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John 8:31-36
What a sermon! Kuhlman’s? Good grief. No! His sermons are the worst. Just ask people. They’ll tell you. However, what a sermon the Lord preaches! It’s incredible. Divinely delicious. If you have ears to hear.
Jesus categorically declares: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” That’s the first thing. Remaining and abiding in, clinging and cleaving to, hanging on to His word. Not yours or anybody else’s. Only His. Because of who He is and what He Good Friday-ly and Easter Sunday-ly does FOR ALL AND FOR THE WORLD! So, to be a disciple of Jesus, one clings to His word!
And when one does that, Jesus promises that, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
Set you free? That implies that you’re not. It infers that you’re captive and bound. Caged. Confined. Incarcerated. Imprisoned. Are you on edge? Uncomfortable? Angry?
It infuriates the Jews who “had believed in him.” Emphasis on: “had”! As is past tense. Had believed. But not anymore. After all, this preacher Jesus, this kid from Nazareth, was fun, entertaining and exciting at first. But now He’s too much. Talk about an arrogant S.O.B. Over the top. Too extreme. He has this … well … He has this religious Son of God – Messiah – complex.
So these Jews, and perhaps you as well, retort: “You’re an idiot Jesus! We have never been enslaved to anyone. How dare you contend that we need to be set free?” They even ratchet up their objection by shouting: “We are the descendants of the free man Abraham! WE ARE FREE!”
Obviously, they are not abiding in Jesus’ Word. How about you?
God-in-the-flesh-Jesus tells the unvarnished truth. Even if people don’t want to hear it. Even if it makes their ears bleeds or their blood boil. And what He says next will … well … will most likely “find no” hearing by them and will give them the ammunition they need not only to “seek to kill” Him but actually murder Him. Listen. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices [or commits] sin …” (are you ready for this?) “IS A SLAVE TO SIN.” You can just imagine how that went over. They could not abide in those words. No way!
What an oppressive preacher! Sinners? Slaves to sin? What a joke! We are victims! Of injustice! Babylonian discrimination. Roman supremacy, oppression and privilege. Oh, the inequity we suffer! Sinners? Miss us with all that Jesus! We are not bad people!
Nonetheless, sinners, and that’s everyone (these Jews, you and me) – sinners, from Adam on, according to Jesus, are far from being free. Slaves we are! Slaves of our own making. Serving a master, a tyrant, a dictator named SIN. Totally bound to SIN. Hellishly, hellaciously, plantationally owned by SIN. Imprisoned. In chains. In addition, we slave sinners have a one track mind or desire. It’s rebellion and revolution. Not against SIN but … AGAINST … God! It’s what SIN demands of us sinners! And sinners as slaves to SIN gladly go along in this damnable, hellish direction.
“Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Who would have known that or believed that unless Jesus preached it? No one! So Jesus had to preach it! It’s the truth. With such preaching Jesus does what St. Paul describes in Romans 3 today, namely, that “through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Jesus’ preaching is like a mirror. He shows people – He shows all of us — who we are: slaves to SIN sinners! “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” A disciple of Jesus will abide in these truthful words of Jesus.
So, we Lutherans, who are the heirs of the magnificent gift in church history called the Reformation, confess at the beginning of the service: “Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word and deed … We deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.” That flows from the Lord’s word in John 8, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” And Psalm 51:4-5, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight … Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” And Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned.”
Now, if you won’t abide in the truth of Jesus’ words concerning your sinful slavish condition, then who don’t you need for release from such captivity? That’s right. You don’t need Jesus who is the Conqueror of SIN and its hellacious consequences and who is the Savior of sinners. Who has come to set SIN’S inmates or prisoners free!
Speaking of that, Jesus promises: “So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” To abide in these words means to believe that Jesus has freed you from the slavery to SIN by taking your sin (all of it) in His Body on the cross. And while hanging suspended there He atoned for you sin (all of it) by shedding His Blood.
Again, so we Lutherans, who want to abide in Jesus’ word, beg God the Father at the beginning of each divine service: “For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us …” And that’s when the pastor says to sinners who have confessed their sinful condition: “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” When one is absolved in God’s Name, God is the Absolver, the Forgiver! To which a disciple responds with the greatest word of worship and faith: “Amen.”
The biblical teaching that sinners are forgiven only because Jesus died and rose is also the gift we have inherited from the Reformation. God only forgives you because Jesus, His Son, died FOR YOU. When I ask people this question, “Why does God forgive you?” the answer is rarely, “Because Jesus died FOR ME.” Instead, the answer goes like this: “Because I am sorry.”
That, of course, is the medieval answer. For centuries prior to the Reformation in the 16th century, Christians were taught to believe that God forgives you because you are sorry or contrite. Divine forgiveness, then, depended on your sorrow or contrition. No sorrow, no forgiveness. There is no salvational certainty in your sorrow. Unfortunately, many Christians still hold to this.
However, there is utmost salvational certainty when you hold to the biblical teaching as its given in the Epistle today. Sinners “are justified by his [God’s] grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood,” (Rom 3:24-25). I.E. God forgives you only because Jesus, His Son, shed His Blood on the cross for you. All your sin is paid for by Jesus’ Good Friday death!
So, I ask you now. “Why does God forgive you?” What’s the Word of God – abiding-in-Jesus’-word answer? “Because Jesus died FOR ME?” That’s certain and sure. Why? Because Jesus did it!
Sinners. Slaves to SIN. That’s true. We abide in that word of Jesus. In addition, we abide in another word of Jesus and that’s His forgiveness word that sets us free from our bondage to SIN and SIN’S paycheck – hellish death.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus has sent me here to Trinity, Murdock to tell you that He died FOR YOU the sinner! He did indeed answer for all your sin. Your sin doesn’t belong to you anymore because Jesus took it. It’s His! And He’s buried it in the black hole of His grave never to be remembered again by Him. As a pledge and guarantee of this truth Jesus speaks more words to you today that do and give what they promise.
What is it? My Body. My Blood. Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin. How does faith talk when given such a divine promise? Faith says: “Amen! Gift given. Gift received. Thank you Jesus!”
The gift of the Lutheran Reformation is all about abiding in Jesus’ word. The truth of His Word. And His word is twofold. First, we believe that we are sinners – slaves to SIN. Second, we trust that Jesus sets us free through His Good Friday dying. “So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Because of His Good Friday work and His divine word of forgiveness bestowed in Word and Sacrament, we are no longer slaves but sons. Members of God’s family. Who live not in a penitentiary or prison, but in God’s house. And Jesus’ promise is “the son remains forever.” That is most certainly true. What joy!
Happy Reformation Sunday.
In the Name of Jesus.
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Ecclesiastes 5:10-20
Ecclesiastes. Written by the wisest man that ever lived — besides Jesus of course. That’s King Solomon. Ecclesiastes is wisdom literature. How a faith-er in the Lord Jesus Christ lives wisely. Especially with regard to money, possessions, work, leisure, etc. It’s called: CONTENTMENT. Satisfaction. And life is good “under the sun” when you are content and not idolatrously covetous.
If you purposely live outside of your baptism as a disciple of Jesus — if live according to the world’s standards and your old Adamic ways, you’re never content. Ever! Never satisfied. Never happy. Why? Because this earthly life is only about the relentless pursuit or quest for more and more riches, pleasure, leisure and possessions. Sound American? Absolutely! Everything that we, as Americans, think we HAVE TO HAVE and that would ultimately make us happy does just the opposite.
There is nothing new under the sun. In his life King Solomon out- American-ed all us Americans. Take all the wealth, pleasures, luxuries, and possessions of the wealthiest in America – Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James, Elon Musk, Jeff Bazos, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg – and Solomon had all that and more.
When Solomon was not content with the promise of Jesus for his salvation — when he was not content with the stuff God gave him, he was idolatrously addicted to endless work, never ending play, the accumulation and hoarding of riches, assets, luxuries, frills, amenities, amusements, decadences and pleasures. And looking back on his life and this way of living he described it this way: VANITY. EMPTINESS. LIKE CHASING WIND.
Jesus says in Luke 12:15, “Take care … be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Indeed! Wealth, possessions and power DO NOT make you happy … UNLESS you recognize that whatever you have (whether it’s a lot or just a little) IS A GIFT FROM THE LORD (v. 19) and that the Lord uses you as His steward – as His hands to sacrificially serve others with what He has given you.
Do you know what is the most common idolatry in the world? It is the worship of money as a divinity! Last Sunday we heard how this idolatry caused a young man to turn his back on Son of God Jesus after Jesus had just invited him to be His follower, to be a faith-er, to trust that Jesus is the Giver of salvation and that Jesus would provide for him no matter what.
Regarding this matter Preacher King Solomon, here in Ecclesiastes 5, passes on biblical wisdom. A biblical worldview. That we LCMS-ers need to learn. So that we will be repented, faith-ed and led in God-pleasing living especially with regard to the use of money, assets and belongings.
Solomon points out not only why the idolatrous quest and stockpiling of cash and material stuff fails to satisfy the human yearning for fulfillment, but also why having it all is attended by various evils that the poor people don’t face. For example:
A. In verse 10 Solomon wisely teaches that, “he who loves money” NEVER GETS ENOUGH OF IT. How much do you need? How many more millions? The person who loves money is like a man that drinks salt water to quench his thirst! He keeps drinking and drinking and drinking. All for nothing. It’s vanity!
The 9th Commandment forbids us from coveting our neighbor’s house. We should never scheme to get his inheritance or house even if it appears right or lawful. Coveting is a matter of the heart. When your old Adamic heart loves money and what money buys, you will covet more and more.
You covet, so, you’ll worship false gods, misuse God’s name as well as blow off or despise preaching and God’s Word. You covet and you’ll steal. From petty to grand. You covet, so you’ll murder. You covet, so you’ll destroy your marriage and family. You’ll ruin anyone’s reputation. You’ll do whatever it takes to get more of what you covet! In his epistle, James, the brother of our Lord, says: “You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel,” (James 4:2).
King Solomon is right. What VANITY! When money is your god, life really is nothing but emptiness, pointlessness and a colossal waste. False god money promises heaven but only delivers hell. No wonder there is so much depression, anxiety, domestic abuse, murder, fraud, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide in the church and our country!
B. “When goods increase, they increase who eat them,” (v. 11). I.E. the rich person has to fight off beggars, parasites, leeches, grifters scammers and con men who want or steal his wealth. Just ask those who have won the lottery. Or sports figures who make generational wealth with immense contracts like Dak Prescott’s $240 million over four years with the Dallas Cowboys.
C. “The full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep,” (v. 12). I.E. Overindulgence in the exquisite food, the finest of wines and hard liquor that only the rich can afford, results in indigestion and sleepless nights. Up all night with heartburn. Many visits to the gastroenterologist. The rule with idols is this: they always consume their worshippers!
D. Then in vv. 13-14 Solomon speaks of a “grievous evil.” “Riches … kept by their owner … [result] … to his hurt,” rather than for his enjoyment. For example, money can be “lost in a bad venture” or investment. Financial situations are not always what they seem or what they are advertised.
Bad or unwise investments because of discontentment and idolatry of money leaves a “father” nothing to bestow or give as an inheritance to his “son.” He will die the same way he came into the world “ from his mother’s womb,” WITH NOTHING (vv. 14-15)!
The world is full of charlatans, swindlers, con artists, frauds and fakes. Entrepreneurs, capitalists, magnates, tycoons have huge debt that far exceed their assets. Think of our country. The worship of money. Over 33 trillion in debt and yet pretending to be financially healthy. It’s unsustainable. What does Solomon call it? A “grievous evil” that no doubt will end in a national “hurt” or financial catastrophe that we have never experienced. And so many people will be harmed.
King Solomon, however, reminds us that wealth in itself need not be harmful or an evil. And that happens when we understand and believe, as I stated earlier, that whatever you have is a gift from the Lord that we are to steward properly. Scripture teaches that every gift from God is good. That includes money and possessions.
Believing this biblical truth and free from the idolatry of money by Jesus’ Good Friday blood, now we are wise and can live wisely. The wisdom is this: we can enjoy what God has given us as creaturely gifts from Him. Solomon puts it this way: “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil – this is the gift of God.”
How do you spell in one word what Solomon has just taught? It’s spelled: C-O-N-T-E-N-T. Or contentment. The opposite of coveting which is idolatry. Coveting takes all the joy – sucks out all the joy – robs all the joy out of life. Being content with what God gives – gives meaning and great joy to living “under the sun.”
For our freedom and for our joy “under the sun” the Lord Jesus Christ bore all our sin. That includes the sin of idolatry. The love of money. All the coveting. And all the other sins that flow from not being content with what God gives and provides. Bottom line, bearing the sin of the world in His crucified Body, Jesus who never sinned, was counted as the MAXIMUM coveter and the MAXIMUM idolater – the one who loved and worshiped money.
This Good Friday dying took place FOR YOU and for your salvation. With Jesus as your Lord, money does not control you or consume you. You control money because it is God’s gift to you and for you to steward. As His faith-er, you are now free to worship Jesus, not money. Free to trust Him for salvation, not money. Free to share, give away, donate, provide, pass on. Free to work and live as the Lord’s hands to sacrificially serve your family, community and congregation. There is great meaning, joy and wisdom in that. Not vanity.
Contentment, the gift that coveting and greed rob us of, is the key to enjoying what we have been given. That’s how we can eat and drink and enjoy our work and lives. It’s all God’s gift to us in Christ. And in Him we have everything we could ever desire and more than we dare ask. And holding what we have in the dead hand of faith rather than the death grip of anxiety, we can eat and drink and find joy in our life.
In the Name of Jesus.
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Mark 10:17-22
Wow! The Lord Jesus loves this man. Really He does. Jealously! The man is very precious to Him. So much so that the Lord Jesus promises that He will be God for this young man no matter what. Come thick or thin Jesus pledges that He will act as Savior for him. Lord Savior Jesus guarantees that He can be trusted in any and every situation. Always. At all times. In every place. In every situation.
And how does Jesus make such a promise? It comes as an invitation. “Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
I.E. Jesus is saying: “Young man, come, follow me. I’ll take care of you. I’ll provide for you even if you give everything of yours to the poor. I know it sounds crazy but even if you empty your bank accounts and give it all to the poor, I will deliver. I promise.” This is a First Commandment issue. “You shall have no other gods.” Why not? Because Jesus, God in the flesh will care for you.
And Jesus will back that up with His Good Friday dying on the cross. Shedding His divine Blood to atone for all sin. For every sinner. Including this man.
This is Jesus’ answer to the man’s earlier question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer from Jesus is: “Nothing! I do it all. I do the salvation job!”
So, how do you spell “Come follow me” in the Bible when Jesus speaks it? Yes, that’s right. F-A-I-T-H! Or: T-R-U-S-T. In Lord and Savior Jesus! Who is God FOR YOU! FOR YOUR SALVATION! “Come, follow me. Me only. I jealously want you only for Myself. I do not want to share you with any other gods. When you are my faith-er, my hanger-on, that’s when you have treasure in heaven. And that’s S-A-L-V-A-T-I-O-N! Because I am the Savior. And I give salvation away for free!”
You would think the man would jump at the chance for a treasure-in-heaven-salvation by-faith-alone-in-Jesus. That no matter what, Jesus will always be good on His promise to take care of him and provide for him – materially and spiritually. Even if he has nothing in his pockets, his bank accounts, his garage, living room or man cave Jesus can be trusted above all things. Jealous Jesus is Savior God for him.
“Disheartened by the saying.” Dismayed at Jesus sermon. Crestfallen by Jesus’ magnificent promise to have “treasure in heaven,” i.e. salvation by faith alone following in Jesus, “he went away sorrowful.” He exits stage right. He vamooses. He will not be a faith-er in Jesus alone. He would not be a hanger-on of Jesus alone.
Why? Because he has another god. “Great possessions.” I.E. he has money and the stuff money buys. That’s what he fears, loves and trusts in above all things – not Jesus. His heart clings and entrusts itself to money and possessions – not Jesus. The man’s money and possessions exclusively want his worship 24-7-365. Demanding all his time and trust.
I remind you that when Jesus said, “Come follow me,” it was the divine invitation to trust only in Him – for everything. The little things. The big things. When Jesus said, “sell all that you have and give it to the poor,” He was promising: “Whatever you lack, look to Me for it and seek it from me. I’ll provide the daily bread you need. Whenever you suffer misfortune or distress, come and cling to me. When you want to know how to inherit eternal life, I am the one – the only one – who will satisfy such a hunger because I am the Bread of Life.” But the man, “went away sorrowful” because his lord and savior was money and possessions. That’s what his heart trusted completely.
I think the man went away “sorrowful” because he thought he could have it both ways. Worship Jesus and worship his possessions and wealth. It doesn’t work like that. Jesus is a jealous God. He wants you only for Himself. He will share you with no one or nothing else. That is why Jesus categorically preaches in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:10 that, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Not having money but loving it. Worshiping it. Trusting it entirely with your heart. Looking to it for all good and refuge in time of need. “It is through this craving,” Paul adds, that, “some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
No doubt the man here in Mark 10 is one of these lovers of money who literally wandered away from the Savior Jesus. Walked away from THE TREASURE from heaven who promised to give him treasure in heaven – salvation. The one thing this man lacked was: F-A-I-T-H! Faith in Jesus. Faith is the highest worship one can give Jesus.
What about you? Jesus would have you give Him the highest worship. Faith.
Jesus hasn’t asked you to sell everything you have and give it to the poor. But He has made you His disciple through holy baptism. As His baptized disciple or faith-er, He would to continually give you “treasure in heaven,” His Good-Friday-Tree-of-Life-forgiveness in the preached gospel, absolution and the Lord’s Supper.
He calls you to the highest worship: F-A-I-T-H. Faith receives. Faith is given to. By Jesus. Here is what Jesus says to you today: “I died FOR YOU sinner. All your sin I answered for by offering My spotless and perfect Body to be crucified on the cross. With My Shed-On-The-Cross-Blood I have made the one and only all atoning sacrifice FOR YOU. When I preached from the cross, “It is finished,” the salvation job was done. Accomplished. Achieved. I did what needed to be done to save you for eternal life. Come, follow me.”
To follow Him is to be His hanger-on. To receive. To be given to. By Him. He is among you as One Who Serves. His Word of forgiveness. His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper. He rolls up His sleeves and serves up heaping portions of the “treasure in heaven” benefits of His Good Friday death.
“Take and eat,” He says. “Take and drink,” He says. And: “With the bread and wine I give you my crucified, risen and ascended Body and Blood. With such a magnificent gift He promises: “Given and shed FOR YOU for the forgiveness of sins.” In other words: “I’m God FOR YOU! I provide. I care. I’ll care FOR YOU! I’m jealous FOR YOU. I will share you with no one or nothing else. I want you all to Myself. Come, follow me.”
To which a faith-er says with great joy: “Amen. I’ll be served by You, my Lord! All my life. You are my Savior! I’ll never leave you.”
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Genesis 2:18-25 / Mark 10:1-16
In the beginning all was good. “Very good!” However, God preached another sermon on that very first Friday in world history. “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Why?
Well, if he’s alone, then he has no one to hold dear … except himself. No one to serve … except himself. No one to live for … except himself. No one to help … except himself. He would be bone of Adam’s bone and flesh of Adam’s flesh … only. Himself only to have and to hold. Get it? Adam on his own means that he lives only for himself. Loves only himself.
I emphasize that last point. All-alone-Adam has NO ONE TO LOVE. With no one to love he is not able to reflect God’s image to all of God’s creation. After all, God is love! The Father loves His Son who loves the Holy Spirit. There is a relationship of L-O-V-E between the three Persons of the Trinity! So, with no one to love, Adam cannot properly reflect God’s image — who is love.
In addition, if Adam remains all alone, he will not be able to “be fruitful and multiply.” No sons. No daughters. No grandchildren. No family. No descendants.
And hooked with that — if Adam remains alone, he will not be able to be, to the world, a picture or icon of the one flesh mysterious union of Jesus and His bride, the church! So if you’re smelling what I’m cooking, now you begin to realize why it was not good, — “very” not good, for Adam to fly solo!
Incredibly and wonderfully, to make this “not good” be a “very good,” God goes to work. “I will make him a helper fit for him.” God provides a wife. A woman. By performing some marvelous surgery. Puts Adam under so that the he goes into a “deep sleep.” And from his side, the raw physical materials from his torso, God makes a bride from a bone – from the man’s “rib” to be precise.
Then, God the Father takes His newly created daughter, Eve, by the arm and escorts her down the Garden’s middle aisle to the now fully awake man who is watching and waiting. He is delighted! What a magnificent divine gift! “At last! Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.” It’s a marriage made in … on earth! The first one.
This is good. Now Adam can properly reflect God’s image to the world. He will live not for himself, but for his wife. He will relate totally to her. Serving her not himself. Loving her not himself. He can give himself intimately to his wife so that children will be born. Adam and Eve, both made in God’s image and as husband and wife in the estate of holy marriage, can reflect the one flesh union that Jesus has with His bride, the church. It’s a marriage made in … on earth.
Verse 25 tells us that Adam and Eve were naked but not ashamed. Did you notice that? Why aren’t they mortified? It’s because they are married. A man and a woman can be naked together and not be ashamed when they are married. Not before they are married. After they are married. You single ladies. Tell the gentlemen: “Put a ring on my finger. Marry me. Then we’ll share a house and a bed. But only after we are married!” Note the order. That’s God’s will. That’s what God blesses.
As a result of this first marriage instituted and given graciously by the Lord Himself at the dawn of time with Adam and Eve, all others in the world are to follow. It’s the divine pattern. The divine blueprint. The divine owner’s manual. For everyone. What God supports, endorses and commends for our benefit. For a life that thrives and prospers. It goes like this. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Notice the verb. What the husband as a husband does in holy marriage? He “holds fast” TO HIS WIFE. That means he will be faithful to her. As he promised at his wedding: “To have and to hold from this day forward for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy will; and I pledge to you my faithfulness.” And so does the wife.
Faithfulness! The promise of faithfulness! Not feelings! Faithfulness! That’s the “holding fast”! Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 5, “husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…. Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” That’s because they are “one flesh” in holy marriage.
God’s intends a husband and a wife to live all their life as a married couple. In holy marriage they form an inseparable union – a one flesh-ness. Holy marriage is the closest communion that can possibly exist between two people. It is the complete and committed union of a man and a woman into one – physically, emotionally, spiritually. And it’s a closed communion! No one is permitted to drive a wedge between a husband and a wife or to adulterate the marriage. No one! This is exactly why Jesus says in the gospel for today: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
And yet, because of the “hardness of our hearts” (Mk 10:5) as poor miserable sinners we divorce or rip apart what God joins together. We call it “no fault.” We call it “the right to make our own choices.” Or: “Love is a mystery that knows no rules.” It is precisely why the Pharisees ask Jesus the question that we all have dripping from our lips: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
No doubt you have questions like this too? Or many other questions related to this topic. The disciples of Jesus most certainly did. So, Jesus had a private heart-to-heart with them. And today He’s doing the same with you.
Jesus doesn’t mince words or beat around the bush. His answer is based in the first two chapters of Genesis that provide the Father’s design of and for holy marriage. Jesus says: “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” In Matthew’s account, Jesus gives an exception: sexual immorality (Mt 19:9).
With such preaching from Jesus, we are shocked. Disturbed. Livid. Irate. Furious. How dare Jesus say this to us! Our old Adamic ears do not want to hear Jesus on this topic.
Well, it’s about time we listen and I think it’s about time He repents us. That we all have ears to hear His Word on this topic. To divorce a spouse and marry another is to commit adultery. Period. End of discussion. Why? Because God’s will for marriage is that this one flesh relationship of husband and wife is “for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death parts us.” Anything short of that falls short of God’s intent based on Genesis 1 and 2.
Where we have failed in this matter we need to confess it. Seriously. After all, when divorce happens, sin is involved. The danger is to deny this fact and refuse to confess the sin. And when sin is held outside of Jesus’ forgiveness, hearts harden all the more and hearts become very spiritually calloused toward God. As a pastor here at Trinity, I’ve never met anyone go through a divorce here who hasn’t been affected spiritually. I hear excuses, loopholes, justifications, endlessly playing the blame game – even blaming God contributes all the more to the hardening of the heart and the misery or crucifying of the soul.
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” If you are distressed or angry by these words of Jesus, if these words of Jesus gnaw at your conscience and heart, bring it to confession. That’s what believers in Jesus do with the brokenness of their lives, including their broken marriages, broken families, and their divorces.
So it is time to hear what Jesus says, own it, and then turn to Jesus. Beg Him to forgive you for the sin you’ve committed and to forgive the ones who have sinned against you. Let Jesus be the mediator. Let His divine Good Friday Blood cleanse and purify you from all sin! To believe that, Jesus, on the cross bore all sin, even the sin He just revealed. In fact, bearing such sin in His crucified Body, He was counted as the adulterer! So that for His Son’s sake, God the Father reckons you as pure and cleansed. Holy.
Now I want to briefly speak to all the children, the junior high-ers, the high schoolers and college age-er who will, in the future, get married. You should give Jesus’ words in Mark 10 a sincere hearing as any faith-er would. Two points.
First, if you’re not married, you need to believe that holy marriage is a holy estate instituted by God. It is not yours to play around with as you please. A hanger-on of Jesus receives holy marriage as a gift from Him and then wants to live in it the way He blesses.
Second, you ought to know very well the person you are marrying. And you ought to know the family you are marrying into. You need to share the same faith in Jesus Christ so that you will be able to pray and worship and commune together at the same altar. We need all the help we can get when it comes to living as sinners in holy marriage. These words of Jesus ought to make us very, very picky about the kind of persons we choose to marry.
If you are married or remarried, I beg you, let Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, be in the middle of your present marriage and to trust that all your past mistakes are forgiven by His Blood shed on the cross. Jesus is the only source of forgiveness between husbands and wives who sin against each other in the present or in the past. Good Friday Jesus with His Blood must get between husbands and wives to soften their hearts, to sweep away their sins, and to bind them together all the more as one flesh.
Only through Jesus can we say the most important words that can be spoken in a lifetime of holy marriage: “I forgive you. Jesus died FOR YOU. I love you.”
Only through Savior Jesus can husbands and wives receive each other as gifts from God. Only through Jesus and speaking His forgiveness to one another can we make holy marriage attractive to our children and grandchildren.
In the way of a little child you receive everything as a gift from God: holy baptism, holy absolution, the preaching of God’s Word, the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper, eternal life, salvation, forgiveness, and peace.
In the same way, like a little child you are given to receive the gift of your spouse, that man or woman with whom you are one flesh-ed, “for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death parts…” you. Such sacrificial living in holy marriage on earth pictures, icons, likens or represents the one flesh union of Jesus and His bride, the church, a marriage made in heaven as God wants it on earth. And it’s all very good in Jesus!
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
James 3:1-12
Well, let’s get right to it. No beating around the bush. Although it is arguably the weakest and smallest member of the body, the tongue is responsible for either the greatest good or the greatest harm in everyday life and spiritual life! “With it,” James says, “we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not be so.” Indeed. Amen.
So, the high pastoral care that James gives us today is the proper use of a certain body part. The tongue. Yes, that’s right. Our tongues. When was the last time you ever heard a sermon that focused on the tongue. About the only time one notices his tongue is when he accidently bites it, has a cold sore or gets tongue cancer. Leave it to the brother of Jesus to address to tongue. Jesus did. More on that in a moment.
Last week we heard of a man who had a devasting speech impediment and couldn’t hear. A double whammy! Jesus hacked a loogie, touched the man’s tongue with His divine spittle dripping from his hand, and then He ripped off a command, “Ephphatha.” His Word did and gave what it said. The crippled, tangled, and knotted tongue was healed. To work properly. To pray, praise and give thanks to Jesus. To tell his family how much he loved them. To sing his favorite hymns. To extol his best-loved food. To tell others about Savior-of-sinners-Jesus! “Jesus healed me. He came to die and rise for me as the Messiah. I’m even healed spiritually – forgiven. I believe in Him. Would you like to believe in Him too? Would you? Great! I’ll tell you.”
What about our tongues and how we speak? Are they well? James gives the evaluation. He compares the tongue with a bit in the mouth of a horse, a rudder that directs the boat and a small fire that causes an enormous forest fire. Cause and effect. Bits and rudders steer horses and ships. But a little campfire? My! Oh my! What huge devastation from a small blaze. “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell… No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” As a bit directs a horse – as a rudder steers a ship – so the tongue can affect the entire person and have hellacious collateral damage to others as well. It destroys families, communities, countries, and congregations. No wonder then that Proverbs 6:17 says that God hates, “a lying tongue.”
James piggybacks off of his Brother Jesus. In Matthew 5, Jesus categorically preached that one breaks the Fifth Commandment and commits murder in the following way with his tongue and talking: “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” And then in Matthew 15 Jesus gives a list of sins from the heart that are hellacious toxic pollutants before God. Among the many things that Jesus lists, two are: “false witness and slander.”
With these words from the Lord Jesus and His brother James, the Holy Spirit is rolling up His sleeves to repent us big time. Through the Word you just heard He x-rays us. CAT scans us. MRIs us. Reveals our sinful condition. And it’s really bad. Hellishly bad.
With the tongue we are economical with the truth. In the church unfaithful preachers use the tongue to teach falsely. Like claiming that faith alone in Jesus is not enough for salvation. Or that the Lord’s Supper is only bread and wine. Or that baptism is a nothing. I could go on and on.
In our everyday lives, we gossip, spread rumors and lie to make others look bad and makes ourselves look so impressive. With the tongue we betray those closest to us, slander our friends, family, congregation and pastor. With this little body part we commit perjury in court and we joyfully hurt, damage, and ruin any and every reputation.
Have you ever been the victim of gossip or slander? Has anyone ever spread lies about you? I’ll bet that people have put your private sins on social media for the entire world to see! Anyone ever cyberbullied, cyber-slandered or cyber-gossiped you? Have you ever done that to someone? It drives many to despair, depression and even suicide!
The kids used to say this ditty: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” Miss me with that! Bullying, lies, slander, insults, smears, slurs, libels, and slights do horrible damage to people!
And as James teaches in 2:10 – when you break one commandment you break them all – especially the 1st. When you do not fear, love and trust in God above all things, you will use your tongue as a weapon to hurt and harm others. When you do not fear, love and trust in God above all things the tongue is like a wild beast that cannot be tamed!
It’s time to admit this truth. With the tongue we have sinned bigly! Gigantically! Ginormously! And we deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment for tongue sins. It’s what the Holy Spirit just revealed to us through the spiritual MRI from the words of Jesus and His brother James.
Now I must provide my high pastoral care FOR YOU. For sinners who have been Holy Spirited-ly convicted of their sin today, Jesus has sent me to use my tongue to preach with all gusto: Jesus died and answered for all your sin! Especially the sins of the tongue! Jesus covers all your sin with His divine Good Friday blood and righteousness.
I remind you that FOR YOU AND FOR YOUR SALVATION, JESUS, in His Passion and as He hung on the cross, He endured and suffered immense slander, disparagement, gossip, lies, lampooning, and character assassination from the wagging tongued false witnesses, soldiers, politicians, church big-wigs, spectators, passersby, rubberneckers, and bystanders! And how did Jesus, your Savior, use His divine tongue? He prayed! “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing!” TALK ABOUT PUTTING THE BEST CONSTRUCTION ON EVERYTHING! TALK ABOUT EXPLAINING EVERYTHING IN THE KINDEST WAY!
And let’s not forget the other way Savior-of-tongue-sinners-Jesus used His divine tongue while He was suspended cruciformly. He preached and gave the gospel to a miserable sinner hanging next to Him. To the criminal who was repented and begged Jesus to remember him, Jesus promised and bestowed salvation from His tongue: “Today you will be with me in Paradise!” That’s so delicious!
Well, brothers and sisters, forgiven for Jesus’s sake, He now has good use of you – especially your redeemed, spiritually absolved and recreated tongue. And what’s that good use? When you’re tempted to sin – BITE YOUR TONGUE! Take to heart the wisdom of mature and wise mothers: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Or, “be silent until you can say something good.” Then let ‘er rip! With the accent of love and grace, let that little but powerful body part speak the truth in love to edify and build up. To speak well of others. To defend your neighbor’s, classmate’s, teammate’s, or fellow Christians’ reputation. To explain everything in the kindest way. To put the best construction on things. To forgive those who sin against you! As you do that you speak with Christ’s mouth! Christ’s tongue!
Because He did a Good Friday dying FOR YOU, Jesus no longer speaks of your sin. He says to you: “It is finished!” So too, you, His died for redeemed, are given to use your tongue to help and love others. You just can’t help it! After all, today in the Lord’s Supper, the Lord Jesus puts on your tongue with His divine hand, not divine spittle, but His most holy Body and Blood for its cleansing and purifying with this promise: “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” For the strengthening of your faith in Him and for fervent love shown to others with your tongue. What joy!
Now, let’s use our tongue to pray – to pray for the church – for our nation and her leaders, for those who are sick, etc. And then when we leave this place, use our forgiven-ly healed tongues to tell an unbelieving friend, community or family member: “I believe in Jesus. Would you like to believe in Him too? I’ll tell you all about Him!”
What wonderful, beautiful and beneficial use of the created and redeemed tongue! Using it to confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” (Phil 2:11)! In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
James 2:1-10, 14-18
One of the most biting caricatures of a Lutheran is this. The Lutheran spends his life in a darkened room reciting with eyes closed, “I am justified by faith alone. I am justified by faith alone.”[1] As if the Lutheran believer never desires to do or does any good works at all. Perhaps there is a grain of truth to Swedenborg’s critique. If so, James, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, would give us high pastoral care today from his epistle. And that care includes: repentance, faith, and guidance in works that are God-pleasing that flow from faith. We LCMS-ers sure need that kind of pastoral care. I pray that we all have ears that hear and hearts to receive it.
James’ pastoral care works this way: It’s all or nothing. The whole and not pieces. The whole shebang. Think of it this way. When one speaks of Jesus He is both God and man in one person. He is not only God. He is not only a man. He is the God-man. Divine and human. The whole lot. Don’t ever divorce the two natures of Jesus from one another. Get it?
So, when James speaks of faith he also speaks of works. When he speaks of works he speaks of faith. Why? Because the two always go together. Can’t have one without the other even though they must always be properly distinguished. When you’re a faith-er, you’re a doer, a deed-er, a self-sacrificial server. It’s just as the Post-Communion Collect prays it: faith toward God and fervent love toward one another.
In the Bible faith is TRUST in something or someone. Trust. Like when a baby trusts her mother. Like when I make hospital calls at UNMC, Bryan East or St. E’s. I trust that the elevator works. I go in, the door shuts and then I naturally push button #7 because I trust that the elevator will take me to the 7th floor.
So, when I assert, “I trust the elevator,” and you respond, “Super, let’s hop in and head up to the 7th floor.” But instead of taking the elevator I take the stairs. Seven flights! What might you conclude? That I want to work on my cardio and get in my steps? If you know me, you know that’s never the case! Instead, you deduce that I don’t really trust the elevator!
Let me illustrate this another way. Suppose I say to you, “Do you see that spikey haired blonde over there? She’s my wife. I sure do love her.” And you reply, “That’s wonderful, I’d like to meet her sometime.” But then I categorically declare, “Oh, we don’t live together. We never ever see each other.” What do you conclude? Yep! I don’t really love Robin.
Here’s a few more examples for good measure. I contend that: “I believe in Jesus,” but I never come to the divine service to be gathered around Him, to hear Him speak to me (in the absolution, the readings and the sermon), and I never let Him give me His Body and Blood with His unthwartable promise, “given and shed FOR YOU FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.”
I proclaim that: “I believe in Jesus,” but I never pray to Him, praise Him nor give thanks to Him with His body, the church. I say that: “I believe in Jesus,” but I dishonor all the authorities in my life, hate my brother, cheat on my spouse, steal from my employer, and ruin reputations. I insist that: “I believe in Jesus,” but I blow off a brother or sister who needs clothes and food, “Can’t help you brother. Won’t help you sister” — as you load up your $90,000 SUV with over $500 of Costco groceries and as you get a call from your broker informing you that your $10 million investment portfolio is up a record 17% this year.
After hearing me say time after time that: “I believe that Jesus,” but that my actions demonstrate that I live like an unbeliever – what might you conclude? That I’m probably not a faith-er at all! Picking up what James is throwing down now? His all or nothing / his whole enchilada high pastoral care is that faith and works go together. Like peanut butter and jelly. Like coffee and cream. Like bacon and eggs. Like macaroni and cheese. Like Batman and Robin. Or as James puts it in verse 26: like body and breath. After all, a body without breath is a corpse. So too faith without works is dead.
James knows the objections by LCMS-ers like us who talk like this: “I have faith. You have deeds.” As if we can divorce the two. But you can’t divide the two. Listen carefully.
Faith without works is dead faith.
Works without faith are dead works.
Either way you’re in a hellacious mess. Here’s how too many LCMS-ers talk: “I know God exists. I know Jesus died on the cross. I know he rose from the dead. I know that body and blood are in the Lord’s Supper.” But James says in v.19, “That’s nice. The devils know that stuff too, better than you do, and they tremble with fear.”
The point? You may have all the pure doctrine but that isn’t faith. Faith is trust that Jesus shed His Blood and died FOR YOU – for your salvation! Faith is trust that Jesus gives His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of YOUR sins!
If I trust in something or someone, that trust causes me to act a certain way. Right? Remember the elevator example? If I trust that the elevator works, I will enter it, push the button, and expect to be carried to floor I chose. If I love my wife, I will share my bed and board with her.
In the verses that follow today’s epistle, James gives biblical examples. Like Abraham. He trusted God’s promise, that he was going to be the father of many nations and that through his seed, his offspring, all nations of the earth would be blessed because of Jesus the Savior. So when God commanded, “Abraham, offer your son, your only son Isaac as a sacrifice on the mountain,” the patriarch ACTED IN TRUST. He believed God’s promise and ACTED IN TRUST. His faith in God’s promise of salvation coming in Jesus for him affected his life and his decisions. If Abraham had said to God, “There’s no way in &^%$# I’m going to put the knife to my son,”* and took Isaac fishing or hunting instead, we could only conclude one thing: Abraham didn’t trust God’s promise of salvation in Jesus after all.
Same with Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho. Remember her from your S.S. lessons? She trusted the promise that she and her family would be spared from destruction. So she hid the Israelite spies in her roof. She risked her life because she trusted the promise. Her faith affected her life, her decisions and her actions or deeds or works.
Brothers and sisters, faith is living and active because the Word that faith clings to is living and active. So, good works are the visible side of faith. I can’t see your faith, and you can’t see mine. God alone sees into the heart. You can only see what I do and hear what I say. That’s how we let our light shine before others, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Now, just in case there may be someone here today who thinks his faith is dead because all he sees is sin, failure after failure, flaw after flaw, I offer some of my own high pastoral care.
First, Jesus not only totally trusted His Father but He also lived perfectly. His faith affected His what He Good Friday-ly did FOR YOU! “Though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich,” (2 Cor 8:9). For you and for your salvation the heavenly rich Jesus became the poorest of the poor as He suffered for all your sin, was cursed for it and hung in naked misery. In exchange Jesus gives you His forgiveness – the most precious treasure in the history of the world. He clothes you with His righteousness in that forgiveness. He feeds you with His most holy Body and Blood.
Second, works aren’t a measure of faith. They are the fruit of faith. Fruit, as in apples on a healthy apple tree. As breath to the body, as James so adroitly puts it. You only notice your breathing when something goes terribly wrong with your body (like COPD, lung cancer or asthma). You only pay attention to your own deeds, when something’s gone terribly wrong with your faith.
Third, let’s say that your faith really is dead. If so, then you’ve come to the perfect place, Trinity-Murdock. You’re at a faithful Christian congregation where Jesus Christ is graciously present with His promise of forgiveness, the giving of His divine and saving name like at Rhett’s baptism, the speaking of His Word, and the bestowal of His salvational Body and His Blood. Jesus delights in raising the dead. It’s His cup of tea.
Anytime the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and given through absolution, baptism, sermon and Supper, it is your day of resurrection. If you aren’t baptized, then by all means be repented and speak to me about receiving holy baptism to be a new creation spelled: F-A-I-T-H! If you are baptized, as most of you here already are, then daily live in and from your baptism as the Lord repents, faiths and leads you in holy living according to this Word from James today.
Jesus died for you. He rose from the dead for you. For your salvation. What Jesus did He did FOR YOU! As you believe, so you have. Justified by faith alone in Jesus, you are free. Free to open your eyes, open the door, get out of that darkened room, and open your hands to go to work. That’s spelled L-O-V-E. Works of love for the sake of others who need your love. Such sacrificial love just comes naturally to the faither in Jesus. Just like breathing is to the body. How wonderful!
In the Name of Jesus.
[1]See Oswald Bayer, Living By Faith: Justification and Sanctification, 27.
Listen here.
Ephesians 4:30
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.**”
This is a part of the New Testament that most Christians have never read let alone considered. Not even on our radar screens. So it’s time to hear God’s Word about this topic. Because if you grieve the Holy Spirit, I’m here to tell you that you lose the Holy Spirit. And that can never end well. In fact, it will end everlastingly hellishly!
What grieves the Holy Spirit? I will answer that question with a biblical example. I hope you’ll get the picture. I trust that you’ll smell what Paul is cooking when he says: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” The case in point: KING DAVID from the OT.
He grieved the Holy Spirit? The man the OT describes as a “man after … [God’s own] heart,” (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22), he grieved the Holy Spirit? Yes. You can read about it in 1 Samuel 11. For now, I’ll give you the paraphrased version. Are you ready? All right. Here goes.
Loafing, loitering and unfaithfully performing his stately duties, his majesty spies a woman bathing. Accidental? I highly doubt it. She is gorgeous! Miss America stunning! Bathsheba. Married to Uriah. David couldn’t care less. Coveted her. Wanted her. He schemes to have her as his side chick. Sends for her to meet him in the royal bedroom. Instructs his regal servants to light the candles. Turn on the dreamy music. Rose petals. Silk sheets. Delicacies. The whole enchilada!
David blows off the Holy Spirit who speaks through his faithful pastors, advisors and friends: “Don’t do this David! This is not God-pleasing!” David disregards his Holy Spirit-filled conscience that shouts within him: “Don’t you remember the commandments? You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife? You shall not commit adultery?”
David couldn’t care less. He’s the mighty king of Israel! He’s the one who took down Goliath with a sling shot and cut off his head! So, what happens in the royal bed is no one’s business. Not even the Holy Spirit!
David does what he wants when he wants. His words – his actions – are infallible! With gusto and with no regrets he welcomes Bathsheba into his bedroom. The adulterous AND idolatrous between-the-sheets-intimacy follows. And now, Uriah’s wife, as a result of this illicit affair, is pregnant. David is the father.
This is a huge scandal. Especially if it goes public. A Christian King and a man after God’s own heart should never act like that. To keep his public façade from being tarnished, and still thinking that the Holy Spirit doesn’t know what he has done, David goes all in, in UNREPENTENT cover-up-mode!
How? He furloughs Uriah. Invites him to a royal banquet in his honor. “Uriah. Welcome. Have a drink. Have another. And another. Don’t worry, it’s all on me. Here, your glass is empty again. Bartender, fill it up. Well, it’s getting late. Go home my friend. Bathsheba is eagerly waiting for you. With arms wide open.” A sozzled soldier will most certainly go home to sleep with his wife. Any man would jump at the chance! And then, in a few months, when the baby bump starts to show, everyone would think the baby is Uriah’s. And David would be UNREPENTANTLY be off the hook!
Uriah, however, throws a huge wrench into David’s genius yet shameless plot. The man who’s been sinned against by Israel’s King does not go home. He steadfastly refuses because soldiers are not allowed to be furloughed like that.
So David, UNREPENTANTLY hatches another plan. “Joab, my loyal general, place Uriah in the front lines where the fighting is the fiercest, pull back, and leave him exposed.” Sure enough Bathsheba’s husband is killed (murdered – really by David) in the battle. Then, as soon as the military funeral with all its honours, eulogies and mourning is over, David calls for Bathsheba, welcomes her once again into his home with all the royal fanfare, pomp and circumstance he can muster. And they are married.
You can just imagine how the kingdom of Israel and the mainstream media gushed over it: “Praise God for King David! Takes in this poor war widow who tragically lost her beloved husband in the war. What a gracious king!” And then, when the baby bump starts to show, the unrestrained praise from the media talking heads would be over the top: “Praise God! Thanks be to God! The royal couple is expecting their first baby! What joy!” And that’s precisely what David wanted. His UNREPENTANT disinformation campaign worked!
At least he thought so. He may have fooled most of Israel. However, as 2 Samuel 11 tells us, what David had done did not please the LORD. Or as Paul would say it: David GRIEVED THE HOLY SPIRIT! Isn’t that so Captain Obvious by now?
Coveted his neighbor’s wife (10th Commandment). Committed adultery (6th). Murdered (5th). Lied (2nd). Stole (7th) All because he did not fear, love and trust in God above all things (1st)! With pleasure David did what his old-Adamic flesh wanted. He let sin rule his life. No regrets. No repentance. No desire for forgiveness. No longing to live a God-pleasing life. For an entire year! Yes, he grieved the Holy Spirit. Lost the Holy Spirit. And that, of course, is not just salvationally dangerous; It is salvationally deadly! We’d put it this way today: At this point in David’s life, he’s lost.
Jesus tells parables about the lost. Lost coin. Lost sheep. Lost sons. Lostness, then, makes David a target all the more to be repented and faith-ed – or as Jesus puts it: FOUND!
And for that divine work — a preacher! Nathan. Boldly gets in David’s face. Speaks the truth of God’s Word to power. “You’ve sinned David! You’re the man who committed adultery and murdered Uriah. It’s time to tell the truth. Man up!” That’s a Holy Spirit-filled sermon by the way. Just as Jesus says in John 16:8, namely, that the Holy Spirit convicts people of their sin. Through Nathan’s sermon the Holy Spirit, terribly grieved by David, rolls up His sleeves and convicts David of his sin.
And for the first time in a year, David tells the truth and the grieving of the Holy Spirit in his life ends. He confesses: “I have sinned against the LORD,” (2 Sam 12:13). Can you imagine the joy in heaven among the angels over this one sinner who is repented by Nathan’s Holy Spirit-filled sermon?
And there is more. When a sinner has been Holy Spirit-ly convicted of his sin, like David, the Holy Spirit uses a preacher, like Nathan, to bestow divine forgiveness: “The Lord has put away your sin,” (2 Sam 12:13). Holy Spirit-filled absolution! To which David gave his “Amen.”
This is precisely why King David wrote Psalm 51. We sing it after the sermon when we use Setting Three in the hymnal. Remember? Sing it with me. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. CAST ME NOT AWAY FROM YOUR PRESENCE, AND TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Amen.”
Like King David, we need to pray this Psalm to faith fully live in and from our baptisms. To be repented, faithed and led in holy living by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word.
Let’s be honest and let’s quit pretending. We LCMS-ers also grieve the Spirit of Christ, through our numerous idolatries, our rampant misuse of God’s divine Name, our boredom with and deafness to God’s Word (especially His Word of grace), our rebellion against authority (parental, civil or churchly), our murder through hatred, discrimination and bigotry, our unfaithfulness to our spouse, lusting for others sleeping around, and addictions to wicked websites, our thievery petty or grand, and our ruining people’s reputations.
And when the Holy Spirit, through the pastor or another Christian calls us to repentance, we brazenly refuse, saying, “I’m a Lutheran! I got gold stars in Sunday School. I’m confirmed. I checked all the boxes. Repent? Yeah right! I do what I want when I want!” Yes, we LCMS-ers have, I fear, out-King-David-ed King David when it comes to grieving the Holy Spirit in our lives, with brazen, arrogant unrepentance.
As with King David so too with Trinity, Murdock. The Lord sends pastors. Likeable or not. But faithful. To speak the truth. For the sake of confession and absolution. So, starting today, like King David let’s say: “I have sinned against the Lord!” That’s the Holy Spirit at work. And like Nathan, I’m here to tell you: “Jesus died FOR YOU! All your sin is answered for, atoned for, sacrificed for, through His divine Blood shed on the Good Friday cross.” And that’s more Holy Spirit at work: FOR YOU!
What joy among the angels in heaven over a small bunch of rag tag sinners here at Trinity, Murdock who are Holy Spirit-ly repented, faithed and lead in holy living here today. “Sealed for the day of redemption.” Let us pray:
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people and kindle in them the fire of your love.”
Come, Holy Spirit, our hearts have grown cold. Warm us with your gospel fire.
Come, Holy Spirit, our faith has grown dim. Blow on these dimly burning wicks of faith and ignite them anew.
Come, Holy Spirit, our tongues have grown silent. Loosen them to speak the good news of Jesus to sinners who need to hear it.
Come, Holy Spirit, our love has grown cold in these grey and latter days. Bring us your love, the love of the Father who gave His Son for us, the love of Jesus who loved us to death on a cross.
Come, Holy Spirit on the Last Day to raise up our bodies and give us eternal life with all believers in Jesus — an eternal day full of grace and gladness! The day of redemption!
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
John 6:22-35
The crowds chase down Jesus for bread. Bread that perishes. Jesus has much more to give than loaves of bread. He categorically gives Himself as Living Bread! In other words, He comes to give His life on the cross to save the world AND YOU. But the only thing on the crowd’s mind is free bread. How about you? Are you hungry only for bread that is here today and gone tomorrow? Well, it’s time to be repented of that and then to use BREAD OF LIFE JESUS properly as Savior FOR YOU.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Bread is a delicious gift from the Lord. The aroma of bread baking in the oven is mouthwatering. Eating freshly baked bread is double bonus round. Through Moses, Jesus used bread/manna to feed Old Testament Israel on its way to the Promised Land. Jesus has just fed 5,000 with just five loaves of bread with twelve baskets full of leftovers. The apostles, no doubt, kept asking: “Would you like a take home box for that?” Jesus teaches you to pray for daily bread: Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Bread feeds the body. Jesus does care for your body.
He takes care of you physically. True. But He has more to give. More than you could ever imagine. Surely you might beg Jesus for something else. Something that is His quintessential cup of tea! Something salvific perhaps? A salvational gift? Like lording His Good Friday Kingdom of forgiveness over you. Don’t forget what comes before “give us this day our daily bread.” Before that you are instructed to pray, “thy kingdom come” and, “thy will be done.” How about asking Jesus for that as well!
No? Really? All you want is your stomach to stop rumbling? Make the hunger pains go away for the day? If Jesus would just give you a couple loaves of freshly baked bread, you’d be satisfied and be on your way? A bread king Jesus? That’s that only use you’d have for Him? Really? Wow! How little you think of Him!
Well, you’re not the only ones. So too the crowds in John 6! They go out of their way to find Jesus. All the way to the other side of the sea. That’s quite an effort. Why? For bread. Free bread. That’s all. That’s the only use they have of Him.
Well, I’m here to tell you that if all you want from Jesus is bread for the stomach, then you’re on the ragged edge of hellaciously excluding yourself from what He’s ultimately for. And what’s that? Jesus as Redeemer. Jesus Good Friday-ly FOR YOU and for your salvation as the Bread of Life come down from heaven!
Savior Jesus says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” And then comes His clincher: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Did you catch that? It’s the salvational biggie! It’s the salvific elephant in the room. It’s spelled: F-A-I-T-H! “Believe in him whom [God the Father] has sent.” BELIEVE IN JESUS!
Why? Well, it’s because Jesus alone is the Savior. Jesus is salvational divine Bread that never perishes. He is Bread for the long haul. Bread for eternal life. Bread from heaven TO GIVE YOU HEAVEN. FOR YOUR faith in Him AND FOR YOUR SALVATION JESUS SAYS: “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “I am the bread of Life.” Then Jesus categorically promises, “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
When Jesus asserts that He is the bread of life, this is His way of saying: “I’m Savior FOR YOU! Here I am. Good Friday-ly FOR YOU! Believe in me! Trust in me for salvation. That’s what I’m good for!”
Today, Bread-of-Life-From-Heaven-Jesus gathers you around Himself. Repents you of only having use of Him for bread that perishes. Faiths you so that you hunger – so that you eat – so that have good use of Jesus as THE SALVATIONAL BREAD OF LIFE. Teaches you to trust only in Him for salvation. After all, He died and rose FOR YOU!
Now, as you, (the new Israel), wander in the wilderness of this world on your way to the Promised Land of heaven, Bread-of-Life-Jesus feeds you. Provides FOR YOU. With BREAD … and wine He gives you His crucified, risen and ascended body and blood. Why? To faith you all the more in Him with His unthwartable promise: “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” And that’s precisely what Jesus means when He John six-ly promises: “I am the bread of Life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
So go ahead. Eat Bread of Life Jesus as you trust in Him. Cling to His promise that His death on the cross is FOR YOU – to save you. Faith fully eat the bread in the Sacrament in which Jesus gives you His Good Friday Body. Faith fully drink the wine by which He gives you His all-atoning-for-sin-Blood and the whole enchilada of all His crucified and risen Body and Blood’s atoning benefits.
Happy having such a salvific use of Bread of Life Jesus! It’s spelled F-A-I-T-H! As you believe so you have!
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
Genesis 9:8-17
Not your typical sermon. Not your typical preacher. Where? In the sky! A red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet preacher. The rainbow!
The rainbow preaches because God has attached His Word of promise to it! It proclaims God’s Word to all who have ears to hear. Whenever you see a rainbow in the sky a very loud divine sermon is going on! To the world, Noah, his family and to you! The sermon is twofold! On the one hand it proclaims and reminds one of the enormity of God’s wrath against sin and sinners! The flood’s cosmic devastation. On the other hand it promises and declares comfort. Never again will God destroy the world by a flood.
I fear we LCMS-ers and the church in general have become deaf and dull to what God preaches to us through the rainbow in the sky! I fear we are like the people to whom Noah preached for decades. Spiritually deaf to hearing the call for repentance, faith, and holy living.
Faithful preacher Noah preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He incessantly begged people to turn from their sin and then to the Lord’s promise of forgiveness through the Savior, the descendant of Eve, who would crush Satan’s skull. For 120 years Noah preached: repent and believe God’s promise of salvation in the coming Savior Jesus Christ. I’ve only been preaching that for 26 years at Trinity. The only difference is that Jesus has come and will come again in glory on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead.
When Noah preached hardly anyone listened. Scarcely any one cared. The people of Noah’s day blew off the divine service where Noah preached repentance, faith and holy living. He made sure that He emphasized God’s promise of the coming Savior! But to no avail. The people in Noah’s day would not be bothered or inconvenienced by a preacher of God’s Word. In Matthew 24 Jesus says that these folks were: “eating and drinking … marrying and giving in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark.”
In other words, the everyday activities of this world were their idols. Sound familiar? And I remind you that idols demand total and absolute devotion. Idols demand your all. And that means that you are never allowed a Sabbath Day’s rest so that the Lord, through His Word, would repent, faith and guide in holy living. Such idolatry will end badly, hellishly, hellaciously!
The people in Noah’s day couldn’t care less. They blew off God’s call, through Noah’s sermons, for their repentance, faith and living a God-pleasing life. Their idolatry would not allow it. It went something like this: “Noah! What a loon! He is crazy! He’s building a gigantic ark on dry land! What does he think is going to happen? A flood or something? What an idiot! We all know that can’t happen! Besides, we’re late for the next party!”
Idolatrous unbelief – the refusal to be repented and most especially faithed in the true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, does not end well! Unbelief calls God a liar. And so God did what He promised. He unleashed His wrath on the unbelieving world! He gave the world that would not trust His Word what it wanted as its punishment.
So one day, all of a sudden, the springs of the great deep burst forth! The floodgates of the sky broke wide open! Forty days and forty nights of non-stop water! Increasing higher and higher! Nowhere to escape! The floodwaters covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet! They obliterated everything! Everything perished! For 150 days the floodwaters brutally ravaged the earth! Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out! In Matthew 24 Jesus comments: “They knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.”
So first, as often as rainbow appears in the sky, it preaches loudly and clearly to the world about the wrath that once moved God to destroy the entire world with a flood because of the world’s stubborn resistance to listen to a preacher!
Noah and his family, however, believed in God and His promise to send the Savior! They escaped the punishment of the flood in the ark. But they witnessed God’s wrath against sin as they floated in the ark. Can you imagine how afraid they were? And so the rainbow also preaches something else. Comfort! To dry up their tears and soften their grief!
Yes, the rainbow also preaches God’s promise. Listen. God wants you to hear His promise. To trust it. “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you … every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’”
The rainbow is hooked with God’s Word of promise never to destroy all life like that again. But the Lord is not done preaching. When He preaches comfort He goes on and on! There’s always more! “‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.’”
The Lord still isn’t done. He repeats the promise again to show and prove His extraordinary affection for His creation and for sinners who believe in Him. Listen: “‘Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant … Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant.’”
Brothers and sisters, every time you see the rainbow in the sky may it lead you to repentance. It is time for you and me to fear, love, and trust in God above all things! Why?
So that we may be rescued from the wrath and punishment of God on the Last Day in which the world and all unbelievers will be destroyed. Not by water! But by fire! We are tempted to believe that the Last Day will never come! That it’s all a lie. That the preacher, like Kuhlman, is a fool for warning us about it. That Jesus will not return to judge the living and the dead! The apostle Peter preached it this way (and we’d better pay attention): “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare … That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.” (2 Peter 3:10-11)
Peter then asks you and me the big pastoral question: “What kind of people ought you to be?” Well? Like the people in Noah’s day? Who said such destruction could never happen? That the world will never come to an end? Not hardly!
Peter’s answer is: “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”
Holy and godly lives! How do you spell “holy and godly lives”?
R-E-P-E-N-T! Repentance! That’s the life of Holy Baptism! Dying daily to your sin by confessing it! And then most importantly: faith in Jesus! Trusting that He alone is the Savior! Who took all your sin in His Body on the cross as the one and only atoning sacrifice for your salvation! Who promises: “I died for you! All your sin is mine! All my righteousness is yours! I endured all of God’s wrath against all sin and every sinner in my dying! My Father doesn’t hate you! He loves you! I’m the Father’s categorical proof of that as I died on the cross FOR YOU!”
There is more! To comfort you and to prove His love for you even more Jesus takes water, yes, that’s right, water and He hooks it with His most holy Name – holy baptism – a flood –if you will – by which God saves you!
Yes, that’s right, baptism “saves you!” because Jesus saves you! Check it out. The apostle Paul teaches in Romans 6 that, “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.” That’s His Good Friday death! Paul also proclaims in Titus 3 that “God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
Then there is 1 Peter 3:21-22! Listen to this promise: “In it [the ark] only a few people, eight in all [Noah, his wife, sons and daughters-in-law] were saved THROUGH WATER, and this water [the Flood] corresponds to baptism that NOW SAVES YOU also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It SAVES YOU by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”
Did you catch that? Baptism is not a bath to get dirt off your body. Instead, it is a flood that gives you a “good conscience” before God. A good conscience is the conscience where Jesus and all His forgiveness reigns against sin, death and the devil. Such powers are submissive to Him – the Lamb who has been slain – but who now rules at the Father’s right hand!
And then there is the magnificent and unthwartable promise from Jesus’ own mouth: Listen. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” (Mark 16:16).
Saved you are! From God’s wrath! From the damnation of your sin! From eternal death and hell!
The rainbow in the sky! Jesus graveyard dead on the Cross! Jesus risen from the dead! And the flooding water of Holy Baptism! All for you! The Lord’s promise that you are saved! Even on the Last Day! And on into eternity.
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
Mark 6:30-44
The Lord, from the beginning in Genesis until the Last Day, will have a church. That’s an incredible miracle. After all, Satan and his cronies outside and inside the church labor 24-7-365 to eliminate Christ’s bride from the face of the earth. The fact that the church continues is a divine miracle.
The Lord’s promise, given by Jeremiah in today’s OT reading, to have a church, is fulfilled by Jesus. Remember? “I will set shepherds over them who will care for them….” Jesus ultimately satisfies this pledge. That’s why Mark says: “He [Jesus] had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” In fact, Jesus is the Psalm 23 Good Shepherd. He is the promised Davidic-King of kings who in His Person and Work is the reign of God on the earth. Literally! But this Shepherd/King Jesus reigns like no other. He rules compassionately, caringly, lovingly. He lives not for Himself but sacrificially for the sake of sinners. “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many,” (Mt 18:20).
And that’s why He’s rarely alone. In the NT Jesus is always having an Israel, a people, a church, a bunch of faith-ers or hangers on whom He’s caring for, serving, giving, providing. In this case the congregation numbers the 12 apostles and 5,000 others — that’s just counting the men!
And when Jesus is having a church, whether it’s in the OT or NT, He’s always talking/preaching/teaching and providing meals or eating with folks. Jesus taught “many things” through Moses. Jesus compassionately and miraculously fed Israel manna and quail. So too now in Mark 6. His salvational compassion is revealed in “teaching many things” and feeding. He edifies and He nourishes. Instruction and an unforgettable meal.
What is there to eat? It would take at least 200 days of wages to feed a mega church like this. But all they have are five measly loaves of bread and two little fish! That’s it. For a crowd of 5,000? So little for so many?
That’s when Shepherd/King Jesus rolls up His sleeves and goes to work. As servant. As Servant Shepherd. As Servant King. “Hey Everyone! I am among you as One Who serves. I’m providing a banquet! A SUPPER! FOR YOU! My treat! It’s on Me!” “
“Recline everyone. Yes. On the green grass. Does that remind you of something? It should! Psalm 23, ‘He makes me lie down in green pastures.’ Now you know who I am! THE GOOD SHEPHERD!”
“Make it groups of hundreds and fifties. That’s how I arranged OT Israel as they wandered in the wilderness after I exodus-ed them from Satanic Egypt and his henchman Pharaoh. So now, in the same manner, I arrange my NT Israel in this ‘desolate place’ as I journey to do THE ultimate salvational Exodus – A GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER SUNDAY — to deliver the world from Satan’s hellish grip and crushing the serpent’s head!”
After Jesus teaches these “many things” through His instructions, there is a little bit more meat on this Mark 6 theological bone. It goes like this: “So they sat down in GROUPS, by hundreds and by fifties.” GROUPS! Literally in the Greek: “garden plots” or “garden beds.”
Get it? This reminds you of another … garden. In the beginning. Right? The Garden of Eden! The GROUPS of hundreds and fifties are little garden plots or beds. Mark’s point is that King Jesus, Shepherd Jesus, Servant Savior Jesus, through His ministry that will climax in His salvational Good Friday and Easter Sunday Servanthood, is restoring or giving back what Adam and Eve lost in Genesis 3.
Just as Jesus walked and dwelled in the Garden – fellowshipping with Adam and Eve – being God for them, so too Jesus now, is physically present to be with and for His church. He is Immanuel – God with us! To salvationally teach. To salvationally feed. There the Lord’s having a church just like in the beginning – Garden of Eden – now GROUPS or as the Greek says, “garden plots” or “garden beds.”
Well, note carefully what Servant King, Servant Shepherd Savior Jesus does next. During the evening – “when it grew late,” He takes the five loaves and two fish in His divine hands. He prays. He blesses or consecrates them. Breaks the bread. Then He gives the bread and fish for the apostles to hand out. Does all that sound familiar? It should. It’s on purpose. We’ll connect the dots when I clinch the sermon at the end.
In any event, lo and behold, at this SERVANT-SHEPHERD-KING’S MIRACULOUS SUPPER, after everyone has had their full, the leftovers of bread and fish number 12 baskets full! All were satisfied! Full as ticks! So many, 5,000, graciously fed by Jesus with so little! Amazing.
Jesus provides. For His church. Always has. Always will. Because He remains with His church to care for her. In Matthew 18:20, He promises, “Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in their midst.” When He mandated that all nations should be baptized and taught everything He has taught, He also promised: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age,” (Mt 28:20). There is His unthwartable promise, “I will build my church. Not even the gates of hell will prevail against her,” (Mt 16:18).
So, every Sunday, the Lord-King-Good-Shepherd-Jesus is physically present according to both His divinity and His humanity, among us as ONE WHO SERVES, to continually and miraculously have a church, TO BE SHEPHERD FOR YOU. A bunch of sinners who trust in Him – who mooch off of Him — alone for their salvation.
And Like He’s always done, like in Mark 6, He teaches many things. That’s why there are three readings from the Bible (OT, an apostolic letter, and the Words of Jesus from one of the gospels) and a sermon is preached when you come to the divine service. In the Service of the Word Jesus is once again “teaching many things,” here at Trinity and all over the world! He repents, faiths and guides us in holy living according to His Words.
Like He’s always done, like in Mark 6, COMPASSIONATE SHEPHERD KING Jesus gathers His church around Himself and He provides a miraculous SUPPER. His! We call it THE LORD’S SUPPER! Holy Communion. The Sacrament of the Altar. There He gives so much (His salvational, crucified, risen and ascended Body and Blood) with so little (a little bite of bread and a sip of wine) with this gracious promise: “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”
Mark 6. Teaching and feeding. Jesus having His church. Every Sunday at Trinity, Murdock and throughout the world Jesus teaches and preaches from God’s Word and He provides the miracle of the Lord’s Supper in which He feeds His church, even this little GROUP here at Trinity of 100 or so. It’s just as Mark hints, the divine service at Trinity, Murdock is a little garden plot or garden bed – Eden restored hiddenly in Jesus as He serves you in Word and Sacrament.
Then on the Last Day you will see with your resurrected eyes and take part with your resurrected bodies the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. An eternal heavenly feast! The church of Jesus in heaven!
Until then, happy being in the church (a taste of Eden) on this side of eternity and being taught and fed by COMMPASSIONATE-SERVANT-KING-SHEPERD-Immanuel-God-with-us-to-be-GOD-FOR-US-JESUS. What joy!
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
Repentance. Faith. Holy Living. That theological triple is what it means to live in and from holy baptism. Proverbs 3:5 puts the essence of baptismal living this way: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Another way to say it, borrowing the language from Amos 7, is that the Lord’s cup of tea is to plumb line you.
And for your being plumb lined properly He sends plumbline preachers. To align sinners properly before the Lord. Plumb line preachers proclaim the law to show you your sin, stop you from making excuses, hold you accountable to God and bring divine wrath against you (Rom 3:19-20; 4:15). And, once the law plumb line preaching does it’s work of repenting you, then comes the plumb line preaching of the gospel. God’s grace. The application of the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won and achieved through His crucified Body and Blood in Word and Sacrament. And the baptized Christian then wants to live properly plumb lined before God (faith) and before others (love).
