Words of Encouragement for December 29, 2010

Christmas Meditation

“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His mother, Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Luke 2:34-35

Once again we have heard the account of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. We have heard the good news that He is the LORD God born into this world a true man that He might be our Savior from sin and everlasting punishment. We know and have heard of His holy life in our stead, and of His innocent sufferings and death for our sins. But how do we respond to Jesus?

There are many who feel that they can remain indifferent to Jesus and His coming into this world, but this is far from the truth! Whenever anyone hears of Jesus and His coming into this world to be our Savior, this message has an effect. Either one is moved toward repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior, or he becomes more and more hardened in his sin and unbelief.

How do you respond to Jesus? This is a question of great importance for each of us to consider; for, as Simeon told Mary, Jesus’ mother, Jesus was destined for the “fall and rising again” of many in Israel, and He was “a sign” which would “be spoken against” (Luke 2:34-35). Jesus Himself said that He would cause division on the earth, even within families (cf. Luke 12:51-53). Among His own people there was great division. Some, like Simeon and Anna, being raised up from spiritual death, believed that Jesus was the promised Christ and trusted in Him for salvation (Luke 2:25-38). But others fell and rejected Jesus, hated Him and even crucified Him, causing Simeon’s words to Mary (v. 35) to come true. Cf. Isaiah 8:14-15; 28:16; 53:3ff.; 1 Peter 2:6-8.

How do you respond to Jesus? He cannot be ignored! He came into this world for you and His Word has been preached to you! He suffered and died for you and won for you forgiveness for all your sins and life eternal (cf. John 3:16ff.; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 John 2:1-2). Are you, by the grace of God, moved to humbly acknowledge and confess your sins to the Lord and to trust in Jesus’ holy life and innocent sufferings and death for your pardon and forgiveness? Or do you turn away from Jesus and continue on in your sin and unbelief?

The Bible tells us: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

O Dearest Jesus, grant that we not turn from You or hide from You and continue on in our sinful ways; but move us to acknowledge You as our God and Savior, to have godly sorrow over our sins and to sincerely repent, that we may trust in You and Your cross for our salvation. Amen.

Meditations in Genesis

“And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.” Genesis 29:20 (Read Genesis 29:1-20)

It seems to us like a great price to pay – to work seven years, every day caring for flocks and herds – for Jacob to be able to marry Laban’s younger daughter Rachel. And, yet, this is what Jacob did. He “served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.”

Perhaps we can understand this if we have loved another so much that we were willing to go to great lengths just to be with them and to meet their needs.

The love Jacob had for Rachel made all the difference. Because he loved her so very much, the price seemed small to pay. Seven years of hard work seemed but a few days to him because of the love Jacob had for Rachel!

But if we think this was a great price to pay, consider the price Jesus paid that He might take us as His bride! The Bible tells us that Jesus “loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5). God’s Word tells us that “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son….” (John 3:16). Jesus Christ, God the Son in human flesh loved us so much that He willingly went to the cross to suffer and die for our sins. And, why? That He might take us as His bride, the church, and present us to Himself holy and unblemished, cleansed from our sins in the waters of baptism.

It was indeed a great price for Jesus to pay that we might be made acceptable in God’s eyes and be joined to Jesus forever; but He endured the pain and agony of the cross because He so loved us – because He desires to give us and all mankind His forgiveness and a place with Him in His eternal kingdom! He served for us and gave Himself for us that we might be His own! Jesus willing suffered the greatest of agonies and counted it as nothing that He might redeem you and me and give us life with Him in heaven!

It is also true for those who trust in Jesus and follow after Him, that their service for Him is not an unbearable burden. Those who do not know Jesus cannot understand why His disciples would give up their lives here in this world and, often times, suffer so much to follow Jesus and serve Him. To an unbeliever, following Jesus may seem an unreasonable act. But to the believer, who knows and trusts in Jesus – who believes and trusts that Jesus shed His blood to pay in full for our sins and give us life eternal – it is no burden at all. Instead, it is a privilege to serve Jesus and follow Him. Why? The believer in Jesus loves Him and desires to serve Him because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. The believer loves and serves as a result of knowing Jesus’ great love for us!

O dearest Jesus, thank You for Your great love for us – love so great that You willingly took our sins upon Yourself and suffered our just punishment to give us forgiveness and life. Grant that we know Your great love for us and also love and serve You in return. Amen.

The Augsburg Confession

Article XXVI: Of the Distinction of Meats

It has been the general persuasion, not of the people alone, but also of those teaching in the churches, that making Distinctions of Meats, and like traditions of men, are works profitable to merit grace, and able to make satisfactions for sins. And that the world so thought, appears from this, that new ceremonies, new orders, new holy-days, and new fastings were daily instituted, and the teachers in the churches did exact these works as a service necessary to merit grace, and did greatly terrify men’s consciences, if they should omit any of these things. From this persuasion concerning traditions much detriment has resulted in the Church.

First, the doctrine of grace and of the righteousness of faith has been obscured by it, which is the chief part of the Gospel, and ought to stand out as the most prominent in the Church, in order that the merit of Christ may be well known, and faith, which believes that sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake be exalted far above works. Wherefore Paul also lays the greatest stress on this article, putting aside the Law and human traditions, in order to show that Christian righteousness is something else than such works, to wit, the faith which believes that sins are freely forgiven for Christ’s sake. But this doctrine of Paul has been almost wholly smothered by traditions, which have produced an opinion that, by making distinctions in meats and like services, we must merit grace and righteousness. In treating of repentance, there was no mention made of faith; only those works of satisfaction were set forth; in these the entire repentance seemed to consist.

Secondly, these traditions have obscured the commandments of God, because traditions were placed far above the commandments of God. Christianity was thought to consist wholly in the observance of certain holy-days, rites, fasts, and vestures. These observances had won for themselves the exalted title of being the spiritual life and the perfect life. Meanwhile the commandments of God, according to each one’s calling, were without honor namely, that the father brought up his offspring, that the mother bore children, that the prince governed the commonwealth,—these were accounted works that were worldly and imperfect, and far below those glittering observances. And this error greatly tormented devout consciences, which grieved that they were held in an imperfect state of life, as in marriage, in the office of magistrate; or in other civil ministrations; on the other hand, they admired the monks and such like, and falsely imagined that the observances of such men were more acceptable to God.

Thirdly, traditions brought great danger to consciences; for it was impossible to keep all traditions, and yet men judged these observances to be necessary acts of worship. Gerson writes that many fell into despair, and that some even took their own lives, because they felt that they were not able to satisfy the traditions, and they had all the while not heard any consolation of the righteousness of faith and grace. We see that the summists and theologians gather the traditions, and seek mitigations whereby to ease consciences, and yet they do not sufficiently unfetter, but sometimes entangle, consciences even more. And with the gathering of these traditions, the schools and sermons have been so much occupied that they have had no leisure to touch upon Scripture, and to seek the more profitable doctrine of faith, of the cross, of hope, of the dignity of civil affairs of consolation of sorely tried consciences. Hence Gerson and some other theologians have grievously complained that by these strivings concerning traditions they were prevented from giving attention to a better kind of doctrine. Augustine also forbids that men’s consciences should be burdened with such observances, and prudently advises Januarius that he must know that they are to be observed as things indifferent; for such are his words.

Wherefore our teachers must not be looked upon as having taken up this matter rashly or from hatred of the bishops, as some falsely suspect. There was great need to warn the churches of these errors, which had arisen from misunderstanding the traditions. For the Gospel compels us to insist in the churches upon the doctrine of grace, and of the righteousness of faith; which, however, cannot be understood, if men think that they merit grace by observances of their own choice.

