The Lutheran Hour
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"The Word in a World of Words"
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Text: 2 Corinthians 5:19-20
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Listen to the sermon by Dr. Hoffmann, originally aired December 13, 1964
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.”
Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia.
People all over the world are looking for something-a sure foundation on which to build, a well-marked pathway on which to go.
The noted psychiatrist, Carl Jung, has described the aimless hesitations of his fellow Europeans. He said, “Everywhere the mental state of European men shows an alarming lack of balance. We are living undoubtedly in a period of great restlessness, nervous tension, confusion, and disorientation of outlook…Everyone has the feeling that our modern religious truths have somehow or other grown empty.” (Quoted from Carl Henry, The Word for This Century, page 22).
What Dr. Jung said of the people in Europe is true of people all over the world. A lot of words are being spoken in our world, and people are wondering whether any final word can be spoken. So many words represent personal opinion, and so many others contrary opinion. The result is that people come to take almost everything with a grain of salt. They do this even to the Bible. The Bible, they think, is a good book, but it is just one more collection of words among many-so many that one cannot possibly pay attention to all of them.
If people outside the church feel this way about the Bible, it must be said that some people inside the church feel the same way. In the ranks of the clergy there appears to be a great deal of uncertainty about the place and authority of the Bible when it comes to saying the final word. An American Christian layman, for example, discovered to his amazement, when he went to a certain city to be a member of a team ministry serving distressed areas, that men of the cloth had little interest in the Bible as a source and guide for all their activities as they tackled this tremendous task. He writes of his experience.
“This seemed astonishing in the extreme. In our Bible study, the minds of some were filled with notions of truth, ideas of good, with interesting hypotheses, strong sentiments, and current events, and these things were actually asserted to test the Word of God. Few seemed ready just to listen to the Word of God in the Bible, to ask: What is the Word of God?” (William Stringfellow, My People Is the Enemy, page 92).
Both pastors and laymen engaged in this project discovered that the Word of God must be taken as is, on its own terms, and no test can be applied to determine whether it is true or not. It is either utterly true or utterly false. If it is utterly true, the Bible has to be taken as it is, God’s Word to a world of many words.
If there is confusion in the church regarding the place and purpose of the Bible, the church becomes just another organization engaged in a blind attempt to lead the blind. Unless the church accepts the Bible as God’s voice speaking God’s Word to God’s world, it has nothing certain or true to offer to the people in our time. With the Bible, Christians go out onto the streets of our world armed with power.
The wisdom of man has its place in the world. So has the wisdom of the Bible. The wisdom of men will never take the place of the wisdom of God which is found in the Scripture. The Bible has its own authority because it is the Word of God!
Attacks upon the Bible are not new. They still disturb people, however, because of the lingering fear that the Bible may turn out to be just another book among many books, another word among many that pound at the doors of the heart and mind clamoring for our attention.
Attacks upon the Bible are particularly disturbing to Christian people who are basically ignorant of the contents of the Bible and never bother to inform themselves about the place and purpose of the Bible in the world. Not recognizing why God gave His Word in the Bible, they are easily taken in by every specious argument offered against the authority and finality of God’s Word.
Secondhand knowledge about the Bible is not enough. You cannot depend upon what someone else has told you about the Bible. The Bible speaks for itself. It has to be read and studied. It has to be taken to heart if its authority is to become effective in your life.
Of course, God does speak to the world through people who proclaim His Word, but the effect of God’s proclaimed Word is often lost upon people who refuse to recognize or fail to see the authority of God Himself speaking to them directly through His Word in the Bible. If the Bible is a closed book to you, preaching will sound like the word of just one man among many, because God’s Word will sound to you like just another one of many words. Preaching must be tested by the standard of God’s Word. It must be matched against God’s Word. If the two do not mesh, the preacher is not preaching God’s Word.
God’s Word in the Bible provides its own test. It cannot be tested by the ideas, philosophical speculations, predilections, and prejudices current in our world. The Bible stands on its own two feet. It must be taken as it is: God’s Word to a world of many words.
The place and purpose of the Bible are altogether clear. Throughout the Bible you will find the same claim asserted: the Bible is the Word of God bringing salvation to people. Salvation is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. In the Old Testament or the New Testament, the claim is the same. God will send a Savior; God has sent a Savior. Christ will come; Christ has come. God will provide atonement for the sins of the people; God has provided atonement through the life and death of His own Son, Jesus Christ.
St. Paul summed it all up in one grand statement: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:19-20 RSV).
A word like this eliminates all confusion. It gives the Bible a unique quality. Nobody ever cooked up a story like this in his imagination. It is God’s Word to the world: “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting our sins against us.”
