Last Sunday of the church year 11/22/09 Mark 13:32-37 Title Stay Awake!
Last Sunday of the Church Year
11/22/09
Text: Mark 13:32-37
Title: Stay Awake
Last Sunday my message to you was that everything will be all right in your daily life as you face what seems to be sometimes overwhelming problems of life, as long as you stay centered on Jesus. I can say that because when you truly trust in Jesus those times that we all have to face sometime or other are lived in different way, for God has given you through the death and resurrection of Jesus a peace that passes all understanding.
Today my message to you, actually God’s message to you, as it is written in the last few verses of our Gospel text is that everything will be all right when the end of the earth comes; that time when Jesus comes back in all his glory to call all of those who trusted in him into everlasting fellowship with him.
It will be all right for those who have put their trust in Jesus, but for those who have rejected the forgiveness he won for us on that bloody cross everything will not be all right, for it will be a time of gnashing of teeth and loud wailing because they will realize that the words of Jesus were true when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Today is the “Last Sunday of the Church Year” or “Christ the King Sunday” depending on what the pastor wants to emphasis. It is a hard choice, but as I prepared for this message to you this morning I began to realize that the two titles really are one and the same. This is what I mean.
Christ the King Sunday emphases is on Jesus the King of all kings. There is no one greater or more powerful than him. The picture that showed the children just a moment ago showed that. The king riding on his beautiful white stallion and adored by his subjects sees the body of Jesus hanging on the cross on the right of the painting knows who the real king is. He knows as the Bible tells us that he only rules because God is letting him. The true King is Jesus and we are living in his kingdom right now.
The form of Jesus on a cross is not very kingly, at least as far as the world is concerned. Kings are no longer kings if they are dead, especially if they are dead on a cross, the worst and most humiliating form of death that the Romans could come up with. The world sees a dead king even today, but Jesus is not dead. It is not just some story made up by his followers. He is alive and well. He is actively ruling his kingdom and those who have turned their lives over to him are his subjects. Subjects who trust in him to keep his word, so much that they respond to his instruction by doing what he tells them to do.
While Christ the King Sunday focuses on Christ being the King the Last Sunday of the church year emphases is on the last days and our being prepared. The theme is appropriate for this Sunday because next Sunday is the First Sunday in Advent which begins a time of expectation. Advent means according to Webster’s Dictionary, “The coming of something important”. In the Christian church the meaning of the term Advent is that period of time in which we emphasize Jesus second coming while at the same time preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Advent is that time when the pastor tries to keep the membership’s focus on Christ instead of the things of the world, those things that can cause them to fall into spiritual sleep.
Which brings us to our Gospel reading for today. It is about our not falling asleep while we wait for Jesus’ return. His warning to not fall asleep is not talking about actual sleep, for we need our sleep. Sleep is good for us. Jesus is talking about spiritual sleeping, for he knows how deadly spiritual sleep is. Instead of refreshing us, spiritual sleep kills us.
But before there is spiritual sleep there is a spiritual dozing off. Spiritual dozing off is what happens when a person quits paying attention to God’s Word. Maybe you have been there, done that.
There are several clues that will let you know if you are spiritually dozing off. You will begin to see an unforgiving spirit creep into your life. You will become more hardhearted concerning the welfare of others. You become more centered on self, as you put your rights ahead of others. Which is just the opposite of what God teaches which is we are to be a servant of all.
Maybe you are pretty ho hum about Jesus’ Second Advent because he has not come back in 1,967 years. If you are you are spiritually dozing off. A Christian, actually no one, should not have a ho hum attitude about Jesus’ Second Coming, for it really does not make any difference if he does not come back in your life time. When you die judgment occurs. And none of us knows when that will happen do we? We live our lives thinking that we are guaranteed to have tomorrow, all the time knowing deep down, if we are honest with ourselves, we know we don’t even know what is going to happen in the next second.
Two weeks ago two young men that some of our members knew died in tragic car accidents. This week another young man was killed in a wreck when a cement truck hit him from behind. Did they know that they were going to die even two or 3 seconds before their death? Of course they did not. That is how quickly our life can end. That is why we need to not spiritually doze off.
So how does a person not spiritually doze off? It is really simple; no complicated formula. You just stay in the Word of God. You faithfully attend and participate in the worship services. You partake of Jesus’ very body and blood. You say you do most of that, but you still feel like you might be dozing off.
If that is the problem what is more than likely happened is that you think getting right with God is something you do. You have to use your mental ability, for, as Martin Luther once said, “For we are not rocks or geese.” The Gospel of God has to work on something. But, having said that it is God who works faith in us and whose Word is true.
The disciples’ minds must have been reeling from all that Jesus had been teaching them about the last days. He told them that nearly everything they had thought unchangeable would change. The change from being “fishermen” to being “fishers of men”, which probably blew their minds when he first said it, probably seemed minor to them in comparison to the universal changes and calamities described by Christ.
We, too, have been stressed by a world which is changing at a pace we can’t emotionally keep up with. People we trusted have proven to be less than trustworthy. Science, a gift from God, which too many have put their trust in for the truth and salvation of the world has let us down. Just yesterday the news broke that there appears to be something less than honest going on with some scientists that believe in global warming. Jobs we thought we’d have for life have disappeared as the business packed up and moved out, just like Orleans furniture factory here in Hattiesburg did Friday laying off 75 people. Morals we grew up taking for granted are forgotten and scorned as it becomes more and more politically incorrect to call sin, sin. Even our church is not untouched by change: different translations are read, new liturgies are sung. New people join the church and as they begin to take an active role in the congregation things begin to change and people get upset because things are not done as they use to be done. Too many times what we have trusted in for so long is changing and it is scary especially when it involves our religious life at our church.
Just like we are let down if we put our trust in relationships, jobs, or the things of the world we will be let down, if we attempt to anchor our trust upon such things as a particular translation or liturgy, or church body, or a certain way that something is done. These are all things of the earth. Jesus tells us that heaven and earth will “pass away”. The Greek literally means “to pass by, to progress.” In other words it continues.
We have seen that all creation has been affected by sin which means that all creation is in need of change. That is a good thing for all creation will be changed by God, as he has promised. The universe as we know it will pass away, but our Lord will make for us a new heaven and a new earth. Thank goodness for that.
But such a change for God’s Word is unnecessary. It is complete and perfect in itself. Jesus wants us to have complete trust in that which does not change which is his Word. Oh, as those who attended the study on how we got the Bible found out, the world has tried and continues to hide it, to pervert it, to subdue and even destroy it. But those of the world have and will fail. The Word still endures. The heavens themselves will go through dramatic changes, but we are told in Psalm 119:89, “your Word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”
Whether one says “whosoever believeth in him” or “whoever believes in him,” sings it or chants it, or says the “quick and the dead” or the “living and the dead in the Creed” the Word remains the same. The promises are just as sure. Our faith to be saving faith has to rest on an unshakable foundation; the Word of our Savior and God.
When he returns, and I pray every day that he will return quickly, may he find us faithfully holding to that Word and sharing it as well with those who do not know of the love of God. Amen.
11/22/09
Text: Mark 13:32-37
Title: Stay Awake
Last Sunday my message to you was that everything will be all right in your daily life as you face what seems to be sometimes overwhelming problems of life, as long as you stay centered on Jesus. I can say that because when you truly trust in Jesus those times that we all have to face sometime or other are lived in different way, for God has given you through the death and resurrection of Jesus a peace that passes all understanding.
Today my message to you, actually God’s message to you, as it is written in the last few verses of our Gospel text is that everything will be all right when the end of the earth comes; that time when Jesus comes back in all his glory to call all of those who trusted in him into everlasting fellowship with him.
It will be all right for those who have put their trust in Jesus, but for those who have rejected the forgiveness he won for us on that bloody cross everything will not be all right, for it will be a time of gnashing of teeth and loud wailing because they will realize that the words of Jesus were true when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Today is the “Last Sunday of the Church Year” or “Christ the King Sunday” depending on what the pastor wants to emphasis. It is a hard choice, but as I prepared for this message to you this morning I began to realize that the two titles really are one and the same. This is what I mean.
Christ the King Sunday emphases is on Jesus the King of all kings. There is no one greater or more powerful than him. The picture that showed the children just a moment ago showed that. The king riding on his beautiful white stallion and adored by his subjects sees the body of Jesus hanging on the cross on the right of the painting knows who the real king is. He knows as the Bible tells us that he only rules because God is letting him. The true King is Jesus and we are living in his kingdom right now.
The form of Jesus on a cross is not very kingly, at least as far as the world is concerned. Kings are no longer kings if they are dead, especially if they are dead on a cross, the worst and most humiliating form of death that the Romans could come up with. The world sees a dead king even today, but Jesus is not dead. It is not just some story made up by his followers. He is alive and well. He is actively ruling his kingdom and those who have turned their lives over to him are his subjects. Subjects who trust in him to keep his word, so much that they respond to his instruction by doing what he tells them to do.
While Christ the King Sunday focuses on Christ being the King the Last Sunday of the church year emphases is on the last days and our being prepared. The theme is appropriate for this Sunday because next Sunday is the First Sunday in Advent which begins a time of expectation. Advent means according to Webster’s Dictionary, “The coming of something important”. In the Christian church the meaning of the term Advent is that period of time in which we emphasize Jesus second coming while at the same time preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Advent is that time when the pastor tries to keep the membership’s focus on Christ instead of the things of the world, those things that can cause them to fall into spiritual sleep.
Which brings us to our Gospel reading for today. It is about our not falling asleep while we wait for Jesus’ return. His warning to not fall asleep is not talking about actual sleep, for we need our sleep. Sleep is good for us. Jesus is talking about spiritual sleeping, for he knows how deadly spiritual sleep is. Instead of refreshing us, spiritual sleep kills us.
But before there is spiritual sleep there is a spiritual dozing off. Spiritual dozing off is what happens when a person quits paying attention to God’s Word. Maybe you have been there, done that.
There are several clues that will let you know if you are spiritually dozing off. You will begin to see an unforgiving spirit creep into your life. You will become more hardhearted concerning the welfare of others. You become more centered on self, as you put your rights ahead of others. Which is just the opposite of what God teaches which is we are to be a servant of all.
Maybe you are pretty ho hum about Jesus’ Second Advent because he has not come back in 1,967 years. If you are you are spiritually dozing off. A Christian, actually no one, should not have a ho hum attitude about Jesus’ Second Coming, for it really does not make any difference if he does not come back in your life time. When you die judgment occurs. And none of us knows when that will happen do we? We live our lives thinking that we are guaranteed to have tomorrow, all the time knowing deep down, if we are honest with ourselves, we know we don’t even know what is going to happen in the next second.
Two weeks ago two young men that some of our members knew died in tragic car accidents. This week another young man was killed in a wreck when a cement truck hit him from behind. Did they know that they were going to die even two or 3 seconds before their death? Of course they did not. That is how quickly our life can end. That is why we need to not spiritually doze off.
So how does a person not spiritually doze off? It is really simple; no complicated formula. You just stay in the Word of God. You faithfully attend and participate in the worship services. You partake of Jesus’ very body and blood. You say you do most of that, but you still feel like you might be dozing off.
If that is the problem what is more than likely happened is that you think getting right with God is something you do. You have to use your mental ability, for, as Martin Luther once said, “For we are not rocks or geese.” The Gospel of God has to work on something. But, having said that it is God who works faith in us and whose Word is true.
The disciples’ minds must have been reeling from all that Jesus had been teaching them about the last days. He told them that nearly everything they had thought unchangeable would change. The change from being “fishermen” to being “fishers of men”, which probably blew their minds when he first said it, probably seemed minor to them in comparison to the universal changes and calamities described by Christ.
We, too, have been stressed by a world which is changing at a pace we can’t emotionally keep up with. People we trusted have proven to be less than trustworthy. Science, a gift from God, which too many have put their trust in for the truth and salvation of the world has let us down. Just yesterday the news broke that there appears to be something less than honest going on with some scientists that believe in global warming. Jobs we thought we’d have for life have disappeared as the business packed up and moved out, just like Orleans furniture factory here in Hattiesburg did Friday laying off 75 people. Morals we grew up taking for granted are forgotten and scorned as it becomes more and more politically incorrect to call sin, sin. Even our church is not untouched by change: different translations are read, new liturgies are sung. New people join the church and as they begin to take an active role in the congregation things begin to change and people get upset because things are not done as they use to be done. Too many times what we have trusted in for so long is changing and it is scary especially when it involves our religious life at our church.
Just like we are let down if we put our trust in relationships, jobs, or the things of the world we will be let down, if we attempt to anchor our trust upon such things as a particular translation or liturgy, or church body, or a certain way that something is done. These are all things of the earth. Jesus tells us that heaven and earth will “pass away”. The Greek literally means “to pass by, to progress.” In other words it continues.
We have seen that all creation has been affected by sin which means that all creation is in need of change. That is a good thing for all creation will be changed by God, as he has promised. The universe as we know it will pass away, but our Lord will make for us a new heaven and a new earth. Thank goodness for that.
But such a change for God’s Word is unnecessary. It is complete and perfect in itself. Jesus wants us to have complete trust in that which does not change which is his Word. Oh, as those who attended the study on how we got the Bible found out, the world has tried and continues to hide it, to pervert it, to subdue and even destroy it. But those of the world have and will fail. The Word still endures. The heavens themselves will go through dramatic changes, but we are told in Psalm 119:89, “your Word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”
Whether one says “whosoever believeth in him” or “whoever believes in him,” sings it or chants it, or says the “quick and the dead” or the “living and the dead in the Creed” the Word remains the same. The promises are just as sure. Our faith to be saving faith has to rest on an unshakable foundation; the Word of our Savior and God.
When he returns, and I pray every day that he will return quickly, may he find us faithfully holding to that Word and sharing it as well with those who do not know of the love of God. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 11:24 AM
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