The Lutheran Hour
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"Making the Cut"
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Text: Matthew 7:21
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! There are many religions, many faiths, many beliefs, but only one crucified and risen Savior. Today, the living Lord Jesus invites you to see Him as the only one who can bring you into heaven. God grant us the grace to trust and believe Him. Grant this faith unto us all. Amen.
Years ago, Godfrey Saxe, inspired by a story from India, wrote a poem. That poem, The Blind Men and the Elephant, manages to be amusing, even as it makes a point. Six blind men wanted to “see” an elephant so they might understand the great beast. In the poem, one of the men walked into the elephant’s side and he quickly concluded an elephant is like a wall. The next blind man touched the elephant’s tusk and supposed the animal was very much like a spear. The third grabbed the trunk of the elephant and thought he resembled a snake. Another, having felt the elephant’s leg, assumed the pachyderm had a striking similarity to a tree. The fifth, having touched the elephant’s ear, believed him to be like a fan; and the last blind man, holding onto the elephant’s tail, assumed the great beast resembled a rope. The poem says, “… each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong!” The poem’s author concluded, “So oft in theologic wars, The disputants, it seems, Rail on in utter ignorance Of what each other means, And prate about an Elephant Not one of them has seen.”
Saxe wanted everybody to understand the fallacy and foolishness of blind humans who have never really, truly, seen God, trying to explain and convince others that they have a thorough understanding of God and His actions. As one Lutheran Hour listener wrote to me recently, “It’s not that I doubt religion. I don’t. I love religion. I love all kinds of religion. Having studied many different theologies I find that each of them has something good to say to me, something from which I can learn. But I find it difficult to believe anyone can truly know a Divinity who, by virtue of being God, is unknowable.” To most people that man’s opinion seems to be a reasonable one; his position both rational and reasoning. Anything and everything people believe about God must remain a belief, and our opinions – like the lost boys of Neverland – can never grow up to become full-fledged facts. When it comes to God, we are all blind men and women, groping in the darkness for that which can never be truly known or understood.
That, I am afraid is the mindset of many Lutheran Hour listeners. Every aspect of your life has taught you to disbelieve everything and everybody. Once upon a time you trusted a politician who said he would make things different, but he didn’t. Once upon a time you believed you were getting the best deal on a car, but you weren’t. You used to believe the advertising agencies which rolled out a flock of ex-fat people to tell you how this diet or that exercise program would make the pounds melt away. You believed them until you saw the microscopic fine print which was flashed for a nanosecond on the bottom of your TV. You remember that disclaimer which said, “Results not typical”? No wonder most folks don’t like it when someone makes a sweeping statement or gives an all-encompassing promise.
That’s one of the reasons people don’t like or believe in Jesus. He simply said too many things which seem to be too big, too impossible, too unverifiable and too unbelievable. In the Gospel of John, the Savior said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). When the world hears those words, it shoots right back: “Moving people from darkness to light may have been a big deal years ago, but no longer. I bought a flashlight for less than $5.00. That flashlight moves me from darkness to light.
In the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus made this claim for Himself: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). “Preposterous! Outlandish! Ridiculous!” says the world.
And when Jesus stated, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” the skeptics of the world go positively ballistic. “Who says? Who appointed You to be ‘the Way?’ You’re the only Way – the only Way to where? You’re the Life. Jesus, in case You haven’t noticed, I’m alive, everybody walking around is alive!!!” By the time Jesus gets around to saying He is the “Truth,” many just shake their heads and walk away. For this world’s doubters and deniers, Christ’s promises are simply too big, too all encompassing, too impossible, too unverifiable, and too unbelievable to be taken seriously. Cynics and skeptics point out there are simply too many religions – religions which make their own claims, for Jesus’ religion to be seriously taken as the one and only faith which has a monopoly on truth, and which can make the exclusive claim to deliver forgiveness and eternal life.
To all of you who have doubts concerning the Savior’s truthfulness; to all who are sure Christ and His followers have, for 2,000 years, been making unsubstantiated claims; please, for the next few minutes won’t you pay close attention? Bear with me as I return to the story of the blind men and the elephant. You remember, the story about the unseeing fellows who thought they had the elephant all figured out, but didn’t? I’d like to point out the obvious. Even though those men hadn’t managed to get it right, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t an elephant there that day. There was. If the fellow who had hold of the elephant’s trunk, or leg, or tail, or tusk, had taken the time and felt further, he would have been confronted by the truth; he would have left his misconceptions behind and he would have believed that which was right.
Today the Holy Spirit wants you to know God exists, and Divinely inspired truth is a reality. Today the Holy Spirit wishes to bring you to faith in Jesus Christ or, if you are already a believer, strengthen your trust in the Savior – the Savior who is the only way to heaven. He wants you to know that while other religions may get things partially right by telling you God is eternal; Christianity correctly says God’s Son became a mortal human being so He could repair the damage caused by our sin. When other religions get things partly correct by telling you God is displeased with our transgressions, only Christianity gets it completely right by telling you God loves you enough to send His Son to take your place. Only Christianity gets it completely right and says Jesus has kept all the commandments we have broken and carried our sins to Calvary’s cross where He died the death our transgressions deserved. While other religions may give you incorrect and inaccurate instructions on how to save yourself; only Christianity correctly holds the gulf between heaven and earth, salvation and damnation, is too great to be bridged by anything we can do. Only Christianity says, if we are going to be saved, it will be by faith in Jesus Christ who has paid our spiritual debts, suffered our punishment, and rebuilt all that sin and Satan have torn down.
And to those of you who reply, “But, good Pastor, you must know every religion says it has the ‘truth.’ That’s the problem. It’s impossible to tell who’s right. We are like the blind men and the elephant. We don’t know who has the truth.” My friends, if that is what you believe, you underestimate God. Do you really believe He would make some claims and expect you to shut down your minds and set aside your doubts and believe without any kind of proof or without any investigation? Yes, belief on the truths of Scripture does call for a leap of faith; but it is a leap made possible because of the proof which God provides.
What kind of proof? The Bible has prophecies – far more than 100 prophecies – many made centuries before Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. All of those prophecies were fulfilled by the Savior as He walked and ministered among us. Now if I made a prophecy about you; if, for example, I said: Tomorrow your car’s left, front tire will be punctured by the quill of a porcupine and go flat – and it happened – you would probably say, “Lucky guess.” Some would say I pounded the quill into the tire myself. But suppose I made another unlikely prediction the next day and it came true. And the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day? That’s only seven true predictions. Jesus fulfilled far more than 100. And some of these prophecies made about Him were far less likely to be completed than having your steel-belted radial tire popped by a porcupine quill.
Do you need to put your mind on hold to believe in Jesus? Not at all. Read the Scriptures. There you will see Jesus do miracles that only God’s power could perform. Read the Scriptures – listen to what Jesus said. I mean, really listen. No other founder of any other religion spoke as Jesus, God’s Son, spoke to us. Look at what He did. For your salvation, He endured hatred, jokes, and jibes. So you might be rich eternally, He endured earthly poverty; so you might be declared forgiven of your past and righteous for all eternity, He allowed men to lie about Him, beat Him, whip Him, spit on Him, and nail Him to a cross. Where else in any other religion will you find that kind of sacrifice, that kind of love?
God is real; His love is real; His promises are real; His Son’s sacrifice is real; and as proof of it all, I can say His resurrection is real. Examine the writings, the teachings, the histories of the other founders of the world’s great religions. Which of them said: You can be sure I am telling the truth if, after I am murdered, three days later I rise from the dead? (see Matthew 12:38). Only Jesus made such a promise and only Jesus could fulfill such a promise. That is why, although it may be politically incorrect, I am fully convinced of the rightness of this statement: Jesus has made the only sacrifice, has won the only victory, has built the only bridge of salvation which can save us from damnation. Through faith in Him as your suffering substitute and only through faith in Him as your heaven-sent Savior, can you be washed of your sins and be given eternal life. It is a wonderful thing the Lord has done with this totally free gift of His Son. It is so complete, so freely given to all sinners everyone should be saved and no one need be lost.
Everyone should be saved, but not all will be. Indeed, the Savior tells us, on Judgment Day some folks won’t be making the cut and not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because there’s a lot of people who only want God if He comes to them on their terms, if He fits their lifestyles, if He doesn’t ask anything, if He does what He’s told, if He’s willing to sit in a corner until He’s called for.
Back when I was in the parish, it was a real joy to go to the hospital and call on families who had been blessed with a newborn. Frequently, as I sat with the mother, she would tell me her child had developed jaundice. Jaundice is a common complaint where the baby’s skin takes on a yellowish cast. The moms with whom I visited didn’t seem all that upset when they shared their news. That’s probably because those moms understood that while untreated jaundice can be dangerous, normally the condition can be taken care of by having the baby placed under some special lights to receive painless light therapy.
In all my hospital calls never did I hear any father or mother say to their pediatrician, “Look, doc, we’ve known a lot of other kids who have had this jaundice thing. It’s really no big deal. Tell you what, we want to take our baby home as soon as possible. If you don’t mind, let’s pretend there is no jaundice. Nobody is going to be the wiser if you just release our child. We’ll take our baby home and put him out in the sun for a few hours. Don’t sweat it, our baby’s going to be OK.” No, I never heard a parent say that, nor did I ever hear anyone suggest, “Light therapy? Hold on there a second, big guy. Light therapy sounds way too simple, too passive. This is our first child and we prefer to take a more aggressive approach in dealing with this jaundice thing. The first thing we want to do is have the nurses bathe our baby with a really strong lye soap. Lye soap takes care of almost any stain. Then, when we’re done with the lye soap, we’re going to dip our baby, twice a day, into a bleach solution. Lye soap and bleach. That will get our baby’s skin back to normal. Doc, we’re convinced this kind of proactive treatment is best for our child.” Of course, no parent ever said such foolish things to a nurse or their baby’s MD. If they had, they would have been politely and firmly told, “No. We’re not going to do that. We’re the medical staff; we’ve had the training; we know what is best for the baby, we know what’s going to work. What we’re proposing will do the job.”
Now, while I’ve never heard parents say such silly things to their pediatricians, I’ve heard people say sillier things to God. Some say, “Lord, Lord, if you don’t mind, let’s pretend there is no sin, no judgment, no damnation. Who’s going to care if You let us go?” Others say, “Lord, Lord, this salvation through the Savior sounds too simple, too passive. We prefer to take our future into our own hands. We’ll try to lead a good life; we’ll try to do the right thing, and if we do, we’re pretty sure we can erase the sinful stains on our souls.” Multitudes of souls – lost souls – say, “Lord, Lord, we know what is right for us, what is best for us, what will work for us.”
But we don’t know what is best, and we’re not sure what will work. The heavenly Father is the expert. He is the one who knows what will forgive us, heal us, save us. He knows the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses from all sin. That’s why Jesus wants everyone to know God’s people do what God says. We need to do the will of our Father in heaven; we need to trust Him, trust His intentions, believe His prescription for salvation. Doing the will of the Father, believing on the Savior – that, my friends is what is going to get us into heaven.
Seeing the elephant. That’s what we were talking about at the beginning of today’s message. Seeing the elephant is the way I’d like to finish this sermon. In the first half of the 1800s there was a familiar song about a farmer who went to town to sell some produce. Before he left, he said to his wife, “I hear the circus is coming to town, and if I’m lucky, I’m going to see an elephant.” The farmer came to town and he did see that elephant, but so did his horses. Those horses took one look at the elephant and they ran. The farmer was thrown out, the wagon got busted up, the produce got destroyed. The farmer walked home without horses, without wagon, without produce, without money. His wife, surveying her battered spouse, said, “What happened to you?” He replied: “I saw the elephant.”
For some reason, that song about seeing the elephant stuck with Americans. When someone decided to go West, he would tell his friends he was going to go and “see the elephant.” Those that didn’t make it to their destination came back and said they had seen the elephant’s tracks, or the elephant’s tail, and that was more than enough. Those who managed to make it to California proudly boasted, “I have seen the elephant.” Seeing the elephant. For some it meant a wonderful experience; for others it meant a terrifying one. The same can be said in regard to the Christ. The day is coming when we all will see the Savior and not an imaginary elephant. Will the sight of the Savior be frightening, or a cause for rejoicing? The answer ought to be simple. It is simple: Believe on Jesus Christ, do the will of the Father in heaven. If we can provide assistance to that end, please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for June 1, 2008
Topic: Tempted BeyondANNOUNCER: And now Pastor Ken Klaus tells us about his audio online devotions. I’m Mark Eischer. You’ve been doing your daily devotions online now for sometime, but recently you added a new feature. You’re actually recording an audio version of this. Why did you decide to do that?
KLAUS: Well, Mark, that became because of a lot of requests from young people who say, “We don’t listen that way. What we do is we listen on our iPods. We listen, you know, in various ways” (that normally I wouldn’t). But they do, and we want to bring it to those folks so that they can plug into their computer and listen as they’re driving to work or where ever they might happen to be.
ANNOUNCER: It makes it more convenient than reading the words on the screen. You’re actually hearing you voice the devotion.
KLAUS: Yes. There’s another reason why we actually did what we did. We found out a lot of soldiers deployed all around the world are also using their iPods almost exclusively. Their schedules are so unusual that they just drop it in and then as they have time, they listen to the things to which they’ve subscribed.
ANNOUNCER: Well, let’s listen to a sample of one:
Chocolate is good for you.
I remember the overwhelmingly positive reaction of many when that bit of information made the evening news a few months ago.
Now British researchers are calling for volunteers who are willing to eat a bar of chocolate, every day, for an entire year.
Chocolate is a weakness for a lot of folks. Indeed, volunteers in this study might find themselves hard pressed to confine their chocolate intake to a bar a day.
Now, before I go any further in this devotion, I want to say, as far as I know, eating chocolate in moderation is not a sin. Having said that, I’d also like to add: the devil likes to use things which interest us to woo us away from the Lord.
When Eve looked at the forbidden fruit she noticed it was good for food and pleasing to the eye. Hers was the first in a long line of sins which finds its root in personal preferences.
James says it better than I ever could: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death.”
James wants God’s saved people to realize what tempts one person will leave another person cold. Even so, each of us has an Achilles’ heel and Satan works tirelessly to find it.
When he does, he tempts us to sin and that sin will bring forth our death. The deplorable condition of the world shows how successful the father of lies has been. There is, Scripture tells us, not a just man on the earth that does good and doesn’t sin.
Which is why we need a Savior. The Father in heaven who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift, has also given us His Son to save us from our sinful desires and actions. Jesus’ life was dedicated to the single purpose of redeeming us from – how do pastors say it? – “our sinful desires.” In short, Jesus saves us from ourselves.
ANNOUNCER: When you do these online devotions, you aren’t here in the studio doing this, you’re on the road in many cases.
KLAUS: You know, one of the great advantages of doing the daily devotions is we can be timely. We can react to the things that are in the news, so that when people go to the coffee shop or when they’re standing by the water cooler – wherever – they have what God says in regard to the events that they hear on the news. So, we have the ability of recording on the road, wherever I might happen to be.
ANNOUNCER: Where is the strangest place you’ve recorded so far?
KLAUS: Well, we’ve recorded very close to Niagara Falls, we’ve recorded in Yosemite Park – there are a lot of different places because we end up in a lot of different places.
ANNOUNCER: It’s just you, a microphone, and your laptop.
KLAUS: Yes, and a high-speed Internet connection.
ANNOUNCER: How can somebody subscribe to the daily devotions and receive the online audio version?
KLAUS: Well, they can do it a number of ways. They can go to our Lutheran Hour Web page, or else they can go to iTunes and just look for daily devotions and they’ll find Lutheran Hour and our daily devotions featured fairly high on the list.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“O Splendor of the Father’s Light” by Sam Eatherton. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Es ist das Heil” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark and John David Peterson (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd.)
“Drawn to the Cross” by J.S. Bach. From Te Deum by the Kantorei (© 2000 Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne)