Peace Lutheran Church
2025 Sermons
Posts Tagged "Faith"
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 11, 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.
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 28, 2025
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.
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
August 10, 2025
Text: Hebrews 11:1-13
Outline:
Faith for living
1. What is faith?
2. Examples of Faith lived out
3. Our Clinging Faith
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 mediation today is the Epistle lesson from the book of Hebrews chapter eleven verses one through thirteen.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. I want you to imaging that you are walking down a long hallway. On either side there are pictures of great famous people. Pictures of people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. That is what our text shows us today. It takes us down this grand hallway stopping by the pictures of the saints that have gone before us. This is to remind us of what they have done, how they lived by faith, and how we currently live by faith. What is faith? How does our faith help us to live 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. What is faith?
What is faith? If you were asked that, what would your reply be? H. L. Mencken, a 20th century American journalist wrote that “faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.” [1] Faith has been mocked as a blind leap in the dark, a rejection of scientific fact, or a fuzzy feeling that you get in your stomach.
Even Christians can have a false understanding of faith. Some fall into the false trap of equating faith to behavior. If you do good things – live a clean life, work hard, obey the Golden Rule, attend church, donate your time and money – many equate that to having faith. Others have faith in faith, thinking “it doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as you really believe it. So long as you believe in something, or someone, then you are good.”
Still others see faith as a way to bribe God for his blessings. They have fallen for the televangelist heresy that “if you truly believe, you will be able to name and claim great worldly riches and success for yourself.”
There are many false definitions of faith – but only one that comes from the Holy Spirit himself: now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. According to the Holy Spirit, Faith is the conviction that things we cannot see or prove are true and reliable. But faith is not a blind leap into the unknown Faith is not a blind hope or empty feeling.
Faith sees God’s promises – printed in black and white in his Word – and holds onto them despite any external, visible circumstances to the contrary.
Faith is being sure of what you hope for – we could also look at Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews 10:38 Being sure means “a sure and strong foundation” Hope means “to wait with confidence and assurance” (Psalm 5:3) II. Faith is being certain of what you do not see We could also see earlier in Hebrews 6:16, 10:1 If you can see it, then it’s not faith, see what Saint Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:7 If it’s not real, then it’s not faith
2. Examples of Faith lived out
Given this explanation of what faith is, we are given a prime example of it. The creation of the universe, everything that we see and cannot see. We were not there. No scientists were there. No one was, nothing was. We accept on faith what God Himself says since He was there. He tells us that he created everything in six normal days with nothing but his Word, we believe it. That’s faith. It’s not blind. Not a denial of the facts. It’s certainty regarding things we cannot see or prove – like creation – simply because God says so.
As we continue down the Hall of Faith, we are presented with the lives of the Patriarchs and saints as examples and illustrations of what it means to live by faith. Abel, Noah, Enoch who walked with God, Abraham, who walked not knowing where he was going, solely following God’s direction. None of these saw the final promises of God in their lifetimes. They died, seeing them from a distance, clinging in faith to the promises of God. They trusted in the promise of God that He would send a Savior, which would be fulfilled at the right time.
Their lives proclaimed their faith in God’s Promises. Abel knew that his sacrifice could not pay for any of his sins, but he trusted that the sacrifice God had promised would pay for all of them. (Hebrews 10:10) Noah, whom God saved by the water of the flood, was never baptized in Jesus’ name – but through faith in the coming Savior his sins were washed away nonetheless. And Abraham – who we will hear more about next week – trusted that God would keep his promise to preserve the line of the Savior through him even though, in terms of fertility, he was as good as dead. (Hebrews 11:12) None of them knew the specific details of how God would keep his promise – how Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, and on the third day rose again from the dead. None of them could have made the full, detailed confession of faith that we can, but they trusted that if God promised to send a Savior, he would. And this was what they clung to in spite of dangerous, uncertain, and frightening circumstances.
3. Our Clinging Faith
We likewise cling in faitht to the same promise of a Savior that the Patriarchs did. Even though our faith is one of hindsight, we have the benefit of looking back at what Jesus did for us rather than forward like the Patriarchs. Yet, faith is still fully dependant upon what our God says to us. None of us were there when Jesus walked the earth, was crucified, died and was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day. Yet, we cling in faith to what God says, “Because of My Beloved Son, your sins are forgiven.”
While we have the benefit of hindsight, like the Patriarchs, we also look in faith towards the future. Jesus promised that He will come again in power and glory. He will raise the living and the dead. He, as the Anointed Messiah, has won the right to judge all of creation. He will renew all of creation as we will live with Him in perfected body and soul forever.
How can we be sure of this? It is something that is hidden in the future, how can we be certain of something we, do not see? Faith alone, given by grace alone, grounded in Scripture alone. Faith doesn’t care if this world mocks and ridicules us. It does no matter that Satan hurls temptations at us, tantruming, “It’s been sooo long, give up!” It responds with Paul: let God be true, and every man a liar. (Romans 3:4) Faith clings to Christ’s cross – where he paid our admission price into heaven; and his empty tomb – which is a living testimony to his promise: because I live, you also will live. (John 14:19) Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see – focused on Christ alone, grounded in Scripture alone, given by grace alone – that’s saving faith. Faith is not a feeling, it’s a conviction; it’s not based on what I see or how I feel, but in what God has promised in his Word; it’s not a hope for a better, longer or happier life in this world, it’s the assurance that we will live forever in a much better place – the city of our God, the new Heavens and the new Earth forever and ever.
Martin Luther wrote on faith: when faith performs its proper office, it looks to absolutely nothing except Jesus Christ, the Son of God, given for the sins of the whole world. It does not look at love, does not say: What have I done? Which sins have I committed? What have I merited? It rather says: What has Christ done? What has He merited? What is faith? Faith in what? Faith for what? Faith is certainty in God’s promise of eternal life for Christ’s sake. May God grant us, and keep us steadfast, in such as faith as this.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.