Today’s Scripture

Psalm 50:1-15             Isaiah 66:18-23           Hebrews 12:4-24         Luke 13:22-30

 

The reunion –

            Who came from the farthest place?

            Who is the oldest?

            Who is the youngest?

            Anticipate seeing who?

            Making plans to be there, when, what to wear, provisions…

            Etc.

 

Not a big reunion, but who is far away right now and you are anticipating the next time you get to see him/her/them?

 

Who is nearby and you anticipate seeing them day by day or week by week?

 

Another “dream” reunion:

            In world history (other than Jesus) – what famous person would you like to meet.

 

            In Biblical history (other than Jesus) – what prophet or other Biblical person would you like to meet.

 

            Throughout Isaiah God has spoken his words of prophecy to his people.  They were a disobedient and unfaithful people.  God spoke his displeasure, his warning for them to repent and return to true faith in him.  He gave his prophecy to disband the nation and community they were accustomed to, the exile, and how he would bring them back again.  He made the prophecies we remember so well of a savior from the virgin birth to the bitter sufferings and death to the resurrection again.  God speaks the cycle of your being his people/person, your turn away from him in your sinfulness, his call to you to turn back to him (in repentance), and his restoring you and joining you together with all of his people again.

 

            v. 19:  I will set a sign among them…  That sign is Jesus Christ.  He is the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the father except through him [John 14].  In Luke Jesus tells us entrance into this reunion is only through this narrow door [13:23].  He comforts you stating that those who do enter come from the East, West, North and South, from all over [v. 29].  That goes back to Isaiah’s prophecy that from this sign (of Jesus) those who survive (believers in Christ) will go to all points of the earth [v. 19] taking this sign, God’s saving grace through the cross of Jesus Christ even to the distant islands.  Jesus reminds us of this telling us that his Gospel will be preached to all parts of the world, and then the end will come [Matthew 24;14].  God wants all to be saved and makes sure that this Gospel message is preached everywhere.  He sends you and me out.

 

            ABLAZE is one of our efforts to fulfill God’s command in this regard.  The stated goal of our church body is to reach 100 million people in the next ten years.  Based on God’s word we have identified the “Critical Event” in this process. God has established and ordained that all believers are to witness his words of truth to others.  The “Critical Event” is this, “When one Lutheran Christian gives witness about Jesus of the hope that is within him or her to another person so that person may encounter Christ!  What does this mean?  What does this mean for each one of you?  What does this mean for the one person you bring knowledge of God’s plan for salvation.

 

            We know that faith comes only by hearing the word of Jesus Christ [Romans 10:17].  That is each one’s task in this congregation, each Christian’s task in this world.  To give witness of your saving faith to another. 

 

            Jeremiah cowered at the call to be God’s spokesman to others.  Peter and the disciples all ran and hid.  Moses wanted to merely sit out in the wilderness and watch his father-in-law’s sheep.  Jonah took off on a ship going the opposite direction.  Luther struggled with vocation first, then how to please God second, and finally how to get the truth of the Gospel out in a world and environment that was dead set against this truth of the gospel. 

 

Romans 3:22-24 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

 

Throughout history God’s people wandered away from him, from his commands how to live in this world and his commands to be faithful to him at times when things did not look so good in the short term.  We struggle with that in the short term here at Immanuel too.  We struggle with a small school and escalating expenses.  We struggle with a smaller congregation than was here a couple of decades ago with different demands and expectations of the pastor, elders, and other church workers.  Some of you have come to me and expressed the hope and faith that we are stepping out in this calling God has given us, but it sure must be hard to be a pastor when expenses and offerings do not line up.  There are those who approach me and each other wondering about this.

 

            But do you notice that through history, God always delivers his people.  Yes, his people do some strange things, and some strange things happen with his people along the way.  But at the end of all of these things, the purpose and result are clear.  God is calling his people and sending his people out to declare his love to others, and gathers his people together from all ends of this earth to an eternity with him.  V. 21 – others will be Levites and priests leads us to Peter’s words in his 1^st epistle that we are a “priesthood of believers.”  All have access to the father.  All pray with and for each other.  All witness God’s love to others who do and do not know it alike.

 

            A reunion, yes you will be there, along with Adam and Eve, Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his eleven brothers, Moses and Aaron, Joshua, Salmon and Rahab, Boaz and Ruth, Hannah and Samuel, Jesse, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Jonah, Job, the 13 apostles (don’t forget to count Paul with the 12), the early church father, Luther, your ancestors as they are represented by the flags that surround the nave of the churc, and all who have and will hear and believe that God loves them and that his son, Jesus Christ, is Lord and Savior of all. 

 

            We live as the world did at Isaiah’s time.  We are sinners and do not follow God’s commands and will very well, if even at all.  God sends his words of warning and judgment so we know what the real score is.  God also sends his faithful words of love and forgiveness to all who turn to him.  God sends his words of promise of the Savior and his promise of the reunion of all who believe in him.

 

            A reunion:  Who are you going to have a reunion with this week that gives you the opportunity to share the hope and joy in you through Jesus, your Lord and Savior.  A reunion:  When you have shared that Gospel message, you will know that through the working of the Holy Spirit, that person will come to faith and join in the eternal reunion in heaven for eternity.

 

            And this peace that transcends all of our understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.  {Philippians 4:7]