God's Word at Work

Announcing Judgment and Grace

Jonah 3: 1-5 & 10

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this mornings meditation is recorded in the Old Testament lesson of Jonah, chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, particularly these words: “Jonah proclaimed; ‘forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.’ The Ninevites believed God. They put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had promised.” This is our text.

In the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian friends. We all know the story of Jonah. God told him to go to the East, across the desert, to Nineveh — and instead he took a Mediterranean cruise to the West. But the errant prophet couldn’t get away from God. After a bad storm, and after being thrown overboard, being swallowed by a big fish, and spending three days in the stomach of that fish — Jonah is finally released on shore. And then our text tells us, “The Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’” And even though we learn a lot about God’s persistence in calling Jonah, and God’s presence where ever Jonah might have been — the Epiphany lesson that we have to learn from today’s text deals with God and not with Jonah. The question we must ask ourselves each Sunday during Epiphany is, “What does this Scripture lesson reveal to me about God?”

In today’s Old Testament lesson, we are shown TWO very important aspects of God’s character — first we learn of God’s judgment, and secondly, we learn of God’s grace.

First of all, we learn of God’s judgment. Some might call it God’s law — but it really goes a step beyond the law as God hands out the warning of just what the results will be for violating or breaking his law. The warning is not only in the Old Testament lesson for today — but it is in the Epistle and the Gospel lessons as well.

In the Epistle, the Apostle Paul warns Christians in Corinth, “Brethren, what I mean is that the time is short. For this world in its present form is passing away.” And in the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is handing out the warning about the coming judgment of God, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

From the beginning of time, man has known that there would come a final judging for the sins that had been committed. Mankind knew that there was a price that had to be paid for sin. In the Garden of Eden, Eve told the serpent that she could not eat the forbidden fruit, or she would die.

The knowledge of sin comes natural to mankind. God made it a part of our very being — we call it our conscious. Even those who have never read the Bible know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Even little babies, who cannot read or talk or understand — know the difference between what is right and what is wrong — that’s why they get very quiet when they are into something that they are not supposed to be. That’s the reason Paul tells the Romans that no one has an excuse for doing evil — “Because God’s law is written on the hearts of men.”

But God still reaches out. God gives another chance. God wanted to give Nineveh another chance, so he sent Jonah to give them a warning, “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be destroyed.” That wasn’t the whole message, but that pretty well summed up what God wanted to tell Nineveh. God told them through Jonah that He was not satisfied with their life style. That they were living totally against His Holy Will. And that there was a day of reckoning coming. And for them, God gave a dead line — 40 days was all they had — to accept God’s way, to turn from their sins, and to change their evil ways.

God’s judgment spoken to Nineveh, could just as well be spoken to our world of today. Each day through the news reports we are reminded of just how sinful our world has become. And NOT JUST OUR WORLD — We too are sinful. We too fall short of God’s plan for our lives. We do not always live up to the high standards of being a child of God. You and I are not the perfect people that God wants us to be. That is why Luther reminds us that each and every day we have to drown the Old Adam that lives with in us — and each day we must repent of our sins, and ask God’s forgiveness and strength to change that sinful life.

And that is why the second lesson in our text is so comforting, because it tells us about the grace of God.

The city of Nineveh deserved to be destroyed. The death penalty would have been a fair and just reward for their evil. But when they heard the message which Jonah presented to them, our text tells us, “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.” And then the comforting words which tells us of God’s forgiving grace, “When God saw what they did, and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”

The Ninevites believed God, turned from their evil, and were forgiven. Jonah must have told the Ninevites about God’s great love for them. He must have told them about God’s plan to send a Messiah who would deliver them from death and the Devil. He must have told them about God’s grace and forgiveness — because the Bible says, “They believed God and God had Compassion.”

The same is still true today. Our wicked world — yes even ourselves — need to hear of God’s love. We need to hear of God’s Messiah. We need to hear of God’s grace and forgiveness. The righteous judgment of God demands the death penalty for sin — and we are all guilty of sin — but God in his mercy and his love provided another way for that debt to be paid. God sent his only Son, “Who knew no sin, to be sin for us.” The guilt, the punishment, that was rightly ours was placed upon him. The death which was rightly ours, he suffered on the cross for us. The message of God’s love and compassion belongs to you and to me and to all sinners — because Christ died for all.

When that message is heard, the Holy Spirit is there to work faith, and repentance, forgiveness, life, and salvation, just as he did for the Ninevites did. Through the Holy Spirit, we too believe God’s message. By the guidance and with the strength of the Holy Spirit, we can turn our lives around. As God forgives us freely and completely for Jesus’ sake — with God’s grace and strength, we turn from our evil ways to serve Him and give glory to his name.

From this passage in Jonah, let us learn of God’s judgment against sin. But let us also learn of God’s love and God’s forgiveness. Let us learn that God does forgive — not because we earn that right — but because he loves us, and because He gave his son to die for us. And all this he did so that we might be His own, live under him in his kingdom, and serve Him. This is most certainly true. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

Mark 8:36-9:1

If you click the Bible reference above, it should open in a separate window to let you see the Gospel lesson that Pastor Mallie is using as the text of his sermon.

If you have Logos/Libronics and click on the tiny logo above, it should open up the software to that Bible reference.

If you just want to listen to the sermon, click on this link: http://ziontomball.info/wfs23a/Jan18_2009_Mark8_36-9_1.m4a

If you need the software to hear the sermon, download it here:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

A New Creation by Water and the Word
Genesis 1: 1-5
January 11, 2009

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this mornings meditation is recorded in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, particularly these words: “In the beginning, God…” This is our text.

