Take Sin Seriously - God Cares

Title:  Take Sin Seriously - God Cares By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text:  Mark 9:42-48   42 "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.  43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.   45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.   47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,  48 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'

INTRODUCTION:  My dear friends in Christ, It was one of the most gripping news stories of 2003.  In the beautiful but desolate mountains of southeastern Utah, a twenty-seven year-old mountain climber named Aron Ralston, made a desperate decision. An avid outdoors man, Aron was rock climbing one day when his right arm became trapped under a boulder, a boulder estimated to weigh at least eight hundred pounds. He saw immediately that he was in deep trouble. Unable to budge the rock at all, Aron took out his pocketknife and chipped away at the rock for 10 hours, managing to produce only a small handful of dust. Obviously this was not going to work. Days were passing. No one knew where he was.  Even worse, his family and friends were used to his going off for days without contacting anyone, so they were not even looking for him. With his arm still wedged beneath this enormous boulder Aron Ralston recorded a video message to his parents telling them good-bye.  At the end of several days with no food or water, however, Aron made a remarkable choice. Aron Ralston decided to amputate his arm in order to save himself. And that’s exactly what he did, using only a pocket knife. What an amazing display of courage and determination. After he was finished, he applied a tourniquet to his arm and rappelled nearly 70 feet to the floor of the canyon. Then he hiked five miles downstream where he encountered some other hikers and was rescued.  Aron Ralston made the obviously excruciating decision to amputate his right arm to save his life. It is an amazing story!

I. We can’t read this story without thinking of Jesus’ words from our lesson for today, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell”? What a stark declaration.  But Jesus is in effect saying, “Take sin so seriously that you would cut off a hand to save your life.”

A. But as I look around here in church today, it is apparent that either we are living lives free from sin, or we don’t take seriously these words of Jesus.  None of us seem to be missing any body parts.  Our hands, feet, and eyes are all intact.  We haven’t taken our Lord’s words literally to cut off that member which causes us to sin.  And we shouldn’t.

1. So why would Jesus use such gruesome language?

a. Perhaps to get our attention.  If a kid is really hungry, he doesn't tell his mother, "I'm hungry."  He exaggerates, "I'm starving!" Whatever it takes to turn her attention toward his hungry tummy.  That's what this is--hyperbole or exaggeration.   b. So why is Jesus drawing our attention to this with such exaggeration?  Maybe it's because we tend to exaggerate in the opposite way.  Jesus says, "Cut off your hand if it causes you to sin," but we say, "Ah, it's no big deal.  Everybody sins.  God doesn't care."  Jesus maximizes sin here in our text because we have the tendency to minimize it.

2. We also tend to minimize the suffering of hell.

a. And that reminds me of Mark Twain’s famous statement. He said that when he died, he would like to go to Heaven for the climate, but would probably prefer Hell for the companionship. Mark Twain was clever and witty, but he missed the point. Sin isn’t fun.  Neither is hell. b. But Jesus does not exaggerate when He talks about sin or hell.

B. God wants us to take sin seriously.  He wants it eradicated, that’s why he uses the exaggeration.

1. Like this: One author tells of an event that occurred at the Atomic Energy Commission laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN on November 20, 1959. On that day a small amount of solvent exploded and blew open the door of a processing cell. When that happened, about one‑fiftieth of an ounce of plutonium was scattered into the air. Remember, only one‑fiftieth of an ounce of plutonium was involved, but here’s what the Atomic Energy Commission says resulted from this tiny spill: All those who were within a four‑acre area of the explosion turned in their laboratory‑issued clothes to be decontaminated. Their urine was checked to insure that they had not inhaled or ingested any plutonium. The processing plant and a nearby research reactor were shut down. The buildings were washed with detergents, and the buildings’ roofs were resurfaced. The surrounding lawn was dug up and the sod carted to a deep burial place. One hundred yards of surface was chiseled off a nearby asphalt road. To anchor any speck of plutonium that might have survived, the buildings were completely repainted. Final cost, including re-sodding, repaving, and reroofing: approximately $350,000.

a. The AEC will go to all that trouble for a fraction of an ounce of plutonium. Why? Because just a tiny amount of plutonium can do endless harm when released into the environment. b. Sin is like that. Even the tiniest sin has a way of getting out of hand and wreaking havoc in our lives. Sin destroys lives. Sin destroys families. Sin destroys churches and communities. And without the cross, sin would have destroyed all humanity.

