2nd Midweek Lenten Service; Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon Series: "Slowly in Type from Age to Age"

"The Father Offers up His Son"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            As we go through some of the people in the Old Testament who are types of Christ, that is, they foreshadow or point us to Jesus, perhaps one of the plainest pictures we have of Jesus in the Old Testament is the sacrifice of Isaac.

            God instructs Father Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  Abraham goes without a word of protest.  He takes his son, his only son whom he loves to a mountain to be sacrificed.  Not exactly what a loving father wants to hear. 

            It must have been an awkward journey for Abraham, with Isaac asking, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”   He knows what He must do, he must carry out God’s command.  God wouldn’t lead him wrong, right?  But Abraham proceeds with trust, with faith that God would raise his son again.  Abraham is willing to sacrifice his son, as God had commanded, but he trusts all the more the God will raise him back up from the dead. He tells the servants when they arrive to the appointed mountain, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 

            Abraham does as the Lord had commanded.  “Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.  Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.”  Does this sound familiar?  The father offers up his son, his only son whom he loves as a sacrifice.  The son is placed on an altar of wood that the father would take his son’s own life.  But the sacrifice isn’t Isaac’s to undergo.  As Abraham was about to slaughter his son, “The angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ and he said, ‘Here I Am.’ He said ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ “  And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns.  And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.”

            Father Abraham did not withhold his son, his only son whom he loves from God and the same is true of our Heavenly Father.  He, too, did not withhold His Son, His only Son whom He loves from death, but offered up Him on the wooden altar of the cross.  But the sacrifice of Jesus wasn’t a sacrifice done to satisfy a test, but for the sins of the world.

            Each and everyone of us should have bloodguilt upon our heads.  For our sins, we deserve to die, we deserve both temporal and eternal punishment.  Sin demands blood and, by all right, it should be our place upon the altar so that God’s wrath would be poured out on us.  We deserve it.  We have it coming.  By all rights the cost of our own sins should be ours to pay.

 But, like Father Abraham, our Heavenly Father offers up His Son, His only Son, on Mount Calvary.  The Father gives His Son into death on the wooden altar of the cross, that the guilt that we bear because of our sin, the punishment that we so rightly deserve, is poured out in the sharpened blade of the Father’s wrath on His own Son.  For you. 

The head of the ram of God, whose head was circled and caught in the crown of thorns and thickets, was laid the iniquity of us all.  Your sins and mine.  For the sins that seem so small and the ones the haunt your every step.  For the sins that you are unaware and for the sins that the devil has placed in front of your face.  For your sins the Son goes willingly to be strapped to the cross with iron nails.  For you.

But, like Isaac, He doesn’t stay on the altar, but lives.  Father Abraham offers us his son with full confidence that God would raise him from the dead, that he and the boy would return to the young men and the donkeys they had left behind.  So it is for Jesus.  He was raised from the dead, never to die again.  As Father Abraham lifted his son off the altar of his construction, so did the Father raise Jesus from the grave.  For you, that your grave would not have a hold of you.  So that, like Isaac and Jesus you, too, shall be raised up to new life.

The father offers up his son.  One son was spared from his father’s knife, the other bore the Father’s wrath in its fullest that you would never face it.  The Father offers over His Son for you.  To bear your sins, for your forgiveness, for your everlasting life.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting.  Amen.

2nd Sunday in Lent; Luke 13:31-35

"Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 The Pharisees are up to it again.  They see an opportunity to get this Jesus guy to disappear, so they play on His emotions and try to run him out of town in terror for His life.  “At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ “  They act as if they’re doing Jesus a favor, while in their hearts they’re trying to preserve their own religion, power, and authority.  But their warning isn’t empty.  Herod, indeed, wants Jesus dead, as do the Pharisees.  The phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” applies here.  The Pharisees weren’t exactly Herod fans, but neither party wanted Jesus around.  

The Pharisees are right, Jerusalem means certain death for Jesus, but He goes willingly.  Jesus has set His face to go to Jerusalem, the city that slays and rejects the prophets.  He sets His face toward Jerusalem though He knows what’s in store.  Jesus’ path will not be diverted; it is necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and die for the world and for you and no scare tactic of the Pharisees will stop Him. 

Jesus goes to Jerusalem to win salvation for you and for the world.  But Jerusalem, the Chief City, the City of Kings, would not receive Him, as this city rejected and slayed many of God’s people.  Isaiah is said to have been martyred there, Stephen was stoned outside the city gates, and this is the city for which Jesus cries out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” 

Jesus goes to Jerusalem and to the cross, even for Herod and the Pharisees.  Yet, they would not receive Him.  Jesus desperately desires to gather all people under his the eternal protection of His wings, yet many, far too many reject this salvation.  They refuse to repent, believing that the salvation task can be done on their own.  They refuse to believe that God could even forgive them. 

Do you hear the agony in Jesus’ voice?  It’s tragic when people for whom Christ suffered and died refuse to be gathered under His wings.  The Word of Gospel, goes out.  “Christ has died for you. He’s put away your sins, come, hear His Word each week.  Be gathered into His brood.”  But the gift is rejected.  It’s received as a child receives a pair of socks at Christmas. 

It’s tragic when those for whom Christ suffered and died have no love for His Word, have no hunger and thirst for His body and blood.  The Church is an oasis in the midst of this desert world, and people refuse to be gathered where they may find refreshment and joy in the eternal gifts of Christ.

Even for us, who are here every week, by nature we seek to be the chick that goes its own way.  We have our pet sins in which we indulge.  There are those sins that seem to hang around our neck like an iron chain.  Yet, Christ comes to gather you under His outstretched, nail - pierced wings.

Jesus isn’t coming to gather the perfect, the sinless, those who are without iniquity.  He comes to gather the forgiven.  That’s you.  For in Christ, you have been gathered unto His side.  In your baptisms, though you may have gone kicking and screaming, Christ gathers you like a hen gathers her brood.

He gathers you in His wings, under His wounded arms and hands, to keep you safe from God’s wrath against your sin.  Jesus has extended His arms over you in baptism, in His word of absolution, in the Supper.  All gifts that bring to you the forgiveness of the cross.

We don’t go it alone because it’s dangerous.  The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour the lone chick who wanders away from the nest.  Be gathered into His embrace and His forgiveness that He has won for you on the cross. 

Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets, but Jesus is coming again to gather you, His faithful, into the New Jerusalem; a Jerusalem where these is no crying or lamentation.  Where all of God’s brood is gathered before His throne in everlasting praise and adoration.  When all of God’s people, with departed saints and the angels cry out, “Blessed is He who has come in the Name of the Lord.” 

This is the city God builds as opposed to the city Man builds – Jerusalem redeemed, restored, raised from the dead. Her murders have been atoned for by the blood of the Lamb. The blood shed in her streets and alleys has been vindicated by the Blood shed once for all on the cross. Her streets once littered with stones cast in hatred upon those who proclaim God’s eternal truth are now paved in pure gold. The prophets and apostles who met their death in her city gates are now her firm foundation. And Christ the Lamb is her Light and her Life.  This is for you.  Your citizenship papers have been signed and sealed in your baptism. 

Christ came to place Himself on the cross and was raised again that you would be gathered under His forgiveness; that you would be gathered into the New Jerusalem at His coming.  We, who are citizens of this heavenly kingdom by faith, wait eagerly for our King to come and gather us, finally, into our eternal home- the New Jerusalem.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

1st Midweek Lenten Service; Genesis 3:1-24

Lenten Sermon Series: "Slowly in Type from Age to Age"

Sermon Text: Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon Title: “Jesus-the Second Adam”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            You may have noticed the theme for the midweek Lenten services: “Slowly in Type from Age to Age” and you might be wondering, “What does this mean?”  I stole this little phrase from a hymn that you may or may not know, O God of God, O Light of Light. (It’s hymn number 810, if you care to look it up.) Specifically from the second stanza which begins, “For deep in prophets’ sacred page, And grand in poets’ winged word, Slowly in type, from age to age The nations saw their coming Lord…” 

            A “type” is someone or something in the Old Testament that foreshadows or points us to a New Testament reality.  For example, Noah and the flood foreshadow baptism.  The sinner is drowned, the good preserved, Noah and his family is kept safe within an ark, traveling through water, as we are kept in safety in the ark of the church.  The flood is a “type” of baptism, there are aspects of the historical flood described in Genesis that foreshadow baptism.  And this is along the lines of what this year’s sermon series is going to do.  Throughout the next few Wednesdays, we’re going to be looking at people in the Old Testament that are “types” of Christ,  that is, they foreshadow or point us to Jesus.  This week, as you heard in the reading, we’ll take a look at Adam.  

So, let’s get to it…

            Of all the proper prefaces that we hear throughout the church year, my favorite is the proper preface for Holy Week.  We, here, only get to hear this one time out of the year on Maundy Thursday, but listen to the connection that it makes of the tree of the garden and the tree of the cross.  “It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who accomplished the salvation of mankind by the tree of the cross that, where death arose, there life also might rise again and that the serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross be overcome.  Therefore with angels and arch angels and all the company of heaven…” 

            “The serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross be overcome.”  God gave a command to Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The serpent deceived and he ate.  The perfect creation that God had made, in a moment, fell into sin.  The image of God in which God had created man and woman is lost.  The perfect human nature is corrupted by the cancer of original sin. Sin now separates man from God. The everlasting life that God had created Adam and Eve to live, gives way to death. They would see a physical death overpower them, their souls would leave their body.  So it is with us.

            Because Adam and Eve ate of the tree someone had to die, someone had to pay.  They each receive their curse.  For Eve, her pain shall increase in childbirth.  For Adam, he must sweat and labor to bring about food from the earth.  But God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
 and you shall bruise his heel.”  Adam and Eve suffered physical death, even a spiritual death, but they did not suffer eternal death.  Though their bodies, at last, failed them, the didn’t really die.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15,  “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.“ Through Adam, came death and through the Second Adam, Jesus, the Messiah, the Seed of Eve, God made Flesh, came life.   Sin demands blood.  The only blood able to make satisfaction for our sin, the only life that would appease the Father’s wrath is that of His own Son.

