2026 08 16 - Who is Worthy? - Popp

Grace, peace and mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Once again, Mrs. Leimer has chosen a hymn that basically summarized my entire sermon. So I should just say amen. Amen.

Yeah. I was like, wait a second, that's. Oh, yeah, that's in there. Okay, never mind. So this will be a recap and it's a good thing because I was told today I needed a Mike Tyson sermon.

Bring the punch right away and try to end it in the first. Right. We got food waiting for us.

Who is worthy?

Has God rejected his people? Who is worthy to receive his mercy? Looked at this idea of all the things we love to do and I did ask for a police lineup stop style one. And so they did it with the height charts and everything. But that wasn't my intention.

It was more the idea all the different walks of life, all the different people. Who is worthy to receive God's mercy. That's where I see Paul went Romans 11 as he talks about not just his own people, but all of God's people. We're going to jump in. He has risen.

Yeah. While Romans 11 has packed. Is packed in. We would enjoy going over the whole thing. We could have an hour Bible study and not do chapter 11 sufficiently and further.

Our three year lectionary reading shows just these few verses here and there and still leaves a lot for a communion Sunday sermon. So we're going to look quickly at this background information, I think so important and focus on those last five verses. I looked at how we in the world look at who is worthy. I love this idea of the stage. Everybody has to audition who is worthy.

And again, this sums it up. Who is worthy? No one who receives mercy. Right. Everyone who is in Christ.

I want you to keep that in the back of your mind as we go through. And again, the first part, you're going to be thinking more. I could keep this outline for a little bit of meditation in our devotions this week because I'm going to go through it quick. But what did we miss? Right.

The end of chapter 10 last week we finished at verse 15. Right. It's about Israel's improper response. Paul does use Old Testament scripture again, just like he did in the first part of chapter 10. And really, even in these three parts which you could look up, he's pointing again.

What is our responsibility? And then in those first verse and a half, Paul makes clear God's reaction to being rejected. Right. He is a jealous God. Right.

Now what I love is that by no means. As it says that by no means can be translated. May it never come to be.

Pretty strong language from Paul. And again, that idea, what you're going to see in those next verse, next 12 verses, the first 12 verses of this chapter five questions in which once again, Paul is using Old Testament scripture. In verse 8, he's quoting Isaiah 6. In verses 9 and 10, he's quoting Psalm 69. Why we get to our middle three verses, they chose 13 to 15.

Right. Paul addresses the Gentiles living in Rome. Now, Paul being Gentile. Excuse me, Paul living with Gentiles, the majority of his congregation being Gentile, he's addressing them and yet he only addresses them in verses 13 to 24. I thought it was interesting how all the commentaries want to make very clear that's what he's doing.

And yet there's not a real opening when we get to verse 25. But again, if you look into these verses, you're going to see it's by Israel's rejection, the Gentiles reconcile. And even in our great church, as I knock sometimes the three year lectionary of how we choose our readings. Today's gospel, right? The woman crying out, what does God say?

Well, I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel.

We know that's not true. This split between Jew and Gentile really comes down to believer and non believer. That was last Sunday's sermon. If you didn't hear it, you can go back and listen. But this is where I want to spend my part.

If you were worried about me spending the last five minutes on election and predestination, I got bad news for you. I'm not. All right, Got good news if you're worried about it. I'm not gonna. All right.

It's not about that. What I want to focus on is this faithfulness of God. As promised, Paul is pointing people to the cross. It's really what we can do best. I said it a few weeks ago.

God does not need us to defend him to others. Those who are pushing back against Christ, denying Christ, mocking Christ, need love. They need the cross.

Christ is the embodiment of God's faithfulness and mercy. Right? That was prophesied for thousands of years. The Old Testament prophesies to what is coming, this fulfillment. God sending his Son to redeem when we cry out for mercy.

If you've ever come to our late service in confession, absolution. Once we've had that time to confess, I always ask everybody to cry out, lord, have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy. It's really what we're doing.

I don't deserve it. I haven't done anything to earn it. But I'm asking you anyway. Forgive me. Have mercy on me, poor miserable sinner, because I cannot get things right.

I want to look at these two viewpoints when we look at the same promise. And I think we all understand two viewpoints, right? Have any discussion, sec, football, politics, whatever you want. We don't see things from the same place. We have different viewpoints.

And I think again, we have to remember our two viewpoints. In this promise of Christ. We say, Christ died for me, I am forgiven. We believe that. We profess it.

We put crosses up in the churches. We celebrate Good Friday and Easter. Man, Holy Week is such a great celebration. We remember why Jesus came and what we have because of it. But from God's standpoint, I love you so much in spite of your sinfulness, I will send my son to die for you.

I love you so much. You don't deserve it. I'm going to do it anyway because that's how much I love you.

I heard a great pastor talking about he can't wait to get to heaven to talk to the thief on the cross on the right side. How did you do that? Right. He goes into this big long spiel, if you haven't seen it, about, well, do you understand the Commandments? You understand doctrine where you're baptized?

No, no, no. How are you here? Because the guy in the middle cross told me I could.

Yes, that's mercy. That's this understanding of why it is we have this promise. That's what Paul is bringing to the Gentiles, who've been told their whole time they get table scraps, they are not worthy and yet they are God's children. It is no longer about the circumcision and how you're born. It's about belief in Jesus Christ.

Watch today how many times churches, God's churches, try to separate people. Let's face it, we're guilty. We know how we would look at somebody if we didn't think they were worthy to come sit in a pew at grace hurts my heart. Who is worthy? Well, that last verse told us exactly it, that he may have mercy on all.

That is what we need to remember. No one is worthy and yet everyone will receive God's mercy when they understand who he is. We've got to introduce them them when they quit running, when they quit rejecting, when they quit making excuses, when they quit viewing Christianity and churches as these awful places. Which is true. We are full of sinners.

Super sexy sinners which is why we come and they don't get it.

I love it when people say, I don't want to be a part of that. I mean, look at the way you guys do things. You're sinners. And it's all true. All true stories.

God's faithfulness always exceeds our wildest expectations. But again, we're sinful and shortsighted. We're trying to comprehend God in our sinful brains. That's a scary thought because we don't have it.

I quit trying to prove myself to others. Yep, sinner Saint, I am a sinner. I'm going to screw up. I'm going to say things, do things I shouldn't do. But you know what?

By the grace of God and my belief in him through my baptism, clothed in his righteousness, I am a safe child of God. We have such a faithful God, yet struggle to see it clearly due to our own sinful limitations. As long as we and Grace Luther Church's school focus more on pointing people to Jesus and highlighting what he has done and continues to do instead of what we have done or do, we're being faithful and God's kingdom will grow. Dear God, help us. Focus on Thy will over My will.

And remember, we are worthy because in our baptism we are clothed in his righteousness. When you look in the mirror, remember we're clothed with his righteousness. We are redeemed. We have mercy. Let us fill heaven.

To God be the glory. Amen. Amen. With that, let us rise as one people and make our confession of faith.