Sermon in Minneapolis 01.06.2008

May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us this hour and always. Let us quieten in joining together to open our services of prayer and thanksgiving.

Our dear Heavenly Father, holy, righteous, all-knowing God, humbly we draw an eye unto you in prayer asking for your presence and blessing. Open unto us, dear Father, your word; break it into such small morsels of grace that each and every one of us would receive that appointed portion. You, Father, know our needs, cares, trials, temptations, failures, and our sins. And you alone are able to give unto us that which we have need of from your word.

We also desire to pray on behalf of those who are able to be with us this hour at services. Remember them, Father. Comfort, strengthen, and refresh them on the narrow way of life. Give them power to believe. And refresh them in faith so they also can take one more step on this narrow way that leads to eternal life in heaven.

We pray on behalf of our nation, its citizens, and its leaders, our government, that they would so lead, guide, and fulfill that which is for the best of our nation, that we could continue to gather freely and worship you, dear Father. And we especially pray on behalf of those who are far away from family, friends, and from your congregation, serving our nation in those battles that we have at this time in this world. We ask, Father, that you would protect and strengthen them, that they would be able to self-battle, but also that they would be protected as your children unto the end of their days, along with all of your saints.

And as we so often experience our own prayers and petitions are imperfect and lacking, that we enclose all of them in that prayer as your Son has taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

I shall read for our mutual study for this service from the Gospel of Luke, its twelfth chapter, starting with the 31st verse, the following holy words of God. But rather, seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning. And ye yourselves, like unto men that await for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding. Then when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find watching.

Verily I say unto you, that he will gird himself, and make them to sit down at meat, and come forth, and serve them. And ye shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so. Blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour that ye think not. Amen.

Amen. These words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, as part of this twelfth chapter, where he is teaching of what are the proper priorities in life, temporal versus heavenly treasures. And in this chapter, he also runs into a man who, or a man comes to him, asking him to judge between him and his brother, so his brother would divide the inheritance with him. And Jesus responded, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

And so then Jesus uses that to speak and teach of covetousness, in other words, greed. That, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And then he followed that with the parable of the rich man who had so much abundance in his fields that he decided he would tear down his barns and his granaries and build bigger so he would have plenty of space to store all that he had. And God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

So Jesus' purpose is not to say that there is something wrong with working and endeavoring and earning. But his purpose has come so clearly from the parable is that where is the heart? And if that becomes the prime treasure of the heart, then one is in danger of losing one's soul.

So after that parable, then Jesus sets before us a whole series of examples where he points out how God takes care of the birds, sparrows, clothes the field and lilies. And then he ends that portion where he has pointed out so clearly how God is as our creator, the giver of life, able to bless us that seek not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind, for all these things do the nations of the world seek after. And your Father knows that you have need of these things.

So it's not like our Father, our dear Heavenly Father, doesn't know what our needs and our trials and our cares in this life are. But what is the prime importance and most important thing in life? So this text which starts with it in a rather strange way when you start in the middle of the chapter it says but rather seek ye the kingdom of God. It almost forces us, as I have done, to go back and look at what is the rather about? And the rather but rather refers to, of course, all this discussion and teaching about what is the most important? How do we set up the priorities of our lives? How do we set our energy and our investment in those things around us? Because that which we spend time, energy, in other words invest of ourselves into, that is what we will reap of.

So it's rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. It doesn't seem strange that Jesus is saying to his disciples seek ye the kingdom of God. By saying so, of course, he is not only teaching the disciples but all the listeners in the audience around him, but he is saying it also to his disciples and to us.

What does it mean someone is already owning the gift of faith and forgiveness of sins to seek the kingdom of God? What do we do, dear brothers and sisters, with our time and our energies? As I already mentioned, that where we invest our energies and our time, that is what is important to us in our lives and the lives of those around us.

