Sermon 11-3-24

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

All Saints Sunday

Something Supernatural

Years ago, we had friends from college who lived on Long Island. They were Lutherans and attended a conservative church in Nassau County. One day my friend told me a story. I don’t remember if I was ordained yet or not. And I’m not certain all the details I’m about to tell you are accurate. It’s too long ago. 

However, as I remember it, his congregation had a stewardship Sunday. That’s the Sunday when congregations seek to raise money for their budget by having people pledge to give a certain amount for the year. And their pastor was preaching about tithing. Tithing is when you give 10% of your income to the Lord.

I’m not preaching today about tithing. However, the pastor must have been preaching or teaching on the sections of Scripture where the Lord promises to meet the needs of those who decide to tithe.

Anyway, during the sermon, a man sitting behind my friend tapped him on the shoulder in the middle of the sermon. I don’t remember for sure, but I think the man behind was a leader in that church. And he said incredulously to my friend, “do you believe any of this stuff?”

Now, because it was a sermon about money, I can understand the incredulity in a way. For, as Father Terry Fullam, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Darien Connecticut in the 1970’s would sometimes say, “the last part of a man to be converted is his pocketbook.” But as I said, this is not a sermon about money. It’s about the question that was asked: “Do you believe any of this stuff?”

That man was having trouble believing about tithing. But what else did he have trouble believing? Obviously, he was part of a church. But that doesn’t mean anything. It’s been my experience that unbelief flourished in 20th century churches. I should know. It flourished in me in my early years. So, what did that man really believe?

And this raises a much larger question, “How can anyone believe any of this Christian stuff?” So, we’re going to dig into the Scripture to see how Yahweh enables people to believe what He tells them. First, here’s what we read in Romans 10:9-13, “9. . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ [Isaiah 28:16] 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” [Joel 2:32]

This is a great promise. But now we come to the difficult part. Romans 10:14-15, “14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

So, here is a key factor. No one can believe in anything they haven’t heard of. And here’s an example of that from Acts 19:1-2, “1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’” You can’t believe what you haven’t heard of. And that’s absolutely true for anything, not just religious information.

So, how does anyone hear about Jesus of Nazareth, Yahweh the Son? Well, as Paul says, someone has to preach Jesus. Then, the hearers will at least have the information that history provides. History says that a man named Jesus of Nazareth was born in unusual circumstances. He was born of a virgin Jewess. He lived as a Jew and died on a Roman cross. He claimed to be Yahweh, the Son. Three days after Jesus was put to death, the tomb where he was buried was publicly empty. His followers began to spread the news that they had seen Him alive in an incredible, immortal human body.

Jesus’ resurrection appearances were not public. Only about 600 people living at that time were privileged to witness Jesus’ alive again in that incredible, resurrected human body. It’s upon their eye-witness testimony that the entire Christian religion rests. Forty days later, perhaps several dozen chosen people were privileged to witness Jesus ascend into heaven in that body. According to Psalm 110:1, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. According to that same verse, and according to Jesus Himself, He will return again in power as the Messiah of the human race, in order to resurrect all the humans who have ever lived, and judge them according to the righteousness of God. On the day of His return, the creation that currently exists will cease to be. It will be replaced by new heavens and a new earth.

At that time, Messiah Jesus will separate those who will live in righteousness with their Creator forever from those who will eternally live the Second Death of evil and rebellion. Jesus’ judgment will rest on one factor. All those who have been born again by believing what they have heard about Him will enter eternal righteous life. Those who have ignored or despised the news about Him will live the Second Death. All of this information again rests upon the eyewitness testimony of those who were with Jesus and heard Him teach these things. Again, it’s upon their testimony that the entire Christian religion rests.

So, on to Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Again, no one can believe what they haven’t heard. And it’s for this reason that Jesus commissioned His followers for a most elementary human matter — telling the news! Tell it far and wide. Tell it in all languages. Tell it wherever there is human habitation — even to the most remote regions of the earth. Tell them about me.

Jesus’ immediate followers began this project. It resulted in something called the Church. And through the Church, the news about Jesus has accurately come down to every succeeding generation. This is because the news was written down very early in the history of the Church — very early, when those who had seen it and lived it were still alive. And so the written testimony faithfully transmitted to us is reliable. It’s called the New Testament. Down through the centuries and in every generation, faithful people have worked earnestly to accurately translate the written testimony into every language so that all may hear the news and believe.

But Christianity isn’t just news. There’s plenty of news we hear every day that doesn’t affect us. Even the news that does affect us, we soon forget and move on. Therefore, what is it about this 2,000 year old news that makes it stick with anybody? It’s not the news itself. It’s not the one who delivers the news. It’s the one who created the news — Yahweh Himself. 

But, how can anybody believe some being they can’t see and who normally doesn’t communicate directly with them, but uses human agents to do His talking for Him? Jesus put it this way when He spoke with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. John 3:3, “. . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” So, there’s this thing called being born again. Nicodemus had no clue what Jesus meant. So Jesus said to him in John 3:5-6 “5 . . . ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’” So, let’s see if we get this straight. We know about being born of the flesh. It happens on maternity wards all the time. But what is being born of the Spirit? And how does it happen through water and the Spirit. The water is baptism. Right now, the Spirit part is our focus.

To get a better understanding we turn to 1Thessalonians 1:4-5, “4. . . we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” So, did you notice? The news of the gospel had come to the Thessalonian believers through words that Paul had spoken to them. 

But it wasn’t just the words. The words had the power to sway their hearts. Was this because Paul was such a great speaker? Well, in 2Corinthians 11:5-6 he had to defend himself against the charge that he was a lousy speaker. He says, “5 Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. 6 Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.” So, it wasn’t Paul’s oratorical greatness that had convinced the Thessalonians. There was a power behind the scenes that made his ordinary oratory quite compelling. As he wrote, “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power. . . .” Where did the power come from? Answer: “and in the Holy Spirit. . . .” And what did the Holy Spirit cause? Answer: “full conviction.”

What is conviction? It’s being absolutely convinced and assured that something is so. I don’t know about you, but every once in a while I have one of these things where truth and understanding unexpectedly come with a rush and assurance. That’s conviction. For instance, on Memorial Day weekend, 1987 I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I came over to the office and sat behind my typewriter — yes typewriter. It was 1987. I was working on an analysis of the merger of two Lutheran national bodies scheduled for January 1, 1988 — whether Trinity should vote yes or no on the merger. Suddenly I saw it. The merger would actually enable the theological liberals in the old American Lutheran Church to sweep in the chips and overcome the theological conservatives. I became convinced of it. Thirty-six years later, what I saw that morning not only has come to pass, but in monstrous, alarming ways that few at that time could have predicted. Thankfully, we got out of that merged body in 1988. Anyway, Lord Holy Spirit brings clarity, truth, perception and conviction like that.

Here’s another incident. It’s the summer of 1979. I’m newly awakened from my theological liberal slumber, and I’m reading through the whole New Testament for the first time. I’ve just finished the final verses of Romans chapter seven and am totally astonished that this man, Paul, who lived 2,000 years ago obviously knew more than the best psychologists of our time. How could this be? I inhaled, and slowly said to myself, “It’s all here. Why didn’t I ever see this before?” The reason was simple. In previous readings of this section I didn’t know it, but I had been resisting the Holy Spirit. But, by the grace of God the Spirit overcame all resistance during this reading and etched the plain eternal truth of the matter into my being. That eternal truth has never left me. It’s the same every time I read that section. And that section is very important in the daily life of the Christian. For, the practical experience of the Christian life shows this section to be absolutely true.

Now, does someone have to have a supernatural experience to become convinced of Jesus Christ? Depends on what we mean by supernatural experience. Consider the people of the Exodus. They saw all kinds of supernatural events — the ten plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, water from rocks, just to mention a few. But what good did those supernatural events do them? Did they believe any better? We read in Exodus 32:9-10, “9 And the LORD said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.’” Supernatural events cannot overcome the power of the sinful nature. They can attract our attention. But by themselves they can do nothing to cure the sinful nature. Plenty of Pharisees saw the miracles Jesus performed, but turned their backs on Him.

And what about some kind of inner experience of God? Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament teach us to cultivate inner experience as the way to God. Now it’s true that in the Old Testament, there were visionaries called prophets. Jeremiah was one of those prophets. Yet, listen to what Yahweh told him directly: Jeremiah 23:16-18; 21-22,  “16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, “It shall be well with you”; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, “No disaster shall come upon you.” 18 For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? . . . . 21 I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.’”

So, all the Old Testament prophets heard inwardly from the Lord. However, the true prophets had an external source by which they could verify what they were hearing — namely the Law given to Moses. Yahweh told Jeremiah how false prophets could be identified. They help sinners in their sinning by denying the consequences of their sin. And false prophets back up their delusions by saying, “Thus says the Lord.” Unfortunately, we have plenty of false prophets in pulpits today. They are making up things out of their own minds.

On the other hand, when a sinner hears the Old Testament prophets and repents of his or her sin, the will of the Lord is done. A sinner is turned from their evil way.

In the New Testament, no one came to Jesus via some visionary experience. Instead, Jesus found the Twelve and called them. Some people came to Jesus because of the reputation He had built. This was not through any inner meditation on their part. It was because of news on the street and their curiosity or need. And as we saw at the beginning, news on the street is still the way to come to Jesus.

Now there is prophecy in the New Testament. New Testament prophecy is Old Testament prophecy — turning people from their evil ways — plus the Gospel. Paul defines the task of the New Testament prophet in 1Corinthians 14:3, “. . . the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” When the Law has done its work, rendering us helpless, doomed and condemned before Yahweh, the Gospel takes over. For the Gospel proclaims over and over that God is on our side.

In the struggle with unrighteousness, sin, death and the devil, Jesus has been victorious on the cross. Therefore, a real human being — yet God, the Son — sits in victory at the right hand of the Father. The righteousness Jesus has won for us in His humanity is now ours. That righteousness forgives sin. It covers over sin, so that every repentant sinner is declared righteous in the sight of God. This is the upbuilding, encouragement and consolation that comes from the Gospel.

However, no prophet of the New Testament gets the true Gospel from esoteric, inner meditation. Just like the Law, the Gospel comes from the mouth of Yahweh Himself. It comes from Jesus Himself. It comes from Lord Holy Spirit Himself in the form of accurate news on the street. You can read all about it in the New Testament.

Now, it’s not that Christians don’t meditate. I meditated plenty on this sermon. It’s just that Christian meditation doesn’t aspire to emptiness and receiving stuff out of the spiritual vacuum. For, we need to understand that the spiritual vacuum isn’t empty. It’s filled with all kinds of rebellion against Yahweh.

On the other hand, Christian meditation begins with the Word of God and ends with the Word of God. From such meditation comes true wisdom and understanding of our Creator God, who He, what He’s up to and how He wants us to live.

In the Garden of Eden, Eve and then Adam were confronted with words from two very different sources. One source was Yahweh, their Creator. In Eve’s case, the other source was the Serpent. And in Adam’s case, the other source was Eve. Each was confronted with two very different statements about the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Which one were they going to believe? They should have more carefully considered the source of each statement.

We continuously have the same problem. We have Yahweh’s Word about this life and the life to come. On the other hand, we have all other kinds of words about this life and the life to come. Which word will we believe?

Although Yahweh’s Word is absolutely true Truth, our sinful nature is powerfully attracted and earnestly loves all those other so-called truths, even though they are nothing but lies. Therefore, we’re all stuck loving lies more than the Truth. We’re all stuck living lies instead of the Truth.

Who will rescue us from this body of death? The Law can’t help us. Romans 8:3 tells us that the sinful nature is more powerful than the Law. But then Romans 8:3 tells us that Yahweh sent someone more powerful than the sinful nature. He sent Jesus. Do you believe that? That’s the question.

There’s only one way to believe that Jesus is who He says He is. First, we’ve got to hear about Him from an external source. Second, Lord Holy Spirit must defy and conquer our sinful nature so that we can actually believe what we hear. So, if you’re waiting for “something”— something supernatural — to happen in order to believe, the truth is that believing itself is the “something” supernatural that you’re looking for. For, Lord Holy Spirit is the one who turns the lights on. And when He does so you’ll read and say, “It’s all here. Why didn’t I see it before?” Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.