Sermons 2024

Text: Isaiah 50:1-10

Sermon Outline
    3.    Jesus, the Suffering Servant, set his face like flint to the obstacles in his path.
    2.    Our paths ahead also may be dark, and false answers can deceive us.
    1.    The Servant instead reconciles us to the one who will vindicate us as we walk our paths.

God, Who Vindicates Us, Is Always Near.
Sermon

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation this morning is the Old Testament Lesson of Isaiah chapter fifty verses one through ten.

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you know what I have here? I have a picture of a dog, specifically a sled dog. Every year people in Alaska gather to celebrate the Iditarod race to remember the salvation that happened to the town of Nome in 1925. It is also shown in the Disney movie Balto. How was Nome saved? How are we saved? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

 The winter of 1925 was terrifying for the residents of Nome, Alaska. After treating four cases of what appeared to be tonsillitis, the only doctor in town, Dr. Curtis Welch, came to a horrifying conclusion. The extremely contagious diphtheria had been confirmed. Without an antitoxin, the whole town of two thousand people and their surrounding native neighbors likely would be lost.

The problem was magnified in that the shipping ports had long been closed for the season, aircraft travel was impossible, and worse, the diphtheria antitoxin could only last six days in the freezing temperatures of the arctic. The closest source of the drug was Anchorage, Alaska, one thousand miles away. The Alaskan railroad could bring the drug to Nenana, but Nome was still some 675 miles distant.

The only way to save the isolated residents was to deliver the serum by dogsled. A relay of twenty teams each traveling approximately thirty miles was coordinated. It was forty degrees below zero when the first dogsledder, Wild Bill Shannon, left Nenana with his life-bringing thirty-pound package of serum.

For even the most experienced dogsledder, forty degrees below zero is brutal and risky. But with so many lives on the line, Wild Bill had no choice. He set his face to the wind and peered into the bleak darkness ahead. Breaking the silence of the cold, crisp night, the cracking of his whip sounded as a lightning strike. As Bill cried, “Mush!” the clock was running.

For all of us, there are times in life when the path ahead looks dark and difficult. There are times when we are unsure which direction we should take or whether we should take any direction at all. These are times we may not be called to bring life-saving antitoxins to a remote village in Alaska, but we are called into the darkness, and the darkness is frightening. When these moments occur, where do we find the strength to move forward?

3.
Isaiah chapter 50 is the third of what are widely known as the “Servant Songs” in Isaiah. In the Jewish world, there’s debate as to whether the Servant is Israel, Isaiah, or the promised future Messiah. But as Christians, we hear the witness of the texts themselves. Each of the songs paints a picture of the Servant. And with each successive song, one becomes more and more convinced that the Servant is Jesus, the Promised Messiah, who came into the world to redeem the world.
Listen to the depiction of the Servant in this song. In vv 4–5, the Servant is depicted as one who sustains the weary and listens. In v 5, he has not been rebellious and does not turn away. V 6 offers a stark description of the Messiah. He offers his back and cheeks to blows and doesn’t hide his face from the mocking and spitting. Undoubtedly, this is a picture of Jesus, who was beaten, mocked, and spit upon and who, through it all, did not hide his face or turn away (cf Mt 27:27–31).

And what does this Servant do amidst such obstacles? V 7 provides the answer. He sets his face like a flint and is not put to shame. This is a picture of Jesus encountering Satan during the temptation in the wilderness. It’s Jesus in the days leading up to Holy Week as he sets his face toward Jerusalem. It’s Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying that this cup would pass. But after the night of praying and sweating blood, Jesus arises. He looks into the darkness and cries, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk 22:42).

2.
There are times in life when our paths ahead may be dark. You’re familiar with these times. Perhaps it’s when a series of tests has taken place and the diagnosis is not good. Or perhaps it’s more common and mundane. Our day starts out bad and just keeps getting worse with each passing moment. There’s so much to do, and we aren’t sure where to start. In each case, we are similar to the Servant. The world is beating us on the back and pulling our cheeks, mocking and spitting on us. All this reflects the human heart after the fall. In response, our own sinful condition will, at times, bring doubt and fears into our lives, and we question whether God really cares.
The world has many ways it tries to answer this question. The Stoics would tell us simply to endure. One of the most famous Stoics, Marcus Aurelius, once said, “Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable, then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well.” As our world would put it today, “Just buck up!”

Or perhaps the Epicureans could shed some light. They would encourage you not to get too attached to anything in this world because someday it will all be gone. Just live for today. But that offers no hope, because a life without attachments brings no joy.

Sadly, many Christians will also tell you that the answer is simply to pray harder, trust harder, have more faith. They’ll say that if we just find more strength internally, we can get through whatever struggles we face.

1.
The Servant, however, provides an alternative way. The key is found in v 8. It’s here that the Servant says, “He who vindicates me is near.” We’ve already established that the Servant is Jesus. Why does he need vindication? Why is it important that the one who vindicates is near? For his own sake, Jesus didn’t need vindication. His standing before the heavenly Father was always secure. But for our sakes, when bleak times are ahead, it’s important for us to find two things in God’s vindication of Jesus.

First, we should understand that the root cause of all doubt is our separation from God after the fall. There was a time when we walked with God in the “cool of the day.” We had no worries or concerns because God was walking beside us every step of the way. We knew that we were his beloved. But when sin entered the world, we broke that relationship with God, and now we doubt whether God really does walk with us. That separation from God is precisely what Jesus took upon himself on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46).

But secondly, we should remember that God sent the Servant into the world to provide vindication for his beloved. Jesus was fully human and fully divine, but he allowed himself to rely only on the promises of God’s Word. While confronting Satan in the wilderness, there was temptation. Before heading to Jerusalem, he must have paused. In the night in the garden, he cried out to God to take the cup away. But God, who vindicates, was near. And Jesus set his face like a flint and headed to Calvary. There, by his atoning death, he reconciled us to God, restoring that relationship we broke. So now God is with us, walking with us, again.

The cure for dark times is to remember that this same Jesus, the Servant, has walked before you. He who needed no vindication nevertheless trusted his Father to do just that, to declare him the very Son of God by raising him from the dead (Rom 1:4). Christ—obeying his Father perfectly, dying in our place, rising from the grave—has done everything; we need to do nothing. And now we can trust the same promises of God that Jesus trusted—that in his time, God will vindicate us, declare for all to hear that we are his beloved children.

When the guilt of sin is overwhelming, remember that he who vindicates is near. When the diagnosis is not what we’ve hoped for, remember that he who vindicates is near. When the devil rages, when the work ahead seems daunting, remember he who vindicates is near.

God, Who Vindicates Us, Is Always Near.

It was two o’clock in the morning when Gunnar Kaasen and his team arrived in Nome. After the work of twenty dogsled teams, five grueling days, and 675 miles, the antitoxins arrived into the hands of the doctor. The town would be saved. But it wasn’t without a cost. A few of the dogs died, and a few of the dogsledders had severe frostbite. Today, the annual Iditarod race is performed to commemorate the accomplishment of this feat in 1925.

But for Christians, our victory happened when the Servant broke through death and won eternal victory. Even in our sins, even in our doubts and the very real troubles with which a sinful world assaults us, he has vindicated us, and he is near.

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

Video

Text: Isaiah 29:11-19
Outline:
1.    Unreadable scroll, Deaf and Blind due to Sin, can hide from God/be own authority
2.    In JC, God opens our deaf and blind hearts to turn towards Him in repentance and faith.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation is the Old Testament Lesson of Isaiah chapter twenty-nine verses eleven though nineteen.

