Printable PDF:  1-17-2021 Stewardship 2 Sermon

Pastor Mark R Jacobson  ~  10-for-10 Stewardship Emphasis

Stewardship 2 Sermon  ~  January 14, 2021  ~  Matthew 25:14-23

 

¹⁴“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ ²¹“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ ²²“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ ²³“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

 

WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS KNOWING THE MASTER

The day was September 22, the year, 1776. He had been discovered and arrested as a spy, and he was due to be hanged on a British gallows. That was when Captain Nathan Hale rather famously stated, “I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Is it possible that you would have such a feeling and make a similar statement as a believer in Jesus? — It’s too bad that I have only this one life that I can live for God!

This Gospel story of the three servants is meant for us as much as anybody. Jesus told this story in anticipation of his own “journey” – the journey that would lead to his death on the cross and continue with his ascension to the right hand of God. The culmination of his journey will be on Judgment Day when Jesus comes again to establish, once and for all, the kingdom of heaven that will have no end.

The story Jesus told obviously turns on the big difference between the two faithful servants and the one unfaithful servant. What was it that made such a difference in how they acted? It’s not really even suggested that the wicked servant was put off because the other two servants received more from their master. All three of them got a lot. Conservative estimates would say that the value of the single bag of gold was 15 years of wages. If you make about $65,000 a year, that’s around a million dollars. And look what it says about those bags of gold. The master entrusted them to his servants. We’re not talking about self-made millionaires. This is not a tale about the one who starts with nothing, works hard and earns everything he gets. Wealth unimaginable has simply been given to them. It’s not their wealth. It’s their master’s wealth.

If we’re going to let the Word of God have its way with us, we have to do some accounting—what gifts has God given to you? The Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). Your house is God’s. Your phone is God’s. Your car is God’s. Your kids are God’s. Your abilities are God’s. Your financial assets are God’s. If you can be the least bit kind and helpful to others, that gift came to you from God. If you can be compassionate when people are hurting, that gift came to you from God. The God who’s given you all you have wants to know—are you using it, every bit of it, to honor him? This parable applies to our whole Christian Life. It also applies to 100% of our earthly possessions. The Bible says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth (Proverbs 3:9). Does your wealth honor the Lord? Do you know what percentage of your weekly or monthly income is dedicated for the Lord? Will you work through the financial materials mailed to you so you know? Will you participate in this 10-for-10 enhanced giving campaign starting January 31^st? The campaign is 10 weeks long. The high goal is to give 10 percent of your income for 10 weeks. That’s easy math. Just move the decimal point. The lower goal is to increase your giving by 10 percent. You might need a calculator. Will you pray for this 10-for-10 campaign?

Think about the parable. What was the wicked servant’s crime? The wicked servant’s rebellion was not dealing opioids that people overdosed on, not murder, not addiction to porn or booze—you know what his rebellion was? Doing nothing—not using God’s gifts for God’s glory. His rebellion was…“Leave me alone, so I can do what I want!”

Here’s the thing about those two faithful servants. They weren’t perfect either. They were sinners, too. But their story started long before their master went on a journey and entrusted them with bags of gold. There was something that was already firmly in place, something that had been created inside them, so that when they were given that money and the master traveled abroad, the first and only thing they could think to do was to devote themselves to activities and projects that would be pleasing to him when he returned. What do you think that something was?

Our mortality is front and center in the news today. It hurts when a loved one dies. It’s tough to think about someone getting so sick they need oxygen or a ventilator. We do all we can to live and be healthy. And yet that’s the place God the Father found himself with God the Son. When it came to the matter of having someone pay for your sins, there were only two ways that it could go: either it would be you going to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, or it would be a pure and perfect substitute who would go to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth for you. Before you were born and before he created all things, God the Father had already made that choice. On Good Friday he acted on that choice. The thick, unbreakable cords of perfect and eternal love that bound the Father to the Son—God the Father sliced through those cords, severed them, and dropped his beloved Son into the torturous, darkness of God forsakenness. Even in that hell of hells, with the guilt of everyone counted against him, Jesus did not gnash his teeth in anger against God. In silent suffering he was damned, and he suffered and died for you. Your Father in heaven kept you…and cursed his Son.

