Sermon - Judica 2019 - John 8:42-59

I don’t know if you’ve seen the recent movie franchise Guardians of the Galaxy or not, but they’re superhero movies about heros who guard the galaxy. It’s a lot of slapstick humor, fast paced action and excitement, with a good bit of middle school humor mixed in as well to get lots of giggles from the boys. 

Superhero movies and comic books have long received a good deal of attention, and probably for good reason. It’s healthy for boys to want to rescue other people, to be a hero, to be a guardian. I would guess one of the most common daydreams for boys and men is to be a hero of some sorts. Would that more of our young men today desired to be heros who provided for their “damsel in distress,” their wife and kids. 

Today’s Gospel lesson teaches us something about being guardians. Not guardians of the galaxy, you see that’s Jesus’ responsibility, but guardians nonetheless. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” We are guardians of the Word who are saved by the Word. 

Now I guess that doesn’t sound extremely exciting, being a guardian of the Word. Generally this sort of a guardian won’t be shooting guns with explosions in the background and flying around in space ships. But this guardian is much more important and in fact each of us has been called to be a guardian of the Word. But what does it mean to guard the Word and who are we to guard it against?

Listen to what Jesus says, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.”

Being a guardian of the Word of God first and foremost means loving Jesus and hearing His Word. Believe it or not you can’t guard something that you don’t know and love. What’s more, you can’t even understand what Jesus says unless you enjoy to listen to His Word. So what this ultimately means is that you need to study the scriptures daily. You need to keep them a part of your routine and schedule every day. In fact it’s a good thing to schedule time for the Word every day. Set aside a 15 minute block of time every day, carve that time out of your busy schedule, and devote it to the Word. 

Thus the greatest enemy of the Word is Satan, as Jesus identified. How does Satan attack? Satan attacks in a number of ways. Firstly, he attacks the Word by influencing our culture. Our culture today in the US doesn’t hold the Word of God sacred. It’s not going to set aside time for the Word. So we need to be the ones who hold the Word of God sacred, we need to be the ones who sanctify God’s Word in our daily and weekly lives. 

Perhaps that starts with “Remembering the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” It starts with setting aside Sunday as a day of rest devoted to the hearing of God’s Word. I don’t just mean 75 minutes in the morning, but maybe the whole day. Our culture idolizes busyness as a status symbol: the busier you are the better you are. Thus, Sunday is day devoted to being lazy in our culture. But what if one day a week we purposefully slowed down in order to, not be lazy, but to hear God’s Word. In the ancient world around the time of Jesus, Sunday wasn’t a day off, it was the first work day of the week. Christians didn’t pick Sunday to worship because it was convenient for them, instead they woke up early before the sun rose so that they could attend church before they had to start their workday. Since many of us have Sunday off from work, this only means that we can spend even more time contemplating the Word.

Part of that might mean disconnecting from the busyness and constant action in our lives. Maybe the TV, the computer, the smartphone, the action gets turned off. The distractions are removed for at least a little bit. So that this afternoon, even if you aren’t actively reading the Bible, you have the time to ruminate and contemplate and converse with others about the words of Jesus. 

My sermons are honestly short in comparison to all that there is in just one verse of the Bible. I can’t tell you everything about this reading, I can’t even really tell you everything about just one verse of this reading. This means that the rest of our day can be filled with thinking about what Jesus spoke here. What does it mean to guard the Word of God? What does Jesus mean when He says “whoever is of God hears the words of God?” What does it mean that the Jews tried to stone Jesus? What does it all mean for each of us personally?

Through this process of hearing God’s Word and contemplating it, you are loving Jesus, and you are guarding His Word against the culture which surrounds us. But there’s more to this “guarding the word” than just reading the Bible and carving out time for such things. Sometimes Satan’s attacks against the Word are much more direct and insidious.

Do you notice who Jesus is sparing with in His argument? The Jews! The Pharisees! The people who claim to love God and keep His word are the main opponents Jesus is facing here! Likewise we in our day too!

There are many false prophets and teachers who claim to love God and keep His word, but inwardly are ravenous snakes. The errors and heresies in the church are many and grievous and could easily lead any of us to fall astray. Some say that Jesus is not truly God, others say Jesus isn’t truly man. Some say that Jesus didn’t die for our sins, others say that we need to work out our own salvation through good works. Some say that Baptism, nor absolution, nor communion forgive our sins; others mistake emotions for faith. Some say that miracles never happened; others say that if we don’t see miracles now or speak in tongues we’re not true Christians. 

Those are just a few of the attacks against God’s true Word! A few of the attacks that we are faced with in the church to this day right here in Iowa. We, each and every one of us individually, needs to be ready to guard the Word of God against these errors. We need to be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. The only way that you can defend against the attacks of Satan and be a guardian of the Word is by putting in the work and hearing and studying what Jesus says. 

Dear brothers and sisters in the faith, if you are faithful to keep the Word of God as holy in your heart and guard the Word from all form of evil and lies, then you will certainly never see death. This is Jesus’ promise to you: You will have eternal life if you keep the Word of God. This is why Jesus said “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” Abraham, who was the father of many nations, who lived long before the days when Jesus walked upon the earth, saw the days of Jesus because he kept God’s Word. Abraham, who was told by God to sacrifice His son, listened and kept the Word even against his own heart, so He shall never see death.

Neither will we. Not because we’re such great guardians of the Word, we’re pretty poor at that to be honest, but because Jesus is the guardian of the galaxy and the Word. Jesus loves the Father. Jesus knows God. Jesus kept the Word. Jesus obeyed the Father’s word on our behalf, was glorified by the Father on the cross, and was raised to new life. All this Jesus did so that we who hear the word of God and keep it might not ever see death, but together with Abraham rejoice to see this day and to see Jesus on the last day in paradise.