Thanks Giving services/Sermon in Minneapolis 27.11.2005

Let us quieten this morning, the first Sunday in Advent, as we joyfully sang that Advent song and now pause in prayer and thanksgiving to our heavenly Creator.

Dear Father, we are weak children, so often stumbling on the way. Come yet before Thee in prayer. And we come not in our own name, but as our Lord and Savior instructed us and encouraged us, we come in the name of Jesus.

Dear Father, we thank You for the many blessings that You have bestowed upon us. We consider our families and our homes, our livelihood, our loved ones, and marvel, dear Father, how much and how greatly You have remembered us.

But dear Father, above these temporal things, we come with hearts of thanks this morning, that being even through Thy grace and offer thanks that from all the multitudes You have called us to be Your children.

Dear Father, remember us on our journey. Protect us every moment of our lives so that we could travel with faith and a good conscience, believing as children and living in the care and the guidance of Thy kingdom and through Thy Holy Spirit.

We remember, as Your Son taught us, dear Father, that that Holy Spirit would teach us in all things. Give us that heart of a child to comprehend Your will, dear Father.

We also remember this morning, dear Father, the many fellow travelers who yet journey with us, some in foreign lands. Strengthen and protect them also, guide their footsteps.

And dear Father, we especially remember those on the outside of Your kingdom, those loved ones of ours, perhaps even children or family that are not journeying on this way that leads to heaven.

Dear Father, through Thy miracles and through Thy ways awaken their hearts while life is yet in them. Call them to Thy kingdom.

And dear Father, we also remember those ones who serve our Fatherland, sometimes in lonely places. Strengthen and protect, especially those of the household of God, that they could also believe and be uplifted on the journey.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

The other night when I was here, I brought greetings from my home congregation of Seattle and my family. I also want to bring those greetings this morning, especially my wife.

And I know many of you were here. There probably are some that weren't able to make it. It was the wedding occasion, so forth. But many in the congregation, when we had services on Thanksgiving night there, wanted me to bring greetings. Not the least of which is our brother Ignace. He especially wanted me to bring greetings to you dear brothers and sisters here in Minneapolis where he has felt a great love and warmth as a fellow traveler and remembers you often.

For our text this morning, we'll read several verses from Mark's gospel, being the ninth chapter beginning with the thirty-third verse, and we read these in Jesus' name with this prayer that He would bless our gathering with His word.

"And He came to Capernaum. And being in the house, He asked them, 'What was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?'

But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest.

And He sat down, and He called the twelve, and saith unto them, 'If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all.'

And He took a child, and He set him in the midst of them.

And when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, 'Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name receiveth Me; and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me.'"

Amen.

There are, when we look at Jesus' life and his mission, his teachings, his sermons in the Bible, and we read what has been written about him, of course, we know he left no writings himself physically. That was left to others. But nonetheless, in looking at his life and his mission, there are two things that especially we could say are close to the heart of Jesus. One of them is forgiveness. How many times and how many parables, how many examples in the life of our Lord and Savior did he speak about forgiveness?

Did he teach about forgiveness? And there were those, of course, that were offended that he preached sins forgiven. "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." That was one of the things that was so close to the heart of our Savior. The other thing, perhaps you noticed in this text, along with forgiveness, is children.

How much he loved children. Many of the examples in the parables—in fact, this isn't the only spot where it's recorded that Jesus gave examples of children. But, of course, it's a very precious one. In this incident, it was somewhat early in Jesus' ministry. You know, he had about a three-year ministry where he actually preached and taught, and it culminated in his death and his victorious resurrection on our behalf.

But in this case, it was early, and he spent much of his time in his early years up by the Sea of Galilee in the North. He hadn't preached that much in the area of Jerusalem in the South, but he was in this town of Capernaum, and you'll notice a lot of the early incidents, miracles, and so forth took place in that area of the North. And in fact, he and the disciples had been on a kind of a mission trip, a preaching trip, doing various miracles and so forth. They were heading back to this town of Capernaum. That's where Peter lived.

Peter was married. His wife was there and his mother-in-law, Minj, is her. They had gone to this house after their journey home. But on the way back to Capernaum, Jesus probably was within earshot of the disciples as they traveled back, as they journeyed back to Capernaum because he either knew through the Spirit what they had been talking about or perhaps he heard them talking. And in fact, when they got to this house, he had a question for them about what they had been discussing.

It says here, when he came to Capernaum and being in the house, he asked them, "What was it that you disputed amongst yourselves?" By the way, what was their reaction? It's probably about, I think, a fairly typical human reaction. They immediately started to feel a little bit guilty because it says here they held their peace. They were silent.

None of them wanted to talk about what they had been discussing. I'm sure that right away, they thought, "Oh, boy. He must have heard us." And it says here what they had been discussing. It says, by the way, they had disputed amongst themselves who should be the greatest.

And this is, I think, we could say it's a human characteristic. It's in all of us, believing or not. It's a human trait. It's a human characteristic. We tend to want to excel and frankly, we tend to think we're pretty good a lot of the time through human eyes.

But they had realized when Jesus asked them that maybe there was something else here. So none of them wanted to talk to Jesus about it. None of them wanted to admit it. But, of course, he knew. In fact, we know from other places in Scripture that he wouldn't even have had to hear them on the road because he comprehended the very thought of people.

There's other places in the Bible where it mentions that specifically what happened. He understood what they were thinking. In fact, he understands what we think. And you little children probably have heard that from mother or father: Jesus knows.

God knows even our very thoughts. And sometimes we can become kind of fearful about that, but isn't it good to know and consider this matter of forgiveness? That when our Father, heavenly Father, sees us as God's children, He doesn't see us directly in that way, but how does God see us when we're believing? He sees us through the merits of Jesus. So that, of course, is a comforting thought.

It mentions what Jesus wanted to do. He wanted to teach them. This, of course, was the greatest teacher that ever lived, and He often taught by example. He was in that house. We don't know whose child this was, but there were children around.

Some have suggested it might have been one of Peter's kids. We don't know. Could have been Peter's son. But here's what happened. These children were in that house with them.

And it says, speaking of Jesus, it says, and He sat down, and He called the twelve, gathered around Him, all of them there. And He explained to them, if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all. And He took this child. And when we look at the description, we look at the original word in these incidents where Jesus talked about children. He's talking about a little child.

That's what the Greek word infers. It was basically an infant type of child. Small. He took the child. He said He took a child and set him in the midst of them right there.

They could all see. They probably wondered, what is He doing? They had been more concerned about who is the greatest. So they see this child sitting there or standing there. And when He had taken him into His arms, He held the child right there.

He drew the child close to Him, and He said to them very simply. And in this example that Mark recorded, whosoever shall receive one such one of such children in My name receiveth Me. And whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me. In other words, the heavenly Father, the Creator. Human wisdom cannot comprehend this truth.

And in fact, when we consider society and we can even consider other Christian types of religions, we would have to say that this spiritual understanding about a child and the place of a child and the heart of a child is not comprehended through human intellect. And how could we explain that in the light of God's word? Last night, one of the sisters that was here related a little bit about her experience, and it was a very simple explanation during our discussion where we were talking about watching in faith and also tied to that closely as praying. But her advice as one who is older, has raised children, was listen to the Spirit, the teaching in God's kingdom. I also remember the same thing as a young person struggling.

Teen years. And an example from that is music because that's something that's a temptation for the young. I don't have to say it was; it was, and at times still is, a temptation for me. I like music. But I remember talking to my mom, probably college years or maybe a little younger.

And I might as well face it. The music was junky that I was referring to. But I looked at the words, and I told my mom, I said, Mom, look, there's nothing wrong with these words. And you read the words. They're fine.

And, you know, if a person looked at it from that standpoint, you'd look at the words and you'd think, well, there's really nothing wrong with the words themselves. But you know what Mom's advice was? It was quite simple. She said, but Johnny, what did a Christian say? Quite simple.

Same thing. We comprehend through the Spirit as a little child. There's lots of things in this life that with our human intellect, we don't understand them. But yet, what's the instruction of God's word? What an example that Jesus gave.

The Lord of life, the King of creation, and He takes a little child as an example. And when Jesus was leaving, preparing to leave this Earth, He gave a precious testimony, a precious instruction, precious exhortation to His own regarding the comprehension of this Holy Spirit. He promised us, His people, that even though He was leaving, He wasn't leaving us alone. But He would leave the Comforter, the Holy Spirit that He said, and we believe it's a truth of God that it would teach us in all things.

Now, do we as individuals always understand and comprehend everything so that we know everything? Well, when I think of that example of myself with my mother, it was with my own mind that I comprehended. And it was through the Spirit and the care and the love of Christ that my mother reminded me, me, what does a Christian say? And so in our lives, of course, it's the same thing. We think about children and this example that Jesus gave, and then we consider also what we heard the other night from our brother when he kept his sermon here.

Our brother George, I'm sure many of you were here. And one of the things that we were so preciously reminded of in that sermon from our brother was about this home Zion and the care and the love in the home. And we consider that in light of what Jesus teaches about children. And when we think about children, we can ask a question about the gospel because the Bible, God's holy word, teaches us about the importance of the gospel. Not just here from services, of course, it's important.

From the pulpit or at other gatherings, but also there in that precious home Zion that our brother was speaking about and that we've been reminded many times of the importance of that. And we can ask a question about the home Zion. The children need to hear the gospel. Well, they're heaven acceptable. We already know that they're safe.

Jesus says in another connection, children have faith. We baptize little children. Jesus said, "Bring little children unto me, for of such is the kingdom of God." He also said, "If you don't accept the kingdom as a little child, you have no part with Him." That's how much emphasis Jesus put on the mind of the child.

So a child being heaven acceptable, maybe the parents can consider this: Do the children still need to hear the gospel? And why would that be? They're heaven acceptable. We know God's word teaches us that the children, even though they're heaven acceptable, they're still born in sin.

David wrote this way in the Psalm. He says, in iniquity, I think if I can remember the quote, "My mother conceived me in sin; I was brought forth." We inherited sin. The only one that didn't was Jesus.

He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. But we were born a natural birth father and a mother. And as a result of the falling to sin, we inherited that sin. But isn't it good to hear, fellow travelers, that in His grace, the heavenly Father passes by that inheritance and a little child is heaven acceptable. They believe.

Jesus said they believe on Him, and they're heaven acceptable. So what about the gospel at home? Do children still need to hear that? Sometimes, we can reward children for some kind of temporal work or deed or some accomplishment, positive type of reinforcement. It's a good thing.

And, for example, let's say the kids have done some kind of work or some kind of chore, maybe extra credit. Sometimes you give the kid a privilege or some kind of a treat, and that's fine. Well, at home, the kids know that in dad's desk drawer, which happens to be locked most of the time, sometimes there's candy in there. And as you could imagine, I keep it locked for a very good reason. But, nonetheless, sometimes when the kids have been successful at something or let's say they helped clean or done some other chores, some other thing where they deserve a privilege, then dad will go ahead and open the drawer.

And the kids will line up, and they get some kind of a piece of candy or some kind of a treat, and it's a reward. Well, this one evening, the house was kinda messy. I wouldn't say it was dirty, but it was messy. You know, houses tend to get that way, and I'm a little bit of a stickler for that. I don't care for it.

I like the place to be fairly neat. Probably one of my hang-ups. So I offered the kids. I said, hey, let's do a cleanup.

Five minute pickup. You know, you might get a reward when you're done. So the kids scrambled. And the older kids were pretty quick to respond. They started picking things up and carted things off back to the toy room and so forth.

But, you know, the little three-year-old, she for some reason, had decided that she wasn't gonna help this time. That was her choice. And so the place was cleaned up, and the kids got their treats. And guess who was standing in line with their hand out for a treat? Well, the three-year-old was right there, and I said, well, you know, honey, you didn't do the work this time.

You're not gonna get a treat. And what do you suppose her reaction was? Well, her legs buckled right there next time I asked. And she collapsed on the floor and started crying and carrying on and kicking her legs in the air.

And, you know, I thought maybe I should give her a piece of candy. She's only three. But, yeah, I realized, look, she really didn't deserve a treat, so I stuck to my gut being a little bit stubborn and let her know, honey, you need to help. You're not gonna get a treat this time. So she kicked a little more of it.

But she disappeared into the living room. And I, whatever I was working on, I started working, but I could hear the kids. And she'd gone up to the 10-year-old for kind of her comfort. And I remember that the 10-year-old had told her, well, you know, sweetie, you didn't help. Daddy's not gonna give you a treat this time.

It was kinda quiet for a few minutes, and then I heard the 10-year-old, she kinda asked her a question. She says, don't you wanna go to daddy and ask daddy to forgive you? She said, no. I don't like daddy anymore. And I shrugged my shoulders and let it be.

And, you know, it wasn't very many minutes later. The door was open. I looked over there. She was standing by the door. Her head was down.

The only thing she could say was, "Jesus' blood." And I held my hands out. She came running to daddy. And she buried her face in my shoulder. "Daddy, daddy, said sins are forgiven. Jesus' name and precious blood." And she was happy. She didn't even care about the candy. She was happy. She didn't even ask about the candy.

She was happy. Now this little child was heaven acceptable the whole time, but she got to where her footsteps were heavy. Even a little child, her heart was heavy. She was bothered by sin. She needed to hear the gospel.

Why? Because she wanted to hear those freeing words: Dear child, your sins are all forgiven. And she was so happy. But think about this little child.

And can't we say, dear brothers and sisters, that we're no different? It's not this way that forgiveness is such a thing that a believing person goes in and out of God's kingdom, like twenty, thirty, forty, fifty times a day. We sin constantly. I do. Maybe you become impatient.

You become crabby, or even our own thoughts are corrupt. Does that mean that a child of God has gone in and out of the door of the kingdom? Not at all. We're saved by grace. But consider this matter of forgiveness that was so clear in Jesus' teaching and this matter of children that was so clear in Jesus' teaching.

Isn't it the same with us? Doesn't matter what age we are. We could be a grandparent, but what's been the source of our strength? To believe? Because we're saved by that believing.

We're saved by faith. But that encouraging word of the gospel, which is needed for little children in the home, it's needed for the older kids at home. God, I can assure you from a parent standpoint, it's much needed from the children to the parents, from spouse to spouse. In that home, like our brother reminded us the other night, this matter of children and forgiveness is so close to us in the kingdom.

It's easy for us to forget, and it's easy for us to put things in the wrong perspective. But yet when we consider the teachings of our Lord and Savior, the one who loved us so much that he gave his life on our behalf, he taught us about children, and he taught us about forgiveness.

This morning, dear fellow travelers, I think it's good to consider our lives and how much like children, not only that we want to be according to Jesus' teaching, but when we're believing, we're traveling as a child of God. We are as children. We crave and we long for the fellowship even though we carry the fleshly portion.

We want to get gathered with God's people. We want to bring, as parents, we want to bring our children to the hearing of God's word. Is it always easy? No. It's not.

But we would have to say how richly our Father has remembered us and how much he has fed us when we've been able to gather about God's word. We don't want it this way in our society, which is a very busy society, to where those things in this life become a greater or more important treasure than the most precious thing that there could ever be, and that is to hear on this earth, to travel with the name of a child of God, believing.

As a little child, you can believe even this morning. Dear fellow travelers, especially you who feel yourself to have been unsuccessful on the journey. You who perhaps feel yourself to be stumbling, maybe even there in the home Zion, you can believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

And as a father and also as a fellow traveler and a servant of the word, I find myself to be so faulty and poor and need to hear the gospel. Can you forgive me for my many faults? I promise and desire to believe with you, dear fellow travelers.

And now as we prepare to celebrate this festive meal of our Lord's holy supper, communion, it's good to consider how much Jesus loved us even in this. Was it successful ones that are called to this meal?

Once for some kind of a reward, it's not bad at all. What is it for? It's for the strengthening of weak faith. So you can come, dear fellow traveler, in boldness through faith, even though we find ourselves unworthy to this meal because it's for just such a one that needs strengthening. For just such a one that laments at how little, how small is my faith.

This is what the meal is for. So come freely. In Jesus' name, amen.