Listen to God's Good Word
Notes
Transcript
1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching The Landmark
Years ago a tornado destroyed a little church on the coast of England. The congregation was too poor to replace it. One day a representative of the British Admiralty called on the local minister. The official inquired if his people planned to rebuild. The pastor explained their situation. Whereupon the caller said, “If you do not rebuild the church, we will. That spire is on all of our charts and maps. It is the landmark by which the ships of the seven seas steer their courses.”
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Credible Witnesses…
Credible Witnesses…
What is the message that the church proclaims?
According to the world - the Church is either a social service agency, a social club, the morality police, or the last relic of an age that the world no longer embraces. She proclaims a message of inclusion/exclusion, tolerance/intolerance, legalism/license, or cultural and spiritual values (mainly the former) that people have outgrown thanks to science and progress.
According to the Scriptures - the Church is the Witness to the love that God has for the World, the beloved Child which is His Delight, the support and buttress of the Truth and the Body/Bride of Christ. She proclaims a message that is both timeless and contemporary, because the message is the Gospel -the Good News - of Jesus Christ.
Our Gospel text on this Sunday, “The Transfiguration of Our Lord,” records the event that shows Jesus Christ in His unveiled Divine Glory. Peter, John, and James his brother have been chosen to witness this awesome event as Jesus, for the first and only time in His earthly ministry, steps away from the veil of humiliation and reveals His majestic glory before men. In addition, these three disciples have the privilege of seeing the iconic Israelite figures Moses and Elijah as they come and converse with the Lord.
Matthew does not reveal this, but in Luke’s account, we are told that they have come to discuss the Lords impending “departure (ἔξοδον) which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem” (). Luke adds, as another detail, that Peter’s words, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you, an done for Moses, and one for Elijah,” were spoken because he was tired and did not know what he was saying.
The Synoptic Gospels also record the voice of the Father from the cloud that declared, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him,” and the exceedingly fearful reaction of the three disciples. Finally, and what must have been the most difficult for the awestruck disciples, Jesus command that they tell no one what they had just witnessed and heard, “until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
There it was, the most powerful revelation of the deity of Christ, and they forbidden to speak about it. The last words of their Mountaintop experience - and they were to say NOTHING!
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”
What you you have done? The world would expect you to trumpet the news, but Jesus calls us to a walk that transcends the world’s interests for affirmation or entertainment. What stops us from sinning against the command of the Lord?
What you you have done? The world would expect you to trumpet the news, but Jesus calls us to a walk that transcends the world’s interests for affirmation or entertainment. What stops us from sinning against the command of the Lord?
Revelation doesn’t. Peter received the revelation of who Christ is and confessed it before Jesus and the other disciples, but the very next time he opened his mouth, it was to rebel against the Word of Christ. He went from being called “blessed” () to being called “Satan” ()! Peter’s tongue brought him both a blessing and a rebuke within the same conversation! Remember what James said about our tongues -
but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
The best remedy? Patience rooted in meekness:
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Meekness recognizes that we need the grace of the Lord to save us, and to sanctify us. Meekness takes the Word of Christ and clings to it instead of dissecting, analyzing, and denying it. Meekness draws us to walk together with our brothers and sisters instead of insisting on our ability to serve the Lord while rejecting the communion of the saints. Meekness embraces the gift of confession and absolution and resorts to it through both public and personal confession instead of saying “I don’t need to do that, I can go to God for myself.” Meekness clings to the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist and confesses what God says about them, that they are the means of grace that God uses to bring bring us into Christ and convey to us the forgiveness of sins, instead of claiming that we “chose Jesus” and that we show how obedient we are when we “get baptized” and “eat the Lord’s Supper” while denying that “It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink” (SC VI:1-2).
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 362.
Returning to the mountain, we see Jesus transfigured before Peter, James and John. We see Moses and Elijah come to Him, neither of these events affected them in the way of the next event did:
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 362.
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 362.
He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
What “terrifies” you about the Lord? Does anything cause you to pause, to reflect on what it means to be a vessel of the Lord, to be united to Christ in Holy Baptism? Do you treat your brother and sister as holy vessels or like common cooking pots? Do you long for others to know that Christ is for them, or do you think that is someone else’s responsibility? Do you walk in Christ’s steps, or do you follow Him from afar?
How often, in our focus on the immediate and the carnal, do we, in fact break the very 1st Commandment? We do have other gods; we don’t “fear, love and trust God above all things.” Dr. Luther wrote, “A “god” is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need.”
Do you long for others to know that Christ is for them, or do you think that is someone else’s responsibility?
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 386.
We say, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,” but we look to politicians and money to protect us from the things which we fear in this life. We call the Church “the Body of Christ” but treat it as a burden on our time, talent, and treasure. Do we truly fear, love and trust in God above all things?
Yet as carnal as we are, as childish as we can be, as proud, short-sighted and self-centered as we can be, Christ loved us and gave Himself for us as a sweet smelling fragrance for our sins. He makes His home in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, He gives us spiritual gifts and causes us to be fruitful unto every good work. All this, the Lord Jesus Christ does because He loves us, because He is faithful, because He is “the only wise God, our Savior.” He loves you, He saves you, He sanctifies you, and He keeps you. He is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory.
So when the Father says, “Listen to Him,” He says it out of love, When the Scriptures exhort us to “look unto Jesus,” it is out of love. When Jesus tells us that “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” it is Love incarnate speaking to you, not a hostile judge who hates you and desires your destruction, but a loving Savior who came to seek and to save the lost.
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
ooking