Church Sermon - December 4, 2005

PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD!

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Isaiah 40:1-11
Gospel Lesson; Mark 1:1-8
Sermon Text; 2 Peter 3:8-14

Did you hear about the guy who trained himself to fall asleep, during the sermon every Sunday? He would fold his arms over his chest, and turn his head a certain way, so that the sun would reflect off his glasses in such a way that the pastor could not see his eyes. The pastor could not see him sleeping. The man had also trained himself to wake up at the end of the sermon. He had taught himself to subconsciously listen for the phrase that the pastor always said at the end of the sermon. At the end of the sermon the pastor would always say, "Please rise." And so, when he subconsciously heard those words, he would open his eyes, and stand up.

One Sunday the pastor was preaching, and this man had his arms folded over his chest, totally asleep. The pastor was preaching about Hell. As he preached about Hell, he said to the congregation, "If there is anybody in this congregation who wants to go to Hell, please rise."

As soon as the man heard the phrase, "Please rise," he stood up. He looked around and noticed that it was dead quiet in the church, and all these horrified eyes were looking at him. He did not know what had happened, but what he did know was that he was standing up and saw the pastor standing up in the pulpit. So, he said, "Pastor I don’t know what we are voting on, but it looks like you and I are the only ones in favor."

So there can be a danger in falling asleep in church.

Now, I would like to tell you a true story, from scripture, about a young man, a teenager, who fell asleep in church. This takes place in the book of Acts. It happened in the city of Troas. St. Paul was spending his last day in the city of Troas, and then he was hoping to travel from there to Jerusalem. They would probably never see him again, and so, the congregation in Troas met for their one, last, worship service with their pastor, St. Paul.

They met, the Bible tells us, in the third floor of a house. And so, you can imagine, it was ‘way up there.’ The Bible says there were many lamps burning, so you can imagine all of those lamps throwing off heat and it getting warm, and then hot. The Bible tells us that Paul preached until midnight. It says he went on and on. And so, the people were maybe getting tired.

In the congregation, there was a young man by the name of Eutycus, who was probably a teenager. He was sitting, listening to Paul’s sermon. The Bible tells us he was sitting in a window. The Bible also tells us that as Paul went on and on, Eutycus fell into a deep sleep.

You know what happened to Eutycus. He fell out of the window. He fell out of the window, fell three stories, hit the ground, and he died. So, it can be dangerous to fall asleep in church.

Thank God, St. Paul went and raised Eutycus from the dead. But when I think of the story of Eutycus, I picture Eutycus sitting in that window, with one leg dangling into the church and the other leg dangling outside, into the world. That reminds me that all of us can put ourselves in a situation like Eutycus did. He put himself into a very dangerous situation, didn’t he? He put himself in a dangerous predicament, as he had one foot dangling in the church and the other one dangling out in the world. And that reminds me that you and I also can be tempted to put ourselves into that situation. We can be tempted to think, "I want to have one foot firmly planted in the church, but I also want to have one foot firmly planted in the world. I want to have the best of both worlds."

Now, what do I mean, ‘having one foot planted firmly in the church?’ The Holy Christian Church is the body of believers. It is those who believe in Jesus, as their Savior. And, certainly we want to be planted in the church, the Holy Christian Church. Someone who is planted in the Holy Christian Church is someone who believes, "I am a sinner. I know that I have sinned against God. And, I deserve God’s punishment. But I am sorry for my sins. And, I believe that Jesus is my only Savior from sin. I believe there is no other way to Heaven. I believe I cannot earn my way to Heaven. I believe it is given to my as a free gift. I believe Jesus’ perfect life has been given to me. I believe Jesus died for my sins. I believe I am forgiven."

Someone who is planted in the church may say, "I want to cling to the pure teaching of God’s Word. I want to be correct in my doctrine."

Someone who is planted in the church may say, "I want to spend time with my Christian friends. I want to be part of the choir. I want to serve at church. I want to be on a board. I want to be in a committee. I want to be in the Youth Group."

So, we have a tendency to think we can have the best of both worlds, having one foot firmly planted in the church, like that, and then have the other foot firmly planted in the world. Scripture describes ‘the world’ as everything that is opposed to God. It is evil. And it is opposed to the Will of God.

So, for example, a person may say, "I want to be a believer. But, I also really like to listen to songs on the radio that I know my Savior would not approve of. But, I want to have the best of both worlds. I want to have one foot firmly planted in the church and one foot firmly planted in the world and partake of the things of this world."

Or, it might be someone who says, "I would like to watch certain movies, or certain things on TV that I know my Savior would disapprove of. But, I want to have the best of both worlds. I want one foot planted in the church, and the other one planted in the world. That way I can have the best of both worlds."

It may be someone who says, "I want to set priorities, that I know aren’t totally scriptural priorities. I would like to be very wealthy. I would like to pursue popularity. I would like to have a lot more friends than I have."

They may pursue that and make it a bigger priority than it should be. That’s having one foot planted in the church and one foot planted in the world.

It may be someone saying, "I want to hang around with certain people who I know lead me to do things that are opposed to the Will of God. But, I want to be with those people. And, I want to do those things. They are fun." Again, one foot planted in the church, one foot planted in the world - the best of both worlds.

It may be somebody who says, "I want to go on Friday nights and have ‘a few too many,’ because we sure do have a lot of fun when we do that."

And so, we put ourselves in a dangerous predicament, when we think like Eutycus, having one foot planted in the church and one foot planted in the world.

What happens when we have one foot planted in the world is we leave our ankle open and the devil grabs hold of it. The devil is going to attempt, through the things of this world, the ungodly, the unholy things of this world, to try to pull us out of that window so that we lose our footing in the church and we fall asleep in our faith. Jesus said,

"When the Son of Man comes back,

do not let Him find you sleeping.

See to it that you have not lost your faith

(your footing in the church)

in Jesus."

Today’s scripture reading reminds us that we are to be prepared for the day that Jesus comes back. That reminds us of several things. Number one, it reminds us that it will come very suddenly, and unexpectedly. It says that Jesus will come back like a thief, when nobody expects Him. There He will be. And, we want to be ready, when that day comes.

The Bible also reminds us that we don’t know when that day will be. It says with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. God has a different concept of time than you and I do. We don’t know, but it may be today that He comes back. And, we want to be ready on the day He comes back.

The Bible also tells us, in today’s scripture reading, that it will be a catastrophic day. It says the mountains will disappear with a roar and the elements will melt in fervent heat. That is a day that we want to be ready for.

And so, our scripture reading today says, "Make every effort, make every effort to be found blameless and spotless and at peace with God on the day He comes back." There scripture tells us Jesus is coming back, and we do not want to be found asleep. We are to make every effort to be found spotless and blameless and at peace with God on Judgment Day.

Well, how do we do that? How can we see to it that on Judgment Day I am found spotless, and blameless, and at peace with God? First of all, we need to understand that I am not spotless, not by any means. I have committed many sins. My life is filled with many sins. And, on my own, I am not spotless in God’s eyes. And, I am not blameless in God’s eyes, either. God could blame me for many sins, all of which would be true. And, I certainly do not deserve to be at peace with God, because of all the sins I have committed.

But, a Christian is one who recognizes that, repents of those sins, and then in faith trusts in the promises of God. And, the promises of God are this. While my life is not spotless, the life of Jesus Christ was and is spotless. Jesus lived a holy, perfect, spotless, sinless life for me, and by virtue of God’s promise that holy, spotless life of Jesus is guaranteed to me, as if it were mine.

The promise of God is that while I am not blameless, Jesus took my blame as His own.

There on the cross,

By virtue of God’s promise, He has declared, for Christ’s sake, (because my sins are forgiven), I stand blameless in His eyes. And, I am at peace with God.

Anyone who believes that, believes in Jesus as their Savior, on the Day of Judgment will be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with God. And, it is not because of what we have done. It is because we trust, we have faith in Jesus as our Savior.

And so, our scripture reading tells us to make every effort to see to it that we stay in faith in Jesus as our Savior. Two weeks ago we talked about the fact that that implies that we certainly want to be faithful in our use of Word and Sacrament, because through that the Holy Spirit keeps us in our faith.

Today’s scripture reading touches on another point. And that is this: As Christians, we also need to be aware that there are dangers to our faith. The devil will try to use those to try to steal our faith away, which gets us back to Eutycus. Knowing that Jesus is coming back again, and that we are looking forward to that day, our scripture reading asks, "what kind of people ought you to be?"

That’s a good question, isn’t it? What type of people ought you to be? Then it answers it, by saying "You ought to live holy and godly lives, as you look forward to the day of God."

There, scripture tells us that we should not be people who have one foot planted in the church and one foot planted in the ungodly world. We should live holy and godly lives. We should flee sin and have both of our feet, strive to have both feet, planted firmly in the church.

Once again, what happens when we think we can have the best of both worlds and have one foot planted in the world? What a danger that is to our soul, because the devil will use that as an opportunity to grab onto your ankle and try to pull you out of the church, pull you out of faith in Jesus as your Savior.

Suppose, right now, you are living with one foot in the church and one foot in the world. And maybe, the way you are living in the world is that you despise those in authority, particularly your parents. You think that is ok. "My friends despise their parents, too, and I despise mine." The devil will grab hold of your ankle and he will use that to try to pull you all of the way out of the church. He may say to you, "If you despise your parents, then why would you ever cling to their religion? Why would you cling to what they believe?" And so, pull you away from your faith, so that you are not ready, when Jesus comes back again.

The devil may, through priorities, see that you have one foot in the world, and that you are very interested in money and fame. He may grab hold of your ankle, give it a little tug, and say, "Well, let’s go that way." And soon, he makes that your only priority, and you have lost your faith. You have fallen asleep and you don’t have a foot in the church, anymore. The devil may try to yank you out of that window.

Or, he may get you to fall into some sin that you love, and you fall so deeply that he can grab your ankle, give it a hard yank and say, "Well! Now, God won’t love you, anymore. He will never forgive you for what you have done. You might as well despair of your faith."

And so, it is a very dangerous position for us to be involved in the things of this world, the ungodly things of this world. Rather, when scripture asks us, "What kind of people ought you to be?" It tells us, "You ought to live holy and godly lives, as you look forward to the day of God."

Our desire should be to flee the things of this world and to live for and in our Savior. I love the catechism, when it talks about in the Lord’s Prayer. There are two very significant petitions. One of them is this:

What does this mean? God’s good and gracious will is done, when He breaks and hinders every evil council and will that would not let us hallow His name, nor let His Kingdom come, such as the devil, the world, and our own flesh, but He guards and keeps us so that we stay steadfast in His Word and in our faith, until the end. This is God’s good and gracious will.

And then there is the petition that says,

What does this mean? God certainly tempts no one, but we pray in this petition that He would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our own flesh may not deceive us, nor lead us into misbelief, despair, or other great shame and vice. But when we are thus tempted, that we would overcome, and thus retain the victory.

And so, scripture calls us, as we look forward to the coming of our LORD, to stay away from those things that could rob us from our faith, and rather live godly and holy lives, so that our faith is protected in Jesus, as our Savior.

Again, our scripture reading says, "Make every effort, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him", when He comes back. That means to be found in faith.

That reminds me of a couple of weeks ago, when a young man, (who lives in Deforest, which is kind of a long way away), was out in the lobby, before church. I said, "Great to see you!"

He said, "Oh, I am kind of tired, this morning."

So I asked him, "Why are you tired?"

He said, "Well, I wanted to get to church today, but I could not find a ride, so I got up in the middle of the night, and I have been walking for a long time."

Now, there was a young man who made every effort to have his feet firmly planted in the church. Scripture tells us "Make every effort,

to be found spotless,

blameless,

and at peace with Him,"

when Jesus comes back.

Scripture calls us to remain firm and steadfast in our use of the Word and Sacrament, to avoid those things, those unholy things, that could steal us away from our faith, and to strive to live godly and holy lives.

May God grant that to us, for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

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