Adam and Eve, like us recklessly shattered God’s Law, but the Second Adam kept the Law for them and for you, boring its just sentence. He died, in their place and yours. He paid the cost they could not bear. He fulfilled the Law that would have killed us. He hung upon the tree, the Innocent for the guilty, a ransom worthy of all of humanity's just eternities in Hell. And so, in Him, in that great, final, and full sacrifice, they found from the good Creator and Provider, also forgiveness and sonship, a Father and a heavenly paradise infinitely greater than Eden. 

This is yours, O sons of Adam and daughters of Eve; the descendants of those who fell into sin.  Yet, your sin has been answered for by the Second Adam, who covers you with the adequate clothing of His own righteousness.  Though the serpent may deal craftily with you, you have one who has crushed his head by the nails that struck His heel.  By the tree, Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, but by the tree of the Second Adam, sin and death have been undone.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

1st Sunday in Lent; Luke 4 1-13

"Israel Reduced to One"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

            Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.  Throughout their wanderings in the barren places on their way to the Promised Land, they were faced with temptations to sin and  again and again they failed miserably.  

They grumbled against Moses and the Lord for their lack of provisions.  In Exodus 16 Israel grumbles, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the Land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”  So, the Lord rains upon them manna from heaven.

They grumble amongst themselves to the point of worshipping falsely.  Aaron stirs up the people at Sinai, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us.  As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him…Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”  And they construct a golden calf.

Israel puts the Lord to the test, when in the barren wilderness, they have no water.  In Exodus 17, Israel quarreled with Moses, “ ’Give us water to drink.’  And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the Lord?”

Israel’s sojourning in the wilderness wasn’t exactly God pleasing.  They grumbled because they thought the Lord had forgotten them when they had no bread.  They worshipped falsely when they constructed the golden calf.  They put the Lord to the test when they had no water.  Israel’s 40-year journey from Egypt through the wilderness to the Promised Land was fraught with temptation, which they fell headlong into time and time again.  Yet, after their appointed time in the wilderness, they cross the Jordan and enter the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

As Israel had their time of wandering through the desert, we must journey through the wilderness of this world with the devil on raging against us, tempting us to sin.  And like Israel, we give into his temptations time and time again. 

We have a cupboard full of food and yet, we grumble that there is nothing to eat.  We have a God who loves and cares for us, even giving His own Son into death for us, yet we chase after other gods: ourselves, money, and possessions and we place our trust in them.  We put God to the test when we’re ill, have sickness and pains, or watch as a loved one endures suffering and we say under our breath, “If you really are a God of love, put an end to this.” 

Israel crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, but for us the Jordan comes before the wilderness.  We cross through the waters of baptism and are led out into the wilderness to be sifted like sand by the devil.  He tempts and we fall into his temptations.  He utters his lies and we believe them.  He offers us a seemingly better, carefree life that will make us happy but delivers, instead, damnation. 

Who shall save us from the devil and from ourselves?   Christ.  He knows the temptations that Israel faced and that you face.  He, too, is immediately led from His baptism in the Jordan into the wilderness to be tempted.  He, like Israel and you, wandered in the wilderness.  Christ is led out to be tempted by the devil for 40 days.  But where we are so often faithless to God’s Law, Christ is faithful for you. Israel was many people in their faithlessness, but Christ is the true, faithful Israel reduced to one.  He’s what Israel should be.

 Israel sinned when their stomachs began to grumble.  We sin when we don’t receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.  But Jesus having not eaten for those 40 days , “the devil said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ ”  And Jesus said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

Israel chased after other gods.  We’re all too eager to places our trust in things other than the living God, who cares for all our needs of body and soul.  But the true, faithful Israel, Jesus, would not let His trust divert.

“ ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.  If you then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’  And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’ “

Israel, like us, was constantly putting God to the test, complaining about this or that.  But Jesus is faithful to His Father’s Law.  “[The devil] took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here, for it is written “He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ “ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ “ 

We have been disobedient to God’s Law and fall into temptation time and time again.  We deserve death and hell, but Christ has kept the Law for you.  Where we are faithless, Christ is faithful for you.  Where we fall all too easily into the temptations of the devil, Christ has overcome the devil’s temptation for you.  He lived the sinless life that we could not and He takes that obedience to His Father’s will to the cross.

Luke records, “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”  The devil did all he could to divert Jesus from the cross.  In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is in agony over what He must to in order to win for you salvation, but He does the Father’s will.  He overcomes temptation, remains perfectly obedient, and is the perfect sacrifice for you on the altar of the cross. 

The Lord Jesus has overcome the assaults of the devil for you.  He has been obedient in your place.  Where you have sinned, you’re forgiven, righteous, and holy.  Like Israel, we walk through the wilderness of this world as weak people.  Yet, Christ has walked through the same world and remained obedient for you and His perfection is given to you.  When the Father looks at you, He sees you through the blood of His Son.  And when He looks through the blood of His Son, He sees perfection.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.