Reformation: Grace Alone

Pastor Scott Jonas

Grace Alone

11/18/17

We are at the end of our reformation sermon series on the Solas.  We started with Scripture Alone because the reformation emphasized that it is only through the Word of God that we know our Savior.  Then there was Faith Alone.  It is only through God initiating a relationship with us that we can have eternal life.  Next was Glory to God Alone.  The Saints past and Saints present owe their whole existence to Jesus.  I am as dependent on Christ as Pastor Rodney Wise is who died this year.  We both continue to Glory to God alone because he is worthy to receive our praise.  Then there is Christ Alone.  The plan for salvation runs through one person, Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who can show us the Father.  Today, we conclude with Grace Alone.  It is not by the Law of works we are saved but only through the mercy of God.

            I feel so strongly about the five solas of the reformation that I named my daughters Grace and Faith.  A boy could have been Christian.  Another girl might have been glory.  I decided to leave scriptura as a last resort.  That would have been a tough ask.

            I did want my children’s name to be central to their identity.  That is a tact that is found throughout the Bible.  Name your child something to which they can aspire.  How many David’s do we have here?  David means “beloved” and the Shepherd boy was treasured by God.   Any Sara’s here?  It means princess.  I will let you decide if you lived up to the name.  I know we have a Tim.  It means “One who God honors.”  There is something settling about having that stamped on you at birth, “One who God honors.”

            I wanted Grace to be filled with grace and Faith to be filled with Faith.  Whenever we were in church and their name was said in church I would nudge them or give them a look.  When they werer young they would smile.  As they got older their eyes would roll.  But my plan worked.

            When you look up the greek word translated “grace” it is Charis.  It means of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.  Grace.  There is a lot packed into that one word.

            Grace alone means that only through the merciful kindness of God can we be influenced, turned, kept, strengthened, increased and kindled as the people of God.  If there is no grace then there is no faith.

            This is true small picture and big picture.  In your life, if God does not give you his grace then you are a lost sinner without any hope.  No grace means that you get what you deserve.  How many times in our lives have we said under our breath “That’s not fair!”  We long for fairness but be careful what you ask for.  Grace is not fair.  Fair is you receive the consequences that your sin demands.  If you gossip then you pay for every negative comment that you caused, like a snow ball that you roll downhill.  “He thinks He’s better than everyone else”  and gravity takes over.  It is beyond your control as soon as it leaves your lips.   It may be big enough to take out a whole family or even a small community when your gossip gets done.  Do you really want fair, to get what you deserve?  Or do you crave grace?

            Thankfully, God has always been generous.  He pours out his grace in the old testament and the new.  He is not a miserly Father in the Old Testament and a forgiving in the new.  His grace is apparent in every book of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, from the 1^st day of creation to the last day of Christ’s returning.  Grace Upon Grace.

            Grace upon grace is the theme for Lutheran High School this year.  It comes from John 1 :16 “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”  Isn’t that a great visual, from his fullness we have received grace upon grace.  Heaven is filled with grace to the brim.  He has more than enough for everyone, so he gives it out.

            Twenty years ago, when I first became a Director of Education, I was blessed to go through a year long study called Crossways.  Has anyone here ever gone through crossways.  It was actually developed by a Lutheran Pastor and takes one to two years to go through the whole story of scripture.  It uses great visuals to get across biblical truth.  I can’t show you the visual because we don’t have a screen here.  But I will try to describe it to you.

            At the Top it is entitled “ God’s Goodness.”  Along the Left side it spells out a pattern.  I’ll call it the Grace pattern.  The pattern consists of three parts Sin, Judgment and Grace.  Sin, Judgement and Grace.  This pattern shows up throughout the Bible.  It goes like this 1.  God gives a gift but humans ruin it.  That is the Sin.  2.  There are natural moral consequences to the sin.  It could be isolation, destruction of creation, degradation of your soul or any number of things.  This is Judgement.  3.  God always stops the cycle of Sin and judgment through his Grace.  Only the Grace of God can stop this cycle of death.

            For example, take the first cycle.  God created everything and it was a perfect gift.  But Adam and Eve ruined it by listening to the devil, disobeying God and eating the forbidden fruit.  Sin.  The judgment was, among other things, that all of creation was infected like a body with a virus.  Both man and woman were estranged from each other and God.  They would now one day die.  Judgement.  Imagine if the cycle stopped there.  God removes himself.  The world gets worse and worse.  People get worse and worse.  This goes on until people destroy all of creation.  But the mercy of God breaks to death cycle.

