EPIPHANY 3 January 25-27, 2014 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Micah 6:1-8 “YOU BE THE JUDGE!”

EPIPHANY 3

January 25-27, 2014

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Micah 6:1-8

“YOU BE THE JUDGE!”

1.     Consider the Charges

2.     Consider the Evidence

3.     Consider the Verdict

4.     Consider the Response

Micah 6:1-8 (NIV1984) “Listen to what the LORD says: "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. ²Hear, O mountains, the LORD's accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. ³"My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. ⁴I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. ⁵My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember [your journey] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD." ⁶With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

          Are you as fascinated with crime and courtroom drama as the rest of America seems to be? Law and Order, CSI, Dateline, Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown. They are everywhere. Well, whether you like that stuff or not today God’s Word pulls you into a courtroom drama and whether you want to or not you  get to be the judge. Here’s some of the background to the case. The prophet Micah served God at the same time as the prophet Isaiah, so you are around 700 before Jesus came. It was time of relative prosperity for the Jewish people. There was no immediate threat of an invading army. The economy was doing OK. God was physically blessing the people. But God was not happy with His people.

          Consider the charges. “Listen to what the LORD says: "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. ²Hear, O mountains, the LORD's accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. ³"My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.” Did you hear the tone in God’s voice? It’s the unmistakable tone of betrayal. Anyone here who’s been backstabbed by a friend knows this feeling. Or if a boy finds his girl is dating another guy. Betrayal hurts. “What did I do to deserve this?” God asks. Now that’s dangerous for people to ask because we don’t always treat each other right. Rarely is someone 100% innocent. But God can ask, “What did I do wrong?” He can because He does everything right. Listen to what He did for these people. “I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. ⁵My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember [your journey] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD." What had God done to harm His people? Nothing. He just helped them. When they were caught up in oppressive slavery in Egypt He rescued them. When they needed good and faithful leaders He gave Moses, Aaron, Miriam. When Balak the king of Moab tried to have Balaam curse them God made Balaam bless them instead. At Shittim when they people sinned sexually with the Moabites and joined in their idolatry God chastened them with the poisonous snakes, listened to their repentant cries and stayed faithful though they didn’t deserve it. He brought them to Gilgal, the Promised Land even though the history of that journey  records repeated cases of whining, complaining, bucking their God given leaders. That’s what God had done and Israel responded with unfaithfulness and betrayal. Those are the charges.

          The evidence? Hear O mountains. Let the hills listen. Those people must have hated God calling on these witnesses. It’s kind of like saying, “If the walls could talk.” When a pastor walks into the school restroom and the 4-5 boys in there stop talking and quickly exit, he might wonder what he would hear if the stalls could talk. The mountains, the hills. What had they seen? They had seen these people pay lip service to God in their worship, bored at the type of worship God desired and required that pointed them again and again to their need for a Savior. The hills witnessed the people dancing around the Asherah poles or flopping around in their fornicating worship of various Baals because that was more fun. They had seen the prosperity God had blessed His people with taken for granted with no mercy or care for their neighbors in need. There’s the evidence of betrayal and unfaithfulness.

          The verdict? What say you? You be the judge. Guilty! It’s as plain as day. They were guilty of betrayal and unfaithfulness.

          Their response? “With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Not quite the response you’d  expect from someone who has just been found guilty of sin. They show they are only in an outward relationship with God. They’re trying to bribe him. “OK. Lord what do we have to do to make this go away? Do you want more offerings, is that the deal? Shall we make human sacrifices? What do we have to do to get you off our back?” You be the judge. Is this how God’s people should act?

          But now remember that all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Why does God want us reading this word today? It’s so that we are warned.

