June 7, 2009 — The Holy Trinity
“Hear These Words” — Pastor Lassman
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My Fellow Redeemed in Christ,
If you want to get a good heated discussion going among a group of diverse people just ask them what the meaning of life is. Why were we born? What is our purpose in life? Is there any kind of life after death? Or is this it? Is there any sense to life? Any meaning to life? Or as the theory of evolution says…is it all just a matter of chance, the result of mindless, meaningless evolution? And doesn’t it all really come down to whether there is a god or not? But what god? There are many religions in the world with different views of god and different answers to these questions…..and then there’s Jesus Christ. Which brings us to our text for this morning…………for Jesus Christ makes all the difference….indeed, the apostle Peter is preaching a sermon about Jesus Christ….a sermon that has been preached countless times over the last two thousand years…a sermon that still needs to be heard until the end of time….including this morning, as Peter says, “hear these words”.
I. “Hear these words” that has a sound of urgency to it doesn’t it? If we were trapped in a burning building and didn’t know how to get out we would listen very carefully to the person who says that he knows the way out. “Hear these words”. But in all of life there is nothing more important to hear about than Jesus Christ.
A. Why? Because Jesus Christ is from God. Despite what some people might say there is no reason at all to doubt the historicity of the man Jesus. He really lived. And the Bible contains the eyewitness accounts of his life and his death. How do we know that Jesus was sent by God…well, he not only says he was sent by God but he did all kinds of miracles to prove that he was sent by God just as Peter says: “Jesus of Nazareth [was] a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know….” (v. 22, ESV). Peter said something that his hearers could not deny….Jesus did all kinds of miracles…they saw them….they could not deny it. But here’s a question. If Jesus was sent by God and he had the power to do miracles…even raise the dead….how could he have died? Because God wanted him to die. Strange is it not? God sends someone who does mighty miracles, even raising the dead, and he sends him to die. Yes, as Peter says: this Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God….” (v. 23, ESV). But why? To save us from something far worse than a burning building: God’s wrath and eternal damnation. The cross of Jesus Christ cannot be understood apart from the wrath of God. God is both holy and just…someone had to pay for sin. But of course the cross is a symbol of love too as Jesus himself says in our gospel lesson: “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3: 16, ESV). Amazing. Yes, amazing grace. That God would punish his own sinless Son for our sins. That God would pour out his wrath on his own Son instead of us who so deserve it. The prophet Isaiah foretold these events: “he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities….yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him….” (vv. 5, 10, ESV). This was God’s plan.
B. And then Peter says something seems to contradict what he just said: the people who put him to death are blamed for his death. Peter says, “this Jesus…you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men….this Jesus whom you crucified” (v. 23, ESV). “Hear these words”---you! You! You did this! It hit them like a ton of bricks…they had killed an innocent man who had been sent by God. They knew they had done a horrible thing as we read later at the end of Peter’s sermon: “now when they heard this they were cut to the heart….” (v. 37, ESV). They put the sinless Son of God on the cross and killed him like a common criminal. But before we judge those people with self-righteous harshness, let us remember that if it were not for our sins….Jesus would not have died. Your sins and mine, put Jesus on the cross. The next time you catch yourself in a sin…stop and think: “this put Jesus on the cross.” Indeed, every sin we have ever committed or will commit has added to his anguish that led him to cry out: “my God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27: 46, ESV). This is when Jesus experienced hell for us as God’s wrath was poured out on him for our sins.. Yes, Jesus died by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God….but only because of sin. “hear these words”: the mighty Son of God, who did miracles, even raising the dead, died….died at the hands of lawless men for the sins of the world, for your sins and mine.
II. But there’s more---“hear these words”: God raised Jesus from the dead.
A. Ho-hum God raised Jesus from the dead….say, how are the Mariners doing? Have we heard about the resurrection so much that we are no longer impressed? God raised Jesus from the dead! “Hear these words”! Peter says, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (v. 24, ESV). Why couldn’t death hold him? Because, with his death mankind’s enormous debt of sin was paid for and canceled. So? So! Sin is what causes death! We die because of sin. And we will be raised from the dead only because our sin has been paid for and forgiven. Peter says that in the 16th Psalm King David is talking about Jesus “brothers David…both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet…he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ….this Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.”” (vv.29, 30, 31, 32, ESV). Jesus’ punishment for our sins was a temporary condition….not a permanent one…this is what is meant by “you will not abandon my soul to Hades” (v. 27). On the cross Jesus felt the full weight of God’s wrath against the sins of all humanity…and then… it was over. He was laid in the tomb, “crucified, died, and was buried”…but because he was the Son of God his body, his flesh, did not “see corruption”. Because he was the sinless Son of God, the body of Jesus Christ did not decay or rot in the tomb...and then….on the third day…..he was raised from the dead.. And Jesus knew all of this as Psalm 16 says: “my flesh also will dwell in hope…you have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence” (vv. 26, 28, ESV). Jesus knew that he would be raised on the third day…and it was with such knowledge that he could endure the cross and God’s wrath.
B. So where is Jesus now that he has been raised from the dead? “Hear these words”--- right where we confess him to be in all three of our Christian creeds: at the right hand of God, just as Peter says: “being therefore exalted at the right hand of God…” (v. 32, ESV) which again was prophesied by King David on the 110th Psalm: “the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (vv. 34, 35, ESV). This means that the man Jesus Christ is now ruler of creation, the entire universe, including this little plant earth. Whatever you can say about God, you can say about the man, Jesus. Whatever God does, the man Jesus does. The same man who loved us so much as to die and be damned by God for us now rules the whole world. Why then are we afraid of so many things? Have we forgotten that Jesus sits at the right hand of God? Or do we not believe it? Perhaps the words of Jesus from the gospels apply to us more than we know---.“O you of little faith”. And it will be the same man Jesus who will return at the end of the world to condemn all those who have not believed in him and who have opposed him. That’s when God will make all his enemies his footstool, as Peter says, “God has made him both Lord and Crist, this Jesus whom you crucified” (v. 37, ESV). But for all who have trust in him we don’t fear the judgment for we have his promise that we will not “…perish but have eternal life.” And finally, “hear these words”: Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit of God to testify to the truth of these things and to bring people to faith in Jesus through the preaching of his gospel until the end of time. We tell others about Jesus but we never know who will believe and who will not. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job as we read in our gospel lesson: “the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it with everyone born of the spirit” (John 3: 5, ESV).
Conclusion: you and I have been born of the spirit. How do we know? Our faith in Jesus Christ. For only those who believe in Jesus Christ have been born of the spirit…only those born of the spirit believe in Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the sermon I asked “what is the meaning of life?” “Hear these words”---Jesus Christ is the meaning of life….. 1) Jesus Christ who was sent by God to die for our sins; 2) Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God the Father, almighty. 3) Jesus Christ who one day will return to judge the living and the dead. 4) Jesus Christ the one who gives peace with God and eternal life through the forgiveness of sins. 5) Jesus Christ is the meaning of life. And as those who have been born again by the spirit we say to anyone who will listen: “hear these words”. Amen!
