Deo Gloria
February 14, 2024
Ash Wednesday
Introductions to the Lessons
Pastor Martin Bentz
Joel 2:12-19
Lent is a season of repentance. But what really is repentance? Is it giving something up, like not eating meat on Fridays, for example, or not eating jelly-filled donuts? Is it putting ashes on our foreheads or wearing a cross around our necks? Well, it could involve things like that, as long as they reflect what is actually going on in our hearts. You see, all of those things are outward or external things, which are all fine and good, but what God is really concerned about is the attitude of our hearts.
God’s Old Testament people did things like that too. As an outward display of repentance and sorrow over their sins sometimes they would fast. They wouldn’t just refrain from eating meat on Fridays or pass up a jelly-filled donut with their morning coffee. They didn’t eat all day long. Sometimes they would put on sack cloth—a very coarse, scratchy material—instead of soft and comfortable clothing and sit on the ground in ashes. Sometimes they would even tear their clothes, and they would physically cry. They would weep and mourn to show how troubled they were about their sins and how sorry they were. But what if they weren’t sincere? What if it t was all just a show? What if they were just going through the motions and they really weren’t sorry in their hearts?
And what about us? We can give up eating certain foods and wear a cross and put ashes on our foreheads, but what if we are just going through the motions and really aren’t sorry in our hearts? Is that really repentance?
The essence of repentance is returning to God. It’s turning away from our sins and turning back to God. It’s recognizing that we have done wrong in the eyes of God, that we have sinned and done evil in his sight, and that because of our sins we rightfully deserve his eternal wrath and punishment. Repentance is humbly admitting our sins and guilt before God. Repentance is turning away from our sins and back to God.
And what do we find when we do? That he is a gracious and compassionate and forgiving God, a God of mercy and grace, a God who does not give us what our sins deserve, but instead loves to give us what we don’t deserve: forgiveness and peace and salvation.
This Lenten season let us take the words of LORD, recorded by the prophet Joel, to heart and return to the Lord in true repentance. We read from Joel ch. 2, beginning at v. 12.
Revelation 3:1-3
Sardis was a city in ancient Asia Minor, the country we know today as Turkey. It was located in west central Asia Minor, about 50 miles inland from the coast. There was a Christian church in Sardis, a thriving church, a church that had a great reputation. Their worship services were inspiring and relevant. Their membership was growing. The people were involved in service and church-related activities. They were active in the community. Things seemed great—at least outwardly they seemed great, but Jesus knew differently.
You see, that’s the thing about Jesus. He knows. He sees our outward actions, of course. But he sees so much more. He can look into our hearts as well. And he knows. He knows if our hearts are on fire for him, if they’re lukewarm or if they’re cold and empty. He knows if we do the things we do out of faith and love for him, or if we do them for some other reason. And he called the Christians in Sardis out. “You have a reputation for being alive,” he says, “but you are dead. Wake up!” Yes, this was a wake up call, a serious wake up call for the people in Sardis, a call to repent and return to God in humble repentance and faith before it was too late.
It serves as a wake up call for us as well. We too can have a reputation for being alive. We can be active in worship and active in serving and active in volunteering in the community. We can be doing all kinds of good and wonderful things, but if our heart isn’t it, if we aren’t doing it out of faith and love for Jesus, we’re only fooling ourselves.
It’s time to wake up. It’s time to repent. It’s time to turn back to God in humble repentance and faith. We read from Revelation ch. 3, the first three verses.
Luke 12:13-21
It’s all just stuff. No really—it’s all just stuff: the cars and the clothes, the houses and the ice-fishing houses, the cell phones and the smart TVs, the rings and necklaces, the designer jeans and fancy shoes. It’s all just stuff. It’s certainly good stuff—blessings from our good and gracious God, things we can use and enjoy and share with others. But here’s the danger: that we think that having them and acquiring them and enjoying them is what life is all about, when it’s not.
Jesus reminds us of that today in our gospel lesson. “Watch out!” he warns. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”(v. 15). And then he proceeded to tell a story, a parable to drive home his point.
A certain man was wealthy. He had lots of stuff. His fields produced a bumper crop and he didn’t have enough room to store all his crops. So he decided to tear down his barns and build even bigger ones where he could store it all. Then he would sit back and take life easy for a while—eat, drink and be merry. But that night he died and suddenly he found out that all his stuff really didn’t matter after all. It didn’t make him wealthy in the eyes of God and he couldn’t use to purchase a place in heaven. So instead of enjoying real life, eternal life with God, he ended up being banished to death, eternal death in hell.
Don’t be a fool like the man in Jesus’ story. Repent of your greed and self-indulgence and turn back to God. Life isn’t about stuff. It’s about God and our relationship with God. It’s about storing up treasures in heaven and being rich in the eyes of God. It’s about knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior, the only one can make us eternally rich.
You see, the truth is that no matter how much stuff you and I might have, in God’s eyes we’re poor. In God’s eyes we are debtors, people who are drowning in debt because our sins and have nothing to pay it off with. Our cars, our clothes, our cell phones, our smart TVs, our money, our investments—they don’t mean anything to God. They don’t add up to a hill of beans in his eyes. So we have this enormous debt and there is nothing we can do to pay it off. And if it doesn’t’ get paid off, if we remain poor in the eyes of God, we’re going to end up like the man in Jesus’ story, spending eternity separated from God in hell.
But that’s where Jesus comes in. As we heard back in our first lesson, God is a God of mercy and grace and compassion. And because he is, he sent someone to bail us out, to pay off our enormous debt and make us truly wealthy in the eyes of God. He sent his own Son to suffer and die in our place, to take all of sins away and bless us with an abundance of forgiveness and peace and salvation. As we follow our Savior throughout his passion during this Lenten season, we’ll be reminded again of the tremendous price he paid in order to pay off the debt of our sins and make wealthy in the eyes of God. Keep your focus on him, not just during the season of Lent but throughout your life. Make him your priority. Make him what your life is all about, because as we are also reminded both in this story and in the season of Lent: Dust you are, and one day to dust you will return. We read from Luke ch. 12, beginning at v. 13.