“God Rescued and Recreated us To Praise Him with Good Works”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord [Amen.]
“It is Your work alone That I am now converted;
O’er Satan’s work in me You have Your Pow’r asserted.
Your mercy and Your grace That rise afresh each morn
Have turned my stony heart Into a heart newborn.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
703:2)
Epistle
Reading......................................................................
Ephesians 2:1-10 (esp. 8-10)
8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may
boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Prologue: The most probing, penetrating, and challenging
question is the three-letter single word “Why?” Why did you do what you
did? Why did you say what you said? Why did you dress the way you dressed?
Why did you eat or drink what you ate or drank? Why do you like orthodox
Lutheran liturgical form of worship or American evangelical so-called
contemporary form of worship? You see, that probing, penetrating, and
challenging three-letter single word cuts deep into examining your
motivation for doing what you did, saying what you said, dressing how you
dressed, eating or drinking what you ate or drank, or even liking one form
of worship over another.
Motivation is behind virtually all that you do, say, and like.
Couched in the spiritual context, your motivation will be to either please
and honor God or simply satisfy yourself. In light of today’s sermon text,
however, it serves to critically examine why God did what He did through
Jesus Christ for you. And that leads you to realize that, while certainly
acknowledging His self-denying and self-sacrificial love for you, …
“God Rescued and Recreated us To Praise Him with Good Works.”
Now in order to build the solid foundation on which this sermon
will stand, it’s necessary to correctly define the concepts of “rescue” and
“recreation.” Simply stated, “rescue” is God’s activity through Jesus
Christ of saving you from imminent spiritual danger and even destruction;
and “recreation” is His activity by the Holy Spirit’s power of remaking or
rebirthing you to be the person He wants you to be.
This penitential season of Lent is all about realizing your need
to be rescued and recreated … and God’s divine activity of rescuing and
recreating you. That’s why (there’s that pesky, probing, penetrating, and
challenging three-letter single word) Lent emphasizes reviewing and
rehearsing repentance, namely, so that you realize and appreciate the
redemptive work that Immanuel did for you. And He did that redemptive work
for you because …
I. A Spiritually Dead Person Is United with Satan. (1-3)
1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked,
following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3among whom
we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of
the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest
of mankind.
It’s been truthfully said that “The spiritually dead can convert
themselves as little as a corpse can raise itself from the dead. As a stone
rolling down a hill cannot by its own effort reverse its course, so fallen
human beings cannot in their own strength return to God.” (Encyclopedia of
Sermon Illustrations compiled by David F. Burgess. Copyright © 1988
Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 50.) That’s what you
honestly admit with Martin Luther’s explanation to The Third Article of The
Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength
believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him … .” (Lutheran Service
Book. Page 323.) It’s the root reason why “you need the Holy Spirit to
begin and sustain this faith in you,” namely, because “By nature [you] are
spiritually blind, dead, and an enemy of God, as the Scriptures teach … .”
(Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation. Copyright © 1986, 1991
Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 150.) It’s the result of
“Original sin [which] is the total corruption of [your] whole human nature
that [you] have inherited from Adam through [your] parents” and “A. has
brought guilt and condemnation to all people; B. has left everyone without
true fear and love of God, that is, spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of
God; [and] C. causes everyone to commit all kinds of actual sins.” (Ibid.
Pages 98f.)
The catastrophic consequence of being “a poor, miserable sinner,”
as you declared yourself to be in the course of today’s Confession and
Absolution, is “temporal and eternal punishment.” (Lutheran Service Book.
Page 184.) That severest of all punishments is nothing less than
everlasting separation from God in the fiery pits of hell.
In his grace-filled devotion entitled “Pointing Out the Truth” the
Reverend Mark Jeske wrote the following: “An intervention is a circle of
friends who gang up on an alcoholic or drug abuser to tell him or her the
truth, to break down the person’s rationalizations and protective defenses,
and to get the message through that he or she is on a path of
self-destruction.
“All of us—every man, woman, and child who ever lived—are ‘sinaholics,’
addicted to the lies and ways of Satan and hostile to God. Paul performed
an intervention on one of the congregations he had helped to create: ‘You
were dead in the trespasses and sins … and were by nature children of [God’s]
wrath’ (Ephesians 2:1, 3).
“This bad news has a good purpose. [You] can’t love a Savior if [you]
don’t think [you] need a Savior. [You] can’t believe in a Savior if [you]
think [you] can tough it out by [your]self. [You] can’t worship a Savior
until [you] stop worshiping [your]self. Even though it hurts, [you] all
need God’s Word to tell [you] the truth about [your]selves.” (Mark Jeske in
Time of Grace: A Devotional Companion. Copyright © 2010 Time of Grace
Ministry. Page 319.)
In the face of that sad and sorrowful reality about your natural
selves, the Israelites in today’s Old Testament Reading provided a wonderful
example to follow: “And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned,
for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.’” (Numbers 21:7a ESV)
So, what’s the solution to this otherwise dismal and discouraging dilemma?
It’s none other than the fact that …
II. A Spiritually Alive Person Is United with Christ. (4-7)
4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved
us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with
Christ—by grace you have been saved—6and raised us up with him and seated us
with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages
he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
Notice right away the four active voice action verbs: “he loved
us;” “[he] made us alive together with Christ;” “[he] raised us up with
him;” and “[he] seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
The “he” is none other than your merciful God, who is filled to overflowing
with love for you. His all-consuming love for you is why He sent His
only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be your Substitute, to live for you the
holy life God demands of you … but you can’t do, to suffer and die the
crucifixion death you deserve … but desire to escape, and to validate all
His atoning sacrifice with His majestic resurrection from the dead … for
you. He now freely gives you the treasures of His love, namely, forgiveness
of your sins, salvation, and eternal life, through the Blessed Sacraments of
Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, the reading and hearing of His Holy Word,
and the announcement of Holy Absolution. A portion of today’s Gospel
Reading so beautifully states that Gospel-in-a-nutshell truth: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned … .” (St John
3:16-18a ESV)
In his August 25, 2012, Lutheran Hour Ministries devotion entitled
“God Is Looking Out For You” the author explained that things “serendipity”
are “rare and special times when people look for one thing and discover
something better.” He then went on to say the following.
“Back in 1949, Jack Wurm was broke and out of a job. As a result, he
spent a lot of time walking along the shore in San Francisco, so the story
goes.
“Wurm walked, and he thought, but he wasn’t looking for anything.
“It was then, when he wasn’t looking for anything, that Wurm was given
his moment of serendipity. He came across a bottle with a piece of paper in
it. The paper said this was the last will and testament of Daisy Singer
Alexander; that’s the Daisy Singer Alexander, the heir to the Singer sewing
machine fortune.
“Twelve years earlier, the heiress had thrown the bottle into the
Thames River in London. From there it drifted across the oceans to land at
the feet of penniless Jack Wurm.
“Wurm’s serendipitous discovery ended up with him receiving $6 million
in cash and some stock in the Singer Company.
“Such a thing has happened to you and better.
“You see there was a time when you were spiritually blind, dead, and an
enemy of God. Obviously, anyone who is spiritually dead is not looking for
anything or anybody. But [your] incapacity doesn’t mean God wasn’t looking
for [you].
“Long before [you] were ever born, He had put into place a plan to save
[you]. It was a plan which called for His Son to be born, to live, suffer
and die. It was a plan which demanded Jesus pay the total price to redeem
[you] from sin, Satan and death.
“It was that plan which the Holy Spirit brought with Him on the day He
came to [you]. Then, while [you] were yet dead, He found [you], called
[you], and placed saving faith within [you]. The gift of faith—far more
valuable than any Singer fortune—offered the assurance [you] were forgiven,
adopted into the family of faith, and had been given eternal life.
“Serendipity?”
The author completed his devotion with the following two short and one
long answers: “I would say so. So would Jack Wurm. After all, the only
thing his moment of serendipity brought him was stock and money, but you and
I have been given forgiveness and eternal life.” (LHM Daily Devotions Ref:
LHM0020905A-0018222#. 1997-2012 Lutheran Hour Ministries. All rights
reserved. Lutheran Hour Ministries, St. Louis, MO)
In light of all that … and more, today’s Introit reminds you of
God’s comforting assurance: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be
afraid? One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the
beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his
shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his
tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.” (Psalm 27:1, 4-5 ESV) Why? Simply
because …
“God Rescued and Recreated us To Praise Him with Good Works.”
Remember now and always that good works are not bargaining chips
with God; you can’t use them to persuade Him to love you, to be merciful and
gracious to you, or to rescue and redeem you. No! Rather, what God
considers to be good works are “everything that a child of God does, speaks,
or thinks in faith according to the Ten Commandments, for the glory of God,
and for the benefit of his or her neighbor” (Luther’s Small Catechism with
Explanation. Page 154.) for the purpose of thanking and praising Him for
His love for you that He showed you by mercifully and graciously rescuing
and redeeming you with the blood of Jesus Christ that He shed for you on
Calvary’s cross and now gives you along with His body in the consecrated
wine and bread of His Holy Supper.
So, realizing that …
I. A Spiritually Dead Person Is United with Satan. (1-3) focus on and
cling with Spirit-given faith to Jesus alone, “… who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2b ESV) Then realizing that …
II. A Spiritually Alive Person Is United with Christ. (4-7) make today’s
Collect your ongoing prayer: “Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your
merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in
willing obedience.”
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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