And so if one of our prime focuses of our lives is not the kingdom of God and seeking for that which is the best for the kingdom of God, then of course we are in danger, in danger of being removed in the sense of not losing our citizenship, citizenry of the kingdom of God, but removed from those discussions, from those things that pertain to righteousness, to those instructions of the spirit of God in the congregation of God that keep us as his children, help us in the times and the days that we live so that we are, as Paul taught to the Ephesians, we have our loins girded with truth.

If we aren't there hearing the sound of the trumpet, how do we know where the enemy will attack? Because we all experience, each and every one of us experience that we are of this earth and earthly. We are so sin corrupt and our feet are so stuck in the mud often that we don't see, we don't necessarily recognize what the new attacks of the enemy are. But God has given, as he has promised to give in his kingdom, all those gifts that are needed.

The kingdom of God is full of eyes and ears and mouths, and those gifts that God gives to his children are those that enlighten his congregation, that speak those things which the spirit reveals as God needs to have revealed in his kingdom for all of us, for all of our salvations, so that we all can be one day rejoicing around the throne of God in heaven.

So it is good that we seek the kingdom of God, seek its best, seek its treasures and its blessings, and through his congregation God blesses us. And then Jesus says, and all these things shall be added unto you.

The one time the disciples actually asked Jesus that almost in the sense of saying, Hey, look at us, we forget, we forsook all that we had. Several of them were fishermen, of course, and they left their nets and they went and followed Jesus, and so they had no livelihood. And we know at least of Peter that he was married and had a family, and we can imagine the discussions there at home around the dinner table of, Okay, now what are we going to do to put bread on the table?

But when Jesus asked his own, Have you lacked for anything? They said no. Lord, God had blessed in abundance that which they and their own dear ones needed. But then Jesus also promised his own, Is anyone who was forsaken family, land, cattle, sisters, brothers, mother, father for my namesake shall receive a hundredfold here in this time and in the life to come, eternal life.

So God is able to bless his own in abundance. So he has blessed each and every one of us. Blessed you, my dear brothers and sisters. Blessed me with that wonderful experience of being able to believe my own sins forgiven, as you have been able to believe your own sins forgiven, and can be able to continue as his child to be surrounded, as we heard already today, by this great throng of escorts that helps us, keeps us on this narrow way of life.

So it is that we have been greatly blessed. But it is so that we often find ourselves in the battle, and Satan, of course, is so quick to point out our failures and therefore bring fear, that can such a one as I make it to the destination?

But Jesus knew these things, and he says, Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Fear is so familiar because we are so sinful. We experience that fear, of course, is a part of our lives, unfortunately, from a small age on that we experience those kinds of things in this world, in our lives. But it is good, of course, for children that the home is a secure environment. They can grow up being surrounded by the gospel, and mother and father are leading them and guiding them, raising them as children of God.

But Jesus also, in teaching his own, told them that they are being sent out as lambs among the wolves. Certainly, there is a very frightening prospect to think that how is it possible for such a one to survive among the wolves? A lamb would be torn asunder immediately. But God provides and protects and gives us that which we have need of.

So even though the battle is so fiery and the enemy is so fierce, we have someone who is battling on our behalf who overcame all on our behalf, our Lord and our master. He is the hero of the victory, our hero of this victory in war, and that is why we receive the kingdom from God, that God does provide for us his kingdom, his heavenly kingdom, that we can be its members and be in it and enjoy its goodness.

Sell that you have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

What is it, dear brothers and sisters, that you are buying and selling? This thought from this text came to my mind when I was thinking of the song where we sing in the second verse, "Come in these flowing fountains, find the spring of free salvation, and without money drink and buy, come heed God's invitation."

We buy and we sell without money, without price, the grace gospel of the kingdom of God. It is offered freely to those who are penitent. It is purchased without money and without price for our own soul salvation, because it has been paid for with the greatest of prices, the suffering and death of the Son of God.

And so we do sell and we buy. These grace stores are yet open, and they are not open because of who we are or what we are or what is happening in our times or in our lives, but they are open today because God has kept them open because he still has those in this world whom he will call through his kingdom, whom he will sanctify by the preaching of his gospel and bring into his kingdom.

And when that last elect is called in and his kingdom is no longer needed, then the grace doors are shut. Then we can no longer drink and buy or offer salvation. Or as Solomon wrote of it in the book of Ecclesiastes, which means the book of the preacher, in its last chapter he's speaking about the times when the gospel is no longer offered and faith can no longer be asked for and penitence can no longer be made. And he writes in this way:

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low.

So as God closes his grace doors, just as he closed and sealed the ark for Noah, there's no longer any more possibility to get in. We can imagine that there were many people who were pounding on the door of that ark trying to get in when the flood was upon them, but it was too late.

And so it will be also in the last day when God closes the doors to his kingdom. Many will run to and fro and seek for peace and they will not find it. But we live a precious time of grace and work when we can still sell and buy, and we can give those alms, those alms which are first and foremost, of course, our own sin-corrupt hearts to our Lord and Master to be cleansed by his blood.

But also, of course, as God blesses us in this time, we are then able also to support his work in his kingdom both by temporal means as well as by spiritual means.

But then Jesus says, Provide yourselves bags which wax not old. Brings to mind the picture of a beggar with a bag over his shoulder going from place to place, person to person, asking for something. We are, we always have been, the children of God, always have been grace beggars. Our journey began as a grace beggar and it will end as a grace beggar.

We will not become any better, any more holy, any more righteous in ourselves. The sin-corrupt portion will always be with us. We will always be dragging along this old stubborn sin-corrupt flesh, but we are nevertheless holy, righteous, sinless before God because of faith upon the merit works of his Son.

So these bags never get old. As the travelers in the wilderness experienced when they were 40 years in the wilderness, their shoes did not wear out and their clothes did not wear out for that whole 40 years.

A treasure in the heavens that will not fail, where no thief can approach, neither can the moth corrupt. We often, of course, see that in those things that we have here on this earth, whether it be our vehicles that we so need in this time that we live and the corrosion of the chemicals and the salt and the use, and they wear out. Our clothes can wear out and the moth can eat holes in them. Anything that we have, of course, could be stolen from us where the thief can reach in.

There's one treasure that cannot fail, cannot be stolen, cannot be taken away, and that is, as Jesus points here, a treasure in heaven where we are able then to one day, because our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven, we have that heavenly treasure and we can be once there forever.

As Luther sings, "The word they still shall let remain, nor any thanks have, for it is by our side upon the plain, with his good gifts and spirit take they then what they will, life goods all, and still even when their worst is done, they yet have nothing won, the kingdom ours remain."

It is a wonderful heavenly treasure that is ours because God has given unto us. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This points again to the primary emphasis of this teaching of Jesus from this first portion when this man came to him asking him to divide the inheritance, through this parable of the man tearing down his barns, to the examples of how God takes care of the world, he's pointing out, teaching, what are our priorities? Where are our treasures? Where do we invest our time? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

And so it causes us, at least it causes me, dear brothers and sisters, to look at those things that are in my life now. God has blessed and to recognize that I also am so earthly, so earthbound that it is sometimes it seems that this heavenly treasure is in keeping, in other words, one requires that teaching of the spirit of God to humble me again and again to recognize whose hand is it that blesses our lives, that brings forth those things in our lives by which he shows us his goodness and his gracious blessing.

So if our treasure is in heavenly things, then we need to have our loins girded about and our light burning. I already mentioned the writings of Paul to Ephesians where he says loins girded with truth.

Just think of the comparison of raising little ones who believe upon Jesus, teaching them the ABCs of faith and blessing them with the gospel, to the contrary that happens in too many places in this world where children are not taught the ABCs of faith and are not fed with the gospel. Oh, how wretched is the condition of such a one whose spirit is starved because of a lack of spiritual food.

And so when we read the scriptures, listen to the songs and hymns of Zion, and read the publications of Christianity, we gird our loins with truth and through the oil of the Holy Spirit and the gospel of God we keep our lights burning. In other words, we confess our faith, confess our faith daily there at home in the midst of those oftentimes fiery everyday struggles, confess our faith at those times when people ask of us, What is that foundation of hope that you have?

Then we also oftentimes, being meek and timid and poor confessors, nevertheless speak to them of how God has blessed our lives in forgiving us all our sins and where the kingdom of God is, that they can also come to hear and believe for themselves.

And ye yourselves, like unto men that wait for their Lord. The last verses of this text speak of the importance of watching and waiting. We see from the times and the signs around us, as the scripture reveals and as Jesus has spoken of, that we are living what is the last times.

None of us knows are those last times the times of a generation, the times of a century. What does that mean? We don't have to know and we cannot know. It is something that God has kept to himself.

So as Jesus teaches that not even the sun, not the angels know, but God himself knows. But the signs of the times speak to us of the importance of the battle, of the importance of faith, and the importance of watching, that we need to be watching, watching in faith.

Because if we are not watchful, then we are in danger of the enemy attacking and of us losing that which is most important and precious.

Jesus says, using the example of a wedding from the culture of his time, like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks and they open unto him immediately, blessed are those servants in the Lord when he comes shall find watching.

The primary focus of this teaching, of course, is watching for the final coming of those escorts which take us home, whether it is a mutual departure or a personal departure. It doesn't make any difference when our time is over here on this earth, when we are called to glory and those heavenly escorts come to take us, it is a blessed and a victorious moment if we are watching in faith.

Jesus says of himself that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat and come forth and serve them. So the Lord of glory also is saying that he will serve us once eternally in heaven also when we can rejoice together around the throne.

But the other aspect of this watching in faith is that spiritual watching for the spiritual coming of Christ in his congregation. The times of heresies are exactly those times of battle and watching when it is, as Luther pointed out, that Christ comes into his congregation again to focus the efforts and the gaze of those who believe upon him as the victor, shows his bloody wounds and says, See, it is I who has overcome all on your behalf.

Because the times of heresy are often so difficult times before heresy are so difficult, it can be so tiring and sleepy, and sleepiness can overcome as it did for the wise virgins, five wise and five foolish. But when the bridegroom came and they opened the door, those who were foolish and had no oil were not able to go in because they had no oil. The oil of the Holy Spirit had run out. Instead of their lamps kindling in love, all they had left of was bitterness.

And that kind of a coming of the Lord speaks then of the importance of watching in faith, watching in a spiritual sense for the attacks of the enemy so that we are not left on the wayside when the trumpet sounds and those battles begin, that we are fighting on the side of the Lord.

Because as we experienced after the battle of the heresy was over and those who had fallen into false spirits left the kingdom of God, we rejoiced that God had preserved us, he had preserved you and he had preserved me, and we rejoiced that we could believe all our sins forgiven, that we were still his children traveling on this way.

And truly he did come and serve us at those times, and we rejoiced over that heavenly love that we experienced. And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants.

And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also, for the Son of Man comes at a time when you think not.

Just as the time of heresy came when those who were in a false spirit weren't ready, so the final coming, the second coming of the Son of Man comes at a time when the world is not ready, but the kingdom of God is always ready. The children of God are always ready.

We are here departure ready, shoes on our feet and our staff in our hand, with our loins girded, we are always departure ready because you believe, not because that at any single moment of every day you are preaching the gospel or believing the gospel, but faith. It is the just shall live by faith, as Paul wrote to the Romans.

By believing you own that righteousness which is acceptable to God, and by believing you are traveling here with the staff in your hand, the shoes on your feet always ready to preach the gospel and your loins girded with the truth of the spirit and of the word of God.

Dear brothers and sisters, even at this time can uplift your hearts to believe sins, faults, failures of today's journey forgiven in Jesus' name and blood unto peace, freedom, and joy.

I also ask myself, came this evening hour to preach, tried, tempted, feeling the weight of my own sinfulness and the many failures even in serving this congregation. I believe by many sins and faults forgiven, so I desire to believe together with you.

And again we have the holy supper of our Lord for the refreshing and strengthening of our weak lives of faith. Come in faith believing that he suffered and died also for your sins and rose for your righteousness in Jesus' name. Amen.