Luke 10:16 “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

What did Jesus look like? Some portraits depict him as a light-haired, fair-skinned European. Some depict him as a curly-haired, dark-skinned African. Others reflect other nationalities. Jesus’ Jewish heritage suggests we can dismiss some of the artists portrayals. The truth is we don’t know what Jesus looked like.

What did Jesus sound like? Was he a bass or a tenor? Was his voice soothing or would it cut glass? It is hard for us to say what his voice sounded like to people 2000 years ago. Today it sounds just like the person who is speaking his words to you at any given moment.

Isn’t that what Jesus was telling the disciples when he said, “He who listens to you listens to me…”? As long as they were saying what Jesus’ said, those who heard them were listening to Jesus. The disciples’ words were not their own. They spoke with the full authority of Jesus. The Lord was speaking through them.

That truth delivers an urgent warning. We ignore those who are speaking God’s word to us at our peril. Though the person may be no more important, no less sinful, than we are (whether pastor, family member, or friend), it may as well be Jesus himself standing in front of us when that person is speaking God’s word. Rejecting those who bring us God’s word is the same as rejecting Jesus and his Father. Those who reject the Savior’s words now will themselves be rejected on the Last Day.

But what great comfort to know that Jesus is still speaking to us today! We have more than vague impressions in our hearts that some interpret to be God communicating with them. We have the clear, powerful, certain words of Jesus speaking to us when they are preached from the pulpit, or taught in Bible class, or shared between Christian friends. We still have Jesus’ own word that he has forgiven our sins and guaranteed us heaven. When we are listening to such precious promises, Jesus speaks today.

And what a privilege that sometimes Jesus sounds just like you and me, because we speak for him, too. May his promise to speak through us give us confidence to speak for him often.

Matthew 15:8 “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

A famous churchman once said, “You may consider immoral thoughts in the heart sins if you like. I don’t.”

That is a surprising statement when you consider the space Jesus himself devoted to just this topic in the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’…..But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22). “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).  Jesus certainly considered immoral thoughts sins against God.

Indeed, the Lord is often more concerned with what is going on inside our hearts than he is with our outward actions.  He quoted the words the Lord spoke through Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13).  The people were doing the right thing on the outside. They were showing up to worship God as he commanded. They said the right things. But their hearts were not right, and that makes all the difference as far as God is concerned. His own conclusion? “They worship me in vain.”

The Lord did not overlook sins of thought and attitude when he gave the ten commandments, either. The last commandments forbid us to covet any person or anything that we cannot have.  Our neighbor’s husband or wife, for example, is off limits to us. To take them as our own is committing adultery. Our neighbor’s possessions can be had only if we get them honestly by working for them, paying for them or receiving them as a gift. Anything else is stealing. When we continue to want what God has said we can’t have, or what God has not given us the ability to afford, then we are guilty of coveting.

Even if we never act on our desires to do or have what God has made off limits, sinful desires reveal a heart opposed to God. They deny that God is lovingly and graciously providing the very best for us at all times. They suggest that we, God’s creatures, know what is good for us better than the Creator. Worst of all, they make an idol of what we want, one that competes in our hearts with our love for the Lord.

This, of course, is one of the hardest sins to avoid. No one but God himself can see it. Everything around us invites us to do it. Every commercial you or I see on television, every advertisement we see on billboards or in magazines, tries to convince us we need something more. Every new gadget our neighbor purchases suggests to us that we need one, too, even though there must be a limit to how much junk we stockpile for ourselves somewhere.

Jesus took just the opposite view about having things. “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus had it all, but he gave it all up just to help us and just to please our heavenly Father. Jesus’ great desire was to express his love and make others rich.

And the riches which Jesus freely gives–forgiveness of sins, friendship with God, a home in heaven–are riches our hearts may desire as much as they want.

Philippians 4:19 “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

What do the following Biblical accounts have in common?

The Feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21).

The Trip from the Red Sea to Sinai (Exodus 15:22-19:2).

Gideon’s Defeat of the Midianites (Judges 6-7).

Israel’s Defeat of Moab (2 Kings 3).

Peter Walking on Water (Matthew 14:22-32).

The Missionary Journeys of the Apostle Paul (Acts 13ff).

The Conquest of the Promised Land (The book of Joshua).

In each case, the Lord gave an assignment to one or more of his people. In each case the Lord did not reveal up front how he was going to provide the tools necessary for them to carry out what he asked. In each case these people began their tasks with nothing more than God’s commands and God’s promises. In each case the Lord made it possible for his people to do what he asked of them.

These were not merely special cases from the distant past. To some degree all of life works this way. Who of us would have ventured to have children if we had waited until we could guarantee we had all the resources necessary to raise them? Who of us would venture to buy a home, or a car for that matter, if we had to wait until we knew we had all the money up front?

We cannot guarantee that we will have the resources necessary to carry out the most basic responsibilities of life tomorrow. In an instant the Lord could snatch away business, home, wealth, or health. Just ask Job.

Nor does Jesus expect us to have the future all worked for years in advance. “So do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them….Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” There is a reason that Jesus teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He wants us to trust him to provide for us each day. His way of providing for our needs may change tomorrow.

In all of this our Savior is teaching us trust. He is teaching us not to rely upon our own resources. He wants us to depend on him instead. Ultimately, he is the one responsible for taking care of us enabling us to serve him. He taught Israel the same lesson in the wilderness: “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3).

These lessons also have application to our church life. When Jesus commissioned 12 apostles, and about 500 other followers, to go out and preach the gospel to all creation, they weren’t much more than a single congregation of believers with the whole world as their mission field. They weren’t spectacularly wealthy. They weren’t the world’s most naturally gifted people.

But they had the Lord’s command. “Make disciples of all nations.” And they had his promises. “I am with you always.” “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.”

We are the heirs of those commands and promises. Our congregations enjoy many opportunities to share the message of salvation–so many that our resources seem overtaxed. Manpower and money are perennially in short supply. We find it difficult to keep up the ministry that we have already made our concern.

However, our greatest resource is not to be found in our own money or manpower. It is in the Savior who promised to be with us always and empower us with the Holy Spirit. It is his mission we carry on. He will not let his work fail.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20).

2 Corinthians 2:15-16 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

 

An internet add I once received asked the question, “Do you have O.O.O.?” The accompanying picture showed a woman with her nose wrinkled. Curious, I clicked on the link (always a dangerous thing to do on the internet) and it revealed an article on “Offensive Office Odor,” or “O. O. O.” It offered advice for dealing with people who introduced, among other things, smelly foods, smelly feet, too much perfume, body odor, or cigarette smoke into the office.

As Christians, we introduce a distinctive odor wherever we go, according to Paul. We smell like Jesus Christ, metaphorically speaking. “We are to God the aroma of Christ among those are being saved and those who are perishing.” Objectively, that is a good smell, a fragrance, an aroma because it is the smell of the gospel. Jesus dying love, the forgiveness of sins, the certainty of the resurrection and life eternal all go into “Eau de Jesus.”

But to some, even these things give off an offensive smell. “To the one we are the smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life.” Ever had a mouse or a rat die in your walls or in your attic?  Few things smell worse than a rotting corpse. Death smells nasty. For some, when we preach the gospel, the message is so repulsive, so horrible to them, that it more than offends them. It kills them. It is the smell of death. But it is also a smell that leads to their death when they will not receive God’s grace and believe in Jesus. The Greek more literally reads here, “we are the smell of death leading to death.”

This is not a rare experience for anyone who has ever been involved with evangelism. I don’t remember anyone dropping my Bible information class over some disagreement about morals. But I have lost them when they couldn’t swallow ideas like “Jesus is the only way to be saved,” or “God is working powerfully in baptism to save us.” Those teachings are saturated with the sweet smell of the gospel! As good as forgiveness ought to sound, it means admitting that we have something that needs to be forgiven. We aren’t good people. And people don’t want to hear that.

Because of that, we who smell like Jesus face a temptation. When our faithful sharing of God’s word is rejected, we fear odor. We would like to cover up the aroma of Christ, or at least tone it down a little bit. We may even tell ourselves that it is for a good cause. Maybe we can win these people yet.

But there is no perfume, no deodorant, no air freshener that can cover up the full impact of the gospel without, at the same time, preventing us from being the fragrance of life. To do this, to cover up some unpopular or unlovely aspect of God’s word, will not spare more people from spiritual death. It will only make sure that we spare no one from spiritual death.

To be confessional Lutherans means to let the sweet smell of the gospel invade the senses of the people we serve and the people we seek with its full potency, and leave the outcome to God. But this is hard. As Paul says, “Who is equal to such a task?”

We find our courage when we are breathing deeply of the aroma of grace and forgiveness ourselves. And who has the privilege of spending time in that atmosphere more than we do? We need to look no farther than the absolution, the sermon, and the Lord’s Supper each Sunday for the grace and love that saves and strengthens us, too. We have our Bibles, access to e-mail devotions, Meditations, devotional articles in Forward in Christ magazine, and mid-week Bible class opportunities to soak in the gospel’s sweet smell all through the week.

They say that nothing makes a more lasting and powerful impact upon our minds and memories than things that we smell. What a fitting picture for the gospel of Christ that saves us.

Psalm 119:50 “Your promise preserves my life.”

As an occasional “shade-tree” mechanic, I know how frustrating it can be to work on cars. Sometimes even simple things like changing oil can raise your blood pressure if the oil filter is hard to reach or screwed on too tight to remove.

Car troubles can make you frustrated and angry. Maybe you would even like to get rid of the vehicle. But I would never actually consider blowing it up or tearing the engine to pieces just because it gave me trouble. My car is too valuable for that.

Do we value human life so much? Some children aren’t wanted by their parents. Some elderly people become hard to care for as their strength fails.  Killing them seems like a strange solution to their problems.  We fix the car.  Shouldn’t we at least try to do the same for people?

Society’s cavalier attitude toward human life is not something new. Almost 1800 years ago a Greek historian wrote about the Jews: “The Jews are a strange people. They raise all their children.” The attitude of the Jews toward the value of their children’s lives stood in stark contrast to the Greeks and Romans, who took their unwanted babies to the town dump and left them there to be eaten by wild animals or collected by slave traders.

The list of things people value more than human life is endless: personal freedom, expensive tennis shoes, someone else’s car or jewelry, a neighboring country’s land or oil wells, the affection of someone else’s spouse, even our own wounded pride. Maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that the car gets better treatment.

God’s word places a different value on human life. Nothing we have on earth can compare to a single life. “The ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough,” the psalmist tells us (49:8).

God values each one of us so much that he paid the ultimate price to take possession of our lives. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Of course the day comes when the car can’t be fixed anymore. There is nothing to do but haul it to the junkyard.

The same thing happens to our earthly existence. The time comes when these broken bodies can’t be fixed anymore. But we are not the ones who determine that time. God reserves the right to decide when that day has come. We confess with king David, “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15).

And our Lord doesn’t just haul us off to the junkyard.  Because he values us so much he “brings us safely to his heavenly kingdom” (I Timothy 4:18). Things get better, not worse, when our heavenly Father hauls us home.

Life is God’s gift. He not only first gave it. He redeems it, and he protects it until he has us safe with him.

Colossians 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.”

Any church concerned about right teaching and holy living easily comes under suspicion of a “better-than-thou” attitude at work. I have assured guests and visitors, “I can tell you from experience that all the members of my church (including its pastor) will have to be saved by grace alone.” A deep concern for the truth of God’s Word doesn’t make us better people.

I need to take no time demonstrating to active Christians that we are all sinful. Every one of us has been hurt by a Christian brother or sister at some time or another. An honest inventory of our own behavior reveals that we have been just as guilty of dishing it out as we have been imposed upon to take it.

This is not “good,” but it is “normal” for a Christian congregation. That we can expect this kind of behavior teaches us something about the way we relate to each other. The Apostle Paul encourages us in Colossians, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another” (3:13).

You and I have no choice but to belong to an imperfect congregation. There is no congregation of perfect saints on earth (at least not apart from the forgiveness we receive from Jesus). If we were to find one, our own presence there would spoil it.

That means that, all our lives, all our fellow members will be afflicted with the sickness of sin. That does not mean God wants us to accept sin. He doesn’t. Nor do the sins that others commit against us give us an excuse to “pick up all our marbles and go home.” Rather, it is an opportunity to “bear with each other.” It calls for us to practice our love for each other even more fervently. We need to apply the antidote to the sickness—gently and lovingly confronting sin and applying large doses of forgiveness.

Consider how we might treat a sick friend or child. His or her sickness may impose upon us in some way. It may be so debilitating that this friend or child was unable to do anything kind or good for me. But is this a reason to abandon our dear one? Isn’t it at such times that our love and help are needed most of all? Wouldn’t we be moved to try to take care of the person in time of weakness?

When others have sinned, especially when they have sinned against us, they need our love most of all. “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another” is the Apostle Paul’s prescription.

Don’t forget that this is the same medicine God has graciously given to you. “Forgive as the Lord forgave you” is how verse 13 ends. God isn’t happy with our sins, but he hasn’t turned his back on us either. He has patiently born with us time and time again. For as many times as we have hurt him, he has come to us to lead us to repent, to forgive us, and to win us for himself.

May God’s grace to us make our neighbor’s shortcomings a bit more bearable.

2 Corinthians 9:11 “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

Did you know that the Bible contains the secret for getting rich?

I am not talking about some get-rich-quick scheme.  God deals with us and others in ways that promote only honesty, integrity, and unselfishness.

Nor do I mean the riches that might come from making your legitimate business a success or from making prudent investments for the future. Passages in the Proverbs encourage you to save for the future. They tell you how to conduct your business in a manner which pleases the Lord. But that is no guarantee of wealth.

God is not a stock broker. His book doesn’t tell you which mutual fund is doing the best. You may learn to conduct your business in a manner which pleases him. But what about the world you are forced to do business with? There may be few who care to conduct their business in a manner pleasing to God.

None of these things deal with the riches God wants for us anyway. He warns against the idea that reading his word or following his commands will give us fat bank accounts. The apostle Paul encouraged his young friend Timothy to watch out for those “who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain” (I Timothy 6:5).

Paul’s words echo those of our Lord Jesus when he warned, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

If we were to make an honest appraisal of all that the Lord has given us, we would see that almost every one of us has already been made rich, even as the world understands the term.

And when we understand how rich God has already made us, then we are beginning to understand the Bible’s secret to being truly rich. Listen to another word Paul wrote to Timothy: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (I Timothy 6:17).

Regardless of how much or little we have, God promises richly to provide us with everything for our enjoyment. No need will go unmet, “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

As long as we are worried about how much we have, dissatisfied with what we have, always yearning for more than what we have, we will never feel rich, no matter how much we have. But when we are content with the food and clothing we do have (I Timothy 6:8); when we trust God’s promises to provide all that we need; when we recognize how richly he has already provided for our lives; then we will know that we already are rich, even in terms of the temporary wealth he gives us in this life.

Such worldly wealth merely keeps us going for a little while until we get to the real treasures Jesus promised. “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:20-21).

God’s children know that the real wealth, the real treasures, are found in heaven. They were purchased for us with the holy, precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how much do those treasures cost you and me? “His grace…he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:6).

Philippians 3:18 “As I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.”