2. We’re not the Atomic Energy Commission.  There is no protocol for us to remove sin like there is for plutonium.  Even if a sinner cuts off all of his limbs, tears out his eyes, and removes his ears and tongue, he will still be a sinner before God because sin dwells in his heart.

a. We won't even enter heaven at all if our heart is not first cleansed of sin.  We all have sinful hearts and have used our hands, feet, and eyes to cause others to sin--whether they were children or adults who are weak in the faith.  We all deserve that millstone. b. And if this doesn't shake you up, then nothing will.  If anyone can hear this and later say smugly, "I'm not all that bad; others are worse than me; I don't need to repent of any sin; I've lived a pretty good life and deserve a place in heaven..." then God is being shut out of that person's heart.

II. Now having said that, let me remind you that the church is not a club or gym where we come to work on a protocol for removing sin.  The church is a hospital and you are here for major surgery.

A. Christ is the surgeon.  We are the patients.

1.  And we are here for our Lord to expose our wicked hearts, and to create “a clean heart within us.”

a. Even though Jesus says, “cut off,” in our text, it is really He who does the cutting.  No patient can operate on his own heart, and neither can we cut away the wickedness of our hearts. b. David cried, “Create in me a clean heart, O God!”  And that is our cry.  We stand with our first parents in the Garden, and seeing our sinful heart exposed by the Word of God, we can do nothing other than cry out to God for mercy.

2. But listen to this good news!  You will not be thrown into the depths of the sea or hell, but rather you have been thrown into the forgiving waters of Baptism.

a. God is merciful, He drowned your sins in Baptism’s waters, and He raised you up with Christ there.  Look to your baptism and see there the love of God for you.  Those waters are not frightening—they are comforting, for they have given you life instead of death, forgiveness instead of punishment, heaven instead of hell. b. Your baptism shows you and gives you what Jesus did for you.  At the cross He took that millstone off your head and He accepted a crown of thorns upon His own head for you.  At the cross He was buried beneath the load of our sins so that you would forever be free of that awful load.  At the cross they put a spear into the heart of your Lord so that in your baptism, He replaces your wicked heart with His own clean, holy heart.  At the cross Jesus closed His eyes in death for you, so that you are forgiven for all the sinful things you look upon with your eyes.  At the cross Jesus’ hands and feet were pierced with nails for you, so that whatever wickedness your hands and feet have done, God, for Jesus’ sake, forgives you for everything.

III. So that now, in Jesus, there is something better for you.

A. And as you come up to Jesus’ Holy Supper, your feet which bring you forward, are forgiven.

1. Your hands, into which Jesus’ body is placed, are forgiven.  Your eyes, which behold the bread and wine in which your Savior comes to you, your eyes are forgiven. 2. This is the place in our church...the place where, not hands, and feet, and eyes are cut off and piled up, but where they are forgiven through Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is the place where filthy hearts are exchanged for new ones; where Jesus takes your sinful heart and gives you His.

B. You and I may have caused many little ones to sin, but God looks upon us with compassion.

1. Our hearts may be sinful, but His heart is full of pardon for you.  And because He has washed your eyes, hands, and feet in the waters of baptism, He now uses these members of your body, not to lead children into sin, but to lead them to Christ.  2. For when your hands open the Scriptures for a little child, it is Christ using your hands.  And when your feet walk with a child to God’s House, it is Christ using your feet.  And when a child sees your eyes closed in prayer, it is Christ who is teaching him to pray through you.

CONCLUSION: But understand this...you and I are still in a battle with the sinful world every day, and we get all bruised and bloodied. The battle makes us weary. And so we come here to Jesus’ hospital and He cuts out of us what is dead and dying, and He restores your soul, He gives you new life, He forgives you. And He sends you back out there into the world to fight the good fight. And if you haven’t figured it out yet. We cannot fight without Jesus. We cannot win without Him. And so we must come here to the place of forgiveness, the place of healing. We come faithfully. Because when the war is finally over, even though you will be cut up and bruised... you know that you will be going home. Amen.

