October 24th, 2010 Sermon

Oct 24, 2010 from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.

Genesis 32:22-32 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.
WRESTLE WITH GOD
I. Throw self reliance out of the ring.
II. Grab hold of God’s promises.
In the name of Jesus, dear fellow wrestlers with God,
Just before my brother’s confirmation back in 1972, my mom and dad installed new carpeting in the living room of the house we grew up in. It was blue and white and gold and the fibers were long and soft. My mom had a rake to keep the nap up. We appreciated that because that carpet made the perfect wrestling mat. The edge of the couch had a nice flat arm rest that worked really well for jumping off the top rope of the ring until one day when my mom saw us. After that the living room wrestling stopped for the most part. Today in God’s Word we see a wrestling match- an amazing wrestling match between the Almighty One who gives blessings and puny little Jacob. It’s a wrestling match that in a way still goes on for you and me as we wrestle with God in prayer. Wrestle with God! I. Throw reliance on self out of the ring. II. Grab hold on God’s promises.
They called him the “heel grabber.” That’s what Jacob means. They called him that because when he was born he was grabbing the heel on his twin brother. That name also fit Jacob’s personality well. He was one of those guys who was always looking to step on the back of someone’s sandal to trip them up and get a leg up on someone else. Normally, we think being self reliant is a good thing when it involves working hard and not looking for others for a hand out, but self reliance gets us into trouble when it comes to our relationship with our Savior God.
God had made it clear that Jacob would be the one who would carry the promise of the Savior by saying, “The older will serve the younger.” But instead of leaving that in God’s hands, Jacob looked to trip up his brother. He convinced his brother Esau to see his birthright to him for a bowl of soup. Isaac didn’t want to hear what the Lord said about Esau serving Jacob and so he stubbornly prepared to give Esau the blessing when he thought he was going to die. But remember that Jacob could not keep his fingers out of God’s business. At his mother’s urging and with her help Jacob tricked Isaac into blessing him by wearing his brother’s coat and by putting goat’s hair on his arms so that Isaac who was almost blind would think that it was hairy Esau. When Esau found out he was very angry, so angry that Jacob’s mom thought it best for him to leave town in a big hurry and go to live with her brother, Laban. Uncle Laban was even a bigger heel grabber than Jacob. When Jacob worked for him, Laban cheated him over and over. Laban even pulled the “old wedding night daughter switch a roo” on Jacob. Again Jacob didn’t just leave things in God’s hands to work out, but instead married both of Laban’s daughters. Then with further sinful meddling in God’s business, Jacob had children by the handmaidens of Rachel and Leah.
Still, out of pure grace, God blessed Jacob. Now it was time for head back home. It was a little like Brett Farve coming back to Lambeau Field. No one knew what was going to happen-how he would be received. When Jacob sent a message to Esau that he was on his way home, the message came back that Esau was on his way to meet him with 400 men. The Bible tells us that Jacob was “in great fear and distress.” We can still see a little bit of that scheming Jacob. He sends a gauntlet of gifts for Esau to pass through. He divided his entourage into 2 camps, figuring that if Esau attacked one group the other could still get away. “That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.” Finally he thinks everything is all set and in a safe place over the river. Now maybe he can get a little sleep. But no, he gets into all night wrestling match. “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. “
At first I suppose Jacob wondered who this man was who was wrestling with him. Had Esau or one of his men snuck around behind their camp attacked him? No, it became clear as the man talked that this was not a man Jacob was wrestling with. “Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." So this was God himself, throwing Jacob’s self reliance out of the ring.
“When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.” Just like a father might “play wrestle” with a son, so God came to Jacob in the weak human form of a man. Jacob wrestled him to a draw. But Jacob would carry with him a reminder that God had let him win the wrestling match. “The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.”
Jacob was not the old man leaning on his staff we see later on in Genesis but he wasn’t a young man either. He is old enough to have eleven boys. So wrestling probably didn’t come quite so easy for him anymore just like running up and down the basketball floor doesn’t come so easy for me. It might seem sort of strange to see God letting this middle aged Jacob wrestle with him. God didn’t come as the king of kings. It is sort of like how the Champion of Champions came into the world as a helpless little baby in Bethlehem. He let people grab his hands and nail them to a cross. He did that to win the greatest victory for us.
We’ve seen God keep his promises. Yet so often we worry about whether or not the Lord is going to keep on keeping His promises? How often don’t we stick our sinful noses into the business of our holy and perfect God who only wants the best for us and end up making things worse like Jacob? How often aren’t the words of the hymn true of us? “Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.” Still in His grace the Lord forgives us. Jesus paid the penalty for all of our doubts and gave us his perfect record of trust. Now let’s grab hold of His promises.
“Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." There’s a change in Jacob. He realizes that his quick thinking and scheming are not the source of his blessings. He again puts into words what he had been praying the night before as he divided the camps. “I am unworthy of all of the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant.” God was the source of all of his blessings. God was the one to cling to in times of trouble.
“The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.”
Are there problems you are wrestling with now? Is there guilt from sins committed that you are wrestling with? Are they family problems in your family? Is there a brother your afraid to meet up with? Are financial problems looming on the horizon? Instead of wrestling with the problem, wrestle with God in prayer. Let God wrestle with the problem. Grab hold on God’s promises. In Jacob’s case, God had already worked out the problem. Yes Esau was on His way but God had worked on his heart. When Esau saw Jacob, he didn’t throw a sleeper hold on him. Instead he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. All those gifts Jacob thought it was such a great idea to send, Esau graciously declined and said “I already have plenty my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.” God has promised that “he will not leave you or forsake you.” Does that mean we’ll never have any struggles. No on this side of heaven there will be struggles. But God will help us, God will bless us. For Jacob there would still be troubles too. Not long after this, Jacob lost his dear Rachel in childbirth. Only the Lord’s kindness and faithfulness carried Jacob through that great sorrow. Later on Jacob’s boys would bring him the news that his dear son, Joseph, had been mauled to death by a wild-animal (when in actuality-Joseph’s jealous brothers had sold him to slave traders). How Jacob wept when that news was brought to him. Yet his Lord carried him through those days too. The Lord kept Jacob and his family alive during a terrible famine so that one day a Savior could be born in Bethlehem, live, die, and rise again for Israel’s sins, for our sins, and the sins of the whole world. Even at 147 years old there would be times for Jacob wrestle with God in prayer. Finally, this kind and faithful God carried his child, Jacob, to heaven.
Like Jacob, let’s wrestle with God in prayer. Let’s throw sinful self reliance out of the ring. Let’s cling to God’s promises. Amen.

Worship Service October 17th, 2010

Untitled from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.

Mission Festival October 10th, 2010

Mission Festival October 10th, 2010 from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.

October 17/18, 2010
Seminarian Mark Reichert

Ruth 1:1-19a - Faith Unites Us
I. To God
II. To Other Believers

Ruth 1:1-19 (New International Version)

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 3 Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. 6 When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband." Then she kissed them and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people." 11 But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons- 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!" 14 At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her. 15 "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." 16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. 19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.


Most people, when they hear these words, think of one thing: weddings. Chances are good either you or someone you know had part of this text read at their wedding. What it has to say about commitment makes it a great text for that purpose. But while this lesson is most often applied to marriage, it doesn’t have to be (I am sure the irony is not lost on us that perhaps our most beautiful expression of commitment is between in-laws). These words could just as easily be applied to our other relationships. Ruth simply presents divine and human love working next to each other in perfect harmony; it showcases faithful love and the kind of selfless humility that God rewards. Here we see that faith is the bond that unites us so closely in loyalty and affection not only to God, but also to other believers.

Our story begins in the time of the Judges, which is described as a time when “Israel had no king [and] everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25). It is not unreasonable to suspect that the famine that hit Israel at this time was God’s discipline for their unfaithfulness, but here we get a dim glimpse that there were still some who stayed faithful to God and his promises in those days. A man named Elimelech, who by his own name and by his faith testified that God is king, gathered his wife and sons and headed to where they could find bread, a hundred miles away in the heathen country of Moab. And while Elimelech just wanted to go where he could feed his family until conditions in Israel improved again, God had greater things in mind for this family’s stay.

Things perhaps didn’t go as planned for Elimelech, though, as his days were cut short before he could return to the Promised Land. And with the family’s spiritual leader now gone, the sons took for themselves Moabite wives, which no doubt displeased their God. Though Moabites were distant relatives to the Israelites – the Israelites descending from Abraham, while the Moabites descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot – intermarriage between the two nations was forbidden because Moabites were idol worshippers. Nonetheless, it seems like these marriages were short-lived, since both Mahlon and Kilion also died in Moab, as far as we can tell, leaving their widows childless. So the women of the family, the mother-in-law Naomi and her daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah, were left to fend for themselves. There were no government programs in those days to protect the needy, so these women essentially had no way to support themselves but by begging, and who knows how that would have gone in a heathen nation like Moab.

But the night is darkest just before the dawn, and before long word reached Naomi that God in his mercy had come to the aid of his people and ended the famine in Israel. Clinging to her faith that transcended her misfortunes, this news signaled time to return home for Naomi, since food was the reason she came to Moab in the first place. It’s as she sets out with her daughters-in-law that we pick up the meat of the story.

Naomi had only two things when she left Moab: her faith, and her companions. The one caused her to leave Moab; love for the other caused her to try to leave Moab alone. Faith always shows itself in love toward God and others, and she knew that she had nothing left to offer her daughters-in-law. Though time and circumstances had created a very strong bond between the three, Naomi’s dedication to their well-being caused her to encourage them to go back to their homes. Though she had already lost so much personally, her love for them was so great that she wanted them also to leave her for their own good. Naomi was old and had no other sons for them to marry; her situation was essentially hopeless. Things would hardly be better for all of them in Israel than it would have been in Moab, since all the same, their husbands were dead and they still had no one to take care of them. On top of that, even though Ruth and Orpah were still young and marriageable, they would certainly have had a hard time finding young men to marry in Israel, since no doubt such men would not have been as willing to relax the demands of their marriage laws with so many other Jews around to take notice. So Naomi tries to convince them that throwing in their lot with her would be foolishness and that it was better to return to the households of their mothers, where they would be provided for and could find another husband to take care of them long-term.

At first Ruth and Orpah didn’t take her suggestion; they remained committed. But when Naomi continued to appeal and laid out for them what a tough life it might be if they stuck around, Orpah bit on her suggestion of release, giving in and parting ways for a better life of her own.

Sadly we see here the deficiencies of not only Orpah but also Naomi herself. When Naomi sent Orpah home to her own gods, she was totally compromising the foundation of belief in the true God that she and her family had built in her. In effect Naomi was saying and Orpah was showing that belief in and commitment to the true God was only worthwhile as long as life was good. Since life would likely not be good, it was best that she return to her home and her own gods and thereby give up the life and salvation that were hers through faith in the LORD. She was a fair-weather believer, and Naomi prodded her on. But since when has God said that a believer’s life will be easy? When did Jesus or the apostles or the prophets ever say that a believer’s life will be a cakewalk? Though some televangelists would have you believe so, the Bible makes it clear that faith in the true God will bring ridicule and trouble in this life. If you, like Orpah, have such a shallow faith that plays along only as long as life is good, you will soon find yourself worshipping at the altar of other gods too, namely yourself and your own needs. If you, like Naomi, do not have the backbone to stand up for what is right in the face of trouble and opposition, then you will soon forsake our Lord Jesus, who has promised, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). You will be left standing all alone in the darkness of despair because you chose worldly comfort over the heavenly faithfulness that your Lord asks of you, and you will deserve the divine punishment reserved for such a choice.

And in her moment of weakness, Naomi’s regrettable actions continue as she encourages Ruth down the same path. To Naomi’s shame and God’s glory, though, this fledgling believer Ruth stands as an example of what it means to conform one’s life to the will of God. Ruth firmly refuses Naomi’s appeal to return. Ruth holds her faith in God as something that transcends nationalities and physical circumstances. She voices that for Naomi with the immortal words that have exemplified commitment for so many over the years. And what do they all hang on? “Your God will be my God.” Since Ruth connected with this family of believers, faith grew in her heart and the LORD became everything to her, as He was to them. Now it was her turn to return the favor to Naomi, refocusing her on her true source of providence and comfort. Though Naomi had told her to go home and find rest in the home of another husband, Ruth replies that she already had rest – real, lasting rest – in the loving arms of our God, and she could find it nowhere else. Ruth’s actions spoke for Naomi the words of Jesus in Matthew 11(:28): “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Ruth knew that her faith united her to the true God, and that unity was worth more to her than any short-lived enjoyment with another Moabite husband. She knew that God is good and that he does in fact look after his people; so she left the details up to God’s mercy, content to trust him to work everything out for their good and through it all to bind them more securely to himself, and how right she was!

Maybe you had some bells going off in your head when I read v. 2 before. It says that Elimelech and his family were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. Some of you might remember from Christmases past a passage from the prophet Micah (5:2) that says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” If it were not enough that through her contact with this Israelite family by a forbidden marriage Ruth became a believer and an heir of salvation, we find out later in this book that Ruth ends up being an ancestor of King David. And who was the foremost descendant of King David? It’s a guy you’ve probably heard of – his name was Jesus! That means this Moabite Ruth was the great, great, great, and so on grandmother of our Lord! Talk about God working the best out of a bad situation! I am not sure Ruth ever would have imagined that she would be so blessed as to be grafted into the line of the Savior, but she had faith in God’s grace. Nor should we expect such an outstanding gift from God, but we should expect (because he has promised it) that God is watching out for us with our best interests in mind, and if he did such a great thing for Ruth, he can also do great things for us. Whatever you’re going through right now, be assured that God knows, he sympathizes, his heart aches with yours, and he’s going to bring you through it stronger and closer to him. Have faith that he will take care of you in every situation, and know that that same unity God had with Ruth and Naomi he also shares with you. He created it at the cost of his own body and blood that Jesus sacrificed for you on the cross. He assures you of it with his Word and Sacraments, and wants you to know that his love for you will never fail. Nothing can rip you out of his hands. There you have security, peace, and contentment – a true place of rest.
Transition: And among the greatest blessings of our unity with God through faith is our unity with other believers; it’s a unity so close that it can only be compared to the unity of the Father and the Son, just as Jesus prays in John 17 for all believers, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

But sadly, we all know how common the unity displayed between Naomi and Ruth is these days. Unless you’re seeing things a whole lot differently than I am, often “unity” might not be the word I would use to describe a Christian congregation. Sinful people that we are, our own preferences and opinions tend to divide us, rather than unify us in love. When other things get in the way and make us forget that we are truly brothers and sisters in Christ, closer even, not only can we destroy our unity between believers but it can also lead to destruction of our unity with God. The two go hand in hand, and if our sin so clouds our thinking that we cannot get over ourselves enough to appreciate our brothers and sisters as fellow blood-bought children of God who as such deserve our loyalty and affection, if we even for a moment think that others aren’t worthy of a spot in God’s Kingdom, then our equally undeserved spot in that kingdom is at risk of forfeiture as well.

But the fact that Jesus did pray for it and because it is held in such high esteem as shown between Naomi and Ruth tells us that our Christian fellowship is a gift of God that we should treasure. In Scripture, the bond between believers is compared to the bond between siblings. This is among the closest bonds that exists in this world, and yet the same verb that is translated here “Ruth clung to Naomi” is also used in Proverbs 18:24, which says even that “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” As close as we are to our blood brothers and sisters, as much as we love them and cherish them, we should cherish our relationship with each other that much more, since ours is a blood relationship as well –that formed by the blood of Christ that was shed to take away our sins. Ruth said to Naomi “Your God will be my God,” and that resulted in “your people will be my people.” Just as Jesus warned might have to happen in Matthew 10, Ruth broke from her national and familial loyalties for the sake of the Gospel, to testify to its truth. She may have left her family and people in Moab, but in so doing, in remaining true to the Gospel, she gained a new family – a spiritual one, a lasting one, one that finds its head in Christ. She became a true Israelite, a welcome member of the family of all believers of all times – that same family that you belong to even now by faith in Jesus.

