St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Pentecost 25 November 7 and 10, 2002

1 Corinthians 16:13,14

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

It was back in 1933 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt first said, “The only thing we have to fear—is fear itself!” It was back in 1933 that a guy named Jerry Siegel and a guy named Joe Schuster invented the super hero—Superman! Do you know the story of Superman? A little baby named Kal-El from the planet Krypton. When little Kal-El is barely one year old—his whole planet is trembling from earthquakes. The whole planet is about to explode. So his father builds a rocket big enough for the mommy and little Kal-El to rocket to safety on the planet Earth. At the last moment the mommy stays behind—so that her little son will have even a better chance of making it all the way to earth. A year later Kal-El crash lands beside the road in Kansas. A wonderful little couple rescue him—Jonathan and Martha Kent. They give him the name Clark—Martha’s maiden name. They name him Clark Jerome Kent! He grows up to be the man of steel—Superman! His first comic book adventure is 13 pages long. In his first comic he meets Lois Lane. In number 23 he meets Lex Luthor—red haired villain so evil he is ev-e-el—just plain nasty! In number 61 Superman learns the hard way about Kryptonite—the one substance that can sap his strength. Wouldn’t it be neat to be Superman? To be so strong—you could be faster than a speeding bullet—more powerful than a locomotive—able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? But we aren’t super-men. We aren’t super women. We aren’t super children and super senior citizens. We are poor sinful beings—flawed—fatally flawed by sin.

Jesus Is Our Only Hope!

Jesus who forgives all our sins is our only hope—our only help to:

1. Be careful

2. Be strong

3. Live in love

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on today is part of the apostle Paul’s first letter to the believers in the Greek city of Corinth. As soon as you hear the name Corinth—all kinds of things come to mind. Corinth was one of the places where the apostle Paul worked the hardest. He spent a year and a half there during his second missionary journey. That was longer than any one place except for Ephesus. Corinth was a big city in large part because of where it was—on a strip of land between the Aegean Sea—between Greece and Turkey and the Adriatic Sea—between Greece and Italy. Trade that went east and west went through Corinth. Ships unloaded on one side of town—and were reloaded on the other side of town. Some ships—not too big—were actually pulled out of one sea—and very carefully hauled on rollers through town—and put back in the water on the other side of town. Cool! When you are a big city—with lots of goods passing through—goods from around the world—there is lots of money—and lots of people from around the world. So Corinth was pretty much like New York or San Francisco or LA or Chicago or Miami. There were at least a dozen heathen temples in Corinth. The most infamous was the temple dedicated to Aphrodite—the Greek goddess of love. More than 1,000 temple prostitutes worked there. The name of the city became synonymous with the sin—to Corinthianize—was to be with a prostitute. In the Greek plays—Greek comedies and Greek tragedies—if a character was from Corinth they were most likely a drunk or a prostitute. It is sad to say—the sins of the people of Corinth—the love of money and the illusion of control and comfort that much money promises. The busy busy lifestyle—the racing and chasing after the seemingly finer things in life—the sinful self indulgence that was everywhere—because everyone was doing it—was much like life in these United States today. There is much we can learn from Paul’s two letters to the believers in Corinth.

The two verses we are concentrating on today—are the theme Scriptures for a men’s retreat that will be held—with Jesus’ permission this November. It is an exhortation—an encouragement to live their faith. To put their faith into practice in the day to day struggle against sin. It is an encouragement to bear the sweet and juicy fruits of faith! Fruits of faith are just that—sweet fruits—that are the result of saving faith in the life and cross and empty tomb of Jesus Christ! Jesus lived a life without sin for me. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was hidden for a time in Egypt to escape murderous paranoid King Herod. He grew up in Nazareth in the home of Joseph the Carpenter. When he was only 12 years old—he went to Jerusalem to be about His Heavenly Father’s concerns. When he was 30 years old he was anointed preacher of the Gospel—priest and scapegoat for the sins of the world. He was anointed King of a kingdom that is not an army and taxes and roads—but a forever kingdom in the hearts and lives of God’s people. On a Thursday night he was betrayed and denied and abandoned by his disciples. He was beaten and battered and literally crucified. His lifeless body was washed clean of the blood and sweat and soil and placed in a borrowed tomb. On Sunday morning he was alive again. All our sins washed away. We are adopted children of God—for Jesus’ sake. As children of God—Jesus is both our reason and our strength to live like children of God.

God’s Word says, “Be on your guard!” The Greek word here is gragore’ow. Very literally it means wake up—wake up and smell the coffee! Paul told the Ephesians the same thing. He wrote, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:8-15 Wake up! A firefighter died just the other day in Littleton, Massachusetts. How sad! How very sad that he was only 42 years old when he died. He was a fire fighter for 7 years. He knew all about fires—how they start and how to fight them and how to be safe from the flames and especially from the choking, blinding, deadly smoke. And yet this firefighter died in a fire—in his own house—all alone! Be on your guard—so that the unquenchable fires of hell will not get us. They will not trap us and burn us because Jesus is our rescue—our safety—our deliverer!

God’s Word says, “Be men of courage!” There is perhaps no greater submarine movie than the movie entitled Das Boot. It is the story of German sailors on a U-boat—an Utersea Boot during World War II. Again and again their submarine sneaks up on Allied shipping—up to periscope depth. They zero in on their target—and fire their torpedoes. Then comes the command, “Dive! Dive! Dive!” The horn blares—the U-boot tilts and down, down, down they go. Up above—allied destroyers crisscross the sea—dropping depth charges—huge oil drums full of explosives—kaboom—kaboom. The u-boat keeps going deeper and deeper. She goes so deep that the pressure is enormous! The whole ship shudders and creaks—as massive sheets of armored steel are crushed by the pressure—rivets pop and the seawater comes spraying into the ship. Pipes burst—and steam and boiling water scald the sailors trapped inside. Fires start and smoke fills the sub. Through this all—the sailors do not panic. They do not cry out in despair—quickly, skillfully they do what they have to do. They are men of courage! We are people of courage—people with hearts that will not melt like candle wax when we are tested. We are people of courage—not because we are so strong. We are people of courage—because of Jesus. It’s not that Jesus makes us so strong—as it is a powerful Gospel truth Jesus is our strength! Remember last Sunday when we read the Scriptures—that in these end times we will be pounded for our faith? Remember how it said—when we are dragged before kings and judges—we don’t need to worry what to say or how to say it—because it will not be we who are speaking—but the Holy Spirit speaking through us! When there are terrible troubles—when there is hurt and pain and loss—we don’t have to worry about being strong enough—Jesus is our strength. Jesus is our courage. Jesus is our only hope!

God’s Word says, “Be strong!” I read about a little old lady the other day named Mary L. Parr. Mary Parr is very strong. You see Mary Parr was born in 1889! That’s over 113 years ago. Mary lives in a nursing home now—but up until she was 107 she lived in an apartment all by her self! Mary is tough. She has to be! And so is a little lady named Kamato Hongo—a Japanese woman who celebrated her 115^th birthday this past September! She must be tough too. Physically tough isn’t the most important thing, though. We need to be strong in the LORD. That means remembering the LORD is our strength, our fortress, our protection, our only hope. Every day they have on the news report after report that we need to exercise. Today they said if you exercise regularly—exercise faithfully—even if you have bad cholesterol—it won’t be as damaging as if you don’t exercise. I am trying more and more—to make time to do my jogging and lifting some weights. That’s pretty simple. To make your faith stronger there are some very simple things you can do. You can read your Bible! You don’t have to start with “In the beginning and keep plowing until you get to Even so come quickly Lord Jesus in Revelation. That’s not a bad plan. But what usually happens is—you get jammed up in some long list of difficult to pronounce names—of people you never heard of. Or you get hit verse after verse about something that is infected and flaking and oozing and makes you ceremonially unclean—and you get discouraged and stop. Don’t be discouraged! You can get one of those Bibles where it’s all divided up into chunks of Gospels and Epistles and Old Testament prophets—pretty much like what we read in church each Sunday. There are books that have chapters of the Bible—plus a little devotion or a prayer or some insights into the background of that Scripture that make it much easier to keep on reading. It doesn’t matter where you read in your Bible. Just do it! Instead of so much TV and video games and DVDs read your Bible and your life will change! If you get stuck—ask a fellow believer—what is this all about? Do some homework! Don’t give up until you figure it out! I don’t know a pastor who wouldn’t be happy—exceedingly happy—to have somebody call up and say I was reading my Bible and I don’t understand this part. Then—if they are not just a pastor but also a Rabbi—a real teacher—they won’t tell you the answer. They will show you where to look—so you will discover the answer—and your faith will be stronger! You will be strong—because you will know Jesus is your Strength!

God’s Word says, “Do everything in love!” I have always been fascinated by cemeteries and grave stones. There is out east the custom that when a person died a cement statue of that person was placed on their grave. A husband died—and his statue was made—with his hand open and outstretched. Many, many years later when his wife died—her statue was made so her hand fits into his. I think that’s pretty neat. Hold the hand of your spouse, your children now—before it’s too late. Know that Jesus always holds your hand. He will make you strong to do everything you ever do in the light of his forgiving love. Amen!

To God alone all glory!