Sermon: A Pure Heart Given by God Text: Matthew 5:8

Transcription

1 Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day Saturday, October 31 st, 2015 Sunday, November 1 st, 2015 Sermon: A Pure Heart Given by God Text: Matthew 5:8 Focus: Christ makes our hearts pure when he forgives our sins. Function: That they would rejoice in a clear conscience given them by God. Structure: Text-Application Locus: I believe that Jesus Christ has redeemed me that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness (SC, 2 nd Article of Apostles Creed). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is All Saints Day, the day on which the Christian Church remembers Christians who have died and are now at rest with the Lord. Celebrating All Saints Day can be a bit confusing to modern day believers for any number of reasons. After all, how do you celebrate something tinged with sadness? Rather than the ringing joy of Easter, All Saints Day feels a bit like a mass funeral service a kind of memorial day for all believers. Yet what also makes All Saints Day confusing is that funny word in the title: saints. What in the world is a Christian saint? As castoffs from the Catholic Church, Lutherans get a little uptight and uncomfortable with that word. We know that we re not supposed to pray to saints, as the Catholics do, but is it still okay to honor and remember them in some way? Or does that border on pagan ancestor worship? And who gets to make the roll of saints anyway? Put simply: who or what are saints? Are the saints especially holy people? Are they the super- Christians with a greater faith than the rest of us? Did they work harder and do more good in order to find their way into heaven? Do Lutherans have an elaborate system of beatification like

2 Matthis 2 the Catholics do, whereby you must have performed a certain number of verifiable miracles before you may be counted among the saints? At first glance, we might be led to believe something along those lines, especially when you consider one of the Beatitudes in today s Gospel lesson: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8, ESV). 1 Only the pure in heart will see God. Only the pure in heart will find entry into heaven. And surely the pure in heart are those saints of God who have led particularly holy and faithful lives, right? Wrong! The pure in heart are not pure because of some kind of intrinsic holiness of their own. The pure in heart are pure and holy only because God has made them pure and holy! The word saint comes from the Latin word that means holy (sanctus). The saints are the sancti, the holy ones of God and the ones made holy by God! You don t even need to be dead to become a saint. In fact, every baptized Christian who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is one of God s saints. In a very certain sense, All Saints Day isn t only about the dead, but it s about the entire Church, all the saints both living and dead who are holy because of faith in Christ. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). In Psalm 24 David asks who has a right to draw near to God and approach his holy temple ( holy place, v. 3). The answer: He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully (Ps. 24:4). Who is allowed in God s presence? The pure of heart! As a young man, I used to think, I guess that rules me out! But, no, actually it doesn t! For, as Martin Luther famously said, simultaneously saints and sinners (simul iustus et peccator). We are saints and sinners at the same time. Yet as forgiven sinner-saints, we don t live in fear of God s wrath or judgment. Because of the 1 All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.

3 Matthis 3 forgiveness Christ won for us by his death on the cross, we can recognize that while every saint has a past, every forgiven sinner has a future in view of God s mercy. And so let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10:22). You see, saints aren t holy because of who they or what they ve done right or haven t done wrong. Saints are holy because God has made them holy by the Blood of Jesus and the life-giving water of Holy Baptism! That is why, in Psalm 51, we pray with King David, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me (Ps. 51:10). David knows that he has no righteousness of his own. If he is pure and holy, it is only be because of what God did and does for him, not because of any supposed righteousness of our own. David was a murderer and an adulterer, and yet the Bible calls him a man after God s own heart! Why?! How?! Because God purged him, cleaned him, washed him, and made him whiter than snow (Ps. 51:7). And God does the same thing for you and me. Yes, we are sinners; but when God looks at us, he sees only forgiven saints. None of us can make our own hearts pure. As Solomon asks rhetorically in Proverbs 20, Who can say, I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin? (Prov. 20:9). The rhetorical answer is No one! We are sinful from conception and born in sin (Ps. 51:5). Jesus says, For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness (Mark 7:21-22). There is no one who does what is right, not even one, because our hearts are corrupted by sin (Ps. 14:1-3). As the Apostle Paul writes, there is nothing good in me, that is, in my flesh (Rom. 7:18).

4 Matthis 4 That s why God needs to do spiritual heart surgery on us. He needs to remove our wicked, corrupt hearts, hardened by sin, and replace them with a pure heart of his own making. He needs to remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh beating and pumping with the blood of Jesus (cp. Ezek. 11:19). The pure in heart are blessed because God makes us pure. The Blood of Jesus washes away our sins and gives us a clear conscience so that we can stand before God in his presence without being rejected or destroyed. As God s forgiven children by faith, we become more and more like him each day as we hear his Word, receive his forgiveness, and taste the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus in Holy Communion. Although we were once wicked sinners destined for eternal death and hell, God took us off the trash heap, cleaned us up, and renewed us, giving us pure, holy hearts. That s what the apostle John is talking about in our epistle lesson today: Beloved, we are God s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure (1 John 3:2-3). We aren t perfect yet. We are works in progress. But we are God s workmanship (Eph. 2:10). And God will bring us to completion at the Day of Christ s return (Phil. 1:6). Until then, day by day and little by little, we become more and more pure by Jesus Word, like gold or silver ore being refined by fire. Jesus says, Already you are clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you (John 15:3). The Greek word for clean in John 15 (katharos) is the same word for pure in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). Blessed are you because God has made your heart pure, and when Christ comes again, you will see him in all of his glory, and you will leave with him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness (SC). You will have pure joy and a pure heart because of God s pure grace. We know that

5 Matthis 5 when [Christ] appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as [Jesus himself] is pure (1 John 3:2-3). In Jesus name. Amen.