Sermon 2-13-05 what is lent 2 Cor 7:8-13
Q: What is Lent?
A:Historically, Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, it began on Ash Wednesday and ended on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday).
Q: Why are Sundays excluded from the reckoning of the forty days?
A: Because Sunday is the day on which Christ arose, making it an inappropriate day to fast and mourn our sins. On Sunday we must celebrate Christ’s resurrection for our salvation.
Q: Why are the forty days called Lent?
A: They are called Lent because that is the Old English word for spring, the season of the year during which they fall. This is something unique to English. In almost all other languages its name is a derivative of the Latin term Quadragesima, or “the forty days.”
Q: Why is Lent forty days long?
A: Because forty days is a traditional number of discipline, devotion, and preparation in the Bible. Thus Moses stayed on the Mountain of God forty days (Exodus 24:18 and 34:28), the spies were in the land for forty days (Numbers 13:25), Elijah traveled forty days before he reached the cave where he had his vision (1 Kings 19:8), Nineveh was given forty days to repent (Jonah 3:4), and most importantly, prior to undertaking his ministry, Jesus spent forty days in wilderness praying and fasting (Matthew 4:2).
Q: When does Lent begin? Why do we put on ashes?
A: Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is the day on which they faithful have their foreheads signed with ashes in the form of a Cross (see piece on Ash Wednesday). It is also a day of fast and abstinence.
Q: What are appropriate activities for ordinary days during Lent?
A: Giving up something we enjoy for Lent, doing of physical or spiritual acts of mercy for others, prayer, fasting, abstinence, and other acts expressing repentance in general.
The apostles, therefore, legislated for our weakness, by instituting, at the very commencement of the Christian Church, that the solemnity of Easter should be preceded by a universal
fast; and it was only natural that they should have made this period of penance to consist of forty days, seeing that our divine Master had consecrated that number by His own fast. St. Jerome,[3]
St. Leo the Great,[4] St. Cyril of Alexandria,[5] St. Isidore of Seville,[6] and others of the holy fathers, assure us that Lent was instituted by the apostles, although, at the commencement,
there was not any uniform way of observing it.
One of most impt themes of lent is illust in this scrip…introspection…godly sorrow
What caused this in the Corinthian church…….
Incest 1 co r5
Now Paul is writing to celebrate their repentance
Contrasts Godly sorrow, vs human sorrow…..
Jacob and Esau….Esau was sorry
Sorrow that is worldly is due to lack of hope….you see it at the funeral of someone who does not know where they are gong or why they are here
They choose to accept the correction, to be sorrowful
Some choose not to accept correction……I can do no wrong….
Don’t fight correction…hebrews
A father disciplines the son that he loves
Godly sorrow leads to repentance
Explain repentance…..turning around
Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven
Some things you can make progress on, others you will be broken by, they will force you to seek the grace of God
condemnation and conviction
What are we convicted of?
My sin…being primarily aware of myself first
Conclusion
Lent…….take time to consider your condition
You cannot apologize or even understand your shortcomings unless you spend some time to consider them
Expand
There is no easter without lent
No resurrection without death
If there were no dark ness, there would be no need for light
There is no understanding without contemplation
2 Cor 7:8Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it–I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while– 9yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 12So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. 13By all this we are encouraged.
Heb 12:5-
“My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”[a]
7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Esau
Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
Yancey was once again shocked by the extremism of the Beatitudes. He notes that:The Sermon on the Mount expresses quite plainly that God views this world with different lenses. One could almost subtitle the sermon, "Survival of the Least Fit." Strength, good looks, connections and the competitive instinct may bring a person success in a society like ours; but those very qualities may block entrance to the kingdom of heaven. Dependence, sorrow, repentance - these are the steps to God's kingdom.--Philip Yancey
At the funeral of Tsar Nicholas II, who was buried last summer 80 years after he and his family were murdered by Bolshevik zealots, Russian President Boris Yeltsin noted the necessity of national repentance for the crimes against the Romanov family. "We want to expiate the sins of our ancestors," he said. "Guilty are those who committed this heinous crime, and those who have been justifying it for decades - all of us."
Garrison Keillor writes about Larry, a resident of the fictional town of Lake Wobegon. Larry was saved 12 times at the Lutheran Church, an all-time record for a church that never gave altar calls. There wasn't even an organ playing "Just As I Am Without One Plea" in the background. Regardless of that, between 1953 and 1961, Larry Sorenson came forward 12 times, weeping buckets and crumpled up at the communion rail, to the shock of the minister, who had delivered a dry sermon on stewardship. But now he needed to put his arm around this person, pray with him and be certain he had a way to get home. "Even we fundamentalists got tired of him," Keillor writes. God didn't mean for you to feel guilty all your life. There comes a time when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and grapple with the problems of the church furnace and the church roof. But Larry just kept repenting and repenting.--Garrison Keillor, Leaving Home
"Could my tears forever flow,Could my zeal no respite know,These for sin could not atone;Thou must save, and thou alone."
Q: What is Lent?
A:Historically, Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, it began on Ash Wednesday and ended on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday).
Q: Why are Sundays excluded from the reckoning of the forty days?
A: Because Sunday is the day on which Christ arose, making it an inappropriate day to fast and mourn our sins. On Sunday we must celebrate Christ’s resurrection for our salvation.
Q: Why are the forty days called Lent?
A: They are called Lent because that is the Old English word for spring, the season of the year during which they fall. This is something unique to English. In almost all other languages its name is a derivative of the Latin term Quadragesima, or “the forty days.”
Q: Why is Lent forty days long?
A: Because forty days is a traditional number of discipline, devotion, and preparation in the Bible. Thus Moses stayed on the Mountain of God forty days (Exodus 24:18 and 34:28), the spies were in the land for forty days (Numbers 13:25), Elijah traveled forty days before he reached the cave where he had his vision (1 Kings 19:8), Nineveh was given forty days to repent (Jonah 3:4), and most importantly, prior to undertaking his ministry, Jesus spent forty days in wilderness praying and fasting (Matthew 4:2).
Q: When does Lent begin? Why do we put on ashes?
A: Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is the day on which they faithful have their foreheads signed with ashes in the form of a Cross (see piece on Ash Wednesday). It is also a day of fast and abstinence.
Q: What are appropriate activities for ordinary days during Lent?
A: Giving up something we enjoy for Lent, doing of physical or spiritual acts of mercy for others, prayer, fasting, abstinence, and other acts expressing repentance in general.
The apostles, therefore, legislated for our weakness, by instituting, at the very commencement of the Christian Church, that the solemnity of Easter should be preceded by a universal
fast; and it was only natural that they should have made this period of penance to consist of forty days, seeing that our divine Master had consecrated that number by His own fast. St. Jerome,[3]
St. Leo the Great,[4] St. Cyril of Alexandria,[5] St. Isidore of Seville,[6] and others of the holy fathers, assure us that Lent was instituted by the apostles, although, at the commencement,
there was not any uniform way of observing it.
One of most impt themes of lent is illust in this scrip…introspection…godly sorrow
What caused this in the Corinthian church…….
Incest 1 co r5
Now Paul is writing to celebrate their repentance
Contrasts Godly sorrow, vs human sorrow…..
Jacob and Esau….Esau was sorry
Sorrow that is worldly is due to lack of hope….you see it at the funeral of someone who does not know where they are gong or why they are here
They choose to accept the correction, to be sorrowful
Some choose not to accept correction……I can do no wrong….
Don’t fight correction…hebrews
A father disciplines the son that he loves
Godly sorrow leads to repentance
Explain repentance…..turning around
Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven
Some things you can make progress on, others you will be broken by, they will force you to seek the grace of God
condemnation and conviction
What are we convicted of?
My sin…being primarily aware of myself first
Conclusion
Lent…….take time to consider your condition
You cannot apologize or even understand your shortcomings unless you spend some time to consider them
Expand
There is no easter without lent
No resurrection without death
If there were no dark ness, there would be no need for light
There is no understanding without contemplation
2 Cor 7:8Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it–I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while– 9yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 12So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. 13By all this we are encouraged.
Heb 12:5-
“My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”[a]
7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Esau
Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
Yancey was once again shocked by the extremism of the Beatitudes. He notes that:The Sermon on the Mount expresses quite plainly that God views this world with different lenses. One could almost subtitle the sermon, "Survival of the Least Fit." Strength, good looks, connections and the competitive instinct may bring a person success in a society like ours; but those very qualities may block entrance to the kingdom of heaven. Dependence, sorrow, repentance - these are the steps to God's kingdom.--Philip Yancey
At the funeral of Tsar Nicholas II, who was buried last summer 80 years after he and his family were murdered by Bolshevik zealots, Russian President Boris Yeltsin noted the necessity of national repentance for the crimes against the Romanov family. "We want to expiate the sins of our ancestors," he said. "Guilty are those who committed this heinous crime, and those who have been justifying it for decades - all of us."
Garrison Keillor writes about Larry, a resident of the fictional town of Lake Wobegon. Larry was saved 12 times at the Lutheran Church, an all-time record for a church that never gave altar calls. There wasn't even an organ playing "Just As I Am Without One Plea" in the background. Regardless of that, between 1953 and 1961, Larry Sorenson came forward 12 times, weeping buckets and crumpled up at the communion rail, to the shock of the minister, who had delivered a dry sermon on stewardship. But now he needed to put his arm around this person, pray with him and be certain he had a way to get home. "Even we fundamentalists got tired of him," Keillor writes. God didn't mean for you to feel guilty all your life. There comes a time when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and grapple with the problems of the church furnace and the church roof. But Larry just kept repenting and repenting.--Garrison Keillor, Leaving Home
"Could my tears forever flow,Could my zeal no respite know,These for sin could not atone;Thou must save, and thou alone."
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