Ash Wed. Sermon

Not exactly feel-good preaching. So fans of Osteen, Vincent Peale, Schuler, or the Process wouldn't like it.


Tonight we come together to do something that might seem strange at first glance. We put ashes on one’s forehead, and mark the sign of the cross . It might not be clear as to why we do this. .

But the tradition of placing ashes on one’s forehead is one of of centuries of tradition in the Christian church, with it’s very roots from scripture itself. -

The first mention of Ashes being used in the history of the Church occurs in the third century- when those who were viewed as really bad sinners and had been kicked out of the Church, such as murderers and adulters. would put ashes on their forehead to state their sorrow for their sin, and hope to be let back into the Church-.
This practice would continue for hundreds of years. Now there were certain periods of the year when these certain sinners, could ask to be let back into the Church.
But during the middle ages, the most common times for public sinners to try to get back into the Church was during the season of lent. –

For Lent is a season of repentance- a season of acknowledging our sins before God, and our need for Christ’s salvation. A season to focus on all Christ did for us, and what it means. –

So Ashes on the forehead soon took on a different meaning. In the 12th century-Ash Wednesday became the beginning of the Lenten season. By placing the ashes on the forehead- a confession of is given of one’s sins, and one’s need for forgiveness by the cross of Christ. –

Although interestingly in Church History- After Lutherans split from the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Within a few generations, Lutherans stopped using Ashes during Ash Wednesday services till within the last 30 years–

The reason for this isn’t entirely clear-since Martin Luther never really wrote anything about this practice. –
And Lutherans have always believed that if ceremonies like placing Ashes can have benefit for people’s faith life they can be used. –

There are reasons Lutherans wouldn’t want to use place ashes on the forehead Ash Wednesday, these reasons include: If people think it’s a necessary for salvation to place ashes on their forehead, -
or if people think they get extra grace or blessings from God for putting on ashes-
or people wear ashes to show off their faithfulness to other people. –

Although placing Ashes on one’s forehead comes originally from the Bible. Ashes have a two-fold meaning in the Bible. The first use is to remind us of our own mortality as found in Genesis 3:19 and stated tonight when Ashes were put on your forehead which states –

-“ Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”.
What this means is that God created us from out of nothing. God created life from the dust of the ground.
But when Genesis 3:19 says “to dust you shall return” ,these words are spoken right after Adam and Eve committed their first sin. Adam and Eve’s sin would be the cause of every sin for all of eternity (Romans 5:12) . At the same time, Sin has a punishment and that punishment is death (Romans 6:23) .-

For everyone who has ever done something wrong, whether it be putting yourself before God or others, or doing something you know God doesn’t want you to do.-
Whether you think it’s just once, or a million times.
All people have fallen short of God’s standards of perfection for salvation. For as stated in Romans 3-No one has met God’s standards for salvation on their own, no one. –
It is because death came into this world through sin- we deserved to go back into the ground. For as our lives started by God’s creation of bringing us out of the ground, our lives end due to our sin being put to death back in the ground, where our bodies return to the dust out of which they were formed.-

So the first meaning of ashes from Genesis 3:19-Is one of our mortality. It is a statement of confessing our sin and saying, we deserve God’s Punishment, , For we are sinners who deserve to lie dead in the ground from which we came. –

The second thing the Ashes signify is our repentance. In tonight’s scripture reading from Job 42-verse 6- Job states that he is sorry for not trusting in God. –
When Job repents “he says I am wrong God because I did this, and I need your salvation.” To repent- Job placed dust and ashes on his forehead.-

The practice of repenting with dust and ashes is found also in the New Testament when Jesus says in Matthew 11 to cities that had been especially wicked, they should have acknowledged their wrong doing before God by repenting in ashes. –

So to repent with ashes is to say:
I am not going to get to heaven because I lived such a good life,

it is to say I have committed sins, and I have done things, I am not proud of. –

To place ashes on one’s forehead is to say I need Christ to forgive me. –


It is to say I need Christ like the beggar needs bread, or those wandering in the desert need water.

For we are as likely to earn our own salvation as we are to swim across the pacific ocean against a fierce wind. It is not going to happen. Yet we need Christ to throw our life preserver of his cross.

For Christ gained salvation for us. Christ overcame death, so one day we may overcome death. –

So the second reason we places ashes on our forehead is to say because I am a sinner, I need Christ, and I need his salvation. –

So why do we place ashes- on our forehead. 1.To state we are imperfect we have sinned against God, in thought, word, and deed. We have fallen way short of God’s salvation, and we deserve the punishment of eternal death. We deserve to return in the ground from which we came. 2. To repent, to say- because I am a sinner, I am unable to save myself, I need to trust in Christ for my salvation. –


But we don’t just place the Ashes on our forehead to say how bad we are. When the Ashes are placed on they are made in a sign of a cross- For it is by the cross of Christ we are made right with God.-
It is this mark that says-although we deserve God’s punishment, Christ took on the punishment we deserved, where as we deserved death-Christ served our penalty of death.

. It is because of Christ’s cross- that punishment for our sin can go away.
It is because of Christ’s cross, we know in spite of whatever we have done wrong in the past, we are forgiven by faith in our savior. –

In this room tonight come people from a variety of backgrounds, but people that all have one thing in common. We are all sinners, we have done more things, than we can maybe even recall we are not proud of. we have wronged God by our bad thoughts, our bad words, and our bad actions. –
We deserve God’s punishment. We need to repent of our sins, and trust in Christ for our salvation. –
But God doesn’t give us punishment-he gives us salvation , he gives us his forgiveness through his cross, his death, and his resurrection. Christ died when we deserved death, yet Christ gives us eternal life.-

We place the ashes on our forehead to publicly say “God I am a sinner, I deserve your punishment, I need your salvation,
but the ashes are marked with the sign of the cross to say “By Christ’s cross you are forgiven”-Amen