In the OT the Lord sent a plumb line preacher. Amos. He applied the plumb line of God’s Word to the northern kingdom of Israel. Amos plumb lines with God’s Word to speak and show the truth about how Israel stood before God. And it wasn’t pretty. It was quite hellacious!
Why? Because of Israel’s idolatry. First Commandment issue. Didn’t fear, love and trust in God above all things. So, Israel, as she was plumb lined by God’s Word, didn’t measure up. No repentance. No faith. No holy living.
Israel, from mighty king Jeroboam II to the poorest peasant, refused to confess sin. And, because Israel refused to confess her sin of idolatry, she had no no hunger or desire to be plumb lined with the gospel. Refused the Lord’s way of making them right or just before Him, namely, being given the forgiveness for all sin, especially idolatry.
Imagine that! Not wanting to be given the Lord’s Good Friday forgiveness! Having no use for the Lord’s everlasting mercy colored red with His Son’s sacrificial Body and Blood. Not even a smidgen of hankering for the absolution that goes like this: “In the Name of Jesus I forgive you all your sin.” Not wanting that, of course, is the height of unrepentant idolatrous unbelief. So preacher Amos spoke for the Lord when he proclaimed: “I will spare you no longer. All of Israel’s religious and political greatness will be destroyed. Israel will be no more.”
Such plumb line preaching didn’t go over well as you can imagine. As it is in our day in LCMS congregations and in general throughout the USA so it was in Amos’ day. Israel’s congregations as well as the high falutin political and religious big wigs were outraged. Incensed! Furious! Amos was dressed down, taken to task, berated, mocked, ridiculed and ordered to “get out” of Dodge (“Bethel” really) PDQ! Or else! He was accused of inciting insurrection against the King and his government.
Israel, from top to bottom, adamantly refused to be repented and faithed (plumb lined). Israel dug in her heels. Fear, love and trust in God above all things? NO WAY!
John the Baptist continued the long line of plumb line preaching prophets. Like Amos, this mangy looking preacher audaciously proclaimed the truth of God’s plumb-lining Word to powerful prince Herod and his royal bed partner.
Remember? John called the mighty prince and his regal lover to repentance! To turn Herod and his so-called imperial “wife” away from their naughty, idolatrous sin, so that they would be turned to Jesus for salvational forgiveness, and so that they would joyfully lead live holy lives according to God’s Word.
Yes, God would, through John, plumb line the royal couple. Repent, faith and lead in holy living. After all, Herod pulled a Hunter Biden before there was a Hunter Biden. In fact, Herod out-Hunter-Biden-ed Hunter Biden. What do I mean? Herod married his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, while Philip was living and while Philip was still married to Herodias!
TLC, “E” Entertainment, HBO, Showtime, ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX would all be frothing at the mouth to turn Herod’s progressive lifestyle into the highest rated reality TV show of all time. The Kardashians – Khloe, Kourtney, Kim and the step Dad once known as “Bruce” had nothing on Prince Herod! Rachel Maddow would book Herod for an exclusive and groundbreaking made-for-television MSNBC interview in order to reveal Herod’s courageous “big love” and how brave he was in helping to break through society’s white-supremacist-oppressive and bigoted views on traditional marriage.
First Commandment? Sixth Commandment? Not even on Herod or Herodias’ radar screens! After all, Herod and Herodias preached their own sermons to themselves with their own made up words. Their words were always better words than the Lord’s. It went something like this: “We love each other. As long as you love each other and yourself that’s all that matters. As long as what we do is done in love, we can do anything we want. What people do in the privacy of their own royal bedroom is nobody’s business. We will not be plumb lined by you John or any other preacher even if His name is Jesus!”
Just as it is in LCMS congregations, so it was in John’s day. The worst thing a preacher can say to anyone is: “What you’re doing does not please God. You have sinned. Repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and bear fruit worthy of repentance. Fear, love and trust in God above all things.” As it is today so it was then. Such plumb line preaching is considered the worst of macro aggressions! It’s equivalent to a racial slur. Just as it is today among LCMS-ers, so it was in John’s day. Herod and Herodias would have none of John’s plumb line preaching.
They scoffed! Sneered! Jeered! In full-blown self-justification! How dare a scum of the earth preacher named John call us sinners! How dare John tell us what a marriage is! How dare he intrude in our bedtime and between the sheets activities and call it “SIN”!
Herodias was so furious that she held a gregarious grudge against him. She waited patiently until she could finally get rid of the preacher with immunity. Herod kept John around for entertainment. Sadly, the fun consisted of a drunken blow out birthday bash, a skanky pole dancer, AKA Herodias’ daughter, a preposterous promise and preacher John’s head getting severed from his body, paraded around on a platter to the delight of her highness Herodias and most likely to the shock of even the most wasted at the birthday bash.
Most of Israel, King Jeroboam II, Herod, and Herodias despised Amos and John’s faithful preaching of God’s Word – both law and gospel. Refused to face the fact of their sinful condition and their sin especially, idolatry. No repentance. So they had no need and had no use of whom? Yes, that’s right, the Savior Jesus, the Christ. No faith. Tragic. Deeply catastrophic. Salvationly disastrous. Hellaciously calamitous. Because they all insisted on it. Over Jesus’ dead Body!
Now, let’s bring this sermon down the home stretch and finish with a flourish. These Bible stories are written for your instruction. Are you willing to be instructed? Or better yet, are you ready to be plumb lined? You are? Wonderful. All right. Here goes.
So what about you? Do you fear, love and trust in God above all things or only when it’s convenient for you? Will you LCMS-ers pull an Israel? A King Jeroboam II? A Herod? A Herodias? Will you too want to be rid of such troublesome and irksome preachers like Amos, John the Baptist or even a Kuhlman? Will you tell me, like Amaziah to Amos: “Go back where you came from! Go home to Wyoming! Never again preach here at Trinity, Murdock! We can’t bear your words to us!”? You’d better not. Don’t spin. Don’t justify. Don’t excuse. Confess the truth. Examine your life according to the First Commandment and all the rest that flow from it.
So, FOR YOU, I’m here to tell you that this is not the end of the story. There’s more. I have the gospel to give. It is the good news of salvation. The Triune God is a jealous God. He wants you all to Himself. He will share you with no false gods. He alone wants to be God FOR YOU!
He’s sent me here to tell you that His incarnate Son Jesus took all your sin in His crucified Body, even idolatry, so that He was counted as MAXIMUM IDOLATOR in order to sacrificially pay or atone FOR ALL YOUR SIN! Yes, Jesus is the ONE AND ONLY Savior of LCMS-er sinners who are idolatrously out of plumb. Who don’t measure up. Who are way out of whack?
FOR YOU there is total and complete forgiveness in the divine Body and Blood of Jesus that suffered, bled and died on the cross and now given you today in His Supper.
Paul, perhaps the greatest plumb line preacher ever, proclaimed the good news this way: “In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace,” (Ephesians 1:7).
Yes, Jesus is greater than your sin. There’s no sin too big for Him! Even idolatry. He is the LORD! You are forgiven – in Him. You are saved in His precious Good Friday bloody wounds. Or as I’ve preached it today: plumb lined! Declared right. Straight. Centered. Justified before God.
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
In our old Adamic sinful selves, we pridefully write the story for our lives. We draw on OUR strengths, OUR education, OUR assets, OUR expertise, OUR hopes, OUR plans, and OUR dreams. It’s all about us. As if we’re in charge. In control. And then we boast, brag, crow and show off to anyone who will listen – or watch on social media posts. Like we’re godlings.
Can you imagine, if St. Paul could have done such things, the Instagram and Facebook posts from him? Showing his being: “Caught up to the third heaven. Caught up to paradise. Heard things that cannot be told.” Can you imagine the photos and stories he’d post? Impressive! Wow Paul! That’s incredible! You’re such a stud! That’s really stuff to boast about! And Paul would be so conceited, proud, smug arrogant and vain. Who wouldn’t?
We pridefully write the story of our lives. As if we’re all powerful and Jesus really is a nothing. And what happens? Our lives don’t go or turn out as we infallibly intended or conceited-ly planned. God throws wrenches into our plans. He inconveniences and interrupts in order to detour or derail our self-centered hopes, plans and dreams. Economic disaster. A marriage on the rocks or a failed marriage. A rebellious son or daughter. A lost job. A ruined reputation. An infection, a disease, or clogged arteries. Suffering discrimination, bigotry or flat out persecution for having membership in a Christian congregation. You name it. We don’t write such things into the stories of our lives.
Take St. Paul. To keep him from becoming “conceited,” because he was, “caught up to the third heaven… [and] to paradise … [as well as] hearing things that cannot be told,” the apostle was given “a thorn … in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass” him!
What was the “thorn in the flesh”? Most scholars believe it was some chronic health issue. What kind? Some say it was an eye disease. We don’t know for sure. The “thorn in the flesh” no doubt made Paul’s life quite difficult and painful. It wasn’t what he planned. That wasn’t part of the story that Paul had written for his life.
So, Paul begged the Lord to take it away. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.” Paul was as serious as a heart attack with his praying. “TAKE THE THORN IN THE FLESH AWAY FROM ME LORD! Extract it! Pull it out with divine tweezers or pliers from Your heavenly tool box! I didn’t plan on this! I need to get my life back on track the way I want it! I’ve written the story of my life and this blasted Satanic thorn is preventing my narrative”
How did God answer Paul’s prayer? It went like this: “I’m digging in my heels Paul! I want you to suffer the thorn in the flesh. I want this messenger from Satan to keep on relentlessly harassing you! The thorn stays Paul! My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Do you get it? The more Paul pushes Paul and Paul’s ways, the less Jesus and His savior-ing gets pushed. Paul must decrease so that Jesus may increase! The thorn stays so that Paul will trust in Jesus all the more! And that’s spelled F-A-I-T-H! The Christian lives by FAITH! Faith in Jesus who Good Friday-ly died and then Easter Sunday-ly rose – “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification,” (Rom 4:25).
The more that Paul thinks he’s in charge of writing his own life story, the less of the salvational story of Jesus’ gets told or preached – the less Jesus gets trusted. So that this doesn’t happen Paul gets to keep suffering the “thorn in the flesh.” For the sake of God’s grace in Jesus Christ being sufficient for Paul’s life, the apostle comes to grips of living by FAITH with boasting, “all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ [His Good Friday salvific forgiveness for me], Paul declares, “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak then I am strong.”
Do you get it? A Christian’s life is not marked by INDEPENDENCE (needing Jesus less) but DEPENDENCE (needing Jesus all the more)! F-A-I-T-H! Utter dependence on Jesus. So, if you’re smelling what Paul’s cooking, the life of the baptized Christian is one of constant need for Jesus, His Word of forgiveness, and the sustenance His Body and Blood gives in the Lord’s Supper.
Listen again to how Paul speaks of himself, all of us, and what it means to be a Christian. “When I am weak [relying not on myself but on Jesus and receiving what He gives in Word and Sacrament] then I am strong.” The less we are, the more Jesus is FOR US AND FOR OUR SALVATION. That’s why Jesus told Paul: “The thorn stays buddy! Through such suffering you’ll trust in me more than ever! You’ll be my faith-er all the more!”
This is what gave St. Paul such joy and satisfaction! So too with all of us! In our lives we are divinely disciplined by the “thorns” we suffer. Why? So that we will need and want Jesus all the more. That we will trust that His, “grace is sufficient for us, [too and that His] power is made perfect in [our] weakness.”
Let me summarize it this way: As the Good Friday death of Jesus, in utter weakness made perfect our salvation, so our own weaknesses, trials, and crosses that we suffer and endure are God’s gracious power doing His perfect work in us that is spelled F-A-I-T-H. The faith-er apostle Paul puts it this way: “When I am weak, [trusting in Jesus] then I am strong [because Jesus is everything for me].” It’s always about trusting Jesus all the more. Always being dependent on Him.
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
Mark 4:35-41
A boat ride on the glassy sea. So far so good. It’s so effortless to put your trust in Jesus when it’s smooth sailing. Piece of cake! Life is good. You’d tell everyone how blessed you are. I hear this all the time from people when everything is going smoothly.
And then as soon as you can say “Bob is your uncle,” life changes for the worse. Like that day on the sea with Jesus. A derecho-like storm hits! Gargantuan straight line winds! Whitecaps! The boat is taking on water big time. Captain Obvious: this is a very serious situation. Deadly serious. Even for experienced boatmen / fishermen. All hands on deck! Bail as fast as you can! Crank those oars! It’s desperate. They only have minutes or this will be a Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald-like-tragedy.
And do you see what Jesus is doing? He’s sound asleep on the pillow in the back of the boat! What’s with that? Wake Him up ASAP! Shake Him by the shoulders if you have to. Maybe even a slap across His face. “Wake up Jesus! Wake up! Don’t you care that we are perishing?”
What a question they and we put to Jesus! “Don’t you care?” Really? You’d ask Him that? It’s no surprise then that Jesus asks the disciples and all of us today: “Have you still no faith?” Jesus wants faith-ers, trusters, hangers-on.
So to those who ask, “Don’t you care,” I’m here to tell you that Jesus cares. Deeply. Incarnationally deeply. He took on your flesh — because you were suffocating in your sin, drowning in your old Adamic death, sinking to the depths of hell with the heavy millstone of the law wrapped around your necks. He cares Good Friday-ly deeply. Bearing all your sin and its entire curse, falling into the deep sleep of death for your salvation. Yes, He did this FOR YOU and yet you and the disciples ask: “Don’t you care Jesus?” Really?
Jesus does cares. Even when it looks like He doesn’t. Compared to His salvific caring on the cross, a little old sinking boat, heart disease, cancer, an economic downturn, death, the grave or whatever is nothing. Can you trust a sleeping and snoring Jesus in the sinking boat? Can you trust a sleeping dead Good Friday Jesus hanging on the cross? Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s time to be repented of not trusting Him no matter what you’re encountering or going through.
Again, Jesus cares enough to lay down His life to save you. To die as a damned criminal – bearing all sin and all your sin in His crucified Good Friday Body and then gloriously rising from the dead. You’re always safe and secure in Jesus. Even if, in boat, you, the disciples and Jesus, were all swallowed, engulfed or downed by the waves.
Let me illustrate this most important salvational point. Imagine yourself at the beach. The video camera shows what a beautiful day it is. People playing beach volleyball. Throwing frisbees for Border Collies to chase. Sunbathing. Flying kites. Collecting sea shells. Building sandcastles. Body surfing. But then everyone notices a young girl struggling in the surf. She’s bobbing up and down. She’s drowning. The lifeguard immediately jumps into the waves. Swims to the girl. Grabs underneath her shoulders. But to the horror of everyone watching, they both go under. And they don’t come up! Absolutely shocking. Sickening. Then the video camera focuses on the lifeguard’s chair. In the seat there’s a note. It reads: “It’s OK. She’s safe – IN MY DEATH!” You’re the girl. Jesus is the lifeguard. Get it?
Back to the text. Jesus wakes up. Looks around. And barks out an order: “Peace. Be still!” Literally in the Greek: “Be muzzled!” And that’s all it takes. One little word from the Lord. The storm and the waves are still. The text says: “and there was a great calm.” Peace. Silence.
And of course, that’s when Jesus looks His disciples, as well as you and me, in the eye. “Why are you so afraid?” In other words, why are you so afraid that you won’t trust me even during a storm on a boat? Why do you live such small and fearful lives? Why do you act as though a sleeping Jesus on a pillow during a storm a Jesus-of-no-use? Why do you ask Jesus relentlessly, “Do you not care?” when there’s a heartache, a trouble, or a disease that you face? So I ask you in all seriousness. If Jesus singlehandedly conquered Satan, sin, death and the grave by His dying/sleeping on the cross and rising/awaking on the third day, don’t you think He has everything else covered as well? Of course He does! And don’t you think that the awakened, resurrected Jesus, when He says: “Peace, be still — I forgive you,” that there is great salvational calm? Of course there is!
In the text, Jesus draws all your FEAR to Himself. Whereas we and the disciples on the boat were afraid of the power of nature, of the sea and the storm, now Jesus directs your fear toward Him. Check it out. “And they were filled with great fear,” Mark says, “and said to one another, ‘Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”
Jesus wants your fear. Remember the meaning of the First Commandment? “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” So I ask you. What causes your heart to race? What keeps you up at night? What blocks you from trusting Jesus because of something or someone that you fear? Listen. Jesus wants that fear! Don’t fear the wind, the waves, the storm, the tumor, the disease, the burst blood vessel, Satan or the grave. Don’t fear what can only destroy the body, but cannot harm the soul. Fear God. Fear the Son of God, for He will swallow up your fear. Who is greater than the Lord?
You know the answer. So there is no one or nothing else to fear. So when you fear Jesus above all things you also love and trust in Him above all things. The same sleeping but then awakened and speaking Jesus who stills the storm — is the same Jesus who slept on the cross, woke up on Resurrection Day and who now speaks: “Peace, be still. I forgive all your sin and you are justified before before God. You are safe, dear baptized believer. Safer than you could ever imagine. Safe in My life. Safe in my death and resurrection.
So to clinch the sermon today. You’re in the boat with Jesus on the sea. The storm hits. The winds rage. The water is sinking the boat. You take hold of Jesus in faith and pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, save me. I’m going to die.” And instead of rebuking the wind and waves, Jesus simply wraps His crucified and risen arms and hands of His around you and says nothing more than this, “Don’t be afraid. It’s finished. You’re safe in my death. You’re safe in my resurrection. Trust me.”
That’s certain and sure for you faith-ers. What joy!
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
Matthew 1:18-25Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
You’re puzzled. You’re saying: “Why this text today Kuhlman? I wanted you to preach a Father’s Day sermon. And you’ve picked an Advent/Christmas text.” I can see the disappointment in your faces. What’s that? What did you say? “Kuhlman’s out of his weight class? He’s one brick short of a load? He’s out over his skis?” That’s true. I don’t disagree. We’ve all known that for decades. But wait! I beg you. Hang on. I contend that this text fits perfectly for a Father’s Day sermon.
“How?” I’m so glad you asked. It’s Joseph. Yes, Joseph, the guardian of Jesus. I know. I know. Joseph isn’t the physical father of Jesus. Jesus, of course, is the only begotten divine Son of the Father from eternity. However, Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. And yet, Joseph is the stand-in “father” since he’s in it for the long haul in holy marriage to Mary.
So, today, we will rejoice with thanksgiving in how the Lord used Joseph as a father faith-er and a father do-er, so that the Lord will have same kind of use from us men. We men struggle with both (being faith-ers and do-ers / just ask the women we live with) and yet at the same time the Lord still has excellent use of us as His faith-ers to be His working hands and mouth (do-ers) for good in our marriages, families, congregation and communities. It’s always a both/and. A simul. So, today, as always, the Lord repents us, faiths us and leads us to be godly do-ers as men, husbands and fathers. The women, children, grandchildren, congregation and community members with whom we live will be most grateful.
So, let’s have a crack at this: Joseph as a faith-er / do-er deputy father. There’s no doubt he struggled like all of us. After all, when the Eternal Word of God takes on flesh to take all our sin in His Body on the cross and atone for it by the shedding of His Blood, all our lives, yours, mine and Joseph’s are never the same again. Seriously. Everything in his life was changed.
What do I mean? Well, what do you think Joseph’s initial reaction was when Mary told him she was pregnant? Especially when she contended the Baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit as the archangel Gabriel preached to her. I’ll tell you. Everyone knows that virgins do not conceive and give birth. Even I, who went to juco, who rode the short bus and who has no biology degree know this. Joseph did too! He knew full well how females get pregnant and most of all he knew he wasn’t responsible in his fiancée’s case.
Oh, and let’s not forget that this is most likely an arranged marriage and that Joseph is most likely much older than Mary. My point? I think it’s safe to say they weren’t head over heels in love with each other! This isn’t Romeo and Juliet or a Harlequin Romance novel!
But there is something really important to observe from the text. It’s this: Joseph is a, “just man.” Fair. Upright. He’s a man! “A MENSCH!” as Dr. Ken Korby would say. Joseph’s all in to honor, faithfulness, commitment and community. Things that are foundational to marriage and family. Most women today would love to have a man like that! Even if it was arranged. After all, many young women tell me it’s very hard, if not impossible, to find a faithful Christian man who is “just.”
But now Joseph, let’s call him “the Just” is confronted with a gargantuan problem. Mary is pregnant. And the child isn’t his. He knows he cannot marry her, but at the same time, because he is a “just man,” he does not want to subject to her public shame. Yes, that’s right, shame! All the stares in the village square. All the whispers and the gossip. You know how it is. So, what will Joseph the Just do? He decides to quietly break off the engagement which is the equivalent of a divorce.
Do you understand what Joseph the Just is doing? Instead of everyone thinking and believing that Mary has committed adultery and all the blame and shame are on her, Joseph will make it look like he’s really not that “just”! He’ll call it all off. As if he has no honor! No faithfulness! No commitment! So that everyone will blame and shame him! So that everyone will say: “What a horrible beast, rogue and scoundrel Joseph is! He hurt Mary so badly!” That would then allow Mary to carry on with the man who is the father of the child. The community would blame and shame him for divorcing her for no reason, and Mary would be able to carry on with her life. Get it? Now that’s self-sacrificial love!
That’s Joseph the Just’s plan. But it’s not the Lord’s! So, God sends a preacher, an angel, who proclaims to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her IS FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Note two huge miracles here! First, the Savior, Jesus, who saves sinners, like you and me, from their sins is conceived in the Virgin Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. Mary the virgin really did get pregnant! But what do you think is the second miracle? It’s this: Joseph the Just BELIEVED the sermon preached by the angel in the dream [faith-er] and DID as he was told [do-er]!
This is so biblically, absolutely and deliciously incredible! Joseph BELIEVES that the virgin Mary, his own fiancée, conceived a child by the Holy Spirit. And then He ACTED in that faith in order serve as surrogate father to the Son of God! He took Mary to be his wife. He gave the Baby the name Jesus.
Joseph being a faith-er and a do-er is the biblical pattern. Check it out. In Matthew 2 an angel of the Lord preaches another sermon to him in dream: “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.” And what did Joseph the Just do? HE DID IT! “And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod,” (Mt 2:13-15).
Did you know, brothers and sisters, that there is no recorded word of Joseph in the NT? Yes, that’s right! Not one single spoken word! Because he’s all action. His ACTIONS as surrogate father to Jesus and husband to Mary speak much louder than any of his words. That makes sense. After all, Joseph the Just is a man who made his living building things out of wood. Working with his hands. Measuring, sawing, drilling, nailing, sanding and polishing.
Surrogate father and husband Joseph’s faith in the Boy who is his and the world’s Savior, is shown by his quiet action. Takes his pregnant fiancée home. Marries her. Gives the child the name Jesus. Flees to Egypt when Herod wants to kill Jesus. Brings the family back. Settles in Nazareth when the danger is past. All without so much as a recorded word from his mouth!!!!
Finally, here’s one more act of Joseph to clinch what I’ve been juco- and-short-bus-pastorally-preaching-and-teaching-today. Another faith-act Joseph the Just carries out. Or more accurately, what he REFRAINS FROM DOING! And what’s that? It’s something that I don’t think any of us men would do. Joseph waits until Jesus is born to have a honeymoon with Mary. I don’t think any of us men would do that. But he did!
Why? So that everyone would know and confess the truth — and that there would be no doubt — that Jesus was, “conceived by the Holy Spirit.” Joseph’s life of faith – his deeds — say more than any words from his mouth. Check it out: “he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”
Talk about a faith-er: Joseph believed Jesus saved him from his sins. Talk about a do-er: he was faithful in his doing. Not for himself. But for others. Self-sacrificial actions of love. What a husband! What a father! That’s the wonderful use the Lord had for Joseph.
That’s the beneficial use the Lord would have of you gentlemen in your marriages, families and this congregation. Using the Boy named Jesus properly for the forgiveness of your sins when you fail as husbands and fathers in order to lovingly serve your families like Joseph the Just – surrogate father to Jesus.
Have a happy Father’s Day.
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
- Jesu Juva +
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Six days for work. One day, a seventh, for rest. However, when Israel lived as SLAVES under the Satanic Egyptian rule of Pharoah they worked seven days a week. SLAVES work 24-7-365. No Sabbath rest! Ever! FOR SLAVES!
God saw the afflictions and sufferings of His people so He exodus-ed – freed – saved Israel through Moses and the water of the Red Sea which was a foretaste of God’s Son, Jesus, the promised Messiah, who would do a Good Friday and Easter Sunday Exodus for the salvation of the world and FOR YOU. Now, here in Deuteronomy, God’s OT Israel faith-ers, have been GIVEN or GIFTED a day (DID YOU HEAR THAT?) HAVE BEEN GIVEN OR GIFTED A DAY FOR REST. This is precisely why Jesus says in Mark 2, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Work six. Rest one. That’s the way God gives it.
This all goes back to the “very good” in-the-beginning-week of creation. Remember? God graciously gave/made/gifted the heavens and the earth – in fact, everything. In how many days? Six! What did He do on the seventh? Rested. To be precise Genesis says, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy [set it apart / consecrated it / holy-ed it], because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation,” (Gen 2:3). Please note that God speaks. And with His speaking He blessed the day and made it holy. BY HIS WORD He blesses and holies! Make note of that. More on that in a moment.
Oh, and while I’m at it, I have to mention that whereas each of the six days has an evening and a morning, the seventh day does not! This is huge. The seventh Day, the day given as rest, is the eternal day, the day that fulfills all the days. We call it “eternity.” The seventh day, then, the Sabbath, as God gave it in the beginning, is a foretaste, a preview, or a rehearsal of eternal rest at the end of the work week. Work six days. Then rest. Again, it bears repeating what Jesus said: “The Sabbath was made for man.” I.E. It’s God’s divine gift to Israel.
No other nation had a god who said, “I give you a day off – day to rest.” In fact, the other nations thought Israel was a bunch of loafers or ne’er do wells by working just six days a week. Again, Sabbath was God’s special gift to Israel. No other nation had this command. God’s free, chosen people had divine permission to rest, to enjoy the eternal rest of God, to sample a slice of eternity at the end of every week. Wow! Imagine that. Heaven’s eternity come to earth. Communion with God. Rest, no work. Enjoying the fruits of your labors. Resting with God. Like it was in Eden in the “very good” of the beginning.
Dr. Luther nailed it in the Small Catechism when he saw the gift of the Sabbath day as God’s Word. Gods wants to preach His Word of the gospel into our ears so that we are faith-ers! “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and God’s Word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it.”
That’s why God wanted Israel to rest on the seventh day. In the evening, the Israelites would have a nice meal, raise a glass of wine and toast God who created and redeemed them. Then they’d sleep, and then gather to hear the Word. And that’s precisely what we, the new Israel, do too. We gather on the first day of the week, the day Jesus rose from the dead, in order to hear God speak and bless us through His Word and to receive with His sacred Word the Sacrament of Jesus’ Body and Blood. And through His Good Friday Word of forgiveness Jesus, who took all your sin in His Body on the cross, counts you as holy – in Him! That’s what God calls “rest.” Sabbath’s rest. A slice of eternity, heaven on earth, every Sunday.
So when God says, “Observe the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” this means nothing else than to devote ourselves to hearing God’s Word – making use of God’s Word – exercising ourselves in it. By gladly hearing and learning it whenever and wherever it is preached and taught. After all, God’s Word is the treasure that makes everything holy.
Wherever and whenever God’s Word is preached and taught any day is a holy day – sanctified, made holy, by the Word of God and prayer (1 Tim 4:5). The Word is the essence of the Sabbath rest. This is why the guts of the divine service is all about hearing God’s Word: law, gospel, absolution, sermon, the water and the Word, bread-wine and the Word, and the benediction. Again, if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down, “the Sabbath was made for man.” God’s gift FOR YOU to hear and receive His Holy Word by which He holies you in Christ.
Unfortunately, way too many Christians, have become “ABC” Christians – Anything But Church. Sports, recreation, hobbies, family, not to mention work and family schedules, running frantically from one activity to the next, have become idols of our own making that never give us a Sabbath Day’s rest. We, like Israel, have become SLAVES serving these idols 24-7-365. We sacrifice everything or whatever these idols demand: our time, money, possessions, devotion. We look to these idols, instead of Jesus and His sacred Word, for all our good. And that is not an exaggeration.
Out of the over 10,000 minutes God gives us each week, hardly anyone will set aside 60-90 minutes once a week to hear God speak to and bless through His Word, to be given the Sabbath Day rest of Jesus’ forgiveness, life, and salvation, and then pray, praise and give thanks to Him for His gracious giving. We do that to the peril of our faith. Seriously! Faith in Jesus is only born from God’s Word and faith in Jesus lives only on the Word. Without hearing the Word, salvific faith in Jesus will wither and die. It will! I beg you. Don’t go there. Because it will end relentlessly and hellaciously in eternal agony apart from God WITH NO REST … EVER.
So today, it’s time for all of us, by God’s Word, to be repented, faith-ed and led in holy living. We need to hunger for the restful freedom of the Son of Man Jesus who, as Lord of the Sabbath, finished the salvation job by dying on the cross FOR YOU. He did His salvation job work and then preached: “It is finished.”
Then He rested on His “seventh day” in a borrowed grave to sanctify your grave. He rose victoriously from the grave in order to give you perfect salvational Sabbath rest from all your sins as I tell you today by His authority: “All your sin is forgiven for Jesus’ sake.” Or as He tells you in the Lord’s Supper, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”
Again, observing the Sabbath Day is all about the Word! We faith-ers always want to keep God’s Word in our hearts, lips and ears because it always bears fruit. It puts Satan to flight and silences his accusations against you. It strengthens your faith in Jesus. It gives you a greater desire to hear more of it and with expanding joy. It increases in you a godly piety to be Sabbath Day-ed holy all the more. It creates clean hearts and minds that rest in Jesus’ forgiveness so that on the Last Day He will raise you from the dead for an eternal Sabbath rest in the Triune God. And that’s what He’s been up to since the very beginning when He “blessed the seventh day and made it holy.”
“The Sabbath was made for man.” It is Lord of the Sabbath Jesus’ gift FOR YOU. Freedom hear His Word. Faith in Jesus, will have it no other way!
Listen here.
John 3:1-17
Do you believe in God? Well, do you? Whew! Good. I was worried for a moment. Which God do you believe in? If your answer is just, generic … “God!” that doesn’t cut it. You’re not a Christian if you just say “God.” Which God?
You’ve got to be specific. Biblically precise. Biblically faithful. The First Commandment expects you to fear, love and trust in God above all things. So, which God is it? Which God do you fear, love and trust with all your heart? Your answer makes all the difference – the salvational difference or the hellacious difference. Better get it right because of what is at stake.
There is only one God. Yes, that’s right! THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD! That’s it. “Hear of Israel: The LORD our God is one,” (Dt 6:4). And we worship one God in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “Make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Mt 28:19). The true God is one in three or three in one! One God – Three Persons.
This is the biblical teaching and is essential to Christianity and being a Christian. “We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the substance,” (Athanasian Creed). The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are not three gods but one God! Tri-une. Tri = three; una = one. Trinity!
The Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is about a living relationship. First, there is the communion WITHIN God, i.e. each Person of the Trinity intimately relates to the other. Here is what I mean. The Father begets His Son from eternity. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son …” (Jn 3:16). The Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Son. “But when the Helper [the Holy Spirit] comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father…,” (Jn 15:26). That means that God is never alone. There is the communion WITHIN God.
But there is also a communion WITH GOD. Or God’s relationship with you. Kuhlman likes to put it this way: it’s one thing for God to be God but it’s another thing for God to be God FOR YOU and to act as God FOR YOU! God is a self-donating God. Donating Himself FOR YOU! So, together as One, the undivided holy Trinity creates, redeems, and holies you. Each divine Person doing His personal thing, yet always as One.
Here I want to pause for just a moment and reflect on the heart of Christianity as it relates to the holy Trinity. Growing up in Wyoming, I was constantly told by other well-meaning and well-intended Christians that in order to be saved I needed to do something. I needed, they said, to give my life and heart to God. And when I did that I would be saved. My salvation, then, was essentially up to me. God was waiting for me to do something.
That’s not biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity is just the opposite. And it’s this. Are you ready? God gives His life and heart TO ME and TO YOU for our salvation in the incarnation, life, suffering, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus the Christ! Ephesians 2 categorically promises: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ … For by grace you have been saved … and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
It couldn’t be more clearer. Now, let’s run with more of God’s salvational giving. Since you are baptized “in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” you have been given entre into the triune love and life of God. In addition, branded with the divine and saving triune Name of God in holy baptism, you have been reborn from above to be a faith-er. So, now the Father is YOUR Father. Jesus the Son is YOUR Brother. The Spirit is YOUR Advocate, Guide, and Friend. The Triune God is God FOR YOU! He promises to act as God FOR YOU! So, you are a member of God’s family! You live in triune communion with God – WITH the Father, THROUGH the Son, and IN the Holy Spirit. This is God’s relationship with you and FOR YOU.