Whoever proclaims this Word of reconciliation, whether from the pulpit or over the back fence, is an ambassador for Christ. Wherever people speak for Christ, it is as though God Himself were beseeching the world, as all of us do who speak in the name and in the stead of Christ: “Be ye reconciled to God.” There is a reason for all of this preaching and teaching: “God made His Son, Jesus, who knew no sin,” the Bible says, “to be sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
The great exchange of Christ for us-His death for our sins, His life for your life, His forgiveness for our rebellion-is in itself the Word of God. In Christ, God acted to redeem the whole world. His action is His Word to the world. When God acts, He speaks. When God speaks, He acts. You can depend on His Word. Christ Himself, acting in our behalf, is the ultimate and final Word of God to the whole world. “God, who at sundry times and in various ways spoke to our fathers, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.”
God is speaking today in action. He turns the hearts of men from following their own way to going His way. He speaks to you right now. The power of His Spirit is behind every word. He is behind every word-that is, when we proclaim the Word of God. When I tell you that you need a Savior and that you have a Savior in Jesus Christ, this is the Word of God to you right here and right now.
The message comes straight out of the Bible. It is not speculation. It is fact. It was fact for fishermen, tax collectors, and tent makers. People like that wrote the Bible under the inspiration of God; their word comes today to people like ourselves with all the power and authority of God Himself.
You won’t find any contradictions in the Bible. Read the Bible with an open mind, not trying to put it to some test or other of your own manufacture, and you will find that the Bible is utterly true and altogether authoritative. It has a ring all its own. That ring is the voice of God speaking to you through His Word in the Bible.
The whole Scripture is a witness to the acts of God, reaching their climax in the arrival of Jesus Christ upon the human scene. God acted among His people while prophets strained to catch a glimpse of what was to come. God acted among His people and shepherds came to worship the promised Messiah. God acted among His people, and Christ died on the cross. God acted among His people, and the apostles went forth to bring the glad Good News to all men everywhere that: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” So we stand up in the name and in the place of Christ, as if God Himself were speaking through us, calling out to you everywhere, wherever you are, “Be reconciled to God, for God has made Jesus Christ, sinless and pure, to be all sin for us that we might be made all righteousness in Him.”
When the apostles went forth, as preachers go forth today, they knew they were proclaiming the truth.
The truth is in Christ, they said, and that’s why they wrote: this is God’s Word to the world. St. John wrote, “We are writing to you about something which has always existed, yet which we ourselves have seen and heard, which we have had the opportunity to observe closely and even hold in our hands. For it was life which appeared before us; we saw it, we are eyewitnesses of it, and are now writing to you about it. It is the very life of all ages, the life that has always existed with God the Father, which actually became visible in person to us mortal men. We want you to be with us in this-in this fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son” (1 John 1:1-3, J.B. Phillips).
God has always been at work in history through His Word. Through His Word, He is at work in the history of our time. He is at work in your own history, here and now. In His redeeming and saving love, He reaches out to you at this one decisive moment. God was in Christ. Be reconciled to God. This is God’s Word to you-His Word among the many words; His one true Word which you must not, dare not, ignore.
God has spoken to the world, not through a philosopher or even through a preacher, but through His own Son. No philosopher, no preacher can die for you. Christ died for you. He covers your guilt. He forgives your sins. He cleanses your life and redeems it from destruction.
It may be that you are still asking yourself, “After all, isn’t the Bible just a human document with many human weaknesses? Granted that the Bible is an unusual book, is it really so different from all the other books?”Yes, the Bible is a human document written in human words. It is altogether human in many ways, but it is at the same time, altogether and in every part, the Word of the living God. God gave His Word in this way, and we are not in a position to pass human judgment upon it as though it were just another human book. Human minds and human hands were used by God to produce the Bible; yet He is behind every bit of it. Behind every word of the Bible stands the authority of God Himself.
The integrity of the Bible cannot be proved or disproved by human arguments. The Bible is its own witness to its own authority. The Bible relies on the witness of the Holy Spirit of God Himself. Witnessed by the Spirit, the Bible is God’s Word to you. Let the Bible speak to you today.
Let the Bible speak to others. You can do your part to spread the Word of God to people all over the world. You can distribute the Scriptures to people who do not have a copy of the Word of God. You can help people see Jesus Christ, their Savior, through this Word straight from the mouth of God. You can do your part by living the life in Christ that people may see and read the Gospel in the living epistle of your own actions.
Don’t put it off. Meet God in His Word today. Let His Word flow into your life with full power. Let it be His Word of reconciliation to you-and to others today. Amen.
Prayer: O Lord, our God, by whose providence all Holy Scriptures were written and preserved for our instruction, give us grace to study, to know, and to follow the teaching of Thy Holy Word. By Thy great mercy lead us by the Word to everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.
Action in Ministry for DATE
Guest: Dr. Jeffrey KlohaANNOUNCER: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour and this is Action In Ministry. We remind our listeners that today’s sermon was first broadcast by Dr. Oswald Hoffmann back in 1964. But the Bible is still the Word in a world of words.
SELTZ: It was amazing how applicable that sermon was and is even today. You’re right, Mark. However, some even continue to question the Bible’s authority. There’s been others who still point to these other ancient books that claim to tell the story of Jesus but were not included in the Christian Bible. These are the so-called lost books; but what are they really?
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Jeffrey Kloha is Provost and Professor of Exegetical Theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and he’s featured in a video resource titled: Lost Books? He joins us now to help us understand these curious writings.
SELTZ: Dr. Kloha, thank you for joining us today.
KLOHA: It’s great to be here with you.
SELTZ: Listen, the concept of lost books may be new to some, some of our listeners, but what are we really talking about here?
KLOHA: These were books that were discovered mostly in the mid-20th century; archaeologists dug up at various locations, found some books that had been referred to really kind of sensationalistically as lost…
ANNOUNCER: Okay.
KLOHA: …because they hadn’t been known before and now they discovered these and why were they lost, what are their contents; so the term “lost” really just refers to the fact that they were recovered, you might say, in the 20th century.
SELTZ: Okay.
ANNOUNCER: Now in our video resource, you say that there are four specific guidelines that decide what could be included in the canon of Scripture. What are they and how do the lost books compare?
KLOHA: Right. This is very important and I think the first thing to recall is that the church did not, sort of, sit down and say, “Well, here’s a whole bunch of books and let’s vote.”
ANNOUNCER: Did not happen.
KLOHA: Rather, you had the apostles preaching and teaching Christ and the Gospel message, really from Pentecost, from the beginning. As the years went on, they wrote the accounts down; they wrote the gospels and these were circulated and used by churches beyond where the apostles themselves could go.
ANNOUNCER: All right.
KLOHA: So they had a bit of, you might say, an evangelistic function. But the key is that the message of these gospels were consistent with what the apostles were saying. So, that was really the most important criteria. Does this match with what we know the apostles taught? So the fact that they were written by eyewitnesses was very important; written by the apostles, written by people associated with the apostles, like Luke or Mark. So that is very important. The second really important factor was were they used widely throughout the church.
SELTZ: Not just over here in one church…
KLOHA: Not just one church…
SELTZ: We’ve got the only one…
KLOHA: So you have references to the four gospels in France, and in what’s modern-day Syria, in Egypt, all at the same time, all in the second century. So the widespread use is very important. Finally, you might say they sort of proved themselves; that they claim to teach Christ and create faith in Christ and they did exactly that. At the end of the day, that’s really what matters. If they don’t create faith in Christ, if they don’t sustain that faith, what authority do they have? So in a very real sense they simply prove themselves that this was, indeed, God’s Word.
SELTZ: They rose to the top.
KLOHA: Exactly. Exactly.
SELTZ: So, if that’s the case, we’re still discussing this stuff today. What keeps this issue from not being laid to rest? Or, what do you think?
KLOHA: We live in a society today…we see this in the news every day where people do not trust institutions; they do not like being told what to think or not to think, and Christianity in general is under pressure. There’s no denying that in our culture today. So, this is another way to, sort of, prick at Christianity; to throw this curve ball in there and say, “Well, maybe we don’t really know what Christianity actually was and maybe it was just kind of made up later on.” I don’t know if it is necessarily overt or implicit. I think it’s almost become part of the culture now to simply question…
SELTZ: Right. It’s the in thing.
KLOHA: It’s the in thing and so this kind of pandering, you might say, to this mistrust is really one reason this continues to foster.
SELTZ: I always tell people when you open the Bible, it’s a dangerous book. Something is going to happen to you because of what the Bible is, right?
KLOHA: Yeah. Exactly right.
SELTZ: So, again, what do we say to our friends who question the Bible because they’ve heard about these lost books? What’s the evangelistic import to this whole discussion?
KLOHA: As 1 Peter reminds us, we should always be ready to give an explanation for the hope that is in us so we want to make sure that we focus there. We’re not going to argue somebody into believing Jesus…
ANNOUNCER: Right.
KLOHA: But what has Jesus done and what has He done for us? That’s the primary thing and that there are plenty of resources to help us understand that God has given us His Word; that it’s reliable, that we can trust it; so watch the Lost Books video.
SELTZ: Well said.
KLOHA: It’s just an opportunity to sit down with someone and think through an issue and then provide a way to talk eventually about Jesus.
SELTZ: Yeah.
KLOHA: Because at the end of the day that’s where we …
SELTZ: We’re saying “let the Bible have its say.”
KLOHA: Absolutely.
SELTZ: That’s one of the problems. This stuff gets in the way and people don’t really hear then what the Bible actually says. What a beautiful thing.
KLOHA: Right.
SELTZ: Well, this is a fascinating topic and the video resource brings your expertise as well as the expertise of many others to this. This is great stuff. People really should use this because, again like you’ve just talked about, Dr. Kloha, we want you to get to see Who this Jesus is and that’s the key to it all. So, thanks for being here with us.
KLOHA: Great to be here. Thanks.
SELTZ: Appreciate it. And that’s our Action In Ministry segment for today, to bless, to empower, and to strengthen your life in Christ for others.
ANNOUNCER: You can view or download this content for free at our website. Go to lutheranhour.org and click on Action In Ministry. That’s lutheranhour.org. Or call 1-855-john316. That’s 1-855-564-6316. Our email address is info@lhm.org.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for August 07, 2016
Topic: The Holy Spirit and Spiritual GiftsANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Today we have a question from a listener in Houston, Texas.
SELTZ: Mark, it’s wonderful to hear from someone in Houston. I’ve been in Texas a lot this year and the rains this past spring have been unrelenting, with tragedy and upheaval for many. I want him and all of our listeners in Texas to know that our prayers are still with you.
ANNOUNCER: Even as they continue to deal with the aftermath of that flooding. Our question for today is about the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. What does the Bible say about such things?
SELTZ: Well, Mark. I think this is a question that’s going to take more than one program to answer. So let’s talk about the Holy Spirit today, along with the question of spiritual gifts; but let’s talk more about the fruit of the Spirit next time because people need to be aware of all of the gifts that the Holy Spirit provides so that we might receive and live the life that Jesus has won for us with His cross and resurrection.
ANNOUNCER: That’s important to know. The Holy Spirit gives us the life that Jesus won for us.
SELTZ: And that’s exactly what we confess in the Nicene Creed. We say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.” Of course, we see that teaching even more clearly in John 16:14-15 when Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will “take what is His (the things of Jesus) and make them known to us.”
ANNOUNCER: Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” so if the Spirit is bringing us to faith in Jesus, He’s literally also making us alive in Jesus.
SELTZ: Exactly, and that’s the main point that we must never forget in this whole discussion. The main work of the Holy Spirit when it comes to faith and the things of God, is to bring us Christ, to bring us to faith in Christ through God’s Word, through the washing of Baptism in His Name, to the strengthening of that faith in His Supper, in the preaching of His Word, to make us alive, to strengthen our faith in Him. If you are talking about Jesus, believing in Jesus, that’s the Spirit!
ANNOUNCER: And there’s a reason why these preeminent gifts of the Spirit are called the means of grace.
SELTZ: Right, as the Scripture says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12). The Holy Spirit connects us to Jesus Christ and His Work for us through Word and Sacrament.
ANNOUNCER: But I think our listener is talking about something different. He wants to know about spiritual gifts.
SELTZ: Right. He’s probably thinking about the passages in Romans 12 and 1Corinthians 12, where the Bible talks about special gifts of the Spirit for service in Christ’s Church for others. So this isn’t a salvation question then, it’s a service question. You need the things of Jesus by the power of His Spirit for faith and salvation and even for service too.
ANNOUNCER: What are some of those gifts?
SELTZ: There are things like “prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, generosity, leadership, showing mercy; but there’s also things like this: healing, miracles, distinguishing among spirits, speaking in tongues, helping, administration. The key is this; all these gifts are to be used to build up the body of Christ.
ANNOUNCER: In other words, it’s all about service.
SELTZ: Yes, and the controversies that exist about spiritual gifts are when they are sought after or used as signs of a more special relationship with God, something that certain people have somehow earned or been given because of their special status with the Lord.
ANNOUNCER: To that end, we need to remember that faith is a gift from God and that having faith in Jesus is all that we need for a relationship with Him.
SELTZ: Exactly, but we need to remember too that the Spirit’s power or gifts are to be sought after as we serve others as well. So, let’s pray for Spiritual gifts so that we might be better servants to our fellow believers and to our neighbors.
ANNOUNCER: If we all had that attitude, we would avoid a lot of controversy.
SELTZ: And, with that attitude, many other controversies about gifts like prophecy, speaking in tongues, and miracles, they’d be better dealt with too, because unlike the New Testament times, now we have the whole New Testament Bible in our hands; God’s clear, written Word on the subject of salvation and the things of Christ. And no one is going to look to miracles, prophecy, or tongues as some special revelation given only to some and not to others.
ANOUNCER: All right, spiritual gifts are to be used in service to others, not to be lorded over others or become a means of controversy.
SELTZ: Right; and all of these things are in service to the Spirit’s work of bringing us to faith, keeping us in faith, and then strengthening us to serve others in Jesus’ Name!
ANNOUNCER: Special gifts of the Spirit, next week we’ll talk about fruit of the Spirit. Thank you, Pastor Seltz, and thank you to our listener. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.“O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Lord, Help Us Walk Your Servant Way” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)