I. Words that Lifted Up Paul and Silas
II. Words that Retrieved the Jailer from Despair

The First Sunday After The Epiphany

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I.  A Little While and You Won’t See Him
II. A Little While and You Will See Him

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Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. …  And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.

Assayas: I’d be interested to hear that.

Bono: That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge…It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.

Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there’s a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let’s face it, you’re not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled … It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven

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What about our 401k, IRA, pension, or retirement?

Sometimes life is like a “thriller” of a novel where we keep turning the page to see how our hero deals with adversity.  But in life we can’t turn the pages any faster than one day at a time.

As we face the coming pages of our lives, though, we can do it with hope.  Paul writes, Romans 5:3-5 “…we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”   We have hope for the pages to come because of the strength and deliverance God has given us in the past, and because of the assurance of God’s love that the Holy Spirit continually pours out in our hearts through the means of Grace, the gospel in word and sacrament.

Even our Christian calendar teaches us this in these Sundays before Lent.  “SEPTUAGESIMA” is a real mouthful.  It is the name given to the first Sunday leading up to the penitential season focusing on the suffering and death of our Savior.  But notice, “Septuagesima” has to do with “70,” because it is about 70 days before Easter.

It isn’t so many days before Lent, or so many days before the crucifixion.  Rather as Christians we look forward to the ultimate victory that we have in Christ over sin, death, and hell.  We start out this season of the year knowing “how the book turns out.”  We start out Lent counting the days until the resurrection!

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I.  Words We Need
II.  Words of Hope
III. Words of Triumph

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THE CHRISTIAN MATURING IN THE CHURCH

I The Promise Has Always Been The Only Hope

II The Law Was Given To Bring Us To The Promise

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THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD

THE GLORIOUS HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD

I.  You have Hope

III. Be Ready To Tell Why

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I. There Is Suffering because There Is Salvation

II. All Creation Waits for It

III. We Live in This Hope- And Celebrate the Freedom to Proclaim It 

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Finding that shoulder is the easy part, actually. When we need to cry, there is usually a shoulder nearby. Our spouse. A parent. A good friend. What is the hard part then? Finding someone who can make the tears stop. There is really only one who qualifies. That someone is Jesus! He gives us a shoulder to cry on, but he does much more. He has the power to dry our tears and give us hope.

We learn this from Jesus’ ministry, on the day when He entered a town called Nain. As he approached the town a dead person was being carried out, the only son of a widow. She was crying. Though a crowd was around her—among them friends—no one in that crowd had power to stop her tears. Then Jesus went to her and said, “Don’t cry.”

When we were young, our moms and dads often told us, “Don’t cry.” Maybe it was over a scraped knee. But their loving words didn’t make the pain in our knee go away. This widow was suffering from a bigger wound. And Jesus too said, “Don’t cry.” But when it is Jesus saying, “Don’t cry,” that makes all the difference!

You see, Jesus came into the world to know pain and death. Jesus would soon know the worst pain ever suffered: the pain of his cross, where he would suffer hell for the sins of all. Then he would endure death. His body would be laid in a tomb. Truth is, this is the death we all deserve because of our sins—even the dead son of the widow deserved it. But Jesus wouldn’t remain in the tomb. He would rise again to life! Death never had any power over him. So when Jesus went to the widow’s son to comfort her, he went to her with power over death. After comforting the woman with the words, “Don’t cry,” he then spoke words of life to her son. “Young man, I say to you, get up!” And he did! Jesus had given him the gift of life!

While we can’t expect every pain to be healed so dramatically, there is always HOPE in Jesus! His cross tells us that all of our many sins are forgiven! The empty tomb tells us there is eternal life for every sinner who believes in him! This is the one and only “tear-drying” hope! Thank you, Jesus!

“When the town was with her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
Luke 7:13

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