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Let’s practice our reading this morning. Can you read this newspaper with me? You might be able to pick out a few words and know what they mean, but I am guessing that most of the words and topics are unfamiliar to you. You could read but you could not understand what you are reading. Isaiah uses a similar illustration in our text for today. He tells the people to read a scroll that is sealed, they cannot! Isaiah does this to point out how God gives wisdom and repentance. How does God give wisdom? How does He open our blind eyes and deaf ears? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Unreadable scroll, Deaf and Blind due to Sin, can hide from God/be own authority

The Lord today passes judgment upon Jerusalem by use of the Assyrian army. He does not do this on a whim. Rather, He does this as a call for them to repent. The Lord says, ““Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,”  The people have fallen away from the Lord their God. They meet in the temple in Jerusalem. They go through the motions of worshiping Him but their hearts are far from Him. We would say today that they are talking the talk but not walking the walk. Their sin has so blinded them that they believe they are safe and secure. The people sin in the dark and think that no one sees them. They have blind eyes, deaf ears, and unrepentant hearts. They go through the motions of worshiping God, but their hearts are turned to sin. They do not want to listen to God, His prophets, or heed His word. Thus, why God passes judgment upon them and makes it so that the judgment is unreadable to them.

God’s judgment is also one that we deserve as well. Have our hearts changed?  Unless God works in us, we too have eyes blind to His people, ears deaf to His Holy Word, hearts bent on our own sinful desires. We fall into the same trap of security, thinking that we can do whatever we want, whenever we want to do it. Satan tempts us constantly, “Go ahead, it’s only a little sin, what is the worst that can happen? You are alone. There’s no one around.” “Eve, it’s only a little bite, you can be like God.” So we live in sin, blind and deaf to what God says. Deaf to God’s word, we try to make ourselves the authorities rather than God Himself. We think that as clay, we can determine what the potter desires to make us. Blind, we do not always see what is right and true, even if it is staring at us right in front of our faces. We follow the ways of the world, letting ourselves be influenced by what we read or post on the internet, Facebook or Twitter. Letting our friends or peers decide how we should act, holding ourselves to men’s standards, instead of the word of God. Many today read or receive God’s word like an illiterate man “reads” the newspaper. They can pick out a few words here and there, and they can certainly look at the pictures. They can sit with an open newspaper, enjoy themselves to some degree, and appear to be reading. But the true content of what is written has no impact on them. 

We ask questions like what role do the Ten Commandments and the Word of God have in my life? Do I appreciate the benefits of Holy Baptism and the relationship the Holy Spirit has established between God and me? These questions, actions, thoughts, behaviors, and many more things, remind me that I continue to sin, that on my own, I am blind, deaf, illiterate, and stand in need of the Lord’s forgiveness.

2.    In JC, God opens our deaf and blind hearts to turn towards Him in repentance and faith.

In the midst of our darkness, our blindness, our deafness, the Lord comes to us with mercy and grace. The words of our text comfort us with words of promise. The Lord promises to do wonderful things. He defined wonderful things as things which confound man’s wisdom: but it will mean the deaf hear, the blind see. It will mean fresh joy in the Lord because of the Holy One of Israel. And those who believe will hear His Word and rejoice in it.

The promise of peace and the opening of eyes in our text have been and will be fulfilled by the work of the Holy Spirit through the means of grace. The “sealed book” of our text has been replaced by the “open book” with the message of God’s love revealed in Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and anticipated return. It is laid open, never to be closed again, open for everyone of all nations, tribes, languages, and peoples to come and read.

As one who was spiritually “blind” at birth I, as well as you, have experienced the Holy Spirit at work in me through the means of grace (through God’s Word and Sacraments). “I was blind and now I see.” The Holy Spirit has opened my “deaf” ears to hear—and to believe—that I as a sinner have been tied in to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has enlightened my blind eyes, bringing me from the kingdom of darkness to His dear beloved Son through His death and resurrection, cleansing me from all sin and taking upon Himself my judgement and dying my death. 

The promise of “peace” and source of “joy” are renewed by the very presence of our Lord in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. He absolves us of all of our sins and does increase our faith until we depart in peace. By the work of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments I believe, as we confess in the creeds, that Jesus Christ will return to claim me and all believers. He will raise the dead to life everlasting. We will live forever in His presence, “life without end.”

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

Text: Ezekiel 17:22-24

Sermon Outline
    3.    In a foreboding context, Ezekiel delivers God’s promise of a “tender sprig” to inaugurate a wonderful new world.
    2.    To our very similar context, God promises the same “tender sprig” for the same wonderful new world.
    1.    The “tender sprig” is Jesus, and in him God graciously positions you in that wonderful new world.

In Christ, the “Tender Sprig,” You Are Living a New Life in His Wonderful New World.

Sermon

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Ezekiel chapter seventeen verses twenty-two through twenty-four.

Boys and grils, I pray that you are doing well today. What do I have here? I have a plant. This plant sits in my office. I water it. I tend to it. I make sure that it has everything that it needs. In our lesson for today, the Lord says the same thing through the prophet Ezekiel. There is a young sprig that the Lord Himself tends to. That sprig is a symbol of God’s love and care. Who is that sprig? How does God use that symbol to help us today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

Symbols, we see them all around us. For example, Apple’s logo evokes a whole world of technology: iPhones, iPads, and computers with all the enhancements and complementary devices that attend them. Apple’s logo also denotes success and enormous wealth in view of Apple’s performance in the marketplace. It’s hard to imagine a world without Apple . . . and Samsung . . . and Dell.
Our text uses a symbol or an icon, namely, a “tender sprig” from the topmost shoots of a cedar, to communicate a whole world of meaning. To understand how it invites us to see and to enter a world more lasting and wonderful than the world of technology, it is important to consider the context. If we understand the meaning of a “tender sprig” in context, far greater anxieties will be relieved than those we experience when we lose our cell phone! 

3.
The context is very significant. The prophet Ezekiel utters these words from exile in Babylon. God had warned his people through the prophets that their continued apostasy, their continued wandering away from Him, would bring judgment. This is not a new proclamation, Amos and Hosea had warned the leaders and people of the Northern Kingdom that their idolatry and worship of Baal would result in their destruction. They warned that the holy and righteous God of Israel would not tolerate idolatry and rebellion indefinitely. The kings and the great majority of the people refused to heed these prophetic warnings. God’s promises are always fulfilled. Samaria and the Northern Kingdom were conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC.

In the south, God had previously sent Micah and Isaiah to warn Jerusalem and Judah about the coming judgment upon their apostasy.

Now Ezekiel, along with his contemporary Jeremiah, was called to announce the certain destruction of Jerusalem. Like their predecessors, events would demonstrate that Yahweh’s word through Ezekiel and Jeremiah would come to pass.  Jerusalem, that great and historic city, where God had chosen to dwell in his temple (1 Ki 9:3), was conquered by the Babylonians in 586/7 BC.

The depth and darkness of the Southern Kingdom’s apostasy is described in 2 Kings 23—an episode during the reform of good king Josiah: “The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven” (2 Ki 23:4). The governmental and religious establishments had actually set up statues in Yahweh’s temple to practice the worship of false gods. Their idolatry was abhorrent and flagrant!

Ezekiel, with Jeremiah, proclaims God’s words of judgment and destruction.  Judgment will come upon Jerusalem (chs 4–7), upon the corrupted temple (chs 8–11), upon the political and religious leaders (chs 13–24), and upon the foreign nations (chs 25–32).

It is into this foreboding context that the Lord’s promise of the “tender sprig” is delivered by the prophet as our text for today: “Thus says the Lord God: ‘I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest” (vv 22–23).

The contrast could not be more compelling and stark! While Ezekiel’s horizon from end to end is filled with judgment and destruction upon an idolatrous city and people, this tender, tiny sprig points beyond to a new and wonderful epoch—inaugurated by a specific individual. A wonderful new world is promised and is on its way!

2.
How does this context apply to us today? Ezekiel’s promise speaks directly to us. We find ourselves in a very similar world today. Idolatry surrounds us as the elites of our culture embrace every form of immorality, sinful lifestyles, and refuse to consider God’s call for a life of contrition and repentance. The most horrific and visible sign of this idolatrous paganism is the murderous practice of abortion. The blood of millions of these innocents cries out to heaven! How similar to what was happening in Ezekiel’s day. We read that Josiah, in his effort to cleanse and to return the temple worship exclusively to Yahweh, “defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech” (2 Ki 23:10).

