Bethany Lutheran Church
Third Midweek Lenten Service
7 PM Central Time
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Psalmody
The Lection The Passion History
The Sermon Hymn #381 I Know My Faith Is Founded
The Lection The Passion History
The Sermon Hymn #381 I Know My Faith Is Founded
Faith Is First, Prayer Follows
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for Grace p. 45
The Hymn #558 All Praise To Thee
The Hymn #558 All Praise To Thee
Faith Is First, Prayer Follows
People find ways to complicate the Christian Faith. If we look at the Fourth Gospel, it is clear that Jesus placed faith in Him as the starting point, the only starting point. The Gospel of John is very important in teaching us about faith, because the other details are already in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The apostate scholars love to dismiss John, but that is because the message is so powerful and clear.
The effect of Gospel teaching and preaching is to plant faith in the hearts of people of all ages, even babies. I just watched a video where a very good singer vocalized for a very young baby. The baby listened to every word and note, trying to imitate the singer singing about love. Babies and small children learn very quickly, and faith is planted in their hearts and minds so they can grow spiritually.
Everything in Christianity, correctly taught, begins with faith. Trust means seeing and hearing the message of Jesus the Son of God just as He teaches it. I said to on FB friend, John's Gospel can be read easily in any language, and it is easy to learn a language through the simple words of that Gospel. The friends said, "I supposed that is what God intended."
Faith in Jesus means seeing Him exactly as He is, though too many are willing to drift away with their dreams and claims. One way to look at this is to ask why people hated him so much and tried to oppose Him at every opportunity. The thorn in their minds was this simple - Jesus taught the righteousness of faith in Him while they adhered to the righteousness of works.
So this lingers in all of mankind. People want to know what they must do to be a follower of Jesus. That is because they come from the righteousness of works and only think that way. Jesus does not ask disciples to punish themselves or do all kinds of acts of contrition. He has already done that through His atoning death. As the Canaanite woman's story shows, Jesus wanted to pursue and hunt her until she gave the purest possible confession of faith in Him. "Even the household dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master's table." Jesus pushed her to the extremes of faith in Him, and she responded with faith. Her daughter's healing happened immediately.
Of course that miracle clearly asks us to be patient about how God works. His time is not our time, because we cannot even imagine the majesty and complexity of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is so complex that only a child can understand. When I ask children about all the miracles of Jesus, they have the same idea, such as walking on water and healing the sick - "Jesus is God. He can do anything." It takes many years of study to have the wrong idea and deny the truth. When a priest and a teaching brother asked me about the actual resurrection of Christ and the Virgin Birth, they were outraged and said, "There is no dealing with you!" We were in the classroom of Notre Dame's seminary, and they were completely in line with the teacher of that class, a PhD who became an honored professor at Harvard.
That means, faith in Jesus Christ is beneficial, but nothing good can happen from unfaith. There are many worldly benefits that fall upon those who have rejected the truth, in spite of all the wisdom of the ages - when people believed - and when they denied.
The first benefit of faith in Jesus is forgiveness of sin. That is an ongoing process that benefits the individual and everyone else, because faith grows and brings fruit. People should easily find this lesson in the garden and lawn. We planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs over time and our winter rains were almost endless at times. Now the ugly bulbs have turned into beautiful varieties of color, size, and height. Girls live on each side of my house, and they gather on the front fence near Porchie and Dustmop. I grabbed a few vases and gave them a vase of daffodils for each family. There is nothing quite like daffodils when most of the outside colors are brown and grey.
If anyone wants to know more about Jesus, the Gospel of John is a great place to start, reading slowly and carefully. There the connection of faith and prayer go together. Jesus teaches us to pray about His work among us, and He never stops helping us and blessing us.
