Expect Jesus To Gather You

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A sermon by Adam Barcott

March 17 2019

Good to see everybody. It is one of those spring break transition weekends where everybody’s going out, so it’s so wonderful to see everybody. Welcome. Let me pray for us as we respond to God’s call of worship. Then after we pray, I’ll invite you to to pray together with everyone the prayer of confession on page “d”, and again we are recognizing as we gather and respond to God’s call that we aren’t perfect and we are in need of God’s grace. And so right from the beginning of the service, we like to walk into the assurance that Christ has forgiven you.

Let me pray. “Father, we thank you for your faithfulness to us that you have called us out of darkness into light. We thank you that you have lovingly nurtured us. Just like I hear the little babies making noise and that’s okay. You Love the children, you love us, and so we respond to your faithful love towards us today. We come out to you to worship you and say thank you, God. As we learned to speak the language of faith as we learn to live in the life that Christ has assured us. Be blessed today, Lord, and bless us as we worship you, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Let’s stand and on page “d”, if you can find yourself in a spirit of repentance, let’s confess together and receive Christ’s absolution, “Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against thee in thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.”

And I, as the ordained minister announced to you, “Almighty God, in His mercy, has given you his son to die for you. And it’s for his sake he forgives all your sins. Thank you Lord. We believe it. Here our singing now as a response to you for forgiving us and calling us your children and inviting us into your presence. We thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

I know we have folks here for baby Pascal’s baptism. And just to catch you up, we’re in the middle of the season of Lent. It’s a season of repentance in preparation for the coming of the resurrection of Christ. And so we’re following certain readings that go along with that season, and we find ourselves in Jeremiah 26 and then our second reading will be from the Gospel of Luke. But the first one, Jeremiah 26, verse 8. If you’re following along, it’s on page 381 in the Bibles provided.

Jeremiah 26:8-15And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, ‘You shall die. Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord saying, this house shall be like Shiloh and this city shall be desolate without inhabitant?’ And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ‘This man deserves a sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you’ve heard with your own ears.’ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people saying, ‘The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words that you’ve heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold I’m in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.'”

That’s Jeremiah the prophet.

Then we’ll go to Luke chapter 13 where Jesus references what’s happening to the propehts who are being sent to Jerusalem. Luke chapter 13 verse 31-35. Again, if you’re following along, it’s 509 in your Bibles. It’s an interesting passage. It’s one that you don’t hear read all the time. In fact, ask yourself, “Is this the first time I’ve really ever heard this passage preached on?” It’s pretty interesting. Jesus calls somebody a fox. Not the way you think, though. So now you’re interested. That’s the teaser. Luke chapter 13 verse 31:

Luke 13:31-35At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ And he said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox, Behold I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finished my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

This is the word of God. Thanks be to God.

So we are in a series of Lent, and because we have so many people with babies recently, I’m calling the series, ‘What to expect when expecting.’ With the birth of my first child, I remember it was 2:30 in the morning, Val says, “I think something’s happening.” I had the book, What to Expect When Expecting.

I opened up the book, I said, “What? How do you know if this is real, if she’s having a baby or not?” And the book literally said, “You might be reading this at 2:30 in the morning, and if you are, it’s time to go to the hospital.” And I was like, “It’s 2:30. This book is amazing!” We went and of course she had to walk around for hours, and then we had the baby. But it’s What to Expect When Expecting, because the idea of Lent is we know the baby is coming, right? We know that something great is happening in 9 months or in hours. And we know as Christians, Jesus Christ rose from the dead and he’s coming back, and we will defeat death. Amen. And we’re excited about that. And that’s what we’re going to celebrate on Easter. And that’s what we’re going to celebrate in eternity forever and ever.

But what about right now? So what do we expect while we’re waiting for all that to happen? What to expect? You can expect your identity to be hacked. That was last week where Jesus was in the desert and Satan, the accuser says, “If you’re the Son of God, then do these things,” and Jesus doesn’t respond. He knows who he is. And he ends up doing all those things later in his ministry. He doesn’t do them for Satan. But what you will learn is Jesus defends you. We don’t need to fight Satan to prove who we are. You’ll lose every time. Satan, he’s just smarter than you. He has been around a lot longer, but Jesus defends you. So you can expect for your identity as a sinner to be exposed, and you will be accused before God about how hypocritical you are. But that’s when you cry out, and you say, “Jesus defend me.” And he defeats Satan. He defeats the temptation.

Today something else is in play. It’s the idea of our longing to get away and isolate. This deals with our flesh, our human nature. The Bible talks about it as having evil desires, and those desires give birth to sin, which gives birth to death. Here’s practically what evil desires look like for you and me. We just want to get away from people who are making our lives hard. We want to get away from God. We want to get away from work. We believe the answer to most of our problems is, “I just need to be alone. Give me some time.” And what happens when you get alone? You are easy pickings. You’re weaker. When you get away, those desires pull you away. You think this is going to give you peace and it doesn’t.

God’s answer is to bring you back into community and say, “No, I want to overwhelm your flesh with a faith that brings you back into my presence, where you’re protected, into my body, into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so you see this at play with Jesus here. They say, “Jesus, you need to get away.” The Pharisees say this because they’re mad at Jesus. They’ve struck a deal with Herod. Remember Herod is Roman. He doesn’t love the people of God. He’s just occupied this territory and these Pharisees are saying, “Jesus, you are causing problems. You’re stirring things up.”

I have a joke, but I don’t know if I should say it. “Jesus, you’re wearing a make America great again hat. Take it off. Get out of here. We’re scared.” I don’t know if that’s helpful, but they’re saying, “Get away.” And Jesus says, “No, I know what that old fox is up to, and I won’t go away. Nothing will deter me from what I’ve come to do. I’ll continue to heal. I’ll continue to gather the sick, the lost. I’ll continue to go on my path to death, and I’ll do it in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the place that always kills the prophets. This is what’s interesting. Why and how did Jerusalem become the place that always kills the prophets?

Jerusalem means ‘foundation of peace.’ This is the city where the temple was located. God created this people and he said, “I’m going to put my ears in this temple in Jerusalem. I’m going to put my eyes there, so I hear you and I see you. I’m going to put my name on you.” And under the rule of David and Solomon, Jerusalem is the place where heaven and earth meet. This is it. This is where God is.

So how do we get to the point where Jerusalem rejects Jeremiah, the prophet and wants to kill him? That’s what we read earlier, and they want to kill him because he says, “God’s not in here. He’s not in the house anymore. He’s forsaken it.” And they’re respond, “You can’t say that. Stop saying that.” Jeremiah says, “I can’t stop saying that.” Kill him.

How do they get to that point? How does Jerusalem get to that point? How do we get to that point where God calls out to you and says, “Hey, I want to bring you in. Hey, I’m not really in that anymore.” And we say, “No, shut up. Be Quiet.” There’s parts of our lives where we don’t want to hear the word of God. We don’t want to hear the prophet. How do we get there?

Have you ever had to block someone on your phone? Your faces tell the story. Of course. “Why are they calling me again?” It’s harsh when it’s someone that is close to you, but we start in the small steps, and it’s usually a salesperson. I made the mistake of giving my information. I got real excited about Orlando City when they first became major league soccer. And there’s certain times when they need to make quotas or something, and people are just calling me all the time. I finally blocked them, but they got another one. I blocked that one. They got another one, and I accidentally picked up, and he’s like, “Hey, this is George from Orlando City.” I was like, “No!” Because I’m weak. I might pay all the money to do it, but I don’t want to. It’s not right for me now. I don’t want to hear your invitation to go to every soccer game and have great seats for a lot of money. It’ll ruin my life actually. And so there’s a point where I don’t want to hear the message anymore. So I block him out.

This is what happens with God’s people. This is what happens to us. God creates us. It’s exciting. Then we get lured away and deceived into thinking, “Oh well there’s more peace over here, and I’m going to make an agreement with how the culture does things and that seems more powerful.” Then God sends his prophet and says, “Hey, you know what? I know that’s acceptable for where you live, and everybody’s doing it. But here’s what I have. I have a different story for you, and that’s we’re not those kinds of people. So you need to stop that.” And then we say, “No, I like it. I’ll do whatever I want.”

But what we learn is Jesus always gathers. He never stops calling. He never stopped sending his prophets, even Jeremiah and countless others to people who have said, “I don’t want your message. I don’t want what you have anymore, God. We have it under control here. We like who we are. We feel pretty good about it. And You keep making us feel bad. Please shut up.” He won’t shut up. So what do you do? You stop the noise. You kill the prophets. It’s the only way we know how to shut him up.

That’s why we kill the prophets. That’s why Jesus says, “Jerusalem, a foundation of peace, has become a place of violence against God’s word,” because God’s people don’t even want to hear it anymore. We’re comfortable. You keep challenging us to do things we don’t want to do. I don’t want to gather on a Sunday morning, I don’t want to read this stupid book. I’ve heard it. I’m good. Leave me alone. And he just keeps calling.

Here’s normal life. Anthony for years invited me to concerts, and I went early on. But I just got old, at some point I got old. I love music. I play music, but every time I went to a concert with Anthony, it was always loud. When I started bringing earplugs to a cool place to watch music, and complaining about the band starting so late and feeling like everyone was disrespecting the event, I knew I don’t like this anymore. And so I kept saying no to Anthony. And then one day came where I see something posted and Anthony’s out at a concert with a bunch of people. I say, “Hey, why didn’t you invite me?” And he says, “Because you say no every time.” “Well you still should have invited me.” And he’s says, “Would you have gone to this one?” I say, “Well no. I had stuff with the kids. And you know how I hate those concerts, right?”

In a normal situation, you stop inviting, but Jesus never stops. He never stops. He’s always saying, “Oh, that I could gather you under my wings. I’m not going to stop. You’ve said no. You’ve rejected me. You’ve walked away, but I’m going to keep calling you.”

I remember when Stephan and I were in Guatemala it started raining. We were having lunch somewhere. I don’t know if you remember this, but there was a hen. There’s always chickens and things around in Guatemala. But there was a hen and chickies, little chickies, and it actually them all in. I’ve never seen it in real life. I’m sitting there eating, and I thought of this passage. I was like, whoa! That’s what it looks like, and these little chickies all came under the hen. They were so close to her. She protected them and sat there while it rained. It was really beautiful.

Jesus’ heart is gathering all you little lost chickies. “Just come in here. I want to protect you. I’m gathering.” You see the narrative is religion separates, causes wars. No! That’s what our flesh does. Our flesh wants to defend and fight. Jesus gathers. He gathers you to his word, and his word simply shows up to say, “hey, here’s the truth. You want to be this kind of person, but you’re not really acting that way. I know you think you’re a person of love, but you need to forgive.” And we’re like, “I can never forgive him. Kill the prophet!” And he says, “I will keep coming. I’ll keep giving my word to you even though you don’t want to hear it.” That’s why he says, “I’m gathering you to my word. My word is truth. I will create faith in you through my word.”

Jeremiah says, “Repent, turn to me. I’m just trying to to make your life full of life.” I think we’ve proved that we aren’t that good at it on our own. Peace is hard to come by. But you have a God that says, “I will guarantee protection for your kids. I’ll guarantee love and life for you. Even though the world looks crazy and you can’t even imagine 20 years from now what America is going to look like. I will protect you, come to my word.”

He also gathers us under his cross, right? Jesus will keep coming to you and keep calling you until we choose to kill him. But he also gathers you even if you have killed him. This is the good news. Praise God! I may have shut up the prophet and killed him, but I’m sorry, Lord. He forgives you. He says, “Even though you’ve killed the son of God, I forgive you. I still gather you. I won’t stop.”

This is the beauty. He gathers us to the cross. On the cross Jesus says, “I’m taking the death. I’m taking the punishment for what all humanity has done to God. You’ve rejected him. You’ve murdered his son, and I’ll take the punishment. Come be forgiven.” “But I’ve killed you. I’ve been a part of that stuff.” Jesus says, “I know and I forgive you.”

