Monthly Archives: July 2020

Slave Wages & Gifts – Sermon on Romans 6:19-23 for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity

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Romans 6:19-23

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The wages of sin is death. Scripture teaches that sin pays when you work for it, and the wages it pays is death. Probably, many of you have that passage memorized. After John 3:16, this is probably on the second tier of passages that most Christians have stored in their noggins, and most of the time we understand it in a certain way. Normally, the way we interpret this verse is that the payment we earn for committing a sin is death. And that is true. When I go out and do sin-type work, the payment I get for that is death.

But that interpretation can have some serious and even dangerous drawbacks. It can easily lead us to the wrong notion that certain sins are more serious and pay more than other, less significant sins. When people say that they are basically a good person, they make that claim because they figure their sins aren’t as bad as the sins of others. In the end, this kind of interpretation ends up with us making distinctions between this sin and that sin in an effort to self-justify ourselves. “I’m not as bad as that guy over there.”

Here, in this context, Paul is saying something more devastating than that the payment you get for doing the work of sin is death. Instead, Paul is saying that sin is not just the type of work you do, rather sin is your slave master whom you submit yourself to. The picture Paul is giving us is that your employer, your boss, your master is sin. And with Master Sin as your as your master, employer, boss, there is a particular currency that he uses to pay you and that is the currency of death.

So, let’s try this analogy: Let’s say you are looking for your first job, and you are going to be flipping burgers. It’s a respectable first job. You go to Burger King, and they will pay you $8.00/hour. During your interview at Dairy Queen, you learn that they will pay you $8.15/hour. Then you go check at McDonald’s, and they will pay you $8.50/hour. You go to Five Guys, and they will pay you $9.50/hour. (At this point, you can probably tell where I prefer to get burgers if I’m not making them myself.)

But let’s say you go to one more burger establishment, and it’s probably safest for me to make up an imaginary restaurant for this. Let’s say you go apply at Sin Burger. Sin Burger is a nice establishment. They have a clean restaurant and friendly employees. Your responsibilities are going to be the same as at any of the other locations, and the hours are just as flexible. At the end of the interview, the manager says, “If you work here, you will be killed. Your wages will be paid out with death.” The manager notices the shocked look on your face, and says, “Yes, here at Sin Burger, we don’t deal with dollars or pounds or rubles or pesos. Sin Burger only pays with the currency of death. It doesn’t matter the type of work you do – you could be a burger flipper, a fry fryer, the head of accounting, or the CEO – Sin Burger still pays only with death.”

So, would you take the job at Sin Burger? Of course not! And yet, that is what we all do. But why? Why do all humans work for a master who pays out with the currency of death?

It’s because Master Sin is so deceptive, so insidious. When sin is your master, it makes demand after demand after demand. But all of these demands seem so pleasant. Master Sin makes working for him appear to be so appealing, so satisfying. When we are obeying Master Sin, it feels free. It seems nice and natural. It doesn’t feel like work. And it doesn’t seem like the wages we will be paid with really matter all that much.

Nobody sins out of duty. You don’t sin because you feel like you have to. Serving Master Sin means you just do what comes naturally, and what is convenient. You do it because it feels good or because it seems to make your life easier. For those outside of Christ, serving Master Sin feels like freedom.

We hear, “the wages of sin is death,” but, when we think of sin as the type of work we do, we think we can simply make a change in our lives before payday rolls around. But that is not the picture that Scripture is giving here. Sin is not simply the type of work you do. Sin is your employer, your boss, your master, and even your owner.

Every moment, Master Sin is draining your blood, sucking the life from you. But while he does that, Master Sin likes to inject good feelings and energy into you every time he takes more blood. He’s sucking your life away while you are enjoying it. But eventually, Master Sin will leave you dead at his feet, sucked completely dry and eternally lifeless. You see the difference?

Repent.

