Sermon for 2-11-24

Sermons, The Word

Luke 18: 31-43

Quinquagesima 2024

 

“I believe!”    Every Sunday, after the reading of the lessons and particularly the Gospel, we respond with the Creed.    The Latin word “creedo” means “I believe.”   In effect, we are “signing off” on the words of Holy Scripture confessing that we take the words of Scripture as the inerrant Word of God

 

  • whether that word speaks of Creation and God’s providential care, or
  • whether it speaks of the person and work of Christ, or
  • whether it speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit who creates and sustains the church or assembly of believers.
  • For a person then to speak the creeds without trusting the words of Scripture is ultimately hypocrisy.    Would you agree?

 

But the question is, how is it that we come to believe the words of Scripture and the promises of God when those words defy all human reason?    Is coming to faith an intellectual matter?     Is faith an act of man’s will responding to the information printed on the pages of Holy Scripture or preached from the pulpit?    This is not merely an academic exercise.    It is a matter of life or death.    Because it is, we are reminded this morning that:

 

FAITH IS A PRECIOUS GIFT OF GOD.

  1.   Faith lets us believe in the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.
  2.   Faith lets us believe in miracles.

 

FAITH LETS US BELIEVE IN THE PASSION AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

 

Jesus pulls the twelve disciples aside and lays out for them in plain words the foundation of man’s eternal salvation already predicted in the Old Testament: “Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.   For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon!   And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.”      These words sound very much like our Creeds.

 

However, I want you to focus right now on the commentary by Luke regarding the disciples: “But they understood none of these things.   This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”     At this point, the disciples were unbelievers.

 

  • This was not the first time Jesus said these words.
  • It was not the second time Jesus told the disciples God’s plan of salvation.
  • It was the third time Jesus reminded the disciples of His purpose in coming to this world in the flesh.
  • On top of that, the disciples, being Jewish, had at their disposal the prophetic words of the inspired Old Testament writer such as Isaiah.       But they could not understand the plain words of Christ.

 

It is time for a short Greek lesson.    The word used by the ESV translated “grasped” is the Greek word ginwskw, “to know.”    This is the word Luke uses as one of the synonyms of faith.    As “simple” as the message was that Jesus shared with them, they could not believe.   Why?    As Luke says, “This saying was hidden from them.”

 

In God’s hidden wisdom and mind, He held back this saying from them until the right time.     That time would be after His resurrection from the dead.   And not even immediately for Luke records in his 23rd chapter that they would not believe it when the women told them they had seen Jesus alive.

 

It was not until they were all gathered behind locked doors that Jesus “Opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”    Jesus gave them the gift of faith, the ability to believe the words of Scripture and apply those words to their troubled conscience, particularly Peter who denied Christ three times.

 

Faith is a gift of God.     We can see from the response of the disciples that faith is not merely an intellectual matter.    What is there not to comprehend intellectually about the words of our Savior: “He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon!     And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise?”   

 

Yet, apart from the Holy Spirit, like the disciples, these words are just that, only words.     In light of this, as Lutherans, we say with Luther, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him.    But the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one true faith.”

 

Faith is a gift.     God’s gift does not involve a “gift exchange” like many people imagine.    When you have nothing, you can give nothing.    As Paul told the proud and arrogant Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not first receive.”   And then St. Paul describes our spiritual condition as dead, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.”    What can a dead man give, much less do to provide a gift in return that could bring us out of spiritual death?    And Think of what we have done to anger God.

 

  • Do you fail to confess the Lord with your mouth or in your actions?
  • Have you ever used the holy Name of God to swear falsely or curse another?
  • Have you failed or do you presently refuse to forgive and be reconciled to another?
  • Are you selfish in your marriage insisting on having things “your way?”
  • Have you ever taken what belongs to another?
  • Are you fully content with the temporal gifts your Savior has given you never uttering a word of complaint?
  • Have you ever been or are you now desirous of the temporal blessings or possessions of others?

 

This very day, once again, our Savior through the voice of your pastor calls you to repentance.          God could have said, “Go away from me and die in your sins which you deserve.”     Repentance involves faith for we confess that Repentance is sorrow over sin and faith in the promise of forgiveness in Christ.    Praise God, Faith is a gift.

 

Think of that.      God loved you so very much that He made sure that you would come to believe and gave you the gift of faith.   God is no longer angry with you for your sins but has reconciled you to Himself by taking out His anger on Christ and the cross.

 

FAITH LETS US BELIEVE IN MIRACLES.

 

However, that brings up the second part of our lesson: Faith lets us believe in miracles.   Our lesson for this morning records the miracle of the healing of the blind man.   We hear Jesus say to the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?”     He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.”

 

When Jesus speaks to this physical world, it must obey just as the water at the wedding of Cana had to obey its Creator.   The blind man simply believed Jesus would and could do what He asked.   The Lord had given him the faith to trust that when Jesus spoke, it must happen.   His faith promoted the blind man to cry out to Jesus believing that Jesus, “the Son of David” could and would heal him.

 

The late televangelist Oral Roberts had a pet saying: “Expect a miracle.”    Oral Roberts was known as a “faith healer.”    The miracles about which he spoke focused on the physical healing of the body.    Whether he actually ever really healed anyone I can’t answer.

 

What he missed was the real miracle sitting right under his nose, here in God’s Word in Word and Sacrament where Jesus speaks a specific command and gives a specific promise in order to heal us of the disease of sin which blinds us to the grace and mercy of God.

 

Think of it, God tells us through His holy writers that Baptism will save us.   Baptism is God’s Name of forgiveness connected with simple water.    Like the blind man who could not see Jesus but heard His voice and trusted that voice, we cannot “see” any change in the water, we cannot see any physical change in the one being baptized, but we hear the voice of God stating His Name in and with the water promising that the water of Baptism washes away our sin and grants us forgiveness.   The Name of the Triune God is the Name of forgiveness.    Baptism is a miracle that God allows us to believe.

 

And just think of the miracle of Holy Communion.   Like the blind man who could not see Jesus but only heard His voice, we cannot “see” the Body and Blood of our Savior in the elements of bread and wine.    But our Lord has spoken a specific command and given a specific promise, “Take Eat, this is My body; take drink this is My blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”       This is the real miracle.    It is a miracle that God has allowed us to believe and apply to our troubled consciences.

 

You see, the Lord instituted His Supper for repentant sinners, namely

 

  • those who realize they are weak in faith;
  • those who are cold in love toward God and men,
  • those who faint in hope,
  • those who are disposed to hated, impatience, impurity, greed and whatever other vice may plague the conscience.
  •  Through the Holy Spirit, our Savior lets you believe this for the salvation of your souls.     And He invites you to His Table not to condemn you but to hear His voice of forgiveness.   Here is the real miracle.

 

Faith is a gift of God and His will is for you to have that gift as St. Paul says, “God would have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.”   That knowledge is faith!    If you are one of those troubled in your conscience, if you deeply desire the forgiveness God offers in Christ, don’t reflect on what sits in your heart, but like the blind man, close your eyes to your disease of sin, and listen only to the voice of Jesus, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.”    Those simple words Create the greatest gift on the face of the earth: Faith.     And then like the blind man, Go in peace, “Your faith has made you well.”    Amen.