Let Jesus Make Us Servants Like Him

Title: Let Jesus Make Us Servants Like Him By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text:  Mark 9:34-35  33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?"  34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.  35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, I was sitting in my office on the day after the Republican debate and then I read this text.  I was struck by the similarities.  It seemed as if each and every one of the candidates was saying “I’m the greatest” like those disciples.  Some of the interchanges were childish in all the wrong ways.  But it seemed the moderators wanted it that way. Nevertheless, each seemed to have an inflated view of themselves.  Now to give equal time I’m sure the Democrat debate coming up in October will sound the same way.  Our Presidency was designed to be a position of service – they serve the people.  But now it seems they only give lip service to service.  And we have to ask who do they really serve?  Do they serve themselves or special interests?  Does anyone serve the people anymore?  And do we or they understand service anymore?

I. Yes, those disciples were having a similar debate on the road that day long ago.

A. They were discussing the same topic: “Who’s the greatest?”

1. And there were 12 of them rather than 11.  They voted on the greatest follower of Jesus, and each one voted for himself. Just as those candidates would.  Only on the road to Capernaum it was really about who would be the highest prince in the Kingdom Jesus was to establish.

a. The disciples wanted the position of authority – the position that came with servants – even the Romans would be serving them in this kingdom. b. I guess they “might” leave a little room for Jesus at the top of the heap in this kingdom.

2. Their egos were even getting in the way of their salvation here.

a. How can you acknowledge sin if you think so highly of yourself?  How can you recognize your need to be saved if you are so busy chasing greatness; so busy looking to be served?  b. Really they were so full of themselves that there was little room even for Jesus.

B. And we are naturally the same way.  We want a power Jesus, a Jesus who will make us great and successful.

1. We are geared from birth to think in those terms. Great is good and higher is better.

a. Sinful man thinks greatness is achieved when you have so much power that you are being served by others. The more people you have under you, the greater you are. The less accountable to others you are, the greater greatness you have. When man thinks of greatness, he thinks of being served and glorified by others. That's why our world idolizes movie stars, rock singers and professional athletes; the sinful nature looks at wealth and an entourage and says, "Now that's really great."  b. And that leads us to think “Who wants to wake up on Sunday morning to come to church to confess you’re a poor, miserable a sinner in need of forgiveness? Who wants to line up and declare with St. Paul that he is the ‘chief of sinners’?” No wonder the most popular versions of religions and even of Christianity are based on being a winner not a servant.

2. We note that this explains an awful lot about how people find the Gospel so difficult to believe. You see God comes to us as a servant, desiring to provide for us.

a. However, sinful man attempts to make God in his own image; if man lusts for power and demands respect, then God must act the same way. b. This is why every man-made religion demands that we serve and appease God before He will save us. Do good works, destroy the enemy, throw the virgin into the volcano, whatever--but if God is like us, we have to do something remarkable so that we're great enough to be saved.

II. As a pastor tried to fix his garage door, he couldn’t get a screw out.  It seemed to get tighter the harder he tried.  A neighbor who was watching suggested, “That’s probably a left-handed screw.  You need to turn it in reverse.”  The pastor replied in frustration, “It took me fifty years to find out how screws work, and now they change the rules!”  In a sense God is kind of a reverse screw.  Our culture teaches us the “right” way to turn, and then God tells us to turn in the reverse direction.   No matter what we think God is quite the opposite of how the world sees Him.

A. By nature, the almighty God of heaven and earth is…a servant.

1. He created Adam and Eve so that He might care for them. He created them in His own image to be servants to one another, to creation and to their children.

a. When they sinned, He did not respond with raw power and blot them out. Instead, He promised a Savior; in other words, He promised that He would serve them by doing all the work to deliver them from sin and hell to grace and everlasting life. b. Therefore, it was in service to all that that Jesus was born to Mary: God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. c. He also continues to serve by making sure that His Word is still proclaimed and His Sacraments are still administered, because that is where He gives the forgiveness that His Son Jesus has won. That's why in worship we don’t come and serve the Divine, but that the Divine comes and serves us.

2. Just look at how Jesus dealt with His disciples rather than saying, “All of you are wrong. I’m the greatest. I’m better than all of you put together!”...Rather than speak such words, which He could have said, He was saying, “I will be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Me.” Jesus, the greatest of all, did not speak of His greatness. Instead, He emptied Himself of His greatness and took the form of a servant.

a. Even as Jesus’ disciples were selfishly stepping on each other, reaching for glory and greatness, Jesus was giving up His glory and greatness, intent on letting others step all over Him as He was reaching, with bloody hands, for a hard, splintery cross. b. What makes Jesus great is not that He is all-powerful, but the fact that He did not use His power to prevent His crucifixion for you.  This is the Gospel.  c. Thankfully the Lord remains the Servant. He went to the cross and died for the sins of the world in service to all, and He still comes here to serve us by His means of grace. This is a very good thing, because we sinners still remain as confused about greatness and service as ever.

III. So God comes along and says, "Look, I'm a servant by nature and I've offered My Son on the cross for your salvation.” He has done all the work to save you. By His sacrificial service, you have eternal life. Man responds, "That can't be! We know that God is just like us, so there's no way He's going to humble Himself and go to the cross and totally win our salvation. We must have to work for it by serving Him." God responds, "Don't try to be saved by serving Me. Instead, trust that I've saved you by My service to you." Man responds, "That doesn't make sense at all. It's too good to be true."

A. God is always fighting to bring us to realize we are saved solely because Jesus has served us by His death on the cross, and by providing forgiveness and life in His means of grace. He does this because He is by nature a servant. He wouldn't save you any other way.

1. But still We like to speak about ourselves; about all that we do for God.

a. We talk to others about our works of service. b. We always tend to become the center of our own universes, so service is centered on us too. It tends to be about how we serve.  It becomes all about us.

2. The problem is that our service to God and our perceptions about service often gets in the way of His service to us.

a. Sometimes we become so caught up in our service to God that we have trouble taking the time to receive His gifts of service to us.  What’s more, like the disciples, we become proud of what we do…so proud that it becomes difficult to humbly bend the knee before Christ.  We start getting the idea that Jesus serves us with His gifts, not purely out of grace and mercy, but because we work so hard to serve His church. b. Greatness is not centered around what we do for God.  First and foremost it has to do with what God does for us. Your presence here in God’s House today is greater, by far, than all the work you will do—because today Jesus serves you

B. Remember to be baptized is to be a child of God. Yes we are priests and kings and all that, but first and foremost, you are a “child of God.”

1. It’s like that little child in the midst of the disciples – He’s utterly helpless, utterly dependent on God’s mercy.

a. Like that to be a child of God, baptized and believing, is to become nothing so that Christ can be everything. b. Faith doesn’t ask who is the greatest. Faith looks to Jesus on the cross and says, “There. That’s greatness. That’s what it means to be great.”

2. The Lord is a servant who sets you free from sin to be a servant;  He sets us free to be servants like this: One pastor tells of a very wealthy woman who had given great sums of money to benevolence and missions in her church.  One day she decided to take a trip to visit some of the mission projects she so generously supported.  She visited a hospital where wonderful help was afforded to needy natives.  She stopped at an orphanage where little children of the street were cared for.  She went to a leper colony where a loving nurse was treating those who were suffering from the putrefying disease.  She commented, more to herself than to the host, “My, I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.”  The nurse who was treating a patient answered, “Neither would I.”  Jesus has served us selflessly and now like that nurse, he makes us selfless servants too. That is where we find the secret of greatness.

CONCLUSION: True greatness comes not in grasping for all we can get but comes in allowing Jesus to make us servants like Him.  Amen.

Faith and Trust Answer Unbelief

Title:   Faith and Trust Answer Unbelief By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text:  Mark 9:22-24  But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."  23 And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible for one who believes."  24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, everybody has seen “Dumbo.”  Something about this text made me think about Dumbo.  Maybe it was that phrase: “All things are possible for one who believes.”  Maybe Dumbo is kind of an example of that – well maybe.  I do love it when the crows sing: “I’ve seen just about everything when I’ve see an elephant fly” Then they give Dumbo the magic feather and he flies.  There you see the impossible – an elephant who flies.  You could look at our text like that.  But our text’s significant difference is that it’s with God all things are possible—not with magic feathers.

I. The father in our text is confronted by an impossible situation.  His son is possessed.  A cure would seem as impossible as an elephant flying.

A. The father goes to the disciples and they fail to deal with the problem.  With that failure they thought it’s time to go to another place.  Let’s take the kid to Jesus.  Maybe Jesus can make elephants fly.

1. You could call this the magic feather approach, where you look for magic or miracles to deal with the impossible.

a. I think part of Jesus’ anger in this text was because of this approach.  How many miracles does He have to do before the people believe. But He knew that miracles don’t create faith, they just create a market for more miracles.  b. But when the miracles stop, the people stop believing and take their business elsewhere.  Isn’t that the way it goes. If you don’t get what you want, you shop around until you do.  And try all the magic feathers.

2. When Jesus finally gets around to exorcising the demon, things seem to go from bad to worse. The demon departs, but the boy looks like he’s dead.

a. It seemed as if the cure was worse than the disease.  The demon is gone, but the boy is dead, or at least, apparently so. b. And I’m sure they were all thinking that If Jesus and His crew can’t take care of the problem, well maybe we best look for someone else.

B. We too ask what happens to our faith when our religion doesn’t seem to work.  When the magic feather doesn’t work what do you do next? – look for another feather?

1. You can substitute whatever you like for the stubborn demon and come to the same place: the incurable cancer, the sudden accident, the failed economy, the child who abandons the faith, your unanswered prayers, your dashed hopes and dreams.

a. It works the same with church.  We think we can bring our problems to the church, but then church doesn’t fix them. You prayed for healing and you only got worse. You prayed for a better job and you lost the job you had. You know how it is; I know you do. So what next? b. The temptation at that point is to trade in your God for another model, and swap your religion for one that “works.” Another magic feather might work.  I think our culture particularly is prone to the “whatever works must be true” way of looking at things.  We admire whatever gets the job done. c. So if you go to some witchdoctor and he makes your lumbago go away, then it’s all good, right? Or you go to some fortune teller and she manages to pull a tidbit of your future and get it right, then it must be good, right?

2. You can see where this is heading, and how the devil has a brilliant deception under his sleeve if he can get us to bite on the notion that something is right if it “works.”

a. So then when it stops working, you have a ready-made excuse to move on. b. And you will chase what works straight into oblivion because “what works” is too short term. It’s too narrow. For the sake of things of now, we are sorely tempted to lose sight of things eternal. And it’s me-centered not God-centered.  It seems like you hold magic feather religion until the feather flies out of your trunk.

II. But with God All things are possible. That’s why Jesus says to the man “All things are possible for one who believes.”  It’s not about magic feathers at all.

A. With God a virgin conceives, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the demons are cast out, the dead are raised. But it’s not really about all the “magic.”

1.  Jesus reaches out His hand, and lifts the boy up and he arose.  The word used is the same used at the resurrection --- a mini resurrection. And the impossible is possible with Jesus. It’s not about magic feathers.  It about Jesus. 2. What Jesus did for that boy and his father, He does for all on the cross by His death and resurrection.

a. Mark even portrays the death of Jesus as an “exorcism.” Jesus has absorbed Sin and Death and devil into Himself and with a loud shout in the darkness of His death He casts out the devil and conquers humanity’s greatest and fiercest enemy, Death itself. He does it by dying and rising. He takes on the demons. He goes into the darkness. He becomes Sin for us. He dies. And in His death, He conquers. b. He baptizes you into His death, and in Him you conquer too. Nothing can harm you eternally.  So again with Jesus the impossible is possible.

B. But if we are honest, there were times when we resembled the boy in our text when the crowd said, "he is dead."

1. And those same words may have been said about us.  For even though Jesus has been casting Satan out every time His Word is preached here, and every time His Sacraments are given, we have often acted as though it meant little or nothing to us.

a. We have lain down like corpses, who are not filled with the life of Christ.  How many times have visitors come to our church and said, "They are not really living ...they are dead?" b. --Jesus is here to lift you up. You did not feel Him grab your hand earlier, but in truth He did. When I spoke the words He commands me, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” Jesus was doing what those words declare. He was lifting you up out of your sins just as He lifted up the boy in our text. When you come up to God’s altar in a few minutes, Jesus is here in bread and wine to lift you into life--the life you were given in your baptism. You do not feel Him, but He is here for you as He promises to be. c. So the onlookers are wrong. The observers are in error. You are not dead.  You are alive, alive in Christ, for He Himself comes to you, as He came to the little boy, and He lifts you up; He raises you to life.

2. In our text Jesus’ disciples are reminded that power lies not with them, not with magic feathers but with Jesus.  And we need reminding of this too.

a. We need to be reminded that the question for Jesus shouldn’t be “if you can” but “if you are willing.” God can do anything He wants. That’s not the issue. The only issue is if He’s willing. The man should have said, “If you are willing, have compassion on us.” But it’s not a matter of whether Jesus can do something, but only if He is willing to do something. And faith is open to all possibilities. b. That’s how we can pray for a miracle and go to the doctor and accept a sickness all at the same time. Nothing is impossible with God, and all things are possible for one who believes. That doesn’t mean that you get everything you want if you believe hard enough and in the right way, but that faith is always open to every possibility because with God nothing is impossible. c. When we truly understand this we don’t act like the woman in this story: “Many years ago there was a woman in Chicago whose child was desperately ill and who read in the papers that the great Austrian orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Adolf Lorenz, was in the city. In desperate faith she prayed that God would send the renowned specialist into her modest home to cure her child. There was no influence to summon him, no money to pay him — only her prayer. In the midst of a busy day, Dr. Lorenz went out on a walk to relax. He told his driver as they came to a humble residential area to let him out for an hour’s stroll and to pick him up at a designated place. In the midst of his walk a sudden violent rainstorm swept down over Chicago, and the stranded doctor sought shelter in a simple cottage near where he was walking — and surprise it was the very house where the praying mother and the sick child lived. But when he courteously gave his last name and asked for sanctuary from the rain, he was rudely refused admission. The next morning the Chicago papers carried the famous doctor’s indignant account of a poor housewife’s inhospitality to a man from another land seeking shelter from a storm. And in the home where it all happened, a shocked woman, who had not really expected God to send Adolf Lorenz, was overcome by sorrow because she had missed the opportunity that God had provided.”

3. And then when we understand Jesus we are brought to see that our perspective should be that of the father in this text as he said: “I believe, help my unbelief.”

a. You can’t say it any better than this. He is simultaneously believer and unbeliever. I believe Lord, and only you, the author of my faith, can deal with my unbelief. b. That’s a very Lutheran way of saying it. Simultaneously a sinner and a saint. A believer and an unbeliever. That’s you; that’s me. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. In face of things where I cannot find a way out, where You, O Lord, appear not to be doing anything, help my unbelief. Teach me to trust You when You appear weak. Teach me to trust Your Word when it doesn’t appear to work. Teach me to trust your promises over and against my own reason and senses.”

CONCLUSION: Yes, in Dumbo the crows sang: “I’ve seen just about everything when I’ve seen an elephant fly.”  But for us there is no magic feather faith.  Jesus makes All things possible for one who believes, because with God nothing is impossible. This is all about trust. It’s about faith. It’s about prayer that is in tune with the will of God because it has heard and is shaped by the Word of God. So whether things are working out well or not; whether God is doing things your way or not; whether it “works” or not. We trust in the Lord. We trust His promises. We trust our Baptisms into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  He will raise you; He already has. The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Be Opened to the Treasure of Forgiveness

Title: “Be Opened to the Treasure of Forgiveness” By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text: Mark 7:34-35  34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, Not that long ago Felicia and I were hooked on a series called “Switched at Birth.”  It’s about two girls who were literally switched at birth.  And you could tell by how each girl looked.  The red headed girl ended up with the Latina mother and the dark-haired girl ended up with the Irish parents. This was all discovered when the girls were about 16. Their solution was for them to form an unusual extended family with them all living on the same property – fortunately the Irish-American parents were quite rich and had a guest house to use.   This led to all sorts of story lines for the series. But none of that is important to our message today.  But one thing about their situation is important—one of the girls was deaf. This show gives a lot of insight into the deaf world.  You saw a lot of sign language.  And they used an effect that was striking.  Whenever one of the deaf would do the signing the scene would become totally silent, as if you were experiencing deafness yourself.  The effect of the silence got your attention every time.  That silence was loud.  They put subtitles at the bottom of the screen as if they were speaking a different language.

I. It gave you a tiny bit of the experience of being deaf.

A. Yes, here you had a faint sliver of a hint concerning one aspect of life that the deaf and mute man experienced in our text.

1.  The lamentable man lived in a world of silence and that is a deadly place to live, especially at the time of our text.

a. This poor soul was unable to hear a horse whinny and unable to marvel at the dove's morning song. The deaf man never heard his mother's spoken words. He could not hear the voice of his father's prayer at the table or a child's cry in the night. b. Had he gone to the synagogue, he would have been only able to watch a man mouth the words. If the communication was meant for him, well as the saying goes, it fell on deaf ears. c. The deafness he had could have caused him to end up like this: One of the saddest instances of deafness that I know is that of the composer of classical music, Ludwig van Beethoven. For a musician deafness would be the tragedy of tragedies. As he himself wrote on one occasion, "How sad is my lot, I must avoid all things that are dear to me." There was a terrible time when Beethoven was struggling to conduct an orchestra playing one of his own compositions. He could not hear even the full orchestra. Soon he was beating one time and the orchestra was playing another, and the performance disintegrated in disaster. There is a pathetic picture of him after he had given a piano recital, bent over the keyboard, oblivious to the applause that thundered about him. (3) He wrote on another occasion, "For two years I have avoided almost all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to say to people ‘I am deaf.’ If I belonged to any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a frightful state." Beethoven died a broken, bitter man.

2. With deaf ears, this man lived on a silent planet. He could easily have ended up a broken and bitter man.

a. A great chasm separated him from the others in this world. b. Oh, there were those who cared for the deaf and mute man, but they could do not open his ears.

B. But in a way that’s our world too.

1. In relation to God, this is exactly how we are when we come into this world—deaf.

a. From the moment of conception, we are sinful by nature. We are not able to hear His Word of Life on our own. For us there seems to be an awful silence from God. b. Because we are born sinful, we come into this world opposed to God’s saving word, unwilling to hear it.  In fact, by our sinful nature we are unable to hear it at all.

2. In fact, it’s not even a case, as some contend, that each of us is born with a neutral, free will with which we choose right or wrong when we are of age.  Scripture tells us that we of ourselves can do nothing to awaken our spiritually comatose souls.

a. For it would be just as ridiculous to suggest that the deaf man in today’s text could have chosen to hear if he’d wanted to!  We sinners can no more open our ears than a deaf person can simply one day decide to hear.  b. No. It takes God himself to help us.

II. So to the silence of the deaf man Jesus speaks his word: “Be opened.” In a way it’s like this: In the tales of the Arabian Nights, Ali Baba secretly follows the forty thieves to a cave where their treasure is hidden.  In doing so he learns that one enters the cave by speaking the words, “Open Sesame.”

A. Although the story is but a tale, it portrays well the power of the spoken word.  The spoken word from Jesus breaks into this silent world.

1. Jesus is not just another sinful human being. He’s the Son of God.

a. He puts His saliva on the man’s tongue—not a doctor-approved treatment in our day and age.  Then, looking up to heaven, Jesus sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is “Be opened.” b. He speaks to the man’s ears: Ephphatha. A funny sounding Aramaic word. Be opened. That’s all it takes from Jesus. One word. The man’s ears were opened. He could hear.

