Proper 9A Sermon: Because of the Blood

Preached on Zechariah 9:9–12
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
5 July AD 2020

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Because of the Blood.

Audio: Alternatively, choose Because of the Blood to hear the MP3.

Summary: When God cut His covenant with Abraham, He alone passed among the sacrificed animals. In so doing, the Lord pledged Himself not only to keeping His side of the promises but ultimately also to upholding the obligations of Abraham and his heirs. We hear this through Zechariah, when the Lord speaks not of “our covenant” but “My covenant.”

The blood of the covenant with Abraham points to the blood of the covenant He would make to all people through Christ. He also made a covenant in which He pledged Himself to faithfully uphold the obligations of both parties.

In His life, suffering, and death, Jesus poured out the blood of the New Covenant. Fully divine, He established and keeps God’s promise of salvation to mankind. Fully human, He faithfully kept mankind’s obligations unto His death and continues in His resurrection to uphold humanity’s responsibilities.

Because His Son kept God’s Law on our behalf, the Father accepted the sacrifice of the blood of the covenant that Christ shed on Golgotha. God then honors His covenant obligations and credits Jesus’ faithfulness to all of us who believe in Him.

Text: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. Zechariah 9:9–12

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Because of the Blood.

Audio: Click Because of the Blood to listen to the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 145:1–14; Romans 7:14–25a; Matthew 11:25–30

Proper 9A Sermon: Revealed to Children

Preached on Matthew 11:25–30
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
5 July AD 2020

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Revealed to Children.

Audio: Alternatively, choose Revealed to Children to hear the MP3.

Summary: Simple, ordinary, basic: These aren’t the gaudy descriptions for ourselves that our sinful flesh craves. Christians rejoice that salvation is fully revealed and freely given to us “little children.”

There’s nothing we can add to the certainty of forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Jesus. Those who are wise unto salvation rather than wise in the ways of the world occupy themselves not with plans and theories of salvation but rather how we can live out our lives in faith toward God and in fervent love for all people.

Text: At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:25–30

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Revealed to Children.

Audio: Click Revealed to Children to listen to the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 145:1–14; Zechariah 9:9–12; Romans 7:14–25a

Pentecost 5 Sermon: How Much Jesus Has Done

Preached on Luke 8:26-39
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost — Proper 7C
19 June AD 2016

Title: How Much Jesus Has Done (MP3 Audio)

Summary: How much has God done for you? We can probably make a sizeable list without much effort. Yet when we really stop to think, we know that our list will never be complete because He continues to provide for us. However, some things will always stand out.

When Jesus told the man from whom He drove out the demons named Legion to go home and “declare how much God has done for you,” one event topped the list. So the man “went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”

Notice how the man expanded upon the message he received from the Lord yet got it exactly right: Sent home to declare God’s wonderful gift, he went home and proclaimed Jesus’ wonderful gift. He announced that his gift from God was truly a gift from Jesus.

Whether or not he fully realized that he’d met God enfleshed, he was certain that Jesus was from God. Meanwhile, the people of the area, seeing what Jesus had done, seemingly became more afraid of the One who banished the demons then they’d been of the demons who’d possessed the man.

How interesting it is that Luke sets this account immediately following that of Jesus stilling the storm. The inhabitants of the region were “afraid” — indeed they felt “great fear” — that someone commanding such might was in their midst. Their response mirrored the disciples from a few verses before: “[T]hey were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’ (v. 25)”

How much, then, has God done? He has taken on human flesh. He has carried our sins, our guilt, our diseases. He has endured the agony of crucifixion and the final gasps of a dying man. And He has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of our own resurrection. Yet as we ponder this awe-full mystery, The Holy Spirit moves us not to terror at His might displayed in judgment but to joy over His might revealed in mercy.

Text: Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)

Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.

So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”

And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:26-39

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 How Much Jesus Has Done.

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media 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 3; Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23-4:7