The Alpha & Omega! Christ the King Sunday, November 25 2012

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today we celebrate Christ the KING Sunday! The last Sunday of this church year and the time to celebrate the sovereignty of our amazing God through Christ our KING! As we come to the end of this year we think about how privileged we are to be left here as we continue to serve our KING today. We may have lost loved ones this year who are celebrating with the Lord in Heaven today. As we receive two new members into the family today through HOLY BAPTISM we are reminded how Jesus stated in Luke 15 ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. I know Jesus is referring to lost sheep and lost coins but I believe when parents understand that we are all born sinful and are in need of redemption, then bring their children to be marked with the cross of Christ on their forehead and heart to make them as one REDEEMED by CHRIST THE CRUCIFIED! This is the amazing and awesome truth of who we are in the covenant God makes with us in simple water and HIS mighty Word!

I believe the sermon reading for today is very appropriate as we hear St. John, the last living apostle on the island of Patmos share a Revelation or Vision of who redeems us here in Revelation 1:4b:



Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits^[a] before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

⁷ Look, he is coming with the clouds,
    and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
    and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.
So shall it be! Amen.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

What an amazing sight! He is trying to put into words what he experiences with all his senses. He uses titles that are extremely loaded with meaning: "who is, and who was and who is to come, faithful witness, firstborn from the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth"  I can hear the enthusiasm with which St. John is trying to relay to us his experience. Have you ever had a moment with the Lord that is just hard to put into words? I love how he continues to explain: "to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and father." St. John explains how he is in the presence of Jesus Christ our savior and LORD before the throne. St. John can only cry out "To him be glory and power for ever and ever! AMEN!" He is truly En Theos "in God!" He explains how Jesus is preparing to judge the world and all peoples. 

Then we hear how JESUS describes himself:

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

For us to hear that there is nothing outside of HIS Authority, Power and KINGDOM and time when HE calls himself the Alpha and OMEGA which is the beginning and the end of the Greek Alphabet. It is all inclusive! Then he uses the words that start this introduction "Who is, Who was and Who is to Come." This is all inclusive! In the Old Testament we hear God referring to himself with language that explains him as almighty and Holy, thinking about the calling of Isaiah and the way the we hear HOLY HOLY HOLY IS the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY in similar enthusiasm to what we hear now. When God introduces himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob etc.. he helps us to understand he is eternal and faithful.

May we as God's people understand who we are in the covenant relationship with God through Christ and our identity as well as understanding that we are in the KINGDOM established by God through Christ and HIS blood which gives us HIS authority and the privilege of living in HIS POWER!

May we celebrate this CHRIST THE KING Sunday with enthusiasm and great joy as we join with all of heaven rejoicing that our LORD God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the one who is, who was and who is to come!!

AMEN! COME LORD JESUS!
 
Love in Christ,
Pastor Bryan  

"LET US!" November 18, 2012

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today all of heaven rejoices as Charlotte is brought into the KINGDOM as a child who belongs to God. Through simple water and HIS mighty WORD our God puts HIS name upon her forehead and upon her heart to mark her as one redeemed by Christ the crucified and risen Lord and Savior.

Today we also have a "SALAD" sermon. We are talking today about "LET US." We are coming to the end of our study of Hebrews as the author of this letter writes the conclusion of what it means that we have Christ as our great HIGH PRIEST, great Mediator, and our once and for all sacrifice for all the sins of the whole creation: past, present and future! In this section of chapter 10 we hear what it means to have Christ's name written on our hearts, the forgiveness of our sins by the sprinkling of his blood on us for our total cleansing.

We hear this in the Lesson from Hebrews 10:
 ¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵ Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

I always believe when we hear the word "THEREFORE" we know it is time to pay attention. Then when a hebrew writer uses a word three times in a row it tells us that this is very important. He tells us to "LET US" draw near, hold unswervingly and consider how. These are extremely important as we live out the justification won for us on the cross of calvary! We are then told in another "LET US" but this time a warning NOT to give up, but to encourage. He concludes with a reminder not to waste time since the Day of our Lord is closer each day.

May we in appreciation of our salvation by Grace through faith in the work of our Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, spur us toward love and good deeds. LET US draw, hold and consider so that we will have no time to grow apart but to work together, encourage one another and be a family of believers moving together in unity and following the will of our great God.

We are KINGDOM people and I think we need a good diet of roughage or SALAD. May we be a people who are full of LET US:)

I love the fact that we are a family who really does desire the Lord's will to be done among us.

May the Lord bless us each day as we draw near, hold unswervingly and consider how to encourage each other!

Love in Christ,

Pastor Bryan

Jesus the Great Mediator of the NEW Covenant. Veterans Day Nov 11, 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today is Laura and my 23rd Anniversary. In Canada it is "Remembrance Day" which helped me never forget my anniversary. Here we celebrate Veterans Day. Today we are looking at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who voluntary, freely, morally and intentionally gave himself and HIS Blood for our sins to redeem us, save us and sanctify us! We are thankful for the sacrifice of our Veterans and their willingness to put their lives on the line.

The passage we are looking at is the continuation of our journey through Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews is taking us through the long history of the Old Covenant with its rules and law.

The change from the Old Covenant to the NEW shifts in Chapter 9 as the author reminds us that the purpose of worship is to bring us into the presence of the King of Kings. We are not only ushered into the Holy of Holies but we are invited to fellowship with the God of the universe as we had in Genesis. We hear in this lesson the most important truth about the New Covenant:

The Blood of Christ

¹¹ When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here,^[b] he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,^[c] so that we may serve the living God!
¹⁵ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
¹⁶ In the case of a will,^[d] it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, ¹⁷ because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. ¹⁸ This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. ¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”^{[e] 21} In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. ²² In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
²³ It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

We see that as Jesus said to the man in our Gospel lesson "you are not far from the Kingdom of God" we now know that we are being ushered into the REAL TRUE Presence of God through the blood of the NEW Covenant in Holy Communion and in the worship and fellowship we share as the Body of Christ.

It is amazing that the Lord not only cleanses us but HIS blood also gives us the power to live as HIS Children.

May we join together in celebrating the truth of Jesus' last will and testament the truth of the NEW Covenant and the invitation to rejoice in the presence of God, forgiven and free from our sins under the law and filled with the Holy Spirit to live each day as NEW Creatures and people of the KINGDOM.

Praise the Lord that He is the Great Mediator between God and US!

Pastor Bryan