The Word Among Us – Sermon on John 1:14-18 for Midweek Advent 3

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Moses saw some amazing, glorious things during his lifetime. It began when he was an 80-year-old shepherd for his father-in-law. Moses saw and talked with God at the bush that burned but wasn’t consumed (Ex. 3:1-2). When Moses approached the bush, God told him to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground (Ex. 3:5), so Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Rightly so.

Later, as we heard in tonight’s Old Testament reading (Ex. 33:18-34:8), Moses got a lot bolder than he was back at the burning bush. He asked to see God’s glory. God agreed but with a big caveat. “Ok, Moses, I’ll let you see all My goodness and will proclaim My name, Yahweh, before you. But you cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live.” In short, God’s presence is dangerous for fallen mankind. God has to hide His glory from sinners. So, God put Moses in the cleft of a rock and shielded Moses with His hand. And God only removed His hand after He had passed by so Moses could see His back.

There in the cleft of the mountain, God revealed Himself. But even better than that, God proclaimed and defined what His name means, “Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Moses was the only human on the mountain when he saw God’s glory (Ex. 34:3) because God had something better in mind for how to reveal Himself to His people.

Shortly after God appeared to Moses, God’s people constructed the Tabernacle. God had told them build the Tabernacle so He could dwell among them (Ex. 29:45-46; Lev. 26:11-12). God needed to contain His holiness and glory in a way that His people could approach Him without being destroyed. That is why the Tabernacle was constructed the way it was. For God to dwell among His people, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the blood, the incense, and all sorts of offerings were required.

Even with all the safeguards of the Tabernacle, it was only on one day out of the year, the Day of Atonement, that the high priest, and only the high priest, could enter the Holy of Holies where God dwelled. And even then, the high priest would have to change his clothes fourteen times, wash himself almost 10 times, and offer dozens of sacrifices to safely approach the awesome, holy glory of God. That’s the theology of the Tabernacle. Yes, God wanted to dwell with His people, but they needed protection from His holiness and glory so they wouldn’t be consumed.

But now, here in John 1:14, John says, “the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us.” Now, the Greek word translated ‘dwelt’ is skēnē, which literally means ‘tabernacled.’ “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Because of this fact, we can truthfully sing, “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; / Hail th’ incarnate Deity, / Pleased as Man with man to dwell; / Jesus, our Immanuel.” And this is the wonder of all wonders.

The Incarnation, the fact that God became one of us, is how God reveals Himself and His glory to us. Yes, God wraps Himself in flesh, but He wraps Himself in a different way than how you use wrapping paper. When you wrap your gifts, you are trying to keep the gift a secret from the person you are giving it to until he or she opens it. Once they tear the wrapping paper off the gift, the gift isn’t a secret anymore. The Incarnation isn’t like that – it isn’t a secret. Instead, it’s a mystery. And the difference between a secret and a mystery is that a secret is no longer a secret once it is revealed. A mystery is different. A mystery remains a mystery even after it is revealed, and the more you think about a mystery the more mysterious it becomes.

The Eternal Word wraps Himself in flesh so He can tabernacle and dwell with you. In Col. 2:9, Scripture says, “In [Christ] the whole fullness of the Deity dwells bodily.” Jesus does this so you can see and behold His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. And this Eternal Word who tabernacles with you is full of grace and truth.

Back in our Old Testament reading, God proclaimed that He is the God who abounds “in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Without getting into too much grammar and vocabulary stuff, that is very phrase – ‘steadfast love and faithfulness’ – that John is picking up when he says that Jesus is “full of grace and truth.” But notice the difference here in Jn. 1. Jesus doesn’t just proclaim that He abounds in grace and truth like He did when Moses was safely nestled in the cleft of the rock. No. Now in Christ, God reveals it.

The Eternal Word humbled and emptied Himself by being born in the likeness of men. God came in human form and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Php. 2:8). And from the fullness of Christ’s grace and truth, you receive grace on top of grace (Jn. 1:16).

Dear saints, Jesus makes God known. He reveals what God thinks of you. He gives you His grace, and on top of that, He gives you more grace, and more grace, and more grace…

I want to close these Advent services pondering that:

In our normal, human lives, growing up and maturing is a gradual shift from dependence to independence. When you’re born you are totally dependent on others doing things for you – feeding, cleaning, clothing, sheltering, protecting, etc. And as you grow, you become more independent. You don’t need others as much because you can do it yourself.

Spiritual growth is the opposite. Growing and maturing in faith is becoming more and more like a child (Mt. 18:3-4). Being a stronger Christian is learning that you are needy, learning that you need to borrow all that you are and all that you have from Jesus. Dependent upon Him, you receive grace upon grace from His fullness. That is how you mature as a believer. You receive from Him more and more.

That is precisely why the Eternal Word became flesh. He did it so He could dwell with you. So He could live for you. So He could die for you. So He could rise again for you. So He could ascend into heaven and rule over all creation for you. So He could forgive you. So He could give you His mercy. So He can give you grace upon grace. And so you could live and reign forever and ever with Him. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:7). Amen.

Broken Bonds – Sermon on Mark 7:31-37 for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Aug18

Mark 7:31–37

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. ³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Imagine you’re being punished for something – it doesn’t matter what – and the punishment is that you will be sent to live on the moon, which has become a penal colony. (This is my analogy, so I get to make the rules.) You will never be allowed to return, and no one is allowed to visit you. You beg the judge for mercy, and he gives you a choice between two options.

The first option is that you can have a magic mirror, like the one from Beauty and the Beast, but it doesn’t transmit any sound. That mirror will allow you to see your spouse, kids, parents, siblings, and friends, but you can’t speak to them or hear them. And the mirror is on a ten second delay that doesn’t allow any communication. It blacks out if there are letters, so they can’t wear a shirt that says, “I love you,” or hold up a note; it also doesn’t allow any sign language, thumbs up, hand hearts, or anything like that. (Again, this is my analogy, so I can make the magic mirror do whatever I want.)

The second option the judge gives you is that you can have a magic phone that lets you talk to your family and friends whenever you want, but you will never be able to see them. Which option would you choose? I’d bet we’d all take the phone. We’d rather be able to have a conversation and communicate with our loved ones than simply look at or watch them because God created us for communion and communication – with Himself and with others. It isn’t good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). This is why God created us with ears to hear and mouths to speak. Besides the angels, humans are the only created things that interact with God and others through words.

In Genesis, God speaks to Adam before Adam says anything, and the first words Adam heard were, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). God promised to provide Adam with all the delightful food and nourishment he would need. You can think of God’s first words to Adam as a sermon, which is basically, “Listen Adam, I’ll take care of every need you have. I don’t want you to ever know what evil is. Just trust Me on this – evil is bad.” So, God created Adam to hear His Word and, by hearing that Word, Adam would trust and believe. But God also created Adam to speak.

The first recorded words of Adam in Scripture are his response to seeing the bride God made for him. “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man” (Gen. 2:23). However, we know that Adam used his voice prior to that because, before God created the woman, God had Adam give names to all the animals. Genesis would be a whole lot longer if it gave us all those details. “God brought Adam a four-legged, creature with black and white stripes, and Adam called it, ‘Zebra.’” By naming the animals, we have a concrete example of how Adam is created in God’s image. Like God did with Day, Night, Heaven, Earth, and Seas (Gen. 1:5, 8, 10), Adam joins with God in naming parts of creation.

That is why, when we consider this text, we know that this deaf and mute man’s condition is so pitiful. He isn’t what God created him to be. He can’t hear or communicate like he should. But Jesus releases this man to be what he was created to be and to do what he was created to do. Christ opens His ears to hear and releases his tongue to speak. Our translation there does a decent job by using the word “released,” but the Greek is even more vivid. In Greek, the text says, “the cords of his tongue are untied.” Jesus breaks the bonds that imprisoned this man to a lonely world without any communication. With one word, “Ephphatha,” Christ, the Word made flesh, restores this man to be what God had created him to be. A man who speaks rightly and plainly. (The Greek says that he speaks ‘orthodoxly.’)

Our Epistle reading today (Ro. 10:9-17) also highlighted the importance of hearing and speaking. “Faith comes by hearing” (Ro. 10:17). God’s Word goes into your ears, and the Holy Spirit creates faith in your heart. Then, with the mouth you confess and are saved (Ro. 10:10). We are created to first hear God’s Word which creates faith. Second, we are created to confess with our mouths, pray to God, and praise Him. This is what God intended for our lives. He speaks, and we respond. Over and over. Even now, after the Fall, prayer and faith is a continual conversation with God.

When we understand how sin has bound and imprisoned both our hearing and speaking, we can start to see how far we have fallen. The things that come out of our mouth should cause us extreme grief and shame (Mt. 15:11). James 3:8-10 says that our sinful tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison that lives in contradiction. We use our tongues to bless our Lord and Father, but then we turn around and curse people who are made in the likeness of God. This should not be so. It doesn’t help that, most of the time, the damage our tongues do to our neighbor goes unpunished. You aren’t going to be fined or jailed for gossip or so-called “little white lies.” Christian, with God’s help, you need to control your tongue and ask for mercy for the havoc your tongue causes in creation.

You also need to guard the communication you have with yourself in your mind. Philippians 4:8 says that we are to think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Your mind, and the minds of others, is never a vacuum. You’re always communicating something – even if it’s only with yourself. That is why we always need to put the most charitable construction on the actions of others. When we think they are doing things for wrong motives, we are more prone to think that they do the same toward us.

Here, Jesus tells this man and the people present to not tell anyone about the miracle. Jesus will periodically do this. We don’t always know why, but we do see in other instances that, when people disobey this kind of command, Christ’s ministry is hindered (Mk. 1:45). When Jesus tells you to be silent, be silent. But, and this is me speaking here, I think we Christians have adopted the attitude that this command is for everyone all the time. But that is wrong. There are other times where Jesus will tell people to return home and declare to others how much God has done for them (Mk. 5:19).

Yes, there are times to be silent but not always. The world needs to hear what God has done; the world needs to hear God’s truth very badly. There is a phenomenon in group communication called “the Abilene paradox” which is when a group of people decide on a course of action that is contrary to the preferences of all or most of the individuals in that group.

It was named that because of a story by a guy named Jerry Harvey where a family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch in Texas. The father-in-law thinks everyone else is bored, so he suggests they take a hot, 50-mile drive to Abilene, TX to have dinner. His wife says, “Sounds like a great idea. I haven’t been to Abilene in a long time.” Their daughter goes along with it as does the son-in-law. So, the four of them hop in the car to Abilene. The drive is miserable, hot, and dusty. The food is as bad as the drive. When they return, one of them dishonestly says, “That was a great trip, wasn’t it?” But the mother-in-law says she only went because everyone else was so enthusiastic about it. Their daughter says she wanted to keep everyone happy. The son-in-law confesses he didn’t want to go either, and the father-in-law admits he only suggested it because he thought everyone else was bored. So, the four of them sit back perplexed that they collectively decided to take a trip none of them wanted to go on. They all would have preferred to sit comfortably playing dominoes. The only thing that needed to happen to spare them the misery of that trip was for one of those four to speak up.

I wonder – and, again, this is my own speculation – if that is part of the reason our world and culture is so crazy right now. We Christians are afraid to simply confess the truth. Many people are insisting on things that are completely contrary to what is so obviously true. Just think of how often people want to redefine marriage or call a baby in a mother’s womb a cancerous tumor (yes, I actually heard someone say that), and a whole host of other insane things. The world needs us Christians to confess the truth. But too often, we are cowered into the corner and keep silent because we don’t want to rock the boat or be offensive. Christian, God has given you a mouth and voice. If you don’t use it and let the culture dictate the conversation, the world descends into chaos.

Christian, Jesus has opened your deaf ears and broken the bonds of your tongue to speak what is right, good, and true. Do that. Do it boldly. Do it lovingly. Do it with conviction.

Again, in our Epistle reading we hear, “Everyone who believes in [Jesus] will not be put to shame” (Ro. 10:11). And remember that Scripture connects believing with confessing (Ro. 10:8-9). When you speak the truth, you might be mocked, ridiculed, and told to be silent, but speaking the truth in love will never end in you being ashamed.

Dear saints, the bonds of your mute tongue and deaf ears have been broken by the Savior. Bring Christ and His work into your conversations around the coffee pot at work and in the bleachers at your kids’ games. Talk about Jesus while you eat with your children and buy groceries. Praise Him in the doctor’s office and wherever you go (Dt. 6:4-9). This is what you have been created, bought, and cleansed for. God speaks. We listen, respond, and declare that He does all things well.

Jesus is here today. He has opened your ears to hear His Word of forgiveness and mercy. He opens your mouth now to receive His Body and Blood. And Christ sends you from here with His praise on your tongue. Confess His name, proclaim His work, and declare His truth to the ends of the earth. Amen.

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

The Word of Yahweh – Sermon on Jeremiah 1:4-19 and Revelation 19:6-16 for Midweek Advent 3

Dec21

Jeremiah 1:4-19 & Revelation 19:6-16

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Through this Advent sermon series, we have seen Jesus, the eternal Son of God, in the Old Testament before He became Yahweh incarnate. The first week, we saw how Jesus appeared to Moses in the burning bush as the Angel/Messenger of Yahweh calling Moses to deliver His people out of slavery in Egypt. Last week, we heard how Yahweh defines His name, “I am,” to Moses through the book of Exodus. Tonight, we are fast-forwarding just over 800 years (806 to be exact) to the call of Jeremiah where we see how Jesus, the Word of Yahweh, is active in and through His people.

In that Old Testament reading tonight (Jer. 1:4-19), Jeremiah recounts God calling him to be a prophet. Jeremiah tells us, “The Word of Yahweh came to me” (Jer. 1:4). Now, right off the bat, we don’t want to get the wrong impression about this encounter. When Jeremiah says, “the Word of Yahweh came to me,” it isn’t just some voice in Jeremiah’s head or even something Jeremiah merely hears with his ears. No. Look at v. 9. The Word of Yahweh that comes to Jeremiah has a hand that reaches out and touches Jeremiah’s mouth.

Lord willing (Jam. 4:15), we will gather again this Sunday night and hear from Jn. 1:14 that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In other words, the God who created all things took upon Himself a body. Now, because of Christmas, being human is part of God’s identity. But here, long before Jesus was born, this Word of Yahweh comes to Jeremiah, stretches out His hand, and touches Jeremiah’s mouth because had a plan for Jeremiah. A plan which had been in place for a long, long time.

The Word of Yahweh didn’t wait for the right person to come along, get all the right education, and amass five years of experience before calling him. Nope! Even before Jeremiah was born or formed in the womb, Yahweh had appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations (Jer. 1:5). But Jeremiah isn’t too keen on the idea because he’s only a youth (probably under 20 years old), so Yahweh gives Jeremiah this wonderful calling and promise, “Wherever I send you, go. Whatever I command you, speak. You don’t need to be afraid. I’ll be with you.” And that with divine hand, the Word of Yahweh reaches out and places His words in Jeremiah’s mouth. And those words set Jeremiah over nations and kingdoms to pluck up, break down, destroy, and overthrow. And those words also enable Jeremiah to build and plant. In other words, God is going to use Jeremiah to speak His words of Law and Gospel.

Jeremiah served in the twilight of his nation, Judah. Jeremiah’s culture, like our culture today, had drifted far from God’s Commandments. That is why four stated purposes of his preaching are related to judgment – to pluck up, to tear down, to destroy, and to overthrow.

But Jeremiah will also build and plant by preaching beautiful Gospel. He would preach about healing and restoration (Jer. 3:22, 30:17). Jeremiah would preach that even though the people would go into exile, a remnant would return (Jer. 23:3, 50:20). He announced that Yahweh would raise up for David the righteous Branch and make His people righteous (Jer. 23:5-6). Through Jeremiah, God foretold the New Covenant Jesus would institute in Holy Communion where Yahweh would forgive iniquity and remember sin no more (Jer. 31:31-34).

In our text, the Word of Yahweh comes to Jeremiah two more times with these visions of an almond branch and boiling pot. For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to go into too much detail about the significance of why God shows those two particular things to Jeremiah. But we should notice the comfort those visions bring. In the vision of the almond branch, the Word of Yahweh promises that He is watching over His Word to perform it. Through the Word of Yahweh, God announces what is going to do (Am. 3:7), and He follows through. God says what He does, and He does what He says.

And with the vision of the boiling pot, the Word of Yahweh declares that His judgment is about to boil over against the sin of His people. That’s why Jeremiah is to dress himself for work and not hold back the preaching of the Law (Jer. 1:16-17). Even though Jeremiah’s audience isn’t going to like what God says through him, the Word of Yahweh promises that He will make Jeremiah a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls (Jer. 1:18). And even though everyone fights against Jeremiah, God promises to be with him to deliver him (Jer. 1:19). And if God promises to do that for Jeremiah, He can also do it for and to you.

But, we need to change gears here because you and I are not Jeremiah. And yet Jesus, the Word of Yahweh, has called us to proclaim His Word to the people He puts in our lives. The world needs to hear what God has to say. In Mt. 10:27, Christ says, “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” That, at times is a daunting call. But dear saints, we cannot shrink back from saying what God has clearly said in His Word. The world has turned upside down because we who bear Christ’s name have been either afraid or ashamed to simply say what the Bible says. Repent.

In Mk. 8:38, Jesus warns, “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father.” The opinions of evil, sinful men do not change the truth of what God says. Don’t ever be ashamed or afraid of confessing what God has said in His Word. You, like Jeremiah, can speak the Word of Yahweh before kings and not be put to shame (Ps. 119:46). God is with you and will strengthen you like forged metal upon which the forces of this world will break. Jesus promises that when you are dragged before the authorities of this world to bear witness, you don’t need to be anxious or worried about what to say because the Holy Spirit will give you the very words that need to be spoken, and God will speak through you (Mt. 10:18-20). So speak.

I want to close these Advent sermons with the picture we were given in our Epistle reading (Rev. 19:6-16). There, John sees Jesus, the Word of Yahweh, riding on a white horse. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and He wears many crowns on His head. The armies of heaven follow Him, and from His mouth comes a sharp sword which will strike down the nations that He will rule over with a rod of iron.

That picture is how your Savior is today. Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt. 28:18). Throughout human history, earthly rulers have and will continue to be in rebellion against Christ, and their treachery has brought harm to creation. But, ultimately, those authorities have no power. Jesus, the Word of Yahweh, has more power than all the forces of the world and all their machines of war combined. This Jesus has come once, and He is coming again.

But there is more to that picture. The first half of that reading shows you – the Church and Bride of Christ. You, believer, are part of that great multitude singing the praises of Christ. Because Jesus came in your flesh, suffered, bled, died, and rose again for you, God has granted you to be clothed in fine, bright, and pure clothes. You stand, clothed in the good works and righteous deeds that God has prepared beforehand for you to walk in (Eph 2:10).

Christ – the Lamb and Bridegroom, the Word of Yahweh – has come. This fact brings terror to the faithless, but that isn’t you. You are His beloved. And He is coming to bring you to to Himself and to eternal life, joy, and peace. Hallelujah! Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

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

See No Death, Taste No Death – Sermon on John 8:42-59 for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

Mar26

John 8:42–59

⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” ⁴⁹ Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”⁵² The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” ⁵⁴ Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ⁵⁵ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷ So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” ⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today we hear Jesus give one of the clearest, most comforting promises He ever spoke. “Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.” As comforting as this already is, it is even more comforting when we consider the context of when Jesus says this. Jesus is having an argument with some of the Jews in the Temple (Jn. 8:20, 24), and this argument is heated.

Earlier, in part of the argument that isn’t in our text, Jesus told them, “You will die in your sin.” He calls them slaves to sin (Jn. 8:31-34). In this reading, you heard Jesus call these hostile people children of the devil (Jn. 8:44) who do not listen to the voice of God (Jn. 8:47).

Now, these are not tactics you will hear in an evangelism class, but it is all true. Of course, Jesus is telling them the truth. Everything He says is absolutely true, clear, and direct. Jesus isn’t beating around the bush or sugarcoating anything. He isn’t worried about tiptoeing around touchy topics in order to maintain His relationship with them just in case they eventually come around to see things His way. Christ tells them what they need to hear even though it is offensive.

Dear saints, there are times when you simply tell someone the truth, and they will get mad. But the truth remains the truth no matter how people respond to it. Yes, speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15), but remember that the truth is always loving. And know that there are times people will get angry when they hear the truth. And it isn’t a matter of you needing to speak the truth in a better way or be more loving. You are not smarter, gentler, or more loving than Jesus. Even though He speaks the hard truth to them, Jesus loves these people. About six months after this argument, Jesus will go the cross and be their substitute under God’s wrath, but here they get angry with Him. And if people got angry with Jesus for telling the truth, then, Christian, there are times when people will be angry with you for telling the truth. Sometimes, showing love will get people angry with you.

That’s all important to know, but we are trying to see how great a promise Jesus makes to these people who are arguing with Him when He tells them that if they keep His Word they will never see or taste death. He starts with the hard but loving truth, but listen to how they respond. They throw two accusations at Jesus, “Are we not right is saying that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Now, calling Jesus a Samaritan was, at least, a racial slur. Today, people’s lives get ruined if they use this type of language. But this might have been more than just a racial slur.

Remember, Jesus had just called them children of the devil (Jn. 8:42), and when they call Jesus a Samaritan, it appears that they are responding to Jesus calling them Satan’s spawn. They are saying that Jesus’ mom was adulterous and promiscuous. They are calling Jesus is an illegitimate child.

They also accuse Jesus of having a demon. Here is God in the flesh warning people and calling them to repentance and faith, and they accuse Him of trying to pull them down into hell. If I were in Jesus’ sandals and had to listen to people saying awful things like this, the best I could hope to do is walk away from them. But Jesus doesn’t walk away. Instead, this is the context where He gives them the promise, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word, He will never see death.” He is calling them to faith and life. Despite their horrific statements, Jesus still loves them and wants to rescue them from death. That Jesus would give this promise to these people – in fact, that He is even speaking to them at all – is tremendous, remarkable mercy. Jesus had come to rescue them.

But, again, they respond to this promise, “Now we know you have a demon!” They are hearing are the very words of God, but they think it is the voice of Satan. Jesus had come to His own, but they did not receive Him (Jn. 1:11); they loved the darkness rather than the light (Jn. 3:19).

So, what does Jesus mean when He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word, He will never see death”? First, what does it mean to keep His Word?

To keep Jesus’ Word is to believe what He says. Keeping Jesus’ Word does mean to do the things He commands, but it also means that when you fail to obey what He says, you also keep Jesus’ promises. It means believing that because of what God has done for you in Christ, you are forgiven (Jn. 6:28-29). Keeping Jesus’ Word means to believe what He says when He calls you a sinner, and keeping Jesus’ Word means believing what He says when He declares that you are forgiven.

Anyone who keeps Jesus’ Word will never see death. And what does that mean? Well, most of you have heard me preach at a funeral, so this is something you have heard before. But even if we heard this a thousand times, we still need to be reminded of it – even if it isn’t at a funeral.

To the one who keeps Jesus’ Word, to anyone who believes the Gospel, in other words you, Christian, you will never see death. You won’t die. And this isn’t the only time Jesus says something like this. In John 10:28, Jesus says that His sheep will never perish. In John 11:26, Jesus plainly says, “Everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

It is true that one day you will breathe your last and your heart will stop beating – unless Jesus comes first. Christ might return before that happens (1 Thess. 4:15). Let’s imagine that Jesus does come back before you die, you are simply given your new body and are eternally with the Lord. If you went and found your loved ones who did die and asked them, “What was that like? What happened when you died?”

Their response would be, “I don’t know. I didn’t die. Jesus was simply with me the entire time.”

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Ps. 23:4) – all the way through. Jesus has died for you. Christ has taken away your sin, your guilt, your shame, and even your death.

That is why Scripture will regularly use different terms when a believer dies. Abraham didn’t die, he was “gathered to his people (Gen. 25:8). Simeon, after he sees forty-day-old Jesus in the Temple says that now he can depart in peace (Lk. 2:29). The Bible talks about death being sleep (Mt. 9:24; Jn. 11:11, 13-14; 1 Thess. 4:13) from which Jesus will simply wake us. Paul talks about death as “departing and being with Christ” (Php. 1:23), being “delivered from evil” (2 Tim. 4:18), and even death being gain (Php. 1:21).

Dear saints, Jesus is the God of the living (Lk. 20:38) and He promises that, “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate [you] from the love of God in Christ Jesus [your] Lord” (Ro. 8:38-39). Dear saints, keep Jesus’ Word, believe, and you will never see and never taste death. Amen.

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

Unmuted – Sermon on Luke 11:14-28 for the Third Sunday of Lent

Mar12

Luke 11:14–28

¹⁴ Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. ¹⁵ But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” ¹⁶ while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. ¹⁷ But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. ¹⁸ And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹ And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁰ But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²¹ When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; ²² but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. ²³ Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

²⁴ “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ ²⁵ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. ²⁶Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

²⁷ As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” ²⁸ But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The past few weeks including today, the Scripture readings have had us considering temptation, the devil’s work, and demons. Even though we might prefer to think about other things, Jesus wants us to know about and beware of the devil and the demons. Christ takes demons seriously. Our Lord doesn’t spend a lot of time warning us about our finances, sickness, or wars. But Jesus regularly and repeatedly warns against false doctrine and against demons. So, demons will be part of our focus today because that is what the text has for us.

Almost everything we know about demons comes from the New Testament. Demons are creatures; they are fallen angels. They, just like everything else, were created by God, and we know that they were initially created good because when God looked over everything He created, He saw that it was good (Gen. 1:31). Satan, who is nothing more than the chief demon, led the rest of the demons in rebellion against God. Demons are real, powerful, malicious, and malevolent. Scripture calls them the “cosmic powers over this present darkness” and the “spiritual entities of evil” (Eph. 6:12). But even if they all worked together, they would not have more power than God. They all flee from and melt before God’s Word.

Now, I want to clear something up from the sermon last week, but I want to preface it with this: If you ever have a question about anything I preach, please feel free to talk with me about it. I am not immune from preaching incorrectly. So, if you ever hear anything from my mouth as I preach or teach that doesn’t line up with Scripture, please point it out to me. And I’ve said this before, and it’s time to say it again. If you find that I am preaching contrary to Scripture and won’t receive correction, run me out of here for the sake of your soul.

In last week’s sermon I went off script for a bit and said that the demons, “are God’s demons.” I was very politely asked about that statement, and I want to make sure that statement isn’t misunderstood. God does not direct the demons to torment us. God tempts no one with evil (Jam. 1:13). To anyone who got that impression, please forgive me. That is not what I was trying to convey, and I should have been clearer than I was. What was meant by that is that the demons are completely under God’s control, and they cannot do anything unless God allows it. We know this because even Satan had to get God’s permission to torment Job (Job 1:6-12, 2:1-6). The other thing we should see is that God can even use the attacks and assaults of demons to bring about good. God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Ro. 8:28) – even the work of demons.

Now, to this Gospel text. We don’t learn about the tactics of demons here, but we do learn about one of their objectives or goals. A demon has made a man mute. Other places in the Gospels, demons will make people throw their bodies around (Mk. 5:1-5, 9:25-27) and speak through their voices (compare Mk. 5:7, 9). Demons seem to want to influence people in certain ways. Again, here the issue is this man is unable to speak. One of the reasons demons want us to be mute is that with the heart one believes and with the mouth he confesses and is saved (Ro. 10:10).

The demons do not want us to confess or praise Christ. They want us to be silent – especially when it comes to God’s Word. Demons do not want us to speak up for the unborn, about marriage existing only between a man and a woman, or even about the God-created differences between men and women. None of those are things are “political.” If you think those are only political issues, it shows that the demons are gaining ground over your thinking about those things. Satan and the demons want us to think that moral issues are merely political issues. Dear saints, Scripture and theology should be used in all aspects of life. Abortion, marriage, and gender issues are not political issues. Not even climate change is a political issue. God promised that until Christ returns to make all things new, “seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22). God does call us to take good care of the creation He has given us, but we cannot destroy it. We aren’t that powerful, and thinking we are is a form of idolatry. But the demons want to make us mute on a whole host of topics so they can deceive the whole world.

All of us, at times, have fallen into the demonic temptation of being mute. Instead of speaking the truth in love, we fear losing friends, offending family members, or missing out on a promotion. Instead of fearing God, we fear being called judgmental, bigoted, sexist, homophobic, etc. The world needs Christians to speak the truth out loud now more than ever.

And, dear saints, here is why you can be bold when it comes to the truth. The demons are real, terrible, malicious, and dangerous, but they are also utterly defeated. Jesus says that He casts out demons by the finger of God. By His death and resurrection, Christ has disarmed the demons and put them to open shame (Col. 2:15). Jesus is the stronger man who has defeated Satan and all of the demons. And because Christ has won the victory over them, we can easily defeat them too. James 4:7 says, “Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

To see how defeated the demons are, pay attention to the little parable Jesus tells in this text. He says that when a strong man (and there Jesus is referring to the devil), who is fully armed guards (and keep that word ‘guards’ in the back of your mind because it comes up again in a little bit) his house (which is the world), his goods (I.e. sinners) are safely under his lordship. But Jesus says that when one stronger than him (and Jesus is referring to Himself) comes and attacks him, Christ takes away his armor, and divides the spoil (and that is you).

Just think about that. Jesus says that He has come to rob the devil’s house and you are the spoils, the treasure, the plunder that Jesus wants to rescue out of the devil’s cellar. Christ has won, redeemed, purchased, and grabbed you from the devil’s clutches. All by the power of His finger. And Christ opens your lips to declare His praise (Ps. 51:15) and the truth. He has pulled you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

So how do you know if you are in the kingdom of God or in the kingdom of the devil? Well, Jesus answers that. A woman says to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.” Now, Mary was certainly blessed. She is the mother of our Lord. But Jesus says, even better than being His mother is to hear the Word of God and keep it. Though you were guarded by Satan, Jesus has come and rescued you with His finger transferring you into His kingdom. Now, you keep – which is the same word Jesus used to describe what Satan, the strong man, did with his goods he guarded and kept them. Now, you keep and guard the Word that Jesus used to deliver you from Satan.

With His little finger, Jesus destroys the stronghold and armor of the devil and claims you as His own. And He will never leave you or forsake you. Instead, Christ guards and keeps you now and for all eternity. This is why keeping, guarding, confessing, being unmuted when it comes to God’s Word is so important. With the shield of faith, you are able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one (Eph. 6:16). Your voice unmuted and you open your lips so that you can boldly proclaim the excellences of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). May God grant us the boldness to speak the truth in love. 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.

See and Rejoice – Sermon on John 8:42-59 for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Apr3

John 8:42-59

⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” ⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” ⁵² The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” ⁵⁴ Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ⁵⁵But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷ So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” ⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This portion of John is one of the high points of the four Gospels because, here, Jesus pulls back the veil and reveals Himself to be God saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” There is a whole sermon there, but it will have to wait until the next time this text rolls around. Today, we’re going to consider just two sentences from our Lord. The first reveals just how stubborn mankind is in our sin and how desperate we are to believe lies, and the second sets us up for the Scripture readings we are going to be hearing next Sunday and through Holy Week.

In the last half of v. 46, Jesus asks, “If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?” That question should startle us – especially because it comes from the lips of our Savior. In our fallen, sinful state, we are willing to reject the truth even when it stares us in the face. When the truth is difficult and hurts us, we would rather live by lies than change course. We have this false idea in our minds where we think that if people are presented with the facts so that the truth is crystal clear, then everybody will agree and everything will be right in the world. But that is false.

Here, Jesus, who is the Truth (Jn. 14:6), speaks the truth to the people in the Temple, but they refuse to believe and are ready to stone Him. No matter how clearly the truth is spoken or how authoritative the speaker of truth is, there are some who will simply reject it and refuse to live in reality.

Sometimes, we think that problems we face are caused by the news channels, social media suppression, or other sources of misinformation. Those things certainly don’t help. But don’t imagine that if someone waived a magic wand and made all those things disappear that, suddenly, everything would be right in the world and everyone would automatically believe the truth. People didn’t believe Jesus when He spoke the truth. And even worse, Jesus was persecuted when He spoke the truth. Dear saints, we should expect the same. In fact, that is exactly what we see today.

The reason people reject truth, especially the truth about God, is that we are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). Because of our sin, we do not and cannot love God. We cannot come to Him or understand Him. Instead, we naturally run away from Him. But God still desires to bring you back unto Himself. So, God goes out to battle and fights for you. And – it is so important to understand this – when God fights for you, yes, He is fighting against Satan and the demons, against sin and death. But even more importantly, when God fights for you, He is even fighting against you, against your sinful nature and mine.

The texts through Lent have all been about this fight. The first Sunday of Lent, we saw how Jesus fought against the devil in His temptation (Mt. 4:1-11). The second and third Sundays of Lent, we saw how Jesus fought against the demons (Mt. 15:21-28, Lk. 11:14-28). Last week, we saw how Jesus fought against the crowds who wanted Jesus to satisfy all their fleshly desires and make Him a bread king (Jn. 6:1-15). Today, there is an obvious fight between and the crowds as Jesus simply speaks truth and is rejected. The crowds were so adamant in their rejection they are ready to stone Him (Jn. 8:59). And those crowds would have killed Jesus if it had been His time to die, but it wasn’t His time – not yet. But in next week’s Gospel lesson, which will be Matthew’s account of Jesus’ passion (Mt. 26:1-27:66) and then again in the texts for Good Friday, it will be Jesus’ time to die. The same crowds will call for Jesus to be crucified. And there, on the cross, Jesus will fight the final, decisive battle against all the forces of evil.

Lent is about God fighting against evil. When we get to Easter and the Resurrection, we will celebrate Jesus’ victory. With the resurrection, Jesus reveals His victory over all evil, even the evil within you and me. Because of the resurrection, you can know that Christ has snatched you away from the kingdom of darkness and transferred you to His kingdom of light (Eph. 1:13, 1 Pet. 2:9). And as His people, we will celebrate His victory. On Easter, we will rejoice and sing, and our hearts will be glad when we celebrate the resurrection. But what will we do, and how will we react, as we hear Jesus fighting that battle? What will be our response as we see Jesus going to the cross and suffering God’s eternal wrath against our sin?

Some of you have mentioned to me how you don’t like Good Friday and Christ’s crucifixion and would much rather jump straight to Easter and the resurrection. Now, I understand the sentiment. I do. But there is no Easter joy, no resurrection gladness, apart from Good Friday. Easter cannot happen unless Jesus dies first. One of the Sunday school teachers (and I apologize, but don’t remember who it was) mentioned to me in the past couple weeks how one of their students asked why call the day of Jesus’ death ‘Good Friday.’ What is good about that? Well, today Jesus tells us.

Jesus makes a comment in v. 56 of today’s text that helps us know how to approach the texts of Holy Week and how to see His crucifixion. Jesus says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.” What is Jesus talking about there? Notice, Jesus doesn’t say that Abraham ‘believed in My day and was glad.’ No. Abraham saw it and was glad. Well, Abraham saw Jesus’ day in our Old Testament text (Gen. 22:1-14).

There, when Isaac was spared from being sacrificed, Abraham sees the ram caught in a thicket by its horns. And Abraham doesn’t have to be told anything. Immediately, Abraham takes Isaac off the wood and places the ram in Isaac’s place. Abraham sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac, Abraham’s beloved son. Through that sacrifice, God is visibly showing Abraham what He will do through Jesus, His only-begotten Son. In that text, Abraham saw what God would do in and through Jesus as He goes to the cross in your place. Abraham saw, rejoiced, and was glad.

Dear saints, as we approach the crucifixion and see Jesus’ day of victory over sin, death, the devil, and our own sinful flesh, let us see and rejoice as well. Jesus willingly goes to the cross in your place. There on Mt. Calvary, Christ wins the victory and battle for you. As we approach Holy Week, let us look to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith and remember that Scripture says it was “for the joy,” the joy, “that was set before Him, He endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2) for Abraham, for Isaac, for you, and for all sinners.

Dear saints, on the cross your Savior has won the battle. Christ has shed His blood and with that blood, He now cleanses your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Come now and receive the Body and Blood of your Savior who brings you into the new covenant and to your promised, eternal inheritance (Heb. 9:14-15). Amen.

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

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

Feb14

Listen here.

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.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Or as Mr. T would say, “Happy Balentine Day!”

Love is the highest of all virtues. Faith and hope are right near the top, but love is still the greatest. More on that at the end of the sermon.

The world doesn’t know what love is. And too often, even we Christians have a misguided understanding of love. Sometimes, love hurts as the band Nazareth said back in ’75. Our problem is that we have associated love with certain feelings, and we wrongly think we are loving when we say or do something that makes us feel good about ourselves. When our feelings become the standard of what is and what is not love, we are in a bad place. What’s even worse is that in our culture today tolerance has risen to the top of all virtues. Can you imagine getting a card from your spouse or parent or child that says, “Happy Valentine’s Day! I tolerate you”? It wouldn’t go well.

To be sure, tolerance is a virtue. There are times where we find the views of others to be strange, wrong, or even abhorrent, but we can still live peaceably with that person. That’s true tolerance, and it is good to be tolerant in that sense. But when the word ‘tolerance’ is used today, that’s not what people usually mean. Today, ‘tolerance’ has come to mean that you endorse or affirm opinions or ideas that are totally unbiblical and unnatural, and if you don’t, you are labeled as ‘intolerant.’ We could do a whole study on the hypocrisy of that mindset, but we’re not going to do that today – at least not directly. Instead, we are going to talk about love in the truest sense.

Love is what this world needs because true love is in short supply. Thankfully, the Scriptures repeatedly show us what true love is, what true love does, and what true love does not do. This text from 1 Cor. 13 is one of the best definitions of love. In v. 4-8a, we are given sixteen different aspects of love – seven describe what love is and nine describe what it is not.

Just to run through them quickly, and I will encourage you to take your Scripture insert home and use two different-colored highlighters to mark what love is and what it is not.

Here is what love is. Love is patient and kind. Love rejoices with the truth. Love is bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. When you consider the seven things that love is, you and I can quickly see that we are not loving because we are not those things.

Here is what love is not. Love is not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, not rude, and not insistent. Love is not irritable and not resentful (the Gk. there is literally love does not ‘count up wrongdoing.’ I like how other translations do it there, ‘It keeps no record of wrongs.’). Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Love does not end. When you consider those nine things that love is not, again, you and I quickly see that we are not loving because we are those things.

So, again, Scripture tells us what love is, and we recognize we are not those things. And Scripture tells us what love is not, and we recognize we are those things. Let us all repent.

There is One who is all the things that love is and who is not all the things that love isn’t – God. God is love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16). We see this most clearly in Jesus. 1 John 4:9-10 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the ‘atoning sacrifice’) for our sins.” If we want to see the love described here in 1 Cor. 13 in action and what it looks like in real life, all we have to do is look at Jesus, God in the flesh – embodied love. So, we’re going to play a game here. Let’s consider how Jesus interacted with people and ask if He was loving. I promise there are no tricks here, but there are wrong answers. The purpose of this little exercise is to help us understand how to live a life of love.

First question. Was Jesus loving when He repeatedly taught the disciples that He must be betrayed, go to the cross, suffer, die, and rise again – even though the disciples didn’t understand it (Lk. 9:22; 9:43b-45; 18:31-34)? Yes, Jesus was loving. He was being patient, and He was bearing with the disciples’ misunderstanding.

Next question. Was Jesus loving in our Gospel text (Lk. 18:31-43) when He restored the sight of blind Bartimaeus? Yes, He was being kind. Was Jesus loving when He healed Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever (Mt. 8:14), when He forgave and healed the paralytic who was lowered through the hole ripped open in the roof of His house (Mk. 2:1f), when He cleansed lepers, cast out demons, gave hearing to the deaf, fed the hungry, and raised the dead? Yes, Jesus was loving. He was being very, very kind.

Good job! You’re doing well at our little game. Let’s keep playing and see how many imaginary points you can get.

Was Jesus being loving when He went into the wilderness to fast and be tempted (Mt. 4:1-11; Lk. 4:1-13)? Was He loving when He believed God’s Word rather than the devil’s lies in that temptation? Was He loving when He hoped in God’s provision of food at the right time? Was He loving when He endured those temptations? Yes! Jesus was loving. Remember, love believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Let’s go to round two and make the game a little more difficult here.

Was Jesus loving when He preached the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7)? Jesus taught there that no jot or tittle will pass away from the Commandments. He taught that anger is the same as murder – it’s just murder in your heart. Same with lust. Lust is committing adultery in your heart. Was Jesus loving in that sermon when He teaches you how to love your enemies, how to give, how to pray, and how to fast? Yes, Jesus was loving. Remember, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.

Taking a quick break from our game here to bring this to your everyday life. There are times where you are going to have to correct others. Parents, this duty regularly falls to you, but it isn’t only for parents. If you love your children, you will have to teach your kids right and wrong. You will have to teach them how to deal with people who hate them, how to be generous, how to pray, and how to give up things that are harmful to them.

Let’s step the difficulty in our game up a notch and make it a little harder. Remember, there’s no tricks in this game. For this round, think back to the list of things that love is not. Love is not envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, insistent, or irritable.

Was Jesus loving when He cleared out the Temple (Mt. 21:12-17; Mk. 11:15-18; Lk. 19:45-46; Jn. 2:13-22)? Yes! Jesus was loving. But you might wonder when He saw the sellers and moneychangers and flipped their tables, when He made a whip to drive them out of the Temple, when He was consumed with zeal for God’s house and said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” wasn’t Jesus being envious, rude, and irritable? No, He wasn’t. He was still being loving even though those acts certainly made the sellers and money-changers uncomfortable.

How about when Jesus clearly taught, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” (Jn. 14:6) was Jesus being loving there? Isn’t that being boastful, arrogant, and insistent? No, Jesus wasn’t being any of those things. He was loving. Again, He was rejoicing in and teaching the truth.

We need another break from our game here to apply this to our lives. I hope you all remember Abdi, the leader of the Islamic center just a couple blocks from here. A few years ago, the Islamic center had an event to introduce themselves to the community, who they are and what they do. The people there were extremely kind. They provided a good meal to everyone who came. But one of the presenters that day took a lot of time trying to say that Muslims worship the same God that Christians worship. Which is absolutely false. Sure, they will say that they trace their pagan religion back to Abraham which we do as well. They will point to passages in the Koran that say Jesus is a good teacher who should be listened to. But they deny the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh who died and rose again for the forgiveness of sins. Islam is a false, pagan religion of works not grace.

During that gathering, Abdi invited me to introduce myself, and I wasn’t really prepared to say anything. So, I had to make a split second decision of how to love these people who were being kind and generous but teaching things that are false. I don’t exactly remember what I said, but I simply thanked them for their hospitality and mentioned that I hope to get to know them better and work with them to help the people of our community. I didn’t go on a diatribe of how Muslims will go to hell unless they convert to Christianity. I didn’t rant about the evil, violence, and oppression that Islam promotes. It wasn’t the time to do that. But I was wearing this cross which confesses that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It confesses Jesus’ death and resurrection. I know some people there noticed the cross. And I hope and pray that how I conducted myself there will open the door for opportunities to talk more with those people for whom Jesus died so they too can believe in Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

And I will readily confess, that may have not been most loving thing to do. I admit, there was some cowardice in that moment on my part. God forgive me if anything I did or said was misleading the Muslims there to think I was affirming their pagan beliefs. I don’t think it was misleading in that way. But I hope and pray what I said and did there will open the door to develop good relationships and grant opportunities to point them to Christ. All of this is to say, dear saints, you are, at times, going to be put into positions where you need to be loving and it isn’t crystal clear what the most loving thing to do is. For the time being, we see in a mirror dimly. But know that your words and actions must confess the truth that Jesus is the only way of salvation. That is always loving.

Back to our little game, and this is the final, and in my opinion, most difficult round.

Think back to when Jesus was talking with the woman at the well in Samaria (see Jn. 4:1-42). There are other moments that would work here. But this is my game, so I get to make up the questions. As Jesus talks to her, He offers her the water of eternal life, and the woman is extremely interested to learn more. Then Jesus says, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” But the woman responds, “I have no husband.” And Jesus comes right back saying, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” If love, as defined by Scripture, says that “love is not resentful” (and remember that literally, that means “love does not count up wrongs”), was Jesus being loving there? I mean, Jesus brought up a detailed record of her sins. Was He loving when He did that? Yes, Jesus was being loving. The woman’s adultery was a sin that needed to be addressed and dealt with. She needed repentance and forgiveness, and Jesus gives her both repentance and forgiveness (for God being the source of repentance see Act. 11:18, 5:31).

Dear saints, it is unloving to endorce or celebrate people harming themselves in their life of sin. Parents, it is not loving to allow your children to continually ignore your rules and treat your rules as though they do not matter. It is not loving to repeatedly warn your child of consequences but not follow through on them. For example, if you threaten to punish your kid for standing on the couch but never actually dole out that punishment, they will think that your words aren’t important. And when you warn them that running into the street without looking first is dangerous, they might think you aren’t serious about that either.

Another example, I don’t think any of you are dealing with this specifically – God be praised. But I want to use this example to set up something else. If there is someone in your life who is slowly killing themselves with an addiction to illegal drugs, is it loving to provide a home and access to your money (even if it is by them stealing it)? No, it is not loving. You might need to kick that person out of your house. That person might say that you are being unloving by making them homeless. They might not see your actions as loving, but know that it is not love to help feed that addiction. That sets me up for this:

The same goes for sexual sins. And I’m going to talk about the LGBTQ movement for a moment here. It is not loving to say that it’s ok for two men or two women to pretend to be married. God invented and created marriage to be a man and a woman. And don’t fall for the lie that those relationships don’t harm anyone and aren’t your concern. People who chose to live a homosexual lifestyle are harming themselves and others with diseases and depression. They are harming others by not having children who will become productive members of society. The same goes for men who think they are women and women who think they are men. The hormones they inject into their bodies and the surgeries they may have do irreparable harm. It is not loving to say that those choices aren’t the concern of anyone else and promote them. We do need to correct these things in as kind a way as possible. We do not harangue or yell. We need to let love guide the way in which we correct these things. Build relationships, look for open doors, and speak in kindest and most loving way – always.

Dear saints, I hope this little game we’ve played has been helpful to give your love direction. Know that following and keeping God’s commands and speaking the truth about what God commands is love. When Jesus summarizes the Ten Commandments, He boils it down to this, “Love the Lord your god with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk. 12:28-31). And Romans 13:10distills it down even further when it says, “Love is the fulfilling of the Law.” How we love others in a specific situation isn’t always going to be perfectly clear. But the Commandments and our relationship with others gives us a guide as to how to love others. There will be times where you will have to use your God-given wisdom to know if you need to be patient or kind or speak harsh truths that may not be welcomed or received. And know – know beyond a shadow of a doubt – that you will fail in your love for God and your love for others.

But also know that God hasn’t failed in His love for you. Even though the disciples didn’t know what Jesus meant when He plainly told them that He would die and rise again for them, He did it anyway. Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Well, Jesus went even further. He laid down His life for wicked, unloving sinners. He laid down His life for you.

Love is not one virtue among many. It is the only virtue. The chief virtue. The virtue from which all other virtues flow. When this passage says that love never ends, know what that means for you. Christ’s love never ends, which means that Christ’s love embraces you with a love that will change your mortal body into a resurrected, glorious body. Christ’s unending love for you is why you believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

In this life, our love will always fall short of the real standards of what love is. But Jesus’ love for you doesn’t. 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 the greatest. Faith will cease because it will be replaced by sight. Hope will no longer be needed because it will be exchanged with experience. That’s why love is the greatest of the three. It will never end. 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. For that, God be praised. Amen.

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

Just as He Said – Sermon for Easter Sunday on Mark 16:1-8

Apr1

Listen here.

Mark 16:1–8

¹ When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” ⁴ And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. ⁵ And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. ⁶ And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” ⁸ And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Empty Tomb 1

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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

No less than three times, Jesus had told His followers that He would be betrayed, suffer, and die. And on the third day, He would rise again.

As the sun rises, the women grab their spices and make their way to the tomb. Their hope is lost because they fell into believing the mocking they heard on Good Friday, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself.”

These women intended to do a loving but futile service to their dead friend, Jesus. Their plan is to honor Him by putting sweet smells on His stinky corpse. In their minds, God had failed them, and hope was lost.

And as they walk to the tomb, things get even worse. They realize they can’t even do what they were planning: “Who will roll away the stone?” Even this one, little thing – putting spices on a dead body – is beyond their ability.

How often does this happen to you? How often in life do you feel like you are simply wandering through a graveyard, weeping? How often does some stone get in your way so you are unable to do the smallest thing? How many times have you failed? How many times have you fallen? How many times have you been ready to give up? How many times has your sin brought you to despair?

Well, look up. The stone is rolled away for you. Go ahead, enter the tomb. No dead are inside. Your Savior is risen, and everything is just as Jesus said:

Christ was judged, and you are liberated.

Christ was spit upon, and you are washed clean.

Christ was mocked, and you are praised.

Christ was killed, and you are reborn.

Christ is risen, and death is undone.

Christ is risen, and the devil flees defeated.

Christ is risen, and mankind is restored.

Christ is risen, and you will rise too.

Jesus has gone before you. He has gone through trial and temptation, and He has come through victorious. Jesus has gone through a life of suffering, yet without sin. Jesus has come through death. He lives. So will you.

You will see Him. Everything is just as Jesus said.

You are forgiven, just as He said.

You are the recipients of His grace, just as He said.

Your Redeemer lives, just as He said.

Everything Jesus has promised is yours.

Jesus says in Him you find rest (Mt. 11:28).

Jesus says that – though you have tribulation in this world – He has overcome the world, so take heart (Jn. 16:33).

Jesus says that you who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied (Mt. 5:6).

Jesus says whoever believes in Him will have eternal life (Jn. 3:16).

Jesus says He is your resurrection and your life (Jn. 11:25).

Jesus says there is no condemnation for you who are in Him (Ro. 8:1).

Angel Sitting on the Stone of Christ's Tomb Matthew 28 And now, you have angel’s work to do. Go. Tell others. Tell them that because Jesus is their brother, they are God’s children. Tell them they are forgiven because of Jesus. Tell them they are made holy because of Jesus. Tell them because everything is finished just as He told you.

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.

The Devil’s Lie – Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent on John 8:42-59

Mar18

Listen here.

John 8:42–59

⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” ⁴⁹ Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” ⁵² The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” ⁵⁴ Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ⁵⁵ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷ So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” ⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

So, you wake up this morning. Shower (hopefully). Get dressed. Drive yourself over to church. Grab a cup of coffee. Catch up on how others’ week went and talk about the weather. Grab your bulletin. Sit down in your pew. Speak some Scripture. Sing some songs. Confess your faith. Pass the offering plate. And this is the Jesus you hear?

Combative Jesus. Intolerant Jesus. Name-calling Jesus. Rude Jesus.

Jesus is fed up because these people, like you, have believed the devil’s lie rather than the truth of God’s Word. So, Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush. The people arguing with Him are Satan’s spawn, children of the murdering devil.

Jesus says something extremely important here. Look at the last sentence of v. 44. Our translation reads, “When he (that is, the devil) lies, he speaks out of his own character.” What Jesus actually says is, “When [the devil] speaks the lie, he speaks out of his own character…” Now, it’s not that we have a bad translation, but that little nuance gets to the core of what the devil is constantly doing to you. He tells you his one lie.

The one lie that is under all of the devil’s work is simply this: God is not good and does not love you – which is the boldest, basest lie there is. But the devil doesn’t just come out and say that. Instead, the devil disguises that lie. Little by little, Satan is always pointing you away from Jesus crucified for the complete, total forgiveness of all your sins.

You don’t get that promotion, raise, or contract. The devil comes along and says, “You must have made God mad. Until you get yourself in order, God isn’t going to bless you or help you.”

Then, rather than fixing your eyes Christ crucified for you, you put every aspect of your life under a microscope. You examine your motivations and try to make them purer. But then when blessings do come your way, you pat yourself on the back and, like little Jack Horner, say, “What a good boy am I.” And the devil has you right where he wants you.

Or you keep falling into the same sin. No matter how hard you try, you can’t keep yourself from doing that one thing. So, the devil comes along and whispers his lie into your ear. “Sure, God said that He forgives sin. But You can’t expect Him to forgive it all the time. Maybe you haven’t repented enough. Sure, you believe in Jesus, but you must have not fully yielded to Him.”

And you fall for the devil’s bait. Your eyes are diverted just a little from Jesus. You go off and try this program to keep you from falling into sin. Or you go and try to make up for your sin by doing some good work. And you trust in your self-improvement rather than in Christ’s sacrifice.

Repent. Knock it off. Stop believing the devil’s lie. All your works, all your efforts, all your striving does is take the crucified Jesus, the only Jesus, out of the equation. It puts you in the driver’s seat of your salvation. And when your salvation, or even the maintenance and preservation of your salvation, rests on you, you are going to fall big time. And every time you fail, the devil’s lie is easier to believe.

That is why Jesus is so combative and abrasive in this text. Jesus in this passage shows us what God meant what He said that He is a jealous God (Ex. 20:5). God wants you for Himself. That is why Jesus came and gave Himself for you. He wants you to trust in Him for your salvation and for everything else.

Jesus, by His cross and death, has secured for you an eternal redemption and given you an eternal inheritance. His blood poured out for you on Calvary will absolutely purify your conscience (Heb. 9:11-15).

Jesus doesn’t give you credit or leave part of the job in your hands. He works repentance in you. He puts His Word of forgiveness in your ear. He turns your heart of stone into a heart of flesh. He raises you from death. He pays your debt in full by His precious blood.

That is Jesus’ word, that is His promise, to you. Keep that word. Trust that promise, and Jesus says, “You will never see death,” because Jesus will pull you through death to eternal life with Him. 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: Truth

The Word Among Us – Sermon on John 1:14-18 for Midweek Advent 3

Broken Bonds – Sermon on Mark 7:31-37 for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

The Word of Yahweh – Sermon on Jeremiah 1:4-19 and Revelation 19:6-16 for Midweek Advent 3

See No Death, Taste No Death – Sermon on John 8:42-59 for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

Unmuted – Sermon on Luke 11:14-28 for the Third Sunday of Lent

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

See and Rejoice – Sermon on John 8:42-59 for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

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

Just as He Said – Sermon for Easter Sunday on Mark 16:1-8

The Devil’s Lie – Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent on John 8:42-59