Video of the Divine Service is here. The sermon begins around the 23:50 mark.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It seems pretty normal today for people to want God to speak to them. To speak audibly, and tell us why things are the way they are; what is going on; what should I do? If only God would speak to us! People want God to speak to them. Not so Israel at the foot of Sinai. In Deuteronomy, Moses is recounting to them their history just before they finally enter the land of promise, after 40 years in the wilderness. He tells them about what happened at Sinai, when God was present on the mountain to give them the entire instruction that He wanted them to have. The people who were there saw the cloud and the fire, and heard the earthquake and the thunder, and they told Moses, You can speak to us, but we don’t want God to speak to us anymore, lest we die. God is unpredictable! He might say or do anything. We want you, Moses, to tell us what God says, but we don’t want Him speaking directly to us, or we might die.

And, maybe surprisingly, God agrees with the people. He says to Moses, They are right in what they are saying. I will not speak directly to them in My glory and majesty. I will raise up a prophet like you, Moses, from among their brothers, from Israel, and I will put My words in His mouth, and He will speak everything I give Him to speak, and you shall listen to Him. And the one who does not listen to Him, I will require it of Him. God gave the law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). God decided not only that He would continue to speak through others, but that He would wrap up His word in flesh and give that gracious and truthful word in Jesus. Then no one would have to wonder what God wanted to say. They would have Jesus and they could hear Him, and everything would be great!

But sinners not only don’t want to hear God speak directly, they don’t want to hear God at all. God tells Moses that if anyone is presumptuous enough to speak as if God had spoken to him when He hadn’t, or if anyone spoke to His people in the name of other gods, that prophet should die. But sin turns everything upside-down. Instead of hearing Jesus and false prophets dying, Jesus is crucified and false prophets are praised. And it is no different today. Paul tells Timothy that the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but because they have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, to turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (2 Timothy 4:3-4). It is not the true prophets of God who fill stadiums with people, and make money hand over fist. It is not the true prophets who claim that Jesus—or, more likely, the Spirit—whispered something in their ears and now they have to share these new words. It is not the true prophets who write and sell all sorts of books claiming new insights that overturn the Scriptures themselves. And yet these are the sorts of “prophets” whom everyone is happy to listen to. What happens to Jesus and those who hear and speak His words only? They get crucified and killed and ignored.

We, too, would often rather hear something new, something better, something different, something that affirms us in the things we were already going to do anyway. But anything but the word of God in Jesus is death. And God does not desire the deaths of sinners, even the sinners who would rather hear anything but His Word. So He keeps sending His word out; He’s doing it this morning. He keeps speaking in the Word-made-flesh. He keeps calling by the Gospel and, in some way that is beyond us, He keeps opening deaf ears to hear His words. He digs new ears for us, and so we are here this morning. As Peter says, where else would we go? You, Lord, alone have the words of eternal life. And this is a word that continually works life. The less we hear and read and meditate on the word, the more dull our ears and hearts grow to it. The more we hear and read and meditate on the word, the more lively our faith and the closer we are bound to our Lord.

The people of Israel had it right: to hear God directly is a fearful thing. The Law of God is a piercing light that shines into the darkest corners of our minds and hearts and exposes our sinful flesh as unhearing and unbelieving, who does not want to hear God’s Word, and would much rather follow the false prophets on the way to death. But the true Spirit of God simply continues to speak the words of Jesus: not new, not different, not according to our desires or reason, but the very same life-giving words that have been recorded for us and preached to us. Peter, James, and John found themselves in the same position as Israel at Sinai: surrounded by the cloud, hearing the very voice of God, they fell on their faces in terror. But the word God had for them is the same word He had for Israel and for us: This is My beloved Son: listen to Him. Listen to Him, and Him alone. Today, He says the same thing He says every week, but do not take these precious words for granted: this is My Body and this is My Blood, given and shed for you. Here is the prophet of God, the very Word of God in flesh for you, crucified and risen from the dead, and speaking His eternal life into these dying bodies.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 1/26/24