Calvary Lutheran Church

O Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us and grant us your peace. Amen.

Luke 13:34-35

Dear Christian Friends:

            I have a confession to make this morning: I wish I didn’t have to preach this sermon. It’s not because I didn’t get enough sleep last night, and I’m too tired to preach. No, I got plenty of sleep. It’s not because I’m ill-prepared and not sure what I want to say. No, I know exactly what I have to say. Rather, the problem is the subject matter.

            This text describes the worst possible action a person can take while occupying this planet. I’m talking about rejecting Christ. That’s like a convicted felon rejecting a pardon that could set him free. That’s like the human body rejecting a transplant that could keep it alive. No, it is actually worse than that, because rejecting Christ means rejecting God’s greatest blessings of all—forgiveness of sins, spiritual life of faith, and eternal salvation.

            Some reject Christ all their lives. They never come to faith in Jesus, no matter how many times the Holy Spirit calls them through the Word. And that, sad to say, is true for the vast majority of people in the world. The gift of the Spirit, faith, never enters the hearts of most.

            But then there are those who do come to faith in Jesus, who know him, and even confess his name, but then return to unbelief. And no amount of warning or pleading or preaching will bring them back. In the church we call that “apostasy” or “backsliding.” It can bring parents their greatest grief in life when they watch it happen to their children. It can cause pastors to wonder if there was something more they could have said or done. It will be the cause of unspeakable regret on judgment day. But in both cases—never coming to the faith or falling away from the faith—it is enough to bring even the Savior himself to tears.

            In our text Jesus was about to go through the agony of the cross, so that mankind would be spared the pains of hell, and yet he knew that many would reject his sacrifice as though the cross meant nothing to them, and they wanted nothing to do with him. That is true to this day. As painful as it may be, I want us to think this morning about

THE PROFILE OF A SERIAL UNBELIEVER

            In his Gospel John wrote ironically that Jesus was “in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10,11). So this Jesus, who was preaching with a wisdom and insight that has not been heard before; who was performing miracles like healing the sick, freeing the demon-possessed, and raising the dead; who was showing a love and compassion that could only come from God himself; yet he was not recognized by his own people for who he was. Some ignored him as just another religious fanatic. Some wanted to make him a bread king, so they wouldn’t have to worry where their next meal was coming from. Others saw him as a threat to their power and looked for ways to kill him.

            So one day late in Jesus’ ministry he was on the Mount of Olives. He looked in the direction of Jerusalem with its masses of people, and for the moment he became disheartened, dejected, and sad, and then spoke these word of our text, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34).

            The profile of a serial unbeliever is, first of all, unwillingness. “I will not. I will not have Jesus as Lord of my life.” Oh, the Lord sends people into their lives over and over again, like parents and grandparents and teachers and pastors and friends and relatives, who encourage them to worship and pray, to trust and believe in the crucified and risen Savior. But no. They won’t.

            The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah preached for 40 years in Judah a message of repentance and return to God. He was greeted during that entire time with opposition and personal attacks. Jeremiah wrote, “To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them, they find no pleasure in it” (Jeremiah 6:10). They were not willing.

            Secondly, the profile of a serial unbeliever is also blasphemy. When Paul wrote to Timothy he encouraged him to fight the good fight, holding on to the faith and a good conscience. But then he mentioned two who did not. He wrote, “Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy 1:20). Blasphemy is making fun of God by putting one’s self in God’s place. “I don’t need God. I can get along in life just as well without him. I am my own god. I’ll do what I want.” That’s blasphemy. I wonder how many deny God, because quite frankly, they are their own god.

            Thirdly, the profile of a serial unbeliever is simple humanism. Some who call themselves Christians today are really humanist. Humanism says that God would never intervene in his own creation. Nothing happens outside the forces of nature. There is no supernatural.

            Jesus once taught in the synagogue of his hometown and we read that, “Many who heard him were amazed. ‘Where did this man get these things?’ they asked. ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does

miracles. Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him” (Mark 6:3). In other words, “he is just one of us. He is nothing special. We know him too well.”

            So also today, “Jesus cannot be God’s Son. It is not possible. He was just an ordinary person who made a big splash in his day. Maybe he did a few miracles, maybe not, we don’t know. And his going to the cross was not of any significance. He was just a victim of what he believed in. And we certainly don’t believe he rose from the dead. Things like that just don’t happen. And don’t try to make us believe it. It is too fantastic to accept.” Most of the Ivy League universities today like Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, and others, that started off as seminaries teaching the gospel are now breeding grounds for humanism.  

            Fourth, the profile of a serial unbeliever is materialism. Jesus had just healed two demon-possessed men in the region of the Gadarenes. He hurled the demons out of the men into a herd of pigs that were feeding. The pigs in turn rushed down a steep bank into the lake and were drowned. The whole town came out to Jesus. Were they happy that two men had been cured of demon-possession? Did they praise Jesus for his almighty power? No. They were angry at Jesus over the lose of their pigs. He just destroyed their livelihood. They complained, “Whenever you are around, Jesus, we end up losing money. Get out of here now.” I wonder how many stay away from the church today because they wonder what it is going to cost them in terms of time, energy, and money.

            The love of things, the accumulation of wealth, the preoccupation with possessions are major obstacles to faith. That’s why Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven” (Matthew 19:24).

            But finally, the profile of a serial unbeliever is sometimes pure ignorance. Jesus once looked at a large crowd, a mass of humanity, and he had compassion on them because he said that they were like sheep without a shepherd—just wondering aimlessly. They had no one to lead them to God.

            Those who are brought up in a home where the name of Jesus is not spoken except in cursing, those who are taught to worship false gods, and follow laws to please him or to pay tribute to dead ancestors, are the victims of their own upbringing. Oh, some might be reached through mission work, a few might come into contact with the gospel and believe, but the vast majority will never know or praise the name of Jesus. And then God’s sad words in Exodus 20 will ring true, that he punishes “the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” (Exodus 20:5). God doesn’t want to punish them, but it is highly unlikely they well ever come to faith if their parents or their nations are steeped in heathenism or secularism.

            All it takes is one bad ruler like Ahab in the Old Testament to turn God’s people into Baal worshippers. All it takes is one false prophet like Cerinthus in the New Testament to make God’s people think that true life is gained through wisdom rather than Christ. All it takes is one philosopher like Karl Marx to turn a nation atheistic, or one scientist like Charles Darwin to cause a higher education system to teach fantasy, or one so-called prophet like Mohammed to make much of the Middle East idolatrous, or one theologian like Karl Barth to cause many in the church to deny divine revelation, or one head of household to ignore the faith so that a whole family and generations after them turn away from the Lord. What a sad thought for us who know the truth! What a sad thought for Jesus who is the truth!

            So what is all this to us? It is a warning. The book of Hebrews says, “See to it brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first” (Hebrews 3:12-15).

            Sin can be deceitful. Sin disguises it’s horrible purpose so well. Sin can turn you away from God before you know it. A loved-one dies prematurely, a bad event happens in your life, things didn’t go the way you planned, a prayer is not answered the way you wanted, and instead of turning to the Lord in faith and humility, you become angry, God is blamed,  and that quickly you turn away from the living God before you even realize what hit you.

            That is why the writer encourages us to encourage one another. People need people. That is especially true for the family of believers. Encouragement  may be the only thing that saves a member from falling away from the faith, especially when we bring them to this Word. This Word is timeless, it points out sin and its pitfalls, and then points to the solution to sin, and that is God’s grace.

            God’s grace for us sinners in Christ Jesus is what we are to hold on to firmly. God’s grace is what brought us into the faith through the power of baptism; God’s grace is what keeps us in the faith by the power of the Spirit; and God’s grace is what welcomes us back with open arms when we have fallen away from the faith. God’s grace is the gospel. And that gospel is found in this Word. So stay close to the Word. I don’t know of any person who persistently and regularly approached the Word with a humble and believing heart to ever fall away from faith.

            When I was in Israel I stood on the Mount of Olives where Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. A church is now situated on the spot. It is called the church of Dominus Flevit, “the Lord wept.” The church is in the shape of a teardrop, bulging at one end and narrowing at the other.

            I’m wondering if Jesus’ reaction to the world today would be any different. If he were to look over the city of Los Angeles or New York or Beijing or Moscow, would he again weep? We know that three-fourths of the people in the world today are unbelievers. We know the road to heaven is narrow and the road to hell is broad.

            While that saddens us, it perhaps shouldn’t surprise us. After all, there were only eight believers left in the world in the days of Noah, and we know that in the end-time, just before Jesus returns, the world will be a lot like in the days of Noah. Perhaps what should surprise us is that there are any believers at all, 2,000 years after Christ, and even more amazing, that we are among them. What a testimony to God’s power and grace!  Amen.