022303 Amen to Gods Yes
Amen to God’s “YES!”
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Epiphany Seven
February 23, 2003
Introduction: It seems ironic that one of the first words a child learns is “NO.” That word carries so much freight. Children are naturally inquisitive and like to experiment with their environment. I tried counting how many times I said “NO” or “DON’T” to my grandson the other day. You probably know what I found out. I found out I used that order too much. The reason I said it was not so much that the child was in any danger, but because I didn’t want my adult environment disturbed; I lost patience, I wanted my space to be sacrosanct, and any number of other reasons. The point is this, we learn at an early age that the word “NO” is also connected to some form of retribution that we naturally detest.
Then it occurred to me that even as adults we continue to need to hear that word “NO” as it comes from God’s mouth more than we realize. We still tend to step on the wrong side of right morals and ethics, and sin against the perfect will of God. How ironic it is, having learned the word at such an early age, we still fail to get it. And like little children we wonder “Why is our behavior so wrong?” And because we expect God to deal with sin in a very harsh way, we might even think we have done no wrong if we are not struck dead, or by something really bad when we have failed. To be sure, God could crush us with His powerful and eternal “NO!” And that “NO” is certainly coming. But God in His great mercy does a new thing that is simply AMAZING. In His own Son Jesus Christ he chooses to give his believing children the comforting “Yes” of his forgiveness and love. How do we give our comforting “Yes” of forgiveness and love to our children? Do we do it in such a way so as to cause the child to raise their hearts and voices to the acclamation of gratitude? God, in the way He has given His “YES” to us through His Son, causes us to raise our hearts and voices to say—
Amen to God’s “Yes!”
I. Of course, in our human sinfulness we tend to always say “NO” to the authorities God has established. We don’t realize, or want to concede our own authority to hear God speaking through them.
A. That was the case in Corinth with some who were calling Paul’s authority and credibility into question.
i. There were a few who thought of their own authority as being greater than Paul’s because he only preached that forgiveness and life with God come through faith in Jesus Christ apart from works of the Law (Rom 3:28). Ask yourself this question: “Are good works necessary for salvation?” If you answer that with a “YES” you are in agreement with the Judaizing teachings that were touted out against Paul.
ii. But the visible attempts to discredit Paul were being made by saying that he was untrustworthy in his ministry because he had not come to visit the church in Corinth as he had said he would. In other words, Paul was speaking falsely out of both sides of his mouth as if saying “YES-YES” and “NO-NO!” The basic point was that Paul’s was a worldly ministry that did not have the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the Judaizers had(1 Cor 16:5-8; 2 Cor 1:15-16).
It shouldn’t surprise us that Paul or any of the other apostles should be treated in this fashion. Jesus had said, 24 “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household! Mat 10:24-25
B. Consider what happened to Jesus as He forgave the paralytic his sins. Today’s Gospel reveals the hardened hearts of the Scribes as they challenged Jesus’ authority to do so (Mk 2:1-12).
i. When Jesus said “Son, your sins are forgiven,” He was announcing God’s “Yes” to the paralytic. In essence saying, “Yes, I have the authority to heal all yours diseases, even sin.” Against that authority the teachers of the law spew out their unbelieving “No.” “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They try to hide their inner charges of blasphemy by not openly announcing themselves. Nevertheless, God knows all things, and they have just condemned themselves by their unbelief.
ii. Not believing that Jesus is God does not stop the work of God. When Jesus gave walking mobility to the paralytic He not only proved his authority to heal both the outer and the inner man. He was trying to get the teachers of the law to acknowledge that His “YES” is God’s “YES!”
C. All humanity has the unbelievable audacity to challenge God’s authority by either adding to or taking away what God has said.
i. Already in Eden, the serpent’s wily challenge “Did God really say…” causes Eve, who had the capability to say NO to such nonsense, being then in a state of perfection before God, begins to trust the creature over her CREATOR (Gen 3:1). In doing so, she models the ruin SIN brings to all humanity.
ii. Now we struggle with the same kind of thinking as EVE when we think our wisdom can stand because there is no God, or that God just doesn’t care. Sadly mankind’s challenge against God remains a current event. An event that is manifested even among us.
Illustration: Bumper stickers still proclaim a motto made popular during the 1960s: “Question Authority.”
The tenets of Darwinian atheism create an environment for thought that professes that absolute truths established by God are an impossibility.
Allen Bloom begins his insightful book, The Closing of the American Mind [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987] with this observation, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.” Such is the case when people believe the lie that all things in life are both “Yes” and “No.”
II. When God responds to our human sinfulness with his resounding “Yes” we respond with our challenge of His authority and say, “Not so fast! You need to meet the standard of repentance, the standard of loving God, the standard of doing something right, first.” Our “NO” just screams from that, doesn’t it?
A. Nevertheless, God pronounces his “Yes” over us for his own sake (cf Is 43:25), not because we have deserved it in any way. Or did you not hear the Word of the LORD spoken right here today when Isaiah spoke as the voice of the LORD: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Dear friends, believe!
B. We are sealed in the “Yes” of God’s forgiveness, life, and salvation through the promise and washing God gave us in Holy Baptism (vv 21-22). That is the authority that also blots out your transgressions for the LORD’s own sake.
C. You see, the “Yes” of God toward us was accomplished by God’s declaring his “No” toward his Son.
i. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me” Jesus pleads (Lk 22:42; Mk 14:36). But, it was the cup of suffering Jesus came to drink in our place. “NO” the Father said.
ii. On the Cross Jesus cries out in torment, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34). Again, the heavenly Father said “NO” to His own Son so that His “YES” might come upon us.
iii. And this is what is extended to all. Through his perfect life, death, and resurrection, Jesus is both God’s eternal “Yes” (v 19) and “Amen” (Rev 3:14) toward us who believe the truth. God Himself has established His faithful and true witness for us, thus fulfilling all of the promises of God for his people.
III. So, let’s endeavor to respond to God’s “Yes” with our heartfelt “Amen.”
A. “Amen” because we believe it is so among us also.
B. Let’s allow our “Amen” to ring out loudly in worship. May it always be our exclamation point that declares the truth of God’s “Yes” toward us as he comes to us again and again through WORD and SACRAMENT!
Conclusion: “Amen” is not simply a period to a sentence that marks the end of a thought. Instead, it is the continuous hymn of the church on earth and in heaven. And guess what? In their “Amen” all of God’s redeemed people shout their thanksgiving to God for graciously declaring his “Yes” of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For they all have come to know the truth that God is not hampered by the human “NO” of form. Otherwise we would have to chastise St. Paul for preaching to the Corinthians without the aid of our page 5 or 15. Let’s allow God His way since God is still preached among us, and is still doing His thing. Thus, to God’s eternal “Yes” may we also give our heartfelt and enduring “Amen!”