LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 7

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

:
{
i
{
i
i
{
7
i
$
d
}
4

|
:
t
:
{

|

65

CONVENTION SERMON

Ring the Bell! Jesus Christ Is Lord
Pui. 2:5-11

Shortly after World War II a popular novel of John
Hersey’s swept America entitled A Bell for Adano. It was
the story of an American unit’s experience in attempting
to bring order out of chaos in an Italian village and to
restore it to normalcy. The first committee of local citi-
zens to call on the American commander did not request
food, medical supplies, or materials to patch up their
shell-torn homes. Their request was strange. They asked
the commander to get a bell for their church. When the
tides of war had swept through, their bell had disap-
peared. That bell had been their inspiration, the symbol
of all their hopes and dreams, and now it was gone.
Nothing else really mattered anymore. They wanted a
bell for Adano. After many difficulties the Americans
were able to find a bell, and when the villagers heard it
ring, joy came to Adano. Hope once again was bright in
the eyes of those people.

Forty days after the resurrection Jesus called His
disciples together and spoke last words to them. He said,
as it were, “Children of Mine, go ring the bell of good
tidings to all of the world. Men are longing to hear a bell
ring. Ring, then, the bell of hope in a world of despair.
Go ring it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

We have a bell to ring. Jesus Christ is Lord. He’s got
to be. There isn’t anyone like Him.

It didn’t always look as though He were Lord. He was
born in the likeness of man. Like us He lived through
storm and sunshine, He was hurt by what hurts us. It all
led to that day when He was crushed by the kingdom of
evil. He was slapped and spit upon, nailed to the cross.
He died. It looked like He was a failure. He was beaten
by His enemies, beaten by life, now beaten and crushed
by the cross.

But look at Him as He went down into death. The
three hours of darkness are over. The crowd is awed into
silence by the darkness and by the words that a dying
man speaks to both friend and foe. Suddenly He raises
His head once more and cries out in supreme, absolute
triumph, “It is finished!” To those who were standing at
the foot of the cross these words must have sounded
strange indeed. They were killing Him, but He seemed to
feel He had won a victory. He had.

If those at the foot of the cross had but eyes to see,
they would have seen every thorn in His crown become a
shining gem in His crown of glory. If they had ears to
hear, they would have heard the ringing of bells, count-
less witnesses, telling the world that Jesus is Lord. The
arms of the cross reach out and encircle the whole
creation in a passionate embrace, and under them stands
the royal apostle Paul crying, “Because He was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross, therefore God
has also highly exalted Him and given Him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow and every tongue confess that He
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

Vice-President August Bernthal

Jesus is Lord. His followers saw Him and knew Him.
They saw Him dead and buried, and three days later
they saw Him brought back to life. And life was never
the same since. “God raised this Man Jesus to life,” they
said, “and all of us are witnesses to that.” They were
faithful witnesses not given to telling lies. They were not
dreaming. It was not a myth; it was Jesus. It was not a
beautiful idea; it was God saying He is Lord. It was the
divine answer to His suffering and His death and obedi-
ence to the Father’s will to accomplish the salvation of
the world. It was Jesus standing by an open tomb and
saying, “Mary!” It was Mary saying, “Master!” It was
Mary telling others, the others telling their friends, and
their friends telling the world that God had made this
Jesus, crucified by wicked and wayward hands, both Lord
and Christ. He is the ever-living and never-dying Lord of
all. That’s as real today as it was in the day when He was
raised from the dead and delivered by God Himself to be
both Lord and Christ.

That’s the bell to ring. It tells of God’s love in spite of
everything — of His glad acceptance of us as we are, of
His forgiveness that is not earned but freely given. We
know why He came. Man disobeyed God; he revolted.
He’s responsible to God, and the wages of sin is death.
Man is judged. Every man needs to be right with God,
and not until he has peace with God can he-be free to live
and sing and celebrate. What Christ has to give us we
know full well, but never for a moment can we exhaust
its meaning. Christ’s perfect obedience is ours. His pay-