            The natural moral consequence of disobeying God was instant death.  That is what they deserved.  God deserves all Glory and praise.  Glory means importance.  Adam and Eve listened to the devil rather than God making the devil more important in their eyes than God.  They deserved nothing less than instant death.  But God in his mercy allowed them to continue living on this earth.  More than that he promised to send his son to defeat sin, death and the devil.  The ultimate Grace.  In Genesis 3 we get the pattern that pervades the rest of the story.  Sin, Judgement. Grace.

            You can give me any person in the old testament and we will see this pattern.   Yell out a prominent name from the old testament.

            The pattern continues in the New testament.  Peter denies Jesus.  Clearly Sin.  The natural moral consequences were incredible crushing guilt.  Peter bragged that all could leave Jesus but not Peter.  He would never betray his friend and Lord.  Yet, three times he said, “I do not know the man.”  Imagine doing that to someone you love, your spouse, your children or your parents.  When they need your love and support the most you look away and say “I don’t know them.”  Devastating judgement.  Yet, Grace is stronger than judgement.  Jesus rises from the dead.  He finds Peter specifically, to restore him in front of everyone else.  Only the grace of God is powerful enough to do that.  Sin. Judgement. Grace.

            Lutheran call it distinguishing between Law and Gospel.  Finding the Gospel or Grace in God’s relationship with his people.  Luther himself discovered this Grace pattern.  Though Luther was a mess and suffered guilt and shame, God broke through the sin and judgement to bring Grace.  When Luther discovered that Grace pattern, He shared it with the World.

            When we do confession/ Absolution is the beginning of the service we are recognizing our need for the Grace pattern.  We all have done things this week that are sinful.  We all have natural moral consequences that result from that sin.  But in the beginning of the service we ask God to break the cycle.  Notice that when we confess our sins, I am in the front.  That is because I am the chief of sinners.  I need my sin cycle broken as much as anybody.  But if we imagine the grace of God flowing from the altar I also get the first wave of forgiveness.  Don’t worry about it.  There is enough Grace to fill this whole church, all of Glendale, and all the continents.

            Whatever sin cycle you struggle with, Jesus is stronger.  You are free through Grace alone.  Sin, Judgement, Grace.  One day, we will have a new cycle all together, Grace, Grace Upon Grace.

Daniel 7: Power Unleashed

Pastor Steven Albers

Sine Domino Frustra Laboramus

23rd Sunday after Pentecost

Second Sunday of End Time

November 11-12 2017

POWER UNLEASHED

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

I.

How do you speak about something that is seemingly not high priority or any priority in our lives, society or world… like the Last Day of Final Judgment and Glory? I heard recently that Groucho Marx once said  – “I know that you have heard this before, but I need to hear it again.” (That my new line of defense to my long-suffering family when I am about to tell the same stories over and again!) I really do need to hear this message again and again and again, until I die and hearing it will then be obsolete.

The language of the Old Testament reading from Daniel is, at times cryptic, akin to Revelation, filled with surreal images, “apocalyptic.” In this reading, the author twice in three verses references “ancient of Days”, a rather odd name for Almighty God. It doesn’t mean our God is some sort of ultimate and divine senior citizen; rather, that this God of us all has been before the beginning and whose dominion shall have no end. Eternity is not just “end of liturgical year” talk, but it is believed and confessed at every funeral of the faithful and by all of us who have ever thought of or been close to taking our last breath on earth. I am not suggesting that we understand eternity, for who among us, bound by the constraints of time, can fathom what is “forever.” But we say and trust that somehow, somewhere, sometime we will conclude our life here on earth and begin eternity with our Lord. That’s what the church member in Texas said while holding the hand of a woman who had been shot numerous times – “I’ll see you again in heaven.”

II.

Unleashed Power – like the wind and rain of hurricanes, and the ravishing of forest fires out of control. Oh, and did I mention the buildup of nuclear power which can be transformed into “weapons of mass destruction.” There are eight countries with that in their arsenal even now; we tremble at the prospect of unleashing that power. I fear what kind of world our grandchildren and even children will face on so many fronts. And we would do well to ask, if these are forces which we fear, why don’t we fear the Day known only to the Almighty that God will unleash his unparalleled power in righteous wrath and fury?

All of that power combined, and all of the trillions of dollars that seemingly can buy ‘power’ is less than a drop of water in the sea when compared to the power of God. Can any mere mortal carve mountains and fashion oceans and create living beings out of dust? God did, and does! Can any mere mortal, no matter how rich or how powerful, add a single moment to the length of his days on this earth? God can and God does, for all of life is in the hands of the Almighty.

You want to talk of power, as so many of our politicians and world leaders are wont to do – then talk of the omnipotence of God. You want a show of power? Then wait for Christ the King to come again to this earth, not as a baby born in Bethlehem, but as the supreme and ultimate Ruler of the universe. Listen again to these verses in Daniel: He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and people of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” The ones who had confessed Christ as Savior and Lord on earth will be multitudinous and they will come from every nation under heaven. And we will be among them. We will be among them. Not because we are the privileged, but because of the power – the UNLEASHED POWER of the Holy Spirit poured upon us through simple water and the Word – we have been brought to faith in Jesus Christ.

Despite all of the evil around us that pops up its ugly head and wreaks havoc on our society and world – people maiming and killing one another for no real reason; greed that exploits the poor and vulnerable; those who establish their own standards of what is right and wrong, who are self-serving and self-seeking – despite all of that, this world is still firmly and irrevocably in God’s holy and eternal grasp. And as long as this world endures, God will continue to call people to repentance, to renewal, to receive in faith God’s promises of magnificent, matchless mercy, hope and single-minded discipleship. Therein is the patience and persistence of our grace-filled God, holding back the fullness of his power until the Day of Judgment and Glory!

III.

Whether or not the reality of Judgment and Glory has become more urgent or, like the “foolish maidens” we live with the illusion that we have all sorts of time to get our spiritual houses in order, depends in part I suppose upon what age or stage of life you find yourself. Here’s my story and I’m sticking with it, and it is your story as well. Christ will come again in power and glory and all eyes will recognize his unparalleled power. We may be alive on this earth to witness that or we may have died, buried in some fashion and awaiting the great resurrection. Our eternal future is eternity in heaven, because the grace of God has embraced us and held us tight. That’s our forever future. To prepare for all that, we focus on the present, seeking to do what the Lord wants and wills of us day by day, and as each day unfolds. That we don’t always or very often accomplish that our will meshes with what God wills is why we live in forgiveness, God’s powerful forgiveness unleashed our direction every hour of every day. That, and that alone, is why we are heaven-bound. There now; that’s our story. I know you have heard all of that many, many, times, including from this pulpit, but I needed to hear it again.

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Reformation: Glory to God Alone

Pastor Scott Jonas

11/4/17

Glory to God Alone

We are on our third edition of the Sola Series.  Sola is the latin word for Alone.  We started with Scripture Alone.  Last week on reformation day we focused on Faith Alone.  This weekend we celebrate All Saints Day and our gaze turns to Glory to God Alone.

Martin Luther said, “The lust for glory is deeply rooted in humankind.  No one is so firm in repelling the most deadly vice of vain-glory (self centered glory) that he does not need constant prayer in order to be able to do so.  For, whoeven when he is pious, does not delight in the praise people accord him?  The Holy Spirit alone is able to keep us from being infected with this pest, vain-glory.

Little did Luther know that modern day America would revel in vain-glory.  Although we call it another name, Self esteem.  Since the 70s, our culture, our parenting experts, and our schools have promoted self esteem as vital to a healthy child.  They took that human delight in praise and systematized it.  I remember as a child having a record album called free to be you and me by Marlo Thomas.  There was a free to be song with the lyrics,

 I see a land bright and clear, and the time's comin' near

When we'll live in this land, you and me, hand in hand

Take my hand, come along, lend your voice to my song

Come along, take my hand, sing a song

For a land where the river runs free

For a land through the green country

For a land to a shining sea

For a land where the horses run free

And you and me are free to be you and me

Every boy in this land grows to be his own man

In this land, every girl grows to be her own woman

Take my hand, come with me where the children are free

Come with me, take my hand, and we'll run

                The basic concept was to encourage post-1960s gender neutrality, saluting values such as individuality, tolerance, and comfort with one's identity. A major thematic message is that anyone—whether a boy or a girl—can achieve anything.  You can achieve glory.

