resurrection

There are 13 posts tagged resurrection (this is page 1 of 5).

“If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death” – John 8:46-59

17. March 2013
Judica
John 8:46-59

Even Christians are tempted to think they can hide from God. Some use fig leaves and others use their works. Others cover themselves with excuses like “that’s just how it these days” and “I can’t change how I’m made.” But there is no hiding from God. His holy Law always discovers your hiding places and reveals your secret sins. You are exposed, naked, guilty, and ashamed before your Creator.

This is to God’s glory. You are exposed to be hidden in Him; naked to be clothed in Him; guilty to be forgiven in Him; ashamed to be reconciled in Him. The Father washes you with Christ’s blood, clothes you in Christ’s righteousness, and feeds you with Christ’s body, forgives you in Christ. Your sins are atoned for—forgiven. You are shrouded in His mercy. You are healed with holy medicine. You are fed with food for eternity.

While we cannot hide from God and this is a good thing, sometimes it seems like God is hiding from us. We suffer poverty, sickness, and even death and wonder “where is God to heal?” We are tormented by our stupid mistakes, failures, and neglect of others. “Where is God to rescue?” We are mocked for our faith, criticized for our antiquated views, and crucified in the court of public opinion. “Where is God to vindicate me and to defend my cause?”

Today, Judica and Sunday of the Passion, we begin the ending of our annual exodus through our Lord’s suffering and death unto His resurrection and ascension. The ancient custom on this Sunday is to veil our crosses after the reading of the Holy Gospel. This pious tradition is meant to confess what happens when you refuse Christ in His Word and the means of the Holy Spirit. Christ is hidden from you, the Holy Spirit departs, and the Father’s love is unknown. Hiding from God leaves you in doubt of salvation, without hope for tomorrow, and in fear of death.

So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. The Jews sought to destroy Jesus for three reasons: 1—He is eternal Son of the Father, 2—Those who believe on His Word will never see death, and 3—those who refuse to hear this Word are children of the Devil. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” This teaching scandalized them. They could not bear to hear it and sought to kill Jesus. While the true glory of God was revealed in Jesus Christ, they hid from God’s mercy and grace with their unbelief. By their unbelief blinded them to God incarnate and made Him their enemy. They could not see through the veil of His flesh to God in His glory.

Many cannot bear to hear His Word. It’s stark reality shocks and awes. It is not composed of moral platitudes, good advice, or gentle niceties. It challenges our flesh’s preconceptions and expectations. It undermines our will and false hopes. It annihilates the old Adam. Our reason cannot bear it. Our strength is decimated by this Word. It calls us to believe that we are worms, lost sheep, and dust.

The confession of sin, devil, and death is not the only unbearable Word. Many cannot bear that salvation is given by the Father through faith alone in Christ alone through this Word alone. This, too, is a scandal for it requires no effort, no power, no worked up emotions your part. We want to contribute, to assist, and earn forgiveness. We would try to work out our problems apart from Christ, away from His Word, without His forgiveness.

Yet, we hold His Word near. We hear the call to repentance and confess our sins. We, the devastated ones, are raised up by Christ’s blood-bought forgiveness. As forgiven children, we have life and salvation in His name. It is received in faith as a gift. Scandalous to reason and glorious to faith.

It is true that many of those who call themselves Christian cannot bear to look upon Jesus, to hear His Word, and to receive Him in His promised gifts. We, at Grace, know this as well as any congregation. Many on our membership roster rarely or never attend the Divine Service.What would keep a Christian from regularly darkening the doors of this place? What does the Word of God say that offends? Is it fear of judgment? Is it the confession of sins? Is it the scandal of the cross with Christ’s corpse?

The Jews in today’s text help us understand.  This Word of Jesus is so contrary to our natural religion that they assume it comes from the Devil himself. They said to Jesus, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” They could not be more wrong. Christ is from the Father. His Word is truth. They are of their Father the devil. His word is only lies. By listening to their itching ears and corrupt hearts, they no longer heard the Word rightly and were deceived. While they believed their religion true and right, because it was not from the Word of the promise, the Word of Jesus, it was not the truth.

Our fallen flesh resists this Word as God has ordained to give it. When we listen to the whisperings of the Devil, the murmuring of our heart, or the ideas of our mind, our faith falters and even fails. The Christian who does not keep the Word near will soon become confused, conflicted, and in doubt. But Jesus does not hide from you. Our Lord Christ gives us His Word generously and we ought to eagerly receive it and learn it.

For those who hear and are forgiven, there is great benefit. This Word of Jesus is the only source of salvation. Only Jesus can save you from your sin. Where Jesus is forgiving, there you are receiving life and salvation. So today, Jesus wants you know to know that He has not just cleansed you of sin and healed your soul but He has defeated the last enemy—death. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. 