2. Notice the earthiness of it all.

a. Fingers in ears. Spit. Tongues touched. Not waving hands and incantations. b. God comes down to us, reaches down to where we are, sticks the fingers of His Word in our ears and says, “Ephphatha” to our deafness.

B. But Jesus didn’t come to start a movement. He didn’t come to be a wonder-working celebrity.  He came to die on a cross, because only that could cure our deafness to His word.

1. So Jesus He came to take all of God’s wrath that we deserve for our sin upon Himself on a cross at Golgotha.

a. He came to take the suffering and death we deserve for our sin.  He came to offer himself as the final sacrifice.  He came to die on our behalf and to suffer hell so we don’t have to.  b. He came to save the world. He didn’t come to fix every deaf ear and tied tongue. But He came to lay down His life as the one and only sacrifice that atones for our sins. He came to bring life and salvation. He came to see humanity through death to resurrection.

2. Jesus, in this miracle and by all His miracles, would point us through the cross to the resurrection. The healings that Jesus did in His life were only the beginnings, the very slightest beginning of the great miracles and gifts He will give on the last day in the resurrection.

III. And Jesus speaks “be opened” today too.

A. Just as Ali Baba needed to say the precise words to open the cave, here, then, is for you there are two words that God wants you to hear:

1. The first word God wants you to hear starts like this: Generations of preachers at Princeton Seminary were schooled in their preaching skills by Dr. Donald Macleod. Among the points Dr. Macleod would make during the semester was the importance of choosing a compelling sermon title. In fact, he asked students to give their sermon title before beginning each sermon. He used to tell of Mrs. O'Leary who would hop on the Fifth Avenue bus on Sunday morning in Manhattan and pass the great churches along that thoroughfare. As the bus would approach each church, she would eye the sign in front with the sermon title and decided, on the basis of what she read, whether to get off the bus and attend that church. Dr. Macleod's constant refrain was, "Pick a title that will make Mrs. O'Leary get off the bus." Mindful of that instruction, one of his aspiring preachers mounted the pulpit one morning for his first student sermon. Per protocol before beginning his message, he announced: "The title of my sermon is...'There's a Bomb on the Bus.'"  God’s message begins with a warning about our sin.  It’s like that bomb on the bus.  And we are deaf because of our sin.  He’s warning us that our sin will destroy us unless remedied. 2. But the message doesn’t end there.  He also announces to you that You are forgiven. Forgiveness is the cure for the sin which is our bomb on the bus.

a. Forgiveness means God does not count your sins against you.  Every one of your sins He forgives.  b. Your Heavenly Father does not speak any word against you because Jesus died and rose again for you.  And this word of forgiveness, which today is in your ears, is the precise word that God wants you to hear.  And through this gracious word, God opens your heart to believe that you are, for Jesus’ sake, forgiven.

B. In the tale of the Forty Thieves, Ali Baba opened the cave to take the treasure out.  Not so with God.  He speaks His Word to you, not to take from you, but to give His treasure to you.  And His treasure is life with Him now and forever.  This treasure is yours now, because His word delivers this treasure to you.

1. In the waters of Holy Baptism, He cleaned out your ears with His Word. He gave you faith—ears to hear His Word. This forgiveness—this healing from sin—is a far greater miracle than the one in our text: because when you are forgiven, you have the promise of eternal healing. No matter what afflicts you today it will be gone in heaven.   2. So the same Lord, who spoke to the deaf-mute and healed him, has also spoken His healing, Word to you. Furthermore, the same Lord, who put His fingers in that man’s ears and touched his tongue, gives you His same body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Salvation is yours because of Jesus coming to you today.

CONCLUSION: Jesus wants to do for you what He did for that man in the Decapolis that day. He wants to stick His Word into your ears, to cut through deafness, to open your ears, your minds, your hearts. He speaks His “Ephphatha” to you. “Be opened.” And once our ears are open He gives us great treasures.  Treasures of life and healing and salvation – eternal treasures.  And these treasures move us to have mouths which are instruments of worship and witness, declaring the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His light.  And now it’s OK to talk about it. No commands of silence now.  Amen.