LET RESENTMENT CEASE AND LOVE INCREASE!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Old Testament Lesson; Psalm 37:1-9
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 5:21-24
Sermon Text; Ephesians 4:30-5:2
The year was 390 A.D. The city was a place called Thessalonica. And, in the city of Thessalonica was a huge stadium that held thousands of sports fans. The sports fans, there in Thessalonica, didn’t root for a local football team, because the sport of the day was chariot races.
There was a local hero in Thessalonica, an idol, a local idol kind of like the Brett Farve of today. He was a great chariot racer. Many held him as their favorite.
One day he was arrested, and charges were brought against him. Because he was arrested, because their hero was arrested, he was not permitted to race in the chariot races.
The fans became so outraged that their hero would not be able to race in the chariot races anymore, that they went about town until they found the government officials who were responsible for his arrest. They beat them to death. And then they dragged their corpses, their dead bodies, through the streets of Thessalonica.
When the emperor of Rome, a man by the name of Theodosius, heard what had happened in Thessalonica (and by the way, Theodosius was a Christian), he became outraged. So, he sent some men up to Thessalonica with a secret plan. They announced that there would be a great chariot race the next day. So the people, the fans from Thessalonica, came together and gathered in that great stadium that held thousands of people. Thousands of fans sat, waiting for the great chariot races. They were horrified however, when they saw soldiers step out from everywhere, with their swords drawn. The soldiers blocked the exits from the stadium. And then for the next three hours, they proceeded to massacre every single fan that was in the stadium. Seven thousand people were slaughtered that day. And, that was because of Theodosius, their Christian emperor.
Theodosius, being a Christian, went to church. He had a pastor, at that church, whose name was Ambrose. When Ambrose found out what the emperor had done, he bravely, bravely, told the emperor that unless he repented of his sin of rage, anger and murder, he was in danger of hellfire. Ambrose also told the emperor that he could not come to communion, until he publicly repented of that sin, showed that he was repentant, and would not do such a thing again. He told him to establish a law that said if someone were guilty of the death penalty, they would have a chance to appeal their case, before they were put to death.
Brave Ambrose stuck by his guns for eight months. Finally, the Holy Spirit worked in the heart of Theodosius. And on Christmas Day, he came to his pastor and pleaded that his sins would be forgiven. And there, he repented of his sins.
That is a great example of a brave pastor and a soul that finally became humble and repentant. It serves as a good example for us lesser souls.
Theodosius, being the emperor, was able to do a great deal of damage with his rage and anger. We are not emperors. We may not be able to do the amount of damage that he did, but our anger and our rage is just as serious and just as deadly as his. Our Savior Jesus tells us,
"You have heard it said that
you shall not murder.
But I tell you that
anyone who is angry with his brother
is in danger of hellfire."
There, Jesus compares anger, bitterness, irritability, and resentment toward others, with the sin of murder and tells us how serious it is in God’s eyes.
We all have a sinful nature. Our sinful nature is proud and arrogant. Our sinful nature wants to defend itself and prove itself to be right. Our sinful nature may often get irritated at other people. Then, it is filled with bitterness and resentment. Our sinful nature may want to defend itself, when someone gets angry with us. It may want to lash out with fiery speeches. It may want to lash out with powerful fists. It may want to lash out in all different kinds of ways. Again, our Savior says that is equal to murder in God’s eyes. What a serious, serious thing that is. In fact our scripture reading says,
"Do not grieve the Holy Spirit."
There was a husband who used to ‘blow up’ at his wife. His wife sat down with him and humbly said, "Honey I don’t think that it is appropriate for you to ‘blowup’ like that and get angry with me."
He replied to her, "Honey, I just ‘blow up’ and then it is over and everything is back to normal. What’s wrong with that? I am just blowing off steam."
She looked at him and humbly said, "Honey, that is true, but you can say the same thing about a shot gun. It blows up and it is all over. But look at the damage it leaves behind."
Look at the damage we leave behind, when we treat people with bitterness, anger, resentment, rage, and "every form malice", as scripture tells us. And here, it tells us to get rid of all of those things. It is a sin against our neighbor. And, those sins grieve the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit lives in us. His goal for us is to live for our Savior, to be kind, gentle, good, forgiving and compassionate. We need the Holy Spirit for that. We don’t need the Holy Spirit, if we follow our angry, bitter, resentful heart. We don’t need Him for that. And how that grieves the Holy Spirit. We all, all of us, can look at our lives. Everyone here. We know how we have treated our loved ones. We know how we have treated people at work or school. We know how we have treated our neighbors. Jesus says,
"Anyone
who is angry with his brother
is in danger of hellfire."
We aught to be on our knees, in repentance before our Savior.
That gets me to the second part of this sermon. I am going to shift gears, a little bit here. There was a Gospel pastor, back in the 1800’s. His name was Charles Spurgen. He gave (what I think is), a wonderful description of the grace of God and the Gospel of God. He used this sort of parable, talking about himself.
"I was walking along in the dark one night, when up ahead of me, laying on the ground, I saw a body, a dead body, that someone had murdered. I was horrified, when I got up to that body, and saw that it was my best and dearest friend.
Someone had murdered
my best and dearest friend.
When I knelt down to look at Him, I was horrified to see that someone had driven huge spikes through my best friend’s hands. Someone had done the same to His feet. I was appalled to see that there were gaping wounds all over His body. Someone had tortured my best and dearest friend. I was appalled to see that He was parched and gaunt. Someone had tortured my best and dearest friend.
I was outraged.
Oh, if they had done this to a bad man, maybe I could forgive them. But they did this to my best friend. He never hurt anyone. He was always kind, good, loving, and gracious. He went around forgiving sins, healing people, and helping people.
Someone had done this to Him, so I determined in my heart that I would catch the murderer. And, when I caught him, I determined that I would perform all sorts of torture against that murderer.
Then in the darkness, I heard footsteps coming. I knew it was the footsteps of the murderer. In the darkness, I reached out to grab a hold of him. But I could not get a hold of him, because he was so close to me.
Finally, I was able to lay my hand on him. I grabbed hold of him and said, "You murdered my best friend", only to find out that I was hanging onto my own heart.
It was then that I realized it was I,
I,
who had murdered my best and dearest friend.
It was my sins that put Him on the cross.
I was appalled.
Then my best and dearest friend stood up on His feet and looked at me. I fell down on my knees in repentance. I was cowering, waiting for Him, waiting for Him in His anger to come at me with clenched fists for what I had done to Him. I was waiting for Him to call down the lightening from Heaven to destroy me for what I had done.
I was so surprised, when He came to me with a smile on His lips, and tears in His eyes. Then, He threw His arms around me and put His head against mine and said,
"I love you!
I pardon you. I forgive you.
I justify you. I declare you to be not guilty.
I died on the cross to pay for all of your sins.
They have been removed from you.
They have been tossed into the abyss.
They have been buried with me in the grave.
You are pardoned!
You are forgiven!"
My heart, my heart was at peace! My heart, which had been troubled, was as calm as a sea of glass! What amazed me so, was not that our Lord could pardon someone, but that He could pardon me, for what I had done."
That, my friends, is the Gospel message. That is what Jesus has done for us. God could have every right, when we upset Him, to treat us with anger and rage. He has every right. But, look at what He has done for us. Look at how He has forgiven us, for Jesus’ sake. And so our scripture reading says,
"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."
And then it says this,
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God."
Look at what God has done for us!
Will there be people who irritate us? Will there be people that become angry with us? Will there be people who will treat us in mean ways? Yes, there will. There will be, all of our lives. But here scripture tells us the solution to anger, bitterness and resentment. Here it says,
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God."
May we all say, "Oh there was day, there was a day, when I would have come at you with my fists for what you have done to me. I would have fought you to the death. But now, but now in Christ, my animosity has been buried in the grave with Christ. Now my resentment has been tossed into the abyss, where Jesus tossed all of my sins. And now, a New Man in me has come forth that wants to live for my Savior and be like my Savior." That is what it means to be imitators of God.
Forgiveness,
forgiveness is to be like God!
Scripture calls us to that. May we go forward, as God’s holy redeemed people, with a heart that says for Christ’s sake, because of what He has done for me, "I want to be kind. I want to be loving. I want to be forgiving. I want to be yielding. I want to be gentle." May we call on the Holy Spirit to help us with that, for Christ’s sake, because that builds and restores, instead of tears down.
I am going to end with this story. A couple of months ago I was at a board meeting, for the Synod. Many of you know Pastor John Moldstad, Sr., who used to be the Pastor at Western Koshkonong. He was talking about how he was at a meeting once, where two pastors were sitting across the table from one another. They were debating something. They were disagreeing with one another. And, their voices started to get a little louder. Their fingers started to point at each other. And, they began to get more and more angry, and more and more pointed with each other. Finally, the chairman, who was sitting watching all of this, said in a loud voice, "Christian Gentlemen."
With that, it all calmed down.
That is what we are. We are Christians. We are Christians. Jesus has paid for us with His blood. He has washed away all of our sin. And because of that, we are gentlemen and gentlewomen. And, because of that, we want to go forward and be imitators of Christ.
Amen.
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