Bethel Lutheran Church

A Blessed Thanksgiving Eve!!!

Just to let each of you know:

Tonight: Wednesday, 7:00 pm We will have a Thanksgiving Eve Worship Service with Holy Communion.
PIE!!! After the Service, we will have a time of fellowship with Pie!!!! (Thanks Andrea and others!!)

Also, next Sunday after first Service (10:00am) we will have a Special Voters Meeting to pass the 2011 Bethel Budget. All adults are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Blessings to you as we rejoice and give thanks to Jesus!

Pastor Bruce

 

 The Holy Trinity (from June 7) [13:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Readings

Is. 6:1-7
Rom. 11:33-36
John 3:1-15 (16-17)

Sermon Overview (listen to the full sermon by clicking on Play above)

When a former head of GM was asked what the greatest mistake GM ever made he answered that it was in 1999 when they discontinued their electric car program.  Not foreseeing $4/gal. gas or green buying they didn’t know that their customers would end up wanting such a thing. Not knowing their customers cost them dearly.

Sometimes not knowing the translation of the message can hurt a business or organization. Years ago the American Dairy Association was promoting milk with their got milk campaign.  They thought it was going great here in America so they thought that they would promote it in Mexico.  However the translation of this slogan sort of lost it’s marketing impact as it was translated into Spanish that means are you lactating?

Words can trip one up too.  In our gospel lesson for today, a man named Nicodemus, a ruling pharisee comes to Jesus at night.  He begins by buttering him up by saying we know you are from God because of the great things you’ve done.  But his question to Jesus was, how do we get to heaven? Jesus’ answer to him was that in order to get to heaven, you must be born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue what those words mean.  He tries to understand them literally.  That to be born again and go back into one’s mother’s womb is impossible.  But what Jesus means you must be born by the spirit.  Nicodemus had a hard time understanding that because he was Jewish.  He was taught that if you were Jewish it was your first birth that saved you.  But now he finds that he must be born again. To him, he knew no second birth, no birth from the spirit.

Today we do the same thing. There are people walking around thinking that they are destined for heaven because of the country they are from or because of the family they were born in, or because of their moral character, or the way they use their time and money.  But none of these things get us into heaven.  Nothing we do makes us a child of God.   nothing we do will get us the spiritual rebirth that Jesus says is necessary.  Jesus gives us that and he does it perfectly.

Another error we make is requiring God to think the way we think he should.  We go to God and think that our God shouldn’t send anyone to hell, except for people we consider to be bad.  And that this triune God stuff doesn’t make sense and God’s gotta make sense to us.

God reveals himself as the trinity, three people, one being.  And we don’t understand but who we are, as created beings telling God that he’s wrong because it doesn’t make sense to us.  And when Jesus tells Nicodemus that to get into heaven one must be born again.

When Jesus went to that cross, he did it for us.  And we have been reborn because Jesus promises to us.

Satan won’t leave us alone.  He is always telling us that it is our good deeds and it is the things we say that are important.  But God shows us his love in awesome ways and it is still hard for us to accept it.  God says don’t worry, I have everything in my hands.  God wsays trust me, I’ll tell you the truth and follow my directions.

 

 Easter Sermon [11:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Readings

Isaiah 25:6-9
Corinthians 15:1-11
Mark 16:1-8

Sermon Notes

People who see us celebrate Easter might not understand why it is so important.  On Easter we celebrate the Christ that rose.  We celebrate the command that the angels gave the women at the tomb, to go and tell the good news of his raising from the dead.  Why is this such good news? Because if Jesus had not physically rose from the dead, we’d all be pretty pathetic.  It would be so sad that we were all fooled by some guy that made empty promises.  The bible tells us that if Christ did not rise from the dead, we are still in our sins, we are still destined to go to hell and we might as well enjoy this short life because we cannot change it.  But Christ did rise, and because he did rise from the dead, his promises are certain.  The promise that all who believe in Christ will rise from the dead too.  That is the certainty of our faith.

Now, we have to tell people this, but be warned that people don’t only deny that Jesus physically rose from the dead but that we live in a world which claims that God himself is dead.

A couple years back, a few phycologists came out with a paper that said God is dead.  They based it on looking at the human state and saying that there would be no way that a loving God would let so much stuff happen in this world; God must be dead.  The other reason they used is that we humans are advancing in technology so that we no longer need a God to explain the questions in life.

Actually this idea nothing new. Adam and Eve acted like God were dead.  The thought their lives would be better if God didn’t exist. That they could choose their own route and go their own ways.  Today we are guilty of the same. Our sinful natures draw us away from God and tell us that we can be god, and we can do it ourselves.   That is our sinful nature.  And there is no way for us to change our sinful nature. We still need forgiveness. That is why Jesus went to the cross.

 

 Palm Sunday [10:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Readings
Zech. 9:9-12
Phil. 2:5-11
Mark 14:1–15:47 or Mark 15:1-347 or John 12:20-43

Sermon (Listen to the full sermon by clicking play above)

The people thought as Jesus entered Jerusalem that he would mount a revolt and save them from their Roman occupation.  But Jesus didn’t come to be the savior of a civilization 2000 years ago, he came to save all people of all times.  Jesus coming into Jerusalem that day marked the beginning of some of the most important days since the creation.  We see Jesus coming in and the people cheering him, all sure that Jesus will give them what they want.  We can all fall into that same misconception that if you follow Jesus your life will get better, you won’t have money problems, you will get along with your wife better….etc.  We come to Jesus the same way the people of Jerusalem did that Sunday.  We say hosanna, but we don’t always understand why he came.  Jesus knew that the week ahead would mean his separation from so many followers, his last supper, his arrest, mock trial, crucifixion, death and resurrection. Jesus knew what the week ahead of him held.  He knew the people that praised him today would a week later cry for his Crucifixion.

God the father knew that we were lost in our sins, and that we could not be saved in any other way.  He wanted for us to have our place in heaven so much that he was willing to punish his own son to save us.  This doesn’t make sense at first to our fallen nature.

Jesus came to give us life.  Jesus wants us to focus on him as the giver of and leader of our lives.

Jesus was motivated when he came into Jerusalem, he wasn’t side-tracked by the cheers and the applause.  He was focused on the cross for on that cross he would give his life so that we could serve him with our lives.

 

 Expected Rewards [10:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prayer:
O God, in our weakness we have failed to be Your messengers of forgiveness and hope in the world. Renew us by Your Holy Spirit, that we may follow Your commands and proclaim Your reign of love.  Amen.

Readings:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (New fellowship with God.)
Hebrews 5:1-10 (Jesus, our true high priest.)
Mark 10:32-45 (The measure of all greatness.)

Sermon The following is just some of the points made in the sermon.  Listen to the full sermon by clicking on play above.

In our gospel lesson today, Mark 10:32-45, James and John have a mentality that figures that they should be a part of Jesus’ upper echelon.  After all the did give up everything to follow Jesus. They gave up jobs, homes, time.  But their timing was really bad, you see in our gospel lesson, Jesus has just told these clowns that they are going to Jerusalem and he is going to be mocked, arrested and crucified. But the disciples just don’t get it.  They still view Jesus’ kingdom as earthly, a new reign to free the people from the oppression of the Romans.  They see the coming of the kingdom as a big fight.  They think Jesus is going to pull it out in the end, not die and be the victorious worldly king.  And when Jesus enters his kingdom, they want to be rewarded for their efforts.  They ask for a commitment from Jesus.  Jesus asks them what they want.  And they ask him “Well when you come into your kingdom, can one of us sit on your left and one of us sit on your right.”  Jesus tells them “you do not know what you are asking for.”  They still don’t understand.

Later when the other disciples hear about James and John asking for such a high place, they are upset with them.  Maybe it was for having the audacity to ask for such high places, or maybe it was for beating them to the punch. But Jesus draws them together and teaches them.

The same thing can happen to us that happened to these disciples; we can approach God and say, you know how much time i spend in your church, how much money i give to your offerings, how i am always there with a cheerful smile, how i really want the best–it is only natural that you should reward me.  And in the way our world works, that is appropriate.  But not with God.  For you see God flips the world upside down and teaches truth.  Jesus first dispels that we deserve anything from God.  For indeed our time is from God, our money if from God.  Everything we give to God was from him in the first place.  We are purely receivers in this relationship.

Jesus calls us to follow him. Jesus laid out for the disciples again what he had come to do.  Jesus, from God, to earth, came here to serve.  To pay the ransom for our sins.  A ransom is something that paid to get something more valuable back.  Jesus tells his disciples if you want to be great, be great at serving.  Just as the son of God came here to serve, so we serve too.  Serving does not get us into heaven.  But Jesus’ call is to serve others, to serve as he served us.

There is an old saying that we should expect great things from God, and dare to do great things from him.  We are really good at the expectation part, but we stumble a bit in doing great things for him.  Our lord calls us to serve in humility and love, but be ambitious for the right things.  We let people know how important they are to Christ by serving them.   Serving in love, in response to Jesus’ amazing love for us.