"Pay Attention"
Text: John 1:29-42a
May the love of God the Father fill
you with wonder; may the sacrifice of God the Son fill you with gratitude; and
may the indwelling of the Holy Spirit fill you with faith, hope, and love.
Amen.
Dear Fellow Christians:
I'm pretty sure I know why many
young people today tend to withdraw into their own private world from time to
time and simply tune out everything but their own private thoughts. They have
grown up in an age of "information overload" and have learned to adapt.
They have learned to survive and cope in a world where the vast majority of
information has no apparent value, and where they are nonetheless assaulted relentlessly
during nearly every waking moment.
And it's not just young people. We have
all been forced to develop a certain system of categorizing and then storing or
rejecting information, and everyone does this just a little differently.
Consciously or not, we all make certain "retain or discard" decisions,
moment by moment, every day of our lives. We decide what information we see as
valuable and what we regard as trash. We then try to retain the good and
discard the worthless. If, for example, a football fanatic starts to go on and
on about "counter-gaps" and the merits of the Tampa-two defense, who
would blame you if you glassed over and allowed the statement to disappear into
the black hole of "I have no idea
what he's talking about and I don't really care." This would not be
considered important information by most Americans. If, on the other hand, that
same sports guy started talking about how Best Buy was giving away free digital
cameras, laptops, and big screen HD TVs, you might well be all ears.
This sort of thing seems to develop
its own pattern in our brains, and our own individual preferences remain in
place until something happens to change those patterns. You are not, for
example, all that interested in technical information about leukemia until the
doctor walks in and announces that your spouse has it. From then on you can't
hear or learn enough about it. Your ears are suddenly tuned to pick up any and
every scrap if information on the subject.
This morning we want to change our
listening patterns, because same sort of tune-out frequently occurs when we
study our Bibles. We have a bad habit of ignoring information that we should
regard as vital, paying attention only when crisis strikes. We don't tend to spend
very much time or effort trying to grasp and retain the things that we read in
the Bible, allowing instead an appalling number of truths and insights to slip
off into the wispy world of "Hmm, I
wonder what that means."
God's Word deserves better than that
and our souls need more than that. In fact it is rather foolish for us to
imagine that there is anything in
God's Word that is not worthy of our intense study and meditation. There is no
part of God's Word that is unworthy of our best effort at fully grasping what
the Lord is there trying to teach us. This morning then we will be encouraged
to pay attention; to hear and read God's Word with
understanding; to grasp and apply that word, and to act upon it. The
text that will guide and direct our study is found in the Gospel of John, the
First Chapter:
John 1:29-42a The next day John
saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world! 30
"This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man
who is preferred before me, for He was before me.' 31 "I did not know Him; but
that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water." 32 And John bore witness, saying,
"I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon
Him. 33 "I did not know
Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see
the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit.' 34
"And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God." 35 ¶ Again, the next day,
John stood with two of his disciples. 36
And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him
speak, and they followed Jesus. 38
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you
seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, when
translated, Teacher), "where are You
staying?" 39 He said to
them, "Come and see." They came and saw where He was staying, and
remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). 40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. 41 He
first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the
Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
So far the
verbally inspired words of our God. Since we know and believe that these are the words of our
perfect God, and not the words of fallible man, therefore we give these truths
our undivided attention as we pray: "Sanctify
us through Your truth, O Lord. Your Word is truth." Amen.
Before we go on, think back for a
moment to the hymn that we just sang before the sermon this morning. The hymn
was number 146 ("Lamb of God, Pure
and Holy") and except for a slight variation right at the end, it simply
repeats the same words in all three verses. So what did you think as you made
your way through that hymn? I remember as a boy thinking that it was sort of a
waste to spend the time and effort to sing the same verse three times in a row.
I think differently now. I realize now that it often takes me two times through
before I even start to pay attention, and even when I am paying attention I am
reminded of different truths each time through. The same sort of thing happens
in our communion liturgy when we sing "Lord have
mercy… Christ have mercy… Lord have mercy" all in
a row, or "Oh Christ, Thou Lamb of God…" three times in a row.
We would do well to admit that we
have a problem when it comes to spiritual laziness. There are many things in
life – many bits of information – that are safely forgotten or neglected. There
is no shame, for example, in being really bad at Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy. Not
so with God's Word. Yet though we can all agree on this point, still we quite
often read our Bibles (if we read them at all) with little or no thought; as if
simply sounding out the words holds great merit or benefit for us. Scripture
teaches us with perfect consistency that Christianity is a matter of the heart,
and that the thoughtless and heartless observance of certain rituals is of little
or no spiritual value. We would also do well to ask ourselves what in this
world we could possibly spend our time and energy on that is more important than paying attention to
God's Word and thereby feeding our eternal souls.
I have little doubt that what we are
seeing is just another natural product of our passive entertainment lifestyle.
We have grown accustomed to an unhealthy dose of mindlessness in our lives.
Nearly all television shows are designed to be watched in mental neutral. So
also music, books, computer games, and movies are almost all geared toward
thoughtless, passive stimulation of anything but productive, edifying thought.
This creates a new and difficult challenge for modern Christians as we struggle
to let the Word of God occupy a higher, nobler position in our lives; as we
struggle simply to pay attention at
all the right times.
Our text for this morning offers
some evidence of the lack of thought and understanding that also afflicted even
the Godly men of Jesus' day. Here we find the great John the Baptist doing what
he was called to do in and around the Jordan River, which was to call the Jews to
repentance and to baptize the penitent in preparation for the coming Messiah.
As John was baptizing, Jesus himself came to him, and John in our text makes a
rather incredible statement: "Behold! The Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world!"
How many times have we referred to
Jesus as "the Lamb of God" without ever stopping to consider
what that title means? We have talked of this before, but my rather imprecise
estimate is that I still say or sing
the term at least 100 times without thought
or meaning for each time I really hear and contemplate those amazing words.
John's reference here to Jesus as "the
Lamb of God" was a startling statement to the ears of those who
first heard him use the term precisely because they understood the significance
of the term "Lamb of God." It was startling because the people
who first heard John the Baptist say these words understood that a sacrificial
lamb was only necessary for the man who had sinned. In Leviticus 4 and 5 we
read about the prescribed sacrifices God required of those who had fallen into
sin. If a man sinned, he was to choose an unblemished lamb from his flock and
sacrifice the prescribed parts of it to the Lord. Thus the "lamb of Jacob,"
for example, would be the lamb a man named Jacob offered in acknowledgment of
his sin and as a public display of his repentance.
Now look again at the term John the
Baptist used to describe Jesus: "the
Lamb of God." What did God need with a lamb? God had no sin. He
therefore needed to make no sacrifice. He needed no lamb.
The term John coined for Jesus is,
in fact, purest gospel. It explains in a single phrase exactly what our God has
done for us. Though our Creator had no sin of his own and was in no way to
blame for the sin of man and devil, he nonetheless provided the remedy for
man's sin. The remedy, amazingly, was his own Son, whom God the Father
sacrificed for the sum total of all the sins of his rebellious creation. God
the Father saved every single one of us by sending his own Son to pay for our sins.
Who could possibly have imagined such a plan for our salvation?
We cheat
ourselves and we deny the Word of God full admission into our own hearts
whenever we fail to reflect on such a things. We repeat phrases that are both
good and true (like grace and faith and redemption) but we rob ourselves of
their power and meaning through our own thoughtlessness and laziness. So also we
read passages like: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself"
with barely a thought as to the incredible truth these words convey. Think of it!
God sacrificed his holy Son to pay the debt of his rebellious creation – to pay
my debt, your debt. God himself did that for us.
The fact that
we today tend to ignore and therefore miss some invaluable truths isn't really
new, is it? John's disciples undoubtedly heard his great testimony and
endorsement of Jesus the first time he said it. Yet they still remained with
John. John had to repeat his striking witness again the next day, and this time
we see the kind of "hearing" our God wants to see in each one of us.
This time Andrew (Simon Peter's brother) and another disciple with him act upon
the words of truth that they heard from John. This time they forsake the Great
Forerunner in favor of the One whose way John had been called to prepare. Our
text says simply, "The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus."
That is the kind of hearing our
Father wants to see in each of us. Not the mere thoughtless, heartless, passive
reception of words, but the true, "take it to heart" hearing of those
words of truth, together with the heartfelt action that results from such true hearing.
Nor do we want
to pass over the masterful question Jesus asks of these two men, as though
Jesus' question lacks importance or depth – both to them and to us. Note that
he does not ask them, "Whom
do you seek?" but "What do you seek?" With this simple question the Good Master
encouraged Andrew and his companion to search the depths of their hearts.
Perhaps they didn't even know the answer to Jesus' question, but they soon come
to know where such answers could be found, and they followed the only One who could
teach them.
Dear
Christians, the Word of God – including also this Word of God – is more than just history. God's Word is, and is
intended to be, living and active in our hearts, minds, and actions. This
morning, for example, we are to hear the title used by John the Baptist to
describe Jesus and marvel anew at the depth and meaning of such a title – God,
sending his own Son as the innocent sacrifice for our sins. We are to hear our
dear Lord Jesus asking of us the very
same question that he asked of Andrew: What
is it that you seek during your time of grace on this earth? With great
shame we recognize and acknowledge that we have often struggled in vain for
what is of no value. So also Jesus this morning asks us not whom we seek (for we all know the answer
to that question) he bids us examine what
we are seeking as his children.
Let the honest
answer for each of us be that we are seeking to rise to our calling as
ambassadors of Jesus Christ on earth, and that we regards ourselves as
pilgrims, just passing through.
God grant that
each of us might listen carefully and truly hear
every single word of our Savior - on this and every morning – and that each one
of us might respond with the faithful sort of action demonstrated by Andrew in
our text. Amen.
Scripture Readings and Sunday Bulletin
for January 20, 2008
NKJ Isaiah 49:1-6 "Listen, O
coastlands, to Me, and take heed, you peoples from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; from the matrix of My mother He has made
mention of My name. 2 And He
has made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of
His hand He has hidden Me, and made Me a polished shaft; in His quiver He has
hidden Me." 3 "And
He said to me, 'You are My servant, O Israel, in
whom I will be glorified.' 4
Then I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and
in vain; yet surely my just reward is with the LORD, and my work with my
God.' " 5 " And now
the LORD says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring
Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him ( for I shall be glorious
in the eyes of the LORD, and My God shall be My strength), 6 Indeed He says, 'It is too small
a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to
restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the
Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.' "
NKJ 1 Corinthians
1:1-9 Paul, called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 ¶ To the church of God
which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to
be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, both theirs and ours: 3 ¶
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 ¶ I thank my God always
concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that
you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you, 7 so
that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, 8 who will also
confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful,
by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
NKJ John 1:29-42a The next day John
saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world! 30
"This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man
who is preferred before me, for He was before me.' 31 "I did not know Him; but
that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with
water." 32 And John bore
witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and
He remained upon Him. 33
"I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me,
'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who
baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 "And I have seen and testified that this is the
Son of God." 35 ¶
Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He
walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him
speak, and they followed Jesus. 38
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you
seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, when
translated, Teacher), "where are You
staying?" 39 He said to
them, "Come and see." They came and saw where He was staying, and
remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). 40 One of the two who heard John speak,
and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother
Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is
translated, the Christ). 42
And he brought him to Jesus.
Bismarck,
ND 58501 (701) 223-4885 Cell: (701) 425-5483
Mr. Mark
Johnson, President (222-1855)
Mrs. Eileen McEnroe, Organist
Michael Roehl,
Pastor mjroehl@bis.midco.net
The Second Sunday after Epiphany – January 20, 2008
|
The Opening
Prayer by the Pastor
The Opening
Hymn ‑#358- (Verses 1-4 & 6) (Red Hymnal)
"Lamb of God, We Fall before
Thee"
The Service of Word and Sacrament – Brown Hymnal page 12.
The Scripture
Lessons: (Printed on the back
page of this bulletin)
The Old Testament Lesson: (Isaiah 49:1-6) Truly God’s Son was
great enough to pay for all sin, not just the sin of the Children of Israel. We
hear in our first lesson how God even from ancient times had planned for the
salvation of both Jews and Gentiles in the promised Messiah. During this
Epiphany Season we thank God both for sending His Son for all sinners and for
making that Son known to us, personally.
Psalm 100 (Supplement page 35) (Brown Hymnal)
The New Testament Lesson: (1 Corinthians 1:1-9) Note how
Paul opens this Letter to the Corinthians in part by assuring them that they
share fully in all of God’s grace and
in all of God’s gifts. This Letter could well have been addressed to this
congregation. God has been so good to us. We give thanks unto you, Lord, for
you are good!
The Confession of Faith ‑
The Nicene Creed (Brown Hymnal page 5)
The
Pre‑Sermon Hymn ‑#146 (Red Hymnal)
"Lamb
of God, Pure and Holy"
The
Sermon – Text: John 1:29-42a (Printed on the back page of this bulletin)
"Pay
Attention"
"Create In Me" (The Offertory) – Brown Hymnal page 16 (insert)
The Offering, followed by the Prayers
The Post Sermon Hymn -#163 (Verses 1-4) (Red Hymnal)
"The Death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord"
The Preparation for Holy Communion (Brown Hymnal page 17)
The Distribution -Hymn #306- (Red Hymnal)
The Nunc Dimittis and Thanksgiving (Brown Hymnal page 20)
The Benediction
The
Closing Hymn ‑#313- (Verse 1) (Red Hymnal)
"O
Lord, We Praise Thee"
Silent Prayer
Attendance ‑ Last Sunday (46) 2008 Average (56)
This Week
at
Today -10:00 a.m. – Worship Service w/Communion
-11:15 a.m. – Fellowship Hour
Tuesday -7:00
p.m. – Church Council Meeting
Wednesday -6:00
p.m. – Confirmation & Bible History
-7:00 p.m. –
Midweek Bible Study
Friday -7:00
p.m. – Family Game Night at Church
Next Sunday -8:45 a.m. – Sunday School
and Bible Class
-10:00
a.m. – Worship
Service
-11:00
a.m. – Fellowship
Hour
Church Council Meeting – A
Church Council Meeting is scheduled for this Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. As
always, members of St. Paul are invited to forward any items for discussion to
President Mark Johnson (or any other Council Member) any time prior to the
meeting.
Family Game Night – Our first Winter Family Game Night
is scheduled for this Friday, beginning at 7:00 p.m. For more information
please contact Mrs. Eileen McEnroe.
In Our Prayers – We remember in our prayers Nick Hoffert and his fiancée Veronica Hanson. Nick was deployed
this weekend, along with the rest of the 191st
Military Police Company, for a year-long tour in Iraq. The 191st is
scheduled to leave Fargo this morning for Fort Dix, NJ for several weeks of
specialized training before they deploy to Iraq. We thank both Nick and
Veronica for their service to our country and pray that our merciful God would
protect Nick and bring him safely home again to friends and family. Nick and
Veronica, who are engaged to be married after Nick returns, are two of our
newest contacts here at St. Paul.