Thus, therefore, they have taught that by the observance of human traditions we cannot merit grace or be justified, and hence we must not think such observances necessary acts of worship. They add hereunto testimonies of Scripture. Christ, Matt. 15:3, defends the Apostles who had not observed the usual tradition, which, however, evidently pertains to a matter not unlawful, but indifferent, and to have a certain affinity with the purifications of the Law, and says, Matt. 15:9, In vain do they worship Me with the commandments of men. He, therefore, does not exact an unprofitable service. Shortly after He adds: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man. So also Paul, Rom. 14:17: The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. Col. 2:16: Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the Sabbath-day; also: If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances: Touch not, taste not, handle not! And Peter says, Acts 15:10: Why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. Here Peter forbids to burden the consciences with many rites, either of Moses or of others. And in 1 Tim. 4:1,3 Paul calls the prohibition of meats a doctrine of devils; for it is against the Gospel to institute or to do such works that by them we may merit grace, or as though Christianity could not exist without such service of God.

Here our adversaries object that our teachers are opposed to discipline and mortification of the flesh, as Jovinian. But the contrary may be learned from the writings of our teachers. For they have always taught concerning the cross that it behooves Christians to bear afflictions. This is the true, earnest, and unfeigned mortification, to wit, to be exercised with divers afflictions, and to be crucified with Christ.

Moreover, they teach that every Christian ought to train and subdue himself with bodily restraints, or bodily exercises and labors that neither satiety nor slothfulness tempt him to sin, but not that we may merit grace or make satisfaction for sins by such exercises. And such external discipline ought to be urged at all times, not only on a few and set days. So Christ commands, Luke 21:34: Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting; also Matt. 17:21: This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Paul also says, 1 Cor. 9:27: I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Here he clearly shows that he was keeping under his body, not to merit forgiveness of sins by that discipline, but to have his body in subjection and fitted for spiritual things, and for the discharge of duty according to his calling. Therefore, we do not condemn fasting in itself, but the traditions which prescribe certain days and certain meats, with peril of conscience, as though such works were a necessary service.

Nevertheless, very many traditions are kept on our part, which conduce to good order in the Church, as the Order of Lessons in the Mass and the chief holy-days. But, at the same time, men are warned that such observances do not justify before God, and that in such things it should not be made sin if they be omitted without offense. Such liberty in human rites was not unknown to the Fathers. For in the East they kept Easter at another time than at Rome, and when, on account of this diversity, the Romans accused the Eastern Church of schism, they were admonished by others that such usages need not be alike everywhere. And Irenaeus says: Diversity concerning fasting does not destroy the harmony of faith; as also Pope Gregory intimates in Dist. XII, that such diversity does not violate the unity of the Church. And in the Tripartite History, Book 9, many examples of dissimilar rites are gathered, and the following statement is made: It was not the mind of the Apostles to enact rules concerning holy-days, but to preach godliness and a holy life [to teach faith and love].

(To Be Continued….)

How Must God’s Word Be Preached

In Order to Produce Faith in the Hearts of the Hearers?

By Franz Pieper

Luther-Hour Lectures presented to the Seminary Students

(From Concordia Theological Monthly)

FOURTH LECTURE

I would like to answer for you out of Scripture the question: How must we preach in order that through our preaching faith in Christ, and in general faith in the grace which is in Christ, maybe produced in the hearts of the hearers? And today I with to direct your attention particularly to this point: Faith in Christ is preached into the hearts through the proclamation of gratia universalis, and the production of faith is hindered by the denial of gratia universalis.

If I had to bring to you who are here assembled the message from God that half of you have been redeemed by Christ; the other half not; that God wanted to save half of you, not the other half, then none of you could ever come to faith in the grace of God in Christ. Each one of you would have to consider the possibility that he might belong to the half whom God in Christ does not love and whom He will not save. This possibility would exclude faith in Christ. In fact, if my message to you should be this: “God will save all in Christ except one,” then this one exception would make faith in the grace of God impossible for all, since in consequence of this exception the possibility would be present for each that he might be the unfortunate one. This possibility would produce doubt of God’s grace, and doubt and faith are mutually exclusive.

Hence we conclude: To the production of faith in Christ the declaration of universal grace is requisite, namely that God in Christ is reconciled to all men, that He wills to save all men without exception. You know that a part of the Calvinists denies gratia universalis and confesses gratia particularis. That in spite of this there are Christians among these Calvinists is due to the fact that, although their false doctrine stands in the official confession, they do not bring it into the pulpit. As soon as the gratia particularis is preached and the gratia universalis is denied, no faith in Christ is possible. You must firmly hold that faith in Christ is possible only when you can say to the individual that God’s grace includes him also, that God’s grace is able to embrace even him. That you can say with truth only if grace is gratia universalis. Wherever gratia universalis is declared there also faith in Christ is always produced through the working of the Holy Ghost. As surely as you preach on the basis of Holy Scripture that all without exception are reconciled to God through Christ, so surely will the hearer include himself, and this inclusion is wrought by the Holy Ghost, is faith in Christ. Thus the proclamation of gratia universalis is an incentive and persuasion to faith. Now, since God wills that all men should be saved, that all men without exception should believe on Christ as their Savior, He has made provision that gratia universalis should be so richly and plainly and clearly declared in Holy Scripture. We can divide the Bible texts which treat of gratia universalis into three classes.

In the first class belong all utterances of Scripture in which it is taught that God loves all men, the world, the whole world, in Christ. Here belong such texts as John 3:16, John 1:29; and 1 John 2:2. Into the second class we may place all the utterances of Scripture in which it is taught that universal grace applies to each individual person among men, that God is not willing that any should perish; thus Scripture passages such as 2 Peter 3:9. Into the third class we may place the utterances of Scripture in which it is clearly declared that God earnestly willed to save also those who are actually lost, as Christ says (Matt. 23) of Jerusalem: “How often would I have gathered thy children together, and ye would not!” And as Stephen cries out to the Jews (Acts 7 5 1): “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.” Gerhard expresses the doctrine of gratia universalis in this way, that Scripture attests the universality of grace in words (verbis testatur), Christ with His tears which He wept over Jerusalem because Jerusalem would not believe in grace, and God Himself with an oath (Ezekiel 33): “As I live,” etc., (cf, English version of Pieper’s Dogmatics. Vol. 88, pg. 22. and Note 44). So must you also think, my dear friends who wish to become teachers of the Christian Church, and let the doctrine of gratia universalis get into your flesh and blood. Wherever you are or go you must open your mouth to attest the gratia universalis, that God wills to save all men without exception in Christ. By such living testimony the Holy Ghost will work faith in Christ.

With regard to this point we must dispute particularly with the Papists. The Papists desire above all else to hinder the individual man from believing that his sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. The interest of the Papists in this connection is to uphold the Papacy; for it is certain that in so far as one believes in Christ he no longer believes in the Pope. Therefore they argue (I am quoting the Jesuit Becanus) as follows: There is no divine revelation for individuals that God is gracious to them and forgives their sins; there was such a revelation for the man sick of the palsy to whom the Lord in the days of His flesh called out: “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” And there was such a revelation referring to the individual person in the case of the woman who was a sinner possessed (Luke 7:48) when the Lord said to her: “Thy sins are forgiven.” But such a revelation of God is lacking to the men of our time, and therefore no one dare assuredly hold in his heart that God forgives him his sins. The Jesuit Becanus (he lived in the Seventeenth Century) argues as follows: A man can only believe that which God has revealed; but that God forgives sins to the individual is not revealed. Consequently no man may or can assuredly hold that God is gracious to him. But if he does so hold he is foolishly bold and presumptuous. What shall we say to this? To this we reply: The first premise is correct, namely, that in matters of religion we can and should believe only that which God has revealed to us in His Word. Faith is in place only over against God’s Word. Faith over against man’s word is superstition. Thereby the entire Papacy is condemned. There faith is based not upon God’s Word but upon man’s word, upon the Pope’s doctrine and command. But it is false and godless to assert that God in Holy Scripture has revealed to no man for his own person that God is gracious to him and for Christ’s sake forgives him his sins. This revelation referring to the individual person is present in the revelation of the gratia universalis: God is reconciled to all men, to the whole world, in Christ. This God proclaims to us in Holy Scripture for the purpose that individual persons might believe it. Therefore our old teachers say quite correctly: This manner of revealing that God is gracious to the individuals, which we have in the revelation of gratia universalis, is much more sure and certain than if God had published a catalog of names. Even if the names of all men who are redeemed by Christ and whom He wishes to save (such a catalog would have to be a large one) were recorded, yet we would have to look a long time before we found our own name. And if we had found our name in the catalog, the doubt would still arise whether we or our namesake were meant. Therefore God has made an end of all doubt and uncertainty and in hundreds of passages in the Holy Scripture has said to the whole world and to all men that He wills to forgive sins to all men without exception in Christ. Thereby God has put an end to all doubt, and therefore in view of gratia universalis every man can and should be sure that God is gracious to him and forgives him his sins. And you must become living witnesses of gratia universalis in order that, through your preaching, faith maybe produced, that through your preaching, faith may be preached into the hearts of men.

An excellent exposition of this point against the Jesuits is found in Dannhauer, in his Hodosophia, Phaenomenon XI, p. 673. Here Dannhauer says that, as every man should apply the general demand and the general threat of the Law to himself so also should he apply the general promise of grace in the Gospel to himself. He writes: “If you want to grant the force of the Papist argument, then it would follow that no one is bound to keep the Law: for where has God revealed, where do you read in Holy Scripture, that you, Becanus, that you, Bellarmine, shall have no other gods, that you shall not kill? But there it is written that all men shall honor God, that, all men shall have no other gods, that all men are under the duties and that all men are under the curse of the Law and that is clearer than if all the individual names of those who are bound by the Law were published in Scripture. So also with reference to the Gospel, God has revealed in Holy Scripture that He is gracious to all men alike. Here there is no respect of persons. Grace extends to all alike, and all Holy Scripture has been written for our comfort.” Finally, let me quote to you how Luther incites to faith by exhibiting the gratia universalis. Such passages are very frequent in Luther. I refer you to his exposition of John 1:29 (St. L. Ed. VII, 1717ff.) “This is an extraordinarily fine and comforting proclamation of Christ our Savior; we can never attain to it with words or even with our thoughts. In yonder life we shall to eternity find our joy and pleasure in this, that the Son of God so deeply condescended and took my sin upon His shoulders, yes, not only my sin but also that of the whole world, which has been committed from Adam on down to the very last man; all this He wills to charge against Himself and to suffer and die for it, in order that I may be without sin and obtain eternal life and salvation. Who can fittingly speak or think of this, namely, that the whole world, with all its holiness, righteousness, might, and glory, is concluded under sin and counts for nothing before God, and that if anyone will be saved and loosed from his sin he must know that all his sins are laid upon the shoulders of the Lamb? … He bears the sin, not mine nor yours nor that of some other man alone, or of a kingdom and land, but of the whole world; and you are also a part of the world.”

I should like to remind you of one thing more. There are a great many rationalistic objections against gratia universalis. And now I warn you that you must never let the gratia universalis be made suspect in your mind through these rationalistic objections, so that you say with only half a heart to the individual: “God is reconciled also to you.” Such a rationalistic objection it is when one says: If God really willed that all men should be saved, then all men actually would be saved. But now not all men are saved, but the majority are lost. Consequently we cannot believe in full earnest that God wills to save all men. To this you must say: Scripture reveals both truths, both that God through Christ wills to save all men, and also that the greater part of mankind is lost. That men are not saved comes simply from the fact that they in unbelief reject the revelation of God’s grace in Christ. That is not a defect in the grace of God, but the fault lies in man. “Ye do always resist the holy Ghost,” says Stephen to the Jews. And Christ declares to the Jews: I would have gathered you together, etc.

Also this objection has been raised: How can God earnestly will to save all men when historically it is evident that in many lands He has, perhaps for centuries, not had the Gospel preached at all? Over against this objection we have this to say: According to Holy Scriptures God visits the sin and iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, and the judgments of God whereby He withdraws the Gospel from many lands are unsearchable to us. But we must not in our minds set these unsearchable judgments of God in opposition to the clear testimonies of Scripture: “God so loved the world,” Christ is the Lamb of God “which taketh away the sin of the world,” “God will have all men to be saved.” We cannot judge of God’s will toward us according to historical evidence, but we must judge of God’s will toward us according to the revealed Word. On the last day we shall yet perceive how Gods Word remains true, that He will have all men to be saved, despite His hidden judgment.

So may God give you grace when you enter the office of the ministry by declaration of the gratia universalis to work faith in Christ, to preach faith into the hearts of men. One experiences at sick-beds how people who have a really awakened conscience are always hungry to hear the words: God is reconciled to us in Christ, Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Thus gratia universalis is the truth which produces and preserves faith in the hearts of poor sinners.

(To Be Continued….)

Bible Study in Preparation for Sunday

Scripture Readings appointed for Sunday are: Psalm 119:97-104; Acts 21:26-36; Ephesians 1:3-14; Luke 2:40-52. Please read them in their context as you prepare for worship on Sunday.

The Adult Bible Class will continue in the Gospel of John at chapter 14:26ff. Who sends the Holy Spirit? In whose name is the Spirit sent? Cf. v. 26; 15:26; 16:7. How was the visible church divided over this issue? What creeds in our hymnal (and the Lutheran Confessions) address this very issue? What does the Holy Spirit do for us according to v. 26? To whom does the Spirit testify (15:26)? What does the Spirit use to reveal to us Christ Jesus? What kind of peace does Jesus leave with His disciples? Cf. Eph. 2:11-17; Rom. 5:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:19-21. Why were Jesus’ disciples not to let their hearts be troubled or afraid? How does this apply to you and me? Why could Jesus’ disciples rejoice? Why can we rejoice that Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father? Who is the prince of this world? Did he have anything against Jesus? What did Jesus mean by His words in v. 31? How can we rejoice in His love and obedience to the Father? What can we learn in regard to our love and obedience to Jesus?

Remember to Pray

Remember to pray for our church and for all our members, that none be lost to Christ’s kingdom but that all continue in repentance and be strengthened and built up in the true and saving faith in Christ Jesus through the hearing and study of His Word. We pray for God’s healing and strengthening of our congregation, as well as for God’s help with our church’s financial needs. We continue to pray for all who have been sick or who are suffering among us – especially for Bill Schoepf, who is recovering from hernia surgery; Dick Stueland, recovering from a second knee surgery; for Harley Woods, following surgery; for Sam Rusch, who has had repeated stays in the hospital; the mother of Dick Rusch; for Dick Rusch who is recovering from shoulder surgery; and for Regina Wood (the sister of Lonnie Moll), who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy – for those who have been absent from us, for our extended families and for Christians who are alone and have no congregation. Continue to pray for Lutheran congregations which desire to remain faithful to Christ and His Word, for the Lutheran churches in the Philippines, for Christians in Nigeria, Haiti and Chile, and for believers around the world who are persecuted or suffering for their faith in Christ Jesus.

Events and Announcements

The next congregational evening Bible study is tentatively planned for 7 p.m. on Jan. 19.

The choir continues to practice after church services on Sundays. More voices are welcome.

On-line video of worship services can be found at: http://goodshepherdrogers.org/blog/worship-service-video/

Information for bulletins or newsletters may be sent to Pastor Moll by calling him at 479-233-0081 or by e-mail at goodshepherdrogers@yahoo.com.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:13-14

[Scripture in this Newsletter is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.]