Reminiscere--General Prayer

Lord God heavenly Father, we lift up our souls to You in prayer, asking that You would remember Your mercy and steadfast love and grant us those things that are for our good, that serve our neighbor, and that give glory to You.

We ask You to pardon our guilt, for it is great. From the days of our youth we have wandered from Your ways. Forgive us by the blood of Your Son Jesus Christ and teach us to walk in Your ways.

When we wrestle with some issue in our life—some worry that we cannot shake—some sin that we cannot conquer—some burden that we cannot bear—remind us that it is really You that we are striving against and lead us to trust in You and rest in Your forgiveness and cast our burdens upon You.

We thank You that You have declared that we are right in Your sight through faith in Your Son Jesus Christ. Grant us that peace that passes all understanding, knowing that we stand in Your grace and empower the witness of Your people as we share this hope with others.

Help us to know that the hardships and difficulties of life serve Your gracious purpose for us—that you desire to make us better, more faithful people by giving us endurance and character and hope.

Continue to pour Your love into our hearts as we receive absolution and hear Your Word preached and receive the body and blood of Your dear Son Jesus Christ so that our faith would be strengthened like that of the Canaanite woman.

Your Word says that “blessed are those who observe justice”. Bless and prosper those who work for justice in our government and enable them to do what is righteous in Your sight. Protect our military men and women and show Your favor to the citizens of this land.

We pray that You would redeem us out of all our troubles and bring us out of distress. Give work to the unemployed. Comfort those who mourn. Heal those who are ill. Deliver those who are addicted. Abide with those who are lonely. Strengthen marriages and families that are conflicted.

All of these things and whatever else You see that we need and yet the wisdom to ask for, grant to us dear Father in heaven for the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Rev. Franke's Theme Thoughts

Lent 2, Series B March 4, 2012

Lessons for The Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 17:1–7, 15–16 – God promised Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would become nations.
Psalm 22:23–31 (Antiphon: Psalm 22:22)
Romans 5:1–11 – God has made peace with us through the cross of Christ, even though we were His enemies.
Mark 8:27–38 – Jesus embraced the cross to restore us to God; now it has become our way of Life, too.

GATHERING THE TEXTS: People of the Cross
As God’s people, marked by the cross of Christ in Baptism, we know and share the good news that even while were still enemies of God, Jesus gave His life to reconcile us to God. We take up our cross and follow our Savior when we live by that Gospel, reaching out to heal broken relationships in spite of suffering deprivation or ridicule because of it. We are people of the cross and children of Abraham because God has called us to trus7 & 8 are near duplicates.t His promise and live by His covenant.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERVICE: Gracious God, You love me not for what I was, but for who I might become when touched by Your grace in Christ Jesus. Grant me perseverance, character, and hope so that I may endure suffering for the sake of Your redeeming power. Finally, let me know the glories of heaven when Christ returns with the holy angels. Amen.

STEWARDSHIP THOUGHT: How we use the gifts and opportunities God has entrusted to us will reveal whether we live as His friends or His enemies and tempters.

OFFERING PRAYER: Lord, You have made us Your dear friends
Through the cross of Christ our Savior.
Bless these gifts for Your kingdom’s ends;
May they be used to show Your favor.

CONVICTION AND COMFORT: It is not just Jesus' identity, but also his mission that impacts our lives. With Peter we can identify Jesus as the Christ of God, but often would deny him the cross by which the messianic work has been accomplished. Because we were enemies of God, we must have Christ's work on the cross to reconcile us to God. Embraced by the cross of Christ, we are enlisted in his mission. We live by his covenant of grace as children of Abraham and take up our cross of suffering for the Gospel as we live in service to his message of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This Week at Mt. Olive

Good evening, fellow redeemed!

And immediately, the Spirit cast out him (Jesus) into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by the devil. And He was with the wild beasts, and angels were caring for Him. (Mark 1:12-13, my translation)

The Gospel texts for the season of Lent detail the baptismal life, and today's was no different. We don't live in a vacuum, but in the midst of fallen world among a fallen race and in fallen flesh.

And, in this life, we are surrounded by temptation. Martin Luther is reported to have said, "Where God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel."

In this life where we fail to withstand even the most basic temptations, there is but one place to flee. We flee to our Lord Jesus, the one who withstood temptation in perfect obedience to His Father. In our baptism, joined to His death and resurrection, the devil has no accusations to level against us.

Lord Jesus, in Your holy wounds we find a refuge in the midst temptation. Bring us in repentance and faith to the foot of the cross to see our salvation - You, crucified and raised. AMEN

This Week at Mt. Olive:
Before I get on with this week's news, I wanted to give a report on Lordz Kidz. For an inaugural event, this was great. Six or seven children, a couple of good leaders (and they even asked me to participate, too), and it was a great fellowship event. Praise God!

Now, to this week's activities.
Elders will meet Monday evening at 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday is the regular Lenten schedule of Midday Prayer at 12:15 p.m. and Evening Prayer at 7:15 p.m. Before the evening service, a meal will be served, beginning at 6 p.m. by the Sunday School teachers and Sr. Youth.

Prayer Concerns:
Marilyn Hamer, John and Rita Murphy, Becky Chamberlain, Frank Jennings
Ruby Rieder, Ann Cleveland, Charlotte Birnbaum
Those who serve in our armed forces and their families: Rob Vadney, John Sorensen
The holy Christian, Apostolic Church as she journeys to the cross in Lent
The Church in our nation and around the world as she makes a bold confession of Christ crucified

This Week at Mt. Olive:
Monday, February 27
6:30 p.m.
Zumba Aerobics (Fellowship Hall)
Board of Elders (Overflow)

Wednesday, February 29
8:30 a.m.
School Chapel

9:30 a.m.
Bible Study (Revelation 17)

12:15 p.m.
Midday Prayer

6-7 p.m.
Lenten meal

7 p.m.
Hymn sing and Evening Prayer

Thursday, 6:30 p.m.
Zumba Aerobics

God bless!
PKJ

The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness

From the moment we were baptized and became God's children through faith in Jesus, we have been targets in the devil's sights—him trying to wrench us away from God and destroy our faith in Jesus by leading us into some great, faith-destroying sin.

That's the way it has been for all people from the beginning. Adam and Eve faced temptation and failed. The children of Israel faced temptation and failed. The great heroes of the Bible faced temptation and failed. So it went until Jesus entered the battle.

Jesus was not defeated by Satan’s temptation. He was the new Adam who got it right because he listened to his Father’s words. He was the faithful Israel who walked with his heavenly Father in holiness. The Bible says that: He was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin—and that because of him we can with confidence draw near to the throne of grace and find mercy and help in time of need.

What we're going to learn today from God's Word is that Jesus’ holy obedience and steadfastness in the face of temptation is the best possible news for us—because God counts it as our own through faith! We are going to learn how Jesus remained steadfast.

The Bible says that: Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. I want you to realize that you are not being tempted because you are a bad person or because you are weak—anymore than Jesus was tempted for these reasons.

You are being tempted because you are a child of God. The devil does not have you-- and he wants you. Being tempted doesn’t mean that you have lost your faith—it’s the struggle against temptation that means you are still a believer.

There is a spiritual battle that rages against us- and in us- and each of us must fight against temptation. From the very beginning, Satan and his evil angels have done everything in their power to destroy mankind--to wreck the fellowship that were created to have with God--and that certainly included tempting Jesus who was not only a human being like we are--but also the heaven-sent Savior of us all.

Right before his temptation, Jesus had been baptized--the Spirit had descended on him--the Father had announced his pleasure in him, identifying him as his Son--and yet immediately Jesus faced temptation from Satan.

Jesus did not seek this out--he did not put himself in harm's way--he wasn't looking for a fight--it simply came to him because he was filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit. It came to him because he was God’s Son.

In the same way, we should not intentionally put ourselves in harms way spiritually. If we have a problem with alcohol we should stay away from places where it's served. We should be circumspect in how we interact with the opposite sex. We should avoid TV and movies that undermine Christian faith and morals. And so on.

But even when we do all that we can to avoid it, temptation will still come to us because Satan is a robber and a thief and we are his prize. The Bible says that:
After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

If you remember the stories of Israel wandering in the wilderness, you know how they struggled with trusting God to meet their physical needs--how they grumbled about God’s provision and would have gone back to being slaves in Egypt just for the food.

Now please understand--being hungry is no more a sin than being thirsty is a sin or desiring companionship is a sin. God made us physical creatures with physical appetites. But on account of sin, our physical appetites have become distorted and misdirected and the devil tempts us to meet them sinfully.

Adam and Eve ate the one thing they were forbidden to eat. Noah served God and kept mankind from complete annihilation in the flood by building the ark but got drunk to celebrate. David sinned sexually with Bathsheba. The list of people sinfully satisfying their physical appetites goes on and on and includes us--but not Jesus.

There was no sin when Jesus became hungry in the desert. There would be no sin in turning a stone into bread. Certainly it was within his divine power to do so. But what he would not do was take his cue from Satan on how to meet a legitimate bodily need.

Jesus was the faithful Adam who listened to his heavenly Father and said "no" to Satan. He was the faithful Israel who was satisfied with his Father's provision no matter what it is. He was the faithful person that God wants all of us to be.

Jesus' faithfulness is our salvation and his method of remaining steadfast is something that every child of God can make use of. Jesus responded to every temptation in only one way: by saying “It is written” and taking his stand on the Word of God.

The Bible says that we are to take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. This doesn't mean that we simply quote some verse of the bible when we are tempted—though there is power in that. What it does mean is that who we are and what we desire and the direction and purpose of our lives is to be drawn from the Bible.

The devil and the world want us to believe that we are nothing but biological creatures--merely animals-- who are at the mercy of our appetites-- and our flesh wants us to believe that lie. But we are much more than that. We are God's children for we were created in God's image and we find our life in his Word. The Bible says that:

The devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

I don’t think that any of us would consciously put the Lord to the test—which implies that we doubt his word and demand some kind of tangible proof of his existence or promises. We wouldn’t do in consciously…

But how often do we say or think to ourselves: “Well, if God really loved me…then this or that would take place”.

Who we are in God’s sight and what his attitude is towards us is certain! His Word tells us of his love-- and the sacrifice of his Son is the enduring sign of it. But Satan tempts us to seek certainty in some external sign.

Satan tempted Jesus to put God’s promise to the test and cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple with the promise that the angels would catch him-- as a sign to himself- and a testimony to all looking on- that he really was God’s Son. But at his baptism, Jesus had already heard God’s Word concerning his identity.

The same is true for us. When we were baptized God said to us: you are my child. He has not changed his mind. We can return to God’s baptismal promise again and again no matter what is going on in our lives—no matter how we are being tempted-- and be certain that it is true and unchanging.

We need to lay claim to that promise again and again because Satan is not going to give up on us and we face temptation every day in this world. The Bible says that:
The devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

The really sinister thing about Satan's temptations is that truth and lies are always twisted together. When he tempted Adam and Eve with the forbidden fruit, he promised them that they would be like God—knowing good and evil. And so they did. But what they discovered was that they were evil and God was good and they weren't like God at all but had lost the image of God and become subject to death.

That's the way it always is with temptation--Satan shows us the pleasure in some sin--but hides the spiritual danger. The glass of wine with a meal that becomes an early death and a ruined family through alcoholism--the innocent friendship at work that becomes a destroyed marriage through an affair—the work ethic that becomes a cover for greed--and so on. Spiritual danger in some good thing that Satan ruins.

That is how Satan tempted Jesus. He showed him what was rightfully his: kingdoms and glory and power and honor--the kings of the world casting down their crowns before him--every knee bowing before him in submission--and all he had to do was one small thing--to render one act of worship to Satan.

Who would ever know--they were all alone--why go through the rejection and suffering-- when what is rightfully yours-- can be yours-- right now? Why go to the cross and die when you can have it all right now?

This temptation cut to the very heart of Jesus' mission. He had come to die. This was his work--to offer up his own life upon the cross as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world--to do what we have failed to do in giving our whole lives to God.

But Jesus did not fail--he did not abandon the way of the cross. He set his face towards Jerusalem and the cross and never looked back. After his death and resurrection he ascended to the Father and took his rightful place at the Father's right hand. The ceaseless worship of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven sing his unending praises BECAUSE the way of glory went through the cross. The Bible says:

The devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

This is one of the most tender, poignant moments in the Bible. The great evil angel has left Jesus alone in the wilderness and the good angels come to his aid. The whole scene was set before their eyes: would this second Adam go the way of the first and fall victim to temptation? No! This time there was a great victory for mankind in Jesus Christ and all the hosts of heaven rejoiced in it.

The Bible says that there is a spiritual battle that rages around us--that:
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Each one of us has our own part to play in that spiritual battle. The devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh are allied against us. They are mighty foes—but they are not greater than Jesus Christ.

Throughout his public ministry the devil was right there beside him trying to undermine his mission and destroy his purpose. But Jesus was faithful each step of the way—going to the cross—laying down his life—rising again and descending to hell to announce—not only his own victory—but ours as well.

What we see before us in God’s Word today is that Jesus’ faithfulness at the devil’s temptation is God’s promise to us -of our own victory over Satan -as we put our faith in Jesus- and take our stand on his Word. Amen.

This Week at Mt. Olive

Good evening, fellow redeemed!

I'm in Austin, helping my mom and dad at home. I'll be back Tuesday evening. A few important reminders:

LWML meets Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. As part of the program, a pancake supper is being provided. Ladies are asked to provide their favorite sausage (already cooked), as well as any specialty toppings desired.

Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Divine Service is held at 12:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. There will be a light meal served before the evening service.

Next Sunday, February 26, is Lordz Kidz Sunday! Beginning at 3 and lasting until about 5 p.m., it's a youth outing for those in Kindergarten through 5th Grade. Make plans to attend!

Finally, yes, there will be Bible Study on Wednesday morning - still in Revelation 17.

Prayer Concerns:
Marilyn Hamer, Rita Murphy, Frank Jennings, Brandi Baker
The Church throughout the world as she prepares to enter Lent.

God bless!
PKJ

Rev. Franke's Theme Thoughts

Lent 1, Series B February 26, 2012

Lessons for The First Sunday in Lent
Genesis 22:1–18 – God counted faithful Abraham righteous and spared his son.
Psalm 25:1–10 (Antiphon: Psalm 25:14)
James 1:12–18 – God has given us spiritual birth to guard us against the temptations of our evil hearts.
Mark 1:9–15 – After Jesus was baptized and tested by Satan, he returned proclaiming the Good News.

GATHERING THE TEXTS: "In the Hour of Trial"
Put yourself in Abraham's place: aside from the painful prospect of losing his son of promise by his own hand, he faced the difficult task of explaining his actions to Sarah when he returned home! God spared Isaac, Abraham's son, but He did not spare His own Son. The steadfastness of God's protecting love is seen in Jesus' temptation in the desert and His subsequent proclamation of the Kingdom of God present in His person. While desire, full grown, gives birth to death, God’s Word of truth in us bears the first fruits of the crown of life.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERVICE: Merciful Father, temptations and trials come upon me every day, but yet You hold me with the love of a father for his child and the new birth into faith that You have given me shields me from the temptations of my own heart. Let that knowledge make me strong to resist evil and to rejoice in Your care always beside me. Amen.

STEWARDSHIP THOUGHT: When our desire for things is greater than our love for God, the temptations of Satan find easy prey in our old sinful hearts. The Good News of God’s Kingdom is that Jesus has broken the hold of Satan over us; we are free to trust God’s promise of Life instead bowing to Satan’s death claim on us.

OFFERING PRAYER: O Lord, when we try to trade promises for blessings
remind us that You have blessed us with Your promise.
Bless the gifts we bring today that they may carry Your promise of Life
to those who don’t yet know Your blessing in Jesus Christ.

CONVICTION AND COMFORT: We are tempted in many ways every day and by ourselves are powerless to stand against Satan’s onslaught, but God holds us with the love of a father for his child. The new birth of faith that we have through our baptism shields us from the temptations of our own hearts. Our relationship to God in Christ makes us strong to resist evil and to rejoice in His care always beside us.

BONUS: Abraham: Priest of Moriah – Gilbert A. Franke, 2000
(May be sung to “Let All Together Praise Our God” LSB 389)


God called on Abraham to make
A dreadful sacrifice,
But in His mercy would not take
The dear son, Isaac’s life --
The dear son, Isaac’s life.


Instead the Lord chose to provide
A ram as substitute;
An angel stopped the knife and cried:
“I know your faith is true --
I know your faith is true!”


O God the Father glorify,
Who did not spare His Son,
But willingly gave Him to die
To win us as His own --
To win us as His own!

The Journey to the Cross

Luke 18:31-43
This week one of the circuit pastors called me to talk about what he was doing for Lenten sermons. He said that he was thinking about doing a series on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book “The Cost of Discipleship” and what did I think about it.

I told him that it was an important book—definitely worth reading—but it wasn’t really what I thought a Lenten series should be—that the purpose of Lenten meditations is to walk with our Lord as he journeys to the cross—just exactly what we see our Lord doing on this last Sunday before Lent. The Bible says:

Taking the twelve, Jesus said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

Over the course of his life Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem many times to fulfill the religious requirements of the law—but this would be his final journey and he wanted his disciples to go with him.

That is still the purpose of our Lenten services—that we would travel with the Lord to the cross.

Jesus wanted the disciples with him so that they could see what he was doing for the salvation of the world and for their own salvation. In the old King James Version Jesus says: “Behold”! In other words: “Pay attention”! “Feast your eyes upon this”! “Look at what I am about to show you”! And then Jesus tells them what to look for:

He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

What would they see as they made that journey to Jerusalem one last time? They would see the words of the prophets accomplished.

They would see Jesus ride into Jerusalem, not as a mighty warrior, but as a humble King mounted on a donkey just a Zechariah had promised. They would see Jesus pierced for our transgressions and wounded for our iniquities just as Isaiah had foretold. They would see Jesus spit upon and ridiculed as David had prophesied. And they would see Jesus stand victorious over death just as Job had looked forward to in faith.

Jesus wants us to know that he is the fulfillment of all of the promises of God—that is why he took his disciples on this final journey to Jerusalem and its why we travel with Jesus to the cross each Lenten season—so that we can once again feast our eyes of faith upon the promises God that have been fulfilled in Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection—so that we can understand what it all means for our lives. The Bible says that the disciples:

…understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

That Jesus was handed over to the Romans—that he was mocked and shamefully treated—flogged and crucified-- is a matter of the historical record—it happened. That Jesus rose again on the third day is a matter of the biblical record that hundreds of people bore witness to—they saw him alive.

There was nothing difficult in the words Jesus spoke about what would happen to him in Jerusalem—he had said them before. There was nothing unusual in the crucifixion scene he described-- it happened every day in the Roman world.

And so what was the difficulty the disciples had in understanding these things? Why couldn’t they grasp what Jesus was telling them?

At least part of the problem is that they didn’t want to believe what their master was telling them—to think that this terrible thing would happen to someone they loved, was unbearable-- and there had been other occasions when they tried to deny it.

People still shy away from the scandal of the cross—even in the church. Many Christians are perfectly happy with a cross in the sanctuary but a crucifix is a little too graphic. That the bread and wine of Holy Communion are actually the broken body and shed blood of Christ is a bit over the top for many churches who deny the very words of Jesus. Countless sermons are preached every Sunday where the suffering and death of our Lord have no place whatsoever. Then and now the death of Jesus on the cross is a scandal.

The other reason that they couldn’t get a handle on what he was saying is that they really didn’t see the necessary connection between Jesus the Messiah and the cross.
They were perfectly willing to accept Jesus as the Messiah because they thought that was about earthly things like position and power. But to accept that the Messiah of God HAD to suffer and die—they struggled to believe it.

But the fact of the matter is that if we are to live a life with God—it can only come through the cross of Jesus Christ and the death he suffered there.

That is why he invites us to go with him to Jerusalem so that we can understand that salvation and wholeness and new life are only found in what he accomplished in Jerusalem in his death and resurrection. The Bible says that: As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.

At the beginning of their journey to Jerusalem we heard the Lord tell us and the disciples: “Behold”! “Feast your eyes on this”! And yet they couldn’t see the truth. But as they traveled on, they met a blind man who could see what they couldn’t see because the truth about Jesus is discerned by the heart-- not the eyes.

Can there be a picture of anyone so helpless as a blind man in the ancient world? No social agency to help him. No vocational training to give him some place in life. Nothing for him to do but beg for pennies from other peasants, hopeful that his basic, human needs could somehow be met by their mercy. That was his life until Jesus walked by him on his way to the cross. The Bible says that:

Hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

This little exchange really is the key to understanding what the Holy Spirit is telling us this morning about Jesus’ journey to the cross—it’s why the disciples and the crowd didn’t understand what Jesus was about-- and why the blind man did.

When he asked about what was going on, the crowd said that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by—and so he was—the humble man of Galilee.

The crowds of that day and the crowds of this day are perfectly content to confess the same—to recognize and accept the historical facts that Jesus of Nazareth was a good man- who said wise things- and died a terrible death.

But that was not the confession of the blind man. He said: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Not Jesus of Nazareth—but Jesus, Son of David.

There are great confessions of faith that are found in the Bible. Peter says of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”. The centurion at the cross says of him, “Surely this man was the Son of God”. The confession of the blind man was just as great. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

This was the confession of a faithful child of Israel who recognized by faith just exactly who Jesus was—that he was the Messiah that they had been hoping for and praying for—the One who would make EVERYTHING right that sin had destroyed. It is in that faith and hope that he cried out for the Messiah’s mercy. The bible says:

Those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Things really haven’t changed that much in the last two thousand years have they? There are still those in the crowd who try to shout us down as we confess that Jesus is the Savior of the world. There are still those who want to silence the witness of Christians that we have in Jesus a God who is merciful and willing and able to help.

The blind man shows us the way to respond to the unbelieving crowds of our own day when he refused to be shouted down or ridiculed for his confession and instead cried out all the more: Son of David, have mercy on me! The Bible says that at these words: Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him.

The blind man couldn’t come to Jesus by himself. He couldn’t find him in the darkness. He didn’t posses what was necessary. All that he could do was recognizes his own great need and cry out for mercy. And that is what he received.

Jesus commanded others to bring him to him just as he has commanded us to bring others to him by carrying our children to the baptismal font and inviting people to church.

There is a world full of people who need what only Jesus can give and yet they lack the ability to make it to him on their own. Jesus has commanded us who can see the way, to bring them to him to be healed of all that is broken in their lives. The Bible says:

When the blind man came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight

700 years before this moment the prophet Isaiah promised that through the Messiah’s work “the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped; and the lame shall man shall leap like a deed and the tongue of the mute sing for joy”.

Jesus of Nazareth—the Son of Man and David’s Son accomplished every one of these messianic signs just as the prophets had written. And the benefits of his saving work are received today in the same way as they were that day: by faith in Jesus.

Jesus told the man that his faith had made him well. And so it had—not because the power rested in his believing—but because the One he believed in was able to do what was promised of him: give forgiveness, salvation, and wholeness.

So it is for us. Faith is necessary to receive what Christ has done for us. His saving works were done for all but to receive the benefits of forgiveness, life, and salvation-- and the wholeness that will come on the Last Day—it is necessary to have faith—to recognize that we have no claim upon the Lord but our great need for his mercy-- and to come to him in faith for the new life he gives—just like the man did that day.

The Bible says that the man who was healed: followed Jesus, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

This is the life of faith! That we who have received the Lord’s gifts follow him as his disciples—that we praise God and give him all the glory for the great things that he has done for us—that our lives bear witness to the goodness and mercy of Jesus Christ.

The man who was healed that day was a man reborn. He had a brand new life ahead of him. And that life was dedicated to the glory of God. Many the same things be said of us, who are also the recipients of our Lord’s saving work! Amen.