June 26-28, 2021 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Mark 4:35-41 JESUS CARES!

 

PENTECOST 5

June 26-28, 2021

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Mark 4:35-41

 

JESUS CARES!

1. He allows storms when needed.

2. He controls storms for our good.

 

Mark 4:35-41 (EHV) “On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” ³⁶After leaving the crowd behind, the disciples took him along in the boat, just as he was. Other small boats also followed him. ³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves were splashing into the boat, so that the boat was quickly filling up. ³⁸Jesus himself was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to drown?” ³⁹Then he got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind stopped, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still lack faith?” ⁴¹They were filled with awe and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

 

          Into the lives of every person, storms must come. It is the way of things in a sin ruined world. It may come in the form of the unending drizzle that settles in the very day you planned a garden party or the thunder and lightning that sends picnic and beach goers scrambling for their cars. Every storm is a very visible reminder that this world is broken by sin. And that reminds us of some others storms that must come into the lives every person—storms caused directly by sin, ours or another’s. And so you think of how a marriage or family or friendship relationship gets ruined by careless words or actions, or words spoken in haste, anger or hurt. Or you think of the storms that serious accidents, illness, death or financial loss can bring. For those that know the Almighty God is the Almighty God there is almost always a faith struggle when storms enter their lives. “Don’t you care? Don’t you care about what I am going through? Don’t you care how I am feeling?” Good News brothers and sisters, Jesus cares. And He shows He cares. Run with me to God’s Word and have your faith built up. You’re going to need it for your next storm.

          Mark’s Gospel records, “On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” ³⁶After leaving the crowd behind, the disciples took him along in the boat, just as he was. Other small boats also followed him.” We are picking this up in the middle of an account. That day Mark is talking about had been a busy one for Jesus. He had been doing many miracles of healing and teaching and fending off jealous Pharisees with their accusatory questions. It was time for some rest and a new place for Jesus to serve. Some tried to follow. “A great windstorm arose, and the waves were splashing into the boat, so that the boat was quickly filling up. ³⁸Jesus himself was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.”  Into the lives of every person storms must come. This was not just any storm, a great windstorm feeding waves so high they were swamping the boat. All the while Jesus is sleeping.

          You can picture it, can’t you? Experienced sailors working the oars or sails, trying to keep the boat aimed correctly, using every trick in the book to prevent their boat from sinking, tacking back and forth, bailing water. And in the midst of all that work they were doing what do they see? Jesus. Sleeping. You know what’s coming. We would have said it too. They woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to drown?” Don’t you care! Spouses say it to each other when they feel left out. Children say it to parents when the children don’t get what they want. Believers say it to their God when they don’t understand why the Lord has allowed storms into their lives. Car accidents. Deaths of children. Financial disaster. Tropical storms when you are trying to sit on the beach. We ask that question because we know something. Jesus is in control. He sends storms. He stops them. We wrestle with the why. Why is He allowing this to happen? Doesn’t He care?

          It’s important that as we wrestle we never get tricked into forgetting our Lord’s great love for us. You heard what happened when Job forgot that it was a loving God allowing all of his troubles. “Then the LORD responded to Job out of a violent storm. He said: ² Who is this who spreads darkness over my plans with his ignorant words? ³ Get ready for action like a man! Then I will ask you questions,

and you will inform me.” (Job 38:1-3) I don’t know about you  but I’m not signing up for that one. Friends, when the Lord allows or sends storms into your lives it’s for a reason and not just any reason, a good reason. Those storms are needed by you, by others. This particular one Mark tells about may have been sent so too ardent or inquisitive people would stay home where they belong. The disciples needed another lesson on putting faith into practice. Every Bible reader needed more evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. We need to learn how to handle storms in such a way that we give God glory. Jesus allows storms only when they are needed. So if you are going through one right now understand this. It is needed. When your next one comes, and it will come, hold on to this truth, Jesus is only allowing it because it is needed. And Jesus cares!

