The lutheransermons's Podcast

Preparing for Worship - June 29, 2025

Our readings this week have to do with being disciples of our Lord Jesus and following Him and His way. The Old Testament lesson is from 1 Kings 19:9b-21. Elijah was on the run because the Lord had defeated the false prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel, and Elijah had then killed them (1 Kings 18). Queen Jezebel was very angry with her false prophets being killed and planned to kill Elijah. Elijah “ran for his life,” feeling that he was a failure, but the Lord sent an angel to sustain him for a long trip, 40 days and 40 nights, to Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai) (1 Kings 19:1-8). The Word of the Lord came to Elijah twice, asking, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Twice, Elijah answers that he seems to be the only person left among the Israelites who is faithful to the Lord. The Lord speaks to him, not in a dramatic, powerful way, but in a low whisper, and sends him back to his work as a prophet a while longer, by anointing new kings of Syria and Israel, and a new prophet in his place, Elisha, by casting his cloak upon him. The Lord also assures Elijah that there were still 7,000 faithful believers in Israel and that Elisha would assist him until his ministry was complete. Elijah allows Elisha to do a few final things, including a farewell to his family, and then he joins Elijah, until Elijah is taken directly to heaven (2 Kings 2).

The Psalm is Psalm 16. We looked at this psalm earlier, on Easter Sunday, April 20, because v. 9-10 are quoted in the New Testament for predicting that the Lord Jesus would not see corruption in a grave, but would be raised from the dead, as happened on Easter, after His death on Good Friday. (See Acts 2:23ff. and Acts 13:34. You can find more detail in the April 20 “Preparing for Worship.”) David speaks here as a faithful servant of God, who takes refuge in Him and knows that all good things come from Him alone. Following false gods only brings sorrow and trouble. There is “a beautiful inheritance” for David and all those who follow the One True God, the Lord. He leads David and us on the “path of life” in this world, and when we die, there is “fullness of joy” in eternal life. This psalm, as mentioned above, also predicts the coming of the Lord Jesus, who would be the perfect Servant of God and die to pay for our sins and then rise in victory on Easter and then return to “pleasures forevermore at the right hand of God” that He had earlier enjoyed already as the Son of God, before humbling Himself to be a man and do His saving work for us (Philippians 2:5-11, John 17:3-5).

The Gospel lesson is from Luke 9:51-62. As the time drew near for Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus willingly set His face to go to Jerusalem for these things His Heavenly Father had planned for Him, for the salvation of the world. (See the prophecy of Jesus, God’s Servant in Isaiah 50:5-7, who “sets His face like a flint,” a hard rock, to do the will of God, no matter what. The same is said of Ezekiel in his ministry to Israel in his day, with his “forehead harder than flint” against rebellious people (Ezekiel 3:7-9).) Jesus chooses to go the shorter route to Jerusalem, through Samaria, though Jews and Samaritans disliked and avoided each other as much as possible. (See John 4:9.) The Samaritans rejected Jesus because he was a Jew, going to Jerusalem. James and John, called “Sons of Thunder” by Jesus (Mark 3:17), see this and want to call down fire from heaven to consume these Samaritans, as Elijah had done in 2 Kings 1:10-12. (But see how an angel tells Elijah not to ask for this fire again, at this point, in 2 Kings 1:15ff.) Jesus rebukes these disciples, James and John, because His primary work was not to “condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17). Destroying these Samaritans would not save them. (See how Jesus often reached out to Samaritans, like the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-42, and calls them “neighbors” in the Good Samaritan parable (Luke 10:30-37) and heals a Samaritan leper, who comes back in faith to thank Him, in Luke 17:11-19. In Acts 1:8, Jesus specifically tells His disciples to be witnesses in Samaria, and they do so in Acts 8:1-22 and 9:31 and 15:3.) In this reading, Jesus and the disciples then move on to another village. As they go, there are three examples of people who seem to want to follow Jesus as His disciples. That seems a great thing, as Jesus did say, later on, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). In this situation, though, Jesus gives a caution to each. The first person says, “I will follow you wherever you go” (Luke 9:57). Some think that this man was simply speaking with emotional enthusiasm, too eager, without thinking through what he would really be facing. Jesus speaks of the fact that, unlike foxes and birds, He often had “nowhere to lay His head,” just as Samaritans had just rejected giving Him a place to stay and rest (v.52-53). (See also Luke 14:28-30, for example.) The second man is called by Jesus to follow him, but then the  man says, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” We don’t know the exact circumstances, but some think this man was hesitant, not eager enough to follow Jesus, because of other concerns that seemed more important. Jesus certainly, on other occasions, spoke of family loyalty. (See Luke 18:20 and Matthew 15:3-6 and Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 5:8.) Burying a father seems very important, too, though some think maybe the father wasn’t even sick or dying, and this was just the man’s excuse. Jesus’ work was most important. He was going to Jerusalem to destroy the power of death, once and for all, by His death and resurrection. That was Good News that needed to be proclaimed to all. The third man says he wants to follow Jesus, but needs first to say farewell to his family at his home. That sounds reasonable, but from the simple parable that Jesus gives, the man may have had weak resolve in what he says. In Jesus’ day, a person always had to look forward and keep his plowing straight. He certainly couldn’t be looking all over, and especially couldn’t be looking back. Focusing on the past and past loyalties could hurt present and future work and the truly important work of the kingdom of God. (Much more could be said, but watch for a sermon on this passage that I will post on my podcast in the next week or two, along with a sermon on Elijah and His struggles, spoken of in the first lesson, today.)

The Epistle lesson is from Galatians 5:1, 13-25. Paul writes this letter to help believers not to be pulled back into a mentality of salvation by works, especially the rules and regulations of Old Testament Jewish law, like the need to be circumcised and to follow the Old Testament dietary rules and festivals, and Saturday only as the Sabbath day, etc. We are saved by God’s grace through faith in what Christ has done for us, not by what we do for Him. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit has brought us to faith and the gift of baptism (Galatians 3:26-27) and thus a new life in Christ and in the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God. That means a desire to battle “the works of the flesh,” of our old sinful nature, and the long description of these sinful works in v. 19-21. In contrast, the Holy Spirit seeks to produce in us good fruit, as listed in v. 22-24. Such fruit is summarized in v. 12-14: “Through love serve one another,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and not “biting and devouring one another.” This means being led by the Word of God, so that we use our freedom in Christ, not to do what we want, but to seek to do what God knows is best for us and others He has placed around us. This does not mean that we must be perfect, but seek to walk in step with Christ and the Holy Spirit, through the teaching of the Word and continual repentance and confession of our sins and receiving God’s forgiveness when we fail, the forgiveness and blessing we receive in worship and in our regular prayers. May the Lord lead our discipleship in following Christ and the Holy Spirit, through that Word.

Preparing for Worship - June 22, 2025

We have now completed the Festival half of the Church Year, where we have focused upon the saving work of our Lord Jesus, in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith in Jesus through the Word of God and baptism. We don’t forget about our Triune God, at work for us, but we think in a more general way of what all that means for us and our life as believers.

The psalm is Psalm 3, written by David, at a time when he was overthrown by his own son and many of the Israelites. They were out to kill him, and said that there was "no hope or salvation for him in God.” He had fled from Jerusalem, but still trusted that the Lord would be his “shield” and “lift his head.” He cried out to the Lord to “arise” and “save” him. The Lord sustained him in these very difficult days and helped him to “sleep” and “not be afraid” until he saw "salvation” from the Lord and continued “blessings” for him and his “faithful people,” as he returned to be king again.

The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 65:1-9. The Lord warns through Isaiah that His people should not continue to be rebellious against Him and His will, as David’s son, Absalom, and so many others had been. They were still “following their own devices” and desires, worshiping false gods in “secret places” and “provoking God to His face continually” with their “iniquities.” Judgment was coming for them, and the Lord would then be “found” by new “nations not called by His Name,” and by some of His “chosen servants” who would return to Him and be “blessed” with “new wine.”

Jesus is the ultimate Servant of God, the Son of God sent from God to be a true Jewish man, battling the forces of evil and reaching out to other nations, as well as His own people. In the Gospel lesson, Luke 8:26-39, Jesus and His disciples travel across the Sea of Galilee to a largely non-Jewish, Gentile area. Jesus is immediately met by a man possessed by many evil spirits. As a result, this man had lost control of himself and went about naked and living in graveyards, and had such strength that no one could control him. Jesus immediately realized the situation and commanded “the unclean spirit” to come out of him. The man was actually controlled by a “legion” of “demons,” who spoke and recognized Jesus right away as “Son of the Most High God” and knew they were in trouble and asked Jesus not to torment them. They especially did not want to be sent to “the abyss,” to “hell.” (See Revelation 9:11 and the angel of “destruction“ there.) Jesus allows them to go into a herd of pigs, and the herd was destroyed by them. In contrast, the formerly possessed man was now “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.” The herdsmen and other people of this area just wanted Jesus to leave, out of fear of Jesus and what else he might do, and probably because of their economic loss of the pigs. The healed man wants to go with Jesus, but Jesus sends him home, as a witness to “how much God had done for him.” The man went away “proclaiming everywhere how much Jesus had done for him.” He realized that Jesus was God and had done this great healing for him. He became a powerful witness for Jesus in this Gentile area, as people would have known what the man was like before and after the healing. The power of Jesus was clear, as well, and that He had come to defeat the power of Satan and his forces, as He did again and again and finally at the cross and in His resurrection from the dead. (There are questions about this story that we cannot answer. Why did Jesus allow the destruction of the pigs? Did the evil spirits have to go to hell anyway, once the herd was dead? Good came out of this, for sure, though.)

The Epistle lesson is from Galatians 3:23-4:7. Paul says that we were all imprisoned by the Law and its judgments, being unable to keep the Law, but we are set free and justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus and become children of God through Him. We were baptized and now live in Christ, with His robe of righteousness. It does not matter who we are or have been. We are all one through faith in Christ. Through the promises of God, beginning with Abraham (and before) we are all Abraham’s heirs, as we are adopted into God’s family as children of Abraham, through the redemption earned for us us by Christ. “In the fullness of time,” at the right time, “God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem us.” We are now also children of God the Father by faith, through the Son and the Holy Spirit, who now live in our hearts. Our future is secure, as we stay in Christ, and to God be the glory for it all!

Preparing for Worship - June 15, 2025

This Sunday is Holy Trinity Sunday, and the Scripture readings focus on the mystery and yet the reality of the One True Triune God, one God and yet three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Psalm is Psalm 8, a psalm of praise to the LORD, our Lord, with His majestic Name and work as the Creator of our amazing universe and world. Note that David uses the unique Biblical Name for God, Yahweh, which is always shown in translations like the ESV as capital LORD, the great I AM, I AM WHO I AM. (See Exodus 3:13-15.) David also uses another word for “our Lord,” the word which can be used to refer to our king, our ruler, one in great authority. The LORD is both our God and our King, and what is a man that the LORD is mindful of and cares for him? Yet the LORD does. And He cares especially in providing a unique Son of Man for us human beings, our Lord Jesus. God the Son was true God, Son of the Father, and yet became a true man, “a little lower than the heavenly beings,” in order to do His saving work for us and as one of us. Jesus used the name “Son of Man” for Himself at least seventy times, and this is affirmed in Hebrews 2:5-9, where this passage from Psalm 8 is quoted. It was “namely Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels” so that He might suffer and die “by the grace of God for everyone.” Then he was “crowned” again “with glory and honor” in heaven, with “all things put under His feet,” as both 1 Corinthians 15:27 and Ephesians 1:22 say, quoting from Psalm 8. We therefore praise our Lord Jesus as children did in the temple long ago, as quoted again from Psalm 8:2.

The Old Testament lesson is from Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31. This passage begins with a woman pictured as sharing what is right, Wisdom from God, with people, in contrast with an adulterous woman pictured in Proverbs 7, who seeks to lead people, lacking sense, astray. Then, in verses 22-31, a person is described who was with the LORD from eternity, before all things were created, and who was then involved in the creation of the heavens and the earth, together with the Spirit of God, and is the personification of Wisdom. The New Testament applies passages like this to Jesus, in John 1:1-4, 14-18. Jesus was the “Word of God” and "God made flesh, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, who makes the Father known.” Christ Jesus is also called “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God… who became to us Wisdom of God” and much more, as our Redeemer (1 Corinthians 1:24-24, 30-31). We therefore boast in the Lord Jesus, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:2,9-10,12-13). (Look also at Colossians 2:2-3, which speaks of “the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” If you have an ESV
Lutheran Study Bible, you could look at the discussion of “Christ as Wisdom” on p 1012.)

The Gospel Lesson is from John 8:48-59. Jesus is being accused of being a “Samaritan,” one of the people whom many Jews hated, and having a demon, an evil spirit, in him. Jesus says that He actually honors His Heavenly Father, and that if people “kept His Word, they would never see death.” That statement made people think He was truly demon-possessed. “Abraham and all the prophets died”, they said. Who did Jesus think He was? (They often accused Jesus of being crazy and demon-possessed. See also John 10:20 and Luke 11:14-23.) Jesus says that He truly does know God, His Father, and keeps His Word, and that even Abraham knew of His coming. (See what Peter says about the prophets of old and what they did know, in 1 Peter 1:10-12, even as we believe in Jesus without having seen Him, through His Word and promises (1 Peter 1:8-9). Jesus then made a very strong statement of being God, with eternal existence, saying, “Truly, truly I say to you, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.'” Jesus applies that special Old Testament name for God, Yahweh, the LORD, “I AM Who I AM” to Himself. (See the comments above on Psalm 8 and Exodus 3:13-15). He truly was One with God the Father, and made the same comments again and again when he used His many “I AM” statements - I AM the Light of the World, I AM the Bread of Life, etc. People then realized that he was claiming to be God and LORD, but they rejected Him and what he was claiming and tried to stone Him to death. He was able to escape until he finally went to the cross willingly to die in payment for our sins, and then rose in victory. (A passage like this is what caused people like C.S. Lewis to say that Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic or the Son of God. Lewis says that he was dragged kicking and screaming into the kingdom of God by being brought to know that Jesus actually was the Son of God, his Savior.)

The Epistle lesson is from Acts 2:14a, 22-36, continuing the Pentecost reading from last Sunday. Peter clearly speaks of Jesus, who followed “the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” in being crucified and killed, but then being raised from the dead, and now “full of gladness in the presence of God” and reigning with Him. Peter quotes prophecy from God in Psalm 16:8-11, Psalm 132:11, and Psalm 116:11-12, showing that Jesus was both LORD and Christ (the anointed, promised Savior). Peter does not give a neat definition and explanation of the Trinity, for that is beyond our comprehension. (See Romans 11:33-36.) Peter simply says what the Triune God has been doing for our salvation. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing this day (of Pentecost).” This is the One True Triune God, one God and yet three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, actively at work for us and our salvation. The result is what our LORD God wants, calling people to Himself as our Heavenly Father and bringing them to faith in Jesus and baptism, through The Word of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-41). Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our One True God!

Sermon from June 8, 2025

Sermon: “Peace in Christ through the Spirit”

Pentecost Sunday

Based on John 14:23-31 and Acts 2:1-21

Let us pray: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)

The text for our meditation this morning is the Gospel Lesson, along with thoughts from the Epistle. It was Maundy Thursday, and the Passover meal was over, and Jesus had washed His disciples’ feet. Now he predicted again what was soon coming, with His death and resurrection and ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, which we celebrate on this Pentecost Day.

Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my Word” - “keep it,” in the sense of listening to it, studying it, and seeking to trust and follow it and share it with others (John 14:23). For as Jesus adds, “The Word that you hear is not (just) Mine, but the Father’s (Word), Who sent me.” And Jesus gives the warning, “Whoever does not love Me does not keep My Words” (v.24).

Jesus knew that He faced much opposition from Jewish religious authorities and Roman authorities and many others under the evil influence of Satan, whom Jesus calls later, in our text, “the ruler of this (evil) world” (v.30).

Jesus also says, “He (Satan) has no claim on Me, but I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (v.30,31). And so Jesus went, later that Maundy Thursday, willingly to be arrested and condemned and suffer and die, to pay, in our place, the penalty for our sins and the sins of the whole world, that we might be forgiven and counted righteous before God. It is what Paul wrote about Jesus, saying that “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (to be held onto), but emptied Himself by taking the form of a Servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-11).

This also helps explain why Jesus also says, in this passage, “The Father is greater than I” (v.28). God the Son was true God and even when he became true man, here on earth, He was still true God and could say in John 10:30, “The Father and I are One.” But He did not always use His Godly power. We hear in Mark 13:31-32 that Jesus says, while still on earth, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will not pass away.” And then he says, “But concerning that day or that hour (when heaven and earth pass away), no one knows, not even angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Jesus lived with some such limitations while on earth. It is in that context that He says in this passage. “You hear Me say to you, I am going away… If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you, before it takes place, so that when it takes place, you may believe” (v.28-29).

That was always the goal of Jesus - to complete His saving work for the world, and in the process, to help His disciples grow in faith and understanding, in Him. Even on Maundy Thursday, there was much that they did not comprehend - that He, Jesus, had to suffer and die and rise again and return to His Father, to receive again, as John 17:5 says, “His full glory as the Son of God in His Father’s presence, the glory he had with the Father before the world existed.”

And Jesus, as true man, also needed to die and rise again and ascend to heaven to give the assurance and certainty of eternal life to all believers in Him, and since He continued to be true man, as well as the Son of God, in heaven, that meant that we, as real human beings, as He was, could also have eternal life in heaven, by His grace and mercy.

But Jesus knew that even His chosen disciples were not getting and understanding all this. And so he goes on to tell them about the next important part of the Triune God’s saving plan for them and for their calling to share the Good News of Christ with the world.

Imagine that after my sermon today, I asked you to write down everything I said. You probably wouldn’t do too well with that. Even I have my sermon written out word-for-word, to try to say it accurately. If I lost some pages, I would have some trouble saying what I intended, even after practicing it. If you look at John 13-17, you will find almost 5 chapters of what Jesus said, just on Maundy Thursday. How could these disciples understand and communicate all that?

Jesus says in our text, ”These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (v.25-26).

The Holy Spirit has always existed, as the third Person of the One True Triune God, together with the Father and the Son. He is mentioned already in Genesis 1, verse 2, the first book of the Bible, and in the Old Testament, He is mentioned working especially with leaders of God’s people and with the prophets who spoke and wrote God’s Word, preparing the way for the coming of the Savior Jesus. As just one example, hear 2 Samuel 23:1-2: “The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; His Word is on my tongue.”

The Holy Spirit had been with Jesus and His disciples, all through their ministry, and Jesus told them, on Easter evening, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” but the Spirit appeared most dramatically on Pentecost, the account of Acts 2, when many Jews were in Jerusalem for a late Spring Harvest festival. The Holy Spirit was a “Spirit.” He did not have a flesh-and-blood body and could not be seen, and so he appeared in ways that God had shown His presence in the Old Testament - with the sound of a rushing wind and with fire - and with tongues as of fire, since the tongues of the disciples were being affected. The disciples were then filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them what to speak. These were not the normal languages spoken at that time in Israel - Aramaic or Greek or Latin or even Hebrew. These were the native languages of the hearers, from many different countries, languages that the disciples had never learned or spoken before. Clearly, this was a miracle from the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4).

And what were all these visitors from many countries hearing? They said, “We hear them telling in our own tongues (in our own languages) the mighty works of God.” Then Peter spoke, on behalf of all the disciples, and said that this was fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy of the Spirit of God coming upon many people, with the result that “everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:28-32).

And led by the Holy Spirit, Peter went on to speak of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, through His death and resurrection. And through that Word of God proclaimed about Jesus and the gift of Baptism, the Holy Spirit brought 3,000 people to faith in Jesus and salvation that day. This is sometimes called the birthday of the Holy Christian Church, as the number of believers went from about 120 to over 3,000, by the power and working of the Holy Spirit.

It was as Jesus had predicted, “When the Helper, the Spirit of truth comes, He will testify about Me; He will glorify Me - Jesus” (John 15:26, 16:14-15). “The Spirit will take what is Mine and declare it to you.” “For Jesus Christ has become the Cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men, by Which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).

The Holy Spirit then grew these early Christian apostles into faithful believers and teachers of God’s Word in Christ. As Peter later said, “Know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21). And it was not only what they said but what they wrote that is the true Word of God. Peter also said about Paul, “Our beloved brother Paul also wrote you according to the wisdom given him (not his own wisdom or ideas), as he does in all his letters” (2 Peter 3:15-16).

And Paul himself wrote of “the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God (inspired by God through His Holy Spirit) and is profitable for us” (2 Timothy 3:15-16). And John, as he recorded the very words of Jesus, said, “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have Life in His Name” (John 20:31). And Paul wrote, “Therefore, I want you to understand that… no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ (and truly mean it and believe it) except by the Holy Spirit”
(1 Corinthians 12:3).

We therefore praise the Father and the Son, but also the Holy Spirit, for His Work from Pentecost (and even before) to this very day, for bringing us to faith and keeping us in that faith, including the promise of Jesus, also in our text, “Peace I leave with you; My Peace I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Amen. (John 14:27)

Preparing for Worship - June 8, 2025

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, as we think of the work and importance of God the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament lesson, Genesis 11:1-9, is the opposite of the Pentecost story and reminds us of how vitally important the coming of our Lord Jesus and of the Holy Spirit were. After the fall into sin, and even after the Great Flood, people were all wrapped up in themselves and their own sinful desires, instead of the Lord and His will. They still had a common language and were united and could be inventive, but for their own sinful purposes. They discovered how to make bricks and decided to build a great city and a tower that reached the heavens, in order to make a great name for themselves, instead of honoring God. Their city was named “Babel,” the “House of Bel,” a false God they worshiped instead of the true God. God finally “confused” (the Hebrew word is “balal”) their language and scattered them over the earth. They were to “fill” the earth (Genesis 9:1), but now it was in division and disarray because of sin.

Sin continued to be a great problem for people, as it still is today. The Psalm is Psalm 143, a psalm of David and one of the seven “penitential” psalms of the Old Testament. David pleads for God’s mercy because he knows that “no one living is righteous before Him.” Only the Lord is “faithful” and “righteous.” David has enemies, physical and spiritual, and he sits in darkness, and his own spirit faints and fails. He thirsts for the Lord and His steadfast love. In repentance, he “flees to the Lord for refuge” and trusts Him, that “His Good Spirit” can lead him and teach him and preserve him. He knows that he does not deserve this help, but that for His own Name’s sake, the Lord can bring His “servant” David out of trouble. (Isn’t this a good prayer for all of us, in times of trouble and weakness?)

The Gospel lesson is John 14:23-31, part of almost five chapters of teaching that Jesus provides for His disciples on Maundy Thursday, the night before His suffering and death and subsequent resurrection and ascension. He calls upon his disciples to love Him and “keep His Word” - the Word from Him and His Heavenly Father, that would sustain Him and the disciples from the attacks of Satan, “the ruler of this world,” and the many enemies of Him and His saving work. He knew how weak His disciples were and how much they still did not understand, but He continued to teach them, so that they would “believe” in Him in the days ahead and have “peace” and strength different from what the sinful world promises. Jesus also promised them the great gift of God the Holy Spirit, sent from Him and His Father, who would teach them and enable them to remember and share His Word of Life and Hope with the world. (Watch for a sermon I will send and post next week, which gives more detail on all this and the Epistle lesson.)

The Epistle lesson is from Acts 2:1-21. Many people had come to Jerusalem for “the Feast of Weeks,” one of the important Jewish festivals and a kind of Spring Harvest celebration. (See Leviticus 23:15-16.) The disciples of Jesus were also together, 10 days after Jesus’ ascension, awaiting the promised “Power from on high” (Luke 24:49). God the Holy Spirit did come, showing His appearance with Old Testament images of God’s presence, “rushing wind” and “fire.” The disciples were then able to speak in languages they had never known or learned, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that people could hear of “the mighty acts of God.” Peter then spoke on behalf of his fellow disciples, and pointed to an Old Testament prophecy from Joel, predicting this day, when God’s Spirit would be poured out on many, who would speak God’s Word, with the result that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In the rest of Acts 2, Peter spoke of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of God, as Lord and Christ and Savior. And through this Word of God and “many other Words” and the outpouring work of the Holy Spirit, 3,000 people were brought to faith in Jesus and received the gift of baptism, through which the Holy Spirit also worked to bring forgiveness and new life in Christ Jesus. These believers then “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” - receiving the Word of God and the Sacraments. What blessings came, which are still available today, in and through the Lord of our churches, through the power of the Holy Spirit, who brings us to faith and keeps us in that faith.

Sermon from May 28, 2025

“The Way of Christ for All”

Text: Psalm 67

Psalm for 6th Sunday of Easter

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)

The text for our meditation for today is the psalm for this past Sunday, Psalm 67. You can follow along with this, as Psalm 67 is printed among the psalms in the front part of your hymnal.

Psalm 67 begins this way: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us.” These words should sound familiar, as they are a summary of an Old Testament benediction, a blessing that we still use at the end of many of our worship services still today, from Numbers, Chapter Six: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance (His face) upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:22-27).

And v. 2 of the psalm tells us that God wants His blessed “Way” to be known among all nations on earth. And v.3 says that He wishes that not just the Jews but that all peoples would praise Him. He repeats this in v. 5, again: “Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.”

This had actually been the plan of God from the very beginning, when he had called Abram, in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, to be the father of the nation of Israel, the Jews. God also added, in Genesis 12:3, “In you (Abram), all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God made this even clearer in Genesis, Chapter 17, when He changed Abram’s name to Abraham (which means “a father of a multitude”) and said, “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations… I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you” (Genesis 17:14).     

And much later, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah of a Servant who would come from Israel. And the Lord predicted of Him, “It is too light a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will send you as a Light for the nations, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:1,6).

For God cared and cares not only about Israel, but about all nations and peoples. As Psalm 67, verse 5 says, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You, O God, judge the peoples with equity (with fairness and uprightness), and guide the nations upon the earth.”

And God’s “saving way” and “power” spoken of in verse 2 of Psalm 67, finally came in the person of God’s own Son, our Lord Jesus. Just after Jesus’ birth, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, and a man name Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit to come to the temple also and to recognize Who Jesus was and praise God saying, “My eyes have seen Your salvation that You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a Light for revelation to the Gentiles (to the nations) and for the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:25-32). And some years later, John the Baptist was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy in “preparing the Way” of the Lord Jesus, so that through Him (Jesus), “all flesh (all people) could see the salvation of God” through Him (Isaiah 40:3-5 and Luke 3:2-6).

And as we read on in the New Testament, we see that Jesus is that saving Way and Power for all peoples, all nations, as Psalm 67, v.2, says. Jesus Himself said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). And the apostle Peter proclaimed, “Jesus… has become the Cornerstone. And there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12). And at least six more times, the early Christian believers in the Book of Acts are called “people of the Way” - the Way of Jesus Christ as Savior, through faith in Him alone. Saul was arresting any people “belonging to the Way” until he himself was brought to Jesus as the true Way of salvation (Acts 9:2 and 16:17). A Jewish man, Apollos, was “instructed in the Way of the Lord” and “spoke boldly… “showing by the Scriptures that the Christ (the promised Messiah, the Savior) was Jesus” Acts 18:25-28).

And of course, we also read in the Book of Acts that there were big “disturbances concerning the Way” of Jesus, made by enemies, believers in false gods and goddesses (Acts 19:23-28) and by Jewish leaders in synagogues who “remained in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way” and opposing the Gospel of Christ (Acts 17:13, 18:12, 19:8-9). And there was the Roman Governor, Felix, who had “a rather accurate knowledge of the Way,” because his wife was Jewish, but kept rejecting “faith in Jesus Christ” and hoped that Paul would give him money (probably as a bribe), in order to be set free (Acts 24:22-26). Paul just kept speaking the Truth about Jesus and was finally sent to Rome and kept under house arrest for two years, witnessing to fellow Jews, many of whom “disbelieved” - did not believe in Jesus. And Paul finally said, at the end of the Book of Acts, “Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles (the non-Jews); they will listen” (Acts 28:23-31). And many did, and Christianity spread.

Paul, in his letters in the Scriptures, also ties us all in, whether Jews or non-Jews, with the promises of God given to Abraham and received simply by faith in the grace and mercy of God. Abraham was “counted righteous” in God’s eyes, by faith in Him, and we are, too, by faith in God’s Son, Jesus, “who was delivered up” to death “for our trespasses, ”to pay the penalty for all of our sins,” and “raised from the dead for our justification” that we might be declared “not guilty” and forgiven by God. Abraham is in this way the father of people from all nations, Jews or non-Jews, who trust in God’s saving plan in Jesus (Romans 4:13-25).

Again, Paul writes, “The Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, presented the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’” So then, those who are of faith (in Jesus) are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:6-9).

This is all fulfillment of the last verse of our text, Psalm 67:7: “God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear Him.” And this does not mean to be in terror of God, but as Luther says in his Small Catechism, to fear (especially to honor and respect) God and love and trust in Him above all other things, and especially to be centered on Christ our Savior and His Word.

And the way of Christ is really for all nations still today. I think that many of you know that I was a campus pastor at Purdue University for about 25 years, and the great majority of our students were U.S. students. But we also had a surprising number of international students coming, too, because the world was coming to Purdue.

While preparing this sermon, I took a quick look back and could identify more than 50 internationals and family members who were baptized or confirmed, not counting U.S. students reached in that way, during that time. They came from about 20 different countries. And there were other internationals who came fairly often to worship or Bible study, from another 10 or more countries, off and on, through those years.

Of course, it is the Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God and the Good News of Christ, who brings people to faith and baptism and confirmation. But He works through people and their witness, and St. James has been important for that, too. For quite a number of years, St. James has sponsored a Thanksgiving Dinner for internationals, and that helped open up opportunities to share about Jesus. Some international children have come to St. James for daycare or pre-school and have heard the Good News of Christ that way. People from St. James have helped with English conversation classes. I remember one member here who is fluent in speaking and reading a foreign language spoken by many at Purdue, who was helpful with that outreach. And another member still has weekly Bible studies with some internationals.

And long before we were hearing much about Ukraine and Russia and Belarus and that part of the world, students were coming from those countries and many others and hearing the Good News of Christ in our church at Purdue.

In short, the prayer that is in Psalm 67 is being answered in Christ our Savior and even in our own community, as we keep praying and witnessing and sharing our Lord and His Word. As we close, we pray, as the prayer of Psalm 67 says: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that His Way in Christ may be known to more and more people on earth and His saving power among all nations. Let all the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You." Amen.

Preparing for Worship - June 1, 2025

The Psalm, Psalm 133, expresses one of the key themes of our Scripture readings this week. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.” This seems obscure to us, who do not know the Old Testament very welI. In Old Testament terms, though, that meant bringing people together in Jerusalem, in the mountains of Zion, the place where King David established the capital of the Kingdom of Israel. Earlier, that place was where the tabernacle was and where Aaron was anointed generously with oil and as a priest to be able to do the animal sacrifices and other offerings required. Later, the temple in Jerusalem was the place for that priesthood and those sacrifices.  Other priests followed, but were sprinkled with oil and then carried on their duties. (See how this is described in Exodus 29:7, 30:30-33, and Leviticus 21:10, and how no one but the priests were to be anointed in this way for their special work.) Another Old Testament image was of the importance of dew falling from Mount Hermon and watering Jerusalem and other areas. Such water was very important in this drier climate. (See Hosea 14:5 and Zechariah 8:12 as examples of such dew and how it represented God’s blessings for His people.) For from Jerusalem, “the Lord had commanded blessings” and would finally bring “life forevermore” in the gift and work of His own Son, our Lord Jesus. Sadly, David’s kingdom was split, and many of God’s people worshiped falsely in other places, and there was disunity and rejection of Jesus by many when he came, and finally, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Unity will now only come through Jesus and His work and Word, revealed in the New Testament.

Jesus prays for that unity in Him in the Gospel lesson, John 17:20-26, for all those who would believe in Him through the Word of God. As Jesus and His heavenly Father were unified (together with the Holy Spirit, as the One True Triune God), before the foundation of the world, so Jesus prays that believers would be united in Him and in His and the Father’s love for the world. Believers “may become perfectly one” only when they are with Jesus, where He will be in glory, in heaven, in eternal life forevermore. In the meantime, believers must live in this imperfect world so that they can share the Word of God and faith in Christ with others. They live in a world where, as Paul says, “we see in a mirror dimly,” and not always perfectly. Only in heaven shall we “know fully” what God wants us to know (1 Corinthians 13:12). Yet in God’s eyes, there is already one true body of all believers in the Holy Christian Church, which God alone can see. Paul writes, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). But only our Lord can create and see that body of believers perfectly, with His love and forgiveness. Jesus then prays for growing unity in His love and Word for His believers. They would soon scatter when He was arrested, suffered, and died. But they would be united with Him again in His resurrection. The Father’s love would be in them, and the risen Lord Jesus would be in them (along with the Holy Spirit, as we will hear next week, as we celebrate on Pentecost).

The reading from Acts 1:12-26 tells us that the believing disciples, about 120 people, did what Jesus asked them to do and stayed in Jerusalem, awaiting the coming of “power from on high,” in the Person of the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost (Luke 24:49). “With one accord, they devoted themselves to prayer.” This group included the chosen disciples (other than Judas), Jesus’ brothers, other women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and others. This is the last time Mary is mentioned in the New Testament, other than when Paul says that Jesus was “born of a woman,” obviously Mary (Galatians 4:4). Peter then showed that there was now need, based on Scripture, for Judas to be replaced, since he had betrayed Jesus and then in regret, had taken his life. (See Matthew 27:1-10 and related passages, predicting this: John 13:18, Psalm 41:9, Psalm 55:12-14, Psalm 69:25, Psalm 109:8, John 15:25, Psalm 35:19. A note from the CPH ESV Bible, p. 1812, explains also that Judas “bought the field indirectly because the Council did this with the money Judas returned… The rope Judas hanged himself with likely broke, over time, causing his already decaying corpse to fall and rupture.”) Peter also explained that the believers should now choose a replacement among men (clearly males, in the Greek) who had been followers of Jesus from the time of the baptism of John to Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Two men were chosen as candidates, and the believers cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias to be numbered with the 11 apostles. The job of all of them was now to be a witness to Christ and His resurrection, sharing the Word of God with others. (There were decisions made by casting lots in the Old Testament, but this is the last time in the New Testament. From Acts 6:1-7 and afterward, when a need arose, the gathering of believers prayed and then chose their leaders, in this case, Stephen and others as leaders, and blessed them in their ministries.)

The last reading is from Revelation 22:1-6, 12-20. Here we see the perfection of heaven. The water of life and the tree of life are available to all, with no limitations for anyone. There is nothing accursed - only believers who see the face of God and the Lamb and worship Him. There is no night or darkness, and the Lord God is their Light, and they will reign with Him forever and ever. There is only Light and truth for all. Then we hear that the final day for Earth is coming, with the judgment of God, as He returns. All those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, by faith in Jesus, will be in heaven, the city of God (Revelation 7:14). All unbelievers will be excluded. Before the end comes, though, there is still time for more people to come to faith through the free gift, without price, of the water of life in Christ. Jesus is the Root of Jesse, from the line of King David (Isaiah 11:1). He is the Bright Morning Star (Isaiah 9:2 and Luke 1:77-79) through whom people can have forgiveness and salvation and the Light, the Way of eternal life. The Truth is in the Word of God, including the Book of Revelation, and no one should add to or take away from that Word, centered in Jesus. We are prepared and ready for eternal life in the holy city, by the grace of God with us, through Jesus. He is coming soon, and we say “Amen!” This is most certainly true! And we say, by that same grace of God, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Preparing for Worship - May 25, 2025

Our Easter celebration continues this week, with many of the readings emphasizing that the Good News of God’s saving plan in Jesus is for all peoples and nations. Even the Old Testament clearly says that, as our Psalm for this day, Psalm 67, indicates. The psalm begins with a summary of an important benediction given by the Lord to His people in Numbers 6:22-27. Psalm 67:2 tells the people that they are blessed, so that the Way of the Lord and His saving power would be known to all nations. This idea is expressed again and again as the psalm goes on. All people are to praise God. The nations are also to have gladness and joy in the Lord, and the Lord will judge and guide them in a fair way. God will bless Israel so that eventually, all the ends of the earth might fear and trust in Him. (This had been God’s plan from the beginning. When God called Abram to be the father of a new nation (Genesis 12:1-3), note that all families on earth would be blessed through his descendant, referring to our Lord Jesus, who came from the Jews. Abram’s name was changed to Abraham (Genesis 17:3-6) by the Lord because he would be the father of a multitude of nations. See how Paul explains this in Romans 4:16-25. Even we are offspring of Abraham through faith in the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice and resurrection for our justification, no matter what race or nation we come from.)

That the Gospel is for all is evident also in Acts 16:9-15. The plans of Paul (and Luke - see the “we” in verse 10ff) were changed by the Holy Spirit so that they went to Macedonia in northern Greece and brought the Good News of Christ to Lydia. Note that Lydia was called “a worshiper of God” in v.14. That means that she was already a convert to Judaism. She was probably of Greek or Roman background. Now the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to the Word of God brought by Paul, and she and her whole household came to faith in Jesus through the Word and baptism. This Good News in Christ is meant for all people. (See how Jesus Himself, on Easter, opened the minds of some believers to the Scriptures about Jesus Christ and how this Word of God was to be brought in Christ’s Name to all nations (Luke 24:44-47).)

The same message is seen in the Epistle lesson, a continuation of the reading from last week, from Revelation 21. In Revelation 21:9-14, the plagues and wrath of God are completed (v.8) as all unbelievers are cast into the lake of fire, the second death. Now there is only the joy of believers, in eternal life in the New Jerusalem, with believers from the Old Testament times and the apostles and believers from the New Testament times, centered in the Lamb, Jesus. There is no need for the sun or moon, for the Heavenly Father, along with God the Son, the victorious Lamb, and the Holy Spirit, will be present always and provide all that is needed. The glory and the honor of believers from the nations and kings, all who walk by the Light of Christ. will be there, too, - all whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (See Ephesians 2:1-9, a description of how we were rescued from being children under God’s wrath to being the children of God, purely by God’s grace through the gift of faith in Christ Jesus.)

There are two possible Gospel readings this week. In John 5:1-9, Jesus helps a man who had been an invalid (blind, lame, or paralyzed) for 38 years. Jesus tells him to take up his bed and walk, and at once the man is healed. Following this text, in John 5:10-18, the man gets in trouble for carrying his bed (doing work) on the Sabbath, though he does not even know who healed him. Jesus meets him later in the temple (into which the man had probably been forbidden to enter, because of his disability, for a long time). Jesus encourages him to continue in the faith, seeking to do what is right. Jesus has gotten Himself into more trouble, too, for doing a work of healing on the Sabbath, and calling God His Father, making Himself equal with God. In this miracle, though, Jesus was showing that His saving work was for all people, including those who were cut off from God’s people by the Jews, even those with certain disabilities and physical imperfections. They, too, could be God’s people by faith in Jesus. Jesus came and died and rose again for all! (See the promises of 1 Timothy 2:3-6 of “God our Savior, Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.”)

The other possible Gospel reading is John 16:23-33, a continuation of one of last week’s Gospel lessons. Jesus has told His disciples that they will not see Him for a little while, and then they will see Him again, referring to His death and resurrection. In this reading, Jesus tells His disciples that He will also return to His Father in heaven. From that time forward, the disciples should pray to the Father, asking in the Name of Jesus their Savior. The Father will answer their prayers as He knows best because he loves them. The disciples reaffirm that they believe Jesus came from God, but Jesus knows their weak faith and warns that they will scatter and leave Jesus alone. He will not be alone, though, for the Father will be with Him, in His suffering to come. The disciples will also have tribulations, but in Christ they will have peace, for Christ will overcome the evil world and bring ultimate victory for them. When Jesus rose from the dead, He said again and again to them, “Peace be with you,” for He would pay the price for all their sins and forgive them and one day take them to eternal life in heaven, too. The same is true for all of us, in faith in Christ. We are far from perfect and struggle with tribulations, but we have peace in Christ ourselves, for this life and for eternal life to come.

Preparing for Worship - May 18, 2025

Our Easter celebration continues this week, as we hear more of the promises that come to us through our Risen, Living Lord Jesus. The Psalm is Psalm 148. We had this psalm on the 2nd Sunday of Easter, April 27; so you might look back at the words shared at that time about this psalm, too. The Psalm calls upon all of creation to praise the Lord, including everyone and everything here on earth. That includes all kings and rulers and peoples on earth, young and old. The Name of the Lord alone is to be exalted because He has raised up “a Horn for His people.” A horn represents God’s power and strength for His people. See Psalm 18:2, where David says, “The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress and My Deliverer, my God, my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my Salvation, my Stronghold.” Zechariah prophesied by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament that Jesus would be that “Horn of Salvation,” the Redeemer, and that
Zechariah’s son, John the Baptist, would prepare the way for Him, the Lord Jesus. (See Luke 1:67-79, and especially verses 68-70 and 76-79.)

There is again a reading from the history of the early church, from Acts 11:1-18, instead of an Old Testament reading. Peter is being criticized by the “circumcision party” for going to uncircumcised Gentiles and eating with them, as they were “unclean” people. Peter explains that he had a vision three times of a huge sheet with all kinds of animals on it, clean and unclean. The Lord told him to “kill and eat” foods that were formerly unclean, because under the New Covenant in Christ, God was “declaring all foods clean,” even as Jesus had done in Mark 7:14-23. That very moment, three men came from Caesarea and the Holy Spirit told Peter to go with them, though they were Gentiles. Six others went with them, as witnesses. This was the first time Peter had ever been in a Gentile home, but Peter knew it was OK because an angel had arranged all this. As soon as Peter began to speak God’s Word about being saved through Christ, the Holy Spirit came upon these Gentiles, also, and God granted to them also repentance and saving faith and new life in Jesus. Peter now knew that he could not stand in God’s way, and that everyone needed to share the Good News of Jesus as Savior for Gentiles, as well as Jews. The Good News in Christ is for all people.

There are two possible Gospel readings. Both are Words of Jesus. In John 13:31-35, Judas has just left to prepare to betray Jesus into the hands of the Jewish authorities. Jesus knows that His coming suffering and death would glorify God,  and that He Himself would be glorified, when He rose from the dead and returned to His Father in heaven, a place where His disciples could not yet go. In the meantime, the disciples are to love one another, as Jesus first and foremost loved them. This is what disciples of Jesus are now to do - to have love for one another and others, especially in sharing the hope and salvation that are in Jesus.

The other Gospel reading is John 16:12-22. Jesus has much more to teach His disciples, but they cannot handle it now. The Holy Spirit would later guide them into all truth. That is what we have recorded for us in the Scriptures. The Spirit would glorify Jesus as the Savior of the world. But first, Jesus would need to leave the disciples for “a little while,” and then they would see Him again. The disciples do not understand. Jesus uses the example of a woman expecting a child. There is great agony when her time has come, but then there is great joy, and the birth pains are forgotten, with a child coming into the world. So, there would be great sorrow at the death of Jesus, but there would be great joy when He would appear again to them as their Risen Lord, eventually bringing eternal joy that cannot be taken away from them.

In the Epistle reading, from Revelation 21:1-7, the Lord gives John a vision of that eternal life and joy to come. When Christ returns on the last day, the first heaven and earth, troubled by sin, will pass away, and God will dwell with us in a whole new existence, a new heaven and earth and a new Jerusalem, with no tears or pain or death. There will be no sea to threaten and no need for sun or moon or temple, etc., since the Father, the Son the Lamb, and the Holy Spirit will be with us always and provide us with all we need (Revelation 21:1-7, 22-23). We cannot comprehend what all this means or what all the picture images here mean, but we know that no one can take our joy from us, in Christ (John 16:22).

We have confidence in Christ now, but still have the tribulations of this sinful world. As Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” We seek now to live in love with one another and share Christ’s sacrificial love with others until Christ chooses, in His wisdom, to take us to eternal joy in heaven at our death (Psalm 31:14-16): “I trust You, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make Your face shine on Your servant; save me in Your steadfast love.”

Sermon from May 4, 2025

Third Sunday after Easter    

John 21:1-19

“Follow Me and Tend My Sheep”

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen (Psalm 19:14).

The text for our meditation is the Gospel lesson for today, from John 21:1-19. Scholars who are critical of the Bible and its reliability have often questioned whether Chapter 21 belongs to John’s Gospel. And some say that some other author, not John, must have added it later on. They have one big problem. Every single one of the ancient Greek manuscripts of the Bible has all 21 chapters, and early translations into other languages have the same 21 chapters preserved for us by our Lord, in His wisdom and guidance for Biblical writers.

And there’s good reason that Chapter 21 was included by John, inspired by God. It is a strong encouragement to the disciples to carry out the ministry to which they had been called by Jesus, when He said, Easter evening, “As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).

The disciples did go back to Galilee as Jesus had told them (Matthew 28:10), but they don’t seem to be preparing for their mission. Instead, led by Peter, along with James and John, seven of them are out fishing, all night, as they used to do. And even as expert fishermen, their night’s fishing was a failure. No fish! One Lutheran commentator (Dr. V.C. Pfitzner) wonders if they were forgetting already what their mission now was to be - to be fishers of men. Matthew tells us that some of the disciples, probably not these seven, but others, were still doubting about all this with Jesus (Matthew 28:17). And later on, even at the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, Luke tells us that at least some of the disciples were still asking: “Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? - as if the goal of all this was really to set up an earthly kingdom with Israel as the top nation, instead of taking the Gospel of Christ Jesus and His love and forgiveness to all nations and peoples in the world.

The Pentecost event and the special coming of the Holy Spirit with power helped greatly in affirming the right focus for ministry (Acts 2), but as you read on in the Book of Acts, you discover that it’s not until Acts 8, when believers in Jerusalem were being persecuted by fellow Jews, that the believers began to scatter to other places to tell of Jesus. And Peter himself had never set foot in a non-Jewish home until Acts 10.

So, these early events of John 21, while Jesus was still appearing to His disciples on earth, visibly, were very important. The disciples were still in their boat, with no fish, on the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus called to them from the shore. They did not recognize Him at first, but put the net where He said and caught a huge number of fish.

Early in His ministry, in Luke 5, Jesus helped Peter catch many fish in the same way. Peter’s reaction was to fall at the knees of Jesus and say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” And Jesus said to him, “Do not be afraid; from now on, you will be catching men” (Luke 5:1-10).

This time, in our text, in very similar circumstances, when John said, “It is the Lord” calling to us, Peter quickly jumped out of the boat and headed toward land. He wanted to be in the presence of his Living and forgiving Lord.

When he and the others reached the shore, they found a charcoal fire and a breakfast prepared for them by Jesus, with bread and fish. Jesus asked them to bring some of the fish just caught, and Peter went and found and counted 153 large fish in the net, a tremendous catch! And yet the net was not torn or broken, as it had been in the earlier great catch of fish.

Clearly, Jesus was doing miraculous things again for the seven chosen disciples in our text. He was providing a net full of fish for these supposedly expert fishermen, who could catch nothing. He was providing a wonderful breakfast meal of bread and fish (like the feeding of the 5,000 earlier in His ministry, Mark 6:30-44), provided in love and mercy and forgiveness for these disciples who had been so weak and fearful just recently and couldn’t seem to understand Jesus’ clear words about suffering and dying and rising again. And in this way, Jesus was reminding His disciples once again that their primary mission now was not be to fishermen for fish, but fishermen for people, telling people the Good News described in Revelation, Chapter 5, our Epistle lesson, of Jesus, the Lamb, who was slain and by His blood (and His resurrection) ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9). And through their Word and proclamation of Jesus, the Holy Spirit could work and bring more people to forgiveness and faith and baptism and salvation through Christ Jesus.

But even these chosen disciples needed to be reminded of their calling and the forgiveness of Jesus, who died and rose for them, too, as did so many followers of the Lord before and after them. In the psalm for today, Psalm 30, we hear that King David, as strong as he was, could also be very weak, at times. In the psalm, he knows that he has done wrong (and this is not the Bathsheba story, but another failure) and has to say, “To You, O Lord, I cry and plead for mercy; be merciful to me, O Lord; be my Helper.” And the Lord turned David’s mourning into gladness and thankfulness through His forgiveness for him.

And we heard of Saul, who was so strongly anti-Christian and a persecutor of Christians until the Risen Lord Jesus appeared to him and turned his life around and brought Him to faith and baptism and forgiveness and made him the Apostle Paul, who could proclaim, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” But Paul still had to, the Scriptures say, “increase all the more in strength in the Lord to be able to proclaim that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 9:1-22).

The Lord also had to work with the Christian, Ananias, who was supposed to go and witness to Saul, but was afraid for his own life and said, “Lord, I have heard… how much evil Saul has done to Your saints of Jerusalem.” The Lord finally just had to say to Ananias, “Go!” and he went, and the Holy Spirit brought Saul to faith.

Everyone needed encouragement in Christ, including Peter, in our text. He could be so strong, being the first disciple to say clearly of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” But very quickly, he could think that he knew better than Jesus, and argue with Him, and tell Him never to talk about suffering and dying and rising again, though that was the central work of Jesus (Matthew 16:15-23).

Peter was trusting too much in himself and his wisdom and thinking and abilities. When Jesus predicted, “You will all fall away,” Peter emphatically said, “Even though they all fall away, I will not… If I must die with You, I will not deny you” (Mark 14:29,31). Again, Peter had said to Jesus, “I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you?… Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times” (John 13:37-38). And that is exactly what Peter did. And then he went out and wept bitterly at his sin and failure. He was in sorrow and fear until the Risen Lord Jesus appeared to him and the others.

Now, at His third resurrection appearance to the disciples, Jesus talks particularly to Peter, to remind him of his weaknesses, but also to let him know that he was forgiven and still called to his ministry for Christ. The charcoal fire may have reminded Peter of where he had stood just a few weeks before, warming himself and then denying, three times, that he ever knew Jesus or had ever been His disciple. And three times, Jesus calls him Simon, and asks if he loves Him. Jesus had given him an extra name, Peter, a name which sounds like a word for a kind of rock. But Peter had not been the rock-man he thought he was. But he is realizing that and is truly repentant, and that comes out in some of the words that you can’t see in English, but in the original Greek.

Two times, Jesus asks, “Simon, do you love me?” And Jesus uses the special word, agape, which means the great, sacrificial love that Jesus had in giving up everything, and finally even His life, in order to pay for Peter’s sins, and ours, too. Peter responds two times, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love you.” But he uses a different word for love, which means more like brotherly, friendship love. Peter is realizing that his love will never measure up to Jesus’ perfect, sacrificial love, and that he needs to trust Jesus, His Savior, instead of his own wisdom and strength and abilities and imperfect love.

And the third time that Jesus asks, “Simon, do you love me?” He uses the same word for love that Peter has been using. Jesus knows that Peter’s love is weak and imperfect, compared with His perfect, sacrificial love, but He still loves and forgives Peter, and knows that He and the Holy Spirit can still work through Peter as a shepherd for sheep, with people of all ages and types, as we heard in the children’s sermon - all of whom Jesus loves. (Jesus had used several words for lambs and sheep of different ages in this text and called Peter to feed and tend to them all. Earlier, the disciples had tried to say that Jesus couldn’t be bothered with little children. Jesus corrects Peter and the others, as He had done before (Mark 10:13-16, Mark 9:33-36). How comforting it is that the Lord Jesus loves us all, no matter our age.

And as our text ends, Jesus says, in effect, to Peter, "Don’t follow yourself and your ideas and ways. Follow Me,” and My Word, and “tend to My sheep,” even if it means great sacrifice for you, as it eventually did for Peter.

We are not apostles, but we have a mission in our lives, too, where Christ has placed us, as baptized believers in Him. But we are shaky, too, and we have room to grow, too, in trust in our Savior, in confidence in him and His forgiveness, in spite of our own sins and weaknesses. We can be a blessing to our fellow sheep, as we hear Jesus say to us, too, “Follow Me and my Word, in your family and your church and with others God places around you, too.”

We pray, as the writer to the Hebrews says, “Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory forever and ever." Amen (Hebrews 13:20-21).