Sermons 2026

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 

Theme “Mind and Spirit of Christ” 

Outline 

1. Pastors and people might not always say things the same way. What matters is what we confess about Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

2. Given of God’s Spirit, He who knows the mind of God Himself being Himself, that we might understand God as He reveals in Holy Scripture. 

3. Share of the Mind of Christ, He died and Rose that we might be forgiven and His children, we know His will for our lives as beloved children. 

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 of Saint Paul, the first letter sent to the church in the area of Corinth, the second chapter verses one through sixteen. 

Beloved lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. How many of you have seen a scary movie before? What about a sad movie? That’s a lot of us! Didn’t you feel scared after a scary movie? Didn’t you feel sad after a sad movie? That’s because you sat for two hours being scared or sad. Your focus was on that. See this picture? This is called a stereogram. It’s an illusion picture. If you focus really hard on it you’ll see the hidden picture. There’s something good hidden in here! Let’s focus for a few minutes to see what we can find. If you find the hidden message keep it to yourself. Don’t give it away! (Allow kids time to find the message.) In our text, Saint Paul says that we have the mind of Jesus. It is hidden, we cannot see easily at the moment, but we have Jesus. How can we focus upon Jesus and have His mind in this world? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

 1. Wisdom of Christ 

My dear beloved saints, I have a confession to make today. I am completely and utterly terrified at the moment. Every time I step into this pulpit, I tremble with fear and awe. Why? Not because I do not know what to say, but because of the grand responsibility I have been given. I am a frail, feeble, and sinful man. Yet, through my voice, and actions, you hear and see the great proclamation of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified for you and your salvation. Through the Pastoral Office, you hear the wondrous news of your everlasting salvation, Jesus Christ died and rose to give you the forgiveness of your sins by restoring you to a right relationship with God again. 

How is this great message given? Your salvation does not depend upon knowing the definitions of big, long words, like justification, atonement, sanctification (Though knowing their meanings is indeed good). Your salvation is not given through great rhetoric, like a treasure for following a logical, complex train of thought, or using your reason to understand every little bit of doctrine that we believe, teach, and confess. Nor is your salvation given because of the man in the Pastoral office, because I am such an exciting preacher, always using the best illustrations on a text, or speaking so wondrously as to hold all of you in suspense upon my every word. Rather, your salvation is through simple proclamation. 

We often get lost in the words that we use, thinking that by using larger words, we are making ourselves look better or wiser. We fall into the sin of pride, thinking that we are so great, placing our trust in ourselves and our words. This was especially true of the Corinthians. 

The Corinthians held the eloquent speaker in high regard. In fact, they idolized him. The clever speaker, the skillful debater—they not only admired the man who had a way with words, but they were ready to lay out good Greek drachmas to hire such a man to teach them rhetoric and eloquence. They wanted their worldly wisdom to be presented with persuasive words and eloquent diction. Otherwise they would not value the message. Yet, 

Paul’s simple message is told simply. Why? Because our salvation rests not upon man’s wisdom, but upon the power of God. Our salvation does not rest upon someone that preaches well, or upon fancy logic or wise rhetoric. Our salvation is given simply, because of the power of the Holy Spirit that opens our hearts to the proclamation of the Gospel. 

2. Mind of Spirit 

We have the Spirit of God given to us through the Word of Holy Scripture. This Word is made visible first for many of us as infants through the blessed waters of Holy Baptism. There, God places His name upon you, claims you as His own dear child, and gives you His wisdom and knowledge. Even a little baby, washed by the waters of Holy Baptism, is wiser than any worldly leader. This is not something complex, as the Psalmist says, “From the mouths of infants and babes you have ordained praise.” Even our children, who have only an elementary understanding of the gospel, have the highest wisdom when they believe that Jesus died on the cross for them. They are among the mature because they have the heart and core of true wisdom. 

This is not something that the world can understand on it’s own. As Paul writes, 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ” We are given of God’s Spirit who reveals to us what the Mind of God is. 

The Spirit of God is not an unmoving force, like from Star Wars. He is the active Third Person of the Holy Trinity. The omniscient Holy Spirit can know who God is, what God thinks, what he plans, how he governs the affairs of men. Everything that we have in Scripture is knowledge and wisdom that the Holy Spirit has found out for us. Everything we know about our damnation and our salvation has been searched out by him and, through his holy writers, recorded for us. Our wisdom is Spirit-given. 

It is the Holy Spirit who through the means of the Word reveals just how broken, and sin-stained we really are. It is through Him that we realize the severity of our sins. You and I deserve everlasting death because of our transgressions of the Law, both that we have done and that we leave undone. If God took away my wife, my children, all of my possessions, struck me with every disease under the sun, killed me, and condemned me to hell forever, that would be better that I deserve, and He would be well within His power and right to do so because of my sins. 

3. Mind of Christ 

Yet, it is also through the Holy Spirit that God reveals to us His wisdom and grace in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us the mind of Christ here and now in the present world. Because of God, we are clothed with Christ. We have His perfection and righteousness given to us even today. We are both sinner and saint. Like the Stenograph, our sainthood seems hidden many times in this world as we wrestle with our sinful nature, the Devil, and the pressures of this world. Yet though it is hidden, that does not mean that we do not have it. We are forgiven by Jesus, covered by His blood, raised to newness of life by His resurrection, and are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. We see reality as it really is. We know because God has revealed it to us. Does the man of the world know what sin and guilt are? Does he know the depth of the wickedness in the heart of man? What are the answers to the problems of sickness and suffering? Why will there always be crime and war? What is the true worth of earthly possessions? Why will this world never achieve justice and equality? Why does death reign? What are the limits of education? What is the hereafter? Who is God? 

God gives us the answer to these types of questions, as well as the ability, to proclaim what He has done in the midst of the world. The reality is that our pain, our tears, our hurt, and sadness is not how things are supposed to be. God did not create us to suffer and die. He created us to live forever in Paradise with Him. Because of Adam, we suffer and die, we come from dust and will return to dust. Through, Jesus, our humanity has been fully restored, and He will indeed restore us perfectly when He comes again in glory. 

Until that glorious day, think as Christ does. See people as Christ sees them, as souls in need of a Savior. Through your words and deeds, share with them the reality that God has revealed to us, the reality of our sins but also the reality of the forgiveness and new life Jesus has given to us by His death and resurrection. 

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

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 

Theme “Wise Foolishness” 

Outline 

1. God’s Wisdom is not wisdom of the world 

2. How wise do we think we are, learn really quickly we are not wise, faith not something of our will/intellect (Stumbling block to Jews, folly to Gentiles) 

3. Yet, God chose us to be wise in Christ, gives us of His Spirit to thwart the world’s wisdom. (30-31) 

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 First letter of Saint Paul sent to the church in Corinth, the first chapter verses eighteen through thirty-one. 

Beloved lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you know what I have here? I have a large book. There are lots of books about a wide variety of topics. This one is about some of the words in the Bible. We can find books about plants, about animals, about the human body, the solar system, if you can think of it, you can find a book about it. We can learn many things, but Saint Paul says that no matter how much we learn, it is foolishness in comparison to knowing God and what He has done for us. How can we have God’s knowledge and be truly wise? 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 Wisdom is not wisdom of the world 

How wise are you? We place a lot of importance upon being wise in the world. The world says you use your knowledge or your wisdom to do whatever makes you happy. For most people, they quantify their happiness usually in terms of financial gain. They try to get the most money for the least amount of work, because we are lazy at our cores. You can make a lot of money just by knowing a lot of random facts. Contestants on the TV show Jeopardy strive to accumulate as much money as possible by answering accurately and quickly. The value of each correct response varies from $200 to $1,000 in the Jeopardy round and $400 to $2,000 in the Double Jeopardy round. If you got every answer correct, you could win a maximum of $566,400, not bad for knowing a lot of facts in a single day’s work. One of the contestants, Ken Jennings ,has won $2,520,700 for only being on there for six months. To make that amount, we would have to do nothing but work an 8-hour day for 26 years. Truly, knowledge and wisdom can pay good money. 

But what if you are not book smart? You can still be knowledgeable. Many people put their trust into how much they can do with their street smarts, their experience, and what they have done with their hands. Many people take pride in the fact that they know how to fix anything at home no matter what goes wrong. There are thousands of YouTube videos on home repairing everything from how to put in a sink to snaking a drain or fixing a washer and dryer. We take pride that I did it myself, plus I saved money by not having to call in a professional. Or maybe you consider yourself a good judge of character, able to tell if someone means well or if they mean evil merely by looking at them, and how they act. That’s called body language and psychology, knowing how someone might act before they do is certainly something that we can take pride in knowing.

 2. Worldly wisdom fails 

As wise as we may consider ourselves in this world, whether by our book smarts, the work of our brains, or the work of our hands, everything will fail us. No matter how much we may make, there is always another bill to pay. Bank accounts are very quickly drained. All our knowledge equals nothing in the end. No matter how much we can learn, eventually as we age, all of it is as dust on the wind. Just think, how much has changed over your lifetimes? Teachers teach differently than they did twenty years ago. Trying to help someone with schoolwork is a challenge compared to when you were younger. There are updated ways to do math, reading, English. New ways to get to the same old answer of 2+2= 4. 

As we get older, our knowledge fades, memories are not as good as they once were, even familiar faces and names that we have known all our lives can be erased by the dread diseases of Dementia and Alzheimer’s. With knowledge as fleeting as this, we can never put our trust into it. They cannot bring us true and lasting knowledge. That comes only from the Knowledge of God. 

We cannot use our own intellect to even begin to understand the mind, and plans, of God. Before God, we know nothing. Our deepest and best knowledge is the same as a fool. On our own, we cannot understand what God has done for our Salvation. As Saint Paul writes, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles ” 

Our reason struggles to understand Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. It fails logic and understanding. The Jews demanded miraculous signs from our Lord while He walked thie earth, they did not believe that what He was doing was in accordance with God’s will. They balked at this idea that a man could die a horrible death like a common criminal in order to save us. A criminal, crucified upon a cross saves me? The Gentiles seek after wisdom. They loved nothing more than learning new knowledge and debating traditions and customs in light of what they had learned. They bulk at this fact, that even after two thousand years, I can be saved and forgiven of my sins. It defies all manner of logic, time, and physics. Even our own sinful nature bulks at the fact that salvation is freely given. There is nothing in this world that is free. Everything comes at a cost, even it if is free, you are the cost in your data and privacy. What do you mean that everything God does is given freely? Surely, there must be something that I can do or add to God’s work! 

3. God chose us to be wise in Christ 

There is nothing that can add to God’s work. He has done it all, everything on our behalf.. While our reason, logic, and knowledge have their places, they are only the handmaidens to Holy Scripture. As we confess in the meaning of the Third Article. What does this mean? I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true. We confess that it is not because of ourselves that we are saved. It is not my strength, my reason, my wisdom, or intellect. 

Rather, God chose us in Christ Jesus purely as an act of love to receive His knowledge. In grace, and mercy, He gives us of His Holy Spirit, that we can be wise! Wise not in worldly wisdom, but in Godly wisdom. We can know and believe that what Jesus did, He did for me and you. That yes, a man, beaten, whipped, and crucified upon a cross is indeed our Savior. He is no mere man, no teacher, miracle worker, or philosopher, He is God in the flesh for you, true man and true God for our salvation. Jesus Christ through His perfect life, death, and resurrection has defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil. Graciously, He gives you the Holy Spirit in the Word of God and in the Sacraments, that while the world may think that we are fools, we are wise in the eyes of God. “30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” ” We boast and trust not in our own wisdom, not in how much we know or have forgotten. We boast and trust not in the work of our hands or minds, for well we know how feeble they are. Rather, we place all of our boasting and trust in the Lord and what He has done for us upon the cross of Calvary, that by Jesus’ death and resurrection we are saved. We go forth in that boldness and confidence to spread the wisdom of God to the rest of the world, that they too may become wise beyond all understanding, and live with us in eternal life forever. 

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

Amen.

Text: Matthew 4:12-17

 Theme: Light amid Darkness 

Outline 

1. JC comes as John is imprisoned

 2. Proclaims same message of Repentance, goes to land in midst of darkness and death to proclaim repent 

3. Bring Repentance through disciples He calls, bears witness that He has power to forgives by healing all kinds of diseases 

4. We bear the same message today in our lives in the midst of a world full of darkness and death 

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 Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew the Fourth chapter, verses twelve through seventeen. 

Beloved lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. What do you think would happen if we turned off all of the lights. Do so! It got pretty dark. Was it scary? It makes you really enjoy the light we have from candles, flashlights, and the sun even more. Without light, we would be very scared. In our text for today, Matthew records that Jesus goes into a land so in darkness that it can be felt and touched through sicknesses and death. How does Jesus show that He is the light of the world, even in the middle of sickness and death? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you. 

1. JC comes as John is imprisoned 

Our text for today opens on a very much down note as John the Baptist is imprisoned under King Herod facing eventual death. Our Lords response is to leave the city of his childhood in Nazareth and begins His public ministry by settling in the town of Capernaum, a major town located on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. He comes to an area made up of majority Jews. The Jewish Historian Josephus estimates that there were three million Jews in Galilee alone, an area roughly the size of Connecticut today. Galilee at the time belonged to the territory of Antipas, a Herodian client-king who served at the whim of the Romans but had some degree of autonomy, estimates are around 1,500 gentiles lived in Capernaum. In the eighth century b.c. the Assyrians under TiglathPileser had taken many Galileans into captivity and had replaced them with Assyrians and other Gentiles. Heavily Jewish but Gentile influenced. Jesus comes to a land that Matthew records is a land of darkness and death. This mixture of Jews and Gentiles had its effect upon the religious life of the people. The God of Israel was not unknown there, but the worship of God had departed considerably from the forms of worship that the Law of Moses called for. The people were “living in darkness,” as Isaiah had foretold. This land, whose inhabitants are spiritually dead, belongs to Death as the realm of his government. 

2. JC Proclaims Repentance

 It is upon this land that our Lord steps forth and makes His home base of operations. To them He comes proclaiming the same message as John the Baptist, Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Change your hearts and minds. Turn from the darkness that envelopes you into the light. Turn from your darkness and death to the One who can erase all your darkness and death forever. This is a message that we still need to hear in our world today. We still live in the midst of a sinful and fallen world. We see the control of death and decay all around us, as service men and women die in wars. People die in earthquakes, landslides, freeze to death in the cold. Even we are not immune. Our bodies decay every moment. Another grey hair, another ache or pain that was not there last night, another wrinkle, another friendship that has faded with the passage of time. Another outburst spoken in anger and rebellion that we wish we could take back, but the words have already been spoken. Even as we try to be good people. Even as we try to do the right thing, it is never good enough. As Yoda tells Luke, “Do or do not, there is no try.” 

Our trying cannot and does not save us no matter how many good things we try to do. We are still stained by sin, both within and without, in our thoughts, words, and deeds. 

3. JC Brings Repentance

 So, what do we do? We turn towards He who is the light made flesh. We turn in faith towards Jesus Christ. Here is the One who not only proclaims repentance but gives repentance and causes it within people’s hearts through the power of His Holy Spirit. He calls His disciples to come and follow Him. That they turn from being fishermen to fishers of men. They catch people! How? By being with our Lord, seeing Jesus’ great miracles with their own eyes, participating as He feeds four and five thousand through their own hands, touching Him with their own hands, as John and Thomas declare, This is the Word Made Flesh, my Lord and my God. Jesus is the Light in the midst of darkness and death. He took on the darkness of our sins in His holy flesh. He saw the effects of sin, fallenness, and death as the people “brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. ” Jesus did not stand idly by. He used His power to bring healing and light in the midst of pain and death. He healed them of both physical as well as spiritual afflictions. Even greater, Jesus goes to the cross. There, He suffers and dies that all of the world might have life and light everlasting. He does not give only mere temporary relief of pain and death. Rather, He destroys sin and death forever by dying for you and me. He gives you His perfection. He gives you His everlasting light and salvation forever. 

4. Same message today 

How, you may ask, does Jesus still give this today? He died and rose over 2,000 years ago. He has ascended to the right hand of the Father. How? How does He still cause repentance and give forgiveness still today? Jesus still does so the same way He called the disciples, though the call given through the pastoral office. You have rightly called me as your pastor. My job is simple. To proclaim God’s Law, that people may indeed turn in repentance over their sins, and God’s grace given in His Gospel. When hearts are mourning in repentant sorrow over their sins that they may hear the blessed words of Absolution, “Your sins are forgiven in and by the authority of Christ.” That they might receive Jesus’ very body and blood in, with, and under, the bread and the wine, given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. Your sins are forgiven because of Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross. Sadly, we cannot stay here in church forever. Rather, we go out, strengthened by our Lord, to do the work He has given us to do, whatever that may look like in our various vocations. We depart here in joy and peace. We go out into a world still in darkness, pain, and death. We are with people as they hurt. We mourn with those who mourn. We weep with those who weep. We proclaim that this is not the end. The darkness and death do not have the final say. There is light. There is hope. There is life everlasting. How? Because for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” The light of Jesus Christ, and His great love seen in His death and resurrection from the dead. 

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