Sermons 2025

Text: 1 Timothy 1:5-17

Theme: “Steadfast in Honest Faith”
 

Outline
1.    Paul encourages Timothy to remain steadfast in the faith in face of those who would wander away into false theology
2.    Christ keeps us firm and grounded in the faith
3.    How do we remain steadfast?
3a.    Holy Baptism, Absolution, and Holy Communion!
 

Sermon
 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Especially to you Jayden and Cole as you celebrate your confirmation today.
 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our mediation today is the Epistle lesson of the First letter of Saint Paul to Timothy chapter one verses five through seventeen.

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you know what I have here? Right, I have a tape measure. They are used to measure how long or how big something is. For example, your hands measure small. My hands measure large compared to yours. This communion railing measures the biggest of all, same with the pews. Our sinful natures like to do something similar. We like to compare ourselves to others as a means of justifying our own sins. We like to say Chief of sinners though I be, that guy is worse than me.” How does Jesus help us to view our sins rightly? How does He keep us steadfast in honest faith unto the end? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Remain steadfast in the faith: Don’t measure yourself!

Saint Paul encourages young Timothy to remain steadfast in honest faith. He encourages him to not wander away into vain discussions about genealogies or the traditions of the Mosaic Law. What are is the temptation? The temptation of the Devil is to take us from the true and honest faith into things that really serve no purpose. There were people in Ephesus who wanted to be Teachers of the Law. They wanted to constantly discuss the Law  and traditions of Moses. They wanted to spend all their time pouring over family trees and genealogies to see exactly how close one could get to Abraham and his family line. They constantly compared themselves to each other, thinking one was better than the other because they knew this obsure detail of the Law or were one generation closer to Abrahm than the other person. It was a constant game of measuring each other. For what? For no good purpose. Saint Paul says that they have missed the mark. They have aimed for the Gospel and fallen far short of it. They have missed the forest for the trees we might say.

Yet, how often do we still measure each other today? Our sinful nature constantly likes to measure each other in order to justify itself. We love to take the parody of our office hymn, “Chief of sinners though I be, that guy is worse than me.” I am not that bad of a person. I am not as bad as Hitler or Stalin. I at least did not cut off that person because I wanted to go faster on the highway. I did not ride their butt to get them to move faster as they were going forty in a seventy-five. I have not messed up that badly. Measuring sticks are ridiculous when it comes to measuring our holiness, our righteousness, our justification, or our sanctification. They set me at odds with my neighbor as I am constantly trying to keep up with the Jonses and show that I am so much better. It sets me at odds with myself as I realize that I can never excel at perfection. Our measurements are always skewed anyway (another word for fallen!)

Yet what does Saint Paul say? Chief of sinners though I be. Paul does not say that He was only a sinner in the past. He says “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” He was a murderer. He constantly sought people’s harm and death, merely because they followed Christ. He was a liar and used His words not to honor God’s name but to profane it.  Paul does not limit himself to only his past actions. Paul uses a present tense verb, a continual action now that continues into the future. 

Paul says do not measure each other. Do not compare yourself to another. It does no good. A comparison of sins cannot save you. All it can do is continually damn you. A sin is a sin. There is no room is left to quibble about greater or lesser sins. My own sins are the worst, for only those can damn me.  

2.    Christ keeps us firm and grounded in the faith

Indeed, my sins do damn and condemn me. The Law is Good. It condemns the Old Adam within me that would constantly do nothing without bit or bridle. I, you, and the entirety of the world stand damned to Hell without the Gospel. 

The sweetness of the Gospel. “Jesus came. “ God took on flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. He was given the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. He saved sinners like Paul, yes, and Timothy, and all the bozos I compare myself to, but translated to me, personally and individually as part of that group, Jesus came to save sinners like me. Jesus came to save me. Jesus saves at the cross. The sinner who soberly faces her sin has no place to run but to a savior, and the savior to run to is at the cross. The cross is where sin goes to die. 

The Christ who faces the sinner with law faces him from the cross and says the law is for sinners. So, come to me at the cross. I will kill your sin, as the whole weight of the law for sinners comes down on me. The cross is where sin goes to die, and sin indeed died there. It is in Christ’s dying that your sin is gone. You are counted just in His atoning death, personally and individually (and the world of sinners universally). 

Jayden and Cole in just a few moments, you will confess that fact in your confirmations. You will confess as individuals and as brothers that you believe that what Jesus did, He did entirely for you. You will promise that according to His great riches shown in mercy and grace, you will remain steadfast in this faith and suffer all, even death itself, rather than fall from it.

