Sermons 2025

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.
 

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.
 

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.