2025 Sermons
Feast of the Holy Trinity

Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31ESV
Outline:
1. Man’s wisdom
2. God’s Wisdom
3. Living in Wisdom
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 is the Old Testament lesson of Proverbs chapter eight verses one through four and twenty-two through thirty-one.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today.
Do you have a lot of brain power? Some of us have a lot of brain power. Some people can remember a lot of information. Some people are good with names, facts and numbers, or information about people. Some people struggle a lot with dates or numbers. They seem to not have a lot of brain power for that. Whether we have a lot of brain power or a little, we need God’s wisdom. We need His brain power. God gives us true wisdom. Seeing things rightly, using God’s wisdom, we recognize that all we have comes from the Lord. We see and confess who God is, and what He has done for us in Christ. We are wise because Jesus lives in us. How does God give us His wisdom and help us in our daily lives? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. Man’s wisdom
Today is a day when we are confronted with a great mystery and celebration of the Trinity. Rather than focusing on trying to describe the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, this great mystery that we cannot even begin to comprehend. Our text describes God according to one of His attributes and the works therein. Our text says that wisdom calls. She goes to the heights and the byways, calling and calling, for others to listen to her. What is wisdom? The dictionary defines wisdom as: ability to discern inner qualities and relationships, good sense, a generally accepted belief, accumulated philosophical or scientific learning, a wise attitude, belief, or course of action, or the teachings of the ancient wise men. There are values and virtues humans ought to pursue and the vices that should be rejected.
By these definitions, we think that we are pretty wise. We have wisdom. But are you listening to the right wisdom? We can tell if someone has a good quality or a good character. We are usually good at figure out what the right course of action should be. Should I spend my money for food or on a new car? Usually food wins out because we enjoy living. We are constantly learning new things, making new inventions, digesting new books, and much more. We follow the teachings of old while keeping up with scientific learning. Mixing old wives tales, “Feed a fever, starve a cold.” If that does not work, then go to the urgent care and see what the doctor says.
We are truly wise indeed! Yet, it is a wisdom that is only wise in the ways of the world. The world’s wisdom depends upon you and what you think, your own wisdom. The wisdom of the world is self-centered. We scoff in wisdom and ask, “What’s in it for me?” “If I get nothing out of it, why should I do it?” We never concerns ourselves with “How can I help?” A scoffer is an island unto himself. Foolishly, the scoffer lives a self-righteous life that alienates and marginalizes any dependence on others. The scoffer’s circle of friends is very small. The scoffer’s world is egocentric, and paranoia of others threatening its legitimacy constitutes reality. Scoffers depend entirely on their own, and upon the world’s wisdom. If our wisdom does not work, maybe someone else’s wisdom will be better. We need to find the smartest and wisest people, then we will be better and good.
Sadly, this thinking can even affect the church. We think that we are wise if faith is only a knowledge in the head to come up when we need it, rather than a wisdom from the heart. We know a lot about God’s word. We know the Bible stories. We know who Abraham, Issac, and Jacob are. We know the prophets. We know the Bible Stories. We often become puffed up with our own knowledge and how much we know. False wisdom, the world’s wisdom, cannot save or help us. We need true wisdom. We need to be listening to God’s wisdom.
2. God’s Wisdom
What is God’s Wisdom? How can we listen to true wisdom? God’s wisdom has been with Him from the beginning. “I was setup as the first before the heaven’s and earth was made.” God’s wisdom is an attribute, a character of God. Proverbs 8 is famous because it lay at the heart of the controversy over the deity of Christ that culminated in the Nicene Creed. Nearly everyone in the early church understood this passage to be about Christ. In love, all of God’s attributes, including His wisdom, are made flesh for us in Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Wisdom—gushing forth forgiveness and new life in the font of Baptism. Today Jesus is our Wisdom—bringing us His very body and very blood in bread and wine for life everlasting. Today Jesus is our Wisdom—speaking to us still through His living Word in preaching and absolution. That your days might be multiplied and years added to your life, this Wisdom from on high deigns to dwell among you, His 21st century people of God, in Word and in Sacraments. That we have God’s wisdom in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and His work. We listen to his wisdom every time we gather and hear the Words of Holy Scripture.
3. Walking in Wisdom
As Christians we walk and live in Godly wisdom in our daily lives. Listening to God’s wisdom in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God lives in us! Thie wisdom of God shows itself in our thoughts, words, and actions. It enables and strengthens us to put worldly ways behind us, things like sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness. Rather than following the wisdom of the world into darkness and death, we follow the ways of God unto life everlasting.
God, in His wisdom and love, has called us out of the darkness of the wisdom of the world, into his marvelous light and wisdom in Christ. We live in the light of Christ, who is the light of the world. Christ, who gives life and light to our soul and to our senses. Now in Christ, we have been given His wisdom. We know God for who he truly is, as our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know him as the God of mercy, who forgives our sins freely for Christ’s sake by His death and resurrection.
The wisdom of Christ takes specific shape in the things we put behind us and avoid, and in the things we say and do and think now, as the new people we are in Christ. As Saint Paul gets at “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
The Lord continue to bless us with wisdom all of our days until that day when we are with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever and ever.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Feast of Pentecost

Text: John 14:23-31
Theme: Word of the HS
Outline:
1. HS?
2. What does He do? Brings to remembrance
a. Creates and Sustains faith
3. Your Work?
Sermon:
Grace, mercy, and pece 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 Holy Gospel according to Saint John the Fourteenth chapter verses twenty-three through thirty-one.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Have you ever felt really sleepy? So sleepy that you can’t keep your eyes open? You just want to close them and not open them for a really long time? That can be how we feel when it comes to the great task that God has given us to do of spreading His Word to all the world. We can feel like we have no energy but what happens today in our lesson? The Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and they are given power from on high. They, and we, do the work God has given us to do, not by our own power but by the Power of the Holy Spirit. How does the Holy Spirit continue to give us His power today? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. HS
Who exactly is the Holy Spirit? Many people in the world today misunderstand who the Holy Spirit is. They think that He’s an inactive something that you can just call upon when you need it, like the Force from Star Wars. It’s just always around you. If you can just tap into it then you have unlimited power. Whenever you need help you can draw upon the Spirit, He will help you. Then, you can just put Him back until you need help again. Others misunderstand because they think that the Holy Spirit does not exist. They think that He is indeed a Spirit or a Ghost with no form or substance to Him whatsoever. Others misunderstand because they think that the Spirit gives you a jumpstart, the same as you might jumpstart a dead car battery, and you then need to do the rest.
These common misconceptions are wrong. The Holy Spirit has a form and substance. He is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. As our Lord says, the Holy Spirit takes what belongs to the Son and gives it to the disciples. That is something that only God can do. The Holy Spirit is not an inactive force that we can draw on whenever we need Him. Rather, He is living and active within Creation. We might consider Genesis chapter one where the Holy Spiri is hovering and brooding over the waters like a protective bird over its nest, making sure that the young are well tended to and everything is going according to plan. The Holy Spirit does not merely give you a jumpstart and leave you to do the rest. Rather, He is with you forever, every single moment of your life giving you strength and peace.
The Holy Spirit gives us a strength and peace that we cannot get on our own. We know well how weak and frail we are. We seem to have no peace in this sinful world. We are tossed by the wind and waves of the world. We go from one sinful thought and action to another. All the while thinking ‘Maybe this time will be different’, ‘Maybe finally I will achieve something good.’ ‘Maybe this time I can finally overcome sin and temptation on my own.’ How is that working out for you? On our own, we can-do no-good thing. Under our own power, we see how powerless we really are. We become anxious and fearful, wondering how we can ever have peace and strength.
2. What does He do?
Thanks be to God that He does give us of His Holy Spirit and takes not His presence away from us. By His work, we have peace and strength in the midst of a sin-filled world. As the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, we can overcome sin, stand firm against the pressures of the world, and resist the temptation of Sin. Not by our own power but because of the work of the Holy Spirit. How does this happen? Our text for today tells us. Our Lord says,
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and dbring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
The Holy Spirit gives us strength and peace. Because the Holy Spirit never points to Himself. He always focuses and points to Jesus Christ and what He has done for our salvation. Because of the Son, we have peace and strength. We have Peace with God, having been reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus. We have strength, because He leaves in us. The Holy Spirit teaches by creating faith in us that we may cling to Christ’s work. Through this faith, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He makes us holy, here and now.
How does this great transformation happen? How does the Spirit make us holy? As Luther writes in the Large Catechism “Sanctifying is nothing else than bringing us to Christ to receive this good, to which we could not attain of ourselves.” (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/apostles-creed/#lc-ii-0039 ) and “Just as the Son obtains dominion, whereby He wins us, through His birth, death, resurrection, etc., so also the Holy Ghost effects our sanctification by the following parts, namely, by the communion of saints or the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting; that is, He first leads us into His holy congregation, and places us in the bosom of the Church, whereby He preaches to us and brings us to Christ. (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/apostles-creed/#lc-ii-0037 )
God always works through means. The Father works through the means of His Word at Creation. The Son works through the means of the incarnation. The means by which the Holy Spirit works to make us holy are what we call the marks of the Church. Here, within the community of believers gathered around His Word and Sacraments, the Spirit makes you holy. He says, “Hey, here is everything Jesus has done in His Word. Here is His very Gospel in a visible and tangible way in the Sacraments, water and the Word to make you a beloved child. Bread and wine with the Word to give you Jesus’ true body and true blood for you to forgive your sins. Listen! Hear the voice of your Pastor as “in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” Here you are forgiven of all of your sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. Here God places His very name upon you, makes you His beloved child, creates saving faith in you, and constantly strengthens you to do the work that Christ has given you to do.
3. What Work do you do?
You have the Spirit living within you. He strengthens you to do His good work. What is that work? Firstly, the Spirit creates faith in you. You trust in the Son and what Jesus has done for you. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead, you have peace no matter what happens in this world. Jesus has already destroyed the power of sin, death, and the devil in your lives. There is nothing to fear, worry, or be anxious about. God Himself is with you and strengthening you. Secondly, that faith and trust shows itself in your thoughts, words, and actions. In the midst of this sin-filled world, you are little Christs to those around you. You use your thoughts, words, and actions to give God the glory rather than using it to indulge your sinful lusts or give into the pressures of the world, or the temptations of the devil.
Thanks be to God that He sends us the Comforter and the Helper. May He continue to give us of His Holy Spirt that we may always walk in His ways for the glory of His name.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts, and minds, in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Text: Acts 16:9-15
Outline
The Rock
The Ripples
Ripples still today
Sermon
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Epistle Lesson of the Acts of the Apostles the sixteenth chapter verses nine through fifteen.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you know what I have here? I have a bowl of water and some rocks. Watch what happens when the rocks hit the water. They make ripples! They start out small, but then they get bigger and bigger as they go outwards from the rock. This would be a good way of showing what happens in our text for today. Paul has ben busy. He has been going all throughout Jerusalem and Judea. Now in our text, Paul comes to the entry of Europe. We hear today how the Gospel spreads out, even to us today. We see that God’s Mission Carries the Gospel across Oceans to People of All Continents—Starting in Asia, Going to Europe, and to the Ends of the World. How can we continue the spread of God’s Gospel today? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
The Rock
First, we should begin, as with all things, at the center of the ripple. We begin with the source and cause. The rock. The rock is none other than our Triune God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We see in our text that the Triune God has a mission for our salvation.
The mission was the salvation of humanity. The destruction of sin, death, and the power of the devil. The forgiveness of sins. The fulfilling of the Law and a restoration of a sinful world with a holy and just God. For that reason, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—the crucified and risen Lord—was sent by the Father “for us and our salvation.” Through Jesus’ perfect life in our place, the perfectness that the Law requires is fulfilled. Our sins and guilt is covered by His precious blood, and we are made His dear and beloved children. By dying, He destroyed the power of death and by His resurrection gives us newness of life. He crushed the head of the Devil and rendered Satan completely and utterly powerless.
But the work of the Trinity does not end with the work of the Son. There is given to us, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. He is sent by the Father on request of the Son to equip the Church with “power from on high” (Lk 24:49), to bring to remembrance everything that our Lord Jesus said and did. As our Lord says to His disciples “all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). As the Holy Spirit is sent and given to the apostles. They are clothed with power from on high at Pentecost. The Rock splashes at Pentecost in Jerusalem, and ripples to all the world. As we hear at our Lord’s ascension, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth. The apostles were sent to proclaim forgiveness for all men. (Jn 20:21–23).
The Ripples
That message or forgiveness is a message Paul is proclaiming to those in Phillippi. He goes from Troas to Philippi and speaks of the Gospel. Paul does not do this on a spur of the moment because he feels like it. He does this because the Holy Spirit gives him a vision. A man from Macedonia, modern day northern Greece, begs him to come and help him. We can almost hear the desperation in his voice as he pleads for help. Paul obeys. Paul and the men with him go to Philippi. We should note a bit of irony in our text, Paul sees a man in his vision but at Philippi he meets only a few women by the riverbank, there are not enough men for a synagogue. By the river, Paul proclaims the Gospel and a woman named Lydia believes, is baptized, and opens her home to the disciples.
Lydia is a name that is still honored and remembered fondly today. She is not one that we would assume would become a believer. We know that she was rich because our text says that she was a seller of purple goods. Purple was used by the Romans as a symbol of status. It denoted power, nobility, and divine sanction. It was a sign of immeasurable, priceless luxury, almost belonging to a mythical realm alongside other rare goods. It was considered the ultimate symbol of status and prestige. If you could afford to have purple on the hem of your robe, much less clothing yourself entirely in purple, you were well off indeed. The making of purple dye was extremely labor intensive. It required a person to gather thousands of a specific kind of snail, Murex. A roman statesman name Pliny give us an example of how the process was done in his book Natural History: Carnivorous snails were caught using baited baskets, and their shells were removed to extract the hypobranchial vein. This vein was soaked in salt for no more than three days. Pliny emphasized that while salting was necessary, it had to be done carefully, as fresher glands produced more vibrant dye. The veins were then boiled in lead vessels over moderate heat, using a long funnel connected to the furnace. After a maximum of ten days, or when the desired shade was achieved, wool or other cloth was dipped in the dye and soaked for at least five days, depending on the mixtures used. Sunlight exposure was necessary to activate the dye’s color. Pliny also described the range of purple hues that could be produced and their varying social and monetary value, with the dark "blood" purple from Tyre being the most prized. Several factors influenced the dye's final color, including boiling time, sunlight exposure, and additives like kermes or urine.
Lydia would have been vastly wealthy, beyond the wildest dreams of many of her standing. Yet she would have been constantly smelly and wet from gathering and boiling the snails. As rich as she was, she would also have been an outsider due to her constant smelliness as well as \one unclean by those who followed the Jewish Law as snails were considered unclean animals. Yet by the grace and mercy of God, because of Paul’s message, Lydia is the very first convert in all of Europe!
Thanks be to God that He does have mercy and grace, using poor sinners as the means of spreading His Gospel to the ends of the earth. Because of sin, there remains a desperate need for people to hear the Gospel, both in Paul’s time and still today. We are surrounded by souls that are in need of salvation, blind and deaf to God’s word and still need to have His message of Law and Gospel proclaimed to them, no matter how many are gathered. Neither we, nor they, can save ourselves. We cry out for help desperate to the Lord. In His mercy, He meets our needs, giving us help, comfort, and forgiveness by the death and resurrection of His Son.
That is why the Lord sends the apostles, and Paul, to proclaim and grant His mercy, and grace in the midst of a sin-filled and broken world. He continues to send out the Holy Chrisitan Church today. His divine ministry of Word and Sacrament to people generates the Holy Christian Church. As we confess in Article V: Of the Ministry in the Augsburg Confession. We have the Office of the Holy Ministry:
“That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, 2 the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear 3 the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake.” (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/of-the-ministry/#ac-v-0001 )
Ripples Today
We can sum everything up in this way Lutheran Churches do Lutheran missions. Lutheran missions plant Lutheran Churches. Lutheran Churches proclaim God’s Law to broken souls, that we, and they, are sinners in need of salvation. They also proclaim God’s Gospel. People are saved. Salvation is freely given. This is not because of anything that we have done. It is not by the works of our hands or the thoughts of our minds, or the feelings of our heart. Salvation is given purely by God’s grace and mercy shown in Jesus Christ our Lord. That is why we continue to do Lutheran missions, spreading God’s message of Law and Gospel to everyone, person by person, ripple by ripple. By doing missions we plant Lutheran Churches. By the grace of God, many workers are called out into the harvest field for work, though the workers are few and the harvest is plentiful. As we experienced as a Church this past month both seminaries, Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, as well as Fort Wayne Theological Seminary, placed man within the Office of the Holy Ministry as rightly called by the churches they will serve to minister around America as well as the world at large. We even had two men called to serve in Deaf Missions, as we will hear more about next week.
As those sent go out into all the world, they go on a divine mission, called by God through the means of the respective congregations. This divine mission builds the Church where and when the Holy Spirit wills. As we saw in our text, Paul was called to Macedonia: He crosses from Asia to Europe (vv 6–12) at the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit denies other routes and directs him to Philippi. God’s Word (and thus, the Church) moves like a good summer rain from one place to another (Luther). God’s Church grows like the spreading rings in the water, when throwing a stone into a pool (Luther).
That means God’s mission crosses physical borders. Paul himself had certainly “crossed borders”! The great persecutor of the church had become it’s most zealous and prominent missionary; Jesus’ last apostle was called from unbelief to faith and discipleship. Paul preaches to God-fearing women, and Lydia is converted and baptized with her household (vv 13–15). The Church is planted in Europe!
The divine mission has since led to church planting on all continents! Because of faithful missionaries, we have Lutheran churches throughout the world. Currently we have over 200 missionaries in 90 countries. For a few examples, we could be here all day LCMS missionaries first went to Indian in 1895, the first foreign mission field in the Synod’s history. India has been in partnership with the LMS since 1959. In Ghana the LCMS established the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana (ELCG) in 1958 and the ELCG became a partner church of the LCMS in 1971. We still support the work by sending pastors to help in training for the seminary and partnering in medical work. In Ethiopia, as you have heard from Rev. Stinnett, he continues his mission work at the seminary there, work that has been done since 2000. Missions still continue to this very day. Just last year, in the heart of Rome itself, less than two miles from the Vatican, the LCMS planted a Lutheran church, called Christus Victory (Christ the Victor) Lutheran church.
Even the history of Great Falls proclaims the wonder of the Lord’s grace and mercy. We were started all the way back in 1955 as a way of best ministering to the needs of Great Falls. As a way of providing both sides of town with the precious news of God’s word. For such a time as this, here and now, in this place, we show the great wonder of God’s grace and mercy, spreading His word to those around us through simple things, like giving of food, clothing, and our very lives in support of the church.
Conclusion: A simple thing, a rock falling in the water makes many ripples. Yet, what a great ripple can be made from a small rock! So too the Word of God spreads to all the world beginning at Jerusalem, across Asia, to Europe by Paul, all the way here to Montana and even further still. As William Lohe remarked, mission is nothing more than the Church in motion. May God by His grace continue to help and support His church as we continue to proclaim both Law and Gospel to those both far and near that all may know that:
Christ has risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Fifth Sunday of Easter

Text: Revelation 21:1-7
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation this morning is the Epistle Lesson of the Revelation according to Saint John, the twenty-first chapter verses one through seven.
Boys and Girls, How are you doing this morning? I pray that you are doing well today. Have you ever heard of a move titled Aladdin? It was one of my favorite movies when I was your age. It is about a boy that does not have a family. He does not have a mom or dad. Aladdin’s life is broken and he wants a new life. He does everything he can to find a whole new world , to find someone who loves him. When something is old and broken what do you do with it? You would throw it away, right? It is broken. It does not work anymore. You toss it away and get something new. In our text for today, we see what God does with old things. We see that God does not throw them in the trash. Instead, He makes them new again. How does God do that? Ponder this question, as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
Old has passed away, New has come
In our reading, Saint John sees the old earth and heaven dissolves and pass away. They are no longer there. They are replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. Does this mean that everything we see here and now will be completely and totally destroyed? That there will be no more buildings, no more plants or animals? That everything will look like something out of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, void of anything living and full of emptiness everywhere you look?
No, God does not utterly destroy the world. Rather, everything will be restored to perfection again. The voice of the Father, sitting on the throne declares, “Behold I am making all things new!” then He says, “It is done!”
All things are made new again, here and now. This can be hard for our minds to understand. Everywhere we look at this present moment we see death and pain. There are still wars ,killings, and the shedding of innocent blood. There are still arguments, hatred, and anger in thought, word, and deed. We still struggle against our sinful flesh, the temptations of the devil, and the pressures of this sin-filled world. Yet, in the midst of this chaos and death, the voice of the Father says, “I am making all things new.” How can everything already be made new?
New in and through JC
It is made new because of the One who is making all things new. Notice the tense of the Father’s statement. This statement is in the present tense, “I am making everything new.” This is the consummation of God’s work of renewal and redemption, on the Last Day. Yet, already seen here and now in our present time.
Everything has been made new because of the work of the everlasting Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What did Jesus do? He came down out of heaven for us. What does Saint John see? He sees the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven! Our restoration is not a matter of us ascending to God, but of God descending to us! God entered His creation, took on our flesh, that through His perfect life, death, and resurrection, the crown jewel of creation, humanity itself, might be restored. With the crown jewel restored, all creation follows as well.
The voice says “It is done!” John must have been reminded of a word he had heard years earlier: “It is finished.” That’s what Jesus said on the cross, as he was hanging there, dying for the sins of the world. Because Jesus shed his blood and died for your sins and mine, our debt has been paid. The goal has been reached, and the deal has been sealed, with something more precious and more valuable than gold, the blood of the Lamb. Jesus’ “It is finished” on the cross guarantees the “It is done” of the new Jerusalem. The proof is in the resurrection of Christ, when he conquered the grave and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. “Because he lives, we shall live also.”
Jesus takes upon Himself all of the anger, guilt, and much more of our sins. Instead of destroying us as we deserve, He removes them from us by giving us His perfect righteousness. In Christ we are perfectly restored in a right relationship with the Father here and now. Our relationship with God is made perfect once again because of the shedding of Christ’s blood. Thus, why there is no longer any sea, not a reference to physical water but in terms of chaos and separation from God. There is no more separation. He is our God and we are His Sons and Daughters because of Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead.
Sons and Daughters of God forever!
Jesus has made us new creations in the waters of Holy Baptism. There, God has washed us in the blood of the Lamb and made us His dear children, now and forever. At this present moment, we suffer and endure. We suffer because of our sins as well as the sins of those around us, still living in a sinful world. Yet, we endure, steadfast in repentance, constantly turning towards God in contrition, seeking His grace and mercy.
We endure our pain and suffering, not because we enjoy them, but because we know the end result. Because of Jesus Christ, there will be a whole new world. A new heaven and a new earth. What exactly that will look like, I do not know. What I do know is what we have seen in our text for today. The holy city, the new Jerusalem will come down from heaven on the Last day. We will be made new. A holy people, a new you, one that will never have to worry about sin or death ever again. The Triune God will be your Emmanuel, God with you forever.
Until that blessed day arrives, hold fast to the faith that you have been given. Your sins are forgiven in Christ. You have been made new. Until the day when we see the consummation of all things, stand firm in the faith because
Christ has Risen!
He has risen Indeed! Alleluia!
May the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Text: Psalm 23
Sermon Outline
Introduction: The image of the Lord as our Shepherd and us as his sheep strikes close to our heart.
3. Our myths about sheep . . . and the truth.
2. We are dirty, wandering, stubborn sheep.
1. Jesus, the Shepherd, became a lamb to save us.
THE SHEPHERD BECAME A LAMB TO SAVE US DIRTY, WANDERING SHEEP.
Conclusion: Jesus still shepherds us.
Sermon
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleuia!
My dear beloved friends, the text for our meditation today is the twenty-third Psalm.
Introduction: No image of the Lord, and his relationship with us, strikes closer to the core of our being than the image we see in today’s lessons: the image of the Lord as our Shepherd and us as his sheep. We read it in the Psalm for today: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want” (v 1). We hear it in the Second Lesson: “The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd” (Rev 7:17). And in our Gospel Jesus tells us, “My sheep listen to my voice” (Jn 10:27). We even teach our children to sing “I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb.”
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Why do you suppose this image has such power for us? Perhaps it’s because in a world as troubled and sin-filled as ours, we link sheep and shepherds together with peace, quiet, and contentment. Our psalm says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters” (v 2). When you have had a long day. When it’s been stressful and chaotic, you cannot get to sleep, what do you do? You count sheep. 1,2,3,100…z.zzz.zzzz (snore!)
Or maybe we like this image so much because of how we think of sheep. Many people enjoy the feeling of sheepskin. The wool is soft and clean and fresh. They say it has the amazing quality of being warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Surely the animal that gave it must be like that: soft and gentle, clean and fresh, without fierce teeth or sharp claws. Jesus, the Lord, is our Shepherd, and we are his sheep.
If only more of us knew how sheep really are, we might feel a bit more sheepish about ourselves! Laura Ingalls Wilder brings that fact home in the book Farmer Boy. The chapter called “Sheep Shearing” describes the process of taking the wool from the sheep. The first thing done is to give each sheep a thorough washing.
You see, all that thick, soft wool picks up a lot of dirt as the sheep lives from day to day. What comes to us as clean and soft starts out as filthy and muddy. When the sheep have been scrubbed, they must be sheared immediately, because if they aren’t, they’ll get dirty all over again.
Those who’ve tended sheep know that they have other unpleasant characteristics. Sheep are prone to wander from the flock. The sight of some greener grass catches their attention, and they wander until they find themselves far away. Sheep can also be stubborn, headstrong, willful creatures.
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We are God’s sheep, God’s flock. As Pastor reminds us by opening every sermon, My dear beloved…flock! The same as sheep in the field, we Christians have an amazing ability to pick up dirt from our surroundings. How often we find our thoughts and words reflecting those of our non-Christian neighbors! We may not be able to help passing through the valley of the shadow of death, but when we begin to walk like those who are spiritually dead, that’s peril of our own making—and we should be very much afraid!
How often we look at ourselves in the light of God’s Law, only to be dismayed by the sight of the filth and mess in our life! Instead of luxuriating in the oil the Lord pours over our head—and whatever good things he pours into our cup—we covet the luxuries of this world, never content, always wanting greener pastures, bigger lawns, houses better appointed than the Lord’s (and on a more desirable street!), valuing the boss’s praise and our friends’ envy well above goodness and mercy. Instead of trusting God to vindicate us in the presence of our enemies, we fear them, smear them, speak all kinds of evil against them, and gloat when we see them stumble. Isn’t it true? Every time we gather for worship in the Divine Service, as soon as the name of God is placed on us, we find we must confess our sins.
God’s sheep have a tendency to wander too. Perhaps something hurtful is said to us, maybe by the people of God. Or we experience some horrible, shocking event—a sudden death we can’t possibly explain in our understanding of a loving God, a rejection by a loved one that doesn’t make sense when we’ve been committed and faithful. Or maybe we catch sight of greener grass just over the next ridge—those worldly goods that draw us away, a catchier sounding philosophy or religion. We wander from God’s house—become angry with him, lose faith in him, lose confidence that his simple Word and Sacrament are the richest table anyone could ever spread before us. The next thing we know, months or even years have gone by, and we find ourselves alone, without him, maybe without the dear ones he’s given us.
Isaiah said it well: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Is 53:6). And stubborn? Us? Sadly, yes. When things don’t go our way, we sometimes respond by digging in our heels and forcing others to drag us along. Instead of praying, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we pray, “My will be done in heaven and on earth—or else!”
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Truly, we are sheep: dirty, lost, and stubborn. And so serious is our problem that God has taken a radical step to solve it. The Lord, the Shepherd of Israel, took on flesh and became the Lamb. Did you hear the words of John? “The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd” (Rev 7:17). Jesus is the Lamb of God. He took away the filth and grime of our sin by washing us in his own pure blood. And when we were lost, without hope and without God in the world, he wandered far from his heavenly home in search of us. His search took him to a lowly virgin in Nazareth, to a humble cave in Bethlehem, and, finally, on a dark and lonely Friday afternoon, to an accursed tree. He conquered our willfulness by yielding his own will to that of the Father—even unto death. Freely, willingly, lovingly he offered himself up for us through the Spirit to the Father.
The Shepherd became a lamb. And with his resurrection on the third day, the Lamb has become our Shepherd. He feeds us in the pasture of his Word. He leads us beside the still, deep waters of Baptism: springs of living water, because through this water he gives us life. He satisfies our hunger by giving us the heavenly bread and the cup of life, his own body and blood. Our cup runneth over with eternal blessing because we drink of the cup he pours out for us.
He knows each of us as well as any good shepherd knows his own sheep. And the amazing thing is that he still loves us, still feeds us, still leads and guides us through all the perilous ways of this life.
THE SHEPHERD BECAME A LAMB TO SAVE US DIRTY, WANDERING SHEEP.
Little by little, as we feed on his love and stay with his flock, he breaks the old willfulness and stubbornness. He makes us his servants, who fear and love and trust in him above all things. He makes us his servants, who learn to give not only our wool but also, if necessary, our own skin for the needs of others.
Conclusion: When we come together each Lord’s Day, we come together as his flock. He is here, now, as our Shepherd. He speaks, and we listen. He leads, and we follow. And we have his word that he will keep on leading until that day when we sing his praise in glory and he wipes away every tear from our eyes.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleuia!
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen