Sunday
02/28/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “He speaks with power and truth”
(“Why Jesus is the Savior” series: Part 3 of 6)
Old Testament
Lesson: Psalm 63:1-8
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 13:1-9
My brothers and sisters, my friends, welcome once again on this
day, which is the Third Sunday in this Season of Holy Lent. The third Sunday in
this season of reflection, of repentance, and of growing closer to Jesus
Christ. This season that we prepare our hearts and our minds for Jesus’ coming
death and resurrection. During these forty-days of Lent then, we have the opportunity
to grow in love, kindness, charity, and sympathy. We have the chance to become
more like the risen one, like Jesus.
In moving through this Season of Lent, I began a six-week preaching
series two-weeks called “Why Jesus is the savior”. Specifically, this sermon
series speaks to the claim of the historic Christian Church, to the claim of
most Christians throughout history, that Jesus Christ was and is the savior.
That he died for our sins, rose again on the third day, and that he lives and
reigns in glory forever. As I have said the past couple of weeks, the historic
claims that many Christians make about Jesus Christ couldn’t be higher.
These faith claims, these theological beliefs about Jesus
Christ are ones that have been affirmed over and over throughout the centuries.
When looking at the gospels, do we have any indications that Jesus could have
truly been the Messiah? When I ask this, I mean did Jesus do or say anything in
the gospels that can lead us to believe that he could be the savior, that
Christians for centuries have claimed him to be?
Well the content and the scholarship on this topic couldn’t
be greater, and the amount of examples in the gospels themselves are numerous.
In doing a six part series on “Why Jesus is the savior,” in this season of Holy
Lent, I am looking at just six examples in the gospels that could indicate to
us that Jesus Christ is indeed the savior of the world.
I realize that some people believe in and read the gospels
differently, and in this preaching series I am presently some of the claims, some
the narratives, and some of the events that Jesus Christ was involved in. If
these claims, these narratives, and these events occurred, as they are written,
it would seem that Jesus must be the Messiah, the savior. For how could he have
said and done all that is written about him?
In the first week of this preaching series, I spoke about
how Jesus Christ “out smarted and resisted the devil”. This occurred when Jesus
was tempted for 40-days in the wilderness. If this story has any truth to it,
which I personally believe it does, it would seem only the savior, only God in the
flesh could resist and outsmart the devil in the wilderness for 40-days like
this.
Last
week, I preached about how Jesus said himself that he “throws out demons and
heals people”. If Jesus were only a man, only a prophet, then how could he have
the power to cure any and all ailments? To me, Jesus must be the Messiah, the
savior, because had the power to heal and exorcise all people. I believe that
only God could do that.
This week, I will talk about how Jesus “speaks with power
and truth”. Next week I will talk about in the gospels how Jesus “loves and
care for all people.” The week after that on Sunday March 13th, we
hear about how Jesus was and is “the anointed one”. On Palm Sunday, will hear
how Jesus Christ is the savior, because “People see him, and know the Messiah
has come”.
As we move through this Holy season, we are called to grow
closer to God, closer to Jesus Christ. As we do this, some of us wrestle with
Jesus, as try to understand him better. Perhaps we ask ourselves, why do many claim
that Jesus was the messiah one might ask? Some might ask, why do some claim
that Jesus was God in the flesh on earth?”
Today our example in the gospel of Luke, of why we could
make the argument that he is the messiah, the savior, is that Jesus Christ on
earth “spoke with power and authority”. Jesus stood toe to toe with kings,
governors, religious leaders, and always proclaimed the “Good News” that was
and is his gospel. That God’s kingdom is near, that God’s kingdom is coming.
That in him and through, we can do all things.
For some of us in this season of Holy Lent, we may look at
the parts of ourselves, the parts our souls that are sinful, that separate us
from God. The Psalmist write in Psalm 63 from this morning, “God! My God! It’s
you—I search for you! My whole being thirsts for you! My body desires you in a
dry and tired land, no water anywhere” (Ps. 63:1, CEB). The Psalmist then ends
this reading for this morning with, “My whole being clings to you; your strong
hand upholds me” (Ps. 63:8, CEB). Jesus Christ is sometimes called the “Man of
sorrows,” as at the end of this season of Lent, he will betrayed, beaten, and
die to show us what love is.
In our brokenness in this season of Lent, how do we allow
the power of Jesus Christ to enter into our brokenness, and into our souls? For
if Jesus is the Messiah, the savior, as the church has largely proclaimed for
centuries, how do we let him change us in this season? How do we become more
like Jesus Christ?
The Apostle Paul in his first epistle or letter to the
Corinthians from this morning, talked about the people of God connected to
Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul says, “They drank from a spiritual rock that
followed them, and the rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 3b, CEB). When Jesus asked the Apostle
Peter in the gospel of Matthew 16:16 who Peter said he was, “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt.
16:16, NRSV).
The same Apostle Peter that abandoned
Jesus on the day of crucifixion, who denied knowing him three times, and who
did many other things, claimed Jesus to be the Messiah, the savior. Did he “get
it” all at once, in the way of faith? No, he didn’t. Holy Lent isn’t about
figuring it all out, but it is about going to the source of love, light, and
life. Growing closer to God, to his son Jesus Christ, through the sanctifying
power of the Holy Spirit. That is what Lent is about.
So I am now going to move into the
segment of my sermon that I like to refer to as “Pastor Paul’s Minor
Confessions”. As you heard, I got some very good and affirming news from our UNYUMC
Board of Ordained Ministry on Friday night. They continued to affirm my calling
to serve Jesus Christ, and approved me to continue to move towards ordination.
So it is easy for me this morning to
sound like a hero, or sound like that I am bullet proof. When I woke up on
Wednesday morning, I found myself gripped with fear and worry about having to
go through multiple interviews. I felt a lack self-confidence and fear. Then in
the early afternoon my friend and my brother Rev. Roger Smith, went to be with
the Lord. It seemed like that God used me in my brokenness, and in my many
imperfections to pray with his family. I then went to spend some time with my ministry
mentor Rev. Harold Wheat in Dryden. Rev. Wheat encouraged me, reminded of who I
serve, and to whom I belong. He anointed me with oil for leadership. While I
still felt nervous and worried, it was somewhat better after that.
So I showed up on Thursday night, and
interviewed all day on Friday. I was still tired, nervous, and still had some
doubts. I was vulnerable, but when went to bed on Thursday night and woke up on
Friday morning, I called upon Jesus, my messiah, my savior to walk with me. I
did everything that I could to place my full trust in him, and he delivered me.
He led me.
Why do I say Jesus Christ is the
savior the world, the messiah, because he leads me, your pastor, when I feel I
have nothing to give. When I feel afraid and worried, he leads me, despite
myself.
In the gospel reading this morning
Jesus tells us in Luke 13:4, “No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts
and lives, you will die” (Lk. 13:4, CEB). Jesus then says, “I tell you, but
unless you change your hearts and live, you will die just as they did” (Lk.
13:5, CEB).
Life then, will still have its pains,
it will still have sometimes that things are hard. We will still days, weeks,
month, and maybe even years that we don’t understand, that we hurt. That maybe
we feel like we are in darkness. Yet God is with us. In our brokenness, in our
frailty, when we give what we have to God, to Jesus Christ, he can lead us with
what little we have.
It would seem to me on Wednesday I had
an experience like the Apostle Peter had when he began walking on the water,
and then looked down at the water, got nervous, and sank. Just like Peter though,
Jesus recued me and lifted me up. This is what Lent is about. Allowing the
savior of the world to lift us up, to draw closer to him, and to be changed by
his love.
Some might say though, “but why does
it seem to take so long sometimes?” Well Jesus this morning tell us the parable
of the “fig tree” (Lk. 13:6, CEB). Now as a side note, I read that many fig
trees take about three years from the time that they begin growing to produce
fruit. The fig tree in this parable was three years old and had not produced
any fruit (Lk. 13:7, CEB). As the man was about to tear the fig tree out of the
ground the gospel says, “The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year,
and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. Maybe it will produce fruit
next year; if not, then you can cut it down” (Luke 13:8, CEB).
Sometimes my sisters and brothers, we
suffer, sometimes bad things happen, but Jesus Christ came to change our
hearts. Even though we might feel stuck, even though we feel like that maybe we
have not born fruit. Jesus like a gardener pleads our case. He fights for us,
and works to grow us, so that like a fig tree, we bear fruit. When we put our full
trust in the Lord, it doesn’t mean things will become easy, or that we will have
no struggles, but it mean that we are trusting the living God, who lives in
reigns forever.
Christian
musician Lauren Daigle speaks these words in in her song “How Can it Be”: “I am
guilty, ashamed of what I've done, what I've become. These hands are dirty I
dare not lift them up to the Holy One. You plead my cause, you right my wrongs,
you break my chains, you overcome, you gave your life, to give me mine, you say
that I am free, how can it be? Yea, how can it be? Yeah.”
In
the season of Holy Lent, do we truly believe that in our sufferings, and in our
sorrows that God is with us? My brothers and sisters, in this season of Holy
Lent, let us pray, read scripture, love each other, be generous, give away what
we don’t need, and become more like Jesus. For in him and through him all
things are possible. For he “spoke with power and truth”. He spoke of our need
to change our hearts, to believe in him to follow him, and to trust him. Even
though life can be hard, let us strive to become more like Jesus, the one who “spoke
with power and truth”. All praise be to the living God, his son Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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