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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Last week we saw that the important One that John sees in his vision is Jesus Christ, the Living One, alive forevermore, One with the Living God of the Old Testament. We also saw what some of the imagery of Christ means - that He has a two-edged sword in His mouth and keys of death and Hades. John is simply to write down what he has seen.
John had also seen “seven stars in the right hand” of Jesus (Revelation 1:16) and that He, Jesus, was standing “in the midst of seven lampstands” (1:12-13). The “mystery” (something hidden) of what these are is now revealed, too, in 1:20 by Jesus Himself, as a Divine revelation. Jesus says that the “seven stars” are “the angels of the seven churches” to whom John is to write; and the “seven lampstands” are the “seven churches.”
This is important to note, as one of our principles for interpreting the Scriptures is to take things “literally” unless there is something in the text or context to suggest otherwise. In this case, Jesus is telling us that “stars” are not always literal “stars.” They represent something else. This indicates that there can be lots of symbolism and picture images in Revelation - as there are. Jesus does not literally have a knife in His mouth, but we can see what that image means about Him. Those who try to take all of Revelation literally run into many problems.
Some passages are just common sense, too. When Jesus says of Herod, “Go and tell that fox” (Luke 13:32), we can tell that He is speaking of Herod’s character, not that he was literally a fox. Poetry, such as the psalms and other poetic materials, have lots of picture-images and figures of speech. Psalm 96:12 speaks of “the trees of the forest singing for joy,” and Psalm 98:8 says “the rivers clap their hands;” and we get what those images mean. In contrast, there is nothing in Genesis 1-3 that tells us to take those chapters in a non-literal way, though many try to make them into parables or fables of some sort. Genesis 1-3 is God describing, through Moses, His actual creation of the universe and our world and the first people and then, their fall into sin. Scripture itself often helps us interpret other Scriptures, too. (If you look through Scripture, God is always described as the Creator of all things, and the first people and the fall into sin as real events of real people.)
Going back to Revelation, Jesus says in Revelation 1:20 that the “seven stars” are “the angels of the seven churches. ”The Greek word “angel” means a messenger, and angels sometimes delivered messages. Some think, then, that these angels for the churches are some kind of literal guardian angels, another function that angels, who are real, can perform. Revelation 2:1 says though, “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write.” There really are no clear Biblical examples of letters being written to literal angels. Most think that the meaning “messenger” is a better understanding of Revelation 2:1, and that this refers to pastors and teachers and leaders of the churches, who are God’s messengers in each of the churches and would read and share what was written to them with the members of their churches.
See, for example, Malachi 2:6, which says, “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his lips, for he is the messenger (same word as angel) of the Lord of hosts.” See also Daniel 12:3: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Those who share the Word of God are compared with stars of the sky, because of the bright light of God’s truth that they share.
In Revelation 1:20, the seven lampstands symbolize the seven churches themselves, to whom the letters are to go. Often God’s people, who are the church, an assembly of believers, are called to be lights or lamps to others and to the world. See Matthew 5:14-16, for example. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven.”
One more thought, and then we will stop for this week. Note that in Revelation 1:12, Jesus is pictured as in the midst of the seven lampstands, which we now know are the seven churches to whom John’s vision are to go. Jesus is also pictured In Revelation 1:16 as holding the seven stars, which we now know are the seven angels (messengers - pastors and teachers), in His hand. Both of these images picture Jesus as being closely involved in all that is going on with the messengers and the churches themselves. The messengers and churches are important, but Jesus still is most important, leading and guiding through them and through His Word.
Next week, we will look at the message to the church at Ephesus, in Revelation 2:1-7. If you have time, read Acts 19 and 20:17-38 to get some of history of the ministry in Ephesus.
The Lord’s continued blessings to you all. As Paul wrote in Philippians 2:15-16, “May you be children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the Word of Life.”
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
NEW Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered August 20, 2023
12th Sunday after Pentecost
Series A Gospel
Matthew 15:21-28
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer (Psalm 19:14).
The text for our meditation is the Gospel lesson, Matthew 15:21-28.
As our Gospel lesson begins, Jesus does something very unusual. Only a few times in His public ministry did He go outside of the Land of Israel, and this is one of those times. Very surprisingly, He goes north to the area of Tyre and Sidon, where many Canaanites lived.
When the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land, the land called Canaan, God told the Israelites to “clear away” a number of nations, including the Canaanites. And why? It was one simple reason. God said, “They would turn away your sons from following Me to serve other Gods” (Deuteronomy 7:1-14). The Canaanites were a real danger to God’s people as Old Testament history shows.
God knew the weakness of sinful human beings, including even Abraham and His chosen people of God. They were not chosen because they were greater and better than others, but simply by God’s grace and mercy.
Moses reminded them: “Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people” (Deuteronomy 9:6).
Yet, God in His wisdom simply chose to work through this stubborn nation of Israel to bring eventually through them the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus would be the Savior, not just for the Jews, but for all nations and peoples.
This was often forgotten by God’s Old Testament people, with their focus too often just on themselves, but the Lord had said to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3, “I will bless you and make of you a great nation… and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
And to emphasize this, God had Moses write down and repeat these same words three more times, between Genesis 18 and 26, “in you… in your offspring” (singular – one particular offspring to come) “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 18:18, 22:18, 26:4).
Jesus was, of course, the promised One. As we heard in the children’s sermon, in John 3:16, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and Jesus, God the Son, knew His Father’s plan and what He had to do to earn salvation for us and for the whole world.
• First, Jesus had to be a real human being, and be tempted as we are not yet not sin, as a perfect substitute for us, who so often fail to do what we should.
• But the perfect life of Jesus wasn’t enough. He also had to take all our sins upon Himself and pay the penalty for them all. Peter wrote, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree… and by His wounds we have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
We are righteous and acceptable to God, not through anything we have done, but through what Jesus did for us. And “Christ died for all” (1 Timothy 2:6), the Scriptures say, and He did it “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).
And on the third day, He rose from the dead and is “alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18), showing His victory, for us, over sin and the devil and death.
All this is tremendously good news for all of us and for the world. And it is good news that needs to be shared. That is what Jesus is showing and teaching in our Gospel lesson.
When a Canaanite woman from the Gentile area came and asked Jesus for mercy for her and for her daughter, oppressed by a demon, an evil spirit, the disciples may have been thinking that she, a non-Jew, and a Canaanite, wasn’t worthy of Jesus’ time and attention. They didn’t want to be bothered by her, either, as they had, on other occasions, tried to chase away others, including little children, as if Jesus didn’t have time for them. The disciples said, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us” (Mark 10:13-16).
Jesus did not agree with the disciples. He could already see that the woman had some faith in Him. Three times she calls Him, “Lord.” (This same story is also recorded in Mark’s Gospel. And in Mark’s Gospel, this is the only time that any person calls Jesus “Lord,” as he really was and is.) The woman also called Jesus, “Son of David.” That was exactly right. Jesus was in the line of Abraham and of King David, and the term “Son of David” was a reference to Him as the promised Savior and Messiah.
How did this woman know these things? Mark’s Gospel tells us that people came from as far away as Tyre and Sidon to hear Jesus preach and do miracles in northern Israel (Mark 3:7-8). Maybe this woman was one of those who came and even saw Jesus cast out evil spirits. That was the help she especially wanted from Jesus for her daughter.
We know from other Scriptures that “faith comes from hearing the Word of God” (Romans 10:17), centered in Christ – for faith is a gift of God to us. And somehow, through the Word, the beginnings of faith were in her.
And Jesus always wanted to bring people to faith in Him or help their faith grow. That included that Canaanite woman, and His own disciples, who were watching what Jesus said and did.
But then Jesus did what seems like a very surprising thing. The woman cries out for mercy and help, and we hear, “Jesus did not answer her a word.” He is silent.
I suspect this has happened to all of us, at times. We pray very sincerely about something and think we are asking for the right things – and nothing happens. God seems to be silent.
We can get discouraged and give up and sometimes might even be tempted to give up on God.
Or this can be a way that God helps grow our faith, as we trust that, somehow, God is still working for our good.
And so we do what God says – to keep asking and seeking and knocking (Matthew 7:7), praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and calling upon God in the day of trouble (Psalm 50:15), trusting His ways, as God wishes.
That is what the Canaanite woman did, in faith. The Greek text indicates that she kept on crying and crying for help and mercy, trusting that Jesus would still somehow help her and her daughter.
Jesus finally speaks, but what He says does not sound so very helpful. He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
That was true, in the sense that the saving work, through His sacrifice on the cross, would happen within the land of Israel, according to prophecy and the plan of His heavenly Father. And then a primary responsibility was also to reach out to His fellow Jews with the Gospel.
For God still loved His original chosen Jewish people, in spite of their stubbornness and rebellion and current opposition to Jesus, as lost sheep. Jesus wanted as many of His fellow Jews to be saved, too. And there was only one way to salvation, for Jews or non-Jews – and that way was through Jesus. Jesus Himself said it so clearly, “I am the Way and the truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, Acts 4:11-12). Jews needed and still need Jesus as Savior, even as everyone in the world does.
The Canaanite woman then came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, help me.” She seems to understand that Jesus needed to help other lost sheep. But she prays, “As you help others, help me and my daughter, too.” And she asks in a humble way.
Again, Jesus speaks and seems to say something very harsh. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Since Jews often looked down on all non-Jews, they called them dogs – using a term that meant a wild, stray dog of the streets and the country – a dog that could be mean and vicious and harmful.
Jesus uses a word for a smaller dog that is a loved household pet and lives in the home, as part of the family. Jesus was really setting the Canaanite woman up for the next great statement she makes. He was using a proverbial statement, which means something like: “It is not right to take food our children need and starve them, so that we can feed dogs.”
The woman seems to understand where Jesus is leading her, and she quickly responds, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” In effect, she is saying, very humbly, “I know that I don’t deserve anything; but I do know that even a few crumbs of your mercy will be enough for me and my daughter.”
And Jesus said to her, right away, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
And remember, as one commentator, Franzmann, says about another parable of Jesus: This woman went home but only with the promise of Jesus in her pocket and a few words of His. But she went home in faith and found her daughter healed and the evil spirit gone. Crumbs from Jesus were enough.
How comforting and encouraging this story is for us, too. God’s promises are for us, too, though we don’t deserve them, and they often come in small, non-dramatic ways.
We’re talking about children today. They are part of this world that God so loved, and they are loved, too, in Christ.
Think about baptism of an infant. It doesn’t look like much – just a little bit of water sprinkled on a child and a few words said. It may seem like crumbs, and some churches say that’s all it is, just dedicating a child for something that might hopefully happen in the future.
That’s not what God says in His Word. In baptism God’s Holy Spirit is creating faith in a little child and bringing him or her into God’s kingdom, with an eternal future of blessings ahead. And the child does nothing but receive the blessings.
Then what you do as parents and as teachers is so important, when it is done in the name and love of Christ, and with the Word of God, as it is in a Lutheran setting, for children. It may seem like only crumbs added, day by day; but children grow and learn and God blesses.
That can be said of so much else in our lives, too. Holy Communion doesn’t look like much – a tiny bit of bread and a little wine, and yet Christ Himself is also coming to us with His real Presence to forgive our sins and strengthen our faith, again and again.
And even when we have times where troubles come and we think we have only crumbs left in our life, God’s crumbs, His blessings in Christ are enough to carry us through. I think of elderly people. They can’t hear and can’t see and read, and get confused. Yet God’s Word is planted in them, and crumbs are enough.
God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, and He died for all. We know Jesus and we trust Him and that’s enough for each one of us, through His Word.
Let us rise for prayer.
Now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep our hearts safe, in Christ our Savior (Philippians 4:7). Amen.
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Thursday Aug 24, 2023
Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered August 14, 2011
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
The Scripture readings this week make it clear that God’s love in Christ is for all people and not just limited to God’s Old Testament Jews. The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 56:1, 6-8. Earlier Scriptures seemed to say that non-Jews could only enter one limited part of the temple in Jerusalem. Now, though, God says through Isaiah that His house would be a “house of prayer for all people” and that “foreigners” (non-Jews, Gentiles) could also “be joyful in His house of prayer” and even their “sacrifices would be acceptable on His altar.” The Lord said, “I will gather yet others, besides those already gathered,” as My people. This was all fulfilled in Jesus, who said, in John 10:16, “I have other other sheep that not of this fold (of the Jews). I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” This would be the flock of all who trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The psalm is Psalm 67, predicting that “our gracious God” would make His “saving power known among all nations.” Then, “all the peoples could praise Him.” “His way may be known on earth” and “all the ends of the earth could fear Him” and love and trust Him, as “He makes His face shines upon us.” Again, this happened through Jesus and His saving sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the whole world, and His call to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19-20).
The Gospel lesson is from Matthew 15:21-28. (John the Baptist had been killed; religious leaders had come from Jerusalem to attack and argue with Jesus; and He then “withdrew” to where He rarely went, outside of Israel, “to the district of Tyre and Sidon.”) There, a Canaanite woman asks for His mercy and help in freeing her daughter from a demon. Jews normally hated Canaanites, as they hated Samaritans and many other non-Jews. Jesus’ disciples wanted to get rid of the woman, and Jesus ignores her and then seems to treat her badly. He is actually growing the “great” gift of faith in her, until she is willing to have just a few “crumbs” of His mercy and that would be enough. Jesus’ mercy is always enough, and her daughter is healed instantly by Him.
The Good News of Jesus as Savior is now to go to the whole world. “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). In the Epistle Lesson, Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15,28-32, Paul also reminds, though, that God still loves His Old Testament people of Israel, and wishes salvation for them, as well. He says, “At the present time there is a remnant (of the Jews), chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:5-6). Paul himself is one of those “Israelites, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin” and brought to faith through the risen Lord Jesus Himself. Paul knows that he has been called especially to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and he “magnifies his ministry,” in hope that his fellow Jews would notice and that “some of them also might be saved.” All people, including Jews are in “disobedience” on their own, and need to “receive God’s mercy” and “life from the dead,” which comes now only through faith in Jesus as their Savior.
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Last week, we looked at part of the initial vision that the apostle John received, as recorded in Revelation 1:10-18. It was a vision of the risen, ascended Lord Jesus Christ, in glory in heaven. It had many similarities with the vision given to Daniel, in Daniel 7:13-14, predicting the glorious return of Jesus to His Father after completing His saving work on earth. His appearance is much like that of the Ancient of Days, the Father, pictured in Daniel 7:9-10. This shows His oneness with God the Father and reflects the idea of the Trinity, which becomes clearer and clearer in the New Testament.
Note also that the risen Christ has “eyes like a flame of fire” and “feet like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace,” and “a voice like the roar of many waters.” This sounds somewhat like the heavenly figure that Daniel sees in Daniel 10:5-6, too. This seems to be an angelic figure, who is fighting evil along with Michael the archangel, and some think, along with God the Son, too, before He took on human flesh to do His saving work on earth. The angelic figure had a face that had the appearance of lightning (Daniel 10:6). The risen, glorified Lord Jesus in heaven has a face “like the sun shining in full strength” (Revelation 1:16).
God the Son, of course, had that glory from all eternity, but “emptied Himself,” and became a humble human man (Philippians 2:5-8) in order to do His saving work for us. He was still God, as well, but sinful people on earth only saw tiny glimpses of His full glory, as on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2). They could not survive, seeing His full glory on earth. Notice how Peter, James, and John fell with their faces to the ground (Matthew 17:6); and even John in the vision did the same (Revelation 1:17). Think about how dangerous it would be for you to stare at the sun, even though it is so far, far away.