We cherish hearing of God’s Word and receive it regularly for particular readiness. The Word is the only power to save, thus only by receiving the Word are you prepared to die. If anyone keeps this Word close by, always as the ready, then he will never see death. Instead, he will taste and see that the Lord is good. He will be like his father Abraham who rejoiced that he would see the day of Christ. He saw it and was glad. The Christian can stare death in the face and say, “I am forgiven! You have no power over me!”

St. Stephen said while being martyred, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! Even in the face of a terrible death, He did not lack hope. He knew the promise of the resurrection and was well-prepared. Like Abraham who saw forgiveness and life in the promised Messiah, so Stephen saw the ascended Christ as victor over death. While the stones were cast, St. Stephen saw the day of the Lord and was glad.

Even when it seems your sin has gotten the best of us, our enemies persecute us, or even death is knocking at our doorstep, you know that Christ is near. He has not hid His face from you but has given you the joy of His salvation. He gives himself freely to you through His Word and holy gifts. His Word is proclaimed and heard. You are the children of the Father who receive it and keep it. God’s salvation is not hidden but seen in faith. The crosses may be veiled but the glory of God is revealed to you. Therefore you will never see death but even now rejoice and see the Lord’s day.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

“The Jesus Christ Evangelism Explosion” – Luke 7:11-17

23. September 2012
The Sunday of the Widow’s Son
Luke 7:11-17

And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

Back in the 60’s (and for the LCMS the 80’s—always late to the party) Coral Ridge Presbyterian Pastor D. James Kennedy made popular an outline or technique for evangelism. Everything revolved around two questions: 1) Have you reached the point in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven? and 2) If you were to die tonight and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into heaven,” how would you answer?

The point of these questions were to expose any thought that works could gain your entry into heaven. Rightly, this provided the opportunity for the interrogator to confess Jesus Christ’s blood as our merit and our entry into heaven for His sake. After the baby boom explosion of the 50’s, Pastor Kennedy was looking for a technique to continue the rapid expansion of Christianity. Unfortunately, the already decreasing birthrate and the rise of generic easy-believing Evangelicalism yielded no such growth.

There is no such thing as a magic bullet for sustainable church growth, despite what the multitude of gurus will tell you. True Christianity is marked by confession, discipline, faithfulness, persecution, and cross-bearing. It is sustained through unremarkable gifts of Word, preaching, forgiveness, water and Word washing, and body and blood under bread and wine. From a business or pragmatic perspective, we’re nuts. We’re committed to a cult that has little benefit and costs more than it seems to put out. Without a multitude of programs and other busyness, the cost of keeping these doors open is outrageous.

Yet, here we are, gathered at the feet of Jesus, listening with baited breath to His every Word, hungering and thirsting for righteousness or at least the crumbs of which fall from His table and into our mouths. It is outrageous that this would be enough and or would be worth the effort. That’s what your neighbors think. Why bother with the effort of Sunday morning when you can watch somebody more “uplifting” or at least with a better light show? Why put money into the plate when the whole enterprise is doomed to fail? Why commit your time and energy in service to the church and her ministry? What’s the point in the end?

That’s where Dr. Kennedy’s questions fail today. People don’t seem to care that much about heaven or dying. At best, they’re mildly curious. If there is even a god, why would he even ask if you’ve been bad or good in this life? Your friends and family are more concerned about their best life now and don’t even care if there is a life to come. In religious parlance, this theology is called annihilationism. They think: when you die, you go into the great abyss or are absorbed back into the one life force. No one has any personal value and is utterly disposable in the end.

The Holy Gospel gives us a glimpse draws our eyes away from magic bullets, programs, strategies, and revitalization onto the real work of Jesus’ own ministry and therefore the ministry here at Grace. First, from Jesus perspective everyone matters. No one is immaterial or unnecessary. He gives life purposely and generously. Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow,  and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Jesus goes to Nain in Galilee. Can anything good come out of Nazareth (of Galilee)? Nain, which means green pastures, never looked so from the Jerusalem side of the fence. Jesus had already healed the most unlikely of people, the Centurion’s servant. What’s he doing with Gentiles? Now, Here’s Jesus in Nain of all places visiting a widow with her dead son. Jesus fulfills the Psalmists word: The Lord protects foreigners and helps the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates the ways of the wicked. (Psalm 146:9)

Nain, full of heathens, is without likelihood of conversion, we think. They are ill-prepared, having a lack of moral compass, the right worldview, nor any of the Old Testament foundation. They are hardened by centuries of unbelief and are lazy slobs. Better to go into faithful Judea and enter her synagogues. They’re a hard-working bunch, with fat wallets and warm bodies.

