St John's Lutheran Church, Woodstock, IL

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Declaring God's Glory

Sermon Preached by Rev. Thomas W. Larson
Season of Pentecost – August 22, 2010
St. John's Lutheran Church, Woodstock, Illinois

Today's text: Isaiah 66:18-23

For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD. For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, may God's grace and His mercy and His peace be multiplied upon you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text this morning is the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, chapter sixty-six — and by the way, that's the last chapter in the book of Isaiah — and our theme verse is verse nineteen, where the Lord says, "And they shall declare my glory among the nations."

God Gathers Us Together to See His Glory

"Declaring God's Glory" is our theme this morning, but first things first — before we can declare the glory of God, we need to see His glory, and so God gathers us together to see His glory. In the first verse of today's text, the Lord says, "For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues." The Lord gathers us. He gathers us together to come to worship Him so that we can see His glory. The Lord gives us the Third Commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." He gives that commandment because of His love for us. He loves us so much, that He gave His one and only Son to be our Savior. Out of love for us, He wants us to gather together so that we can confess our sins to Him and before one another; so that we can hear words of forgiveness; so that we can see His glory; so that we can leave here, going out into the mission field that is McHenry County, and share that glory, declare that glory to others.

In our text the Lord says, "And they shall come and see my glory, and I will set a sign among them." The first thought I had when I read that verse was, what's the sign? We have to figure out what that sign is, and one way of doing that is to ask, did Isaiah ever use the word "sign" before to give us a clue in what the sign is that the Lord would set. Sure enough, if you look in the concordance and look up "sign," you do see that Isaiah in his book did use that word before. It comes in chapter seven, verse fourteen, a pretty familiar verse: "Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." "Immanuel" means "God with us." The sign that the Lord would set before the people, the sign that the Lord sets before us, is His one and only Son; it's Jesus. John put it this way in the Gospel: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus came into our world, born of the virgin. Jesus came into our world to live in this world, ministering to people so that they could see His glory; so that through Him people could see the love of God; so that people through Him not only could see the love of God, but could experience the love of God; so that people, through Jesus Christ, could be with their God forever in that home that Jesus purchased for them in Heaven, purchased not with gold or silver, but purchased through His innocent suffering and death and through His holy and precious blood.

We have signs, too, don't we? Every time we come in to worship, we have that sign of the cross, reminding us that God so loved each and every one of us that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life. We have the altar. Sacrifices are made on the altar, and we are reminded of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We share in that sacrifice — in, with, and under the bread and the wine of the Lord's Supper, Jesus comes to us, gives us His body and blood with the blessed assurance of forgiveness of sins and life and salvation through faith in Him as our Lord and Savior. So as God gathers us together, week after week, around His Word and around these beautiful sacraments, week after week, through the eyes of our faith we see the glory of God. We see the glory of God in order that we might carry out God's will for us and that we would leave here and declare His glory to others.

God Sends Us Out to Declare His Glory

Right before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told His disciples, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the world." If we'd put that in our own context, we would say that Jesus is calling us to be His witnesses right here in McHenry County, and in Illinois, and in the United States, and throughout the entire world. You and I can very easily be His witnesses, declare His glory, right here in McHenry County. We do it as we walk through our lives throughout the week, as we share with others the hope that we have in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. But what about declaring His glory to the world? For that God calls us together again as a people of God in a church, and as a part of His Church, we as a church have voluntarily joined what is a synod. "Synod" means "walking together." We have joined what is called "The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod." We join this synod in order that that synod helps us to do what God has called us to do. Looking at the constitution of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, I'd like to share with you this morning the first five purposes of a synod.

Purpose number one: to conserve and promote the unity of the true faith and defend against heresy. Doctrine is important. Carrying out the truth of God's Word is important, knowing that God's Word, the holy Bible, is inspired from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 21:22, that every word is God's word. We can count on it, we can learn it, we can confess it, we can hold onto it. We are called upon as a synod to promote the unity of the true faith, that faith that declares that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So we walk together. It's interesting to note that the very first purpose of the synod is to keep that true faith, to watch over the doctrine, to defend against false teachings that come out.

The second purpose of the synod: to strengthen congregations and their members in giving bold witness by word and deed to the love and work of God. That is exactly what God is calling upon us to do in this morning's text as His Word speaks to us, telling us that we are to declare His glory. We join together as a people so that we can do that more effectively; we join together as a synod, so that we can do that more effectively.

The third purpose of the synod is: to recruit and train pastors, teachers, and other professional church workers. We couldn't do that just as one congregation; it would be too much to handle. So we join together with brothers and sisters in Christ who believe what we believe — that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ — and we train church workers — pastors, teachers, other professional church workers — so that they are taught to keep the unity of faith, to keep the doctrine pure.

The fourth purpose of synod: to provide opportunities through which members my express their Christian concern, love, and compassion for human needs. Our synod has opportunities for us as a congregation, opportunities for us as individuals, to express our concern. Of course, we can do that locally. Coming up pretty soon is the Woodstock Walk for Hunger. Locally, we can express our concern for people who need some help, as we support those types of efforts, as we support things like the Woodstock Area Community Ministry, the Woodstock Food Pantry, and other things like that. Our synod also provides opportunities. If you want a mission opportunity, you can get on the web site and you can find mission opportunities, whether it's serving in Kazakhstan or wherever, where you can go and spend time and show your concern. Or, we can show our concern financially through things like Lutheran World Relief or Lutheran Church Charities, right here in northern Illinois. Synod gives us that opportunity to express that concern.

The fifth purpose: to aid congregations to develop processes of thorough Christian education. Again, God tells us to declare His glory; in order to do that, we first of all must have seen His glory. So we are given opportunities to teach. Jesus, right before He ascended into Heaven, His last words recorded in Matthew, said, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ..." He doesn't stop there, but He goes on to say, "... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." And then His promise: "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

We gather together in worship in order that we, through God's Word, might see the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We gather together as a synod so that we might do what our text calls upon us to do: to declare that glory, not just here, but throughout the States and throughout the world.

May God bless us so that as we see His glory, we might faithfully and boldly proclaim that glory to others. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, a peace that far surpasses all understanding, guard and protect our hearts and minds in the victory that is our through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ]]> http://www.stjohnswoodstock.com/s2010/20100822.html http://www.stjohnswoodstock.com/s2010/20100822.html Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:27:44 GMT