A Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity
A Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity
Romans 8:12-17 & St. Matthew 7:15-21
by William Klock
Jesus sat on the mountainside with a great crowd of people spread out all around. They hung on his every word as he announced the coming of God’s kingdom. This is what Israel had been waiting for years—for centuries. Here was the prophet like Moses, promised all the way back in Deuteronomy. Here he was, like Moses, on the mountain. But this time, instead of stone tablets with God’s law written on them, Jesus was describing a kingdom in which God’s law of love is inscribed on the hearts of its people—transforming them, setting them right from the inside out. Just as the law given by Moses described the things that separated the people of God from everyone else—who was in and who was out—Jesus described what the people of God’s new kingdom were to be like—this new people, filled with the very Spirit of God. But then, knowing how people are and knowing how Israel had fallen so many times in the past, Jesus ended his “Sermon on the Mount” with a series of warnings. First he warned against going with the flow. Repentance is hard and really changing is even harder. Jesus was at odds with the leaders of the Jews—most of all because of the things he said about the temple. Its days were coming to an end. God would build a new one—but this one would be made, not of stone, but of people—men and women indwelt by God himself. Jesus knew it would be easy for people to just stick with the old way of doing things and so he warned: “Go in by the narrow gate. It’s a tight squeeze and not many will find their way through, but that’s the way to life.” And then—this where today’s Gospel picks up—Jesus warns, “Watch out for false prophets!” Oh, they knew all about that. Everybody knew how, back in the days leading up the Exile, the real prophets had declared the word of the Lord and called Israel and her leaders to repentance, but that the kings and the priests, and most everybody else instead listened to the false prophets who assured them that, in fact, everything was fine just as it was and that they had nothing to worry about. The false prophets led the people straight into judgement. Nobody wanted a repeat of that! But, of course, the problem with false prophets is that no one ever thinks their favourite prophet could possibly be false. Jesus knew that in the coming years, spokesmen for the status quo—for the wide and easy way—would arise from amongst the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the Zealots and the Essenes and they would preach passionately that their way was the real way, the true way—God’s way. Missiologist Ed Stetzer likes to say, “If you want people to like you, don’t become a pastor; sell ice cream.” There’s an even better way: Assure people that God’s cool with them just the way they are and with the things they’re already doing. People will love you to death. That’s precisely what Jesus was warning the people about that day.
Let’s look again at our Gospel, beginning with Matthew 7:15. Jesus said,
Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inside they are ravenous wolves! You’ll be able to tell them by the fruit they bear: you don’t find grapes growing on thorn bushes, do you, or figs on thistles? Well, in the same way, good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. Good trees can’t produce bad fruit, nor can bad ones produce good fruit! Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So, you must recognise them by their fruits.
And then, in verse 21, Jesus gets even sharper with his warning:
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; only people who do the will of my Father in heaven. [That’s the fruit we should be looking for.] On that day lots of people will say to me, “Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, didn’t we? We cast out demons in your name! We performed lots of powerful deeds in your name!” Then I will say to them, “I never knew you! You’re a bunch of evildoers. Go away from me!”
Judgement was coming to Israel. We have a bad tendency to pull Jesus’ words and especially his warnings out of context, to pull them out of history, and to push them into some point far in the future and when we do that, we strip out the urgency. One day there will be a judgement that comes to the whole earth, but Jesus’ horizon was the judgement that would come on Judah and on Jerusalem and the temple in about forty years—a judgement that would put an end to all the things and ways of the past and that would vindicate him and his people and this whole “new covenant”. It would bring an end to the first act in the story and draw back the curtains on the second.
In light of that, I think it’s good to recap the story. God’s creation was a disaster and it all went wrong because human beings rebelled against him. Even wiping out the entire human race and starting over with the one, last righteous man and his family didn’t solve the problem. So in that dark world the Lord called Abraham out of the nations. He made himself known to Abraham and most of all he showed Abraham his goodness and his faithfulness so that Abraham could be a witness to that goodness and faithfulness. And the Lord made Abraham into a people, a nation, and he did the same with them. Over and over he showed them his goodness and his faithfulness. He made them promises and then he did what he said. When they were slaves in Egypt, he rescued them, he cared for them in the wilderness, and he led them into the promised land and gave them wells they hadn’t dug and cities they hadn’t built. He gave them his law, he gave them a king, and most importantly he lived in their midst. The other nations had temples and in those temples were idols of wood or gold or stone that were blind, deaf, dumb, and powerless. But in the midst of Israel was the tabernacle where the glory of the Lord rested on the ark of the covenant. A real, living God who was good and who was faithful and proved it to his own people before the watching eyes of the world.
