The Lutheran Hour
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"Don’t Take My Word for It"
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Text: 1 Thessalonians 2:13
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! And that is God’s own truth.
It was a good number of years now, probably a dozen or so, back when I was still in the parish, that we came to that time in the spring when we had to set our clocks forward. You know, spring forward, fall back. As the resetting of the clocks took place on Saturday night, and I didn’t want any of my people to miss church, the Sunday before I warned everybody… “Remember, next Saturday you have to set your clocks forward. Don’t set them back.” I could see people were getting their coats on and most weren’t paying attention. That’s why I said it again, “Did everybody get that… next Saturday you’re going to do what?” Three or four out of the 400 in attendance at that service sort of muttered, “Set our clocks forward.” “Good, I added, I just wanted to make sure that you knew that next Saturday you are going to set your clocks forward.”
I slept well that week. I’d done a good job. Sunday came. We had church. It was a fine attendance. After I said “good-by” at the door, I and my family went home. We had dinner. We sat down to watch the football game. At 1:05 there was a knock on my door. There stood one of the congregation’s faithful families… a father, a mother, two young girls. Everybody was obviously dressed up to go to church. Without a moment’s hesitation, the father asked, “Pastor why isn’t anybody here for 11:00 church? We set our clocks back an hour just like you told us to do.” It was about the closest I ever came to leaving the ministry. The family got invited in, we had a nice visit, they went home and I kept my promise, at least until now, that I would never tell anybody.
Now the reason I tell you that story is because I’ve found that people don’t generally pay good attention, and sometimes they hear the exact opposite of what you’re trying to get across. I don’t want that today. What I would like is for you to listen. Don’t wander. Listen. Now, do you know what you’re supposed to do? Right! You’re supposed to listen.
OK. Knowing that you’re listening and going to pay attention, I have to tell you that three weeks ago I got five e-mails from people who were telling me that Pepsi was going to come out with a new can… a patriotic can… except when it came to the Pledge of Allegiance, Pepsi was going to leave off the words, “under God.” Terrible? You bet… if it were true… and here’s the part I want you to know… it isn’t true. Pepsi is a fine product. They have never put out such a can; even more they have no plan to put out such a can. Never. The e-mails were wrong. But it’s cost Pepsi a lot of time and money to try to stamp out that rumor. False stories like that travel fast, and they die hard. So, you can see why I wanted you to listen closely. I don’t want you to call up your friends and say, “Do you know what I heard Pastor Klaus say on The Lutheran Hour today?”
A great many companies deal with rumors on a regular basis. Last week I got six e-mails talking about how Starbucks doesn’t support our troops in Iraq and won’t help them out with free coffee. Well, it’s not true. A lot of Starbucks employees have been sending free coffee to our soldiers. I’ve gotten an e-mail that says the ACLU has filed a petition to stop Marines from praying. It’s not true. The American Civil Liberties Union says, “It just ain’t so. ” Every year the Post Office is deluged with people who’ve heard that there won’t be any more Black Heritage stamps. Every year the Post Office denies the rumor, but the rumor won’t go away. Then there’s the auto parts store that people say will fire any employee who’s called into the military. It’s not true. None of those stories are true. Now, if you’ve heard me, I’ve helped those companies. If you haven’t-I’m in trouble.
Having felt sorry for those companies, I spent some time this week wondering, “Why do people believe those stories… and why do those falsehoods flow so freely?” There are a number of answers. Partly, it’s our fault that stories like these are so readily accepted. “After all,” we think to ourselves, “they just might be true. ” Besides, it gives us something to talk about. It’s fun to know some scandal about a famous celebrity or a giant business. It’s fun to believe these tales because our sinful human nature wants to believe the worst about everybody. Amazingly, we’re surprised, shocked, mortified that anyone would speak evil of us. “How dare they! They should know us… they should believe in us… trust us. ” That’s the way we feel, even if we generally don’t accord the same courtesy to others.
But there’s another reason that gossip gets around so fast. It’s because years of experience have taught us not to believe, really believe or trust anybody. “If a deal seems too good to be true… it probably is.” We’ve been hoodwinked and hornswoggled so often by so many people that it’s hard to trust anyone. We know that the products don’t generally live up to all their advertised promises. We know when it says, “money cheerfully refunded” it won’t be; when it says, “no questions asked” they will be. We know that there is small print, fine print, and hidden clauses. If you doubt what I’m saying, let me ask: How many times have you turned to somebody and said, with a mixture of shock and surprise, “Hey, can you believe it… the product did what they said it would! ” Amazing. Yes, that’s why we don’t believe.
And we don’t have to point our fingers to the corporate world. You fathers, hold up your rusty saw and hammer and ask the children, “Who left these out in the rain?” The violent protests, “Not me,” “I didn’t do it,” will be so strong, so vehement that you will come to believe that the saw and hammer slithered their way out of your toolbox into the middle of the backyard all by themselves. The blatant lies the children tell become smoother, shinier, more creative, and cautious as they get older. “Where were you last night?” a parent asks. “Nowhere,” comes the reply. “What time did you get in?” “I didn’t look.” “Who were you with?” “Oh, you know.” “I forgot” is the explanation why the garbage still sits in the can. No matter you reminded the designated dumper to take it out five times in the last 15 minutes. Everybody puts a spin on their sin. As a result nobody ever does anything wrong. We’ve been lied to so many times. We’ve been lied to and we don’t want to get hurt again. That’s why we don’t trust.
Knowing how reluctant you are to trust anything, I would like to have you listen to a verse from the Bible. Just a single verse. That one verse is taken from a letter written by a man of the Lord named Paul. This was the first letter he wrote to the church in the Grecian city of Thessalonica. He wrote: “We also thank God continually because, when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is at work in you who believe.” That’s it. He thanked God because they believed him when he told them about God and His love.
Now, don’t for a moment think that these people in Thessalonica were a bunch of backwoods bumpkins who didn’t know up from down. These people lived in a sophisticated city, a trading town, an ancient Chicago, a center of commerce. Thessalonica was allowed to mint its own money; it had played its cards so well that the Romans didn’t even bother to position a garrison there to keep control. These Thessalonians were wheeler-dealers. They didn’t take wooden nickels nor did they buy pigs in a poke. Still, they believed Paul when he came and told them about God and His love. Why?Now, before I answer your “why” question, maybe I ought to tell you “what” it was that these people of Thessalonica believed. Now I don’t know everything Paul told them, but, wherever he went, his message was pretty straightforward. Paul would have started with: “There is a God. ” That didn’t surprise his audience. The Greeks had more gods than they knew what to do with. In Athens they even erected some altars to “unknown gods,” just in case they had missed somebody. Well, Paul told them there was a God-a Triune God, a God who made everything in the universe and had made it perfectly. That wasn’t too hard for the Greeks to believe. They had taken a good look at the universe and had come to the conclusion that the complexity and orderliness of the things they saw demanded a powerful, organized creator.
Then Paul would have told them that this Triune God-three persons in one divine being-was not especially pleased with humanity in general and them in particular. Paul would have explained how the race had sinned, had disobeyed God’s commands, and brought discord and chaos into the world. The Greeks wouldn’t have put up a fight on that. They understood chaos. Indeed, chaos is a Greek word. That’s when Paul would have gotten serious. He would have told them that they were doomed, condemned, lost. He would have told them that there was nothing they could do to patch up the giant rift, bridge the great gulf that separated them from God. Paul would have told them-like Christ’s representatives in every century have told their listeners-the wages of sin is death.
Now you may think the idea of sin and punishment caused the Greeks some problems. I know it did for some, but others nodded their heads in agreement. The honest ones would have nodded their heads. That’s because honest people know they’ve done things wrong. Honest people have a conscience. Honest people still hear that inner voice which tells them that they’ve messed up and a price has to be paid to make things better. In another city, Rome, Paul would have said that humans have the law of God written inside them, and when they break that law their conscience accuses them (Romans 2:14). Do you know what I mean when I talk about conscience? You’ve got one. Think about it. You walk around with guilt… guilt over things you’ve done wrong or things you should have done, but didn’t. If you’re being honest, you know what I’m saying is true. You’ve heard that voice. You’ve done wrong. You will be punished. You know it.
Well some of those Greeks knew it, too. That’s why they kept listening when Paul shared the story of Jesus. He would have told them that God, knowing humanity couldn’t make things better on their own, decided to make things better on His own. He made a promise to send His Son into the world to be our Savior. That idea would have made the Greeks take notice. The Greeks had a lot of gods, even as our world has a lot of false gods, but no other god did what the Triune God did. No other God in any culture sent His Son to earth to become a man so that He could take humanity’s place.
That’s what Saint Paul told them. That’s what I’m telling you. God’s Son was born in Bethlehem and lived His entire life without committing a sin. That’s right. His small conscience voice never went off-it never accused Him. He did all things well. Jesus lived His life for us and did what we could not-He fulfilled all the laws of God that we had broken. Naturally, the Greeks, at least the honest ones, would have wanted to thank Jesus for what He had done for them. “That,” Paul would have told them, “is not possible. At least not face-to-face.” That’s when Paul would have told them that Jesus, rather than being applauded and appreciated, rather than being welcomed and worshipped, was falsely accused of crimes, was convicted on trumped-up charges, and was crucified outside the city walls of Jerusalem. That news would have saddened Paul’s listeners. They knew that when you were dead, you’re dead. Nothing more can be done.
“Not so,” Paul would have said. “Jesus, rather than staying dead, came back to life on the third day.” And that would have been just about the strangest thing the Greeks had ever heard. Do not think for a moment that they just swallowed the concept of the resurrection without a question. In any culture, in any century, on any continent, the idea of someone defeating death is unbelievable. The Greeks would have wanted to know what you want to know… “Paul, how can we be sure that what you are saying is true?” It’s a legitimate question. It’s an important question.
You see, everything that Paul was saying rises or falls on the basis of Jesus’ resurrection. It is either/or. There are no other options. Either Jesus was the Son of God, or He was not. Either Jesus fulfilled the law for us, or He did not. Either Jesus died in our place to save our souls from death and damnation, or He did not. Either Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, or He did not. It was that simple. And for those of you who are listening today… it is still that simple. Either Jesus is God’s Son who gave Himself to rescue you, or He is not. If all this is true, you should believe on Him. Believe, because, if you don’t, you’re not making it into heaven. When you die, it is either heaven, or it is hell. “So, Paul, how can you back up what you’re saying?” That is what the skeptics of Thessalonica would have wanted to know. It’s what you should want to know. How can you know… how can you believe? Well, don’t take my word for it. Just take a look at the facts. What facts? These facts:
Even though Jesus’ grave was guarded; even though His tomb was sealed, Jesus’ body was never brought forward. It would have answered a lot of questions if it had been. Wait, it gets better. None of Jesus’ enemies ever claimed: “We moved the body.” or “We had it, but we misplaced it.” Nobody ever went public and said; “We burned His corpse so as to stop Him from becoming a martyr.”
Not convinced? That’s OK. There’s more. A living Jesus showed Himself. Not once, not twice, but a great many times. “Maybe the people who claimed to have seen Him had hallucinations,” you say. Well, maybe… but if so, their hallucination allowed them to touch Him, eat with Him, walk with Him; they felt His breath. That’s the kind of hallucination that I would call alive.
Wait… there’s still more. Jesus’ disciples who had all been pretty cowardly during His suffering and death became powerful proclaimers of salvation which God gives to all who, with repentant hearts believe. “Big deal,” I can hear you say. “Talk is cheap.” I agree. Talk is cheap. But these men were so convinced that Jesus was alive that they were willing to die rather than deny what they had seen. “Every cause produces martyrs,” you reply. I agree to that as well. But not martyrs who are willing to be skinned alive. Somebody might die to keep a lie alive, but I don’t know anybody who is willing to be crucified, or skinned alive, or beaten to death for a lie. No, not when a little, “I made it all up,” would get him off the hook.
2,000 years ago Paul would have kept explaining the perfection of the Savior’s sacrifice. He would have kept explaining. I would too, if I had more time. All I can say is that some of these sophisticated Greeks believed in Jesus as their Savior. When their time of persecution came, they kept on believing. They were hurt, they were tortured, they were killed; but they kept on believing. They believed not in the words of Paul the wandering witness. No, they believed that this story was God’s story, His gracious story of love. They believed that this story-Jesus’ story of substitution- was what had saved them. And it did. Even as it continues to save, it will save you… if you believe in Jesus as your Savior.
Let me finish with a story. I think I’ve told it before, but I couldn’t resist. It’s so fitting. Years ago in Boston, a minister noticed a group of boys standing around a small stray dog. “What are you doing, boys? ” “Telling lies, ” said one of the boys. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets the dog. ” “Why, when I was your age, ” the shocked minister said, “I never ever thought of telling a lie. ” The boys looked at one another, a little crestfallen. Finally one of them shrugged and said, “I guess the preacher wins the dog. ” Well, I like dogs, but there are no lies in today’s message. You can believe it for what it is: God’s Word that gives eternal life. If you’d like to know more about this Savior, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions and Answers) for October 23, 2005
The Rest of the Story: “God is in Control”ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus is back with more statements about God that are true, but do not necessarily tell the entire story. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Hi, Mark. And what is the partial true idea we’re looking at today?
ANNOUNCER: It’s a simple one, and it’s one you wouldn’t think would cause all that much trouble. The statement is: “God is in control.”
KLAUS: I’ve heard a lot of people say that.
ANNOUNCER: So have I. And I wonder how that statement could lead to some misunderstandings about God.
KLAUS: What do you think?
ANNOUNCER: Well, first off, God is in control. We all have to admit that.
KLAUS: By virtue of the fact that He is God, most certainly. But also by virtue of the fact that He is omnipotent, that is all powerful. He can do anything.
ANNOUNCER: And someone who can do anything ought to be in control, don’t you think?
KLAUS: So what is the problem?
ANNOUNCER: Some people would say, “If God is in control, why doesn’t He just put a stop to all of the bad stuff that’s going on in the world? ” You know, “Why do bad things happen to good people? ” that argument. If God is in control, that shouldn’t happen, should it?
ANNOUNCER: I understand. I do think there is an answer to that, Mark. The Bible tells us that this world has been totally corrupted by sin. The perfection that identified God’s creation was destroyed when our first ancestors disobeyed His will, and threw off His rule. Since then, bad things happen to seemingly good people, although we are all sinners.
Now, God does have the absolute power necessary to straighten things out. There is no question about that. Indeed, after Judgment Day, there will be a general straightening out of things. God will bring into heavenly happiness all who have faith in Jesus as their Savior. In the new heaven and earth-the restored Creation-there will be no more tears, pain, or bad things.
But the point is this: even though God has the power to change things, He is also a God of order. To Adam and Eve, He said you can follow Me and live in a perfect world, or you can reject Me and have an imperfect world. Humanity chose rebellion and imperfection, and God has kept His Word. He doesn’t change the rules because we chose foolishly.
ANMNOUNCER: So, God is in control, even though this fallen world appears to be out of control.
KLAUS: Right. We made our bed, and now we can sleep in it. Or, we corrupted our world, and now we have to live in it.
ANNOUNCER: I think there is another part to this statement that “God is in control” which also causes difficulty.
KLAUS: And what’s that?
ANNOUNCER: It’s the idea that if God is in control, then we aren’t responsible for anything.
KLAUS: And that would mean that we are like robots, only doing the things that God has programmed us to do.
ANNOUNCER: It also means God should get the blame for everything that’s wrong.
KLAUS: Which, because God is good, cannot be.
ANNOUNCER: Why do you say that?
KLAUS: It is true that God is in control. But His control has not made us into puppets whose strings He pulls. God is in ultimate control, but He has decided to give some of that control over to us. God has given us free will. Some choices are ours.
ANNOUNCER: Could you give us an example or two?
KLAUS: Surely. God wants us to have peace, to love our neighbor as ourselves. He does not want us to kill each other or go to war. Still murders happen, and the world sees very few years without a major military confrontation.
Or we might mention the fact that God has given us a planet that can raise enough food to feed its inhabitants. Still, the world is filled with starvation. Is that because God wants that? No. Food distribution-that’s our fault.
ANNOUNCER: I understand that. What else could you say about God being in control?
KLAUS: Just one more thing, Mark.
ANNOUNCER: And what’s that?
KLAUS: Although there are bad things in this world, God can still, by His power, turn them into something good.
ANNOUNCER: Like what, for instance?
KLAUS: OK. The apostle Paul was in prison. Most people would consider that to be a bad thing. Then an earthquake happened. Most people would consider an earthquake to be a bad thing. But God allowed Paul’s imprisonment and an earthquake to bring a jailer and his entire family to faith in Jesus as their Savior. That is a good thing
ANNOUNCER: I think the passage in the Bible is, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
KLAUS: Exactly. That’s Romans 8:28.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. And with that we come to the end of our broadcast for another week. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections from this program:
“”A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Let All the People Praise You” by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Ach Herr lass dein lieb Engelein” by J.S. Bach. From Werke für Blechbläser von Bach, u.a. (© 1988 Hanssler-Verlag, Stuttgart)
“He Comes to Us as One Unkown (Prelude on REPTON)” by John Behnke. From For All Seasons, vol. 2 by John Behnke (© 2001 John Behnke)