Conclusion: A gentleman at the Sem told me recently about the vows he spoke at his wedding. He recited them for me and when he got to the end, he said, “…most important of all,” and it is most important of all, “I vow to walk with God with you for the rest of my life. I thank God for you; I love you.” He captured the spirit of Ruth’s total commitment to Naomi perfectly. It is an unshakeable unity that comes only with a common faith in Jesus. Most often Ruth’s words are used to describe a God-pleasing marriage relationship, and rightly so - “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). But more generally, the same goes for our whole lives in this world. After all, Ruth and Naomi were not married – they were just two believers united in spirit by their mutual faith. Treasure your fellowship with other believers, build each other up, because the times are evil. Appreciate that “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). Take comfort that, as the apostle Paul reminds us, believers are a body – many parts, many functions, but one unified body – and that our head is Christ, who rules over everything in love for the good of his Church. And relish God’s undying loyalty to us that sent his Son to die on the cross to preserve our unity for all time. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Holy Supper that unites us to God and each other. Thank God for all these blessings we have through faith. Amen.

Worship Service October 3rd, 2010

Worship Service October 3rd, 2010 from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.

Luke 16:19-31 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, Sir I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "
Some Things Are Real Important
I There Is A Real Hell II It’s Important To Listen To What The Scriptures Say
There is a debate over which is faster the human brain or a super computer. Now there are things that computers come up with quickly that our brains might struggle with. Think of counting backwards from 100 by 7s and multiplying two numbers at the same time. But the brain is much better at learning new things and adjusting a response. One example would be in the understanding of human speech. I read recently that when a computer does voice recognition like the automated phone systems- it uses something like 100 million instructions per second to the processor. That sounds impressive. However, the language processing portion of your brain is just one small part of the whole package of what our brains do. Some have estimated that the brain can process up to 10 quadrillion instructions per second. Some days it might seems like there are 10 quadrillion things going through our minds. We process everything from the grocery list and dentist appointments to why the car is making that chugging noise. Our minds bog down in the guilt we carry over not being the kind of parent we should be and we worry about how we are going to make ends meet. In the midst of all of those things going through our minds and hearts, Jesus’ words invite us to focus on what is going to matter on the day when all of that activity in our brains stops- the day we die. God’s word today points out that Some Things Are Real Important! I There Is A Real Hell II It’s Important To Listen To What The Scriptures Say About The One Who Rose From The Dead.
Imagine a teacher teaching in a classroom where there are some students who are listening intently while others are in the back turning up their noses, making faces and sneering at what the teacher is saying. That’s the situation we find in God’s Word today. Jesus is teaching his disciples but the Pharisees are listening in the back making faces and sneering at what he was saying. Jesus had just taught a lesson on how you cannot let worldly wealth run your life and the “Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.” Now most teachers would toss a jeering and sneering student out of the classroom in a quick hurry. Notice that Jesus doesn’t chase these Pharisees out at the point of a lightning bolt. Instead Jesus spoke pointedly to them that “what is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” Then after finishing up a few points with His disciples, he comes back to reinforce the lesson about setting one’s heart on the not so important things of this world. He lets them know that some things are real important.
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.” It would seem that rich man made luxury his heart’s treasure. Instead of wearing his blue jeans and khakis most days and his purple outfits with the fine linen only on special occasions, he wore his expensive fancy clothes every day. If he noticed he didn’t care about the beggar at the curb who was eyeing the crumbs and scraps from his dinners. “At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.” We might think, “well at least he had the dogs who came to lick his wounds.” It would seem though that these were not such nice dogs because the original words have the idea “worse yet, the dogs came and licked his sores” rather than “At least, the dogs licked his sores. So apparently Lazarus was in such bad shape that he did not have the strength to shoo the dogs away.
Jesus often used earthly stories with heavenly meanings to teach His disciples. When Jesus does that, it is usually pretty clear that his is using a parable. It is striking that here is not so clear that this is a parable, so it makes one wonder if Jesus is telling us about a real rich man and a real Lazarus and not just characters in a parable. I can’t think of another parable that uses names. Scripture doesn’t answer the question but Jesus does make clear that some things are real important. One of the real important things is that there is a real heaven and there is a real hell.
"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side.” God’s Word clearly teaches that it is not a matter of being rich or poor that determines one’s eternal fate. Poor people do not receive an automatic ticket to heaven. Rich people are not automatically routed onto the train to hell. Jesus said whoever believes in the Savior God sent “shall not perish but have eternal life.” So Lazarus trusted in the Savior God. Jesus also teaches that “whoever does not believe” whether rich or poor “stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” So you can almost hear the angels singing with Lazarus and at the same time you can almost hear the dull thud as the rich man lands in hell. “The rich man also died and was buried.” In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Because he made the finer things in this life the treasure of his heart in his life on earth, the reality now hits home that there were no finer things for him to enjoy in eternity.
The devil tries to convince us that hell is not so bad. In fact he tries to push the lie that hell if it exists at all, is a party place and the devil is not such a bad guy he is more like the “Underwood canned ham” guy with red pajamas and a pointy tail. The devil spreads the lie through false teacher that hell is a place of second chances- that somehow after you have paid your dues, like a student serving a detention, that a person would be free to go out into the eternal recess of heaven. But the Bible says that hell is real. It is a real bad place, where “the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die.” The devil isn’t wearing a costume with a plastic pitch fork but instead “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” It is a place where there are no second chances.
Last week at the Pastors’ Conference at our Seminary, Pastor Spaude and I heard papers read about the revival movement early in our country’s history. One of the papers described the way the revival preachers would describe in great detail the horrors of hell with images of God holding a person over a flame. One of the difficulties in preaching a sermon about hell is that no matter how scary the imagery is, it cannot come even remotely close to the reality of how terrible life is in the place where only the fearsome punishment of the Almighty God can be seen and felt. Scripture says, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” In our minds we tend to associate ourselves with poor Lazarus. However, all of us, regardless of our net worth, have earned that fate of the rich man every time we’ve failed with our sin blinded eyes to see the needs of the Lazarus’ we meet every day. We’ve earned hell fire for ourselves when we push God out of first place in our hearts and let our minds and lives be consumed with getting and keeping the possessions and pleasures this world has to offer.
"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, Sir I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " For the first time we hear about the rich man being concerned about somebody else. He wants Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers. If someone rises from the dead they will listen to him. At first that seems to make sense. But stop and think, “there was someone who did come back from the dead 2,000 years ago. Did everyone listen to Jesus? Abraham makes it clear that the key is in listening to what the Scriptures say about that one who came back from the dead. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sin and not only for ours but also for the sin of the whole world.” The Scriptures speak of our Savior god who took on flesh to be our substitute. He showed perfect love, compassion and concern every single day of his life on earth in our place. He took upon his shoulders the greedy thoughts, the glances deliberately turned away from those in need and all of the misplaced priorities. Because of Jesus, God says, “Come now and let us reason together though your sins be like scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool. Those words stand even true for us even if our favorite color is purple and our closets are full of fine linen.
Because God in His grace has brought us to see what’s really important, it changes our view of those possessions. Our possessions are wonderful blessings from our God but they are not the “ be all” and the “end all” of our lives. We don’t have to worry that if we give some of those possessions away to tell others what the Scriptures say about Jesus and help those in need that Jesus will run out of ways to bless us. The Bible puts it this way, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!”
There is a hell. There is a real Savior. There are people who need to hear what Jesus has done to rescue them. What a wonderful way for us to help those in need! Some are in our own family, some in our background and others are around the world. Let’s look for them! God will give us the strength to help them see that some things are important!

Video of September 26th, 2010 Video

September 26th, 2010 from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.