New Year’s Eve

SERMON

Text: Luke 24:28-29

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them.

In Christ Jesus—to whom a thousand years is like a day and a day like a thousand years—dear fellow time travelers…dear fellow redeemed:

We’re going to start this evening with a brief two-question survey:

Question #1: What were you doing on May 11, 1999 at 3:52 p.m.?

Question #2: On a scale of 1-to-10 how would you characterize your whole year—1999, with 10 being the best?

Now, let’s answer the questions:

Answer #1: Unless someone had something very noteworthy happen at exactly 3:52 p.m. on May 11^th, I would expect none of us would know exactly what we were doing at that precise time.

Answer #2: The answer will vary between us, but we are all able to look back over the past year and reach a conclusion about how we feel concerning the year as a whole.

The survey’s conclusion is this: For as detailed and time-oriented as we might be in certain things, it really takes something BIG, of LONG ENDURANCE, or something out of the ordinary in order to remember precisely when and how it happened. Even though we remember many things with great detail there is even more that gets all lumped together in the general evaluation of the year. Even the things we remember are not usually pin-pointed to the minute in which they occurred.

Every second of every year counts (even if we can’t account for them with precision). This is why it so important to keep in mind that when Jesus promises that He will with be with us always (Matthew 28:18), He means He will be with us during every one of the 525,960 seconds in every year of our lives. So when we look back and characterize our year as being of a certain quality in a general way, we can also be sure that every second involved God’s oversight and presence.

As we think about our lives, we shouldn’t be too careless by lumping everything together into big clumps of time. It only takes a second for a sinful thought to pop into you head. It only takes a few seconds to say something you might spend hours trying to mend. It only takes a second to sin. It only takes a moment to pass from life to death. As a part of our time of grace on the earth, EVERY SECOND COUNTS and it becomes very meaningful to hear Jesus say "I am with you ALWAYS."

So as we look back over 1999 with the confidence that Jesus was present and abiding with us second-by-second, we offer a New Year’s Eve prayer: Lord, as You have so graciously done in the past, now also ABIDE WITH ME! I. As my Friend II. As my Teacher III. As my Savior.

I.

The two disciples of Jesus were traveling from Jerusalem toward Emmaus on Easter Sunday with heavy hearts. Jesus joined them along the way. He walked and talked with them during the rest of the journey, until they arrived at Emmaus that evening. “Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, ‘Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent…’” [v.28-29]

It’s important to remember that at this time, the disciples did not yet know who Jesus was. When they urged Jesus to stay with them it was not because they knew He was Jesus and asked Him to stay (because who wouldn’t want Jesus to stay with them?). Rather, the disciples were asking Him to stay as one person would ask another, especially if he enjoyed the other’s company.

The reason the disciples gave Jesus for staying was very practical: "It’s almost night—we’ve come a distance…its time to eat…its hard and dangerous to travel at night…you won’t get much further down the road before you’d have to stop anyway…so stay with us, we’d love to have you!" It was a practical and caring concern for their newly found friend that led the disciples to "absolutely insist" that Jesus would stay with them. In other words, it was much like we might urge friends to stay with us and "go home in the morning rather than go all the way back tonight…we have plenty of room…we’d love to have you stay." The disciples thought they had just met Jesus, but already they knew Him as a friend and wanted Him to stay with them.

Jesus stays with us as a FRIEND—the truest of friends. Calling Jesus our "FRIEND" doesn’t lower Him to the level of our earthly friends by any means. Calling Him our Friend points out that one of the ways Jesus abides with us is with the same kinds of blessings we have with earthly friends.

How do you choose your friends? Certainly, you would not want to have a friend who is a poor influence upon you, who leads you into danger, or harm. We do at times choose poor earthly friends who do bring us harm spiritually or even physically, but Jesus is a perfect Friend in His example and where He lead us. Jesus, your friend, “leads [you] in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3). As a friend, He can never and will never be a poor influence.

How do you determine whether someone is an "acquaintance" a "friend" or a "best friend" or even greater. There are many things that will be a part of how close a friendship becomes—things like:

• How well do I know a person?"

• How well do we understand each other and relate to each other?

• How much do we enjoy each other’s company and share interests?

• How alike are our priorities and philosophies of life?

• How much can I trust the other person and share with him/her anything that is in my life?"

How these and other questions like them are answered will determine what level of friendship we have with someone. If we ask the same kind of questions about our FRIEND Jesus and our relationship with Him we will find a different conclusion on what kind of a friend I am toward Him and what kind of a friend He is toward me.

We aren’t always the greatest of friends because we don’t always want to know much about Jesus, even though He is a wonderful Friend Who tells us everything about Himself (everything we can understand and is important to know) in His Word.

We don’t always relate well to Jesus, nor share His interest in what is God pleasing, nor do we always have the same priorities and outlook on this life, nor do we trust Him perfectly. But what kind of a Friend is He toward us? HE DOES understand you…PERFECTLY. He knows you better than you do yourself. I, for one, have trouble understanding what’s going on in my head and heart much of the time…but Jesus my FRIEND knows perfectly and He can identify with me and help me because He is just like me and lived on this same earth as I am living. “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus is the perfect friend who loves to be with us, doesn’t grow tired of being with us, earnestly desires to be with us always. Want proof? He, the Son of God, became man and came to the earth to be with—to dwell with sinners—and then sacrificed Himself for them so that we, sinners, could be WITH HIM always. Even the greatest of friends on earth may find times when they need to get away from each other for just a little bit…not Jesus, He wants to be with us always.

Perhaps the greatest part of a friendship is having someone with whom we can share our thoughts, our feelings, our needs; someone to talk to; someone who will "be there for us" whom we can trust completely. JESUS is that kind of FRIEND. Jesus tells you, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden (Matthew 11:28)…Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you…” (Psalm 50:15). Jesus your FRIEND is there to listen. He’s here ready to call you to his side like a good friend, put his arm around you, walk with you, and when you’re there at His side talk to you—giving you comfort, encouragement, direction, correction, and even just to listen, whatever you, HIS FRIEND, need at that time. "What a FRIEND we have in Jesus" all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to talk about everything to our FRIEND in prayer!" (cf: TLH #457 v.1).

As friendships grow, the friends find themselves willing to do more and more for the other even if it involves personal sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this than that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13) and Jesus did exactly that—a true FRIEND indeed! But he did that before your friendship even existed. While we were yet sinners He came to save us! (cf: Romans 5:8).

A FRIEND who is a FRIEND when we are unfriendly is a FRIEND whom we want to abide with us. In 1999, Jesus was a FRIEND to be at your side, to comfort, lead, and guide and so we pray He will ABIDE WITH US AS OUR FRIEND IN THE FUTURE.

II.

One of the reasons the disciples enjoyed Jesus’ company along the way was the instruction and wisdom He shared with them as He expounded the Scriptures to them. Before Jesus joined them, the disciples had been talking about the events of the past few days including Jesus’ death. When Jesus joined them, He asked the disciples about what they were talking. They gave Jesus a summary of what had happened—Jesus’ arrest on Maundy Thursday, His death on Good Friday, and how the women had gone to the tomb that morning and found it empty. When they had told Jesus these things “He said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself”(Luke 24:25-27).

Much of Jesus’ purpose in appearing to the two disciples and in all of His appearances between Easter and Ascension was TO TEACH. Later in this same chapter of Luke Jesus told the larger group of disciples, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day”(Luke 24:46).

Jesus spent time, not only after His resurrection, but throughout all of His ministry TEACHING the disciples, increasing their understanding of what God’s plan of salvation was and how it would come. Jesus TAUGHT the disciples to BRING them SALVATION and to EQUIP them to carry that salvation to others.

Jesus was continually TEACHING the disciples and they needed it. Reading through the Gospel accounts we can find many instances where the disciples show a great faith and understanding and then just a short time later they demonstrate a lack of understanding and we feel like we want to ask them: "DON’T YOU GET IT???!" (The same was also true of Old Testament Israel….and is true of us!).

In the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested, Peter wanted to take his sword and fight for what he thought would be Jesus’ earthly kingdom. Jesus TAUGHT Peter that His arrest and death was part of what He NEEDED to do and that His kingdom was not to be an earthly kingdom. Later that same night, Peter denied Jesus. The denial proved to be a lesson in humility because Peter had boldly declared in self-reliance that HE would NEVER deny Jesus! When Jesus turned to look at Peter in the courtyard, Peter remembered what Jesus had said and how he had indeed denied his Lord. Jesus TAUGHT Peter what it means to repent. Then after Jesus rose from the dead, He reassured Peter that despite his sin, he was still an apostle of the Lord, called to be a fisher of men.

After Easter, after Jesus had instructed them still further, the disciples still didn’t "get it." They asked Jesus, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). They still needed MORE TEACHING to get over their idea of an earthly Messiah. Still later, God sent Peter a vision to TEACH him that in the New Testament, the Old Testament food-laws and other laws dividing the Jews from the Gentiles were no longer binding. God TAUGHT Peter in order to prepare him to go the Gentile, Cornelius’, home. Peter LEARNED and believed what God TAUGHT him, but later he "forgot" and Paul had to publicly rebuke him for treating Gentiles differently—Peter had to be TAUGHT again.

Learning something once does not equal never needing to learn it again. We forget and need to be re-TAUGHT from time to time. Learning something from Scripture….learning all that is expected in Confirmation class…knowing the Catechism and Bible from cover to cover, does not equal knowing it all. There is always MORE to learn, re-learn, or learn more fully—especially when speaking of Scripture. We would consider Martin Luther a great theologian, someone with a great grasp of Scripture, and yet he didn’t consider himself a learned man because there was so much he knew imperfectly, superficially, or not at all.

Just as Jesus TAUGHT His disciples while on the earth, so now, Jesus continues to teach through His Word and by sending out the Holy Spirit to work with the Word in our hearts. Jesus’ TEACHING is not just for the sake of knowledge. It is for defense and for offense.

DEFENSIVELY, Paul tells us in Ephesians to “put on the whole armor of God…” in order to be defended against the Devil and his destructive attacks. Part of the armor Paul describes is the belt of truth around our waist, the preparation of the Gospel of Peace on our feet, and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:11ff). This is effective armor, but how can we put our armor of Truth, the Gospel of Peace, and the Word of God to good use if we don’t know what they are and understand them as fully as possible? We need JESUS to TEACH US for our DEFENSE!

OFFENSIVELY we need Jesus to teach us so that we are able to fulfill the work He has given us to do in sharing His Word with others. We ourselves need to be in a constant state of LEARNING in order to TEACH others. We need to be TAUGHT by Jesus so that we can defend and uphold our faith in a skeptical world. Peter writes, “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you…” (1 Peter 3:15).

We pray that Jesus will TEACH us because of our NEED. Think of the Ethiopian traveling back home when Philip saw him on the road. The Ethiopian was a believer who had come to Jerusalem to worship at the feast. When Philip asked him if he understood the words from Isaiah that he was reading, the Ethiopian responded, “How can I unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:31). A believer understood he needed to be TAUGHT further—needed to grow in his knowledge of God and salvation.

There is no one who can teach us the truth about life, sin, death, and life hereafter OTHER THAN GOD. You can learn science and math and other things from the world but WATCH OUT if the world starts to (subtly or not so subtly) try to teach you about the meaning of life, priorities for life, where your life should go and what lies beyond life—if they try to TEACH you about those things they’re out of their league. JESUS is the teacher of TRUTH through His Word! No one else is qualified!

People can think they’re LIVING and LEARNING when they come out of New Year’s Eve in a drunken stupor…but they haven’t a clue!

Face it…we are IMPRESSIONABLE creatures. Something or someone WILL TEACH US. HOW IMPORTANT it has been in the past that JESUS has taught you through His Word. How wonderful that He has taught you about sin and grace and how He has sent the Holy Spirit to work effectually in your hearts so that you believe. How important to have Jesus TEACH you the substance of Your salvation and then make that salvation yours through faith. HOW IMPORTANT that same instruction is and will always be for each of our futures.

We have so much to learn. We WANT to learn the TRUTH and so we pray with the psalmists: “Send out your Light and your Truth! Let them lead me” (Psalm 43:3) . . .“Show me your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth an teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. (Psalm 25:4-5).

Lord Jesus, ABIDE WITH ME AS MY TEACHER.

III.

When Jesus abides with as our TEACHER, the first things we learn are that we need a SAVIOR from sin and that He is that SAVIOR. When Jesus met the Emmaus disciples they were sad because they thought Jesus was gone. They thought that all was hopeless and lost because all their hopes for a deliverer were dashed with Jesus’ death. Under Jesus’ instruction they learned they needed a different kind of Savior than the one they had been wanting. When they had been TAUGHT by Jesus and then could see Who He really was, the disciples RAN back to Jerusalem that SAME NIGHT! They were beginning to understand and appreciate Jesus as their SAVIOR for spiritual HELP and LIFE.

Before the sermon, we sang verse 5 of "Abide with Me" (my own personal favorite verse in the hymn): “Thou on my head in early youth didst smile, and though rebellious and perverse meanwhile…thou hast not left me often like I’ve left thee…” When we look back over the past year (and years) of our lives we see how often we really have rebelled against God’s will, the many ways in which we do live and act contrary to His will. So often we have gone astray and still our SAVIOR abides with us DESPITE our SIN, calling us to repentance, bringing us home to Himself.

We need a SAVIOR day-by-day. We all have good days and bad days but regardless they are ALL SINFUL days. Many of our best intentions and the resolutions of last New Year’s have undoubtedly been affected by (or have failed altogether) because of sin. Jesus still abides with us as our SAVIOR out of GRACE.

When we call Jesus our SAVIOR we really include that He is our FRIEND, TEACHER, SHEPHERD, LORD and GOD! "SAVIOR" is all-encompassing, but let us be careful to not forget all the details included in one easy name—SAVIOR.

In the PAST, our Savior died to pay the price for our sins, has called us to faith, and has preserved us in it through His Holy Spirit. In the PRESENT, our Savior assures us with His Word that our sins are forgiven. Tonight, through the Sacrament, Jesus will assure the communicants with His very body and blood that your sins’ debt is paid and you are redeemed. In the FUTURE, Jesus your SAVIOR will continue to abide with you, showing you His grace and mercy.

The disciples pled with Jesus: "Abide with us…" Jesus answered by going in to stay with them and later revealing who He really was.

Tonight we pray to Jesus: "Abide with us as Friend, Teacher, and Savior." Jesus answers: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them(Matthew 18:20)…In all places where I record my name I will come unto them and bless them (Exodus 20:24)…and “I am with you always even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18). With that, we go forward into the year 2000 with confidence! AMEN!

—Pastor Wayne C. Eichstadt