                Let’s take a look at what scripture alone says about glory.   The word translated glory in the Bible means Importance.  The more glory something has the more important it is.  The heavens declare the glory of God means that creation points to God as the most important.  He is the only person in the universe who is important by nature.  He has always existed.  He always will exist.  Everything that exists owes him credit.  To him be all glory, all importance.

                There is an odd marker with God’s glory.  It glows.  Whenever we see God in his glory, he is brighter than we can imagine.  In the women’s Bible Study we talked about the Israelites after God broke them out of Egypt.  The Lord guided them through a pillar of fire.  The fire burned brightly day and night.  It was the glory of the Lord.  God’s people followed that light because God was in the fire.  When they got to Mt. Sinai they camped at the foot of it.  The Lord camped on the top of the mountain.  This treeless mountain burned bright at it’s summit because the glory of God dwelled there.  God appeared there and any place where God appears is important.  The rocks on top of that mountain are still black to this day, scorched by glory.  Moses wanted to see God in all of his glory and God said no like you would to a child who asks to touch a camp fire.  Sinful Moses could not handle God’s glory.   Sinful can’t touch glory without major changes.

                God’s glory was in the ark of the covenant which was in the tabernacle and the temple.  God wanted to show just how dangerous his glory is.  It is not something to take lightly.  In his throne room God can let out all of his glory but on earth there must be precautions. 

                The new testament starts with Angels declaring “Glory to God in the highest.”  Jesus is born.  He is fully God and fully man.  He gives glory to the Father.  Even though he has always existed and he created all things.  He points to his father and says, “He is the most important.  Follow me and I will show you the Father.”  From time to time, the Glory of God leaked out.  On a mountain top, he appeared as bright as lightening.  I wonder if those rocks were blackened in the process.    

                Jesus was crucified.  Where is the glory in that?  God suffers and dies.  The most important person allows himself to be under the control of human beings.  A perverted king, a crowd of nobodies, and  a roman bureaucrat are allowed to pass judgement on the glorious one.  Where is the glory?

                The Glory was there but it was hidden.  Most of the time God’s ways are a mystery.  At the time, no one knew what was happening.  God waited three days to reveal his glory.  To show how important the cross was.

                The resurrection revealed the glory of God.  He was raised with a body that glowed.  The cross was the precaution needed so that sinful people could be with a glorious God.  Not only could his faithful be in his presence face to face but he could be in their heart.  A holy, glory filled God could inhabit inside a dark, sinful nobody like me.

                  That is what Glory to God alone means.  He deserves all of it.  We should not worship false gods, including ourselves.  We aren’t free to be you and me without Jesus.  Self esteem is a delusion.  Our parents can tell us we are important.  Out teachers can sing songs glorifying our smallest achievements.  Coaches can hand out a ribbon to everyone.  But deep down we think we don’t deserve this.

                There is this great scene in revelation 7.  There is this great multitude, more than anyone can count from every nation, tribe and language standing before the throne of Jesus.  His people are clothed in white robes,  we have palm branches in hand and we are crying out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!  The angels are there, the disciples too.  And we all fall down on our faces just like Moses before the burning bush.  Just like Peter on the mount of transfiguration.  And we say “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever ! Amen!

                The amazing thing about our God is that we give him glory and he shares it with us.  Notice that God’s people are wearing white robes.  That means that we are glowing; we are reflecting the glory of God. Whe Jesus was praying in the garden he said to His Father “ The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  WE give glory to God through his son Jesus and he shares it with us.  Glorious.

                All saints day is not a sad day.  We recognize that we have a generous God who shares his glory with all of us saints, including those who have died before us.  They see the glory of the Lord in a way that we can’t yet.  God has kept his promises to them.

                As you know, part of the reformation was redefining the term Saints.  They are not special Christians who have earned more righteousness than others.  Every Christian is a saint because everyone who has been baptized into Christ receives His glory.  We don’t pray to the Saints because we have complete access to the Father through Jesus.  But you know what is ok?  You can pray to God about the saints.  You can have a conversation about your mom with Jesus.  My dad died when I was seven.  My mom has done a great job keeping his memory alive in conversations with me.  My dad is with Christ.  I can tell Jesus to take good care of my dad in the same way I ask Jesus to take good care of my kids.  My dad belongs to Jesus.  Grace and faith belong to the Lord.  On all saints day or anyday I can share with God my love for my family the way he shares with me.  He knows they are important to me.

                One day we will all see the saints again.  They will be dressed in white and it will be glorious.