Depend – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Matthew 22:34–46

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?

⁴⁵ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This Gospel reading takes place on Holy Tuesday. In other words, it is just a few days before Jesus will be crucified, and what we heard is Jesus’ last public teaching until He preaches the seven last words from the cross. The Pharisees and Sadducees are asking our Lord three questions to try to entangle Him in His words (Mt. 22:15). They want Jesus to say something they can use against Him and kill Him. The first two questions they asked were about paying taxes and the resurrection. But Jesus answers both questions so skillfully that they can’t find a way to accuse Him.

Our text begins with their third and final trick question that comes from a sleezy lawyer. “Teacher, what is the great commandment in the Law?” It seems as though the intent of this question is to get Jesus to put one of the Commandments above the others, and when He does that, they will say that He teaches that the other nine aren’t as important. But they end up looking like fools. It was Jesus’ finger that carved those words into the stone tablets and His voice that spoke them on Mt. Sinai. Jesus is the Author of the Commandments, and they are all important.

So, Jesus answers the question, “The great Commandment is this: love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “All the Commandments matter. All of them are the greatest. They all demand that you love God and love your neighbor. All the Commandments depend on these two.” Jesus is clear here, and Scripture is clear elsewhere that what the Commandments require of us is to love. Love is the fulfilling of the Law (Ro. 13:10b). In every situation, you are to love God and love your neighbor. And it is important to spend some time on this because there is a lot of unnecessary confusion about what love looks like. A pastor friend of mine (Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller) put together a list that helps to define and shape what love looks like. And this list is biblical and, I think, very helpful.

First, love is shaped by the Ten Commandments. Love does not mean that there are no other Commandments. No, the Commandments define what love is. Love depends on the Commandments. If you are fornicating and committing adultery, you cannot presume to say that it’s ok because, “We love each other.” Adultery is always unloving.

Second, love is shaped by our vocation or our station in life. Everyone has several vocations, so I’ll use myself as an example here. Some of my vocations are husband, father, pastor, a child of my parents, a friend, etc. In each of those vocations, I am called to love. But what that love looks like depends on those different vocations. For example, part of my love as a father includes providing for my family. So, I earn a living so my wife can go and buy socks for our kids. As a pastor, my love looks different. It looks like faithfully preaching and teaching God’s Word to you, the flock that God has entrusted into my care. My vocation as a pastor does not require me to buy socks for all of you. Pastors are not called to provide socks for their congregations. But that, then, leads us to the third thing that shapes our love.

Our love is also shaped by the needs of our neighbor. If one of you, who aren’t part of my family, needs socks and can’t get them for yourself, my love for you would be to give you socks. Even if the only reason I know you and your need socks is that I’m your pastor, I’m not giving you socks because I’m your pastor. I’m giving you socks because I am your brother in Christ. And if I needed socks, I would want one of you to give me socks if you have the means and resources to provide them. In that instance, I’m loving you as I would love myself. (I think this is the most I’ve ever used the word ‘socks’ in a sermon, but I’m done now.)

That leads us to the fourth thing that shapes our love which is the gifts God has given us. God gives us stuff, skills, and talents so we can use them to love and serve our neighbor. If God has made you successful and given you a lot of money, use those resources to love your neighbor. If God has given you the talent of being good at cooking, you love your neighbor by cooking. If God has given you good mind for math, you can love your neighbor as an engineer or an accountant. The beautiful thing about this one is that the gifts God gives you can help you love your neighbor across different vocations. A person who is good at math can be a good accountant. He can earn a good living and provide for his family and, at the same time, love and serve his clients who need someone to keep their books.

Just briefly here, our neighbor’s need might mean that we have to love our neighbor in a way that we aren’t gifted. Imagine a meteor hit the church during this service. We don’t have an ER doctor here, but we do have an optometrist, a medical student, nurses, and EMTs who are gifted in knowing how the body works and how to heal. They should be the ones who go to the people who are most injured and help them. And if more people are injured, those of us who aren’t gifted in that way are called to do the best we can even though that kind of love is usually reserved for doctors and nurses. Our neighbor’s need trumps how we are gifted. Especially in an emergency, we love and serve others based on their needs rather than our love depending on our gifts. And when the ambulances get here, we who don’t know as much about first aid should step aside and let the professionals use their gifts to serve the people in need.

So, the first four things that shape our love are: 1) the Ten Commandments; 2) our vocation; 3) our neighbor’s need; and 4) our gifts. All of that is fairly obvious and reasonable. But there is another thing that shapes our love, and this last one is one that our culture fights against (for several reasons). But this one is also important to consider. The fifth thing that shapes our love is our neighbor’s sin, and this is where things can get tricky and difficult. But this is also where Jesus’ summary of the Ten Commandments – love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself – is helpful. And God gives you wisdom to help navigate this.

Imagine you know someone who is addicted to fentanyl, your calling is still crystal clear: you are called to love that person. But now what is that love going to look like? Is it loving to just step aside and let them keep killing themselves by using that fentanyl? No, it isn’t. Their sin against themselves might even mean that you need to break one of the Commandments in order to love them. You might need to steal their fentanyl even though stealing is sin and a violation against the 7^th Commandment.

Now, please recognize that the Ten Commandments are still the primary thing that shapes and defines our love. But because of your neighbor’s sin, you break the 7^th Commandment about stealing in order for you to keep the 5^th Commandment which calls you to do your neighbor no bodily harm, but help and defend him in every need. This is why knowing the Commandments is so important. And, again, your vocation still plays into this too. You aren’t called to travel to San Francisco, Seattle, or Portland and steal fentanyl from all the addicts in those places.

Our neighbor’s sin can hinder the ways we love them. Parents, when your children are breaking the 4^thCommandment and not obeying you, your love for them looks like disciplining them; it isn’t what you want to do, but you are called to do it (Pro. 22:15; 23:13; Heb. 12:11). If you have abusive parents, you are still called to keep the 4^th Commandment and honor them, but their sin could mean you have to disobey them if they demand you do something contrary to God’s Word. If your cousin, Stacy, is getting married, your love normally looks like going to her wedding and celebrating with her. But if she is breaking the 6^th Commandment by trying to be married to another woman, your love for her means not going to the wedding because that would embolden her in her sin against the 6^th Commandment. Yes, this is hard and difficult. Yes, this is uncomfortable. Yes, it is even confusing. You are always called to love, but sin can put constraints on love.

And that brings us to the second part of our text which is the question Jesus asks the people who are trying to trip Him up. Jesus turns the discussion to the identity of the Messiah. The Savior is David’s Ancestor and also David’s Lord. The way this is possible is that Jesus is the fully Divine, eternal Son of God and fully human. Christ is God and Man.

Your Savior’s love for you was fully shaped by the Ten Commandments, which Jesus kept perfectly. His vocation was to be the Messiah and shed His blood and bear the punishment for the sins of all humanity because that was our need. He was gifted with everything necessary to be the Savior. And He navigated our sin in such a way that He perfectly loved God by loving us and bearing our sin to the cross. Now, He is risen and lives and reigns on the throne of all creation for eternity.

Your eternal life totally depends upon what Jesus, the Son of God and Son of David, has done. God be praised that He has done all things well (Mk. 7:37). Amen.

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

Confidence – Sermon on Esther 4:7-16 for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Oct1

Esther 4:7–16

⁷ And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸ Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. ⁹ And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, ¹¹ “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”

¹² And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. ¹³ Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” ¹⁵ Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

Esther 4:7-16

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In our Gospel lesson (Lk. 14:1-11), Jesus warns about taking a place of honor at a banquet because someone more distinguished might come and you’ll get relegated and downgraded to the kids’ table. Well, Esther is facing a much more dire situation. Even though she is the queen, if she puts herself in front of the king without him extending his golden scepter, she could face immediate execution. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it is good to recap what has happened up to this point in the story of Esther.

A man named Mordecai grew up in Jerusalem, but when the Babylonian armies came and destroyed his city, he was taken into captivity and now lives in Susa (Est. 2:5-6). Mordecai had taken it upon himself to raise his cousin, Esther, who had been orphaned (Est. 2:7). We aren’t sure how her parents had died, but it is likely they died when Jerusalem fell. Mordecai was a Christian man. He had the Bible, read it, and trusted the promises God made in it. The main promise that Mordecai trusted and believed was that God would send a Messiah who would save His people from their sin by sacrificing Himself.

