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THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT March 10, 2024 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto OPENNING HYMNN: 702 “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” Lutheran Service Book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC8fm4o5VWM The Invocation Page 184 Confession and Absolution Page 184-185 THE LITANY P: O Lord. C: have mercy. P: O Christ. C: have mercy. P: O Lord. C: have mercy. P: O Christ. C: hear us. P: God the Father in heaven. C: have mercy. P: God the Son, Redeemer of the world. C: have mercy. P: God the Holy Spirit. C: have mercy. P: Be gracious to us. C: Spare us good Lord. P: Be gracious to us. C: Help us, good Lord. P: In the time of our tribulation; in the time of our prosperity; in the hour of death; and in the day of judgment: C: Help us good Lord. P: We poor sinners implore You C: To hear us, O Lord. P: To give all peoples concord and peace; to preserve our land from discord and strife; to give our country and Christians around the world Your protection in every time of need; To direct and correct all in civil authority; to bless and protect our armed forces, and all people from evil and terrorism; To watch over and help those who are in danger, need, and tribulation. To help and sustain the poor and unemployed, to defend and comfort orphans and provide for them; To strengthen and heal the sick, disabled, and injured; to free those in bondage; and to have mercy on all: C: We implore You to hear us, good Lord. The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Lord Have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord Have mercy upon us. Collect Prayer: Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Your mercies are new every morning; and though we deserve only punishment, You receive us as Your children and provide for all our needs of body and soul. Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible Readings: Old Testament Reading Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107, verses 1-9 Epistle Reading Ephesians 2:1-10 Gospel Reading John 3:9-21 THE APOSTLES’ CREED P. 192 HYMN OF THE DAY: 571 “God Loved the Word So That He Gave” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoLqntaLExQ THE SERMON – Today Jesus tells us of the victory over death Christians have in Him. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” In these words, Christ is promising nothing less than pardon from eternal death and eternity in Heaven. In the first Sunday of Lent, Jesus told us in the Gospel text that the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. In the second week of Lent, Jesus reminded us we have a cross to bear. Last Sunday brought us a strong message of God’s law which shows us our sins, and our desperate need for a Saviour. Today, in answer to that condemnation we get three powerful Bible lessons about God’s redemption. And so, we consider our first reading from the Book of Numbers. The children of Israel have seen the plagues in Egypt, crossed the Red Sea after God parted it, trembled at the base of Mt. Sinai in the presence of the Lord, and gotten up every morning to eat manna the Almighty provided, but they still find something to complain about. God makes clear in Proverbs, and in the Book of Jude, that He doesn’t like complainers. The Israelites, freed from bondage in Egypt, ask why the Lord brought them to the desert. They also say they’re tired of the food being served. God has had enough of it. He sends poisonous serpents to bite them, and they died. That focused their attention on what really mattered. The people go to Moses and beg him to pray that God will take away the snakes. Moses does that, but God in effect says, “I have a better idea.” He tells Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it up on a pole so people can see. Now, if snakes bite them, they can look up at the bronze serpent and live. Notice that God doesn’t take the snakes away. In fact, the solution looks a lot like the problem. We pray for God to take our problems away, but He doesn’t always do that. He gives us something to look at instead, something to believe in. He doesn’t remove a disease but says ‘put out your hand and I will place the bread of life there.’ We say whatever we’re praying about is destroying us! God says, “I know, here is what I’m doing about it.” He gives us His body, broken, and His blood, shed, on a cross. Moses listens to God and places the bronze serpent on the pole. God is saying, “Look away from the problem to my solution.” That takes faith, we have to trust the one speaking, and we have to believe what He says. The salvation of the whole world is coming, the salvation from the bite of the ancient serpent, who is satan. The cure for that bite will be Jesus, hanging on another piece of wood, a cross. The non-believing world says, ‘this is the answer?’ God says, Yes! Christ is the solution; this is the healing you need. Look to this man hanging on a cross, and believe He is not just another peasant caught up in the Roman machinery of death. He is the sinless Son of God, the righteous sacrifice for your sins, and the sins of the world. In the Book of Numbers, God is addressing the faith problem of the Israelites. Do we have a similar issue today when we’re faced with the worst this world can throw at us? The solution is the same: look to Christ. The Book of Ephesians, from which our Epistle lesson comes, can be called the Apostle Paul’s last will and testament. Through the years he’s dealt with people who believe they can save themselves by observing the Law of Moses and doing good works. This is the belief Paul held before encountering Christ on the Damascus road. The story of Paul is of someone who’s passed from death to life. It’s ultimately the story of every Christian. Our verses from Ephesians start out with a corpse. Enslaved to the devil, the sons of disobedience were children of wrath. Then the grace of God came to us. Rich in mercy for His children, God loved us when we were spiritually dead, and His enemies. Yet He made us alive together with Christ, and graciously raises us up, one day even to be with Him in heaven. This is a gift, not a reward, we can’t boast about it. The transformer is the Lord, and we are made new out of grace. Grace comes from a Greek word. At its root it’s all about a free gift, no strings attached. We’re saved to be God’s people, His disciples in this day and place. So we come to one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament, John 3:14-21. The Pharisee Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus at night to ask questions. The dark setting is important. Now, the reference Christ makes to the bronze serpent is striking. Christ tells us that when He’s raised up from the earth like the bronze snake, people will look to Him, in faith, and this faith will bring eternal life. John 3:16 is perhaps the most commonly memorized sentence in the Bible. How are we to understand it? In his letter, 1st John 4:9-10, the Apostle explains: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation (to be the atoning sacrifice), for our sins.” Our Gospel text today is not only Jesus talking to Nicodemus; it’s God talking to us. How many in the world today, like the Pharisees of old, are without Christ’s Word? How many have refused to hear and believe in the ‘earthly’ accounts of the Gospel, and so miss the heavenly message? ‘For God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only son so that all who believe might have eternal life.’ God isn’t interested in destroying the world. That’s not His desire. He wants to save it. When you read this verse insert your name here. For God so loved you that He gave His only Son to die for your sins. So much for the wrathful and angry God some people only see. The operating principal of salvation here is faith. Whoever believes is saved. Whoever does not believe, is condemned. People who want nothing to do with their Saviour, who refuse God’s free gift in Christ, will get their wish on the last day when He turns His face away from them. But the judgment isn’t based on our accomplishments or good deeds. The basis of our acquittal, is Jesus. Christ is the object of our faith. Faith worked in us by God’s means of grace, His Word and Sacraments. The Greek term for ‘believe’ here actually means that relationship with God in which He saves us. Faith implies that our belief results in trust. Christ explained that the one who rejects the true light, Himself, and flees to the darkness, loves evil, and doesn’t want to see the light of God. Whoever comes into the light wants his life to be exposed, because it really isn’t his or her life that’s seen, it’s the life which is in God, in Christ. As Paul will say in Romans, it is the righteousness of God which is revealed in our lives. God’s call to faith often comes long before we’re even aware of it. The infant who’s held before the Baptismal font is capable of faith because the Holy Spirit puts it there. Baptism is an act of God, not man. God has called you, His child, He’s filled you with His Spirit, raised you to new life. He will place you with Christ in heaven. We are recipients of the most precious gift ever given. The gift bought and paid for by the crucified and resurrected Saviour of the world. Jesus Christ. Amen. PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 THE LORD’S PRAYER Page 196 AGNUS DEI (Lamb of God) Page 962 THE DISTRIBUTION Post-Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201 CLOSING HYMN: 543 “What Wondrous Love Is This” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re1EtfbOcp4