          Friends, how rude it is to turn on the one who takes Hell for us. How disloyal to call into question Jesus’ care for us when we know for a fact we are the ones who often care too much about ourselves and too little about our Lord Jesus. In the face of the storm of unfair criticism and stinging questioning of love Jesus cares. And he shows it. He controls storms for our good.

          “Then he got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind stopped, and there was a great calm.” There is absolutely no question. Jesus is in control of storms. There is absolutely no question. We are not. Chris and I vacationed on the beach last summer with friends. There was a tropical storm. My first one. When it subsided a little we went out to see what it was like. Lean into the wind. Sand stinging your ankles. I’m a little bit of a risk taker but I wasn’t going anywhere near those waves. I’ve been pummeled by them before when the flags were only green or yellow. If any of you have been caught out on the water in a boat when a storm came up you know. You felt the fear. You are not in control. Jesus is. “Peace! Be still!” and the wind and waves obeyed. We can’t get our kids to that. Jesus did with a few words to a powerful storm. Jesus cares. He controls storms for our good. He did that with the storm Paul went through in our second reading.

          He used this one to help the disciples. “He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still lack faith?” Look at when Jesus said this. After he had stilled the storm. He saw their hearts. They have been following Jesus. They had seen a day full of miracles. They had just seen another one. Why so afraid? Do you still lack faith? Yes. But Jesus didn’t push them away in disgust. He didn’t stomp off across the water because He was surrounded by incompetent weaklings. Jesus’ words had the effect that the miracle did not. “They were filled with awe and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!” Jesus controlled the storm for their good. Their faith and their awe were built up.

          So it is with you. If you are going through a storm of some family upheaval or relationship mess or threatened disaster hopefully you realize how out of your control it is. Don’t fight that or get frustrated. Rejoice. Rejoice that there is someone better than you in control. Jesus. And Jesus cares! You can try every trick you know like the disciples did but it takes Jesus to control the storms and if He has not stilled yours yet there is a reason, a good and loving reason. You don’t have to be afraid. He’ll set it still at the right time. And if you are feeling ashamed at how you have handled it and your lack of faith know this. Jesus does not reject you or push you away. He sees your weakness. He gives you this, His word, to still your heart, to build your faith. Jesus cares! And whenever Satan whispers in your ear to try to get you to doubt, run to the cross and see your Jesus giving His life for you, because He loves you. Jesus cares! Always. And He always works for the good.

          Last week Chris and I were at the beach again. And again a tropical storm, Claudette, moved in. Are we sensing a pattern? Hoping to have some family time with our girls on the beach you know what we wanted. No storm. You know how we felt. Disappointed in God. Doesn’t He care that we want this good thing? But that same storm that kept us off a beach moved a lot of moisture to parts of the country that have had drought. Jesus cares. We can trust Him. Into the lives of every person storms must come. Let’s learn to thank God for them. They are only allowed when needed. They are controlled for our good. How do we know? Jesus cares! Amen.

June 12th-14th, 2021 Pastor Waldschmidt Genesis 3:8-15

https://youtu.be/bh9NT7tfS4M

Genesis 3:8-15   They heard the voice of the LORD God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” 11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14The LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. 15I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

The Biggest Mess The World Has Ever Seen

I.  With Damage Mankind Could Never See

II.  With A Fix Only God Could See

     I’ve seen some messes in my day.  Like the time I ran out of dishwasher detergent and thought  dishwashing soap was the same thing or maybe the time when the Christmas tree fell over or the time the clothes washer overflowed two days before the confirmation gathering at our house.  I’ve seen pictures of messes too.  Like the tornado that went through Oakfield in 1996 or Hurricane Katrina that flooded New Orleans in 2005.  This week, on the anniversary of D Day, we were reminded of the carnage on the beaches in Normandy.  As bad as all of those messes were, the Bible takes us today to “The Biggest Mess The World Has Ever Seen.”  I.  With Damage Mankind Could Never See  II.  With A Fix Only God Could See.