In the name of Jesus … (Amen). We are now in the Epiphany season of the Church year. This is the season where God reveals himself to us in the life of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. In the man Jesus Christ, we see God himself. Jesus told his disciples, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” “I and the Father are one.” We do not want to confuse the persons of the Triune God with these verses — and yet we do want to remember that our God is one God. And the more we know about Jesus Christ — the more we know about God, because Jesus Christ is God made man.

Our text for today is a very familiar verse. It is one of those verses which most Christians can quote: like Matt. 3: 16, The 23rd Psalm, Luke 2, and Matt 28: 19. We all know that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” But what does the beginning of the world, the creation story, have to do with the Baptism of our Lord?

As I looked at this text, my first thought was that I had copied the wrong text. Actually, I had. Because my first listing of readings and hymns I based on series A – this year we are in series B. So my first sermon for today was written on a text in Isaiah, one you will get 8 years from now when I preach on Old Testament Texts from Series A. But what does Jesus’ Baptism and Creation have in common?

At first I thought, Jesus begins his preaching and teaching ministry with his Baptism by John. So as creation was the beginning of our world, so his Baptism was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. But that wouldn’t be totally true. He was already about his Father’s business at the age of 12 when he was asking and answering questions with the priests and teachers in the Temple at Jerusalem. And at his birth, he began his ministry as God took on human flesh and became man – born of the Virgin Mary. But then Jesus is God, and the Apostle John reminds us clearly, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God – Through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” Now things were beginning to fall together. Jesus was there at Creation. Jesus was the light of the world – the light that shined that first day. A light the world has never understood. A light that darkness cannot overcome.

Why did Jesus appear before John that day for Baptism? Certainly it was not for himself. Jesus was sinless. He had no sins to wash away. In the book of Matthew, John protested – “I ought to be baptized by you! Why do you ask me to baptize you?” But Jesus explained it to John by saying, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” It was proper so that Jesus should dot all the “I”s and cross all the “t”s. Jesus leaves nothing undone. He does everything necessary to live the perfect life demanded of you and me, so that we might have forgiveness in him. Christ fulfills all righteousness for you and for me. And then he dies on the cross, and arises again, for you and for me. In Christ, we have forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. No wonder Peter can proclaim, “Baptism doth now save us.” Baptism brings life. As the Epistle lesson for today points out, we were buried with Christ in Baptism so that we might have a resurrection – new life – like his.

As God created this world of ours – he brought life out of nothing. He said let there be plants – and there were plants. He said let there be animals of all kinds – and there were animals. God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. It was God’s Word that brought life and light into this dark world, both at creation and at his baptism. And John reminds us that this Word of God, is Christ – It is Christ who brings life and light.

But this light is always being challenged by the darkness. God divided the light and the dark in Creation. Our text said: “God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” Ever since that time, the Scriptures have used Light to symbolize what is good and right. And the reverse was also true, that darkness was used to refer to what was bad and evil. The Apostle John said, “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” Paul told the Corinthians, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness.” Paul also said to the Ephesians, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

Mark tells us right after today’s Gospel lesson that immediately after Jesus’ Baptism, he goes out into the wilderness, and there he is tempted by the devil. Jesus against the Devil. Good against Evil. Light against darkness. But Jesus is the light that no darkness can overcome. Jesus withstands the temptations for you and for me. With Christ there is no darkness, only the light of life and salvation. Christ lives the perfect life, for you and for me.

Today we have a baptism. We’re not in the Jordan River – but the water in our font, together with the Word, has God’s power to fulfill all righteousness. Out of the death of sin, comes life and salvation. New life in Christ is created through water and the Word. And where the darkness of sin once stood, now shines the true light of the World, God’s light in Jesus Christ, who brings to us forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Behold the old is washed away. New life is given in Jesus Christ, our Lord. To God be the glory, now and always. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

Happy Saturday!

Just today, I received an e-mail from a friend who wanted to encourage her “Great-Aunt Tillie” by taking one of the Zion’s audio sermons on a CD to her.

Let me see if I can give you a hand with that…

Since this disc space is an issue, I usually use m4a format. It works well, but it has to be played with some software that is easily available from Apple.

If I was only creating one file/cd, I would go here http://media-convert.com/ and switch it to a .wav file format that will work better in creating a CD. I will switch it to a .wav file, which usually works quite nicely. After conversion The file will be available at a link that they will give you for 24 hours or so.

Downloading the file can take as long as 45 minutes — and I’m not using dial-up. (Which only goes to illustrate why I use the format that I do…)

Of course, if you would rather use software to convert from .m4a to .wav format, you could use http://www.bonkenc.org/ — I think it is easy to use and has the benefit of being free. (Unless you care to donate…)

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/help/Audio/compileaudio is probably the easiest conversion to audio disc — and again… is free.

Now I’m in a quandary… I don’t know how “Step-By-Step” you might need the instructions to be. I think I will just stop here and let you tell me by leaving a comment.

I hope to talk to you soon,
Webmaster-Lisa

Luke 2:40-52

If you click the Bible reference above, it should open in a separate window to let you see the Gospel lesson that Pastor Mallie is using as the text of his sermon.

If you have Logos/Libronics and click on the tiny logo above, it should open up the software to that Bible reference.

If you just want to listen to the sermon, click on this link: http://ziontomball.info/wfs23a/Jan4_2009_Luke2_40-52.m4a

If you need the software to hear the sermon, download it here:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/