A predominant color in these visions and in Revelation 1 and other places in Revelation is the color “white.” “White” symbolizes purity and holiness. (See Isaiah 1:16,18.) Notice how many times in the New Testament Jesus is called “the Holy One” or “the Holy One of God.” See, for example, Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34, Acts 2:27, Acts 3:14, Acts 13:35, (Psalm 16:10), and Hebrews 7:26. We have already heard that Jesus “has freed us from our sins by His (cleansing) blood” (Revelation 1:5). We also know that Jesus needed to be without sin all His life, in order to be a perfect substitute for us, in life and in death (Hebrews 4:15).
John also saw in his vision that from the mouth of Jesus came “a sharp two-edged sword.” Other Scripture tell us that the primary tool that God uses with us is His Word, and the same image is used a number of times. The “Servant of God” in Isaiah is clearly a prediction of Jesus our Savior, and the Servant says, “He (the Lord) made My mouth like a sharp sword” (Isaiah 49:2). Paul reminds us of “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). The writer to the Hebrews said, “The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
“Through the Law (of God) comes knowledge of sin.” The Law exposes us as who we really are: poor, miserable sinners, compared with the Holy Lord (Romans 3:19-20, Hebrews 4:13). “The Gospel,” in contrast, “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Romans 1:16-17). There is our hope, and even our faith is a gift, given and worked by God through His Word.
The risen, living Lord Jesus then touched John with His right hand, representing His power and compassion for him, and said, “Fear not.” (You can stop being afraid, John) (Revelation 1:17). Then we hear nothing more about John in this first vision, other than that he was to write down what he had seen, about both present and future things (Revelation 1:19). The important One, in this vision and throughout the Book of Revelation, is not John but the Lord Jesus.
He is the living one, who died for us, but is risen and “alive forevermore.” He is also “the living one,” the essence of what true life really is all about. Other so-called gods and goddesses are dead, not alive, but the Lord Jesus is “the living one,” one with God the Father of the Old Testament of whom it is said, “The living God is among you,” as the Israelites entered the Promised Land (Joshua 3:10). The Psalmist wrote, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God… My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (Psalm 42:2 and 84:2).
This is the one True God: God the Father, “the Living God,” and God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the “living one,” and as we shall see in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, God the Holy Spirit, as well, who also inspires and works through the same “Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:2 and 2:7). “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
This same One true God also has the keys of Death and Hades (which can also mean “Hell”). The Lord had asked Job long before, in the Old Testament, “Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness (Job 38:17)? Job did not know just how the Lord God could deal with death and deep darkness, but by faith he knew that God could take care of all this. By God’s power, he had prophesied about Jesus, the coming Savior, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself” (Job 19:25-27).
The New Testament, then, tells us that Peter said to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:15-16). (Note again the connection Peter makes between Jesus, the living one, and God the Father, the living God, that was already talked about in the previous paragraph.) Jesus said right away that “Peter was blessed, because flesh and blood had not revealed this connection to him.” He had not figured this out by his own power and wisdom, and no other human being had told him this.
This was revealed to him by God the Father, who is in heaven (Matthew 16:17). It was on this Rock, not Peter but the confession and belief that Jesus was the Promised Savior, on which the church would be built (Matthew 16:18). Jesus Himself said it, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Paul also wrote, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).
Christ, whose saving work gives us the gift of forgiveness and new life, is the key to eternal life. Jesus then gave to Peter and to the other disciples and the church the “Office of the Keys,” where the church can declare God’s forgiveness of sins to people and withhold forgiveness when people are not repentant and/or persist in unbelief (Matthew 16:19, 18:15-18, and John 20:21-23). What God always wants to do, of course, is to forgive sins. That is why Christ died for us all. People can resist and reject Christ and that forgiveness, though.
There is still more in Revelation 1, but we will stop for today. Next week, we will hopefully finish Chapter 1 and get into the specific letters to churches. The Lord’s continued blessings. May the Lord help you to be confident in Christ and His love for you always.
