KEEP YOUR LAMPS BURNING!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Epistle Lesson; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Old Testament Lesson; Isaiah 63:16-17; 64:1-8
Sermon Text; Mark 13:33-37
As Pastor Tweit said at the beginning of our service this morning, the word advent means, "to come". During the Advent Season, we think about Christ’s Coming in three different ways. First of all, Christ comes as a little baby. Secondly, He comes into our hearts, by faith. And, the third way that we think about Jesus coming is in judgment.
The first Sunday of the Church Year is usually dedicated to considering Jesus’ coming in judgment. Now, in today’s scripture reading, Jesus tells us that nobody knows when that will be. He tells us to keep watch, because you do not know when the Son of Man is going to come back.
While it is true that none of us know when Judgment Day is going to be, Jesus did give us signs that we should watch for. Number one, He gave us signs in nature. Jesus said that there would be earthquakes. There will be famines. There will be pestilence. And certainly, in our lifetime, we have seen all of those things, haven’t we?
Secondly, Jesus gives us signs in the nations. He said there would be wars, and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation. And, certainly in our lifetime, we have seen those signs.
Jesus tells us there will be signs in the church. He said that false doctrine will grow and false doctrine will spread. And, Jesus tells us that the Gospel will spread to the ends of the earth. And, certainly in our lifetime, those events seem to be coming to pass, don’t they?
And, finally Jesus tells us through the scripture that there will be signs in society. Scripture says that the love of many will grow cold. The children will grow disobedient against their parents. People will become more arrogant, more proud, and more conceited. And, certainly in our lifetime, those signs have come to pass.
And so, when we look at all the signs that the end of the world may come soon, every one of us, sitting here today, at least has to admit, "Even though I don’t know when the end of the world will come, I know that it could come within moments, because all of the signs have been completed. Or, it could come ten years from now. But it is certainly a day that I need to be ready for, at any moment." And, so the question then becomes, "How do I know that I am ready for Judgment Day?" The Bible has such a simple answer to that question. The Bible says,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and
you will be saved."
If you believe in Jesus as your savior from sin, then when the Day of Judgment comes, you will be ready.
I would like you to imagine today that this cross I am holding represents everything that Jesus did for us. This cross represents Jesus’ payment, His full and complete payment for every single sin that you have ever committed. Every sin has been forgiven here on this cross of Jesus Christ. This cross represents what Jesus did for you.
The hand that is griping the cross represents faith - faith that clings to what Jesus did. I believe that Jesus died for my sins. I believe that He forgives my sins. I believe that eternal life is mine, because of what Jesus did.
The Bible passages, in today’s scripture reading, tell us that Jesus wants us to remember to:
always
want to cling
to the cross of Jesus,
at all times,
and have faith today,
tomorrow, and
fifty years from now, if the end of the world doesn’t come until then! No matter when He comes, He wants us to be found in faith.
Jesus gives us a warning in today’s text. Jesus warns us that when the Son of Man comes back, we don’t want to let Him find us sleeping. What happens when you fall asleep? Things fall out of your hands, don’t they?
"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back…do not let him find you sleeping."
What Jesus is saying is, "Don’t loose your faith, before that day comes, when I come back." Scripture is very clear that it is possible for Christians, who do not continue to cling to the cross, to lose that faith. Jesus, when talking about the sower and the seeds, explained the seed that fell on the rock. "These are they which, for awhile believed (for awhile they did believe and clung to Jesus as their savior and trusted in Him and believed in Him), but then when the testing came they fell away, (they lost their faith)." It is possible to lose your faith. St. Paul says in II Timothy, "There are some who have shipwrecked their faith." They had faith in Jesus. They trusted in Him. They clung to Him. But then their faith became shipwrecked. It became ruined. It became lost. In another place in scripture it says, "If they have escaped the corruption of this world, by knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…" (They know Jesus. They trust in Him and they have escaped the corruption of this world. They know that their sins are forgiven.) "If they have escaped the corruption of this world, by knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and become entangled in it (the corporation of this world) again, and fall, then their end is worse than their beginning." There scripture reminds us that it is possible for a Christian, who clings to Jesus as his savior, to lose that faith, and not be ready, on the Day of Judgment.
And so, every one of us, here today, should ask ourselves a very critical, very critical question. I want to be clinging to the cross of Jesus, my savior, on Judgment Day. I don’t want to lose my faith. So the question I must ask is: How can I keep clinging to my faith? How can I keep clinging to Jesus, so that I don’t lose my faith?
So how does a person cling to faith in Jesus, as their savior? And how does a person keep clinging to it, so it isn’t lost? First of all, Martin Luther once said this,
"If I am going to leave the security of my soul to
myself,
I am going to bring it all to
destruction."
If we trust that we can keep ourselves in faith, we are going to bring everything to destruction. And, we are certainly going to lose our faith. However, there is someone who can keep us in our faith. It is someone far, far more powerful than you and I are, and that is the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, according to scripture, who not only gives you faith in Jesus as your savior, but keeps you growing and strong in that faith. And so, if I want to stay in faith, in Jesus as my savior, then I need to depend upon the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit. The Bible says,
"No one can say Jesus is Lord,
except by the Holy Spirit."
I need to trust Him to keep me in my faith in Jesus, as my savior.
So then the next question is this: How is it that the Holy Spirit is going to keep me in faith, in Jesus, as my savior? And, again the Bible is very clear. The Bible tells us that it is through the gospel. It is through the gospel that the Holy Spirit brings you to faith, keeps you in your faith and strengthens your faith. The Bible says,
"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ."
The gospel is the cross. It is what happened on the cross. It is what Jesus did for us on that cross.
I am not ashamed of the gospel.
How come? It is the power of God, unto salvation. The gospel is what the Holy Spirit works through. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit called you, by the gospel. Through the gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, our savior, the Holy Spirit works in dead hearts and He brings them to life! He reaches into unbelieving hearts and turns them into believing hearts. Through the gospel the Holy Spirit strengthens faith, so that we cling more and more to Christ, our savior. That gospel of Jesus Christ becomes a critical thing in our lives.
The next question is this: If it is true that the Holy Spirit only works through the gospel, to keep me in my faith, where can I go to meet the Holy Spirit? Where can I go to meet Him, so that He distributes that gospel of Jesus Christ into my heart, to keep me strong in my faith? We believe that the Holy Spirit works through, what we call, the means of grace, or tools. The means of grace are the tools that the Holy Spirit uses to distribute the gospel into our hearts and keep us believing in Jesus, as our savior.
You can look through the scriptures for a million years, and you will only find only three tools, the three means of grace, through which the Holy Spirit distributes the gospel into your heart, to keep you in faith. And, you all know what those three means of grace are.
Number one is The Word. Certainly, the gospel of Jesus Christ is in the Word of God. That is why the Bible says, "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ." The Word is one of the means of grace. That is where we go to meet the Holy Spirit. That is where He comes into our hearts and speaks to us about Jesus, our savior, and then strengthens us.
Secondly, is the means of grace in baptism. The Bible says very clearly that baptism also now saves you. We know that it is only faith that saves us, and so baptism has to be able to distribute faith into our hearts, faith in Jesus, our savior. Why? The gospel is there. The Bible says, "All of you who have been baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ." There is the gospel. In baptism, the Holy Spirit offers us everything that Jesus did for us.
And the third means of grace is the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper, we hear the words of Jesus, ‘This is my body and my blood for the forgiveness of your sins.’ That is gospel. That is the Good News of what Jesus has done for us. The Holy Spirit promises to meet us in the gospel, to work in our hearts through the gospel, and strengthen us in our faith.
And so it becomes critical for every Christian to become diligent in the use of the means of grace, the Word and Sacrament. Through it, the Holy Spirit continues to keep us clinging to Jesus as our savior, and growing in our faith. I want you to think about what the Bible says in Hebrews, Chapter 10, because this is a very important Bible passage. "Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (There the Bible is talking about going to church), Let’s not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as some are in the manner of doing, but let us encourage one another all the more, as we see the day approaching."
As we see Judgment Day getting nearer and nearer (and it is nearer now, than when this sermon began), we need to think about what the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us to gather together in church. What happens in church? In church, the Holy Spirit uses the means of grace to keep us in that faith, so that we are found clinging to Jesus on the Day of Judgment.
I want you to think about what happens in our church. Our church services are designed with one purpose in mind. Ultimately, that one purpose is to present the gospel, because the gospel is what the Holy Spirit is going to work through, in your heart, to strengthen you and keep you in your faith.
Think about how we begin our church service. We begin it with a Confession of Sins and then comes the Absolution – Your sins are forgiven, because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. So, what is that? That is the gospel. And, wherever the gospel is, the Holy Spirit is there, working in your heart, to strengthen you in your faith and empower you in your faith.
Think about what we call our Church Year. We just began it, today. During our Church Year, we have Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, to name a few. There is a reason why we have a Church Year. What do you think is the reason why we have a Church Year? Our Church Year is designed so that we look at two things. We look at the works of Jesus Christ and the words of Jesus Christ. When you look at the works of Jesus Christ, you have to look at the gospel. When you look at the words of Jesus Christ, you have to look at the gospel, the Good News of what Jesus did for us. Our whole church year is designed to present the gospel to you, so that the Holy Spirit works in your heart, to keep you strong and growing in your faith.
Think about the Lord’s Supper. Why is it that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper? In the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit personally and individually says to you, through the Word, "This is the body of Christ and the blood of Christ, given for the forgiveness of your sins." There He is, working in that gospel, which is the power of God, strengthening your faith.
So how critical it is for us to make diligent use of the means of grace! Through those means of grace, the Holy Spirit promises to keep us in our faith.
Now I want you to consider two things. There is someone working against us. That is the devil. The devil, during all of your life, is going to try to take your faith away. And, generally, the devil is not going to try to rip it out of your hands, so you see what is happening. Generally, the devil is going to try to sneak it away from you, very slowly, so you don’t even notice that it is gone. But how can the devil do that? You know, if there were one thing, if there were one thing that the devil could keep you away from, what would it be? It would be the means of grace. He knows that is what the Holy Spirit works through, to keep you in your faith. He knows that if he can keep you away from that, then your faith is going to grow weaker and weaker, and eventually it could be gone. So the devil is going to try to throw all kinds of cares, concerns, pleasures and other things for you to hold onto, in addition to holding onto the cross. And eventually, you may think, "You know it is going to be too hard for me to go to church today, or this week, because I have to work. It is going to be too hard for me to go to church, because I really would like to go to this, or that, or whatever." And, eventually, as he keeps us away from the means of grace, he is slowly sneaking that gospel and the cross of Jesus Christ, out of our arms.
So how important it is for us to be diligent in the use of the means of grace!
There may be occasions when the devil will try to rip the cross out of your hands, and you will know it. There may be serve testing that comes into your life, of troubles and trials. And the devil may say to you, "Do you really think that Jesus loves you? Do you really think that He cares about you? He doesn’t care about you, at all."
Trials and testing may come, where we can tell that he is trying it rip the cross of Jesus out of our hands. That is why, when Jesus told us the parable about the sower and the seed, He said that those who fell on the rock, were the seeds that sprung up a little bit, but they had no roots. And so, when the time of testing came, they fell. How important it is for us to have roots. You know that it is hard to pull up a plant that has strong roots and is clinging to something. Our roots grow stronger only through diligent use of the means of grace.
And so, Brothers and Sisters, in today’s scripture reading Jesus tells us, ‘Don’t be found sleeping, when I come back. Don’t be minus your faith, when I come back. But, keep watch. Hold onto the cross. Stay in your faith.’
Thank God that He provides the means for us to do that, with the means of grace through which the Holy Spirit promises to keep us in our faith.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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