          Are there some charges God could bring against us? Betrayal and unfaithfulness? "My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.” If we have been unfaithful what has God done to deserve this? When our country was attacked by terrorists on 9/11 many people including Jacobi flocked to church and cried out to God and He has protected us. When the housing bubble burst and the recession set up many people in America including us asked for the Lord to help and He has. He preserved us and our families even though it meant tightening the belt. How often haven’t we cried to God when sickness or hospitalization came and He helped us? Even though we often leave our Bible gathering dust, God stays faithful. He has not removed His word from us. What has God done to deserve unfaithfulness? Nothing. He’s only been good.

          What about the evidence? If the walls could talk what would they say? Well if the church walls talked they would say that our highest attendance of our members ever and the highest percentage of our members regularly in worship was immediately after the Twin Towers were destroyed. But that since then regular worship of the Lord has gradually slipped. They would say that the generation of God’s people for whom weekly worship was a given is being replaced by generations that feel once or twice a month is good enough. Who regularly put something else, be it sleep, hobby or kids’ activities as a higher priority than God and God should be happy with that. They would say that the consumer mentality that is used so effectively to get us to buy things is now evident when God’s people worship so that the things of God that point out the need for a Savior, like confession and the Law, and that point to Jesus like the Gospel message in absolution, Baptism Lord’s Supper, well frankly that’s boring and what’s really important is what I like. So the idols we worship don’t have funny names like Baal or Molech but regular names like Tim or Paul, Mary or Jane as we each worship the god called ME. And what if the walls of our homes and cars talked? What would they reveal?

          It’s time for the verdict. We know what it is. Guilty. Hold it. Not Guilty! How can that be? Actually we are little different than the people Micah preached to. We aren’t just God’s people on the outside, we are on the inside too. While the thought of a Savior to come was not enough for those people we are grateful that someone did sacrifice His firstborn for the transgression of our souls. God did. Jesus took away our sins. He covered the evidence with His holy precious blood. Not guilty.

          And that changes our response. We are not going to pompously try to buy God off or think we can appease Him by trying harder. We know that the sacrifices God desires are broken hearts and that humbled sorrowful hearts God does not despise. So our response is simply this. We are sorry. We are sorry for apathy and poor priorities. We are sorry for taking God for granted, for getting bored with things that point out our need for Jesus and point us to Jesus. We are sorry for asking for help and forgetting to say Thank you. We are sorry. And God forgives us.

          And now we are ready to respond in another way. ⁸He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” That’s our life of sanctification. Act justly. Follow the commandments. Love mercy. Grateful for the mercy God has shown us we extend mercy to other people. Walk humbly with God. God is God. we are not. We will serve and worship Him. We will expect to entertain Him and worship, not Him us. And then we can serve God and others in another way. The Epiphany season highlights Jesus revealed as the Savior of the world. Let’s show people by how we act that following Jesus is not just another set of rules but about God who loves and forgives and people who respond by willingly acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. Amen.

January 11-13, 2014 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 3:13-17 “WHY BAPTIZE…”

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

January 11-13, 2014

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 3:13-17

“WHY BAPTIZE…”

1.     Jesus?

2.     Us?

Matthew 3:13-17 (NIV1984) “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" ¹⁵Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. ¹⁶As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

          Why baptize? What does Baptism do? Whether you are new to Christianity or a long time Christian those questions come up. New Christians of course want to know about this special blessing from Jesus. Long time Christians know that since about the 1600’s a minority of Christians have questioned who is to be baptized and how they are baptized. Today if you have friends or relatives in non denominational churches or Baptist churches you’ve probably been questioned. Why do you baptize babies? Why don’t you use immersion? Why baptize?

          Actually that question goes back a ways. It goes back to John the Baptist. He was the one God chose to prepare the people of Jesus’ time to see Him as their Savior. For the most part he did a great job, when he stayed on his mission. He called the Israelite people to repentance. He told them the Messiah was coming. He pointed to Jesus as the Messiah, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. He wasn’t perfect though. He would find himself wondering if Jesus really was the Messiah when Jesus didn’t quite act as John thought the Messiah would. He had a little problem at Jesus’ Baptism too.