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Sermon for 11th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered August 7, 2011
Sunday Aug 06, 2023
Sunday Aug 06, 2023
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 18:1-6 (7-16). If you look at 2 Samuel 22, you will find the original context of this poetic psalm and almost the exact same words, when David spoke these words to the Lord in thanksgiving “that He had delivered him from all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” David uses word after word to describe how the Lord was his Shield and Deliverer. When he was surrounded by death and the torrents of destruction, David cried for help, and the Lord heard his voice. A great, great storm is described and then from on high, the Lord “took David and drew him safely out of many waters.”
The Old Testament lesson is from Job 38:4-18. Job, in his many troubles, has been challenging God and His ways and will. Finally, God asks Job a series of questions, also in a poetic way, wondering where Job was when He created the earth, or if Job ever commanded the morning into being. Did Job set the dimensions of the sea or ever walk in the recesses of the depths of the sea? Could Job comprehend how great the expanse of the earth really was? Declare it, if you know all this, God says. After this goes on and on, Job finally has to admit, “Now my eyes have seen you; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
These readings lead up to Jesus, in the Gospel lesson, Matthew 14:22-33, going off to pray by himself and then coming to the disciples, walking on the water of the stormy Sea of Galilee. The disciples think “it is a ghost” that they see, until Jesus assures them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Impetuous Peter wants to walk on the water, too, and Jesus tells him to come. Peter walks on the water, but soon fears and doubts and sinks. Jesus immediately rescues him, but speaks of his “little faith.” As soon as they get in the boat, the stormy wind ceases, and the disciples worship and say of Jesus, “truly You are the Son of God.” (As God the Son helped create the natural world and has control of it, and drew David out of many stormy situations, He could also walk on water and rescue Peter
and the other disciples. He can help us, too, with our doubts and fears, as we are much like Peter, at times. He is the One who has saved us, too.)
How does God both create faith and strengthen it in us, too? Paul tells us, in our Epistle lesson, Romans 10:5-17. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” That Word is “the Word of faith that we proclaim,” Paul says. It is not based on what we do, in obedience to God’s law, but through trust in what Christ has done for us. “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” The Lord brings us to that faith through the Word of God, the Scriptures, and our baptism and then “bestows His riches upon us” as we keep calling upon Him in prayer for His help and forgiveness and keep hearing and speaking more and more of His Word, in our mouths and our hearts.
Sunday Aug 06, 2023
Sunday Aug 06, 2023
As we heard last week, John makes it clear that he is writing a message from the one true Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that this message centers especially in the saving work of God the Son, Jesus Christ, already accomplished, and His promise to come again in glory.
John received a number of visions from the Lord God, and the first he reveals is in Revelation 1:9-3:22, the focus of this study. In 1:9, John identifies himself as the one who received this vision and the others, as he had done in 1:4. and does again in 22:8. He speaks in the same way as Daniel did, several times, in his Old Testament book: “I, Daniel.” (See Daniel 9:2, 7:15, and 8:1.)
John identifies himself, with the people in the seven churches to whom he writes (1:11), calling himself their “brother and partner” (one who has fellowship with them) because of their faith together in “the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1:9). Through Jesus, they share in the “Kingdom” of God (1:6), but being in this Kingdom in this sinful world also means that they share in “tribulation” (trouble and pressure that can lead to persecution) and in the need for “patient endurance” in the strength of Jesus (1:9). (The Roman historian, Pliny, identified this same island of Patmos, mentioned in 1:9, as a place of exile for people in trouble with the Roman authorities. Some were required to work in mines there, though we don’t hear that said specifically of John. It was certainly a place of “tribulation” and the need for “patient endurance” for him, too.)
John says, in 1:10, that he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” That John was “in the Spirit” means that he was being inspired and led by the Holy Spirit in what he wrote, as were the other Biblical writers.(See the same phrase used of David’s writing, quoted in Matthew 22:43.) The “Lord’s day” refers to Sunday. Christ had made Sunday His special day, as He rose from the dead on that day and sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, also a Sunday. Christians soon began to worship together on Sunday, “on the first day of the week,” though there was no requirement to do so. (See Acts 20:7, for example.)
