..per Mission.. National Day of Thanksgiving, 27 November - TopicsExpress



          

..per Mission.. National Day of Thanksgiving, 27 November 2014, Concordia Lutheran Mission, Terrebonne, Oregon. “On Thanksgiving, Christians are Grateful for the Cornucopia of the Gospel.” Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:4. Introduction. God desires all men to be saved. What does that mean? Amongst other things it tell us that the world order will be preserved throughout all the generations of mankind until the end of the age. How so? The all men that God desires to save includes men to come in the future all the way to the end of the age. For God to extend His Gracious Promise of Salvation in the Gospel means God will not end this world order until His Gracious Work of Salvation for all men is completed. What is the Gospel, God’s Means of Salvation? God’s Means of Salvation is God’s Word and Sacraments because they forgive sins and save. Hence, God’s Word and Sacraments keep the world turning, the sun rising and the sun setting, sends the rains, the fruits of the harvest, and all the blessings of this life. If we can’t appreciate the Word and Sacraments for the Benefit of Giving Life Eternal, then perhaps we can appreciate them for delivering to us the bounty of this current life. Of course, however, the Greatest Gift of the Gospel is the Absolution of all sins for Christ’s Sake, salvation, and the life eternal and its bounties. On Thanksgiving, Christians are grateful for God’s Horn of Plenty, the Cornucopia of His Word and Sacraments, the Gospel. I. The World Continues to Turn because of the Gospel. A. The world did not come to a screeching halt in the Garden of Eden after Adam’s sin because of the Gospel. This world should have been so short-lived that it should never have survived to the point of our assembling here in this Matins Service on this Thanksgiving Day because of the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, Adam transgressed God’s Word and should have perished immediately. With his perishing, the entire human race would come to an end. And if there be no human race, what use would be there for the globe to keep turning without the crown of creation, man? There would be no use. The world would have come to a screeching halt. But the world did not come to a screeching halt, but kept on turning. What caused the world to keep turning? The Gospel caused the world to keep turning. Moses writes: And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? Here God spills the beans. Here God already reveals His Gracious Approach in Christ to fallen man. For God knows all things, including Adam’s location. Why would God ask Adam where He is? He does so to reveal to Adam that God doesn’t find Him present with Him as Adam was in the past, naturally, as a creature of God would naturally gravitate and cling to His Creator. God could have slam dunked Adam – as He did Satan – with the consequences of his sin, but rather He approaches Adam ever so gently, calling out to him. Luther writes: However, just as the end of this affair shows the very great kindness and mercy of God toward man (inasmuch as He calls him back for the remission of his sins and for eternal life through the Seed who was to come), so also the beginnings of this affair, if we evaluate them properly, are more lenient than what Adam deserved. There is not that terrible sight as on Mt. Sinai, where trumpet blasts were mingled with flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. But God comes in a very soft breeze to indicate that the reprimand will be fatherly. He does not drive Adam away from Himself because of his sin, but He calls him and calls him back from his sin. Yet Adam does not understand or see this fatherly concern, since he is overwhelmed by his sin and terror. He does not notice that God deals far differently with the serpent. He does not call the serpent. Nor – in order this way to call it to repentance – does he ask the serpent about the sin that has been committed. But He condemns it immediately. This shows that even then Christ, our Deliverer, had placed Himself between God and man as a Mediator. It is a very great measure of grace that after Adam’s sin God does not remain silent but speaks, and in many words indeed, in order to show signs of His fatherly disposition. With the serpent everything is done differently. And so, although the promise concerning Christ is not yet there, it is already noticeable in the thought and counsel of God. The Counsel of God revealed shortly thereafter is that God would become man and defeat Satan and death in behalf of all men. Moses writes: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Here God declares Eve righteous through her Seed, namely, through the Messiah, because He places enmity between Eve and the devil. Eve now is declared at war with the devil which means she has the Righteousness of God. This Righteousness of God comes through Eve’s Child, the Messiah, because He crushes the serpent’s head. Christ crushed the serpent’s head by suffering for the sins of Eve and the sins of all men. The Apostle. St. John writes: Jesus answered and said, ... Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. That Christ suffers and dies for the sins of all men Moses indicates when he writes that the serpent would “bruise His heel”. But, while a blow to the head is fatal, the blow to the heal is not. Consequently, Christ rose from the dead on the Third Day. Through this Suffering, Christ crushed the head of the serpent, destroying his work which was to lead into sin and death. Luther writes: Thus the sun of comfort, previously enveloped by black clouds, rises above the clouds and with its most welcome light shines on their frightened hearts. For Adam and Eve not only do not hear themselves cursed like the serpent; but they even hear themselves drawn up, as it were, in battle line against their condemned enemy, and this with the hope of help from the Son of God, the Seed of the woman. Forgiveness of sins and full reception into grace are here pointed out to Adam and Eve. Their guilt has been forgiven; they have been won back from death and have already been set free from hell and from those fears by which they were all but slain when God appeared. The reason the world kept on turning after the fall of Adam was the Gospel. B. God desires to Save all Men through the Gospel. Even before God the Apostle St. Paul wrote that God desires to save all men, Adam already taught us that. Moses writes: And Adam called his wife name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Why would Adam call Eve the mother of all living? Shouldn’t he instead call her the mother of all doomed because of sin? Adam called Eve that because of the Promise of the Gospel. Luther writes: The name which Adam gives his wife is a very pleasing and delightful name. For what is more precious, better, or more delightful than life? ... Moreover, Adam adds the reason: “Because she is the mother of all living.” It is clear from this passage that after Adam had received the Holy Spirit, he had become marvelously enlightened, and that he believed and also understood the saying concerning the woman’s Seed who would crush the head of the serpent. We already see in Adam and Eve what the Apostle St. Paul teaches in today’s epistle, namely, that God desires the salvation of all men. II. The Word and the Sacraments, i.e., the Gospel, is the Cornucopia of Blessings Eternal and Temporal. A. The Word and Sacraments, i.e., the Gospel, deliver temporal blessings unto the end of the age. Because God desires the salvation of all men, the world will continue in its normal pattern of life until the last man comes to saving faith. Jesus says: But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know now what hour your Lord doth come. The Salvation of all men is the Gospel, God’s Word and Sacraments. The Apostle St. Paul writes: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Likewise, we find this Saving Righteousness of God in Holy Baptism. The Apostle St. Peter writes: The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ ... . Also in the Lord’s Supper we find the Saving Righteousness of God. The Apostle St. Matthew writes: And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. God’s Word and Sacraments are the Means through which God saves men. God’s Word and Sacraments, therefore, are what keep the world turning and provide us our daily bread and the bounties of this life. Our daily bread consists of everything to supply our bodily needs. In catechism we learned: Give us this day our daily bread. What does this mean? God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What is meant by daily bread? Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and a faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. Because God desires all men to be saved through His Word and Sacraments, the Gospel, including men in the future and to the end of time, God keeps the world turning and its bounty issuing to us. B. God’s Word and Sacraments, the Gospel, Give Life Eternal and all the blessing that flow form that. More importantly, obviously, God’s Word and Sacraments give to us life eternal. The Apostle St. John writes: Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. From life eternal in Christ, issues not only life, but bounty of treasures stretching into eternity. Jesus says: I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures. The Lutheran Church confesses on the bounty of the Gospel: For here He offers to us the entire treasure which He has brought for us from heaven, and to which He invites us also in other places with the greatest kindness, as when He says in St. Matthew 11, 28: Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ... We must never regard the Sacrament as something injurious from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy imparting salvation and comfort, which will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body also is relieved. Conclusion. The Cornucopia, i.e. the Horn of Plenty, on Thanksgiving is God’s Word and Sacraments, i.e., the Gospel. The Word and the Sacraments are a cornucopia of earthly blessings because God only keeps the world turning because He desires to save all men to the end of time through the Gospel, i.e., God’s Word and Sacraments. Finally, the Gospel, more importantly, is the Cornucopia of life eternal. From the Gospel issues salvation and life eternal and with, life eternal, the its eternal bounty with stretching into eternity. Amen.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 03:05:57 +0000

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