Robe of Righteousness

Title: Robe of Righteousness By Pastor Lohn Johnson Text:  Isaiah 61:10 " 10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. INTRODUCTION:    My dear friends in Christ, The Prince and the Pauper is a classic tale.  Written by Mark Twain in the 19th Century, it tells the story of two boys in 16th Century England.  They were identical to each other in their looks, but one of the boys lived in the king’s palace and the other lived in a shack.  As the tale goes, one day the boys decided to switch places.  The prince put on the pauper’s ragged clothing and the pauper put on the royal garments of the prince.  And for a while each boy lived in the other boy’s shoes.  The pauper lived as a prince and the prince lived as a pauper.
I. The story is intriguing and it resembles the true story of our life in Christ. “The Word became flesh,” writes St. John.  St. Paul says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ… though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich.”  Isaiah writes, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord…for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has clothed me with the robe of righteousness.”  What does all this mean?  It means that the Prince became a pauper, and we paupers are now clothed as princes.
	A. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  As the Son of God His place is with the Father and the Spirit in the highest heavens.  But one day many years ago he came to our poor world of sin and death and He dressed Himself with the clothing of a pauper.  Jesus, although He was the Prince of Heaven, did not look like a prince; He looked like a pauper.
			1. Mary and Joseph were not wealthy.  Jesus was born of a humble and lowly virgin.  After His birth, she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a wooden box which was nothing more than a feeding trough.  2. Even as He grew up, you could not tell that Jesus was a prince.
					a. His flesh was like our flesh.  He became hungry and thirsty.  He grew tired.  He shed tears.  He was a pauper. All He had were the clothes on His back and they were shabby indeed. b.  God had become Man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
		B. In the tale by Mark Twain, even dressed as a pauper the prince remained a prince.
			1. And so with Jesus.  Though covered with human flesh, Jesus did not cease being God.  He is true God and true Man.
					a. And in Twain’s story because the prince was dressed as a pauper, he was treated like a pauper. So with our Lord.  People treated Jesus with contempt.  They were critical of Him.  They gave Him no respect.  They did not laud Him as their prince.   b. In the end they rejected Him by casting Him out of the royal city and nailing Him to a cross.  Although He was and is the Prince of God Jesus, dressed with the clothing of a poor pauper, was treated as the lowest pauper of all.
			2. But it had to be that way.  In the story by Mark Twain, the only way for the pauper to live as a prince was by the prince putting on his poor clothing and then giving his rich garments to him.  And so for us.
							a. Unless God had become Man; unless He had dressed Himself with our pauper’s clothing and been treated as a pauper, and even died as a pauper, you and I would never live as princes before God.  b. Mark Twain’s prince may have donned the pauper’s clothing out of boyish curiosity, but God did it out of pure grace and mercy.  “He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
II.  You and I may look like common, everyday people; but we are paupers really…for we are poor, wretched sinners before God.
				A. We are all born that way.
			1. And in a spiritual sense paupers do not become anything else in life except paupers.  A pauper cannot become a prince by trying real hard.  Princes are born, not made.  Sons of kings are princes, but children of paupers always remain paupers.  2. But in the picture presented by the tale by Mark Twain we see this strange occurrence that the pauper lived as a prince.
							a. The pauper was treated as a prince.  He ate like a prince. He slept like a prince.  b. He was a prince and only because the prince became a pauper.
		B. And that story’s strange occurrence is God’s truth for you.  Jesus became poor that you might become rich.  He took your place and gave His place to you.  “He has clothed me,” writes Isaiah, “With the garments of salvation…with the robe of righteousness.”
			1. This happened in your baptism.
							a. You, a pauper…a poor sinner with no hope, were clothed by God with the garments of your Prince.  You cannot see those garments, but they are there.  You are wearing Christ.  You are covered with His righteousness.  You are clothed with His salvation.  b. Jesus, your Prince, switched places with you in the waters of the font.  He took your sins to Himself, and He gave you His royal garments to wear.
			2. That doesn’t seem fair, does it?   I always wondered why Mark Twain’s prince would agree to become a pauper and suffer as a pauper suffers.  The pauper had nothing to lose.  He got the good end of the deal.  He was raised up, but the prince became the lowest in the kingdom.
						a. Jesus took your place as a pauper.  He was unjustly tried in your place. [Video: Trial] He took your place on the cross.  He took your place in hell because being fair is not what God is all about.  b. God is about showing mercy to you no matter what the cost is to Him.  And so Jesus becomes covered with blood on Golgotha, and in baptism He covers you with His holy innocence.  Jesus becomes clothed with nothing but shame as they strip Him on the cross, and you He clothes with garments of salvation.
III.  And so who are you really?  Are you a prince, or a pauper?
		A. In twain’s story, when the pauper lived as a prince there were times when he nearly gave the secret away.  How he acted and what he said were not always in the manner of a prince.  And so with us.
			1. In Holy Baptism God dressed you as a prince; as His royal son or daughter.  But day after day how we speak and how we act gives away the deep, dark secret inside us.  That secret is that we are nothing more than paupers; we are and remain wretched sinners.  We have no right to the King’s palace.  We have no claim to His inheritance.  2. But, now we are not just paupers; we are also what God has declared us to be—in Holy Baptism we were given birth into Christ.  We were born of our King and His royal garments are ours forever.
		B. In Twain’s tale the story ends happily.  The true prince back in his palace declares that the pauper with whom he had exchanged roles was forever a friend of the royal family.   His place now was always with the prince; always within the palace.
			1. Dear fellow paupers, this also is our place with Jesus forever.
					a. He does not see us as a poor pauper.  He forgives our wretched sins.  Our place is not outside of His Kingdom.  Our place is in the palace of the King of Kings.  He clothes us with the garment of salvation.  He will always have a place for us at His side.  b. And now today our place is here in His House where His Word bespeaks us righteous.  Our place is at His Table where His royal Supper is given to us—the rich food of His own body and blood.  c. And even though we come to His House and to His Table time after time with stains upon those garments; with the stains of our sinfulness soiling the pure robe which He put on us in baptism, He never stops forgiving us; He never grows weary of washing our robes in His blood shed for us.
			2. And so who are we?  We are paupers who live forever as princes because He, our Prince, became a pauper for us.  This means that we want to take great care in how we speak to each other and how we act toward one another.
					a. If we look for the worthless pauper in each other, we will easily find it.  We won’t have to dig too deep into each other’s lives to find the pauper’s ragged clothing.  It’s there.  Our sins and weaknesses; our worthlessness is pretty evident in how we live.  b. And now we are brought to see each other as our God does.  No we are brought to treat each other as our God does.  He sees us as princes in Christ.  He deals with us in mercy.  He forgives us.  He does not pass us off as a worthless paupers.  He calls us His own children for Jesus’ sake.  Not one of us has a claim on Christ, but He claims each and every one of us, and not because we live like princes…for we do not…but because He is our Prince who loves to show mercy.  Now we can  show that same kind of mercy to our brothers and sisters in Christ and the rest of the world too.  Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen

Be Prepared Always

Title: Be Prepared Always By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:  Mark 13:26-33  "26At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens….32 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, Someday God will come. We don’t know when. Jesus leaves that last big question unanswered. Imagine parents going out for the evening and telling their teenage kids, “we’ll be right back.” (Kids)“So when exactly are you coming back?” (Parents)“Who knows? Could be anytime at all. But when we do come back it will be suddenly and without warning.” (Kids)“ “Could you at least give us a ballpark estimate?” (Parents)“ “No, that wouldn’t be good for you.” (Kids)“ “Maybe nine o’clock? Midnight? Something like that?” (Parents)“ “No, but we’ll be back. You can count on it.”
I. Now why do you think those kids wanted to know exactly when the parents would return?. Why would we want to know when Christ will return.
	A. I think one reason is that we are like irresponsible kids.
			1.  We want independence from authority.  We want to “play” as long as we can, then at the last minute “clean up our act”. 2. And also it’s like we have a desire to domesticate God, to put Him into a convenient box the way we do our holiday seasons, to make Him fit in our busy calendars. So then we can make sure we’re ready when He shows up so we can have our lives in order.
		B. And also like irresponsible kids we insist on foolish figuring out when the Lord will come again? Why do we fixate on years like 1000 and 2000 and now 2012 and the Mayan calendar? Why do we “figure” when He told us we cannot know that day?
			1. One part of it, I think, is fascination with the unknown and a lurking sense that things seem to be tumbling to some sort of end point. 2. And generally we have some ability to prepare for events that we expect on a date that can be determined.
					a. We make our plans and prepare for family events such as birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and the like.  b. We also can, despite the hectic pace, prepare for major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. But we’re not so good at something unknown.
