LISTEN WITH FAITH!

February 3, 2019

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Jeremiah 1:4-10

Epistle Lesson; 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13

Sermon Text; Luke 1:20-32

Today's sermon starts where last week's sermon ended. So, just to bring you up to speed, last week we read about Jesus being the greatest preacher that ever lived. He went to His hometown in Nazareth. There, He opened up to Isaiah, chapter sixty one. He read this beautiful verse from Isaiah, sixty one. Then, He preached this beautiful sermon about how He had come to free all those who were in spiritual blindness, captivity, and slavery. He preached a beautiful sermon, a powerful sermon.

So, this is what happens next. We hear this in Jesus' name. It is taken from Luke, chapter four, verses twenty through thirty two.

He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. They eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

They all spoke well of Him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from His mouth. And they kept saying, “Isn't this Joseph's son?”

He told them, “Certainly you will quote this proverb to me, 'Physician, heal yourself!' Do here in your hometown everything we heard you did in Capernaum.” And He said, “Amen I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”
All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. They got up and drove Him out of the town. They led Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw Him off the cliff. But He passed through the middle of them and went on His way.

He went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. They were amazed by His teaching, because His message had authority.

These are your words Heavenly Father. Lead using the way of truth. Your Word is truth.

Amen

So, last week, when I started my sermon, I started by saying, “There are all kinds of different preachers.” I kind of went through the different types of preachers there are.

So now I am going to turn the tables, and I am going to say, “There are all types of different listeners, when it comes to listening to sermons.” Some people listen at the edge of their seat, and listen to every word that gets said. Some people close their eyes, and quickly fall asleep, during a sermon. Some people take notes, during a sermon. Some people listen for the illustrations, because they like to hear that part. Some people start daydreaming, during a sermon, because it gets them thinking about something else. Some people think, “Man, too bad 'so and so' is not here to hear this one today.” Other people think, “Man I hope 'so and so' is listening, because this really applies to them.” All types of different listeners to sermons.

When I went to Bethany college there was a professor there, who was a religion professor. He has, since, gone to Heaven. He was kind of 'rough around the edges'. Everybody was a little bit afraid of this religion professor. He had all kinds of really interesting idiosyncrasies. One of his idiosyncrasies was when he would go to chapel every day. He would sit up near the front. And, as soon as the sermon started, he would cross his arms over his chest, he would put his chin on his chest, and close his eyes. He would sit there like that during the whole sermon. Of course, the rumor was, “This guy falls asleep every time he goes to church.”

So, one day one of the seminary students (whose frontal lobe must not have been totally developed at this point), told his fellow buddies, “I am going to call Professor on that.”

So, it came time for chapel. The professor sat down in his seat, and the sem. student sat next to him. When the sermon started, the professor folded his arms, put his chin down on his chest, and closed his eyes all the way through the sermon.

When the church service got over, this seminary student bravely, (although not very wisely), said to the professor, “Professor, I think you were sleeping during church.”
The professor looked at the sem. student, and in his gruff voice said, “Concentrate on your own worship, not mine.”

That is what I want you to do today. Concentrate on your own worship, and ask yourself, “What type of listener am I, when it comes to listening to a sermon?”

So, we are all going to concentrate on our own worship, not anybody else's - your worship We are going to do it by looking at what happened at Jesus' sermon, that He preached in His hometown in Nazareth.

He preached a powerful sermon. In fact, when the sermon was over, what does our Bible passage tell us? It says,

“They all spoke well of Him

and were impressed by the grace that came from His mouth.”

The people marveled. They marveled at His sermon.

So, you can imagine when the sermon was over, maybe Jesus was getting hand shakes, and compliments. They were maybe slapping Him on the back, and saying, “Man! That was a great one! I mean you hit the ball out of the ballpark with that one.” “That was a fantastic sermon!” “The illustrations you used were amazing.” “Your command of Scripture was just fantastic!” “Wow, Jesus! You really, really had an awesome sermon. You hit it out of the ballpark.”

They were amazed about it. They were amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips.

This was a sermon about grace. It was a sermon about Jesus coming to rescue those who were in a lost condition.

So, they were complimenting Him. “Jesus that was amazing.” “That was really comforting for a lot of people.”

But Jesus, knowing their hearts, and knowing how they had listened to His sermon, knew He had to dive a little deeper with them. They had not correctly listened to His sermon. Here is the mistake they had made. When they listened to Jesus' sermon, they knew it was a great sermon. They knew it was comforting. There were some really gracious words in there, but here is what they thought. “That must have been really comforting for 'so and so'.”

They didn't realize Jesus was talking about them. They were the ones who were 'blind'. They were the ones who were 'in captivity'. They were the ones who were 'in slavery'. They were the ones who were spiritually poor. They didn't get that, so they didn't get the fact that Jesus was saying,

“I came for you.”

So now, Jesus has to dive a little deeper with them, so they can learn to apply, “He was talking about me in that sermon.” So listen to what Jesus says to them. “Certainly you will quote this proverb to me. 'Physician, heal yourself!' Do here in your hometown everything we heard you did in Capernaum.” And He said, “Amen I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath in Sidon. There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”

So, what was Jesus telling them there? Well, He was telling them, “Look, you guys thought it was a great sermon. You were slapping me on the back, but you don't realize this is about you. It's about you. You are the ones 'in need'. You are the ones who are 'poor'. You are the ones who need to be 'freed from captivity'. You thought it was a sermon that was comforting for somebody else who really needs some help, but you don't think you need any help. All you are looking for, and what you would prefer is to see one of the miracles that I have done. That is more interesting to you, just seeing miracles.”

In fact, Jesus then compares them to the people of Israel who lived nine hundred years before that. He uses these two great preachers of the day, nine hundred years ago, Elijah and Elisha, who were very powerful preachers. They had come to Israel, sent by God, because there was a real problem in Israel. The Israelites had fallen away from God. They had fallen into false worship, and Baal worship. They had sinned against God. These two prophets were sent to call the people back to repentance. But, the people didn't see their own sin, and didn't listen to what the preachers were saying. So, they didn't repent of their sin, because they didn't see their need, and so they didn't run to God for help.

Jesus says, during that time there were many widows in Israel, but Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent to some widow up in Zarephath, in Sidon. That was not in Israel. In fact, that is where Jezebel was from. Evil Jezebel was from Zarephath, in Sidon. But, here Elijah goes to this widow, who was in great poverty. She had a little oil, and flour left, and was cooking her last loaf of bread. She said, “My son and I are going to eat it, and then die.”

Elijah said to her, “Give me something to eat, and then the LORD will provide for you. You will never run out oil, and you will never run out of flour, until this famine is over.”

That woman understood her need. She understood her poverty. She trusted God. And, she gave food to Elijah, and her oil, and her flour never ran out. She saw her need, and trusted God. That's good news to the poor.

Then, Elisha. There were many, many lepers in Israel, during the days of Elisha, but none of them went to Elisha, this preacher of God's Word, to be healed. They didn't see their need, nor did they think God could take care of their needs.

The man who came to Elisha was a man by the name of Naaman, from Syria. The Syrians were enemies of the Children of Israel. In fact, they had captured some of the Children of Israel, and had taken this little girl captive. Naaman, who was one of their enemies, had leprosy. This little girl told Naaman, her captor, “If you go down to Israel, the God of Israel could heal you.”

Naaman saw his need, even though he was not an Israelite, and he went to Elisha. Elisha told him, “Go wash yourself in the Jordan River seven times.”

He did, and he was healed. He saw his need, trusted God, and God took care of his needs.

But, none of the people of Israel went to those preachers. They didn't see their need.

And, Jesus is likening the people in Nazareth to that. He is saying, “You don't see your own need. You don't see how far you have fallen.” Now, He starts to put His finger, as it were, on their chest. It is like He is pointing at each one of them, and telling them, “This sermon was about you. You are the one who is in need. You are the one who is in captivity. You are the one who is blind. And, I have come to rescue you.”

As soon as He started really pointing His finger at them, what did they do? Listen to what happened. It says,

“All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage

when they heard these things.”

I want to tell you something. That is the natural reaction of our sinful nature. Whenever God's Law starts to get dangerously close to your chest, and starts pointing at you, you know that our sinful nature is not neutral to God's Word. The Bible tells us,

“The sinful mind is hostile to God.

It does not accept the things of God,

nor can it do so.”

As soon as God's Word starts pointing its finger at my chest, my natural, sinful reaction is to block it out of the way. My sinful nature is hostile to God's Word. It doesn't want to hear that. It is like saying, “Don't you dare point out my sin. Those other people have problems, but don't tell me I have a problem.”

That is when it starts to get uncomfortable. Now, our culture has learned to try to deal with that in certain ways. For example, our culture just says, “If God's Word says something is wrong, let's just say, 'It is not', because it makes us uncomfortable if God's Word is telling us we are doing something wrong.”

It is knocking God's Law out of the way.

Or, if God's Word says I am doing something wrong, and that makes me feel uncomfortable, my sinful nature wants to knock God's Word out of the way, and say, “But, I have a good reason to do it, and if you understood why I am doing it, it would make sense to you.”

It is offended, my sinful nature is offended to hear God's Law.

My sinful nature says, “Why does He have to talk so much about sin? That is depressing. I don't like to hear that.”

So, that is what Jesus was telling the people in Nazareth. That is how a person is to listen to a sermon. First of all, tell ourselves, “This sermon is about me. It is about me. It is God's Word pointing out my sin. How am I going to react to that? How am I going to react to that?”

Well, look at how the people of Nazareth reacted to it. Here is what it says.

“They led Him to the brow of the hill, on which their town was built, in order to throw Him off the cliff. But, He passed right through the middle of them and went on His way.

“He went down to Capernaum, the town of Galilee, and was teaching them on The Sabbath. They were amazed at His teaching, because His message had authority.”

So, they rejected Jesus. When they realized, “Do you mean you are talking about me? You are saying I have a problem? You are saying I am messed up? You are saying I am a sinner? You are saying there is something deeply wrong with me, and I am in captivity? I am blind?”, they didn't want to hear that. So, they tried to get rid of Jesus.

Now, you can stone somebody in two ways. You can either pick up stones, and throw them at them, or you can throw somebody at the stones. And, that is what they tried to do to Jesus. They tried to throw Him off of a cliff, on to the stones, reject Him and get rid of Him.

Our sinful nature can try to do the same thing. Our sinful nature can try to reject Jesus. Our sinful nature can listen to a sermon, superficially, and say, “Well, he was not talking about me. He was talking about him, or her, those other people. I hope they were listening”, rejecting what The Word is saying.

Our sinful nature can reject Jesus by saying, “I am not going to church. I don't like what I hear, there. It makes me feel too guilty. I am not going.”

Well, here is the problem.

We can reject Jesus,

but we can't defeat Him.

-They tried to throw Jesus over the cliff, but what happened? He walked right through their midst. We don't know how He did it. It was a miracle. They couldn't defeat Him. They could reject Him all they wanted to. But, all they could do is hurt themselves. As far as we know, Jesus never went back to Nazareth, again, ever.

-Other times in Jesus' ministry, they tried to reject Him. They tried to stone Him twice at the temple. Both times, He walked right through their midst. They could reject Him, but they couldn't defeat Him.

-When they took Him to the cross. This was the ultimate rejection. He said,

“I lay down my life of my own accord.

And, I take it up again.”

They could reject Him, but they could not defeat Him. All they could do was hurt themselves.

-We can reject Jesus, but we can't defeat Him. All we can do is hurt ourselves. All we can do is hurt ourselves.

So, what is the proper way to listen to The Word? I have been a pastor for a long time, and because of that there have been a number of occasions where I have had to preach sermons in front of a whole bunch of pastors, like at Synod Convention, or The Pastor's Conference. After the sermon, you get all kinds of comments. “Good job.” “Thanks for the nice sermon.” You hear that type of thing, all kinds of comments. I will tell you the one comment that is always by far the most meaningful to me is this. “That sermon really convicted me of my sin. That sermon really showed me my Savior.”

That is proper listening to The Word. It is applying it to yourself, and asking yourself, “How does this Word of God show me my deep need for a Savior?” “How does it point out how blind, captive, and poor I am spiritually?” “How does it convict me of my sins?” And, “How does it lead me running to the only solution, the only answer, which is my Savior?” And, “How does it show me that even though I reject God in so many ways, God accepts me. He freely and fully accepts me?” “How does it show me, for example, the passage that says,

'God was reconciling the world to Himself, in Christ,

not counting men's sins against them.'?”

He accepts me for Jesus' sake. “How does it show me that,

'All have sinned,

and fall short of the glory of God.'?”

We are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God accepts me for Jesus' sake. And, for the sake of Jesus, He declares me not guilty. Wow!

-How does it show me that God, even though I have rejected Him, He has made me a member of His family, through Baptism.

-How does it show me that at The Lord's Supper, (here, I who have rejected God), actually receive the very body, and blood of my Savior, united to Him?

What a comfort. What a God of mercy. What a God of grace. What a God of love.

Those are the people who go home from a sermon, with joy in their hearts, knowing, “Yes, I am a sinner. But, what a Savior I have!”

May God grant that all of us be that type of a listener!

Amen