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St Matthew 18:15-20 and Ezekiel 33:7-9
“Repentance”
Divine Service
16th Sunday After Pentecost
Hope Lutheran Church, Aurora, Colorado
Pastor Wolfmueller
Dear People of God,
Salvation unto us has come By God's free grace and favor;
Good works cannot avert our doom, They help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, Who did for all the world atone;
He is our one redeemer.
Paul Speratus wrote those wonderful words almost 500 years ago, in 1523, the birth years of the Reformation. He wrote them from prison where he sat because He preached the Gospel. Imagine, being thrown in prison for preaching the Gospel. And what do Christians do in prison? They sing [see Acts 16:25]. And what a song Pastor Speratus has sung for us, what a doxology, what a glorious hymn that casts out all works and human attempts at righteousness and exalts and lifts up Christ as mankind's only hope for salvation.
Since Christ has full atonement made And brought to us salvation,
Each Christians therefore may be glad And build on this foundation.
Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead, Thy death is now my life indeed,
For Thou hast paid my ransom.
So much Gospel, no wonder he needed ten verses. Give us more. We could sing songs like this for hours, singing of Jesus' great love for us, His great sacrifice for us. After the first verse there is a stern and striking preaching of the Law.
What God did in His Law demand And none to Him could render
Caused wrath and woe on every hand For man, the vile offender.
Our flesh has not those pure desires The spirit of the Law desires,
And lost is our condition.
“Wrath and woe on every hand... man the vile offender... lost is our condition.” This isa good sermon the hymn is preaching to us. We are all lost, unable to keep God's Law, and being on the wrong end of the God's justice. And then, in verse three:
The Law is but a mirror bright To bring the inbred sin to light
That lurks within our nature.
Here we have the chief function of the Law, to show us our sin. And this brings us to the Scripture texts appointed for today, the 16th Sunday after Pentecost. Our texts, especially the Old Testament and the Gospel point to this preaching of the Law to expose sin. And this is the chief thing that these texts are getting at: the the Law is always preached toward repentance, it is always preached with the hope that the offender would see their sin and their need for a Savior and Deliverer from sin, and then trust in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus has won for all sinners.
This is what repentance is, these two parts: contrition and faith.
Contrition.
First there is contrition, sorrow over sin, the knowledge in the heart and on the lips that I am a poor miserable sinner. This contrition or sorrow comes from the preaching of the Law. It is this sorrow over sin that we confess first thing when we come in here: “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities...” This confession is on our lips, true contrition is both on the lips and on the heart. “A broken and contrite heart- These, O God, You will not despise.” [Psalm 51:17]
True and genuine contrition is this terror over sin. We see this in the Psalms and the prophets. “For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.” [Psalm 38:4,6] “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O Lord- how long?” [Psalm 6:2,3] “I said, 'In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol. I cry for help until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones.” [Isaiah 38:10,13] In these terrors the conscience feels God's wrath against sin... It sees the foulness of sin and is genuinely sorry that it has sinned. (see AC XII.31-32) This terror and sorrow is the first part of repentance.
I hope, dear brothers and sisters, that you know something of this sorrow, that you know the depths of your sinfulness, that you have heard the preaching of the Law and tasted the putrid rottenness of your sin, so that when we confess our sins together we are not play acting and pretending. That the confession, “I am a poor miserable sinner” is not a sham confession, but the sincere confession of your lips and your heart.
Faith
But this sorrow is only the first part of repentance, it is followed by the second part: faith. Faith that clings to the promise of the forgiveness of all sins through Jesus death of the cross; faith that believes the absolution. This faith quiets fear and sets the conscience at rest, for the promise that sins are forgiven for Christ's sake comforts us, comforts like nothing else can comfort. It gives the comfort and peace of heaven itself. “Since we are justified by faith we have peace with God.” [Romans 5:1]
This second part of repentance, faith, is the difference between true repentance and false, between the repentance of Judas and Peter. Judas was sorry that he had betrayed Jesus unto death, but he did not mix his sorrow with faith. Peter, on the other hand, was sorry that he betrayed the Lord, but that sorrow did not drive him to despair, but he, by faith clung to the promise of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus' sake. This faith brings peace and hope and joy and blessedness and rest.
I hope, dear brothers and sisters, that you know much of this faith and the comfort it brings, that you have heard the preaching of the Gospel and have tasted the goodness of the Lord. That when you hear the absolution, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins” these words bring all the comfort and peace of heaven to your heart. That you rejoice in the gifts of God, as gifts, given freely to you and me, sinners who don't deserve them.
This is the end of repentance, the end of the preaching of the Law: repentance, that is, contrition and faith. The Lord does not intend for the Law to be preached alone, but that the preaching Gospel, the good news that Jesus died in the place of all sinners, should follow.
And so we hear our texts. In Ezekiel 33 that Lord tells Ezekiel that he is set as a watchman over the house of Israel, and when the Lord gives a warning for a wicked man, Ezekiel is surely to warn them. If not, says the Lord, “his blood I will require at your hand.” [Ezekiel 33:8] The Lord so desires our repentance that He sees to it that we are warned, that the Law is preached. He does not allow us to amble along ignorantly into destruction, but sets watchmen, prophets, preachers to trumpet the Law, to say, “O wicked man, you shall surely die.” [Ezekiel 33:8] That we may know our need for saving, that we may know our need for a Savior, and knowing our need, that we would rejoice when the Savior is promised, is given.
The same is true in our Gospel text, Matthew 18. The Lord Jesus does not want any of His sheep to be lost in unrepentance. And so He gives us instruction for dealing with a brother who has sinned against us. First, go to them alone, speak to him the Law, and if they hear you and repent, you have won that brother back. If they refuse to hear you, go with one or two others, and if they still refuse, tell the sin to the church. If, finally, they refuse to hear the church, excommunicate them; let them be as a tax collector or sinner. But do you see that all of the effort and work and pray and hope of the church is that none would be lost, none would be excommunicated, none would be as tax collectors and sinners. The Law is preached, must be preached, for the purpose of repentance, contrition and faith. That, seeing our sin we would turn our eyes by faith to Jesus and rejoice in the forgiveness that He gives.
Repentance is God's desired goal from the preaching of the Gospel. Repentance is also God's desired goal when tragedy strikes. In Luke 13 Jesus says, “Those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners that all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will also likewise perish.” [Luke 13:4-5] When tragedy strikes we always want someone to blame. Is it God's fault? Were the victims worse sinners than the rest? But Jesus refuses to play the blame game. Instead, He says to all of us, “Repent.” “Unless you repent you will likewise perish.” Tragedy, says Jesus, should lead us to repentance, to sorrow over our own sin and faith in the promise that Jesus has forgiven our sins.
May God grant us, who are constantly bombarded with the bad news of the catastrophe in New Orleans and the south, and who, day after day are surrounded by troubles on every side, may God grant us repentance. That we truly know the horror and terror of our sins, but that we place Christ and His promises against this terror, and that we find, in the midst of all of our trouble, the peace that comes from the absolution and the forgiveness of all your sins.
Dear people of God, hear again that absolution:
I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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