BE AN OPEN MINDED CHRISTIAN LUKE 24:44-53
St. John's - East Moline 05/04/08
Intro.: Do you consider yourself to be an open minded person? Many accuse Christians, especially biblically and confessionally conservative Christians of being closed-minded: closed minded because we continue to hold to the so called outdated and irrelevant ideas of the Bible as God's absolute truth for salvation and godly living even now in our modern age, closed-minded because we label as sin what is generally accepted by the majority of the people around us, and closed-minded because we believe what the scripture says about there being only one way to receive salvation and eternal life and that is through faith in God's Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Not wanting to be labeled as closed minded many professed Christians, and no doubt some of you, have abandoned the teachings of scripture in an attempt to appear more open-minded. But at His ascension our Lord shows us that this is not the way to be an open minded Christian.
You may have heard it said, "When a person ceases to stand for something, they are likely to fall for anything." How true this statement is in the area of faith and life of many in the church today, and for many of us! Being an open minded Christian does not mean that we should accept anything. It means that by the Spirit's power our minds are opened and enlightened to divine truth. It means that we are enabled to confess and proclaim Jesus as our crucified, risen and ascended Savior. Through the Gospel appointed for the celebration of Christ’s ascension, we are shown what is involved in being truly: "Open Minded Christians."
I. BEING AN OPEN MINDED CHRISTIAN BEGINS WITH GOD'S WORD.
A. Jesus opened the minds of his disciples by showing Himself to them in the Scriptures.
Before Jesus could ascend into heaven He knew that, first, He needed to prepare His disciples for the life of faith and service they would carry on in His name, so He pointed them to the prophetic message of God's Word. He told them: "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." (v.44-45) Repeatedly Jesus had mentioned that the purpose of the entire Old Testament was to point to Him as the coming Savior.
All of what Moses had written about the creation, fall, and flood, the promises, genealogies, and covenants, the exodus, wilderness wandering, feasts and worship, all of it was about Jesus. And everything that the prophets wrote about the unfaithfulness of God’s people and His promise to remain faithful and restore them by His power and grace was written to prepare the world to receive Jesus. And all that was written in the Psalms about judgment, mercy and the coming Messiah had been written so that people would recognize their Savior when He came, so that they could recognize Jesus.
Even after His resurrection it is obvious that the disciples were still somewhat confused. They did not fully understand the meaning of everything that had happened and how it had worked out for their salvation. Before He left them Jesus wanted to open their minds to understand the mysteries of God's grace and glorify His Father who had fulfilled His promises. To accomplish this He did not ask them to search their feelings, form new opinions, or trust in what they saw standing before them, because He was going to ascend to the Father. Instead, He referred them back to the Word they had already heard and opened their minds to understand the scriptures and be blessed.
Jesus showed them that through Him everything was fulfilled for our salvation. “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’” (vv.45-47)
B. Any attempt to know and understand God or produce teachings about God by way of human reason results in a mind that is closed toward Him. God has revealed himself through His Word – the written Word of Scripture and that Word made flesh in His Son, Jesus Christ. Our emotions, earthbound thinking, and natural knowledge will never open our minds to know God as He wants us to know Him, as St. Paul writes: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1Co 2:14)
Attempting to peer into the mysteries of a hidden God instead of looking intently to the revealed God in Jesus and the Scriptures leaves us with only half-a-God, one of power without gentleness, justice with grace and consuming wrath without mercy. Anyone who seeks to know God apart from the ascended Lord, Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father does not truly know God. And anyone who imagines God or anything about God apart from the revelation of the Bible remains closed-minded and ignorant of Him. Dear friends what you and I think and feel about God, His Church, and matters of doctrine is nothing but a pooling of ignorance if it does not affirm the revelation of God through Jesus Christ from God’s own Word. It is nothing less than idolatry to develop theology from below and from within, as opposed to accepting the revelation that comes from above, and from outside ourselves.
The only way to be an open minded Christian is through the Word; hearing, reading, confessing and affirming the Word of the Old and New Testament brought to light in Christ. In this word your life can be changed. My prayer for all of you is the same as that of Pastor Paul for the saints in Ephesus: "..that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 1:17-20)
This is what the Lord does for us every time we look to His Word and every time we gather here in His presence. He opens our minds with the words of His mouth so that we can know God through His Son and know His gracious will for us. When Jesus speaks to us as He did those disciples who witnessed His ascension He reveals to us His divine love and mercy. He fills us with joy and hope, purpose and power, and the certainty of faith in which we set our eyes on heaven where we will someday share in the glory of our ascended Lord.
II. BEING AN OPEN MINDED CHRISTIAN RESULTS IN POWER
FOR FAITHFUL WITNESS AND COURAGEOUS LIVING.
A. After Jesus opened His disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures and their salvation through His death and resurrection He promised them a new life filled with purpose and power. He told them that the Good News of “repentance and forgiveness of sins [would] be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.” (v.47), and they would be His instruments for accomplishing it. “You are witnesses of these things,” He said, “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." (vv.48-49) Then he blessed them and ascended into heaven.
Because their minds had been opened those disciples began to really live! Now, they knew God in Christ; they knew God’s gracious plan and power at work for them; they knew their purpose in life was to declare God’s praises and tell the whole world about repentance and forgiveness of sins through God’s Son, Jesus; they knew what it was to live abundant, eternal lives by faith. The book of Acts tells us about the power and courage of these men who were transformed into faithful witnesses of the Gospel.
B. And that same life is given to all of us whose minds have been opened by Christ to understand the scriptures. Through faith we have abundant, eternal lives. We have a saving knowledge of God and of His Son, Jesus Christ. Our lives are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and with a wonderful purpose. We have been given the privilege of being instruments of Christ to proclaim to the nations, even to our friends and neighbors, repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name.
You are the bold and courageous people of God, because as Paul says in our epistle God has given you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. He has enlightened the eyes of your hearts to know the hope to which you have been called, to know the riches of your inheritance, and to know the greatness of his power at work for your good in all things, (nt. Eph. 1:17-19,23). With open minds you have been transformed into the powerful, courageous and faithful people of God. With the disciples of old you have received the promised power from on high in baptism, in the Word and in the Supper, and by your open-minded faith you have overcome the world. The last thing we learn from the disciples of our Gospel is that…
III. BEING AN OPEN MINDED CHRISTIAN CONTINUES THROUGH WORSHIP.
A. The evangelist tells us that after Jesus opened their minds, blessed them, and ascended, they knelt down in worship of Him and went back to Jerusalem with great joy, where they were always in the temple, praising God. (Nt. vv.52-53)
For those early disciples faith and powerful, purposeful living did not end after Jesus ascended. They believed His promise to remain with them always to the very end of the age. They believed His promise that He would send the Holy Spirit and power so that they could be His witnesses to the whole world. They believed His promise that that there was much more that He wanted them to know and do that they had not previously been ready for. So they knelt down in worship and assembled together regularly in the Lord’s house knowing that Jesus would come to them there, that He would continue to speak to them and open their minds more and more to understand the scriptures. There they would recall all that Jesus had said and done and how their salvation had been purchased by His death and how their eternal life had been secured by His resurrection.
B. My family in Christ, that is why we are here today and every Lord’s day. We are here to kneel down at the feet of Jesus and worship Him as our Lord and Savior. We are here, in the Lord’s house, to give expression to the joy of our salvation and to sing the praises of our God. And above all we are here because we believe the promises of Jesus, and that He will come to us in the divine service to bless us. He will bless us here through the Word and Sacraments with open minds to understand the scriptures. He will bless with willing hearts that never tire of hearing all that He has done for us. And He will bless us with power from on high to transform us into His courageous and faithful witnesses.
Concl.: So the next time someone wants to accuse you of being closed-minded, don’t sweat it, because you know what it means to be a truly open-minded Christian. Amen.