Esther grew up to be very beautiful. She was chosen by King Ahasuerus (aka. King Xerxes) to be the queen in place of his former wife, Vashti who had disobeyed one of his commands. There’s a lot more to that story, but for our purposes today, it’s enough to know that Xerxes had no hesitation to toss aside even his own wife if she does something he doesn’t like (Est. 1).

Even though Esther had become the Queen, she wasn’t living in a ‘happily ever after’ situation. The reason for that brings us to the main villain in the story, who is a man named Haman. Haman was a prominent advisor and official – he was Xerxes’ right-hand man (Est. 3:1). Xerxes had commanded that all the servants at his gate must bow down to Haman when he walked by, but Mordecai, who was one of those servants, refused, and Haman didn’t like that one bit (Est. 3:2-5). So, Haman found out that Mordecai was a Jew, and he told Xerxes that all the Jews in the land despised Xerxes’ commands and laws. Haman offered a huge sum of money (Est. 3:9) to Xerxes if he would sign an order that every Jew living in the kingdom be killed on a certain day. Haman wanted to have Mordecai and all his people destroyed – a holocaust. And Xerxes agreed. He had the order sent throughout the kingdom, but when Xerxes signed the order, he didn’t know that Esther, his wife and Queen, was a Jew herself (Est. 2:20).

That brings us to our text. As soon as Mordecai learns about the plan, he sends a message to Queen Esther in the palace through this guy Hathach telling Esther, “You’ve got to do something about this.” And Esther responds to Mordecai, “Listen, if I go to the king without being called and summoned, I’m probably going to be killed. Xerxes hasn’t called me to come before him for a whole month.” In other words, “This is really risky. If I try your plan, Mordecai, I’ll be executed.”

Mordecai replies to Esther – and this is where I want to spend the rest of this sermon – saying, “Listen Esther, just because you live in the king’s palace don’t think that you are going to escape the fate of the rest of us Jews living out here.” Then in v. 14, Mordecai says, and this is so beautiful, “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.”

Did you catch what Mordecai is saying there? Remember, Mordecai is a Christian. He has confidence and faith in God’s promise. He says, “If you don’t do this, we’re all going to die. But even if we die now, relief and deliverance will rise for us. I have no idea where it might come from, but God has promised. He will deliver. He will send the Messiah someway, somehow.” Mordecai knew his Bible. He knew God would send the Savior, the promised offspring of David and Abraham. Mordecai is completely certain that God will come through on that promise. His faith and confidence here is remarkable.

But note the change in Mordecai’s tone when he talks about the current situation with Esther. “Who knows whether or not you have been made the Queen for such a time as this.” I know that’s currently the famous line from Esther, but the whole thing is so important. Mordecai is not telling Esther, “Just go to Xerxes. God will keep you safe. Everything will be fine.” Mordecai doesn’t say that. He might wish he could say that, but he can’t say that because there is no promise in the Bible that Esther will be safe in this particular situation.

All Mordecai can say is, “Esther, know that God loves you. He is going to send the Savior. Yes, if you go and stand before the king, you might die. But I’m asking you to do it out of love for your people.” And this isn’t lost on Esther. She asks Mordecai to have everyone pray and fast for her. She will break the law; she’ll take the risk and go to the king. And she says, “If I perish, I perish.” In other words, even though she doesn’t know how all of this will all turn out, out of love for Mordecai and her people, she uses her sanctified reason and decides to take the risk and go to the king.

Dear saints, the Christian life is marked by two things – faith and love. Faith lays hold of God’s clear, certain promises and puts full and complete confidence in them, and God is pleased with that faith. Love ventures out into what is uncertain and, sometimes, risky to serve the neighbor, and God is pleased with that. God was pleased with Esther’s decision to take the risk, and God uses her action to deliver the Jews in a remarkable way. I’ll just encourage you to read the whole book of Esther to see how God uses Esther’s risk-taking to deliver her and her people.

Here’s the point: In this life, safety is an illusion, and it is an illusion that can become a horrible idol. Think of the Israelites in the wilderness. God had made clear promises to bring them into the land of Canaan, but when the twelve spies returned from checking out the land and ten of them told the people about the huge giants they would have to fight (Num. 13:25-14:4), what did the people do? Did they take the risk, or did they choose safety? They chose safety, and how did that go for them? Did they get safety? Sort of. Every day for the next forty years, God provided them with food, but they wandered. For forty years they walked around in the sand and dust while every one of the adults – except the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb, who had tried to remind the people of God’s promise – all the other adults died without a homeland. Forty years wasted with wandering and death.

Now, I say all of that stuff about safety being an idol, but this can be taken too far. For example, wear a seatbelt in a car. A seatbelt doesn’t guarantee your safety if you get in in an accident, but it is not a sin to wear a seatbelt. You aren’t worshiping that strap by wearing it, so it isn’t idolatry. And wearing a seat belt doesn’t keep or hinder you from loving your neighbor. In fact, God might use that seatbelt to help you love your neighbor in the future by protecting you so you can love your neighbor instead of being paralyzed. Basically, what I’m trying to get across with this sermon is that God wants you to quit being like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz and, instead, have courage and confidence. The point of the sermon is not to turn you into the scarecrow with no brain.

Dear saints, there are times when God calls you to step out in love for your neighbor, but that love is going to require you to take a risk. It might mean risking your perception of financial stability or your reputation or your comfort. Again, use your God-given brain, but more importantly, have the confidence to love your neighbor in a way that seems risky because God loves you. And He loves it when you step out in faith to love and serve your neighbor.

And this same God and King of all creation now invites you to come and have a seat at His table. He invites you, not by extending a golden scepter, but something far more precious. He extends to you His very Body and Blood. He gives you this meal to forgive you of all your sins, and He will use this meal to strengthen your trust and confidence in Him as you go from here to love and serve your neighbor. Amen.^[1]

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

Not used:

Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan. 3). They were in a situation where they had to make a choice between safety, which would come at the cost of bowing down to an idol. Or they could take a risk and not bow down but they will be thrown into the burning fiery furnace. They ended up placing their confidence in God saying to the king, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.” Notice, they have confidence in God’s ability to deliver from that particular threat, and they continue with even more confidence, “He will deliver us out of your hand.” But even if God doesn’t deliver them from the immediate threat of the furnace, they say, “We will not serve your gods or bow down to worship this idol you have set up” (Dan. 3:16-17).

^[1] This sermon was adapted from a sermon by Pr. Jared Melius.

Authority & Service – Sermon on John 13:1-15, 34-35 for Maundy Thursday

Apr7

John 13:1–15, 34-35

¹ Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ² During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴ rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”⁸ Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹² When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.^[1]

On Sunday, we heard the account of Jesus’ Passion from Mt. 26-27. With all the horrible things that happen to Jesus – the betrayal, the denial, the arrest, trial, beating, mocking, and crucifixion – it is hard to read and listen to. Again, don’t forget that Jesus endured all of that for you because He wanted to. For that joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame (Heb. 12:2). But even knowing that Jesus did it all for the joy of purchasing you, it can seem like everything and everyone in creation conspired against Jesus and that He was a helpless victim. But that is not the case. Jesus was in complete control of everything that happened.

When you consider everything that happens after Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, you can see that He is the one running the show.

Palm Sunday and the following Monday and Tuesday, the Gospels record how Jesus would enter Jerusalem to preach and teach in the Temple. On Tuesday, Judas conspired with the chief priests and put the thirty pieces of silver in his pocket (Mt. 26:14-16). None of the Gospels record Jesus entering Jerusalem on Wednesday of Holy Week. The reason for this was Jesus knew Judas was seeking to betray Him (Jn. 6:70-71). Going into Jerusalem would have given Judas an opportunity to get Jesus arrested too soon. This is also why it appeared as though Jesus didn’t to have a plan on where He and the disciples would celebrate the Passover. But that isn’t the case. His plan was to keep the plan secret. Jesus carefully and deliberately orchestrated everything so that Judas can’t betray Jesus until Jesus is ready.

On Thursday, Jesus sent only Peter and John to find a certain man and follow him to a house, and the owner of that house would show them the upper room where they would prepare the Passover meal (Lk. 22:7-13). So, when Jesus and the twelve disciples get to the upper room, only Jesus, Peter, and John knew where they would be that night. Judas doesn’t betray Jesus until Jesus dismisses him to do it which happens in some of the verses we didn’t read tonight (Jn. 13:21-30). Again, Jesus is in complete control. Even though the events of the Passion seem to be chaotic, Jesus is exercising His authority.

But look at how Jesus uses that authority. He uses it to serve the disciples by washing their feet. This washing was, in a sense, a parable acted out. By serving His disciples in this way, Jesus is showing how He wants them and us to serve and love one another.

Having someone was your feet was common in Jesus’ day. Anyone who was going to be a guest at a banquet would have their feet washed even if they had just bathed. The walk from one house to another would make a person’s feet dirty enough to need another washing. But the task of foot washing was always reserved for the lowest servants. It was normal for a disciple to do many different chores for the rabbi he was following, but foot washing was never one of them. But here, in a beautiful reversal, Jesus – the Rabbi, the Teacher sent from God, and, in fact, God in the flesh with all authority – humbles Himself to serve His disciples by doing the lowest task for them. This foot washing was an act of vulnerability and intimacy.

When Jesus washes their feet, Judas had not yet left to betray Jesus. Judas was still there. Our Lord washed Judas’ feet and served His betrayer in this way. Judas does not benefit from this, but Jesus still does it for him.

With this foot washing, Jesus gives us an example that teaches us a very important lesson: Love isn’t always easy or clean. Love can often be one-sided and unanswered. Just because you love someone and do selfless acts for them does not mean they will love you in return. Remember, you aren’t greater than Jesus. If His love was rejected and repaid with betrayal, yours will be too.

Yet, still Jesus would have you, His disciples, His Christians, love your enemies just as you have been loved by Him. Bear one another’s burdens. Forgive and serve one another. That is this new commandment, this new mandate, that Jesus gives.

But because you do and will fail in this mandate that Jesus gives, Maundy Thursday is more than Jesus giving a new commandment. It is the night that Jesus also mandates and gives you a meal. Tonight is the night in which Jesus was betrayed, and Judas isn’t the only culprit. Even the disciples who love Jesus fail Him, but He does not fail them. That is why Jesus gives the disciples more than a mandate. He also leaves them the enduring, continual gift and meal of His living Body and Blood.

The two Sacraments Jesus has given us are both precious and give salvation and forgiveness, but they are different. Baptism defines who we are as Christians. In Baptism, we are given God’s name (Mt. 28:19), we are begotten as His children (Jn. 3:3-8), and we are clothed in Christ (Gal 3:27). Baptism defines who we are.

And the Lord’s Supper is what we, the Baptized, do because it is what Jesus has given us to do. We are to eat and drink in remembrance of Jesus (1 Cor. 11:23-25) and whenever we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, according to Scripture, we proclaim His death until He comes (1 Cor. 11:26). In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus promises that we receive the forgiveness of sins. And most Christian thing you can do is receive Christ’s forgiveness.

When Jesus calls us to eat and drink in remembrance of Him, He doesn’t mean, “Do this while you think fondly about Me and what I did for you a long time ago.” Instead, this remembrance is about faith. Faith recalls and clings to what Jesus did and still does with this Bread and Cup. According to what Jesus says, this Bread is His Body which was broken upon the cross for you, and this Cup is His Blood which was shed for you. In faith, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper believing that all of this pertains to us and to our salvation.

Jesus’ death happened nearly 2,000 years ago on a cross outside Jerusalem, but the fruits of His redeeming death are given both before and after. Jesus gives His disciples His Body and Blood even before He makes the sacrifice. And He continues to give the same gifts in every congregation where two or three are gathered. His gift is not bound by time or place.

Both the mandate to love one another and the meal of the Lord’s Supper go together. They are faith and love in action. With the sacrifice of His Body and Blood, Jesus loved the disciples. And when He washed their feet, Christ showed them how to love each other as they place their trust in Him.

So, dear saints, follow Christ’s example and do as He has done to and for you (Jn. 13:15). Your Savior, who has all authority, came to serve you.

And know that when you come to this altar, to this table, you come as royal children of Christ the King and are serving the world. The world benefits from you receiving what Jesus gives in Holy Communion. This Sacrament drives back the forces of darkness because in this meal, Jesus’ death in the place of sinners is proclaimed (1 Cor. 11:26). Jesus puts His Body and Blood into you to crucify you to the world and the world to you (Gal. 6:14). As you receive this meal and do this in remembrance of Him, you celebrate His victory over sin, death, and the devil. Of course, you benefit from this, but so does your neighbor. As you are fed and strengthened in your faith, you will go back into the world knowing that God has forgiven you for the sake of Christ.

And when you fail to be the servant Jesus calls you to be, when you fail to love as you have been loved, run back to Jesus. He is always ready to give you another washing and another serving.

Dear saint, you are declared by Jesus to be clean. Your Lord and Savior is here to be your Servant and cleanse you again. Come and receive what He gives you for your cleaning, for your comfort, for your strengthening. Amen.The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

^[1] Reworked from 2021.

God-Shaped Love – Sermon on Luke 10:23-37 for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sep11

Luke 10:23-37

²³ Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴ For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

²⁵ And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” ²⁷ And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹ But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴ He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to teach the lawyer that he will never be saved by the Law and that he needs a Savior to have compassion on him and give him eternal life. The lawyer is the one who has been robbed, stripped, beaten, and left dead in the ditch. The Law, represented by the priest and Levite, passes by and can not and does not help him. With the parable Jesus is teaching that to be one who inherits eternal life, we must be rescued by an outsider whom we despised (Is. 53:3-4) and who owes us nothing. We sinners need a love and compassion that we could never repay from One who doesn’t even want to be repaid. This is the only way for this lawyer to be saved and the only way for any of us to inherit eternal life.

So, the parable of the Good Samaritan is about Jesus and what He does for sinners. Christ is the Good Samaritan who finds us dead in sin. He has compassion on us, comes to us, binds up our wounds, pours on oil and wine, lays us on His animal to bring us to the inn, and sets us up in an all-expenses paid room. That is the point of the parable. The parable is not telling sinners that they need to do good to everyone. The lawyer already knew that he needed to love everyone (Lk. 10:27). He knew the Law requires that he love God and neighbor perfectly. So, if you ever hear someone preaching or teaching that the purpose of this parable is to tell us to love everyone, know that you are hearing only a half-truth, and, often, half-truths are more dangerous than full lies.

Jesus is not calling us to be the Samaritan in order to be saved. Jesus is the Good Samaritan who saves us. Then, it is true that Jesus calls us to go and do likewise (Lk. 10:37). We are to be like Jesus. Christians are to be little Christs who have compassion on their neighbor because Jesus has had mercy upon us. Because we have been rescued by Christ, we have become inheritors of eternal life and children of God. This means Jesus’ call to, “Go and do likewise,” is an invitation for us to imitate Him because children are like their father.

So now, please know, I’m not going to be preaching on the main point of the parable for a bit here, but I am going to use the parable to show how we Christians, who have been saved and rescued from the ditch, are to love God by loving our neighbor.

Dear saints, we need God to shape our love, and He shapes our love by two things: First, by the Ten Commandments, and second, by our relationship to the neighbor that God puts in our life in at any given moment. Let’s flesh this out with an example:

God has called me here to be your pastor, so I have a love for you, my neighbors and members of my flock, that is shaped by the 3^rd Commandment. I am here to faithfully preach and teach God’s Word to you, and you have a love for me, your neighbor, that is shaped by the 3^rd Commandment to faithfully hear God’s Word as it is preached and taught. As a parent, I have a different love for my children that is shaped by 4^thCommandment, so I buy them socks. Well, how it actually works in our house is I work to earn the funds so my wife can purchase our kids’ socks because she’s a lot better at finding good deals on the socks my kids like. I have no idea which socks they like. Sometimes, my 4^th Commandment shaped love is to take those socks from the clothes drier and help my kids fold and organize them in their dresser. So, I have different vocations, different callings, and different kinds of love that are shaped by the Commandments and my relationship to my neighbor. And these vocations are what any reasonable person would expect. My love as a pastor is to preach and teach the Word of God to His flock, and as a parent, I provide and care for my kids.

Now, stick with me here while I get a little absurd. It would be wrong for me, as your pastor, to come here on a Sunday morning, stand in this pulpit, and say, “No sermon today, but here are some new socks. I’ll come to your house later and help you organize your dresser.” That would be weird, right? At least, I hope you think it would be weird because it is. You still are my neighbor, and I am still commanded to love you as I love myself. But my 4^th Commandment love for you is shaped differently than my 4^th Commandment love for my own kids. My 4^th Commandment love for you is shaped by my relationship to you. So, I am to encourage you to honor, serve, love, obey, and respect your parents and the authorities that God has placed over you. Now, this doesn’t mean that will never buy socks for you. God might change your needs so it would be good and right for me to buy you socks. But, hopefully, God won’t put you in a position like that. But if He does, let me know, and I’d be happy to buy you socks.

So, God shapes your love by the Ten Commandments, and God shapes your love based on the needs of your neighbor whom He places along your path. The English word ‘neighbor’ comes from the old word ‘nigh’ or modernized, ‘near.’ And it’s the same for Greek word used here. A neighbor one who is near to you. So, when God puts someone near to you, that is your neighbor. The priest and Levite in the parable come across the guy in the ditch and they both un-neighbor him by crossing by on the other side of the road. They refuse and reject the neighbor God has put in their life and refuse to care for his needs. They probably thought, “Everybody is my neighbor, so I’m going to go serve them.” That’s sinful. Your neighbor is the person that God puts in your life – whether you like it or not.

In our text the lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” and Luke tells us that the lawyer was asking this because he desired to justify himself. So, in the context, this was a bad question with wrong motives. But that question, “Who is my neighbor?” is typically a good question for us Christians to ask. It helps us identify our neighbor and see our neighbor’s needs so our love can be shaped by the Commandments. So, think back to the parable. The Samaritan would have passed by many different people on the road that day. He probably even met the Levite and the priest at some point in his journey, but the Samaritan didn’t put them up in an all-inclusive room because their needs didn’t dictate that he needed to.

In the parable, the Samaritan had his plans for the day. He was going somewhere with some purpose, but God put this robbed, stripped, beaten, half dead dude in his path and upended whatever those plans were. And the Samaritan stepped up in compassion and mercy to meet those needs realizing, “This is the guy that God has put in my path, so I am going to help and love him.”

So, please recognize that God shapes your love and gives you callings based on nearness. This is why God calls you to have more love for your family than for friends or for strangers. The closer people are to you, the more responsibility you have to them, the more opportunity you have to do good to them, the more opportunity you have to serve them. But we often turn aside and try to find excuses to not serve the one God has put near us. Instead, we prefer to choose our neighbor. In our technological society, the devil has ample tools to keep us from showing love to the neighbor that God puts in front of us to love and serve.

Dear saints, whomever God puts near you is the one that God has put in your life for you to serve. So, serve the one God has drawn nigh to you. Let God’s Commands and God’s placing of people in your life shape your love. As a spouse, parent, child, boss, employee, teacher, student, or friend, remember that God is the one who has given you those relationships and has brought that person near you. Love that one, and let that love be shaped by the Commandments and your relationship to that neighbor.

And quickly, this is an aside, but it’s something I thought about months ago and marked this text to preach on this: Many of you have experienced the loss of spouses, siblings, parents, and friends recently. When those who are near to you have died, you still have a God-shaped love for them. Even though they have passed from this world, they are still near to you. So, when they die, your God-shaped love takes a different form or shape, and that shape is grief. Jesus Himself wept when His friend, Lazarus, died (Jn. 11:35). Grief is the shape love takes when those God has brought close to you are gone. So, grieve, but grieve as those who have hope in the resurrection (1 Th. 4:13).

Now, all of that was secondary to the parable. I want to close by returning to the main point of the parable. Again, Jesus is the Good Samaritan who proved to be a neighbor to you. And, hopefully, this idea of loving the one who is near to you gives you a deeper understanding and appreciation of Christ’s compassion for you.

Jesus is God. And because He is God, you weren’t His neighbor, but He chose to become your neighbor. The eternal, infinite Son of God took on your flesh in order to be ‘nigh’ to you. Out of pure compassion, He saw you in the ditch, dead in sin (Eph. 2:1). He chose to become your neighbor and raise you from your deadness in sin.

His love for you took the shape of Him going to the cross. He was stripped, beaten, standing under the wrath of God that you deserved because of your sin, and dead. Dead and buried in a grave. Now, He is risen. And because He has done all of that, you are His child. And He will bring you to your inheritance which is eternal life with Him. He has promised. Amen.

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

Love in Deed & Truth – Sermon on 1 John 3:13-18 for Second Sunday after Trinity

Jun26

1 John 3:13-18

¹³ Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶ By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This world is broken. Infected with sin and death, all creation longs to be set free from its corruption and continual decline (Ro. 8:19-22). Everyone looks for an escape from this brokenness. Ever since humanity’s Fall into sin, there has only been one solution to sin, death, and evil, and that solution is found in God’s promise of mercy which He freely gives through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only One who can set us free from the chains of sin, death, and the devil. And yet, people try to offer alternatives.

In 1969, The Beatles offered their solution to the world’s problems, “All you need is love; all you need is love; all you need is love, love; love is all you need.” If you read through the lyrics to that whole song, they really are saying human love can fix everything. Just a few years earlier, the band The Youngbloods had tried rally everyone behind the same platform. “Come on, people now; smile on your brother; everybody get together; try to love one another right now.” Both of those songs sound similar to what is being offered in this text, but they couldn’t be more different. They are different because the world is so broken, fallen, and lost that even the concept of love is twisted.

Love is not simply what makes you or someone else feel good. The world wants you to think that love can be redefined in all sorts of different ways. But the world’s attempts at love are only empty words and talk. Behind the world’s efforts at love is this creepy, demented delusion that if we simply ignore sinful things or dress them up in nicer terms, then the nastiness will go away. The world doesn’t want to hear about murdering babies in the womb, so it will call it ‘choice’ over a ‘clump of cells.’ The world doesn’t want to hear about fornication and adultery, so the world will talk about ‘alternative lifestyles,’ or ‘equality’ – sounds much nicer. The world tries to convince everyone that we can stop the pain of gender dysphoria by simply using a person’s preferred pronouns.

Now, please know that I picked each of those specifics because they have been staring us in the face all month. The same is true for any number of sins. But in each of those cases, the world’s proposed solutions might bring slight, momentary comfort, but that is all. Those petty solutions, which are only talk, always end long-term pain.

You cannot love a drug addict by feeding their addiction. It is not loving to continually give money to a druggie and never encourage them to get help for their addiction. If someone is continually hitting themself over the head with an iron skillet, you have to tell them, “Stop doing that.” And if they say, “I was born this way,” you tell them, “No, you weren’t.” And take the skillet away. Both that drug addict and person who is harming himself might see your actions and words as unloving. They might accuse you of hating them and the way they were born. But that’s complete nonsense.

Now apply that same logic to the various sins that are so rampant in our culture. The world’s solutions to those sins that are dressed up in a false, fallen idea of ‘love’ do nothing more than allow those who are harming themselves and others to continue doing so. Scripture is clear, Pr. 12:10 says, “The [love] of the wicked is cruel.” (And when Scripture uses the term ‘wicked’ there don’t think of only a few, select, especially bad sinners. The ‘wicked’ are all of us apart from faith in Christ.) Pointing out the harm and pain that sin causes is loving. Dear saints, please use your God-given wisdom to say it in the most loving way possible.

Now, before you start patting yourself on the back, Christian, don’t think that you are guiltless when it comes to loving only in word and talk. How many times have you responded to someone who is hurting by saying, “You’re in my thoughts and prayers” heart emoji, heart emoji, heart emoji, and press the ‘care’ button, then go about your day? We’re all guilty when it comes to this. Repent.

It can be hard (especially on social media) to love in ways that extend beyond word and talk. The hurting person may be hundreds of miles or half a world away, so how can you love them in deed and truth? Well, one of the best lessons I learned during my pastoral internship came from an elderly German woman named Ruth. Many of you have heard me mention her before. Several times I would greet Ruth after the service, and she would tell me about her medical problems or appointments coming up. I would listen and say, “I’ll be praying for you,” and dear little five-foot Ruth would look up at me and say in her deep German accent, “Do it now,” and I would. I was too intimidated not to. It took months her regular reminders for me to go straight to prayer.

Dear saints, your prayers are not merely words and talk. They are you, as God’s beloved child, requesting your loving heavenly Father to spring into action. Remember that, especially on social media, but also in your daily conversations. Write or say a prayer then and there and continue upholding that person in prayer.

The only way we can know what love is, is to look to Jesus and what He has done for us on the cross. “By this we know love, that [Jesus] laid down His life for us” (1 Jn. 3:16). We know love only in knowing Jesus crucified for us. You can’t find this love anywhere else, and you can’t produce this love apart from fellowship with God through faith in Christ.

The Holy Spirit works faith into your heart and pours God’s love into you. By filling you with that love, the Holy Spirit also enables you to love others. Faith and love go together. The love of God that we receive through faith is the very love we show our neighbor by our deeds. Yes, sin remains in us as long as we live in this world, but God continues to pour His love into us and delivering His forgiveness. God’s love for you is so great that you cannot contain it all, so it spills out of you to your neighbor.

Yes, we fall short in our love, and when we do we repent. We repent and God springs into action. He points us to Christ who laid down His life for us. Jesus’ death conquered hate and death once and for all. Christ has laid down His life for you. He forgives you of all your sin, cleanses your guilty conscience, and delivers you from Satan’s power.

This is what His love does and will continue to do all the days of your life. And that, dear saints, is the source and strength of every act of love you and I will ever do. Amen.

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

Triune Forgiveness – Sermon on Isaiah 6:1-7 for Holy Trinity Sunday

Jun12

Isaiah 6:1-7

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today, I have five observations to consider from this text.

1. What Isaiah sees is remarkable but not unique. Isaiah had this vision of God when he was in the Temple. But it’s important to note that Isaiah was not the high priest, so this vision didn’t take place while Isaiah was in the Most Holy Place. Isaiah wasn’t even a priest, so this vision couldn’t have been when Isaiah was in the Holy Place either. Isaiah was a prophet called by God, but he was normal guy. In other words, Isaiah would have been in the courtyard of the Temple with all the other regular worshippers. You can basically think of this vision as what Isaiah sees when he goes to Church. He’s normal guy in a normal place at a normal time, but what he sees is extraordinary.

Dear saints, there are things going on around us right now that we cannot see or hear. But just because our senses don’t pick them up doesn’t mean they are any less real than the things we can perceive with our senses. The Bible teaches that there are angels all around us all the time protecting us and ministering to us. Jesus Himself teaches us that He is present with us and seated on His throne with all authority in heaven and earth (Mt. 28:18, 20; 18:20). And that is always true whether you are at church or not.

But when you are in church, the same things Isaiah saw in this vision are here and present with you. Hebrews 12:22-24 says, “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” In other words, here in this sanctuary you are in God’s domain. The angels and archangels, the seraphim and cherubim are all here. Surrounding you are all God’s people, Christians from every time and age, present here worshipping, glorifying, and praising God with you. You can’t see them, but that doesn’t make their presence any less real.

What Isaiah sees here is always true when God’s people gather together. In other words, it isn’t as though God was normally far, far away, but then, one time, He came close enough for Isaiah to see Him. No Isaiah simply is allowed to see the reality of God’s presence which was and is normally invisible. Dear saints, when you come into this place, see with your ears. The triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – along with all the angels and all the saints of all time are present right here with us.

2. Notice this reality that Isaiah sees. Isaiah sees the Lord sitting upon a throne. And Scripture leaves us no doubt. Isaiah sees Jesus. The Gospel of John spells it out. Isaiah sees Jesus, the eternal Son of God and the second Person of the Trinity (Jn. 12:36-41). Above Jesus, Isaiah sees the seraphim. These are one of the types of angels that Scripture tells us about. Their name means ‘burning ones.’ These angels have six wings. Two of the wings are used to cover the seraph’s face; two cover the seraph’s feet; and two are used to fly. Now, the interesting thing is that these seraphim are already holy. The don’t have any sin, but even they need to cover their creatureliness before the awesome holiness of God.

That brings us to their song. The seraphs sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies; the whole earth is full of His glory.” Their song is repetitive, three holy’s. It is true that the Hebrew language will use repetition for emphasis. God is holy, holy, holy. But those three holies could also be translated as, “Holy One, Holy One, Holy One.” Three holy Ones – again, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The angels are praising one God, but three distinct holy Ones. Now, Isaiah can only see the Son, but he hears the praise of each Person of the Trinity. And we know that all three persons of the Trinity are there because just after our text, the triune God asks, “Whom shall I [sg.] send, and who will go for Us [pl.]?”

3. Look at Isaiah’s response. Standing in the presence of the holy Trinity, Isaiah is terrified. Isaiah says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” We need to dissect this a little bit. Notice that Isaiah starts with a conclusion before moving to his confession. Isaiah’s conclusion is, “Woe is me! For I am lost.” That’s his understanding of the situation and what he thinks is going to happen to him. But his conclusion is wrong. It’s wrong not only because that isn’t what happens, but it’s also wrong because it is a denial of who God is.

When Isaiah says, “I am lost,” thinks he is about to be cut off and damned. He figures God has finally come to judge him and condemn him to hell. This is wrong and, frankly, disappointing. Remember Isaiah was in the Temple. The Scriptures clearly teach that the whole purpose of the Temple, the reason it was there, was so God could dwell among His people and forgive their sins (2 Chr. 6:21, 27). God had defined Himself as the God who is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness… forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Ex. 34:6-7).

Imagine coming to church. You hear the absolution. In the sermon, you are pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. You receive the Body and Blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Then, you have a vision like Isaiah’s and your response is, “Well, I’m going to hell.” That’s ludicrous, but that’s Isaiah’s conclusion here! Dear saints, the whole point of everything we do here at church is to remove any doubt and increase your faith that God has forgiven all of your sins – every last one of them – for the sake of Jesus’ death and resurrection. As disappointing as Isaiah’s conclusion is, we would probably do the same. Repent. God isn’t lying to you when He delivers His grace and mercy to you here in this place. You are forgiven, made holy, continually given the perfect righteousness of Christ. Amen?

Now, Isaiah’s confession and recognition is right. He is a sinner. He does have unclean lips, and the people around him have unclean lips. This means he deserves God’s wrath and judgment, but His conclusion is still false.

4. Isaiah’s guilt has a location. Sin isn’t just floating around as some nebulous, philosophical idea. No. Isaiah recognizes his sinful lips. But didn’t Isaiah have sinful feet? What about corrupt eyes? A lustful groin? An idolatrous heart? So, why does Isaiah focus on his lips?

The best guess is that the devil somehow knew God was about to call Isaiah to be a prophet. To be a prophet requires the use of your lips and mouth to speak the Word of God. So, Satan probably made extra effort that day to point Isaiah to how he sinfully used his lips to make Isaiah feel guilt and shame with the very instrument God would use Isaiah to minister.

The devil does this all the time. He will point out the sin and iniquity of the very gifts God wants us to use in fulfilling our callings and vocations in service to Him and our neighbor. This is true for all Christians, but today I want to address you fathers since I won’t be here next week.

Fathers, first of all, happy Fathers’ Day a week early. You fathers, the devil will do this to you. Satan will try to point you to your failures as a husband and father. And it will be easy for him to do this because you do fail. Sometimes, you are too harsh; other times you have been too lax in disciplining your children. You don’t show the kindness and love you should, and you have not been the father God intends you to be. But those sins do not disqualify you from being a father to your children. One of the most important things fathers can teach their children is confessing when you sin and asking for forgiveness. Again, your failures do notdisqualify you from being a father. Fathers, if you are still alive and still have children, God calls you to be a father. And God will equip and enable you to be exactly the father that your children need. Which brings us to the fifth and final observation.

5. The glory of the triune God is His forgiveness and mercy. Because there is one God and three Persons – because God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – God is both just and merciful, both just and loving. If God were only one, this couldn’t be the case. But because God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God the Son can satisfy God’s just demands, and He has. Jesus has done for you what you could not do for God. Jesus renders His perfect obedience to the Father, and the Holy Spirit delivers to you the peace of forgiveness in Christ as He works on you through the Scriptures. Just don’t think that the Father is the only member of the Trinity who is just, that the Son is the only member who is loving and merciful, and that the Holy Spirit is the only member who works out your salvation. That isn’t the case either.

