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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Last week, we looked at an introduction to the Book of Revelation, written down by the Apostle John while he was on the island of Patmos, exiled by Roman authorities (Revelation 1:9). This was the “revelation of Jesus Christ” to be sent to seven churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey, Revelation 1:5); and blessings would come to those who read aloud this Word of God and to those who heard that Word and sought to keep it and follow it (Revelation 1:1-3). Blessings will still come to us today as we hear and read that Word, as we are doing now.
The word “revelation” (apokalupsis) in v.1 is important. It means the revealing or disclosure of hidden things and sometimes, but not always, refers to things in “the last times.” We find this “apocalyptic” writing in the Old Testament in places like Isaiah 24-27, Zechariah 9-14, Ezekiel, Joel, and Daniel, and now in Revelation, as well. This writing used many symbols and picture images and things like numbers and colors and stars, which had special meanings.
The Book of Revelation often reflects some of these Old Testament passages and has more allusions to the Old Testament than any other New Testament writing. (That is part of what makes Revelation more difficult for us to read, because we are often not so familiar with the Old Testament. These images tie the Old and New Testaments together, though, showing the fullness of God’s revelation, predicted in the Old Testament and revealed and fulfilled in the New Testament, especially in Jesus our Savior.)
Here is one example. The number “seven” represents “fullness and completion.” The word “blessed “ is used in Revelation in Chapter 1:3 and then six other times scattered throughout Revelation, ending in Revelation 22:7,14. The seven “blesseds” represent all the fullness of God’s blessings. John is directed to write to seven real churches in one area (Revelation 1:11), with specific messages for each. These seven really represent all churches, and as we listen, we can all learn from what is said to each of these churches. God created the world in 6 days and rested on the seventh, a perfect, complete week (Genesis 2:2). Peter asks Jesus if he should forgive people up to seven times. That sounds like a complete enough number for forgiving. Jesus tells him to forgive 70 times 7 times - an uncountable number of times (Matthew 18:21-22). We could go on and on with this. This does not mean that numbers are not real, but they often represent something more.
In Revelation 1:4, then, John begins to reveal what has been shown to him and who revealed it - the one true Triune God, who wants to bring “grace and peace” to the churches and to all of us. There is He, “who is and who was and who is to come,” God the Father, who has always existed, present and past and future. (See also Exodus 3:14 and John 8:58 and Revelation 1:8.) There is also God the Holy Spirit, who is pictured here as seven Spirits, going to each of the seven churches to whom this original letter went. (See also Isaiah 11:2. The Spirit is one Spirit, but He will go to all these churches. There is also God the Son, Jesus Christ, “the Faithful Witness” to all of God’s plans, who lived them out for us (Revelation 1:5, John 18:37). Jesus is also “the Firstborn of the dead.” He died for us, but was also raised for us, that we too might have new and eternal life. Jesus also is “the Ruler of kings,” “the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16 and Matthew 28:18).
Since Jesus is at the center of God’s saving plan, even more is said of Him. “He loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.” In His love for us, Jesus, as a true man, as well as God the Son, was willing to be sacrificed on the cross, shedding His blood in payment for our sins, that we might be freed from their condemnation (Romans 8:1). Through Jesus we become part of God’s kingdom and priests to our God and Father (Revelation 1:6). This is what is described in 1 Peter 2:9-10. All those who trust in Christ as Savior become part of the New Israel, the new people of God. We cannot all be pastors or teachers, but we can serve the Lord and “proclaim the greatness of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” We can also say: “To Christ be glory and dominion forever!”
For, as Revelation 1:7 says, Christ “will come again with the clouds, and every eye will see Him.” As believers, we can rejoice with great joy when Jesus comes again (Luke 21:27-28 and Hebrews 9:26-28). We are prepared by trusting Christ, but others who have rejected the Lord will mourn and have great sorrow at the salvation they have lost. (See also John 19:37.) “Amen.” This is most certainly true. This will really happen. The time to trust in Christ in now, before He returns and it is too late.
The Lord God also says that he is “the Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 1:8). These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. This is another way of saying that God is eternal. He is the beginning and the end of all things. He has always existed and always will, as v.4 also said. (Notice that the same words are used by God the Son, Jesus, about Himself in Revelation 22:13. This is true of each Person of the Trinity and by the Trinity as One True God.)
We will stop here for today. If you have time, read Revelation 1:9-20. Notice the unusual words and descriptions. These are part of the “apocalyptic” way of speaking that we find here and then in the letters to the churches in Chapters two and three, at times, too. The Lord’s blessings on your week.
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Sermon for 9th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 24, 2011
Monday Jul 24, 2023
Monday Jul 24, 2023
In the Old Testament lesson this week, Deuteronomy 7:6-9, God speaks of His great love for His “chosen” people, His “treasured possession” out of all nations. They are His, not because they are “greater in numbers” or (if you read the next few chapters of Deuteronomy) for a variety of other qualities within themselves. God is faithful to them because He loves them and has redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and will keep His “oath” and “covenant” and promises. It is purely by His grace, His undeserved “steadfast love” that they are His.
The psalm, Psalm 125, says much the same thing. As “mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His (chosen) people” who “trust” in Him. They “cannot be moved.” The Lord wishes that “peace be upon Israel.” However, there is the warning that “those who turn aside,” away from the Lord, “to their own crooked ways” - those people “the Lord will lead away with evildoers!” Those people would be “stretching out their hands to do wrong.” It is the same kind of warning given right after the Old Testament lesson, in Deuteronomy 7:10. The Lord “repays to their face those who hate Him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates Him.”
In the Gospel lesson, Matthew 13:44-53, Jesus tells parables of “a treasure hidden in a field” and “a pearl of great price.” These treasures represent the Lord Himself and His blessings coming through Jesus and His saving work, by which people are now redeemed and forgiven and counted “good and righteous” and brought to trust in Him as Lord, above everything else. Such believers are “trained” by the promises of the Old Testament and the fulfillment in Christ of the New Testament. They will enter “the Kingdom of heaven,” through His love, unlike those who reject the Lord and His Word and end up “in the fiery furnace,” in hell, where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
In the Epistle lesson, Romans 8:28-39, Paul reminds us again that our future hope is not in ourselves but only in God and His love for us, as He works for our good, now and forever. He knew us from eternity and “called” us to be His own through His Word and baptism, and “justified” us by His grace in Christ, and will one day bring us to “glory” in eternal life. “If the Father “did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all,” and the Son willingly came to make such a sacrifice for us, simply in His “love” for us sinners, and the Spirit prays for and strengthens us, what is there that can separate us from that continuing love? Nothing can, whatever we face in this life, as we keep hanging onto “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Monday Jul 24, 2023
Monday Jul 24, 2023
The last few weeks, we have been hearing Jesus telling parables in Matthew 13 and then saying several times, “He who has ears, let him hear.” Jesus also said, “How blessed are your ears, for they hear,” in contrast with others who who are “hearing but they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
This made me think of the last book of the Bible, the Revelation to the Apostle John, including letters to be sent to seven churches in Asia Minor (not in modern day Asia, but in what is now the country of Turkey). In each of these seven letters, we hear the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
In our Epistle lessons the last few weeks, we have also been hearing about the Holy Spirit and His importance in bringing us to faith in Christ and keeping us in that faith. We and our churches today still need to hear the Spirit’s guidance for our churches through God’s Word, and we have many problems and concerns that are similar to those described by John in Revelation. That is what we will look at in our study in the coming weeks. The actual letters are in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, but we will begin with Chapter 1, which will help us better understand what follows.
Here is a brief introduction. The Book of Revelation was likely the last of the books of the Bible to be written, in 95 AD, or at the latest, 96 AD. The early Christian leader, Irenaeus, tells us that John wrote this letter near the end of the reign of Domitian as Emperor of the Roman Empire, from 81-96 AD. Domitian strongly emphasized worship of the Emperor as a God and brought on widespread persecution of anyone who refused to worship Domitian in that way. That created serious problems for Christians, who would only worship the one true Triune God, saying that Jesus is Lord and God, to the glory of God the Father, in connection with God the Holy Spirit. (See Philippians 2:1, 5-11.