     “They heard the voice of the LORD God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”  When I’ve gone to the zoo or walk through Whitnall Park I’ve often thought of how cool it would have been to walk through the Garden of Eden with God “during the cooler part of the day”- to hear God give fun facts about all the animals and the plants in the garden.  But there would be none of that when God came into the Garden after the first sin.  Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and brought on the biggest mess the world had ever seen.  There was more damage than mankind could ever see. 

        I wonder how obvious the change from perfect world to sinful world was to Adam and Eve.  Did sharp thistle weeds shoot out of the ground for their bare feet to step on?  Did the mosquitoes suddenly become biting pests in the garden?  Could they suddenly feel their bodies lurch toward the day of their death?  Even it wasn’t obvious yet to Adam and Eve’s eyes right away, it’s clear that that there was terrible damage in God’s perfect world-damage that went beyond what they could see.  Sin brought damage on the inside.  It was the biggest mess the world has ever seen.

        I don’t know how much of the damage was clear to Adam and Eve, but looking through the camera of God’s Word we can see some of that inside damage.  When Adam and Eve heard God in the garden, rather than running toward God they ran away.  They tried to hide from God.  The Bible says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God.”  The wall was up.  There was a separation from God on the inside.  Their first thought was not, “Let’s run to God” but rather “let’s run away from God.” 

         Part of the big mess is that sin is not smart.  In the cartoons sometimes the characters try to hide behind a tree but it’s always obvious where they are. Did Adam and Eve really think that God would not be able to see where they were?   “The LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”    The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”  Sin is not smart.  The best that Adam could come up with was a lie?  What a mess!  And now Adam was lying to God to whom all hearts are open. 

     It gets worse.  Now in the middle of this mess with sin and guilt all over, the blame game starts.  “God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”  God gives Adam a chance to at least admit what he had done.  But instead from the mud and muck of sin, Adam spits in God’s face.  “The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”  At first it seems like Adam is blaming Eve.  He could be blaming “anyone but him.” But listen again, “The woman you gave to be with me.”  Adam was blaming God.  According to Adam, this whole big mess was God’s fault.  If he had created Eve, this whole mess would not have happened.  So it was God’s fault.  Sin is not smart.  What a mess!

     Adam wasn’t the only one affected by sin.  Eve plays the blame game too.  “The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  What a mess!  With more damage than Adam and Eve could have seen at the time. The damage sin went beyond Adam and Eve could see that day.  Wars, disease, suffering hatred, famine would make their mess  through the ages.  Sin had spread from Adam to Eve and would be spread to all people. In their immediate family there would be a murder.  Their oldest son Cain killed his brother.  That sin disease passed to all of us.  When we are little no one has to teach us to be naughty.  It comes from inside.   That trait of blaming others for one’s own sin would be passed on to future generations.   The Bible tells us that even though Adam and Eve were created holy and perfect, since that day of disobedience in the Garden “the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth and that all of the thoughts and plans formed in their hearts were only evil every day.  Have you noticed how when we are confronted by our own sin, the very first thought that goes through our mind is to deny our sin, lie about it, blame someone else or minimize the wrong we have down?

       Some might wonder how eating a piece of fruit could cause such a mess.  But remember what was behind eating that fruit- disobedience.   By doing what God had told them not to do, Adam and Eve were saying that they knew better than God- that they were going to listen to the devil rather than their loving creator.  The wages of sin is death.  That disobedience brought sin and death pouring into God’s perfect world.  That first mess brought all of the other messes into the world through the ages.  More damage than Adam and Eve could ever have seen. 

        God had the ability to destroy the whole world from a distance.  He could have fried Adam and Eve with a lightning bolt from miles away.  But yet the Holy God trudged through the sinful mess of his broken world to go looking for the selfish disobedient people who had made all of this mess.  He didn’t go hunting for Adam and Eve to destroy them nor close the distance in a millisecond to get right in Adam’s face as he had every right to do.  Instead he walks into the garden.  He doesn’t break Adam and Eve’s eardrums with a God scream.  He speaks in measured tones, about the greatest mess the world had ever seen.  He speaks about the fix only God could see. 

     “The LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.”  It sure might have seemed like Satan in a snake’s costume won that day.  But the Lord gave some permanent reminders for people that Satan did not win the war that day.  Satan’s defeat was sure.  Rather than being admired for its smarts, the snake who was more crafty than all of the other animals the Lord God had made, would bring a reaction of disgust.  Because the devil had used a snake to deceive and tempt,  the serpent would spend all of its days with its face in the dust. 

     “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.”  The root word for hostility is a wedge.  God saw that the people were on the same side as the devil against him, but God would send the Savior, the wedge who would put the people back on God’s side.  Only God could see a fix for the mess of sin.  Only God could bring the fix for the biggest mess the world had ever seen.  God would come himself.  The devil who  looked so scary and so smug there in the garden would have His head crushed.   Jesus, the God man lived perfectly in our place  and had his heel crushed paying for sins on the cross.  But his death was not a head crushing blow,  Jesus rose again.  The relationship would God was perfectly restored. 

       Can you see the huge mess sin has made in our world?  In our life?  Jesus is the one the  Bible points to and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Those who push him away in unbelief have only that separation from God Adam and Eve felt a taste of  in the garden to look forward to.  But those who trust that Savior will live in paradise with him.  Those who push him away in unbelief It was a fix only God could see. 

     Have you made a huge mess out of your life?  Is there a huge mess facing you in your life right now?  Come again and look what God can do.  He showed his love for you in the Garden and at the cross.  He can fix things no one else can fix.  Trust in Him, His love, His power. Amen. 

June 5-7, 2021 PENTECOST 2 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Mark 2:23-28 “WHEN JESUS IS LORD…”

 

June 5-7, 2021

PENTECOST 2

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Mark 2:23-28

 

“WHEN JESUS IS LORD…”

 

          In 1 Peter 3:15 the Holy Spirit had the Apostle Peter write these words, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” It was in a section where Peter was encouraging Christians who were experiencing unjust suffering to still be winsome witnesses for Jesus as Savior. The key to doing that was to have Jesus as Lord of your heart not something or someone else. His words remind us of a key truth: if Jesus is not Lord to you than nothing you do or accomplish or try actually matters and you will mess up everything that God has given.

We have a great example of that in the word of God before us. We have some familiar players. Jesus and the Pharisees. People familiar with the Bible kind of spit out that word, Pharisees. If someone calls you a Pharisee it is no compliment. They are calling you pompous and arrogant and someone who thinks they are better than everybody else. Please remember that the Pharisees started out as the good guys. They were a religious sect of the Jews that tried to be very zealous for God. They accepted the Old Testament as the words of God. They cared very much that God be honored and His laws kept fully. They even added all kinds of protective laws around God’s laws in an effort to really, really keep them and they demanded that everybody else keep them too. Now how can people who are trying so hard to get things right get it so wrong?

 

1.     You know who Jesus is.

 

It’s because for them, Jesus was not Lord. They didn’t know who he was. “Once on a Sabbath day, Jesus was passing through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain as they walked along. ²⁴The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” You see Jesus walking with His disciples and your first impulse is to question him. The implication was clear. “Jesus, why are you letting your disciples break the law of God? Don’t you care about God’s laws?” Why? They saw Jesus as a rival teacher of the law and not as the Savior from sin they needed. They saw their way to having a relationship with the Almighty God was by doing the right things. In their minds they could do those right things so they didn’t need a Savior and so Jesus was not their Lord.

Is He your Lord? Do you know who He is? Maybe for a summer project you decide to reread all 4 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If you do that notice how focused Jesus is on His mission. He doesn’t stop people from sinning but He talks plenty about sin. He doesn’t try to overthrow the Roman government or wipe out crime, poverty or injustice. Instead he carefully obeys all laws and slowly but surely marches into Jerusalem to give His perfect life on the cross. He is Savior from sin. The one God had promised back in the Garden of Eden who would crush the Devil’s head. And when Jesus is Lord you know that.

Do you know that? Obviously you do. You are here worshipping Him or doing so online. And yet we have to work to keep knowing that. Remember those Pharisees? Remember they started out as the good guys, accepting the Bible as God’s Word and zealous for His commandments. Hey, that kind of sounds like us today, doesn’t it? While so many of our fellow Americans don’t accept the Bible as God’s Word, we do. While so many are rejecting the commandments of God we do accept them as absolute right and wrong. Do you see the danger for us? The Devil could trick us into becoming Pharisees. Some things to think about. If you are watching the news and you see God’s holy will rejected over and over again is your first thought, “I wish God would strike them down,” or “Good thing we have a Savior,” and “Come Lord Jesus!” Is Jesus your go to guy when you want to use His “Love your neighbor as yourself” to manipulate someone to follow rules established by man or your own opinion or is He your go to every morning and every night as your earnestly pray, “God have mercy on me, a sinner,” fully expecting Him to because Jesus is your Savior. Is Jesus primarily the fixer of all earthly ills or the one who lets you have a smile on your face in the midst of earthly ills because He has saved you for heaven? When Jesus is Lord, you know who He is, Savior.

You also know how to use the law. The Pharisees sure didn’t. “The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” ²⁵He replied to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry (he and his companions)? ²⁶He entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to eat, except for the priests. He also gave some to his companions.” The Pharisees had high respect for the law. But because Jesus was not Lord they didn’t know how to use it. They saw the law and their ability to keep God’s commands as their way to heaven. They thought that was why God had given it. In other words they thought that God came up with the law and then He created people to serve it. Jesus pointed out it was in fact, the other way around. “Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸So the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Let’s go back to when the Sabbath was set aside to begin with. It was in the perfect world before sin. In the creation account we are told. “On the seventh day God had finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had been doing. ³ God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on it he rested from all his work of creation that he had done.” God set aside the Sabbath after Adam and Eve were created. It was to be a blessing for them. It would serve them by letting them get rest. It wasn’t to be used to keep hungry people from eating. That was the point of referencing what happened with David. Only the priests by Old Testament law could eat the Bread of the Presence which was bread that had been set offered as a sacrifice to God. But when David and his men came and were hungry and that was the only food available. God’s laws were there to serve people not people to serve the law. The law was a blessing and since Jesus is Lord He tells you how to use His laws.

 

2.     You know how to use the Law.

 

And when Jesus is your Lord you know how to use the law. As a blessing. It’s first purpose is to show us our sin. Can I suggest another summer project? Pull out your Luther’s Catechism and review one commandment and its meaning per week. If you do that you will discover you are sinning a whole lot more than you are aware of. How can that be good? It will help you hold on to Jesus as Savior. It will help you appreciate all that Jesus has done for you. As one sainted Seminary professor used to put it, “You make your sin small, you make your Savior small. What size Savior do you have?” I have a big one. So do you. And using the commandments to make us conscious of sin does that. The law is a blessing. The second thing you will see is that all of God’s laws for all people were given with our best interests in mind, to bless us. Whether it’s the laws that point us to God first and using His name properly or valuing word and worship or protecting property and marriage, they all make earthly lives better.

And other’s eternal lives better. In 1 Peter 3:15 Peter followed, “But in your heart set apart Christ as Lord,” with “Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” When you get into those religious conversations about what is right and wrong don’t have the law as Lord but Jesus as Lord. Don’t merely answer the right and wrong question. Then it’s just a matter of rules. Christian rules, Jewish rules, Muslim rules, Lutheran rules. Get to the one who is Lord, Jesus. After answering the morality question, acknowledge there is a lot of sinning going on and by you and that’s why God sent Jesus, your Lord and Savior who is big enough for both of you. Amen.