Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Grace For The Ages

Galatians 3.1-9

Father Abraham had many sons

Many sons had Father Abraham

I am one of them and so are you

So let’s just praise the Lord

(Right arm; Left arm; Right Leg; Left Leg)

And, for the sassier youth groups,

(Right cheek; Left cheek)

The lyrics above come from a fun, catchy, easy to remember, and danceable tune that has been taught in Sunday School’s, Children’s Churches, Youth Groups, at Christian camps and in Christian homes since it’s arrival in the music scene in 1971.  A very interesting note is that the song actually had it’s beginnings in an English opera from 1720.

Although the song is simple, it teaches a deep theological truth.

The truth that the lyrics to Father Abraham teach, inform us that each of us, who finds ourself believing in Jesus Christ and praising Him as Lord and Savior, are an integral part of God’s Heavenly family.

Abraham is called “Father” because God chose him to be the first person in God’s nation of people that God would set apart for Himself and for Heaven. Therefore, as we will hear in this morning’s Biblical text, each of us is related directly to Abraham as as the Father of God’s people through the faith that includes us in that set apart eternal nation.  We, by faith, are each, one of the many sons or daughters of Abraham.  

So, let’s just praise the Lord as we hear from Galatians 3.1-9.

Galatians 3:1–9 says this:

[1] O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. [2] Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? [3] Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? [4] Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? [5] Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—[6] just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

[7] Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. [8] And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” [9] So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (ESV)

Let me begin here by saying that people don’t want the grace of God.  

That’s why Jesus tells us that the gate that leads to life is narrow but the road that leads to destruction is wide.

In this portion of Galatians, Paul is reprimanding the Christians in Galatia because they are turning away from and rejecting the grace of God that was once precious in their sight.

Following Paul’s argument up to this point in this letter, that he wrote to the Christians gathered in the region of Galatia, Paul is saying, “you heard about the grace of God that forgives you, makes you righteous, and welcomes you home into Heaven, but you are once again following the lies of this world that say you have to work hard to possibly earn God’s love.”

To further reiterate his teaching, the Apostle Paul reminds the Christian churches that they received God’s Spirit in their lives by faith, not by a record of doing good.

And, what does receiving God’s Spirit in your life signify?  

Receiving God’s Spirit in your life, that is, having God live in you and work through you, is a sign of salvation.  It is sign that you have been forgiven of your sin and are loved by God today, tomorrow, and forever.  Having the third part of the Trinitarian Godhead, the Holy Spirit, living and active in you, is a sign that you are part of God’s Heavenly family.

In the New Testament Biblical book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul clarifies the meaning of receiving God’s Spirt when he says:

[13] In [Jesus] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in [Jesus], were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13–14, ESV)

How is someone blessed with God entering their life?  By hearing the Good News of Jesus and believing in Jesus.

People are glory hounds and like to say that they earned what they have—although I would also argue that recently, the last coupe of generations of Westernized humanity, have unfortunately been lied to by their teachers, professors, and more sadly parents and sometimes pastors, with the idea they are simply owed everything they want without any blood, sweat, and tears shed.

But, even that posture of entitlement is a search for personal glory as it results in the boasting that “I got what I deserved!” 

The search for individual glory begins in this world and is often transferred wrongly into our understanding of God and His Work for us.

Some that identify as Christians often teach, promote, and argue for the most ridiculous, unGoldy, and non-Biblical theological ideas as those in the region of Galatia were doing.

One of those completely wrong ideas is that forgiveness of sin and salvation do not come by faith alone and that idea is not a Biblical idea but an invention of humanity later on in history.

Specifically, these misled people, today, say that salvation by faith alone was forced on the world by the New Testament church and then by the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century.

Anyone who believes, teaches, promotes, or argues that forgiveness of sin and salvation need human good deeds attached to faith in order to find rest in God’s love have absolutely no idea what they are talking about because the Bible never, ever, teaches such heresy.  And, this morning’s text from the Biblical book of Galatians helps fight such botched theology. 

Let’s see that salvation by faith alone is as old as the Creation in which we live.

Shortly after the Creation event when Adam and Eve’s fall into Sin in the Garden of Eden, God told them that He would right their wrongs in the future through a Savior—Jesus.  God did not tell them to start working hard to prove to Him that they can once again be good enough to get on His good side.

When God set apart a nation of people for Himself, those that He would call His sons and daughters, He made sure that they knew, and that we would know by extension, that the one He chose to be the leader of the nation on earth, was not a super-human capable of more good deeds than others, or, any good deeds at all for that matter, God has Moses, in Genesis 15.6 let us know that Abraham, “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6, ESV).

Paul not only repeats that exact idea here in Galatians 3.6, but He continually makes the point that salvation is by faith alone.  In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians gathered in the city of Rome, the Apostle Paul also says, 

[1] What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? [2] For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. [3] For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” [4] Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. [5] And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, [6] just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

[7] “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered;

[8] blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

[9] Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. [10] How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. [11] He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, [12] and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:1–12, ESV)

This first Father of God’s people, the one that the Apostle Paul is referencing in this morning’s Biblical text, did not prove Himself to God through good deeds in order to be chosen by God for God’s Kingdom.  Abraham was simply considered perfect and righteous by God because of his faith.

The Old Testament, the books of the Bible that tell us everything that happened from the moment of Creation up until God entered our world to rescue us in Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, are often spoken of like they teach and promote the idea that God’s love is earned by doing what God says to do and not doing what God says not to do.

However, the Old Testament, from the very beginning as we have already seen this morning, speaks of salvation by faith alone. We are shown time and time again that people who try to do what is right in God’s eyes always fail and fall short. But, grace of God was and is always present to call humans to faith and trust in His promise to right all wrongs for them.  This grace of God in the salvation event, for you and me, is continued to be talked about in the New Testament.

Using the example of Father Abraham’s righteous before God coming ONLY from his belief in God’s promises and God’s goodness, that will lead God to fulfill those promises to him, is a clear and undeniable show that salvation comes by faith alone.

Another false argument relating to the idea of good works needing to be accepted by God for forgiveness of sin and salvation comes from the lie that, “There are people who don’t believe in God that do good things.”

Well, once again, the Bible very clearly addresses that misconception.

Speaking about all of the Old Testament figures and how it was their faith that made them righteous and perfect and acceptable to God, the author says:

[6] …without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6, ESV)

King David, the Psalm writer, another book from the Bible’s Old Testament, also addresses the fact that there is no possibility of doing Godly good without faith when he says:

[1] The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;

there is none who does good.

[2] God looks down from heaven

on the children of man

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

[3] They have all fallen away;

together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one. (Psalm 53:1–3, ESV)

This idea of no human having the capacity to do true Godly good apart from faith is so-central to the human need for a Savior that the Apostle Paul quotes these exact verses from Psalm 53 thousands of years later when he is speaking to the Christians in Rome.  

Paul says to the Roman Christians:

[9] What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, [10] as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

[11] no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

[12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

[13] “Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

[14] “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

[15] “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

[16] in their paths are ruin and misery,

[17] and the way of peace they have not known.”

[18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

[19] Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. [20] For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

[21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—[22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [25] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [26] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:9–26, ESV)

The Old Testament also defeats the claim that people who don’t have faith in God-in-Christ are capable of genuinely good deeds.

The prophet Isaiah, let God’s people know this:

[6] We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6, ESV)

What we are being told in these words from God’s prophet Isaiah is that even perceived good works by someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ are a delusion and an impossibility.

In a very graphic statement, Isaiah states that even what seems to be the most generous, charitable, helpful, sacrificial, giving good deed from someone who doesn’t believe in the truth of sin and a Savior, are nothing more than a dirty menstrual pad in the eyes of God.

That is because every so-called good work by someone that does’t believe in Jesus Christ has selfish and self-centered motivations at the very core.

Mostly unspoken thoughts of receiving personal glory while doing good things go like this:

“I will give this homeless man some change because he will then think that I am a good person.  Maybe someone will see me giving change to this homeless person and also think that I am a good person.”

Or, how about:

“If I go hand out food at the shelter, maybe my picture will be in there news letter or on their Facebook page.”

Without the driving true and sacrificial love of God at work in you, there is no true and sacrificial good deed.  There is always sinful and selfish ungodly motivation present.

Whether these motivations for attempted good works without God are spoken out or not, the heart is always deceptive and selfish apart from God’s Spirit working the fruit of the Spirit in your life after you come to find yourself believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Good works flow out of the man or woman of faith and are described as fruit in your life because they are planted in you and grow out of you only after trusting in Jesus for forgives of sin and abundant life now and forever.

Galatians 5:22–25 tells us what the fruits of God’s Spirit are in our life.  Or, to say that another way, we are told about the truly good works that are a possibility for us as we live with faith in God’s goodness, grace, and unmerited love for us in Jesus Christ.

Galatians says:

[22] …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. [24] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

[25] If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Only God is good and capable of truly good works.

And, good works are only possible for you when that good and gracious God is alive and active in you by His Spirit that the promises He will give to you who repent and believe.

Don’t be tricked and fooled into believing that Jesus Christ’s crucifixion wasn’t enough to provide you with the forgiveness of sin, Godly righteousness, and eternal life in Heaven.

You, who find yourself believing in Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and Life—the only One who can possibly make you right and reconciled to God, have the Sprit of God alive and active in you blessing you with a love that creates good works that bless the world around you and bring glory to God, the Father in Heaven.

Through faith in Jesus Christ alone,

Father Abraham had many sons

Many sons had Father Abraham

I am one of them and so are you

So let’s just praise the Lord

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 30, 2025

Prayer:

Living God, 

We confess before you our deep attachment to dead works. We often seek to justify ourselves before you by our own obedience, even though the work of our defiled hands cannot be accepted into your holy presence. Sometimes we bind ourselves and others to do things in your name that you never commanded us to do. We think that by pursuing empty rituals or by denying ourselves things that you have declared good that you will somehow be pleased with us. At other times, we obey your Word out of a self-centered desire for our own glory and in order to declare our independence from you. We avoid small sins and pursue acts of righteousness that we find easy to perform, while blatantly ignoring far more important sins that have a strong grasp on our hearts. We denounce others for their inability to do these things, while ignoring the deep pride and lovelessness that pervade our lives. Father, forgive us. 

Jesus, 

thank you for being our great High Priest. Thank you that as our representative you never offered your Father dead works. All your obedience came from a heart fixed on pleasing God. There was no pride or self-exaltation in your acts of service, nor were you selectively obedient in the commandments that you kept. Your hands and your heart were pure and clean as you offered a perfect and unblemished life of obedience in our place. You presented your own blood as the atoning offering that enables us to draw near to God with boldness. 

Holy Spirit, 

give us confidence as we draw near to the throne of grace—not a confidence in ourselves and our own goodness, but a confidence founded upon Jesus Christ and his merits alone. Teach us to enthrone Christ in our hearts, and so be humbled; equip us to serve others out of the same mercy and grace that we ourselves have received. Give us the joy and gladness that comes from knowing that he has offered the once-and-for-all sacrifice in our place, and that he is returning again to be reunited with his people forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Benediction:

Go, in peace today, praising the Lord.

Father Abraham had many sons

Many sons had Father Abraham

I am one of them and so are you

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Look In the Mirror

Luke 13.1-9

Tragedy is defined as a lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair.  

Over the past couple of years, there have been both national and international tragedies that have occupied our attention, time, and often resources:  The Floods in North Carolina,The Los Angeles Fires, and the recent strain of airplane crashes.

There is something about tragedy that pulls on the human heart.

There is something about tragedy that captivates our mind’s eye. 

There is something about tragedy that resonates deep within each and every one of us causing us to start asking real serious questions about life and death.

Our Biblical text for this morning opens with a group of concerned citizens approaching Jesus for an explanation of two tragic events.  The two tragic events which the people describe are unique to the Lukan gospel account and have no extra-biblical evidence to shed light on the particulars of the situations.  However, it is not the events themselves which are important but rather the false assumptions and popular beliefs behind the people’s concern.  These false assumptions and adoptions of popular belief are the real tragedy in this morning’s text.

Let’s hear from the Gospel text for today.

Luke 13:1–9 tells us this:

[1] There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. [2] And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? [3] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. [4] Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? [5] No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

[6] And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. [7] And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ [8] And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. [9] Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (ESV)

In this Biblical text, chosen by the lectionary for the 2nd Sunday in Lent, we see and hear that people were obsessed with comparison and suffering. They were coming to Jesus thinking that they were better off than those around them who were victims of tragic events.  Their preeminent thought was, “God must love me more and I am obviously living a holier life because God hasn’t punished me with suffering and a tragic death like those other people!”

Specifically, people were coming to Jesus and asking, “What bad things did the Galileans do in order to be punished by being killed while they were worshiping in the temple?” And, “What bad things was God mad at that made him make the tower of Siloam fall and kill those 18 people?”

Jesus was being asked about a god who finds joy in punishing people caught in their sin.  

However, in our text this morning, we do not meet a God who is waiting with excitement and joy to punish sinners.  Instead we come face to face with God who is patient for the single purpose of allowing you and me to hear about and experience His grace and mercy present in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  As Jesus himself says, “Look in the mirror at your own disobedience to God and repent and believe in Me — the grace of God present with you!”

What the people in this morning’s text were promoting was similar to what we today would call Karma.  They were believing that good deeds brought reward and bad deed brought suffering and punishment.

Well, to see the record straight, God is not Karma! And, Karma is not God!

What that means is that God does not base the way he treats you on the way you act in this world or the way you treat him or others.  And, that is nothing but mercy dripping with grace for you.

I’m going to get on a small soap box here for a minute.

If I had a dollar for every time a Christian has referenced Karma in their life or the life of someone around them, the wall in the parking lot would be rebuilt before this service is over!

Sometimes, we are influenced by the ridiculous beliefs of the world around us.  When that influence leads us to include some of the world’s stupid false theology and asinine philosophy into our Christianity, we no longer have Christian faith, we have become syncretists. That means we have fused together a bunch of often conflicting ideas that, at the end of the day, do nothing but make make us falsely feel good about ourselves, and falsely arrogant as we promote internally and externally that we  better and more superior than others.  We do all of this false self-glorification while denying any and all real self-examination.

Karma is a false God.  Karma has nothing to do with God the Father in Heaven, Jesus the Son, or the Holy Spirit.

Believing in and promoting Karma causes us to break the first two commandments.

Commandment 1 says,

[2] “I am the LORD your God…

[3] “You shall have no other gods before me.

And, Commandment 2 says, 

[4] “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. [5] You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, [6] but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:2–6, ESV)

Karma is a false God because it promises to give you want you want if only you do its bidding by doing good in this world first.

This fake universal Karma “spirit” has no basis in reality.  Many of us can attest to continually trying to do good things without so much as a “thank you.”  If doing good things can’t even get you a “thank you” from the people you served and helped, how can anyone possibility think they will get something more.

Believing in some form of immediate divine earthly reward for so-called “good” behavior and immediate divine punishment for bad behavior goes completely against everything the Bible tells us about God.

Since we are working through the Biblical book of Galatians alongside of our lectionary texts this Lenten season, let’s hear a bit of what the Apostle Paul has to say about what doing good often gets you.

Galatians 6:7–10 encourages us with these words:

[7] Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. [8] For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. [9] And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. [10] So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (ESV)

Why would one grow weary of doing good and want to give up doing good?  Because doing good, meaning loving God and loving others, isn’t always met with immediate earthly acceptance and reward.  In fact, doing the right thing, standing up for what is Godly, voicing God’s definitions of right and wrong, and helping those in need, is often rewarded in this world with criticism, mocking and rejection. 

You either take Jesus and have everything — meaning God on your side—or, you reject Jesus and have absolutely nothing — meaning God completely against you.  

What Jesus tells you in this text spits in the face of the philosophy of Karma.

Even when you who are bad by nature, do bad in this world, treat God and others like crap, God in his grace and mercy chases after you in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to do good to you by forgiving you of your false belief and disobedience to Him and His Word and Commandments.  God chases after you in Jesus even while you are a sinner sinning, showing you, like a proud realtor, the home in Heaven that he has bought for you.

The Bible tells us over and over again that God, our Creator, who is also our Redeemer in Jesus Christ, is a patient and loving God.

Psalm 103.8 tells us of God’s patience with us.

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

And, in verse 17 of that same Psalm,

“…the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him…”

The reason God in Heaven is patient with you is because His love for you creates a desire to see you eternally safe and secure in His Kingdom.  He does want to crush you. Instead, He wants to forgive you and save you.

In his second letter to the Christian Church of the 1st century, the apostle Peter reminds those who have faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior about God’s patience with them.

He says,

“…count the patience of our Lord as salvation.” (2 Peter 3.15)

We have a God who is patient with us, even in our most annoying, disturbing, argumentative, intolerable, and disobedient moments.  

We on the other hand are an impatient people.

We want what we want now.  We believe we should never suffer, never experience hurt or pain, and never be uncomfortable.

The second we don’t get what we want from God or from the people around us in our life, we start to throw fits, want to give up, and question everything about our existence.

The second suffering, hurt, pain, or discomfort enter our sphere of personal existence, we begin repeating the mantra, “I don’t deserve this,” or, “How long, O Lord, how long?”

After the devasting tsunami in Indonesia back in 2004, one of my mentors said to me, 

“We shouldn’t get caught up asking the question, ‘Why did this happen to them?’ We should only ask the question, ‘Why did this not happen to me?’” 

What my mentor was highlighting is exactly what pastor and professor Michael Wilcock, points out when discussing this morning’s Biblical text.

He reminds us that,

“The fact is that we are all sinners, al in need of repentance, all deserving of punishment, and all preserved from the wrath of God—at least until judgement day—purely by His mercy.” (Wilcock, The Message of Luke, 138)

Jesus makes clear that all sin is equal in God’s eyes and punishable by a death that separates us from Him and His Kingdom of Heaven forever.  However, not wanting that end for anyone of us, Jesus is patient and gives us opportunity after opportunity to repent, confess, and be forgiven.  

We cannot escape death and separation from God if we trust in our own good work or in our good work as compared to the work of others.

Jesus points out that disasters and tragedies should cause each one of us to reevaluate our own life, leading us to confession of sin and repentance, placing our trust and hope in Jesus Christ alone for eternal safety and security.  

But, Jesus also makes it clear that a time is coming when God’s patience will end.  A time is coming where no more warnings will be issued.  A time is coming when the tree that does not bear fruit will be cut down.  A time is coming where repentance and faith will no longer be possible.  

In order for God to be perfectly just, He must eventually punish sin.  

Jesus, God in the flesh, was a completely innocent man and still experienced suffering, pain, hurt, and death.  He had every right to scream out, “I don’t deserve this,” or to petition God with the cry of, “How long, O Lord, must I suffer? How long?” But Jesus neither thought nor spoke those words. 

In this Lenten season, leading up to Good Friday and Easter, we are reminded that Jesus continued to patiently make His way to Jerusalem where He would knowingly experience the hurt and pain of rejection as well as the suffering and death associated with crucifixion.   God was being patient with you and me and only at an appointed time would Jesus be allowed to be punished and die in our place.  

And true and full justice came when Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross.  Sin was fully paid for.  

Your belief in Karma, your misunderstanding of God, your self-righteousness that causes you to think that you are better than others in certain ways, your constant obsession with comparison that leads to both pity and inflated egos, and your impatience with God and others was forgiven in Christ’s death.  

On the cross, Jesus perished and was cut down so that you could live and be replanted in God’s eternal garden.

I tell you what Jesus tells you in today’s Biblical text, today is the day of salvation.  

Hear Jesus’ words of warning and Repent of your wrong doing and ask God for forgiveness, or you will be cut out of God’s eternal garden and perish.  

Don’t look at others to figure out who you are.  

Look in mirror and point the finger at yourself.

First, you should say, “You are a sinner who deserves to be punished by God for disobeying his rules for life and love!”

And, second you says, “But, you are loved by God and through his gift of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven, made perfect in every way in his sight, and welcomed home into Heaven with arms wide open waiting to hug you and hold you safe and sound forever!

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 23, 2025.

Prayer:

Guiding Father, 

Forgive us for our lack of faith. As you called Abraham out of his country into unknown circumstances, so you often call us to walk through frightening, lonely, or unstable times. In response to trials of various kinds, we have certainly not counted them as joy. Like sheep, we are prone to wander at these times; we have turned—every one of us—to our own way. In moments of suffering, we have looked for wisdom from this world, comforting ourselves with man-made schemes to deal with our suffering or escaping into addictive patterns of numbing behavior. Our vision for what you are doing in our lives in the midst of suffering is blindingly clouded by fear and anger, and we have consistently settled for our own limited, self-centered vision as the final word of truth. Yet in your immeasurable grace, the Good Shepherd has laid down his life for his selfish, wandering sheep. 

Holy Jesus, 

thank you for the life of doubtless faith that you lived on our behalf. You came from heaven to take on human flesh and live perfectly in the place of your children. In the midst of every kind of trial and temptation, you responded with utmost trust and faith in your Father’s will. Even as your Father turned his face away as you were crucified for our sin of unbelief, you remained faithful, to your final breath, declaring your atoning work as finished. What vast, free, abounding grace! 

Spirit of God, 

bind our wandering hearts to you as we walk through the paths that you have ordained for us. When we suffer, be our vision by teaching us to count this cost as joy and strengthening our belief that you always have redemptive purposes in the suffering of your children, as we see so clearly in the cross of Christ. Enable us to cry out for wisdom when we lack it, and humble us to see that we lack wisdom often. Grow our faith in the promise that you will not leave us as we pass through troubled waters, that we will not be burned when we are called to walk through fire, and that we do not need to fear, for you have called us by name; we are yours. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Gathered. Not Scattered.

Luke 13.31-35 & Galatians 2.15-21

Every town and city has something that is it famous for.

Huntington has Walt Whitman’s birth place. New York has the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, Times Square, Broadway, and Central Park.  San Francisco has its cable cars. Seattle has its Space Needle.

And Longview, WA has its squirrel bridge called The Nutty Narrows Bridge. Spanning Olympia Way, is a local landmark.

The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, the late Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy thoroughfare without getting flattened by cars. Before the bridge was built, squirrels had to dodge traffic to and from the Park Plaza building where office staff put out a nutty feast for the squirrels. Many times, workers near Park Plaza witnessed squirrels being run over. It didn’t take long before squirrels started using the bridge. They even escort their young across, teaching them the ropes. In addition to the Nutty Narrows Bridge, four additional bridges have since been built, the most recent bridge was installed in May of 2015. The sixth bridge is in the works.

In the busyness of every day life, there are dangers that threaten to stop us in our tracks and prevent us from making it back into our bed at night.  We have to become wise in order to know what paths to walk and which paths to avoid in order to stay safe not only today, but for tomorrow and the future.

In this morning’s two Biblical texts, we will hear about the ultimate danger we face while living life.  We will also hear about how to avoid and escape that danger that will leave us flattened and dead if we don’t take the safety bridge put in place for us.

Let’s get into our first Biblical text now.

Luke 13:31–35 says this:

[31] At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” [32] And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. [33] Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ [34] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! [35] Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (ESV)

The Gospel message is both serious and soft (gentle).

The message of the Gospel is serious because it tells you of our dire condition.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it tell you that Sin separates you from God.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it speaks the truth that you are lost in Sin from the moment of conception due to the inheritance of Sin from your first parents Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it informs you that your aren’t only lost in Sin but that you are actually dead in Sin meaning you are lifeless and unable to do anything to help yourself get back to God.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it tells you that because of Sin you are scattered away from God and running around without protection from the danger of being punished by God’s wrath.

In this morning’s Biblical text, we hear that the Gospel is not only serious, but it is also soft, meaning, gentle.  Jesus says that He came to gather you to Himself in order to cover you and protect you from the danger that you are in because of Sin.

The Gospel, ultimately meaning, “Good News” from the Greek evangelion, tells you the Good News that while you were still a sinner sinning, God poured out his love for you and chased after you in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

Using the illustration of a mother hen gathering her babies under her wings to protect them from ultimate harm—death—she gives them shelter even if it means she has to die in the act of protecting them.

Let’s explore the mother hen for a moment.

When a hen senses danger, her parental instincts kick in and she brings all of her little ones under her wings so that predators, such as foxes, cannot see her babies and therefore cannot steal them, harm them, or kill them.  The mother’s love is so great that she is willing to take all of the hurt, suffering, pain, and even die, from enemy attacks, if necessary, by making herself a shelter to protect her offspring.  

One commentator shares this information:

“Fire is a terrifying thing to trapped animals as to people, if not more so. When a farmyard catches fire, the animals try to escape; but, if they cannot, some species have developed ways of protecting their young. The picture we have [in Luke 13.31-35] is of a hen, gathering her chicks under her wings to protect them. There are stories of exactly this: after a farmyard fire, those cleaning up have found a dead hen, scorched and blackened – with live chicks sheltering under her wings. She has quite literally given her life to save them.” (Wright, 171)

The way the hen brings her brood close so that she can protect them is an incredible demonstration of true love because there is the willingness present in the mother to sacrifice her well-being and even her life to save the children she loves.

This morning’s Biblical text tell you that Jesus has come to you and for you because Jesus desires to gather you under the protection of his cross where you are fully protected from the wrath of God that will you destroy you because of your Sin.

In Jesus, the grace of God gathers you in.  It doesn’t scatter you out and away.

So, that leads us to ask the question, “How, exactly are we gathered to God and not scattered away from Him?”

Well, the Apostle Paul addresses and answers that question Galatians 2:15–21 when he writes these words:

[15] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; [16] yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

[17] But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! [18] For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. [19] For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. [20] I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (ESV)

As an aside, there are two verses here that you should have highlighted in your Bible and committed to memory. Those verses are 16 and 20.

Now, in order to fully grasp most of Paul’s letter to the Galatians we have to learn to properly distinguish the place of God’s Law and God’s Gospel in every piece of Scripture that we read.

So, let’s begin by answering the question, “What is the Law of God?”

In a paragraph written by one of my seminary professors, that summarizes pieces of The (Lutheran) Book of Concord, and that I make every one of my Confirmation students memorize, we are told that God’s Law has three uses in our life. Here is that paragraph:

The Law is that part of God’s Word which tells us what we must do and what we must not do.  It has [three] uses: 1) to curb our natural tendencies by telling us what we must do under penalty of punishment or failure; 2) to convict of sin by describing where we have failed to keep the law, thus showing us our need for a Savior; and 3) to coach the believer regarding what Christ has given the believer to do.

What we have to notice is that there is no place in God’s Law that says, “Following God’s Law is possible and it will save you from your sin.”

That’s where we have to ask, “How then can I be forgiven and saved for God’s Kingdom of Heaven?”  Or, in a more specific question, “What is the Gospel?”

In another paragraph written by one of my seminary professors, that summarizes pieces of The (Lutheran) Book of Concord, and that I make every one of my Confirmation students memorize, we are told what God’s Gospel (or, Good News) provides for us and accomplishes in our life. Here is that second paragraph:

The Gospel is that part of God’s Word which tells us what God has promised to us and has done for us in Christ Jesus.  It is good news (Gospel) which is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1.17) which when preached causes one to be born again (1 Peter 1.23-25) as faith comes through hearing this word (Romans 10.17).

After hearing these two paragraphs describing the Law and the Gospel, we can better understand why Paul tells the Galatian Christians that “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2.16).

Jesus doesn’t want forgiveness to be impossibly hard.  

Jesus doesn’t want to lose you.  

Jesus wants to rescue you. 

After all, as 1 Timothy 2.4 tells us, it is God’s will that all men and women are saved.”  This is all shown in Jesus’ preaching.  Jesus’ message was “Repent [of your sin] and Believe!”  Jesus’ message was not, “Work hard, do the right things, struggle, worry, doubt, and then maybe God will think you are good enough.”

Jesus gathers us under the protection of arms spread out on the cross by faith alone.  We are not welcomed under the cross of Christ by obedience to God’s Law because God’s Law is impossible for a human to fully complete.  You are welcome under the protection of Jesus’ cross and death by simple fish in Him and His work there for you.

On December 26, 2004, the third-largest earthquake ever recorded by seismograph occurred deep beneath the Indian Ocean. It registered 9.1-magnitude on the Richter scale, and the shock waves produced tsunami waves more than one hundred feet in height, traveling five hundred miles per hour and reaching a radius of three thousand miles. This deadliest tsunami in history claimed 227,898 lives, but one people group living right in its path miraculously survived without a single casualty.

The Moken are an Austronesian ethnic group that live on the open seas from birth to death. Their handcrafted wooden boats, called kabang, function as houseboats for these sea gypsies. Moken children learn to swim before they learn to walk. They can see twice as clearly underwater as landlubbers. And if there were an underwater breath-holding contest, it would be no contest. But it wasn’t any of these skills that saved them from the tsunami. What saved them was their intimacy with the ocean. 

The Moken know its moods and messages better than any oceanographer, reading ocean waves the way we read street signs.

On the day of the earthquake, an amateur photographer from Bangkok was taking pictures of the Moken when she became concerned by what she saw. As the sea started to recede, many of the Moken were crying. They knew what was about to happen. They recognized that the birds had stopped chirping, the cicadas had gone silent, the elephants were headed toward higher ground, and the dolphins were swimming farther out to sea.

Fishermen in the same vicinity as the Moken were blindsided by the tsunami and had no survivors. “They were collecting squid,” said one Moken survivor. “They don’t know how to look.” The waves and birds and cicadas and elephants and dolphins were speaking to those Burmese fishermen, but sadly they didn’t know how to listen.

A local anthropologist who speaks Moken said, “The water receded very fast and one wave, one small wave, came so they recognized that this is not ordinary.”

The Word of God is speaking to about your Sin and your Savior,Jesus.  The Word of God tells you what the dangers of Sin are and what the dangerous sins are.  The to Word of God tells you to look out for Sin and it’s sins and to repent of those sins before the wave of His wrath makes it to your boat or shore.  The Word of God is giving you the signs you need to know in order to not be one of the casualties of God’s wrath that punishes those stuck in unrepentant Sin.

Don’t be like King Herod and the Pharisees who looked at Jesus and did not recognize God’s saving grace in their life.

Instead, Look and recognize that Jesus gently gathers you to God, under the protection of His arms that are spread out on the cross to shield you from the destruction that comes because of God’s deadly storm on Sin.  In the process of the crucifixion, because of His love for you, Jesus willingly takes the full brunt of the storm that so that you can escape alive and live in ultimate safety today, and forever, in the arms of your Creator and Redeemer—God the Father in Heaven.

I encourage you to wake up everyday preaching The Gospel to yourself while being readied to walk through life doing the good deeds that God has prepared for you to do.  According to one of today’s Biblical texts, you can find help every morning by repeating Galatians 2.20 along with the Apostle Paul which says, 

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 16, 2025

Prayer:

Glorious God, 

We praise you for the privilege of knowing you. We have lived in this world, yet often have been ignorant of its Creator; we have enjoyed your tender care without knowing you as the provider. In blindness we have enjoyed sunlight, and we have listened to voices all around us while profoundly deaf to spiritual truth. We have understood many things without knowledge of your ways, and have seen the world yet failed to see Jesus. We live each day as sovereigns of our own kingdoms, carrying out our desires and bending others to our wills. Instead of submitting humbly to those you have called us to obey, our souls rise up with prideful indignation, inflamed with desires for self-determination. We fear that if we love others sacrificially, we will lose the world, and so we fight for our kingdom to come and our will be done. Father, forgive us for our sin, and for the great damage we do to others as we sin. 

Lord Jesus, 

you have entered into the darkness of our world in order to possess us and save us. You submitted to the will of your Father, loving us sacrificially as you carried our cross up the hill of execution and died in our place. With your perfect obedience and death, you have crushed the head of the serpent forever and wrapped us in the silken robes of your righteous submission and sacrificial love. In losing yourself, you gained the treasure for which you longed: our salvation. Jesus, thank you. 

Holy Spirit, 

grant that we may weep in praise of the mercy that we have found. May we tell others as long as we live that you are a pardoning God who pursues proud and selfish sinners and transforms them into grateful, humble, loving, and sacrificial saints. Though we are weak in this life and only make small beginnings in obedience, may our hearts expand with joy to think of the great treasure that is ours in Christ. His perfect love casts out our fear, for though we continue to sin, there is no condemnation left for us, and an eternity of joy has been purchased by his blood. Give us boundless gratitude and increasing grace to live in submission to your perfect and loving will, and to sacrifice ourselves as he laid down his precious life for us. In Christ’s name, amen.

Benediction:

God in peace today.  Jesus gently gathers you to God through his life, death, and resurrection of you. 

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Defeating Temptation

Luke 4.1-13

A recent study tracked the top temptations Americans face. 

The people surveyed said they struggled with the following temptations either “often” or “sometimes”:

  • Worrying or being anxious—60 percent
  • Procrastinating or putting things off—60 percent
  • Eating too much—55 percent
  • Spending too much time on social media—44 percent
  • Being lazy—41 percent
  • Spending more money than they could afford—35 percent
  • Gossiping about others—26 percent
  • Being jealous or envious of others—24 percent
  • Viewing pornography or sexually explicit material—18 percent
  • Abusing alcohol or drugs—11 percent

So, I now ask you:

What tempts you?

Does the snooze button on your alarm clock tempt you to stay in bed and prolong the start of your day?

Does the Playstation, Xbox, or Switch tempt you to play one more level of your current video game instead of studying for a test or preparing for your early morning work meeting?

Does the chocolate on your counter tempt you to break your commitment to eating healthier and losing weight?

Does the availability of every episode of your favorite show on a streaming service tempt you to forsake your household chores or ignore your children?

Does the promise of a new car or luxury vacation tempt you to miss important events in your kid’s life in order to at work late and go in for overtime to pay off the expense?

Does the alcohol in the restaurant tempt you to break your commitment to sobriety?

Does the instant physical gratification of pornography tempt you to break the promise you made on your wedding day to find satisfaction only in your spouse?

We are all tempted in one way or another.

And, let’s be honest, temptation isn’t something we find easy to brush off or walk away from.  Temptation, to do what we shouldn’t  do and to not do what we should do, is powerful and often seems to control and dictate our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

Today’s text, chosen for us by the lectionary for this First Sunday in Lent, comes from the Biblical book of Luke.  This pericope is focused on several temptations that strongly encourage Jesus to make decisions that will completely ruin his life and in turn completely ruin our life.

Our sermon text for today is Luke 4.1-13, which can be found on page 859 of the blue Bibles in your pews.

Let’s read and hear this piece of history together:

Luke tells us this:

[1] And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness [2] for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. [3] The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” [4] And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 

[5] And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, [6] and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. [7] If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” [8] And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,

and him only shall you serve.’”

[9] And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, [10] for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,

to guard you,’

[11] and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,

lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

[12] And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” [13] And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. (ESV)

Here in our Biblical text, we hear and see that Jesus was tempted by God’s ultimate enemy, the devil.  We often hear the Devil referred to as “Satan” which is derived from the Greek word satanas,  meaning adversary. 

This morning, we see that the devil tempts Jesus in three specific ways.

First, Jesus was tempted to find instant gratification by feeling pleasure and satisfaction through trusting in his own abilities.  The devil tempts Jesus to use his power to meet his own needs instead of trusting in God’s promise to provide for him when the time was right.

Second, Jesus was tempted to inappropriately “skip the line” in order to have power over the people and kingdoms of the earth.  Jesus was tempted to take the short cuts in life in order to get servants, authority and wealth, instead of walking the road that God put him on.  The road that God put him also promised power, but it would have road blocks and bumps along the way.  However, God’s road to power would lead him to be blessed now and forever. And, God’s road for Jesus would ultimately lead to you, hearing this today, receiving God’s blessing now and forever.

Jesus’ third temptation was to become instantly famous.  He was again tempted to take the easy way out and cheat with short cuts in order to have people look at him and want to be like him and want to be near him.  Taking the Devil’s way would lead people to speak of Jesus’ greatness without ever mentioning that God the Father in Heaven and Creator of the Universe, sent him to freely forgive sin and give out  righteousness and eternal life.  By following the devil’s temptation to walk away from God’s plan and purpose for his life, he would forsake you and me, leaving us forever separated from God in Heaven.

Jesus was on God’s mission to rescue you.  During His time on earth, Jesus was fully aware that the life of obedience that he lived be credited to you through your faith.  So, Jesus did what was right in God’s eyes for your eternal good.  

The greatest temptation that we all face is the exact same temptation that Jesus faced in our text this morning.  That temptation is the temptation to look away from God, to ignore God, and to disobey God’s plan and purpose for our life.  The temptation is to skip God’s line in order to get things that matter only in this world—instant pleasure or satisfaction, fame, and power.  

We are tempted to look only to our own personal interests and our own personal good (as we see it) and ignore everything that God has done for us.  This path of temptation causes us to live in disobedience to God’s will that we would be saved from God’s wrath on our sin and simply love Him and love others.

Even things that don’t seem like a big deal—the things we would label “little sins”—show that we are tempted to care more about ourselves than God or others.  

As an example, let’s go back to where we started. As silly as it seems, giving into the temptation to eat that piece of chocolate on the counter when you once, probably not too long ago, committed to taking better care of the physical body that you are now living in, says that you don’t care about the body that God has given you. 

What tastes good right now and for the next 3 minutes, as the residue remains in your mouth, is a sign of a much bigger problem of the inability to choose right and do right 100% of the time.

To repeat what I said a few minutes ago,

We are all tempted in one way or another.

And, let’s be honest, temptation isn’t something we find easy to brush off or walk away from.  Temptation to do what we shouldn’t and to not do what we should is powerful and often seems to control and dictate our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

There are some days where life is difficult and we want to take any short cut we can to get to where we want to be.  We will step on who we need to step on.  We will lie where we need to lie.  We will gossip where we need to gossip.  We will fix numbers where we need to fix numbers.  We will cheat where we need to cheat.  

We will do all of these things and more if it means getting what we want sooner and easier.

Several years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return back to Heaven, the apostle Paul wrote to the struggling church in the city of Corinth.  In his first letter to them, he encourages them with these words, found in that letter, specifically at 1 Corinthians 10:13:

Paul reminds them that:

[13] No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. [But] God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (ESV)

It is here that the apostle Paul reminds us of two pieces of good news.

The first piece of good news is that you are not alone when you are tempted.  When distractions come your way and something inside of you tells you to turn away from doing the right thing, you are no different than any other human being that has or that will ever live.

You are not strange.

You are not weird.

You are not the only one who struggles with choosing to think, say, and do, the right thing 100% of the time.

Temptation is as old as humanity.

The second piece of good news that the apostle Paul gives in his words to the Christians in the city of Corinth is that when you are tempted, God is with you who believe in Him, and will help you and give you exactly what you need to overcome the temptation.

You may be asking, “How does God give me the ability to overcome the strong pulls of temptation to think, say, and do, the wrong thing? The text just says that he will, not how it will happen!”

Well, for that, let’s look back to Jesus in the desert.  In Jesus’ temptation in the desert, we see how God provided Jesus the strength to push away the temptations in his life.  God provided the strength for Jesus to push away temptation by giving Him the living and active words of Scripture that God had written for him and his daily, as well as, eternal, good.

For each specific temptation, Jesus knew a verse from the Bible that helped him and strengthened him to trust God when the road to doing the right and Godly thing was difficult.

So, how does this work in your life? The same way God worked in Jesus’ life now works in your life.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 reminds you of this when Paul reminds his disciple Timothy that:

[16] All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (ESV)

There are verses to help you and strengthen you in every single temptation you are facing now and will face in the future.  

But, they will not come into your mind out of thin air.  Part of having faith in God is knowing who he is, what he promises to do, and how he will do it for you.  And, the only place you will find all of that information and be able to store it up for a rainy day of temptation is in His Word, the Bible.

You are living in a time where accessibility to God’s Word, the Bible, is easier than it ever was.  In addition to printed Bibles and Bible Apps for our phones.  We also have search engines like Google that you can type in things like “Bible verses about worry or Bible verses about addiction,” and in milliseconds you will provided with exhaustive lists on what you are looking to know.

A Super Bowl commercial from 2013 advertised the Mercedes Benz CLA. The ad starts with thirty-something man sitting in a cafe. As the waitress serves him a cup of coffee, the man looks out the window and sees two workmen unveiling a new billboard for the Mercedes CLA. His eyes look longingly at the car when a man dressed in black sits across the table from him. The Satan-figure (played by Willem Defoe) says, “Nice car!” “Sure is,” the young man agrees.

The Devil himself then holds a gold fountain pen in his fingers with pointed and polished fingernails. He says temptingly, “Make a deal with me, kid, and you can have the car and everything that goes along with it.”

As the young man takes the pen, he visualizes himself in a series of scenes that represent all the world has to offer. In the first scene, he drives his Mercedes to a red carpet awards ceremony, exiting the car with a gorgeous woman on his arm. In the next scene, he’s at a nightclub dancing side-by-side with his good buddy singer-songwriter Usher. Then the young man is driving his car with several attractive women as passengers. In the next scene he’s a popular model being photographed for trendy magazines. Finally, as he jumps into his car to escape a mob of women, he’s suddenly driving a Formula One race course speeding past the lead car.

Then the ad shifts back to the young man is back at the table in the café. The tempter asks, “So what do you say?” Holding the gold pen, the young man’s eyes stare down at the contract and then gaze out the window where he sees the relatively low price of the Mercedes on the billboard. “Thanks, but I think I’ve got this!” Immediately, the tempter disappears in a cloud of smoke.

So, as God’s enenmy, Satan, is tempting you to look away from God, to deny God’s love for you, and do your own thing in order to get exactly what you want instantaneously by exchanging God for lies, going the wrong way down a one way road hitting everything in sight, look out the window of Satan’s automobile and see the free gift of forgiveness, restoration, and reconciliation with God that he provides for you through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave and say to the temptation and they tempter, “Thanks, but God’s got this for me!” And, just like the tempter did with Jesus, he will leave you and disappear for a while.

The good news that you have in the face of temptation this morning is that you have a God who knows exactly what you are thinking and feeling in the moments of temptation and is therefore able to help you and rescue you by forgiving you of the times that you gave in to temptation and turned your back on Him.

Hebrews 4:14–16 tells us this:

[14] Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (ESV)

Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, was tempted with every temptation that you have been and will be tempted with.  But, Jesus never gave into any of those temptations to turn away from God and sin.  That is good news for you because He now gives you His sinless life to show to God as it is also your sinless life through faith in Him.

God knows all about your weak moments when you are being tempted. 

And, Jesus death on the cross, forgives you of your weak moments that led you to give into the temptation to think, speak, and act in a way that denies His goodness, His grace, and His love.

So, with confidence, come to Jesus today, and the next day, and the day after that, letting him know all about your struggles while asking him to lead you to the Bible to find the truth you need to strengthen you.  

He is here. He is there. He is waiting.  He is willing.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 9, 2025

Prayer:

Almighty God, 

We have come before you to worship you, but as we speak words of worship and sing songs of praise, we are reminded by your Word that we are to have no other gods before you. We have fallen woefully short of keeping this great command. Our worship of you is neither consistent nor wholehearted. You have called us to set our minds on things above, yet we habitually allow our minds to slip back toward things of earth: the fleeting pleasures that this world offers us in food, sexual immorality, and entertainment; the seeming glory it grants us in reputation, success, and money. 

Lord Jesus Christ, 

we have often doubted that you could rescue our souls. We create elaborate systems of salvation to comfort ourselves in our desperate condition. Some of us have learned to live in blindness toward the sin that so easily ensnares us, assuming that we are better than we are and smugly satisfied that we are not like other sinners. Others of us have established rituals of self-hatred to cope with the sin that we find in our hearts, hoping that if we just work hard enough, you might find it possible to forgive our insidious and constant sins. One thing we have in common is that none of us sees our own sin clearly. Instead we make too much or too little of it, and thereby obscure our view of your cross. 

Holy Spirit, 

lead us back to the good news of the gospel: that all our sin has been put to death, fully and finally, by Christ on the cross. Help us to see the reality of our justification: we have been raised with Christ, and our relationship with God has been secured as beloved children. Help us to put to death the remaining sin in our hearts, but give us the confidence to admit that our struggle with sin is ongoing, and will be so until you glorify us. Give us bold faith that lingers at the cross longer than we linger over our sins. Entice us with the good news from above, so that our worship might flow from transformed hearts enraptured by a God who loved us first. Clear our spiritual vision, we pray, that we might see our souls as hidden with Christ on high, our Savior and our God. In his name we come, amen.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

A Seat at God’s Table

Galatians 2.11-14

Do you practice what you preach?

Can the beliefs and morals you speak about and teach your children about be clearly known by the way you live day to day?

Do the words that come out of your mouth match the actions of your daily life?

Now, here is the BIG QUESTION with a BIG SCARY WORD that may make you tense up:

Are you a straight-up hypocrite who says one thing but does the exact opposite?

There are many ways that hypocrisy rears its ugly head. Here are a few ways to spot hypocrisy:

Do you treat those in power differently than you treat the common man or woman?

Do you give advice but fail to follow your own guidance?

Do you promote tolerance but judge others who don’t conform to your way of thinking?

Do you volunteer others but rarely raise your own hand to offer help?

Do you live one way in public but another in private?

Do you say one thing to someone’s face but another thing behind their back?

Well, I have some bad news for you.  I know the truth that you are a straight up hypocrite from time to time and can answer with a confident, “Yes!,” to many, if not all, of the above questions.

You may ask, “How does Pastor Fred know I am a hypocrite?”

Well, I know you are a hypocrite because I, a less than perfect, broken human born into Sin, am also a straight up hypocrite from time to time.  And, because we are human, we are the same.

This morning’s Biblical text, from the next part of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia during the first century following Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, shows us that the original disciples of Jesus also struggled with hypocrisy because they too were simply human.

Galatians 2:11–14 tells us this:

[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. [13] And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (ESV)

Since this text focuses on an interaction between the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter, let’s first ask, “Who was Peter?”

Peter was, as we heard a few weeks ago in this sermon series, one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples.  He was an OGG (original Gospel Gansta). 

In this moment, Paul confronts Peter because Peter is a classic case of believing the right things but behaving the wrong way.  Or, as we began this morning, this is a classic case of being a hypocrite.

Peter (a Jewish man) believes and teaches that the age-old Jewish laws have nothing to do with receiving God’s love in your life.  God doesn’t just love one people group.  God loves all people in all groups around the world.

But, here, Peter gets up from a table with fellow believers and stands to the side because they are not Jewish in background like him.

How do we know that Peter knew and believed the right things but was behaving in the wrong way?

We know that Peter knew what he was doing was wrong because we have the encounter between God and Peter recorded for us in the Bible in which God directly tells Peter that separation of people based on rules and laws and dietary restrictions is wrong and ungodly.

In the Biblical book of Acts, the book that tells of the beginnings of the Christian church immediately following Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension, we are told that an Italian centurion (that is, a non-Jewish man) invited Peter to his house.  Now, in the mid-first century, that invitation would have clearly meant that they would share a meal together.

Upon receiving the invitation, Peter gets nervous because, as a man with a Jewish background, he was used to having dietary restrictions in his life that were put in place by God for his people generations earlier.  This invitation, if he were to accept it, meant that he would be served food he wasn’t allowed to eat.

Knowing this struggle within Peter’s heart and mind, God graciously intervenes to let Peter know the Good News that in Jesus Christ all rules and regulations for attempting to be Holy have been cast away as they were impossible to completely fulfill, leaving one separated from God the Father in Heaven forever.

Let’s hear about the intervention of God and the new life that God was creating for Peter, for you, and for me.

Acts 10:9–48

[9] The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. [10] And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance [11] and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. [12] In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. [13] And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” [14] But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” [15] And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” [16] This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

[17] Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate [18] and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. [19] And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. [20] Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” [21] And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” [22] And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” [23] So he invited them in to be his guests.

The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. [24] And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. [25] When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. [26] But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” [27] And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. [28] And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean…

[34] So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, [35] but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. [36] As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), [37] you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: [38] how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. [39] And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, [40] but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, [41] not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. [42] And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. [43] To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

[44] While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. [45] And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. [46] For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, [47] “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” [48] And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. (ESV)

Why did God make a point of miraculously telling Peter that age-old dietary restrictions no longer have a place in his life?  

Well, God needed Peter to understand that dietary laws that were used to keep people groups separated had been abolished, by God, so that all men and women could sit around the same table and enjoy life together.

By uniting and allowing all of humanity to sit together at the same table and eat the same foods, God was teaching that the time had come in which all of humanity, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender, and socio-economic status, were welcomed into God’s Kingdom.  And, they weren’t welcomed and accepted through following rules and laws like dietary restrictions. They were welcomed and accepted only through a common faith in their Savior, Jesus.

This uniting of people from all walks of life through a simple faith in God’s promised Savior, Jesus, gives Peter, Paul, and us, a picture and foretaste of Heaven.

The Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah, speaks of the world-uniting eternal table at God’s feast in Heaven when he says: 

[6] On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

[7] And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations.

[8] He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 25:6–8, ESV)

In verses from Psalm 23 that have brought many of us comfort throughout our lives, King David, the song writer says of Jesus:

[5] You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies…(Psalm 23.5, ESV)

And, in the last book of the Bible that speaks of the end of history and the in-breaking of eternity, we are told that an angel says to the Apostle John:

[9] …“Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9, ESV)

If Peter believed the right thing—that reconciliation with God only comes through faith in Jesus our Savior—why did Peter change his behavior to reflect the wrong belief—that reconciliation with God comes through obedience to Laws and Commands and Good Deeds?

Peter became a hypocrite and changed his behavior so that it didn’t match his beliefs because of fear.  

Peter feared being rejected by his old friends.  

Peter feared the negative and critical opinions of others about him that would be spread. 

And, Peter feared confrontation from those that believed differently than him.    

So, instead of standing strong in the truth with God on his side, Peter caved and chose the path of hypocrisy which in turn led many away from the comfort and truth of the Gospel and placed them back under the burden of trying to act the right way in order to make God happy.

Commenting on this section of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, the 16th Century Church Reformer, Martin Luther said:

“[Peter] knew the doctrine of justification better than we do.  And yet how easily he could have been responsible for such a terrible ruin by his deed and example if Paul had not opposed him!  All the Gentiles would have fallen away from the preaching of Paul and would thus have lost the Gospel and Christ Himself.  And this all would have happened with the appearance of holiness.”

“For to avoid foods this way is to deny Christ, to tread His blood underfoot, to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, against God, and against everything holy.  Therefore if one has to lose one or the other, it is better to lose a friend and a brother than to lose God the Father.”

“I am making such a point of all of this to keep anyone from supposing that the doctrine of faith is an easy matter.  It is indeed easy to talk about, but it is hard to grasp; and it is easily obscured and lost.  Therefore let us with all diligence and humility devote ourselves to the study of Sacred Scripture and to serious prayer, lets we lose the truth of the Gospel.”

How did Peter know what was right and what was wrong?  Through God’s Word speaking to him.  For Peter, God chose to speak to him in a dream.

How do you know what is right and what is wrong?  Through God’s Word speaking to you.  God chooses to speak to you through His written and preserved Word known as the Holy Bible.

Peter was told by God Word in his dream that salvation—the forgiveness of sin, including the sin of hypocrisy and leading others away from the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and eternal life—comes to you only through faith in the innocent life of Jesus sacrificed over to death on the cross and risen from the grave on Easter morning.  Good deeds and following commandments will never get you to God.  

And, you are told through God’s Word in the Bible that salvation—the forgiveness of sin, including the sin of hypocrisy and leading others away from the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and eternal life—comes to you only through faith in the innocent life of Jesus sacrificed over to death on the cross and risen from the grave on Easter morning.  Good deeds and following commandments will never get you to God.  

I give you comfort, encouragement and exhortation for today and the week ahead of you from another Biblical letter, this time to the churches in Colossae.

In Colossians 2:8–23, God says to you, through the Apostle Paul’s words,

[8] See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. [9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. [11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

[16] Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. [17] These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. [18] Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, [19] and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

[20] If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—[21] “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” [22] (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? [23] These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (ESV)

As the Apostle Paul demonstrated in his confrontation with the Apostle Peter, our struggle with hypocrisy doesn’t leave us hopeless.

Hypocrisy is just one sin, among countless others, that breaks God’s command to always be truthful in our words and actions.  

The sin of hypocrisy is forgivable, just like every other sin is forgivable, through confession to God the Father in Heaven, repentance, and belief in His Sin forgiving Son, Jesus Christ.

Today is a happy day because Jesus washed your sin away.  You’ll never be the same again, forever you are changed.

I invite you to sing it out, Jesus is alive;

The empty cross, the empty grave;

Life eternal, Jesus has won the day.

This morning, repent of your sin, believe the Gospel, and take a seat at God’s table, where a place has been prepared for you by Jesus.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 2, 2025

Prayer:

God of all grace, 

We are weak and forgetful people, easily distracted by the joys and sorrows of our lives. We are capable of great thoughts concerning you one moment, yet we forget your kindness and live as though we had no hope the next. Forgive us, Father, for the unbelief that clings to our sinful flesh and clouds our minds with doubt and fear. 

Jesus, 

thank you for clinging to us, even though we let go of you repeatedly. You held fast to the gospel in your living, dying, and rising again, always obeying your Father and setting your face toward the hill of sacrifice. You never forgot your mission or resisted your calling, but faithfully lived and died in our place. You endured mocking, beatings, and crucifixion for the joy set before you. Thank you that we are that joy; now fill us with your joy and cause us to find great delight in you. Though we may be quick to forget you and need reminding often, you never forget us. Instead you intercede for us daily before your Father, and you are preparing for the day when we will feast with you in heaven. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! 

Holy Spirit, 

produce in us growing faith that we may live in Christ. May all our desires rest in him constantly. Make Jesus our greatest hope and all our glory. May we enter him as our refuge, build on him as our foundation, walk in him, follow him, conform to him, rely on him, and obey him. Let us never be ashamed of him or his words. May his death comfort us, for we have been loved with unfathomable love. May his resurrection assure us that his obedience was perfect, his sacrifice accepted, and his work finished. Help us to hold fast to the gospel we have believed: to cherish it in our weakness and to profess its power when we stand strong. Deepen our faith and guard our hearts and minds with the helmet of Christ’s salvation, the breastplate of his righteousness, the shield of his faith, the sandals of his peace, and the sword of his truth. In his strong name we pray, amen.

Benediction:

Go in peace today, you have a seat at God’s table in Heaven.  Invite others to join you by living in such a way that your behavior matches your belief. 

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

The Titus Test

Galatians 2.1-10

In 2009, a church pastor, who actively denied the objective truth of the Bible with this statement, “I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example),” and who also denied the Trinity, Hell and the Resurrection in their teaching, interviewed Christopher Hitchens, one of the most famous atheists of our time. 

Hitchens, the atheist, didn’t believe in God or an afterlife. Hitchens died of cancer in December 2011 but at the time of the interview he was riding a wave of popularity from his best-selling book God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

In a very interesting moment during the interview, the renowned atheist Christopher Hitchens said to the Bible denying church leader, “I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.”

As we have been hearing from the Apostle Paul in his letter to the  churches in Galatia, there were, and continue to be, Pastors, Bible study facilitators, Seminary professors, and people claiming to be Christian, that do not believe or teach the truth of the Bible.

In this morning’s section of the Biblical book of Galatians, we hear about the Apostle Paul traveling to the city of Jerusalem to meet with Jesus’ original disciples to compare the messages about Jesus that they were sharing with the world around them.

The Apostle Paul was always concerned that false teaching in the churches was taking the spotlight off of Jesus and giving people false hope through a false message that had nothing to do with God’s Word and God’s Will.

Let’s hear about this interview that the Apostle Paul held with Jesus’ original disciples now.

Galatians 2.1-10 tells us this:

[1] Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. [2] I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. [3] But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. [4] Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—[5] to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. [6] And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. [7] On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised [8] (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), [9] and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. [10] Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (ESV)

In this piece of autobiographical information from the Apostle Paul, we hear that after 14 years of traveling around the Mediterranean region he went to Jerusalem to visit with Jesus’ original disciples, the OGGs (The Original Gospel Gangstas).  Before going to Jerusalem on this trip, Paul spent one and a half decades preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ.  As people received the message of Christ as their Savior and repented of their Sin, Paul started Christian churches where the believers could gather together for encouragement and support.

However, the time had come for Paul to show unity with the disciples in order for the Good News of Jesus to keep spreading.

As Paul was preaching to the Gentiles, meaning the non-Jewish population, and the disciples were preaching to the Jewish population, people started to notice their different fields of work.

So, in order to show the world that both he and the disciples were sharing the same Good News—that forgiveness of Sin and eternal life in Heaven comes by faith alone, never by good deeds to please God—Paul traveled to Jerusalem to promote the unity that Jesus Christ brings across ethnic groups, socio-economic groups, gender groups, etc. 

As the Apostle Paul will say later in this letter to the churches in the region of Galatia during the 1st Century following Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection,

[26] for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. [27] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:26–29, ESV)

How did the Apostle Paul know that Jesus’ original disciples were preaching and teaching the exact Gospel message that Jesus gave to them?  

Well, the Apostle Paul used what I like to call, “The Titus Test.”

When the Apostle Paul went up to Jerusalem to compare the Good News of Jesus that he was sharing with the Good News of Jesus that the original disciples were sharing, the Apostle Paul took Titus with him.

Titus was a Gentile, meaning not Jewish.

If the disciples, with their Jewish background, insisted that Titus be circumcised, in order to follow the Jewish Law, before he could be fully acceptable to God the Father in Heaven, Paul would know immediately that their message was false because they were adding human works and human traditions to simple faith in Jesus Christ.

However, Paul finds assurance that they are true brothers in Jesus Christ because Titus “was not forced to be circumcised.”  Even though they had Jewish backgrounds and were preaching to the Jewish population, they believed and taught that works of the Law saved no one.  For the message of both Paul and the disciples was the Good News of Jesus Christ that forgiveness and salvation come by faith alone.

The true Gospel that both the Apostle Paul and Jesus’ original disciples were proclaiming was that Jesus is your Savior.

The true Gospel proclaims reality.  

Reality is that every man, woman, and child is dead in Sin from the moment of conception.  We are birthed into this world an enemy of God choosing the selfish option, the self-centered choice, and in pride, declaring our self-righteousness with no need for God in our life.

Reality is that in order for you and me to have hope in a life with God, the Creator of the Universe, on our side, we need someone to breathe life into us, rescue us, and provide forgiveness of Sin so that God can be present with us and us with God.

Reality is that the person, who provides a way for us to be forgiven of Sin and rescued from God’s wrath and punishment that we fully deserve because of Sin, the One promised shortly after the creation of all that has and will ever exist, is none other than the God-Man, Jesus.

The overly famous Bible text of John 3:16–17 tells us this truth when we hear,

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (ESV)

The Gospel, meaning, “Good News,” is that God’s love transcends human brokenness.  Despite every human’s defiance to God’s rules for life and love, God demonstrates nothing but grace and mercy towards us.

Because of this, we cannot tell people that Jesus is their mascot, cheering them on as they do whatever makes them feel good in he moment.

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is one option among many and that all roads lead to God in Heaven.  

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is just a good teacher.

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is their therapist giving them good advice to follow in order to better themselves and forge a healthier existence in this world. 

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is the giver of bling, existing to make them healthy and wealthy.

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is their National Patriot fighting for and defending only their people group.

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is just a social justice warrior.

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is just a moral example to be used with the mantra, “What Would Jesus Do?”

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is a mystic—a spiritual guru who wants them to look inward and be led by their feelings and “vibes.”

That is not the true Gospel.

We cannot tell people that Jesus is a new form of Moses—the giver of a new set of rules and laws to follow the will make you worthy of God’s love and forgiveness.

That is not the true Gospel.

God did not step off the throne in Heaven and enter this world in the person of Jesus Christ for the silly business of being your mascot, one option among many for you, a good teacher, a therapist, or a giver of bling.

The innocent and blameless Jesus did not die through the excruciating and humiliating death on a cross so that he could simply be your national patriot, a social justice warrior, a moral example, a vibe giving mystic, or the giver of new rules and laws.

Jesus walked this earth, lived daily like you and me (except without sin), died on the cross and rose from the grave to be your Savior.  

Jesus did all of this for you to give you eternal hope by reconciling you God the Father in Heaven through the forgiveness of your Sin.

The true Gospel that both the Apostle Paul and Jesus’ original disciples were proclaiming was that Jesus is your Savior.

While doing relief work in Haiti following the devastating earthquake there on January 12, 2010, Palmer Chichen observed firsthand the tragedy of building a house with a lot of sand and not enough steel:

There was a problem in Haiti. Houses were built with too much sand and not enough steel. Sand is cheap, so because of poverty, when many Haitians built their cement-block homes, they used more sand than they should have in their mortar mix. And because steel is expensive, they didn’t use enough steel in the columns and ring beams. So when the ground quaked, homes crumbled; there was too much sand and not enough steel. It was a tragedy of poverty.

In our own poverty of spirit, we try to build lives this way:

We build marriages with too much anger and not enough love … and they crumble. We build reputations on too much pride and not enough humility … and they crumble. We build families on too much busyness and not enough time … and they crumble. We build friendships on too much criticism and not enough grace … and they crumble.

We build our hope on false Christs and false gospels…and that faith crumbles when we experience suffering or when we don’t get what we think we deserve in this life. 

Knowing how attractive false gospels and false Christs are to our human nature, Jesus gives this warning in Matthew 7:15–29:

[15] “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. [16] You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? [17] So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. [18] A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. [19] Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. [20] Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

[21] “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [23] And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

[24] “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. [25] And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. [26] And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. [27] And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

[28] And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, [29] for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. (ESV)

And, then, Jesus makes the true Gospel, the Only Good News, explicitly clear to you, as He did to His original disciples and the Apostle Paul, when He says:

[6] “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [7] If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (ESV)

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

February 16, 2025.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

You are our great King. We are eager to declare our willingness to go where you command and follow wherever you lead. Yet we confess that we are very weak and fickle. We are easily distracted, constantly diverted from your ways, and quick to follow our own sinful hearts instead. As we plan our futures, we think more of our safety, comfort, and financial profit than we do of laying down our lives for the sake of your kingdom. We are eager to please our families and friends, and slow to consider your calling and your glory our highest goal. 

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you did not guard your own interests, but chose to leave the comfort and richness of heaven for us. When you came to earth, you did not build a secure and comfortable home for yourself, but camped out in the open air or lived in the homes of others. Your first bed on earth was a dirty feeding trough; your last bed, a stone slab in a cold tomb. You made yourself vulnerable, not only to the harsh elements of nature, but also to the foul hatred of those you had come to save. You even gave up the precious fellowship you had shared with your Father from all eternity, to make your rebellious enemies into your redeemed brothers and sisters. Your obedient, joyful self-sacrifice now enables us to stand before our Father, forgiven of our self-centeredness and clothed in your obedience. 

Teach us what it means to take up our cross daily and follow you. Help us put to death our overwhelming desires to control our own lives in the present and future. Show us the emptiness of owning nice things, the shallowness of the praise of others, and the offensiveness of our enormous pride. Fill us with such a burning passion for your glory that we will suffer any loss, ridicule, inconvenience, or cost, in order to hear your name praised in every land, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. Change our selfish hearts. Enlarge them with a love and gratitude toward you so immense and powerful that following you will be our greatest joy and delight. Amen.

Benediction:

Go, in Peace today.  Jesus is your Savior. Period. The end.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Terrorist to Evangelist

Galatians 1.10-24

One morning Mauricio Estrella walked into the office, sat down at his desk, and was greeted with the message: “Your password has expired. Click ‘Change password’ to change your password.”

You know how, when you are emotionally raw, small things can be so frustrating? This, for Estrella, was one of those times. He was running late that morning, had forgotten to eat breakfast, had a meeting to attend, and then there were those nagging frustrations with his ex. Estrella had just gone through an emotionally brutal divorce that had left him in a deep depression.

At his workplace, the server is configured to ask thousands of employees around the planet to change their password every 30 days. As the empty field with the pulsating cursor awaited his input, Estrella thought to himself, “I’m gonna use a password to change my life.” His password became: “Forgive@h3r.”

Each time he came back from a break or lunch, he typed “Forgive@h3r.” For one month, the password became a mantra. And that mantra changed his life. Estrella shared: “That constant reminder that I should forgive her led me to accept the way things happened at the end of my marriage, and embrace a new way of dealing with the depression that I was drowning into.”

Sometimes, the simplest messages can have the most impact on us. 

Sometimes, the simplest messages can be the ones that drastically change our lives forever.

In this morning’s Biblical text, we continue on in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

In this section of the Apostle Paul’s letter, he shares that a very simple message drastically changed his life forever and that same simple message was changing the lives of the Galatian people forever, and that simple message can change your life forever as well.

Let’s listen to the words from the Apostle Paul’s letter in Galatians 1.10-24 now.

Galatians 1:10–24 says this:

[10] For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

[11] For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. [12] For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. [13] For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. [14] And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. [15] But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, [16] was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; [17] nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

[18] Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. [19] But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. [20] (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) [21] Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. [22] And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. [23] They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” [24] And they glorified God because of me. (ESV)

In this section of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches gathering in the region of Galatia (modern day Turkey), we are given insight into two things.

The first piece of insight we receive is the origin of Paul’s message.

Some were accusing Paul of being brainwashed by what other people were telling him to think, believe, and preach.  These opponents of the Good New of Jesus Christ were saying that Paul met with the disciples and listened to them and learned from them and is now just parroting what he heard in those meetings.

However, as we saw two weeks ago, Paul’s received the truth that Jesus is God-in-the-flesh, who stepped out of Heaven to come to earth to rescue us and be our Messiah—our Lord and Savior, directly from Jesus.

Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and confronted him in his unbelief and his active ungodly opposition to the message of the cross and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life.  

Jesus shared the truth of sin and salvation through God’s grace alone and in that moment, Paul believed and began his traveling and preaching.  It was only after 3 years that Paul went to Jerusalem and met with Peter (the text calls him Cephas) and James.  After that, Paul went back to traveling and preaching the message that he received directly from Jesus for another 11 years.  Then 14 years after coming to faith, he finally when back to Jerusalem and met with the other disciples and apostles.  

So, Paul is making it very clear that the Good News of Jesus Christ which calls for repentance of sin and faith in God’s freely given grace is not a message invented by and man or woman.  

In fact, no man or woman would invent such a message because the message says that humans are weak and helpless and only have hope by admitting their need for a Savior.  Any message invented by a man or woman says the exact opposite.  Human theologies and philosophies don’t like to say we are weak and helpless.  Instead, they promote the idea that human strength, commitment, and determination can eventually get you to God and possibly turn you into a god.  But, we all know that when we sit quietly and alone, our thoughts actually dwell and obsess on our failures and inability to officially and finally crawl out of despair because there is always something we could have done better or more of.

For more information on Paul’s conversion to Christianity through faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus, you can return to Acts 9 this week.

The second piece of insight we receive in this morning’s Biblical text from Galatians that there is always a transformation of life that occurs after one rests in God’s grace and gives up the striving to get to God.

In verses 23 and 24, the Apostle Paul points out that the grace of God changed his life to the point where he could not help but live by loving God and loving others. 

And, because of the dramatic change in his life—going from persecutor of Christians to a Christian and preacher of Jesus Christ alive, dead, and resurrected for the forgiveness of Sin and eternal life—people took notice of the 180 degree turn that his life took (for the good of God and the world) and some of them also came to believe in Christ and give thanks to God for His grace and mercy toward them as well.

When confronted with the grace and mercy that Jesus Christ had for him, despite his past of denying God’s love in a completely ungodly lifestyle, 

Paul quickly turned from a terrorist to an evangelist.

It is no wonder people took notice of the change in Paul’s thinking, speaking, and acting!

Once we find ourselves comforted by faith in Jesus’ work for us, we, just like Paul, find ourselves responding to God and the people around us differently.

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, found in the book of Matthew, Jesus speaks of the 180 degree turn that each of our lives takes once faith and trust in God’s grace makes it’s home in our heart.

In Matthew 5:14–16, we hear Jesus speaking of the new creation we become through faith in Him.

Jesus says:

[14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. [15] Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. [16] In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14–16, ESV)

Paul, in other letters to other churches, encourages us to be the light in the world that causes others to recognize and praise God by responding to Jesus’ forgiveness and life when he says:

[10] … walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; [11] being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; [12] giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. [13] He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:10–14 ESV)

And, then Paul says:

[23]…be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

[25] Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. [26] Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, [27] and give no opportunity to the devil. [28] Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. [29] Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. [30] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. [31] Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. [32] Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:23–32, ESV)

In this moment, I want to ask you to reflect on your life.

Has God’s grace and mercy changed the way you think, act, and speak? 

Do people notice a difference in you because of your faith in Jesus?

Or, do you sit in church on Sunday morning confessing your sin and confessing your faith only to return to your old way of life once you walk out the doors?

Do you praise Jesus with your mouth in church and then use your voice to take out your frustration and anger with people and places by typing out rants and slanderous comments on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram?

Have you experienced love, grace, and mercy, but forgotten to speak and act with love, grace, and mercy?

Do you use your hands to pray in church and hold the body and blood of Christ in Communion and then use those same hands to give the middle finger to another driver on the way home in a fit of road rage?

Do you praise Jesus for all he has given you and then refuse to give or just give leftover scraps to his church and people in need around you?

In the days of the Russian revolution, the Soviet state tried to stamp out Christianity and convert everyone to atheism. A popular Russian comedian developed a stage act in which he played a drunken Orthodox priest. Dressed in wine-stained robes, he did a comic imitation of the ancient but beautiful liturgy.

Part of his performance was to chant the Beatitudes. But he used distorted words—such as “blessed are they who hunger and thirst for vodka” and “blessed are the cheese makers”—while struggling to remain more or less upright. He had done his act time and again and been rewarded by the authorities for his work in promoting atheism and in making worship seem ridiculous.

But on one occasion things didn’t go as planned. Instead of saying his garbled version of the Beatitudes in his well-rehearsed comic manner, he chanted the sentences as they are actually sung in a real Liturgy. His attention was focused not on the audience but on the life-giving words that were coming from the Bible, words he had learned and sung as a child. He listened to the memorized words and something happened in the depths of his soul.

After singing the final Beatitude, he fell to his knees weeping. He had to be led from the stage and never again parodied worship. He was sent to a labor camp, but even so it’s a story of a happy moment in his life. He had begun a new life in a condition of spiritual freedom that no prison can take away. Whatever his fate, he brought the Beatitudes and his recovered faith with him. Truly, the Bible can change one’s life.

The message of the Bible, which was given directly to the Apostle Paul from the one that the Bible is all about, Jesus Christ, changed Paul’s life.  Paul went from a murderous hatred of Jesus and His followers immediately to the most well known church planter and preacher of his day.

If the following lyrics were written when Paul was alive, I am sure he would have sung them as loudly as he could as he traveled and preached:

I love to tell the story

of unseen things above,

of Jesus and his glory,

of Jesus and his love.

I love to tell the story

because I know it’s true;

it satisfies my longings

as nothing else can do.

Christ Jesus, pure and holy,

without a spot or stain,

by wicked hands was taken,

was crucified and slain!

And now the word is finished,

the sinner’s debt is paid,

because on Christ the Righteous

the sin of all was laid.

I love to tell the story;

’twill be my theme in glory

to tell the old, old story

of Jesus and his love.

The message of the Bible, the message that continuously speaks to you and tells you that Jesus Christ lived, died, and was resurrected for the forgiveness of your sin and your eternal life in Heaven, changes your life as well.  Jesus Christ comes to you this morning with nothing but grace and mercy.  

This simple message that changes your life is this:

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16–17, ESV)

Today, set your daily password for daily life to, “I Am Forgiven!”  (Don’t forget the exclamation point for security purposes!)

This is the simple message that changes your life forever.

This morning and this week repent of your sin, place your trust in Jesus alone, be transformed from a terrorist to an evangelist, and take the message of Jesus Christ into all of the places that you go. 

Do so while singing as loudly as you can with full joy and assurance of your salvation:

I love to tell the story

of unseen things above,

of Jesus and his glory,

of Jesus and his love.

I love to tell the story

because I know it’s true;

it satisfies my longings

as nothing else can do.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

February 9, 2025.

Prayer:

Blessed Lord God, 

Your Word searches our hearts and condemns us. We are not poor in spirit: we are proud and self-dependent. We do not mourn over our sin and the sin of others: we hide and excuse our sin, while judging others for their sin. We are not meek but are eager to defend our own rights and reputations, while caring little for your good name and the name of others. We hunger and thirst far more to get our own way than for your righteousness. We easily forget the mercy that we have received, and as a result feel little mercy toward others. Our hearts are not pure but are divided between serving you and serving our idols. We have jealous thoughts that promote strife in our words and actions, instead of loving and pursuing your peace. We flee from the smallest hint of persecution, eagerly protecting our own comfort and security, instead of boldly proclaiming your truth like the prophets. Lord God, we confess before you that we deserve your eternal curse for all these things. 

Thank you, Father, for Jesus Christ, in whom we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. His dependence, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and faithfulness even to death are the righteousness that enables us to receive your blessing. Because of his obedience, our reward is great in heaven. 

Lord, teach us to live as those who are blessed in Christ. Help us to proclaim to others the mercy we have received and to live lives that are in line with that mercy and holiness. Help us to love the righteousness that redeemed us and to long for the day when you will work that righteousness in fullness in our hearts. Purify our hearts and cleanse our minds increasingly, so that we may endure hardship as good soldiers for Jesus Christ, and may delight to bear the burdens of those whom you place around us. Amen.

Benediction:

Go in peace today.  Jesus has made you a new creation, created after God in righteousness and holiness. This week, walk in manner worth of Jesus Christ, bearing fruit in every good work.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Liar, Liar, The Gospel’s On Fire

Galatians 1.6-9

Are you a liar?

Are you good at telling untruths and getting away with it?

I know; I know; A heart stabbing question right out of the gate this morning. 

Well, Nobody likes to be lied to. It is generally agreed that lying is a sin or is not socially acceptable and potentially harmful. Some people believe they are smart enough to spot a liar and have no worries about being duped. Current research on the subject plainly shows that they are not giving credit to man’s master ability to distort and deceive.

Researchers list a surprising 102 possible nonverbal cues that are alleged to expose a liar. The most prominent ones are: “averted gaze, blinking, talking louder … shrugging, shifting posture and movements of the head, hands, arms or legs.”

Numerous studies have found people to be overconfident in their perception and judgment. A study at Texas Christian University revealed that no student volunteers were only able to pick true from false statements better than 54 percent of the time—just slightly above chance.

Even experts who are trained in this area are failing. Studies found police officers no better than 50/50 in recognizing true and false statements told during recorded outbursts by emotional family members who later were found to have committed horrific crimes.

Psychologist Ronald Fisher, who trains FBI agents, warns that good liars are good liars. “Liars do feel more nervous, but that’s an internal feeling as opposed to how they behave as observed by others.”

In this morning’s Biblical text, the Apostle Paul continues his letter to the churches in the region of Galatia.  For your information, 2000 years ago, Galatia was where modern day Turkey now exists on a map.  

Paul’s main concern is that after the Galatian Christians heard the truth of Jesus Christ and the grace of God that leads to forgiveness and enteral life, some false teachers have been lying to them and they are having trouble telling the difference between the truth of God and the lies of man. 

Let’s hear more about the problem in Galatia now.

In Galatians 1.6-9, the Apostle Paul says this:

[6] I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—[7] not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. [8] But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. [9] As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (ESV)

Paul starts this section of his letter by confronting and rebuking the Christians that he taught about Jesus.  He says that he is “astonished” that they are quickly throwing Jesus out the window and placing their hope for God’s love in other places.

In Paul’s words, the Christinas in Galatia are turning away from Jesus to a different gospel—a gospel that is contrary to the truth they have already heard and believed.

What are the other “gospels” out there that tempt us to walk from Jesus?

When the Apostle Paul was writing in the mid-first century following Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, he was confronting a legalistic gospel that were being introduced to the churches in the region of Galatia.

The false teachers that were troubling the churches were saying that faith in Jesus Christ was not enough to find yourself loved and accepted by God.  Even though these words of faith-based salvation were spoken by God throughout created history, some in the Apostle Paul’s day, and some in our day, continue to insist on additions to faith in Jesus Christ.  

In the Apostle Paul’s day, as well as in our day—even some of the most powerful and popular preachers and church leaders—taught that one had to keep the Mosaic Law (the Old Testament laws) in addition to believing in Jesus.  

This false teaching perverts the true Good News of Jesus by reversing the order of salvation.  Instead of simply believing in Jesus Christ who perfectly completed every last Old Testament Mosaic Law for you, you had to perfectly complete every last Old Testament Mosaic Law for Jesus.

As Martin Luther, the 16th Century Church Reformer said in his 1535 lecture on the Biblical book of Galatians:

“There is no middle ground between Christian righteousness and works-righteousness.  There is no other alternative to Christian righteousness by works righteousness;  if you do not build your confidence on the work of Christ you must build your confidence on your own work.”1

As any truthful simply and superficial evaluation of our thoughts, words, and actions will tell us, we cannot find hope and peace for God’s forgiveness in the works of our daily life.  We know we can always do better than we have done, even if we are unwilling to admit that publicly.

In today’s post-Christendom era, one false gospel that is prevalent in Christianity is the The Therapeutic Gospel.

The Therapeutic Gospel tells us that the church is here to help us along in our quest for personal happiness and fulfillment.  

This false “gospel” confuses our spiritual symptoms such as a troubled marriage, anxiety, anger, and addictions, with our spiritual disease which is sin.  

The Therapeutic gospel doesn’t tell you about what Jesus has done to reconcile you to God the Father.  Instead, it tells you that you just have to learn a few techniques and life hacks to feel happier today so that you feel like you fit into the world more.

A church that relies on the Therapeutic gospel will called their sermons, “teachings,” and on a Sunday morning you will regularly hear about 3 steps to a healthier marriage or 5 steps to financial freedom.

The Therapeutic gospel is not concerned with the ultimate problem of humanity—eternal freedom and a healthy relationship with God.

A second false gospel that is prevalent in Christianity today is The Judgmentless Gospel.

The end of everyone’s story is the same.  We will stand before the throne of God and give account for what we have done or not done in this life.  

The good news is that if we stand before God’s judgement being found with faith in Jesus Christ, we will be declared innocent and welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven.  If we are found before God’s judgment without faith in Jesus, we will be thrown in the the suffering of hellfire that comes from being separated from our Creator and Redeemer forever.

The Judgmentless gospel tells us that the Church is here to encourage people in whatever they are doing and never mention the need to repent of sin or be rescued from the wrath of God.

This false gospel gets rid of the end of everyone’s story and ends up telling lies like, “Everybody is going to Heaven,” “All roads lead to God,” “The afterlife is not as important as this life,” “God doesn’t send anyone to hell,” and “God looks at your heart.”

The Judgmentless gospel often hides under the banners of “tolerance” and “inclusion” when God does not tolerate sin or include unrepentant unbelievers in His Kingdom of Heaven.

Without judgment, sin becomes less serious and the offer of forgiveness loses its power. After all, if there is no eternal judgment, what do we need to be saved from?

A third false gospel that some Christian Churches present is The Moralist Gospel.

The Moralist gospel tells people that Jesus just wants you to be a good person.  The emphasis in this false alternative to Biblical Christianity is not what God has done for you in Jesus, but what you can do for God with or without Jesus. 

Here, good news becomes good advice.  

A church that teaches the Moralist gospel tells its people that we don’t need Jesus to save us from the damnation that we deserve because of Sin.  Instead, we need Jesus to give us the willpower to do the right things according to the standards of the gathered community.  

A fourth example of a false gospel that is popular today is The Activist Gospel.

The Activist Gospel turns the church into a place where people gather together to fight for social justice and rally behind political causes.  

In churches where the Activist Gospel is idolized, the central point of Christianity—the cross of Christ that rescues one from sin—is pushed aside and overlooked.

In place of being the Suffering Servant who serves you in your sin by making your a saint with his righteousness, Jesus is held up as one who came to start a social revolution.  Here, Jesus becomes a proponent of publicly fighting the authorities that you and your so-called church often feel are taking away your rights to worldly happiness.

The Activist Gospel focused on building Heaven on Earth while marching toward eternity in Hell.  Kings and Presidents become personal and societal saviors while Jesus is just a good example of challenging and defeating “the man.”

A final example of a false gospel that is present in today’s world is The Churchless Gospel.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged a large percentage of churches to stream their services online, there was a huge movement of Christians who believed that attendance at a local church was not necessary for the continuation and heath of their faith in Christ. 

Some also believe and promote that the local church is actually an obstacle to one’s pursuit of God.  

Now, I know because of sin, sometimes others sin and sometimes our sin, many of us, including me, your pastor, have had bad experiences with churches and because of these bad experiences maybe the church has been an obstacle in your faith journey. 

A sad reality is that because Christians are forgiven sinners who still struggle with sin, Christians and the churches they gather in often end up hurting people. 

If you have had a not so great, maybe even a hurtful and traumatizing experience with a church in your past, I am truly sorry.  

However, contrary to the belief that regular attendance at a local church is optional or even detrimental for the believer, we hear in Scripture that the regular local gathering of Christians is not something we can do without.

In another New Testament Epistle (or, letter), the Biblical book of Hebrews, we hear the author encourage us to not forget our need for regular attendance at church when he says:

[23] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. [24] And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, [25] not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23–25, ESV)

As Christians, we should know and find joy and hope in the truth that Jesus gave His life for the church, His bride.  If Jesus died to save the Church, who are we to say that Christians can or should forsake the church?

As a quick aside: 

If you are interested in finding out more about these false gospels so that you can be educated on what the lies are that take our focus off of Jesus, I recommend the book Counterfeit Gospels by Trevin Wax. 

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Now, it would be easy to say to like Paul, “I am astonished that the Galatians are so foolish! How can they turn away from God’s grace in Jesus for some false teaching?  What fools!”

However, each of us is a fool on a regular basis. 

We easily confess faith in Jesus alone for salvation, but we live daily like we still have to prove something to God if we are going to be confident that He truly loves us.

In our sin, we like the idea of proving that we are worthy. 

But, distorting God’s Good News of Jesus Christ and taking peace and hope away from people is such serious business that the Apostle Paul says to the Christians in the city of Galatia that if he comes back and tells them anything different than what he has already told them—that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the grave to freely give them forgiveness of sin and eternal life—or if an angel from Heaven comes to them and tells them something different than they have already rejoiced in and testified to—that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the grave to freely give them forgiveness of sin and eternal life—his utmost desire is that he and those angels would be cursed and sent to Hell for distorting the Good News of Jesus Christ that God has truly prepared and fulfilled for them.

The Apostle John, who wrote the New Testament books of John, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, also wrote the New Testament book of Revelation.  In the book of Revelation, which is the final book in the New Testament part of the Bible, God gives the Apostle John a picture of the end of history and the installation of Heaven onto Earth.  

At the very end of the book of Revelation, Jesus gives this warning to everyone in the world:

[18] I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, [19] and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Revelation 22:18–19, ESV)

One writer, adding commentary to this morning’s Biblical text from Galatians said:

“To distort the gospel is to destroy the church because the church is created and lives by the gospel.  The greatest troublemakers in the church are those who wish to distort the gospel message.  I believe Satan operates more effectively through false gospels than through any other avenue.  He twists, confuses, and changes the gospel, using philosophy and rule-keeping to put people in mental [chains] that blind their eyes to the truth.”2

The Apostle Peter reminds and warns Christinas throughout the Mediterranean region to:

[6] Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7] casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. [8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. (1 Peter 5:6–9, ESV)

And, back in Ephesians, the Apostle Paul adds:

[11] And [Jesus] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, [14] so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. [15] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11–16, ESV)

Although therapy, mercy, morals, activism, and church attendance can be good things,  God does not love you because you try to get your life together in therapy, act merciful towards others, attempt to live by a code of morals, fight for rights through activism, or sit in a church pew on Sunday morning.

God loves you, and only loves you, because He is full of grace for you.

The only Gospel, the only Good News, that you have is that Jesus Christ—God in the flesh—gave Himself on the cross for your sins to deliver you from this present evil age according to the will of God our Father who also raised Him from the dead for your eternal life in Heaven.

Jesus says to you who believe in Him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32,ESV)

This morning, run as fast as you can from false teachers with their Christ-denying theology.  Pray for the wisdom to know to trust the truth and discard the lies.  And, rest in the only place that there is true peace and hope—in God’s grace alone that tells you the Good News that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the grave to freely give them forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

February 2, 2025.

Prayer:

Sovereign Commander of the universe, 

You are our fortress, our refuge, and our shield. Fight for us, and our foes must flee; uphold us and we cannot fall; strengthen us and we stand unmovable; stand by us and Satan must depart. Anoint our lips with a song of salvation, and we will shout your victory and sing of your triumph. 

Father, 

though you wrap us in the protection of your powerful and loving arms, we frequently turn away from you and put our trust in ourselves and others. We are easily enthralled by human glory and fail to see your glory, wisdom, kindness, and care. We are easily impressed by the strengths of others, putting too much faith in them or envying them, according to our inclinations. We have high expectations of people around us and feel undone when they fail us and behave like ordinary, depraved sinners. Father, forgive us for putting our trust in men and women, and failing to trust you, our King of Glory. 

Lord Jesus, 

your blood and your righteousness soar above the mountains of our sin and plead for us before the throne of grace. Every sinful act of self-worship and man-worship, and the oceans of sin flowing from them, are fully paid for by your atoning blood. Your life of obedience, in which you loved people without ever putting your hope and trust in them, is given to us to replace our own deeply flawed obedience. Jesus, thank you for accomplishing our salvation, and for giving it to us as a free gift.

Holy Spirit, 

free us from the worship of man, and the fear of man that flows from it. When we idolize and put our trust in others, we cannot love them. Help us to worship God alone, and to know when our hearts are drifting once again into sinful regard for ourselves and others. Open our eyes to see the glory and majesty of our Great King so that we will fly into his loving arms with all our fears, all our cares, and our unbelieving hearts. There may we take refuge in the life and death of our Savior and rest in the power of our victorious King. Teach us to trust and hope in him alone, until the day we stand before him, captivated by his glory, and lost in his love. Amen.


Benediction:

Go, in peace today.  Abide in God’s Word—the Bible.  Know the truth of Jesus for you and live in freedom this week.

  1. Martin Luther, Luther’s Works: Lectures on Galatians 1535 Chapters 1-4, Volume 26 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing, 1963), Preface. ↩︎
  2. David Platt and Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Galatians: Christ-Centered Exposition (Brentwood, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 22. ↩︎
Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Through Jesus Christ Alone

Galatians 1.1-5

There are many illustrations, often humorous, of two individuals standing in the clouds at the pearly gates of Heaven.  One person is usually dressed in what we would consider normal everyday clothes while the other appears in a white robe with angel wings peaking out the back.   

The implication of these illustrations is that the angel-like being standing at the podium with the giant book is checking people into the Kingdom of Heaven only if their name is written in his log book, Biblically known as God’s Book of Life.

So, I ask you this morning, when you imagine yourself standing in the clouds at gate of Heaven and speaking to the keeper of the book of life, how do you imagine the conversation will go?

Do you think you will say something like, “Hello, my name is Frederick Reid Scragg, the 5th.  My name is on God’s roster in God’s Book of Life because I was a good person on earth.  I tried my hardest and did my best.  I am pretty sure that my good deeds were more numerous than my bad deeds, so, God should be expecting me.”

I would argue that this way of thinking about entrance into God’s Kingdom of Heaven is commonplace with great numbers of people around the world — maybe even some of you in this room right now.

However, as our Biblical text for this morning is going to show us,  this way of thinking about how one enters God’s Kingdom of Heaven needs to be corrected. 

In a biography of 19th Century American Writer Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens, Twain was quoted as saying:

“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out, and your dog would go in.”

As we begin a 15 week sermon series through the Biblical New Testament book of Galatians, we are going to hear the Apostle Paul hammer home the absolute, bottom line, Good News, that God does not need or require our good works to forgive our sin and welcome us home into Heaven.  The truth is that because of the seriousness of Sin, there is no number of good works that would ever cause you or me to earn or merit acceptance by God. 

Galatians 1:1–5 has Paul introducing himself—the writer of the letter—and naming the intended recipients of the letter along with his reason for writing to them.

Let’s hear from the Apostle Paul in the beginning of the Biblical book of Galatians now.

Galatians 1.1-5 says this:

[1] Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—[2] and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

[3] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, [4] who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, [5] to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (ESV)

In 1535, while lecturing on the Biblical book of Galatians, 16th Century Church Reformer, Martin Luther spoke these words to his audience:

“In the very title of his epistle [meaning, letter] he erupts and speaks what he has in his heart. His purpose in this epistle is to discuss and to defend the righteousness that comes by faith, and to refute the Law and the righteousness that comes by works. He is filled with thoughts like these, and out of this marvelous and overflowing abundance of the excellent wisdom and knowledge of Christ in his heart his mouth speaks…

By this righteousness alone we are justified, and by it we shall also be raised from death to eternal life on the Last Day. But those who are trying to undermine the righteousness of Christ are resisting the Father as well as the Son and the work of both of Them.”1

As we make our way through Biblical texts in our Sunday sermons, you often hear me share some truths from the Apostle Paul. 

Well, today, we are going to get insight into who the Apostle Paul is and why he is so important to the Christian Church.

But, to begin, let’s ask, “What is the book of Galatians?”

The book of Galatians is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a group of churches in the city of Galatia during the mid-1st century.

After his dramatic conversion to Christianity, which we will hear about in a few minutes, the Apostle Paul traveled around the Mediterranean region preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ alive, dead, and resurrected for the forgiveness of your sin and your eternal life.

As people repented of their Sin and found hope in Jesus the Savior, the Apostle Pau started churches for all the believers to gather in on a regular basis—usually Sunday, the first day of the week, the Lord’s day, the day of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.

After the Apostle Paul left a city, he would receive reports about how the churches and Christians were doing in their faith and their sharing of God’s love.  In response to what he heard, the Apostle Paul would write letters to encourage them in their sharing of God’s love and, when need be, correct their sinful thinking, speaking, and acting.

The Apostle Paul writes the letter of Galatians to the Christians in the city of Galatia as both a warning and a rebuke. 

The Apostle Paul has heard that false teachers had entered the church and were telling the Christians that faith in Jesus was not enough for justification and salvation.  The false teachers were telling them that in order to be accepted by God they also had to work hard to complete the over 600 Jewish commands for pleasing God with your life.

The false teachers were teaching the false belief hat your name is written in God’s Book of Life through proving yourself worthy in good deeds on earth.

The false teachers were denying the original sin that corrupt us and makes it impossible to do truly unselfish good deeds.

The false teachers were giving people the false hope that at the gates of Heaven you could say:

“Hello, my name is Frederick Reid Scragg, the 5th.  My name is on God’s roster in God’s Book of Life because I was a good person on earth.  I tried my hardest and did my best.  I am pretty sure that my good deeds were more numerous than my bad deeds, so, God should be expecting me.”

This false teaching of Jesus plus good works righteously angered the Apostle Paul because he had first hand experience with attempting and failing to complete the over 600 Jewish laws and commands in an attempt to please God and earn a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let’s hear the history of how Saul the Jewish zealot, who killed and imprisoned Christians, as an attempt to complete the Jewish laws and please God, became the works denying and Jesus exalting preacher and Church planter.

Paul’s conversion to Christian repentance and belief is recorded for us in another New Testament Biblical book called Acts.

Acts 9.1-22 tells us this:

[1] But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest [2] and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. [3] Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. [4] And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” [5] And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. [6] But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” [7] The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. [8] Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. [9] And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

[10] Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” [11] And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, [12] and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” [13] But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. [14] And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” [15] But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. [16] For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” [17] So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” [18] And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; [19] and taking food, he was strengthened.

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. [20] And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” [21] And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” [22] But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. (ESV)

If anyone has come to know the difference between the lie of justification by works and the truth of justification by faith alone, it is the Apostle Paul.  He spent a large percentage of his life trying to make God happy by thinking, saying, and doing “the right things.”  But, when confronted by Jesus Christ, he came to see that the road to Heaven is only opened up by faith in Jesus Christ who alone was able to think, say, and do the things that made God happy.

So, in another letter from the Bible’s New Testament, Philippians, the Apostle Paul issues another warning about following false teachers and gives us a little bit more of his qualifications for knowing and preaching the truth of Jesus Christ alive, dead, and resurrected for the forgiveness of Sin and eternal life.

In Philippians 3:2–11, the Apostle Pauls says:

[2] Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. [3] For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—[4] though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. [7] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—[10] that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11] that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (ESV)

Returning to Martin Luther’s 1535 lecture on Galatians, we hear:

“Christian holiness is not active but passive. Therefore let no one call himself holy on the basis of his way of life or his works—fasting, prayer, flagellation almsgiving, or the consolation of the sad and afflicted.  Such works, of course, are holy, and God strictly demands them of us; but they do not make us holy. You and I are holy; …—not on the basis of [our] own holiness but on the basis of a holiness not [our] own, not an active holiness, but a passive holiness.  [We] are holy because [we] possess something that is divine and holy, namely, the calling of the ministry, the Gospel, Baptism, etc., on the basis of which [we] are holy.”2

In this morning’s Biblical text from Galatians 1 and in these additional Biblical texts that we have heard from, the Apostle Paul is saying that all that he is, all that he has (both here and in Heaven), and all that the Christians in Galatia have, comes from God’s grace through (the person and work of) Jesus Christ.

So, I now ask you this morning, when you imagine yourself standing in the clouds at gate of Heaven and speaking to the keeper of the book of life, how do you imagine the conversation will go?

I hope and pray that each of you will say something like, “My name is Frederick Reid Scragg, the 5th.  I am confident that my name is in God’s Book of Life because Jesus Christ, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Friend, has given His life over to death on the cross for me. I know that in exchange for my sin, He has given me his perfect record of righteousness so that life in God’s eternal Kingdom of Heaven is mine.  If you look at my name, and all of the other names in that book before you, they are written with the blood of Jesus who alone makes entrance in Heaven possible for everyone who believes in Him.”

So, this morning, “…believe that Christ was given not only for the sins of others but also for yours. Hold to this firmly, and do not let anything deprive you of this sweet definition of Christ, which brings joy even to the angels in heaven: that Christ is, in the strictest of terms, not a Moses, a tormentor, or an executioner but the Mediator for sins and the Donor of grace, who gave Himself, not for our merits, holiness, glory, and holy life but for our sins.”3

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

January 26, 2025.

Prayer:

Lord God, 

We thank you from the depths of our hearts for your wondrous grace and love to us in Christ. You have proven your faithfulness to us in the death and resurrection of your only Son and have promised us that you will not withhold any good thing from us. You are our sun and shield, and we should love to dwell in your presence more than anything else on earth. Yet we confess that we are full of sin and cannot walk uprightly. We are quick to grasp whatever blessings we can for ourselves and reluctant to trust in your perfect will. We scheme endlessly and impatiently to establish our own kingdoms and fail repeatedly to submit to your wisdom, power, and holy will. We have deceived and manipulated others to get our way. Help us to repent of these sins and make us willing to make restitution. 

Jesus Christ, without your perfect obedience given to us, we would have no hope at all of receiving favor from our heavenly Father. You walked uprightly on our behalf, yet you were treated like a wretched criminal, losing all honor and favor before your Father, so that we could live forever as treasured sons and daughters of the King. Now you are glorified and exalted, and you have lifted us up and covered our shame with your glory, even though we remain very sinful. Jesus, thank you. 

Spirit of the living God, you indwell us and always have your way with us. Help us to find our peace and refuge in God’s protection, so that we stop trying so hard to protect ourselves. May we find our true blessing in him, so that we can stop our restless and sinful attempts to grasp blessings for ourselves. Let us rejoice at the end of each day that you have done all things well and have not withheld from us one thing that we needed. Please give us the sweet grace of repentance so we can know your forgiveness, and give us the courage of confession and restitution, since we have been so lavishly loved by our Savior. Thank you for the weakness that keeps us near the cross, marveling at your rich and overwhelming grace to broken sinners. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.


Benediction:

Go in Peace today and “…believe that Christ was given not only for the sins of others but also for yours. Hold to this firmly, and do not let anything deprive you of this sweet definition of Christ, which brings joy even to the angels in heaven: that Christ is, in the strictest of terms, not a Moses, a tormentor, or an executioner but the Mediator for sins and the Donor of grace, who gave Himself, not for our merits, holiness, glory, and holy life but for our sins.”

  1. Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians Chapters 1-4, 21. ↩︎
  2. Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol.26: Lectures on Galatians Chapters 1-4, 25. ↩︎
  3.  Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians Chapters 1-4, 38. ↩︎

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Providing Wine

John 2.1-11

Have you ever committed a faux pa?

A faux pa, is a fancy way of saying that you did something embarrassing or culturally insensitive.

Have you ever done something so embarrassing that you still think about it today and cringe when you relive that moment in your mind?

Well, there are many ways to be involved in faux pas, especially if you take your ingrained Western ways to another country.

In China, if you keep your shoes on inside someone’s home, you are disrespecting their family.

In the United Arab Emirates, it is disrespectful to wear revealing clothes.  Women are to wear clothing that covers their body from their shoulder to their toes.  And, men are not to wear tight fitting clothes, such as cycling shorts or under armor, unless you are on a sports team participating in that sport.

In the U.K., the peace sign that you make with your hand here in America is the equivalent of flipping someone the middle finger and asking them to fight you.

In Brazil, raising a fist in the air, as you would do at a sporting event or concert in America, is a signal that a man’s wife is cheating on him.

In Iran and Irag, giving the thumb’s up, that commonly shows someone that they did a good job in America, is actually one of the worst non-verbal insults you can give another human being.

I am no stranger to faux pas.

A few years ago, I did one of the most embarrassing things that I think you could ever do.  I congregated a woman on being pregnant when in fact she was not pregnant.

In this morning’s text, we are going to hear about a wedding party, a wedding celebration, a wedding feast, where the groom who was responsible for providing for the needs of his guest ends up in the middle of a faux pa, doing the most embarrassing thing that a groom can do at a wedding he is hosting.

Let’s hear about this wedding and this faux pa as recorded for us in John 2.1-11.

John 2:1–11 tells us this:

[1] On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. [2] Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. [3] When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” [4] And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” [5] His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

[6] Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. [7] Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. [8] And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. [9] When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom [10] and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” [11] This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. (ESV)

This text begins the public ministry of Jesus when he is somewhere around the age of 30.

What a strange beginning to Jesus’ ministry!

Jesus goes to a wedding.

The wine runs out.

Jesus’ mother puts Jesus on the spot.

Jesus somewhat reluctantly listens to his mother and helps out the one throwing the party by miraculously changing jars full of water into jars full of wine.

Let’s begin by asking, “What is this text NOT about?”

Well, this text is not about Jesus approving drunkenness.  Even though Jesus served more wine after the initial batch of wine ran out, no where in the text does it say people were over drinking or were drunk.  Drunkenness is an assumption made by many who approach this text.

How do we know that the people were not being over served alcohol? We know that because drunkenness is a sin and Jesus would never lead anyone into sin.

The Apostle Paul, gave this command in Ephesians 5:18–21:

[18] And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19] addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, [20] giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21] submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (ESV)

And, the Apostle Paul lists a life of continual unrepentant drunkenness as something that separates you from God the Father in Heaven.

Writing to the Christians gathered in the city of Galatia during the 1st Century A.D., Paul said:

[19] Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [21] envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. [24] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5.19-24, ESV)

This morning’s Biblical text has also been used to prove that Jesus simply supports the drinking of alcohol.  Although that is not what this text is about, drinking in moderation that does not lead to drunkenness is allowed.  That allowance is for you who are not what Alcoholics Anonymous would label one of the “hopeless variety” (meaning you can have one drink and be done).

Instead of being a treatise on alcohol, this is an amazing text that tells us about God’s goodness and God’s grace in our lives.

So, this morning, we have to set all of our preconceived thoughts about drinking, serving, and making alcohol aside to receive the good news that God wants to give us.

At this wedding, the wine is just a means by which Jesus reveals a great truth about who He is and what He is here on earth to say and do.

So, with all of that said, I now give you the message that this text gives you, and that message is this:

Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the One Anointed by God to forgive your sins, give you His righteousness, and give you eternal life in Heaven.

The message is that here, in His first public miracle, Jesus proves that he is both fully man and fully God by doing what is impossible for man to do.

And, in addition to do for you what you can’t do for yourself—provide the forgiveness of sins, righteousness before the throne of God, and eternal life in Heaven—God enters into your life in the person and work of Jesus Christ to meet your daily needs.

Let’s briefly examine our text.

In the ancient Hebraic world, the marriage celebration lasted seven days.  During that week, the groom was responsible for providing enough food and wine for all of those in attendance.  The groom’s responsibility was taken seriously by all and there were even laws set up to protect the invited guests.  If the groom failed to meet their party needs, the bride’s family could sue to groom for reparations.   

In addition to the legal regulations weighing down upon the groom, he also lived in a shame based culture.  Running out of wine was a major social faux pa and could ruin his reputation in the small village which he lived and worked.  

Cana was a small village approximately 10 miles from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth.  Due to the closeness of the village and the guest list which included Mary, Jesus’ mother, Jesus, and his associates, the disciples, we can deduce that this celebration was for a close family relative or friend.  Therefore, when the wine runs out, Mary feels a responsibility to help remedy the situation.  

Jesus being aware of the needs of this close acquaintance and the consequences of those needs not being met, Jesus steps in to help meet the current needs of the groom.

Jesus cares about the groom and his everyday needs, no matter how big or small that they are.

And, that means that Jesus cares about your everyday needs, no matter how big or small that they are.

I often forget that God cares about the everyday needs that I have—especially those that I deem small and relatively insignificant, like a lost stuffed animal that helps my younger son peacefully sleep at night, or a lost book that helps calm the thoughts of my older son before bedtime so he is able to enter a period of rest.

However, my mother often reminds me that God cares about the needs we have on a daily basis by telling me, “I am glad you found that stuffed animal and that book, I was praying for that.”

Later on in Jesus’ life, he ends up in a conversation with a man who is name in the text as a ruler, and who has become known as the rich young ruler throughout church history.

Luke 18:18–30 records this conversation between the rich young ruler and Jesus.

The conversation goes like this:

[18] And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” [19] And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. [20] You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” [21] And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” [22] When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” [23] But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. [24] Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! [25] For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” [26] Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” [27] But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” [28] And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” [29] And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, [30] who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (ESV)

What is impossible for man is possible for God.

It was impossible for the groom at the wedding to provide more wine for his guests.  But, for God in Christ, it was possible to rescue the groom from the guilt and shame of running out of provisions for those celebrating with him.

It is impossible for you to provide a way to be forgiven for sin before the throne of God. But, for God, it is possible to provide you with the forgiveness you need through the death of His One and Only Son, Jesus, the perfect, unblemished, sacrificial, once-for-all, Lamb.

It is impossible for you to get to Heaven by yourself.

But, with the help of God, it is possible for you to have eternal life.

Jesus does what is impossible for you.  Did you hear that?  Jesus  does what Jesus does—lives, dies, and resurrects—FOR YOU!!!

Jesus lived a life that perfectly met God’s standards of life and love for you.

Jesus died on the cross to provide forgiveness for your sin, you ungodliness, your faux pas, and your embarrassingly insensitive moments.

Jesus rose from the dead on the first Easter morning to defeat the power of sin and death for you.

Jesus gives you his perfect record of righteousness…

And, Jesus brings you into God’s eternal kingdom of Heaven and gives you eternal life.

In sin, you have performed the ultimate faux pa and you find yourself guilty and embarrassed in front of God due to your failure to think, speak, and act in a godly way.

However, in Jesus Christ, every failure in your life up to this point and every failure in your life after this point has been forgiven and will be forgiven simply through faith in Jesus who can do the impossible and turn water in wine, and who can turn a sinner into a saint.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

January 19, 2025.

Prayer:

Holy God, 

We are people who cannot wash ourselves or make ourselves clean. Even as your children, we love evil and resist what you have said is good. We demand justice for ourselves, but fail to pursue it vigorously on behalf of others. We are indignant about the oppression we read of in faraway lands, yet blind to the oppression taking place right here before our eyes in our families, homes, and work places. We feel good when we give money to feed orphans in foreign countries, but we often don’t know or care about the widows and orphans who need your love right around us. Father, forgive us. 

Redeeming God, we praise you that you have washed us clean in the blood of your Son. You placed all our evil on him so that it could be removed from your sight forever. Jesus suffered profound injustice for our lukewarm apathy, and was fatally oppressed for our continuing failure to love and help the oppressed, here and abroad. He became fatherless to pay for our careless disregard for the fatherless and widows in our own towns. We crucified your precious Son, and instead of hating us, you have given us his perfect goodness and welcomed us to your feast. We are left undone by your extravagant love and complete salvation. 

We ask you to wash our minds and hearts clean, moment by moment. Make our hearts good so that works of kindness and mercy flow from us to the needy people you have placed in our lives. May we love them as you have loved us in our great need. Cause us to love justice and, like your Son, to suffer joyfully great injustice on behalf of others. Help us to love extravagantly, as we have been loved by you. Amen.

Benediction:

Go, in peace, today.  Jesus has proven that He is the Messiah, God-in-flesh, and saves you from being ashamed and embarrassed before God because of the guilt of your sin.