Sermon in Minneapolis 31.10.2008

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us begin our services with opening prayer and thanksgiving. Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, again this evening we wish to bow the knees of our hearts before you in praise and thanksgiving.

Again, we wish to thank you for this opportunity that we can assemble around the hearing of your holy word, and that you can assure us of the forgiveness of sins, and of this, that we are a child of God. And all of this is through your Son, Jesus Christ, and all that he has done on our behalf.

We thank you for your kingdom. We thank you for the kingdom which you have established here upon this earth, and members of we can be through faith, owning the righteousness of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the assurance that we are a heir of heaven by faith.

So we ask that you would be with us again this evening. Bless our services. Comfort us with your word. And feed us with your everlasting gospel message. All of this we ask in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

According to one calendar, a text for this evening is from the gospel according to St. John, chapter 8. And I will read verses 31 through 36.

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

They answered him, We be Abraham's seed. And we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, You shall be made free.

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is a servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Amen.

On October 31st in the year 1517, a quite unknown monk, professor of theology, did something which had a profound impact on the world. He was a very famous monk. He had a major effect in the land of Germany and throughout Christendom at that time. He posted his 95 theses on the church door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany.

And now, looking back, historians call this event, in this day, the beginning of the Reformation. So therefore, always on the eve of All Saints Day, which is November 1st, officially tomorrow, the eve of All Saints Day is known as Reformation Day.

And according to one list of church documents, it says, The first thing that was written in the year 1517 was that the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, was the only one who could be called the Son of God. And so, according to one list of church documents, the first thing that was written in the year 1517 was the Holy Spirit.

And so, according to all the texts that I follow, one of the gospel texts assigned for this day is this portion that I read, which is from the gospel according to Saint John, chapter 8. How it ties in and relates with the topic of Reformation, I don't exactly see the close connection. But, nevertheless. It is on some of the church calendars. Not the LLC church calendar, not the Finnish Lutheran church calendar, but it is according to the American Lutheran church calendar, which I often follow as well.

So here, Jesus is visiting with the scribes and the Pharisees. And they are having a discussion. And they are questioning Jesus, who he is, and what are his credentials.

Of course, the scribes and the Pharisees are waiting, expecting for the fulfillment of the promise. And they are waiting. They are waiting. They are waiting for the fulfillment of the coming of the promised Messiah.

And now, Jesus is standing right before them. Face to face. Visiting with them. Looking at them. Eyeball to eyeball. And Evangelist John's words come true. He came. He came. He came to his own. On to his own. But his own received him not.

Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him. So in the company of listeners were also believers. And he comforts them, exhorts them. If you continue in my way, in my word, you are truly my disciples. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free.

Now the scribes and the Pharisees are listening to this conversation. And they ask, What is truth? Or was it Pontius Pilate? Or was it Pontius Pilate at the end of Jesus' life on the night before he was crucified? They were discussing the same topic and Pontius Pilate asked the question. Asked of Jesus, Jesus who said of himself, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. Pontius Pilate questions, what is the truth?

Then the scribes and the Pharisees pipe in when listening to Jesus visit with his own disciples and say to them that the truth shall make you free.

The scribes and the Pharisees then say that we are the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the seed of Abraham. Yes, they were physically of the seed of Abraham. They were the descendants of Abraham. And they were, we could say, true Jews. They had the Jewish pedigree. But there is more to being the seed of Abraham.

Last week, I was in a meeting with a man named Peter. And on that Wednesday evening, we had a discussion on the second chapter of Romans. And when the Apostle Paul is writing this letter to the Romans, in the first few chapters, he is establishing and showing the need for salvation.

The Jews who were the chosen people of Israel, often would look, we could say with their noses in the air, at the non-Jews, the Gentiles, and say in their minds that we are better than you. We are God's chosen people, his elect nation. We are going to heaven and only us.

So in chapter 1, Paul shows that yes, the Gentiles have lived, at least many of them, an open life of sin. And he goes on to describe many of the vices and the open sins that the Gentiles and the pagans had lived in. Therefore, they were sinners and in need of salvation.

But then in chapter 2, Paul says, Paul turns the mirror toward the promised nation of Israel, to the Jews. And he wishes to show and establish that they also are in need of salvation. They as well are sinners, even though they would consider themselves to be acceptable unto God just because of their being descendants of Abraham, because of their pedigree.

As they would state in chapter 9 of Romans, that we have the law. The law was given to us and only to us by Moses on Mount Sinai. We had the prophets. All of the prophets are of the nation of Israel. The covenants were given unto us. We had the temple and the list went on and on.

But then very clearly and in much detail, Paul shows in chapter 2 of Romans how, just because they had this pedigree, they were of the seed and were descendants of Abraham, they also were sinners and thus in need of salvation.

And so in a very similar way, this is what the scribes and the Pharisees are now saying and responding to Jesus when they were overhearing Jesus' visit with his disciples.

And they, the Pharisees, answered Jesus, we are Abraham's seed and we were never in bondage to any man.

This is quite interesting. Pharisees were very well read in scriptures. And they should have known the history of their own nation. Didn't they realize, didn't they remember simple historical facts that the people of Israel were, in the Bible, bondage of Egypt for 430 years. And it was Moses who then led the people of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt. And after 40 years, they were brought into the land of Canaan.

And didn't they remember that the northern nation of their country, known as Israel, fell to the great superpower of Assyria in the year 721? Didn't they remember that the southern nation of their country, called Judah, was conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and their own people were brought into Babylonian captivity?

And they were under the rule of the Roman Empire at that time. How could they then say that we were never in bondage to any man?

But Jesus, when he was speaking here about this topic of freedom and liberty, yes, he was talking about temporal freedom. And this is what the Jews were referring to as well. We are able to enjoy this free country, this land that we are living in.

And next week we will have elections, one of the processes of a free country. And we hope and pray that things will go according to God's plans. If they don't go according to our will, what our wishes are, we still wish to pray on behalf of our land and the government of our land.

All government, as Paul writes to the Romans, are of God. And we wish to give them our support. Even though at times, I'm sure our human portion would struggle with this concept at some time. But this is what the Bible says.

But do we realize what kind of sacrifices have been made, not only for our land, but for the people of Israel? And we wish to give them our support.

But do we realize what kind of sacrifices have been made, not only for our land, but for the people of Israel? And we wish to give them our support. In other lands as well, on behalf of temporal freedom and liberty in the outward sense, in the temporal sense.

One of the greatest wars fought on our soil was fought basically over these issues and these rights, such as slavery. And throughout history, there has been struggles around this issue and topic.

It was a very commonplace thing during the Bible times and during the time of the Apostle Paul that there were landowners who owned and possessed slaves. And the people known as slaves basically had very few, if any, human rights.

History relates that several landowners were out on a hunting trip in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. And of course, they had their slaves with them. And as they were returning, a large, angry bear came rushing toward them, ready to attack them.

And they were all in fear and actually defenseless. One of the slaves found and took up a spear, which was owned by one of the slave owners, and killed the bear and spared. And the bear killed the lives of everyone, the slave owners included.

The slave was punished and was even put to death for unlawfully possessing a weapon which was not his own. That slave had no human rights whatsoever.

Another time, a slave owner had a weapon of his own, and was having a feast in his own home. And the slaves, of course, were serving them at the table. One slave dropped the dish. The dish broke. And that slave was severely reprimanded and even severely punished.

So you can see the struggles with human rights in regards to the issue of slavery. And this is what our country fought over in the 1860s.

But many lives have been sacrificed for the freedom, for the liberty that we are able to enjoy living in this land, of the home of the brave. And that's what we're fighting for. We're fighting for the freedom of the free.

The Civil War itself had 620,000 human sacrifices on behalf of fighting over this land. In World War II, 17 million people died, 400,000 of them. And that's the end of the Civil War. The Americans were Americans. And Vietnam war to mention another. Fifty-four Americans gave their life fighting on behalf of human freedom and freedom of this land.

But here, Jesus is talking more about... more than just about temporal outwardness. Word freedom.

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is a servant of sin. So now he is talking about spiritual liberty and spiritual bondage.

And the servant abides not in the house forever, but the Son, who is Christ Jesus, abides forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

So earlier Jesus mentioned that the truth shall make you free. We mentioned already that the Pharisees did not understand the truth. They did not understand this concept at all.

Pontius Pilate responded to Jesus when the truth himself, Christ Jesus, was speaking to him. Pontius Pilate says, What is truth?

The truth is this, that because and as a result of the fall into sin, every human being is a sinner. It is very difficult for us to often confront this issue of truth.

There are many people in the world and in society who try to flee from the truth, perhaps fleeing into some fantasy world, make-believe world, and perhaps try to protect themselves by taking refuge in God. And this is a very important point.

For example, things such as alcohol and drugs. But just thinking of a simple issue or topic or idea as growing old.

Many of you elders remember when you were young, nimble, perhaps very athletic. And now in the eve of the year, you are a man. You are a man. You are a man. You are a man.

In the end of your life, your footsteps are getting shorter. Your hair is getting thinner. Perhaps getting gray. And perhaps some are even balding. Perhaps wrinkles are appearing on your face.

This is part of the realities of life. For some people, it is very difficult to face and confront this concept. Face the truth.

But so it is. It may be difficult to accept the truth that before the Almighty God, we are but small and insignificant.

Even though human beings have been given so much wisdom, so much capabilities, it wasn't long ago that the computers filled up an entire room, or the CPU of the computer filled up an entire room.

And now the brains of a computer are like a small speck, a most invisible speck that can be placed on our forefinger.

So, human beings have been given so much wisdom that they can send spaceships off into the atmosphere, land them on the moon, Mars, and so on and so forth.

In spite of this seemingly so great wisdom, in comparison to and before the face of God, the Almighty, we are small and insignificant.

And the Bible says, He knows our frame. He knows that we are only but dust.

But, as we were mentioning, there are truths. The truth is this, that we are all sinners as the result of the fall into sin. There is no one who is righteous, on their own behalf. No, not one. All have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God.

And there is also this truth, as Jesus himself is the truth. I am the truth, says Jesus. But I am also the way, the pathway to heaven. And I am also life. And I am also life. The source of everlasting life.

And God is love. God loved the world and all mankind so much that he sent his only Son into the world to be the propitiation of sins, the sacrifice and the payment, the redemption price for the sins of all mankind.

And this gift of salvation we can own by faith through the merit works of Christ Jesus.

But the truth is also this, whosoever lives after the flesh shall die, but he who mortifies the deeds of the flesh through the Spirit shall live.

This is also the truth that there is no condemnation, as Paul writes to the Romans, for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The truth is also this, that the Gospel liberates thinking of a person in the darkness of unbelief, traveling perhaps with a pricked and awakened conscience, searching for a merciful God, wanting to be released from pangs of conscience, and is like a bird in a snare, is like in a trap.

When such a person is able to hear that freeing Gospel, liberating Gospel, those snares and the binds of sin are broken. That person is released.

And as the Psalmist says, it is like the bird in a snare, it is like the bird has been released from a cage and from a snare.

That person then experiences freedom, liberty, happiness in their heart and soul, when sins are now forgiven and they have peace with God in heaven.

We have also ourselves personally, time and again, experienced when sin has beset us, made the journey slow, when we have been able to approach the mercy seat, the throne of grace, and able to hear that forgiveness of sins, how those burdens have been removed.

And again we can walk the steps, the light footsteps of a child of God on the narrow way of life.

But we still have this continual struggle, the struggle just as we could say Jacob had when he was wrestling with that angel all night long on the banks of that one river.

We have to lament and say as the Apostle Paul, the good that I would desire to do and wish to do that I often find myself not doing. And the evil that I would wish to refrain from doing, unfortunately, that I find myself often doing.

And therefore the Apostle Paul cries out, O wretched man that I am, who can release me, deliver me from this body of sin and death.

So it is very important that there is this proper, wholesome, fear of God and fear of sin.

If this fear of God and fear of sin is lost, what will then protect that person from falling deeper and deeper into the mires of sin?

We could say that many nations, many kingdoms have fallen, because of this false liberty, false freedom.

And case in point is the Roman Empire, which was a ruling empire for over 300 years, a great superpower.

But we could say that they disintegrated from within because of their own immoral lifestyle. And from there, the rampant life of sin in that country.

The country actually fell apart and eventually disintegrated from within.

And if we could remember even the nation of Israel, time and time again, when the people of Israel were trusting in God and obedient unto God and living according to His wishes. God protected them. God helped them. And we could say it was on their side.

But when they succumbed to idol worship and false idolatry and things of such nature, it seemed like it was as if this protecting hand of God was taken away.

They would fall to the enemies and they would experience a life which was not pleasing to them as a nation and a people.

When King Balthazar was there in Babylonian captivity, or when the people of Israel were in the Babylonian captivity, Daniel was asked to explain a dream to the king of the nation under whose rule they were.

At that time, the kingdom of Babylon.

And writing had appeared on the wall during one of the celebrations that the king, King Balthazar, was having in his palace.

And we could say it was a celebration where the wine was flowing and I'm sure very immoral life was happening in that house, in that palace.

In the midst of everything, a hand appeared, wrote something on the wall and then the hand disappeared.

Nobody could decipher what that writing was until Daniel was called before the king and asked if he could explain what that writing was.

Daniel turns to the king and he says, you have been weighed in the scales of God and you have been found lacking. You don't meet up to the measuring rod of God. You are found wanting and lacking.

King Balthazar lost his life that night when the enemy nation attacked.

What a sad ending for a person when he had just heard that before God, you are found lacking and wanting.

And the entire nation of Babylon, soon after this, was conquered by the next superpower, Persia.

So many kingdoms have been destroyed. Have fallen, have been conquered, have been overthrown because they have attempted to live the way of false liberty and freedom.

Bringing this idea even closer home, how the morals have changed in our society, in Western society, even in the last few decades.

A friend of mine recalled in the 60s when he was going to school, that was in middle school perhaps, and a boy and a girl got caught walking hand in hand down the school hallway.

And did they even give each other a hug? The entire school was called in through the school auditorium. The principal told the entire school, the entire audience, what grievous thing this boy and the girl had done.

They were expelled from school.

Would such a thing happen today in our schools some 30 some years later? I highly doubt it.

I'm sure you school children would see similar occurrences perhaps in school on a daily occurrence.

But still stands valid and enforced the sixth commandment, thou shall not commit adultery.

We were mentioning earlier that wars have been fought on behalf of outward freedom and liberty for nations of the world.

And in the land of our forefathers, Finland, I'm sure those of Finnish descent, those who have migrated to this land from Europe well know the history of your own native country.

And the wars that were fought beginning in 1939 and concluding finally in, was it 1945 or did it go into 1946? Very difficult times for that land and that country.

Finland was battling against Russia during the cold winter months, during the middle of the winter. The battle was fierce.

And I'm sure as Finland was a much smaller country, was much more poorly equipped. And it seemed that the band of Finnish soldiers at that time were being heavily threatened by the great enemy of Russia.

But then it became quiet and as if an open avenue of escape appeared.

And the Finnish soldiers escaped out of the field to the edge of the forest and were able to hide in the midst of the trees and behind rocks and dig themselves into foxholes.

While they're hiding in shelter from the middle of the field, a voice begins to call out, is there a believer here? Is there any believers here?

There hiding in the forest was a believer who heard the voice and thought to himself that I have been such a poor believer. I have not even been able to have the strength or the courage to confess my faith.

But now he hears that voice calling from the middle of the field.

A wounded soldier is there, slowly dying.

The believer behind shelter recognizes the voice. It's his childhood friend. It's his neighbor.

And they had gone to services together. They had time and again had services each, asked for the gospel for themselves.

The wounded soldier had been overtaken by sin and gone astray and onto the ways of unbelief.

The other soldier, the believing soldier, there behind the rocks, in shelter, decides, receives strength and courage to go and meet that wounded dying soldier out in the middle of the field.

He leaves his weapons behind, crawls on the snow, on the ground, to meet the dying soldier.

His strength was so far gone when he reached the wounded one, that he wasn't able to any longer speak, but only with an asking gaze, asked for the gospel.

And the believer was able to preach unto him the gospel of forgiveness of sins.

And there in the middle of the field, heaven was able to meet earth.

He was able to experience the gospel, hear the pleas of the chains, and who may hold whole great praise, and draining into his heart his wrath with the qualifications that he has had.

As the thief on the cross, that grace of repentance, there ever at the last hour, when three individuals were hanging on the middle, asking one, and he says, Today you shall be with me in paradise.

And at that moment, the thief was able to be translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son.

Today, which is Reformation Day, is also the eve of All Saints Day.

According to Finnish tradition, tomorrow the Finns will, perhaps many and for the most part, go out into the cemeteries of their land to the gravesite of their near ones and their loved ones.

Perhaps light a candle and spend a moment of silence there at the tomb.

Many of the tombstones in the cemeteries of our lands and in the lands throughout the world are marked with a cross.

A cross which is a symbol of Christianity, which reminds us what Jesus has done on our behalf.

He has fought that, we could say, fiercest battle, when he who was sinless, he was blameless, he who was innocent, gave his life, offered that perfect sacrifice on our behalf.

And I'm sure the enemy of souls was rejoicing that evening, for it looked like he was about to gain the victory.

And we could imagine that the fires of hell were burning out of him, and he was going to die.

And he was burning hotter than ever before that night.

Now he would conquer the kingdom of God and his only son.

For the enemy of souls it was, we could imagine, a time of rejoicing.

There Jesus outstretches his hands to be nailed to the cross. His feet were pierced with nails and his sword was put.

And he was buried in his side.

Jesus finally calls out, Father, into your hands I give my life. Give my spirit.

And he gave up the ghost and he died.

But fortunately it did not get left here.

Even though he was buried in a tomb and sealed with a rock, he rose victorious from the grave.

He was a victor over sin, death, and the power of the enemy of souls.

And he appeared to his disciples who were hidden behind locked doors because of the fear of the Jews, fearing that the same outcome would happen to them as well.

But Jesus appeared to them behind those locked doors and did not reprimand them for not praying.

Jesus and the Jews did not pray, not staying at his side when he was captured in the garden.

He did not have a whip in his hand to punish them or fire in his eyes to solemnly scold them.

But no, lovingly he comes to them and he says, Peace be unto you.

As my Father has sent me, so I send you.

Receive the Holy Ghost.

Whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven unto them.

We continue our life here in this world.

Continue walking on this narrow way of life.

Continuing in this battle against the threefold enemy, the devil, the world, and our own flesh.

And our source of strength, our source of might for this battle is alone in the power of God, which is the gospel of Christ Jesus.

And therefore, Jesus says these words, If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

We recall when that woman, who was an adulteress, was caught in the very act.

And the law of Moses was very harsh.

Such a person should be stoned to death.

And so the Pharisees, living by the letter of the law, brought her into the middle of the market square, had stones in their hands, and were ready to begin casting them at this woman.

Suddenly, Jesus appears on the scene.

The Pharisees asked Jesus, What would you do in this situation?

Jesus didn't say anything.

Stooped to the ground.

He wrote something on the ground, which is unknown to us, but it got inscribed in the hearts of the Pharisees.

Jesus stood up and he said, Whoever is sinless, whoever is blameless, cast, throw the first stone at this woman.

Jesus stoops down the second time.

All of the Pharisees departed one by one.

For they knew Jesus could look beyond their surface, into their heart, and know what secret things that they had been living in.

When Jesus said, faithful crowd of the ágib preachers ágib preachers, seal their doors, since every brother called them, they healed their hearts.

All of the LCU wouldn't birth saw, and God didn't dey false the back of his hand.

He went east.

Physically lost soul.

Tic handed away his life.

God took the recipe from a womançon not mature such that.

This is the secret eucalyptus today, the truth is this.

She was released from her life, her previous life, now to become a child of God, now to be walking as a member of the kingdom of God here upon this earth.

But now the walk of a child of God begins, and it continues as it does continue with us, daily and momentarily.

Until we take our last breath in this life.

So then Jesus continues with a follow-up statement.

A follow-up statement that not only applied to her, but applies to you and I today as well.

Jesus said to that woman, go and sin no more.

Is it so that we have... We have never sinned anymore.

I'm sure it's our desire to avoid the places of sin, not to fall into sin.

That would be and is our heart's desire.

But many times we have found ourselves weak.

We have stumbled.

We have even fallen.

But the grace doors, the fountains of grace are open.

And even now, even at this moment, you can hear from the voice of Jesus Christ, God's only son, all the way from heaven.

You can believe just as you are, just as you find yourself.

Sin's forgiven in his name and precious atonement blood.

The power of the gospel lifts us, carries us, protects us, and will one day bring us to our... Home in heaven.

In Jesus name. Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us.

The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.