3.    How do we remain steadfast?

How do you remain steadfast in this true faith without wavering? How do you suffer even death rather than give up the honest faith? How do you live holy lives without constantly measuring yourself to others? Because of what Jesus continues to do for you. Not only has Jesus died your death, killed your sin. He has raised you to newness of life. Here and now, even with your sinful Old Adam clinging to you, you have His Holy Spirit living within you. You are counted righteous, as one of His saints. 

To that end, Jesus constantly gives you His very self to strengthen you in your faith and grant to you the forgiveness of your sins. How? His very body and His very blood, given and shed for you! The forgiveness of sins given on the Cross for the world, here is given specifically, personally to you. Not only are you given the forgiveness of your sins, but as Saint Ignatius of Antioch put it, “The medicine of immortality and the antidote to prevent us from dying.” A food that feed to eternal life, a foretaste of resurrection from the only body to raise triumphant from the tomb on its own. It nourishes our souls and works in them a mighty power. This blood drives away devils, calls the angels and Lord of angels to us. The bread may have tasted like stale cracker but the devil knows it was the very body he was unable to keep in the tomb. The very body that descended not hell to proclaim victory, the very body given as the propitiation for our sins. It may only be a drop of sweet wine, but the devil knows that this is the blood of Christ, the blood by which he was eternally defeated, the blood at which the demons run back to hell in terror, the blood with which we were redeemed.

Dear Saints, loved by God, continue steadfast in the honest faith, not wavering into delusions or idolatry, but steadfast in what Jesus Christ has done for you.

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

Video

Text: Philemon 1-21
Theme: Useless to Useful

Outline
1.    Onesimus Useful as slave
2.    Now more useful as a Brother in Christ because found by Paul
3.    Found by Christ, makes us useful to others!

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 Epistle lesson of Philemon verses one through twenty-one.

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you enjoy being be helpers? Maybe you help mom and dad around the house, cleaning up your rooms, taking out the trash, putting the dirty dishes in the sink, helping with your brothers and sisters. I know many of you enjoy being big helpers around the house, at school, and at church. In our text for today, we hear about a guy named Onesimus. He was a slave to a man named Philemon. Saint Paul says that Onesimus was useful as a slave but now is more useful as a fellow brother in Christ. How does Christ make us more useful to those around us? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Onesimus Useful as slave

Our text for today is a beautiful short letter written by Saint Paul to a man named Philemon. Philemon helped to found the church in Colossae who was well known for his hospitality, especially since the church met in his home. Philemon has a problem though. One of his slaves, a man by the name of Onesimus, whose name means Useful, has run away. Onesimus was a pagan. He was on the outskirts of society, as well as the home. He was on the outside looking in as the church met in Philemon’s home. 

Onesimus was very useful to Philemon as a slave. In the Graeco-Roman world, owning slaves was not limited to the rich; many households included at least one slave. The Greeks and Romans both employed a system in which slaves could own property, earn money, and buy their freedom.  Slavery provided labor for large portions of agriculture and handicraft. Those who wanted skilled workers often used slaves rather than free men. Thus, many slaves were more economically secure than many free wage-laborers.

Aristotle presents slavery as a part of the natural order: “It is manifest therefore that … some are free men and others are slaves by nature” (Pol. 1255a1–2). However, this was not the only view of slavery in the Graeco-Roman world. Philo, for example, differentiates between bodily and moral slavery and states about conventional slaves that they “rank lower in fortune, but can lay claim to the same nature as their masters” (On the Special Laws 3.137). On the other hand, in his view moral slavery is ordained by God and such slaves are better off as conventional slaves, controlled by an owner. Others declared that it was slavery itself that was against nature (Florentinus, Dig. 1.5.4.1). 

We are not told why Onesimus ran away. Some scholars say he was a runaway slave who had stolen money, others say he was in a dispute with Philemon and wanted a friend of the master to intervene. The majority hold that Onesimus was a runaway slave, a fugitive that if caught could be killed. All we know for sure is that he had time with Paul during Paul’s time of imprisonment. It was through the time spent with Paul that the Spirit brought Onesimus to faith in Christ. 

2.    Now more useful as a Brother in Christ because found by Paul

That faith is Paul’s reason for writing this letter to encourage Philemon to receive Onesimus back into the household. Paul desires κοινωνία “sharing” better translated as fellowship. This does not mean that Philemon and Onesimus are going to go grab a cup of coffee together on Onesimus’ return and talk about how life is going for each other. Kοινωνία is the idea that, in Christ, Christians belong to one another. More than that, Christians identify with fellow Christians. Thus, we rejoice when others rejoice and we weep with those who are going through troubled times. The main idea is that there is a “sharing” or “mutual participation” in and of the faith. Reconciliation, or the lack thereof, has ramifications that extend beyond the immediate parties involved.  It can affect the entirety of the church as well.

Thus, why Paul encourages Philemon to receive Onesimus back, no longer as a pagan slave, but as a beloved brother in Christ. Though Paul, Onesimus has come to faith in Jesus Christ, the same faith as the church that met in Philemon’s own house believed. Paul desires a willing and joyous reunion of fellow believers rather than one of an angry and harsh master towards a runaway slave.

Paul points Philemon to Jesus. He opens with Christian identity, thanking God for the love and faith that Philemon has for the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. A love and faith that shows itself in the life of the believer. Paul ends the letter by stating that he knows Philemon will do even more than Paul is asking.

interpreters to question whether Paul asks—implicitly or directly—Philemon to grant Onesimus manumission, the act of freeing or liberating a slave. If Paul is requesting for Philemon to release Onesimus, then the letter marks a radical movement toward enacting within society the egalitarian view reflected in Gal 3:28 and Col 3:11. Even if Paul was not requesting manumission, his exhortation for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and treat him “as a brother” (Phlm 16) is notable since it makes Christian identity, and not cultural norms, the basis of ethical behavior. 

3.    Found by Christ, makes us useful to others!

In this Christian identity as the basis of ethical behavior, we found how it applies to us today. The same as Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus, we have been freed from the massive debt that we owned to God. Because of Adam’s fall, we were in slavery. In chains to our sinful nature with all of its lusts and passions. We were powerless under the power of the devil, falling into temptation again and again, slaves with nothing to look forward to but everlasting death itself in the fires of Hell. 

We have been freed! The iron fetters bound have been undone forever! Freed because of God Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life, freeing us from the harsh requirements of the Law. As Saint Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus bore our sins, nailing them to the cross. There, He bled and died, covering your sins with His holy and precious blood, enduring the full wrath of God in your place. Rising again from the dead, Jesus gives you newness of slavery. Slavery not to sin, devil, or death, but as His dear and beloved child.

It is the love of Christ that shapes your very identity and actions as Christians. Just as pagan Onesimus was watching the church from the sidelines, so too people are watch us as the church as well. How would Philemon react once Onesimus returned? Would he forgive or hold a grudge? As Christians we are called to reconcile and forgive, to show each other the same forgiveness and love that Jesus Christ showed to us. Having been forgiven by Jesus, we are useful as we show His love in action as we are reconciled to each other. 

We are useful, showing our faith in our lives as we live in this world because the world is watching. As we just sang, “How clear is our vocation Lord, when one we heed your call: to live according to Your Word and daily learn, refreshed, restored, that You are Lord of all and will not let us fall.” Pagans and those of other faiths are watching how we act while we are around our family, friends, neighbors, and others. They are listening to the words that are coming out of our mouths and what tone we are using. I pray that our thoughts, words, and deeds proclaim the Holy Spirit living within us as we joyfully proclaim Jesus’ death and resurrection for the reconciliation and healing of a broken and fallen world. 

Reconciliation and forgiveness are not easy. They mean defying our sinful nature, not letting bitterness and anger fester, but letting love in Christ reign. Philemon could have very easily held a grudge. He would have been within His right as a master to harm Onesimus severely. Yet, Philemon and Onesimus reconciled. Philemon then released Onesimus for a time to Paul for service in his mission work (see Col 4:7–9). It is also a possibility that this same Onesimus went on to become bishop of Ephesus in the early second century at the age of 70. None of this would have been possible without the forgiveness and love shown to them, and us, in Jesus Christ.
 

Dear brothers and sisters, let us always live in Jesus Christ, a life that shows  κοινωνία, fellowship, love, and, forgiveness to those who have harmed or hurt us, as our lives show the love of Christ for us, and for the world at large.

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

Text: Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer
Theme: The Will of God

Outline
 

1.    God’s will done in our lives.
2.    God’s defense and protection

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 Third petition of the Lord’s prayer: 

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

What does this mean? The good and gracious will of God is done indeed without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.
 

How is this done?
When God breaks and hinders every evil counsel and will which would not let us hallow the name of God nor let His kingdom come, such as the will of the devil, the world, and our flesh; but strengthens and keeps us steadfast in His Word and in faith unto our end. This is His gracious and good will. (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/small-catechism/the-lords-prayer/ )

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today.  Have you ever been in pain? Maybe you pinched your fingers or fell down and skinned your knee while riding your bike. What did you do? You probably cried and then went to mom or dad to help and comfort you in your pain. They kept you safe from harm and danger. That is what we see in our text for today. God defends us and protects us from every evil and keeps us safe in in and through His Word. How does God’s protection show itself in our 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.    God’s will done in our lives.

We pray in this petition that God’s will would be done upon the earth the same as it is in heaven. It must be asked here, what is God’s will? There have been many books written on this very topic as Christians strive to figure out what God wants them to do with their lives, the most recent example would be Rick Warren’s the Purpose Driven Life.  Many are seeking what God wants them to do. They strive to answer questions like “What does God want me to do?” What is God’s will for my career? Who does He want me to marry?” “Does God want me to have kids?”  And so on. These are up to you. We don’t believe in fate; God has not fated you to fall into this or that career or to marry that specific person (no one has a “soul mate”). He’s blessed you with specific skills, interests, and talents, as well as a complex, intelligent brain. Use it.

All of these seem like grand, and certainly important, questions for us to ask ourselves. The problem is what is the focus? The focus is entirely upon ourselves. They turn us inward for the answers rather than outward to what God has done for us in Christ and the good of our neighbor. 

To see what the will of God is, we only need to go to the Holy Scriptures, to the very prayer our Lord taught us Himself. In the Lord’s Prayer, we find the entirety of God’s will that He promises to give us: to hallow His name on our lips, His kingdom come to us, that He give us our daily bread (and therefore the vocations He has given you to assist others in this manner is His will for your life), that He give us forgiveness of sins, lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil.  That His will is as He says in Ezekiel 33:11 “I desire not the death of the wicked but that they turn from their evil ways and live.” He desires that all come to salvation in and through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and His death and resurrection to live forever.

2.    God’s defense and protection
 

We pray that this will would be done on earth the same as in Heaven. That God’s will would be done in our lives, through our vocations, and making use of what God has given to us. We pray as well here that God would defend us from all of the enemies that seek to thwart God’s will among us.
 

We have many enemies that are against the will of God showing itself in our lives. Satan and all his evil horde are arrayed against us. Satan despises the Word of God. If he could remove all water so that there would be no baptisms, no water for the growing of grain and wine for the Holy Eucharist. If he could dry out the mouths of preachers, make their tongues stick to the roof of their mouths so that there would be no proclamation of the Absolution, he would do so in a heartbeat to rob us of our faith and the assurance and comfort of God’s holy Word.
 

The world will all its pressures to avoid what God says, tantalizing pleasures, cares, and riches of this life are also against us. If we can give up the pleasures of eternal life, forget about things spiritual for things physical and temporal, then our faith and salvation has been lost.
 

Worst of all, our own flesh, according to our sinful nature, is in league with Satan and the world. Our flesh is not focused upon the things of God or His will. Rather, we want to constantly focus upon our own will and desires for this life. We want our will to be done rather than being submissive to the will of God.  We are enemies with God and desire to be gods of our own making. We fall into sin time and time again, sins of thought, word, and deed, sins known to us and those unknown to us, even without our thinking.
 

Thus why we pray here that God will would be done among us as well for we know that it happens even without our prayer. We pray that for God’s protection, knowing all of these enemies against Him and His word. That God breaks and hinders every evil counsel and will. That He would keep Satan upon a leash, keep the world at bay, curb our sinful natures, that the new Adam in Jesus Christ may indeed arise. Strengthened by His Holy Spirit living in us, we may indeed do His will for our lives, carry out what He has given us to do, and endure unto the end steadfast in faith. As one of the early church Fathers,  St. John Chrysostom, said, “God does not forsake you. It is because He wishes to increase your glory that oftentimes He permits you to fall sick.” For just as Christ was glorified in His resurrection after He suffered and died, so we too shall be glorified in a resurrection just like His since we have been baptized into His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-5).

Heavenly Father, let your will, not ours, be done among us. Curb Satan, the world, and our sinful flesh, keep us steadfast in faith unto the end until that day when we shall be raised and see you in glory forever.

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