Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Faith)
Theme: Don’t trust your faith. Trust the Words and Promises of God, which miraculously create and sustain your faith. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Today’s Epistle from Hebrews 11 describes a raft of people who lived by faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. Were the Epistle to have gone farther, you would have heard that, certainly not only these Old Testament believers lived by faith, but many others as well: “Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah… David and Samuel and the prophets” (Hebrews 11:32). These all lived by faith. Even more than that, as you heard today, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.” Dear Christian friends, The first president of our church body—a man named C.F.W. Walther—was also a seminary professor who spent many hours teaching young pastors how to preach. Because some of his seminary lectures were published, Walther still today teaches many Lutheran seminary students how to preach. Listen to one of Walther’s most important bits of instruction about preaching: A preacher must be able to preach a sermon on faith without ever using the term faith. It is not important that he [the preacher] din the word faith into the ears of his audience (Walther, Law and Gospel, under Thesis XIII). You may feel surprised or even alarmed by Professor Walther’s words. Do we not stand in that long tradition of the Lutheran Reformation, which has taught from its very beginning that “faith alone saves”? Do we not have many clear Words from God’s own Bible in support of this vital point? If you take into account no writer other than St. Paul, you would still have plenty of Bible verses concerning the necessity of faith for your eternal life: We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law (Romans 3:28, NASB). Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham… those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith (Galatians 3:7, 9). By grace you have been saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8). In view of these Bible verses, and many others like them, how is it possible that a faithful Lutheran pastor and seminary professor would dare to say to his students on the eve of their going out to preach: A preacher must be able to preach a sermon on faith without ever using the term faith. It is not important that he [the preacher] din the word faith into the ears of his audience. Today’s Epistle from Hebrews 11 will help you understand how a faithful preacher can and must preach faith without necessarily using the term faith. Here is a list of many who lived by faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. And yet none of these people focused their attention on their faith. These Old Testament believers all kept their attentions focused, not on their faith, but on the promises of God. This is what God Himself says to you in today’s Epistle: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.” What did these saints focus their attentions upon? “The things promised.” What did these believers greet and welcome from afar? “The things promised.” Where did these men and women place their trust while upon their deathbeds? Not upon their faith, but upon “the things promised.” That is to say, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah all trusted Words and promises of God Himself that they shall be cleansed of every sin, kept safe in the sleep of death, and raised up to eternal life on the Last Day. Dear saints of God, it is vital for your health and life that you imitate these saints that have gone before you into eternal life. It is essential for you that you keep your attention focused, not upon your faith, but upon “the things promised” to you by your gracious and merciful God. Why is it so crucial for you, that you keep focused on “the things promised,” rather than upon your faith? Faith rises and falls like a rollercoaster. Faith waxes and wanes like the moon. Faith tosses back and forth like a boat upon a stormy sea. Surely you yourself have experienced times in your own life when you felt yourself strong in the faith and other times when you have felt weak in faith and about to fall. If you have not experienced such times, which hardly seems possible, you should at least learn from the examples of these saints in today’s Old Testament! Abraham “believed the LORD, and [the LORD] counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). But the same Abraham, on another occasion, became so fearful and so weak in faith that he gave his own wife into the harem of the king of Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20). “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive.” This power to conceive was given to Sarah by means of a divine promise, “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son” (Genesis 17:19, 18:9), but Sarah’s faith weakened and wavered, so much so that she laughed at God’s Words (Genesis 18:12). Your faith wavers in the same way. I know that it does because my faith wavers in the same way, and we are all cut from the same bolt of cloth. Our situations may each be different, but we all have the same doubts, the same fears, and the same rebellious and sinful flesh that wages war against the precious faith that God has given to us. What to do? Shall we look to our faith and trust in it, so that we may be saved? By no means! Yes, faith is essential to your eternal life—but we will not place our confidence there. We will look instead toward the same things our fathers in the faith looked toward; we will place our eyes where they placed their eyes; we will live and we will died focused upon “the things promised… having seen them and greeted them from afar.” A preacher must be able to preach a sermon on faith without ever using the term faith. A preacher must do this by focusing his hearers’ hearts and minds upon the Words and promises of God—which Words and promises miraculously create faith in stony hearts and closed minds. It is not important that he [the preacher] din the word faith into the ears of his audience. This is because faith God’s gift to you (Romans 10:17, Ephesians 2:8), which comes to you through “the things promised.” What are the things promised? 1.The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies you from all sin (1 John 1:7). 2.Jesus is your resurrection and your life, and even though you die, yet shall you live (John 11:25-26). 3.You will receive “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” and God is not ashamed to be called your God. Trust the Words! Do not trust your ability to trust them. Through the Words and through the promises God will supply to each of you the measure of faith that is necessary and sufficient for you (Romans 12:3). Trust the Words! Faith strengthens today but could very weaken tomorrow! If God’s promises were like a check sent in the mail, then faith is like the envelope that delivers the check personally to you. Deposit the check, not the envelope. If God’s promises were like a rich meal at a fancy restaurant, then faith is like the plate upon which the food gets carried to you. Trust the food to nourish and sustain you; do not eat the plate! Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.” Live with them. Die with them. Trust with them “the things promised.” Through these things promised, God your heavenly Father will continue to supply and sustain His gift of faith to you, so that what is said of Abraham, “the man of faith” (Galatians 3:9) will likewise be said of you: “He believed the LORD, and [the LORD] credited it to him as righteousness.” The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at: Rev. Fr. Eric J. 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