Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Fifth Sunday after
the Epiphany (B)
Installation of
the Rev. Douglas J. Taylor as Associate Pastor of Augustana
February 7, 2021
Text: Mark 1:29-39
Jesus
gives pastors to His Church because He loves you. It is in this way that Jesus Himself cares
for you, preaches to you, baptizes you, and feeds you. He continues to do for you the very things He
does in for the people in our Holy Gospel.
And so we rejoice this day for Jesus’ love in giving us Pastor
Taylor. It is by pure coincidence,
humanly speaking, that Pastor Taylor’s installation is taking place on this
particular Sunday. But what a happy
coincidence it is, for this Sunday is all about preaching and the ministry of
the Gospel. In our Old Testament reading,
the Prophet Isaiah rhetorically asks us if we do not know, and if we do not
hear the preaching, if it has not been told us that YHWH is the everlasting God
who created heaven and earth and all that is, and that it is He who saves us
and renews us and makes us His own people (Is. 40:21-31). St. Paul, in our Epistle, speaks of the necessity
that is laid upon him, and upon every preacher of Christ, the necessity to
preach His Word and to take up the yoke of slavery to Christ, symbolized by the
pastor’s stole and the chasuble: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
(1 Cor. 9:16; ESV), Paul says. Whether
willingly or not, he has been entrusted with a stewardship, and he must
be faithful in it. He is compelled
to do the Master’s bidding, to speak His Word, and to bear His cross. He must exercise self-control, disciplining
his body. That is, he must live a
Christian life according to God’s Word, continually crucifying Old Adam and
living in the grace of God. He must run
so as to win the prize. His ministry
should be focused, steady, and he should stay on the path Jesus has laid out
for him. He must not box as one beating
the air. He must not try this and that
gimmick or fad, hoping that the latest and greatest thing will work, that
somehow he will land a punch. He has a
very clear and specific task from the Lord.
He must preach what is given him, the whole counsel of God, nothing
more, and nothing less.
And
then there is our Holy Gospel this morning.
We encounter our Lord at the beginning of His earthly ministry. In His preaching, and by His miracles, Jesus
is ushering in the very Kingdom of God.
He is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah.
That is, in the Person of Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth is
breaking into His creation to heal it of its brokenness and reclaim it from
Satan’s tyranny. Jesus comes to rescue
and renew, to redeem and to cleanse. He
enlightens our darkness and forgives our sins.
He casts out demons and raises the dead.
That is the form and content of His ministry. And it is the reality He brings about by His
suffering and death, and by His resurrection from the dead. So He heals Peter’s mother-in-law and raises
her up to serve. It is a resurrection to
new life in Christ. He receives those
who come to Him at sundown, that is, in the besetting darkness, all who are
sick or oppressed by demons. He heals
them and He casts the demons out. He
frees sinners from all that binds them.
And He prays… for them, and for His saving mission. And then He goes on to preach. For His Word must reach into every
place. He runs so as to win the
prize. With lazar-like focus, His eyes
are trained on the cross for the world’s salvation. He strives so as to win, not a wreath that
perishes, but an eternal crown and a Kingdom that is imperishable.
What
Jesus does for the people in Capernaum, beloved, He does here and now for
you. Because He loves you. This is why He gives you a Church, and why He
gives you pastors. Now, this is not
Benny Hinn kind of stuff where you come forward with all your afflictions, and
we slay you in the Spirit, and you get up off the floor miraculously healed. (I guess I should have asked earlier, but you
don’t have any plans for that, do you Pastor Taylor?) But this is to say that you come here for the
preaching of the Gospel, and when you come, you don’t want to hear Pastor
Taylor or me speak our own words. You
want to hear Jesus Himself! And you know
that in the preaching of the Gospel, which is the very voice of Jesus, all your
sins are forgiven. And then what happens
but a miracle?! Jesus Himself, the very
One with nail wounds in His hands and feet and a big spear hole in His side
(the wounds of your salvation), your Lord and your God, He touches you. He imparts Himself to you. He feeds you with Himself, His true Body, His
true Blood, the medicine of immortality under bread and wine. And while He may or may not take away your
fever… Although Lutherans need to get over this idea that He never does such
things. Stop being a rationalist. Luther very clearly says in the Large
Catechism that the Sacrament is “a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that
grants salvation and comfort. It will
cure you and give you life both in soul and body.”[1] And of course he is saying that because he
really believes, as we do, that the very same Jesus who does all these healings
in the Gospels by the touch of His Body, gives us that very Body to eat in the
Supper, His crucified and risen, life-giving and life-restoring Body!... But in any case, He doesn’t promise He will
always take away your fever, or your aches and pains, or your cancer, or
whatever affliction, in that moment.