That’s good news. He gathers us to his cross, because that’s where the glory is. The glory is coming to the cross. That’s where all the glory of God is. There was a son of God, a person and God, who came to earth and died for us. He didn’t deserve it. The only human who does not deserve it, and he died for you. All the glory of God is there in the cross of Jesus, but all the comfort is to us. You’re comforted by gathering to the cross

And what you find out is you can’t kill Jesus. We wanted to stop him. We wanted to stop the prophets. Jesus even tells a parable about the vineyard where a guy has a vineyard and he sends a servant and says, “Hey, give me my share of the harvest.” And they killed him. They said, “Hey, we, the people who are working the vineyard, we’ll just take over.” And it keeps going until the guy who owns it sends his son and they kill his son. That’s the parable Jesus tells us, because that’s what happens. “But I gather you, even though you’ve killed me. Repent.” Repent is to say, “Oh Jesus, help. Forgive me,” and he does. He forgives you, and he gathers you to himself lovingly under the cross, but then he does something even better. He restores peace between you and God.

He draws you out of isolation. The thing that we’re always drawn to, “I want to be left alone. I just want to do it myself. I’m good, thanks. Don’t need what you have.” He draws us out of that and he draws us into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There’s a relationship in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What we’re going to do today in baptism, you’re baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You’re gathered to the community of God, and his body, which is the church, the body of Christ, so that you are not alone anymore. And if you’re not alone, you don’t have to defend yourself. You don’t have to try to prove to yourself that you’re good enough. You don’t have to try to justify yourself. You’re part of a group of people who are covered under the wings of Christ. He has brought you and gathered you in. And if you simply can say, “Lord, I need that.” He’s like, “Come on in.”

You started off telling God to get away. You’re causing problems. At the end you move towards God and say, “Lord, I want you.” He says, “Come on in.” And yet, there are some who still will say, “I don’t want any part of it.” And he says, “Well, you’ll see me in all my glory one day.” And surprisingly, people still won’t want what Jesus has. It’s hard for us to imagine, because you’re sitting here, because you’ve been brought into communion. You’ve been brought into fellowship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s why you have faith. The Holy Spirit has used the word of God to give you faith. I believe it! As you declare, “I believe it!” he puts the righteousness of Christ on you. He brings you into fellowship with God.

The one thing we need is peace with God. He’s provided it. He gathers you into that through baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We’ll do that today too, where you’re cleaned up, you’re washed up, you’re ready to come to the table, and have table fellowship with the God of the universe. That’s a gathering. Gathering the people together to be United. This is what Jesus is all about. He’s about gathering you to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, gathering you to his word, gathering you to his cross. We’re not the ones who separate. We’re not saying, “We’re against this and that.” We’re saying, “Hey Jesus, we believe he’s the God of the universe. He’s gathering us toward him and to him. Nothing’s going to derail Jesus.

Let me be real honest. I’ll call you several times if I don’t see you for a while, but there is a time when I stop calling. I struggle with that. I feel bad, but you don’t want me to call you. “Hey, come to church. Where are you? What’s going on?” “Stop calling me.” So I do. But if you’ve met Jesus at all, he won’t stop calling you. He won’t. He’s more loving than me. And his whole thing is, “I want to gather you in and I’m going to pursue you and nothing’s going to derail me from pursuing you, not even death because I love you.” The most important thing to God is to be with you. He made it clear. He’s given you his word. He’s given you a son. He’s invited you in.

I know many of you. I want to encourage you. You have fellowship with God. So rejoice in that and know that you’re not alone and know that he forgives you. Let me pray. “Father, thanks for your word. Thank you. We thank you that you always gather us into the peace of God that passes all understanding. I pray that your Holy Spirit would minister to us today. Wherever we’re at in our relationship with you. Father, whether we’re at a good place or a bad place, I pray that your Holy Spirit would apply the word of God to our hearts. Grow our faith. Give us your peace and your joy. Mostly just start to show us where we are headed, what we are doing. Because we believe you have the words of life. Where else would we go? Thank you for your word and now bless us as we engage the sacraments that you set up for us in Jesus name. Amen.

Receive God’s blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May The lord look upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord’s countenance me smile and give you peace as he looks upon you now and forever as God’s children. Amen.