No symbol has been more central to the Christian faith than the cross. It represents the quintessential demonstration of God’s love. But not everyone believes this should be so.

Biblical scholar Dr. Robert Funk once suggested, “Salt might replace the cross as a central symbol because followers of the historical Jesus typically don’t believe that Jesus died for humanity’s sins and was physically resurrected.” “Typically” may well be an exaggeration (we hope). It is true, however, that some who consider themselves followers of Jesus aren’t enthusiastic about the cross.

A church near my former home told the local newspaper that it avoids traditional Christian symbols in its ministry. They feared that those they are trying to reach might resist them. In defense of avoiding crosses, the pastor quoted one member of his group, “The name Jesus gives me the shivers.”

This is not limited to ministries scattered around the fringes of Christianity. A large, prominent, respected evangelical congregation near Chicago left the cross out of its sanctuary “because its presence might intimidate newcomers not raised in a church setting.”

It’s no surprise that those outside the church react strongly against the cross. Participants in a joint meeting between Jews and Christians in Nashville, TN, were asked, “How do you feel when you see a cross on somebody’s neck? Or a cross on a hillside?” One participant responded, “I’m outraged.”

Are we shocked by the reactions? They are really nothing new. The apostle Paul reminded the Christians in Corinth thousands of years ago, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18) and again, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

But the Apostle goes on to put Christ and his cross at the center of the faith, “…but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). So it is that Paul can say, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). And in his letter to the Galatians Paul again summarizes his faith in the message of the cross: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14).

Christianity may involve more than the cross and what it stands for, but it certainly is not less. At the cross we find forgiveness, salvation, peace, hope, and heaven. Without it, none of these things exist. Our world needs more of the message of the cross today, not a retreat from its promise, not a new gospel or a different gospel to take its place.

May we always glory in the cross and its message sublime!

“Drawn to the cross, which you have blessed
With healing gifts for souls distressed,
To find in you my life, my rest,
Christ crucified, I come.”

Deuteronomy 8:18 “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

In the movie Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart utters a table prayer that goes like this: “Lord, we cleared this land, we plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. We wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’, if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for the food we’re about to eat. Amen.”

The Lord knows that such an attitude is easy to fall into. When the Children of Israel were about to enter the promised land, he gave them this warning: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you….Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God….You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me’” (Deuteronomy 8:10-17).

What’s wrong with thinking we are “self-made men” if we have worked hard to achieve our goals? The very term “self-made” is a contradiction! Can anyone or anything “make” itself? Everything we have and everything we are comes from God.  This is not limited to the bodies we inhabit. There is not a thing we have ever done or accomplished for which we deserve the ultimate credit. Even the talents and abilities which produce such things come from God.

While this truth may confront us for our conceit, it is also a wonderful source of comfort, isn’t it? It assures us we can trust the God who loves us to take care of all our needs. The burden doesn’t fall on our shoulders. Just as he has promises to supply us with the necessities of life, we can be sure he will either give us the ability to obtain those things ourselves, or he will provide them through others or through his miraculous power.

Elijah once learned that lesson. When Israel came under a three-year famine, there was no possible way for Elijah to care for his own needs. What did he do? He trusted the Lord to take care of him. The Lord sent ravens who brought him food every day. Later the widow of Zarephath was able to provide his daily bread when the Lord miraculously multiplied her little supply of oil and flour (1 Kings 17).

Living in a ravine and eating scraps of food, or eating the same meal of bread every day, may not be our idea of living “high on the hog.” But Elijah had all that he needed. Elijah was not wealthy, but God was faithful to his promise.

Jesus repeated these same promises in the Sermon on the Mount. He assured his disciples, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:31-33).

All these things will be given to you as well. We can trust our loving Father to provide for us and preserve us for as long as he needs us in this world. It is a natural consequence of his saving grace. After all, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

The One who sacrificed his only Son to redeem us from sin will not fail to take care of every other genuine need we have in this world. He made us. He has every intent to care for the work of his hands.