St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Lent 5 – April 6^th, 2003

Dear Children of God

We have always been in search of knowledge and adventure. We are eager to know how things work and why they work. This makes man different from animals. We are thinking creatures. One of those ancient philosophers once wrote "Know Yourself," and urged mankind to look into his own heart and see what his thoughts are from time to time.

But isn’t it somewhat true that as people look at themselves, they take great pleasure in boasting about their own accomplishments? We record our inventions and list our discoveries and brags about our achievements. We look at our few, kind and thoughtful acts, which we have done and proudly declare, "See how good I am! We think to ourselves, "The world is growing better from day to day because of people like me. I thank You, Lord, that I am not as that neighbor of mine."

As we look at ourselves, we try to overlook or push aside our own failings as mere slips, momentary lapses or slight setbacks in our goal to do better things. We seek to avoid an honest look of our real self. Sadly enough, our sinful nature leads us to hate being called a sinner. That is why we many times stay away from God hoping he doesn’t find out. Jesus disturbs our sinful nature. Our sinful nature feels a little uneasy in his presence. It is too humiliating to come to Jesus and admit that we have sinned. This word "sin" is not in the vocabulary of our sinful nature, but in the presence of the spotless life of Jesus all our goodness shows up with its many shortcomings.

Yet, the Gospel of Jesus’ salvation is what leads us to trust in him and follow him. On Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem certain Greeks attending the Passover, desired to see Jesus. Knowing Philip, one of the Twelve, they approached him and asked "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." Nothing is of greater importance in life than to see and to know Jesus. We may know how to make money, drive an automobile, evaluate an education — we may know all this and yet be a failure in God’s sight and lose our soul. This morning we are going to use these words from the Gospel of John and look at this statement:

1. Jesus’ Death on the cross gives life to us
2. Jesus’ Death leads us to live for God

Jesus gives life to us by dying. "The hour has come," says Jesus to the Greeks. This means the hour for which He came to lay down His life on the altar of sacrifice as the Lamb of God. As the sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament was the substitute for Israel on the Temple altar, so Jesus is our Substitute as he carries our sins to Calvary to die in our place and to shed His holy, innocent blood as the price of our salvation.

The life Jesus gave releases us from the blame placed upon us by the Law and the guilt burdening our conscience. On that Calvary Cross, Jesus reconciled us to God, so making peace and now offering to each and every human full pardon and salvation. And by faith we come to this Cross, unafraid of God and His judgments, because the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. As God looks at us through the Cross, we are whiter than snow, for Christ’s perfect, spotless holiness completely covers our uncleanness and makes us acceptable to God and children of His grace.

By and through this death on Golgotha, which was followed by His glorious resurrection, Jesus came to full glory. , "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (v. 23). Jesus through his assumed full glory as Savior. His stripes heal. His blood washes the worst sinner clean. No one needs to say: "I can’t be redeemed." No matter who it be, every human being can come to Jesus and pour out to him our many sins and hear Jesus saying: Your sins are forgiven. Through the Cross, Jesus assumes full glory as Lord God. His almighty power raised him from the dead on that third day. At this point his Heavenly Father declared that he accepted the Calvary sacrifice as satisfactory and proclaimed His reconciliation to us:

All this we must know about Jesus. We must see Jesus as our Savior and Lord if we want to live forever with the peace of God’s forgiveness in our hearts.

The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (v. 25). We must know that life in Christ is more than a set of beliefs. Life in Christ is not a mere endorsement of some sort of philosophical system. Life in Christ is the unconditional acceptance of this truth that Christ died for us and then with the help of the Holy Spirit to conform of our daily life to a full agreement with this truth. Life in Christ must not be limited to the confessing of a creed, but it must affect our entire living and thinking and conduct. All that the believer does from day to day is motivated by God’s grace and mercy which is based on the foundational truth that Jesus came into the world to save him through His Cross. The Cross transforms our lives, filling us with the continual desire to live for Jesus.

Life in Christ banishes selfishness from our lives. None who is in Christ Jesus should live solely for himself, but is ever eager to serve Jesus and sacrifice his life for Him who laid down His life for us and our salvation. We serve Him by witnessing to others about the message of the cross. We give a testimony about Jesus by the way we live. Daily we give evidence that we belong to Him. We serve Jesus by loving our fellow men. In each man, woman, and child we see a soul loved enough by Jesus that He would die for it. To the hungry we will give food to the sick we will bring help; to the distressed, comfort. We will not wait till our neighbor is dead to inquire whether he was a Christian

We must learn — and we learn at the foot of the Cross — that life is lived to the fullest in service and sacrifice for Jesus, who gave His all to save us and make us heirs of the eternal kingdom. Jesus tells us, ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me." (v.26 a). Looking at the work Jesus accomplished on the Cross, we forget all else and see that the issue for us is Jesus or nothing. We must follow Jesus altogether; we must be sold on him, as we like to say. So much is done to us which is unfair, so much is said that is unkind, that many times it is not easy to love such people and extend to them service which means sacrifice and self-denial. Only if we give ourselves in complete surrender to Jesus will we be ready to love those whom He loved, unlovable though they be. Only at the Cross can we evaluate life right and all that it is and all that it has and lay our all at His feet in humble devotion and in childlike manner.

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Jesus is in glory, where there is fullness of joy. Only in heaven is there perfection, because sin has no place in eternal life. Those who are gathered around the throne have all been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. Sin can no longer touch them nor pollute them. That makes for pleasures, which last forever. Guilt and shame are unknown. And the servants of Jesus shall dwell in that perfection forever.

Jesus is in glory, where there shall be no more crying. Heartache and pain are gone. In heaven God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. Jesus is in glory, where there shall be no more death or dying. No matter how pleasant life may be in this world, it comes to an end. All that is earthly is passing away, but where Christ Jesus is, there is life eternal.

God will recognize such followers as his children and co-heirs with Jesus. God will extend to each and every believer the joy of a heavenly home, with all its privileges and blessings. We must know, if we are not to despair, that there is a heaven, where God wipes away all tears, removes all sorrows, answers every question, and gives eternal security and protection from sin and Satan. We must know, if we are to have peace of mind and heart, that there is forgiveness and a complete blotting out of sins of the past at the Cross of Jesus. We must know that we can start each day with a clean slate by the grace of God and be led by the loving guidance of the Shepherd Friend to the end of days.

We must know that Jesus who went down into death on Calvary for us, and rose again the third day to give life and salvation to all of mankind. His grace is for everyone. No one is excluded from His redeeming love This is the most glorious hour in history of the world when Jesus went to the Cross to die for you and me. That is the most glorious hour in your life and mine when we hear Jesus say to us, one by one: "Come, I have blotted out all your sins and will remember them no more." And then, lifting us to His compassionate heart, He whispers: "Now go, not to live to sin, but to serve Me, your Savior and Lord." Amen.