But He does promise, and He does always, by this Body and Blood given
and shed for you, cure you from death.
Bodily! Because He will raise you
from the grave, bodily, on the Day of His coming again. He raises you up with new life now, to serve
Him with a Christ-filled life, as He did Peter’s mother-in-law, and He will
raise you bodily and eternally on that Day.
So
He gives you a pastor to feed you with Himself, in your ears and in your mouth,
and wash you all over with Him at the Font.
The pastor is to care for you with the tools given him, and that is
preaching and Sacraments. And in this
way, Jesus cares for you Himself. And,
of course, in the presence of Jesus and at the sound of His voice, the demons
must flee. He casts them out. As we said last week, you have no idea the
spiritual battle that is raging all around you at this very moment, and the
“knives, darts, and arrows,” as Luther says, that are this very moment aimed at
you. But the cure is right here. It is Jesus.
It is His Word, which commands the demons to be silent and come
out. And it is His Baptism and His Supper,
in which Jesus is bodily present, with you and for you, to deliver you, and to
grind the serpent’s head into the dust.
This
is the thing about our doctrine of the ministry. We really don’t believe that the guy in the
Pastoral Office is all that important.
What is important is Jesus, who is present, and who
speaks, and who works in and through that Office, by the ministration
of His Means of Grace, to give you Himself and all His gifts. That is why you cover the man in robes. You are hiding him under the Office Christ
has given (and you’ll hear all about His giving of it in the verses that we’ll
read in the Installation Rite). The
pastor is to do Christ’s business and speak Christ’s Word. And He is to pray… for you and for the saving
mission. Pastor Taylor will promise
that, as I did, in the Installation Rite.
And his whole life and ministry is to be about the Gospel of Jesus
Christ that rescues you and renews you, redeems and cleanses you, enlightens
your darkness and forgives your sins. He
is to be all about freeing you from all that binds you. In the ministry of the Gospel, you are
unchained. And you are raised from the
dead to live in Christ.
Now,
this is also what our text teaches you, this living in Christ. Jesus raises you up by His Gospel gifts, and
like Peter’s mother-in-law, you immediately get busy serving Him, and serving
others for His sake. This is not command
backed up by threat. This is simply the new
reality of your Christian life, the daily putting to death of Old Adam in
you by repentance, and the daily emerging and arising of the New Creation in
you to live before God in righteousness and purity. You serve Jesus by living in Him and
according to His Word. You serve His
people by loving with the love He continually pours out upon you. That is your vocation. To receive, and so to give. Faith toward God (the faith that receives
from Him), and fervent love toward one another.
And then it is always to be seeking Jesus (as the disciples were and as
the people did in our text), to go where He is and where He has promised to be
for you, where He is praying and where He is speaking, where He is healing and
casting out demons. It is to go where
there is forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Which is to say, to Church: To the Font, to the Pulpit, to the Altar and
the Feast.
Jesus
loves you, and so today He gives you yet another pastor, to love you and care
for you and serve you, as we know Pastor Taylor will. And he will be Jesus’ hands and voice to you
as He does it. You know, I’ve thought
about this a lot, because, while I’ve been blessed with many pastors who are dear
friends and brothers and mentors, I haven’t had a pastor of my own, all
official-like on paper, for 15 years.
Today I do. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves us, and so He has given us Pastor
Taylor, and He has given us, one to another.
But most importantly, Jesus loves us, and so, here He is, right now, in
the flesh, speaking, healing, driving away demons, giving us Himself. God be praised. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Fourth Sunday
after the Epiphany (B)
January 31, 2021
Text: Mark 1:21-28
The battle is closer to you than you think. There is a battle being waged between God and
the devil, the angels and the demons, and you are the contested territory. It is a battle for your body, your mind, your
heart, and your soul. The devil knows
his condemnation is final. His defeat
has already been accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. But he is not going down without
a fight. If God loves these precious
humans so much that He gives His only Son to become one of them and suffer the
shame and torture of the cross to save them, then devil is intent to drag as
many people down to hell with him as he can.
