Sermon 6-1-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

This Will Take Time

Since the beginning of Lent, we’ve been looking at our hero, the Lord, Jesus Christ, go up against the opposition and win big. That ancient serpent, Satan, went up against Jesus with the most extreme temptations possible in order to get Jesus to abandon the life-script written for Messiah in Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. When Messiah’s life-script is carefully studied, it reveals that on Messiah’s part there is the necessity of going through a tremendous amount of human suffering, rejection and finally a dreadful death. Only someone with Godlike courage, love and devotion would be able to go through with the plan to its bitter end. But that was Jesus. He exercised His courage, love and devotion both toward His Father and toward our fallen human race — the very ones whose sin caused His suffering, rejection and death. 

Indeed, let’s again recall the ancient hymn found in Philippians 2:5-11, “5. . . Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Now, you would think that having won the greatest of victories over sin, death and the power of the devil that Jesus would have immediately put His victory into full effect. And that’s why I’m very sympathetic to the apostles’ question found in Acts 1:6, “So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” Indeed. Having won pure and blessed righteousness for us all, why not put it into immediate effect?

Well, when the life-script for Messiah is examined, one most important answer to the question is found in Psalm 110:1, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Now, King David was the writer of this psalm and one possible interpretation could be that David was speaking of himself as the one to be seated at the right hand of God. However, by the power of Lord Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter brought us the correct interpretation when He used this verse in his Pentecost 33A.D. sermon, saying in Acts 2:34-35, “34. . . ‘David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.’”’” Did you hear it? David did not ascend into heaven. Indeed, in the same sermon, Peter brought to everyone’s attention that David’s tomb was still with them in Jerusalem. On the other hand, Jesus’ tomb was empty.

Therefore, the one seated at God’s right hand has to be someone other than David. Peter definitively stated that Jesus is the one who ascended to the right hand of God. For, Peter and the others had seen Jesus ascend with their own eyes.

Now, Jesus Himself claimed that Psalm 110:1 refers to Him during His trial before the Sanhedrin. At that trial, various charges were brought against Jesus, but Jesus refused to answer any of them. By so doing, He did what we would call “pleading the 5th.” He refused to implicate Himself. 

Finally, in frustration the high priest asked a question that Jesus did answer, and there’s an important reason why. We read in Matthew 26:63-64, “63. . . And the high priest said to him [Jesus], ‘I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ 64 Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’”

Jesus’ answer to the high priest seems enigmatic at first. But in the interaction Jesus had made the high priest admit something that he had been previously unwilling to admit — namely that Jesus could be the Messiah. Therefore, when Jesus said, “You have said so,” in effect, He was saying to the high priest, “you now have spoken before witnesses with your own mouth the main issue of this trial, ‘Am I the Son of God.’ With your precise words you have now implicated yourself and this whole Sanhedrin. Therefore, you and they are now the ones on trial here. Will you receive me as the Messiah, the Son of God?” That was step one in Jesus’ reply.

But, then, Jesus upped the ante a thousand fold with a tremendous threat. He said in effect, “regardless of your response, you will see me seated at the right hand of power.” That’s Psalm 110:1. To it, Jesus added Daniel 7:13, a powerful verse long recognized as Messianic — where Daniel sees in a vision “one like a Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.” Thus, Jesus was saying to them all, “recognize me as Messiah and you will be overjoyed to see me on the day I come from the right hand of Power on the clouds of heaven as the victorious Messiah. Reject me, and you will be horrified on that day to see me coming from the right hand of Power on the clouds of heaven as your Judge. For, then you will recognize that on this very night you sealed your doom into eternal damnation. If you reject me, unless you eventually repent, you will be crushed under my feet as enemies of God just as it says in Psalm 110:1.”

The outcome of Jesus’ challenge is written in Matthew 26:65-68, “Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your judgment?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death.’ 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, 68 saying, ‘Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?’”

They made their choice that night. They declared themselves enemies of the living God and His Messiah. Therefore, Psalm 110:1 comes into play because it speaks of the process by which Yahweh will dispose of His enemies. Psalm 110:1 becomes the key to the answer of the question that the disciples asked about the timing of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom of God will visibly come when Yahweh decides to put Messiah’s enemies under His feet.

But when will this happen? Jesus’ answer to the apostles tells us that there will be a delay. So we read in Acts 1:7-11, “7 He [Jesus] said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’”

I included the ascension narrative here for a reason. The apostles saw Jesus disappear into a cloud. The angels sent to the apostles said that they would see Jesus return in the same way, namely through a cloud. By saying they would see Jesus return in the same way He left, the angels were invoking Daniel 7:13 — that all of us will see Jesus return on the clouds of heaven as predicted.

But back to the question of the disposition of Jesus’ enemies. In His Holy Spirit inspired letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul made two points that help answer the question. First, in an analysis of humanity, he came to this sweeping conclusion in Romans 3:22, “22. . . For there is no distinction: [meaning between Jew and Gentile] 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . . .” This means that because of Original Sin, we’re all born enemies of God who desire to be our own gods, ruling our own lives. That’s our sinful nature at work.

Second, addressing his Jewish readers Paul writes in Romans 2:4, “. . . do you presume on the riches of his [God’s] kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” This means that Yahweh patiently, patiently bears with the rebellion of all His enemies, knowing that He will lead some to repentance and the death of their sinful nature. He will lead some to the New Birth in Messiah Jesus. He will lead some to baptism into Messiah Jesus. He will lead some into His glorious Kingdom of righteousness. Yahweh will turn some of His enemies into friends — just like He did with Paul. And all this will take time. In fact, as we can see from our vantage point in history, it has taken millennia.

So, this is the plan written in the Old Testament. Through obedience unto death on a cross, Jesus won a marvelous  victory for the human race. This victory includes: the forgiveness of sins; the death of the sinful nature in our baptism into Jesus; atonement for sin that satisfies the wrath of God so that we escape condemnation; and the redemption of our physical bodies unto righteous eternal life in immortal bodies.

But while these wonderful benefits Jesus won belong to the entire human race, Jesus said that anyone who would receive them must enter by the narrow door. And Jesus is the narrow door. Therefore, Jesus said to the Apostles in Acts 1:8, “. . . ‘you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” You will bring news of me to the ends of the earth. And so they did — and at great cost to themselves. Just the other day, I saw what happened to Saint Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel. Because of the Gospel, he was skinned alive in Armenia. Yet, Armenia claims that years later it was the first nation on earth to be declared Christian by the edict of its king, who had become a Christian. Yahweh has amazing ways of turning dedicated enemies into believers.

During their lifetimes the Apostles bore witness to what they had seen and experienced with Jesus as far across the earth as they could. But, then they died. What then? Just like Yahweh had caused Moses, the Prophets and the Psalmists to write, so He caused the Apostles and Evangelists to write of Jesus before they died. We know their writings as the New Testament. And then the Holy Spirit caused others to faithfully copy and distribute what they had written. Lastly, He caused and continues to cause what they wrote in ancient Greek to be translated into a myriad of languages.

The Apostles could only cover a small section of the earth in their lifetimes. But, they made disciples and those disciples made disciples — and so on. Therefore, in all the subsequent generations of Church history, the witness of the Apostles has been carried to the ends of the earth through those who have preached what the Apostles and Evangelists wrote. This was and is the will of the Lord. And now we have electronic means of communication that is worldwide. May the Lord’s will be done through those means.

And so we come down to ourselves. None of us can be witnesses to what the Lord Jesus actually did. We weren’t there. We can only be personal witnesses to whatever changes the Lord has made in us by the power of His holy Word and Sacraments. But that’s as far as our personal witness can go. For, if we are believers, it is only because we have read, heard and believed the eyewitness New Testament testimony of the Apostles who were with Jesus. As Jesus said to the apostles when He appeared to Thomas in John 20:29, “. . . ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” So, we are blessed, who have not seen, yet have believed the testimony of the ancient eyewitnesses handed down to us by God’s great plan and His great mercy.

But, what to do with what we have received? We are to share the written Word of God with all that we can. Doing so these days may not be particularly easy. However, it never has been particularly easy. At least you probably won’t get skinned alive for your effort.

But you will know those who are ready to listen because they will begin to listen. Take comfort in this. Even the person who wants to dispute with you about Jesus is hearing what you have to say. They may be determined to defend themselves against Jesus, just like the chief priest and the Sanhedrin. However, the Name, person and office of Jesus is in play, just like it was at Jesus’ trial. And once the Name of Jesus is in play, one of two things will eventually happen. That person will either go to their death in rebellion against Jesus, or they will joyfully bow the knee and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

As evangelist and apologist Greg Koukl explains, evangelism is much like gardening. Soil has to be tilled and prepared. Seed has to be sown. It must be watered and fertilized. Hopefully, there will be a harvest. But we may not get to be the harvester. That privilege may belong to someone else. However, without the gardener, there is no harvest. Without the sower of seed, there is no harvest. So, take courage. Every little word you can get in will perform what the Lord sent it for. For, we have the Lord’s word on the matter. He said in Isaiah 55:11, “‘so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.’”

In the 50 day period between Jesus’ resurrection and the Day of Pentecost, Jesus transferred His work over to the Apostles. Jesus left for the Father’s right hand. He left His Church on the playing field for the final quarter until game’s end.

On Easter evening, Jesus breathed Lord Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and disciples. He opened their minds to everything written about Messiah in Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. We can see this by what we read in today’s second lesson about the choice of Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot. The Spirit showed Peter two obscure phrases in both Psalms 69 and 109. Put together, these two meant that Judas’ place needed to be taken by another. And so the Apostles and those with them took action. We can also see by Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost that Lord Holy Spirit led the Apostles to a proper interpretation of Messiah’s life-script as it is recorded in Moses, the Prophets and Psalms.

But, Jesus didn’t just breathe the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. He did so upon all human beings. And that includes us. Therefore, throughout its history the Church has grown by the power of the Word, the Sacraments and Lord Holy Spirit. 

As we saw, in the life-script of Messiah, Psalm 110:1 tells us that Yahweh is not yet ready to deal with His enemies. Therefore, we, the Church, will be on the playing field until Jesus returns. 

Now, it would have been a lot easier for the Church if Jesus had immediately brought this world to an end and established His Kingdom. But, then, we would never have existed and the Gospel never would have come to us. So, for you and I, being in the Kingdom of God was part of the plan. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that because Christ’s visible Kingdom has not yet been established on the coming new earth, we’re born with the sinful nature inherited from Adam and Eve. Therefore, we have to battle with that nature, the devil, and the temptations we’re lured with. We have to battle with the Law’s condemnation against us and physical death.

However, the Good News is found in a promise that Jesus made on Holy Thursday. We read in John 16:7, “. . . ‘I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if go, I will send him to you.’” By “the Helper” Jesus meant Lord Holy Spirit. So, the Spirit is our Helper in this combat. He alone brings us the faith by which to be saved. He alone brings us the power to live and act righteously according to the Word of the Lord.

And, Lord Holy Spirit is the power behind Messiah’s Church. For the Church is the living body of Christ by which all the benefits of salvation that Jesus won for us are distributed to us and all who will believe.

In Messiah’s Church, the gifts and benefits Jesus won for us are distributed weekly through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and the proper administration of the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. Through this distribution we receive the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus. By the power of this forgiveness, anxious consciences distressed by the Law’s judgments against us are comforted. By the power of this forgiveness, love with our heavenly Father is restored and assured. When we extend this forgiveness to those who have sinned against us, lives, families, and even societies can be reconciled in Christ’s righteousness.

And by the Word and the Sacraments distributed by Jesus’ Church, Jesus Himself will accomplish in us what He desires. It was for this reason that the Apostle Paul could confidently say to the Philippian Church in Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Therefore, have mercy on your people, O Lord Jesus, and bring to pass in your Church what you have promised so that your big win may stand forever. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.