[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost The Sesquicentennial of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church 29 June 2008 "For the Love of God" Matthew 10:34-42 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

These words of Jesus in today's Holy Gospel are hard words for us to hear. Nowhere else does Jesus speak so plainly about a Christian's life than here. Most are convinced that one's religion should bring peace and comfort, but Jesus warns that he has brought a sword to those who confess him. Instead of a life of ease one may find the cross. Even the members of one's own family may turn on such a person, and we know that to be true. One must make a choice in such circumstances. If the members of one's family do not confess Christ then one must decide which is more important: having Christ and eternal life or having an earthly peace which will change into an eternal hell.

Sts. Peter and Paul were constantly dogged by those who hated what they preached. Both Apostles ended up being executed by those who hate Christ, Peter being crucified upside down and Paul being beheaded at the directive of the Roman government. How is it that these men, as well as all the rest of the Apostles, could preach about Christ and suffer such horrible things for doing it? There can be only one answer: they loved God more than their own lives. That's really the focus of today's Gospel reading. "For the Love of God" is a colloquial expression that seldom means what it says. Most people use it as an expletive to express their frustration with somebody else, but it describes perfectly why the Christian is willing to suffer as he does. It also describes why Christians sacrifice as they do, sometimes with their lives, because they love God more.

First of all, Christianity is the only religion that brings true peace. All others are frauds because they hate Christ, and to hate Christ is to hate God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has established true peace with God through his innocent suffering and death. His death is our peace. He himself is our peace. That is what the angels proclaimed when Christ was born, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (Luke 2:14, ESV) The peace of God has to do with the end of a conflict, the conflict that began when Adam and Eve fell into sin. The work of Christ restored that peace by means of his suffering and death. It was not something that man did but something that God did. This is how the Apostle says it in writing to the Romans:

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1, ESV)

When our Lord says that he came to bring a sword, he meant that he creates a division among people. The sword that he talks about is more like a knife, much like the way a surgeon's knife cuts away unhealthy tissue from the body. St. John Chrysostom, one of the ancient church fathers, said it a bit differently: "Because this more than anything is peace: when the disease is removed. This is peace: when the cancer is cut away. Only with such radical surgery is it possible for heaven to be reunited to earth" [Ibid. p. 210. Emphasis mine]. Once sin is removed God has peace with man.

But Satan does not acquiesce to God's peace. Instead, he steps up his hatred and hostility, stirring up many people who are still in rebellion against God. They want nothing to do with God's peace in Christ. They work at attacking those who have God's peace, especially those who proclaim it.

Quite frankly, the world hates us. One hears it again and again if one pays attention, and one hears it not only from those who are violently opposed to Christianity and who attempt to stamp it out through force, but also from those who express with hateful, condemnatory language. The sinful world wants none of this peace with God because it refuses to repent. These people refuse to admit their sin and rebellion against God. Thus, they forfeit the peace won by Christ.

"For the Love of God" is the only way one can explain those who can leave their families for the sake of Christ. Loyalty to Christ must take precedence over even the most fundamental of all human relationships. Jesus could not say it more clearly than he does here:

"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:37, ESV)

Pastors, too, need to hear these words of Jesus. Today you will hear a brief history of this congregation at 2:00 PM. One of the things that stands out is that Immanuel has always been willing to suffer for the sake of pure doctrine and practice even if it meant that people, some of them prominent, left the congregation. Mostly it happened because some loved the earthly associations of others in lodges more than they loved Christ. Those human relationships became more important than confessing Christ to the world. The confession that Immanuel has made was always "For the Love of God."

It isn't that we trumpet our purity and accomplishments today because it really hasn't been us but the Holy Spirit enabling us to make that confession in the face of whatever opposition we have faced. "By the grace of God" is the way we must describe it. "Christ in us" is another way of saying it. Not because of ourselves have we come to this day, but because of God and his grace operating in Word and Sacrament.

The love of God works itself out in the Christian's life. In particular today we are celebrating our 150th anniversary. In this Divine Service this morning we have rededicated our renovated sanctuary to the glory of God. We have also dedicated some new items to be used in the Divine Service. Our members have sacrificed to make it so and will continue to do so. How does one explain it? How does one explain how a congregation goes about raising such funds without strong-arming her members? Other churches require members to present their 1040 tax forms in requirement of the tithe. We do no such thing. Why not? It is easy. "For the Love of God." We cannot compel you to give. Only God can do that, and that must come by means of love. God must move your heart to give. His love must compel you.

This is what our Lord says in the second half of the Holy Gospel. When one receives Christ by faith one receives others whom Christ sends. One delights to support the Gospel.

"The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward." (Matthew 10:41-42, ESV)

Those who believe the word spoken by those sent by Christ will not lose their reward on the last day, even if they lose all earthly relationships and goods. That reward centers in the resurrection to eternal life. It lies in what our Lord promises to those who are joined to him in Holy Baptism. It promises you eternal life in his nearer presence around his throne in everlasting glory.

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39, ESV) The one who loses his life for Christ has true peace, the peace that passes all understanding [Philippians 4.7]. "For the Love of God" the Christian is willing to sacrifice all that he has in order to have Christ and his eternal peace.