Christian, we ought to hate Master Sin and his slave wages. But remember, as you heard last week, you have been Baptized. You don’t belong to Master Sin anymore; you are no longer a slave to Master Sin (Ro. 6:1-11). Identify Master Sin for who he is and hate him. You have been bought and freed by the death and resurrection of Christ. So now, every time Master Sin calls to you from across the plantation lines, you ought to hate him and his wages and his chains and his whip even more. Plug your ears to him, and run back to your new Master, your true Master, Christ your Savior.

Look at v. 22, but “now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.” Yes, the slave wages of Master Sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Consider your new Master and how Christ is toward you. What does He pay?

He doesn’t. God doesn’t pay you. Only those who need you and your work pay you, and God doesn’t need anything you could ever give Him. God Himself says, “Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine” (Job 41:11).

So, God can’t pay you wages, but He can and does give you gifts. And the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus your Lord. Consider Eph. 2:6-7 (it’s in your insert), “[Christ] raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Think about this for a minute. God has endured the death of His Own Son to remove you from your slavery to Master Sin. And He has done that for a reason – to demonstrate and show you something. He wants to show you for all eternity the immeasurable riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. God wants to show you His riches, and these riches are incalculable. They are infinite.

In this life, riches are always measurable. Even if you owned the whole world, you could count the number of mansions you have. Your account would have a certain amount in it. Your net worth would still be finite. It might take several lifetimes to account for it all, but it would still have a limit. But God’s gifts and riches are immeasurable. His mercies are new and fresh every morning.

Think of that! For all eternity God would never have to show you a mercy or a treasure that He freely gives to you a second time. Every one of them is new and one that you haven’t seen before. God is infinite, and his mercies are infinite. it will take an eternity of eternity’s for God to show you His love and mercy toward you.

That’s what ‘infinite’ means. It means you could go on for trillions of trillions of years and yet there is still all of infinity before you and nothing is exhausted. There is as much left as when you started. God’s gifts for you are infinite. That is your life now in Christ Jesus, and that is your future.

So, when Master Sin comes and knocks on your door whispering to you about his slave wages, he wants to take away from you the gifts that Jesus would freely give to you. Send Master Sin away and rejoice and hope in the gifts God has for you.

Your God desires to give you an Infinity of riches and mercies delivered to you on account of the death and resurrection of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all of it is His free gift for you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Anger, Law, & Righteousness – Sermon on Matthew 5:20-26 for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

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Matthew 5:20-26

20 “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But 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. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Why did You have to pick the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus? Why does our righteousness have to exceed theirs to enter the kingdom of heaven? Why couldn’t You pick the righteousness of the sinners and tax collectors that You were eating with?

The scribes and Pharisees were the good guys. They had dedicated their lives to keeping God’s law. They made up extra commandments – more than six-hundred of them. When you looked at them, you would see good and holy people who would put our lives and good works to shame. Their lives were the supreme example of the outward keeping of God’s Law. But that’s exactly where the problem lies, and that is precisely what Jesus is getting at.

The scribes and Pharisees understood the Commandments to be attainable, keep-able, obey-able. They looked at the Commandments and saw them simply on the external. They would look at a particular Commandment and think, “I’ve done that. I’ve honored God in that way.”

In some ways they had. They hadn’t murdered anyone. They kept their bodies pure from adultery. They hadn’t stolen what was someone else’s. They had an external righteousness and life, but with that external righteousness came the most dangerous thing – pride. They figured they had done well and that God should be pleased with them. But here Jesus sits at the top of the mountain (Mt. 5:1) and preaches that their external works are not enough.

Jesus shows the righteousness that is required – a righteousness that exceeds the external righteousness of the Pharisees. And here, Jesus starts with the 5th Commandment about murder. He will go on to several of the other Commandments in the verses that follow, which you can read later today and this week for your homework. But Jesus probably starts with the 5th Commandment because, of all the Commandments, this one probably seems easiest for us to keep. Most of us can say, “I’ve never killed anybody, so I’m good concerning this Commandment.” But Jesus says, “Easy there partner. Not so fast. You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But 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.”

Jesus says that there is more to the Law than you realize. It isn’t enough to keep your hands from taking someone’s life. Jesus teaches that the 5th Commandment has instructions for our lips and what we say, for our minds and what we think, even for our hearts, what we feel. If you call your neighbor a ‘fool,’ if you have insulted him or her, if you’ve been angry with anyone, you’ve broken the 5th Commandment and have guilty blood on your soul. And with all the anger in our culture and society, it is a good time for us to consider this topic of anger so that we have a right mindset about it.

The Scriptures do teach us that there is a godly use of anger. Psalm 4:4 and Ephesians 4:26 both say, “Be angry and do not sin,” which means that it is possible to be angry without sinning. And Jesus is our example. He cleansed the temple, taught against the Pharisees’ hypocrisy, and endured the disciples’ repeated unbelief. All of those things did make Him angry, and the Scriptures certainly use that terminology. Jesus was angry at times, but without sin.

To understand this, it is important to make a distinction. Some will try to say, “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” But you run into problems with that phrase when you come across verses like Psalm 11:5b which says, “[The Lord’s] … soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” So, a better distinction is the difference between the anger of office and the anger of the person. I’ll explain.

Anger of office has to do with your vocation or your station in life and your calling. Think of a judge in a courtroom. To be a judge is to have an office of anger – to sentence someone to jail or give them a fine is an act of anger. But the most common example of the office of anger is what we see in parents. Parents are called to sit in an office of anger at times. When their children break the 4th Commandment to honor their parents, it is the parent’s God-given duty to be angry and discipline their children.

Parents are supposed to punish their kids when they do things that put their kids or other people in danger. If your kid runs into the street without looking for cars, you have to punish them by not letting them be outside by themselves or by restricting where they can go on their bike. That punishment is serving in an office of anger, but all of this is an anger of office not of person. In other words, you aren’t punishing your kids because you don’t like them or are angry with them; you are punishing your kids because you love them, want to protect them, and desire that they grow up to be responsible people.

In fact, disciplining your kids is one of the most loving things you can do. Listen to a few Scriptures here: Proverbs 12:1, says, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” Or Hebrews 12:6 which says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Good parents will follow the example of their heavenly Father in disciplining their children. And in Revelation 3:19, Jesus says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.” Even though discipline is unpleasant at the time for the one being disciplined, later “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).

As our culture continues to wander farther and farther from God and seeks to be free from His authority, we see other God-ordained institutions of authority are being rejected as well. As this takes place, the biblical concept of discipline and love is dangerously fading and absent, and we are seeing the evil fruits of that. Sinful and evil actions are spoken of as good and right, and anyone who calls out that sin and evil is labeled ‘intolerant,’ ‘unenlightened,’ and ‘old-fashioned.’ But we cannot give up or retreat.

We must continue to love our neighbor by calling sin ‘sin’ and evil ‘evil.’ And we must do so in loving ways that show how that sin hurts the person committing that sin and how it harms their neighbor. We need to do this in a way that encourages repentance and faith in Christ who cleanses us from every sin through His death and resurrection.

Back to the example of the office of parent, if your kids keep repeatedly breaking your rules, it can be hard to separate the anger of the office as parent and anger toward the person of your child. But, do you get the idea? I hope you do. And I hope that as you parent your children, you are able to discipline them in a way that is not being angry toward the person of your child and instead having a righteous anger of office as parent.

In this text, Jesus is talking about the anger of a person, not about the anger of office. When someone speaks poorly against us or sins against us, we get angry toward that person and our heart gets hardened toward that neighbor. When we get angry toward another person, we try to wiggle our way out of our obligation to love that person, wrongly thinking that we are exempt from the command to love them as our neighbor because we think they are our enemies. It happens to all of us, and we all need to repent because Jesus goes on, just a few verses after this text, He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:43-45). Jesus does not authorize you to be angry with the people who sin against you. Instead, He has told and explicitly commanded you to love them, pray for them, do good to them, and serve them.

When Jesus talks about a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, He isn’t talking about an external keeping of the Law. Jesus demands that everything you think, say, do, and feel conforms to God’s Commandments. To have a heart completely free of anger, lust, greed, rebellion, bitterness, strife, and idolatry. A heart that is full of love for God and your neighbor. This is the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. And this means that when the Law speaks to you, you do not go to a place of pride. Instead, the Law speaks to you and you fall into despair because you know that without this exceeding righteousness, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

We cannot attain to this righteousness. We cannot achieve it. And the more we try – which we should – the more we know we fail and feel in our hearts our own great sinfulness and the wrath of God that we deserve. We cannot achieve this righteousness that Jesus says is required. We have to look for this righteousness outside of ourselves.

This righteousness is not found in good works and obedience to the Law. It is Jesus’ righteousness and His perfect obedience to the Law and His heavenly Father which is given to us as a gift. Christian, Scripture says that you are in Christ who “has become [for you] wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

Dear saints, there is one person in the entire history of the world who could stand under the judgment of the Law and not be condemned by it – Jesus, your Lord and Savior. Yet, Jesus, who kept the Law perfectly and filled up the Law, He Himself bore the curse and condemnation of the Law, and suffered for sins He did not commit so that He could give you His righteousness and the reward it deserved. For our sake God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). Your anger, your insults, your lust, your disobedience, your theft, your lying, your idolatry – Jesus became all of that. He took all of that upon Himself and suffered for your sins so He could give to you His keeping of the Law, His perfect obedience to God.

Through faith in Christ, you have the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You have the perfection and righteousness that defines God’s only Son. Your sins have been erased, and you are now in Christ. All of God’s commands are fulfilled for you.

Jesus has brought you out of your slavery to the Law. You have been united to Christ’s death and resurrection. Sin no longer has dominion over you. So, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Ro. 6:11). Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Called to Peace – Sermon on 1 Peter 3:8-15 for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

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1 Peter 3:8-15

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For

“Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
11 let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

It should come as no surprise, but the Bible cares about how you treat other people. God has called you to peace. He wants you to be united, compassionate, kind, and tenderhearted to other people. Even when, and especially when, they are not kind or tenderhearted to you.

And this is not just some abstract thing where you have to figure out who deserves your kindness. This is text is specifically about how Christians are to treat one another. Peter is writing to a group of churches, so this text is about how Christians are to interact and deal with one another. Now, yes, of course, Jesus commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. We need to do that too. But this text, this unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, tender heart, humble mind, not repaying evil for evil or reviling for reviling, all of this is what Christians are to do and how they are to act toward other Christians.

And I need to be clear here: Yes, be good to everyone you meet. But the New Testament repeatedly would have us focus our time and attention of being good and kind and generous to our fellow believers. Galatians 6:10 puts it as plainly as possible, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” How Christians treat each other is one of the ways that those outside the church become curious about what makes us different (see Act. 2:42-47). Christians showing love to other Christians is, in fact, a very important component of evangelism.

Christian, you have a biblical responsibility to be kind to one another. You know how many people baulk at the idea of coming to church. So often, people will say, “I don’t want to go to church because those Christians are so….” and you can fill in the blank ‘hypocritical’ or ‘fake’ or ‘selfish’ or ‘weird’ or ‘self-absorbed.’ And a lot of times, Christians will even say that about their brothers and sisters in Christ. Sadly, those criticisms are too often accurate, but the God does not want it to be this way.

Maybe you have been to a church where they have a sign over the exit doors that says, “You are now entering the mission field.” That can be a good reminder. However, don’t forget that you have a mission field sitting all around you, right here in this sanctuary and some watching online. Yes, share Jesus with the people you meet. That is a mission field, but according to Scripture, you are to prioritize being kind and sympathetic and tender hearted towards your brothers and sisters here.

Whatever frustrating traits your brothers and sisters in Christ have, they’re not hurdles or impediments to Christian love – they are the occasion for you to display and exhibit that love and friendship towards them. No, Christians aren’t perfect. But how are you going to be patient and kind and tenderhearted towards others not returning evil for evil if the people at church were already perfect?

When a fellow Christian is being unkind or not speaking very friendly to you, that isn’t the time to get frustrated and drift away. That is the time for you to realize, “Ah ha! God is giving me an opportunity to show Christian love toward that person like the Bible instructs me. Here’s a chance for me to be kind and forgiving.”

Sometimes we have the temptation to think that this is much more glamorous or difficult then it needs to be or than God intends it to be, but this is very basic stuff. Notice how simple these things are. Have sympathy. Show brotherly love. Be tenderhearted. And have a humble mind. All of these are things that you simply do when you are around other people and having a normal conversation. You listen. You hear how people’s week has gone. You learn what’s going on in their lives. To do all of this, you simply need to be around other Christians.

So, may I suggest that you come a bit early to church or stay a little bit after the service and talk with others. Now, it’s not as though we are trying to hold you hostage here. You don’t need to spend hours and hours here before or after the service every week. But, if you have a tendency to come right as the service is starting or to quickly slip out to your car after the service, make a small change. Plan on spending just a few minutes here talking with your spiritual family. Hear about their vacation, their dog, their garden, what’s going on with them at work. Rejoice with them when things are going well and sympathize with them when they tell you about their troubles and stresses.

One of the worst impediments to showing this love and sharing this peace that you are called to is that we sinners like play a game that I’ll just call, “Betcha I’ve got it worse.” I’ve seen people play it, and I’m guilty of playing it myself. Someone comes to us and tells us how bad things are with their family or their job or their stress level, and we jump in and try to one up them. “You think that’s bad, one time…” Stop it! Just listen.

Or, maybe, you like to play doctor and solve all the world’s problems. You don’t need to do that. Sure, maybe you do have some experience in a similar situation and can give fantastic advice. But if you aren’t absolutely positive they are looking for advice, all you have to do is ask them, “Can I offer you a suggestion?” Otherwise, just do what this text wants you to do and have sympathy. It is as simple as saying, “I’m sorry you are going through this. I’ll be praying for you.” Then, actually pray for them that week and follow up when you see that person again. Tell them how you have been praying and ask how you can continue to pray for them and their situation.

And bless them. Say to them, “In the name of Jesus, God bless you.” Doing those little things – talking with others, listening, sympathizing, blessing – all of those things will make it much easier to be kind to others when they haven’t been kind to you so that you don’t repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling.

I’m going to change gears here for just a minute to highlight how important this is: God doesn’t short us, He isn’t skimpy, when He gives us His grace in Christ. God is superabundant in the ways He delivers His grace. God has sent His only Son to die and rise again for you. God has given you His Word which gives you faith (Ro. 1:16, 10:17). God has poured out His grace in the waters of your Baptism. Christ gives you His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins in the Lord’s Supper. And God still wasn’t done; He delivers His forgiveness to you each time you hear the Absolution. We know all of those are the ways God delivers His grace to us.

But here’s the point. God also wants to give you His grace through the mutual consolation that comes when you have fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ (Ro. 1:12). Remember, Jesus promises (Mt. 18:20), “For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.” Think of that! The same Jesus who died and rose again is right there with you and your fellow believer to bless you and those around you.

I know that doing this is a little more difficult while we are social distancing and all of that. It might mean making a phone call or shooting off a quick message to let others know that you are there for and care about them. But doing these things for your brothers and sisters here will go a long way for you, for them, and for our community.

People are hurting, and they need to find the comfort and peace that only Christ can give. Christian, you have been given that peace. Share that peace with your brothers and sisters here, so they and you can be refreshed and strengthened each time you come here. And when you are encouraged with that peace, you can go back out into the world and share that peace with others. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.