That’s the something those two faithful servants had seen in their master, how deep his love for them was. That’s what they knew about him before he so generously entrusted his property to them—they knew how much he loved them. That’s what drove them to devote themselves so completely to working for him while he was gone. Of all the things they could ever have had for themselves, hearing “well done” from him was better than anything.

God gives us so many gifts. He has distributed them in various kinds and in various amounts to all of us, because he knows just what you need and what I need to be able to serve him well. The only key that will ever turn over the engine and take us down the road of devoting ourselves and our bags of gold to serving him with those gifts is how much Jesus loves us. In this all-encompassing arena of making faithful use of God’s gifts, what really matters is knowing the Master. Love is what’s in his heart for you. Let it be love that is in your heart for him. There need be no regrets that you’ve been given but one life to live for your Savior because through him you have been given an eternal life to live for your Savior. Give your entire self to him, and just one small way you can do that is to have an open mind to proportionate giving. Amen.

Printable PDF:  1-3-2021 Christmas 2 Sermon

Pastor Clark  ~  John 7:40-43  ~  January 3, 2021  ~  Christmas 2 Sermon

Who is Jesus?

⁴⁰On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” ⁴¹Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴²Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

Dear friends in our Savior, Jesus,

This may sound like a public examination question, but it really isn’t meant to. Who is Jesus? Now, please note, I’m not asking, “Who is Jesus to you?” That’s really a far different question, and it leads us down all kinds of subjective dead ends. If you have listened to any of the popular Christian songs of our day or hear what the general public says about Jesus, you will recognize the problem. A time when people had a better Biblical literacy than ours was the time that Jesus walked among us. Even they struggled. So, WHO IS JESUS?

1. He is the Christ who brings us spiritual, heavenly peace.

⁴⁰On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” ⁴¹Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴²Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”

Jesus had gone secretly to Jerusalem to one of the three major Jewish festivals called the Feast of Tabernacles. While he was there he taught in the temple courts in such an authoritative way and with such understanding that people asked who he was.

There were all kinds of speculation. Little conversations crept up among the people of the crowd who heard what Jesus had to say. Maybe he was the prophet. That is a reference to the Old Testament: (Deuteronomy 18:18) ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. They thought maybe that’s who Jesus was.

Others speculated that he was the Messiah, and that opened up a whole new can of worms. They knew Jesus was from Nazareth but that the Messiah was supposed to come from Bethlehem. They knew enough to know this prophecy, but they didn’t know enough about Jesus to realize that he had been born in Bethlehem. So there was confusion.

Those kinds of situations happen today, too. Especially the one where people know a little bit about Jesus but not too much. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Not knowing who Jesus is leads people today to think that some sins are “not that bad.” It leads people to think that repentance is nothing more than saying you’re sorry for your sins, completely leaving out a change in actions. It leads people to treat worship services like a binge worthy Netflix show…I’ll fast forward to the parts I like the most.

Do you know who Jesus is? Jesus is the Prophet who Moses said would come. He is the Messiah to which prophecies from the Bible and eyewitnesses like his mother, his stepfather, the angels, and the shepherds all testify. As the Christ, Jesus came to be the Savior from sins, the least of which is damnable, even if it is the sin of ignorance. He came to remove the guilt from our lives instead of letting it be the motivation in our lives. Jesus is the Christ who brings spiritual, heavenly peace.

2. He is the Christ who causes earthly division.

That’s what the Bible says, but that doesn’t mean everyone will appreciate it. Many people will want Jesus to be what they want him to be. That was true at this feast of the Tabernacles. ⁴³Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

With all the murmuring going on among the crowd, they didn’t agree. They didn’t agree with Jesus, and they didn’t agree with each other. This wasn’t the only time this happened. (John 9:16; 10:19). People couldn’t be neutral when it came to Jesus.

Just a few nights ago we gathered and sang, “Sleep in heavenly peace” from “Silent Night.” But do people even understand that? People hear those words and point to the homeless and question how we could sing such a thing. Many think Christ’s church exists to feed the hungry or pay their electric bill. The reasons they are confused is that they don’t know who Jesus is.

