{"id":3902,"date":"2021-07-31T17:13:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T17:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=3902"},"modified":"2021-07-31T17:13:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T17:13:30","slug":"where-god-meets-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/07\/31\/where-god-meets-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Where God Meets Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity| Rev. <strong>Rolf D. Preus<\/strong><\/strong>| <strong>August 19, 2012<\/strong>| <strong>St. Luke 18:9-14<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Christ-for-Us-8-26-12.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: \u201cTwo men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.&nbsp; The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, \u2018God, I thank You that I am not like other men; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.&nbsp; I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.\u2019&nbsp; And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, \u2018God, be merciful to me a sinner!\u2019&nbsp; I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.\u201d&nbsp; Luke 18:9-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They both went to the temple.&nbsp; They went to the temple to pray because it was in the temple that God promised to meet his people.&nbsp; The temple is where the blood is.&nbsp; God won\u2019t meet you except where the blood is.&nbsp; Where there is no blood shed for you, God won\u2019t meet with you and that\u2019s that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has been the case from the very beginning.&nbsp; After Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised a Savior from sin who would crush the lying head of the devil.&nbsp; But in so doing his heal would be bruised.&nbsp; He would suffer and die, and rise again.&nbsp; The shedding of his blood would be the price for the forgiveness of sins.&nbsp; The necessity of the blood was pictured by how God covered up Adam and Eve in clothing made from the skins of animals.&nbsp; They hid themselves with fig leaves.&nbsp; But figs shed no blood.&nbsp; They were merely covering up.&nbsp; But God covered them with animal skins.&nbsp; Animals shed blood.&nbsp; This prefigured the blood that Jesus Christ would shed on Calvary for the sins of the whole world.&nbsp; The worship of God\u2019s Old Testament Church was saturated with blood.&nbsp; And at the center of our New Testament worship is the body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God won\u2019t meet with you except where the blood is shed for you because the shed blood of Jesus is how God takes away your sin.&nbsp; Only a true man our brother can take our place and offer his most holy obedience up to God as the sacrifice to take away our sin.&nbsp; Only the true God can offer a sacrifice sufficient to appease his own anger against sinners.&nbsp; Only Jesus can take away sin.&nbsp; The blood of Jesus Christ, God\u2019s Son, cleanses sinners of their sins.&nbsp; The grace of God is where the blood is shed.&nbsp; The forgiveness of sins flows to us from the blood.&nbsp; Without the blood of Jesus, no sinner can enter into the presence of the holy God and presume to pray, praise, or give him thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pharisee didn\u2019t think of that.&nbsp; He cared nothing for the blood.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t think of God.&nbsp; But that\u2019s a common feature of the most religious people.&nbsp; They don\u2019t think about God.&nbsp; They think about themselves.&nbsp; Jesus said of the Pharisee that he \u201cprayed thus with himself.\u201d&nbsp; He didn\u2019t pray to God.&nbsp; His prayer was addressed to God but he didn\u2019t really pray to him.&nbsp; He did not consider God.&nbsp; He considered only himself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGod, I thank you that I am not like other men; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.&nbsp; I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.\u201d&nbsp; He thanks God.&nbsp; But that is mere pretence.&nbsp; Prayer is an act of worship.&nbsp; But the Pharisee doesn\u2019t worship God.&nbsp; He worships himself.&nbsp; He twists God\u2019s law into a caricature of what it really is so that it will condemn his neighbor instead of himself.&nbsp; He does this by an exercise of religious smoke and mirrors that replaces God\u2019s law with public opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch him as he clouds his own sin by comparing himself to people whose sins are visible to the whole world.&nbsp; He mentions specifically the sins of extortion, injustice, and adultery.&nbsp; The first two were particularly common among the tax collectors \u2013 one of whom was conveniently standing nearby as a sort of \u201cshow and tell\u201d image to illustrate the Pharisee\u2019s point.&nbsp; Tax collectors worked for the Roman government.&nbsp; They habitually extorted money from the people by charging them more in taxes than they really owed.&nbsp; Simple and law abiding people who live under a brutal government will do whatever they must do to avoid conflict with that government.&nbsp; Tax collectors knew this and took advantage of it.&nbsp; A more loathsome way of making a living is hard to imagine.&nbsp; The Pharisee understood this and he understood popular opinion.&nbsp; He appealed to it in his effort to persuade God of his righteousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than that, he appealed to his own righteous deeds that went above and beyond the demands of the law.&nbsp; He fasted, not just on special occasions when it was called for, but twice a week, every week.&nbsp; He tithed, that is, gave ten percent, not just on those items that were subject to a tithe but on everything he had.&nbsp; Surely God would be impressed with this man, considering the alternative: a greasy, disreputable bully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was wrong.&nbsp; He presumed to stand before God while ignoring the blood shed for the forgiveness of his sins.&nbsp; He went to where God met his people and he did not meet God.&nbsp; He left the temple unforgiven.&nbsp; The only righteousness he had was that of his own pretence \u2013 impressive to impressionable religious people like himself, no doubt \u2013 but worthless in the sight of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tax collector appealed to the blood.&nbsp; That\u2019s all he had.&nbsp; The word comes into English as \u201cmercy,\u201d as we read, \u201cGod, be merciful to me a sinner!\u201d&nbsp; But it isn\u2019t the usual word for mercy.&nbsp; Literally, it means, \u201cGod be propitiated to me, the sinner.\u201d&nbsp; I suppose translators translate it \u201cbe merciful\u201d because nobody knows what it means to be propitiated and people do know what mercy means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we should all know what propitiate means.&nbsp; It\u2019s an important word.&nbsp; Remember what the temple was.&nbsp; It was where God met his people.&nbsp; The tax collector went to the temple because he wanted to meet God.&nbsp; He wanted to talk to God where God himself had said he could be found.&nbsp; That\u2019s why the temple was built.&nbsp; It was to be the meeting place of God and his people.&nbsp; It was rich in both precious stones and metals as well as in religious symbolism.&nbsp; The most important part of the temple was a place called the holy of holies.&nbsp; It was patterned after the original tent of meeting that contained the Ark of the Covenant.&nbsp; Inside the ark was, among other things, the Ten Commandments engraved on tablets of stone.&nbsp; On the top of the ark was a covering made out of pure gold.&nbsp; This was called the mercy seat.&nbsp; On either end was a golden angel.&nbsp; The blood of a ritually sacrificed animal was sprinkled on the mercy seat.&nbsp; This was to teach God\u2019s people that their sins against God\u2019s commandments were forgiven by the blood of God\u2019s Son.&nbsp; When the tax collector cried out to God for mercy, he chose the word for mercy that appealed to the blood of the mercy seat, that signified the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBe propitiated to me.\u201d&nbsp; To propitiate means to set aside anger.&nbsp; God sets aside his anger against our sins, not on account of our pleas for mercy, but on account of the blood to which our pleas for mercy appeal.&nbsp; God sent his Son to bear the punishment of our sins.&nbsp; The Bible says that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.&nbsp; God sees Jesus.&nbsp; He sees him obey.&nbsp; He sees him suffer and die.&nbsp; His obedience and suffering propitiate God.&nbsp; God is pacified.&nbsp; His anger is stilled.&nbsp; Our sins are swallowed up in Christ\u2019s suffering.&nbsp; This precious gospel is what the sinful tax collector offered up to God in prayer.&nbsp; \u201cGod, I deserve nothing but punishment for my many sins.&nbsp; I am not worthy to look up into heaven.&nbsp; I am the sinner \u2013 not just a sinner among many, some of whom are a bit worse than I \u2013 but the sinner, the only sinner, for my conscience sees no sins on anyone\u2019s soul but my own.&nbsp; Be merciful to me.&nbsp; Set aside your anger.&nbsp; For the sake of the blood of your dear Son, forgive me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so he did.&nbsp; God forgave.&nbsp; The tax collector left the temple justified by God.&nbsp; When God justifies you he pronounces you to be righteous and by saying you are righteous you are righteous because God cannot lie.&nbsp; Here is the foundation on which our faith rests.&nbsp; A man who offered nothing up to God but what God offered up for us on the cross is the man who left the temple righteous in God\u2019s sight.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t have a single good dead of which he could boast.&nbsp; He had only the blood and righteousness of Jesus, and that\u2019s all he needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s all we need.&nbsp; As we sing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have naught my God to offer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Save the blood of thy dear Son<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Graciously accept the proffer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make his righteousness mine own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His holy life gave he, was crucified for me<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His righteousness perfect he now pleads before thee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His own robe of righteousness, my highest good<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shall clothe me in glory through faith in his blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the only thing we have to offer up to God is the blood and righteousness of Jesus, then we are rich beyond human measurement.&nbsp; The Pharisee had it precisely wrong.&nbsp; He thought that goodness that brings God\u2019s approval can be quantified by amassing good deeds and avoiding bad ones.&nbsp; He didn\u2019t understand.&nbsp; It is out of the heart that evil comes.&nbsp; It is out of the heart that love is expressed in word and deed.&nbsp; The only one who can change the sinful heart is God and the only way God does it is through the gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The law is not ours to use against others.&nbsp; The law is God\u2019s to use.&nbsp; He speaks and he indicts and he condemns.&nbsp; So you don\u2019t extort people out of their money or deceive in business dealings or cheat on your husband or wife?&nbsp; But why would you even think of such things?&nbsp; Why would you even consider such things?&nbsp; You should be honest in your business dealings and faithful to your promises because this is what love does.&nbsp; If you hold your neighbor up to God for condemnation, what does this say about you?&nbsp; Love covers sin.&nbsp; Love prays for repentance, forgiveness, and faith.&nbsp; Love doesn\u2019t stand in judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>True Christian love flows from the true Christian faith.&nbsp; The true Christian faith comes from the gospel.&nbsp; The gospel is not the contradiction of the law.&nbsp; It is the answer to the law.&nbsp; Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.&nbsp; He bore in his own body our sins and the wrath of God against all sinners.&nbsp; He suffered as the guilty one so that we, the guilty ones, would be forgiven by his blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why we come to church.&nbsp; We come to meet God in the blood.&nbsp; The body nailed to the cross and the blood shed there to forgive us all our sins is given and received here in this church today by sinners who can offer to God nothing more than that tax collector.&nbsp; We come to eat and to drink.&nbsp; We cry, \u201cGod be merciful to me a sinner.\u201d&nbsp; We don\u2019t make excuses, pass the blame, compare ourselves with others, or toss before God\u2019s eyes the good things we have done that we imagine will outweigh the bad things we have done.&nbsp; We lay claim to the blood of Jesus shed for us.&nbsp; And when our Lord Jesus gives us his body and blood to eat and to drink and he tells us that this is for the forgiveness of our sins we believe him.&nbsp; And we leave church justified by God.&nbsp; Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity| Rev. Rolf D. Preus| August 19, 2012| St. Luke 18:9-14 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: \u201cTwo men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.&nbsp; The Pharisee stood&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/07\/31\/where-god-meets-us\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,71],"tags":[267,238,214],"class_list":["post-3902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-trinity-11","tag-luke-18","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3904,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions\/3904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}