Second Sunday of the Great Fast 2024
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNature is temporal and angels are only agents, but Jesus sits at God’s right hand and rules, so he should be listened to. That is the point of the narrative. Jesus forgives sins that only God can do. And then to show that the forgiveness is real he heals. The healing will be temporal, but the forgiveness is eternal. Are we reading the gospels and obeying Jesus in them? How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? The Great Fast is to bow us down before him, to clear all else out of the way. And what we pay attention to is the gospel witness.
Notes
Transcript
Ambon Prayer 14
Our Holy Father Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople; St Gregory Palamas
Title
Title
How Great a Salvation
Outline
Outline
Hebrews makes an interesting statement
Hebrews makes an interesting statement
“How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him,”
This is the first of a series of warning passages in Hebrews and it is built on a foundation: I love nature and great architecture, but it is mortal, “like a mantle thou wilt roll them up,” and only God is immortal, beyond space and time.
I am impressed by angels, but they are “ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation.” They are not rulers, but grand agents.
Therefore we have to pay attention to what “the Lord” says and what his followers attest.
The Gospel puts this in a narrative
The Gospel puts this in a narrative
There is a crowd around Jesus in a house so that one could not get through the door. So guys come carrying a stretcher with a paralytic lying on it, cannot get in, so go up on the roof, dig through the tiles, and let him down in front of Jesus.
Jesus sees “their faith” and says, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” “Hey!” say the scripture experts, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus implicitly says, “My point exactly, and now I will prove it.” “But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” And he did.
This Jesus is the Lord, who sits at the right hand of the Father, who is God in flesh. He does the God thing, forgives sin. The healing miracles are simply outward demonstrations of his inward authority . The healed people will die later, but Jesus never changes, always sits with God as God, and will end the world as he began the world.
So the question is, friends, are we listening to him?
So the question is, friends, are we listening to him?
And are we listening to what his friends attested to about him?
Are you reading the gospels frequently? Are you doing what Jesus tells you? Is your heart bowed before his eminence?
It is good to care for creation, even if it is temporal. It is good to pray to and be thankful for angels, even if they are ministering spirits. But if we are not bowed before Jesus, listening to him, and listening to what the gospels say about him, it is all worthless.
And that is a reason for the Great Fast, so that we may get bowed down before him and clear all else out of the way.