No, not Jesus. He goes to the widow, cold in her sorrow with no one to support her in those final hours. Her husband has died and now her only son is lost to the abyss. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” The Lord did not think: “This is sooo typical for Nain. Deadbeat dads and grieving widows. When are they going to get their act together and take care of themselves? Why should I bother with this woman? She can’t financially support my mission trip and I bet she’ll take off the moment I give her a bit of good news. Better not waste my time on her.”

No, not Jesus. Compassion is that sinking feeling in the gut that compels us in love to mercy, care, and sympathy. Do not weep. The most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places during the most unlikely of events, a widow in Nain walking in funeral procession, is the recipient of Jesus’ compassion. Jesus ignores the demographics and the chances of success and does His Messiah thing.

Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Earlier Jesus said to Levi after He called him to be a disciple: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. (Luke 5:31-32) Here Dr. Kennedy was right. People are sick and they don’t know it. They need to learn how sick they are to appreciate the healing remedy Jesus has in mind.

The problem is that the people Jesus evangelizes aren’t merely sick. They’re dead. Like the young man in coffin dead. Being processed to the tomb, to be buried six feet under. Not just the man, but his mother is next to dead. Even the procession, the crowds following Jesus, and his very disciples. All walking dead. And thus, Jesus is always about forgiveness of sins leading to the resurrection of the body.

St. Paul says it this way: And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. (Colossians 2:13) And also: God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4)

The problem with evangelism programs, schemes, techniques, marketing, and the like is that it doesn’t take the state of people seriously. Everyone has intrinsic worth, for whom Jesus died (John 3:16). Jesus is relentless in His pursuit of you. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9). So, Jesus died for all. He does not consider any demographic, status, or even hardness of heart to stop evangelizing all.

Jesus evangelizes all relentlessly but recognize that he doesn’t approach them like a salesman would the potential customer. He’s not on a mission to convince you to believe in Him. Why not? Because you’re dead in trespasses. Dead people don’t listen. Dead people aren’t interested in a savior. Dead stay dead. Unless they’re called from the tomb by Jesus. Unless they hear Jesus’ voice calling out “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

Death and resurrection is what its all about. Knowing this frees us in the call to be evangelists. We can talk about the content, share in strategies, learn how to defend the Christian faith, and the like. In the end, we have not the ability to convince anyone to believe. Not through Dr. Kennedy’s two questions. Not with clever preaching. Not with generous charity. Not through works of mercy. Dead people don’t care.

Conversion requires is a miracle which comes only by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t just true for our efforts to witness to Jesus Christ crucified in our community and world, this is true for even our children and for you. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)

Holy Baptism is the time that Jesus said to you “Young man or woman, I say to you, arise!” Out of the grave of the font you arose to new life in Christ. That’s why all this Jesus stuff makes sense to you and not to the unbaptized multitude. They’re still dead, unable to love God or neighbor. How can you convince a dead person to believe? It’s not happening unless the Lord himself grants new life.

Therefore, you see that Jesus cares not about the who or the where of His evangelism program. Everyone is loved by him even while dead in their trespasses. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) Even while we were dead, Christ loved us and sought to save us. And when? That’s immaterial, too. No one is innocent. All are equally condemned and need the full atonement of Christ’s blood. Jesus comes and touches the young child newly born and says “arise!” He touches the teenager’s bier and says “arise!” He calls out the middle-aged yuppie “arise!” He even says to the elderly man whose doubts overwhelm him “arise!” We cannot by our own reason or strength come out of the tomb or call Jesus Lord.

The beautiful thing about the death and resurrection methodology of Jesus is its all on Him from start to finish. When the Holy Spirit calls by the Gospel, enlightens hearts through preaching, absolution, baptism, and supper, Jesus works as promised. His Spirit calls, gathers, sanctifies by what seems most outrageous and too simple to ever work. He works through His means of salvation. Everything else is nice fluff.

You can package the Gospel anyway you like. You can learn the helpful techniques of the Christian apologist. You can learn about the worldview of the other religions. You can try being more casual or more formal with your church services.  You can play music that sounds more appealing and less German. You can give hugs, shake hands, and be a friend. Its all been tried before.

In the end, nothing makes a dead-in-trespasses person become an alive-in-Christ person without Jesus himself preaching, forgiving, and calling out “Young man, I say to you, arise!” Its just what we confess: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. I believe that Jesus has done it all for me, has given me life and salvation by the Holy Spirit in baptism, and keeps me in this faith and communion through the Holy Christian church, which is Christ’s own body.

So here’s the Jesus Christ Evangelism Program: go and disciple all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them of all things Jesus, forgiving their sins and eating together. That’s how dead people become alive people. That’s evangelism, the Jesus way.

Oh, and it does work, as outrageous as it might seem. When a dead man rises to life, here’s what happens: Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. May the same report of your own resurrection travel from your lips throughout the whole region of Dyer and to the ends of the earth. God truly has visited and redeemed His people.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana