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SERMON TEXT: MARK 13:5-11
SERMON TEXT: MARK 13:5-11
Let us rise and join together in the responsive
"Prayer Before the Sermon" printed in your
worship folder:
P: Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
give us Your Holy Spirit who writes the preached Word
into our hearts. May we receive
and believe it and be cheered and comforted by it
in eternity. C: Glorify Your Word in our
hearts and make it so bright and warm
that we may find pleasure in it, through Your
Holy Spirit think what is right, and by Your power
fulfill the Word, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our
our Lord. Amen. [Prayer text by Martin Luther]
Our Sermon for this morning is based on
Mark's Gospel where we read from Chapter 13,
beginning with Verse 5:
JESUS SAID TO THEM: "WATCH OUT THAT NO ONE DECEIVES YOU.
MANY WILL COME IN MY NAME, CLAIMING ,
'I AM HE,' AND WILL DECEIVE MANY.
WHEN YOU HEAR OF WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS,
DO NOT BE ALARMED. SUCH THINGS MUST HAPPEN,
BUT THE END IS STILL TO COME.
NATION WILL RISE AGAINST NATION, AND KINGDOM AGAINST
KINGDOM. THERE WILL BE EARTHQUAKES IN VARIOUS
PLACES, AND FAMINES. THESE ARE THE BEGINNING OF BIRTH PAINS.
YOU MUST BE ON YOUR GUARD.
YOU WILL BE HANDED OVER TO THE LOCAL COUNCILS AND FLOGGED
IN THE SYNAGOGUES. ON ACCOUNT OF ME
YOU WILL STAND BEFORE GOVERNORS AND KINGS
AS WITNESSES TO THEM. AND THE GOSPEL MUST FIRST BE PREACHED
TO ALL NATIONS. WHENEVER YOU ARE ARRESTED AND
BROUGHT TO TRIAL, DO NOT WORRY BEFOREHAND
ABOUT WHAT TO SAY. JUST SAY WHATEVER IS GIVEN YOU
AT THE TIME, FOR IT IS NOT YOU SPEAKING,
BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT." [MARK 13:5-11]
The congregation may be seated.
[Text taken from the HOLY BIBLE:
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, 1973, 1978, 1984,
used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers]
Dear Followers of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ:
I can't imagine what the disciples were thinking
as Jesus was sharing
this message with them.
Sharing with them about what their future would be.
Sharing with them about how the world
was going to become a more vile
and more evil place.
And it's so easy sometimes to get caught up in
all of those things that were alarming
in what Jesus said. Nations would rise
against nations. And kingdoms against kingdoms. There were
going to be earthquakes. There were going to be famines.
The Church was going to be persecuted.
Those people were going to be hauled before governors
to testify.
And yet, to still hear
the love of Christ in the message that He had
for His disciples.
That message that He wanted them
to remain faithful. To remain
with Him. To be with Him.
To be on their guard!
To be very careful, because their life
in the world was
not going to be easy. Their struggle
to keep their faith was going to be a
contentious war.
A war for the truth! A war
to remain grounded and faithful to God
and the Word that had been proclaimed.
To do that by the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit
in the midst of falsehood.
In the midst of attack on what
the Word is truly all about.
And what the Church is to accomplish.
It has been the difficulty of the Church
through the ages to remain
focused on Christ.
On the Christ of Scripture.
Not the Christ of our minds or our rational being.
Not the Christ of our heart and what we hope and think and
want Him to be.
But how Jesus Christ is portrayed in Scripture.
How He is the One
who revealed in the exact representation
what God the Father was like.
Because He CAME from God the Father
to reveal
who God is ... and what God has done!
And that God is still active
in the lives of His people.
Still active in this world.
Still sending out that eternal Gospel
that we are reminded of in our reading from Revelation
this morning. That eternal Gospel to be preached to the
ends of the earth to all people, nations, languages,
and tribes ... so that
all people could come to a knowledge of
Jesus Christ and be saved.
Saved from the condemnation that sin had
brought upon them. And that is not even today
a popular preaching theme.
People don't wanna hear that there is
nothing good that is in us
of ourselves. That from
the moment of conception,
we have inherited sin from our mothers and fathers.
Sin that condemns us!
Sin that lives in us, that works in us, that
continues to do things through us.
That we have that inherited sin
that becomes actual sin by the ways
in which we live that is against God.
And against His will.
And we are reminded today,
on this day of Reformation,
how important it is to realize that there is only one
solution to that problem
of sin. That condemnation
of God and that solution
is Jesus Christ
who came into this world sinless,
holy, perfect.
Who lived in that life of perfection.
Who fought against every temptation.
Who fought against Satan himself
and remained true to God and pure ...
and holy.
And then God took that holy, pure
spotless Lamb
and killed it;
sacrificed it; so that His blood
would wash away our sins.
He took our
punishment upon Himself
so that we could be His own
and live with Him in His kingdom
and serve Him in His kingdom.
And there is the grace of God
shining so clearly from the cross
and radiating from that empty tomb on
Easter Sunday;
that He rose physically ... bodily ... from the dead
to remind us that we in faith
will also rise to the glories of heaven
to that eternal kingdom that He has prepared
for us. And that is
the Gospel message that we proclaim.
That is the Gospel message that someone
shared with us and it's changed our lives,
taking us from people who were
held captive to sin
and death and the devil's grip
and freeing us to live in the grace and the love
of God Himself.
We hear Jesus' words to us this morning
as well, just as He told those disciples:
Be on your guard!
Be careful,
because there are going to come people
who will say: I'm the Messiah!
And they are going to deceive many.
There are going to be people
who proclaim God's Word NOT
in its truth and purity,
for their own advancement and their own glorification.
And how necessary it is for us
to KNOW those Scriptures.
To have that knowledge
to be able to understand what is the truth,
so that we are not led astray.
To be careful in and of ourselves
in the way in which we live.
To say: What is important in my life?
And what am I willing to give up
for the pure true Gospel that I have
and the glories of heaven that are mine?
Each and every day you and I face opportunities
that say: Today as a child of God,
will I serve Him, or
will I NOT?
Today will I live in thanks
for what God has done?
Or will I NOT live
in thanks to God?
We miss those opportunities; have those opportunities every
day before us.
And it seems sometimes we just ignore them.
Everyone hear about the
earthquake today? The one that
sent the tsunami warning to Hawaii?
You heard that and in your mind
you should have thought:
The end is near.
You hear about the wars and rumors of wars
across this globe and you think in your head:
The end is coming.
Christ is
going to return.
Sometimes we can just go through our entire day
without reflecting on what God has done for us.
And that He wants us to be
close to Him ... remain with Him.
But too often we just don't even want to be bothered.
We can't even find time for
daily devotions.
We can't find time to pray before meals.
But they're reminders
for us to be careful.
To be careful ... as Jesus told
His own children in the Old Testament
through the Prophet Jeremiah: Look what
you're doing.
And don't think that I can't take you and form you
into something else. Just like the potter at the wheel
who messes up that vase and picks it up and
slams it down and starts over.
Reform
your ways.
Go back to the Word.
Be IN THE WORD. Working with the Holy Spirit
in your life.
To remain watchful for the coming Messiah.
To remain living in Him.
To do the thing that you have been taught and that
you know God wants from you
without excuse ... without complaint ... without
offering anything in replacing it.
To be careful
to be on your guard.
Because this is truly serious.
The battle rages.
But the Victor is with us.
Christ has defeated every attack
on the Church and He is going to bring that Church
to be with Him triumphant in glory
for all eternity.
And THAT is what we look forward to. That is
the culmination of our faith - and each and every day
while we wait and look for Him to return -
we're in the Word!
Studying the Word and
living it in our lives.
Amen.
Let us rise.
Now may the peace of God which goes beyond all of our
understanding keep your hearts and your minds, and especially
your lives in the one true faith unto life everlasting.
Amen.