The Door – Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

Matthew 25:1-13

¹ [Jesus says,] “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. ¹¹Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

One year ago, I preached on this text. After that service, we decorated the sanctuary for the Advent and Christmas season just like we will today. The following Sunday, Lindsay, Siobhan, and Stephanie came up to do our Advent candle lighting. After they did the readings and prayer, Lindsay went to light the first candle. The wick held the flame for a fraction of a second then went out because… there was no oil in that candle. And the wick would not hold a flame.

I bring that up for two reasons: First, whoever brings out the Advent candles today, please check the oil levels so we don’t repeat that this year. The second reason I bring that up is that this parable can seem so trivial. Last year, we were perfectly capable of having our worship service without that candle being lit. We didn’t need its light or the heat created by it. We just moved on. Not having oil seems like such a minor thing. In the parable, five girls are unable to light lamps because they didn’t have oil. Did all ten virgins need to have lit lamps? Was it really that important?

Apparently, yes. In the parable, not having oil to keep a lamp lit makes the difference between being in the feast and being left out. In fact, according to Jesus, having oil makes a person wise, while not having oil makes a person a moron. That’s literally the word Jesus uses; the word translated ‘foolish’ in our text is the Greek word μωρός where we get our word ‘moron.’

Now, we don’t know enough about wedding customs in Jesus’ day to know why it was so important for all the ten virgins to have enough oil to keep a lamp lit. The groom didn’t need those lamps to be able to see his way into the marriage feast. He had already made his way through the town to get to the location. All we know is that once the groom arrives, the lamp must be lit.

Jesus teaches that there will be a final cut off point. There is a moment when your status of being in or out will not and can not change. While the five morons are off trying to buy oil from the sellers – and remember this is at midnight, so those sellers would have closed up their shops and had probably gone to bed hours earlier – while the five morons are off on their futile errand, the groom arrives. The feast starts. The door is shut. And that door will not open again. Those who aren’t ready will be left outside forever.

The coming of the groom made a division. Those who were prepared poured oil in their lamps and went into the wedding feast with him. But the morons start scrambling around trying to find oil, and when they return, they find they are out in the darkness where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the last words they hear from their Savior, the groom, are, “I don’t know you.”

Let’s consider a few things about that door that gives entrance to the wise and excludes the morons.

First, notice that when the groom arrives, those who were ready go through that door immediately (v. 10). When Jesus returns, you won’t have to do any convincing or proving of yourself. You won’t have to go somewhere to be purified. Your worthiness to enter is established. There is nothing left for you to do. Christian, your entrance is immediate. If you die today, you will be escorted by the angels directly into Jesus’ presence where your soul will await the resurrection. And if Jesus comes before you die, you will go straight into the banquet of the eternal wedding feast.

That brings me to the second thought about the door. Remember what is behind that door. It’s a wedding feast. Wedding feasts are fun. At your wedding feast, you had family, friends, classmates, and coworkers – a bunch of people who are special and important to you – they all were in the same room mingling, eating, laughing, dancing, and celebrating with you. Your wedding reception was filled with people who will probably never be in the same room again – at least not in this life. Your cousin from Nebraska, your college roommate from California, and your boss will never be in the same room again, but at your wedding feast, they all enjoyed each other’s company. Now imagine that laughter, joy, and merriment times infinity.

The third thought about this door is that it gets shut. Normally, we think about this as a horrifying thing, and for the unbeliever it is. Absolutely, it is. For those outside there will be no entering once the door is shut. But you, Christian, are not left outside. You are inside. How do you suppose Noah and his family felt about God shutting the door and closing them in the ark as the rains came down and the floods went up? They would have felt safe and secure. It’s the same for you. When God shuts that door, He will close out any bit of danger or evil so that it will never touch you.

Finally, the door being shut means that you, Christian, will be forever with Jesus. In the parable, how many entered into the wedding feast? It wasn’t just the five wise virgins. There are six. The bridegroom is inside with them, with the five wise virgins. The groom doesn’t say, “Go on in.” No, they go in with him. It’s so obvious, but don’t miss that.

Dear saints, now is the time to fill your flasks with oil! You do not know how much you will need. The five morons knew they needed oil all along. As soon as the cry went out, that was their only focus, but it was too late. Everyone knows they need oil. Get it now. Why, why would you ever think you have enough oil?

The oil isn’t expensive – in fact it’s free! But you don’t have eternity to get the oil. There is a deadline, and you do not know when that deadline will come. Don’t procrastinate. Receive the gift of faith through the ways God has promised to give it. Go ahead and hoard it. Why would you become complacent and think you don’t need more of God’s Word, God’s mercy, God’s grace, and God’s Sacraments?

Jesus is coming. The Bridegroom said He would return to take you to where He is. But you do not know when. Today feels like a lot like yesterday, and yesterday felt like the day before. And because Jesus didn’t come yesterday or the day before, it can be easy to think that Christ is not coming today. Don’t become a moron, repent! It is easy to fall asleep. It is easy to get distracted with many things and think the time to get oil will last forever. But it won’t.

Yes, this parable is a warning. Yes, it is a call to endure and persevere because being left outside would be horrific. But. But at the same time let’s all take a deep breath and laugh because we are waiting for a party where there is gladness, peace, and joy.

When Jesus warns about His coming, He doesn’t tell a parable about ten soldiers – five wise who always kept their swords within reach and five morons who couldn’t remember where they set their weapons down. Then, the enemy attacked, and the five morons were utterly defeated. No. It’s the parable of the ten virgins waiting for a party.

Jesus is coming, and we wait for that day with expectation, hope, and joy. And, now, Jesus your Savior comes to you to meet you at this altar to have a feast of forgiveness and mercy. Communion is the closest we will get to the party before Jesus returns. It’s a foretaste of the feast to come.

So, dear saints, come. Your bridegroom is here with you now. Trim your lamps because you have the oil of salvation. Amen.

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

Living Forgiveness – Sermon on Matthew 18:21-35 for the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity

Nov13

Matthew 18:21-35

²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

²³ “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. ³² Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. ³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus said to Peter, “No, forgiving seven times isn’t enough. Instead, seventy-seven (or it could also be translated ‘seventy multiplied by seven’) times.” Now, Jesus doesn’t mean that you forgive and forgive and forgive, but when you get either to 76 or 489 forgivings (sic) you warn the other person, “Listen buster, you’ve only got one left.” Nope, let the forgiveness flow freely.

Before we consider the parable, we have to do some conversions. Two different servants have two different debts. Servant 1 owes the king 10,000 talents. A talent was originally a unit of weight that later became a unit of coinage, and the value of that coinage would change a lot. Most resources say that one talent is equal to twenty years of pay for the average worker. So, imagine your annual income, double it, and slap five zeros on the end of it. That’s what the first servant owed the king. Even if he lived and worked every day for 2,000 years giving every penny to the king, it would only shave off a 1% sliver off his debt.

Servant 2 owed a debt to servant 1 to the tune of 100 denarii. Now, this is still a significant amount of money. The average worker earned one denarius per day. So, we’re talking about a little over 3 months’ worth of pay. Significant yes, but a manageable amount. It is totally conceivable and reasonable that someone can pay off a debt of 100 denarii.

Now, the three main characters in the parable are obvious: the king, servant 1, and servant 2. But as we consider the parable today, I want you to imagine yourself in the roll of one of the minor characters. Imagine you are one of the other servants.

The king has called you and all the servants who owe him money to the castle. You are standing in line outside the king’s office. You compare debts with the other servants. You are a little nervous because you don’t know what the king is going to do about your debt. Now, imagine you are standing in line behind servant 1 who owed the 10,000 talents, and you know how large his debt is. He goes into the king’s office, but you don’t know what is happening behind that door. You want to catch a glimpse of servant 1 as he comes out because his demeanor will give you an indication of how it is going to go for you. If he’s smiling or skipping, you’d have a sense of relief because you’d know that the king is in a good mood and your meeting with the king might not be so bad.

Finally, the door opens. Servant 1 comes out of the king’s office, he immediately runs over to servant 2, wrings his neck, and demands that the guy pay him everything. What are you going to conclude about how his meeting with the king went? He didn’t come out in shackles to be led to the prison, but he wasn’t happy. Seeing his treatment of servant 2, you would probably assume that the king had not forgiven his debt and demanded full payment. You would probably deduce that the king gave him some time – maybe a couple of weeks or months – to pay off the debt.

Dear saints, that’s the problem of refusing to forgive.

If people don’t know what happens here in this sanctuary, the only clues they have would be to watch how you act when you aren’t here. So, as others watch you, what will they conclude about what has happened here? What would they think about your king? Would they figure that He demanded that you pay? Would they think He is gracious and merciful, or would they assume that He is a King who demands that all debts get paid?

Dear saints, God wants to be known for His goodness. God wants to be known by His mercy. God wants to be known for His willingness to freely forgive. And if you refuse to forgive those who have sinned against you, what does that say about your God and King?

All this is to say, dear saints, that you, as forgiven servants of the King, are called to live out the forgiveness you have in Christ. This can be a difficult thing because it goes against our nature to forgive. But the cure of our unforgiveness doesn’t come from being beaten down by calls to forgive. The cure for our unforgiveness is to have a right understanding the massive debt that each of us owe to God. When we wrongly think that have only a little debt of sin, we can only have a little Savior. Jesus didn’t go to the cross because you were a few bucks short of your heavenly entrance fee. He went to the cross because your sin was so great that you are too dead to even see the gates.

Sin – all sin – is against God (Ps. 51:4; 1 Cor. 8:12). Every day, you and I rack up an unimaginable, incalculable debt of sin. And when God calls you in to settle accounts what does He do? Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, God simply wipes it out. Because of Jesus, as far as God is concerned, your debt of sin never existed.

Jesus completely erased your debt by the shedding of His blood. He went to Calvary, not so you would have enough time to get your act together and become a better person. He went to raise you from your deadness in sin. When you were lost, powerless, and dead, Jesus made all – not just a portion – all of your debt His own. And on the cross, He killed and cancelled that debt. Jesus who knew no sin became sin for you (2 Cor. 5:21) and He bore all your sins in His body upon the cross (1 Pet. 2:24). And now the grave is empty. Your debt of sin has been erased in the death and resurrection of your Savior.

You are forgiven. Jesus didn’t die just to get you to a zero balance; He came to erase your debt and fill your account with His righteousness. His mercy is complete. He has paid and absorbed all your debt, and you owe Him nothing. There is absolutely nothing left for you to pay, and there is nothing you could do to even begin to pay Him back. Even the thought of paying Him back is offensive because what He has done is so complete, so wonderful, and so merciful.

Now, when your neighbor sins against you and you feel the hurt and pain of those transgressions against you, don’t reach out your hands to grab your neighbor by the throat. Instead, let the nail-scarred hands of Jesus remove your hands from around your neighbor’s throat and make you right and at peace with Him and your neighbor.

There is no denying the fact that forgiving others is a difficult thing to do. Sin is a debt, and that debt must be paid. Forgiving others is absorbing the debt that is owed to you. The pain that comes from the sins of others is real and often terrible. It is always tempting to our old nature to hold a grudge, to make them pay, to construct a prison in our minds, and to put the offender into it. But the only thing that prison will ever hold is you. Unforgiveness imprisons you in a space where there is only judgment. Dear saints, unforgiveness is hell.

To forgive means ‘to send away.’ The only way to be freed from the pain and hurt of sin that others commit against you is to forgive it, release it, and send it away.

Forgiving others does not mean you approve what they have done. Forgiveness means that the offense has hurt you, but you won’t return the pain upon them with judgment. And forgiveness isn’t a license for the other person to continue sinning. The biggest lie the devil will ever tell you is that forgiving someone will just encourage them keep sinning against you, taking advantage of you, and making you a doormat. That satanic lie is a sneaky attack on God’s forgiveness. Is God worried about His forgiveness encouraging you to sin? Nope! Absolutely not. He forgives you fully and freely.

Dear saints, God’s forgiveness of you is a living, life-giving thing. No matter how much and how often you come under His debt with your sin, God gives you His mercy and forgiveness. God remembers your sins no more (Jer. 31:34). Because of Jesus, your sins are released from you as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). God has shown you, what is good and what He requires of you. Do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God (Mic. 6:8). Let that full, free forgiveness that God has given you in Christ be the key that opens the gates of your forgiveness toward others. Amen.

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

Blessed, Now and Forever – Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12 for All Saints’ Day (Observed)

Nov6

Matthew 5:1-12

¹ Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
⁵ “Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.
⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
⁷ “Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.
⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
¹¹ “Blessed are you
when others revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
¹² “Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward is great in heaven,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Just to let you know, this sermon is on the Beatitudes. It might not seem like it at first, though, because we’re going to take a round-about way of getting into it.

Dear saints and holy ones. That’s you, Christian. You are a saint; you are a holy one. That’s what the word ‘saint’ means – it simply means ‘holy one.’ You are not holy because you have lived a holy life, done enough good works, and performed at least two verifiable miracles. No. You are holy because God has made you holy through Jesus who died and rose again for you. He shed His holy and precious blood on the cross, and you have washed your robes white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14). If Jesus is holy (and He is), then you are holy because you have been Baptized into Christ and have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27).

This also means that you are God’s holy, beloved children now (1 Jn. 3:2). “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to [you], that [you] should be called children of God; and so [you] are” (1 Jn. 3:1). That Epistle lesson today (1 Jn. 3:1-3) invites us to behold, to see, this great love of God the Father.

So, picture a great, mighty, wealthy, powerful king. This king is unimaginably strong. His family is large. His servants are devoted. His castle is breathtaking. His kingdom is magnificent and awesome. This king has huge armies with formidable soldiers who defeat every enemy they face, and he is brilliant when it comes to war strategy.

This king is fighting against his enemy, and into his camp is brought a lowly, pitiful servant of the enemy. This servant had been fighting against and trying to usurp the king. This pathetic servant is bloodied, clothed in rags, and injured so badly that he looks like he’s about to die. This servant has been captured and is thrown on the ground before the king. The king should just put him to death. Maybe, if the king wanted to be nice, he could throw the servant into a dungeon to live out the rest of his miserable days. But the king doesn’t do that.

Instead, the king walks over to this poor wretch, kneels next to him, and gently lifts his head to look at his face. Finally, the king speaks. He pardons and forgives the servant for his rebellion. Then, the king takes the man’s hand and helps him stand up. He tends to his wounds, puts him in the best tent, and feeds him the finest food. The king gives him an office in his kingdom and even adopts this servant as his own child. That man was an enemy and good as dead. But now, he is the royal heir of the king.

Behold, what manner of love the Father has given you, that you should be called a child of God. Dear saints and holy ones, that is your story. But that isn’t the end of your story. Yes, you are God’s children now, but what you will be has not yet appeared, but it has been described and promised. Now, this brings us to the Beatitudes.

Our translation of each of the Beatitudes, begins with the word ‘blessed.’ It’s a good translation, but it might leave us with a superficial and limited understanding because people speak about being ‘blessed’ in very shallow ways. Today, when people talk about being blessed, they typically mean good things are happening to them, and those good things are obvious to everyone. But the status of those whom Jesus declares to be ‘blessed’ are not things that we usually consider to be blessings. The first four are needs and lacks; things that we think of as deficiencies – poor, mourning, meek/humble, and being hungry and thirsty. And the next four are virtues – merciful, pure, peacemaker, and enduring persecution.

The word Jesus uses that gets translated as ‘blessed’ refers a state of being that is happy (in fact the word Jesus uses here is how the Greek translation of the Old Testament translates the Hebrew word for ‘happy’). But even the word ‘happy’ falls short because the word also means joyful, at peace with God and the world, and content. This blessedness ultimately refers to being what you are meant to be because you are reconciled to God.

So, think back to the picture of the mighty, powerful king who adopts that servant. Imagine that adopted servant kept going out with the king to fight in battles. He might question some of the king’s strategies. He probably thinks the king is taking risks that are too great or retreating and giving up territory that should be defended. Sometimes, the newly adopted servant might think that the king is out of his mind and that the kingdom is crumbling or even already fallen. But the king keeps putting everything into perspective. He reveals his plan and assures the servant that what he is doing is intentional and that the victory is soon to come.

The Beatitudes are just that. They are Jesus putting everything into perspective and telling you that the evil and sorrowful things you see and experience in this world are not a danger to the kingdom because the war has already been won and the kingdom is fully secured by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Satan is defeated. The devilish head of the serpent has been crushed. The light of Christ will always drive away the darkness.

Just take one of the Beatitudes as an example. Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Typically, our experience tells us the opposite. We normally think that it is the strong, proud, type-A personalities who are blessed because they always seem to get ahead and have the most influence over what takes place in the world. But consider Jesus, the meekest human ever. Though He was God in the flesh and Creator of the universe, He was meek and submitted to His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary (Lk. 2:51). King Jesus entered Jerusalem meek and mounted on a donkey (Mt. 21:5). Christ could have called twelve legions of angels to deliver Him from being arrested, beaten, and crucified (Mt. 26:53), but He didn’t. In every aspect of His life Jesus was meek and humble. Now, He is risen and seated at God’s right hand on the throne of the universe with all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt. 28:18).

So, when Jesus says, “The meek will inherit the earth,” you can trust Him. Psalm 37 expands on what Jesus says in this Beatitude. In summary, Psalm 37 says to not worry about people who do evil, they will soon fade like the grass. Be still before the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and don’t worry about it when evil people seem to be prospering because they will be cut off. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. The meek shall inherit the land and delight in the abundant peace that God will give to them. I would encourage you to read Psalm 37 before you read or watch any news. Then, read it again afterward. Let God’s Word and promises put everything into perspective.

As Jesus speaks the Beatitudes to you, you are like Abraham. You stand in the Promised Land without an army, weak, and surrounded by enemies, but Christ promises, “This is all yours.” And, like Abraham, you believe and trust God’s promise and that faith is counted to you as righteousness (Gen. 15:5-7).

Again, when Jesus repeatedly tells you that you are blessed here, He is saying that you are exactly what you are meant to be. In a world that is still tainted with sin, it is right and good for you to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, and to hunger and thirst for righteousness. It shows that you recognize that things are not now as they were created to be. It is also proper for you as a child of the king to have those virtues – merciful, pure, peacemaker, and enduring persecution. Jesus uses the Beatitudes to encourage and remind you that the brokenness surrounding you has already been fixed by His death and resurrection.

Here Jesus comforts you by telling you that all your suffering is temporary, and in that suffering, you are following in the same footsteps that He walked. If the world treats you badly, know that you are not alone. That is how the world treated the saints who came before you, and if Jesus continues to delay, it is how it will treat the saints who come after you. If the kingdom of heaven is anything, it is a kingdom of hope. And you can have this hope because you have these blessings now and in the future.

Dear saints, the kingdom of heaven is yours. Your pain, your loneliness, and even your suffering is not random or accidental. Your mourning will cease, and you will be comforted. Some of your loved ones have gone to heaven and have already come to their reward. They are now before the throne of God and sheltered in His presence. Jesus, the Lamb, has shepherded them and wiped away every tear from their eyes (Rev. 7:15-18).

And even though you are separated from them now, that separation is temporary and a lot less distant than it seems to be. Those saints in glory join us here because we have come to Mt. Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. We are surrounded by innumerable angels in festal gathering and surrounded by the assembly of all the saints who are enrolled in heaven (Heb. 12:22-23). This is true because we have come to Jesus. This is the hope that surpasses all understanding (Php. 4:7). When the fight is fierce and warfare long, listen and hear the distant triumph song. Then your hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.

Dear saints, you are blessed by Jesus, now and forever. Amen.

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

Salvation unto Us Has Come – Sermon for Reformation Sunday (Observed) 2022

Oct30

The Scripture readings for our service today were Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28; and John 8:31-36.

A sheet with Scripture verses that were used to compose the hymn “Salvation unto Us Has Come” can be found here.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We are all slaves – every one of us. Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” And here in v. 34, Jesus says, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” And don’t misunderstand the word ‘practice’ there. It is a fine translation, but we might get the wrong idea if we think the word ‘practice’ means someone who does something over and over to get better at it. I don’t think anyone here is actively trying to get better at lying, stealing, cheating, etc. The word Jesus uses here that gets translated as ‘practice’ is simply the word ‘do’ or ‘does.’ We will say that a doctor ‘practices’ medicine because medicine is simply what the doctor does. Literally, Jesus’ statement here could read, “All who do sin are slaves to sin.” And because “all have sinned,” (Ro. 3:23), we all are slaves to sin.

Slaves do not remain in the house. Only sons do. That is why you need Jesus – the eternal Son of God – to set you free. Christ sets you free through His Word because His Word delivers to you everything that He has done and accomplished on the cross. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, you are delivered from your slavery, you are freed, you become God’s child, and, as God’s children, you remain in the house forever with Jesus.

Now, that’s a full sermon right there, but we’ve still got some time. So, I want to bring in a guest preacher to teach us the same thing. The name of the preacher is Pastor Paul Speratus. Pastor Speratus wrote the hymn that you have in your Scripture insert. This hymn, “Salvation unto Us Has Come,” ends up being a complete summary of the theology of the Reformation, and since today is Reformation Sunday, we’re going to sing it and let it preach to us. I know some of you will find this boring, but please give me just a minute to set the stage for how this hymn came to be written.

Speratus was a Catholic priest in Salzburg, Austria. You probably know Salzburg because of the movie The Sound of Music. Well, Speratus had read Luther’s writings that came after the 95 Thesis, and Speratus recognized how far the church had wandered from the teaching of the Scriptures. So, Speratus starts preaching Law and Gospel in Salzburg. Luther got condemned for his writings in 1521, but Luther was protected from that sentence of death – basically, by being kidnapped and hidden in a castle where he spends 300 days translating the Bible into German. Well, Speratus also ends up being sentenced to death for heresy in 1523 and was sentenced to be burned at the stake. Like Luther, Speratus gets rescued from execution. But during his time in prison, Speratus writes this hymn.

You might think that sitting in prison and waiting for execution, Speratus would write a hymn about God’s protection and provision. But no. Speratus writes a hymn about the theology of salvation. Speratus wrote this hymn because Luther had just started conducting services in German and called on German-speakers to write hymns that taught the truths of Scripture in the German language so the people would have good songs to use in worship. This hymn is one of those. Apparently, when Luther first heard it, he offered the singer all the money he had in his pocket for the lyrics. And the hymn ended up being included in the first German hymnal which only had eight songs in it. The history lesson on the hymn is now over.

Personally, I love how clearly this hymn teaches what the Bible teaches, and according to Scripture, that is what Christian songs should do (Col. 3:16). The nice thing about this hymn is that Speratus included the Scripture passages he had in mind when he wrote the hymn. Those passages are included on the insert in your bulletin. This hymn would be a good addition to your devotional time. If you don’t have a regular devotional, my suggestion would be to read the passages for the first verse then sing it. The next day sing the first verse, then read the passages for the second verse and sing it. The third day, sing the first two verses, then read the Scriptures for the third and sing it. Do that for ten days adding a new verse each day.

By the time you finish, you will be a great theologian because this hymn so clearly teaches Law, Gospel, and holy living. It clearly teaches how our good works don’t help or save us, which is what the church of Rome was falsely teaching. Instead, faith produces the fruit of good works which are good because they serve our neighbor.

So, we’re going to let the hymn preach to us. Because it’s a long hymn, we won’t sing all ten verses at once. I’ll give your voices a break and make brief comments here and there. Feel free to sing it from the insert, but if you would like to have the music, it is #410 in your hymnal. Let’s start with the first verse.

1. Salvation unto us has come
by God’s free grace and favor;
Good works cannot avert our doom,
they help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,
Who did for all the world atone;
He is our one Redeemer.

This verse summarizes everything that will come after it. God, by His free grace and favor given through Jesus, has set you free. Through faith in Jesus, you are a child of God. The last two lines of that verse tell us what Jesus has done. He made the payment for you. He is the one and only Redeemer.

Now, because the hymn was written in German then translated into English, some of the wording is slightly changed from the original to make the poetry work in English. But those last two lines in German say that Jesus, “has done enough for us all. He has become our Mediator.” Jesus has done everything you needed to be saved, and now He sits at God’s right hand interceding for you and governing all things for your good.

Now, the hymn goes on to elaborate what Jesus needed to do. Let’s sing verses 2-3.

2. What God did in His Law demand
and none to Him could render
Caused wrath and woe on ev’ry hand
for man, the vile offender,
Our flesh has not those pure desires
The spirit of the Law requires,
and lost is our condition.

3. It was a false, misleading dream
that God His Law had given
That sinners could themselves redeem
and by their works gain heaven.
The Law is but a mirror bright
To bring the inbred sin to light
that lurks within our nature.

Because of our sinful nature, we don’t even begin to do what God requires of us through the Law. And even though we falsely think that we’re better than others, the Law is a bright mirror that shows our desperately lost and sinful condition. Let’s sing verse 4.

4. From sin our flesh could not abstain,
sin held its sway unceasing;
The task was useless and in vain,
our guilt was e’er increasing.
None can remove sin’s poisoned dart
Or purify our guileful heart—
so deep is our corruption.

Apart from Jesus, we have no hope of salvation. The poison of sin continues to slowly kill and destroy us. The Law leaves us dead in sin. But that does not mean that we are without hope. We’ll sing verse 5.

5. Yet as the Law must be fulfilled
or we must die despairing,
Christ came and hath God’s anger stilled,
our human nature sharing.
He hath for us the Law obeyed
And thus, the Father’s vengeance stayed
which over us impended.

Jesus has fulfilled the Law for you. He is your substitute. The eternal Son of God took on your flesh to do all this for you. He perfectly obeyed the Law for you. He suffered the punishment your sins deserved. And because of that, God sees Jesus’ perfection when He looks at you, believer. God has no anger left for your sins because Jesus has taken it all. Verse 6.

6. Since Christ hath full atonement made
and brought to us salvation,
Each Christian therefore may be glad
and build on this foundation.
Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,
Thy death is now my life indeed,
for Thou hast paid my ransom.

There is nothing left for you to do to be saved. Everything is done; it is finished (Jn. 19:30). The hymn takes a turn in that verse and addresses God directly. We ask God to apply everything Jesus has done to us. His death is your life. He has fully paid the ransom for your soul. Verses 7-8.

7. Let me not doubt, but trust in Thee,
Thy Word cannot be broken;
Thy call rings out, “Come unto Me!”
no falsehood hast Thou spoken.
Baptized into Thy precious name,
My faith cannot be put to shame,
and I shall never perish.

8. The Law reveals the guilt of sin
and makes men conscience-stricken;
The Gospel then doth enter in
the sinful soul to quicken.
Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live;
The Law no peace can ever give,
no comfort and no blessing.

Jesus calls to you, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Trusting in that call, you will never ever be put to shame. Jesus has come so that you have eternal, abundant life. Verse 9.

9. Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone
and rests in Him unceasing;
And by its fruits true faith is known.
with love and hope increasing.
Yet faith alone doth justify,
Works serve thy neighbor and supply
the proof that faith is living.

Faith in Jesus is the only thing that saves you, but faith is never alone. Christian, you do good works, but those works never save you. Those works are simply the fruit of the Spirit that serves your neighbor and shows that your faith is alive and well.

Now, the hymn closes with a doxology. We get swept up into the liturgy of heaven and join all the saints who have gone before us by praising God for what He has done for us in Christ. Let’s sing the final verse.

10. All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise
to Father, Son, and Spirit,
The God that saved us by His grace—
all glory to His merit!
O Triune God in heaven above,
Who hast revealed Thy saving love,
Thy blessed name be hallowed.

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

Diagnosed – Sermon on Matthew 9:1-8 for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct23

Matthew 9:1-8

¹ And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. ² And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” ³ And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” ⁴But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he then said to the paralytic – “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” ⁷ And he rose and went home. ⁸ When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

When you go to the doctor, you have certain expectations of what is going to happen. You know that you will fill out forms and provide information about your health history and habits. You expect to have your weight, heart, lungs, blood pressure, and reflexes checked. Depending on the reason for your visit, you also anticipate other tests – bloodwork or other lab work; an x-ray, ultrasound, or MRI; maybe a stress test or sleep study. Depending on the results of all of that, you expect more tests might get ordered. Only after all those results are studied and considered will the doctor call you in to present a diagnosis and offer a treatment plan.

Well, in our Gospel text today, this paralytic is brought to Jesus, and by all appearances, Jesus skips right over the testing and diagnosis process and goes straight to the treatment saying, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.”

For a moment, use your sanctified imagination to consider this from the perspective of the paralytic’s friends. Matthew has condensed the story in his Gospel. Here in v. 2, he tells us that ‘some people’ brought this paralytic to Jesus. But Mark and Luke give a fuller picture of this event, filling in some of the details (Mk. 2:1-12; Lk. 5:17-26). They let us know that it was four men (Mk. 2:3) who carried this paralytic to Jesus, and they had a difficult time getting their friend there. People from the whole region had heard that Jesus was in town, and so many people had gathered to hear Him preach (Lk. 5:17) that there was no room to even get in the door (Mk. 2:2). So, these four friends lug their paralyzed buddy on top of the house, punch a hole in the roof, and lower him down to get him in front of Jesus (Mk. 2:4).

Now, this is just an aside. As a preacher, I have, what I hope is, a godly and pious curiosity about this. At what point does Jesus stop preaching? Is it when He hears the scuffle of eight feet on the roof above Him? I think that would distract me enough that I’d stop preaching, but, please, don’t test that hypothesis. Is it when the pounding starts or until bits of dirt and debris start falling from the ceiling? Maybe, Jesus preached straight through all of that until the paralytic was being lowered through the new skylight above Him. I guess I’ll just have to go rent the video at heaven’s Blockbuster. Maybe all of heaven’s Blockbusters have closed and everything is available through streaming services. Anyway…

These four friends go through all that work and effort knowing that they would have more work later to fix the hole they made. They had brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed (Lk. 5:17-18). But, to their perspective, Jesus skips right over the diagnosis and says, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.”The worst thing is that it looks like the wrong treatment! Imagine you had a friend with a badly sprained ankle, so you bring him to a new doctor in town. The doctor watches your friend limp in, but before your friend even says why he is there, and before asking any questions or doing any tests, the doctor says to your friend, “Here is a prescription for Lipitor for your high cholesterol.” You’d probably report the doctor to have his license revoked. Well, that is essentially what Jesus does.

We might think that the healing of this paralytic is a lesson that the most important thing we need is the forgiveness of sins. Above money, security, food, house, or health we need forgiveness. Once Jesus forgives this paralytic of his sins, he has everything he needs. If the text had stopped there and Jesus hadn’t miraculously given this man the ability to walk, it wouldn’t be too bad. He could have lived the rest of his life paralyzed because he had everything he needed for eternal life. In fact, the physical healing seems to take the back seat in this text. Jesus only heals him after the grumbling of the scribes. You could even conclude that Jesus never intended to heal the guy and only does so as an afterthought.

Now, to be sure, the most important thing that everyone needs is the forgiveness of sins. But if the main thing you take away from this text is that physical healing isn’t important, you’re wrong. This isn’t Jesus’ first miracle. There were many others that He healed before and after this. Just before this, Jesus healed a leper (Mt. 8:1-4), but Jesus didn’t forgive him before He healed him. Right after that, a centurion asks Jesus to heal his paralyzed servant (Mt. 8:5-13), but no absolution. Then, Matthew records that Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law who had a fever, Christ heals a whole slew of other people and casts out demons (Mt. 8:14-17), but no mention of Jesus proclaiming forgiveness there either. All over the Gospels, Jesus will heal people, but there is no mention of absolution. In fact, most of the time when Jesus mentions forgiveness and salvation, it’s only after He heals. We don’t take those instances to mean that Jesus cares more about physical healing more than forgiveness.

Now, where am I going with all of this? Jesus is a Pastor – in fact Jesus is the Pastor. The word ‘pastor’ simply means ‘shepherd.’ Jesus is the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10:11), the Good Pastor. Christ knows when His sheep need to be fed by green pastures or led beside still waters, and He knows when His sheep need to have their soul restored with forgiveness and mercy (Ps. 23:1-3). Jesus doesn’t need to run a bunch of diagnostic tests to figure out what His sheep need. He always knows and gives the right treatment, and He always perfectly gives what His sheep need. Jesus, the Good Pastor, so intimately knows you and all your actions, thoughts, and ways that you are always diagnosed and receive the care you need.

The reason Jesus forgives this paralytic before healing his paralysis is that is what the man needed. The man’s friends – maybe even the man himself – figured what he needed most was to be able to use his limbs again. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd and Pastor, knows best. So, Christ forgives the man. “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” And those words deliver to the paralytic exactly what he needed.

I’m going to change gears here for just a minute. It’s October, and I’m aware that October, among other things, is Pastor Appreciation month. First of all, I want to thank you all for how good you’ve been to me, your pastor, for the past twelve years and ten plus months. I can’t imagine being called by God to shepherd a better flock. Last week, I preached about stewardship and tithing and mentioned how I don’t particularly like to preach about that. Well, preaching about the duties of a pastor is low on my preference list as well. But Scripture teaches about the duties of pastors, so preaching the full council of God requires me to preach about what I’m supposed to do as a pastor. So, here we go.

Every pastor is an under-shepherd of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. And I confess to you that I am a very flawed shepherd. Jesus shepherded this paralytic man exactly as he needed. But I know that there are times where I have not shepherded rightly. I don’t always know what is needed in any given situation.

God has given pastors one tool to use and apply to the flocks entrusted to their care – His Word of Law and Gospel. There have been times where I have given Law when you needed comfort and forgiveness, which results in you being further discouraged and dismayed. And there are times when I gave the Gospel of comfort and forgiveness when the Law should have been proclaimed, and that can lead to a boldness to continue in sin. This is a long way around for me to say, “I’m not as good of a pastor as Jesus is.”

First of all, please forgive me for my shortcomings as your pastor. And second, please pray for me that God would give me the wisdom and words that are needed in each interaction I have as your pastor. But I take great comfort in God’s promise that whenever His Word goes forth it always accomplishes the purpose for which God sends it (Is. 55:10-11). I am also comforted by the fact that God can always shut my mouth if I am doing more harm than good. But again, please pray for me.

I want to close by pointing you back to Jesus, my Boss, and your perfect Shepherd. Notice how Christ is always perfectly in tune with His sheep. Jesus sees the faith of the people who brought the paralytic to Him, so He immediately applies the Gospel of forgiveness. He knows the grumbling of the scribes after He absolves the paralytic and applies the Law to them. And notice how Jesus’ perfect diagnosing and shepherding results in the crowds glorifying God.

Those crowds glorify God because God had given authority to forgive sins to men (Mt. 9:8). That line struck me this week. Notice, it’s plural – to men, not to ‘a man,’ not just to Jesus, but to men. Dear saints, as those who have been redeemed, restored, and forgiven by Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus has given you the authority to forgive the sins of others. Jesus says in John 20:23, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.”

My fellow Christians, Jesus invites you to join with Him in proclaiming to a broken creation the forgiveness and eternal life He has won by His death and resurrection. May we carry that treatment and soul-saving medicine to a hurting world. Amen.

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

To Your God Belongs All – Sermon on Deuteronomy 10:12-21 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct16

Deuteronomy 10:12-21

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. ¹⁶ Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. ¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹ He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Don’t put the cart before the horse. When we hear this text, it is very easy to focus on all the things we are called to do because the text opens with the question: “What does the Lord your God require of you?” Then all these directives come. Fear God. Walk in His ways. Love Him. Serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Keep His commandments and statutes. Don’t be stubborn. Love the sojourner. Hold fast to Him. There is a lot to do there – so much, in fact, that we recognize that we have not even begun to do what God requires of us. Right away we find that we have a lot of repenting to do, and repent we should. But, again, don’t put the cart before the horse.

Notice who wants you to do all these things – the Lord your God. Six times in this text, that is God’s title – the Lord your God. And just to make sure you get it drilled into your head, you are reminded in the final verse that He is your God (v. 21).

Know, dear saints, this God of gods and Lord of lords – the One who owns heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it – He is your God. He has chosen you. He could have chosen anyone, but He chose you. He did not choose you because you were bigger, stronger, smarter, more obedient, or more faithful than others. He has not chosen you because of anything you have thought, said, or done. You belong to God. You, dear saints, according to 1 Pet. 2:9, are His chosen people, His royal priesthood, His holy nation, and a people for His own possession. You are these things because the Lord God of heaven and earth has chosen you and set His heart in love on you (v. 15). He is your God because He has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And the Lord your God has done all of this because of what Jesus has done for you.

Jesus, your Savior, lived a perfect life. He was perfectly obedient to God. He took all your sin to the cross (1 Pet. 2:24) where God poured out all His wrath upon your sin, and not one bit of that wrath is left for you. Jesus paid it all, and He paid it all for you. Your sin had left a crimson stain, but Jesus has washed you white as snow. To God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and all that is in it, and Jesus has restored you to your proper place – your proper place before God and your proper place in His creation. That’s the horse that pulls the cart, and now we can turn to the cart.

As this text lays out all the things the Lord your God requires of you, it is nothing more than a call for you to be like Him and follow after His image. In other words, if we boil down all these things God calls us to be, it is a call for us to be the stewards He has created us to be.^[1]

So, think back to the creation. God created Adam and Eve in His image and blessed His image-bearers saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Because of our sinful nature, we hear those instructions “have dominion” and “subdue” and think that we get to call all the shots and beat creation into submission so that it conforms to our will. But that wasn’t the case originally. Because Adam and Eve were created in God’s image and perfectly reflected the will and heart of the God who created and owns all things, they were simply stewards of everything God created.

As Genesis 2 closes, Adam and Eve were doing exactly what God had created them to do. They were perfectly stewarding God’s creation. They were receiving from God all that He wanted to give to them. God had created the entire universe to bless mankind, the crown of His creation. God designed them to have open hands that received all the blessings they needed for life. But then, in Genesis 3, the serpent comes slithering into the picture. He lies and convinces them that God was holding out on them and not giving them everything He had to give. After hearing this lie, Eve begins to look at things differently. Watch what her hands do. Instead of having an open hand to receive all of God’s blessings, her hand turns over to take. Both Adam and Eve take and eat. This taking betrays their identity. Instead of being stewards, they wrongly thought they were the owners, but there had been no transfer of ownership.

The creature cannot be the Creator, and the steward cannot be the Owner. Adam and Eve’s attempt to change their identity ends up destroying the perfect relationship that existed between Creator, steward, and creation. Because of that, life became hard. All creation, which God designed to be a blessing that supported life, will cause them pain and suffering. Now their work, will be filled with sweat, toil, pain, and, ultimately, death.

The interesting thing in all of this, though, is that God did not remove them from their calling and duty of being stewards. And this is where you come into the story. You, as God’s creature, are still a steward of God’s creation. Even though you daily and regularly fail in this role, it is still yours. Even though your hands turn over to reach out and take what is not yours, Jesus has come to redeem you and forgive you of all your sins. On the cross, your debt was paid. The empty tomb on Easter is the receipt (Ro. 4:25).

This means, dear saints, that you are a new creation; the old has passed away and the new has come. And now, God has entrusted you with being a steward of the Gospel which is the message of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:17-20). With an open hand, you receive God’s forgiveness and mercy, and that open hand allows that forgiveness and mercy to also flow to others. And it is those same open hands that freely receive and freely give all of God’s other gifts too. And one of the ways that you continue in your role as a steward is by giving to the work of God’s church.

On the back of your Scripture insert, I’ve included two passages about Christian stewardship (1 Cor. 16:2 and 2 Cor. 9:6-8) and four points to consider about how to give.^[2] I would encourage each of you to read through those texts and points as you consider how you steward what God has given to you. In the Old Testament, the stewardship of tithing was set at a certain amount, 10%. Now I want to be clear: there is no New Testament command on what percentage you should give to the work of God’s kingdom. Let that be between you and God. But I do want to highlight one thing from those verses.

2 Cor. 9:6 says, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” If you plant one tomato plant, you can only expect so many tomatoes. If you plant ten, fifty, or one hundred plants, well, you’ll get a lot more. The text goes on to tie that analogy to what you give to the church. And the interesting thing about this is what the Old Testament has to say about where those tithes end up.

Just a few chapters after our text, God talks about what was to be done with the tithes. In Dt. 14:22-26, God says that the tithes given to Him are given back to the one who brought that tithe, and it is given back as a feast. God tells His people to bring the tithe of their crops, their wine, their oil, and their herds to the Temple.^[3]If the trip to the Temple was too far to bring all of it, they should sell those things and turn them into money. Then, they would go to Jerusalem and purchase whatever things they wanted to eat. Then, they would offer their tithe and eat it before God with rejoicing.

Dear saints, the gifts, offerings, and tithes you give to God are returned back to you as gifts from the Lord your God. Those gifts bless you as you come here and receive God’s mercy, and they also bless your neighbor who needs to receive that mercy and love. The offerings and gifts that you have placed on the Lord’s table will be used by God to continue to further His kingdom.

And now, Jesus, your God, invites you to come and receive a priceless treasure that could never be bought with money. He invites you to come to His table and receive His Body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sin. Come into the presence of the Lord your God. Receive and rejoice. Amen.

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

Christian Stewardship

1 Corinthians 16:2

²On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

2 Corinthians 9:6–8

⁶The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

From these two texts, we see that Christians are to give…

…voluntarily & cheerfully. Giving should not be done under compulsion or grudgingly. Giving is God’s gracious call to join Him in His work.

…of our first-fruits. Giving should be from the first-fruits of our labor. Our giving is what we do on the first day of the week before our other expenses are due.

…proportionately. Giving is not to be an arbitrary set dollar amount each week. Instead, it is to be in accordance with ‘how we have prospered’ each week. In other words, setting aside a certain proportion (percentage) of our income for God’s work through the Church.

…faithfully. We have God’s promise that He will take care of all our needs in this body and life. As we give, we are trusting God to keep that promise.

^[1] The following five paragraphs are an adaptation of chapter 2 of the book Stewardship: For the Care of Souls by Pr. Nathan Meador and Pr. Heath R. Curtis.

^[2] I’ve included those below under the title “Christian Stewardship.”

^[3] The text says to bring the tithe to “the place that He will choose, to make His name dwell there.” I am simply condensing that because the Temple is where God chose to make His name dwell (2 Chron. 6:16-20).

One – Sermon on Ephesians 4:1-6 for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct9

Ephesians 4:1-6

¹ I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

What is your impression of or reaction to the following words: unity; inclusion; oneness; togetherness?

They are all good words and concepts, but those words probably throw up some red flags for you. Who doesn’t want unity? Wouldn’t it be great if our country was really the United States of America? No one wants to be excluded and left on the outside. It’s true that the team that plays together wins together. But would you say that we live in a time of unity? Probably not. We’ve gotten used to hearing that we are more divided now than at almost any other point in our nation’s brief history. Some even speculate that we may be on the verge of another civil war. Who knows?

But the more divided, fractured, and fragmented we become, the higher the desire there is for unity. The biggest obstacle to unity in this world, though, just might be the desire and calls for unity. For there to be unity, there needs to be something people are united on. And because the world is full of sinners who all want our own way, we are going to have a difficult time finding a point of unity. The selfishness, pride, and greed around and within us – yes, even in us Christians who still wrestle with our old Adam – will continue to cause division.

Well, this text doesn’t give us any suggestions for bringing unity to our culture or nation. There is nothing here to help us mend the political, economic, racial, and other divisions that we face in our society and culture today. Sorry. There are other passages of Scripture deal with that. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Strive for peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18 says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” And Philippians 2:4 probably gives us the best advice in achieving peace in our culture when it says to not look only to your own interest but to the interest of others.

Our text today, when it talks about unity and being one, refers to the unity that exists between Christians, and this unity between Christians is twofold.

First, there is a unity that all Christians simply have. We could call this a ‘vertical unity,’ and this unity consists of how sinners are made one with God. All Christians are sinners who by nature were children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). Christians of all time and in all places are united by the one faith in Jesus who is our Savior, the only Savior. Because Jesus is the only Savior, we are united in Christ who is the Way, the Truth, the Life, and the only access we have to God the Father (Jn. 14:6). When the Holy Spirit works faith in us, this unity simply exists.

All Christians believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29). Through Him, every Christian of every tribe, language, race, and even denomination is united on the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mt. 16:16). Through that Holy Spirit-wrought faith, every Christian is joined to the one holy Christian Church confessing the one hope of forgiveness and eternal life. That means that every Christian is part of the one body with Christ as the head (Eph. 4:15). This unity exists, but we also recognize that this unity is invisible.

This brings us to the second unity, and that is the unity that all Christians are to strive for. We can call this a ‘horizontal unity’ of how we as Christians are united with one another. This unity is of conviction and true confession. We rejoice in the unity we have here in our congregation, and we have been rejoicing in the unity we have with our sister congregation on the other side of the river as we gather together on Wednesdays. But we also rejoice in the unity we have with Christians of other denominations: Lutheran Brethren, AALC, Missouri Synod, ELS, ELCA, Evangelical Free, Covenant, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Assembly of God, Catholic, and I could go on and on.

Now, even as I mention all those different church bodies, you are probably thinking, “Pastor, aren’t all the different denominations a sign that we Christians are not united?” To a degree, yes. But there is also something counterintuitive about all the different denominations is actually a sign of our unity.

Now, please bear with me as I flesh this out. Go back to the first unity, our vertical unity. All Christians have one Lord, one faith, one Baptism. But one of the things that divides the various Christian denominations and disrupts that horizontal unity is what the different church bodies believe and teach about Baptism. Here at Christ the King, we teach that Baptism is God’s work where He forgives sins (Act. 2:38), joins us to Jesus’ death and resurrection (Ro. 6:3-11), gives us the new birth (Jn. 3:5), and saves us (1 Pet. 3:21). Many Christians (and please note that I am calling them ‘Christians’) who attend other churches do not believe that is what the Bible teaches about Baptism. They will say that Baptism is something a believer does for God as an outward expression of an inward change.

The Bible does not teach both of those things. Those two doctrines cannot both be true. One is right, and the other is wrong. And it would be wrong and even sinful for either us or other Christians who believe differently to say, “Well, it doesn’t really matter what we believe about Baptism.” It does matter. What we believe about Baptism matters because Scriptures teach us about Baptism. And Jesus tells Christians to keep and observe all that He has said to us in and through the Scriptures (Mt. 28:20). Just a few verses after our text, Paul tells us to “not be tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). God wants us to be rooted and grounded so that we rightly handle His Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

Christians want to stay true to what the Scriptures teach. The only way we can stay true to what the Scriptures teach is to continue to grow in our knowledge of the Scriptures. That is why it is important for you, Christian, to keep learning and diving into the Scriptures that are inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16). So, dear saints, be in the Scriptures. Read and meditate on them daily. Come to Bible study and Sunday School to continue being equipped by and through God’s Word. The best way to maintain and strengthen the horizontal unity between Christians is to be grounded in the Bible.

This brings us back around to the differences between Christian church bodies: The silver lining in the doctrinal differences that exist between the various denominations is that we are all trying to be true to what the Bible teaches. In other words, we are taking what Jesus teaches in the Bible seriously. We take it seriously enough that we recognize when those differences exist and when we are not united in doctrine. We don’t rejoice in that horizontal disunity, but we love each other enough to be honest about it because what the Bible teaches is important. That is why we – with humility, gentleness, and patience – point those who believe differently than we do to what Jesus has said. We don’t pridefully lambast them saying, “You aren’t a Christian if you don’t believe just like I do.” No!

Instead, we do what our text calls us to do. We work to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We can’t maintain or keep the unity of the Spirit unless that unity already exists, and it does. The unity of the one holy Christian Church is a gift given by God Himself through faith in Christ.

The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, the oneness that God has given all Christians, is a precious thing. We hold on to this unity as we hold onto Christ and His Word in humility. Jesus was glorified after He humbled Himself by being obedient to His death on the cross (Php. 2:8). That act of humiliation was rewarded by God the Father. And because of Christ’s obedience, the entire Christian Church is washed clean of sin. Christ’s humiliation is the glory of every Christian. So, let us imitate His humility by bearing with our brothers and sisters in Christ in love and forgiving as we have been forgiven. And we rejoice in God’s promise that we are now, right now, united in Him and are one with all our fellow Christians in a unity that is real whether or not we see of feel it.

And we patiently await the day when Christ will return and bring His one holy Christian and apostolic Church to live forever with Him as one. Amen.

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

Conquered – Sermon on Luke 10:17-20 & Revelation 12:7-12 for the observation of the feast of St. Michael & All Angels

Oct2

Luke 10:17-20

¹⁷ The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” ¹⁸ And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. ²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today, we consider the work of God through His holy angels. Some people have thoughts about angels that are more superstitious than biblical. And I have to admit that because there is so much false teaching and beliefs about angels that I tend to not preach or teach about them very much. So, let’s dive right in and consider what the Scriptures do teach about the angels. Please know that as I do this, I’ll be throwing out a lot of references; however, I won’t be giving you every reference that supports what I’m preaching. If you are interested in studying the Scriptures further about this, please ask me after the service, and I can print this sermon which has all the references.

Both the Hebrew (מַלְאָךְ) and Greek (ἄγγελος) words for “angel” mean “messenger.” Angels are spiritual beings with no physical bodies who were created during the first six days of creation. We know this because before the six days of creation there was only God (Jn. 1:1-3), and after the sixth day, God rested from all His work of creating. We can narrow the creation of angels down to one the first three days because in Job 38:4-7, God asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? … Who determined its measurements? … On what were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone?” There, God seems to be talking about the third day of creation when He created the land and sea. God says that as He created the land and sea, “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” The singing of the morning stars and shouting of the sons of God were the angels because that is the same title they are given in Job 1:6.

We know that God created a huge number of angels. Heb. 12:22 says they are innumerable. The angels were all created good and holy by God (Gen. 1:31). Because they are holy, this day is called the feast of “St. Michael” and all angels. We don’t typically call angels saints, but remember that ‘saint’ simply means ‘holy one.’ The angels were created holy, and they retained their holiness. But here’s the thing: You are holy in a different and greater way. You, Christian, are holy because you have received Jesus’ holiness (is. 53:11; Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:22). Angels are holy, but not all angels remained holy. At some point before the devil tempted Adam and Eve, Satan led a significant percentage of the angels in rebellion against God and they fell. Those fallen angels, we now call demons. More on that later, but from here on, know that if I use the term ‘demons’ I am simply referring to fallen angels.

Scripture teaches that angels were present at the giving of the Ten Commandments (Dt. 33:2; Gal. 3:19). They were sent to proclaim the conception (Lk. 1:26), birth (Lk. 2:11), and resurrection of Christ (Lk. 24:5-7). In fact, angels remain at the empty tomb even after Jesus left.

There are different orders and classes of angels – Cherubim (Gen. 3:24; Ps. 80:1), Seraphim (Is. 6:2), archangels (1 Th. 4:16) are some of those. There are also greater and lesser demons (Lk. 11:15, 18-19), but Scripture doesn’t give names for them.

Even though angels are spirits, they can move and manipulate material things. They are able to take Lot and his family by the hand to get them out of Sodom before God destroyed it (Gen. 19:16). An angel would touch a pool in Jerusalem, and when people saw that the water was stirred, they would jump in to be healed (Jn. 5:4, 7). So, it may very well be that when you or someone you love has a close call that God’s angels have protected you from danger. Many Christians have stories about being helped in a particular situation by someone who suddenly appeared and wasn’t seen again. It could very well be that God sent an angel to help and defend in that moment. Also, there are times when Christians have helped someone who was in trouble, and they have a sense that something was strange or different about that encounter. It may be that an angel appeared to give an opportunity to the Christian to serve in a particular way. Heb. 13:2 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Scripture teaches that angels have power, might, and strength (Ps. 103:20; 2 Th. 1:7) which is greater than ours, and they use their strength to guard and protect us from things that would overpower us (Ps. 91:11-13). Demons are also strong. Scripture says that the devil holds unbelievers securely captive in his kingdom (Lk. 11:21-22), and believers can only withstand the attacks of Satan in the power of God (Eph. 6:10-17).

The angels’ work is to sing praises to God (Is. 6:3; Lk. 2:13) and to fight on our behalf (Ps. 104:4; Heb. 1:14); in other words, their tools are the song and the sword. A fantastic text about angels fighting on behalf of God’s people is found in 2 Kgs. 6:8-23 where Elisha and his servant get surrounded by the army of Syria during the night. Elisha’s servant is scared silly about being surrounded by this army. But Elisha says to him, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then, God opens the eyes of Elisha’s servant so that he can see a whole host of angels with horses and chariots of fire on the mountain near them, and those angels deliver them. In that account, we see the truth of what is said in Ps. 34:7, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.”

Hebrews 1:14 says that the angels are “sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.” So, the angels serve you, believer, as you live out your vocations (Ps. 91:11-12), and they are present with you even as you are dying to carry your soul to heaven (Lk. 16:22). In fact, each believer has an angel (see Act. 12:15) or a whole squad of angels for protection. In Mt. 18:10, Jesus says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones,” and I would argue Jesus is referring to all Christians, “For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” I hope this is a humbling and encouraging thought.

The angels who guard, protect, and serve you always behold God’s face in heaven. You can’t see God’s face, but the angels who are guarding you can because they have retained their holiness since their creation. Also, this should give you an indication of how valuable you are to God. If you see someone walking around with bunch of large, armed, and intimidating bodyguards around them, what is your impression of that person? It would get your attention. You probably wonder what sort of person that is. Well, the Creator and King of the universe has given you a squad of mighty, powerful angels to protect you.

Even though angels have might and power and help us, we should not pray to angels. Every time in Scripture that someone begins to worship an angel, the angel protests and directs worship to God (esp. Rev. 22:8-9). We can certainly pray that God would send His angels to protect us, but don’t pray to them. Also, we shouldn’t listen to angels unless they are pointing us to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul says this in Gal. 1:8, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”

Finally, and maybe most importantly, we should realize that angels are present with us right here and now as we are gathered in worship. Hebrews 12:22-24 says that in church we have “come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering…” Jesus says that the angels in heaven are joyful over one sinner who repents (Lk. 15:7, 10). As we confessed our sins earlier, a whole host of angels whom we cannot see or hear rejoiced as they heard Christ absolve and free us from our sins. Hebrews 1:14 calls angels ‘liturgizing’ spirits (most English translations will use the term ‘ministering’ but the Greek word there is λειτουργικός). So, using the liturgy is how we join our worship with the angels’ worship in heaven.

So, there is a quick overview of the Scriptural teaching of angels. Now, to what we learned specifically in our readings today.

A little context for Gospel lesson (Lk. 10:17-20) today helps. Jesus had sent these seventy-two ahead of Him to preach and heal in every town Jesus was about to go to (see Lk. 10:1-12). As He sends them, Jesus says, “Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” Jesus says that they would be housed and fed by the people who welcomed them, and Jesus told them to heal the sick and say to the people, “The reign of God has come near to you.”

Now in our text, they are returning, and we hear them joyfully report that the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name. They saw victories in their various spiritual battles. But Jesus says something even greater was going on that they couldn’t see. While those seventy-two were proclaiming the reign of Jesus, Christ says, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” So, the seventy-two saw victories in battles they fought, but there was a greater defeat, a bigger conquering taking place. And we hear about that in our Epistle text (Rev. 12:7-12) where the archangel Michael was given the privilege of throwing Satan (‘Satan,’ by the way, means ‘accuser’) out of heaven. How was Satan cast down and conquered? The text is clear. Satan was cast out by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony (Rev. 12:11).

Now, there are Christians who disagree with what I am about to say here, but I think we should see Jesus’ proclamation of seeing Satan falling like lightening and this text in Rev. 12:7-12 as the same event and as confirmation that the shedding of Christ’s blood and the preaching of the Gospel was what cast Satan down from heaven. This means that Satan is no longer able to accuse you before God which is what he was constantly doing day and night (Rev. 12:10). Remember how, in the book of Job, Satan was there in heaven before God by saying that the only reason Job loved God was because God was nice to him (Job 1:8-11, 2:1-5). But now, Satan has been conquered, defeated, and expelled from heaven.

However, there is also a warning at the end of that Revelation text. Satan is no longer able to accuse you before God because he has been defeated and expelled from God’s presence, but that doesn’t mean he is done accusing. The devil can’t accuse you before God anymore, but he can and does try to accuse you in your conscience, and he is very good at that. Satan will come to you here on earth and say that your sins are too many or too great to be forgiven. The accuser now roams about like a roaring lion seeking to devour you (1 Pet. 5:8), constantly whispering in your ear, “Did God really say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’?”

Dear saints, when the devil does this, he needs to be expelled from your conscience. How can you do this? How can you conquer the devil as he attacks you now? You conquer with the same weapons that Michael and the angels used – the blood of the Lamb, and the word of your testimony (Rev. 12:11).

Dear saints, when you confess your faith that Christ has been crucified and shed His blood for you, you expel Satan from your conscience and conquer over him. When the devil whispers his accusations, confess that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29) and has conquered the devil. Tell Satan, “Christ has taken my sins. So, if you want to talk to someone about my sins, you can’t talk to me about them anymore. Jesus has taken them as His own. Christ owns them now. He has died and shed His blood for them.” And the devil will have no reply to that testimony and is conquered.

So today, dear saints, come to Jesus’ table. Come as you join with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven singing the song of Jesus’ victory. Come, receive His body given for you and His blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. And know. Know that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord (Ro. 8:38-39). Satan has been conquered. He has been conquered by the blood of your Savior. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.^[1]

^[1] This sermon was reworked from 2019.

The Line – Sermon on Matthew 6:24-34 for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sep25

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴ “No one can 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.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The things Jesus tells us to not be worried about in this text are, typically, not the things that we are actually worried about. The last time you didn’t have a meal was probably because you chose not to eat, either you are on a diet, you chose to do something other than eat, or you didn’t like the food you had on hand. You probably aren’t worried about clothing either. Your dressers and closets are likely full of clothes. Even if they are last year’s styles, they would still do what clothes are meant to do. Yes, clothes wear out, but in a pinch you could stitch together something to keep you warm and covered. You have food and clothing. And here Jesus promises that He will give you everything you need for this life as long as He wants to keep you in this life. And Jesus wants you to trust that He will do this.

That is why Jesus harps on all of us for our worry over and over in this text. Even though we don’t typically worry about food, drink, and clothing, we certainly do worry about other things. The economy. Gas prices. Inflation. Cancer. Heart disease. The upheaval and unrest in our country and throughout the world. Those things and things like it are the things we worry about, and we try to excuse our worry about those things. But today, Jesus says, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles,” in other words, the pagans and unbelievers, “the Gentiles seek after all these things.” According to Jesus here, one of the marks of the unbeliever is worry. Yet, you and I still worry. This text gives us all ample reasons to repent.

Notice how Jesus draws a line in the last verse. After telling us not to worry about food, drink, or clothing or anything else we need for this life, Jesus adds, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Last week, we considered how thankfulness looks back to the good gifts of God in the past. Well, worry does the opposite. Worry looks at the unknown, bad things in the future and has a wrong belief that we have to face that future alone. Tomorrow is clouded in the unknown, but tomorrow is also clothed with the promises of God to be with us, to never leave or forsake us, to provide all that we need, and to protect us with His power and might. God will care for us. Now, that doesn’t mean that we get to be lazy or idle. But too often we sinfully think that worry is the work we need to do to face the troubles of tomorrow.

That is why Jesus draws this line for us. The things that God sets before us today are the things that should have our attention. We are to do everything God gives us to do to confront and combat those evils and troubles that we face each day. Jesus wants us to go about our business and exert our efforts while God promises to give us the strength we need for every moment of today. But when Jesus says, “Do not worry about tomorrow,” He draws a line at the end of today. Anything past that line, we are to leave in His gracious hands.

With all of Jesus’ talk about not worrying, we can fall off the other side of the horse and become sinfully passive and idle. We might be tempted to think we don’t ever have to work or do anything to combat the evils we face and think God will just take care of everything as we can just back and do nothing. Well, that isn’t right either. For example, it is a sin to pray for a hole when God has given you a shovel. God uses you as His hands and feet to combat the evils of the day, and He promises to give you the strength you need as you face those evils. And since each day has enough evil of its own, don’t let tomorrow’s evil distract you with worry from what God has given you to face today. Jesus promises that He will give you everything you need to meet the evil, ugly troubles of today. And, if He gives you another day tomorrow, He will do it again.

Our Old Testament lesson (1 Kgs. 17:8-16) is a great example of God giving what is needed to face the troubles of today. In Elijah’s days, things were bad. God’s own people had given up the faith and were worshipping Baal, the false god of fertility. So many had abandoned the faith that Elijah worries that he was the only believer left (1 Kgs. 19:10). God had sent a drought to punish Israel, but God told Elijah to live by the brook Cherith promising, “I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kgs. 17:4). We don’t know exactly how long Elijah lived by that stream with the crows waiting on him, but as the drought went on, the brook dried out, and that is where our text picks up. God tells Elijah to go the city of Zarephath because, “I have commanded a widow there to feed you” (1 Kgs. 17:9).

For however long he lived at Cherith, Elijah had become accustomed to the ravens flying to him and providing his food because God had commanded them to feed him. Now, Elijah gets to Zarephath, but this widow isn’t like the crows who just delivered his food to him. She doesn’t come up to him and say, “There you are. Diner is at my place. God commanded me to feed you.” Not even close! Elijah watches this widow picking up a couple of sticks, asks her for a drink of water, and as the woman heads off to get it Elijah adds a bite of bread to his order. The widow doesn’t say, “No way! I can’t give you anything.” Instead, her response is, basically, “I’ve only got enough ingredients for my son and I to have a bite. I’m grabbing these sticks so we can bake it, eat, and die.” But Elijah gives her a promise from God that the flour and oil will not run out until God would send rain and provide relief from the drought (1 Kgs. 17:14, 16). For the entire three and a half years of the drought, God gave Elijah what he needed to face the evil of each of those days. Dear saints, God will provide all you need for this life until He calls you out of this veil of tears. So don’t worry.

Some of you have watched the pain that a family endures while their child is being treated for cancer. Some of you have gone through this, but for those of you who haven’t, you might think, “I could never handle that the way they handled that. I don’t have the strength.” You were right. You don’t have the strength to handle that because God hasn’t called you to face that – at least not yet. But here’s the thing. When Jesus says, “Do not worry about tomorrow,” Jesus is saying that He doesn’t want you to worry about that diagnosis coming tomorrow because it distracts you from meeting the troubles that God has called you to face today. If the day comes when God calls you to meet that evil (or any other evil), Jesus promises to give you the strength to meet that evil each and every day it is yours to endure.

You see, when you get to the end of the day and are completely worn out, remember, God designed your tank to be empty at the end of the day. So, go to sleep in peace (Ps. 4:8). And when you wake up again, be ready to face the trouble that comes your way that day because God will give you His strength to meet it then.

Dear saints, work and strive and face the evil, troubling that are before you. But draw a line at the end of the day, and don’t worry about anything past that line since you can’t do anything about it anyway. God promises that He will give you the strength to meet the evil things that come your way each and every day of your life, and He is faithful.

Above all, remember what Christ has done by taking on our flesh. Jesus Himself got hungry and thirsty and tired and hot and cold, so He knows the struggles you face. Christ endured it all without a shred of worry because He trusted that God the Father would provide the strength He needed to endure it. Even as He went to the cross, carrying all your sin of doubt and anxiety, Christ entrusted Himself to God (1 Pet. 2:23), and there on the cross Jesus provided what you needed most – His forgiving blood shed for you. On the cross, Christ overcame and defeated all the evils of every day that you face and has now opened the kingdom of heaven to you.

This means that you can face the evils of each day of your life knowing that God will give you the strength to meet those evils, and you don’t need to help Him with your worry. Without fail, Christ will give you everything you need until the day He calls you into His gracious presence. Amen.

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

The Worship of Turning Back – Sermon on Luke 17:11-19 for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sep18

Luke 17:11-19

¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem [Jesus] was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³ and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” ¹⁴ When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In my opinion, this is the third weirdest miracle Jesus does. If you want to know which two top it, you’ll have to ask me after the service.^[1] This miracle is weird because of how Jesus heals with a hidden promise, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” In saying this, Jesus instructs the lepers to do what the Law required after being cleansed from leprosy (Lev. 14:2-32), but when Christ tells them to do that, they are still leprous.

I don’t know what it is with this text, but I have a lot of questions about it. Maybe I have these questions because Jesus Himself asks a lot of questions in it. One of my questions is when the ten lepers ask Jesus to have mercy on them, what exactly are they asking for? They have the obvious need of being healed from their leprosy, and Jesus had healed lepers before (Lk. 5:12-16). So, maybe they knew Jesus could cure their disease and wanted Him to do that. It could be that the lepers were asking for something different than healing. Maybe they wanted food or some other form of charity.

Another question I have is why does Jesus heal the lepers this way? Back in Luke 5, a leper came to Jesus saying, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” And Jesus says, “I am willing; be clean,” then Jesus says, “Go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” Why wouldn’t Jesus do that again? Why not say, “Sure I’ll give you mercy. Be cleansed and go, show yourselves to the priest”? Why does He skip the first part?

Another question I have is how far did the ten go before they were cleansed? Was it after they walked for a couple hours, or was it ten or fifteen minutes and after they got outside the village? Or, possibly, was it as soon as they pivoted away from Jesus and toward Jerusalem? It’s unclear in English, but the Greek verbs can legitimately be interpreted to suggest that it happened more or less immediately. Jesus’ question, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” could be a direct rebuke of the unthankfulness of the nine that they heard with their own ears. Something along the lines of, “Hey, are you nine going to ignore what I have just done for you?”

Now, we don’t know if the lepers were healed immediately or not. And we don’t know for sure what happened to the nine. Maybe they went to the Temple, were declared clean by the priest, offered the sacrifices, and went back to normal life. I’m sure the nine lepers were grateful for their restored skin and the fact they were able to be regular members of society again. But they were not thankful.

Whatever happened to them, it is a reminder of what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, that God “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Mt. 5:45). God is good to all mankind. Anyone can be grateful for a sunny day or a rain shower that provides what we need to eat. Unbelievers can be grateful for all the blessings God gives through creation, but they can’t be thankful because they don’t know whom to thank. Only believers can be thankful to the God who gives good gifts.

There is a difference between being grateful and being thankful, between gratitude and thanksgiving. The two are, certainly, related. But to use a distinction by a pastor friend of mine,^[2] gratitude looks at the goodness of the gift while thankfulness looks back behind the gift to the goodness of the giver. Let me give an example:

My first year of Bible College, I was on a choir that went on a tour in Eastern Europe. One church that hosted us was in the Czech Republic, and the church ladies prepared a meal for the entire choir and the chaperones (around 40 people). For them, this was a monumental task and huge cost. We all sat down at the tables as we waited for the ladies to serve us, and out they came with plates loaded with steamed sauerkraut and dumplings. That was the meal. Now, don’t get me wrong. I like sauerkraut, but I like it as a side – not the main dish. But we could tell that those ladies were proud of the meal they had set before us. So, we all did our best to eat as much as possible. Some, of course, ate more than others. I don’t think anyone was grateful for a meal of sauerkraut, but everyone, even those who only choked down a few bites, was thankful to the ladies. After our concert that night, I went to my host family and had a massive spread of food put before me that included several different baked goodies, sliced meat and cheese, fruit, and vegetables. There was more than I could eat. There, I was both grateful and thankful for the food. But, in both instances, those who served the food were good and generous and deserved thanks.

Back to the healed Samaritan leper. I’m sure he was grateful for the healing, but only he was thankful to Jesus, the Giver of the healing. Notice, he “turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks” (Lk. 17:15-16). Now, there is something important here. There are some pagans who say Jesus never claimed to be God. It’s complete nonsense and ignores the totality of Jesus’ sayings and what the Scriptures teach.^[3] But look at what Jesus says while this Samaritan is worshipping at His feet, “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Right there, Jesus is identifying Himself as God. Dear saints, God has feet – human feet that were pierced for you.

Yes, this text is about thankfulness, but more broadly, this text is about the worship of thanks. Worship is always about turning back. Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” So, one act of worship is repentance. Repentance is nothing more than turning back, turning back from a life filled with sin and the consequences of sin and turning toward God. Another act of worship is thankfulness. Thankfulness is receiving God’s gifts and not just going on to the next thing but turning back to give thanks to the God who gave the gift.

To be thankful, this healed Samaritan leper has to literally turn back to Jesus. And it is the same for us. To offer God the worship of thanksgiving is to first receive God’s gifts and turn back in thanks. Now, I’m using this sermon to prepare us for what we will hear Jesus say in next week’s Gospel lesson (Mt. 6:24-34) about worry and anxiety. This text puts us in the right orientation to hear what Jesus has to say about the future and worry. We can face the unknown future with confidence when we first look back and give God the worship of thanks. You can’t thank God for things in the future because God hasn’t given them yet. Yes, we can look to the future with hope, but even that hope comes through faith, and faith is another form of worship that requires looking back to the promises God has already given us. With those promises in our pocket, we can face the future without fear. Worry and anxiety come by looking at the unknown, bad things in the future. The worship of thankfulness turns back to God who has been faithful to us in the past and given us good things.

Dear saints, you have a giving God. God’s love language is gift-giving. So, the best way to worship a giving God is to come back and receive more of His gifts like this Samaritan does. He receives healing from Jesus, comes back, and receives salvation. The last words of Jesus in this text are literally, “Your faith has saved you.” God is like a grandma. You know how grandma invites you over for a huge meal and stuffs you full of her excellent cooking. The best way to praise and thank your grandma after such a meal is not to help with the dishes. No, the best way to praise grandma is to take another helping of her special green-bean casserole.

Dear saints, God gives you every good thing. He has given you a new day to live and receive His gifts of parents, children, siblings, friends, food, clothing, house, etc. And here, in God’s house, you have received God’s gifts of forgiveness, absolution, His Word, faith, eternal life, and fellowship with your blood-bought brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus has won all of this for you through His death and resurrection and freely gives it all to you. And He has more for you.

We will continue to worship. We worship our Savior by receiving all these gifts He has already given and we will turn back to fall at the feet of our crucified and risen Savior. And Jesus raises up from His feet to sit at His table where He continues to give us more gifts. The gift of His life-giving Body and Blood in His Supper. Amen.

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

^[1] The two stranger miracles are the healing of the deaf and mute man in Mk. 7:31-37 and the two-part healing of the blind man in Mk. 8:22-26

^[2] Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller.

^[3] Many of Jesus’ own statements are clear about Him being the Son of God, but those statements can only be understood in light of the Old Testament.

Pastorsamwise

"Don't the great tales never end?"

The Door – Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

Living Forgiveness – Sermon on Matthew 18:21-35 for the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity

Blessed, Now and Forever – Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12 for All Saints’ Day (Observed)

Salvation unto Us Has Come – Sermon for Reformation Sunday (Observed) 2022

Diagnosed – Sermon on Matthew 9:1-8 for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

To Your God Belongs All – Sermon on Deuteronomy 10:12-21 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

One – Sermon on Ephesians 4:1-6 for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Conquered – Sermon on Luke 10:17-20 & Revelation 12:7-12 for the observation of the feast of St. Michael & All Angels

The Line – Sermon on Matthew 6:24-34 for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Worship of Turning Back – Sermon on Luke 17:11-19 for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity