“Who is like God?” (Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3)

Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 24, 2017

Today we remember angels. We celebrate these creatures who have no physical bodies like us. Even though we often do not see them, they are busy servants and soldiers of God. They are our protectors. They are God’s messengers to us. That is what angel means—“messenger.” And one of the great messengers of God is the angel Michael. And I love the meaning of his name. It’s actually a question in Hebrew: “Who is like God?” You’ll remember when God made us, he said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:26,27). Who is like God? We were created to be like him.

But our first parents Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They did not live up to their calling to be God’s stewards and protectors of his creation. They sinned. And to sin is to fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). We fail to honor God perfectly and to be like God to one another and the world he created. This is what happens to the prophet Daniel in our Old Testament reading. He is praying by the river when he has a vision of God who is the likeness and appearance of a man (Dan 10:16,18). I wish I had another 30 minutes to convince you that Daniel sees the eternal Son of God here. This is almost the same vision John has in his Revelation of the risen Christ (Rev 1:9-20). Can you trust me? This is Jesus who died and rose again and ascended to the Father. He steps out of eternity into any point of history he wants. He reveals himself to Daniel. And he has the same effect the glory of Christ always has: John tells us he falls down on his face like a dead man (Rev 1:17). Daniel says his own appearance is fearfully changed, he loses his strength, he falls on his face, and he loses consciousness (10:8,9).

Who is like God? Not Daniel. Not us. Certainly not compared to the surpassing glory of Jesus Christ whose face is as bright as lightning, whose strength destroys death and Satan. He never sleeps. He sustains the whole universe by his Word. Compared to him, our radiance is darkness. Our beautifully clean clothing is filthy rags. We have no strength of our own. Our weakness is so profound that we cannot even stay conscious and wake up to the reality of who is truly like God. Michael’s message is that we live in the end of days. Eternity is about to break out into this world of time and space. God’s Kingdom will be revealed. The heavens will roll back like a scroll. And the Ancient of Days—the eternal Son of God comes to judge the living and the dead. Their message to us is to be prepared.

Who is like God? Michael and the angels seem to be—especially compared to us. They are God’s perfect servants. They are soldiers who fight our battles and God’s battles. And they do so—not in their own strength. The angels conquer—the angels get their power from the power of the blood of the Lamb. On page 23 you will find a picture of a statue of the archangel Michael at the University of Bonn. His breastplate is the Cross of Christ. He conquers by Jesus’ strength—not his own. He wields the flaming sword of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

That is always an important thing to remember about angels. They are also creatures. They do not draw attention to themselves. Their job is to humbly and perfectly serve God. They are messengers. They are soldiers. They always point us to Christ and give him the glory and praise. They raise the question, “Who is like God?” No one. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one!” We are called to be like him. Our job is to love him with our whole being and to love one another as Christ has loved us (Deut 6). Just as the Son of God loved us. The Eternal Word became flesh. God became human—in our likeness he was born of the virgin Mary. The great surprise and mystery is that the Second Person of the Trinity became one of us! He became like us so that we will become like him. Who is like God indeed?

The hand of Christ touches Daniel and rouses him to his hands and knees. In John’s Revelation, he puts his hand on him and says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore” (1:17,18). And so we rise in the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Christ’s nail-scarred hands touch us through his eternal Word. He reminds us that he died for us to break the power sin, evil, and death has on our lives. “If we have been united in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6:5). He rose again so that we will rise to shine more brightly than the midday sun. Like Michael, we lead others to the perfect righteousness of Christ. And together we are the bright constellation of his grace! Who is like God? You are. By God’s mercy and grace we all are.

Lord God, to Thee we give all praise,
With grateful hearts our voices raise,
That angel hosts Thou didst create.
Around Thy glorious throne to wait.

They never rest nor sleep as we;
Their whole delight is but to be
With Thee, Lord Jesus, and to keep
Thy little flock, Thy lambs and sheep.

For this, now and in our days to be.
Our praise shall rise, O Lord, to Thee,
Whom all the angel hosts adore.
With grateful songs forevermore.
          (“Lord God, to Thee We Give All Praise” LSB 522 v. 1, 3, & 8)

“What You Meant for Evil” (Genesis 50:15-21)

Genesis 50:15-21

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 17, 2017

Staci slammed the door—shutting out her brother Brad’s angry and hurtful words—leaving him in thick silence. All he sees now was her name on her bedroom door—Staci with an “i” dotted by a circle. The silence is quickly ambushed by the screaming and nagging thought Brad has—that he should knock on that door—immediately—and say, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me.” An hour passes. Brad and Staci are still not talking. The scraping and banging of forks at the dinner table is deafening. A week passes. Brad goes off to college—the silence only occasionally being interrupted by superficial conversation at Thanksgiving and family picnics on the Fourth of July. Years pass. Brad moves across the country. The silence between Brad and Staci is now only interrupted by the annual Christmas card—with the solitary name “Staci” written in ink ending in an “i” dotted by a circle. Decades pass. Decades of silence between them. The silence is a lie because there is no peace. All is quiet—that is, until five o’clock one snowy Friday morning when the phone rings…

That’s when the news wakes up our wounded child. For Joseph and his brothers, the news of their father’s death wakes up their wounded child. Loss has a way of doing that—stirring up old memories and opening up old wounds. It’s times like these that pain and resentment surface—stuff that we thought was buried and forgotten. Old thoughts resurface like “Joseph was always daddy’s favorite!” “Joseph was always a well-dressed spoiled brat—when we were kids in our father Jacob’s house in his multicolored tunic and now in Pharaoh’s house in royal garb. And what about Joseph? You’ll remember that Joseph’s brothers threw him into the ditch and sold him into slavery. You’ll remember that it was because of his slavery in Egypt that he was falsely accused of trying to violate Potipher’s wife and was thrown into prison. Joseph had his own painful memory and resentment to deal with. “Because of you, brothers, I was sold into slavery, spent years in prison, and almost lost my life and my faith.” The silence is finally broken. We know the years of silence was a lie because all this stuff resurfaces at Jacob’s death.

Like Joseph and his brothers, we can buy into the lie that time heals all wounds—the lie that silence is the same as forgiving and forgetting. We buy into the lie that the slammed doors of our teenage years will not impact the rest of our lives. We buy into the lie that an unforgiving spirit has no impact on our daily lives. We buy into the lie that guilt and shame will fade away on its own. When his brothers ask for forgiveness, Joseph weeps. He weeps. Is it the news of his father’s death? Is it because his own painful memories? Are they tears of compassion for his brothers because they carried the burden of guilt, shame, and fear of retaliation all these years? We’re not told. I think Joseph wept because of all of those things—all of the above.

Through salty tears, Joseph runs to that place he learned to run when he was experiencing his darkest hours. Joseph runs to the loving, merciful, and gracious arms of God, his heavenly Father. He speaks some of the most powerful words of good news in the Bible: “As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good.” Joseph is made whole and mended by the gospel. Joseph speaks out of his faith in a forgiving, loving, and merciful God. Joseph reminds us God has a plan for our lives. He reminds us that God even uses evil meant for our destruction. He reminds us that God forgives our sin so we can forgive one another—even decades old dysfunctional and destructive family behavior. He reminds us of the God who has a plan for our good. God leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. God even uses the unjust, gruesome, and evil death of His Son for the forgiveness, life, and salvation of the world.

Joseph’s words remind us that God breaks the deafening silence. God melts away the bitterness, the pain, the guilt, the anger—with a word of reconciliation: “As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good.” Only the love of God through his Son Jesus Christ can heal the wounded child within all of us. And since God has forgiven us a lifetime of sin—a debt that we could never repay—so we ought to forgive the nickels and dimes of our sins against each other. And we should forgive from our heart—a heart filled with gratitude and faith in God’s forgiveness and a heart filled with compassion for those weighed down with guilt and shame. God has written the script for the drama of our lives. The story ends with forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation with him and one another—or rather, that is how our story begins. This may lead us to finally pick up the phone and speak words of comfort—or write that note of reconciliation—or lead us to have that conversation that breaks years of silence with a good word. Just as Joseph finally broke the silence:  “As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good.” We have wronged each other. But in the midst of the pain, guilt, and chaos, God has a plan—a plan of forgiveness, life, reconciliation, and eternal salvation. “As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good.”

“Becoming a Child of Faith” (Matthew 18:1-14)

Matthew 18:1-14

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 15, 2017

Jesus sounds like a Chicago mobster. “It would be better to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea than to cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble or sin.” The eternal consequences of misleading God’s children is severe. 

When I was in seminary in Fort Wayne, I washed windows to pay the bills. Once we were at an empty office building keeping it clean for prospective tenants. Geese had taken over the property laying their eggs in the shelter of the building right next to the windows we were trying to clean. We quickly found out the origin of the expression “getting goosed.” While our eyes were on the windows and our back ends were made vulnerable, one of us used our poles as a defensive martial arts stick while the others cleaned. Jesus is mother goose doing anything to protect her babes. He is tiger mom and papa bear who brings out claw and tooth before any harm comes his little ones.

And what is Jesus so passionate about? That our relationship with God would not be tripped up by sin or sabotaged by pride. He wants us to cultivate humility. The great ones in the Kingdom are those who humble themselves like little children. A false Gospel will trip us up. Little children know their understanding is limited. Their faith may be simple but it is profound. It’s humbling. Without God we are vulnerable, helpless, and in mortal danger of our sin, evil, and this broken world. And so we surrender to the power of God in Jesus Christ. We humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. At the proper time he lifts us up. Martin Luther said, “Though I am a great doctor, I have not yet progressed beyond the instruction of children in the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. I still learn and pray these every day with my Hans and my little Lena.”

God the Father does not want knowledge to puff us up. He wants us to be teachable not to be smarter sinners but more humble servants. There is always room to grow in our love and trust of him and as students of his Word. Christ is vigilant and zealous for our humble trust in him. So much so that he took up the millstone of the world’s sin and was cast into the ocean of death, sin, and evil. He humbled himself to the point of death—even death upon the Cross. He rose victoriously because death could not hold him. He won the fight for our forgiveness and assurance of eternal life and our humble walk with him. His mercy and grace is humbling because he saved us—not we ourselves. And that is how we keep our footing and not stumble as we journey forward—by that same love and grace in humility—just like little goslings under the shelter of his wings.

“Church Conflict” (Matthew 18:15-20)

Matthew 18:15-20

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 10, 2017

After worship, people will sometimes tell me, “Pastor, your sermon seemed directed right at me!” Usually that is a favorable response. But I doubt anyone would want to feel that a sermon entitled “Church Conflict” is directed at them. I seriously considered putting a full length mirror in front so that I can look into my own eyes and preach to myself. This is Paul’s advice to Timothy when he says, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on your teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim 4:16). Please don’t feel like I’m directing this sermon at you. Know that I am, as I am to myself, and to everyone who is open to the words of Jesus. Our text from Matthew 18 is the path forward to loving, trusting, harmonious, and joyful relationships.

Ken Sande, author of the classic book The Peacemaker says one thing is for sure: conflict happens. It happens in every church. But, he says, “Conflict is always an opportunity to glorify God.” Because on this side of eternity, we are still sinners—every one of us, that is to be sure. The Body of Christ is also very diverse. We often have very different ideas and opinions. Have you ever noticed that? And so Jesus anticipates conflict in his beautiful bride, the Church. He gives practical advice on how to move forward in peace toward reconciliation: “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.”

Step one: go directly to that person in private. Do not triangulate and complicate things by gossip. Give that person an opportunity to explain themselves and ask for their repentance in a way that makes them feel safe and not cornered. And before you go running into the storm of conflict, consider whether or not the offense is truly sin. Is it a misunderstanding? Is it two personalities colliding? Could it be that the grimace on his face was not out of contempt for you but because he just took a big gulp of icee freeze? Proverbs 19:11 says, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is a glory to overlook an offense.” Not every hill is worth battling over. The only hill worth dying on is Calvary. And Christ already went there and gave his life for the world. If we choose to point out a person’s fault, Jesus tells us to do so when the two are alone. Such wisdom! It’s a teaching moment. How would you want to be shown your faults? Publicly in humiliation? I doubt that. We are to love as we would want to be loved. The Golden Rule leads us to protect our and their reputation. And Jesus says our goal is to regain or to win that sister or brother. We do not enter conflict to win an argument; we do so in order to win a friend in Christ. Conflict should be a safe place where we do not fear attack but can humbly face our own failures, brokenness, and sin in the comfort of genuine Christian love. Proverbs 15:1: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Conflict glorifies God when it builds trust, love, and our Christian family.

Jesus says step two is to bring along one or two others. Both parties benefit from accountability. We can all learn about how to proceed more in love and be reconciled. Think about the type of person to bring along. The person to bring along is not someone who will take sides. It should be someone who has the maturity to listen non-judgmentally, prayerfully, and whose joy it would be to see two made whole. If that does not work, take it to the church. This may be going to the pastor, the elders, or the church council. The stakes get higher. And hopefully that will soften a person’s heart enough to begin to search the archives of their own soul.

The last step is the best: if they still refuse to listen, “treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Does this mean we treat them with xenophobia? Contempt? Excommunicate them? No. This is the punchline of one of Jesus’ best jokes! Who is a tax collector in the Gospel of Matthew? Matthew! How did Jesus treat him? With patience and love. And how did Jesus treat the non-Jews? He challenged prejudice and racism. He came to give his life for the world. So, what does it mean? Treat the unrepentant person as a mission field. Sometimes we need to go back to basics. We need to make sure we understand the Gospel. It is what Scripture calls the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5).

And let me say something about the power of humor—good humor. It builds others up, it does not tear people down. It gives us permission to laugh at ourselves and not take things or ourselves so seriously when we do not need to. The joy comes in knowing just how ridiculous and outrageous God’s love is for us sinners.

And that is it. It is all about understanding the Gospel: Christ came for sinners. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. We all need forgiveness. We need acceptance and love. God forgives us. And so we should forgive as we have been forgiven. Church is not a weekly convention of the perfect. We join Jesus as first responders in the storm of sin. Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” He promises his presence in the midst of conflict. He is there to ensure that the Gospel works. We will be reconciled. He will get the glory.

“Genuine Love” (Romans 12:9-21)

Romans 12:9-21

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Pastor Tom Johnson, September 3, 2017

Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. He probably is best known by his scenes from Genesis painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and his marble sculpture of King David. He said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material. I see the image in the marble and carve until I set it free.”

That is what Paul is doing with words in our Scripture today. Within each of us there is the image of Christ. God’s Word and the Holy Spirit chisel away the superfluous material. And by the grace of God, genuine love is set free. Just before our passage Paul spends 11 chapters talking about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. At the end of chapter 11 he transitions into how it ought to look in our daily lives. He says of Jesus Christ, “From him and through him and to him are all things” (11:36). He tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice and that is our true service of worship (12:1). And he calls us to understand that God is the giver of faith and spiritual gifts. And that chief gift and command is to love God with all our hearts, minds, and spirit and to love our neighbor as Christ loved us—freely, joyfully, and sacrificially.

“Let love be genuine.” Or, even more pointedly: “make sure your love is genuine.” “Don’t let your love be phony.” “Set genuine love free!” And so our Scripture begins to chisel away to take away what does not belong and set free God’s purpose for our lives. This Scripture is a good one to read through slowly and prayerfully:

Praise you, O God, for your genuine love—especially in sending your Son! He opposed evil and promoted good. He was patient through suffering and persevered in prayer. He wept with those who weep.“…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8) Glory and honor to you, O Jesus, for you did not avenge yourself on the cross but cried out, “Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing.” You gave your own Body and Blood as food and drink. You are the Bread of Heaven—and the living water. Thank you God for loving us with such genuine love!


And so we confess our flirtation with evil—how sin seduces us into its deadly grip. We have not shown mutual affection. Instead we have all too often shown contempt and dishonor to our family members, friends, coworkers, strangers, and church family. We have been spiritual couch potatoes—too lazy to make the effort be useful tools in the hands of the Holy Spirit. We have been stingy. We have lacked empathy for those who struggle. We do not choose our battles wisely. We fight by our own strength. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We take too long before we truly listen; we are too quick to speak. We harbor bitterness. We think more about getting back at those who hurt us than we do surrendering everything to God in prayer. We have not taken up our crosses and genuinely followed Jesus. We have more fear of the power of evil than we have faith in the goodness of God which overcomes evil—he is the light in the darkness. And no amount of darkness can put out the light.

Help us, Lord, to leave behind everything that is counterfeit and false love. Disingenuous love is a sham. Insincere love is a lie. Forgive us, O God! Renew our faith. Amend our lives. Chisel away at all the phoniness! Set free the image of Christ within all of us that we may love you and one another with genuine love. We know that we can only love because you first loved us. By your grace and mercy, make our lives, our thoughts, our words, and our actions tried and true. As the Master Sculptor, transform us from useless lumps of clay and blocks of rock into divine works of art—a masterpiece of authentic love!

“I am The light, I light the way,
A godly life displaying;
I bid you walk as in the day;
I keep your feet from straying.
I am the way, and well I show
How you must sojourn here below.

“I teach you how to shun and flee
What harms your soul’s salvation,
Your heart from ev’ry guile to free,
From sin and its temptation.
I am the refuge of the soul
And lead you to your heav’nly goal.”
          (“‘Come, Follow Me,’ the Savior Spake” LSB 688 v. 2 & 4)