The commentator, Lenski, mentions this and says Revelation 1-3 could be summarized as “John sees Christ.” Lenski also suggests that John, sitting in exile, must have greatly missed being able to worship regularly with the fellow believers in the churches he was the leader of for so many years. (Think about “shut-ins” in our own churches today. How hard it must be for them, too, not to be able to get out to worship as they used to do. Pray for them and send them a note of encouragement or visit them, once in a while, if it is possible.)
John first hears a voice behind him, in his vision - a voice “great and loud, like a trumpet” - commanding him “to write what he sees in a book and send it to the seven churches” (1:10-11). (We will talk more about the specific churches when we get to Chapters 2 and 3.) John turned to see who was speaking, and he saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of them, “One like a Son of Man, with a long robe, down to His feet, and a golden sash around his chest.”
This term “son of man” was used often of Ezekiel in the Old Testament, as a prophet, but it is used much more often by Jesus, referring to Himself, in the New Testament, and reflecting what was said in prophecy of another “Son of Man” in Daniel 7:13-14 in the Old Testament. This Son of Man was presented to “the Ancient of Days,” God the Father, and He “was given dominion and glory and an everlasting Kingdom” in which “all kinds of people and languages and nations would serve Him.” This is almost exactly what John said of the risen, victorious Lord Jesus in Revelation 1:5-6. John was seeing in his vision the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man, as well as the Son of God, in glory in heaven.
In what John sees in this vision, Jesus now looks much like “the Ancient of Days,” God the Father, as described in Daniel 7:9, who had “clothing white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool, and fiery flames all around Him.” Compare this description with what is said of the “Son of Man” in Revelation 1:14. That it is Jesus in glory, like His Father, is confirmed in Revelation 1:17-18, where this “Son of Man” speaks and says, “I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I died , and behold, I am alive forevermore.”
There is much more in Revelation chapter one, but we will stop at this point, before this gets too long. Keep reading and be thinking about why God would give this vision to John, for his sake, and to be relayed to the churches, at this particular time. Notice also how Jesus in glory explains the true meaning of at least some of what John sees. What does this tell us about how we should read what is said in Revelation? The Lord’s continued blessings!
Sunday Aug 06, 2023
Sunday Aug 06, 2023
Sermon for 10th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 31, 2011
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 136:1-9 (23-26). The psalmist calls upon people to “give thanks to the Lord,” who alone is Lord and God. He is the Creator of heaven and earth and all things. Above all, “His steadfast love endures forever,” as every verse of the psalm says. He remembers people in their “lowly” situations in life and “rescues” them and even provides “food for all flesh.”
In the Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 55:1-5, the Lord calls everyone who is hungry and thirsty to come to Him for the spiritual food He provides. What we ourselves can do and buy will never “satisfy” us. The Lord’s gifts are gifts of grace, given “without money and without price,” as we “incline our ears” and “come to hear” and “listen diligently to Him.” In Him “our souls will live,” in His “steadfast, sure love.” Even “unknown nations” will be called and come to Him, through “the Holy One of Israel,” the Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Gospel lesson, Matthew 14:13-21, we see “a great crowd” of people coming to Jesus to hear Him and receive His gifts. He has “compassion” upon the people and helps them and even provides bread and fish in a miraculous way, free to all, so that “all ate and were satisfied” - “about five thousand men, besides women and children.”
In the Epistle lesson, Romans 9:1-5, Paul has “great sorrow” and “anguish” that many of his own people, the Israelites chosen by God in the Old Testament, were rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, “the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.” Paul almost wishes that he “could be cut off from Christ” if that would somehow help more of his fellow Jews come to faith. He knows, of course, that that would do no good. His people had so many blessings that he lists in this passage; but so sadly, they were not listening to “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5). (See also John 18:37, where Jesus tells Pilate, the Roman governor, “For this purpose I have come into the world - to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” Pilate cynically rejected Jesus, too, saying, “What is truth?” Yet Jesus died for that truth and to pay for our sins and the sins of the world, including Pilate and Paul and his fellow Jews.) “It is not as though the Word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.”