John, the author of Revelation, was one of the original disciples of Jesus and became the leader of the church in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, for many years. He wrote the Gospel of John and the 3 Letters of John that we have in the New Testament. As persecution of Christians increased, under Domitian and others, John was exiled to the island of Patmos, in the Mediterranean Sea. (See Revelation 1:9.) This was done by the Romans in the hope that leaving the church in Ephesus without its key leader would weaken the Christians in Ephesus and in all of Asia Minor. Maybe then these Christians would feel the pressure and worship the Emperor as a God, as Domitian wanted them to do. This would settle down these Christian rebels and bring more unity to the Roman Empire.
John, however, knew the prediction of Jesus that he would not die in the same way as Peter and the other original disciples did. (Tradition says that they all died as martyrs while sharing the Christian faith, other than John. See what John tells about Peter and him in John 21:17-24.) John could not travel to visit his old church and others, because of his “exile,” but he could write to them. Read Revelation 1:1-3.
John says that Jesus sent a revelation and prophecy from God to him through an angel, and John was to write down what he saw and heard from Jesus and send it to the seven churches in Asia Minor (Revelation 1:4). What John wrote was not his own word, but “the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ;” and he was to write down “all that he saw” (v. 2).
Verse 3 then promises: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” (Remember that at that time, many people could not read, and there were very few “books” available. Most all of them were scrolls, and copies could only be made, very carefully by trained scribes, trained writers. Most people listened to what others read to them.)
What a privilege it is for us to have a Bible we can all read and study on our own, today. As we will see, what John wrote by the revelation of Jesus, and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was not just for those ancient churches, but for us and our churches still today. Take time, if you can, to read through Revelation 1, for next week. Notice the unusual language and picture images as the chapter goes on; yet remember, “Blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written” (Revelation 1:3). “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9, 43).
Sunday Jul 23, 2023
Sunday Jul 23, 2023
Sermon for 8th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 17, 2011
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
I have often told people that I first could see for myself how valuable learning Greek could be when I studied Acts 2:24 in Greek. Speaking of Jesus, Peter said, “God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” The Greek word for “pangs” most literally means “birthpangs.” Jesus’ terrible suffering and agony and pain (pangs) were like “birthpangs of death” out of which would come life - His resurrection from the dead, and new and eternal life for us who are brought to trust in Him as our Savior.
Death comes as a result of sin (Romans 6:23), and dying can often be a long and terrible and painful experience. For believers, though, it is also transformed into the gateway to eternal life. The “pangs of death” are more like “birthpangs” leading to the peace and joy of being with our Lord forever in heaven. Jesus said, “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” What comforting words of hope we have from the Lord, even in difficult days and even “in the valley of the shadow of (the birthpangs of) death” (Psalm 23:4). We will try to “fear no evil,” for the risen, living Lord has been through that valley for us and will be with us, too, and will comfort us and our loved ones and be the Door to eternal life for us.
Paul used the same basic word and concept in Romans 8:20-23, when he said that “the whole creation was subjected to futility” by the fall of Adam and Eve into sin and is in “bondage to corruption,” too. (Remember the description in Genesis 3:16-19 after the fall, including the thorns and thistles and pain in childbirth uniquely for women. Husbands can be there during labor and try to be helpful, but don’t always do so well in support! This original meaning of “birthpangs” is real and vitally important as a part of the birth of a child and will continue until Christ’s return, also.)
In the New Testament, though, “birthpangs” take on these additional picture image meanings. As a result of the fall, Paul says, “the whole creation has (also) been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Paul adds, “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly, as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:22-24). We are already “children of God," adopted” through Christ and heirs of God’s promises to us. Our souls and the souls of all believers will be with Christ when physical death comes, but our bodies will wait to be raised and changed and glorified on the last day, when Christ returns. All this is certain for us, in Christ, just as God planned.