          “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Now think about this just a little bit. Jesus comes to you and says, “Baptize me.” How do you respond? Well, you could say to yourself, “Jesus wants me to baptize him. Whatever He says I will do.” Or you could think too hard and question. John chose the latter. “But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" There it is! Why baptize? Specifically why should Jesus be baptized? John didn’t get it. He didn’t understand God’s way to save people. He thought too hard and so he actually questioned Jesus. Can you imagine doing that?

          Jesus did respond. Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Jesus said, “Let it be so now.” That’s a gentle way of saying, “Enough John. Stop thinking and questioning. These are God’s ways, not yours.” Then He answered the question. Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. This goes to the heart of God’s way to save sinners. To be saved means to be rescued from sin. Sin is any disobedience to God and it covers our thoughts, our words, our actions and our lack of thoughts words and actions. God is holy. He created people to be holy. But that people are sinful means we think and say and do things that are wrong. It means that often we fail to think, say and do the right things. Those are called sins of omission. Sin condemns us to Hell. Only righteous or holy people get to go to heaven. Houston, we have a problem. God has a solution. Jesus. The substitute. We just celebrated the birth of Jesus. God’s son was born as Mary’s Son. Why? So He could be our substitute. He lives in our place. Later He would die in our place. Here He is living in our place. It’s part of God’s will. He fulfills righteousness. He is baptized for us to provide us with righteousness.

          But there is more that went on at the Baptism of Jesus. “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." The Greek language of the New Testament draws our attention in a special way to two things. It kind of says, Look! The Spirit descending like a dove. Look! A voice from heaven. Look! People of St. Jacobi. When your salvation is at stake God breaks the laws of nature. All three persons of the Triune God are present in a special way. Why? To show to everyone that Jesus is really the Son of God, the Savior of the world. He didn’t look like it on the outside. But He was. People needed to know this. You and I needed to know this. And so Jesus was baptized.

          But how about us? Why are we baptized? Well we could make the rest of the sermon real short and say, “Because God says so.  Amen.” But God has a whole lot more for us that that. First listen to what He had written about Baptism in Galatians 3:26-27. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” It’s that last part I want to talk about first. If you are baptized you are clothed with Christ. Clothed with Christ. Now this is not a new picture in the Bible. In a number of places the Bible talks about being clothed with Jesus’ righteousness. Do you remember our problem? Sin and lack of righteousness? Then Jesus came to be our substitute and He lived the perfect life in our place. At our Baptism through faith in Jesus we are clothed with His righteousness. Jesus was baptized to fulfill righteousness. We are baptized to be clothed with His righteousness. Kids, it’s like when you have a favorite superhero—Batman, Superman, Spiderman. Then you put on the Batman or Superman suit and you look like Batman or Superman. Now that’s just pretend. Baptism is for real. We might not be able to see it. We might not feel it. We still have to struggle with sin. But the truth is if you are baptized into Christ you are clothed with Christ. You get His righteousness.

          It’s also God’s way of demonstrating we really are His children. Remember how it was with Jesus? He looked like a regular man. Before Jesus came there were all kinds of fake saviors. Men who claimed they were the God sent Messiah and they were not. Why should people believe in Jesus? He looked like a regular man. Why should we believe we are the children of God? Why should we believe our children are? We believe in Jesus as Savior. We made promises to be faithful to Him all the way to death. We still struggle with sin. People can look at our families and see some of the same sins they see in families of people who don’t believe in Jesus. And even if we are really good at controlling what is going on on the outside, we each know for ourselves what we think and are like on the inside. Am I really a child of God? Yes. How do I know? I was baptized. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

          But there’s more too. Jesus’ Baptism kind of marks the beginning of what is called His public ministry, the time when He went around proclaiming Himself Messiah, preaching, teaching, doing miracles. Our Baptism does something similar. It connects us to Christ so we can publicly serve God too. Listen to what He had the Apostle Paul write about Baptism in Romans 6:1-4.  “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Earlier in Romans Paul had beautifully proclaimed God’s way of saving by providing righteousness through faith in Jesus not based on what people do but what Jesus did. It’s by grace we are saved. Grace isn’t a reason to keep sinning but to fight sinning. Why? Those how are baptized into Christ are connected to His death to pay for sin and His resurrection to prove it. Just like Jesus rose, at our Baptism we are reborn to live a new life, a life where we want to serve God.