So, if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down, God, the Triune God, loves you. Jesus preaches it this way and it bears repeating: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” God’s love for the world in His Good Friday-ly crucified-on-the-cross-Son is also FOR YOU! Took all your sin too! Answered for all it with His divine Blood as well. And as you believe as a faith-er, so you have.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Listen here.
Genesis 1:27-28
Generally speaking, motherhood is not all that attractive these days. A Pew research study that I read recently reported that 21% of women between the ages of 18-34 don’t want to be mothers. There is a growing trend among American women to live a child-free lifestyle especially when married. Many do not want the responsibility of being a parent. Others fear the high cost of raising children or the supposed dire consequences of overpopulation of the planet. And still others are content to be a loving parent, not to children, but only to their “pets!”
Way too many girls and young women over the years have told me: “I’ll never get married and I’ll sure as &^%$ never have any children!”* As if being a wife, mother and having a family is like living in a penitentiary – suffering under cruel and unusual punishment. As if getting married and having kids is a colossal waste and really makes no positive difference in one’s life.
Well, it really does matter. Motherhood does make a wonderful difference. It’s time to listen to the Lord’s Word and trust His good and gracious will. Genesis 1 gives us the blueprint.
27 “So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Male – Female.
Man – Woman.
Husband – Wife.
Father – Mother.
That’s the Lord’s very good order from the beginning. It is very good to not only be a woman and wife but also a mother. All three go together. We really should take note of that. In the context of holy marriage God blesses the husband (a man) and the wife (a woman) with these words: “Be fruitful and increase in number.”
Being a woman, marrying a man, having children (even if by adoption) and being a mother is God-pleasing. Womanhood, marriage, and motherhood are holy vocations – holy because God’s Word is attached to them. And more: God uses a woman’s body with the help of a man’s body (the male and female body parts fit very naturally!) to create life. Procreation is what we appropriately call it. “Be fruitful and increase in number.”
I remind you all again: motherhood is God-pleasing and God blesses it. It is holy work. Motherhood matters! It’s a difference maker! God uses ladies as His instruments to create and take care of the little ones. From conception to birth. From infancy to preschool. From kindergarten to college.
Mothers, I know that many times you get worn down with all the sleepless nights, ubiquitous illnesses, earaches, dirty diapers, feedings and baths. Fatigued from putting together the never-ending peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, changing the sheets, making the bed and doing the laundry. Bushed from homework help, driving everlastingly to soccer, piano, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball and football practices. Don’t despair. Don’t give up. Stick with it. Motherhood matters.
All the everyday, mundane and ordinary tasks that you do for your children and your family are the Lord’s service to them. The Lord uses you. Your mouth. Your hands. Your feet. Your body. He takes care of His creatures through you – HIS CREATURES!
Mom, the Lord has very good use for you. Motherhood matters. You are the Lord’s instruments. You are His hands and mouth so that you can serve your neighbor: your child child! Mom, you are a Christ for your child. You live not to be served but to serve. You offer your bodies as living sacrifices as you give your life (time, talents, energy, emotions, health, hope, faith) as Mom for your child.
Motherhood clearly demonstrates loving service for others especially your children and family! Your sacrificial service of love begins with the pregnancy. You nourish the baby even before you know that there is a life conceived and growing in your womb. How beautiful is that! This is one of the most exquisite aspects of God’s work through motherhood! Sometimes you find yourselves serving others without even realizing that we are doing so (Matthew 25:34-40)!
So, from conception to birth the mother serves her child. She can’t help it! The prenatal help that she provides flows directly from her body without any decision on her part. Her hormones shift and rage as the pregnancy continues. Mom’s body is literally reshaped and restructured as she serves her child. God crafts, nourishes, protects, and cares for the baby through Mom! Mom receives the gift within her! She gives up part of herself to form the baby and she provides her child with room, sustenance, and shelter.
All this care continues after the baby is born. However, the nurture is even more intentional because the newborn baby is quite vulnerable and changes quickly. As the baby’s needs shift Mom’s service adapts accordingly. AND GOD CONTINUES TO CARE FOR THE CHILD THROUGH MOM!
It is the Lord that GIVES MEANING to this service of motherhood. Did you hear what I just said? I’d better say it again. The Lord GIVES MEANING TO MOTHERHOOD! It is for good! To create life. To take care of life. To sustain life. Mom is a life giver! Or the Lord is a life giver through Mom. The Lord exercises His incredible life giving power through women He calls to be mothers!
And what is more magnificent is that He even ties motherhood together with the salvation of all people that is won by Jesus! After all, the Lord, when the time was just right, sent His only begotten Son to be conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary to live and die as the Savior of the ungodly! Jesus, the Christ-Child, reveals much about the vocation of motherhood. In other words, through Jesus God the Father redeems motherhood and turns this vocation into the very instrument by which He redeems the world and reconciles all sinners to Himself. No wonder that in the Fourth Commandment God expects us to honor our mothers.
Yes, you are to honor your mother. Why? That’s should be a no-brainer but I it’s not. I have to spell it out. Here’s why: God gave you life through your mother. God gave you the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit when your mother carried you to the baptismal font as an infant. She taught you to pray the Lord’s Prayer, say the Apostle’s Creed and read you the Bible stories. She brings you to the divine service to hear the gospel and eat and drink the Lord’s Body and Blood. She prays for you daily. That you will always believe in Jesus the Savior. Consequently, Proverbs 1:8 teaches this biblical wisdom: “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.”
When and where you do not honor your mother you sin. Not only against her but also against the Lord. Where you have failed to honor your mother it is time use Jesus, the Son of Mary properly – for the forgiveness of your sin. Mothers, where you have sinned against your children and family you too need to use the Son of Mary, the Lord Jesus properly – for the forgiveness of your sins. Children, confess your sin to your mother – mother, forgive your children. Mothers confess your sins to your children – and children forgive your mother.
Motherhood matters. The Lord has good use of you mothers in a family. As a basic and fundamental component of creation, it helps hold society and our country together. It provides a wonderful example for the young girls in our communities and congregation and helps to instill in them what is God-pleasing.
Your life is one of immense self-denial and self-sacrifice so that your marriage and family work. And in that service that the Lord gives you as a mother you can experience some of the deepest satisfaction and happiness that anyone in the world can ever have. And the Lord, through you, makes motherhood extremely desirable and attractive for your girls and the girls in our congregation, communities and the world.
After all, the natural desire is to be in a family, to marry and to have children. It springs up by itself by virtue of our creation and through the powerful echoes of God’s Word at the beginning in Eden: “Be fruitful and increase in number.”
So, for our mothers let us give thanks to the Lord and honor them as His instruments to care for us.
Have a great Mother’s Day!
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
John 15:9-17
Well, the Lord Jesus is up to the same old, same old. I’ll put it to you this way. He’s going to put you back to, as people say, “to baptismal factory settings.” In other words, so that you live in and from your baptism, He will repent you, faith you and lead you in holy living. And today His repenting, faithing and guiding you revolves around one word: “Love.”
The Greek word is: agape. Huge word in the Bible! Can’t avoid it. Jesus uses it in the text today. God is Love (agape). He is the Lover. “God so loved the world [in the agape way] that He gave His only-begotten Son,” (Jn 3:16). “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins,” (1 Jn 4:10). “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear,” (1 Jn 4:18)
We love others because God first loved us. This is the love God works in His faith-ers. This is the love that results from being a living branch joined by faith to the true Vine Jesus who loved you by Good Friday-ly dying FOR YOU in order to atone for all your sin and give you eternal life.
So, if your smelling what the Bible is cooking, agape love is self-sacrificing love as witnessed FOR YOU in Jesus Himself. It is unconditional, no strings attached love. Divine love. It’s not a warm fuzzy, a deep lust or a bond of affection. It’s AN ACT OF THE WILL, a work of God, an obedient orientation. Agape is the only kind of love that can be commanded. It’s the only commandment Jesus gives to His disciples: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Agape love is a decisive, deliberate, intentional act of will, the love for another without regard for pay backs.
In 1 Corinthians 13 the apostle Paul says that, without this kind of agape love, we are nothing, regardless of how smart we are, how religious we are, or how successful we are. Without agape, we are nothing. Then he teaches what this agape love looks like: It is patient and kind. Not jealous or boastful. Not arrogant or rude. Does not insist on its own way. Not irritable or resentful. Does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. It bears all things, trusts all things, hopes all things, patiently endures all things.
Well, brothers and sisters, this is precisely what Jesus has in mind when He says, “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.” He doesn’t say, “like one another” or “have affections for one another.” You can’t legislate feelings. You can’t say, “Thou shalt have warm, fuzzy feelings.”
Jesus says, “Agape – love one another.” Be patient and kind to each other. Don’t be jealous or boastful or arrogant or rude toward each other. Let the other have his or her way. Don’t be irritable or resentful toward each other. Don’t rejoice in what is wrong with each other but in what is right. Bear all things, trust all things, hope all things, patiently suffer all things for the sake of each other. Here’s another way that Paul put it. It’s Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
What was that? I think I heard something. It was really loud! It was your collective jaws hitting the floor! It was your hearts being crushed! Is Jesus repenting you? Of course He is. After all, this is an incredibly tall order from the Lord Jesus – this loving one another as He has loved us. And the old Adam in all of us doesn’t like it one bit. Hates it. Avoids it at all costs. And so be repented of your not wanting to love, not only your friends, but also those you consider to be your foes.
Let’s not forget those who heard this sermon of Jesus for the first time. It was His twelve disciples, His inner circle. And among them were two sets of brothers – Peter and Andrew, James and John. Those of you who have siblings know how it can be. You have history. You have a past. Competition, rivalry for attention, jealousy. We have family “issues,” as we like to say as we justify ourselves. And yet Jesus says: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Matthew was a bean counter, a number cruncher, a tax accountant and Simon was a radical, a left-wing political activist. Talk about two people on the opposite ends of the political spectrum! Simon, as a member of the Zealot party, was an insurrectionist bent on overthrowing the Roman government. Matthew, a tax collector, worked for the Romans. Can you imagine the toxic political discussions between these two? Would they say “Good Morning” to each other let alone ever sit next to each other? Can you imagine the bitter feelings they must have had toward each other because of their political views. And Jesus says: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
What about us here at Trinity? Do we have our differences? Indeed. Do we rub each other the wrong way? Step on each other’s toes? Of course. We have political differences too. And boy are those divisive and toxic! We have our intra-familial issues – troubled marriages, disobedient children, an unfaithful parent, or sibling rivalries that have crashed and burned. The temptation is to leave Trinity as well as the entire church, walk away from your marriage and family entirely and say: “Done with you! Don’t want to be around you anymore!” And Jesus says to all of us today: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
As far as Jesus is concerned, this is not optional. “This is my commandment.” Can’t take a vote. Don’t tell the Lord, “I don’t feel like it.” This love overrules your feelings. John says in his First Epistle, “If anyone says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar,” (1 Jn 4:20). If you can’t love your brother whom you see, how on earth can you claim to love God, whom you do not see?
“Love one another as I have love you.” Husbands, love your wives the way Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her on the Good Friday cross. You older women, teach the younger women to love their husbands. Parents, love your children. Children, love your parents. “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.”
Disciples of the Lord Jesus – chosen, baptized, believing – love one another. This is how the world knows we belong to Jesus. This is what caused the world to sit up and take notice of the church in the first century. It wasn’t their impressive buildings, they didn’t have any. It wasn’t their mega church size. Their numbers were very small. It wasn’t their fancy worship. The pagan temples were far more impressive and besides the 1st century divine service would last for hours on end. What impressed unbelievers or outsiders the most was the love the first Christians had for each other in spite of everything. “See how they love one another,” they said (attributed to Tertullian). They’d never seen anything like it before.
In the book of the Revelation, the Lord has a special word for the church at Ephesus. She was pure and proud congregation. They were hard working. They bore up under suffering with patient endurance. They were doctrinally pure and had no tolerance for evil men or heretics in their midst. They put the teachers to the test and flushed out the false apostles. They knew a heresy when they saw one. They suffered loss with a stiff upper lip, they hadn’t grown weary under the weight of persecution and hardship.
But Jesus says, “I have this one thing against you: You have forsaken your agape, your love, that you first had. Do you remember those days when you first began together as a little mission congregation? How you bent down to help each other and cared for one another without being told? How you put up with almost anything out of joy for the gospel? Remember how you used to set aside your differences, how you forgave one another, how you worked side by side and hand in hand? Repent. Return. Change your thinking. Love one another, as I have loved you.”
We run the same risk here at Trinity. We’re so intent on having it our way we tune out the one commandment Jesus gave His disciples – “love one another as I have loved you.”
This is the command to be who you already are in Jesus. God is love, and we who live in God, live in love. You are baptized into the death of Jesus, the highest expression of agape there is. He laid down His life for you, for me, for everyone. He took you into His life and grafted you to Himself – Vine and branches hooked together.
Jesus isn’t saying, “Love one another or you’ll burn in hell.” That’s not how agape works. There is no fear in this love. This love drives out fear as the Epistle taught today. This is the love that happens when we come to recognize who we are in ourselves. First, that we are miserably sinful. Second, how God has picked us up out of the trash like some rusty old can on a junk heap and made us His own in Jesus. And it’s in that love of God in Jesus that we turn to our neighbor and say, “The peace of the Lord be with you,” even if we don’t like that person or if we’ve been arguing with that person all week. We let go, we drop dead, we forgive for this one simple reason: God in Christ has done the same for us and for that person too.
This is about joy – the joy of being called a “friend of God.” The joy of being chosen and beloved. We didn’t choose Jesus, He chose us. And any decisions we might make along the way are made on top of His decision to embrace us in His death. This is about joy. Jesus says, “I’ve told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” It’s what David prayed for when he said, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” David wasn’t worried about his salvation. He was missing the joy.
When we do not love one another, when we keep the love of God bottled up inside us until we’re about to explode, we rob ourselves of the joy of being a friend of Jesus, of being chosen and beloved by God. Where’s the joy in being a peach tree if it never produces peaches? Where’s the joy of a grape vine if it never bears grapes? Where’s the joy of faith in Jesus if you do not love your brother, your sister, your neighbor, your enemy as Christ has loved you and them?
In the post-communion prayer, we pray that the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood would strengthen us “in faith toward You [Father] and in fervent love toward one another.” There it is. There is the source of agape, divine love – the death of Jesus that embraced us all in love. That divine heart of love, palpitating with crucifixion mercy, is the bench mark of every act of your self-sacrificial love for others.
God is love. And in Jesus the Beloved Son, you are loved by God. And within the embrace of a love that will not let you go, you are free to love one another. Happy receiving that love. Happy giving that love.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Listen here.
Acts 8:26-40
I’m not sure we American Lutherans of the 21st century even begin to understand how deeply distressed the 1st century church in Jerusalem was! Shaken to the core! It’s one thing for Jesus to say that to be His disciple will bring you discrimination, hatred, and suffering. But then to actually experience it? That’s a whole different ball game.
The church at Jerusalem saw one of her outstanding, beloved and faithful preachers Stephen murdered in cold blood! Rocks the size of footballs, basketballs and volleyballs were hurled at him until there was no life in him. Why was he hated so much that people desired to kill him?
It was because Stephen believed in Jesus as the promised Savior. It was because he was marked with the cross and the name of Jesus in holy baptism. It was because he regularly attended the divine service to receive the Christ’s Good Friday forgiveness of sins in the preached Word and in the Sacrament of the Altar!
Yes, shocking as it may seem to us 21st century Lutherans who are so nonchalant, blasé and detached about our Christian faith, Stephen was martyred for actually being a Christian and for taking his Christianity quite seriously. He practiced what he believed. He believed what he practiced. I wander if Stephen was asked a similar question that the Zierott’s and Staben’s were asked today: “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession [of Jesus] and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” I wouldn’t doubt it. Being a Christian in those days was extremely dicey.
After all, in Acts 8, Saul of Tarsus, one of the most powerful and prominent of all the Pharisees, who oversaw and gave his approval to Stephen’s slaying, now ratchets up his persecution of Christians. On the very day of Stephen’s death, in fact, “there arose a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem … [and that] Saul was ravaging the church,” (Acts 8:1, 3).
If you’re picking up what the Bible teaches, Saul’s persecution against the Christian church in Jerusalem was ruthless, brutal and utterly callous. Eliminate or holocaust from the earth all those who are baptized in Jesus’ name! Who claim that Jesus is the Vine and that they are the branches! Saul would stop at nothing to destroy the early church! He would use whatever was at his disposal! All his religious wits and wherewithal! And most especially the raw power of being one of the highest ranking Pharisees in the Roman empire!
Can the church survive? She has no corporate headquarters! No lawyers or lobbyists at Rome! No war chest with the Royal Bank of Rome or with First Union Bank and Trust of Jerusalem! No professional consultants! No pomp and circumstance! No masthead mission statement adopted at a convention! No impact studies! All she has is a bunch of preachers fixated with a crucified and resurrected Jesus-sermon in their mouths! Such preaching appears to be no match for her opponents! A word from their mouths can’t be of any help for the weary and worn down Jerusalem church as she struggles just to survive and is on verge of death!
First Church of Jerusalem, humanly speaking, is pathetically poor, weak, and too little to withstand her powerful enemies. She may as well just despair. Close her doors. Call it quits. And die!
But suffering, persecution, and death is the Lord’s cup of tea! He will use it for the church’s good! For the church’s life! For the church’s thriving! For the church’s growth! Even for your good, your thriving, and your growing! Because what the first Christians in Jerusalem suffered, will come to us sooner or later. You can count on that.
“Really Reverend? Suffering, persecution, and death can be for the church’s and our good? Come on Kuhlman! You can’t be serious!”
I am! As serious as a heart attack! I won’t soft peddle it! Even if you decide to call the doctor, reserve a room with padded pink walls, and measure me for a jacket that they call straight, I will keep telling you this biblical truth.
Hear me out. I beseech you. Persecuting and killing Christians does the opposite of what Saul planned – what Saul diabolically had in mind. Instead of destroying the church, Saul’s persecution DID JUST THE OPPOSITE! Saul’s stalking and bullying helped the church spread throughout the world! The church grew! The church flourished! And, of all people, Jesus converted Saul who became the apostle Paul, the greatest evangelist the world has ever known.
The Holy Spirit’s power is made manifest by converting unbelievers to faith in Jesus and their receiving Holy Baptism! Faith is the new creation! In other words, in times of utter calamity, darkness and death the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, continues through the Word and Sacrament to call, gather, enlighten, sanctify, and keep the whole Christian church on earth with Jesus Christ in the one true faith! You remember that the Lord Jesus made an infallible promise: “I will build my church … not even the gates of hell will prevail against her,” (Matthew 16:18).
And so here in Acts 8 apostle and preacher Philip high tails it out of Jerusalem. Otherwise he’ll be as dead as Stephen if Saul gets to him. He is directed by an angel of the Lord to go south towards Gaza.
And on his way he is led by the Holy Spirit. Did you catch all that? Directed by an angel and then led by the Holy Spirit! Who’s in charge? Hmm?
The Lord is. Philip is directed to meet a man of international intrigue and fame! A mover and a shaker in world politics! A Secretary of the Treasury! For her majesty and royal highness Queen Candace of the sovereign state of Ethiopia! To be “in charge of all the treasury” of a nation means that this Ethiopian eunuch is extremely powerful and influential.
This Secretary of the Ethiopian treasury has been in Jerusalem. To “worship!” A religious man! But he doesn’t know God-in-the-flesh, crucified and risen Jesus! He’s on his way back home. Takes a pit stop. While still in his chariot he’s reading something. Not a map. Not The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, or The Vampire Diaries. But the Bible! Yes, that’s right, the Bible. Specifically Isaiah, chapter 53! You know: “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth, … etc.”
Preacher Philip goes right up to the royal official. “Good afternoon sir! Do you understand what you’re reading?”
“Greetings! I sure don’t!” the Ethiopian states. “Can you help me? Please explain it to me. I can’t figure it out. About whom is Isaiah talking? Himself or some other dude?”
Philip’s categorical answer is that the Suffering Servant, the Lamb led to the slaughter of Isaiah 53 is none other than Jesus Himself! Philip proclaims Jesus. He preaches the “good news” that Jesus is the Savior. That Isaiah-53-Jesus died for sinners! For the ungodly! For His enemies! For men like Philip. Even for an Ethiopian Treasury secretary who works for Queen Candace! Jesus took the world’s sin in His Body on the cross! Jesus’ blood is the only “atoning sacrifice for our sins,” (1 John 4:10).
As we all know faith comes by hearing! And hearing by the preaching of Christ Jesus (Rom 10:17)! Philip has preached Jesus! And the sermon bears fruit! The Ethiopian believes in Jesus. Then he asks Philip to baptize him! “‘Look here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?’ Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”
As soon as the baptism is over the Spirit takes Philip away. Has further use for him. Puts him to work in Philistine territory, the city of Azotus, to “preach the gospel” in that area until he reached Caesarea.
The Lord has His church! The Lord Jesus is with her. As it went with Jesus so it goes with the church and His Christians in the church (suffering, persecution, and sometimes even death). And hidden in all that the church goes on. She flourishes and even grows.
The Word of the Lord cannot be bound. It cannot be chained. It cannot be stopped. And for 132 years you have witnessed this here at Trinity, Murdock.
Despite whatever furious and fanatical antagonism from another like Saul in our day or one who is yet to come, the Lord will have His church! The “good news of Jesus” for the forgiveness of sins will be preached. People will be baptized. You saw it today with Charles and Oscar! Through the preaching of the gospel faith-ers will be created and sustained.
Jesus continues to gather more around Himself in His church. It’s what we pray for every Sunday. You witnessed the answer to such praying today with Chris, Jennifer, Oscar and Charles and Wyatt Brianne and their children. All this is the Lord’s way! For the good of the church as well as yours! No need to despair! No need to worry! No need to fear! He will always have His church. He promises.
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
Acts 4:1-12
The apostles, faithful to their calling, have healed a lame man from birth and they preach Jesus! After all, Jesus did what He said He would do! He suffered, died and rose bodily from the dead on the third day. That means that Jesus truly is the Son-of-God-Savior-Messiah. It means that His Good Friday dying did indeed answer for all sin and every sinner. It means that He is the first fruits of them that sleep, i.e., that all the dead will be raised on the Last Day – believers to eternal life – unbelievers to eternal death and damnation (which is, to say it bluntly, it seems to me, a waste of a bodily resurrection!).
Such apostolic preaching of the Good Friday-ly crucified but Easter Sunday-ly resurrected Jesus is quite dicey. After all, it annoys, irritates and angers the deep state priestly aristocracy – deep pockets – deep seated religious authorities of the Jerusalem temple: the Sadducees. Why? Well, the Sadducees categorically taught that there was no such thing as the bodily resurrection (Acts 23:8)! And if Jesus really rose from the dead … no wonder they’re threatened. If Jesus really rose like these apostles are preaching, then the Sadducees would be shown to be frauds and liars – and religious ones at that!
Can’t have that happen. So the Sadducees send in their deep state-goon-like FBI agents. They arrest the apostles and put them under police-state-supervision. They will impose their will on the church of Jesus Christ and His preachers. They will nip the apostolic preaching of Jesus risen from the dead in the bud! Put a stop to such dis-information or mal-information ASAP! By force, if necessary. They will not tolerate the preaching of Jesus risen from the dead by anyone. It’s a threat, to use the language of our day – a hazard — to democracy!
But, the more they drive the nail, the deeper it goes. That is to say, the more the enemies and haters discriminate and persecute the church, her ministers, and faithful preaching the more the church grows. Listen again to the text: “But many of those who heard the word [of Jesus risen from the dead] believed.” Indeed! “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ,” (Rom 10:17)! “And the number of men [who believed] came to about five thousand.” Incredible! You’ve got to love it. Persecution and … BOOM … 5,000, that’s just counting the men, added to the church!
The Lord Jesus grows His church even, and one could argue, especially in the midst of suffering, bullying and intimidation. The more the church’s foes try to destroy her, the more the church spreads and increases! So, this teaches us a valuable lesson. When the church of the 21st century faces more and more persecution (soft or hard), she need not despair, compromise, try to be relevant, and never give up on Jesus and His Good Shepherd care of His sheep! Jesus will use it for the church’s good. She will trust in Him all the more!
Now, let’s not forget what I mentioned at the beginning. The apostles healed a crippled man from birth. They are brought before the most powerful, aristocratic, influential deep state authorities in Jerusalem: “Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly family.” The interrogation goes like this: “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Here is their chance. They can compromise, try to be liked, try to shape their message to massage the felt needs of those in power and be relevant. Nope! Nada! Not a chance! They are bolder than ever! Faithful than ever!
Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” (remember John 20 when Jesus breathed on the Eleven and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”?) – steps right up to the plate and fearlessly proclaims to the deep state power players who hold all the cards, “Rulers of the people and elders … let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that BY THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED, WHOM GOD RAISED FROM THE DEAD – BY HIM THIS MAN IS STANDING BEFORE YOU WELL.”
By what power or name did the apostles heal the crippled man? In the Name of Jesus! And when things are done in Jesus’ Name, Jesus is the One doing it. When things are given in Jesus’ Name, Jesus is the One giving it. It’s why Jesus commanded that repentance and forgiveness be proclaimed IN HIS NAME (Lk 24:47). In addition, Jesus Himself promised, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them,” (Mt 18:20).
The apostles are not ashamed of Jesus! Peter doesn’t deny Jesus any more. He confidently confesses Jesus! To anyone! Anytime! Bring it on! Peter is all in when it comes to proclaiming Jesus crucified and risen! The Jesus who was from Nazareth. The Virgin Mary’s Son. The carpenter. Crucified by the very people to whom he’s answering! They were the ones that put Jesus on trial, brought in false witnesses to ruin His reputation, whisked Him off to Pontius Pilate the Roman governor, and then unjustly convicted Him of treason and blasphemy in order to be cruelly and barbarically crucified like some kind of insurrectionist.
Yes, the leaders to whom Peter answers in Acts 4, had rejected this Jesus. They rejected Jesus just like when builders reject or throw out what they consider to be a substandard or flawed stone. However, God the Father raised Jesus, His Son, from the grave. And now Jesus is THE CAPSTONE – THE CORNERSTONE – the one that holds the entire structure together.
Consequently, in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and only in Him, God the Father gives full and total salvation to poor miserable sinners! Peter preaches it this way: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” The angel preached it this way to Joseph regarding Mary’s virgin pregnancy: “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins,” (Mt 1:21).
The one named Jesus is the one and only Savior! No other name has the power to deliver you from sin, death and hellish damnation. Oh, I know. I know. There are plenty of other names that can inspire you. There are names that can provide you with good role models and examples to follow. There are lots of names that can teach you morality. There are all sorts of names that can advise you how to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE NAME that can save you from your sin, that can raise you from the grave, and give you eternal life and peace with God. That’s the Name of Jesus!
The one named Jesus died and rose FOR YOU! Only the Name of Jesus holds the devil’s-head-crushing power of His Good Friday death and Easter resurrection. The nails, the spear, the water, the blood, the cross, the death, the tomb, the resurrection “peace be with you-forgiveness,” – are all contained and bestowed in the Name of Jesus. It’s why Jesus puts His Name on you in holy baptism. It’s why the absolution and every other official act in the church, like preaching, is done in Jesus’ name.
The Buddha didn’t die and rise. Joseph Smith didn’t die and rise. Mohammed and Confucius didn’t either. Only Christianity makes the audacious and categorical claim that the one named Jesus died and rose from the dead! And that through His death on the cross and through His resurrection on the Third Day salvation has been won for all people. Including you!
There is no other saving name under heaven except the Name of Jesus. Only Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus alone is the Door for the sheep. He is the only gate to heaven. “No one comes to the Father except through Me,” (Jn 14:6).
The Name of Jesus is an exclusively inclusive Name. I.E. He died for all and He singlehandedly died for all and that means FOR YOU too. He achieved salvation for all and only in Him is there salvation for anyone, or anybody and that includes you. In no other name is there forgiveness. In no other name is there life. In no other name is there salvation. Why? Because no one except Jesus has ever died and risen from the dead never to die again.
Like Peter and the other apostles, it is our joy and glory to bear the Name of Jesus as His baptized sheep. To proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name (Lk 24 – remember last week’s sermon). To call upon His Name in the day of trouble. To cling to His Name through every suffering, trial or temptation that may come our way.
Suffering for Jesus’ Name is sure to come to us in this country just like it did for the apostles in the 1st century. In 2 Timothy 3:12, Paul tells us that, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” As it was in Paul’s day, so it is in our day. Powerful and influential people in our nation are working day and night to make sure that the church stops preaching Jesus who died and rose. They will stop at nothing. They will put it this way: “Christianity and confessing Jesus is a threat to democracy and the American way of life.”
I know that because that is what they have been stressing for years and continue to assert in books, day time talk shows like The View, the mainstream media, and the rotundras and courts of our nation. I mentioned one book on Palm Sunday. Remember? White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. Here’s another one for good measure. The author is David Gushee. The title says it all. Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies.
We really should start taking these people seriously and take them at their word. They mean what they say. They will do what they say. Even if it goes against the United States Constitution and the First Amendment. Most of them are lawless pretend divinities. They “infallibly” say what it good and what is evil. They maintain that Christianity, especially the white, rural kind is grossly immoral and heinously criminal. Why? Because they say so!
But, the harder they pound the nail, the deeper it goes. I.E. just like in the early church, they more they persecute the church, the more it will grow. And we will learn all the more to trust in Jesus who promises, “not even the gates of hell will prevail against my church,” (Mt. 16:18)and that “those who call upon the name of the Lord” (Jesus the Christ, the Nazarene) “will be saved,” (Rom 10:13). In addition, we know, like St. Paul who while bound with chains as a criminal in a Roman prison waiting to be executed by the Roman authorities for preaching Jesus risen from the dead, that “the Word of God is not bound,” (2 Tim 2:9)!
So, brothers and sisters, like Peter, no matter what, proclaim Jesus’ saving Name. Cling to His Name. Call upon His Name. Trust His Name – no other name. Why? Well, there is no other name “under heaven given among men” that can save you, that can heal you, and that can raise you from the dead!
Thanks be to God!
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Listen here.
Luke 24:36-49
There He is again! The crucified but risen from the dead Jesus! Speaking the language of His Easter morning resurrection to His little church of disciples: “Peace to you!” Yes, His-Good-Friday-all-atoning-for-sin-peace is bestowed, given or applied through this “peace-to-you”-blessing. As He speaks He does and gives. His absolution-peace-to-you-blessing does and gives what it says.
And as you believe so you have! His Good-Friday-won-Easter-forgiveness creates and sustains His church. The time after Easter is the time of the Lord Jesus is having for Himself a church! I can’t emphasize this enough. And as Jesus gathers His hangers-on or faith-ers around Himself, like you and me, He’s always speaking the good-news-gospel-verbiage of Easter: “Peace to you.” From which the church receives her life and sustenance for life in this wilderness world on the way to the Promised Land of heaven.
Upon seeing the resurrected Jesus here on that first Easter afternoon, the members of this Christian church in Jerusalem are “startled and frightened.” In fact, they “thought they saw a spirit,” a ghost, an apparition. Could this really be Jesus? Is this really the resurrected Jesus? They’re not sure.
Faith lives on what is most certainly true. So Jesus speaks what is most certainly true. “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
Incredibly, Jesus shows them His Good Friday wounds, for the healing of their wounded hearts, because they were, “still disbelieving for joy and marveling.” It all still seems too good to be true! Again, is He really the resurrected-in-the-flesh-Jesus? Really? Yes! Absolutely! The crucified Jesus is now the risen Jesus. In the flesh! So, to clinch it He chews and swallows a piece of broiled fish. Not that He’s hungry, mind you. It’s to seal the deal. To prove that He has risen. He is not a spirit. He is indeed Christ Jesus, the Lord in the flesh!
Typical Teacher and Preacher that Jesus is, He has more to say. It’s as if He’s a Lutheran preacher before there were Lutheran preachers! There’s always more with Jesus. He wants to make sure His little church here at Jerusalem and this little church at Murdock, NE will always trust in Him for salvation. Will always hang on to Him for eternal life not only in soul but also in body too!
For His having a church that believes in Him, He teaches that the entire OT is fulfilled by His suffering, death and resurrection. The OT is Jesus Christ centered from beginning to end. “That everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalm must be fulfilled … Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.”
Incredible! The Lord Jesus “opens their minds” to fully understand the OT! The OT, strictly speaking, bears witness to Jesus Himself! It always promised Jesus who would suffer and rise to atone for the sin of the world. To crush Satan’s head. And Jesus did it. He is the salvational fulfilment of all God’s OT promises! This too is most certainly true! To which faith says: “Amen! Thanks be to you Jesus!”
Next time you read the OT keep this in mind. Keep your eyes and ears open to the prophecies and promises of Good Friday and Easter Jesus FOR YOU and for your salvation whether you’re reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel or any of the Psalms.
Then resurrected Lord Jesus gives His church a task. It is essential. If she doesn’t do this, she is on the ragged edge of ceasing to be the church. Check it out. “And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations.” Did you catch that? The church’s task is twofold: calling sinners to repentance and then speaking the forgiveness of sins to repentant sinners!
And this task was to begin “in Jerusalem.” After all, you remember how Jesus prayed in Luke 23:34 for those who crucified Him? Yes, that’s right, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” He forgives sinners because He’s the only FORGIVER! It begins in Jerusalem. And it continues as you read the Book of Acts. The “promise of” the Father, namely, the Holy Spirit poured out from “on high” on Pentecost, that Jesus Himself promised, results in Peter and the other apostles 24-7-365 calling sinners to repentance in order to forgive them their sins as Jesus mandated here in Luke 24.
Here is where the church is losing her nerve. After all, the 21st century church desperately wants to be relevant and to be a power player in the world. She wants to be recognized and congratulated. That’s what the Jesus Gets Us commercials are all about. The message is: Do anything that floats your boat. Jesus gets you. He’s OK with whatever. And so the church is tempted to stop preaching the “R” verb. Never calling sinners to repentance. And when the church does that, she will not and cannot preach Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, then, the One who died for sinners is piously, purposely and yet tragically and devilishly divorced from sinners and all their sin. Keep sinners from hearing the message that all their sin is forgiven because of Jesus’ Good Friday death and Easter resurrection, the gospel is lost and the church ceases to be the church.
So it bears repeating, for the church to be the church, she is to not only to be repented and receive Jesus’ forgiveness, but also that the church preach repentance for forgiveness to all sinners for whom Jesus died. So, when you’re dealing with a sinner, no matter what the sin, you don’t say, “You’re OK. Jesus understands. He gets you.” No, you say, “You’re not OK. Repent. And I’m here to forgive you in Jesus’ Name.” And as the church does this in Jesus’ Name, Jesus Himself is the one doing the repenting and forgiving. To be repented and faith-ed in Jesus Name is to be repented and faith-ed by Jesus Himself.
So, if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down, the church doesn’t need to be relevant. The church needs to be faithful! Yes, that’s right faithful!
And so, I will preach what Jesus expects and blesses. Here goes. It’s time for all of us to be repented. That we all tell the truth about ourselves and not lie. We truly are sinners. Not just today but every day. And then, it’s time for all of us to trust only in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. And every Sunday give a hearty “Amen!” to these words spoken in Jesus’ Name: “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (LSB p. 151).
After all, resurrection forgiveness spoken and given in Jesus’ Name is resurrection forgiveness spoken and given by Jesus Himself! No matter if He spoke it on that first Easter afternoon or this morning, the 3rd Sunday of Easter here at Trinity. And, as you believe, so you have. What joy! What a church! What a Jesus!
In the Name of Jesus.
Listen here.
Mark 15:27-32
Jesus IS the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. He IS the promised 2 Samuel 7 descendent or Son of King David. He IS the promised 2 Samuel 7 Salvational King of Israel. He preached it and taught it. He was a truth-teller. Many believed. They were His hangers-on / faith-ers. They confessed and worshiped Jesus as such. They looked to Him and Him alone for their salvation.
Others, however, hated and despised Him. Jesus was their enemy. “Who does this Jesus think He is?” “How dare He claim to be the Messiah! To be Israel’s King!” “That’s so outrageous!” “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” They’ve had their way. And now, as Jesus suffers the humiliating torture of crucifixion with a crown of thorns on His head, they mock Him. Rub His Messianic and Royal claims in His face. They take immense delight in His suffering. Because if He truly is who He claims to be – He wouldn’t be hanging from a cross as some kind of insurrectionist. So the pile on. The acidic and toxic dis- or mal-information spewing from their lips is meant to hurt Jesus to the core until He breathes no more.
“Save yourself, and come down from the cross!”
“He saved others; he cannot save himself.”
“Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross that we may see and believe.”
Hidden in these derisive taunts, are also Satanic temptations. Using the bystanders and His enemies below the cross, Satan tries one last time to tempt Jesus to not be your Savior and to put your salvation in serious jeopardy! It is an incredible temptation in the midst of such horrific suffering, contemptuous mockery and acidic scorn. “Save yourself! Come down from the cross!”
Jesus, not matter how delicious the temptation, will not save Himself! Savior King Jesus doesn’t save himself. Savior King Jesus saves others. He came to do one thing and one thing only: to save you. To rescue you from eternal damnation and Satan’s hellish kingdom. To forgive you of all your sin. And He will do it only through His bitter suffering and death on the cross. No other way. If He gets off the cross, you’re sins remain on you and you’ll be damned with them by God’s wrath.
That’s precisely what Satan wants. So, the mockers and revilers, as Satan’s agents go all in! “So Jesus, you claim to be the Christ. Really? You claim to be the King of Israel. Prove it. Hop off that cross if you truly are the Christ-Jesus-King-of-Israel! If we see you do that, then we will believe that you really are the Christ-Son-of David-King-of-Israel! Well Jesus. We’re waiting!”
Didn’t Jesus want people to believe in Him? Of course. But He will have faith-ers in Him only as He stays put on the cross bearing the sin of the world and atoning for it totally by His sacrificial Blood! He wants sinners to believe in Him as Christ-crucified!
And stay-ed put He did! FOR YOU. For your salvation! Forgiveness won and achieved in His Good Friday dying. And today, you thirteen, for the first time in your baptized lives, will receive with your mouths the very Body and Blood of Jesus that accomplished your salvation on the cross. Ponder that for just a moment! Seriously! Oh the enormity of His salvific service! Oh the hugeness of His salvational giving! On the cross and now in the Supper!
In addition, (there’s always more with Jesus), He speaks this specific salvational promise: “In the Supper today my Body and Blood are given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” Good Friday forgiveness delivered to you today and every Sunday in the Lord’s Supper! And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation! What joy!
St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:26 that every time you eat the bread that is Jesus’ Body and drink the wine that is Jesus’ Blood, “You proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” I.E. you preach a mighty sermon when you eat and drink the Lord’s Supper! You confess with your eating and drinking that Jesus alone made satisfaction for all your sins in His Good Friday dying. I.E. at the Lord’s Supper you preach publicly that you confess Jesus as Lord! Lord FOR YOU! Savior FOR YOU! And that you are His hanger-on. A faith-er in Him!
Such a confession of Jesus as Lord will cause you trouble. It will! As it was in Jesus’ day so it is in the 21st century. Many hated Jesus then. Many hate Him now. The haters are elected politicians, deep state bureaucrats, Hollywood entertainers, Billboard Top 40 singers, gangster/prison culture rappers, Social Media giants, Tik Tok-ers, major league athletes, and yes, even members of the church as well as many “pastors”. The enemies of Jesus, you will discover, if you haven’t already, are classmates, teammates, people in our community, and yes, even members of your own family.
What’s my point. I’ll let Jesus make it. Jesus says in John 15:20 that, “A servant [a faith-er / a hanger-on] is not greater than His master [or Lord, Jesus]. If they persecuted me,” Jesus goes on to say, “they will also persecute you.” Faither-ers and hangers-on have been suffering for their faith in Jesus from the beginning. In Acts 5 the authorities beat the apostles and “charged them not to speak in Jesus’ name [i.e. not to preach].” Remember Saul? He supervised the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8). In Acts 12 King Herod violently attacked Christians. He murdered John’s brother James with a sword and he had Peter arrested and jailed.
Let me give you another example from the fourth century. I do it for two reasons. First, because I fear that what happened then is going to happen to us very soon, and second, so that you’ll learn to confess Jesus as Lord no matter what you face.
On February 24, 303 AD the Emperor Diocletian published his first edict against Christians. He ordered the elimination of the Christian Scriptures, the demolition of places of worship across the empire and he prohibited Christians from assembling for worship. A year later, the Christians of Abitinae (in northern Africa) were found guilty of having illegally gathered to worship Jesus and receive the Lord’s Supper. These Christians said, and I quote, ““Sine Dominico non possumus,” roughly translated, “It is not possible for us to do without the Lord / Lord’s Supper.” You can guess what happened. That’s right. The Roman authorities stormed the church and murdered them all, including the infants.
Could Christianity be outlawed in our country? Could you be forbidden by the government from going to church and receiving the Lord’s Supper? Could you be put in jail or murdered for confessing Jesus? Of course. It’s happened over and over again in the history of the world and it is still taking place today. The French Revolution. The Soviet Union. Communist China. Militant Jihadi Islam murdering Christians by the thousands in Nigeria. The table is being set in our country when one of the most popular books right now is entitled, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. What’s the point the authors’ make in the book? You white rural Christians like at Trinity, Murdock are the enemy of the divine and infallible state. Because you worship Jesus and not the state you are a threat to DEMOCRACY! They really believe that! And they’re not the only ones. Many of the most powerful people in the country do too! So, don’t be surprised if some kind of persecution (soft or hard) happens to you for your confession of Jesus as Lord.
And when it comes, don’t despair. And by all means, don’t compromise. Never deny Jesus when the persecution comes. Boldy confess Him as Lord. Tell those who persecute you that you are a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ! And then ask them if they would like to believe in Jesus too.
You have the freedom to speak like this because Jesus has given you the wonderful promise: “Whoever confesses Me before men, I will also confess before My Father who is heaven.”
That’s exactly why you audaciously promised today to, “suffer all, even death, rather than fall away” from confessing Jesus as Lord. He’s got you! He’ll never let you go! He holds you in His crucified and risen HANDS!
Happy Confirmation Day you thirteen! Happy confessing Jesus not only today but the rest of your earthly lives!
In the Name of Jesus.
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 18:15-20 Well, Jesus is up to His same old same old in this text. Repenting us, faithing us and guiding us in holy living. Thanks be to God for this! No doubt you’ve noticed. The first thing out of the shoot in the divine service is a […]
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This is a pivotal and key moment in Jesus’ ministry. Last week we heard Peter biblically and correctly confess Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God! What joy! Jesus blessed Peter. And rightly so!
Now Jesus categorically teaches what it means for Him to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It means that He will suffer immensely. He will be murdered in cold blood by crucifixion. And then, on the third day be raised from the grave. Jesus preaches His Holy Week Suffering, His Good Friday Death and His Easter Morning Resurrection.
Peter, however, would dare to tell Jesus: “Are you crazy Jesus? That will never happen to you! I’ll see to it! I’ll personally do all I can to stop you from such nonsense! If you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God just like I’ve confessed, YOU CAN’T, YOU WON’T SUFFER, DIE OR RISE AGAIN! You need to start flexing your messianic muscles! Christs don’t suffer. They end suffering. The Son of the Living God cannot die! People can’t kill God! That’s just bat &^%$ crazy Jesus! We’ve left everything to follow you. Everything! Our jobs, our homes and our families and friends. Not one more word about all this suffering, death and resurrection!”* Would you agree with Peter? Well, would you?
Really? Well, then you’d better hear what Jesus has to say about Peter’s ramblings. “Get behind me Satan!” Wow! Peter the blessed confessor now is Peter the mouthpiece of Satan. Peter, and anyone who agrees with him, at this point is – antichrist! Against Christ! Peter forbids Jesus the Christ from going to the cross and rising from the grave. Peter hinders Jesus from shedding His divine blood on the cross to atone for the sin of the world. Peter prevents Jesus from being the Savior of sinners through His innocent suffering and death. “Get behind me, Satan!” Satan. That’s right. Satan was talking through the apostle Peter. Satan was tempting Jesus again as he once did three times in the wilderness. Jesus will have none of it. “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
When you don’t see things as God sees them but only as man sees them, then you’ve fallen into Satan’s hands. Satan would have you trust your eyes rather than your ears, to trust your reason rather than God’s Word, to trust your senses and sensibilities rather than Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living God who came to save you!
So, today, see things the way God sees them. Listen. Jesus sent me here to tell you. What Jesus did on the cross He did FOR YOU! He rose from the dead on the third day FOR YOU! For your salvation! He did what it took to save you. From all your sin and it’s gargantuan, hellacious damnation. You are forgiven! Jesus answered for all your sin through His Good Friday Blood. And because He rose from the dead as the Firstfruits, you, who believe in Him, will rise bodily from the grave on the Last Day.
Jesus predicted His suffering, death and resurrection for you and for your salvation. His GIFT for you! Jesus, however, isn’t done preaching and teaching. He also teaches about what it means to be a faith-er, a hanger-on, or one of His disciples. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” “Follow me,” Jesus says. Follow Him. That doesn’t mean follow His rules It means follow Him through suffering and death and resurrection to eternal life.
It bears repeating. A baptized Matthew 28 disciple is a follower. Isaac Scott is now a disciple of Jesus through holy baptism today. The word “disciple” literally means – one who follows another. Usually, it meant one who adhered to the teachings of another. But that only scratches the surface when it comes to disciples of Jesus.
Discipleship is about suffering, dying and rising. A Jesus-disciple denies the self, dies to self, dies to sin in order to confess Jesus as Lord and to live sacrificially in serve to others. Discipleship is about losing your life in order to win it, dying to lordship of self in order to live in faith toward Jesus and love for others. It’s about holding everything in this life with the open, dead hand of faith, to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
Now you begin to see how radical Christianity and being a disciple of Jesus is. In Adam, we are all born living only for self. Deny yourself nothing! Indulge the self 24-7-365. Jesus, says just the opposite. “Deny yourself.” “Take up your cross and follow me.” Jesus denied Himself in order to serve up a heaping portion of salvation from His cruciform death. His denial of Himself for your salvation is also the pattern for you, His disciples’ lives.
Now, just in case your mind was wandering or you began to nod off (that’s pretty common during sermons) — to make it very clear — to be a disciple of Jesus is to be baptized. Matthew 28:19. And when you’re baptized in Jesus’ Name you’re baptized into Jesus’ death and life (Romans 6). In holy baptism you are given the salvific benefits of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. Your suffering and death can’t save you. They are the just wages of sin. But Jesus’ suffering and death lead to resurrection and life. And baptized into His suffering and death you come into a life you can’t have on your own.
We had the joy of Isaac Scott’s baptism today. He as well as all who are baptized are given to daily live in and from our baptism. And that’s daily being repented, faith-ed and led in holy living. That is why the sign of the holy cross was traced on Isaac Scott’s head and heart. After all, in holy baptism he was joined to Jesus’ suffering. His wounds are now his wounds for his healing. In baptism you were joined to Jesus’ death. His death alone atones for all sin.
So, when Jesus exhorts all of us, His baptized disciples to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him, He means that we are to daily fight against our sinful desires, the temptations of the world and the devil and to daily die to our sins so that the new creation spelled: F-A-I-T-H may live before God wearing Jesus and His righteousness.
It’s really the only way to live.
In the Name of Jesus.
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 16:13-20 Unlike most adults when Jesus asks a question, Peter boldly answers. The question? “Who do you say I am?” So Peter eagerly confesses for all to hear: “You [Jesus] are the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of the living God.” Bingo! Jesus is as Peter confesses, […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 15:21-28 This is one of the most delicious stories in the NT. Through it Jesus will repent you. Yes, that’s right, repent you. Repent you of your not trusting in Him. He will also faith you. Faith you all the more in Him. Are you ready to […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Romans 1o:5-17 Romans 1:17, “the righteous lives by faith,” is the crux of all of Scripture. The Christian lives by faith! Biblical faith or faith that saves is faith that hangs on to God’s promissory preaching of salvation for Jesus’ sake. It goes like this: “Jesus died! Jesus […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Jesus is on a roll. Like any preacher He always has more to say. One more point to make. And so we hear more kingdom of God or Kingdom of Jesus parables today. You thought Jesus was done with that. Not hardly. It’s really so […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 Well, well, well. Another parable. Jesus wants you to pay attention very carefully. For His repenting you. For His faith-ing you. For His leading and teaching you. That’s what He means when He says at the end of today’s parable: “He who has ears, let […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 When Jesus tells a parable, it’s time to pay attention. He’s out to repent you. To faith you. And to lead you in living a God-pleasing life. Listen again to his parable. I beg you. Check it out. “A sower went out to sow.” […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 11:25-30 The Christian life is the life of living in and from holy baptism. What does that mean? Most Christians have no idea. It means that you daily fight against your sinful nature. Emphasis on daily. Not just once in your life. Day after day. Battling your […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 10:34-42 My oh my! Better buckle up. Fasten your seatbelts. Because what Jesus has to say from Matthew 10 will put you on rubber leg street. In other words, He’s out to repent you and to faith you. That’s His cup of tea you know. So, let’s […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Jeremiah 20:7-13 Being a preacher of God’s Word is really dicey business. So too being a faithful Christian speaking God’s Word to family, friends and fellow citizens is dangerous too. Not only will people outside the church go after you, but so will those within the church and […]
Click here to listen to this sermon. Matthew 9:9-13 Whoa! What are you doing Jesus? Don’t you know who Matthew is? Tax collector maximum-sinner-Matthew! In Jesus’ day, if a fellow Jew had this occupation it meant you worked for the Romans and that you were a traitor! Yes, that’s right, a turncoat to his country […]
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Matthew 28:16-20
It is one thing for God to be God. It’s quite another thing when God is FOR YOU! Or when God promises to be God FOR YOU!
God is FOR YOU in the most astonishing ways. The Word is made flesh. In the person of Jesus all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form. Where’s God? There’s the Baby Jesus. God nurses and sleeps in Mary’s lap. And then there’s the man Jesus who hangs – crucified between two criminals. God dies. He is buried.
For you! Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity unilaterally donates Himself to save you by answering for, in His crucified Body hanging on the tree, every sin you’ve done. Even the ones you’ve forgotten. The ones you don’t even care about. The ones you love to keep on doing. He forgives you of everything. For the eleven. For the world. Salvation achieved. For us men and for our salvation.
Now in Matthew 28 He’s freshly risen from the grave. Now the Good-Friday-Scars-Are-Showing-Jesus sees to it that the forgiveness He won for the world and FOR YOU on the cross gets delivered and bestowed: TO YOU!
For that He’ll use the eleven. Eleven’s one short of the twelve. Judas isn’t there. He hung himself in despair of Jesus’ forgiveness. How horrible! To wrongly believe that his sin of betrayal was too big for Jesus to forgive. Matthias will later make it twelve again. But for now it’s the eleven.
The Lord Jesus meets them. On the mountain just as He promised. Among the eleven are some worshipers and some doubters: “but when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted.” We’d have no use for such men. We’d look for someone better. But with whom would we come up? But Jesus doesn’t mind. He has use for them. Even if they doubt. Who doesn’t doubt sometimes? Everything doesn’t depend on the eleven. The eleven aren’t the studs. Jesus runs the show on the mountain. He’s the one to whom “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given.”
Jesus authorizes the eleven with an office in His church. Puts them into the office of the holy ministry. And He gives the apostolic ministry certain tasks. More on that in a minute. But it’s all for your benefit. Through the holy-means-of-grace-office Jesus Himself distributes and bestows the benefits and gifts of His Good Friday dying to you. His promise is to work through the office He institutes: “And lo I am with you to the end of the age.”
“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, make disciples of all nations.” All nations. No one’s to be left out. He died for all. So make disciples of all.
How? I’ll only reference the first task today for the sake of time. Disciples are made by “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” A disciple of Jesus is one who is baptized in the Triune Name.
Jesus died FOR YOU. Jesus puts the Name of God Himself on you in Baptism.
What a gift! For with His Name comes God Himself. Name and God go together. And not just any God. But the one and only Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father who creates you. The Son who redeems you. The Spirit who holies you. One God. Three Persons. The Holy Trinity. To be baptized in God’s Name is to be baptized by God Himself. He does it. That’s why the baptismal formula is: “I baptize you . . .” The pastor is only the hand and mouth of the Lord who’s really doing the baptizing with His Word.
We know who God is by what He gives in and through His Son. He gives us His Triune Name in Holy Baptism. And with His Name He gives all of Himself.
He is your Father that uses all creation for your benefit. From the Father and Mother that He used to created you to the mortician who will embalm you to the pastor who will bury you. From the food you eat to the clean sheets on your bed. From the SUV or truck you drive to the doctors and medicines that grant you healing. From teachers that instruct you to the dentists and orthodontists that pull or straighten your choppers. From the police and armed forces that protect you to the financial planner that coaches you to retirement. God is your Father. And all this He gives, donates and does ONLY out of fatherly divine mercy and goodness. Without any merit or worthiness in you.
He is your Brother and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. In His Body born of the Virgin Mary, He takes all your sin and answers for it as MAXIMUM SINNER as your substitute. He endures the Father’s wrath on the cross on account of the entirety your sin placed on Him. Even though He never sinned, as He bears your sin, He receives the paycheck of the death and damnation you deserved. Yes, God Jesus becomes your sin (2 Cor 5:21) and He suffers the curse of hell (Gal 3:13). For you! For your salvation!
He is the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son to holy you with the Word and water of Holy Baptism in which the Triune Name was put on you. Calls you by the Gospel. Enlightens you with His gifts. Sanctifies and keeps you in the faith that Jesus died and rose for you. And on the Last Day He will raise you and all the dead and given eternal life to you and all believers in Christ.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The divine Name of God. With all the authority given to Him by the Father, Jesus mandates that the apostolic office disciple all nations by baptizing in the Triune Name.
And with His Name, the Triune God is always for you. Always with you too. So that no matter what task or what time of life you’re in, you can always begin or end it this way: “In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Into His hands you commend your body and soul and all things. For with His Name is His promise that He will always watch over you and care for you. In the morning or in the evening. In the beginning of your life. And at the end of your earthly life. You’re always “under the care” [“Das Walte”– is the German of the Small Catechism] of the Triune God who put His Name on you and made you His disciple in Holy Baptism.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Acts 2:1-21
Baptisms of Tripp & Riggins Bailey
Jesus does what He promises. He sends the Holy Spirit to convict sinners of their guilt before God, then bring glory to Jesus, to bear witness to His Good Friday death for all sinners and to deliver all the benefits of that Good Friday death to sinners who believe in Him through the preaching of the gospel and holy baptism.
In Acts 2 this is precisely what happens. 120 disciples of Jesus are together in a single room. Then there is the sound of great wind and tongues of fire rest on each of them. Jesus blows His Spirited-breath over His little church in Jerusalem. He had already done this with His apostles on that first Easter evening when He breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit,” tasking them with forgiving sinners by His Word of absolution. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven,” (Jn 20).Now, seated at the right hand of God, the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus breathes out on His church. And with His breath comes the fire of the Holy Spirit!
The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, is the breath of Jesus and the breath of the church, The Holy Spirit breathes life into dry, dusty bones. He raises the dead from sin and death through the preaching of the gospel. “Faith comes by hearing,” (Rom 10:17). He enlivens, enlightens, and gathers. As God breathed into Adam and he became a living being, so Jesus now breathes life into His church. And His church is enlivened, enlightened and gathered.
The Holy Spirit gives breath to the church’s preaching. In order to speak, there has to be breath. So, Jesus breathes into His church, not for the church’s sake, but for the world! As He died for the world and lives for the world, so the Holy Spirit is a gift to the world through the church. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the church cannot be silent – she becomes a speaking, preaching, proclaiming church.
Incredibly, the church’s preaching through her ministers is custom fit to the ears of hearers. In Acts 2 people had come from all over the known world, each with their own language, dialect, and culture. Walk through a major airport like O’Hare in Chicago and you will get the idea of what that crowd in Jerusalem probably looked and sounded like: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judean, Cappadocians, Asians, Phrygians, Pamphylians, Egyptians, Libyans, Cyrenians, Romans, Cretans, and Arabs.
Talk about diversity! But here’s the kicker! As the apostle’s preach all hear the same good news of Jesus in their own tongue or language. It’s as though someone had strapped on a set of headphones, as they do in the United Nations, and everyone heard Peter and the other apostles speaking in their own native tongues. These were Galileans. Fishermen. Marginally educated men who normally spoke Aramaic and maybe a smattering of Greek along with some synagogue Hebrew.
It’s a miracle! A preaching miracle! Some, most likely elitist deep state bureaucrats and their media cronies, contend that the preachers are drunk. At 9:00 a.m.? Yeah! Right! Speaking skills don’t improve when you’re drunk! In addition, the bars aren’t open yet. The preaching here on Pentecost isn’t the result of alcoholic spirits but the Holy Spirit, the creative breath of Jesus blowing through His church and out into the world making all things new in the death and life of Lord Jesus!
Absolutely incredible! Imagine being in that humungous crowd, hearing the death and resurrection of Jesus preached FOR YOU in your very own language. Then, in the last part of chapter 2 — at the end of the Pentecost preaching, 3000 are baptized in the name of Jesus. “In the Name of Jesus.” That’s Luke’s shorthand way of emphasizing that these people received baptism in the Name of the Father AND OF THE SON and of the Holy Spirit. Luke’s pushing Jesus’ divine Name and it’s benefits in baptism. After all, when you’re baptized in the name of the Son, you’re baptized in Jesus’ Name and all that goes with His divine and saving Name.
Baptized in Jesus’ Name, the 3,000 received the Good Friday forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for all. In addition, baptized in the Holy Spirit’s Name, the Holy Spirit, the UPS or Fed Ex Delivery Person of the Holy Trinity, delivers and unpacks Christ’s Good Friday forgiveness. Salvation – forgiveness — achieved on the cross by Jesus. Salvation — forgiveness — delivered in holy baptism by the Holy Spirit. As the 3,000 believed so they had!
So too with Tripp Michael and Riggins Gregory today! Their baptisms today were a little Pentecost! Of course you didn’t hear loud wind or see tongues of fire. Nonetheless, when a person is baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit that person is baptized by God Himself. Each Person of the Holy Trinity today gave Himself to Tripp and Riggins. The Father promised to be their Father. Jesus, the Son, promised that His Good Friday forgiveness and salvation counts for them. The Holy Spirit promised to give them “new birth and renewal” (Titus 3) or as Jesus put it to Nicodemus in John 3 “born again by water and the Spirit.” New birth. Born again. That’s spelled: F-A-I-T-H! Tripp and Riggins: new creations, little born again faith-ers in Jesus. The Lord’s hangers on! Disciples! Thanks to the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life!
Every Sunday here at Trinity, even if there isn’t a baptism, is, in fact, a little Pentecost. Every Sunday when Kuhlman preaches the gospel in a language you can understand — English – the Holy Spirit is at work! Every time Kuhlman tells you that Jesus died FOR YOU, that Jesus rose from the dead FOR YOU, that His Body and Blood are FOR YOU, that you are completely forgiven and have eternal life for Jesus’ sake, the Holy Spirit is being breathed out by Jesus into your ears and hearts. Yes, a Pentecost takes place here every Sunday in the divine service. And it’s all FOR YOU!
The ongoing work and life of Pentecost is not in the wind and the fire, but in the Holy Spirit-filled Word that repents you from your sin, faiths you in Jesus for forgiveness, life and salvation and then on the Last Day the resurrection of the body and life everlasting with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What joy! What Pentecost joy!
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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Acts 1:12-26; 1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
We live in the last days or the end times (1 Pt 4:7). These are perilous times. Dangerous times. Grave times. And yet quite exciting.
Peter tells you that when you’re a baptized, hanger-on of the Lord Jesus, your life can get very dicey. Very complicated and even deadly. As a baptized Christian you can fully expect to suffer for believing in Jesus. Discrimination and distress for bearing Christ’s Name from baptism should be no surprise. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”
Jesus Himself said it would happen. “The world will hate you because of me,” (Jn 15). “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world,” (Jn 16:33). So do not be shocked when people mock you, insult you, or harm you because you are a Christian. And when this happens Jesus says that you are blessed. He promises this in Matthew 5: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Peter puts it this way: “the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”
Just so there is no misunderstanding the suffering Peter and Jesus talk about is suffering for being a faithful Christian, not the kind suffering that comes to you because of your sin. Like suffering jail time for theft, or ruining your liver by drinking too much or losing your family by committing adultery. That kind of suffering, however, is a good thing. Why? Well, because it is the refining fire of God at work to lead you to repentance, faith in Jesus for forgiveness and for you wanting to do better to please God and help the neighbor.
In addition, this is precisely why the Lord judges His church. In fact, Peter says that, “judgment begins with the household of God.” Divine judgment came to the OT church, Israel. Do you remember the Babylonian captivity? So too with the NT church. Remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5? Remember the Lord’s words of judgment to the seven churches in Asia Minor in Revelation 2-3? So also the church of today. God shows mercy to the faithful remnant of His hangers on but He also reveals His wrath on those, in the church, who are unfaithful in word and deed. So, if judgment begins with God’s baptized believers, how will it go on with those who refuse to believe?
No wonder then that Peter exhorts all of us to: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” Humility is the way of faith. It is how Christians are to live in these last days. It is the way of Jesus Himself who is humble and lowly of heart. Humble yourselves, i.e. confess your sin, tell the truth, and use Jesus properly for the forgiveness of your sin and God will lift you up and exalt you, as He already has in Christ. But exalt yourself, arrogantly and defiantly refuse to admit the truth of your sin and divorce Jesus from your sin, and you will be hellaciously toppled from your throne when you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ on the Last Day (2 Cor 5:10).
In Revelation 20:3, the apostle John tells us that Satan, towards the very end of time will be “released for a little while … to deceive the nations.” All the work going on to forcibly impose a utopian, salvational globalization under the leadership of unelected, self-appointed Davos-like elites, politicians and bureaucrats, seems to have put the nations under a fictitious salvational spell or a salvific bewitching. These pretend divine saviors of the world, who reject Jesus and purposely replace Him and His Good Friday death with themselves, if they have their way, will bring about just the opposite, not true biblical salvation, but a Satanic holocaustian hellish destruction of all that is God-pleasing, especially marriage, the family, true justice, the church and the preaching of the gospel. We are probably living in this little season right now by the looks of things.
And let’s not forget that St. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2 speaks of the end times “rebellion,” / “falling away” or great apostasy from the Christian faith by those within the church itself. Have you been paying attention? Listen to the preachers. Who saves? Jesus and Jesus alone? Or you? By what you do or don’t do? Do you see what flags are being flown outside and inside the church buildings? It’s not the voice of Good Shepherd Jesus you hear. It’s the voice of Satan you hear from the collared, ornately vested effeminate male clergy and the militant female clerics.
This is precisely why the apostle Peter tells us that Satan, prowls around like a hungry lion. And he’s looking for his next meal. He wants to maul and devour you. In these last days Satan, “that roaring lion,” still stalks around looking for the weak, isolated Christian, tempting to doubt, disbelief and other great shame and vice. “Resist him,” Peter says. The devil is resistible in the same way that Jesus resisted the devil – by the Word of God. “Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” Know what you believe and stand firm in it.
Peter also tells us that there is grace under the pressure of end time’s persecution and temptation. “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” God doesn’t leave His church in the clutches of persecution. He doesn’t abandon His baptized believers to suffering and temptation. As a good shepherd sets sheep who have fallen over back on their feet again, our Lord restores those who are down. He confirms us in the faith. He strengthens us in our weakness. He establishes us in Himself.
Remember that and cling to it when you suffer for the faith in these last days. It’s coming. So, when you are insulted for being a Christian or when you are attacked by Satan, the Lord will lift you up and sustain you.
How? He provides the means. What means? Glad you asked. He uplifts and sustains you by His Word that you hear preached and taught here at Trinity. The guts and the life of the church at large and especially in this little congregation here at Murdock IS GOD’S WORD! It’s why everything here at Trinity flows from God’s Word. No Word of God – no church. WITH GOD’S WORD the church here and throughout the world lives and is preserved. This is why the Lord Jesus has seen to it that the church has preachers. Preachers are given to preach and teach God’s Word for the sake of the church. Her life. Keeping her going in the last days.
That is why the First Reading from Acts today, speaks of a pastoral vacancy and how it was filled. The ascended but still hiddenly present Jesus reigns over all things for the sake of His church. Even that first little congregation in Jerusalem. Peter and the others returned there. Peter took a head count of the pastors/apostles. Eleven. One short of a Twelve. Judas was gone. Judas betrayed Jesus, vacated the pastoral office, and tragically committed suicide. That was the pastoral vacancy.
Judas’ place had to be taken by another. Why? Because the church needs pastors to preach and teach God’s Word. So, the very first act of the ascended and reigning Lord Jesus, is to call and ordain a pastor/preacher to fill the pastoral vacancy left by Judas.
They narrow the call list to two eyewitnesses. Men who had been with them from the beginning – Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. They pray to the ascended Lord Jesus whom they could no longer see but trust His words that He would be with them and hear their prayers. Then they draw lots, flip a coin as it were, and the lot falls to Matthias. And the apostolic/pastoral vacancy is filled. Another man is put into the office of the holy ministry by the Lord Jesus through His church. He provides. The church may never be without pastors. Especially in these end times. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
In addition, and this is really delicious and edifying, the Lord Jesus personally prays for His church as we live in the last days. Wow! John 17 is the first part of Jesus’ high priestly prayer. That’s the prayer Jesus prayed in the upper room at the table where He gave them His Body and Blood. John 17 is His eucharistic prayer. He prayed that He would be glorified – in His death, resurrection, and ascension. He prayed for His apostles, that they would be kept in the Name in which they would baptize and teach. And He prayed for all who would believe through their word which was His Word. He prays for you and me. HE PRAYS FOR HIS CHURCH! He prays for our unity, that we be one. He prays that we would see His glory. He prays that the love of the Father for the Son might also be in you.
This is huge! Because if Jesus doesn’t pray for His church and for you, then there is no hope. All would be lost. Roaring lion Satan would devour you all. SO JESUS PRAYS! His praying sustains the church. His praying sustains you who believe in Him as you live in these perilous and very dangerous last days. What joy!
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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FOURTH COMMANDMENT: HONOR YOUR MOTHER
Honor your mother. God expects it. Why? I’m glad you asked. You honor your mother because God used her to give you life as well as to care for your life once born.
Mom is God’s hand. Mom is God’s mouth. God’s instrument. God’s mask. In other words, God is at work using Mom to create and sustain life. God is personally at work through Mom. Psalm 139 teaches this: “For you [God] formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven …” This is why you HONOR your mother. So, as you honor her you honor God because He uses her as His instrument to create you and sustain you. Jesus honored His mother, Mary, even in the agony of His crucifixion. He was concerned for her well-being even then. Giving her to the apostle John so that she would be taken care of. To Mary He said: “Woman, behold your son!” and to John: “Behold, your mother!” (John 19:26-27).
Motherhood is an extremely physical and creaturely vocation. So ordinary. So mundane. And yet so very important! God creates and cares for His creatures through His creatures. In the biblical scheme of things and in this order, a man and woman get married, enjoy intimacy, and God-willing – the wife gets pregnant and bears a child or children as time goes on. And yet God is the one at work in all this physicality and creatureliness.
Being a Mom is a divine vocation. God instituted it in the “very good” of the beginning. God blesses motherhood. He is delighted with motherhood. “Be fruitful and multiply,” He commanded in the beginning (Gen 1:28). Getting married, bearing and raising children is fundamental to being a woman. It is beautiful. It is very attractive.
After all, a baptized believing woman or mother, does not exist to live for herself. She lives outwardly, not inwardly. Outwardly, she lives before God by faith and before others she loves and serves her neighbors (e.g. husband and children). She lives not to be served but to serve. Because she is a faith-er in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, she just naturally lives sacrificially for the sake of her family. She literally offers her body as a living sacrifice (Romans 12) in her marriage, in her motherhood, in her home and family.
Mom’s sacrificial service of love begins with the pregnancy. Incredibly and astonishingly, she cares and nurtures her baby even before she knows that there is a life conceived and growing in her. How beautiful! This is one of the most exquisite aspects of God at work in creating life. This is a great example of sacrificial service even when you don’t even know you’re doing it (Matthew 25:34-40)!
As Mom shares her body with the baby, her physique or frame is stretched to the hilt. Sometimes she suffers intense acne. Her emotions are pulled to the breaking point. All her time and energies are consumed. Aches. Pains. Morning sickness. Then the labor pains. Pushing with all her might. Almost losing her life in the process so that the baby can be birthed. It’s exhausting. Draining. Incredibly hard physical work!
From conception to birth Mom sacrificially cares for her child. She can’t help it. Her body kicks in and does its job just as God created it by providing essential prenatal care. It’s why the hormones shift and rage during the pregnancy. It’s why Mom’s body literally is reshaped and restructured as the baby within her grows and grows.
And yet God is at work through her. God crafts, nourishes, protects and cares for the baby through the female creature or woman called Mom. Mom receives from God this little gift growing within her. She willingly gives up part of herself for the baby’s formation. She sacrificially shares her body for the sake of the baby having room, sustenance and shelter.
God’s care for the child through Mom continues after birth. Nursing. Diaper changes. Bathing the little body. Meal prep. Laundry. The list goes on and on. Commitment. Dedication. Sacrifice. It’s beautiful! Very attractive!
It is a tragedy when people mock motherhood and reject it because it supposedly shackles women and prevents them from reaching their “potential”. “Potential” usually means making sure that you live only for yourself. For your needs. To meet your desires and wants. That’s a life curved in on itself. It’s not human. It’s not God-pleasing. Because it’s idolatry. The worship of the self. Motherhood is not honored because God is not being honored.
Do you despise motherhood? Do you believe that the heart of being a human being is to live only for yourself? To fulfill yourself? To take care of me, myself and I alone? Do you believe the lie that having children will wreak overpopulation, bring about disastrous climate change and destroy the world? Do you believe that having children must take a back seat to everything else in your life? Do you believe you have better words than the Lord who said in the “very good” beginning: “be fruitful and multiply”? If so, then you dishonor God and what He wants honored and is pleasing to Him, namely, motherhood. You’d better repent. You’re not God! You are His creature. You need to trust Him and be dependent on Him and His gifts.
Use another mother as your example for the life of faith. I’m talking about the Virgin Mother Mary. She exhibits to all of us what faith looks like and how faith talks. She trusted what the archangel preached even when the sermon and the result of the sermon went against all her education, feelings and experience. She, a virgin, pregnant? By the Holy Spirit? And the Baby is the divine Son of God, the Savior of the world? Faith-full Mary exclaimed: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” (Lk 1:38)!
Now, since I’m a Captain Obvious kind of preacher it needs to be noted that Mother’s Day is bittersweet for many. After all, life is full of disappointment and heartache which includes miscarriages or still-births. For those who have experienced this there is the consolation that you were mother to that child or children in hidden ways during the short time you had together. And there will be a happy reunion in heaven and the resurrection of the body.
In addition, some women, for various reasons, cannot get pregnant. Adoption or foster care are certainly wonderful God-pleasing options. God has good use of that too! Some of you have lost your mother too soon to a cancer, heart attack or a tragic accident. Once again, you have the Lord’s promise to believers that He is the Resurrection and the Life. That there will be the resurrection of the body and life everlasting together in heaven.
Mother’s Day is bittersweet as well since we remain sinners in this life on earth. Moms hurt their children and children hurt their mothers. We sin against each other. Many Moms routinely violate their vocation by not living as faithful mothers. Some take the abortion route. Others abuse alcohol, drugs or commit adultery.
We all know from personal experience as well as witnessing it from afar, that the people we love the most are the people that we seem to hurt the most. What we would never say or do to a friend a mother says to her child and vice versa. It’s so utterly tragic. So heart wrenching and heartbreaking! Consequently, too many mothers and children no longer talk to one another. Grudges are white-knuckle-ly held. Anger festers and boils. Resentment grows. Bitterness escalates. When sin rules, it isolates. It destroys families and lives! Not only in this life but in the next – hellishly!
This is precisely why “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons,” (Gal 4:4-5). Jesus stepped up to the salvation plate. It’s why He took on our flesh and blood from His mother, the Virgin Mary, and got intimately involved with our curved-in-our-self-sin-infested mess that we’ve made of our lives. Even though He never sinned, Jesus chose to take all our sin in His holy Body and answer for it completely and totally by His divine Blood shed on the cross. I’m here to tell you that Jesus’ Blood cleanses and purifies you from all sin. The sin you’ve committed against you Mom. The sin your Mom has committed against you.
Jesus brings peace. Jesus heals division. Between you and God. Between you and each other!
So, where there is sin between you and your mother, confess it. Tell the truth. Take responsibility for your action or inaction. But more importantly, let Good Friday Jesus mediate! Speak His Good Friday Word of forgiveness or absolution to each other. Let your mouth be the mouth of Jesus. Let your words be the words of Jesus in this particular and very concrete way: “I forgive you Mom! I forgive you son! I forgive you daughter! Jesus died for you. His Blood is enough to cover our sins.”
I am here to tell you that the Lord’s divine word of forgiveness will bear a ton of fruit in your life. His Word of forgiveness FOR YOU overflows from you into others. His Word of forgiveness enlivens you to live by faith only in Him for salvation but it also enables and strengthens you to live a life of sacrificial love as a mother. Living not for yourself. But for your husband. For your children. For your family. Offering your body as a living sacrifice 24-7-365.
This is the fruit or the result of Jesus going into the way of death on the cross to save you.
Ladies, Jesus has redeemed your creatureliness to be a woman and that includes being a mother. This is a foundational way that He has good use of you in the world. After all, no mothers – no life. It’s a simple as that. That is exactly why Adam called his wife “Eve,” because she “was the mother of all the living,” (Gen 3:20).
Proverbs 31 puts it this way: “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gate.”
It’s “very good” to be a mother! God blesses it and is well-pleased with it. No wonder God wants us to honor our mother!
Happy Mother’s Day!
In the Name of Jesus.
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1 Peter 2:2-10
One of the biggest crises among us today in America and the church is an identity crisis. People are confused. Perplexed. Baffled. Or they’ve been hoodwinked or bamboozled. Many, especially in the church, don’t know who they are.
If you don’t know, then others steal your identity, hide it from you and lie about your true identity. America is chock full of identity deceivers and thieves. Follow the money. Bottom line: if you don’t know who you are, you have no sense of purpose. No sense of meaning. No sense of place.
So who are you? The blessed apostle Peter tells you. He’s reliable. He learned it from the Lord Jesus. And it’s very edifying and uplifting. So hang on tight. It will be a wonderful ride today.
First, you’re baptized just like the people to whom Peter wrote in the first century AD. He wrote to newly baptized Christians. And so, you, like these early Christians, are like newborn infants that need to nuzzle up to the breast of mother church in order to drink the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word so that by it you will grow up to salvation. In baptism you have tasted that the Lord is good. Your identity is first and foremost in Christ through holy baptism by which He gave His divine and saving Name joining you salvationally to Himself! No wonder Jesus promises in John 14 that He has a place in heaven prepared FOR YOU! With Jesus you know who and whose you are and where you belong. More on that in a moment.
When you’re a baptized believer in Jesus there is more to your identity. The bounty is wonderful! You are LIVING STONES built into a spiritual temple or house. In addition, you are a HOLY AND ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. Priests who offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Another way of saying it: you are worshipers of the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Living stones you are! I’ve been called lots of names in my life but no one has ever referred to me in this way! Well, I suppose my spouse has said a few times that I’m as stubborn as a rock! You too? That’s about as far as it goes. In Matthew 16 I remember that Jesus named Cephas “Peter,” which in the Greek is Petros or rock. I wonder if the other disciples called him “Rocky.” I will! He wasn’t so rock solid and firm at first. Not until after Pentecost was Peter solid as a rock. But I digress.
Better get back to your identity. According to Peter or “Rocky,” you are LIVING stones. Not DEAD slabs or rubble but LIVING stones. Alive because you believe in the Jesus, the Living Stone laid in Zion. Rejected by unbelievers He is. They stumble over Him to their eternal hellacious damnation. But, for you, who believe in Him, when you fall on Him in faith, you are saved!
Jesus is God’s cornerstone. The only foundation of our salvation. You are living stones only as you are joined by faith to Living Stone Jesus. Without Jesus, you are just a dead pile of rubble. So, in holy baptism, the Triune God took you, a dead in your sins rock, and made you alive in Christ Jesus, a living stone. A precious stone, worth the price of Jesus’ blood shed on the Good Friday cross!
In addition, you are not a living stone in isolation. You have a place. You are a stone in a temple or house just as you are a priest in a priesthood. There are no loose boulders just as there are no isolated priests. Stones have a building just as priests have a priesthood. My point is this: there is no such thing as an isolated Christian believing on his own or her own. The Holy Spirit who calls you also calls me and gathers us together into congregations that manifest the whole gathered church on earth.
It is a given in the New Testament that Christians congregate. It goes with being baptized. You are living stones of a house built by the Holy Spirit, the church. It’s noteworthy that none of the descriptions of the church are individual in the Scriptures. No “I am the church, you are the church.” The church is always an aggregate whole – a body made up of members, a priesthood of priests, a temple of stones, a household of family members, a nation of citizens, sheep in a sheepfold. When we congregate, especially to worship, we naturally do the things that baptized people do. We are follow the urging of the Holy Spirit who calls us together. Even our Lord Jesus promises to meet us in congregations, where two or three are gather in my Name, there I am in their midst, (Mt 18).
So let’s repent of and be done with this individualized “spirituality” that floats around today especially among us LCMS-ers! If we keep holding to this falsehood, we may just hear Jesus say this to us on the Last Day: “I don’t know you.”
Of course, (I can just hear what you’re saying in your heads right now), if I was on a desert island all alone, Christ would still be with me. True. And if I brought a Bible along with my on this desert island, then that’s all the preaching I would have and it’s all I would need. True. However you’re hardly on an a Gilligan’s desert island here in Nebraska. Are you?
Jesus is so rich in His goodness toward us. He brings us together. He arranges to have His Word taught, read and preached. He has seen to it that you, your children and your grandchildren can be baptized and instructed. He has arranged for us to eat His Good Friday Body and Blood in order to taste and see that the Lord is good! And nothing tastes better than forgiveness, life, and salvation in the Name of Jesus!
So, who are you? You are a living stone built into a spiritual house. You have a place and a purpose. And without you, the building is impoverished, and the priesthood is lacking. Every baptized man, woman, and child has a place and a purpose in Christ’s holy and royal priesthood.
In addition, Peter says that you are a chosen race. In other words, just as OT Israel was once a chosen group of people, so are you! Now, please don’t think of “race” the way our culture does – only in the sense of skin color. Rather, it means a chosen group that is selected to show God’s mercy to sinners to the world. He chose you. You didn’t choose Him. He chose you to show the world that salvation is by grace only and not by works.
There’s even more to your identity. Peter says that you are a ROYAL PRIEST-hood – kings and priests. I know. I know. You don’t feel like kings, queens, princes, princesses and priests. And no one treats you as such. Exactly! BINGO! That’s why Peter takes the time to tell you! You have to be told this truth or you’d never hear it or learn it. So it bears repeating. You are royalty in Christ’s kingdom. You are priests in His priesthood.
And as royal priests you even wear regal and elaborate robes! Yes you do! I know. I know. You don’t see them but you do. You have to be told. Paul, in Galatians 3:27 tells you that in your baptism you were royally and priestly robed – WITH JESUS! “As many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus have been clothed with Christ.” You, a baptized royal priest now wear Christ like a robe 24/7/365. This is one of the reasons why Kuhlman wears vestments. It reminds all of us of the baptismal robe of Christ’s righteousness that we are given to wear.
Now, as priests, you are given to do what priests do. And what’s that? It is described this way by Peter: “to offer spiritual sacrifices.” In Romans 12 Paul calls it “living sacrifices” which is your day to day worship of God in the daily activities of living as a father, mother, son, daughter, worker, citizen, worshiper. In these vocations, you live to sacrificially serve. It’s spelled: L-O-V-E. Not living to be served but to serve and to give your life in sacrificial service to those God has put in your life. This is the liturgy of your priestly, sacrificial life.
Your sacrificial life of service during the week begins in the divine service every Sunday. In the Sunday divine service your priesthood is to hear the Word, receive the Body and Blood, and offer your spiritual sacrifices of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. That’s how you “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” When you say your “Amen” to Jesus’ Word, you’re doing your priestly work. When you offer prayer, praise and thanksgiving, you are offering spiritual sacrifices, that are acceptable to God the Father because Jesus’ Good Friday sacrifice atoned for all your sin.
Well, your royal and priestly identity and work is a 24-7-365 thing. It takes place every day of your life in the places God has put you. At home with your children, in your community, in your workplace, in the classroom, on the playground, with friends, family , coworkers, neighbors as you live sacrificially for them. You are priests of God blessing, teaching, praying for others. Baptism permits you to worship God, to pray, to praise, to give thanks, to bless others, to teach others. That’s what royal priests do.
Finally, Peter says that you are a holy nation. God’s nation. The United States of America is NOT God’s nation. America is just another nation among the nations in the eyes of God. Israel today is not God’s nation. God’s nation is the church made up of all people from around the world who, through holy baptism, are united with Christ in His death and resurrection. Who are you? You are a holy nation. You may be American or a citizen of some other country, but that’s your temporary citizenship. Your permanent citizenship is in God’s nation – the church.
Once you were not a people. Like Hosea’s son – Lo-ammi – Not My People. What a thing to name a son – “Not my people.” Once you were outside of God’s mercy. Like Hosea’s daugher – Lo-ruhamah – Not Mercied. What a thing to name a daughter, Not Mercied. Imagine Hosea calling the kids for dinner – “Lo-ammi – Not My People! Lo-ruhamah – Not Mercied. Time to eat!” Good grief! But, through faith in Christ, you are God’s mercied people!
Identity crises averted! Identity crisis solved. You know who you are. You are living stones in God’s temple. A chosen race. A royal priesthood. A holy nation. You are God’s prized possession. You are baptized into Jesus Christ, the crucified, risen, and reigning Lord. He is the source of your identity. He is your center of gravity. Built on Him, baptized into Him, believing in Him, you have purpose, meaning and place. What joy!
In the name of Jesus. Amen
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John 10:10
One of the most incredible sermons Good Shepherd Jesus ever preaches to His sheep is this: “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly!”
Life. That is exactly what His Good Friday death and Easter Morning resurrection are all about. Life is what every divine service here at Trinity is all about. It means receiving Christ’s life as our own. It means receiving all the benefits of His life that He Good Friday-ly laid down for us in His Word, baptism, absolution and the Lord’s Supper. Here we receive His Good Friday forgiveness that He won for us on the cross. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is LIFE AND SALVATION.
“I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly!” Now don’t misunderstand. This doesn’t mean that we will all live to be 90 or 1oo years old. It doesn’t mean that we will always have a ton of cash, lots of property, or never get a cancer, a heart attack, stroke or some kind of horrible sickness or disease. Abundant life according to Jesus is not the riches of Wall Street as if your some kind of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.
As we have the abundant life now in Christ by faith, it is hidden under the opposite. Or in a way you would never expect. The Epistle today describes the abundant life that Jesus gives to His believers as hidden under suffering and persecution for being a Christian and doing what is God-pleasing!
Listen to Peter. “For this is a gracious thing, when, … one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly” (1 Peter 2:19).Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and THE LIFE, knew a thing or two about that! He, THE ABUNDANT LIFE in the flesh, experienced all kinds of lies, false witnesses, denials, betrayals, mocking, beatings and crucifixion. He simply suffered it. As He suffered unjustly, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly,” (1 Peter 2:23).
Yes, Good Shepherd Jesus suffered immense and brutal injustice in His Passion. And so do His believers in this world! It goes with being a Christian. Just ask the Christians in Nigeria, Sudan, China, Indonesia and the Middle East who suffer so immensely. Churches burned. Pastors murdered. Women and young girls brutally exploited. They teach us that when you suffer for confessing Jesus as Lord, you will learn all the more to rely on Him and His promise that He is your Good Shepherd. That His rod and staff comfort you even as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death because He has come to give you life in abundance. For you who believe in Jesus you have already passed from death to life (Jn 5:24). It’s true. Even if you don’t see it now with your eyes and even as you may suffer for being one the Lord’s hangers on.
Now we walk by faith. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” (Heb 11:1). Faith, however, will give way to sight. There is life, abundant life in the next world, in the consummation of all things, that we will fully see and completely experience with our senses.
So, when Good Shepherd Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly,” He means a bodily resurrection and eternal life as well. Yes, a bodily eternal life, for us, His sheep that He alone purchased by His Good Friday death in which He “bore our sins in His body on the tree,” because “by His wounds … [we] have been healed,” (1 Peter 2:24). Healed for eternity! Eternal life in the resurrection of the body! This truly is life overflowing with life! So much life it can never be exhausted or worn out no matter what happens to us in this earthly, temporal life. Brothers and sisters, Jesus came to give us eternal life. His life! His life that conquered sin, death, Satan and the grave!
When He bore our sins in His Body on the tree of the cross and atoned for all our sin by the shedding of His divine Good Friday sacrificial Blood, He destroyed absolutely everything that threatens our lives including death and the grave. He died the damnable hellacious death that we deserved as sinners even though He never sinned. In addition, He rose victoriously from His tomb so “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” as sheep of His pasture. That’s the abundant life lived in and from your baptism into Christ Jesus!
Well, it bears repeating because it is so wonderful. Listen. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who gives us healing through His Good Friday wounds. “By His wounds we are healed.” His divine Blood that gushed from His wounded head, hands, feet, face, back and side is the medicinal salve that heals (forgives) from all sin, from death, from the power of the devil, from a guilty conscience and slavery to the idolatries of our sinful flesh. His Blood purifies (cleanses) us from all sin (1 John 1:7)!
The greatest freedom we have in this life, brothers and sisters, is to be lead, by Good Shepherd Jesus, through the narrow door of His death and resurrection! Or penned up in His sheep pen called the church where we live under Him in His kingdom! Where we are safe under His Good Shepherd gaze, care, tending and feeding.
Good Shepherd Jesus promises that He alone is the door to the abundant life of eternal life. His death and resurrection are the only path to eternity in heaven. On the Last Day He will stand and call each of us by name. We will hear His voice and follow Him to the abundance of eternal life because of His death and resurrection FOR US. And He will raise us – clothed with His immortality – never to suffer or die again.
We will be before the throne of God. We will serve Him day and night in His temple. He who sits on the throne will shelter us with His divine presence. We will hunger or thirst no more. The sun and its scorching heat will no longer harm us because the Lamb who died on the cross FOR US, is our GOOD Shepherd. He will guide us to springs of living water and He will wipe all tears from our eyes.
And from those resurrected eyes and body will we see and experience perfectly His promise: “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” It will be better than anything we could imagine or hope for. In the Name of Jesus.
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Acts 2:38-39
Baptism of Madilyn Jane Staben
The baptism of Madilyn today gives us the opportunity to rejoice in the gift of holy baptism and what Jesus Himself gives to those who are baptized. I can’t pass that up. If I did, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep tonight and you, rightly so, would take me out to the woodshed for a big time ….
After all, what holy baptism is and what holy baptism gives can never be extolled and believed enough. We heard the Lord’s mandate and institution of holy baptism from Matthew 28:19. And what is the gift of holy baptism according to that text? It is the divine and saving name of the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit! When God gives you His Name He gives you Himself and all His gifts. In holy baptism God promises to be God FOR YOU – to act as God FOR YOU! For now and forever!
You remember from Scripture what Jesus told Nicodemus. Right? To receive or be given God’s kingdom one must “be BORN AGAIN of water and the Spirit,” (John 3:5). Jesus promises: “He who believes and is baptized will be SAVED,” (Mark 16:16). St. Paul, piggybacking on Jesus’ words to Nicodemus calls baptism the “washing of regeneration [or rebirth] and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5). When Paul was baptized he was told: “be baptized and wash away your sins,” (Acts 22:16). In 1 Peter 3:21 the apostle Peter promises that baptism “SAVES you … by the resurrection of Jesus.” These words and promises of God from the New Testament are not exaggerations. They are the hard-core, irrefutable truth.
Now, before I get too carried away like I usually do, I better extol and preach what baptism is and what it gives according to the first reading assigned for today: Acts 2. Here goes.
The apostle Peter was there on the mountain in Matthew 28:19. So he carries out what Jesus mandates in Matthew 28:19. That disciples of Jesus should be made from all nations by baptizing in the Triune Name and teaching everything that Jesus has commanded. In Acts 2 Peter is doing what Jesus mandated.
Check it out! After his Pentecost sermon of teaching we hear Peter exhort the hearers to: “Be baptized.” Baptism is not optional. Jesus commanded it in Matthew 28! So Peter calls people to passively receive the gift of holy baptism. If you think you don’t need to listen to Jesus’ mandate and Peter’s sermon, if you preach a different sermon like “No thanks. I don’t need to be baptized,” then you need to repent PDQ. You need to have a change of mind and be cut to the heart. You need to die to your words. YOU DON’T HAVE BETTER WORDS than the Lord or His apostle! You need to trust the divine words of Jesus in Matthew 28 and the sermon of His obedient apostle in Acts 2.
Again, here’s the sermon. “Be baptized.” It’s passive voice in the Greek. In other words, “Let me give you the baptism that Jesus instituted. Let it be done to you – I’m here to give it to you.”
But the sermon continues: “Be baptized EVERY ONE OF YOU.” Well, well, well! Every one of you! That matches the “all nations” of Matthew 28. Jesus died for all. Jesus desires all nations – all for whom He died — to be baptized. So Peter proclaims: “be baptized every one of you.” Would you dare to disagree? Would you have left Madilyn out of the “every one of you”? Again, do you have better words? You don’t! So, none including Madilyn, are to be left out of being given holy baptism.
There’s even more: “Be baptized every one of you IN THE NAME OF JESUS.” That’s equivalent to being baptized in the Name of the Father AND OF THE SON and of the Holy Spirit. To be baptized in the Name of the Son is to be baptized “in the name of Jesus!” THIS IS HUGE! It bears repeating. To be baptized in Jesus’ name or the Name of the Son is to be baptized by Jesus Himself. Where Jesus gives His Name – He’s there! – Completely and totally there FOR YOU! He’s with His Name to be and act as God for the baptized! He’s with His Name to be Savior for the baptized! With His Name Jesus gives everything that counts for a sinner’s salvation – His Good Friday forgiveness – and that includes Madilyn!
Peter knows this. He learned it from Jesus. That’s precisely why Peter extols divine, salvific gifts given in holy baptism with the divine and saving Name of Jesus. Divine, salvific gifts? Absolutely! Listen. “Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND YOU WILL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
Incredible! What bounty! In holy baptism Madilyn received the forgiveness of sins. Whose forgiveness? Jesus’! The forgiveness He won for her on the cross stained red with His divine blood! Baptized in the name of the Son / the name of Jesus – Good Friday Jesus – God the Father does not count Madilyn’s sin against her. The same goes for all of you who are baptized. Do you realize how important this is? It’s salvationly important because God the Father counted all your sin and all the damnation your sin deserved against Jesus as He hung on the cross and because you are baptized in the saving Name of Jesus, YOU ARE FORGIVEN! TO BE FORGIVEN IS TO BE SAVED!
Jesus’ Good Friday forgiveness and the Holy Spirit always go together. Can’t ever have divine forgiveness without the Holy Spirit being at work. Where sins are forgiven the Holy Spirit is blowing full bore! As the UPS or Fed Ex delivery person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit delivers Jesus’ Good Friday forgiveness to sinners as they are baptized in Jesus’ Name. In addition, through the forgiveness given in holy baptism, the Holy Spirit at the same time regenerates, rebirths or recreates you. Gives you new life. Makes you a new creation in Christ. That’s spelled: F-A-I-T-H! Divinely miraculous!
Well, I need to put the finishing touches on this sermon. So here goes. “This promise,” Peter says. What “promise”? It’s the promise of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit given in holy baptism through Jesus’ Name. “This promise,” Peter proclaims, “is FOR YOU.”
FOR YOU talk is gift talk. When gifts are given people always say: “Here this is for you.” So too with holy baptism. What holy baptism is and what it gives is FOR YOU! Holy baptism is not your work or gift to God! Holy baptism is God’s work! God’s giving! Again, how do you know that? Because it’s “for you.” That’s how one talks when one hands out a gift.
And not just “for you” but also “FOR YOUR CHILDREN!” For your children? Yes, baptism and its bounty are for your children! The apostle, taught by the Lord Jesus, says so. “This promise is for you and FOR YOUR CHILDREN and for all who are far off.” Don’t ever let anyone tell you that children should not be baptized. Jesus died for them. He wants them to receive His forgiveness. He wants them to receive the new birth of the Holy Spirit. His salvation is for the little ones like Madilyn just as much as for anyone else. The kids are not to be excluded. “Let the little children come to me,” Jesus declares, “and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God,” (Mark 10:14). I.E. Jesus is saying: “I died for them too! I want to give them my Good Friday forgiveness and salvation too!”
Brothers and sisters, thanks be to God that Madilyn was given holy baptism today. Baptized in the name of the Son / the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Forgiven, Holy Spirit filled and faith-ed – Madilyn is saved. Pure gift! Like I said, we can’t teach and extol holy baptism enough.
Happy Baptism Day Madilyn! Happy living in and from your Baptism! May it bear much fruit – repentance and faith all your life – and then finally the fruit of the resurrection of your body to eternal life. Dittos to the rest of you who are baptized! In the Blessed Name of Jesus!
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Matthew 28:1-10
Christ is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Jesus who was crucified is risen from the dead just as He said He would. Death has lost its sting. The grave has lost its grip on humanity. Death, the greatest enemy of our humanity has been defeated single-handedly by the Son of God who came in our flesh to conquer sin and death for us.
Today is the day we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as an historic fact. Not a matter of faith but a matter of fact. It’s a fact attested to by eyewitnesses: first the women who went to the tomb, then Peter and John, then the other disciples, then 500 men at one time, then James and finally Paul. How many eyewitnesses do you need to call to the stand to make the point. Christ is risen. Deal with it.
The fact of Jesus’ resurrection is the sine qua non of our faith. Without it, everything else that Christianity claims counts for nothing. St. Paul says that if Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, if His bones are still buried somewhere in a grave, then our Christian preaching is worthless and so is your Christian faith, i.e. Christianity is false.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we are biggest bunch of fools that ever walked the face of this earth. You are believing fairy stories and it’s time to grow up. If Christ isn’t raised, then you, me and 2000 years of Christians all the way back to the apostles are liars and are misrepresenting God. And most importantly of all, if Christ isn’t raised, then you are still in your sins and you better work really hard to find out how to atone for them and make it right.
If Christ isn’t raised, then you may as well become a Buddhist and work out your own version of salvation, or be an agnostic not knowing anything, or just be an atheist, because what’s the point anyway, if the dead are not raised?
If Christ isn’t raised from the dead, then dead are gone so you may as well forget about them. If there is no resurrection, then life ceases when your synapses cease firing, so why even worry about meaning, morality, judgment, sin, grace? Then you may as well join the ancient Greek skeptics who said, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” That’s all life is, if Christ isn’t raised. We are nothing more than food processors, passing on our flawed genetics to the next generation of dog eat dog consumers, with survival going to fittest.
But something in fact happened that morning of the first day of the week. Something that shook the earth to its foundations and brought angels down to take a look. Something that rattles everything we know about biology and medicine. When the women came to the tomb early that morning they were expecting to find a heavily guarded sealed tomb with a corpse inside. They brought burial spices. They’d forgotten what Jesus had told them. He said over and over again that He would be crucified and that on the third day be raised to life again. Even those unsophisticated, unscientific country bumpkins from Galilee knew that dead men don’t rise from the dead, at least ordinarily.
What they found was a stone door rolled away, a bright angel happily perched on top of it. What they heard was incredibly good news: “He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.” What they saw was an empty, open tomb!
Matthew’s rendering of it is simply delicious. “So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples.” Fear and great joy. How else can you react to this kind of news? Dead Jesus is risen. That’s scary, creepy even. It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up if you think about it. And yet there’s joy. He was dead and now He’s alive again. Could it really be true? Were they hallucinating? Hysterical?
And then they saw Jesus who meets them on the road. “Greetings!” I love it. He uses the usual street greeting. “Hi!” As if to say, “What did you expect? I told you I would rise on the third day. Here I am.” They took hold of His feet and worshipped Him. You might worship a hallucination, but you can’t grab a hallucination’s feet. And instantly their fear gives way to unbridled joy.
Do you fear death? Then fear no longer. Christ has conquered.
Do you dread the grave? Then dread no longer. Christ has made the grave a place of sabbath rest.
Do you grieve the death of someone you love? Then grieve in hope and trust in Christ. He is risen, and in Him the dead will rise too.
Are you suffering and despairing in this life? Then rejoice even in your suffering. Christ is risen. His suffering is vindicated, and in Him, your suffering will be vindicated too.
Do you harbor doubt? Then doubt no more. Christ is risen. His words are true; He is the truth and the Way to life with God.
Come, you faithful raise the strain of triumphant gladness. God has brought His Israel into joy from sadness.
Come, rejoice in the Baptism that joins you to Jesus’ death and life.
Come, eat and drink the Body and the Blood that conquered Sin and Death.
Come, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we live.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
In the name of Jesus!
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Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The resurrection of Jesus is both a matter of fact and a matter of faith.
The tomb of Jesus is empty. The body of Jesus is risen. That is a matter of fact. It is a matter of faith in that the entirety of what we believe rests on the fact that Christ was put to death for our sins and raised for our justification. We are believers because Jesus rose from the dead.
Here are the facts.
Fact: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures.
Fact: The tomb was empty. The burial linens were folded neatly. The guards were bribed to say the disciples had stolen the body.
Fact: Jesus was seen by Mary Magdalene, by Peter and the Eleven, by Thomas who confessed “My Lord and my God,” by two disciples on the Emmaus road, by seven disciples who ate fish with Him, by over 500 brothers at one time, by James and all the apostles, and by Paul on the road to Damascus.
Fact: These were credible eyewitnesses. Sane, sober, rational people who did not initially believe that Jesus had risen from the dead even though He had told them this would happen. They had everything to lose and nothing to gain from their testimony. Many lost their lives professing the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
Fact: The people in power, the religious authorities, the Roman rulers, Pontius Pilate, the chief priests and scribes had a vested interest in a dead Jesus. They had the means and the ability to produce the corpse of Jesus and parade it through the streets of Jerusalem on Sunday night and Monday morning. But they did not. Why not? Because there was no corpse. Jesus had risen from the dead, just as He had said.
Because Christ rose from the dead we BELIEVE that we too shall rise with new and improved bodies. Jesus is the “first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep,” He is the first harvest of the resurrection. There is more to come, and you and I are the more to come on the Last Day.
Because Christ rose from the dead, we BELIEVE that there is genuine bodily life after death. We don’t just go on as spirits or memories or energy or whatever the latest buzz word is. We rise with bodies to live with God eternally. Because of sin, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Our bodies are not suited for eternal life. They wear out, they get sick, they break down. But what is buried in weakness will be raised in power. What is buried in dishonor will be raised in glory. What is buried a physical body will be raised a spiritual body designed for eternal life with God.
Because Christ rose from the dead, we BELIEVE that we are justified before God. His sacrifice is acceptable. His “it is finished” from the cross holds. His word is true, His promises are certain. When He says, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die forever,” this is as certain as Jesus risen from the dead is certain.
Because Christ rose from the dead, we know and BELIEVE that death has lost its power. “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” Sin is the condition. The law is the poison. Death is the result. The wages of sin is death. Christ took the sting. He succumbed to the poison. He was killed by the law that always accuses and kills the sinner. Bearing the sin of the world in His Body, the Holy Jesus who never sinned was counted as the sinner in our place. And now in the resurrection, He is the cure, the antidote, the medicine, or the anti-serum to the sting of death!
Because Christ rose from the dead, we know and BELIEVE the destiny of our humanity. “As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive.” Death is not the last word. Jesus has the last word. He has the say so. We are born to die. Yes, this is true. However, in Jesus, we die to live because Jesus rose from the dead.
“Listen, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” The perishable shall become imperishable. The mortal shall become immortal. Death will be swallowed up in victory.
We are sure of this. We believe this. And we live, hope and die trusting this because Christ rose from the dead.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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Isaiah 53:5
“By His wounds we are healed.”
Consider the Good Friday wounds of Jesus. He endures them not because He deserved them for wrongs He did or by committing sin. He was sinless. He was not guilty. In His passion He bears the sin of the world that He did not commit. The gashes, cuts, abrasions and lacerations are the result of our sin and He suffers these injuries in our place for our salvation. “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities,” (Is 53:5). His Good Friday wounds heal us from the wounds of our sin against God because the Blood that flows from those wounds “purifies from all sin,” (1 Jn 1:7).
So, I beg you again. Consider His wounds. His head was crown-ly crushed with thorns. Where one thorn pierces Jesus’ head, a thousand should have pierced us for eternity because of our sin. But here Jesus is deeply wounded for us and for the healing of our mind. After all, we have lost our minds, individually and collectively. Sin has driven us to madness – the madness that we believe we are gods and say what is good or evil. Our thinking is disordered. And from our disordered thinking comes all manner of disorder, bedlam and chaos in our lives, our loves, our world, our work, and yes, especially our worship. We need to be repented and be given a new way of thinking.
In one of the collects in Evening Prayer (p. 247) we pray this way: “Let the incense of our repentant prayer ascend before You, O Lord, and let Your loving-kindness descend on us that, with PURIFIED MINDS, we may sing Your praises …” Did you catch that? We need a new mind, a mind purified, unpolluted and unclouded by sin. We need the mind of Jesus whose head was pierced by thorns.
Thorns marked the cursed soil (Gen 3). Now they mark the Savior’s Head. Look on those wounds, those deep piercings on His forehead and scalp. They are for the healing of your mind – your depressions, anxieties, false thinking, everything that has gone wrong in your head is made right in this Head crowned with thorns! And that is spelled F-A-I-T-H which is a mind “that understands the Scriptures,” (Lk 24:45) that proclaims the crucified and risen Jesus who is your Savior. With such faith in Jesus for salvation, He reigns in your mind – in your conscience — so that you daily turn away from your sin and turn to Him for forgiveness.
Consider the stripes on His back inflicted by the whip with treble hooks on the ends that tears off chunks of His flesh. Consider too and with them, the haymakers to His face, swollen and bruised.
Jesus said: if your enemy slaps your right cheek, give him the other as well (Mt 5:39). We recoil at such words and plot revenge on our enemy. Jesus, in His passion, presented the other cheek and prayed for those who beat Him to a pulp and hung Him on the cross. “Father, forgive them.”
Those grisly wounds on His back and face are for your healing. They are the healing of all the blows that you have inflicted on others by your words, your deeds or your not doing anything. They are the healing of all the blows that others have inflicted on you, as you have been slapped and beaten by those who would exert their power over you. And they are the healing of all the blows you have inflicted upon yourself, in your wrongheaded way of attempting to atone for your own sins, as if to say, “If I beat on myself enough, maybe God will feel sorry for me.”
Behold the unblemished Lamb! Bruised, blemished and beaten by humanity’s inhumanity. It is Cain murdering Abel. He is the beaten prisoner of war, the abused wife, the beaten child, the one who is picked on at the playground and beaten up because he’s not like the others. He is the victim of torture, persecution, oppression, terror, violence, hatred, prejudice. He is the man beaten up by the cop. He is the policeman shot in the line of duty. He endures this because human life matters. Your life matters. By those Good Friday wounds, you are healed.
Now consider His wounded feet. How beautiful are the feet that bring good news! His feet brought the good news of God’s kingdom to places and ears that never had heard it before. And now those feet are immobilized – pinned by the nails of injustice. He walked the way of righteousness. But now as He, the perfect and sinless One, bears the sin of the world in His Body, His feet are bound to the cross as if they are the feet of a sinner – as one who is ungodly – as one who is cursed by God. Who can bear to look at those feet?
You should. Because they are for the healing of your walk. Our feet are prone to wandering. “We all like sheep have gone astray.” But with His crucified and bleeding feet Jesus has sought us and found us. Especially as they are pierced and nailed to the cross. Now He would use your redeemed feet to bring the good news of salvation to your family, friends or others in your walk of life. By His wounded feet, you are healed.
Consider His wounded side from which flowed blood and water. His heart was pierced FOR YOU. For your transgressions. His heart is God’s heart that pours out His life for the life of the world. The water from this deep wound flows straight into the baptismal font. The blood from this yawning wound flows straight into the chalice of the Lord’s Supper.
From this pierced and wounded heart comes the healing of your sin-broken heart. A new heart. A cleansed heart. A heart that beats with God’s will. A heart that rejoices in Jesus’ death FOR YOU. Spelled F-A-I-T-H. And that’s a heart that wants to sacrificially serve the neighbor in need.
Now consider His wounded hands. His wounded hands are pierced all the way through by heavy nails and fixed to the wood of the cross. Those wounds are the healing of your work. Consider your hands. How marvelous they are! Beautifully designed for intricacy and strength. Hands to build, plant, sew, push pencils, and punch keyboards. Hands that caress, comfort and hold. With our hands, however, we sin against God and others, working evil rather than good. Jesus would use your redeemed hands to reach out, to help, to serve, to hold, and to assist the brother or sister, the stranger, the man in the ditch or anyone in need.
Jesus’ hands knew the work of the carpenter’s shop – the splinter of wood, the planer, saws, hammers, nails and glue and He had the callouses to prove it. With those hands He reached out to touch the untouchable – the leprous, the sinful woman, the blind man.
He touched our humanity with His God-in-the-flesh-hands and healed us. And now those hands, nailed to the cross, drenched with His divine Blood, do their final and greatest work. The work needed to win, achieve and accomplish your salvation so that He could preach from the cross: “It is finished!” The salvation job is done. Or as Isaiah prophesied it: “By His wounds we are healed.” Both now and forever.
Happy Good Friday!
In the Name of Jesus.
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John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Jesus is with His twelve. His Israel. His church. In the upper room. Eating the Passover Meal.
At this Passover Meal, Jesus is both Gift and Example. He gives His Body and Blood, the very things He will sacrifice on the Cross to win salvation, with the bread and wine with the incredible promise of forgiveness. More on that in a moment.
First, Jesus is example. He gives them a pattern to follow. An example of sacrificial service. Of holding others of higher regard than self. He models it perfectly … and scandalously I might add. Takes off his tunic, grabs a towel and a basin of water and does the unthinkable. He, the Lord of all, the Most High God, stoops down to wash the dusty, dirty and calloused feet of His disciples. He bends down to do the work of the lowliest of servants. The Master does the task of the slave. Are you shocked? I suppose. But this is precisely why Jesus took on flesh. He came not to be served, but TO SERVE, and to Good Friday-ly lay down His life as a ransom for many.
Peter, at first categorically refuses the divine self-sacrificial service. His pride gets in the way of being given to. One of the hardest things is to be given a gift — as a gift. It is so terribly hard to be simply given to. We say it whenever we receive an unexpected gift: “You shouldn’t have!” We mean it. Or when someone pays for a meal we say: “No! Let me get that!” So too Peter. “No Jesus! I won’t let you serve me that way!” Well, then what about Jesus’ gift of salvation in His Good Friday death? Would Peter refuse that too? What about our not wanting to be served by Jesus in Word and Sacrament? That’s a huge salvational crisis! Unbelief hellaciously says: “No thanks!” Faith says: “Gift given. Gift received. Amen.”
Jesus, ever patient, gospel-ly persists in His servant way of giving. Peter must learn the way of being given to as well. After all, before you can give of yourself in service to others, you must first receive the divine service of the Suffering Servant Jesus in His death on the cross and in His Word and Sacrament. We LCMS-ers would do well to learn this.
In washing their feet Jesus gives them an example to follow, “that you also should do just as I have done to you.” This is what it means to live under Him in His kingdom and to serve Him. He is the King who bows before His subjects and washes their feet. Seeing this, is there any task beneath you? “A servant is not greater than His master; nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” What does Master and Teacher Jesus do? He washes dirty, dusty and repulsive feet.
Jesus, however, is more than an example. Example Jesus is nice but Example Jesus doesn’t save you. You need Gift Jesus.
So, He takes the bread that opens the Passover meal, the hard, unleavened bread of affliction. He gives thanks, breaks it into pieces, and hands a piece to each disciple. It’s a gift. To be given the piece of bread is to be admitted to the meal. You belong at this table and to this family.
Then Jesus speaks words never said at a Passover Meal. He is the Lord after all! “This is my body, which is given for you.” His words tell us what we could not know for ourselves. This bread is Jesus’ body, what will later be given into death on the Good Friday cross to atone for all sin. Here bread finds the highest and holiest use – to be the vehicle to deliver Jesus’ Good Friday-ed body, the Bread of Life, living Bread come down from heaven as manna to feed His Israel. His Israel, His church, would live off of this Bread of His Good Friday death until He appears again in glory. Gift Jesus!
Then He takes the cup of wine after the supper which is called the blessing cup. He lifts it, gives thanks, and tell each of His disciples to drink from it. And then again, Jesus speaks words never before uttered in a Passover: “This is the new testament in my blood.” The Lord’s Supper is His last will and testament by which He bequeaths His sacrificial blood given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. Here too, wine finds its ultimate purpose, binding those who drink of Jesus’ cup in a covenant of His blood. In the Old Testament, blood stood for life. “The life of the creature is in the blood,” (Lev 17:1). This blood, however, of the new testament is a divine blood that only can atone for sin and was poured out for you in your place, as Jesus bled from the cross, for the forgiveness of your sins. And now He gives it to drink with the cup of wine. Gift Jesus!
Washing feet was the example. That is something the disciples who believe in Jesus can and want to do. But giving His body to eat and His blood to drink is something only Jesus could give. He unites them with Him in His death and life. He is the vine. They are the branches. His body and blood, His death and life, flows into them and make them fruitful foot washers / servants. Apart from Him, they can do nothing. Nor can you.
Come then to His Supper on this night which commemorates the night on which Jesus your Savior was betrayed into death FOR YOU. The same SUPPER He gave to His Twelve, He now gives to you. Receive the bread He prepared for you and eat it. It is His crucified, risen and ascended body, your manna to sustain you in your wilderness journey until you rise to walk in promised land of heaven. Receive the cup He prepared for you and drink from it. It is His crucified, risen and ascended blood of the new testament, poured out for the many, poured out FOR YOU. This is wine from Calvary’s vineyard to gladden your sin-saddened heart. What greater gift can Jesus give, than to give you the fruits of His sacrifice, His own Body and Blood?
He gives His all to you so that He might save the all of you – wht whole lot of you – body and soul. Nothing stands outside His forgiveness. Nothing can separate you from His self-sacrificing love. No greater love is there than that this self-giving love that lays down its life for another. In His Supper, at His table, He lays before you the gifts of His cross and says, “These are for you.”
And from this holy Meal arise refreshed, renewed, restored. The Lord’s Body and Blood will have its way with you in two ways: It enlivens you in faith toward Him and then in fervent love toward one another. Love that bends down in service of the neighbor – both friend and stranger. Love that seeks to serve Christ in the least, the lost, the lowly. Love that, if given the opportunity would even wash dirty, dusty, gross feet, give a stranger a cup of cold water, or do the everyday and ordinary work of taking care of your family, your congregation or whatever the Lord calls you to do.
Happy Holy Thursday!
In the Name of Jesus.
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Matthew 10:32
Confirmation of Jase Bornemeier, Layla Graham, Hayzel Josoff, Aubrey Justus, Malia Staben
“Whoever confesses Me before men, I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” Today, you five have confessed for all the world to hear, that you believe in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And most especially Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity who Good Friday-ly died for you and atoned for all your sin on the cross. Who refused to hop off the cross to save Himself but stayed anchored on the cross in order to save you through the shedding of His divine Blood!
When you confess Jesus, you also reject and turn your backs on Satan, all his works and all his ways. You gave Satan two big middle fingers today! He hates you for this. He will relentlessly tempt you to believe that what Jesus did on the cross is insufficient, deficient, not enough. So that you despair and say: “What I’ve done is so horrible that Jesus can’t and won’t forgive it. I’m unforgiveable! My sin is too big for Jesus.” Don’t ever go there! Ever! That would be hellacious. I’m here to tell you that Jesus’ Blood cleanses you from all sin. All the sin you commit! All the sin committed against you!
So, your confession of Jesus as the Lord today is exclusive. It’s black and white. No gray. In other words, Jesus alone is the Savior! Savior of all. Savior of you. He alone redeemed you a lost and condemned person. Only Jesus answered for all your sin in His Good Friday crucified body. He alone buried you into His death through holy baptism. There is no other Savior. No other God than this Man: JESUS!
Not only does Satan hate this but the world does too. The world hated and still hates Jesus for who He is and what He has done and still does. Unbelievers can’t stand Him. The Roman soldiers and the people who stood below the cross mocked Him! Jesus was accused of false teaching and being a fanatic. An enemy of the church and the state. An insurrectionist! The hatred of Jesus was immense. So they got rid of Him! Crucified Him!
And yet, today, you, thanks be to God, confessed Him – the Crucified One — to be your Savior today! That’s wonderful! Salvational-ly outstanding! And yet at the same time this is also quite dicey and dangerous. Your freedom and constitutional right to confess Jesus and to worship Him as your Lord appears to be coming to an end in this country. Many powerful and influential people that you’ve never met hate you on account of Jesus and your faith in Him. THEY VEHEMENTLY SPEAK AGAINST YOU AND THEY VIGOROUSLY WORK AGAINST YOU.
Jesus said this would happen in the NT so we shouldn’t be surprised. He says in John 15:8, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” So, if you haven’t learned already, learn it today. Being a Christian means bearing the cross. Jesus said so: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” (Mt 18:24). In other words, confessing Jesus will cost you.
The days ARE OVER when being a follower of Jesus was a feather in your cap or enhanced your résumé. And I fear that the days ARE UPON US when coaches sports leagues, employers, bankers, doctors, a brother or an uncle will tell you that you’re not welcome because you’re one of “those” people. Yes, confess Jesus and your dependence on Him and you may get de-platformed, blackballed, and demonized in every part of society.
Treated like the Elephant Man — an utter pariah! Segregation and discrimination are making a remarkable comeback in the United States – against faithful Christians! If word gets out that you confess Christ, that you actually take your Christian faith seriously, that you hunger to hear His Word and eat and drink His Body and Blood, you may not only get kicked off the team but never allowed to be on a team – ever – and not get an athletic scholarship! Would that be the end of the world? Well: NO!
If you post something positive about Jesus and the Christian faith on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat, that may just get you fired from your job for cyber bullying. You may even receive a surprise visit in the dead of the night from the FBI, with swat teams in tow, to handcuff you and take you to prison. If word leaks out and the dean of the university finds out you’re a dedicated Christian, you may get sent packing and receive no degree. And do you think the university will refund all your tuition and fees? If you believe that would happen, I have some ocean front property to sell you in Murdock, NE!
Confessing Jesus may eventually prevent you from being able to put your cash in a bank, from taking out a loan on a car or a house, or from having your own business. Believing in Jesus may restrict you from getting legal representation, health and life insurance, medical care, life-saving treatment or surgery at a hospital. You may not even be able to – SHOCKER OF SHOCKERS! — purchase a computer, an I-phone or a car if it is known that you’re a confessor of Christ.
I remind you that from 2020-2021 Christian churches were forced to close in many places in the United States. No divine services allowed. No preaching or Lord’s Supper allowed. Meanwhile, liquor stores, casinos and strip clubs were allowed to remain open. Did you forget that? High School FB coach Joe Kennedy of Bremerton, WA was fired for regularly praying prayers of thanksgiving at the 50-yard line after games. The IRS targets Christian non-profit groups.
In China it is illegal to have any crosses or images of Jesus in public or in your homes. Can you guess what must be displayed? Yes, that’s right! Images of Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping. Confess Jesus by worshiping Him at a divine service or home devotion, dare to wear a cross or hang one on your living room wall and you will suffer the consequences – arrest, fines, beatings, jail, enslavement and possibly even death. Confess Chairman Xi as lord and you enjoy the privileges of a high social credit score.
So, today and the rest of your lives, you five are given to live on Christ’s promise: “Whoever confesses Me before men, I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” This is so wonderful. JESUS PROMISES TO SPEAK FOR YOU! TO ACT AS GOD FOR YOU! HE’S ON YOUR SIDE! FIGHTING FOR YOU!
So, I beg you Jase, Layla, Hayzel, Aubrey, and Malia, as well as all of you gathered here today to live in and from this divine promise! If you are called before a boss, a teacher, a coach, a judge or a sheriff and you are asked at the risk of losing your job, your degree, your spot on the team, your citizenship or your life: “Do you believe in Jesus? You’re a Christian. Aren’t you?” You will confidently answer: “Of course I am! Would you like me to tell you about Jesus? Would you like to be a follower of Jesus too?”
You will do this because of Jesus’ promise FOR YOU: “Whoever confesses Me before men, I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” He is the Lord who took on the form of a servant and became obedient unto death – death on the Good Friday cross! What Jesus did FOR YOU to atone and answer for all your sin is the essence of Christianity. To trust what He did FOR YOU is the Christian life. It is the Christian confession.
At this moment and for the rest of your lives, Jesus confesses you before God the Father in this way: “I died for Jase, Layla, Hayzel, Aubrey, and Malia.” He speaks on your behalf. Defends you. Advocates for you. Knowing this, you will continue to confess Jesus. And one of the unique ways to do it is to regularly come to the Lord’s Supper. For as often as you eat this bread of the Lord’s Body and drink this cup of the Lord’s Blood you proclaim or CONFESS His death – His Good Friday death FOR YOU — until He comes on the Last Day, (1 Cor 11:26).
For you who believe in Jesus, He speaks FOR YOU! He goes to bat FOR YOU! “Whoever confesses Me before men, I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” That is certain and sure.
Happy Confirmation Day!
In the Name of Jesus. Amen
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Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45
“Son of man, can these bones [of dead Israel] live?” Can the bones of Lazarus four days dead in the grave live? Can your dry dead bones live? The answer is “Yes! By the breath of His Jesus’ Word they can! And Jesus promises that He the Resurrection and the Life!”
Ezekiel sees Israel dead. A valley full of dry, dusty bones. Very dry. Very dead. “Our bones are dried up,” the dead Israel says. “Our hope is lost! We are clean cut off.” Very dead. Bone dry dead.
Ezekiel? Can these bones live? Not if it’s up to Israel. The dead can’t raise the dead. The dead don’t raise themselves. Bones can only lie there dry as dust dead.
Ezekiel? Can these bones live? Well, if it’s up to the Lord, of course! Absolutely! He’s the One who said: “Let there be light” and His Word did and gave what it said. God does and gives what He says. So too with His Word He raises the dead. So, “Ezekiel, preach it. Preach my Word,” says the Lord. “Prophesy / preach, over these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’”
All this reminds me of Genesis 2. You remember too. How did the Lord form Adam? He fashioned Adam from the dust of the earth. The He breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living being. To be alive is to have the Word-ed Breath or Breathed Word of God blown on you. Without the Word-ed divine breath of the Lord there is no life — only death. Dry, dusty bones of death.
Ezekiel obediently preaches. He speaks what he is given to say from the Lord. Not his words, but the Lord’s. Those words are spirit and they are life. Viva vox Christi (Living Voice of Christ)! The preaching of God’s Word does what it says. Gives what it says. Dry as dust dead bones come together again. Bone to bone. Flesh, ligaments, muscle and skin. With the preaching of God’s Word comes the breath, the wind, the Holy Spirit of God blows and they stand up AND THEY LIVE! Yes, dry dusty bones can live by the Holy Spirit-ed Word of God preached. Israel’s bones rise up. A great army! So too Your bones can live by the Word and the Spirit of God preached over you.
This is so salvationally huge. Why? Because we are all born dead. Dead in trespasses and sin. Dead as the dry bones of Israel. We think we are alive but we live in denial of death. We may try to convince ourselves that we can have a life apart from the Word and the Spirit, but in the end there is only death and those dry, dusty bones. That is our lot in Adam. “Dust you are, and to the dust you shall return.” Adam’s death is our death too. What passes as a life is really death delayed. A kind of race from the womb to the tomb. So it is with every “son of man.” Ninety-three times, God calls the prophet Ezekiel “son of man,” to remind him of his own mortality. As a “son of man” his destiny are these bones laid out before him. And they are our destiny as well. No one is the exception. Check out the cemetery outside. You’ll see.
Speaking of the cemetery. One of Jesus’ best friends, Lazarus, was critically ill, he died and he was buried. Like the bones of Israel that Ezekiel saw. Mary and Martha, his sisters had sent the pastoral 911 call to Jesus. “Please come quickly Lord! Lazarus is not well.” Jesus is a no-show. In fact, when He finally arrives Lazarus was four day’s dead and buried. He let His best friend die. Nonchalantly, Jesus lets Lazarus die. Then He has the audacity to tell His disciples: “I’m going to wake him up.”
Why does Jesus talk like that? Well, for Him, death is nothing more than a sleep from which to be wakened. We cannot revive ourselves, nor can others awaken us from this sleep. No alarm bell, no siren, can wake us from death. What can? The Lord’s divine, Holy Spirit-ed Word can. So He’s off. Marches to Lazarus’ tomb to conquer death. To pierce through the darkness of the grave with His Word and breath.
This is what Mary, Martha and all the mourners will learn. We too! But for the moment, I suppose the sisters were deeply disappointed and hurt with the too late arriving Jesus. Does a friend act like that? Does a friend who previously had been invited to their home act like that? Martha, you remember, cooked all day for Him. I can hear the angst in their voices when the say: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” He made the lame to walk, He gave the blind their sight. Couldn’t He have come to Bethany sooner? He could have saved Lazarus from death.
Martha is at least able to say: “Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” But there’s more to Jesus than someone to whom God listens and grants favors. He’s not simply a “son of man” like Ezekiel, a mere mortal. He is the divine Son of Man, the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth. He is the creative Word in the flesh, the Word through whom all things were made and in whom everything holds together. His words are Spirit and they are life (Jn 6:63) – eternal life (Jn 6:68).
Martha’s hope, however, is for the last day, the day of the resurrection of the body. She knows and believes that on that day she will see her brother again. But there is something more that she does not know. Resurrection day, the last day is not yet, but there is a now. Our hope is not just for a day to come but for today. It isn’t only about a resurrection to come but a resurrection that is already here. Really? Absolutely!
It’s now in Jesus who categorically declares: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” It’s the last of His seven I AM sayings in John’s gospel. Resurrection and Life are present tense with Jesus. Here and now! “Whoever believes in me lives even though he dies.” I.E. he lives in spite of his death! He lives in his death!
To believe in Jesus is to live. Death may be our destiny in Adam, but in Jesus it’s life. In Adam all die. In Jesus are all made alive. You, dear baptized believer, you live even though you die. In fact, death no longer has mastery over you because death no longer has mastery over Jesus. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. To be baptized into Him, to believe in Him and trust the promise He has made to you in your baptism, is to have His life now even as you wind your inexorable way to death.
And with Jesus there’s always more. “Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” Literally, “will never die forever.” Oh, you will die. And you live in Jesus in spite of your death. But living and trusting in Jesus you will never die forever. Death can’t hold you. The grave can’t hold you because Jesus broke the bonds of death and the grave forever with His own dying and rising.
To show that His words do and give what they say and to show that He truly is the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus goes to the tomb of His friend Lazarus. Martha’s worried. “There will be an odor.” She doesn’t quite trust that Jesus is who He says He is – the Resurrection and the Life. With Jesus, death has lost its sting. The grave has been conquered. The stench of death’s decay gives way to the fresh breath of life. He goes to the open tomb. He blasts out a prayer for the benefit of those watching. And He shouts into the tomb, “Lazarus, come out.” His words. His breath. And like Israel’s dry bones in the valley, Lazarus emerges from his own grave, wearing his burial clothes.
Can your dry, dead bones live? Can those whom we’ve buried over the last few years that are so dear to you, live? Absolutely! Just ask Lazarus. Jesus let him die, but that wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. Nor for you. We are born dead in Adam, but God has made us alive in Jesus His Son. By grace, a gift. Through faith, not our doing but God’s doing.
You can’t ask the dead to raise themselves. Ezekiel didn’t tell the bones to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. He preached to God’s Word to them. And as He preached God’s Word the Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life was at work. That’s what God does to our dry, dusty Adamic bones in baptism and in the preaching of the gospel. He makes believers out of unbelievers. He raises the spiritually dead to new spiritual life spelled F-A-I-T-H in the Good Friday forgiveness He gives to sinners. All with His Word which is also His divine breath.
Baptized into Jesus’ death and life, you have the Spirit of God, the breath of God dwelling in you. In Adam, you are dead and dying. But in your baptismal rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, you are alive to God in Christ. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
This is as certain and sure as Jesus crucified and risen from the dead is certain and sure. He is the Resurrection. He is the Life. Trust Him and you will live even though you die. Live in Him and trust Him, and you will never die forever. What joy!
In the name of Jesus. Amen
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Mark 4:35-41
Well-weathered and experienced fishermen, like the disciples or like Terry (who also was an expert hunter), know how storms can kick up out of nowhere on the lake. Boaters as skilled as Terry and the fishermen disciples respect the sea or lake – even fear it. They know how quickly a boat can capsize and a man can drown in a bad squall.
In the text, the white-capped, hurricane-like-wind-aided waves are swamping the boat. All hands on deck! Start bailing! Row as hard as you can! You can hear the panic and alarm in their voices!
Where’s Jesus? “In the stern.” On the captain’s cushion. Arm draped over the rudder. Sound asleep! Dead asleep! Now if Terry was on that boat, he’d whisper with that gravel-ly voice of his into Peter’s ear: “Why did we listen to this carpenter? He doesn’t know anything about boating! Now we’re in deep trouble!” I would have muttered something similar under my breath while bailing the sea water.
However, dead-asleep Jesus couldn’t have been more at peace, or more in control! After all, He is the Lord. He made the heaven and the earth. In Him all the universe holds together (Col 1:17). In the beginning He told the deep waters of creation: “this far you may go and no further,” (Job 38:11) and He separated sea and dry land.
So what’s the big deal? Really? If the boat goes under, Jesus goes with them. The disciples and Terry couldn’t be safer! There was not a safer place in the world than that sinking fishing boat with the dead asleep Jesus at the stern.
I know. I know. That’s sounds absolutely crazy. Because a sleeping Jesus is as good as a dead Jesus when your ship is sinking PDQ! Wake Him up! Shake Him or slap Him if you have to! Jesus can’t help, let alone save us, if He is asleep. Right? That’s what everyone thinks! So, they do it! They vigorously rouse Jesus from His slumber. “Rabbi! Snap to it! Get with the program! Don’t you care that we are perishing? How can you sleep at a time like this? Do something! Grab a bucket and start bailing. Or take a paddle and row like your life depends on it!”
Well, as He rubs the sleep from His eyes, He takes neither a bucket let alone an oar. All He does … IS PREACH! At the wind and the waves! “Be quiet! Be still!” The wind and waves know their Master who created them and they obey His preaching. Behold the power of His speaking. His Word. All is quiet. All is still. Great calm.
Once the sermon is over Jesus looks at the soaked, seasick, green to the gills, all panicked disciples and asks: “Why are you afraid? Don’t you have F-A-I-T-H? Don’t you trust me?”
Now the disciples are “filled with fear.” No longer fear of the storm. Now it’s fear of Jesus! “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
Who is He? Well, Jesus is the Lord of creation. The maker of wind, waves and dry land. He ought to be feared more than a storm, cancers, clogged arteries, aneurysms, cardiac arrests, and while I’m at it especially Satan, death and the grave.
And yet. we ARE afraid. Aren’t we? Yes, when our boat, that is to say, our life, is about to capsize. Like when the doctor says, “I’m so sorry, there is nothing more I can do.” Or as the economy tanks and the banks are on the ragged edge of total collapse. Like when all our safety and security are about to go overboard and sink to the depths. We ARE afraid! We sound like the faithless disciples too often. We panic and want Jesus to wake up from what appears to be His apathetic-to-us sleeping and snoring even though He neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps 121:3-4).
Brothers and sisters, Jesus wants your fear. All of it! Seriously! It’s a First Commandment thing. “We should FEAR, love, and trust in God above all things.” What causes your heart to race? What keeps you up at night? What are you truly afraid of? Jesus wants that fear. Don’t fear the wind, the storm, the tumor, the bullet, the bursting blood vessel, death or the grave. Don’t fear what can only destroy the body, but cannot harm the soul. Fear God. Fear the Son of God, for He will swallow up your fear. There is no one greater than He!
So, I’m here to tell you today, for the strengthening of your fear, love and trust in Jesus, that there was another time when He fell into the deep, deep, sleep … of death … on that Friday afternoon we all call “good.” And yet we and Terry couldn’t be anywhere safer than having Jesus do that for us. For there on the cross Jesus was in total salvation-of-the-world-mode and control! Seriously! Because in the deep sleep of His Good Friday death Jesus reconciled the entire world to God.
Behold! When Jesus appears to be most powerless, most out of it, most useless while hanging on the cross, this is when He is most powerful to save. You, me and Terry. Jesus’ Good Friday death is our victory over death.
Let me put it to you this way. On Good Friday Jesus dove headlong into our death so that when we, like Terry, sink into the sea of death, we are not alone. Jesus is there to catch us. Jesus is with us so that awake or asleep we belong to Him. We believers, like Terry, are totally safe in Jesus’ Good Friday death because He made peace with God for us by it.
Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you that you can trust the sleeping unto-death-on-the-cross-Jesus. His death has reconciled this sinking ship of a world to God the Father because He took all our sin and atoned for it with His holy, precious blood.
Fear, love and trust in Jesus above all things just like Terry did. I beg you to learn that from Terry. Especially when your lives are perilously threatened by all kinds of tornadic winds and treacherous waves like a cancer, heart disease, death and the grave. Trust Jesus, even when it appears that He’s sleeping, can’t hear you, not lifting a finger to help, or that He doesn’t seem to care.
He cares all right! He cares so much that He died for you and rose on the third day for you. That proves that He’s trustworthy. And there’s more. Your baptism, and Terry’s baptism, is another personal promise that He will raise you and Terry from the dead on the Last Day.
Jesus will not fail you or let you down — you who believe in Him. You can take that to the grave! Terry’s and yours. And even to the Day of Resurrection! On that Day, Jesus, just like in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, will preach another sermon. Not “Be still. Be quiet.” But: “Wake up! Arise!”
And Terry’s perishable body will be raised imperishable. His mortal body will put on immortality. And if anyone dares to ask: “Who is this that even death and the grave obey Him?” we all will proclaim: “He is none other than the Lord Jesus!” And then we will hear that classic Terry Drake laugh in resurrection joy as he, together with all of us, will mockingly taunt: “O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting? The joke’s on you! The punch line is this: Jesus has won! He gets the last laugh!”
That will be an incredible day! I can’t wait!
In the Name of Jesus.
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Incredible. Done-Nothing-Wrong-Ever-Jesus gets set up, betrayed, arrested and tried before the religious and political courts. And just as dumbfounding-ly – Totally-Innocent-Jesus is found guilty by both courts. He is accused of blasphemy before the court of religion, the Sanhedrin because He claims to be the divine, only-begotten Son of God. “He prophesied against the temple – God’s throne!” Jesus even clinches the fact that He is the divine Messiah when He categorically asserts that He is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the Son of Man coming on the clouds!
So, they hack big loogies on Him, sock Him, and make fun of Him. To claim to be God in the flesh is the ultimate heresy to the ears of these religious big wigs and their cronies. Sidenote: just like when we here at Trinity audaciously proclaim that a sinner is justified for Jesus’ sake – that is heresy according to today’s religious experts who want to save themselves apart from Jesus and His Good Friday death on the cross. “He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him.”
Sadly, Jesus is the Messiah no one wanted or asked for. Then and now. When given the choice, the popular vote goes to Barabbas the convicted insurrectional-cold-blooded killer-terrorist. The crowd is pro-Barabbas and anti-Jesus. Jesus is not the kind of Messiah they were looking for or wanted. Barabbas is what they want. The murderer Barabbas goes free as the innocent and sinless Prince of Peace goes to His death.
What a swap! What an exchange! The guilty Barabbas walks away scot-free and the Innocent One, Jesus, stands convicted. And with that, in Pilate’s courtroom, we are given to see a picture of our own salvation. It too is a swap or exchange: a sweet swap or blessed exchange. Here is what I mean.
We are guilty under the law. Rightfully convicted. And properly sentenced and condemned to eternal damnation. In order to save us, redeem us and justify us, Jesus does what it takes. He comes to take our place. Swap places with us. Exchange places with us. He is guiltless and yet He takes on our guilt. He is sinless and for us and for our salvation He takes all our sin and its damnation as He hangs on the cross. Jesus humbles Himself and becomes obedient to death, even death on a cross. FOR YOU!
This is why Jesus endures the beatings, the mockery, the ridicule and scorn as they put a royal robe on Him, offer their faux worship with the bent knee. This is why Jesus suffers the pressing of a crown of thorns into His head. This is why He suffers their spit. Jesus absorbs and suffers it all because He has swapped places with you.
Every act on inhumanity inflicted on man by man, every act of prejudice, hatred, oppression, violence – Jesus takes without so much as a word of protest. He has come to redeem this broken world with His own blood. He has come to make peace out of our violence. He has come to take our rejection and make it the world’s reconciliation. God was in Christ, this Jesus, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them. Not counting your sins against you. In Jesus all of your sin is forgiven. And as you believe, so you have.
Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You who for the sake of my sin were falsely accused, rescue me from the accusation of the law and of my conscience. You who remained silent in the face of false accusations, help me so that I do not have to be silent before God’s judgment. You who in an innocent manner was shamed and spit upon, rescue me from the eternal disgrace and shame of hell. Let your innocent, suffering condemnation be my eternal acquittal. Amen.
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John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39
A man born blind. Who sinned? This man or his parents? But he was blind from birth. So obviously his parents, right? Sin has consequences; therefore consequences must have sins. Right? Wrong. He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Go figure. His blindness becomes a canvas to display Jesus’ glory as the light of the world.
The man born blind represents all of us. Every disciple of Jesus. Born blind but given sight. Not seeing, yet believing.
Jesus spits on the ground. Bends down. Kneads some clay with His spit. Kneading clay was forbidden on the Sabbath lest you do some pottery. But here, the Divine Potter was applying a little fix to Adam’s clay. Here’s mud in your eye. It’s a strange way to cure blindness, don’t you think? Jesus makes him even more blind in a way. Then comes water and the Word. Did you expect any less? “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” Water and promise. Water and Word.
Off the man goes. Washes. Comes back. Seeing! With 20/20 clarity. Incredible! He was totally blind and living in the dark until Jesus came to him, put mud in his eyes and sent him to wash in the pool.
People notice. “How are your eyes open now?” “The man called Jesus anointed my eyes with mud and told me to wash at Siloam. So I went. I washed. Now I see.” “Where is this Jesus?” they asked. “I don’t know.”
Jesus was gone. The man had never seen Jesus. But he believes. Just like you and me!
Well, the Pharisees want to investigate what just took place on this Sabbath Day. Kneading mud into clay was forbidden according to their man-made rules. Healing, however, was not on the list of forbidden works because, after all, only God could do that. And yet Jesus has just done both! The Pharisees are scandalized and offended! “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” They argued. So they interrogate the healed man. “What say you?” “He’s a prophet!”
The Pharisees are not satisfied. So they interrogate his Dad and Mom. Mum is the word because they have enough awareness to know this is a rigged interrogation. After all, if anyone confessed Jesus to be the Christ, he was kicked out of the synagogue. Excommunicated! So Dad and Mom dodge the question. “He’s our son. He was born blind. How he now sees. How? We don’t know. Ask him. He’s of age.”
The Pharisees put him under oath “Give glory to God.” He says the one thing he knows: I once was blind but now I see. Amazing grace. But grace is no explanation for a legalist. Man-made commandments have to be kept at all costs. God doesn’t listen to sinners. The Pharisees have all the answers. They’re disciples of Moses, or so they thought. Who could be greater than Moses? “We don’t even know where this Jesus guy comes from,” they say.
Well, the healed man confesses his faith. “We know that God does not listen to sinner, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
Those words are like fingernails on the chalkboard to the Pharisees! “Dude! You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” How sadly tragic! These experts of the Bible have forgotten or purposely chosen to ignore Psalm 51:5 – “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Sinful from birth! From the time of conception!. They were half correct. The blind man was born in utter sin. But that’s not why he was blind. But they were born in utter sin too! So are we. But the thing about religious legalism is that you can only see the sin in others. You’re blind to the sin in you!
The man gets the boot! Excommunicated! Along comes Jesus once again. He heard what happened. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He’s not sure. “Who is He that I may believe in Him?” And that’s then we get to the climax of the event with this categorical statement of Jesus: “You have seen Him and He is speaking to you.”
The man believes! “Lord, I believe!” And in faith he worships. The highest worship of Jesus is F-A-I-T-H! That’s why he is a true worshiper and that he worships in spirit and truth!
Well, brothers and sisters, this is the judgment. The crisis. This is the salvation at stake moment. Jesus is the light of the world. He is the light the darkness cannot overcome. He is the light of all and shines on all. But to unbelief, that light becomes a blinding light, so that those who see will become blind, and those who are blind will see.
The Pharisees, with no F-A-I-T-H in Jesus are blind even though they emphatically believe that they see very clearly. And this man, blind from birth, sees Jesus for who He is and worships Him spelled F-A-I-T-H!
That man born blind is all of us. You and me. Everyone. We are born blind, steeped in sin, beggars. Just as a blind man cannot will his eyes to work, so we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ as Lord or come to Him. He comes to us in our sin, our blindness, our darkness. He “anoints” our eyes in baptism, in “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Tit 3:5), so that we are enlightened to see Jesus for who He really is: our Savior!
This “seeing,” however, is seeing by faith and not with physical eyes. Like the blind man who believed before he saw Jesus, so we too believe prior to seeing. We will see with our eyes one day, when Jesus raises our dead and buried bodies and fixes our tangible eyes in the resurrection so that we can look on Him who is our Light, our life, and our salvation. But for now, the seeing is believing – F-A-I-T-H.
In the meantime, like the man born blind, we confess Jesus. It’s hard to keep such things to yourself. And as I’ve taught over and over again, that confession of Jesus may cost you. Parents may disown you. Friends may be deeply suspicious of you. And the salvation-by-what-you-do-or-don’t-do-folks will most likely kick you out of the church because you audaciously believe that faith alone in Jesus is enough for your salvation. All you can say is what the blind man said, “I once was blind but now I see.”
Those familiar words of the man born blind have been forever popularized by John Newton, a pastor in the Church of England. Do you know his story? Let me tell you. Newton renounced the Christian faith as a youth. He served in the navy where he was known for desertion while on shore leave. Then he worked on a slave ship. His fellow sailors were taken aback because Newton perfected the meaning of cursing like a sailor! Newton wrote obscene verses about the ship’s captain. Several times, the captain admonished Newton not only for using the foulest words he had ever heard but for “creating new ones to exceed the limits of verbal debauchery.”
Newton, this vile, unreliable, obscene slave trader eventually came back to faith in Jesus. He got married, taught himself Latin, Greek, and theology and was ordained at the age of 39. As a preacher, he was known for his blunt honesty about his sinful life. Newton readily spoke of his sins against Jesus. He wrote: “How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.” So he penned this stanza of the hymn we all know and love so much:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found.
Was blind but now I see.
John 9. Amazing grace to a man born blind that the works of God might be displayed in him.
With Jesus there is grace to sinners steeped in sin from birth.
With Jesus there is grace to you, that the glory of God might be displayed in you. Incredible!
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
What a confirmation verse! No doubt Trudy’s father picked it. Typical LCMS pastor! Thanks be to God!
Pastor Roesler, like all faithful pastors, wanted his daughter, all his family and his congregation at Arapahoe, NE, to live by faith. Faith in Jesus for salvation. For salvation, faith in Jesus is sufficient or enough. Listen again. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
Now, Trudy’s confirmation verse, is a magnificent text at her funeral! She, the all-her-life- faith-er-in-Jesus, trusted this divine promise. It’s what a faith-er in or hanger-on of Jesus does. When it comes to salvation faith always trusts what it’s given or spoken by Jesus.
“Whoever hears my word.” That was Trudy’s life. Whether it was at home devotions, Bible studies or hearing Jesus’ word at church, she hungered for the Savior’s word. After all, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ,” (Rom 10:17). Jesus’ words “are Spirit and life” (Jn 6:63). Trudy, like the apostle Peter, truly believed that Jesus alone has the “words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).
And what particular words of Jesus did Trudy hunger and hear all her life? There are so many. Let me remind you of a few so that you will hang on to them too like Trudy. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” (Mk 16:16). Or: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life,” (Jn 3:16).
Every Sunday at the beginning of the service she heard the promise of Jesus from John 20:22 as the pastor spoke the absolution: “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In each faithful sermon she heard the good news that Jesus died and rose for her just as Jesus prescribes in the New Testament. Every time she received the Lord’s most precious Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper, there were the Lord’s words again: “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”
So, believing Jesus – taking Him at His word – in her 91 years of life on this earth – eternal life was hers, not just as future tense, but as present tense. Because as you believe so you have! This is what gave Trudy the freedom to live a life of self-sacrificing love for others. For Charley. For Mike, Steve, Sue, Mary and the rest of her extended family. For her congregation and community. As she wife-ed, mother-ed, grandmother-ed or Husker-ed she served others as the Lord’s instrument. She put her heart into it because Jesus had already given her eternal life. Or as Jesus promises: “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He … has passed from death to life.”
So, on May 31, 1931, when Trudy received the divine and saving name of the Triune God in holy baptism, she passed from eternal death to eternal life. Granted, all that the congregation at Arapahoe saw was some water poured on Trudy’s head. But they heard Pastor Roesler say the words of Jesus that Jesus Himself mandated:: “Getrude Leona Todd, I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” With those words, the water was a life giving water, rich in grace and a washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit for Trudy (Tit 3:5). Born again. Born from above. Passed from death to life! That’s spelled F-A-I-T-H! That’s what it means to be in Christ – a new creation – the old has passed – behold the new has come (2 Cor 5)!
But there is more. There will be more passing from death to life. And that is a physical and bodily eternal life bestowed in the resurrection on the Last Day. Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, who stood outside Lazarus’ tomb and called out, “Lazarus, come forth!” will on the morning of the resurrection shout out: “Trudy, come forth! Charley come forth! All you who believe in me, come forth! Time to wake up from the sleep of death. It’s resurrection day!”
St. Paul describes what that day will be like. Listen again. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall all be changed,” (1 Cor 15:51-52).
On May 28, 1944 Trudy’s father gave her one of the most important promises of Jesus recorded in the New Testament as her confirmation verse. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” As Trudy believed so she had and has. In the 91 years of her life she had eternal life by faith. Now she has eternal life by sight.
What we patiently wait for now is a happy reunion in heaven and the resurrection of the body on the Last Day for those who believe in Jesus. Until we are given to hear Jesus’ word and believe in Him for eternal life and the ultimate passing from death to life when faith gives way to sight.
When that happens what great joy! More than we could ever imagine! It will be wonderful! I can’t wait. And I’m sure you can’t either. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
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THE PASSION: THE PALACE OF THE HIGH PRIEST
Last week we heard Peter’s boldness and confidence in Gethsemane. “Even if all the others deny you, I will NEVER deny you.” He doubled down. “If I have to die with you, I will NEVER deny you.” Bold, daring, unflinching, courageous Peter. But now that Judas’ has betrayed Jesus. Now that the swat team has arrested Jesus. Now that Jesus is manhandled, cuffed, and lead to the high priest’s house, Peter loses it.
The apostle parks himself in the high priest’s courtyard hoping not to be recognized as a disciple of Jesus. The night chills him to the bone. Thinking only about his well-being, his inner love for Jesus dwindles as he warms himself by the bonfire while Jesus suffers the tyranical injustice from the ecclesiastical deep state’s false witnesses and false testimony as they relentlessly “make the case” to put Jesus under the death sentence!
Two young ladies and some of the others around the fire notice Peter. “You’re a disciple of Jesus. Aren’t you?” “You’re a hanger on of Jesus. Aren’t you?” “Yes, you’re one of Jesus’ men. Your accent is Galilean just like that Jesus.” And each of the three times the once gallant “I-will-never-deny-you”-Peter denies His Lord. “What are you talking about? I don’t know Jesus!” You would think that this strong, bold fisherman would have said, “Yes! I am an apostle of Jesus. I believe in Him. He is the Savior! Would you like to believe in Him too?” Tragically, he doesn’t. He denies Jesus. And passionately doubles down with curses and false oaths in His denials.
What’s that? What does Peter hear? The rooster! It crows a second time. Just as Jesus said. All the roosters in Jerusalem could have screeched themselves to exhaustion, but what finally revealed to Peter his outrageous sin against Jesus? A look. From whom? Jesus Himself. “And the Lord turned and looked on Peter … Peter broke down, and went out, and wept bitterly.”
With the look the magnitude of Peter’s sin is revealed. Why else does Jesus look at Peter? There is another reason for the look. It is to show the apostle His divine mercy and forgiveness. After all, in Luke 22:32, Jesus promised Peter that He would pray for him so that his faith in Jesus would not be lost. And so, even in the midst of His immense suffering, Jesus looks at Peter. “Poor, poor Peter. How he has fallen into the deep quicksand of sin. I have to bring him out of it again. I want him to turn from his sin and turn to Me for My Good Friday forgiveness, life and salvation.”
So too with all of us. When we sin against Jesus like Peter, He gives us lots of rooster-crowings, i.e. many signs and reminders that He wants to repent and faith us. Turn us away from our sins. Turn us to Him for forgiveness.
Peter stumbled into serious sin. Peter was repented. Peter was faith-ed. That’s the whole point of our learning tonight and all our lives. Brothers and sisters, Jesus died suffered and died FOR YOU. No matter what your sin, no matter how much your sin, no matter how profound your sin, when you stumble and fall, Jesus is there to pick you up again and take you back with His divine forgiveness. Yes, you are forgiven in Jesus. Totally! Completely!
With such forgiveness, if someone ever asks you: “Are you a follower of Jesus?” you can boldly and confidently say: “Of course I am! Let me tell you about Him and what He’s done for me! He died FOR ME! He also died FOR YOU! Come be a follower of Jesus too just like me.”
Let us pray. “O Lord Jesus Christ, look upon us, poor sinners, with Your eyes of mercy, the same eyes of mercy with which You looked on Peter. Grant to us also, that with Peter, we mourn our sins but also look to You in faith for forgiveness that we may live forever with You in Your kingdom. Amen.”
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- Jesu Juva +
John 4:5-26
She makes her daily trek to Jacob’s well for water. Instead, she is given Living Water. She comes to slake her thirst. Instead, she receives divine forgiveness that satisfies the thirst for righteousness.
She’s a Samaritan. Water bucket in hand. High heeling it across the square. Wind blows around in her dyed-too-much-hair. Botox-ed to the hilt not to mention the other kinds of outrageously tawdry cosmetic surgeries she’s had. Her lipstick – a very gaudy dark red. Thick and pasty off-green eye shadow. A pack of camels and a flask in her purse. Lives in a single-wide trailer on the wrong side of town.
Quick witted. Quirky smile. This is the kind of woman about which Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton and Luke Combs write songs that get played on Froggy 98 / 24-7. Not to be outdone by Elizabeth Taylor she’s been married five times and now she’s shacking up with a sixth man. No one would give her the time of day.
But Jesus does! He speaks to hear. He cares for her. She, like every sinner, is very precious to Him. “Please give me a drink,” He says. The text never says if she ever served Him a drink. I think that’s on purpose. Why? Well, because Jesus has come to serve her a drink! A 100 proof drink of salvation. From Lord and Savior Jesus she receives much more than she could have ever bargained for or hoped for.
From the text you begin to realize the most fundamental teaching of the Bible. And what’s that? That Jesus categorically came to save SINNERS. Real sinners. Sinners with totally messed up lives. Wrecked, botched, and bungled lives that are beyond salvaging.
This Samaritan woman would be reminded of her sinful life every day that she walked to Jacob’s well. All the men would be gawking. All the women gossiping and giggling behind her back all the while shielding their little daughters’ eyes from her. Wouldn’t want their daughters to grow up and be like her. And yet she meets Jesus who asks her for a drink but He’s really there to give her the strong and stiff drink of Living Water that bestows eternal life, gratis.
Jesus came to give you the same 100 proof gospel of Living Water. A flowing refreshing stream of life and full of the Holy Spirit from Him to you. This Living Water flows from His sliced-opened-spear-pierced-Good-Friday-side into the baptismal font. Living, Holy Spirit-ed water bringing you the new birth from above. Making you a new creation spelled F-A-I-T-H. Joining you to Jesus’ death and resurrected life. This isn’t water you work for. This is water that works FOR YOU. Baptism is a life-giving water, rich in grace and the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3. John 3.
In hearing the text today, you learn, just like the Samaritan woman, that true worship of God is not about this or that mountain. The true worship of God takes place when two or three gather in Jesus’ Name whereby He is physically but hiddenly present to give you the Living Water of salvation in the Good Friday forgiveness of sins that flows from His pierced side. The true worship of God occurs where you hear the words of Jesus that are Spirit and life. His words that give eternal life. Where Jesus’ Word and sacraments are going on that’s where Jesus is giving you Living Water – salvation – to which faith says: “Thank you! Amen.” The highest worship of Jesus is spelled F-A-I-T-H. Faith is always given to by Jesus. Served by Jesus. This is what it means to worship in spirit and in truth.
Let me put it another way. The highest worship of God is when Jesus gathers sinners around Himself, like at Jacob’s well. He truly knows everything you have done. All the sin you have committed. Public. Private. All the sin you’ve committed. All the sin that’s been committed against you. You name it. He knows. Just like He knew the Samaritan woman’s dysfunctional life.
And the magnificence of such a gathering around Jesus is that He … FORGIVES YOU. He wipes the slate of your filthy lives totally clean with His own Good Friday Blood. He takes the mess of your ruined lives and redeems them so that He has good use of you. He redeemed the Samaritan woman with the shack-up boy toy and the Lord’s good use of her was to turn her into a one woman evangelism committee. “Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did.” And might I add? “The man who forgave me all that I ever did.” And then the rhetorical question: “Can this be the Christ?” Of course! Not exactly our idea of an evangelism chairman, but then we’re not the Lord.
I repeat because it bears repeating over and over again. This cheeky Samaritan woman is an incredible example of today’s epistle. “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Get it? While we were still dead-in-our-trespasses-sinners, enemies of God, God made peace with all of us in Jesus and forgave us.
Are you thirsty for the strong drink of the Lord’s forgiveness? Do you thirst for His 100 proof righteousness? Then belly on up. Take a big, long drink! There is a spring of Good Friday living water that flows to you from Jesus Himself. Do you wish to worship God in spirit and in truth? Then you have come to the right place. For where His divine Name is, where the Word of forgiveness, holy baptism, the Lord’s Body, Blood are, Jesus is there. So too is the Holy Spirit. As well as the Father. And by receiving these gifts in the divine service by faith you truly worship Him. F-A-I-T-H in Jesus is what gives you access to heaven and faith in Jesus makes you a true worshiper of God. It’s the highest worship. You are justified by faith in Jesus. You have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you, like this Samaritan woman, can’t help but tell others, your children, grandchildren, and many others about this wonderful, Savior named Jesus. He is the Christ! FOR YOU. FOR YOUR SALVATION!
Happy being such a faith-er this Lent and always.
In the Name of Jesus.
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THE PASSION: GETHSEMANE
The war to win and achieve your salvation is the campaign that Jesus fights FOR YOU! If Jesus doesn’t fight this war FOR YOU, you would not be saved and you’d have to somehow answer for all your sin on your own. And there’s no way you could ever do that try as you might.
So, FOR YOU and for your salvation, Lord Jesus treks to the garden of Gethsemane and the battle begins in earnest. Garden. You remember another garden. Don’t you? The Garden of Eden. That’s where our first parents, Adam and Eve, gave in to Satan’s lies and brought sin, death and damnation into the world. So the Lord Jesus, wants to begin His suffering for your salvation in a garden! From the garden of Gethsemane Jesus will be betrayed, arrested and led out to be hung / crucified on a tree! The cross!
Hung on that tree He will make the one and only sufficient payment for the sin of the world as well as all your sin through the shedding of His Good Friday Blood. And by doing that He will restore the lost purity from Eden’s garden, grant forgiveness, life and salvation and conquer Satan. From Eden’s garden came God’s promise to send the Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. The enmity between the Blessed Seed of the woman Eve and the seed of the serpent Satan was established in the Garden of Eden. Again, this is precisely why Jesus wants to carry on His salvation of the world job in a garden. His climactic battle against Satan and all his hellish power begins with utmost seriousness in Gethsemane’s garden. Your salvation is at stake.
The disciples, of course, are of no help in this epic battle for the world’s salvation. There is bold confident bragging and boasting. Especially by Peter. “Even if all the others deny you, I will never deny you.” “If I have to die with you, I will never deny you.” But he, together with James and John, can’t even stay awake let alone pray in the garden. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
And once Jesus is arrested the disciples high tail it and run for their lives – one even in the nude after he leaves his cloak behind. Mere men, you, me and even apostles, are not up to the salvation task. It’s up to Jesus who is not just true man but the divine Son of God. This is His gargantuan task. Three times, shiveringly terrorized under the immense agony of drinking the cup of His Father’s enormous wrath against all sin for every sinner on Good Friday, Jesus faithfully and trustingly prays, “Your will be done, Father.” He gardenly prays this way FOR YOU and for your salvation!
Now, since it’s the dead of night Satan goes on the offensive. The devil seeks to take advantage and defeat what appears to be the vulnerable Son of Man in the garden. After all, as I just mentioned, Jesus agonizingly shivers and trembles as He faces the burden of answering for the world’s sin, enduring God’s wrath and suffering the agony and fury of hell’s damnation that every sinner deserves when He will hang on the tree of the Good Friday cross.
“The hour is come.” “The hour of the power of darkness.” It’s a Satanic ambush! In this GARDEN of Gethsemane the devil, that wicked serpent, slinks around and employs an apostle, a dear friend of Jesus, to treacherously betray Him. His name? Judas Iscariot. The apostle has become Antichrist because of his love for money! His heart is full of greed. Greed makes people do many wicked things. He is Satan’s instrument, Satan’s feet, hands and mouth, for quick cash, for a little profit in his pocket.
The satanic in-the-garden-of-Gethsemane bushwhacking takes place with all the might and force of the Jerusalem deep state, both civil and church. The armed to the hilt swat team flanks Judas! His “Hail Master” traitorous kiss of infidelity is the kiss of Satan. His lips are Satan’s lips. And Satan believes he can finally defeat Jesus and that you’ll go down with Him into the flames of hell. In other words, that the Good Friday salvation job won’t get done!
The war in the GARDEN of Gethsemane continues. Peter, in order to put his money where his mouth is, would defend Jesus against this Satanic horde from the Jerusalem deep state. He draws his sword. Intending to hack off the head of the high priest’s servant, Malchus, he misses. All he slices off is the servant’s ear! Satan is at work here again. He tries to use well intentioned and well- meaning Peter to provoke an all-out melee or brawl. That would provide the opportunity for the deep state to blame Jesus for leading a Maundy Thursday insurrection – imperiling democracy — and give them an excuse to put a knife or a sword in Jesus’ back right then and there. Then Jesus wouldn’t end up where? Yes, that’s right! On the cross. And without a Good Friday Jesus answering for all your sin by His crucified Body — there would no salvation for you. That’s exactly what Satan wants to gain from this battle.
So, for there to be a Good Friday sacrifice FOR YOU and for your salvation on the next day, Jesus immediately commands Peter to put his sword away. It won’t go down that way! Not even legions of angels from heaven will protect or save Him from going to the cross! So, He reaches out to healing-ly touch the wounded, screeching, full-of-blood-streaming-down-his-face-Malchus to re-attach his ear. Jesus will drink the cup of His Father’s wrath against all sin on the cross. That will be the climax of the battle. Not on Maundy Thursday but on Good Friday!
In this garden Jesus does battle against Satan. He’s does it FOR YOU! Where Adam failed in Eden’s garden, Jesus does not. His GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE victory is your victory. He trusts His Father and does His Father’s will. From the garden He goes to the cross. To preach the most important sermon ever preached in the history of the world: “It is finished.” All sin atoned for. Satan vanquished. It’s what He, the Savior, does. FOR YOU. What joy!
In the Name of Jesus.
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John 3:1-17
Quite a rabbi to rabbi chat! However, at the moment Rabbi Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. He has no idea that Rabbi Jesus is the promised son of Abraham. That Jesus is in fact the One through whom all nations and all peoples of the earth are blessed. That Jesus is indeed THE Savior of the world promised to Abraham and the promise good ole faith-er Abraham believed!
To Pharisee Nicodemus, Jesus is a fantastic new teacher on the block who needed to be vetted, scrutinized or evaluated. The headlines and the stories about Jesus went like this: HE TURNS WATER INTO WINE. HE MAKES THE LAME TO WALK. DEMONS FLEE IN HIS PRESENCE. LEPERS ARE CURED. So far it’s a remarkable resumé! Nicodemus puts it Captain Obviously: “No one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Then we learn that Rabbi Pharisee Nicodemus must have had something else on his mind. A very weighty topic. A salvational topic like: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I say that because Jesus brings it up: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Every Pharisee was eagerly awaiting God’s kingdom of salvation to come.
Now, I have to back up for a brief moment. I can’t help myself. Did you notice that Nicodemus makes the appointment with Jesus AT NIGHT? This is huge! Why? Well, because in the Bible, night is the hour when no one can work. In the creation week of Genesis, God spoke and works in the day, but the hours between evening and morning are silent. In the Bible, the people that walk in the night stumble and fall — like Judas Iscariot – who loved money betrayed Jesus AT NIGHT. The point here in John 3 is that Nicodemus is “in the dark” about who Jesus is.
Scripture teaches that by our own reason or strength we cannot believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or even come to Him. We, too, before our conversion, were like Nicodemus. Spiritually in the darkness of sin and death. So, Jesus had to open our ears, our minds, and our hearts. He had to faith us –give us the eyes of faith in order to see that He is the Light and Life that has been shining on us all along. Little by little, then, Jesus pries open the closed mind and hardened heart of Nicodemus.
That’s why Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Yes, you heard that correctly. Born again! Or another way to translate it is: “born from above”! In-the-dark-Nicodemus doesn’t get it. He thinks he has to jump back in his mother’s womb and gestate for nine months. Old men born again? That’s crazy talk! If you’re in the dark.
Jesus has more to say. Pushes and clinches it. In other words, who one is born again / born from above. Listen. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh; that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” Get it Nicodemus? The point is this. To be born of flesh is to be born “from below,” as we all are born “from below” as children of the fallen Adam. If you are “flesh” then you are born from below, of the flesh, a dead in your sins sinner. To be born of the Spirit is to be born spiritually, “from above,” or “born again.” That’s spelled:
F-A-I-T-H!
And not just Spirit but WATER AND the Holy Spirit. After all, the Holy Spirit is never alone. Remember? In the beginning? The Holy Spirit hovered over the face of the watery deep. Water and Holy Spirit. At the first creation. Any OT teacher, especially Nicodemus, would know that.
The Holy Spirit teaches spiritual things to those born from above or born again of water and Spirit. These things a “spiritually discerned,” as the apostle Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 2:14. Natural people, born of flesh, born of Adam cannot comprehend these things. They cannot, on their own, know God. They cannot, on their own, believe in Jesus Christ let alone come to Him. These are heavenly things, and we are earthly creatures. We cannot reach up to God. God must reach down to us. No one has gone up into heaven but the One who has come down from heaven, namely, Jesus. He is the eternal Word that took on flesh, the only-begotten Son of the Father. He has reached all the way down to us to save us!
God so loved the world this way: “He gave His only-begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” God the Father didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Jesus’ Good Friday death. As Moses lifted up the bronze snake so Jesus came to be lifted up on the cross so that by His death He has become the antidote to death. So that by His death He is the antiserum to the sting of death and the source of eternal life for those who believe in Him.
The kingdom of God that Nicodemus looked for has come: in Jesus and in Him alone! To enter that kingdom is not a matter of our choice, decisions, good behavior, or anything else we might do or not do. It’s a matter of being given a miraculous and divine gift of a second birth, of a new being and a new identity. You must be born from above, not from below of flesh but from above of water and the Holy Spirit. You must become something altogether different, a new creation spelled F-A-I-T-H! It means dying and rising in Jesus, being reborn or rebirthed in Him. And that is the work or gift of the Holy Spirit through water and Word.
Interestingly, Nicodemus comes out of the woodwork in John’s gospel two more times. As a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme court, he defended Jesus among his peers (Jn 7:50-51). That was a bold public move. He was risking everything by doing that. And then, in an even bolder move, he put his neck on the line once again when he brought 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes to bury Jesus properly with Joseph of Aramathea.
The point? The Holy Spirit had converted Nicodemus. Miraculously and against his will, he became a believer. A faith-er. A new creation. Born again. Born from above. As a believer in Jesus, Nicodemus became a child of God. He was reborn, not of blood or by his own willpower, but born of God (Jn 1:12)! Born of water and Spirit. Born anew from above.
You too “children of God,” born anew from above – born from above by water and the Holy Spirit in holy baptism. St. Paul, who learned it from Jesus, tells you that, “God saved us through the washing of REBIRTH AND RENEWAL BY THE HOLY SPIRIT,” (Tit 3). Like Abraham in Canaan, like Nicodemus among his own people, you are called out to be God’s people, a chosen people, royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s treasured possession. This is your identity in this world. This is who you are. Child of God, priest of God, heir of eternal life. This shapes your thinking, your doing, and your being. This defines you, over and against all the ways the world wants to define who you are. God has given you a new identity in Jesus. You are His beloved child.
Remember that when sin, death, and devil cause you doubt. Remember that in the night, the dark night of your own soul, the night of doubt and despair and disbelief, the night when there is nothing no one but Jesus who promises that He is Savior FOR YOU. He reigns as King. He gives you the eternal benefits of His kingdom even now. Come to His kingdom-of-God-Supper today wherein He bestows the forgiveness He won for you on the cross. Bread-Body. Wine-Blood. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”
In the name of Jesus.
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1 March 2023 Trinity Lutheran Church
Wednesday of Lent 1 Murdock, NE
- Jesu Juva +
THE PASSION: THE LORD’S SUPPER
Jesus knows what is going to happen. “The Son of Man will be given over to be crucified.”
And the chief priests, scribes, elders together with the high priest Caiaphas conspire to “take Jesus craftily and put him to death.”
Yes, Jesus will be crucified. That’s Good Friday. He will die on the cross because He is the Savior of sinners. Real life sinners. Sinners need Him because His death on the cross will pay or atone for all sin of every sinner. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And He will do this salvation job only by offering Himself as the one and only sacrifice to redeem sinners. The Son of Man did not come to be SERVED but to SERVE and to give His life as a ransom for many.
The night before His Good Friday death as Jesus serves the apostles by washing their feet and giving them His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper, Satan enlists an apostle, yes, and apostle, Judas, to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. What villainy! What treachery! Satan, however, is not the one who is control. Jesus is. Jesus is not a powerless victim. He is the almighty Son of God!
Betrayal from an apostle following the bidding of Satan will not stop Jesus from savioring sinners as the Almighty and Suffering Servant. Jesus will servantly lay down His life to save sinners. Even on the night when He is betrayed, even as He hands out the bread that is His Body and the cup of wine that is His Blood, He categorically declares: “I am among you as a servant.” Incredible! Astounding! Mind-boggling! The Most High Son of God serves sinners! Here at the table. And then on the cross. This is how Son of Man Jesus is glorified!
To illustrate His servanthood for the salvation of sinners – or to give an object lesson for His being “among you as a servant,” the Most-High-Son-of-God-Jesus begins to wash and wipe their feet. The most lowly of tasks. “How demeaning! How humiliating!” you might say. And you’re right!
But Jesus is “among you as a servant.” He will suffer all, even death on the cross FOR YOU AND FOR YOUR SALVATION. That’s the point!
Peter, however, at the moment, will have none of Jesus’ divine service. Peter, the sinner, refuses to be divinely served by Jesus the Savior! “You shall never wash my feet.” Is that how faith in Jesus talks? How would faith talk? “Thank you Jesus!” But Peter says “Never!”
That’s when Servant Jesus puts it all on the line. “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.” In other words, “Peter, refusing my self-sacrificial service FOR YOU will be hellacious! I’m here to be your Savior! When I want to give you my savioring work, my divine service here tonight and tomorrow on the cross, and you say, ‘Never!’ that’s not faith talking. That’s unbelief talking! So don’t go there.” Peter was repented of his “never.” He received Jesus’ service.
Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you that Jesus is “among you as a servant.” He served up His life on the cross to pay for all your sin. He shed His blood to purify you from all sin. And every time you attend the Sunday divine service Jesus is still “among you as a servant.” He serves up heaping portions of His Good Friday forgiveness in the Word and the Lord’s Supper. To which faith never says “No” but always says: “Thank you Jesus. Thank you.”
In the Name of Jesus.
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