It is the only vengeance he can take.
And if he can deceive Christians, if he can deceive you,
and bring you down with him to the fire and sulfur of the bottomless pit of
damnation, then that is the ultimate trophy.
So the battle rages. It is all around you. It is within you. You are torn between two factions. Your sinful nature is pulled toward the
forces of hell, with whom the sympathies of your flesh lie. But you are baptized into Christ, and the new
creation that daily emerges from the baptismal waters and arises to live in
Christ, is pulled toward Christ. The
devil hates this. So he whispers his
seductive temptations into your ear. He
shoots his deadly arrows directly at your heart and your mind. This liar, and the father of lies, wields
even truth as a weapon, so that he speaks enough truth that you
think he is being rather reasonable, so that when he speaks a bent truth,
you hardly notice. You buy the lie. You give yourself to it. You sin. You don’t even realize the source is the evil
one. Because, for the most part, you
live your life blissfully ignorant of the battle that is raging all around you
and within you. You go about your daily
routine, unaware of the spiritual reality to which your eyes have been blinded:
Angels and demons, this world’s prince scowling fierce as he will, and Christ,
the Valiant One, who fights for us, whom God Himself elected, who holds the
field forever.
Beloved, you will not win this
battle with any might of yours. Only
Christ can win. He is your mighty
fortress, your help and protection, who shields you under the pierced wings of
His outstretched arms. You are only safe
when you dwell in His Word, in His Baptism, in His Supper. Luther says that the devil “is a liar, to
lead the heart astray from God’s Word and to blind it, so that you cannot feel
your distress or come to Christ. He is a
murderer, who cannot bear to see you live one single hour. If you could see how many knives, darts, and
arrows are every moment aimed at you [Ephesians 6:16], you would be glad to
come to the Sacrament as often as possible,”[1] to take
refuge in Christ, the Savior.
The people in the Synagogue, who
otherwise were much more in tune with the spiritual realities of the world than
you are, were nonetheless blissfully unaware that there was a man in their
very midst possessed by an unclean spirit.
The guy is a Church member!
But somewhere along the line he has fallen into secret unbelief, the
oppression, and eventually the possession of the demonic. Outwardly, his life may very well have been
quite respectable. But inwardly he had
given himself over to the darkness.
Now Jesus came on that particular
Sabbath, teaching in the Capernaum synagogue.
(By the way, you can see the remnants of that synagogue, or at least the
synagogue built on top of it. You can search
“Capernaum Synagogue” online, and see images of this very building from our
text, as well as a Church built over what is believed to be Peter’s house,
where our Lord healed Peter’s mother-in-law. That is our Holy Gospel for next
week [Mark 1:29-39].) Now, the people in
the Synagogue, just like you, are gathered for the Divine Service, mostly
unaware of the battle that is raging all around them. But they are about to catch a glimpse. Jesus is teaching them with authority,
and not as their scribes (Mark 1:22).
And now He is about to give a demonstration of that authority. The Word of Jesus Christ brings out the
demons. The man with the unclean spirit
bristles at the preaching of the Gospel.
It is sheer torture to him. And
the unclean spirit himself is tortured with the knowledge of who this is who is
preaching. This is the Christ. This is Messiah. This is the Savior of the world, and the
Judge of the demons. So the spirit, taking
control of the man’s very mouth, cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God”
(v. 24; ESV).
Now Jesus rebukes the demon, tells
him to be silent. Why? It’s true, isn’t it? Jesus is the Holy One of God. Yes, but remember, demons are always
liars. They only wield the truth to
further the lie. And what is the lie
this demon would have us believe? He
pegs the Lord Jesus, not as a Savior, but as a destroyer. “Have you come to destroy us?” Who is the “us”? I suppose there could be more than one demon,
as with Legion, but the text only indicates a singular unclean spirit. So in other words, the demon is implying that
Jesus has come to destroy him (which is true, on the Last Day, when He sends
that demon to eternal torture in the Lake of Fire), and the man he inhabits,
as well as the other sinners present in the synagogue. It’s always that same lie on the devil’s
part, isn’t it? “Do this sin. It will be really great. Rebel against God. He is holding out on you. Oh, what’s that? You did the sin? You rebelled?
I guess there is no saving you now.
You cannot be forgiven for that.
Jesus has come only to destroy you.”
Remember, the devil is your accuser.
And so his demons. So even when
they speak the truth, they do it to lead you into temptation, and then into
despair.
“Be silent, and come out of him!” Jesus commands (v. 25). And the unclean spirit, making a great show
of the whole thing (as unclean spirits are wont to do) convulses the man and
cries out with a loud voice (v. 26). You
can almost hear the demonic shriek. But
he comes out. He has to. For that authority with which Jesus teaches
the people, is a real authority.
It is the authority of God.
Jesus is God clothed in human flesh. He is the Creator of the heavens and the
earth, and all that is, visible and invisible.
He is the eternal Ruler of the universe.
And He is even the God of the devil.
When Jesus commands, the devil must obey. The demons must depart. The unclean spirits must flee. The Lord has not come to destroy His
people, but to save them… to save you, to deliver you from the
powers of darkness, from the prince of this world, and the present evil age.
Once again, the people are
amazed. A new thing has happened in
their midst. They question among
themselves, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and
they obey him” (v. 27). Indeed, He
teaches with authority. He has authority
over unclean spirits. That is what it
means that Jesus is Lord. The
Lord is the One with the authority.
There is a new Lord in town. This
is the Lord who received the Holy
Spirit at His Baptism in the Jordan, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Where
the Holy Spirit is, there is no room
for unclean spirits. Where the Lord
speaks His Holy Words, deploying His Holy Spirit, every evil spirit must
depart. And that authority He has over
the unclean spirits extends to every affliction that may plague you,
beloved.
He has authority over your sin, both
your sinful condition, and every sin you’ve ever committed. We live in the midst of so much spiritual
yuckiness, the filth of sexual immorality, selfishness, greed, murder,
profanity, godlessness. And we buy into
some of that. Repent. But Jesus commands it all to go away. He takes it into Himself and makes atonement
for it by His blood. And He speaks you
forgiven, bespeaks you righteous, speaks His Spirit and life into you.
Death? He has authority over it, including every symptom
of death, every illness and injury, every ache and pain and disability. Remember, He is risen. And He will raise you on the Last Day with a
body made whole and undefiled, fit for eternity. And not only you. Your loved ones who have died in Christ. He will restore them to you, bodily. He will place them into your aching arms once
again, risen, renewed, glorified, whole.
Sorrow, heartache, depression? He has authority over these, too. When He brings you to your eternal
consolation in heaven, God will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Mental illness? He renews your mind by His holy Word. Persecution, war, violence? He is your peace. All of these evils have their origin in the evil
one. They are carried out by his
minions. So the answer is always
Christ. Christ crucified for your sins. Christ risen for your justification. Christ seated at the right hand of the
Father, ruling all things for you. And
though it may appear as though your demonic enemies are triumphing in this
world, in the end, you will see things as they really are, and you will reign
with Christ in the new heavens and the new earth.
The battle rages all around you, but
Jesus is the Stronger One who binds the strong man (Mark 3:27). The serpent is outmatched, his kingdom
plundered, and Jesus grinds his head into the dust. So to every unclean spirit that afflicts you,
Jesus commands, “Be silent, and come out!” “You cannot have this precious soul for whom
I died, and for whom I live. This one
belongs to me.” And in this time between
His resurrection victory and His coming again for your final redemption, He
brings you into the fortress of His Church, where He protects you from all evil
and cleanses you from every sin. He
binds your wounds, administers the medicine of immortality, and gives you to
eat of the Bread of Life. Which is to
say, Himself. Here the Lord speaks with divine
authority, and the unclean spirits are silenced. They are cast out, and the Holy Spirit enters
in. Jesus commands it. And so it is.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Third Sunday after
the Epiphany (B)
January 24, 2021
Text: Mark 1:14-20
“Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17; ESV). We love that verse, and this story, because
it makes for one of the more vivid and exciting Sunday School lessons. And I’ve heard any number of pastors who are
experienced anglers use this text as an excuse to tell some whoppers of fishing
stories from the pulpit. Thankfully I’m
not all that great a fisherman, so you don’t have to worry about that
today. But it does happen, as it so
often happens with favorite Sunday School lessons, that we are prone to reduce
this saying to a moralism. The moral, we
might say, is that if you really want to follow Jesus and be a faithful
Christian, you ought to be reeling them in for the Lord. You should be always doing evangelism. And if you’re doing it right, you ought to be
successful. And if you’re not
successful, you’re not doing it right, and you must not be faithfully following
the Lord. Now, it is true that you
should do evangelism. As individual
Christians, and as a Church, you should be concerned with the Evangel, the Good
News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you should be intentional about spreading
it far and wide. But the moralistic
preaching of this text falls into several common traps that I would warn you
against.
One
is the trap of making this text a simplistic command about a certain activity
you ought to do, namely, evangelism. But
that is not actually the command here.
The command is to follow Jesus.
Another
is this idea that evangelism and its results in any way depend on you. They don’t.
Jesus says, “I will make you fishers of men.” Not, “Follow me, and make yourselves
fishers of men.” No, He does it. And He does it His way, in His
time, on His terms. And we
should never forget that sometimes these same guys from our text fish all night
and catch nothing, until Jesus comes along and bids them cast their nets on the
other side, and that is when they can hardly haul in the catch (Luke 5:1-11;
John 21:4-8). Jesus makes the fisherman,
and Jesus is responsible for the results.
And
then there is this trap of using a text like this to preach evangelism without
ever actually preaching the Evangel.
This is what happens all the time at pastors conferences. “Go, get all motivated and excited (and
guilted!) about evangelism. Spread the
Gospel. Love the lost. Get out there and get busy.” Fine.
True. But in that kind of sermon,
the preacher never gets around to speaking the Gospel to you. He never actually applies the Gospel as Jesus
gives it for you. And you can’t
give what you don’t have. The Gospel has
a content which is to be handed over in proclamation. And that content is this: The time is
fulfilled… The time for which we’ve all been waiting since our first
parents fell into sin; God’s appointed time, for the fulfillment of the
Promise; the time to which all the Law and the Prophets pointed; that
time has come. That is, the
Kingdom of God is at hand. Because the
King is here, Messiah, the Christ, our Savior from sin and death and
hell. He has come. He has conquered. He now rules where Satan once held sway. He is here for you, to save you. Therefore, beloved in the Lord, Repent…
Examine yourself. Confess your sins to
God. Sweep them out of your life. And believe in the Gospel… All your
sins are forgiven on account of the sin-atoning Blood of Christ, who has come
to be your Savior, to take your sins away, to put them all to death in His body
on the cross, to bury them in His tomb forever, to rise from the dead, bodily,
to be your eternal life and salvation, to rescue you from death and
condemnation, to raise you bodily on the Day of His glorious return.
That
is the Gospel. That is the Evangel of
evangelism. And when you hear that, you
don’t need to be guilted into getting busy and getting out there. You will live in this reality: A forgiven,
beloved, free, child of God and possessor of eternal life. Jesus has made you, fashioned you, created
you a fisher of men. So you’ll tell
people. And tell them what? This very Gospel. The Good News that the time is fulfilled and
the Kingdom has come in Jesus. That He
is their Savior. That they should repent
and believe in the Gospel, because salvation is an accomplished fact in
Jesus.
Sometimes
you’ll do this, and you’ll fish all night and catch nothing. What is that to you? Do you really think God is depending on
you? Do you really think success depends
on your creative and superior fishing methods?
Just proclaim the Gospel. God
will do what He will do. His Word never
returns to Him empty (Is. 55:11). So
just be who He has made you to be and speak what He has given you to
speak. And who knows? Maybe all at once you will cast the net, and
the haul will be beyond your wildest imagination. We should all be praying in these days of
sore distress for just such a catch, for a great returning to the Lord, for
repentance and faith and the salvation of many.
But again, that all depends on Him, not us. We are simply given to cast the net. We are simply given to proclaim God’s Word.
Jesus
is the Master Fisherman. Remember, He is
the first Preacher to cast the net of proclamation in this morning’s Gospel: “The
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the
Gospel” (Mark 1:15). Those are His
Words. And that is the summary of the
whole content of His preaching, and that is what every fisher of men who
follows Him is given to proclaim. In
other words, “Here is the Gospel of God’s victory over your enemies. You are now saved. Repent and believe it!” The fish are, of course, men, people, you,
and by the net of the preaching, Jesus halls you into the Boat, which is His
Kingdom, which here goes by the name “holy Christian Church.” It should not be lost on us that we are
hauled out of the sea into the Boat of our salvation. To use a similar, but different, biblical
illustration, the Church is the Ark, and we are the beasts. But to get back to fishing, Jesus pulls us
out of the sea by the net of His Word.
And in the Scriptures, the sea is the place of chaos, the haunt of demons,
the swirling abyss. And that is as apt a
description of this world and our fallen life in it as I’ve ever heard. See, as the Gospel is preached, Jesus rescues
you from that, and brings you into this place of safety, until you reach the
shore of that Promised Haven to come.
Now
our Lord enlists others to fish… fish whom He’s caught to be fishers of
men. He is always the Fisherman behind
the fishermen. In the case of the
disciples He calls in our text, they are to leave everything for this new
occupation. For they will also be Apostles,
Christ’s authoritatively sent ones, His messengers, His preachers, to
speak in His stead. And they will
appoint others for the apostolic ministry, not as Apostles, but as Christian
pastors, to leave everything and devote their lives to this calling. This is important, and it is in no way opposed
to the work He gives all Christians to do.
That is a lie of the devil that pits lay people against clergy, as
though they are in competition. Don’t
believe it. Both are necessary. Both are gifts of God. Both, together, make up the Church. But our Lord has established a holy Office of
the Public Ministry, to preach this Gospel and administer Christ’s Sacraments,
that the net may be cast in every place.
And woe to those preachers when they refuse to do His bidding. Jonah didn’t want to preach repentance and
the Lord’s mercy to the Gentiles in Nineveh.
Well, the Lord did a little fishing with him, anyway! Talk about a big fish! Jonah’s whole life, and death, and life
again, would proclaim this Gospel. The
sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39-41), down to Sheol in the belly of the fish, on the
Third Day death vomits him up again onto the shore… To proclaim God’s
life-giving Word to the Ninevites. And
he catches the whole city, and even the pagan king (Jonah 3). So a pastor had better preach, and he better preach
faithfully, or the Lord may just throw him into the sea. And that is a very serious thing, to be
thrown off the boat and into the abyss.
That is what it means that pastors will be judged more strictly (James
3:1). God forbid it should ever happen
to this pastor. This is what St. Paul is
getting at when he writes, “necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
(1 Cor. 9:16). But in the preaching of
the Gospel, there is great reward. It is
to follow Jesus, speaking His Word, through death and into life again, and in
the end, by His grace and blessing, have a whole net full of fish to show for
it.
But
we usually like to talk about every disciple being a fisher of men. There is certainly truth in this. You may not be called to be a pastor, but you
are called to follow Jesus. And you do
have a part in the fishing. That is as a
faithful Church member. Come to
Church. Be filled with the Gospel. You are Baptized into Christ. Jesus died for you. Jesus is risen for you. Jesus loves you and rules all things at the
right hand of God for you. And He feeds
you here with Himself, His true Body and Blood, for your forgiveness, life, and
salvation.
And
it is to be a faithful Christian in the world.
That certainly means speaking the Gospel of Christ to others at every
opportunity. But it also means loving
your family. Being faithful to your
spouse. Raising your children in the
fear and admonition of the Lord. It
means praying for your pastor and your brothers and sisters in Christ, giving
an offering, participating in the life of the congregation. Getting up, going to work, working as for the
Lord. Helping whoever needs help. Giving to whoever lacks. Paying your taxes. Honoring the governing authority… yes, that
is your command in Scripture (Rom. 13).
It means living confidently in the grace of Jesus Christ, repenting of
your sins, but believing in the Gospel of forgiveness and life in Christ. And so rejoicing always. Being patient in tribulation. Constant in prayer (Rom. 12:12), waiting for
and hastening the coming of the Day of Christ (2 Peter 3:12).
And
as people hear you speak the Words of Christ, and see you live in Him, they
just might be caught up in it. In the
Name of the Father, and of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen