:22 ESV) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love ."
That's right, there is only one "fruit of the Spirit" as the
apostle Paul further identified when he declared,
(1 Cor 13:13 ESV) "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these
three; but the greatest of these is love."
You see, those items that Paul listed after love, namely,
(Gal 5:22-23 ESV) ". joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ."
provide the proof or evidence of the reality of the love we
speak. They are, as it were, the fruits (plural) of the love which is the
fruit (singular) of the Spirit. That love and its fruits are the perfect
description of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who bore our imperfect love on His
perfect body that was cruelly crucified for our imperfect love.
You know, God commands us to
(Lev 11:44 ESV) ". be holy, for I am holy."
He calls us to live holy lives by perfectly loving Him and one
another, but we fail miserably. Because of our sin-failure we deserve the
severest penalty of everlasting punishment in the unquenchable fires of
hell, separated forever from Almighty God.
Instead, He perfectly loves us with mercy and grace for
Immanuel's sake. We respond to that when we repentantly and gratefully sing
in the Lent Verse of the Divine Service Settings I and II liturgies that
reflects Joel 2:13,
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 CPH, Pages 157 & 173) "Return
to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love, and abounding in steadfast love."
That is, .
Transition: Jesus Lights Us Up so we can and will Walk as Children of Light
and Avoid Unfruitful Works of Darkness.
II. Avoid Unfruitful Works of Darkness. [11-14: "Take no part in the
unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful
even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is
exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible
is light. Therefore it says, 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.'"] In one respect, avoidance and denial are
similar . and not necessarily good, healthy, or appropriate. We often avoid
or deny reality when that reality does not match up with we or someone else
expects instead of honestly dealing with it head-on. That's not good.
Our text for [this evening/today] tells us that there are some
things that are proper to avoid and deny, namely, the crass sins that offend
God and stain us. In fact, this is so serious that St. Paul told the
Ephesians and us, .
A. Don't even speak of sins done in secret. Although there are no
new sins today that were not known in ages past, it seems that sin is
becoming more and more tolerated, accepted, and condoned. Society in
general and the church in particular continue to become desensitized toward
sinful attitudes, words, and behavior being just plain wrong. Ironically,
those sins that threaten, damage, and destroy relationships with one another
and God Himself continue growing in acceptance.
What are they? Jesus answered that question when He
declared in His Sermon on the Mount,
(Matt 15:18-20 ESV) "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds
from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness,
slander. These are what defile a person."
St. James, one of Christ's intimate trio of disciples
along with Peter and John, wrote,
(James 1:14-15 ESV) "But each person is tempted when he is
lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived
gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."
Such sins stink so badly in God's holy nostrils that we
should not even talk about them lightheartedly. To joke about them or
discuss them in ways short of decrying and condemning them simply increases
the wrong and acceptance of doing them. What is right and proper for us to
do is .
B. Expose sins done in secret with Christ-light. That's right!
Recognize sin as sin! Call a spade a spade (unless, of course, you're
holding a handful of hearts, diamonds, or clubs)! Identify and resist the
temptations of Satan, the world, and our unholy flesh, knowing that
unrepentant sinning will forfeit God's good gifts, as St. Paul wrote to the
Galatians,
(Gal 5:19-21 ESV) ". the works of the flesh are evident:
sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,
jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,
drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you
before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Just what is that "Christlight" with which we are to
expose such deeds of darkness? It's none other than God's holy Law, the Ten
Commandments. It's that holy Law which each and everyone of us, on the one
hand, miserably breaks thereby causing us to deserve God's temporal wrath
and eternal punishment. It's that same holy Law which Immanuel, on the
other hand, perfectly kept on our behalf and for our breaking of which He
suffered the punishment and died the death the we deserve. And, thanks be
to God, He conquered death, sin, and the devil by His majestic resurrection
from the dead to gain for us and all people forgiveness of sins, salvation,
and eternal life. Now by Spirit-given trust in Messiah alone we live
enlightened lives of good works by which we praise and glorify almighty God
because .
Transition: Jesus Lights Us Up so we can and will Walk as Children of Light
and Avoid Unfruitful Works of Darkness.
Conclusion: The grand prophet St. Isaiah cried out in today's Old Testament
Reading,
(Isa 42:18-21 ESV) "Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!
Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is
blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? He sees
many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not
hear. The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law
and make it glorious."
Lent is a time for us to rehearse what God wants us to be doing
throughout the year . repent! It's a time for us to get the wax out of our
ears that prevents us from hearing God's Holy Word and the gunk out of our
eyes that hampers us from reading God's Holy Word. It's an opportunity for
us to remember our utter sinful depravity and celebrate Christ's cleansing
blood that He shed on Calvary's cross to wash away all our sins. It's a
season for us to receive the holy gifts God gives us in the Holy Supper of
our Savior's body and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of
sins.
The "disciple-whom-Jesus-loved" St. John recorded the following
dialogue between Immanuel and a man whose blindness He had healed,
(John 9:35-38 ESV) "Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found
him he said, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' He answered, 'And who is
he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, 'You have seen him,
and it is he who is speaking to you.' He said, 'Lord, I believe,' and he
worshiped him."
As Jesus healed that unidentified man's physical blindness and gave him
spiritual sight, so also He has healed our spiritual blindness in the
Blessed Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Let's exercise the belief in Jesus that
the Holy Spirit gave us in that blessed sacramental washing by faithfully
worshipping Him as Savior and King and daily living the words of the hymn
that we just sang:
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 CPH, #697)
"Awake, O sleeper, rise from death,
And Christ shall give you light;
So learn His love, its length and breadth,
Its fullness, depth, and height.
To us on earth He came to bring
From sin and fear release,
To give the Spirit's unity,
The very bond of peace.
Then walk in love as Christ has loved,
Who died that He might save;
With kind and gentle hearts forgive
As God in Christ forgave.
For us Christ lived, for us He died,
And conquered in the strife;
Awake, arise, go forth in faith,
And Christ shall give you life."
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our holy
Savior. Amen.
In the name of the Triune God-Father, X Son, and Holy Spirit. [Amen.]
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