St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Advent 1, December 1st, 2002
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
3Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4I always thank God for you because of his
grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched
in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge—6because
our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7Therefore you do
not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be
revealed. 8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be
blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God, who has called
you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
Dear Children of our Heavenly Father,
I read a funny little story the other day. A little boy was practicing
baseball in his backyard. He was tossing a ball into the air and trying to hit
it. As he was tossing the ball up in the air to hit it, he was saying,
"I’m the greatest hitter in the world." As he swung at that first
toss he missed it. "Strike One!" he yelled. Not one to give up
easily, he tossed the ball up again saying, "I’m the greatest hitter in
the world!" When he swung, he missed the ball again. "Strike
Two!" he yelled out. After looking at the bat to make sure it wasn’t
broken and adjusting his hands and batting gloves he tossed the ball in the air
a third time. Once again he cried out, "I’m the greatest hitter in the
world!" Just like the last two times, he swung at the ball and missed. The
boy yelled out again. "Strike Three! Wow!" "I’m the greatest
pitcher in the world." The boy was able to find something good in the
middle of something bad.
As we look at our life on this earth, we many times get caught up in trying
to do all the right things and many times forget to look at the one thing
needful. On our own we are like the little boy who keeps missing and keeps
striking out. We may try our hardest to live good lives, but we keep missing
God’s mark of perfection, which means that we cannot earn our way to heaven.
But much like the little boy we can look at all of our strikeouts of sin and
still see something good. We can see that as a forgiven child of God that God
has made us perfect through the blood of Jesus. As Christians we will have a
different outlook on life. We will realize we are sinful, but God leads us to
see that his grace has changed our hearts which allows us to live our lives
knowing God is always there with us. This morning we will use a theme, which
draws us closer to God and his love:
Theme: Lord, Fill Us With Your Grace
Our sermon test for this morning
begins with Paul's greeting and a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s goodness to
come on the Corinthian congregation, "Grace and peace to you from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." It is these same words
that we want to be a greeting for us as we think of all that God means for us.
These words may be familiar words because they are so often used as a greeting
at the beginning of a sermon. This sentence may be short, but these few words
mean so much. Let’s look a little more closely at this greeting. Grace is the
undeserved favor or love of God, which prompted him to choose us in eternity,
redeem us through the blood of Jesus, call us by the gospel, and preserve us in
faith. Grace is the love of God that led him to save us as lost and condemned
creatures. Grace is what led God the Father to send his Son into this world as
the perfect Savior for a people that was lost in their sin. Grace is what led
God to bring true peace into our lives. True peace is that quiet assurance of
God's favor, which is ours since we are justified by faith. True peace is the
knowledge that God has declared us not guilty of all our sins, because Jesus
came and was our Substitute on the cross.. And where does all this grace and
peace come from? It comes from God the Father and is visible to us through the
work of his one and only Son who died on the cross to save the world from its
sins.
And if it is not enough to begin
with this beautiful greeting, Paul goes on to write, "I always thank
God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus." Paul is
grateful for grace. Grace is the foundation of our gifts from God, and many
gifts came from this gift of God’s grace. As we said before, we can see God's
grace through the perfect life and innocent death of his Son. Christ Jesus
lived the perfect life of love, which the law demands for us as sinners. He
offered himself as the unblemished sacrifice for sin and took the punishment of
sin that we deserved . God raised him from the dead because that life and death
satisfied his justice. This grace was preached to the Corinthians. By grace
they believed the message. By grace they have been kept in faith and equipped
for the life of faith. For this grace Paul thanks God.
As we sit here this morning I pray
this very same message. I thank God that his grace has come into your hearts. I
thank God that you trust and believe that Jesus actually is way the truth and
the life. I praise God that through his Law and Gospel he has opened your
hearts to see the wonderful Gift of God’s grace. As a pastor does the work that
his congregation has called him to do, he realizes that he isn’t going about
his work empty handed. God has given a pastor and all Christians the tools of
his Law and Gospel. A pastor is able to present these tools to the people he
meets everyday. And by God’s grace alone, the Holy Sprit works in the hearts of
the people who hear this message. It is the greatest privilege in all the world
to have the opportunity to stand in front of hundreds of people every week and
tell them about God’s grace. It is a privilege to see God’s grace at work in
the hearts and lives of the people in his congregation. It is a privilege for a
pastor to sit down each day and dig deeper and deeper into God’s Law and Gospel
to see God’s grace at work.
