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INJ
St John 15: 2:1-14
'Doing God a Service'
Matins
Exaudi | 20 May 2007
Dear Saints,
“They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.” That's what your Prophet prophesies: whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.
Now why would your murderer think that? Why would anyone imagine that the Christian's death is a good thing, that our blood is an acceptable offering to God? It's hard to imagine, but that is what Jesus says will be. Whoever kills you will think that he offers God service, worship.
But we see examples of this in the Scriptures and throughout the history of the Lord's church. St Paul, before he was a saint, before he was even Paul, was a persecutor of the Lord's church. He watched approvingly as St Stephen was pelted with the angry stones of the Jewish mob, as he became the first martyr after Jesus' death, and then “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way [, that is, who believed in Jesus], whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” [Acts 9:1-2] Paul, then Saul, was a bounty-hunter for Christians, and it wasn't because he had no convictions or he didn't believe in God. No, the opposite was true. Paul himself writes to the church in Galatia, “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” [Galatians 1:13-14] Whoever kills you will think that he offers God service, worship.
And we see the same thing throughout the book of Acts, the apostles going into a city, then a synagogue, and preaching the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name, and when those who hear believe, those who do not believe are livid, and go through all manner of cruelty and wickedness to give trouble to the apostles, and in the end they always seek their death. The preaching of Jesus is a capital crime in the synagogue. Why? Because they hate Jesus and His claim to be God and the Savior of all men. They hate it. Hate is a strong word, but it is the word Jesus uses, “Whoever hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both Me and my Father.” [John 15:23-24] So the hatred of Jesus' Gospel is manifest in murderous intentions with the Lord's people.
But trouble for the Lord's church does not just come from the synagogue, but from the pagan as well. Do you remember the riot in Ephesus? Acts chapter 19. Paul had preached the forgiveness of sins and urged people to turn from worshiping false gods made with hands to trust in the true and living God. There was a man in Ephesus, Demetrius, a silversmith, who made his livelihood selling statues of the goddess Diana. The growth of the Lord's church was cutting into his business and his piety, so he brought charges against Paul, and these are religious in nature. “So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.” [Acts 19:27] This causes quite an uproar, but in the end the trial is dismissed, but here, this Demetrius thinks that his opposition to the Gospel is doing his goddess a favor.
And this continues. Almost all of the early Christian martyrs were judged guilty by the courts on religious grounds, blasphemy, refusing to worship Caesar. “Caesar is Lord” is all they had to say, and a pinch of incense on the altar, and they were on there way. They could even have Jesus as Lord with Caesar, but no, this is not what it meant to be a Christians. “Jesus is Lord. He alone,” and in came the lions, of the fire, or the ax. “Jesus is Lord” they confessed with their blood. Whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.
Did you know, by the way, that the Romans called Christians “atheists.” The Romans had so many gods, in every valley and tree and mountain, and the apartment buildings on Mt Olympus and everywhere else, that when they heard that the Christians only worshiped one God, it seemed to them as if they had none. Atheists. Because the Christians worshiped Christ alone, prayed to Him alone, looked to Him alone for help in time of need.
But perhaps this is getting to the point of why the killing of Christians seems like good religious worship. There is a religion of the world, of the sinful flesh, of the devil, and it is the exact opposite of the true worship of God, and one word that this false faith despises is the word “alone.” You all know this. You've heard it from other people and you have even heard it in your own mind.
“Are you telling me that the only way to heaven in through Jesus? I can't believe that.” “Do you mean to say that people who never heard of Jesus are going to hell? A loving God would never do something like that.” “Religion ought to help people get along with each other, but you Christians, and especially you Lutherans, are always fighting about teaching. Why does it matter so much what you believe, let's just love on another.” Or here's the worst, “God is bigger than all the different religions.”
This is how the the flesh thinks, the way the devil wants us to think: that it can't all be about Jesus, and His death, and His blood, and His cross, and His resurrection and ascension and coming back soon, and His loving us and forgiving all our sins. “COEXIST” is the bumper-sticker that teaches this, the C is crescent moon for the Muslims, the O has a pentagon in it, for the capital 'P' Pagans, witches and satanists (Wicca), E=mc2, for the scientists, X is a star of David for the synagogues, the I has a karma wheel for the Buddhists, the S is a yen-yang for the Taoists, and the T is a Cross for Christians. Coexist. But this doesn't work. Jesus simply won't stand along side all the false gods, all the idols. He will not share the stage with the demons, He will not share you with them, because Jesus knows that the C and the O and the E and the X and the I and the S did not die for your sins, that they cannot forgive and they cannot save and they are not God. But you go saying things like that to the C's and O's and all the others, then Jesus is proven true, whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.
But maybe there's even more to it, something more to why the synagogue and the world hate Jesus. He is, after all, hated first ad killed first. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” [John 15:18] “But how,” we ask, “could anyone hate Jesus?” We are His church, and we all know His love for us, how He died to save us, how He has us as His own children by the forgiveness of all of our sins, and we love this Jesus, that's what it is to be a Christian, for He has first loved us and given Himself up for us. How could anyone hate the one who died to save them?
St Paul gives us more insight into this hatred, Romans 10:3, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” Jesus comes to give us His righteousness, His perfection and holiness as a gift, but to give us this, He has to first take something away: our own righteousness and goodness and the thought that we're pretty good.
Do you see that Paul here is describing every religion of the world except of Christ's; they are a seeking to establish their own righteousness., to make sure that we're good enough, that we love and tolerate one another and get along and help our neighbor. And every false god is pushing us toward this: being confident in ourselves, or comfortable with ourselves, or having good self-esteem or self-image, to know that we've done our best. And so the natural man grasps, with all his strength, to the illusion of his own goodness. The Bible calls this pride, and like every idol, Jesus will not stand alongside the vain imagination that thinks its good or that is trying to establish its own righteousness.
Jesus must strip this illusion away, it is often the last idol to be destroyed, the thought that we're “not that bad.” But we are, and the flesh hates to hear it. Hates to hear it so much that it will do anything to cling to the illusion that is not a corrupt dirt-bag, in the end its murder, all to avoid facing the fact that we are poor miserable sinners. Whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.
And so we expect this: to be killed, we are not greater than our Master, if the world hated and killed Him, we expect no less. But you all know this. In your confirmation vow each of you were asked a question, something like this, “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church, and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” Answer: I do, by the grace of God.
We thank God the Father for this confession, for it means that Jesus His Son has torn away from us the idol of our own righteousness, and given us instead His righteousness, His perfection in the forgiveness of all of our sins, and where the forgiveness of sins is, there also is life and salvation. By faith you have His heavenly gifts, and this is the true worship of the true God. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO