It is important to remember that your life of faith should be balanced. You should be mindful that the world need’s your service, the church needs your time and help, your family needs your devotion. You should not be lazy. But, you should not neglect the quiet times. Part of your Christian life should also include times with our Lord’s Word, times when you study and learn, times when you get away from the hustle and bustle of a demanding world and times when you pray, when you restore your soul. The Lord Jesus expects that your life will be a balance of both – busy service and quiet contemplation.

That’s a good lesson. But, that is not what the story of Mary and Martha is about.

Here is what well meaning people have done with this text. They have imagined that Martha was trying to be a good host and that Mary was trying to be a good host. They both meant well. But, Martha did it by cooking and cleaning, and Mary did it by paying attention to the main guest. And, then they conclude that Jesus is giving a fine lesson about proper etiquette, that all other things being equal, it is better to pay attention to your guest than to ignore him with much serving. Of course, says the typical preacher when faced with this story, neither is bad; you just to have a good balance between both. Don’t get so busy that you forget about rest and relaxation. Not only is that precisely the opposite of what Jesus says, but more important, it misses the point altogether.

It is not as though Mary chose the better way to serve or as though both Mary and Martha had the right idea, but that Mary’s idea was a little better. At that moment, in Martha’s home, on that day, Mary and Martha had completely different ideas about how to relate to Jesus. Martha’s idea was wrong. Mary’s was right. The point is that Mary wasn’t trying to serve Jesus at all. She was not trying to give Him something, not trying even to praise Him or give Him honor. Rather, she was served by Jesus. She is not active; she is passive. She is not trying to be the host. When Jesus comes, He is the host. Mary is the guest. When God comes on the scene, He gives. We receive.

At one point, Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” At one point, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples rather than the other way around. At one point, this religious leader did something no religious leader had ever done before or since – He gave up His life for the sake of his followers.

Now, this is the very heart of our life in Christ and it is the very heart of our worship. It wasn’t too long ago that we changed the designation this hour on Sunday from “worship” to “Divine Service”. Worship is not a bad term – just so often badly misunderstood, I believe. When you come to worship God, what is that you do? What is the main part of worshipping? Is it that you pray to God, say thank you to him, praise him, sing songs to him. Is it that God descends from his throne in Heaven down to a sort of imaginary throne right here in our sanctuary all to listen to our praises and prayers. We worship, He gets worshiped? We do something for Him, and He sits back and takes it all in? We give, He receives?

Well, not really. We certainly pray and sing and praise him, but that is all quite secondary. So, we call this hour “Divine Service.” That term in the German is “Gottesdienst.” It means God’s serving. God, during this hour, is serving. He is busy. He is host. He is giving something away. He is giving us His word, his forgiveness, his body and blood. We recline at the table, and receive. This isn’t work. This hour is, for us, the very best definition of rest.

You buy someone a gift. They need it. It’s the perfect thing for them and the timing is good. You tell them to meet you at a certain time and place so that you can give it to them. On their way to receive this gift from you, you overhear them telling someone else, “Say, guess where I’m going. I am on my way to say thank you to that person and praise him for his kindness.” No, they’re not. They are coming to get a gift. They might say thank you or not, they might praise you or not, but either way they are getting a gift and that is the reason for the meeting. That is the reason you came, and that should be the reason they came.

Now, since even civilly decent pagans know enough to say thank you when they receive a gift and to praise someone for a job well done, we certainly say thank you and praise God for all this serving that He does, but we’d have gotten it all backward if we thought that was the reason we woke up this morning and came here. We came to listen to God’s word and to get forgiveness.

Martha got confused and distracted about that. Jesus came to give her something and she was so very busy trying to give him something that she didn’t even notice. This is what Jesus says, He says “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed… I love your devotion to me, and there isn’t one second of your service to me which I don’t notice… BUT ONLY ONE THING is NEEDED. So sit down for a while, take a breath, and let me serve you. That is the one thing needed.”

You see, the same thing that is so often misunderstood when it comes to the Divine Service is also misunderstood when it comes to church in general… as though we all got together and built the church building to give us a place to get busy serving God. No, this church stands, services are held, Bible studies conducted, visits made, business meetings held, all so that Jesus would come and serve us with His gospel. That is why I just can’t stand it when people say that they’re trying to keep a church from dying. What is that supposed to mean? You mean, the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus comes here, offers and gives his means of grace, the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins, indeed feeds sinners with His own body and blood, and all it takes is to miss budget a couple months and the place is dying? Not only is that just silly, there may be some justification calling it blasphemy.

Let Martha be your warning. You are not stronger than her. Martha is a Christian; she loves Jesus, and we shouldn’t feel sorry for her because she is in paradise today. But, for a while there, she got distracted. And the same could happen for you…. Especially for you who do a lot of work at the church. Your work is good. God is pleased with it. The church needs it.

But it you have found yourself thinking that you are the only one, that others don’t pull their weight, if you have despised those who come here on Sunday right before church and then leave right after and never seem to want to “get involved,” if you know that you’ve give more money into the plate than most everyone else even though you know you don’t make as much and you don’t really think its fair, if you have ever been guilty of thinking that if you were to leave, how would they ever survive without me, then beware. Repent. If you’ve found it difficult to hear Jesus’ words because you are busy with much serving – in the kitchen, in the office, on the Council, in the narthex during church – perhaps you should consider stepping back. That’s right. Stop serving. Leave the dishes in the sink for a while. Someone else can probably handle it, and even if they don’t, you have Jesus’ words, you are forgiven, you are going to Heaven and dirty dishes could never take that away from you.

One of you told me once, “I don’t come here to make friends. I have a busy life and I don’t need any extra things on my plate. That’s not why I come to church. I come because, here, I get something I need. I need to get right with God. That’s why I come. That’s the only thing I need.”

I heard you say that. And, I couldn’t argue with you. You come for the one thing needful, which will not be taken away from you.

So, clean the church, prepare the meals, pick the weeds, pay the bills, serve your spouse faithfully, work hard at your job… but remember this, there is only one thing needed, Jesus says, “And its what I do for you.” Amen.

]]> http://mtzionlcms.org/trinity-12-2008/feed/ 0 http://mtzionlcms.org/trinity-xi-2008/ http://mtzionlcms.org/trinity-xi-2008/#comments Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:00:30 +0000 Pastor Jared Melius http://mtzionlcms.org/?p=12 The first thing we need to do is to give this Pharisee half a chance.  Forget the prejudice that Jesus’ frequently stinging remarks about Pharisees have formed in your mind.  Give the guy in this parable as much credit as you can.  He is, after all, a good man.  His prayer of thanksgiving to God is a good one.  To begin with, he is not a crook or a womanizer.  He takes nothing he hasn’t honestly earned.  He is faithful to his wife, patient with his children, and a trustworthy friend.
And, maybe more to the point, he is not like this publican.  We need to be a bit more realistic about the publican.  He is not some poor innocent puppy dog.  He is a profit hungry opportunist, who is the worst kind of crook: a legal one.  He operates his own little mafia style franchise in league with the Roman authorities that lets him collect – from the Jews, mind you, from the people whom the Romans might have had trouble finding, but whose whereabouts he knows and whose language he knows – that lets him collect all the money he can bleed off of them, all providing he pays the Romans an agreed upon flat fee.  Now, this is just a parable so the publican is just your typical Jewish tax collector, which means that he lives high and rich.  He makes himself more money than he would ever need all by threatening his own people and their children with the force of the law.  For abusing his people, he should be brought before congress for an investigation into excessive corporate profits and be sent to prison, but instead he drives a stretched limo, drinks the finest of wines and has enough money left over for the nightly rental of a couple high dollar prostitutes.  He is an extortioner, unjust and an adulterer.  The man, quite frankly, is sick.
The Pharisee, however, is not only good; he is religious.  And not just hypocritically religious either.  His religion means something to him.  He prays in the Temple, fasts twice a week and puts his money where his mouth is: ten percent off the top for God.  If you can find a few good Lutherans like this one, I know of more than one congregation that would be happy to accept them into membership, no questions asked.  In fact, I know of a couple seminaries that would be happy to recommend such a man to preach in your pulpit.  But what does Jesus tell you about such a man?  Not only that he is in bad shape, but that he is in worse shape than the scoundrel who is stinking up the sanctuary with the smell of boos and illicit perfume.  In other words, he tells you an unacceptable parable.
And I think you know the meaning of the parable.  You’ve heard it enough times.  It doesn’t matter how good you are.  You can’t please God and get to heaven for your good works.  And, it doesn’t matter how bad you have been, God will forgive anyone who will repent and trust Christ for forgiveness.  Your works are not part of the equation.  You cannot approach God with the pride of your own righteousness.
Fine.  You know what the parable means.
But, as soon as you’ve said you know what the parable means, you are almost immediately facing an even greater danger… the danger of thinking that there aren’t many men like this Pharisee, self-inflated, who refuse to see their need for grace.  Men the likes of his arrogance are rare, you think.  And there you would be wrong.  We all alike, at times and to varying degrees, refuse to see our need for grace.
Look at the two men on the cover of your bulletin.  Which of them are you?  I know, I know.  In your mind, you know which one you are supposed to be.  But, your heart would like to be the other one, the one in the front.
You don’t believe me?  Give me a chance to prove it to you.  The publican goes down to his house justified rather than the other.  Well and good, you say.  But let me follow him now in your mind’s eye as goes about the next 7 days and comes at last to the Temple again to pray.  What is it that you would like to see him doing during those seven days?  After such a gift from God, what does your moral sense teach you to expect from him now?  Are you not itching, as the man’s spiritual advisor, to nudge him into another line of work – something more honorable?  Wouldn’t you like to see him now turn a new leaf?  Don’t you feel compelled to insist on at least a little bit of reform?
Try this.  Let say there is no reform.  He doesn’t straighten up.  He goes down to his house justified, and continues his sins – skimming, threatening, high priced Scotch, loose women.  Put him through the same routine, eyes down, beating his breast, God be merciful, and all that.  Now, on the basis of this parable, you understand that God will not change His ways.  He will do with this repentant sinner exactly this week what He did last week.  In short, He will send him down to his home justified again.  The question for you is this: do you like that?  And the answer, of course, is that you do not.  Neither do I.  But why not?  The unfairness of it all.  The rat is getting off free!  It’s like God wants to forgive his sins without any expectations!
At some point, we have to honestly admit to ourselves that while we understand the general thrust of this parable with our minds, our hearts are different.  Our hearts have a desperate need to believe it’s exact opposite.  We are in the constant spiritual danger of becoming like the Pharisee.  We would like to insist that the publican at least try to do better, at least do some good things, in order to stay in God’s grace.  I mean, if God’s gonna love him, accept him and shower him with the blessings of Justification all for free, then what is the point of all my good works, all my saving up, all the time and fasting and tithing I’ve done.  I’ve said to myself, “I know I’ve made mistakes, but at least I’m here at church in the middle of summer.  That should count for something shouldn’t it?  I may not be the best person in the world, but at least I know I’m not the best person in the world.  At least I’m not like the Pharisee, who’s so judgmental.  Thank you God, that I’m at least better than him.”
Ah, what am I to do with heart of mine, so vested in its own goodness, so bent on making its own way to God?  My spiritual deceit and pride is so pervasive, so entrenched.  How, with such a heart as mine, will I ever please God?

The answer:  You won’t.  You’ve got to let that go.  Be emptied.  Despair of yourself and your spiritual accomplishments.  Jesus Christ came for the ungodly, not the mostly godly or the semi-godly.  Jesus came to breathe life into the spiritually dead.  Not to reform the reformable and to improve the improvable.  You are no better than the Pharisee and you are no better than the publican… which is good.  It means that Christ died even for you, for publicans and Pharisees alike, for extortioners, the unjust and adulterers.  Do you have sins like the publican?  Are you afraid and ashamed?  Don’t worry.  They are forgiven.  Go to your home justified.  Are you proud of your spiritual accomplishments?  Don’t worry.  That is also forgiven.  All these weaknesses, these failures and shameful decisions, are universally covered once and for all under the blood of Jesus Christ.

The danger of the Pharisee is that he would insist that God accept his own filthy righteousness as good enough.  But not you.  For you, there is another righteousness, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, a gift to you, given without cost through the Gospel.  Only this righteousness is good enough.  Open wide your hands and let go of whatever goodness you were hoping to offer to God.  Let it fall to the ground.  But, keep you hands open, open wide your mouth and receive there a righteousness that is not your own.  It is better.  It lasts forever.  And no one can take it away from you.
Eat and drink.  And then, go down to your home justified.  Amen.

You might know that kind of sadness yourself. It is always there, but usually hidden. Perhaps no one else knows about it. But, it’s close to the surface. When a certain hymn comes up or certain smells comes out of the oven, you just can’t hold it together. It doesn’t matter if it’s been three years or 10 or 20. That’s the way this man is I’m talking about.

You might be surprised to learn that you all know this man. The man’s name is Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus mourns. He always has. On three different occasions we are told that Jesus wept. The first is at the death of Lazarus and the final time in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Gospel for the 10^th Sunday after Trinity, Jesus weeps at the sight of Jerusalem. The Greek means more than that He merely wept, but it includes sobbing and cries. Perhaps a better word is “He lamented over it.” He suffered a deep inward anguish. And will you note that Jesus’ tears come at a time when He you might have expected joy. It’s Palm Sunday. He is riding into His city and the people are over-joyed, singing and waving palm branches. And yet, in the midst of hosannas and palms, the Savior stopped to weep. It must have even been awkward, so out of place. You know that must be some deep grief.

Now, what is this grief, so tender, so delicate? You might think that Jesus is beginning to dread His oncoming sacrifice. He knows He will die for sin outside the gates of this very city, that His payment for sin will not be easy or light. Maybe He is already grieving the very prospect of it. Maybe He is afraid. You and I would be. We are terrified of death. We would be thinking of ourselves. I know you say, “I’m not afraid of death. I’m know I’m going to Heaven.” But, I don’t believe you. What is that feeling in your chest when you lose control of the car on an ice patch? You’re not afraid of getting hurt or of having to go the hospital. You’re afraid of dying.

But, not Jesus. Not here anyway. There is not even a trace of that kind of self-concern. In all that flood of tears, there was not one for His own death. The tears are for Jerusalem. He would say later “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but for yourselves and for your children.” It is not, “Woe is me, look what I have go do.” It is “Oh, if you had known, even you, especially on this your day.” He grieves for others, not for himself.

Dear saints, learn from Our Lord’s tears to know your Savior aright. He longs to be known by you and to avert your destruction. Some think that the satisfaction for guilt is no big thing, but if it’s no big thing, then where are these tears coming from? Some take their soul’s salvation lightly, but their Savior doesn’t. See his tears. Some consider their situation and their pain, and they think God is distant and unconcerned. How can that be, after you’ve noticed the deep lamenting of Jesus over the souls of men.

Don’t make a mistake, though. It is not as though He’s a pushover, like a doting mother who can’t stand to discipline her children so she just doesn’t. He weeps with genuine tenderness, but His tears are not enough to satisfy His wrath.

The next day, He will walk into church, whip in His hand, and drive out the money-changers, tuning over tables, scattering coins all over the place, and screaming, “My house is a house of prayer… Get out of here!” Sorry if all you know about Jesus is that He was nice to children and considerate of lilies. Before He is forgiving of us, He is angry with us. When it comes to sin, God has a temper. And, it is not some accident of history, some random violence, when the entire city of unbelieving Jerusalem is leveled to the ground in 70 AD, when some 1,000,000 Jews are dashed to ground for rejecting the visitation of their Messiah. The wrath of God is not some quiescent attribute off in the distance, something confined to theology books. The wrath of God is real and manifests itself in history. The judgment of God on sin is no trifling matter. Look what He brought on Jerusalem in 70AD, to say nothing of the eternal judgment on the soul which rejects Him.

But do not think, for this reason, that God is an unfeeling and merciless brute… that He likes this. If you would like to know what He thinks of His Jerusalem, if you would like to know with what tender devotion he longs for you, learn this from His tears.

Every once in a while a parent will stand above their tearful, wailing child and utter these heartless words, “Well what good is crying going to do?” Hey, give the kid a break. He’s not trying fix anything with his tears, he’s crying because he’s sad. Jesus isn’t trying to fix anything by crying, not trying to teach you a lesson or cajole you into making some decision. He is crying because in the mystery and weakness of His human nature, He is sad.

And, in this sadness, Jesus reveals the very heart of God for sinners. This is what the Father means when He says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” He reminds me of a judge whose best friend in the world is brought before him accused, and after much pleading and warning and persuading with the prisoner, at last has the unimaginable pain of condemning him. But, though his sentence is firm, nevertheless, the judge cannot even speak the dreadful words without terrible breaking down in tears.

There is a very practical lesson you can learn about the weeping of Jesus over Jerusalem. It should move you to trust in Him. Approach Him without hesitation. Don’t be afraid. Repent of your sins and be forgiven. He is not eager to see you punished. He is eager to see you safe, gathered under His wings.

Take comfort in the tears that Jesus sheds. Take even greater comfort in the blood that He sheds, not drops from his eyes alone, but from his whole body and even from his very heart. He did not pay for your soul on the road into Jerusalem, but on the road out of it. The dust and the sweat of Calvary, His suffering and death, these are the things that make for your peace.

So, will you remember Jerusalem and repent. Jerusalem’s hour of visitation is passed. But, not yours. Now is the hour of your visitation. It is true that your sins are many and they are frequent. Your flesh is weak. You follow your stomach or your groin. If you look back at your life and think, “How could I have been so foolish,” think how much more obvious it has been to God all along. You can’t hide in the dark or run from Him. Jesus has seen you. He has wept over your choices and your clumsiness. He has wept over you and sweated and bled for you. Even still, He wants you. He loves you. His body and blood will gather you safely to Himself. Cast your burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. Let go of your regrets. He loves you. He bears no grudge, no ill will, no regrets. He was glad to pay the price to make you His. You are worth it to Him. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now Jesus says, “Boy, if only I could get the sons of light to have that kind of zeal for eternal things. But, alas, the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” In other words, Christians pursue their life in Christ with less zeal, less shrewdness than unbelievers pursue their higher social status and standard of living. They love their money more than we love our soul’s salvation. And that, finally, because Christians themselves have learned to love their money. Jesus finishes, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Once again, Jesus is addressing our priorities. You see, what bothers us about this text is that Jesus is telling us what to do with our money and with our career. He is so very intrusive. Why such urgency when it comes to our jobs, such strain to improve our status and such lack of urgency when it comes to church? Fair question.

Look at how our work life dominates. We will accept almost any change in our lives if we can get more money. I remember a pastor in a lonely little Iowa parish who got another call to a thriving suburban parish in California. His eyes wandered over the call documents and landed on the differential in compensation. And finally, he said, “Hmmm, well I think the Spirit is moving me to take the call in California.” That’s us all over. We’ll move, we’ll uproot our families, we’ll do work we utterly detest, we’ll sacrifice our limited time with our families to go to school or get specialized training, we’ll cozy up to the “right” people, we’ll rearrange every part of our schedule in order to advance our careers.

If you were offered a huge promotion, right now, say, to be a vice president in your company – with a huge income and all the perks – would you take it? But what if you had to work every Sunday, and you could never come to church – would you still take it? If you had to essentially cut yourself off from the preaching of the gospel and participation in the Lord’s Supper – but you were looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars a year – would you take the job?

Would you refuse it outright and say: “No way!”? Or would you ponder it, roll it around your head a while, try to justify it by promising to give the church lots of money, or resolving to only do the job for a year or two – or three, or four…? What would you do?

Of course, we live for such promotions. We get advanced degrees and specialized training, we come to work early and leave late, we rack up sales figures, we get more things done than the next guy, and we keep our eyes peeled for the next rung on the ladder. And that’s not wrong. You have not sinned by making use of your talents to advance in this world. Just notice this. You have always been shrewd when it comes to your career, always diligent, always passionate for your status and for your income.

What is wrong is when it comes before God, when we have thought that we could be happy by it, and that we didn’t need God. And, which of us has not thought that? Typically, when we do come into more money, or when we do finally get the promotion – what is the first order of business? Additional possessions? Finally pay off the debt we’ve accumulated for buying the possessions we have now but couldn’t wait to pay for? Usually, the top priority isn’t to call the president of the church and tell him that the budget for missions can be doubled now.

And thus have we proven Our Lord right. We are weak. Our zeal is misplaced. Now, I should tell you that the point of the parable today is fairly simple. You should give money to the church. There are other places in the Bible that say you should support your family give to the poor. But, today, this is very specific about giving to the church. Have you heard people say, “Well, I don’t really mind Jesus; it’s the church I can’t stand. All they want is my money.” Well, in this parable Jesus is saying that he cares about his church and he wants their money. That’s what it means when He says, “Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon” – that is, use your time, talents and treasures to extend the preaching of the Gospel and make Christians – “that when you fail” – that is, when you die – “they” – the friends who became Christians by your influence – “may receive you into an everlasting home” – that is Heaven. Use the resources that your Heavenly Father has given you of His own abundance to support the work of getting people into Heaven.

And, as if that instruction alone weren’t enough, Jesus uses the whole parable to teach that you should be more zealous about that mission than you should about anything else this short and sad world could offer. And that is where we are stopped in our tracks. The Law always accuses. Our motives are constantly a mixture between good and bad. We have given money to the church. Sure. Rarely have we made it a higher priority than a host of other desires, but even when we have, even when we have given sacrificially so that we’ve had to adjust our priorities and plan how we would give that much, sacrificed a vacation or a new car to do it, even still, we haven’t daydreamed and schemed about how we could give more the way we have when thinking about how we could serve ourselves. No offering, large or small, is given with perfect motives.

Dear Christians, your sins are forgiven you. You do not have perfect motives, but you do have forgiveness. Have you wrong Our Lord? Been wasteful, negligent or greedy? Acted selfishly? Have you sought your own way and your own pleasures? Are you sorry? You are forgiven. Think of no more. Your Father in Heaven has let it go so you should also. And now, your eternal and everlasting home awaits you. All things are complete. Jesus has prepared a place for you there. He has prepared that place and made all things right by sacrificing Himself for sin’s penalty. There is nothing left for you to do, nothing even that you have to pay.

You should support the work of the church, and if you bring an offering, that’s good. The Lord is pleased and He will use it. It is a good work and redounds to the glory of God and the good of your neighbor. But, if you didn’t, if you haven’t ever before, if it hasn’t even really mattered to you, or if you forgot, don’t be afraid. Let the plate pass on by, and don’t even feel bad or embarrassed. God will be fine. He is no richer when you make an offering and no poorer when you don’t. And more than that, He loves you the same either way, for no sin places you outside of His grace. The death of Jesus is enough. You are baptized and so your place is Heaven. He will bring you there for the sake of Jesus alone.

In the meantime, remember, that could happen at any time. Do not so treasure the things of this world, its possessions and wealth, that you imagine you’re going to be here forever… or even that you will stay here for very long. You won’t. None of us is ever more than a missed heart beat away from death. We can’t live without a beating heart, functioning lungs or brain or kidneys or a host of other things. Any of them can fail for thousands of reasons and without warning, because of genetics or a slip on the stairs or something in the water. We can be undone in a matter of seconds, dead before we hit the floor. We survive, and even prosper, by the providence and grace of Our Lord, whether we are aware of it or not.

God provides. Even today, the greatest offering that we place on the Altar this morning is the offering that Jesus makes for you, His own Body and Blood. Come and taste and see: the Lord is good. He commends you, is pleased with you and is eager to bring you to Himself in heaven.

Rather, I gave you an answer something like Jesus’ answer. If you can’t know a false prophet by his smile or handshake, by his cheery demeanor or the color of his clerical shirt, if a false prophet comes in sheep’s clothing so that he is hidden, then how do you know him? You will know him by his fruit. His fruit is his teaching. What does he say? What is his doctrine? What does he want you to believe? It doesn’t even matter if he says, “Lord, Lord”, or if he casts out demons in the name of Jesus or does wonders in the name of Jesus, he may still be a ravenous wolf in sheep’s clothing. And the only unmistakable way you can tell it is by listening to his teaching.

And that… that is hard work. You can’t rely on your pastor to do this for you. He is only a man. He may fail you. You have to judge the shepherd according to his preaching and teaching, and in order to do that… you have to know the Bible. There is no short cut. If the pastor preaches or teaches something contrary to the Bible, he needs to be told about it. It is for his own sake and for the sake of the everyone else. And you need to do it. It’s your responsibility as a Christian.

I say its hard work because the sinful flesh of man is always tempted toward this idea that it shouldn’t matter what you believe. What should matter is that whatever you believe, you believe is sincerely, that you mean well and that you try your hardest, that you are a basically good person and that most people like you. But, if you believe this or that, if you trust this god or that, doesn’t matter. But that is wrong.

Because, not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We need to let this truth have its way with us. The common view of Heaven is that all people, all decent people, almost every American goes to Heaven. In fact, it is so presumed that everyone simply dies and goes to a better place that what really bothers people today isn’t that – its now if they can count on seeing their cat or dog or their parakeet in Heaven. But, Heaven is not the common stockpile of all the dead, not even of most of the dead, if Jesus is to be believed. Most men in this world don’t even say “Lord, Lord” to Jesus Christ, and without Him, apart from Him, there is no way to the Father. He is the only name given by which men are to be saved. It doesn’t matter how pious or good and well-meaning a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Mormon is, Jesus Christ is the only way.

And worse, not even all those who claim to be a Christian, who say “Lord, Lord” go to Heaven, but only those who do the will of the Father in Heaven. That is, only those who repent of their own good works and sincerity and fluff and straw and trust alone in Jesus Christ go to Heaven.

You, listen, you are saved only through faith in Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ, without His bloody and substitutionary death, you are not good … enough. You are not pure … enough. Apart from Jesus, God is not impressed with you.

But that is just the sort of statement that you can expect your sinful flesh to fight against. For you would like to believe that you have somehow, in some measure, earned what you got. Here is what we do. We look across the street to the man two houses down the street, the man with the happy family and beautiful wife, who keeps his yard nice, who is a dedicated father and a faithful husband, who served his country in the war and who would do it all over again if he was called upon, who would never hurt anyone, who, truth be told is at least as good and honorable as we are, and we ask ourselves, “How could God ever condemn such a man? Just because He doesn’t go to church? Just because He didn’t have any pressing interest in Jesus?” And then we go on to say, “Well, I just can’t believe in a god who send so and so and such and such to Hell” but what we’re really saying, “I just can’t believe in a god who would ever send me to Hell? Because, if the guy across the street, two houses down doesn’t deserve to go to Heaven, then where does that leave me? It means I don’t deserve it. Little ol’ innocent me.”

Repent. Of course you haven’t deserved it. Neither has anyone. For your sin is not innocent. Sin is wicked beyond all explanation. It’s always rebellion against God and it always hurts and threatens you. There are no “white lies,” no “meaningless affairs,” no small vices. Lives are destroyed everyday in simple, little sins: one too many beers, one too many flirtatious jokes, one too many lies. It strikes out at ministers and laity alike, at men and women, children and adults, slave and free. All have sinned, and their sin turns them inward and fills them with anger, greed and lust. And, every sin deepens the un-crossable divide between us and happiness, between us and innocence, between us and our God. Do not expect that God will wink at you and giggle for your sins, as though they were no big deal. We have chosen these things and the obvious consequences of them, both temporal and eternal punishment, we have fully deserved.

Repent, and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins It matters what you believe. It matters what you believe precisely because it doesn’t matter how hard you’ve tried of what you’ve done. Christ died and rose again. Justice is fully met in this Jesus and no man is pleasing to the Father apart from Him. So that what defines men is not whether they are good or bad, but whether or not they believe in Jesus Christ. That is why it matters that you flee for your very life from the false prophet, who wants you to believe something different than Jesus teaches you.

So, you need to beware of the false prophet. You need to study your Bible. That is a Christian duty and you should not make up excuses to avoid it or ignore it. But, you don’t need to be afraid. It is not as though the Gospel of Jesus is complicated. You are forgiven. That’s the gospel. Only the devil would try to complicate it. You are forgiven and you are loved by God. Christ has paid your debt. He has atoned for sins great and small, left nothing left for you to do, nothing left to explain. There is no more need to be afraid in the dark and try to defend yourself. You are not guilty. Whatever may lie in your past, whatever scares you, whatever unhappiness you have brought on yourself, it doesn’t matter anymore. Jesus has died, and He is alive. Its over now. Sin is done. You are free to laugh and play and dance and love…. All for one stand-alone reason, because of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus, Amen.