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"What do we do when our faith is shaken?" The Third Sunday in Advent December 15, 2024 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Brothers and sisters, peace, grace and mercy be to you through God our Father, and our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Opening Hymn is “In Thee Is Gladness” Lutheran Service Book 818 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC1ixVXQ9PY Our Collect Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, we implore You to hear our prayers and to lighten the darkness of our hearts by Your gracious visitation; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible Readings: Old Testament – Zephaniah 3:14-20 Psalm 85 Epistle – Philippians 4:4-7 Gospel – Luke 7:18-35 The Apostles’ Creed – I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Our Hymn of the Day is: “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People” Lutheran Service Book, 347 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJZJsmDBYw The Sermon – Our Gospel text, and our lives, pose a question this Sunday. What do we do when our faith is shaken? When life is upended by storm and war, or the toll of disease and disability. Our personal challenges and the world can place both fear and compassion in our hearts. We ask, what can be done, where do we turn? Yet there’s a deeper issue that troubles many of us – even when we’re far away from those involved. Why? Why did God allow this to happen? Put another way: What do you do when the very foundation of your life is pulled out from under you? As Christians we turn to God in faith, in prayer, and we look to His Word for strength and comfort. In our Gospel passage from Luke, we see a contrast in Godly and ungodly approaches. The first is John the Baptist. John has been placed in Herod’s prison because he did what God wanted him to do. John was sent to be the forerunner of the Messiah. He preached what God desired him to proclaim. He called everyone to repentance and faith in the Redeemer. He did everything God asked, even openly criticizing King Herod for taking his brother’s wife as his own. John is thrown into Herod’s prison for telling the truth, for saying things no one else would say. John was the forerunner preparing the way for the Lord. He preached a message of repentance, using God’s Law that shows us our sins and desperate need for a Saviour. He introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus Himself says that among those born of women none is greater than John. And yet it appears the Baptist’s faith was shaken. Now John was no sceptic, but he asks for reassurance, in a dark time, and dark place. He’s in a dungeon and knows full well he is not going to get out. John stands as a testament that sometimes God’s will for one of His beloved children, even his most chosen, is not comfort and security in this life, but trials and suffering. Sometimes even a martyr’s death. Others in our Gospel reading, the pharisees and scribes, the religious lawyers, are the true sceptics. They have no faith at all but rely on their own righteousness. They too are in a prison, but it’s the prison of the law and the mistaken belief that they can fulfill it, and that by strict of obedience they can make themselves right with God. They think they can earn their own salvation. They were disbelievers when it came to John the Baptist; they said he had a demon. And they were sceptics, disbelievers, when it came to Jesus, calling Him a drunkard and a glutton. They were offended when John preached repentance to them, and they were even more offended when Jesus would eventually make the rightful claim that He was the One promised and sent by God. So how does Jesus restore the faith of John? How does He restore the people’s confidence in John as a prophet? How does God restore us when we face tragedies and doubts. Let’s turn back to God’s word in Luke where the Apostle writes: “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” John is now in prison under one of the most wicked tyrants of the ancient world – King Herod. And again, he was there for doing the right thing, for being God’s prophet. When John’s faith is tested, where does he go? He goes to the one place we must go when our faith is tested, and that’s Jesus. John was considered the greatest man born of woman, but he was still human, and so are we. So, John’s personal struggles began to take a toll on his faith. As he lay in Herod’s prison he wondered, thought, and considered, is Jesus really the Messiah? The One who would free God’s people, and perhaps free him from a dungeon? Perhaps John wondered, as we may sometimes ask in our own life, ‘If Jesus is the Messiah, why am I facing the hardship I am?’ Most people today, when they doubt, don’t go to Jesus. They’d rather answer the nagging questions with hearsay or try to figure it out on their own. They don’t go to the true source, God. When John had doubts, he looked to Christ. Since He couldn’t go himself, he sent two messengers. They ask Jesus John’s question word for word… Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? What we must understand here is that John was not a sceptic. Things were simply not going as he thought. He was in the darkest of troubles and couldn’t understand what God was doing at the moment. Have you ever been in that place? Here’s the real issue going on in John’s thinking … Do I truly believe, do I really trust Christ with my life even when things aren’t going well or when I’m in the middle of a crisis? Then we see Jesus’ answer -- “In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (vss. 21-23) Jesus responds by telling the two messengers what He is publicly doing and quoting Scripture to them. The account is amazing. Jesus is asked this question by John’s friends, and says, ‘Wait over there and watch.’ Don’t take someone else’s word for it, Christ says, I want you to see for yourselves. In that hour, Luke tells us, He heals those with diseases and plagues. He casts out evil spirits. He restores sight to the blind. Is God’s timing not perfect? At the very moment John’s friends come to Jesus, He already has people lined up to heal so the messengers could be eyewitnesses and go back and tell John that Christ is, in fact, the One. Not only does Jesus show the followers of John what’s been going on, but He does something astounding. Jesus knows John the Baptist is a Bible student and teacher. John knows the Old Testament. Jesus quotes two passages of Scripture to get John’s thinking back on track. Holy Scripture gets our focus off ourselves and our struggles and sets our minds on the things of God. Jesus quotes Isaiah 26: 19, 35:5 and 61:1 to John. Isaiah writes in Chapter 35 that during the reign of the Messiah, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” In Isaiah 61:1 Isaiah writes, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” Isaiah 26:19 tell us, “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!” Jesus reveals to John’s followers that He is doing exactly what the Bible says the Messiah will do. Christ shows them and then tells them to go back and quote these verses to John. He knew by quoting the passages, John would recognize them, hear the messengers’ reports of the miracles they’d seen, and that John’s faith would be strong again. John knew what Isaiah said about the Messiah. What’s interesting is that Jesus doesn’t quote the ending of Isaiah 61:1. And this was the problem John was probably having. John was in prison. If the Messiah was here and Scripture prophesized that those in prison, the captives, would be set free, John may well have wondered -- what about me? Jesus doesn’t quote that verse though. Why? It wasn’t time yet. In order to set the captives free, Jesus was going to have to die on the cross and the time for His death hadn’t yet come. John needed to be reminded that some of the promises concerning the Messiah were coming to pass, but in God’s providence and wisdom they had not all come to pass quite yet. Through the Bible, through God’s Word, we can read and understand that Christ would not only die on the cross, but rise from the dead in the Resurrection. We’re reassured that through faith in Jesus’ payment for our sins we are truly set free – John and every person who will ever live! The messengers that returned to the Baptist gave Him hope for that day which was soon coming. The Word of God is the messenger that gives us hope by testifying that Christ truly did come down to earth once, that he comes to us today in His Church, and on the Last Day will return. King Jesus currently reigns in Heaven, and in the hearts of believers. There is a day coming when all the earth will see His glorious return, and His reign will be universal. Even in the hour of John’s imprisonment and misery, liberty was proclaimed to that captive, and the prison was opened for John. The Baptist’s mind and heart were set free from worry and doubt. John could place his trust in Jesus. We too can place our lives in the hands of Christ. And so, we have a refuge from the tragedies of this world, even the darkest and most sinister. We have comfort when the news on television or the news we’re told personally is hard to hear. We have strength when we feel weak and fear we can no longer go on. We have real hope, true freedom. And that’s because we have someone on our side who offers us eternal comfort, and eternal life. When the darkness and doubt of this world threaten, the light of Christ and His Good News shines, and the darkness will never overcome it. May the peace that passes all human understanding, keep your heart and minds in Jesus Christ. Amen. The Benediction – The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Our Closing Hymn is: “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” Lutheran Service Book, 803 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDtPG8KYQhA Music: Ludwig van Beethoven"