We are called to view our world through the eyes of Ezekiel and the other prophets. God delivers his holy will and word through them. Idolatry and evil seem so powerful while the position of the faithful seems so weak. Ezekiel beheld the destruction of Jerusalem. Those who confessed Yahweh as the only true God seemed so weak and marginal. So today, Christians who uphold the claims of Sacred Scripture and confess Jesus to be the only way to God’s mercy and grace frequently appear to be without respect or standing. Many voices are even brash enough to label classic Christian morality mere bigotry. Beyond such verbal abuse, thousands of Christians have been publicly martyred in recent times, and there is less notice of this tragedy than a celebrity’s birthday or a White House press conference.

But Ezekiel leads us beyond despair and the apparently victorious context of the prevailing culture to a wonderful new world where all will know that the Lord has acted to rescue and redeem his people. His people are not as weak and powerless as it seems. And the “tender sprig” will be his agent to achieve this great reversal. God’s sure word and promise provides a climax to the chapter: “I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it” (v 24).

1.
God’s promise through Ezekiel is fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is the “tender sprig!” from the house of David, from the stump of Jesse. In Jesus, God graciously positions you in a wonderful new world where there is a peace that the powers of this world can never provide.

It is a profound peace that places our hearts and souls at rest no matter what swirls around us. As Jesus says: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27).

At the center of such peace are the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. His holy life and his atoning death have delivered us from the world of darkness and death to his wonderful new world of life now and forever in God’s Holy Absolution for our sins and his Spirit’s presence with us. Our Baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection has bestowed a narrative of our own life that is defined by him: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).
In Christ, the “Tender Sprig,” You Are Living a New Life in His Wonderful New World.

Yes, God’s promise through Ezekiel has been fulfilled. The “tender sprig” has come.  Jesus Christ is that “tender sprig.” He has lifted up the lowly and built an “eternal house in heaven” for each of us in God’s wonderful new world.

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

Video

Text: Genesis 3:8-15
Theme: God, it’s all your fault!

Outline:
1.    God it’s all your Fault! (You gave me this woman, you created this serpent, all your fault) Pass the blame
2.    God, you alone save us! God passes our blame onto Christ, seed of the woman, crushes head of the serpent

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation is the Old Testament Lesson from Genesis chapter three verses eight through fifteen.

 
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well. What happens if I go like this? Poke. Pretty soon we would start a poke war right? We would keep poking each other constantly. Eventually we would get bored. We would get annoyed with each other. Then the complaining begins. Stop it! She started it! No I did not! It is her fault! For as much fun as we had at the beginning, eventually we try to place someone else as the one who has all of the blame. We see something similar in our text for today. Who does Adam blame? Who does Eve blame? What does God do for them after they broke His one command? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    God it’s all your Fault!

You had one job. One solitary, easy job. It is so simple. Yet that one job was not done. You were not able to do even one simple thing. You failure. Have you felt like that? I am sure you have. Adam and Eve had one simple command to keep, do not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Sounds easy right? You can eat from every other tree, but not this specific one. Alas, as we know, Eve was tempted by Satan. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam who was with her. He ate and all of the wonderous grace of Eden is undone.

This is where our text for today picks up. Adam and Eve have made clothing for themselves from fig leaves. They are afraid of every single rustle of a leave in the heat of the day, thinking that it could be the Lord coming to punish them for the transgression they have just done. For humankind the fall is not enough; its flight cannot be fast enough. This flight, Adam’s hiding away from God, we call conscience.  Adam cannot hide from God. The Lord God does come. The Hebrew word is YHWH, the personal name of God. God comes as a personal Creator to His creation to walk and talk with them as He has done before. He knows where Adam is, and yet He asks where he is. “Here is a call of anxious love. The Savior-God was moving to restore his fallen children to himself. But these words are also a call of stern justice. The Creator was demanding an answer from his rebellious creatures. “What have you done that you should be hiding?”  He calls Adam and Eve to repentance. He calls where are you? To give them an opportunity to turn back to Him in love and forgiveness. 

What is Adam’s response? It is not, “I am sorry God, please forgive me and restore me back to the way things were a few moments ago.” Rather it is one of blame. The woman whom you gave to be with me.  He says God it is all your fault. If you had not made Eve, none of this would have happened. He does not even admit that he sinned when he should have told Eve not to have anything to do with that snake. He places the blame solely upon God. When Eve is asks, she says it is the snake’s fault. “The serpent deceived me, and I ate  It is not my fault. It is his. It is her fault. It is your fault God.

Has much changed? When convicted of our own sins, we follow the same pattern as old Mom Eve and Dad Adam. We pass the blame onto others just like they did. It’s not actually my fault.  It is the devil’s fault. He tempted me. He made me do it. It is the world’s fault. If the world was not so beautiful then I would not have given in. We hear it often when it comes to the actions of others as well. If she was not so attractive, nothing would have happened to her. She must have been asking for it. If he was not so rich, maybe he would have been fine. We love to blame anything or anyone, anything to take the blame away from ourselves and admit how sinful we really are. We do not want to admit that we too have fallen. We too have broken the Law of God, more than one simple rule! We have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and who do we have to blame? No one but ourselves.

2.    God, you alone save us!

God’s justice demands His action. He must do something. So, what does God do? He could just destroy everything, start over again. Yet instead He hands down curses for the snake, Eve, and Adam. 
“Adam’s and Eve’s pitiful attempts to excuse themselves didn’t deserve an answer from God and didn’t get one. Instead, God turned to the serpent and announced a curse. The serpent’s method of movement was henceforth to be changed; from now on he would crawl on his belly.

If this seems unfair, remember that God was doing this to teach the two people who were still blushing from the first sin. The snake’s unusual method of moving along the ground was to serve as a constant reminder to them and to us that this is the animal Satan used to drag down the crown of creation to his level. Crawling in the dust would also symbolize Satan’s defeat and humiliation. Adam and Eve heard the words God spoke to Satan; they were to know that although Satan had won his little victory here, he would not triumph permanently.”  

Within God’s condemning speech to Satan there is a promise given to Adam and Eve: 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”    There is salvation given and it is all God’s action. It’s all His fault, His doing. “These words are spoken for the sake of Adam and Eve that they may hear this judgment and be comforted by the realization that God is the enemy of the being that inflicted so severe a wound on man. Here grace and mercy begin to shine forth in the midst of wrath which sin and disobedience aroused. Here in the midst of most serious threats the Father reveals His heart…Who points to deliverance, indeed who promises victory against the enemy that deceived and conquered human nature.”[4]

Adam and Eve were given to trust the promised Gospel of Genesis 3:15. As Luther says, “Their consolation against sin and despair was their hope for this crushing, which was to be brought about in the future through Christ…[Adam and Eve] are full of sin and death. And yet, because they hear the promise concerning the Seed who will crush the serpent’s head, they have the same hope we have, namely, that death will be taken away, that sin will be abolished, and that righteousness, life, peace, etc. will be restored. In this hope our first parents live and die, and because of this hope they are truly holy and righteous.”[5] Adam and Eve are saved from death and hell by faith in the promise of God.

They put their trust and faith into the same One that we do. One from the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. One who will undo everything that Adam and Eve have done. One who will restore Eden again forever. Who is that One? The Only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He took on our flesh. He became one of us. He was tempted in every way, just as we were. His heel is bruised upon the cross where He suffers, bleeds, and dies for us. By His death, Jesus takes Adam’s sin, your sins, my sins, upon Himself. He suffers the full weight of our punishment, of our guilt and blame. He pays the price for them by the shedding of His holy and precious blood. Satan thinks he has won. Nothing could be further from the truth. Victorious, Jesus rises from the dead on the third day. The head of the serpent is crushed beneath Jesus’ nail scarred feet forever. As we will sing, “He can harm us none. He’s judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him.” Ascending to the right hand of the Father, Jesus has given to you Eden restored. Everything that Satan has done, Jesus has undone and made everything new again.

Con: God it is all your fault! In a way it is. It is not His fault that you give into your own sinful flesh, the sinful world, and the temptations of Satan. That’s fully your fault, but thanks be that He is rich in grace and mercy. He alone has given us the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls, and life with Him forever purely by His love and almighty power, promised all the way back in the Garden that you may have Eden restored once again.

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

Video

Text: Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Deuteronomy chapter five verses twelve through fifteen.

Boys and Girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you look forward to a new day when you wake up in the morning? Every day seems to have its own personality. Fats Domino sang a song called “Blue Monday.” Monday is back-to-work or back-to-school day—back to the grind. Wednesday is called “hump day,” getting over the hump moving towards the weekend. We all know the phrase “Thank goodness it’s Friday!”

What about this day—Sunday, the day of worship, the day we gather together as God’s people? What kind of day is this? What personality, what purpose, does our Sunday observance have? Our readings center on the Sabbath, that time God commanded be kept as special day of worship. What is the Sabbath now? Why and how do we keep the Sabbath? Ponder these questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

I.    Is the Sabbath a workday?

The Pharisees thought so in today’s Gospel. They imagined the Sabbath was a day to work. It was a day for them to keep rules and observances by which God would accept them as holy. All 613 Laws. From things like learning who God is and worshiping Him, reading the Shema at morning and night, not to wear garments made of wool and linen mixed together, not to gather grapes that had fallen to the ground, and many more. Because they viewed the Sabbath as a day of work, a day to keep the Law, they were offended when Jesus’ disciples did not seem to keep those rules.

How easily do we slip into this attitude? Church and worship are seen as something that we do. We imagine our prayers, church attendance, offerings, service in the church are what make us “good Christian people.” We could not be more wrong. This is religious pride, a sin! That is what Paul calls works-righteousness, looking to our own actions as what makes us good people. Saying, see look at me, look how good I have been. God condemns all our efforts to keep the Sabbath holy by our religious activities.

This attitude poisons our relationship with God. It turns the Sabbath into a workday. It makes God our boss and us the “employees.” Worship becomes our work to appease him. Salvation becomes our “paycheck,” of which we can never quite earn enough.

II.    The Sabbath is a “day of rest and gladness”!

So what is the Sabbath if it is not a work day? Our hymn today is not titled “O Day of Work and Labor.” It is a day of rest and gladness! The Sabbath is a day of rest. “Rest” means to stop working. The Hebrew for Sabbath means “cessation,” “to stop.” The Sabbath is a concrete symbol that God’s saving grace is what deems human life rather than any or all work. The sabbath is set to provide the reality of freedom, celebration, and rest for everyone, especially for those who might not easily find it. Those who have been slaves and have been freed by the power and grace of God can never treat slaves in the same way they were treated. 

God wanted to give us a rest from work so that He could do the giving. That is why we call it a Divine Service, God serves us with His wonderous gifts. A time to gather in worship. A time to stop and enjoy the gifts God gives.
Illustration: At lunchtime a farmer’s wife calls to her husband and farmhands, “Dinner is ready.” What does her husband and farmhands have to do? They must stop working to receive the food and drink prepared for them.
God commanded the Israelites to observe this day of rest. The people rest remembering the Lord’s mighty acts of salvation. The Lord showed His mighty and outstretched arm by rescuing the Israelites from the bondage in Egypt. Under their Egyptians overlords the Israelites had no day of rest. Now, the Lord commands them to keep a day of rest to remember. To “remember” was to hear God’s Word, the proclamation of his accomplishing salvation for them. The true core of keeping the Sabbath consisted of gladly hearing God’s Word and learning it.

Illustration: See what Luther writes concerning the meaning of the Third Commandment. We should fear and love God, and not despise preaching and His word, but deem it holy, and gladly hear and learn it.  We come to church and keep the Sabbath to hear God’s Word and to receive God’s gifts. God’s command to worship is not his ordering us around as our boss; it is the commandment of the One who with a mighty arm. An arm He deigned to stretch on the cross for our salvation. A mighty arm that won salvation, and rescues us from sin and death. He is the gracious and merciful Giver who bestows this salvation through his Word.
Our part is to gladly hear and learn it—to believe that our sins are forgiven, that Christ has died for us.

Picture what our Sunday worship is. Not us giving to God but God giving all of His wonderous gifts of everlasting life, salvation, over and over, again and again anew every single Sunday. How do we react? I remember two sets of feelings toward certain days when I was young. Sunday evenings I dreaded going back to school the next day. I had to study, get up early, behave, and work. That was the Pharisees’ picture of the Sabbath, but it is not ours. The focus and foundation of worship is not our work and our doing. Our Sabbath is more like another feeling, a very different feeling, I used to have. I remember the marvelous anticipation and excitement of going to Grandma’s for Christmas—gifts and food and celebration and family. That is closer to what our worship is. The focus and foundation are God’s work, salvation, and giving. We come as poor beggars to receive His wonderous undeserved gifts.

Conclusion: Every day seems to have its own personality. This is the Lord’s Day, the day He gives and forgives and stretches out his mighty arm to put his mercy through his Holy Word in your heart and hands. Every day has its own personality; this is a day of rest and gladness. We rest and let God give to us. We are filled with gladness because He is kind and merciful. Let us keep the Sabbath in joy and rejoicing. Let us gladly hear God’s Word, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it.

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

Video

Text: Acts 1:1-11
Theme: Living in the Lord’s blessing

Outline:
1.    We like to know things
2.    We cannot always know everything
3.    Rest in the blessings the Lord has given to us while waiting for His return as He has promised.

Sermon

Alleluia! Christ has Risen!
He has Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Boys ad girls, I pray that you are doing well today. What do I have here? I have here a homework assignment. Why do your teachers give you homework? They want to test you. They want to make sure that you remember everything that they have taught you today. Sometimes the homework is easy, 2+2= ? 4! Right. Sometimes the homework is hard. “What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the day, and three at dusk? That’s a hard one. Did you know that God gives us homework? Depending on His grace and mercy, we, like the disciples, are His witnesses throughout the earth. How can we do this homework? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    We like to know things

At our Lord’s ascension, the disciples ask, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  Is now the establishment of the forever kingdom promised to David? Will you now rule and reign forever as the eternal King of kings and Lord of lords? You have all power and authority. You died and are alive forever more. Will you now fulfill all things? The disciples desire to know when everything will be accomplished. They are still thinking in earthly terms of earthly kingdoms and they wish to know. 

How often are we likewise? Do any of you like to admit that you do not know something? None of us like to admit that we do not know. From something as simple as how to wash the dishes, change the oil in the car, how to do house repairs, what temperature water to wash clothes in. Admitting that we do not know something is hard to do because we want to know. There is a lot that we simply do not know. We have to learn it. We do not know exactly how the universe works. We do not know what holds an atom together. How black holes work. There is a whole subsection of science called theoretical physics which is just guesses as to how physics, mathematics, and other sciences work in the world around us.  We do not know when or how our natural lives will end. None of us know when we are going to die. In not knowing, we are in good company with all the rest of humanity. 

2.    We cannot always know everything

Our Lord’s reply is clear. “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Effectively, Jesus says, that knowledge is not yours to know. It is known to the Father. He has fixed it by His own authority. He knows. You do not. Know that He is in control and be content with the work that He has given you. 

We cannot always know everything. Our minds are frail and fragile. How often have we known something just to forget a detail or call someone by the wrong name mere moments after you hear them say it? Many times the best answer that we can give is I do not know. We then leave things into the hands of those who do know. The contractor who knows how to fix the house, foundation, or driveway. The doctor who knows your body, how it interacts with various medications, and the best ones to give in order to bring you speedily to fullness of health again. In faith we trust in God who established everything at His word, and daily sustains it. He knows our natural ends and everything else about our lives.

Just look at what He has done for the salvation of our souls. The Father in love sent Jesus to take upon Himself all of our sins. He lived and perfect life in our place. He suffered and died upon the cross to give us the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls, and life with Him forever. How do we know this? God the Fathe raised Jesus from the dead as proof that His perfect sacrifice upon the cross was accepted once and for all in the sight of God.

1.    Rest in the blessings the Lord has given to us while waiting for His return as He has promised.

9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”   So what do we do? We do not, we cannot, know everything.  We cannot see our Lord physically like the disciples did. They looked on as Jesus ascended into heaven. 

Yet, notice what our Lord does while ascending? He ascends hands still raised in blessing. Still giving his people all the blessings of heaven. 

In one sense, our Lord’s work is not done but continues on. As Luke opens our text, began to do and teach—a very important statement, dividing the work of Christ into two great branches: the one embracing His work on earth, the other His subsequent work from heaven; the one in His own Person, the other by His Spirit; the one the “beginning,” the other the continuance of the same work; the one complete when He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the other to continue till His second appearing; the one recorded in “The Gospels,” the beginnings only of the other related in this book of “The Acts.” “Hence the grand history of what Jesus did and taught does not conclude with His departure to the Father; but Luke now begins it in a higher strain; for all the subsequent labors of the apostles are just an exhibition of the ministry of the glorified Redeemer Himself because they were acting under His authority, and He was the principle that operated in them all” [OLSHAUSEN]  

Jesus continues to be present and to speak and act in the world through His people. With all disciples of every age, we are now waiting for His return in glory as He promised. In the meantime, we are living under His rule, knowing that He is with us. We do not continue to stand looking skyward twiddling our thumbs. Rather knowing that He is still with us, who are still bound by time and space, in his Word and Sacraments, as well as in our neighbors through their everyday relationships and responsibilities. We are strengthened to do the work He has given us to do.

What work is that? The work of witnessing. We spread the same message as the disciples. While not being eyewitnesses ourselves, we spread the wonderous news of what we do know. That your sins, my sins, everyone sins have been forgiven. That death does not have the last say but Jesus does. He died and rose from the dead for you. Someday, He will return just as He has ascended, in power and glory. He will raise the dead and we will live with Him forever. What will that look like? I do not know. But I do know the One who does. The same one who rules at the right hand of the Father who was crucified and risen for me, and for you.
 

Do you know? Not everything, but you know the wonderous work that Christ had done, and continues, to do for you. Let us always be His witnesses, both in word and in deed, forever living in His grace and mercy until He returns.

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

Video

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the First Reading from the book of Acts chapter four verses one through twelve.

Boys and Girls, I pray that you are doing well. Have you ever seen really small animals? In the ocean there are small microscopic vegetable life of the sea who provides food for many of the ocean's smallest creatures. These little vegetable plants drift thousands of miles, wherever the current takes them. They have no power or will of their own to direct their destiny. They are called "plankton," a word that means wandering or drifting. How are we often like Plankton in our lives? How does God stop our drifting? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
Plankton is an accurate term to describe the aimless life of many people of our century, people who have lost a sense of direction, who are powerless to direct their own destiny, and wander through life without a purpose.
These are the people who are subject to the shifting wind of every fad. They struggle to find a purpose in their lives either in some sort of pleasure or in one of the new religious movements or mind control efforts. In our text today, Peter is saying that there is one way of escape; one way of finding meaning and purpose in life; one way to a new kind of life with God and that way is through the name of Jesus.
One of the exciting things about knowing that way through the name is that we can share it with others. Have you ever tried to share the name? Polls have indicated that about half of all Lutherans never do it, 40 percent do it once in a while, and 10 regularly. Yet, look at the power of the name that we share!
 

A. The Name Healed the Lame Man
 

The background of the text is that Peter and John had gone to the temple to pray as was their custom. As recorded in Acts 3, which was the First Reading last Sunday, they were confronted by a cripple at the gate of the temple, and Peter said, "I don't have any silver or gold, but what I've got I'll give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk" (Acts 3:7). Immediately the man got up, leaped and jumped, and praised God. A great crowd gathered around to listen, so Peter began to preach as he usually did when a crowd gathered. He told the crowd that it was by this name of the servant Jesus that the man was healed and able to walk. It was not long until the temple guards, the riot control squad, arrived and dragged Peter and John off to prison for the night. The next day they were brought before the court, and there the question was asked, "By what power or by what name do you do this?" (Acts 4:7). In response Peter spoke those words of our text that it was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and he explained what Jesus did as he adds, "whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. By Him this man is standing before you well."
 

B. God Chose the Name
 

The way is the name. The name is "Jesus," the name that God the Father chose to give His Son. It is not a name that the Old Testament prophets attributed to the coming Messiah. The name is in the Old Testament but in different forms, in words like Joshua and Hosea. It was God who chose the name for His Son. When it was time for the Messiah to come, God sent His messenger, the Angel Gabriel, to say to Mary, "His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." That is what the name really means, "one who saves." In His sermon to the crowd in the temple, Peter connected that name "Jesus" to the "holy and righteous one," and to the "author of life whom God raised from the dead" (Acts 3:14, 15), making it clear that this "one who saves" is none other than the Son of God Himself.
 

C. The Name Saves
 

In some cultures, it has been common to give the name of Jesus to sons as a way to honor them. That is why some professional ballplayers have names that are variations of the name Jesus, as Jesu, or Jose. Some years ago, a group of mothers sent a protest and request to the archbishop of Mexico. They wanted him to ban the use of the name Jesus and refuse any christening by that name. The reason they gave was that it was sacrilegious to have so many crimes committed by Jesus—and then written on the police record. 
Jesus is the Son of God, the one who is holy and righteous. To live a holy life for us was part of His work on earth. Then He took our sins upon Himself, suffered and died and rose again, making atonement for all sins for all people. That was how He "saved His people from their sins" and became the "author of life."
 

D. The Name Is the Only Way
 

Peter says that it is through this name that we have life with God—and there is no other way. "Saved" in the New Testament means that we are rescued. By nature, you and I and all people are in a state of sinfulness, which the Bible calls death. It is a spiritual death, a life without God. This is the basic cause of the restless search for meaning in life. People are separated from the God who created them and who wants them to be in fellowship with Him. Unless they find the way to God, they will keep on searching and finally die in their sins. 
The way to have that life is through the name of Jesus. It is the only way. Jesus said, "I am come that you may have life, life in all of its fullness." That is His very purpose for dying and rising from the dead, to give us the fullness of eternal life.

E. There Is None Other
 

Only one name, only one way. But the way is for everyone in all of the world.
Yet, many in the world try a wide variety of different ways. There was once a survey of Lutherans which says that 70 percent of young people would agree to this statement: "God is satisfied if I live the best life I can." This is a subtle form of universalism that is, if our neighbor is a good person and lives a good life, he is going to make it. He is going to be all right somehow. Or as I think about my Jewish friends, I would like to believe that they can be saved through the Old Testament, and then I do not have to share Jesus Christ with them. There are many other forms of this kind of subtle universalism which takes away the need for me to share Jesus Christ with them. But we must share Jesus with theme. They need it just as much as we do.
 

F. The Name Must Be Shared
 

It is our privilege and our commission to share that name with other people. Peter gives us the example in our text. He is before the Sanhedrin, that august body, the Jewish high court consisting of 71 members. The high priest is the ex-officio president. There are the wealthy Sadducees, the religious Pharisees, the learned Scribes, the respected elders, and our text even mentions that the priestly family was present. The high priest was supposed to have been a hereditary office and one for life. But under the Roman rule the office was filed with intrigue, bribery, and corruption. Between 37 B.C. and A.D. 67 there were 28 high priests. All but six of them came from four families. Many of those former high priests were here at this court.

So Peter and John were standing before the wealthiest, most intellectual, most powerful men in the country. There Peter, an uneducated, humble fisherman, makes his witness. A number of weeks earlier Jesus went before this same court, and they sent Him to the Romans recommending crucifixion. Peter was then in the courtyard denying that he even knew Jesus. And now Peter stands before this same group of men and says, "You crucified Jesus of Nazareth, but God raised Him from the dead. Now this name is the only name under heaven, the only name in all the world, by which you can be saved." The difference in Peter, of course, is that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. This was after Pentecost, and the Spirit empowered him for his bold witness.
 

That same Spirit is still active today though you. You received the forgiveness of your sins and new life in your baptism. The Holy Spirit came into your life and has been nurturing your faith so that you can trust in the name of Jesus and live a life with meaning and purpose. Just as Peter witnessed to the Sanhedrin, the Holy Spirit can help you be a witness to others, to your friend, your neighbors, and even your own relatives who do not know the way to peace with God through the name of Jesus. 
 

Think of it like sharing the cure of cancer. Someone is dying of cancer. He has taken every known treatment for it, and some of the treatments almost killed him, but he is still dying, and it won't be long now. What if I knew the cure for his cancer? Should I let him die or share the cure so he can live? Do you have friends, neighbors, relatives, who are dying because of the cancer of sin in them? They are separated from God and destined to an eternal death. There is one way to be saved. That is through the name of Jesus. Sharing that name really puts meaning and purpose into life.

Some people can witness better than others. The Bible talks about some having the "gift of evangelism," which means that they can communicate the Good News of the way and help lead a person to trust in the name of Jesus. Of course, it is the Holy Spirit that creates faith, but we are the instruments He uses, His mouthpiece. Some people think about 10 percent of all Christians have this special gift of evangelism. What about the other 90 percent? We also are witnesses, Jesus said, even though we can't do as well as the person with the special gift. Each one of us needs to share as we are able. We share in the daily contacts that we have with people, we show by our words, deeds, and example the wonderous news that Jesus is the only way to salvation, that there is no other name by which we must be saved.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

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

Video

Text: Isaiah 25:6-9
Theme: A Defeat of death itself

1.    A feast greater than we can imagine we are invited to
2.    Why? JC conquered death
3.    Feast still join in today.

Alleluia Christ is Risen!
He is Risen indeed Alleluia!

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Isaiah twenty-five verses six through nine.

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well this joyous Easter. What is the best food that you can think of? Candy, chocolate, cake, veggies? Well maybe not them…many times, when we gather together to celebrate an event, food is involved. When you get married, there is a fancy cake and other food at the reception. When there is a funeral, there is usually a light luncheon. Today the Lord says that He is preparing a feast that everyone in the world is invited to. Why is the Lord doing this? How do we join in that feast today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you. 

1.    A feast greater than we can imagine we are invited to

What is the best feast that you could ever imagine? The most expensive banquet in history was in 1821 at the coronation of King George IV. He was famous for his extravagant lifestyle and racking up eyewatering debts, his coronation costing the equivalent of more than £20,000,000 in today's money. In Westminster Hall, now the oldest remaining part of the original Houses of Parliament, the king and 300 of the most important guests dined under the gaze of thousands of spectators sitting on specially constructed platforms. Dining elsewhere in the palace were 1,300 other guests. French-style cuisine was served from temporary kitchens constructed to cope with the quantity of food, and the king's table alone had more than 70 dishes over three courses. In total, the guests ate 7.3 tons of beef, veal and lamb, more than 1,600 chickens and 8,400 eggs. You want to talk about a grand feast. I do not think that any of us would leave the table hungry if we had attended that one

Yet as grand as that feast was, Isaiah declares that i the Lord will “prepare a feast,” “destroy the shroud,” “swallow up death,” “wipe away the tears,” and “remove the disgrace.  The Lord is making a feast greater than anything King George IV could have dreamed up. The Lord prepares a great feast. It is a feast not just for anyone but for all nations, everyone in the entirety of the world.  

A great feast for anyone who suffers from the horrors of death. For anyone who has ever mourned over loved ones no longer with them. For anyone who is missing the touch, kiss, caress of a spouse now no longer here. All of us have faced the specter of death. We have seen loved ones slowly dying as they get older and older. We have mourned those taken too soon, taken from of in the youth and vitality of life. Even we ourselves are not immune. We face the reality of death ourselves every day. When we wake up with more grey hairs, more aches, and pains then yesterday, we are reminded that we too will eventually die and be buried. 

2.    Why? JC conquered death

Yet, there is hope and joy even in the face of death itself. How can we be joyful? Because of the work of the Lord.  The Lord prepares this feast purely because of His great love and mercy towards everyone across all of time and space. He prepares a feast to give us hope, to give us comfort as we mourn, to wipe away every tear from our eyes. How does He do all this? Look at why He is throwing this great feast. Because Jesus has swallowed up death forever. Jesus risen from the dead. Because He has destroyed the power of death forever. He has won the victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil! See, where He was laid. The Tomb is empty! He is no longer there! By dying, Jesus has destroyed the power of death. He has taken away our sins from us, paid the price for all of them, and buried them with Him in the tomb. By rising again, He gives to us new life with Him forever, leaving our sins dead and buried. Jesus has taken away the veil of death from us forever. Because of His great love towards us, we get to join in this feast with Jesus forever. He wipes away our tears, even as we mourn, by reminding us that there will come a day when death itself will be ended and crushed beneath His nail scarred feet because He is alive forever more. 

3.    Feast still join in today.

This is a future reality that we celebrate today. Jesus gives us a foretaste of the feast to come. That we today, even while we wait, even while we mourn, get to join in the feast for the comfort and salvation of our souls! We join with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven in the great marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom forever. A feast for all nations, purified by the blood of Jesus Christ, because of His sacrifice upon the cross, and alive forevermore. We join in a foretaste of this feast every time we gather at this altar. We feast on Jesus’ body and blood, in, with, and under, the bread and the wine, given and shed for us. We join with all of the redeemed, all of the host of heaven, as we look forward to the day when we will get see our Crucified, Risen, and Ascended Lord face to face, and join Him, and everyone, physically forever and ever.
Be of good cheer my beloved flock, the Lord has taken away your veil. He has swallowed up death forever because of His great love for you.

Alleluia Christ is Risen!
He is Risen indeed Alleluia!

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

Video

Text: Isaiah 52:11-53:12

Theme: Gilded words of a Sin bearing Sufferer

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation tonight is the Old Testament lesson from the book of Isaiah the fifty-second and fifty-third chapters.

The pounding of hammer and nails. A constant cry of agony and pain…. a quick intake of breath before it is ripped away as his body slumps down with effort. The victim’s full weight borne by his wrists and feet and the points at which the spikes had been driven through them and into the wood. To breath in and out, Jesus would have to move up and down on the sipes. He would have to lift Himself up by pulling on His writs and pushing up on His feet. With any movement the spikes driven through His feet would have sent sheering pain up both legs. Likewise, with the movement upward to exhale, His arms would have rotated around the spikes causing excruciating pain to shoot through His upper body and arms. It is difficult to imagine the agonizing pain. Each breath forcing Jesus to push up on His feet, pushing His back against the cross. Shredded flesh and muscle grating against the trough timber. Every breath, exhaustion soon followed then death. Truly, crucifixion is a horrible and brutal process. One that the Romans perfected and made efficient and deadly use of, killing thousands of people. Many of those crucified were for their own sins that the criminals and murderers had brought upon themselves, harsh examples of what would happen to you if you tried to break the law against the might of Rome. A very effective deterrent to not commit a crime.

Yet, one crucifixion was different. That of Jesus our Lord. Still horrible in its agony, pain, and torment. Still brutal in its method and mockery.  Jesus ”had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  ” He had nothing that we should adore him. He was not strong. He was not handsome. He appeared just the same as any other human upon the earth. In fact, He was marred to the point of no longer looking like a human being. Why does this horrible pain and death happen to Him? Not because of anything sinful or wrong that He Himself has done. He is the spotless, perfect, Lamb of God. Yet, He dies. 

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;    yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.5But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”   

Did you catch it? As Luther writes, these are indeed words gilded in gold. Why does Jesus die such a horrible and painful death? Why is there a split within the Holy Trinity as the only begotten Son is estranged from His Father? Why has the Father forsaken the Son? Because of us, because of our transgressions, Our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities, our chastisement, the iniquity of us all is laid upon Him to give us peace. Our sins demanded payment in blood. Those vile deeds that we do. Our lies, our slander, our murder, our adultery, our covetousness, our stealing, our putting other gods in the place of the true God, and much more that I could name. All of this demand’s payment in blood, who pays? Because of us the Creator of the Universe is mocked, beaten, scorned, bleeds, and dies.

God established from before the foundation of the earth were laid, that He would have mercy upon us. He sends us His own Son. There, at the cross, Jesus takes our pain, our scorn, our shame, our guilt, every single one of our transgressions, our iniquities, everything is laid upon Christ. He bears it all on our behalf so that we, as sinful humans, are reconciled to a Holy and Just God now and forever. The price has been paid; Jesus’ gruesome death in place of ours.

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

Amen.
 

A sacrifice beyond our thought
Why God’s own Son should now be brought
Before a judge whose only care
Is washing ‘way the guilt he bears

O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in Your Sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.

In Shakespeare’s McBeth, he illustrates a scene that mirrors the one that Pilate enacted many years ago. Lady McBeth is walking and talking in her sleep about the assassination of King Duncan, in which she is implicated. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have been unable to sleep since they murdered Duncan, but when she does manage to fall asleep she is plagued with a nightmare about the murder and the blood they have shed.  In this episode she is observed by a serving woman and a doctor who are overhearing her confession of the regicide she has committed.
As she walks she rubs her hands as though washing them, trying to get rid of the blood. The spot she’s referring to is a spot of blood on her hand. She’s rubbing it, trying to erase it, but cannot. “Here’s yet a spot,” she cries, desperately rubbing. “Here’s the small of blood still.”

Shakespear is drawing on a historical event for his scene. That of Pilate at the trial of our Lord. The people are clamoring for Jesus’ blood. They are so bloodthirsty for Jesus’ blood that they ask for Barabbas, a known murderer, criminal, and rioter to be freed instead of Jesus. Pilate needs to think of something to do, and quick.

Pilate cannot allow a riot to happen. Pilate needs to maintain the good graces of the Emperor, lest he lose his job, or worse, his head. Pilate is already close to losing the Emperor’s favor. He has multiple opponents already bringing two serious grievances against him for what is often called the standards affair. 

When Pilate first became governor of Judea. He did what most Romans would have done. He had a pair of gilded shields inscribed with the name of the Roman Emperor Tiberius into King Herod’s former palace in Jerusalem, in violation of Jewish customs. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus told a similar tale that Pilate permitted troops carrying military standards bearing the likeness of the emperor into Jerusalem, although Jewish law forbade images in the city. A great crowd traveled to the Judean capital of Caesarea in protest and lay prostrate around Pilate’s palace for five days until he relented. since in their view, Pilate was breaking the second commandment by not only making a graven image but also putting them up where temple worshipers could see them, as well as having coins minted with the Emperor’s image on them. The Samaritans also accused Pilate before Vitellius, legate of Syria, after he attacked them on Mount Gerizim (36 ce) killing hundreds.

One, two, three strikes you are out. Now Pilate is in dangerous waters. The religious leaders have brough him Jesus, claiming that he is calling Himself a King, committing treason under Roman law, a crime punishable by death. Pilate is close to having a riot on his hands. He needs to do something to calm the crowds. His own wife has told him to have nothing to do with this man because of a dream she had. So Pilate literally washes his hands of the matter. He has a bowl brought out, washes his hands, and says he is innocent of Jesus’ death. He basically says, Fine, I am innocent. Jesus is your problem now.’ The crowd takes responsibility, replying His blood be upon us and our children.

So Pilate delivers Jesus over to be crucified. He is mocked, beaten, and dies a painful and agonizing death. Thus the plan of God is fulfilled. His own Son is offered up as a grand sacrifice on our behalf. Upon Jesus all the wrath of God is laid that we might not have to bear it because of our sins. He bears our sins and punishment on our behalf.

Thanks be to God, that He does not wash His hands of us because of our sins. Rather He washes us clean in the waters of Holy Baptism for the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls. God used Pilate to accomplish His plan of salvation. 

In Jesus’ name. Amen.
 

Video

Text: Exodus 20:1-17

Outline
I.    Covenant
II.    Expectations
III.    Freedom
 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament Lesson of Exodus chapter twenty verses one through seventeen.
Introduction: Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Are you wondering why I have two chairs up here with me today? Well, they help to illustrate what God is talking about in our Old Testament lesson today. Think you can jump from one chair to another. Yep, that seems easy. Move chairs far apart what about now? Now, it seems impossible. There is no way that you could make that jump. What if you had help? Help one of them make the jump, yep that was easier was it not? Because you had me helping you make the jump. How does Jesus help us when it comes to the Law of God? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
 

I.    Covenant
 

Often we as Christians take the Ten Commandments out of their original context. This is very easy to do because we so often encounter the Commandments as excerpted material in our church bulletins or on a plaque on the wall. While the Ten Commandments are representative of the timeless standards of God’s moral law, we nevertheless increase the risk of misinterpreting them when we strip them from their covenantal and redemptive-historical context.
 

The Law was shared with Moses and Israel at a time when they were fatigued from their wilderness wanderings. They were between the great victory of the Red Sea and the borders of the land of promise. They wanted to enter the land that God had promised them, but they were not ready. God had not finished his preparatory work. The people of Israel needed to understand what it meant to live in covenant with the God who had brought them out of Egypt. They needed to understand God’s love and his expectations. This is the context in which the law was given. It was given to immature believers who had to learn how to respond to God’s grace and to live a life pleasing to him. 
 

This is what we see in Exodus 20, God was making his covenant with the people whom he had freed from slavery in Egypt. He had claimed them, giving them this gift apart from anything they had done to earn this freedom. With God’s gift came His expectations. These expectations were also a good gift, a plan for enjoying their identity as his creatures and his children. They show the relationship between God as the One who has redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, and them as His people. They show how God’s people are to act within the relationship that they have with Him. God expected that the Israelites were going to live different from the people around them. Thus, the Ten Commandments are given as their guide, curb, and mirror. Not as a means of earning redemption by their works, but rather as a means of expressing gratitude for that redemption. 
 

II.    Expectations
 

We have a similar covenant. A covenant made and signed in blood. We have been freed from our slavery, not a physical slavery but a spiritual one. We have been freed from the dark slavery of our sins. All of the times we have broken the law of God, when we try to make the perfect jump ourselves. What happens? We fall flat on our faces. God has rescued us through Christ’s sin-abolishing death and his righteousness-bestowing resurrection (Rom 4:25). It is important for us to remember that our redemption was secured not only through Jesus’ death on the cross, but also through the righteous life that he lived upon this earth. Jesus lived for our salvation as much as he died for it. Without the life and death of Jesus, the law that came through Moses could only bring condemnation and death to us. But by Jesus’ perfect obedience imputed to us and by his perfect sacrificial death on our behalf, Jesus accomplished what the law never could—he made his people righteous and holy:   Through His perfect life, death, and resurrection from the dead Jesus picks us up and makes the jump on our behalf. He clears the distance by the forgiveness of our sins between sinful humanity and a just and righteous God. 
 

We have been given new birth without any conditions fulfilled on our part. We have received the gift of identity as God’s children through the waters of Holy Baptism where He calls us His very own as He seals us with the sign of the holy cross both upon our foreheads and hearts, as He places His very name upon us. As parents who give life to a child have expectations for the child’s performance, so God has expectations for us. Our fulfilling them does not determine whether we are his children but does reflect our faith in his word that gives us our new identity. It guides us as Christians, it shows that because we are God’s people, we live different than those around us. We do our best, living in the forgiveness that Christ gives to us, to obey His commands.

III.    Freedom
 

God’s law comes with the label “handle with care.” Our sinfulness has turned this good gift of God’s design for good human living into a killer that strangles the sinner. It says, “you must make the jump on your own no matter how large it is.” It turns that good gift that Christ has done everything on our behalf, that He has made that jump to reconcile us forever, into death. Seeking the guidance of the law for fulfilling our desire to be God’s faithful children can end up in shame or guilt when we focus on our sinfulness rather than recognize that Christ has claimed our sins for his tomb and placed us in his own kingdom, freed from defending ourselves with our sinful exploitation of others and our rebellious rejection of his love.
 

Conclusion: Thanks be to God that we do not have to keep the Law perfectly on our own. Christ has taken on our flesh, borne our sins in His holy flesh, lived a perfect live in our place and gives us His perfection through His suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead. May we always, with the help of the Holy Spirit, strive to keep the Commandments, not as a means of our salvation, but as a way of thanksgiving to God for everything He has done for us for our salvation.
 

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

Video

We sit with Jesus and partake
A meal as one and celebrate;
But one among us will betray
The Son of God on the very next day.

O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.

Imagine you are sitting with Jesus, gathered around His Word, dipping bread in the same bowl, listening to every word that comes from His mouth. That is something that all of us would enjoy, it is something that we look forward to in some sense every day, or every week. Every time we read the Bible, we are sitting with Jesus, gathered around His Word, and feasting on the good gifts that He gives. 

Jesus is gathered with His disciples for one final meal, one He has long desired to eat with them. One final time to talk, to pass on His last will and testament, to give one last command. That command, to love one another as I have loved you. That is why we remember this night as Manday, from the Latin Mandatum, Command Thursday

Yet, even as they gather in the upper room, not everything is sunshine and roses. Sitting at meal with our Lord is the one that will betray Him. Judas Iscariot. As Matthew records in chapter twenty-six, “When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.[b] 21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.” Judas is going to betray Jesus, yet Jesus still shows mercy. He sits with all His disciples, including the betrayer, for one final meal. Jesus shows that one last act of service as He washes their feet.

Similar with us, we do not deserve to sit with Jesus at table. We do not deserve to gather around His Word and Sacraments. We often ask, ‘Is it I Lord?’ realizing that we are undeserving of feasting with our Lord. If we are being honest with ourselves, as beautiful and as joyous as gathering for this meal is, we are not very good at this. Our lives get busy, the pressures of the world, family, and various activities fight for our attention. Whether they be sports, entertainment, or a wide variety of other things. We give into the various temptations, putting them above the Word of God. Our sinful nature despises worship and gathering around the Word of God. There are thousands of other things it would rather do in the time that we have. The temptation of the world and Satan is clear,  saying things like, ‘Surely, it is better to sleep in. You have to get the housework done, when else are you going to do it? The roads are a bit snowy, are you sure you want to go out? If you do not go to your son or daughters’ game, that will wreck them forever. ‘It is too early, go ahead and sleep in.’ ‘it is too late. It is too dark outside; you still have to make dinner. You still have to put the kids down for bedtime, wait until next week’ All these excuses. What do they do? We allow our devotional life to suffer, feasting on the things of this world rather than on the living Word of God. We avoid being in worship on Wednesday Evenings or on Sunday mornings. It means that we are no longer sitting with Jesus. We are sitting off by ourselves eating ice rather than the bounty of the feast. 

Yet, Jesus shows us continual mercy. He goes as is foretold of Him. He is betrayed into the hands of sinful men. He suffers, bleeds, and dies to forgive every single one of your sins, including those of disregarding His Word. He reconciles you to God forever that where He is, you may be also. He gives you of His Holy Spirit so that by His power working in you, you can join Him in this great feast. You can join in the great celebration as we gather with all the host of heaven to celebrate a foretaste of the marriage feast of the Lamb as we take eat, take drink, this is my body, this is my blood. We do so to your souls benefit rather than harm. You read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest His Word. You hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it. You rejoice in the fellowship of believers, gathered around Word and Sacrament for the mutual strengthening of one another.
 

In Jesus’ name. Amen.
 

Video:

Text: Genesis 17”1-6,15-17

Outline
2. Abram’s shortcut
1. God’s response to Abram and Us

Introduction: Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Genesis Chapter seventeen verses one through seven, fifteen through sixteen. 

Boys and girls, have you ever been with mom or dad when they have taken a shortcut on a trip thinking that it will save time? Has it ever worked in cutting time off of the trip? Usually more time is added. Too often, shortcuts end in bad ways. There is the dead-end road or the two-lane road with heavy traffic so it is no shortcut at all and takes you longer to travel. What about a shortcut when mom or dad is trying to fix something at home or on the car? They think they have an “aha” experience, and then it breaks again and costs more to fix the second time! Shortcuts do not usually work.  We see Abram try to take a short cut in our text for today. How does God respond to it? Ponder this question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

2. Abram’s shortcut

        What we see in Abram today is a desire to take a manmade shortcut. He wants to do things his way under his own terms and power. He has figured out a way to have an heir using Hagar, Sarai’s slave woman. After all, he is ninety-nine years old. He and Sarai are not going to be having children. It is just too late. So, Abram has a plan for an heir that is done in such a way that God can save face. Abram wants Ishmael to be his heir. Ishmael is already born. Abram loves Ishmael. He practically begs for Ishmael to inherit everything, praying to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” He knows he and Sarai are too old to have a son, so just make Ishmael heir of the promises, make him the one through whom the Messiah will come. This is Abram’s fervent wish and his answer to his problem.

        We see here the weak faith in Abram and Sarai. Abram doubts that God can keep his promise and provide him an heir. This would be impossible—too much to ask! Abram takes matters into his own hands. He wants to fix the problem. He thinks he has the perfect solution: “God, let’s do things my way this time.”

        How often do we find ourselves operating the same way? We have problems in life. Everyone does. We, as the people of God, go to Him in prayer. You pour out your heart to Him. You tell Him you believe in His promises. As soon as you pray “Amen,” you start looking for your own solutions, your own answers, the way you think the problem should be solved. Just like that, there’s worry, fear, anxiety. Give it to God and then take it right back just as fast as you can. The real problem here is that you don’t trust God and His ability to answer as is best for you. You want to do it. After all, you might not like God’s answer and his solution. Just like Abram!

1. God’s response to Abram

        So God comes to Abram face-to-face. God does not come to chastise or to condemn. God comes to Abram to strengthen his faith by speaking to him the promises of the covenant. If Abram thought it was impossible, unbelievable, that he and his wife could have a child in their old age, he must have been astonished at the unbelievable promises that God made to him.

        He changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Why? To signal to Abram the assuredness of the promises. The “Exalted Father” would become the “father of a multitude of nations.” Sarai was changed to Sarah because she would be the mother of many nations. God would not work this promise through Ishmael, but He would keep His original promise by giving Abraham and Sarah a son of their very own even in their old age. God was going to work two miracles. First, Abraham would have his own son. Second, he would make him very fruitful and make him literally into many nations.

        God was going to bless Abraham with descendants, generation after generation. In fact, God would bless him so that this would be an everlasting covenant. The covenant would be everlasting because of one of those descendants. Human beings each have their own life expectancy, beginning and ending. To be an everlasting covenant would take a special descendant who would be like Abraham, a human descendant, but also like God, who has no end, everlasting. One of Abraham’s descendants would be the Savior, Jesus Christ. 

        Finally, God would give to Abraham the land of Canaan, literally the Promised Land for his future descendants. This Promised Land would be an everlasting possession. Again, it would be everlasting because there would be a land far beyond anything on earth. There would be a Promised Land that would last forever.

        God fulfilled his promises to Abraham and Sarah, and, in doing so, he has kept his promises to you and to me. Jesus Christ, the descendant of Abraham, has come. He has come for all people, all nations, all generations. He came to bring the promises of God to ultimate fulfillment. He did so to remove the sins of our weak faith, our doubts, our constant desire to do things our way, to solve problems without regard to God’s will. He did so by his own suffering, his own shed blood to cover our sins, his own death to pay our wage of sin, and his glorious resurrection to conquer death itself. Through Jesus Christ, the promises of God to Abraham and to us are fulfilled. By faith in Jesus, we, too, are now descendants of Abraham.

        He has changed your name too. At the day of your Baptism, the day you received the Holy Spirit, the day your sins were forgiven, the day you became an heir of eternal life, God gave you a new name: Christian. God applied His very name to you. He keeps his promises to you. He gives you “a new covenant in his blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” His covenant, sealed in his holy, precious blood, strengthens your faith and keeps you in faith to life everlasting in the everlasting Promised Land.

        Conclusion: God made promises to Abraham. The promises seemed impossible, unbelievable, to an old man and his wife. But God Kept His Unbelievable Promises
to Abraham and to Us!
All the promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ when he came for you and me. Now we have new names, forgiveness of sins, an everlasting covenant, and a promised land. These are indeed unbelievable promises. 

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