          So why baptize? Like with John the Baptist with Jesus, sometimes we can think too hard. We can question God’s way of doing things and all that does it point out we don’t really know what we are talking about. Or we can take God at His Word and use Baptism and get all the blessings He wants us to have. At Jesus’ Baptism we get to see Him fulfilling all righteousness and that He really is God’s Son. At our own, at those of our children, we get to know that we are covered in Jesus’ righteousness, that we and our children really are God’s children. I guess there’s a better question. Why wouldn’t we baptize? Amen.

NEW YEAR’S EVE December 31, 2013 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Psalm 121 “COUNTDOWN TO 2014!

NEW YEAR’S EVE

December 31, 2013

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Psalm 121

“COUNTDOWN TO 2014!

                                      3 Reasons we might be afraid.

                                      2 Reasons we don’t have to be.

                                      1 Savior God to serve!

Psalm 121 (NIV 1984) “I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? ²My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. ³He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; ⁴indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; ⁶the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. ⁷The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; ⁸the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

          It’s one of the New Year’s Eve traditions. The countdown to the New Year. Those who stay up late enough may do their own—or tune in to the tape delayed dropping of the ball in Times Square. Well whether you make it to midnight tonight or not you won’t miss out. We’ll do a New Year’s Eve countdown to 2014 right here. For the purists, don’t worry. It’s about to be midnight in Addis Ababa/Rome!

          We’ll start at number 3. The Psalmist said, “I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from?” There is probably more we don’t know here than we do. Was the Psalmist in Jerusalem and looking at an opposing army coming to besiege his city? Was the Psalmist traveling to Jerusalem going through passes looking up where robbers might be hiding? We don’t know. What we do know is the Psalmist was afraid and looking for help. How about us? As we look forward to a new year are there any reasons we might be afraid? Absolutely.

          Number one. The world we live in is a bad place to live. Since the fall into sin the created world has been groaning under imperfection. It fights against itself. We used to think that natural disasters were not increasing. That we just had better news coverage but that does not seem to be the case. Disasters of earthquakes, fires, typhoons and tornadoes keep happening seemingly with increasing frequency. Scary! Will we be caught in one? How about our loved ones? Beyond the devolving created world people are bad. I know, I know that the PC answer is that people are basically good. I too want to believe that people are basically good. But they aren’t. God says so. “There is no one who is righteous, not even one. The imagination of man’s heart is evil from youth.” Even people who do a lot of good, then you find out that they reject God’s Son Jesus as Savior. They reduce Him to just a good man. That’s not the sign of a good person. That’s bad. Then there are the bad people of the world who don’t even try to pretend they are good. North Korea’s new leader executes his uncle. Syrians gas their own people. Suicide bombing spreads from the Arab countries to Russia. Al Qaeda is still around. Closer to home the repeat offender OWI and wrong way drivers cause death and destruction. School shootings continue. Milwaukee is a center for the child sex trade. Heroin use is on the rise among suburban teens. People who you should be able to trust back stab you, talk evil behind your back. Family members can’t get along. This world is bad place to live. Where will its evil tendril touch you this year? Scary!

          That leads to another reason to be afraid as we look to a new year. All the unknowns. Have you noticed that in your life that dealing with the unknown is more stressful, more scary than dealing with what you do know? So that time when you are waiting for the test results, is it cancer or not? Malignant or benign, those are scary times. Did I get the job or not? Layoffs are announced. Will I be one let go? Economic prognosticators look at the same data and we are out of recession or not. We have job creation but not lasting ones. Will the Stock Market keep its gains? It’s all unknown. That’s scary.

          And then a third reason to be afraid is our own sinfulness. I know that when we talk about the world being a bad place it’s simply more convenient to talk or think about other people but the reality is that our own sin gives us the most reasons to be afraid. Maybe we think first of the consequences of sin. What past sins that you have hidden or tried to hide will catch up to you? What might come out into the open? What will that mean in your relationships with family, friends or at work? Scary. But not the worst kind of scary. Sin offends God. It slaps Him in the face. He offers His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins and some we laugh about. Some we brush off as no big deal. Some we promise never to do again and fall so soon after the promise. God sets up a way for us to hear He forgives us again and again and yet when the announcement of forgiveness comes we whisk through it or for no good reason don’t even come to church in time to hear it. Now, why did we think God should want us, keep us around, help us in our time of need? Would we be there to help other people who treated us or our child so shamefully? Not a chance. Our own sinfulness. Scary. Three big reasons we might be afraid as we look ahead to a new year. I lift up my eyes to 2014. Where does my help come from?

          But now hear two great reasons we don’t have to be afraid. ”My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” When the Psalmist looked at what scared him he next looked at what gave him confidence and hope. The LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. The first reason we don’t have to be afraid is that our help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth. Think about that phrase, “the Maker of heaven and earth!” What words come to mind? Power. Wisdom. The one who calls stars and galaxies into existence with the breath of His mouth. The one who anticipates all eventualities and puts into motion a habitat on earth the cleans itself and replaces itself. The Maker. He is our helper. The psalmist thought about that and said, “He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; ⁴indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; ⁶the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. ⁷The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life.” Here is one big reason we don’t have to be afraid in 2014. Our help comes from the Maker. He is there always. He doesn’t sleep or take vacations. He is powerful and wise. And why do we think He’ll help us?

          That’s the other great reason we don’t have to be afraid in 2014. Our help comes from the LORD. Now some of you have been Bible students long enough or have heard pointed out in sermons or Bible classes often enough that there is a whole lot packed in that name LORD when it is spelled with all capitals. That’s the NIV Bible’s way of pointing out this is the special name God uses for Himself when He wants to emphasize He loves and saves His people. He used it when He sent Moses to rescue the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. He uses it for us when He wants us to be comforted in spite of our sins. Earlier when we were talking about our sinfulness and asked why should God help us, and we were sitting there feeling like the kid who broke the window and now has to go and ask dad for some money to see a movie thinking there is no way this is going to work. And it doesn’t. There is nothing we can do to make up for even one sin. But the LORD did that for us. The LORD is so great, His forgiveness so full and complete He has to use word pictures to help try to fathom it. As far as the east is from the west. Though your sins are like scarlet they are as white as snow. You’ve washed your dirty robes in the blood of the Lamb and now they are white. The LORD is our helper. Jesus is with us. Remember the one who is the same yesterday, today and forever. If our confidence meter for 2014 was based on our worthiness to be helped by God it would crash. But instead it’s based on God’s faithfulness to His promises. We might come to moments in 2014 where we will feel afraid. But we don’t have to. We have two great reasons we don’t have to be. Our help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. As the psalmist said, “The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

          And that means something else for 2014. Purpose. Meaning for existing. One. We have one awesome Savior God to serve. How are you going to do that this new year? What roles has God given you? Self-employed, unemployed, full time, half time, retired, volunteer. Single, husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, student, teacher. Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do you see how God gives meaning to every part of 2014? We get to carry the 10 Commandments and their meanings in our hearts and as we carefully strive to follow them whatever our role at the time happens to be we are saying thank you to the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. We are serving Him. God loves that. It’s what He created us to do and it provides us happiness.

          And now we are ready for the countdown. Say it with me. Three reasons we might be afraid in 2014. Two great reasons we don’t have to be. One great God to serve. With Him we can count a Happy New Year! Amen.