Dear saints, what God did for Isaiah, He does for you as well. It wasn’t the coal that removed Isaiah’s sin. It was God’s promise. Yes, God attached that promise to the coal which made it the instrument that delivered that promise to Isaiah. But God’s promise is attached to more things than that one coal that burned up millennia ago. God has attached His promise of mercy and forgiveness to the water of your Baptism. When those waters touched your body, your guilt was taken away, and your sin atoned for. When you heard the absolution earlier, those words entered your ear, and your guilt was taken away, and your sin atoned for. When you eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is here today to bring you His mercy and grace freely given because of Christ. You are clean, and God sends you from here back out into the world with a free, spotless conscience (Heb. 10:19-25). Amen.

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

Never-Ceasing Mercy – Sermon on Lamentations 3:22-33 for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

May8

Lamentations 3:22-33

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;

²³ they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.

²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.

²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;

²⁹ let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;

³⁰ let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
cast off forever,

³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

³³ for he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I mentioned the name of this Sunday at the beginning of the service; does anyone remember what today is called? (Yes, “Make a joyful noise,” Sunday.) So, why, on a day where we are making joyful noises, are we listening to a sermon from Lamentations, the book of the Bible whose name contradicts the name of the Sunday? Why even bother with Lamentations? I’m glad you asked.

The book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah and is basically a funeral hymnal with five dirges; each chapter is its own song. But whose funeral is Jeremiah writing about? It is the funeral of God’s people. The Babylonian empire has come. Jerusalem has been destroyed. The leaders of Judah have been taken into exile. The Temple has been torn down and left in charred ruins. And the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God had promised to meet with His people, was gone. God’s punishment of His people has been severe.

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, begins the book, “How lonely sits the city that was full of people!” (Lam. 1:1). He says that Jerusalem had been “the perfection of beauty” but is now the laughingstock of the world (Lam. 2:15). God’s punishment against the sins of idolatry, wickedness, and injustice that were so prevalent among His people has come, and it stinks. And Jeremiah calls on the people to recognize that God’s intention with this punishment is to bring the people to repentance. God longs for His people to confess their sins and be forgiven. All this punishment isn’t just to make God’s people uncomfortable and miserable; instead, this suffering is meant to heal and restore them.

So, Jeremiah paints this pathetic picture about the suffering of God’s people. He asks that God would see all their suffering under the punishment of their sins. Then, Jeremiah just sits back and waits….

Jeremiah can wait because he knows, “though [the Lord] cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men” (Lev. 3:32-33). Dear saints, the only rescue from God’s wrath against sin is found in the very nature of God Himself. Let me say that again in case you missed it:

The only rescue from God’s wrath against sin is found in the very nature of God Himself. That is why there is hope throughout the funeral songs of Lamentations. The reason for this hope is that God’s steadfast love never ceases, and His mercies never – never ever – come to an end. They are new each and every morning. Great is His faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23). That is why Jeremiah can wait for God, and that is why, in the midst of suffering and sorrow, you can too. “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam. 3:25-26). “[God’s] anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

Dear saints, whenever you face suffering, whether it is because of your sin and God’s punishment or whether you are suffering because of the devil’s attacks or whether you are simply suffering because of this fallen, broken world, whenever you face suffering that is not the time to run from God; that is the time to run toHim. His steadfast love, mercy, faithfulness, and compassion is your hope.

Whenever you face trials, tribulations, hardships, and suffering, it is always, always, a call to faith. When we suffer, we try to look for answers, answers to questions like: Is God punishing me for some sin; if so, what is that sin? Is Satan tormenting me? Am I suffering because of the evil that surrounds me? We look for answers to those questions, but in the midst of suffering, both the cause of our suffering and the answers to those questions are often hidden from us. Remember Jesus, even in the midst of His suffering on the cross, asks the why question. “My God, My God, why? Why have You forsaken Me?” (Mk. 15:34).

In the book of Job, we see Job looking for those same answers. Job’s friends are all insisting that Job must have some secret sin that he needs to confess. But we know that isn’t the case. Repeatedly in the book of Job, God says that Job is righteous, blameless, and upright (Job. 1:8; 2:3). But God does allow the devil to cause Job great suffering – the loss of all his property and even the death of his children. God knows that Job can handle and navigate all of that and still retain his faith (Job 2:6). And of course, Job does. He continues to trust in God’s mercy and grace. And at the end of it all, Job is restored (Job 42:10-17), and his faith is strengthened.

Now, in the case of God’s people in Jeremiah’s day, God’s people were suffering because God was sending the punishment for their sins and calling His people to repent. Even when you are suffering because of your sins, it is a call to faith. Repentance always requires faith. You don’t repent or bring your sins to God, unless you know there is the possibility of forgiveness. Otherwise, you simply try to hide your sins, pass the blame to others, or ignore them all together. But none of those options ever work.

To repent and confess your sins is always an act of faith. Both repentance and confession is simply believing and saying what God says about your sins. First, you say that those sins have angered God and harmed your relationship with Him. They have brought God’s anger and wrath. Typically, we don’t have a problem with that part of confession and repentance. We know that. But the other part of repentance and confession is to continue saying what God says about those sins – that they are taken by Jesus (Jn. 1:29). That the wrath those sins deserve has been poured out upon Christ as He hung on the cross (1 Thess. 1:10). That those sins are removed form you as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12).

So, again, whenever you face trials, tribulations, and suffering, faith and trust is always the proper response. In suffering, God doesn’t always give you answers to all the questions you have, but He does always give you promises.

Most importantly, God has given you the promise of His grace and mercy. God has sent His own Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus bore the yoke of our sins (Lam. 3:27; Is. 53:6, 12). Jesus put His mouth in the dust (Lam. 3:29) when He took on your humanity. He gave His cheek to be struck (Lk. 22:63). Christ took the insults that belonged to you. And on Good Friday, as darkness covered the face of the earth, Christ cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mk. 15:34). There, in that moment, God forsook His own Son so you could be accepted as God’s own child. But God did not reject Jesus forever.

When Jesus cries out, “It is finished,” (Jn. 19:30) on the cross, God’s wrath against sin was done, completed, and ended. The resurrection proves that God accepted the offering Christ made for you.

Dear saints, God’s anger has an end. God’s anger ended with the death of Christ. The only way God’s anger could continue against your sin is if you continually reject what Jesus has done for you. Those who are lost in their sins and spend eternity in hell are those who reject God’s mercy in Christ.

But, dear Christian, that isn’t you. You trust in God’s mercy. You repent, confess, and receive forgiveness for all your sins. For you, God’s wrath and punishment, what the theologians call God’s ‘alien work’ – in other words, what God doesn’t naturally do – has come to an end. You live and abide in His mercy.

And His mercy is even more certain than the rising of the sun. Mercy is who God is and how God is toward you who believe in Christ.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.

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

Agape – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 for Quinquagesima Sunday

Feb27

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We use the word ‘love’ to describe our attitude towards all sorts of things. You will say that you love your spouse, kids, and parents, but you also might also say that you love your dog, watching a TV show, and taking naps. For example, I love my wife, Sarah; I love my mom; and I love eating my mom’s lasagna. But those loves are not all the same, and they shouldn’t be.

In Greek, there are four different words for love. I would highly recommend a book by C. S. Lewis called The Four Loves which helps to distinguish between these four kinds of love. Today, I’ll just briefly describe each of them. And if you’re interested in learning more, read Lewis.

The first Greek word for love is storge. Probably the best English word we have for this is ‘affection.’ Storge is the most basic kind of love, but just because it is basic, don’t think that it is unimportant. Storge is the enjoyment of someone or something. Storge is the love you have for your fish and your car. Lewis rightly says that storge is the jacket that clothes the other loves.

The second Greek word for love is phileo. This is the love that is present in friendship. Phileo binds two people together but in a way that is outside of each of them. It has a focus on a common goal or interest that both individuals share. You can have storge for your friend and enjoy him/her, and you can share phileo with that friend as well as you two pursue that common goal or interest.

The third Greek word for love is eros which is romantic love between a husband and wife. Unlike phileo,which is fueled by common interests or goals that are outside of the individuals, eros is directed at the other person. Eros can truthfully say, “It’s better to be miserable with him/her than happy without him/her.”

The fourth Greek word for love is agape. Agape is the highest and most unselfish love, and it is the only love that is described here in our text. Agape loves the unlovable, the undeserving, and even the ugly. Agapegives everything and asks for nothing in return. First and foremost, agape is the love that God has for us in Christ. John 3:16 says that God loved (He agaped) the world that He gave Jesus, His only begotten Son to suffer and die for us sinners and enemies of God. Agape, this sacrificial love, is also the love that we Christians are to have toward others. 1 John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved (lit. ‘you agaped ones’), let us agape one another, for agape is from God and whoever agapes has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not agape does not know God because God is agape.”

Now, I wanted to walk through those different types of love because they are good distinctions to keep in mind. With the first three loves (storge, phileo, and eros), there can be certain levels or temperatures of those loves. Think of the thermometer. You can have storge, or affection, for drinking cold water from a garden hose on a hot day, but you might have a stronger storge for drinking Mountain Dew. You might have phileo, or friendly love, with Sally, but a stronger phileo with Tiffany. Even in marriage, eros, that romantic love, will grow stronger as years pass. One of the problems in our culture today is that too often people will confuse strong affection (storge), or a high degree of friendship (phileo), or even sacrificial love (agape) – they’ll confuse those with romantic love (eros). Keeping them straight can help curb sins that are so rampant in our culture.

One final word about the four loves. Scripture is clear that, except for your husband (if you are a woman) or your wife (if you are a man), you must not have eros for others. It is also true that there are people that you can’t have affection (storge) or friendship (phileo) toward. Something as simple as distance or just a dislike can prevent those loves. But you can, and should, practice agape toward all – first for God then others, the good and bad, the old and the young, those close to you and far from you.

Now, with all that in mind, I’d like to turn to the text and consider the phrase, “love (agape) bears all things.” I’ve preached on this before, but it is good to cover again and let it sink in a bit further. What does it mean that love bears all things? Galatians 6:2 helps us understand this; it says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” And that law of Christ is to love, to agape, your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:39).

What does this look like? Maybe you have had a conversation with someone who tells you about all sorts of difficulties in their life, and you leave that conversation feeling tired – not necessarily physically, but emotionally and spiritually. You feel tired because you are sharing that person’s burdens. This is an act of agape love that has cost you something and has truly helped the other person. Hopefully, you have experienced the relief of unburdening yourself like that. You just tell a person all the things that are difficult or stressful for you. After you unload all of that, you feel better about the situation even though nothing has changed. You’ve simply shared your burden.

Dear saints, with everything going on in the world, this is a very real, tangible way to sacrificially love others with agape. Too often, we try to get out of showing agape because we are unwilling to bear one another’s burdens. This is unloving and is, in fact, sinful. I can think of three tricks we commonly use to avoid bearing the burdens of others, but I am sure there are more.

The first trick is to simply avoid being around people. We don’t let people have access to us. We elude certain people who are always talking about their problems, and we avoid meaningful interactions. We fill our schedules so full that we are always running from one thing to the next. Even though you may be around people every waking moment, there is no time or occasion for others to have a real conversation with you. Stop that, and slow down.

The second trick is, when other people start to tell us their troubles, we may listen for a bit, but then we start telling them about our troubles. It almost turns into a contest to see who has the most stress. All this does is simply build a wall between us and their problems. I’ll talk about myself and my problems so I don’t have to deal with you and your problems.

The third trick is the most dangerous because we think it is pious. We give advice. We listen for a bit, and then we say, “Have you considered doing this?” Now, our advice might be really good. But don’t miss the point, it deflects their burden from us back on to them. It can leave the person more deflated and more burdened, and we leave the conversation thinking we’ve done something good and loving. But we aren’t bearing their burden. Remember: if that person wanted your advice… they would’ve asked for it.

Avoidance, barriers, and advice – all tricks we use to avoid bearing another’s burdens.

Consider our Gospel lesson (Lk. 18:31-43) where we saw Jesus’ agape in action when He encountered blind Bartimeaus (Mk. 10:46). Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me!” Jesus pauses on His trek to Jerusalem, where He is going to save the whole world. He doesn’t avoid Bartimeaus; Jesus stops and listens asking him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Bartimeaus says that he wants to receive his sight. And Jesus doesn’t start talking about Himself and the problems He is about to face in the crucifixion. And Jesus doesn’t give advice – and if anyone is in a position to give advice it’s Jesus. Jesus simply says, “Receive your sight, your faith has made you well.”

Now, at this point, consider the problems of people who are unloading their burdens on you – high blood pressure, cancer, stuff at work, depression, family problems. Unlike Jesus, we can’t simply say the word and make things better. But like Jesus we can recognize and acknowledge the brokenness in people’s lives and say, “I’m so sorry you’re going through this.” We can listen to them and pray for them, then and there. Pray for them and say, “May Jesus bless you.”

Jesus not only healed Bartimaeus’ blindness, Jesus bears his burden completely. Again, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem where He would bear all mankind’s burdens, all your sins and iniquities. He would suffer all the consequences of sin in this world as He hung in darkness on the cross. And He carried all those burdens, every last one of them, to the grave. But Jesus wouldn’t stay there. Because of that fact, we know that whatever we suffer in this world is temporary. So whatever burdens you bear – whether they are yours or others’ – they will disappear when our Lord returns because He has taken them.

You see, the love of Jesus has already and continues to bear all things – all your sins, all your iniquities, all your transgressions, all your griefs, all your cares, all your sorrows. And when this passage says that love never ends, know what that means for you. Christ’s love for you never ends. His love embraces you and will change your mortal body into a resurrected body.

Dear saints, agape one another, but also know that in this life, your love will fall short. But God’s love for you in Christ is perfect, complete, and whole. And the day will come when you will also love perfectly. Your impatience, your cruelty, anger, pride, envy, and bitterness will disappear from your heart. What you now see in a mirror dimly will become crystal clear. God’s pure love will flow through you forever.

That’s why love is greater than faith and hope. Faith will cease because it will be replaced by sight. Hope will no longer be needed because it will be exchanged with experience. Love is the greatest because it never ends. God’s steadfast love for you in Christ never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new each and every morning. Now, and unto eternity. And this love of Christ becomes our focus for the next six weeks as we turn to Lent. Amen.

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

A Strange Thing about Love – Sermon on Romans 12:6-16 for the Second Sunday after Epiphany and Life Sunday

Jan16

Romans 12:6-6

⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

On January 22^nd 1973, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling on the case Roe vs. Wadewhich legalized on-demand abortion in all fifty states of our country. It remains a sad day for our nation. Eleven years after that ruling, President Regan made January 22^nd National Sanctity of Human Life Day. Many churches in our country have made the third Sunday of January, which is today, Life Sunday. So today, we are going to do that in the sermon by mainly focusing on v. 9 of this text.

Our translation makes it sound like v.9 has three commands, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” But actually, in the Greek, there aren’t any commands or imperatives. In fact, there isn’t even a single verb in v. 9. It is fairly common for Greek to not include a verb, especially when the verb is ‘is.’ When that happens, a verb needs to be supplied. The translators of the ESV have decided to translate participles as imperative verbs or commands, but there is a more natural way to translate the sentence and keep the sense truer to the original Greek. If we were using the Wellumson translation, v. 9 would read, “Love without hypocrisy is abhorring what is evil, holding fast to what is good.” What Paul seems to be doing here is giving a description of love similar to how he does in 1 Cor. 13. And how he describes love gives us a lot to consider.

First of all, hypocritical love is not really love. There are times when someone puts on a show of care and compassion for others, but they are doing it simply in an effort to make themselves look good. The term that often gets used for that today is “virtue signaling.” If the only reason you are being kind to someone is to make yourself look good, it is not loving. It is motivated by selfish ambition. So, Paul here tells us what unhypocritical love looks like.

The strange thing about love that this text teaches is that true, unhypocritical love is that it abhors what is evil. That’s the first description of love – it hates evil. Normally, we think love and hatred are opposites, but Scripture teaches us that genuine love must hate evil. So, I ask you, “Is there evil in this world?” Ok. Then to be a loving person, you must hate what is evil. Now, if there was a universe where there was no evil, then there would be no need for love to hate anything. But to really love means abhorring and hating evil things. That means you can’t be a wishy-washy person and be a loving person. That isn’t possible. Love isn’t always smooth and easy.

Hating and abhorring evil is the way that God has loved us. God’s love has a holy hatred of evil and sin. God be praised that His hatred of evil is perfectly coupled with His mercy. God could have hated evil and simply wiped out the whole human race at any point. But because of His mercy God hasn’t done that. And because of what Christ has done, He will not. Not ever. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, God has hated evil; poured out His complete wrath and abhorrence of evil; and still forgiven you of all your sin. And that – that is true love. Love in its purest form. God’s hatred of evil is what has put a stop to evil and still delivered us from evil and sin. And, dear saints, we are called by Scripture to love as God loves (Jn. 13:34, 15:9). And if we are to love as God loves, that means we are to hate and abhor evil things.

But also, if we love as God loves, we cannot only hate the things that are evil. Love also must hold fast and cling to what is good. What that means for today as we recognize Life Sunday is this: As Christians, we hold fast to the goodness and sacredness of life that God gives. Life is a good gift from God. Life is a good gift of God in the womb and throughout the life of each individual, for the pre-born, infants, children, teenagers, adults, the elderly, and those receiving hospice care. Life is a good gift from God for those with Down Syndrome, cancer, and ALS. And Christians affirm that. We stand for life from conception to natural death because God is the author and giver of life. We hold fast to God’s good gift of life as we abhor and hate abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, and euthanasia.

Satan attacks life. Jesus Himself says that the devil was a murderer from the beginning (Jn. 8:44). The devil has always hated human life because humans are created in the image of God, but Satan hates humans even more now because God has become one of us in Christ. In every fetus, the devil is reminded of the Christ Child. That is why Satan loves abortion. Through abortion, the devil attacks God’s gift of life. So, we need to say it as plainly as possible. Christians abhor abortion, and Christians love God’s good gift of life.

Now, all of this means, Christian, that you have been called by God to walk a tightrope, so to speak. You are to love the single mother, the pregnant teenager, the woman who has had an abortion, the abortionist, and the politicians and judges who enable and further the culture of death. You are to love each of them unhypocritically. And Eph. 6:12 gives us insight into this calling. Eph. 6:12 says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Our struggle is not against any people who have flesh and blood. God Himself did not hate people; instead, He sent Jesus to die for the sins of all people. By Jesus’ work on the cross, God has dealt with the evil within every person. If a person has flesh and blood, your struggle is not against them. You are to love them. And that does mean calling sin what it is. But you show every person love every chance you get. Paul will go on to say at the end of Ro. 12, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink…. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer was absolutely right when he said, “The will of God is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.”

Again, this is what Christ has done for you. Christ is your Savior and has identified with you in every area of your life (Heb. 2:15, 17). And while you were still a sinner and enemy of God, Christ died for you (Ro. 5:8). He shed His holy and precious blood to forgive you of all your sin, and He is about to give His forgiving, life-giving blood to you once again.

So, dear saints, God would have us hate and abhor abortion. We pray for an end to it. Pray for the Supreme Court today as they prepare to make another ruling on abortion. Pray that they would recognize God’s gift of life. But even beyond that, we don’t simply pray for an end to abortion in our nation. We pray that even the thought of abortion would be abhorrent to every person in the world. We pray that every heart would be changed to honor and hold fast to God’s good gift of life. And while we pray, we rejoice in hope, contribute to the needs of the saints, show hospitality to all, and we bless. Bless those who persecute you. And we pray for God’s love to shine through us every moment. Amen.

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

The Child Who Is the Lord – Sermon on Luke 2:1-20 for Christmas Eve 2021

Dec25

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dear saints, merry Christmas!

The first few verses recording Jesus’ birth are nothing spectacular quite honestly. It begins with a government that wanted more taxes. So, Joseph and the very pregnant Mary travel to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown, to be numbered and provide a list of their property so Rome would know how much they owed. While they are there, Mary gives birth to her Son and wraps Him is swaddling clothes. Again, nothing extraordinary there.

The only thing that is peculiar is that Mary lays her Newborn in a manger, a feeding trough, because there wasn’t a more hospitable place for the infant Jesus. Quite honestly, if v. 1-7 was all that was recorded concerning Jesus’ birth, there wouldn’t be much to say. Sure, for Joseph and Mary it would have been a very anxious, fretful time, but even today all over the world poor women give birth in unusual and unsanitary conditions.

So, a baby Boy is born and laid in a manger. The only ones to notice in those first seven verses are His father and mother. The people of Bethlehem continue to sleep, and the night would have remained silent and undisturbed, but then comes the rest of the text, and v. 8-20 tell us very clearly that something extraordinary has happened.

The birth of this Child has ushered in a cosmic shift and is the most significant thing that has ever happened. The host of angels suddenly appear to shepherds. The glory of God shines, not in the Most Holy Place in the Temple, but out in the fields surrounding the little town of Bethlehem. All of it reveals that what happened that night was God joining heaven to earth.

The host of holy angels mingle with lowly shepherds. The music of heaven is now heard by men, and they are invited to join in the song. At first, the shepherds are too stunned and afraid to speak. But the angel quiets their fear saying, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

In other words, the eternal God who created heaven and earth has been born on earth as a Child to be your Savior. God is powerful enough that His voice breaks the mighty cedar trees (Ps. 29:5), and now He softly coos in His mother’s arms. The Child is the same God who appeared to the shepherd Moses in the burning bush warning Moses to not come close because His presence was too holy (Ex. 3:1-6). But now He invites shepherds to come in as close as possible and see Him lying in a manger as a helpless Child.

The incarnation and birth of Jesus isn’t about God becoming small; instead, it is about mankind becoming big. God made mankind in His own image, but here God becomes what you are – a Child of a woman – in order to make you what He is – a child of the heavenly Father. Even though the people of Bethlehem don’t take notice, heaven itself does. With one foot in heaven and another foot on earth, the company of angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!”

The angels are happy because the Savior of mankind has been born, and we are going to be reconciled to them. There is an interesting verse in 1 Peter 1:12 that says the Gospel, the fact that God comes to save us, is something into which angels long to look. I heard a thought this week about the joy that the angels have because of Christ’s birth that I think is really insightful and deeply rooted in Scripture. The thought is that when the angels see how God forgives, redeems, and saves mankind in Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection, the angels get to witness what love is.

You see, the angels never fell into sin or were corrupted, so they are not redeemed because they don’t need to be. They constantly experience God’s perfect love. So, when the angels see how God loves us in Christ, they see the love God has for them in action. They know how far we have fallen, and in Christ, they see the lengths to which God goes to save us. So the birth of Christ gives the angels a fuller picture of how much God loves them, and it brings them great joy.

Beloved of God, Jesus is born, and He is born to save you. God almighty sucks His thumb. His arms were tucked tightly into that manger as an infant so those same arms could be stretched out upon the cross. His head is surrounded by hay in a feeding trough so it can later be crowned with thorns. His body is swaddled and laid in a manger, so that same body could eventually be wrapped in linen cloths and laid in a tomb. And just as He did not remain the manger, neither did He remain in the grave.

In the birth of Jesus, the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people. That includes you. We sinners cannot be in the presence of a holy God, but God has become a man to welcome and forgive sinners. For those willing to receive it, peace has arrived. The war is over. There is now peace between God and man. Because of what Christ has done, God is well pleased with you.

If you have ever wondered how far God would go to make you His own, first look down into the manger then look up to the cross. There is your answer.

Our next hymn asks, “What Child is this?” Well, we have the answer. This Child is Christ the King. This Child is the Word made flesh. This Child is the Christ. This Child is the Lord God Almighty who comes to forgive you, to save you, to rescue you, to deliver you, and to give you eternal life with Him.

Dear saints, Jesus is born, and He brings you His eternal peace. So, again, merry Christmas. Unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Amen.

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

Pastorsamwise

"Don't the great tales never end?"

Tag Archives: Love

Depend – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Confidence – Sermon on Esther 4:7-16 for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Authority & Service – Sermon on John 13:1-15, 34-35 for Maundy Thursday

God-Shaped Love – Sermon on Luke 10:23-37 for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Love in Deed & Truth – Sermon on 1 John 3:13-18 for Second Sunday after Trinity

Triune Forgiveness – Sermon on Isaiah 6:1-7 for Holy Trinity Sunday

Never-Ceasing Mercy – Sermon on Lamentations 3:22-33 for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Agape – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 for Quinquagesima Sunday

A Strange Thing about Love – Sermon on Romans 12:6-16 for the Second Sunday after Epiphany and Life Sunday

The Child Who Is the Lord – Sermon on Luke 2:1-20 for Christmas Eve 2021