[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE FOURTH SUNDAY after EPIPHANY 01 February 2009 "The Final Word" Mark 1:21-28 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

We like to get "the last word" into any disputed discussion. There are lots of jokes about husbands and wives getting "the last word" in a dispute. With parents, it might be, "Because I said so." There are times when that is entirely valid. Perhaps it is because we think that getting the last word settles it, that our word should end all further discussion. Yet, confusion exists when it comes to religious questions. For many, such questions never have an end point and they despise those who find one. Finally, most religions do have a final word. The problem is that such words are always wrong. Today's Holy Gospel presents Jesus as "The Final Word" from God.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews begins his letter by focusing upon Jesus as God's final Word to the world. He writes: [Heb. 1.1-2].

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." (Hebrews 1:1-2, ESV)

In our OT reading God promised through Moses that he would send such a final Word to the world. God the Father said of this one:

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers-it is to him you shall listen-" (Deuteronomy 18:15, ESV)

"This is my beloved Son; listen to him." (Mark 9:7, ESV)

This final Word from God is God himself in human flesh and blood, our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the Evangelist John specifically calls him that in the prolog of his Gospel:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." . . ."And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-2, 14, ESV)

As our Lord Jesus began his earthly ministry he confronted his enemies, namely Satan and his demons. The demon who confronted Jesus knew exactly who Jesus was, calling him "the Holy One of God," yet Jesus does not let him continue his identification. But Jesus commands him to come out of the possessed man, and the demon must obey because Jesus is "The Final Word" from God. There is no debate. Jesus has spoken and it is so.

The people who witnessed all this were amazed, as well they should have been! Never before had anyone taught with such authority, or power [exousia, as the Greek has it]. Never before had men cast out demons by a word. Whenever the rabbis taught, they always quoted other rabbis. To be an authority, one must have authorities agree with him. In academic circles we must cite our authorities in writing papers and theses. None of us by himself can claim that kind of final word in what we say and do, not even pastors! We quote the authority of the Word of God.

There is no higher Word from God than Jesus Christ, yet that has not stopped Satan from trying to get in the last word, a lying word meant to deceive and destroy. Islam clearly proclaims that God's last word comes through the prophet Mohammad. He supersedes Jesus, has a higher authority than Jesus, even though Jesus is the Son of God, which Islam denies. While Jesus is said to be revered in Islam, his word, his person, does not have the final word. Instead of the final word being grace and truth, Islam gives us the final word of law and lies. It portrays the way to God as slavish obedience to regulations that are clearly unable to be kept by human beings because man's heart is not right. And Muslims are not the only ones to substitute God's Final Word for another word. Mormons have added what they call "another testament," or word, from God to the world. This additional book goes beyond what God has already said in his Word, Jesus Christ. Mormonism, like Islam, substitutes the law for grace and makes man a slave to legalism to gain his salvation. Both purport to be the final word.

But we are not yet done with those who want to get in the final word. Our Lutheran Confessions call those who refuse to be bound to the Bible as the final authoritative Word from God "enthusiasts," that is, people who substitute their own feelings and thoughts for God's clear words. They substitute private revelations [messages] from God for the plain words of Scripture. Their visions trump the Word of God.

Most denominations who call themselves Christian claim to base their teachings on the Bible. Error always does. Instead of a firm, "Thus says the Lord," we get "Well, I think . . ." In our Post-Modern age there is no absolute truth, no final word, just the thoughts of people who say one thing today and another thing tomorrow. When they come to such subjects as the ordination of women, homosexuality, sexual relations outside of marriage, they reject the clear Word of God which speaks of these matters. They attack those who stand by what the Scriptures say, claiming that such positions don't square up with the thinking in our day, and that would be true. Satan's old query, "Did God really say?" is answered by them, "Well, no, God really didn't mean that. He means what I mean." They want to have the final word over God himself.

All of these groups seek to have the final word in matters pertaining to salvation. Most of them believe that they have gotten the final word, but they haven't. Why should you care what such persons think? It matters only what God has said! His Word is final! Jesus Christ is God's final Word to the world. You should listen to no other.

Jesus is "The Final Word" from God because only he has authority, or power, over sin, death, and hell. Examine Islam, Mormonism, or any of the other so-called final words and you will find little, if anything, about grace and forgiveness. They do not tell you what God has done for your salvation in his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, but what you must do to earn it. It is Satan's oldest lie, and sin-infected people keep falling for it because the Old Adam loves to believe that he can help himself.

Only Jesus is "The Final Word" from God because only Jesus atoned for your sins by his perfect life, suffering, and death. He is the One sent from the Father to do what no human being could ever do, that is, obey the Law of God as God demands it be obeyed. He shouldered the entire burden of this world's sin and guilt and carried it in his own body to the cross where he made an end of it. Because of what Jesus has done, God deals with you in grace and mercy, not in law and fear.

All must obey this Final Word from God, but his call is one of love, mercy, and grace. He invites all to come to him for rest, not further enslavement to works. Not even those religions which add works to grace get it right. Those who add to God's Word do not make God's Word more effective, but rather make it of no effect because they contradict what God has spoken in his Son, Jesus Christ.

After Jesus rose from the dead, as he ascended to the right hand of the Father, he spoke to his apostles,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20, ESV)

Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. He has "The Final Word." All that he has accomplished for you he has placed in Word and Sacrament. His final word has not gone away because it is still present and active in the preaching of the Word and in the proper administration of the Sacraments.

"The Final Word" from God, which is Christ Jesus himself, comes to you every Divine Service. When Jesus says through the pastor, "I forgive you your sins [formula of Absolution], it is God's final Word. When he pours water on the baptismal candidate "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," that person's sins are really forgiven and Satan must leave that person because Christ has claimed him as his own. It is God's Final Word. When the pastor distributes Christ's body and blood and says, "Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins," know that this is God's Final Word about your sins. Your sins are put away, forgotten by God, no longer remembered, because Christ has put them away in his own death and resurrection. Haunting sins are no more because God has spoken his Final Word in Christ.

No human being can ever have "The Final Word" in such things because our Lord Jesus Christ is the last word. He is the last word, the Word which no human being, no devil from hell, can ever successfully contradict. Jesus Christ and his Word, the Holy Scriptures, can be trusted in all ways. He never lies, never makes a mistake, never deceives. Jesus is himself "The Final Word" from God!