The First Sunday in Lent

February 25, 2007

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 2:9-15; John 16:16-27

Hymns: 158; 455; 457; 398

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. The word of God taken for our instruction in righteousness this morning is recorded in Ezekiel 36:22-32:

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. 29 I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations. 32 Not for your sake do I do this,” says the Lord GOD, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!”

Theme: God Desires to Make His Name Holy through Us

In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has commanded and taught us to pray; Dear Fellow Redeemed,

In 1917, at the age of 25, a young aspiring painter went to the doctor and was told that he had tuberculosis, and was given three months to live. As you might imagine, this young man was quite depressed at the news especially when he thought of his young wife and the child they were expecting. When he returned home and told his wife the news, she responded, “We will thank God for the three months, and if he will mercifully grant us more time, we shall be grateful for it.” The Lord heard the prayer of this young couple and graciously granted the young man healing. This man did not die in three months - he lived for another 51 years, and became a world famous artist. Your are probably quite familiar with some of his paintings - “The Lord is my Shepherd”, “Jesus knocks at the Door”, or his “Head of Christ”. These and many other famous Christian paintings were done by Warner Sallman, who was used by God as a witness of Christ. His story is also a wonderful example of the blessing of prayer to God as our Father.

Over the next six weeks we are going to be studying the Lord’s Prayer. This is a special prayer because Jesus has given it to us as a good example of what we should pray for. We do not have to use the exact words of this prayer, but we should use the sentiments as a general guide in our own private prayer life. When we pray we often have the habit of focusing on our earthly, physical needs. But here we are reminded that our primary focus in prayer should be on our spiritual needs. While we can and should bring our earthly needs before our heavenly Father in prayer, we must not neglect our spiritual needs which are of even greater importance.

We use this prayer in our worship services every week, we may use in regularly in our daily devotions or prayers. Because we use it so often, there is a danger that we begin to say the words and fail to really consider its meaning. Just before Jesus taught this prayer to His disciples he warned them about the thoughtless use of prayer: “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7). When we pray, we should know what we are saying and we should think about its meaning and its application in our lives.

In our sermon this morning we are going to consider the first petition: Hallowed be Thy name. What does this petition mean? What exactly is Jesus telling us we should be asking for in this verse? The prophet Ezekiel tells us that God desires to make His name Holy through us. Lord, sanctify us through Your truth! Amen.

First, we need to understand the words that we are using. We generally don’t use the word “hallow” in every day language anymore, and the word “hallowed” even less. But there is a word that we are quite familiar with that we use and read regularly in our study of Scripture, which is the equivalent of the word hallowed. It’s the word sanctify - which is just another word for hallowed. In fact, take a look at verse 23 in our text: “‘And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.’” Notice that the word sanctify and the word hallowed are both used in that verse. Those two words are a different translation for the same Hebrew word.

But if we were to take the Lord’s Prayer and substitute the word sanctify for the word hallowed, it wouldn’t help us much would it? Sanctified be Your name. We also need to define or understand the word sanctify. Very literally the words sanctify and hallowed mean to be set apart as something special.

I have a neighbor who is a big Georgia Tech fan. He collects all kinds of tech memorabilia. But he doesn’t keep it out on the coffee table, or on the counter in the kitchen. He has a special cabinet where he keeps those pieces that are most valuable and special. He sets them apart from the rest of his belongings.

We can use that example to help us understand what we are praying for in this verse. When we pray “Hallowed be Thy name” we are praying that God’s name would be set apart, made holy, glorified in our lives. Luther summarized this petition up very well in the Small Catechism when he said: To be sure, God’s name is holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may also be holy for us. How is this done? When the Word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as children of God, lead holy lives in accordance with it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But whoever teaches and lives otherwise than as the Word of God teaches, profanes the name of God among us. From this preserve us, heavenly Father! God desires to make His name holy through us.

This is exactly what the LORD promised to His Old Testament people through the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel had been taken away from his homeland in Judah and forced to live in a foreign land, during the Babylonian captivity. As were reminded two weeks ago when we studied a section from Jeremiah, this captivity of the people had been brought about because of the sins of the people of Judah, and their idolatrous worship practices. Just a few verses earlier the LORD said, “So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds” (Ezekiel 36:19).

As a result of this judgment the surrounding nations mocked the people of Judah. They would say things like, “You say that your God is so great, but look at what has happened to you. Your God couldn’t protect you against the power of the Babylonians, and now, here you are held captive in a foreign land. Your God isn’t so great after all!” Those who didn’t have faith in the LORD, Jew and Gentile alike, were dishonoring (profaning) the LORD by their thoughts and their actions. For this reason the LORD sent Ezekiel with a message to the people, saying, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.”

The word “profane” which we find throughout this section is the exact opposite in meaning from the word sanctify. Instead of to set apart or make holy, the word profane literally means to treat as common or to pollute or defile. Instead of setting God’s name apart as a very special thing, the people had defiled God name through their words and actions.

We have been speaking about how unbelievers profane the name of God, but we must realize that Christians can profane God’s name also. As we are out in the world, people we know see the things that we do and hear the confessions that we make about our faith in Jesus Christ. Our relatives, our neighbors and the people we work with, they know us as Christians, or as Lutherans, or as CLCers. But with that being the case, how often do we profane the name of the LORD through the words and actions that we display before them? When we talk about others behind their back, when we complain about the way things are going in our lives, when we have too much to drink or use inappropriate language, then we are taking God’s name and rolling it in the dirt, profaning God Himself by our own actions towards those around us. Our lives can serve either to profane the name of the LORD or to hallow the name of the LORD. Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth saying: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Something was going to change. The LORD didn’t want His people driven to despair thinking that maybe the nations were right, and that the LORD wasn’t any different than any of the gods of the heathen. So He told them that He was going to do something - something which would make His people, as well as the people of the world know “that I am the LORD when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.” He was going to use His people to sanctify His great name.

Ezekiel told his people that the LORD was going to bless this people once again, but that He would do it in order to make His own name holy among the nations. He would do that by bringing His people back to the land which had been promised to Abraham and his descendants. The LORD continues, “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.” The LORD would bring His people back to the land of Judah so they and the rest of the world would know that the LORD is the only true God - so that they would know that He was in control, and that He keeps His promises to His people.

As a result of being brought back into the promised land the LORD says, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.”

Look at what the LORD would provide - cleansing from sin, a new heart which responds to God and His Word, and a new life, a life which walks in the ways of the LORD. Ultimately, the LORD would cleanse all people through the blood of Christ who would be born almost 500 years after God’s people returned to the promised land. In our epistle reading from Hebrews we read how God has sanctified us through the death of His Son, who has conquered death and brought many sons to glory.

As we enter the season of Lent the cleansing of Christ is foremost on our hearts and minds. God sent Jesus as our Savior as in order that His name might be made holy through us. He has sent us a redeemer through whom we have been sprinkled clean of all our sins. He has sent His spirit to bring us to know Him as our God, our LORD, our Redeemer, and to cause us to walk in His statutes.

Certainly, God’s name is holy, but when we pray - in this prayer, and in our prayers in general - let us continue to ask that our Heavenly Father would also help us to keep it holy in our lives. May He continue to keep us in the faith unto the end, and finally cleanse us for all eternity through the blood of Christ. Amen.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

Pastor Nathanael Mayhew