St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown, WI-WELS
Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz
Pentecost 20 October 17, 2004 Luke 17:1-10
Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that
cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they
come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone
tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So
watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive
him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times come back to
you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord,
“Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard
seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’
and it will obey you. Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after
the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come
along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper,
get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat
and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?
So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We
are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:
The Campbellsport News is a small newspaper—published every Thursday. The other day they published on the front page--a picture of a family—everyone smiling. The story above the picture is painful even to read. The mommy had a “mommy” operation. While in the hospital for her operation she had many complications—including blood clots, pneumonia and a heart attack. Not too many months after those troubles the mommy was found to have colon cancer. She started radiation and chemotherapy. Two months into those treatments—the daddy had a heart attack and died. If you were the mommy—very sick yourself—and now responsible for a ten year old son—and twin 8 year old boys—and much much more—how would you make it? How would you get through these troubled times? You would pray like the disciples did—Lord, increase our faith! The precious good news from God’s Word is God’s Gospel promise:
God’s Grace Makes Faith Grow
For many weeks now—we have been working through the Gospel of St. Luke. We read how Jesus had supper with tax collectors and sinners—the people who were painfully aware of their wretched sinfulness. Jesus taught about the shrewd manager. God’s people need to be thinking—all the time—thinking about the kingdom of God. We heard about the lost sheep and the lost coin—the passion of the search and the joy of reclaiming the straying. Last week we heard about the rich man who wore fine purple clothes—and feasted extravagantly every day—yet was in fact spiritually eternally poor. And we thought about poor Lazarus—who was covered with sores—licked by puppies. Lazarus dreamed about eating the rich man’s table scraps. Although Lazarus looked like a pauper—he was in fact spiritually and eternally rich! Today Jesus continues to teach his students, followers and imitators—with words of warning and encouragement! Jesus said, “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come…” Things that cause people to sin—the Greek word skandalon—are the triggers of traps. There are countless traps that the devil has set all around us. Every blessing that God has given us—the devil tries to turn into a trigger for a trap of sin. There is God’s gift of food—nourishment for our body and our brain. And before you know it—there are temptations—to eat a whole bins of doughnut holes—with white powdered sugar or honey sweet glaze. They have commercials for these restaurants—where they have baby back ribs—slabs of ribs—with sweet barbecue sauce—all smeared on them—all you can eat. There are ice cold beverages—in chilled mugs—so cold they freeze the back of your throat. There are fish fries—old fashioneds with fruit or pickled mushrooms—while you wait. And then it’s fish and chicken and German potato salad—all you can eat—and we eat all we can! Or you can fall off the horse on the other side, too. The devil tempts some people to consider food a curse—to literally starve themselves—until they are nothing but skin and bones. You can binge and purge—eat and eat and then throw it all back up before your body has a chance to absorb any nutrients. Before you know it—you can do permanent damage to your ability to have babies—damage to your heart—damage to your whole system that’s supposed to turn food into energy and bones and muscles and organs that work together in a miraculous way—to serve Jesus. A person’s self esteem—and self-image can become so confused—you don’t understand the hurt and harm you are doing to yourself. You don’t understand the pain you cause the people all around you—who love you so much! The devil has taken God’s precious gift of hugs and kisses—intended to be a blessing within marriage—and only in marriage and turned it into something cheap and easy. Woe to the person through whom sins are caused. That means we need to be modest in how we dress. Not wearing clothes that are too small or too short of too thin or too anything. We need to dress modestly—even if that isn’t the style. Even if nobody else is. Even if people accuse us of being old fashioned. It’s not old fashioned—it shows respect for Jesus and love for our neighbor if we wear modest clothes and act in a modest way. Temptations are sure to come. But they dare not come from us!