What happens with the rest of creation is not so clear. Jesus Himself said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Words will not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). Peter, in 2 Peter 3:12, speaks of the destruction of “the heavens” and “the heavenly bodies” by fire, but also, in v.13, “according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
Mentions of such are also in Isaiah 66:22 and Revelation 21:1ff and in other parts of Revelation which seem to have highly symbolic language. Some commentators, like Franzmann, suggest that the New Testament writers do not really attempt to explain fully what the new eternal existence will be like. They talk more about what will not be there - no sea, no sun and moon, no evil, and above all, God “will wipe every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more. neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And He who is seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:4-5).
In God’s amazing plans, there will be some continuity between our human bodies as they are now and as they are raised and changed and glorified on the last day. It will truly be us and our loved ones in Christ in heaven. Maybe, some think, Paul is saying in Romans 8:18-22 that there can be some continuity between the old creation and the new in which we will live in heaven and eternal life, too. We do not know, but God will work all things out in just the right way, in His wisdom as God (Romans 8:28). (See also Ephesians 1:10 and Colossians 1:20.)
In the meantime, we still suffer and struggle in this life, even as believers, and even though we also have much joy and blessing and eternal hope. Jesus Himself used the imagery of birthpangs in talking about “signs” of the times that will remind us that His return, and the end of existence as we now know it, is coming. See Matthew 24:8 and Mark 13:8, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:4-8). (If you read on through v.9-12, you can see why some think we are in the very last times.)
We know, however, that God is still in control, and he will care for us, in life and in death. The Holy Spirit is with us and will pray with and for us, as will Christ our Savior (Romans 8:26-27 and 34ff). The image of “birth pains” reminds us that something so much better is coming for us, in eternal life, no matter what today or tomorrow brings. “The one who endures to the end (in faith in Christ) will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Paul also reminds us, “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
As we wait for Christ’s return, in our death or on the last day, we still have important work to do, with and for our Lord. Jesus also said, “This Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). We can help with that testimony right where we are and as we pray for and support mission work wherever we can. There are still so many people without faith and unprepared for Christ’s return. As Paul wrote, including the image of “birthpangs,” “you yourselves are fully aware that the day of he Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).
Paul used this image of “birth pains" one more time, too, when He wrote to the church at Galatia. Paul had been there, and people came to faith through the Gospel of Jesus and baptism. Then, false teachers came in and were leading people astray, away from Christ as Savior. Paul writes and witness to these people again, including those who seemed to have lost the faith. He calls them “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish (birthpangs) of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19). Obviously, only the Lord can finally bring people to faith or renew their faith by His grace, but how challenging and wonderful to help even a little with others who still need to know the hope and joy we have in our Savior, even in very difficult times.
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
The Scriptures this week emphasize that our Lord is the only True God, and that though we face many problems and troubles in this life, He will care for us and will finally take us to everlasting life and peace. The certainty of this is stressed in the Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 44:6-8. Our “Lord” is our “King” and our “Redeemer,” and “there is no god besides Him.” He is “the First” and “the Last.” He has always existed and always will. He is always our Rock, and we need not fear. We can be witnesses to His faithfulness, as His people.
In Psalm 119:57-64, the psalmist says that “the Lord is his portion.” He trusts that the Lord will be gracious and keep His promise to him, given in His Words, even though “the cords of the wicked” may “ensnare” him, at times. He will “turn to the Lord’s testimonies” and “be a companion of all who fear the Lord” and praise Him and “His steadfast love,” in worship.
In the Gospel lesson, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, Jesus tells the parable of weeds sown by an enemy among wheat in a field. The field is the world, and in it are “sons of the Kingdom” and “son of the evil one.” For the sake of not endangering God’s people, the evil will not be “rooted out” until “the harvest,” “the end of the age,” by the angels of the Lord. That day will come. The evil those who follow the devil, will be “thrown into a fiery furnace” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The righteous, who trust in Christ, “will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father." Again, Jesus says, “He who has ears, let him keep on hearing” the “Word of the Lord.”
Paul reminds us in the Epistle lesson, Romans 8:18-27, that “in this eternal hope we were saved” already by what Christ has done for us and by “the Spirit” who has brought us to faith in Christ. We already have “the firstfruits of the Spirit” and great hope, but we “groan inwardly” because of “the sufferings of this present time,” as we live as “unsaintly saints” (Martin Franzmann’s words) in an evil world, with a “corrupt creation.” Our sufferings, bad as they sometimes are, “are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” in eternal life. We ”wait patiently” for our future in heaven and are grateful that the Spirit prays (intercedes) with us and for us when we, in our human weakness, do not know what to pray for. We “wait eagerly” for the redemption of our souls when we die and for “the redemption of our bodies,” too, when Christ returns on the last day. (See this week’s Bible study for more about this and “the pains of childbirth” that we and the creation are “until now” going through.)
Wednesday Jul 12, 2023
Wednesday Jul 12, 2023
The Scriptures this week tell us that the Lord will provide for the growth of His Kingdom and for our own spiritual growth, as well.
The psalm is Psalm 65:(1-8) 9-13. The psalmist, David, knows that “praise is due to God” for the “goodness” we receive in His “house,” His “temple.” This is good news, the Word of “righteousness” and “salvation” and “hope” for “all the ends of the earth.” It is pictured as a bountiful harvest, when the Lord has provided abundant “water” and good “earth” and “enriched” it and “blessed its growth.” The Lord “crowns the year with His bounty, and the creation “shouts and sings together for joy.”
The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 55:9-13. God inspired Isaiah to use images from the natural world, as David did in the psalm. The “heavens” are high above the “earth.” God’s “ways and thoughts”. are high above our own, too. As the rain and snow come down to water the earth and help cause things to grow, so God’s Word is sent down from His mouth and accomplishes what He wishes. “It will not return empty and void.” The creation sings and claps its hands in praise of the “name of the Lord” and the “everlasting sign” of His providing care.
In the Gospel lesson, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, Jesus Himself tells a parable of seed being sown and then explains it to His disciples. The seed sown is the Word of God’s kingdom. Some hear it but don’t understand, and “the evil one” snatches it away. Others hear and “receive the Word with joy,” but only for a time, and then “fall away” when trouble and persecution come on account of that Word. Still others hear the Word, but “the cares of the world” and the “deceitfulness of riches” act like thorns that choke out the Word. Some people do hear and understand the Word and bear much fruit of various amounts, though, by the grace of God, as He promises. The problem is not with the seed, the Word of God, but with the soil, Satan’s work and a sin-filled world with many temptations to resist the Word and people’s trouble with hearing and understanding the Word. Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” How is our hearing of the Word and the hope we have only in Jesus?
The Epistle lesson is from Romans 8:12-17. Paul emphasizes, in this reading and throughout Romans 8, the importance of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to faith in Christ and keeping us in that faith. The Spirit works through the Word of God (and the gift of baptism) to do this. He gives us “life” in Christ and make us “adopted children of God” and “heirs of eternal life.” We can cry out to our Heavenly Father, “Abba, Father,” as His beloved children. We still face times of “suffering” for our faith and temptations from the devil, the sinful world, and our own “sinful flesh; but the Spirit who dwells in us,” (Romans 8:11), along with Christ, will strengthen and protect us through the Word and the Sacraments, Baptism and Communion, connected with that Word.
Wednesday Jul 12, 2023
Wednesday Jul 12, 2023
Psalm 65 is a great psalm of praise to God for all kinds of blessings that He provides. David is the author, and in the introduction, he directs this psalm to “the choirmaster” as a “song” that is to be sung. David knows that “praise is due to be given to God” and that “vows” of thanksgiving and commitment should be made and carried out (“performed”) before the Lord (Psalm 65:1.
First of all, God hears our prayers and does respond to them (v.2). Amazingly, even “when iniquities (times of sin) had prevailed against” David in his life and “overpowered“ him, and David prayed and confessed His sin, the Lord atoned for his transgressions and for the wrongdoing of other repentant people (v.3). This is the greatest gift of God, David knew, - the forgiveness of sins. (There are other complicated words for this forgiveness from God - atonement, propitiation, expiation, etc. - which indicate that God forgave sins in light of what His own Son, Jesus, would eventually do on the cross, in a sacrificial payment for the sins of the whole world, including David’s and ours. See New Testament passages like Hebrews 2:17 and Romans 3:23-25 and 1 John 2:1-2 and 4:10.)
Without that forgiveness, what a great burden of guilt people are under. See what David says in Psalm 32:1-5 and how wonderful forgiveness was for him in Psalm 32:10. David also knew that he had not chosen God, but that he was one whom “God had chosen and brought near” to Him and allowed him to be “in His courts,” in “His house,” and to receive His “goodness and holiness” (Psalm 65:4).
Jesus says the same thing about His disciples and about us in the New Testament. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” “Already you are clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…. For apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:3-5,16).
David also trusted that God would answer his prayers with “awesome deeds” bringing “righteousness” and “salvation.” In God was his hope. As in other psalms, David was also prophesying of how God would be “the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,” too, through the coming of His Son, Jesus, as Savior of all (Psalm 65:5). The Lord was the “mighty” God, the one true God, “who by His strength established the mountains” and all the rest of creation (Psalm 65:6). He cared about what He had made, including “the tumult of the peoples” in a troubled, sinful world - “even those who dwell at the ends of the earth.”
Through David and the children of Israel, God would provide “awesome signs” and prophecies of hope for all peoples, culminating in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and His saving work (Psalm 65:8). See how Jesus could “still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves” (Psalm 65:7 and Matthew 8:24-27 and Mark 4:36-41). “Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ’Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they (the disciples) said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”
Jesus was and is God who became man to do His saving work, as David and so many others predicted, not just for Israel, but for the whole world. He did “atone for all our transgressions” by His suffering and death in our place, and His mighty resurrection (Psalm 65:3). Jesus also sowed the seed of God’s Word and sent out His disciples to share that Word, as well, so that more and more people could come to faith in Him and be saved by His grace and be ready for His return on the last day. That day will come. Jesus Himself predicted “signs of that time” including “the roaring of the seas and the waves.” Jesus, the Son of God, will come with power and great glory and settle it all. He said, “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing nigh” (Luke 21:25-28 and Psalm 65:7).
Go back now to Psalm 65:8-13. David looks around and marvels again at God’s good creation, in spite of the troubles and sorrows all around. He sees joy in morning and evening and in the days going by (Psalm 65:8). He sees that God does care and “visits the earth” with “water” and “grain” and “growth” and “abundance,” even though people often do not appreciate His gifts (Psalm 65:9-10). Jesus Himself said, “Your Father in heaven makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
God often “crowns the year with His bounty,” though we do not deserve it (Psalm 65:11). When we are out in the natural world on a nice summer day, we marvel at the overflowing beauty and majesty of “pastures of the wilderness” and “hills” and “meadows” and “valleys.” We can sense the picture image of the creation “shouting and singing together for joy” to the Lord (Psalm 65:12-13). Again, Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them…. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:26-29). We, too, get so busy with our lives that we miss the beauty and blessing that God provides all around us.
One more thought. In our Old Testament lesson for this coming Sunday, Isaiah 55:9-13, God leads Isaiah to use some of the same imagery as David - rain watering the earth and plants sprouting and growing and “giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”
In the same way, God says, His Word will come down from His mouth and accomplish what He wishes, bringing “joy” and “peace” and “an everlasting sign” of hope for us and our world (Isaiah 55:11-13).
That was the greatest way that “God visited the earth” (Psalm 65:9), with the gift of His Son, the Word become flesh in Jesus our Savior and His Word and work for us. (See John 1:14 and the prophecy of John the Baptist preparing the way for the “visit from on high” of Jesus (Luke 1:76-79).) That’s what makes continued study of God’s Word and the Good news of Christ so important for us all. That Word from God shall never “return to God empty or void,” but will always be a blessing for us (Isaiah 55:11).
Sunday Jul 09, 2023
Sunday Jul 09, 2023
Sermon for 6th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 6, 2014