رونوشت 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:15.359
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, to him who loves us and has washed us clean from our sins with his own blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father, to him be all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever.
00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:16.320
Amen.
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:23.440
Friends, Jesus only comes for sinners.
00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:36.320
We're great practitioners at justifying how we're better than the guy next to us and how we're not as bad as that girl over there.
00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:41.759
The Pharisees thought this way in today's gospel.
00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:47.920
This is why they're all bent out of shape that Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners.
00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:59.200
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:09.040
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:21.280
Why should the Pharisees have a problem with Jesus who they don't like, eating with tax collectors and sinners?
00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:32.480
Well, because no self-respecting follower of God's law would associate with those classified as sinners.
00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:39.840
How confident man is when he believes he's done everything right.
00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:47.840
How bold our hearts become when we feel we can look back and say, I've done all that is expected of me.
00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:52.000
I've followed all the rubrics, I've done all the things.
00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:56.400
It's the rule we live by.
00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:00.239
We have a way of measuring ourselves against others.
00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:05.519
We like to know what we're up against, don't we?
00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:16.000
So when we're trying to meet a standard, we love to compare ourselves to others, especially when we believe we're doing better than the person standing next to us.
00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:28.159
Oh, how our chest feels full when we tell ourselves, I've done a way better job at loving my neighbor than they have.
00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:35.520
Yes, us Christians are guilty of the same kind of pride as well.
00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:43.039
The Pharisees had followed all the rubrics and then some.
00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.439
But their hearts were far from God.
00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:58.400
Because they believed themselves to be righteous before the eyes of God and the eyes of all the people.
00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:09.039
If they wanted reassurance of their own righteousness, they simply looked at themselves and their deeds in order to feel confident before God.
00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:23.280
They loved to hold up in front of others how they accomplished God's law and what God's law required of them, how they gave a tenth of their income
Load full transcript
to God's house, and how they didn't break the Sabbath.
00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:33.439
But they were belly button gazers, all of them, just staring at themselves.
00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:41.759
And if they weren't focused on what they were doing, well, they were all about what everybody else was doing.
00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:49.599
The Lord's disciples once thought this way.
00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:55.840
They wanted to know what they could do to be righteous before God.
00:03:57.919 --> 00:04:04.000
In John's gospel, they asked Jesus, what must we do to be doing the works of God?
00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:08.319
As if by doing that they could say that they had God's approval.
00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:13.919
But Jesus has a way of reframing their thoughts.
00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:19.360
He has a way of changing their hearts by taking it out of their hands.
00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:28.079
He responded to that question by telling them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he has sent.
00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:38.160
Not only does he halt their self-righteousness and takes the works of God out of their hands, but they're believing as well.
00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:44.240
No, he says, believing in him who is sent, well, that's God's work.
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:53.040
They were all looking for the minimum balance to tip the scales to their own favor.
00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.560
They're all looking for the bottom line of righteousness, you understand.
00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.839
We're all about finding the bottom line, aren't we?
00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:09.920
If there's a bottom line, we want to believe we'd at least met that.
00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:16.560
What's the minimum score I need to get a passing grade on this test?
00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:24.240
What's the least amount I need to pay to make sure I still have enough insurance on my home?
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:31.040
What's the minimum people need to do to be saved?
00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:40.720
But salvation and believing in Jesus was not the disciples' work, but God's work.
00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:47.040
Just like believing in Jesus is not your work either, but the Holy Spirit's work.
00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:56.720
If we believe in Jesus, it's because the Spirit of truth has worked that belief in our hearts.
00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:03.600
If we don't have faith, it's because we've rejected the Holy Spirit's word preached into our ears.
00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:09.360
Jesus speaks and the Holy Spirit proceeds forth.
00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:15.040
Jesus calls and we come, but it's not our decision.
00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:19.439
Just like it wasn't Matthew's decision in today's gospel.
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:31.279
Matthew was a tax collector just working his tax booth, minding his own business, and our Lord came by and said, Follow me.
00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:37.439
Matthew was all about taking another Jew's money for the Roman government.
00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:41.839
What kind of person works for an oppressive foreign government?
00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:46.319
Matthew was that kind of person.
00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:51.519
He was ranked up there with the worst of sinners.
00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:54.399
But Jesus called him anyway.
00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.759
Matthew heard and received the word of the Lord.
00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:03.680
He called and he came.
00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:11.199
And this is just as important to understand today as it was that day.
00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:18.480
Because what the Pharisees get wrong in today's gospel, we still get wrong in our own day and age.
00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:29.759
There is no minimum standard of our accomplishments that we can hold up before God in order to invoke our own salvation.
00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:35.519
There is no pride you get to hold up before God and man in believing in Jesus.
00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:38.079
There are no super Christians.
00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:45.519
There is nothing you can do to up the possibility of your salvation.
00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:52.319
Being brought into the kingdom of God is not about minimum requirements accomplished by any of you.
00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:58.000
The Lord must come to you.
00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:01.040
His Holy Spirit must work.
00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:14.000
He must call you through the gospel and deliver to you Jesus in the sacraments, just as he's done for every man, woman, and child here who has been baptized in his name.
00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:33.440
This very next week, next Sunday, we will witness with our own two eyes a man brought into the kingdom of God, brought into the Lord's family, and made a child of God.
00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:41.039
But not by his will, but by the will of the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit.
00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:51.120
And there he will be given with absolute certainty the gifts that the Word of God promises in baptism.
00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:56.559
Because Jesus still only comes for sinners.
00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:07.440
For it's just as he said in today's gospel: those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:09.600
Go and learn what this means.
00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:12.559
I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:17.919
For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:24.159
If you're not a sinner, Jesus didn't come to call you.
00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:31.519
But if you're not a sinner, then you have no need to receive what Jesus is giving out, do you?
00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:44.399
We don't observe the custom of baptizing babies, for example, because they're somehow more righteous or pure of heart than the rest of mankind.
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:55.039
Rather, they're sinners too, in need of Jesus and his righteousness just as much as the rest of us.
00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:03.759
To children such as these belong the kingdom of heaven, and why?
00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:12.399
Well, not because
they're without sin, but because they especially need to receive what Jesus is giving out.
00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:18.320
The forgiveness of sins, life eternal, salvation.
00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:26.000
He calls us all, every one of you, through the waters of holy baptism.
00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:32.639
He calls us because we're all sinners.
00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:43.440
We all come to the waters of holy baptism as infants, whether we're six days, six years, or twenty-six years old.
00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:55.679
We all come to those waters lying there helpless, unable to make ourselves more righteous than the person next to us before the eyes of God.
00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:01.840
Unable to resurrect ourselves to new life in Christ.
00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:07.519
What does baptism have in common with being born?
00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:13.279
Why does Jesus use this as an analogy with Nicodemus?
00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.399
Who here asked to be born?
00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:25.039
But yet all of you were brought into this world not by your own will, but by your parents' will.
00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:30.240
So it is with being born again from above.
00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:37.679
You are not born again by your own will, but by the will of God in Christ Jesus, by his Holy Spirit.
00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:52.559
Yes, we all come to the font as infants, no matter how old we are, because you're in need of being clothed with Christ's righteousness and fed with his holy food, which is his body and blood.
00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:58.000
For no one can enter eternal life without being covered in Jesus.
00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:10.159
And if Jesus has only come to call sinners, then you should acknowledge the work of God in you and all those who believe and are baptized?
00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:19.679
But if you don't think you're a sinner, well, you have no need of Jesus.
00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:27.200
And if you believe you're righteous, well then what need do you have to turn from your ways and return to the Lord?
00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:38.240
And if you claim to be a Christian but don't see your need for daily repentance and forgiveness, then what need do you have to return to your baptism, as Luther exhorted?
00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:46.799
Where Christ promises to wash away all your sins, give you his Holy Spirit, and cover you with his very own righteousness.
00:12:49.519 --> 00:13:02.399
If you don't believe you're ill, well, then you have no need of the great physician who heals you, both body and soul, with his own body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.
00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:10.480
You have no need to remember your baptism every Lord's day when we enter in.
00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:20.720
You have no need to receive the Lord's absolution into your ears, and you have no need to receive the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins in your mouth.
00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:23.440
You may go your way.
00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:47.039
However, dear beloved baptized believers in Christ Jesus, we all come to the font as sinners, helpless, in need of being saved.
00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:54.559
We all need our sins washed away to receive God's Holy Spirit as a seal of his promises.
00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:00.799
Baptism saves because God's word tells us it does.
00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:09.759
And if you want what Jesus is giving out, well then you need to realize you're a sinner.
00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:12.399
Every one of you.
00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:34.320
And if you want a seat at the table with Jesus, like Matthew in today's gospel, well then you need to see that you're a sinner in need of the Lord's repentance so he can repent you and forgive you and call you into his very own kingdom, which is his desire.
00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:43.519
You're only saved by Jesus, and you cannot add to your own righteousness or salvation.
00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:51.120
It's either Jesus' righteousness or yours, and only one of those will get you into eternal dwellings.
00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:57.759
There is no room for the self-righteous or the minimalist.
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.320
Jesus only comes for sinners.
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:10.000
And it is for Jesus' sake that He forgives you all, all of you, of all your sins.
00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:11.919
Amen.
00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:17.279
Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:17.840
Amen.