Rev. Arturo Mendez

 

Sunday Oct 2 2022

 

Sermon Text: Luke 17: 1-10

 

Sermon Theme: Sin, Forgiveness And Serve God.

 

 

     Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be to all of you Amen!

 

17 And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin[a] are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 

 

Sin: what is that? Sin it is what we have attached in us since we are in the first day of conception, why ? because of the disobedience of God the Father from  our first Parents, Adam and Eve disobedience  and the words of lie and  temptation of the evil one, to disobey the commandment of God to no eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden,

 

What Causes to Sin: God has Given to us  the rules, that  is to Obey the Ten Commandments, but of course because we born in Sin we can’t do it, we simply cannot obey God’s law according to the Ten commandments, the word of God Said in Romans 3: 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;  no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave;  they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16     in their paths are ruin and misery, and Romans  3:23 said, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

that’s why we are Sinners we simply go aside of the Law of God, that’s  why Jesus Christ warning us whit this Words in the Gospel of Luke, Temptations to Sin are sure to come, but  woe to the one through whom they come! We always tend to do wrong in the eyes of God the Father, and we are separated from God, but thanks of the grace of God that He sent His only Begotten Son into the World to pay the Price of Sin in His Death and Resurrection, and to be able to fulfill the Law for all of us Believers and none believers, He did it for us He has Rescue us from the wrath of God the Father, so as a believers or followers of Christ. As His Disciples He Said to us and teach us, we all believers areChrist His Disciple.

The Discipleship and care of the Little ones: Luke 17: 2.  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

 

When we have been rescued from our sins by the grace of God through His Son Jesus Christ. Now we are partakers of his forgiveness, as followers of Christ we became as his disciples, because we have heard his teachings, but even more those who have been called to lead a congregation or a group of followers of Christ, if any of the leaders make sin any of his subjects or any other will be condemned,  to whom Christ refers when he mentions this little ones, is simply any follower who is starting in the Faith, or who is weak in  the Faith by the lack of knowledge of it, as believers and followers we must be careful with what we say, what we do and speak, so as not to stumble up the others who are with us in the Faith.

 

And to be came a Stumble Rock: We ourselves do not realize or sometimes we do it for our own sin, and we make others sin, with thoughts, deeds, and omition, then Christ gives us a warning, to be careful not to make one of these little ones fall into the Faith, oh any other Brother in the faith, basically tells us that it is better to be thrown to the depth of the sea with a stone tied in the neck than to make one of them sin,  we are condemning ourselves. And we are Dead in the eternity of sin. For our transgressions. If we do that and don’t repent,  Oh also Leaders who are falsely leading their followers in the Faith, with false teachings, rather we should be humble and let ourselves be guided by the word of God that brings us Forgiveness ,Hope Life and Salvation towards all our sins. 

 

3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,

 

Forgiving:  what a most beautiful gift we have in Christ Forgiveness it is Only He who give us that Gift of Grace, in his sacrifice he has paid all our debts to God our Father in the Cross, sacrificing His life in ramson for all of us believers and none believers, it is a gift that only proceeds from him alone, by faith alone through grace alone, and by His scripture alone. When we found in Guilt by the Law of the Ten Commandments we know that we are miserable sinners and because of that we need repent and forgiveness, so when we heard the words of absolution that it is proclaimed by the mouth of the Pastor, it is the words of Christ Forgiveness trough your life our Sins are being forgiven what a most beautiful gift we have in Christ.

But what happen when one of our brothers or any one Sins against you.

 

Rebuke The Sinner:  as a believers we must not sin against others or cause others to sin, we must be more to rebuke those who sin and forgive those who repent. Sounds simple right?

Of course we rebuke we often do this, because we don’t like the act of the sinner, we tend to said what is wrong with others, but what about to forgive those who repent of their sin ?

 

4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

 

7 Times: Jesus Christ invite us to forgive as well, if some one sin against us 7 times and if is repentance seven times we must forgive, I believed this is the difficult part to do, we only tend to do opposite on God’s commands, I don’t know you but when some sins against us, we would like to take revenge and make it paid twice as he or she has do to us, or simple because our heart it is hardened we don’t forgive, we are so angry and mad and because of our sinfulness we don’t forgive those who sin against us, lets be clear on this, why we not forgive? If God forgives us, yes, some people you may heard, I’m not God to Forgive you, God is the only One who Forgives. Or I forgive but I Don’t forget,  Jesus Christ is inviting us to forgive, because He has forgive us , and because he Loves us, so we must do it as well.

 

When we understand God’s Forgiveness: It is only by His Grace through us, by His Son Jesus Christ Sacrifice in the Cross that we have Forgiveness through Faith in Him, so all our Sins are being forgiven, the Holy Spirit is guiding us to seek every day our sanctification, and we must forgive our debtors as he teach us to do in the Lords Prayer when we pray and forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, why ? because he forgive us First and because of the Love of God in Our Lives and in our Sanctification we should do it as well as so many times are necessary, as God the Father do to us every time we Sin against Him, and we came at Him in Repentance and asking for His Forgiveness, He Has given to us the means of grace the Holy Baptism, the Confession and absolution, The Word and His Sacraments, the Lord Supper. For our sake. To forgive us and strengthen us, we must pray every day that the Lord teach us to Forgive others as he Has Forgiven to us.

 

Serving God: what a most precious Honor , we must Serve our Lord, all of us we should serve Him in our gifts and talents that the Lord has given to us. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to serve us with his Life and give us Life and salvation, He doesn’t hesitate his self to be a King in Heaven and left his Throne for all the Love that he Has for all of us. And to served us and not to be served.

 

Why we should serve God: we should serve him because he has served us first and in response of that love that he has for all of us, we should do the same Serving God and Serving Others.

Jesus Chris use a Parable of the Unworthy Servants, to teach His Disciples, and also to teach us as well, many times in our lives, we become expecting to receiving a reward for our work, but here Jesus speaks of a servant who is given an order to perform it, and makes a comment, a seems unusual.

 

7 “Will any one of you who has a servant[c] plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly,[d] and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants;[e] we have only done what was our duty.’” 

 

Servants and Slaves: So here the Lord is teaching us, to do not expect anything to receive in reward for our duties, even though a thanks, we do it and that’s it, we are serving our Lord, as a servant we don’t expect a reward, and the Lord is telling us as his disciples that when we serve our Lord, we should do it in humbleness Jesus Himself interprets the parable, and we should at once see that it is intended for us, for our proper attitude toward our Lord, this is essential and clears away those criticisms of the parable which have been made when this restrictions is overlooked,  however when we work for our Lord as His  servants as they claim lord increase our Faith, our faith grows when we are in the Lord when we serve him he are close to him hearing his words no claiming anything for ourselves, the Lord will do increase our faith because if we remain in Him serving him he will do it, and what is most valuable receive a payment or a gratitude for serving Him ? than the faith that He has already given to us trough His Word and sacraments, He has already do everything for us He has already given His Life for all of us Sinners, that is our most beautiful reward that we don’t deserve but he do it for all of us because He loved us, so how can we claim more than that, what a best reward we have in Him.

 

To be a Faithfull servant of the most High:  it is our best reward that we can have it is a privileged and honor to served him, because he has done everything for us giving His Life to rescued us of the wrath of God, if we remain faithful to Him in His word and sacraments we are attached in his hands that nobody can snatches us from him, and at the End of our Service he will said to us well done good and  Faithfull servant come to the table of you Lord, where we are eating and drinking eternally in His Kingdom praising him and serving Him eternally with the Angels and Archangels for his Glory in Jesus Name Amen !

 

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ that surpasses all understanding keep you heart and mind for the life everlasting. Amen !!!