Only Jesus can make our faith stronger—through the means of grace—so we forgive our brother from the heart. Jesus said, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” This is not a new concept. The LORD—the Great I AM—told Ezekiel—“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood!” Ezekiel 33:7,8 Jesus is not saying we are supposed to be police. We are not to be private investigators—watching, just waiting for our brother to make a mistake. And then we pounce! No! Jesus said we are not supposed to remove saw dust from our neighbor’s eye—while we remain oblivious to the barn board in our own eye. We need to work on the lumber in our own eye first. Having said that—if we see our neighbor caught in a sin—we need to talk to them—humbly, gently, privately—showing them their sin—carefully—so we don’t get caught up in sin, too! If we have family members—a spouse or a teenager in our family that is neglecting hearing God’s Word—neglecting coming to Lord’s Supper—we can encourage them. If we have a teenager in our home—who is abusing drugs—smoking cigarettes—sneaking alcohol—we need to speak to them. If we have co-workers or relatives that are caught up in Internet pornography or are taking home from work what doesn’t belong to them—something that is hurtful and painfully wrong—we need to talk to them. We need to talk to them about their sin—because not talking to them—makes us part of their sin. If we see little children being neglected—and neglect is the most terrible kind of abuse—somebody needs to do something before it’s too late. If someone we love drives drunk—and we let them—what will we do—if they drive drunk and kill someone? Then it will be too late! If your brother is living in sin—living like they are married—when they are not—we need to talk to them. Show them in the Bible that this is wrong. And then—when they say they are sorry and change—we have the wonderful opportunity to tell them Jesus washed all those sins away, too!
If your brother sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him. The ability to love and forgive comes from God. God’s Word says, “God is love…We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John 4:19-21 Forgive one another—from the heart. Only Jesus can make you strong enough to do that! Jesus is not saying—keep track—keep count. Seven times the same sin the same day—you’re forgiven. Number eight crosses the line. Now you can hold a grudge? No! Jesus is saying—forgive and forget—again and again and again and again. Forgive the same way Jesus has forgiven us!
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Increase our faith! Faith grows through the means of grace. Faith grows when you read your Bible! Turn off your TV! Daddies can do that! Take the remote control and hit the little red power button. Turn off the TV and read God’s Word to your family. Take turns reading God’s Word. Talk about it! Talk about your day—the blessings Jesus gave you today. Talk about the troubles—the problems—the worries and concerns that make your life difficult. Encourage one another. Build each other up. Pray for each other. Come to Lord’s Supper. Don’t miss a single chance to kneel and receive Jesus’ body and blood—through and through bread and wine. Jesus will make your faith stronger and stronger. Mustard seed size faith—very very small faith—can move mulberry trees. Jesus makes our faith stronger and stronger—so we can move huge pine trees—massive oak trees—giant redwoods. The possibilities are unlimited! Faith repairs marriages—where there has been horrible hurt and heart ache. Faith repairs troubles between parents and children—where there has been hurtful words shouted and screamed in anger. Jesus increases faith—to make husbands and fathers faithful—encouraging their children—nurturing them—teaching them by powerful example to live their lives dedicated to their Savior. Jesus increases our faith—so that students in school are respectful of their teachers—all the time—no matter what! That students are faithful—doing their homework as well as they possibly can—to give glory to their Savior. Faith grows in our Lutheran Schools—where every subject is taught in the light of God’s Word!
“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Servants have work to do! We have work to do in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not a place—it is Jesus’ forgiving love in the hearts and in the day to day life of God’s people! We are God’s servants—slaves—made, bought and paid for—with Jesus’ innocent blood. It is for us to serve Jesus with ever increasing faithfulness—every moment of every day—all the days of our lives. Jesus expects little children to serve Jesus. That means little children share—their toys—their candy—their cookies—the TV remote. It means little children do not scream at their parents in the grocery store. We were at the movies the other day. A father in the popcorn line—told his little son—fifteen yard away—come over here. The little boy completely and utterly and intentionally ignored his father. Finally the father went by the little boy—and gave him popcorn and candy! That’s a sin. When fathers and mothers tell their children—come here—that’s the same as Jesus saying—come here. It means we make tracks—to be as close to our parents as we can get—as fast as we can! To do anything less is a sin. Jesus has very high expectations of little people. And Jesus has very high expectations of parents—of young single people—of high school people—of pastors and teachers and called workers. Jesus has very high expectations that we will—with his essential help—do our duty! When we have done everything we are supposed to do—we have not earned anything from God. We can only say—we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. Amen
To God alone all glory!
Rev.
Anthony E. Schultz