LWLC Wiki

Search this site

Summary: auto-extracted from transcripts

Summary

Now what's really interesting is that in order to be a Jew you can be a practicing Jewish person or you can be culturally Jew you don't have to be both anyone whose mother is Jewish is automatically in the tribe is is part of the Jewish people that being said and I cannot remember exactly when that switch occurred but during Jesus' day he was he found his lineage through Joseph because Joseph is descended so it used to be found through the father's line but now and for a long time now I can't remember I've looked this up before but now it is through the mother's line that that heritage is found and there are a lot of Jews today who are culturally Jewish but but not practicing their faith we have some key teachings that we are familiar with that they they turn to which the Torah is one Torah well write down some words Torah and this specifically we think think of it as law but really the the translation of Torah is arrow that hits the mark arrow that hits the mark and see it's a picture language it's a picture language so so the Torah itself is the Pentateuch it's the first five books in the Bible Genesis hot diggity dog that's awesome yes it's the first five books in the Bible and those all point to how one can hit the mark right the Jewish people if they follow what is in the first five books of the Bible they can hit the mark exactly the tonk is it is the whole of the old testament and that is and I will say the the Hebrew words are really fun to say so you're welcome to say any of them out loud I'm not gonna blame you but that takes both the Torah the Pentateuch and it takes the oral tradition because everything was handed down through oral tradition it takes that and it's compiled into the tonk and that is all all together so that is what we know as the old testament it is the writings it is the prophets it it goes off of the Torah and then within that we have 613 myths both yeah yeah 613 and this is these are the laws these are the commandments so 613 commandments within the tonk and tradition the oral tradition and tradition itself is very very important in the Jewish culture and religion it's all in there the Talmud is a combination so there are a lot of writings but remember that within Judaism there's a lot of a lot of discussion the debates that they have that we read about when Jesus is sitting there with religious leaders and they're debating that's called pillpool and so that is something that they engage in all the time so they take the pillpool they take the the teachings and they compile them and so the Talmud has it has a rabbinical commentary it has the oral tradition it has the written word together and it's all compiled and then it's it's read every week in synagogue so that's a very very very very basic overview of some of their writings some of their key teachings and this is this is where we start to find that with a lot of their key teachings and a lot of of their kind of values as a as a people we have a lot in common which can be a wonderful bridging point but it also has been historically a place of real contention and we're going to find how that is so one of their or their first key teaching is that they they believe in monotheism they believe that there is one god there is only one god and so so in the Jewish faith we as Christians who confess a triune god one god but three and one we are seen to be monothe or polytheistic we're seen as worshiping three gods where we know that that and it's I mean we are not going to get into the Trinity right now but not doing that but we know that we have one god um three persons in one god and um but they they have one god one god alone Yahweh which they do not say the name they have several different names but that is too holy to even speak um and we see that we see Yahweh like that um and that that is the name there is um the name that they use in place of this um is adonai which means gods which is very interesting because we have the triune god three and one and when they pray and use the name of god they say adonai which is plural um so it's kind of interesting but um what was I saying thank you okay so you will see um you'll see in the Bible when they when they in the Jewish Bible when it's this when it's Yahweh you will see capital L-O-R-D with O-R-D in lower case but when they would come across that they would not say it that's it adonai or Elohim um not not not the name no like an English uh speaking Jewish person may say Lord but not when reading scripture they're coming into contact with the the holy name and so they do not say that um and that is taking the do not use your Lord's name in vain that is taking that to a very severe degree they don't want to even risk saying it wrong so they don't say it at all yeah yep yep absolutely I was just gonna just gonna get there very cool um so they have a they do not want to cross the line at all um so they they stick with this now we will hear the word um Jehovah right and that is a mixing it's actually an accident that is a mixing of adonai with Yahweh or Elohim with Yahweh so it's mixing the holy and mixing um with the the word that they are allowed to speak the name that they are allowed to speak so Jehovah is actually a um uh an error in pronunciation so um but as a Christian people we we know when someone uses the word Jehovah we know what it means and um don't don't rebuke anyone um if they use Jehovah because we know that we know um the Messiah so the Jewish people did believe in a Messiah and they believed that the Messiah would bring about a certain rule and reign and power for the Jewish people there would be no more oppression for the Jewish people and through the years um that has kind of gone by the wayside they kind of say well there could be a Messiah there couldn't be it's not like they are waiting with anticipated breath for a Messiah because history has taught them kind of a dashed hope dashed dream they had other Messiah's prior to Jesus who um who died who were killed so then Jesus comes along and they put all their hopes into or you know a lot of the people put all their hopes into Jesus and then what happens they watch him die and so then when he is resurrected they deny or they reject his resurrection because he still died and Rome is still oppressing them so the Messiah has a lot of political um leaning in power and need and deliverance built into it in the Jewish uh into the Jewish people so there have been many Messiah's in history according to the Jewish understanding but um but through history with their hopes being dashed with them still being persecuted or oppressed um they kind of like modern day Judaism um thinks it's a cute cute story um yeah when they when you're here fighting the Messiah but didn't part of them looking for the Messiah as a blocker coming back you know the coming back in the summary you're using the Messiah is some like a flat against Rome back yeah they wanted a Messiah to fight against Rome and some of them but there's only you who released the Messiah as a spiritual the Messiah with Judaism the Messiah um had a spiritual component but it had a political component that um and that's where the political aspect um it didn't follow through they still were oppressed the whole call for the Jewish people as a tribe was to be separate to be a people unto themselves and that is why you don't have you know Jewish missionaries going out and and trying to convert people into Judaism because if you are if you are Jew a Jew then you would be so um by birth or if you married into it but they do not like like as a whole and this is this is a lot of generalizations so if you have Jewish neighbors or friends um and and you're sitting there going that's not my experience absolutely this is on a whole um generalizations um and and every you know every individual is going to be different um but they are to be a separate people and um yeah we'll go ahead and jump there right now so this is where the um the Holocaust and when speaking with our Jewish neighbors the Holocaust is so important to keep in mind because in the 1900s the Jews let down their guard and they got familiar with their neighbors with their people with their community and they did not expect the cruelty and the the just utter evil to happen to them because they were neighbors they had mingle they had intermingled and um and so the Holocaust is very very important to keep in mind and I think it's an important this is kind of an aside but I think it's important for us to keep in mind anyway because that is a a just evil outright evil in front of our faces our kids need to understand that evil exists in this world and um I just think that's a total aside but we need to understand that evil exists in the world and and how um we how we live um in opposition to that one of the things with the Holocaust that caused a lot of um of breaking between the Jewish people and their Christian neighbors is that Martin Luther's writings were used in defense of the Holocaust um now I think that it's important for us to know this and uh I I like how this author puts it um so so Luther was not inherently anti-Semitic um early in his career he has writings that are very loving um for the Jewish people calling Christians to be kind and loving to their Jewish neighbors so there was no question that he had entered into um into ministry loving his Jewish neighbors and and and supporting that um and then Luther had a writing that was against the lies of um oh it's on the Jews and their lies it was written in night in 1543 and and he argued that Jewish synagogues schools and prayer books should be burned that rabbis should be for forbidden to preach and homes property and money should be confiscated and the 1930s Germans um used that and so in the Holocaust museums you will very possibly find writings of this writing of Martin Luther as an excuse and that has damaged greatly the trust and the relationship between Christians and their Jewish neighbors now in a sermon three days before Luther died in um he again let me find this here he returned back to um back to the position that he had in 1523 so he again spoke of loving the Jewish neighbor um so it really stinks it's very unfortunate that his writing is preserved that was used in a very very bad way yes there was um uh did it did it did it did it did it hold on a second here let me find it yes I've read I've read all of this there's a lot of information in here so um okay so it was a religious dispute um so he had written he had written a treatise in 1523 that was entitled Jesus Christ was born a Jew and he wrote of the Jews as an honorable people who are the lineage of Christ advising a gentle approach for them and speaking against the very things he wrote in 1543 but um but in 1543 um as he had been having some success at witnessing to Jewish people in and around Vittenburg um he came under attack by local Jewish anti-missionaries who called Luther a false teacher and that Christ was a false Messiah and that Christianity was a false religion and so those are the lies that he was responding to um and Luther um for all the good and the the wonderful um direction that he put us as a Christian people on the path with scripture being scripture being scripture right the word alone faith alone grace alone um he was human and he sinned and um and he did did come back and um and again to return to the 1523 treatise um in in being kind and gentle with our Jewish neighbors um he was definitely one of those that was loud, brash and spoke possibly um just out of emotion we don't know fully what his intention was and i bring that up because when we speak with our Jewish neighbor this easily could be brought up that's been brought up to me when i was when i was in Lutheran seminary one of my family members who i did not grow up Lutheran one of my family members said Luther's the reason for the Holocaust how do you feel about that? So um so have to go back and and look at that and um and you know when when evil is at hand it will seek anything and everything to um to move forward right but ultimately God's word prevails and God's goodness prevails and and he keeps his hand upon us so i do want to bring that up because there's no way when you are speaking with um a Jewish whether they are a faithful practicing Jew or a tribal Jew right ethnically a Jewish person um the Holocaust will come up and um so i think that that's that's important to know so um another very key teaching in Judaism is tikun olam which means repair of the world so they do not have a teaching of original sin they absolutely do not believe in the depravity of man um but they do have an obligation to works and the obligation to works is in order to achieve a more perfect world yes yes where did the good marker go there we go sorry okay tikun olam okay so tikun olam is repair of the world um and holoca will write that one down too holoca is an important part of this holoca is the walk so we've got repair of the world and we've got the walk and the walk is really that daily living guided by a system of ethics and study of God so it's this is where you are you are walking repairing the world by studying the word of God and living under the systems of ethics that God's word gives so it's a constant um a constant happening and part of that a huge part of that is shabbat or sabbath and it's resting as a people together away from the rest of the world and so they go to synagogue and they come together and that time is um studying God's word it is praying it is fellowship sounds very familiar to the first church in Acts 2 where they were devoted to the fellowship the teaching of the apostles breaking of bread and prayer that is a great example of um of sabbath because they are spending life together at least once a week they are coming together shutting out the rest of the world and and really living as a people um it's it's done as a community and you get the fullness of the community in that um midrash I dare you say midrash so pillpool is debate right that's that's where they get in and midrash is where um one is seeking answers to religious questions so pillpool we we read about that in the bible where where there is discussion amongst the scholars amongst the religious authorities and Jesus they're engaging in pillpool when they're debating over things then there's also where when at the feet of the rabbi and the rabbi is sitting there teaching that is midrash where people can ask questions and the rabbi can teach can give religious answers so a good example comes up in our reading today where Jesus has been has been sitting there teaching and blessing the children and and he gets up to go and and a young man comes and he he kneels down before Jesus and he says what must I do to inherit eternal life that is where he is seeking an answer to a religious question that would be an example of midrash um so something that is absolutely key in Judaism is and this goes along with the um with the uh monotheism goodness gracious the monotheism is um they're uh oh yeah yeah they're shema or shema which if you open your bibles to Deuteronomy six we'll find this Deuteronomy six and you guys already know where Deuteronomy is that was awesome you all know the Pentateuch so well so I'm going backwards so Deuteronomy is the fifth book in the Bible it is the fifth book of the Pentateuch we're going to Deuteronomy six starting in verse four where it says here oh Israel the Lord is our God the Lord alone you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away when you lie down and when you rise bind them as a sign on your hand fix them as an emblem on your forehead and write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates twice a day morning and evening the Jewish people are to do the shema and it begins with that with that proclamation here oh Israel the Lord your God is one or the Lord is your God the Lord alone and and then there is a response and then the rest of those verses is is read then they they have another portion of Deuteronomy that they read and then it ends every shema so twice a day every shema ends with numbers 15 so let's go back to numbers let's just back one chap or one book numbers 15 verse 37 through 41 or verses 37 through 41 where it says the Lord said to Moses speak to the Israelites and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner you have the fringe so that when you see it you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes so you shall remember and do all my commandments and you shall be holy to your God I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord your God so again you begin your prayers with hero Israel the Lord is your God alone and then you end with the Lord's words that he is your God he is your Lord so that begins everything and just like we were talking about their belief in the monotheistic you know one God alone that is built into everything so we have as a people I say ethics guidance and and laws now the 613 a good portion of those are not doable because the temple was destroyed in 70 AD so so they do not have they cannot follow all 613 but the ones that they do have they do they are still expected to follow so they believe that God is is God there's one God they do not believe that there's a Messiah they've been disappointed and so they're not going to do that again very guarded because of the history especially the Holocaust and then the the feast and the festive gosh there's so much to get through and okay we may do a little more Judaism next week too because it's fascinating because we a misconception is that by the Christian churches that we don't have to say anything to our Jewish neighbor that that we really are worshipping the same God that we really are basically in line with our Jewish neighbor but we're not because they deny Christ they deny his death and yes resurrection yet yes well the sacrifices and the offerings they are not they they can't do the sacrifices right now this goes in with the 613 myths and they can't do that so everything they can do they are still obligated to do but this is where we come into that interesting kind of division where you have for lack of better term several denominations within Judaism where some really it is all cultural right we are part of we are Jewish because we're part of this tribe but there is no religious significance to it and they actually have what they refer to like Exodus the story of being brought out of slavery from Egypt there are some sex and Judaism that refer to that basically as grandmother's stories it's a little better a little more reverent than an old wives tale but not much it's it's a cute story oh gosh what is that called a a Bubba Mace a Bubba Mace yes so so even though they go through these in their feasts in their festivals which we need to get to oh my gosh they're they're just stories so so with this man what what what this previous Jewish man who is now Lutheran pastor I almost said Lutheran rabbi oh my goodness this Lutheran pastor he says that that it is harmful for us and it is not loving and not kind for us to not share with our Jewish neighbors we are we will I we're just gonna have to you know what we were gonna do five different religions but we may just do one no we will we will do some more but but we have to there's so much built into this that is just fascinating that we have to return to this I was gonna say something else and I can't remember what it was but it's just amazing we are next week we'll touch on the on the feasts and how there's so much that is built into the Jewish faith that points us directly to Christ and this is why you know I thought oh we'll start with Judaism because it's just this easy link and then I start reading and I'm like wow this is amazing and there is a lot more to it than what I expected and I also want to get into the how are we not worshiping the same God because that's that how does that make sense but we're gonna we're gonna do those two things since we are definitely returning to this is there anything else that we definitely want to touch on next week with Judaism oh they are traders yes so he asked he said what about Messianic Jews like there are there are Jewish converts to Christianity and and Jewish people the Jewish people are fine with with whatever anyone else in the Jewish tribe wants to believe they are fine with Christians who are Gentiles but a Jewish Christian is the only thing that they have that is like a heretic or a traitor no they they are no longer to be considered Jewish yes so you have okay so you you know someone who was Catholic then converted to Messianic Jewish which that is a Jewish person who who follows this with the understanding that Jesus has died for our sins and and right so I feel sad because then they have just put themselves under the burden of the law right um although I so I grew up Catholic so I will say I mean kind of under the burden of the law as a Catholic too but um yeah interesting very very interesting okay yes prophecies that point towards Christ well they don't read some of them they skip right over them legitimately yep yes yes yes yes sorry differences that the modern okay and that's another that is another thing that I didn't get to yet I'm telling you there is so much to cover it is just unbelievable it was like opening just it was just amazing amazing and that's also why I say like this is a great book but be ready because you will dive in and then have a hundred more questions and then go on all sorts of tangents is so we have a lot to cover next week god bless and we will we will continue diving into Judaism next week thank you Good morning. They knew these people were being tortured they had spent at least four days on those cattle cars crammed in there no real food Most of them had nothing to drink and they were expected to walk a mile a pill part of the way making it into this next Concentration camp Fridays the recurrent humiliation of medical inspection The hospital corridor in which we waited was unheated and a fault chill had settled into the walls Still we were forbidden even to wrap ourselves in our own arms But had to maintain our erect hands at sides position as we filed slowly past of Falnicks of green greening guards how there could have been any pleasure in the sight of these stick thin legs and hunger bloated stomachs I could not imagine Surely there is no more wretched sight than the human body unloved and uncared for Nor could I see the necessity for the complete undressing when we finally reached the examining room a doctor looked down each throat Another a dentist presumably at our teeth a third in between each finger and that was all we trooped again down the long cold corridor and picked up our X marked dresses at the door all these women every single week Had to just file through completely Make it completely vulnerable completely bear and these guards would just smile Smile I Love how Corey says I don't I don't understand how anyone could find pleasure in this and Yet she said stood strong helped her helped her sister the whole time This is another excerpt from here This is their actual barracks where they lived Barracks eight was in the quarantine camp compound next to us perhaps as a deliberate warning to newcomers newcomers were located the Punishment barracks from there all day long and often into the night came the sounds of hell itself They were not the sounds of anger or of any human emotion but of a cruelty altogether detached blows landing in regular rhythm Screens keeping pace we would stand in our ten deep ranks with our hands trembling at our sides longing to jam them against our ears to make the sounds stop It grew harder and harder even within these four walls there was too much misery too much seemingly pointless Suffering every day something else failed to make sense something else grew too heavy Every day the sun rose a little later the bite took longer to leave the air It will be better everyone assured everyone else when we move into the permanent barracks We'll have a blanket a piece a bed of our own The move to the permanent quarters came the second week in October so it's getting colder and colder as this time progresses We were marched ten abreast along the wine a wide-sinder avenue several times the column halted while numbers were read out Names were never used at Ravensbrook at last Betsy's in mine were called we stepped out of line with a dozen or so others and stared at the long Gray front of barracks 28 Betsy and I followed a prisoner guide through our door at the right because of the broken windows the vast room was in semi-toy light our noses told us first that the place was filthy Somewhere plumbing had backed up the bedding was soiled and rancid then our eyes adjusted to the gloom We saw that there were no individual beds at all but great square tears stacked three high and wedged side by side and End to end with only an occasional narrow aisle slicing through we followed our guide single file the aisle was not wide enough For two fighting back the claustrophobia of these platforms rising everywhere above us at last She pointed to a second tier in the center of a large block to reach it We had to stand on the bottom level haul ourselves up and then crawl across three other straw covered platforms to reach the one that we would share with How many the deck above us was too close to let us sit up? It was sticky with blood Malmourished No real Hydration Constantly exposed to the elements expected to do hard labor beaten whenever Force to do these humiliating medical checkup every single week I can't get worse Death seemed A release I can't be able to leave that So now we're going to jump to scripture we'll come back to this momentarily I just wanted to kind of lay the groundwork of what they were experiencing in this concentration camp So let's go to Second Samuel In the Old Testament it's after first Samuel After after judges after Ruth It's after the Pentateuch so you've got Deuteronomy at the end of the first five books Then go a couple more and you'll get to second Samuel chapter 11 If anyone has the page number of the Pew edition you can holler it out 263 Excellent thank you Okay, so the Bible The Bible Character or person that we're going to study today is David And bring him up with good reason we're going to read about David's Sin here so picking up in verse or in in chapter 11 in the spring of the year The time when the kings go out to battle David sent Joe out with his officers and all Israel with him They ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Reba but David remained at Jerusalem It happened late one afternoon when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the tin roof On the roof of the Kings house, excuse me, that he saw from the roof of woman bathing The woman was very beautiful David sent someone to inquire about the woman It was reported this is Beth Sheba daughter of alien the wife of Uriah the Hittite So David sent messengers to get her and she came to him and he lay with her Now she was purifying herself after her period Then she returned to her house the woman conceived and she sent and told David I am pregnant So David sent word to Joab sent me Uriah the Hittite and Joab sent Uriah and two David When Uriah came to him David asked how Joab and the people fared and how the war was going Then David said to Uriah go down to your house and wash your feet Uriah went out of the Kings house and there followed him a present from the king But Uriah slept at the entrance of the Kings house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house When they told David Uriah did not go down to his house David said to Uriah You have just come from a journey. I cannot forgive him give me your forgiveness as I took his hand The most incredible thing happened from my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current Seem to pass from me to him while into my heart spring a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness Any more than our goodness that the world's healing hinges But on his when he tells us to love our enemies he gives Along with the command the love itself She had gone to hell An earthly hell And this man who created that hell part of that hell for her he stood before her saying oh it was a great message I heard that Jesus forgives my sin through your lips How was she supposed to forgive this man but notice It's not out of her power that she forgives is it It's It's out of Jesus it's out of The love of Christ the forgiveness that we have in Christ that she was able to extend forgiveness to that man And she was overcome with love for this man who had put her through hell and she could forgive him Truly forgive him Because she had that strength from Jesus So what that means for us In our own lives When we pray that prayer we pray it every single week probably a lot of us pray it at home daily Forgive us our trespasses as We Forgive those Who trespass against us It's not out of our own power But we are called to forgive I love how she brings it back to Jesus if Jesus already died For the person who has sinned against you if Jesus has forgiven those sins Certainly we can call on him to help us to forgive Because often when we hold on To that sin Against us We too are burdened And we hold on to it and we bear the weight of that sin And we have no release of that So As we go for As we think about The heroes of faith Whether it's strength or peace or mercy or forgiveness We can turn every single time to realize that our strength That our peace That any mercy we may have And forgiveness that we may give truly is sourced At the cross truly is sourced in Jesus Christ Because the hell that they endured The sin that we endure whether we committed or we are sinned against It was already dealt with On the cross it was already overcome Through Jesus Christ and we can take that Into our daily lives To live out our faith We don't have to be amazing heroes We don't have to become famous To live our faith Because when we are living out our faith It is known in the kingdom. He was that amazing continuing in verse 48 when his parents saw him they were astonished and his mother said to him child why have you treated us like this look your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety is Mary distraught here is she angry is she actually scolding Jesus we have to remember that Jesus though he's holy and completely human he is holy and completely without sin there would never have been a time to scold Jesus he would never do anything to receive or deserve a scolding he was literally the perfect child it's really interesting some of the nostate gospels which are writings that are not part of our scripture they tell these secret truths which are not actually truth their heresies about Christ we are to know only what scripture reveals but there are ways that these nostic writers wrote about Jesus as child trying to give us these ideas of what he was like and they wrote of him creating clay birds and bringing them to life or blinding towns people because they had offended him kind of like a playground bully would that is not that does not jive with who we know Jesus to be that does not live with a perfect human or the divine so the nostic gospels are heresy and they are not true but it's very interesting that they are trying to put forth that Jesus would have these minor infractions against him as a child Mary would never have any reason to scold Jesus what we do have in scripture is that Jesus was filled with wisdom and he was in the favor of God he had the favor of God upon him Mary was never unaware of what the angel Gabriel had told her that he would be holy he will be called the son of God so more likely than scolding or being upset or angry Mary was most likely bewildered be bewildered of why Jesus had not gone with them and where he had been found we continue Jesus responded to them in verse 49 why were you searching for me did you not know that I must be in my father's house Jesus had no fear of being without his parents even the bravest of 12 year old usually want their parent at some point usually don't want to be on their own for three days but Jesus had no fear and he had no need to fear he also in this is showing where his priorities lie they always lie with his father his father in heaven and he's correcting Mary in this reference she has said that she and his father have been searching for him but he corrects her lovingly and says wouldn't I be in my father's house would I not be about my father's business correcting who his true father is but they did not understand what he said to them how many inscriptions in Jesus life before the resurrection really understood what he was saying time and time again his disciples are trying to ask him to explain further what he's saying he will tell them point blank what's happening to him or what is going to happen to him or who he is and they still don't quite get it it still doesn't completely compute with them they witnessed the transfiguration in yet they were still confused that he would be heading to Jerusalem to the cross only to be resurrected the limited understanding of humanity made for a confusion for Mary and Joseph at what he was saying they didn't quite get why he was in the temple or why it would be so important for him to be only about his father's business continuing in verse 51 then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them his mother treasured all these things in her heart and Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor Jesus was kind of in enigma he was never lost no one ever had to search for him and yet he confused them he'd be well-dored them he was about his father's business when he was born he was about his father's business when he was 12 and what we have mostly of Christ and his public ministry was that he was always about his father's business and his father's business is to seek out find and save the lost that is ultimately his father's business and the truth is that while Jesus was never lost even in his humanity we in our own flesh in our own selfishness in our own desires we are lost we are lost from our relationship with the Lord we are lost from our relationship with the father but Jesus was sent to seek the lost which means that Jesus was sent to seek you and he was sent to seek me and the exciting thing in this is that not only was he sent to seek us but he found us the fact that you're sitting in these seats right now hearing these words means that Christ himself has sought and found you and not only did Christ himself seek and find you but Christ himself sought found you died for you paid for you redeemed you he's not just tagging you telling you you're found he's tagging you telling you that you're found and you are forgiven through his blood in the second article of the Apostle's Creed Martin Luther gives an explanation saying I believe that Jesus Christ true God begotten of the father from eternity and also true man born of the virgin Mary is my Lord who has redeemed me a lost and condemned person purchased and won me from all sins from death and from the power of the devil not with gold or silver but with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness just as he has risen from the dead lives and reigns to all eternity it sounds so simple it's so clear and so simple and yet we try to remain lost we try to convince the Lord that we're not good enough that we should remain lost but my brothers and sisters you are not lost you are found as a parent it was really scary for me to lose my child and I searched everywhere called to him every few seconds until I found him it is no different with our father in heaven as our father or as our Heavenly Father God did not rest until he gave the way to find us until he provided his own son to seek us and to find us and to redeem us when we feel lost or when we tried to convince God that we should remain lost I invite you to open up that small cataclysm look at what Martin Luther has said surely surely it can't be as simple as that and yet when you search the scriptures and you find what it says about the lost it is as simple as that Jesus said to his disciples you did not choose me but I chose you it is made clear in scripture that any who are lost God will find God will call and God will redeem is it really that simple when I looked for Ezra it really was simple to find him he did come when I called him Christ is calling you and he is saying come you are found you're found I'd like to invite you to open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew the second chapter.

Video citations