Again, Israel was to be a witness to the nations. The nations were supposed to see the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord reflected in the corporate life of his people. As they lived in his presence and as they trusted in him and were obedient to his law. They were also supposed to be the righteous benchmark by which the Lord would one day judge the nations when he came to put an end to their wickedness and to set his world to rights.
But over and over Israel failed to be that witness and to be that benchmark. The Lord sent prophets to call his people to repentance, but they rejected his prophets. Sometimes they even killed them. Instead, they listened to false prophets who told them everything was fine. The Lord even sent his people into exile. The promised land was his. It was holy. And if they weren’t going to be holy too, then they could not live in his land or in his presence. First the northern tribes were conquered and scattered by the Assyrians and then the southern tribes were conquered by the Babylonians. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and the people were taken off in captivity to live in a foreign, pagan land. The Lord was faithful to his promises when he disciplined his people, and, again, he was faithful to his promises when he returned them to the land. But the people were still fickle. They still served him with divided loyalties.
And so, after a long string of prophets whom the people rejected, the Lord finally sent his own son. He sent his son to proclaim his soon-to-come judgement on Israel and to call his people to repentance. But he also sent his son to be the faithful Israelite, the Israelite who would single-mindedly serve him, the Israelite who would obey the law, the Israelite who would be that holy and righteous benchmark, the Israelite who would ultimately die the death that his sinful people deserved and become a sacrifice for their sins.
The key point here with regard to today’s Gospel is that Jesus came to announce that the Lord was about to judge his people and to call them to repentance. Those who refused to repent—those who listened to the false prophets, who carried on down the easy, wide way, would face death and destruction in a generation. And with that announcement came a call to repentance. There was a narrow way that would lead through that judgement to life. It wasn’t an easy way. Just as Jesus was mocked and rejected and eventually put to death, so those who repented and followed him would walk a similar path. At the beginning of this same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had said to them, “Blessed are you when people slander you and persecute you, and say all kinds of wicked things about you falsely because of me. Celebrate and rejoice: there’s a great reward for you in heaven. That’s how they persecuted the prophets who went before you.” On the other side of that rejection was life—life in a new people of God who would be filled with his own Spirit and who, because of that, would have a righteousness greater than the Pharisees. They would finally be the people who would be faithful to the Lord and, most of all, in whom the nations would see the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord, so that they, in turn, would come in faith to bring him glory. The nations would see reflected in this new Israel the glory of a god unlike any of the gods they had ever known and so God’s glory would spread and his new creation would grow. And all those who found themselves in Jesus the Messiah would find this gift of the Spirit a foretaste, a down-payment on that day when the gospel has done its work, when the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, and when death itself is finally defeated. On that day God will raise them all to new life, just as he has raised Jesus, and they will live forever in his presence in a world set to rights once and for all.
But that narrow way in the meantime was going to be hard. If it wasn’t slander and persecution, false prophets would try to lure them down the easy way—to go with the flow—straight into judgement. And so Jesus warned them: Look for good fruit. It’s not their zeal or even the miracles they might perform; pay attention to their fruit. Do you see God’s new creation unveiled in them? Do they show the life of the Spirit? Or are they still invested in the ways and things that are passing away? Are they still focused on a law written on stone or have their hearts been transformed by Jesus and the Spirit? The prophets reflected the state of the nation. In a few short years judgement would fall on Jerusalem and people would be crying out to the Lord for deliverance. But the Lord knows his own by their fruit and these had borne none, because they’d rejected Jesus and instead listened to fruitless prophets. In contrast, Jesus says, “Those who do the will of my Father in heaven”—those who have found their identity in me and have been filled with my Spirit—they’re the ones who will fulfil the law and, because of that, because of the fruit the Spirit causes them to bear, they’ll be known by the Father.
Now, to change gears just a little bit, this is where Paul picks up in our Epistle from Romans 8. Jesus knew that his people would face rejection and opposition and persecution—even martyrdom—for the sake of following him. He knew they would be confronted by false prophets who would tell them that everything was fine and that they were foolish for following Jesus. And Paul was shepherding people in very similar situations. He saw fellow Jewish believers, even out in the gentile world, being hassled and harassed by their fellow Jews for the sake of their faith in Jesus. Sometimes their fellow Jews would even be so angry with them that they’d rat them out to the Roman authorities for being disloyal citizens of the empire. But, too, the people in these churches in places like Rome or Asia Minor faced harassment from their pagan neighbours and even from the civil and religious authorities. At the time Paul wrote this in the 50s, there wasn’t any official persecution of Christians by the Romans, but Paul could see that it was eventually going to come. People don’t like it when you expose their sin and warn of coming judgement. The Jews didn’t like it when Jesus did it. And Paul, seeing it on a small scale already, knew that the gentiles wouldn’t like it when it was their turn. Caesar definitely wouldn’t like it, because of course, to proclaim that Jesus is Lord is, at the same time, to proclaim that Caesar is not. When persecution came, it would be easy for believers to turn away from Jesus because of their fear. And there would be false prophets proclaiming to the churches that everything was fine, that compromise was okay—like the Judaisers in Galatians or the Nicolaitans in Revelation.
So Paul exhorts the Christians in Rome to stand firm. The Lord has called them and made them his witnesses and they have no reason to fear. Look again at Romans 8:12-21:
So then, brothers, debtors we are, but not to human flesh, to live our life in that way. If you live in accordance with the flesh, you will die; but if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God, you see, are God’s children. You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery, did you, to go back again into a state of fear? But you received the spirit of sonship, in whom we call out “Abba, Father!” When that happens, it is the Spirit himself giving supporting witness to what our own spirit is saying: that we are God’s children. And if we are children, we are also heirs: heirs of God, and fellow heirs with the Messiah, as long as we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
“Look,” Paul is saying, “Israel was captive to the flesh. They had God’s good law to live by, but it was written on tablets of stone and their hearts were full of the same poison as the hearts of the rest of the human race. The Lord poured out his love on them and they should have loved him wholeheartedly in return, but their hearts were broken, set on sin and on self—and so they could never return the Lord’s love. Not truly. They had—and their descendants still have –reason to fear. The Lord will judge their unfaithfulness.” But, says Paul, “You are different. Not only have you been forgiven through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but God has poured his own Spirit into you and that makes all the difference. The Spirit renews your minds and regenerates your heart. The law that was once written on stone—the law that we sum up in those words about loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbour as yourself—the Spirit writes that law on our hearts. If we are in Jesus the Messiah, the law is no longer a stone tablet we look at and say, ‘I wish I could do that.’ Now it’s written on our hearts. It’s our desire. It’s what we value, because of the Spirit.” Paul says that we still have to put to death our old ways, but it’s this gift of God’s own Spirit that makes it possible. And it’s always good to remember that the Lord does not give his gifts in vain.
Brothers and Sisters, it’s good at this point to pause and let this sink in. I think we often forget that there’s a bigger purpose behind all of this. We know that sin is wrong. We know that through Jesus our sins are forgiven. We know that the Spirit turns our hearts away from sin to righteousness. We know that we’re supposed to put away the old man and put on the new and live in the Spirit. But I think we sometimes forget that forgiveness and righteousness aren’t ends in themselves. Again, remember the story. Remember why God created a people for himself in the first place. Think of Abraham in the midst of that big, dark world lost in sin and with no knowledge of the Lord. Abraham and his family were to be witnesses to the Lord—to make him known, to be light in the darkness, to show that the Lord is good and faithful, different from the gods of the pagans, and worthy of the worship of the nations. And this people, too, was to be the benchmark by which the nations were one day to be judged. The old Israel failed and so God gave Jesus and the Spirit to create a new Israel—a new people to be both a light to the nations and the righteous benchmark by which they will one day be judged. God’s people have always had this dual ministry to the world—to be both a priestly and prophetic people. As priests we mediate the presence and knowledge of God to the nations and as prophets we stand as—or we should stand—as God’s benchmark of righteousness, calling the nations to repentance and showing forth his standard—showing the world what humanity was created to be.
If that seems like a lot. If it seems like an impossibly high calling, Paul goes on saying that we were once slaves to sin, but through Jesus and the Spirit we have been set free and adopted as sons of God. Brothers and Sisters, by the Spirit we are incorporated into the story of Jesus the Messiah. Because we have the Spirit, we belong to him. We are, as Paul so often likes to say, “in the Messiah”. And if we go back a few verses, Paul tells us that the God who “raised Jesus the Messiah from the dead will also give life to [our] mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in [us].” I think this part of Romans is usually read as if Paul is talking about conversion, but it’s really much deeper than that. Paul is talking about how believers are taken up into the story of Jesus and participate in his suffering and resurrection. To be filled with the Spirit is to be absolutely and completely assured that one day the Lord will raise our mortal (and in some cases martyred) bodies from the dead, just as he raised Jesus from the dead. This is the root of faith. This is what those Christians in Rome needed to remember and believe with all their hearts when persecution and tribulation came.
And if they’ll do that—in the power of the Spirit—Paul says they will become “sons of God”. It’s about participation in the story and life in Jesus as adopted sons of God—it’s especially powerful when we let Paul’s words stand without changing it to sons and daughters or to children of God. He writes “sons of God” for a reason, just as he writes about crying out “Abba, Father” for a reason. Both make it clear he’s talking about our being incorporated into Jesus the Messiah and into his story. Think back to Jesus crying out to his Father in Gethsemane the night before he was crucified. Jesus’ people cry with him, “Abba, Father”. The Lord is no distant god. Brothers and Sisters, because we are in his Son by faith, we too are his sons and daughters and have the privilege to cry out to him as Father just as Jesus did. And Paul recalls that prayer in the garden for a reason. That was Jesus’ prayer to his Father, his prayer as he was about to face his own death, it was his prayer that his Father would take that horrible cup from him. But it was also a prayer of faith as he submitted himself to his Father’s plan. We know that Paul is saying to the Romans that when that same cup of persecution and maybe even martyrdom comes to them, they can cry out to their Father with the same confidence that Jesus did, they can submit in faith to his plan the same way Jesus did, and they can know that the Father holds them in his hands the same way he held Jesus. And, I think most important, they can expect that the Father will vindicate them the same way he vindicated Jesus. They can know that one day the Father will raise them from the dead to share in the life of his new creation.
If they will let themselves be taken up in the story of Jesus the Messiah—something they can’t do on their own power, but they can in the power of the Spirit—if they suffer with the Messiah and walk his narrow and difficult path, they will be heirs with him—and his inheritance, his glory will be theirs.
Brothers and Sisters, those first Christians, whether they were in Jerusalem and facing the wrath of their fellow Jews or whether they were in Rome facing the wrath of the pagans—in a few years facing the wrath of the Emperor Nero who would throw them to lions or burn them alive—Paul reminds them who they are in Jesus and the Spirit. They are the people of God, a people washed clean by the blood of Jesus and a people made righteous by the Spirit, a people called to be prophets and priests. Their calling was to stand before the tsunami of the world’s wrath calling sinful men and women to repentance, while mediating the loving grace of God—proclaiming the good news that Jesus has died, that he is risen, and that life, that participation in God’s new creation can be known through him.
Brothers and Sisters, judgement fell on Jerusalem and the Lord proved himself faithful to his promises as he delivered the church there from destruction. And the gospel went out to the Greeks and Romans and the Lord showed himself faithful again. Through the gospel and through the faithful witness of his people, an entire empire believed. With the biblical witness itself and with that history behind us, we have every reason to trust Jesus and the Spirit ourselves. We now live on the other side of Christendom. We don’t know what will happen. The gospel marches on in other parts of the world, but in ours, darkness is creeping back in. I doubt that we will know martyrdom the way Paul and so many of those First Century believers did, but we will know in some way the wrath of the world as we stand as prophets and priests, confronting a rebellious world. Stand firm. Do not listen to the false prophets who call for compromise and for the easy way. Do not fear the wrath of the world, for we are in Jesus the Messiah and bear the life of God’s Spirit. We are sons and daughters of the Father and no matter how bad things get, we can cry out with Jesus, “Abba, Father!” and know that he hears us. He gave his Son for our sake, why would we think he would abandon us now? And because we are united with the risen Jesus, because we are sons and daughters of God, we know that on the other side of all our troubles and sorrows lies our inheritance—as we confess in the Creed, the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Let’s pray: Father, through the redeeming death and resurrection of your Son and through the regenerating work of your Spirit, you have made us your people. You have given us the task to stand as both prophets and priests, confronting this rebellious world and mediating your grace. Strengthen us, we pray, that we might stand firm in this calling no matter what trials and tribulations we may face. Make us new by your Spirit, fill us with your grace, and remind us that we share in the inheritance of your Son, who has been raised from the dead, that we might confront temptation and fear with a faith confident in your faithfulness. Through Jesus we pray. Amen