READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 3:1-21
2 Corinthians 6:1-10
- St. Matthew 4:1-11
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory”
Thus far from God’s Word. And He wants it written for us to hear of His Kingdom, which He has promised to bring to earth. Instead of hearing and believing every joe-schmoe talk about the kingdom being this or that, God wants us to believe His kingdom is with His only begotten Son. This points us to return to Church often and to lead others to find the true Kingdom which is not of this earth.
In our Gospel today: what may not be a temptation for God is a temptation for man. Thus, the devil confessing that Jesus is the Son of Man, tempts Jesus with all the kingdoms of the earth. By “all the kingdoms”, I can only assume he showed all of them from all time, maybe even all possible kingdoms, for you string theory fans. You know, the ones we pray for today.
The utopias, the paradises, the kingdoms where everyone votes like us. These are the tyrant kingdoms of so-called peace, where you are going to be peaceful, or else. For, “of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive…those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience”, C.S. Lewis has said (God in the Dock).
These are the sorts of kingdoms we imagine could envelope the whole earth and unite us all. We believe that if Jesus had just implemented this sort of kingdom, everything would have turned out better and we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today. Do not be so quick to judge another’s idea of the kingdom, until yours is examined fully.
But you attach the name “Jesus” to it. You say, in it’s constitution, that Jesus is king, one nation under God, and rights and love. So yours is truly the kingdom because of that.
“Here, Jesus. Here’s this kingdom we made just for you. Why aren’t you happy with that?”
In your sin, everything you offer to God may as well come from the devil himself, because in our offerings we attach strings. Maybe not consciously all the time, but they are there. If I give this much, then God will…whatever it is. Or you say, “God I always come to church, I give this much to these people, and have done my best, so You just gotta…”
The other part of our sin here, is that we are trying to break into God’s Kingdom. We know He has one, because He talks about it, but we just don’t know what it looks like or where the entrance is. It’s not that it’s hidden either, for the devil knows of it too, and as an angel he should definitely know where it is. So what is the issue?
As always, the issue is faith. It comes down to faith, if you want to see the kingdom, for Jesus has hidden it. And yet, it is discoverable, but those who wish to violently take it by force will never come across it. To seek power or control in any shape or form will only leave you empty. Faith alone opens and closes the doors to the kingdom.
We get our clues from the Lord’s own prayer, when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come”. And it is in defining the kingdom that the blessed Dr. Luther interprets Jesus’s words, “My kingdom is not of this world” for us. Dr. Luther teaches that the Kingdom comes when the Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His Grace, we believe His Holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. The complete opposite of us demanding power and control in our lives.
With faith, comes belief. With belief, comes godly living. And with all of that comes the kingdom of God. Through what? The giving of the Holy Spirit. And the giving of the Holy Spirit is none other than the preaching of the pure Gospel and the administration of the sacraments according to it.
“But when the Helper comes”, says Jesus on the 7th Sunday of Easter, “whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26). “He will lead you in all truth” and “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:13, 14)
Now you see why we, in our sin, and the devil cannot find the Kingdom: it is with Jesus only, where there is no more sin. More than that, it is wrapped up in the glory of Jesus. And the hour of the Son’s Glory, given by the Father, is the hour of Jesus’s crucifixion.
Thus, in trying to locate the kingdom of God, we have inadvertently, but divinely, pulled on the strings of heaven. In searching for the kingdom we have run into the cross of Christ; we have run into the Sabbath Day, where we are to hold sacred the preaching and God’s Word; and we have run through our Lord’s Prayer, where we are taught about the Kingdom of Faith.
And we have ultimately come upon God’s greatest work in all of history: the salvation of sinners by grace lone, through faith alone, for Christ’s sake alone. Not Christ on a banner or the word “Christ” on our lips, but the living-breathing-resurrected-Savior-Who-communes-with-His-Church, Christ.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the standard of the Kingdom of God and so no one can see it, because they do not believe the Almighty would lower Himself to a Servant of sinners. Notice how the last words of Jesus parallel the temptations He endured under the devil.
At the temptation of bodily need of hunger by the devil, Jesus proclaims His thirst on the cross. At the temptation of rescue from impending peril of death by the devil of being thrown from the heights, Jesus is lifted up high on the cross of His death. At the temptation of all the kingdoms in the world by the devil, Jesus completes His own Kingdom in His Body and Blood, saying, “It is finished”.
Of course our Lord’s kingdom is not of this world. His Kingdom is a kingdom of grace alone, through faith alone, for Christ’s sake alone and that is not found on earth. On earth, it is always who is more right, who has more might, and fight or flight.
And yet, in mercy, our Lord Jesus Christ brings His kingdom to earth. Literally, brings it with Him. Where the King is there is the Kingdom. It is not about how well we enact or create a kingdom for God, but how whether or not we find Jesus.
For the 3rd Article of the Creed teaches, the Holy Spirit must call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth and keep it with Jesus Christ in the one, true faith. That is His job. The kingdom comes when we are given the Holy Spirit.
When and how is that accomplished, exactly? Jesus first unleashed the Holy Spirit on the cross saying, “Father into Your hands I commit my Spirit”. The Spirit is His own and His to give, absolutely. Holy Scripture plainly saith:
In Acts 16:7, "...and they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them".
In Philippians 1:19, "...for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance".
Galatians 4:6, "...God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father".
And Romans 8:9, "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him"
Why is it so important to believe the Spirit is with Jesus? So that we can’t think of silly ways to grab the Spirit on our own. Like a silly incantation, a vow, or anything else outside His Holy Word. Apart from the Word of God, there is no Spirit for us. His work is only in and through the Word.
And that answers our second question as to how the Holy Spirit is given to us: through the preaching of the Word, as our 3rd Command already taught us. But those who preach must be sent by God. Not just anyone gets to stand in front of God’s people and speak. The devil tries that one today and is shut down.
At the Word of Jesus we gain what it says we gain and therein lies the kingdom: in His Promise. And He promises to speak to you His Spirit. He promises to wash you in His Spirit. And He promises to feed you His Spirit.
And His Spirit, when here, will point us to those things mightily, because there we find our answers to all our questions. Jesus is enough. His cross is enough. His kingdom, in the means He chooses to give it, is enough. Their glory is their shame. Our glory is Christ Crucified and the Kingdom He brings in Word and Sacrament.
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