Transfiguration Sermon: Exodus

Preached on Luke 9:28-36
The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Series C
7 February AD 2016

Title: Exodus (MP3 Audio)

Summary: In earlier days, the Lord revealed His glory to Moses — and later to Elijah — on Mount Sinai. In the fulness of time, Jesus revealed His glory to Peter, James, and John as He conversed with His prophets on the Mount of Transfiguration.

He spoke with His forerunners about His impending departure — His exodus (v. 31). Unlike Moses, who led Israel from death at the hands of Pharaoh, or Elijah, who fled death at the hands of Ahab and Jezebel, Jesus was preparing to offer Himself up into death’s hands.

On the mountaintop, Christ manifested Himself as the Completion of the work of Moses and Elijah, the Fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and the final and greatest Redeemer. He would soon transfigure His own exodus from life into humanity’s exodus from death.

We often join with Moses and Elijah, with Peter, James, and John in confusing or abusing God’s commands and promises. Jesus, however, stayed true to His path. He kept the commands, bestowed the promises, and now credits us with His righteousness.

We participate in Christ’s exodus through Baptism. In it, we pass through watery death and are given new life in Him (see Romans 6:3-4). By water and the Word, we receive new citizenship, not in a land flowing with milk and honey but in the Lord’s eternal kingdom — the new heavens and new earth that will be ours in the Resurrection (see Philippians 3:20).

Text: Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah” — not knowing what he said.

As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”

And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. Luke 9:28-36

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Exodus.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 99; Deuteronomy 34 or Exodus 34:29-35; Hebrews 3:1-6

Illustrations: The painting Exodus by Marc Chagall was begun in 1952 and completed in 1966. Line drawing from Art of the Church Year by Ed Riojas, available through Higher Things Store.

Epiphany 4C Sermon: Hope and Trust from Womb to Tomb

Preached on Psalm 71:1-11
The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
31 January AD 2016

Title: Hope and Trust from Womb to Tomb (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Whether plagued by demonic forces, physical distress, foes of God and His people, or personal enemies, troubles can fill our days. We find refuge, health, and healing only in the Lord. Even before we ask, He answers.

He knows us deeply and completely. We were in His thoughts prior to Creation. He cared for us before we were born. He took us in His hands from our mothers’ wombs. He holds fast to us through this life and will lay us to rest in our graves that we might awaken to life everlasting.

There is nothing we can do to earn His favor. He loved us before we could or would love Him. When Christ called out, “It is finished, (John 19:30)” it was a sign that He had won salvation for all people throughout all time. As the sermon notes, Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness from the cross is “proactive, retroactive, completely active through all of time.”

Even before we are born, we can hear and be blessed by God’s living and active Word. And long after we die, we will hear and respond to His Word as He calls us forth into eternal glory. Truly, the Lord is the believer’s hope and trust from womb to tomb.

Text: In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.” Psalm 71:1-11

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Hope and Trust from Womb to Tomb.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-10 (17-19); 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13; Luke 4:31-44

Epiphany 2C Sermon: The Wedding Feast Begins

Preached on Luke 2:1-11
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany
17 January AD 2016

Title: The Wedding Feast Begins (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Of all the signs He could have worked, Jesus chose His first to be changing water into wine at a wedding in Cana. He didn’t heal someone lame, sick, or blind. He didn’t cast out a demon. He didn’t raise someone from the dead. Instead, He prolonged a party and spared a Galilean gentleman the shame of shorting his guests’ wedding wine.

While this seems odd at first glance, it’s quite in keeping with the person and work of the Christ. In the Gospel from Advent 3, about a month ago, Jesus noted that many of His enemies had branded Him as a party animal — calling Him “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! (Luke 7:34)”

When the Pharisees would later ask Him why His disciples didn’t fast, He replied, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. (Mark 2:19)” Even as He was helping Cana’s bridegroom with the festivities, Jesus was also beginning to reveal Himself as the heavenly Bridegroom, come to cleanse and claim His bride the Church.

If you observe Jesus’ other signs and miracles, you notice various Old Testament direct prophecies and types being fulfilled. Along with the subtle reference to God’s “marriage” with His people, could Jesus have been fulfilling a specific prophecy? Perhaps this sign announced Him as Judah’ heir (cf. Genesis 49:3-12), claiming the prophesied scepter and ruling staff by making wine flow so abundantly that even most impoverished vine grower could afford to tie his donkey to his grapevines without risking ruin.

Text: On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.

When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. John 2:1-11

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of The Wedding Feast Begins.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 128; Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Epiphany 1C Sermon: Through the Waters

Preached on Isaiah 43:1-7
The Baptism of Our Lord
The First Sunday after the Epiphany
10 January AD 2016

Title: Through the Waters (MP3 Audio)

Summary: Jesus entered the baptismal flood in order to take our sins upon Himself. He continues to stand in the waters, forgiving, renewing, and restoring us. When He is with us, no deluge, no tsunami, no storm — whether actual or figurative — can sweep us away.

Likewise, the Christ endured a “baptism by fire,” suffering temptation, torture, and hellish abandonment by His own Father that He might quench hell’s blaze and keep His people safe.

Entering the Jordan, the Son declared war on sin, death, and Devil and announced Himself as our Savior. After hearing His Father call out to honor Him, Jesus began calling sinners to Himself that they might receive forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Now, no matter what floods swell in our lives, He is with us in the waters. Whatever fiery trials await us, they can never consume us, for he stands with us just as did the Fourth Man with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3).

Text: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

“I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

“Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Isaiah 43:1-7

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Through the Waters.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 29; Romans 6:1-11; Luke 3:15-22

Epiphany Sermon: Wise Men, Did You Know?

Preached on Matthew 2:1-12
The Feast of the Epiphany
6 January AD 2016

Title: Wise Men, Did You Know? (MP3 Audio)

Summary: A Christmas song that’s only about twenty-five years old poses a series of questions to the mother of the Christ Child. It asks, “Mary, did you know” about what this Baby will grow to become and to do?

Our text could lead us to ask the same of the Magi who visited the Holy Family sometime after Jesus’ birth: “Wise Men, did you know?” Matthew tells us that a sign in the heavens announced to them that “the King of the Jews” had been born but there was much of the story they didn’t know.

Yet they brought not only treasures fit for a king but also gifts that pointed to who this King was. Gold is truly a gift for a king while many cultures use incense in connection with their prayers. This was true of Israel, which had an incense altar in the temple.

Meanwhile, myrrh, a spice which holds great intrinsic value, was also used in preparing bodies for burial. It could be rubbed on a corpse or on the cloth with which a body was wrapped. Thus, while the Wise Men probably didn’t know many details about the Child, nor have any real idea what He would accomplish through His life and death, their treasures can illustrate Jesus’ kingship and His divinity, while pointing toward His atoning death on the cross.

I wrote of this in a hymn titled The Wise Men Traveled from Afar:

   Their incense honored Deity
   And gold was gift to royalty;
   While myrrh foreshadowed death and grave
   As sinful men He came to save.

The story of the Wise Men also shows that it is only through God’s Word that we know the King. It took the words of the prophet to lead them away from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. So it is for us. Signs in nature and feelings within are poor guides while Holy Scripture tells us in great detail who He is, what He did, and how much He loves us. We receive the treasures of heaven not because we seek and find the Christ but because He came to earth “to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10)”

Text: Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Matthew 2:1-12

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Wise Men, Did You Know?.

NB: For some reason, a few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio if Windows Media is their default MP3 player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 72:1-11 (12-15); Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12