		C. And what about our need to prepare ourselves for the eventual return of Christ?  That’s certainly an unknown event, that leaves us at a loss
			1. And I suppose this is not a topic we contemplate daily.
					a. But maybe we should spend more time preparing for the coming of the Lord, not just at Christmas, but at the end of time too. b. But for most of us it has become a little like this: Margaret was all ready for her date. She was wearing her best outfit, her hair was fixed, her makeup was perfect. Imagine her disappointment when her date didn’t show up! After an hour of waiting, Margaret decided that he wasn’t going to come. She changed into her pajamas, washed off her makeup, gathered up a bunch of junk food, and parked herself in front of the television for the evening. As soon as she got involved in her favorite show, there was a knock on the door. She opened it to find her handsome date standing on the doorstep. He stared at her in shock, then said in disbelief, “I’m two hours late, and you’re still not ready?” She was ready but then he didn’t come so she gave up.  Have we given up waiting for Jesus to come?
			2. But on the other hand, there are some Christians who make Christ’s return their primary preoccupation.
							a. They put up signs on the highway and they write books describing in great detail elements of what they call “the Rapture.” b. But since Christ warned us that no one knows when that day will be, and since Christians have been waiting for 2,000 years, we look at those who are obsessed with this subject as a bit eccentric or just plain wrong.
II. And in spite of these eccentric people we must be prepared for the day of his coming.
				A. In Advent we prepare for the coming of the Lord in two ways: First His Second Coming, when the world will be claimed by Christ, and then his coming in history at Christmas.
			1. And it seems his coming on the first Christmas is easier to celebrate. The Savior of all the world came to us in the babe of Bethlehem, but this was only the beginning of God’s redeeming work.
							a. After that special birth Jesus lived a perfect life. He was tempted but did not sin.  He taught the disciples.  He healed the sick.  He raised the dead.   He went to the cross.  He died paying for our sin.  He rose conquering death for us.  b. Then He ascended into heaven—like the man in our Gospel lesson who went away—now, what will the kids do?
			2. The victory was won. But the war was not over.  the war over evil and darkness still goes on.
				a. That victory will only be complete when the Savior returns and the kingdom of God is established in eternal perfection. b. History has a direction, and one day Christ will return to reign over all. It is an amazing and wonderful promise about our future.
		B. So even though it’s so easy to focus on the beauty and the joy of Christmas, but that necessarily leads to Advent’s theme of preparing for God’s final victory.  But a lot of Advent preparation comes in the form that does not seem as concrete as we might like.
			1. But Advent is harder because it stresses how He comes to us in a hidden way. Advent really looks to Jesus’ sacramental presence today. Not seen, though very real. He comes to us through the Word, through the water of Baptism, through the bread and wine of His Supper. He comes to us in this hidden way to save us here and now, where we are and to prepare us for when He comes again.
							a. He joins you to Himself in His death and life, making His death and life your death and life. b. He feeds you His Body and Blood, His death and life becomes your food. c. He forgives you your sins by His Word. And trusting that Word, the kingdom comes to you and you are part of the kingdom.
			2. And remember judgment was pronounced over your own head in your Baptism, where you were united with Jesus in His death, His life, His glory.
						a. You were clothed with Christ. You were made a new creation. So you are prepared even now in Christ. b. What we are waiting for is to take possession of this new creation.  “I am making all things new,” Jesus says. A new heavens, a new earth, a new you.”
III. And now I’d like you to bear with me for a moment, and don’t think I’m one of those eccentrics or those who are just plain wrong. I'm going to reveal to you when Christ will come again.  Are you ready?  He's coming next Sunday morning.  And the following Sunday morning, and the following, and the following...and I'm not just being silly about this.  Christ will return here to His House to be with you to grant you repentance and faith every time His Word is preached and taught; every time His body and blood is given. I did not say I will reveal to you when Christ will come again visibly in Judgment.  I revealed to you when He will come again.
		A. Are these dates on your calendar?  The date of Jesus' final coming would be on your calendar if you knew it.  But you do know the exact dates and times when He will be here for you in the power of His Word—every one an important event.  Are these dates circled in red on your calendar?
			1. Why am I making this point?  Well because, there is a very close parallel between the way we prepare for worship and the way we are prepared for Christ at the end of time.
						a. It is the very same Jesus who comes to us now every time we gather for worship, who will come in the clouds of Judgment at the end.  b. Our posture toward His coming now will be our posture toward His coming then.  The way we greet Him now is the way we will greet Him then.
			2. We cannot circle in red when Christ will come again at the end, but we do know exactly when He comes to us now.
		B. Listening attentively to God's Word week after week may not be as exciting as we may wish.  But for us, to faithfully hear the Word--repenting of our sins when the Law is preached; trusting in Christ as His good news is proclaimed--is to be prepared to be given the crown of life in the end.
			1. As the pages of your calendar are torn away; as important events come and go, the word of forgiveness remains the same--it will not pass away.  You don't have to worry that you may miss out on the prize of heaven in the end.  It's not what you do that matters here; it's what Jesus already has done for you.  2. His death and resurrection can be circled in red on your calendar.  It's done.  Nothing can change that or do away with it.  He died and rose for you.  3. Your baptism can be circled in red because the blood of Christ which was poured upon you then still covers you today.  4. And really because of these things it doesn't matter when Christ will return in Judgment.  He is here for you now, not to judge you, but to grant you repentance and faith; to shower you with His grace and mercy.
CONCLUSION:  And now because of our preparation in His comings today we can look forward to His coming on that last day like this: A Pastor was once deep into preparation for a sermon. His little daughter came where he was working and asked, “Daddy, can we play?” He answered, “I’m awfully sorry, sweetheart, but I’m right in the middle of preparing this sermon. In about an hour I can play.” She said, “Okay, when you’re finished, Daddy, I am going to give you a great big hug.”  He said, “Thank you very much.” She went to the door but then she did a U-turn and came back and gave him an enormous, bone-breaking hug. The pastor said to her, “Darling, you said you were going to give me a hug after I finished.” Her big eyes looked up and deep into his, and she answered, “Daddy, I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to!”  Likewise His word and sacraments are that hug that tells us what we have to look forward to. Through them we know He is here for us now in Word and Sacrament and that brings us to be prepared as we wait for that unknown time in the future.  Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen

How Do You Regard God

Title: How Do You Regard God By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text: Matthew 25:“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” This is the Word of the Lord. INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, This is a text that has often been misunderstood and misapplied: it’s usually preached as a stewardship sermon, where the theme goes something like, “God likes those who give.” Without a doubt, there’s some stewardship application in this text, but this isn’t a parable about stewardship. It’s a parable about the kingdom of heaven. This is about how we are to live as we anticipate the Lord’s return in glory.
I. Let’s Examine the Parable from this perspective.
	A. The parable begins with a man going on a journey; and before he goes, he entrusts his servants with his property.
			1. One receives five talents—a talent is about twenty years’ wages for a servant, so this one is entrusted with a hundred years’ worth. The next receives two talents, about forty years’ worth of wages. The third receives one talent, which is still an awful lot of money.
			2. After a long time, he returns to find out what they’ve done with his money. The one who received five talents has doubled it to ten, and the one who received two talents has doubled it to four. Each receives the same praise from the master.
		B. But as we look at this parable I think that the question we need to ask is this: What is the sin of the third servant that causes him to be cast into the outer darkness? If we get that, then I think we’ll get the rest of the parable right.
			1. And the third servant has failed to produce: he comes to the master and says, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man,… , so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here is your talent.”. Please note: the third servant didn’t squander the gift, He didn’t lose it or steal it or gamble it away. But the master is furious. So what makes the master so angry? It’s not that the servant failed to double the investment: the master got his original investment back, and he isn’t angry about one measly talent. No, what makes the master angry is that the servant regards him as a hard man. There’s no proof that the master is a hard man: this is simply how the servant thinks of him. The servant considers his master to be ruthless, unforgiving. This would potentially have adverse effects in all sorts of ways. Ruthless masters are easily resented.  He is so afraid of provoking the wrath of the tyrant he’s created in his mind that he’s lived a life of fear, paralyzed into inaction. Or to put it another way, he doesn’t trust the master at all.
II. And now we can Apply the Parable to us today.
		A. it’s obvious that the master is the Lord. He is “gone away” in that He waits to return in glory on the Last Day. In the meantime, He entrusts many gifts to His people—to you. You’re stewards of what God has entrusted to you, and you are to use it in service to Him.
			1. The message of this parable is not that you need to double whatever God has given you in order to be successful. How would you measure that anyway? Do you need to double your tithes, offerings and hours of service to the Church for God to be pleased with you? Then maybe double them again next year?
