Sermon Index
January 1, 2025 New Year’s Day Worship
What will make this year, AD 2025 happy for you? I am going to suggest that I will be happy if I live the Lord’s Prayer. Praising (hallowing) the Name of the Lord, seeing that his will is done on this earth, seeing how the Lord has given me and my loved ones all the daily bread and all the necessary good things necessary for a happy, healthy life. It will be a happy and blessed year each time we confess our sinfulness and receive God’s forgiveness. It will likewise be a year of peace in our hearts when we mutually forgive each other. That is because forgiveness is an act of love. Oh, there will be temptations. We will surely give in to many of those temptations and commit both small and great sins. I pray that there will be no temptations that challenge our faith in Jesus as our Savior. That is why we pray “deliver us from evil.” I pray that God will send his holy angels to protect us that no evil come upon us, neither the evil that is caused by our sin when we give into temptation, nor the evil that come from the sin of other people, or the evil of accidents, sickness, disasters. I know that it will be a happy year for us because everything is in God’s merciful hands. It is because he has the kingdom and the power and eternal glory. Amen.
On the Chinese calendar, 2025 is the Year of the Snake. There will be many snakes and serpents and poisonous snakes in this new year. They will come in many forms. There will be temptations to sin, like to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when tempted by the Serpent to doubt God. We can find Gospel in these words…….Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [Or seed] and hers; he will crush [Or strike] your head, and you will strike his heel.”” Jesus strikes the devil, but the feet of Jesus will be pierced on the cross.
There will be plagues like the fiery serpents which God sent to punish people of Isreal in the Wilderness. We can find God’s mercy and love when he told Moses to make a bronze serpent, lifted up on a pole. Whoever looked at that was healed. Jesus says that in the same way, we are saved when we look to Jesus, lifted up on the cross. John 3:14-15.
“14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Always, look to Jesus when you have problems.
The only good reference to snakes that I found is Matthew 10:16. “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
Jesus knows and understands our fears and worries, because he, too, experienced the temptations and atrocities and hate of this world. When we pray to him, because he loves us, he feels our concerns and knows our needs. When we pray to him, we know that and so our fears and anxieties can be overcome.
In faith, anxiety is changed to adventure. We worry about things when we do not know how things will turn out. Adventure is a journey into the unknown. When Jesus is our guide, our Good Shepherd, we trust in him. Anxiety is changed into curiosity. We wonder how God will solve our current problem. How will God answer this challenge to our life and faith? Jesus was faced with the problem of the cross and the grave. It was answered by the resurrection on the third day. Our ultimate problem will also be solved by the resurrection on the Last Day. And so, Jesus said, “32Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”
Thy Kingdom come. Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church