I know this can sound harsh because in the deep recesses of our hearts, it’s not what we would like Jesus to be. Maybe we should listen to Jesus himself:  (Matthew 10:34) ³⁴“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He also said in Luke 12:49-53: ⁴ “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! ⁵¹Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ⁵²From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ⁵³They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Should this concern you and me? It should because it comes down to who Jesus is. Not everyone’s idea is correct. And that’s not popular at this time of year when we just want to enjoy our families and our celebrations.

God sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world. He sent him to walk in our shoes for an entire lifetime the way he wants us all to walk. And when Jesus was done, God took out his payment for all our subjectivity and our rebellion on Jesus. He then raised him to show to all that Jesus had succeeded for you and me. All the rest of it is meaningless without this. That’s who Jesus is. Don’t be led astray by your own desires or become uncertain about him no matter what other people may say. He isn’t uncertain about you. Amen.

Printable PDF:  12-27-2020 Christmas 1 Sermon

Pastor Wagenknecht  ~  Luke 2:8-20  ~  Christmas 1  ~  December 27, 2020

 

A SHEPHERD TELLS HIS STORY

An imaginary visit with one of the shepherds who saw and heard the angels on the first Christmas night in Bethlehem

 

Good evening! I am so glad that you could visit me today. I am always happy when people drop in because this gives me an opportunity to tell my story once more. I am an old man now and what happened took place nearly 30 years ago, but I can remember everything that happened that night.

I will start by telling you a little about myself. My name is Jonathan ben David. As my name indicates, I am a descendant of King David. I am also a descendant of Abraham and therefore I am an Israelite. I am proud of my nation for it was Israel that the Lord chose to be his own people. Israel had been given special favor by the Lord God himself. From the days when he led his people out of slavery in Egypt by the hand of Moses down to a few hundred years ago, we were a mighty nation with a place in the world. In fact, we were a world empire under the great King David and his son, Solomon. But this greatness is past and since those days we have suffered humility at the hands of Babylon, Greece, and now Rome. I am also proud to be Judean, but for a much different reason. You see, the Lord also chose our tribe of Judah to receive his promise of a Messiah which he had promised years ago to Adam and Eve.

There are not many of my countrymen left who still believe the word of the prophets of old. There are few who really look forward to the fulfilling of this promise of a Messiah. My family was one of the few that returned from Babylon to this Promised Land. We returned to Bethlehem in Judea because we did believe in those promises. I can still remember the days when I was a child and we would gather for the Passover Feast. My father would read from Moses’ Book of Exodus. When he was done reading, he would teach us about the Passover lamb and explain how this was also a prophecy of the promised Messiah, who would be the real “Lamb of God.” As a child I often prayed that God would fulfill this promise in my lifetime. This faith in God’s Word is the reason my family had stayed several hundred years in the small village of Bethlehem, for the Prophet Micah said the Messiah would be born here.

As I grew up I became a shepherd and took care of my father’s sheep. I loved the work as a shepherd because sheep are so much in need of someone to care for them. Sheep are not even able to find water or grass for themselves if they are lost. So I enjoyed the responsibility of caring for these helpless animals. While we roamed the hills and valleys around the little town of Bethlehem, I would find the best grass for my sheep, which I loved like pets. In fact, I even had names for some of my favorite sheep. The sheep knew me by the sound of my voice and if I wanted them to follow me, I would call out their names or sing a song. One of my favorite songs was written by another shepherd, David. I loved to sing his song:  The LORD is my shepherd: I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Surely the Lord is the perfect Good Shepherd and so this song was even more meaningful to me because I could understand how I am like a lost sheep that needs leadership and care.

On that special night about which I want to tell you, I was watching my sheep in the fields by night, and I joined several other shepherds around a common campfire. We let our flocks mingle together, and we sat enjoying the fire in the cold winter night air. It was one of those brilliant nights when the stars were shining in all their beauty and you could see their reflection in the Great Sea to the West and the outline of the Judean hills to the East. On a hilltop nearby the village of Bethlehem was visible with its glimmering lanterns and the central fire in the village inn.

While we sat around the campfire that night, we were talking about many things, but I do remember one long discussion we had about “The Hope of Israel,” which was the common name for the promise of the Messiah. I told the other shepherds about the many prophecies in the Scriptures by Moses, Isaiah, Micah, and Malachi. One of the other shepherds sort of surprised me when he said that as a child he often hoped that it would happen in his lifetime. That was my dream, too. We talked about this for hours, but we also decided that we would probably never see that day because it had been over 400 years since the last prophet spoke about him. About midnight we decided to get some sleep, and we wrapped up in our warm cloaks and inched closer to the fire.

THEN SUDDENLY THE SKY BEGAN TO LIGHT UP. We looked up but the light was blinding and we hid our faces in our cloaks and fell to the ground in terror. Then we heard a voice saying, “Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy.” When I looked up, I saw the form of a man, or was it an angel? The angel said, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord.” I couldn’t believe it at first. The Messiah had come? Then the sky was filled with a multitude of these heavenly messengers and the glory of the Lord made the heavens brighter than noon-day and the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Then as suddenly as they had come, they were gone, and the night was dark and still. It took a while before anyone spoke. “What is this?” “A Savior?” “Is this the promised Messiah?” “In the city of David?” We had to find out if this was all true and we forgot about our sheep and hurried into town.

While we were heading to Bethlehem, we began to wonder how we could find a little baby in the town which was so crowded with many strangers. You see, the Roman government had demanded that people return to their ancestral towns to be registered for a census that would determine the taxation. As we scrambled up the hill toward the town, we noticed the bright light of the central fire at the inn. We went into the inn and began to look around. Around the central courtyard with its fire there were three sided booths closed by a curtain on the side toward the fire. We walked around the inn listening for the cry of a baby and asking people we met.

Then we remembered the words of the angel that the baby would be lying in a manger, so we hurried out back to the stable. When we looked in, we could see the animals and in the far corner there was a light, and we saw two people. As we approached them, we noticed a little baby between them sleeping in a small manger box, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

My heart was pounding with excitement and joy. I hurriedly told the man what had happened to us out on the hillside when the angels appeared to us. Then I recognized the man; it was Joseph ben David from Nazareth, a distant cousin who had moved away from Bethlehem. Joseph began to tell us about the angel who appeared to him and told him that his fiancée Mary was with child by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. She was to give birth to the Son of the Most High God and he would sit on the throne of his father David. He was told to take Mary into his own home as his wife and to name the baby Jesus. The name Jesus means Savior, and this name confirms that this is the promised Messiah. All my hopes and desires were answered in those few short hours nearly 30 years ago.

How difficult it was to leave the stable that night, but I was filled with happiness and rushed home and told everyone in my family of the great things that we had seen and heard. Since it was getting light in the morning, I rushed about town waking my friends and sharing my story. They all wondered at the things such humble shepherds were telling them. I also heard that Joseph and Mary found a house in which to stay.

In the days that followed I returned to the sheep that I had left at the camp site, and I spent those days glorifying and praising God for all that I had heard and seen. It was true! I thought a lot about the meaning of that great event:  THAT THE LONG AWAITED MESSIAH HAD COME to Bethlehem. Born in a stable. Wrapped in swaddling clothes. Lying in a manger. I pondered the humble way in which he had come. He is Immanuel = God with us. This is a message that I have been telling over and over and am still telling to all who will listen. I am glad that you came today to hear this most heartwarming story. You can imagine the great joy with which I now sing that song to my sheep, “The LORD is my Shepherd.”

Sometime after this I heard the story told around Bethlehem that King Herod – a terrible and fearsome man – had sent soldiers to kill all the baby boys in town who were under 2 years old. This disturbed me greatly for I was afraid for the life of the Christ-child. These years have been long years of waiting. It has been 30 years since his birth, and I had heard nothing more about the Messiah until a few days ago. The word was all over that a great prophet was teaching and baptizing in the wilderness near the Jordan River. Could this be the Messiah? I followed the crowds out to see this man who was not called Jesus but was called John. He preached that the Kingdom of God is at hand. He told us to repent of our sins and to be baptized. I stayed out there and had a chance to tell John my story about the angels and their wonderful tidings of great joy. Then John told me that this child is now grown and truly is the long-awaited Savior of the world. The very next day as I listened to John preaching, he suddenly stopped. He pointed to a man walking toward him and cried out: BEHOLD! THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD. My heart is filled with the same excitement and joy I felt in the stable in Bethlehem. God has kept his promise. He has sent the Savior.

I still tell this story to all who will listen. I hope what I saw, and what I heard, and what brought me such great joy has done the same for you. You, too, need this Messiah. Christ is your Savior. Listen to the good tidings of great joy, “Unto you is born this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” And join the angelic song:  “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Printable PDF:  12-25-2020 Christmas Day Sermon

David R. Clark  ~  1 John 3:1-2  ~  December 25, 2020

REJOICE AT GOD’S LAVISH GIFT OF LOVE

¹See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

God’s richest blessings of joy and salvation to all of you.

Do you remember that old Sesame Street skit, “One of these things is not like the others?” I don’t know what it is for you, but there’s no question in my mind. When it comes to the Christmas story, it’s the shepherds. They just don’t fit.

Mary fits. She’s the mother of the Christ child.

Joseph fits. He’s Mary’s husband and a special protector of the Christ child.

Angels fit. They are messengers sent from heaven. They were God’s glorious communicators about this thing which had come to pass.

The star and the Magi fit. The priests/scholars/astronomers were fulfilling God’s prophecy, but they needed some divine intervention (the star) to find the child.

Obviously Jesus fits. He’s the whole reason for all of the rejoicing.

But the shepherds? No, to me the shepherds just don’t seem to fit. They are the innocent bystanders, the people who were in the right place at the right time. An afterthought? Well, not to God, but they can sure seem that way to you and me. They are the only ones who don’t really seem to have any “skin in the game.” They are all strangers. They probably never met Mary or Joseph before. Maybe they never saw them or Jesus ever again. We don’t really know.

That’s why, for me, it’s the shepherds. Shepherds were there to greet and worship baby Jesus. Imagine Queen Elizabeth inviting a bunch of local farmers to come and celebrate Christmas with her at Buckingham Palace. That’s never going to happen.

What does this have to do with us? A lot! My dear ones! I cannot express to you how full of love my heart is for you this Christmas. We have had an interesting 2020 to say the least. We have shared some great blessings this past year. Births, confirmations, marriages, growth in faith. Somehow I think that those are not the first thoughts that come to mind when someone says 2020. People have lost jobs. People have lost people. This year has made some of our Christians really lazy spiritually. I think we all shudder at the nightmare two-headed monster: political instability and COVID-19. It’s in what we hear. It’s in what we see. Frankly it’s what we say to each other also.

Not today. Today is different. Because shepherds, who had no business being there got invited to worship the Savior of the world. And today, we are the shepherds. We have no connection with Mary and Joseph or even Jesus in and of ourselves. Today we are in the right place at the right time. A bunch of spiritual beggars just hit the royal jackpot.

Maybe you have heard of, “Operation Santa Claus.” One of our local car dealers, every December for the past twenty years, gathers food and toys for kids who aren’t really sure where their next meal is going to come from. It makes the gifts they get probably the most lavish gift they will receive all year.

1. He sent a child!

Dear fellow shepherds, today is, “Operation baby in the manger.” You are receiving the most lavish gift you will ever receive. That gift is the most important birth the world will ever know. It’s more important than a child born to the residents of Buckingham palace, even more important than our own children. This child is a lavish gift for the whole world, even you and me. In a time of hopelessness and sorrow, he brings joy. In a time when nothing seems to go right, he is the rightest thing, because he came to save us. Dear fellow shepherd, you are invited to his birth.

2. He calls you his child!

There is more. Imagine if those shepherds were there in the stable with Mary and Joseph and before they left they had adopted every one of them into their family! Imagine that among all of the titles they could use for Jesus, in addition to King and Savior and Prince of Peace, they could also call Jesus “brother.”

Mary and Joseph didn’t do that. But God did. God adopted them as his own with all of the privileges and benefits and responsibilities of a member of God’s family. Dear fellow shepherd, he did for you, too!

So on this Christmas Day in the year 2020, I’m looking at the shepherds. I’m looking at what they got. I’m pondering how many times they sat around campfires and told that story of the baby in Bethlehem. I’m thinking about the smiles on their faces in the midst of a pretty cruel existence, and I’m smiling, too. Won’t you smile with me and REJOICE AT GOD’S LAVISH GIFT OF LOVE. Amen.

Printable PDF:  12-13-2020 Advent 3 Sermon

David R. Clark  ~  December 13, 2020  ~  John 1:6-8, 19-28  ~  Advent 3

A VOICE STILL CALLS

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. …¹⁹Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” ²²Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” ²⁴Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” ²⁸This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

 

Dear friends in Christ,

     Have you ever been outside the city limits at night, beyond the lights and the sound of traffic? Something you might hear is the howling of coyotes. And not just hearing them but also seeing them. They’re really a mangy looking creature.

     Some might say John the Baptist was a mangy looking creature with his rough clothing and bristly look. What he said was also bristly, a voice crying for repentance.

     As Christians we might look a little different because we wear more modest clothing, but I don’t think anyone would say we have a mangy look. But our message qualifies! The voice of John the Baptist comes from us today.

1. A faithful voice. (verses 19-22)

     In what sense? John’s voice was a faithful voice. ¹⁹Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” ²²Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

     Did you notice a temptation there? The rest of the religious community wanted to know who John was. But John was not there to talk about himself.

     His identity was not the important question. So he answered by telling them who he was not. He was not the Christ, even though he preached about him. He was not Elijah, even though he probably looked like him. He was not the Prophet, even though he was sent by God. He was a faithful voice warning them to get their spiritual house in order.

     Sometimes it’s better that we define ourselves by who we are not. Although we have a heart for the poor, we don’t exist to feed them. Although we want to be good citizens, po­litics are not our main concern. Issues like that can be so tempting for a church that many churches make them the heart of why they exist. Many people in our community think that’s why we are here.

     But that’s not even close to why we are here. Just like John we are here to be a voice crying in this wilderness. Like John, we are here to point to Jesus. And that’s not always easy. When you consider all of the different concerns that people who are members of our church have, or the concerns of all those who visit us or who watch us online have, it would be easy to stumble. But like John, we are here to faithfully point to Jesus and what he has done for us.

2. A humble voice. (verses 23-27)

     Faithfully sharing that message can be a very humbling experience. John certainly found that to be true. ²³John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” ²⁴Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

     Most of us are proud of what we have accomplished in life. From an athletic trophy to our trophy families, we all have something to point to.

     John the Baptist had so much of which to be proud. John was related to Jesus. Jesus himself said there was no one on earth that was greater than John the Baptist. But John didn’t use his fame or his notoriety to draw attention to himself because he knew that’s not why he existed. He was in this world to point to Jesus, the Savior of the world.

     We have parts of our ministry of which we can and should be proud. We have had a ministry with formal Christian Education for almost a century in this congregation. We have a building of which many would be envious. We have a music program that makes us stand out. There are many more we could point to. But these are only important when they point to Jesus. God has placed us here to humbly do his work and preach his message. Our strength and our glory is not in ourselves, but in God who claimed us as his own, called us as his own, and who equips us with his Word to carry out his work.

3. A voice with a mission. (verses 6-8)

     John recognized first and foremost why he was on earth. ⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

     John came to bring the light of the gospel into a world overwhelmed by the darkness of sin. His mission was not to be the light, but to be the vessel that pointed to the light.

     We are here to tell people about Jesus, to be the vessels through whom the light of the gospel shines into all of the confused and searching hearts in this world. It’s our job to show them that the answer to life’s problems is a Savior who is coming to rescue us from this sin-darkened world. Our message is the message of repentance, a recognition that our hearts need first, more than anything.

     They don’t know it, but the whole world is counting on us. We are John the Baptist.  We are the coyote. We are the voice that still cries in the wilderness. Amen.