But this is not a privilege just
for pastors and teachers. This is a privilege for all people whose hearts are
filled with God’s grace. May we always be filled with joy when we think about
the opportunities that God has given each one of us to see and use his gift of
grace. He allows us to see his grace at work on the pages of Scripture, which
we can read and hear on a regular basis. He allows us to see how God’s grace
has brought salvation to a world full of sin. What a joy to see what God has
given to us as a free gift. But for many of us hearing and reading God’s Word
isn’t seen as a privilege, but more like a chore or an inconvenience. Hearing
and reading God’s gospel on a regular basis is too much work or it isn’t worth
all of the time and effort. How can I fit regular Bible study and Church into a
schedule that is already too full? How am I supposed to keep the kids quiet at
church for a whole hour – plus the time and effort it takes to get the kids
ready for church?. Many think that Adult Bible Class is only for those who are
really "good" Christians. Others think that they already know that
Jesus is their Savior and that is good enough for them. I pray that we never
lose sight of what is important. Jesus and his gospel found in the Bible and in
his sacraments of Baptism and Lord’s Supper are the only true joy that we as
sinners have.
2. Let
us faithfully use his gifts
The other night I was watching a show on the
Discovery Channel where they were showing a man who makes custom made Harley
Davidson motorcycles. Many of the pieces for these custom motorcycles he forms
by hammering on a piece of sheet metal with a mallet and then he forms it the
rest of the way by hand with a special metal press. Most of us wouldn’t begin
to know how to accomplish this, but this person can. As we look in God’s
kingdom we see that God has given each Christian on this earth special
spiritual talents that we are to use in his kingdom. Some of us have gifts in
one area of ministry, while others of us have talents in other areas. God is
asking that in love and thanks to God we use those talents and gifts in a
faithful way as we build up God’s kingdom. The Corinthian believers must have
been blessed in many ways with spiritual gif6s. Paul reminds them, "For
in him you have been enriched in every way-in all your speaking and in all your
knowledge.... Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait
for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." They were not
enriched on their own, because they were such nice Christians. God enriched
them. Their enrichment in all speaking and all knowledge came through God’s
grace and mercy, which is found in the gospel which, is our strong root.
As we personally look at the gifts that God has
given us, we might think that our gifts are not all that important in the big
scheme of things. We might think that life could go on and people wouldn’t even
miss whether we use our gifts or not, but this is not true and this is not
using our gifts in a faithful way. Maybe we haven’t ever really sat down and
figured out what gift or gifts God has given us to use in his kingdom work.
Then we need to pray to God to open our hearts and minds to see the gift or
gifts he has given us.
3. Let
us eagerly wait for
his coming
It is only by God’s grace that we
realize and trust God’s promise to come again and take us to heaven,. That is
why we look to God’s grace and mercy for the strength to stand firm in our
faith until that day comes. Paul reminds us of this, "He will keep you
strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ." When most people think of strength, they think of earthly
strength. Every year they have "The World's Strongest Man"
competition. These men compete against each other in various events. They pull
semi trucks with just their arms. They lifts things that weigh hundreds and
hundreds of pounds. The squat weights near 1000 pounds. Their chests are nearly
60 inches around and their biceps are over 20 inches around, And their thighs
are bigger than most people’s waists, yet we realize that this is only earthly
strength. This is not the kind of preparation we want to undertake to make sure
that our hearts are ready for God’s return. There is no special muscle drink
that we can take to make us stronger, but we can let the gospel work as we let
the grace of God fill our hearts.
God will keep us strong in our
faith. He will give us the gift of perseverance as he preserves us in our faith
"to the end." With this in mind we eagerly wait for this day of his
return. It is on this day that God will say we are blameless. We will be
without sin. Not because we are truly blameless or sinless, but that God only
sees the perfection of Jesus his Son who died for our sins. Do we know when
Jesus is going to return? Certainly not!. But we know that his return is going
to happen and we can be ready as our faithful and gracious God showers his love
on us through his gospel message of Jesus our Savior. Amen