			2. But really The question should be: how do you regard your Master? Do you regard the Lord as hard and ruthless, or gracious and merciful?
						a. If you regard the Lord as hard and ruthless, this will be reflected in your stewardship of all that He entrusts to you. You will live a life where you fear God’s anger for your missteps.  You will want to hoard what you have to yourself: you’ll be reluctant to give offerings and spend time in service to others. You’ll believe that what you have is yours apart from God.. Why? In part, it’s because you’re afraid that your Master is a miser, and that He won’t provide you with anything more than what you already have. In part, it’s also because you’ll have no love for your Master if you see Him as a hard man: and you do not want to support what you do not love. b. If you regard the Lord as a hard man, you’ll also resent when He gives more to others because it’s so unfair. If you regard the Lord as ruthless, you’ll see worship as a mandatory so as not to anger Him, and you’ll see opportunities to serve as one more chore that you have to do to keep the Master off your back.  c. If you regard the Master as a hard man, you will never believe that He loves you. You will not want to be anywhere near Him. On the Last Day, the Master will grant you your desire: an eternity far away from Him—the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
				B. The truth is that God is not a hard man. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
			1. There is no greater demonstration of this than the cross.
						a. On that cross God demonstrates above all that He is not hard.  Christ becomes man to win salvation for you by His death. b. Now God declares that He desires you to be His beloved child so much that He has given His only beloved Son to die in your place, so that you might be forgiven and holy in His sight. He declares that you are a beloved child of God: heaven is already yours! You don’t live as one afraid of God’s ruthlessness. You live as His child, set free.
			2. There are two more demonstrations of His grace and mercy in our text.
				a. The first is that He gives you all sorts of gifts for use in this life—money, talent, goods, time, etc. Everything you have is a gift of God. Nothing is yours: and He entrusts what you have to you for a time. He doesn’t need you to get His will accomplished, but He gives you the privilege of living as His instrument, free to serve b. The second demonstration of God’s mercy and grace is found in the master’s words to the first two servants: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” After your less-than-perfect stewardship here, what does the Lord say of heaven? He’s going to give you more. The kingdom of heaven is yours—not because you’re an ace at using what God’s given you now; but because—Christ has sacrificed Himself on the cross to deliver you.
III.   Your life is not one of a servant afraid of a hard master. You live as one convinced that your Master is gracious and merciful.
		A. This will be reflected in your stewardship of all that He entrusts to you. Rather than resenting a hard God, you will live a life in which you acknowledge joyfully that you are the Lord’s instrument to serve.
			1. Rather than fear His anger at your missteps and sins, you’ll quickly run to Him and confess your sins because you’re confident that Christ has died so that you might be forgiven. 2. If you regard your Master as gracious and merciful, it will be evident in your offerings and service—because then you’ll be able to give with the glad confidence that the Lord will always supply what you need. You’ll live comfortably with the truth that nothing is really yours, that everything you have belongs to God anyway. You won’t live in fear that God will turn off the spigot, because He’s promised to provide. You will contribute to the needs of the Church because you want to, out of love and gratitude for the Lord’s gifts to you. 3. If you regard your Master as gracious and merciful, you won’t resent when others receive more from His hand; because you acknowledge that Holy God knows better than you as to what you can handle, and what others can handle. 4.  If you regard the Lord as gracious and merciful, then worship is not a chore: it’s a place in which your Master gives to you—there He graciously pours out upon you forgiveness and faith.
		B. This text then, is not primarily about how you use what God gives. It’s about how you see your God.
			1. Your stewardship of what God gives is a way to examine how you regard God, if you regard God as a hard master, then you will never believe He is gracious and merciful, and that will be reflected in your stewardship. If you regard God as gracious and merciful, then you will act and give and serve out of gratitude for all that God has done for you. 2. How do you regard God? The truth is that you’re probably somewhere in between.
					a. If you regarded God as only hard and ruthless, then you probably wouldn’t be here in church. b. If you fully and unreservedly acknowledged God as gracious and merciful, then you wouldn’t be here either—you’d be in heaven, delivered from the sinful nature that still clings. c. But here you are, which means that you’re a conflicted mix of acknowledging God’s grace and worrying that He’s not going to provide. d. Repent when you consider God hard: He’s never given you a reason. Confess the worry and the fear. Rejoice in His forgiveness—forgiveness that takes away the sin and strengthens your faith against fear.
CONCLUSION: Our God is not a hard master. He is gracious and merciful, and He continues to pour out upon you His gifts, all for the sake of Jesus. By the faith that He gives, we cling to this salvation that Christ has won for us. And because of Jesus, you can be confident that, on the Last Day, your gracious and merciful Savior will say to you “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master…because you are forgiven for all of your sins.” The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen