BE SATISFIED WITH WHAT GOD GIVES YOU

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight oh God, our rock and our Redeemer.

Dear brothers and sisters

The word of God for today’s meditation comes from 2 Corinthians 12. St. Paul writes to people of Corinth, “to keep me from becoming arrogant due to the extraordinary nature of these revelations, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not become arrogant. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that he would take it away from me, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will be glad to boast all the more my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may shelter me. That is why I delight in weaknesses, in insults and hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak then I am strong. This is the word of God.

It is very easy for us to be happy and content on days when things are going well. When we are well fed when we have plenty of money to pay all of our bills. When we are enjoying good relationships with family members and friends. It is very easy for us to be content when our bodies are cooperating and giving us good feelings but, when the opposite of all of these things happen it is difficult to be content. It is difficult to be content when you are hungry, or when you are living in poverty. It is difficult to be content when your body is racked with pain, and when relationships with your family members and friends are strained, or worse. St. Paul however tells us that he had found the secret of being content in any circumstance and he continues that thought by saying I can do all things through Christ who strengthens. In other words, the way to be content no matter what circumstance you’re facing in life is to focus on Jesus. When things are going well for you then you know that you don’t deserve them and you receive all benefits and blessings only by the grace of God. And when things are not going so well in your outward circumstances then you know, one that God means it for your good, and you know too that God will take you to heaven one day where all of the bad things of this earth are going to not even be brought to mind anymore. The glory that will be revealed in us is so much greater, yet how many of us have actually matured as Christians to the point where we can say that that is the case for us. How many of us can really begin the day with a broken shoestring and with a sour carton of milk, and say thank you Lord for this blessing. No, when things go badly for us we very quickly turned to the opposite of blaming God, don’t we? We’re just like little children and that way.

There is a phrase that I think most teachers of younger children have used and you can probably fill in the blank, you get what you get and you don’t throw fit. I saw this in action one time when I was teaching vacation Bible school a few years ago. When the teacher who was leading the crafts that year was passing out little ribbons of paper and everybody had to use the ribbon of paper in a project, and some of them were getting green ribbons, and some of them got blue ribbons, and some of them got purple, and some of them got red but, there was only one yellow ribbon. And of course that one yellow ribbon caused the disruption in the class because it was unique. Everybody wanted that yellow ribbon, not because they love yellow more than other colors but, because they want what they want and that’s when the teacher said you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. One of the children who wasn’t clamoring for it, got the yellow ribbon. You and I have trouble being content sometimes it’s because we want what somebody else has often times. It’s just because of our human nature that we have inherited from Adam and Eve, our first sinful parents. Discontentment is really what led to Eve’s falling into temptation and sin. When Satan had rebelled against God decided that he didn’t want to be alone in rebellion, he tried to tempt Eve and Adam to follow his way instead of God’s righteous way. And Satan came in the guise of a snake and met Eve when she was in the garden, and snake spoke and said to Eve did God really say you can’t eat from any of these trees in the garden? As he looked around at all the beautiful trees and, Eve followed his gaze, Eve looked and all of the trees were good for food and the fruit was beautiful, and she caught herself. She said, while God said we can eat for many of those trees but not this tree in the center of the garden, and we must not touch it, or we will certainly die. Satan grasp hold of that opportunity and he said he will not certainly die, but God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God knowing good and evil. You see that’s why God is trying to withhold you from this tree. He knows he knows that if you eat of it, you’re gonna be like he is. You’re going to experience things that you’ve never experienced before. Your eyes are going to be open to a whole new world. Imagine how foolish that was for Eve to be discontent in the garden of Eden. Where all of the plants and all of the crops cooperated perfectly. When the weather always was beautiful. Where the animals even submitted to the domination of man, and where all things were pleasing to God, including Adam and Eve’s relationship. How could you be discontent in that circumstance?

It is a strange thing about human nature isn’t it that that we are so easily discontent. I mean those of you that have dogs in your home you know dogs just act like dogs act. A dog is a dog. He eats what he eats he sleeps when he wants. Goes to the bathroom where he wants. The dog is content being a dog. If you know anything about farm animals, you’ll notice the same thing. Farm animals are content being whatever they are. The sheep eats the grass. The cow. The pig does what a pig does, but then when you look at human beings, the crown of God’s creation. The highest achievement of God’s creation on earth. Human beings are always trying to be something, different something more. How foolish. That foolishness that began with Eve and Adam is part of our hearts and our daily experience as well. It would have been very easy for St. Paul to become puffed up with pride, to become arrogant. Because God had shown him things that he had not shown anyone else. The apostle Paul was able to look into the third heaven. It probably means that the veil was open so that he was able to see the spiritual reality that you and I are not able to see. Paul was able to receive direct revelations from God. Something that we don’t receive today anymore. Paul was told to write down what he saw to write letters to the Christians around the world. Letters that are still read today and still expounded today and still revered today. What an amazing privilege that the apostle Paul had, but God did not want him to be arrogant ,because that would not be good for Paul, and it would not be good for all of the other Christians who are listening to his words. So in order to keep him from becoming arrogant God sent him what is called a thorn in his flesh. We don’t know what that thorn in the flesh was. It’s described also as a messenger from Satan to torment me. The apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh, and we all have some kind of thorn in the flesh. It maybe something mental or emotional. It may be something physical. People have speculated for all of these centuries about what Paul might have been referring to. Bad vision. A speech impediment? Maybe it was a physical deformity or a chronic pain. Maybe it was a guilty conscience. Maybe it was some other kind of sharp temptation that he daily had to fight. We don’t know what the thorn in the flesh was, but what we do know is this, it caused pain and it kept Paul from becoming arrogant, because it highlighted his personal weakness. God sent it to them so that he would trust in God’s strength. So that he would look not to his own goodness, but to the goodness of his good God. It took Paul a little while to understand this and to mature to the point where he could truly rejoice in this weakness. Paul says three times he pleaded with the Lord to take it away, and I think that means a lot more than just three times saying God take it away, but he is talking about periods of time of intense prayer where he is wrestling with God.. Paul thought he could be a better friend, a better man, a better pastor. If only God would take this thorn away, but what did God reply? He said my grace is sufficient. So for you and I that struggle with temptations. For you and I that struggle with pain, illnesses, troubled relationships. We might pray all day, many days about those problems, but God’s answer for you is the same as his answer to Paul. My grace is sufficient. It is enough that you know the love that God has for you sent Jesus to become a human being. To live a perfect life of struggling against sin but never falling, never falling into temptation. God sent Jesus to die on the cross as a perfect sacrifice that took away all of your sins, and the sins of the entire world. God raised him from the dead so that your life, your eternal life would also be guaranteed. God’s undeserved love for you is truly all that you really need. It is enough to get you eternal life.

The work of Christ, being washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. In the waters of holy baptism. The Holy Spirit coming into your heart to create a faith in your heart, so that you trust in him. The body and blood of Christ that in a few minutes we will share for a personal assurance of forgiveness. All of that, the grace of God is sufficient. You don’t need all of the other things, and in fact, the apostle Paul grew in his understanding of his weakness. So much that he even understood that his weaknesses highlighted God’s power. That’s one of the lessons the pastors always need to learn is that our weaknesses our weaknesses highlight God’s power. So that for me I know that any success, it does not owe to me being a good pastor, but it is God being a good God. And a congregation that sees blessings, it’s not because the congregation is so good, but because God’s word is so good and powerful, and God is so gracious and blessing. Our weaknesses highlight God’s power, because on my own I would only fail and I would only receive damnation from God, because I constantly fall short of God’s requirements. But Jesus has given me eternity, forgiveness, and grace. We even take another step in our maturity when we can actually delight in everything, including our sorrows, including our weaknesses. The apostle Paul concludes this section by saying this is why I delight in weaknesses, because God’s power is highlighted by my weaknesses I delight in them, and in fact I delight Paul says in insult. That’s what Jesus says we should see when when he tells us in the sermon on the mount that we should rejoice and be glad when people mistreat us because of Christ. He says you’re in good company. That’s how they treated the prophets. Delight in insults. Delight in hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. Christians who followed this word of God appear to be very strange to the world. Really, you can find delight and comfort in all of these problems? Yes you can. Whatever difficulty you are facing whatever struggle you have. Whatever bad relationship you’re trying to fix. Whatever thorn in the flesh you encounter for the sake of Christ, and through the work of Christ, you have something much better. You are growing in strength. You are growing in understanding. You are growing unto eternal life. I know that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. And so no matter what I face, I can be satisfied with what God gives. No matter whether it’s a yellow ribbon, or blue, or green, because what God gives, is always best.

Amen

Get God’s Greatest Gifts

Grace and peace to you from God the father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Dear friends,

The word from God through which the Holy Spirit stirs our hearts is Romans 10:13-17. I’ll read some of the key parts. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How can they call on the one they have not believed in, and how can they believe in one about whom they have not heard? How can they hear without a preacher and how can they preach unless they are sent? It is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of peace. The gospel of good things, but not all obeyed the gospel. Isaiah says Lord who believed our message? Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.

Dear fellow saints who were washed clean in the blood of our risen Savior. Why did you come to church today? Did you come to make some business connections? Maybe you’re a lonely person looking for a date. Maybe you came to church to keep the wife happy or maybe need to keep mom and dad off your back. Maybe you came to church because you want to be a better person. You want to learn some things that may be important in life, or maybe the reason that she came to church tonight is that you are trying to repay a debt. Maybe you made a vow to God some time ago to get you out of a jam, and you said if you just get me out of this jam Lord, I promise you that I will come every Sunday. I hope you can tell that all of those reasons for coming to church are flawed. The first couple that I mentioned, well those are just looking for earthly advantages, aren’t they? The second few that I mentioned are either trying to present yourself as a good person, or to become a better person, so that you can present yourself to God as a good person. And boy, the last one, the last one just sounds like you feel so sure of yourself and think so highly of yourself that God must really want to be in a relationship with you. I’ll come to church every Sunday like that’s going to be a bribe that keeps God giving you blessings, because God certainly wants your stinking sinful self in church. You forget that all of your righteous deeds are nothing but filthy rags? Do you forget the reason for coming to church in the first place? It’s not about what you give to God because you have nothing that you can give to God that he needs. Nothing even really that he wants. There’s nothing that he is lacking. He is not a lonely person looking for a date.

We come to church because of what God GIVES to us. What God gives is what we need, and so I encourage you today to get the greatest gifts of God. Why is this message of Christ so vital? You know this message that we receive in church, this is one of the few places that you will hear this message. Yes, it’s in your Bibles. You can hear it on the radio and on the television. Not all of what you hear on the radio and television is going to be the gospel, and it’s not all going to be the pure gospel. Not everything that you hear in every church is going to be the pure gospel but coming to a church that does preach the pure gospel is so very important. This message of Christ is vital in verse 13 (Romans 10:13) it is summed up; everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Those last three words are so important, “WILL BE SAVED.” We’re talking about the difference between salvation and damnation. The difference between paradise and perdition. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Those who do not are lost. In other words, they go to hell and that’s the road that we were born traveling on. Jesus said broad is the road, wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. The billboards on this road promise a lot of really good things. Do it your way. You’re in charge. Who needs forgiveness? Fun fun fun! Seize the day. Party on. All of those are lies and propaganda. Although that’s what we were swallowing hook line and sinker. The devil was reeling us in and we weren’t even trying to get away. We thought we were happy with the devil’s lure hooked in our mouth. But remember our gospel reading? Jesus told the disciples to throw out the net. So when Simon threw out the net, he caught so many fish that the boats were filled and even began to sink because of the weight. The net of God’s word, the net of the gospel has come sweeping down and caught up you and me. His net rescued us from Satan’s lure. His net saved us. The bait that was the lie Satan, that bait was snatched away from us, and the net actually set us free from the destruction that Lure was leading us into. Through this net we had our mouths open. So that rather than grasping onto Satan’s lure our mouth was calling on the name of the Lord. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

The net that rescues us is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news message. Cherish it. How do we cherish the message of Christ? The word that we use to describe that his faith. As each day you continue to call on the name of the Lord. No matter what the danger is, you can call on God knowing that he will rescue you. Like the tax collector in Jesus parable who beat his breast and said God have mercy on me a sinner. That will be our gospel reading on Ash Wednesday March 3. God have mercy on me a sinner is all that we can say, to God. We don’t deserve his mercy. We daily sin much? Don’t we often feel regret, because we feel like we’re missing out on some of life because we follow Jesus? Yes, even after we come to faith, we still have a sinful nature. And sometimes the shiny lure and the wonderful smelling bait that Satan dangles in front of us causes us to have second thoughts about whether it’s really worth following Jesus. And then we get to feel guilty about that as well, and then Satan’s other lure tries to find its way into our mouth, the lure of guilt. Feeling like God can’t really, really love us because of all of the sins that we’ve done. Christian call on the name of the Lord because it is a precious and it is a saving name. Call on it in faith. Faith that believes the message of Christ. Faith that holds onto those promises. Faith that walks in the way that leads to salvation. Jesus says to you just as he said to the paralyzed man in Matthew 9; be of good cheer your sins are forgiven. Think of that? Your sins are forgiven. Could there be a more beautiful phrase in any language? And if that phrase is so beautiful and so are those who proclaim it. The prophet Isaiah said, and the gospel writer quoted, and St. Paul quoted, how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good message? How beautiful are the feet? I don’t usually think of feet as beautiful. They’re to be walked on. They often get calluses, and bumps, and they get misinformed. Some people have beautiful feet. I know that I don’t. And yet Isaiah says how beautiful are the feet of those proclaim the good news. That’s how precious the message is. It is so precious to create faith in the heart and it is faith that also motivates us to not want to keep this wonderful blessing, this wonderful good news to ourselves. The gospel is ours to keep, and it is ours to share. Think about the chain of events that brought you to salvation. There’s kind of an interlocking chain. Paul starts at the endpoint. He says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved that’s the bottom line. We have salvation. We have faith calling on the name of the Lord. Now how did we get to call on the name of the Lord? Paul says how can they call on the one they have not believed in? So, we must believe. How can they believe in the one they have not heard? So, we must hear. How can they hear without someone to preach to them or someone to tell them, and how can that preacher preach? How can that teller tell, unless he is sent? That has to happen in order for faith to get into our hearts so that we can receive the salvation that God wants us to have. Paul tells us that that message, the message is Jesus himself. The good news is Christ himself. He’s the one who appeared in the Old Testament in our first lesson today. The angel of the Lord. The one who described himself by saying I Am. Who replied to Manoah’s question of his name, he said why do you ask my name? It is wonderful. So Isaiah centuries later would say that the name by which the Savior would be called would be wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and Prince of peace. How can they believe without someone preaching to them? Why did those preachers go out? Why did the prophets? Why did the apostles? Why did the evangelist? Why do pastors and teachers today go out, because they are being sent. Sent by God, sent by Christ, and sent by their fellow believers. Are you the end of the line? Actually no, if you want to picture all of these interlocking chains, or interlocking links as a chain, realize that this isn’t just one long line chain, this is an interlocking chain like a necklace.

We who have received the message continued to spread the message. So that those who hear the message from us can also tell others and so on and so on. You who call on the Lord in faith, send out preachers, pastors, and missionaries, and staff ministers, and teachers. That’s one of the great blessings that we have in our Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, is that as we continue to support the work of the Synod, more pastors, and missionaries, and staff ministers, and teachers, are being trained. And each year are being sent to proclaim the same message that you hear here each week, and just as the message of Christ has worked faith in your heart, so it will work faith in the hearts of others who hear it. Yes, we support this work with our offerings, and with our prayers, but we also encourage this work and spread this work, as we encourage our sons, and daughters, our grandchildren, and our other younger acquaintances to consider serving the Lord as full-time gospel workers. Maybe the Lord can even use you in full-time gospel work. Might he use you in part-time gospel work such as serving as a Sunday school teacher, or Vacation Bible school supervisor. Today our congregation is issuing, actually tomorrow, our congregation will be issuing a call for a new pastor to proclaim the gospel for the next number of years here at Grace Lutheran Church. We can have high confidence that our next pastor has been well-trained in the word of God and in pastoral care and has been tested in our ministerial education system. We can also be absolutely sure that he has been faithful so far in his gospel ministry. Having served as a pastor for at least four years. In most cases more. You can be sure that he holds to the faith just as we have held to the faith and confess it as Lutherans. But the pastor is not a Lone Ranger. The pastor is not here to do the work himself. It’s important to utilize the entire team. You continue the chain not only by sending others to tell, but also by telling others yourself. That’s why our Lord has chosen us as his people to declare the praises of him. Who called us out of darkness and into his wonderful light? As you share the message not everyone will believe. That shouldn’t come as any surprise to any of you have any experience with sharing the gospel. That was the case throughout history. Paul says not all the Israelites accepted the good news. Isaiah lamented, Lord who has believed our message? So, don’t let unbelief or rejection by others deter you. The apostle Paul and the prophet Isaiah faced rejection and so often will we. Jesus says if the reject us, they are rejecting him, but the joyful side of the coin is this, if they listen to you, Jesus says they are listening to me. If they listen to me, they are listening to the one who sent me. So be ready to share that message of Christ. That doesn’t mean you have to set up a soapbox on a street corner and yell loudly. Rather it means to cherish the message of Christ. To continue to come where you can hear the word of God, and be fed in your faith, and get God’s greatest gifts. Where God fills you with salvation, and faith, and the gospel. And then the more you are filled with these greatest gifts of God, the more you are going to overflow. Your daily conversation will naturally turn to Christ. Your daily exchange with people will be filled with the gospel and good works. It is God’s love that has called us to be part of his family. It’s God’s love that has washed our sins away by this gospel. It is God’s love that sent Jesus to die on that cross so that our sins would be completely washed, and so that our eternity will be completely guaranteed. Our acts of love do not earn salvation for us. Our good works do not prove anything to God that he doesn’t already know. Our good works are important because God commands them, and also because this is one of the ways that we attract others to want to know what it is that makes us happy. What it is that energizes our faith and our love and our life. So, acts of love may make others curious. May attract them to us, but it’s only the word of Christ that creates faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of Christ.

Amen

Jesus comes home!

Grace mercy and peace to all of you from God our father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

My dear friends,

Dr. David Jeselsohn collects antiques from the Middle East. Nineteen years ago he met an antique dealer from Jordan. The man was selling, among other things, a 3 foot high piece of stone that had 87 lines of ancient Hebrew writing on it. The man was intrigued. Dr. Jeselsohn thought it was pretty cool, so he plunked down a good piece of change and he bought this for his collection. He held onto it for about seven years and finally, wondering what it said, he took it to an expert in ancient Hebrew who began translating the 87 lines. Finding on line 80, he found that it was written about a man who had been killed by the Romans, but rose again from the dead on the third day. The experts dated the writing at approximately 2000 years. Does that ring any bell? Does it sound like somebody you? The Jeselsohn stone as it has come to be known was a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in Milwaukee some years ago. When the Jeselsohn stone was found, it was hoped by many Christians that this would finally be the exclamation point on Christian history. That would convince all nonbelievers that Jesus is real. That He truly did rise from the dead. Historic proof… for the resurrection of Jesus however is not new and we did not need the Jeselsohn stone in order to tell us that Jesus rose from the dead. In fact, you may or may not know this, but even if we did not have the New Testament, there are 40 different historic sources that tell us about Jesus. There are 100 different facts outside of Scripture not to mention the fact that the New Testament is one of the most accurately transcribed and one of the most ancient of all writings that we have intact today. In fact, the New Testament is preserved much better than any of the old manuscripts of William Shakespeare, or Julius Caesar. In fact, there is better proof that Jesus existed then we even can find for William Shakespeare. Is it surprising to you that people don’t really notice this?

Is it surprising to you that there are so many people doubting it, that when such proof as a 2000-year-old stone that speaks about a man who only could fit the description of Jesus Christ? Does it surprise you that it is ignored by the world? It shouldn’t. In fact, Jesus even when he was walking the earth in human flesh, visible to all, wasn’t noticed by very many people. Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. John the Baptist had been proclaiming him as the Lamb of God for many years. He was raised by his parents Zachariah and Elizabeth to know that Jesus, his second cousin, was the promised Messiah. He was proclaiming the works of Jesus, and then he saw the miracles of Jesus, and heard his teaching, and yet the last recorded words that we hear from John the Baptist are these words. He sent his disciples to go and ask Jesus, “are you really the one who was to call him or should we be looking for somebody else?” Very shortly after Jesus was baptized by John, He went out to the desert for 40 days where he was tempted by the devil, and He withstood that temptation for 40 days, and at the end of it. He was very tired. But nobody noticed when Jesus then went home to Nazareth his hometown. He did what was customary went to the synagogue, and being one of one of the natives of that town of Nazareth, and being educated to read the ancient Hebrew, Jesus stood up to read. Not too many people noticed as as he put the shroud over his head (as is pictured on your bulletin cover), a sign of respect for the word of God. He unrolled the scroll and he started to read these words he found in the book of Isaiah where it says the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. Yes, send me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind. To release the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. When the people in the Nazareth synagogue heard Jesus reading these words they would have immediately thought about the year of Jubilee. You know what that is? Every 50 years, after seven cycles of seven Sabbath years, then they would have the 50th year, the year of Jubilee. Listen what would make you happy about this year? All of your credit card debt would be wiped out. Just totally forgiven on the year of Jubilee. If you had sold family property, the family property would’ve been returned to you. If you were a slave, an Israelite slave who was working off the debt in the year of Jubilee, you would be set free. The year of Jubilee was really something to look forward to. And this was God’s command, that everything, every 50 years, should all be set right.

The section of Scripture that Jesus read from was about 700 years old when Jesus read it. Isaiah wrote about a man who would come proclaiming the good news to the poor. Freedom for the prisoners, release for the oppressed. As long as they followed God’s law they had a very real guarantee that at least once every 50 years, God was going to make good on his promise. Now, our society, our culture doesn’t work like that, does it? There is there is injustice in the world. There’s hurting. There are things that never ever get made right. And even though God is with us, sometimes it just doesn’t seem like it. Seems like people don’t notice our hurting. When people ask us how we’re doing and we kind of slump our shoulders and say I’m doing okay. Seems like, just like people didn’t notice Jesus, people often don’t notice if we are hurting, or if we’re tired, or if we are depressed, or if we’re troubled by debt, or we’re troubled by injustice in the world, or are troubled by what we see in the news, or what we experience in our families. Have you noticed that when we do deal with these kinds of things, not only does it feel like other people don’t notice, but very quickly our thoughts go to thinking God too has abandoned me? How often we allow that little seed of doubt that Satan plants within us to grow so that our discouragement becomes despair. And so that we lose our temper at things that we should have control about. We wish that things were different and then we convince ourselves that we’re helpless, and things can never be right. One of the members of our church just found out that her dad is suffering from dementia. Another one of the members of our congregation has a sister who fell and broke her hip. Another member of our congregation has a nephew who was born with a lung defect. Thankfully it’s been repaired surgically, but the little newborn almost a month old now will still have some future surgeries. When we have problems in life and we start to think God has abandoned us. When it starts to feel as if God is distant, but it’s not that God has moved away, very often it’s we who have moved away. This last week on Monday at the Wisconsin Lutheran College where my daughter attends, and where my son graduated, a 19 year old freshman girl was found having passed away in the dormitory. She died of complications of diabetes 19 years young. At the memorial service which I watched part of online, the president of the college said that the entire faculty and student body are grieving. He acknowledged that this hurts, but he also expressed that hope and that confidence that Aliya Hesseltine is at home in heaven where everything is right. Where there is no more disease. Where there is no more sadness.

The Isaiah text that talks about freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind. That talks about a release for the oppressed. That talks about the year of the Lord’s Jubilee, his favor. That message is one that should bring such joy to our hearts even in the midst of sadness. If you feel like you’re one of the oppressed, where Satan just keeps needling you. Where the temptations of the world keep getting the better of you. If you feel like you’re one of those people it’s constantly losing the battle against the sin whatever sin that is is your weakness. When you feel like you’re just too blind really to see what God’s plan is, then take a good hard look at your Savior Jesus. When we see Jesus we know that our poverty is nothing. We will be rich forever. When we see Jesus, we know that his suffering, we know that his death has paid the debt that we deserved to pay because of all of our sins. When we see Jesus, when we listen to his words, we know that the one who loves us better than any other human being ever could. The one who loves us with perfect giving, unconditional, gracious love is waiting for us in heaven. Jesus went about his business doing good, healing the sick, preaching the good news to the poor, and yet for most of the time it was not noticed. He was taken for granted. People thought he was crazy for a time. People thought that he was demon possessed and accused him of that. People thought that he was just making up a bunch of stuff, yet Jesus went about his business. He kept on teaching. He kept on obeying until that day that they led him to the cross and under the authority of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, they led him out to Golgotha, nailed his hands and feet to that terrible cross, and there he suffered the worst thing possible. He said my God, my God why have you forsaken me. As his own Father, the holy heavenly Father could not look at his son because of the sin that was placed upon him. Imagined that this is the sins of the entire world. I know the burden of my sins are a burden it’s too heavy for me to bear, and now he has the burden of the entire world. Yet they didn’t really appreciate his suffering, instead they mocked him. After God The Father had turned his back on the son, finally the suffering of Jesus was finished and He said, “it is finished.” He said, it’s paid in full. The price of redemption is paid and Jesus said, I commend my soul to you Father into your hands.

On that last day when you and I go to meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it will be a joyful day because when we open our eyes, we who had been blind on earth, will see him perfectly. We who have been oppressed by our sins, will be completely freed from the influence of our sins and others sins, and will bask in the glory of the perfect love of our God, and our Savior. Maybe life gives you a lot of reason to think that this freedom isn’t real. You don’t feel forgiven, or you don’t know that God really loves you. Then it’s time to take your scroll. We don’t usually use a scroll right, but we we open the pages of our Bible. Then it’s time to open to that place where Jesus speaks about the fulfillment of these words, Luke 4:14-21. I hope you can remember that reference, because your Savior Jesus leaves no doubt in our poor imprisoned blind, and oppressed eyes, in our child of God selves, why he came he came to redeem us. He once spoke to his disciples and he said, why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your minds?

Listen to Jesus again, as he says today these words are fulfilled in your hearing.

There is good news.

Amen