Rest for Your Souls

A Safe & Blessed Fourth to You All!

"Rest for Your Souls"

TEXT: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.... O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:18-20;24-25a
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:27-30

The Fourth of July weekend is upon us. Woohoo! A three day weekend. An extra day to rest from our labors and have a little fun – maybe a whole lot of fun.

We celebrate the founding of our United States of America. We camp. We fish. We party. We attend parades and shoot off fireworks. It is a good weekend to recharge our batteries and count our blessings.

Rest, relaxation and recreation. Yeah, this is the life! For three days we are free to pretty much do whatever we want to do. What a wonderful country, these United States of America.

And as part of that Fourth of July weekend celebration, you have come to church to thank your God and pray for your country. We are after all, a country at war. At war to protect our way of life and our freedom to have weekend celebrations such as these. So it is a good thing for us to thank God and pray for our country.

But as you well know, there is an even more important reason for you to be here today. As baptized children of God we are involved in a much bigger war, a war for souls – a war for your soul.

As we noted last week, the church on earth is the church militant. That is because, as God’s chosen people, we bear a message that the world doesn’t want to hear. A message that Jesus Christ has come and died for the sins of the world. It may seem odd to the believer that such a wonderful message is rejected by a world that needs it so badly. But who of us likes to hear that we are sinners, that we have fallen short in anything, let alone that we do not deserve to be counted among the citizens of heaven because of our own shortcomings. And if that is not a difficult enough message, in order for us to be delivered from our shortfalls, our sins, someone, even a very special someone has to shed his blood and die for that freedom.

As we are experiencing today, as a country, bloodshed is not popular. It is vulgar and many believe it to should be avoided at any cost. But thanks be to God we have men and women who put their lives on the line for us in the Armed Forces of our United States of America so we can have weekends such as this to celebrate our freedom.

The blood shed and the death suffered by our Lord Jesus Christ so that we can have rest from our fruitless labor to please God; the blood shed and the death by which we receive a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven here in Word and Sacrament, and, one day, the re-creation we call resurrection – even and especially that bloodshed and death is an offense to the world. Being surrounded by death, disease and destruction every day of our lives, especially in a time of war such as we have now, who wants to hear another message of death? That is the reasoning of the world, and so it attacks the messenger, for the message is unassailable.

Yet though the world does not WANT to hear such a message, it MUST hear it so that all can hear the good news of Jesus Christ – and that in hearing faith may be created out of unfaith, belief out of unbelief, fellow redeemed out of the enemies of God.

To we who believe, it seems rather odd that the world wouldn’t want to hear such a wonderful message. As was addressed in the lessons and sermon last week, and as we have reviewed here today, the world does everything it can to persecute the believer, to bring him down and make his life miserable so that he will just give up, give in and join the "real" world. It is amazing to us that as the bearers of such Good News, we are so reviled. But the world, just like us before being brought out of its darkness and into the marvelous light of our Lord, doesn’t want to hear that there is something wrong with it that needs to be changed – that it is helpless and condemned apart from the redeeming work of God in Christ.

In fact, even as baptized believers we still rebel all too often against that good news ourselves. And that, even more than the beating the world lays on us, is what is most troubling to the believer. Why do I still do such wretched things myself? Do I really believe? Am I nothing but a hypocrite myself? Am I really saved and will I really go to heaven? How can it be so when I treat even my own family and friends so dreadfully, so often?

Today’s epistle reading helps us greatly in this regard:
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me."

Did you hear that, dear children of God? This how it can be so that you are saved and not only will go to heaven but that you are part of that kingdom even now, as you do those things you know you should not and don’t do those things you know you should. That sin is really a separate entity from yourself. Hear again the Word of God through the pen of His Apostle, Paul: "Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me."

Even though for this time until the Lord returns, sin still abounds in this world and even among us, in your baptism you have been delivered from that sin. You have been buried with Christ and raised to new life with Him even now. Remember this Baptismal Epistle? "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom 6:4 NKJ)

What the Apostle Paul alludes to at the end of our epistle with the wonderfully edifying words -- "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -- is made clear and neatly wrapped up with a beautiful bow in the words of our savior in today’s Gospel: "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

In his Church Postils, Luther preaches of this Gospel lesson: "Since the holy disciples experienced what it was to be overwhelmed by anguish and want, we must not think that it will be better for us. God will not make an exception in our case. But let us remember that Christ foretells to his disciples their fall, fear and sorrow, and also comforts them in order that they may not despair. Thus we should likewise comfort ourselves and allow the same to be spoken to us, so that when we are taken captive by sin and feel our consciences troubled and burdened, we do not despair; but rather remember it will not continue long. Therefore this is a very comforting Gospel to all troubled and terrified consciences. First, because Christ promises here he will not le them be captives to their misery very long; then, because he shows such kindly friendship to them – casts them not quickly from his presence, although they do not at once learn and understand his discourse; but bears with them, instructs them and deals with them most tenderly."

So we have been drawn here today by the Holy Spirit to hear this wonderful word of God, this word of comfort. It is something that we sorely need even more than a three day weekend to recharge our earthly batteries. We need to hear the voice of our Savior giving us comfort in the face of adversity, especially the adversity of our own sin from which we can never hide and of which we are constantly reminded.

Because our Lord knows we are constantly, day by day reminded of our sin, He also gives us a precious gift to take with us from this sanctuary to use daily, even hourly if need be -- it is the gift of the Lord’s Prayer.

The large Catechism Explanation of the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Forgive us our trespasses, puts it this way: "Although we have God’s Word and believe, although we obey and submit to his will and are nourished by God’s gift and blessing, nevertheless we are not without sin. We still stumble daily and transgress because we live in a world among people who sorely vex us and give us occasion for impatience, anger, vengeance, etc. Besides, the devil is after us, besieging us on every side and directing his attacks against all the previous petitions, so that it is not always possible to stand firm in this ceaseless conflict."

The Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful gift from our Father in heaven via the lips of His dearly beloved Son and our dear Savior Jesus Christ. A gift for us to use often as a reminder that our sins have been forgiven. It is a gift we can use at any time under any circumstances. And when we do, the Father is right there hearing us and doing exactly what we ask in the name of His son – forgiving our sins, as well as all of those other wonderful things of which the Lord’s prayer speaks. So if the Father is right there doing these things, especially forgiving our sins for His dear son Jesus’ sake, then the kingdom of heaven must be at hand and we must be a part of it – even now.

That dear baptized children of God is the true, life giving rest of which our Gospel and our Lord speak.

The rest for your souls that Jesus gives is this -- the burden of perfection and pleasing the Father is the yoke He has born for you. Therefore all that is left is for Jesus to lift the burden from you today, that burden you bear in vain for no reason at all other than your own childish stubbornness that says, "I wanna do it myself!"

And that dear friends is why you are here today. Jesus, ever gentle and lowly at heart is here to tell you once again, that you are a baptized child of God and that you belong to the kingdom of heaven even now because, all of your sins are forgiven in the in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen