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[00:00:00] Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our father, and from our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
[00:00:09] Well, if I were writing a hymn today, I probably wouldn't include ten verses, but maybe that's just because that's what I've been told not to do. Right.
[00:00:22] During seminary and at other times, I've heard you should.
[00:00:26] Some have said, you should only preach ten minutes, because our attention spans are kind of short, and also things like, well, if you can't say it in ten minutes, then it's probably not worth saying, or something like that, or you should shorten it.
[00:00:44] But I think there's a lot of content to be heard in God's word.
[00:00:51] Looking at verse ten, what I on earth have done and taught, guide all your life and teaching well, what Jesus accomplished and taught on earth could fill the entire world with books, as John says in his gospel.
[00:01:09] So there's plenty of time to be had, plenty of opportunity to hear God's word and let it sink in. And that's, I think, why Martin Luther wrote such a long hymn. You know, it's not the only one.
[00:01:27] There's a hymn that I probably don't select very often for Christmas. From heaven above to earth I come.
[00:01:36] You know, it's beautiful. From heaven above to earth I come.
[00:01:41] But I just. I fear that after 15 verses, you're going to feel like. That was a nice tune for a while, but now we're sick of it. But the whole. It actually follows the same kind of structure as what we just sang. It tells a story, and kind of tirelessly, like, well, just tell the whole story. Why not? What's so bad about a long hymn telling the whole story?
[00:02:09] Nothing.
[00:02:11] In Luther's day, I imagine people walking around, you know, they're walking to work, maybe riding a horse to work. I don't know, but probably takes a while, right?
[00:02:26] You know, it's like you can walk to it, and I lost the.
[00:02:33] What was the page number? What we were just saying. No, I don't have it. What is it? 556.
[00:02:43] Thank you.
[00:02:49] Sorry, I forgot what this one was.
[00:02:53] Oh, yeah. Da da da da da da da da. You know, same with.
[00:03:00] Well, what's the famous reformation hymn?
[00:03:04] A mighty fortress. A mighty fortresses are God. Da da. You know, I think these are all to be memorized. Luther was a teacher, you know, they closed the monasteries and opened schools instead, and they taught. So Luther's hymns, they're to be memorized, really. And it's not like everybody had a hymnal, you know, the printing press had just been invented.
[00:03:29] So, I mean, they had a lot, right? But not everybody could read. Okay, these hymns were to be memorized so that you'd have ten verses to sing to yourself on your way to work, or 15 in the case of from heaven above to earth I come.
[00:03:47] The point is that there's a lot to be thought through. There's a lot to be to be heard over and over and over again. And not just for no purpose, but because that's our life.
[00:04:01] That's our life. Faith comes by hearing, and as we sing, we're hearing and we're singing, right? We're making ourselves hear.
[00:04:10] Same with reading.
[00:04:12] Faith comes by hearing and faith.
[00:04:16] Faith is everything.
[00:04:19] John says in the letter of first John from our epistle reading. He says, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
[00:04:35] It's God's word that feeds our faith. It's God's word that gives us the victory by faith. Faith hears God's word, believes it, receives it.
[00:04:51] Faith receives God's word so that it shapes us, and that makes all the difference.
[00:04:59] So, however we can hear God's word, whenever we can hear God's word, that's what we want to be doing, and that's why we sing hymns that are just full of God's word.
[00:05:15] Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
[00:05:29] So what does it mean to overcome the world? Like, what is the world that is to be overcome?
[00:05:35] Didn't God make it?
[00:05:38] You know, if God made the world, why is he wanting to overcome it? Well, maybe it's kind of obvious because the world is against him.
[00:05:47] That's how John is using the word world there.
[00:05:51] This is not God's creation, broadly speaking, that God is overcoming. It's his creation that's against him, and that's human beings, those who have the will to turn against him.
[00:06:14] It's Satan and all his children, all his followers.
[00:06:20] So included in that word world would be everything turned against God, including, and maybe especially the best things that we have, like our reason, our ability to think through things, our ability to understand things. This all, if turned against God, is, well, his enemy.
[00:06:47] And it's a very different way of thinking. That's how you and I were born, right? David says, in sin, did my mother conceive me? We were conceived in sin, our nature messed up by the sin of Adam and Eve.
[00:07:05] We inherited, well, a wrong perspective on things.
[00:07:13] But Jesus has overcome the world.
[00:07:25] This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
[00:07:30] So faith, faith reverses that.
[00:07:34] How?
[00:07:36] Well, by receiving from God the word coming by faith, changing our entire perspective.
[00:07:45] And just like Luther's hymns that just tell the story, here's what Jesus did over ten verses.
[00:07:53] That's how Peter preaches in our reading from acts.
[00:07:59] It's like, here, let me speak the word that makes all the difference.
[00:08:04] They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.
[00:08:10] We saw him, ate and drank with him, and he's chosen us as his witnesses. And he commanded us to tell other people and to testify that he's the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
[00:08:25] All prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
[00:08:33] Pretty simple.
[00:08:35] That's the story that makes all the difference. That's the word that makes all the difference.
[00:08:41] And while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
[00:08:47] The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. What makes the difference? The word. And faith in the word that receives the word and is shaped by it.
[00:08:59] And faith overcomes the world how?
[00:09:04] By the word, right. And of course, Christ is the word in the flesh.
[00:09:13] So how does that word change things for us?
[00:09:20] Well, Jesus Christ is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
[00:09:28] So if we should be concerned with what anybody thinks, it's with what Jesus thinks.
[00:09:35] Now we're going to go home today and have the opportunity to please others or to please ourselves. But really, Jesus is the one appointed to judge the living and the dead.
[00:09:48] That's a pretty big deal. And we should turn to him. We should be concerned with what he thinks, with what he thinks we should say to one another, with what he thinks we should do, with all our capacities, the power that we've been given to work with our hands or to speak with our mouth. We should be concerned with what he says because, well, he's the one appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.
[00:10:15] We might have an opportunity today to despair, to be worried, to be concerned.
[00:10:26] All the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
[00:10:35] Now, if Jesus forgives sins, what are we so worried about?
[00:10:41] If we believe in Jesus, our sins are forgiven.
[00:10:46] What other opinion do we need? What other encouragement do we need? Jesus says, I forgive you like you're right in my eyes.
[00:10:55] Great.
[00:10:57] That doesn't mean go and do whatever you want because nothing matters anymore except what Jesus thinks. Well, that's. What's Jesus going to think of, that he's the one who judges the living and the dead, you know? Right.
[00:11:11] So you mess up, turn to Jesus. He's the one who forgives sins and he forgives sins to all who believe in him, all who believe in his name.
[00:11:25] So what can the world do to us, right? The world turned against God sure messes up a lot of things, right? And we're a part of that. We're a part of the world. I have in myself my flesh that fights against the spirit and wants to do all the wrong things, wants to fight against God's will, wants to not care what Jesus thinks, right? And that's got to be squashed by the word through faith.
[00:11:55] Holy spirit, you know, just kill that. Get that far from me. I repent. Forgive me. Right?
[00:12:06] In the world, there's trouble.
[00:12:09] Take heart, I've overcome the world.
[00:12:11] In the world, there's division and fighting. There are lies, there's confusion, there's persecution, all kinds of things. In the world, there's a divided nation, there are contentious elections, there's fear for what's going to happen.
[00:12:36] But take heart, I have overcome the world.
[00:12:42] We're entering, I mean, kind of entering election season. I mean, we are. It's whatever. It's like it's always election season.
[00:12:53] It seems like that's something that's really on people's minds right now, and of course it would be. Makes a big difference.
[00:13:02] Jesus says, take heart, I have overcome the world.
[00:13:07] If you think that things are going downhill, well, things have been going downhill since the start. Things have been bad at every time in history, sometimes worse, sometimes not.
[00:13:23] Take heart, I have overcome the world. Jesus says.
[00:13:32] Jesus died and he rose from the dead and he's been given all power and authority in heaven and on earth. He's the one who judges the living and the dead and he forgives sins.
[00:13:44] And one day you're going to get the same thing that the thief on the cross received from him. Today you'll be with me in paradise.
[00:13:53] What a gift.
[00:13:55] I mean, it kind of feels like, well, I've got a lot to do before then. Like, there are a lot of problems in the world and maybe I could make a difference. Fine. Good. You know, by faith. Yeah. We want to do God's will and we can be a blessing to the people around us. And there may be important work in the world for you to do.
[00:14:15] But remember, Jesus has overcome the world. Today you'll be with me in paradise.
[00:14:22] Skip to that in your heart. Let your heart be ruled by Christ who rules all things who stands before Pilate? And Pilate says, don't you know I have power to put you to death like I can kill you? Aren't you concerned? Jesus says, no if you have authority to kill me you got that from above.
[00:14:46] What is there to fear?
[00:14:48] Jesus goes through death confidently and we can too. Brothers and sisters in Christ we have heard the word and believed in the word. That makes all the difference that Jesus is the one who judges the living and the dead no one else. And that in him is forgiveness of sins and life. He's the source of life.
[00:15:09] We have life in him. Life that nothing can touch not sin, not death nothing in the world, not circumstances, nothing. We have life in him and that makes all the difference. In Jesus name, amen.