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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Sermon for Easter Sunday, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 24, 2011
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
This coming Sunday is Easter Sunday, and there are numerous readings possible, depending on whether yours is a sunrise service or other kind of service. I will simply touch on the most likely readings, all having to do, of course, with the resurrection of Jesus.
The Old Testament lesson could be from Jeremiah 31:1-6. God speaks of His everlasting love and continued faithfulness to His people. He will seek to build them up once again in the land of Zion, and later on in this chapter, He promises a whole New Covenant, in verses 31-34, which centers in the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, and the forgiveness of sins, through Him.
Many churches will likely use, in place of the Old Testament lesson, a New Testament lesson from the Book of Acts, during the whole Easter season. This week’s reading is from Acts 10:34-43. Peter speaks of the fact that God shows no partiality, and under the New Covenant, the Savior came for every nation and people, not just the Jews. The Savior is Jesus, who died and rose again for all people. “To Him the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name.”
The Psalm is Psalm 16, where David knows that the Lord is his Refuge, and all good comes only from Him. The Lord Himself will be his “portion” and his “cup” of blessing and stays at his right hand to guide and counsel him with His Word, through his life, and give him “pleasures forevermore” in His presence. David also prophecies of a “Holy One“ to come who will never see corruption (predicting the death but also the resurrection of Jesus, without any corruption to Himself and His Body). See Acts 2:23-36 and Acts 13:35-39. See also my podcast this week for a full study of this psalm, with related Scriptures.
The Epistle lesson is from Colossians 3:1-4. Paul speaks of dying to our old life and being raised to a whole new life, through Christ and our connection now to Him by faith. We are called to set our minds on Christ and things above, as we are now already hidden with Christ, who is in heaven (though He can be here with us, too). Christ is now our life, and we will appear with Him in glory when He appears again. Our future is secure with Him.
The Gospel lesson is from Matthew 28:1-10. We hear that a glorious angel came from heaven and rolled back the stone of the tomb of Jesus and announced that Jesus, who was crucified, had risen from the dead, just as He had predicted. The women there were invited to see that the tomb was empty and were then to go and tell the disciples that Jesus had risen and that they were to meet Him in Galilee. The guards at the tomb were like dead men, but the women left quickly, with fear and joy, and while they were running to the disciples, the Risen Lord Jesus appeared to them and greeted them. They then grabbed His feet and worshipped Him, and He Himself sent them off again to tell the disciples He had risen. (Each Gospel writer, of course, tells only part of the story, as God inspired him to write and revealed things to him.)
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Today we look at Psalm 16, one of the psalms suggested to be read on Easter Sunday, because it has prophecies of the victory of Jesus, even over death. It speaks of the hope and confidence we can all have in our Lord.
David is the author of this psalm, as of so many others. The introduction uses the word, a “miktam.” Scholars are not sure what this word means, but it is likely a musical notation, since the psalms were often sung or chanted. You can see this word used in other places, particularly in the introduction to Psalms 56-60.
We don’t know when this psalm was written, but as so often, David faced danger and trouble. He begins by praying, “Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge” (Psalm 16, v.1). He knows that His Lord has been his Help and his Protection for many years already, though, and so the rest of the Psalm is a song of praise and confidence that God will continue to bless and care for him.
In fact, in v.2, David writes, “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord, I have no good apart from You.’” David is expressing what is said in other Scriptures. James says, in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” John the Baptist said, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3:27). John was especially talking about the forgiveness of sins and new life and faith that came only from the Lord. James knew that, too, as he said in James 1:18, “Of His own will, He (God) brought us forth by the Word of Truth” to faith in Christ, “as a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” Every believer is a good gift from God, as we are, too, as we are brought forth to trust in our Savior and are then a blessing to others.
David knew that about his Old Testament fellow believers, also. He says, In Psalm 16, v.3: “As for the saints (literally “the holy ones”) in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” These were fellow believers in the one True God, forgiven by the Lord as David was, who then helped and supported David in his own faith and life, as gifts from God, too.
In contrast, David warns in v.4 about the many unbelievers around him “who run after another god” and whose “sorrows shall multiply” with the evils of this life and an eternal life without God’s goodness, if they keep rejecting Him. David speaks in v.11 of “the path of life” which the Lord makes known to him. It is a life in the Lord’s “presence” with His guidance and blessing and trust in Him alone (the Triune God, revealed more and more in the Scriptures.) It is what Jesus, the promised Savior, God the Son, also meant when he said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6. Proverbs 15:24 says, “The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol” (which sometimes means, as in this case, the place called “hell").
As Psalm 16:4 goes on, David wants to have nothing to do with false gods and the activities and ways of “worship” of their followers, which even included human sacrifice at times - “drink offerings of blood.” (See Isaiah 57:4-6 and Jeremiah 7:31, as examples.) Following false gods can also be, of course, worship of ourselves and our wishes, or of money or of anything that becomes more important than God Himself and His will. (See Romans 1:21-23 and 1 Timothy 6:9-10.) David did not even want to mention the names of these false gods and evil things. He was following what Exodus 23:13 and Joshua 23:7 said. Remember also what Paul says in Ephesians 5:3-4. Fascination with evil things can be dangerous. “Instead,” Paul says, “let there be thanksgiving.”
That is what David focuses on as he continues in Psalm 16:5-6. “The Lord Himself is my chosen portion,” he says. This terminology of a “chosen portion” goes back to when the land of Israel was divided up among the tribes of Israel. You could read about that in detail in Joshua, Chapters 14-22. God had said earlier to Aaron that he and the priests following him would not receive specific portions of land. Instead, God said, “I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel” (Numbers 18:20). David realized that God Himself was the greatest gift and “portion” that he could receive. This idea is said again and again in the Old Testament. Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” See also Psalm 119:57, 142:5, and Lamentations 3:22-24.
“You hold my lot,” David says in Psalm 16:5; and in v. 6, “the lines” of his lot in life “have fallen in pleasant places,” according to God’s ways and plans for him. He trusts the Lord and know that he will have “a beautiful inheritance,” with the Lord’s blessing.
David had used the same imagery in Psalm 4:1 where he said, literally, “You helped me when I was in a very tight spot;” and in Psalm 18:18-19, he says, “The Lord was my support. He brought me out (of that tight spot) into a broad place” - where David was safe and secure. See Psalm 66:12, too.
When David also said in Psalm 16:5, “the Lord is my cup,” he is referring again to the cup of blessing that God brings to David, instead of a “cup of wrath” that evil nations and peoples would have to drink. (Jesus would, of course, have to drink that “cup of wrath” for us, in our place, in His suffering and death for us.) Remember instead Psalm 23:5-6, where David says, “My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” David realizes that there are eternal blessings for him, too, which are the most important, as we shall see.
In Psalm 16:6-9, David also “blesses” (praises) the Lord for the counsel and instruction that He gives him through His Word and revelations - on which he could meditate at night and “not be shaken,” even when times were tough and it was hard to sleep. The Lord was “at his right hand” - the best and closest and most powerful place for the Lord to be with him. (Remember how some of the disciples of Jesus wanted to sit at His “right hand.” The left hand was close, but not quite as good (Mark 10:35-41).)
David rejoices that the Lord is always with him, very close. David’s “whole self,” his heart and soul, His body and flesh, was “secure;” and he would not be “abandoned to Sheol” - to death and the grave and certainly not to hell (Psalm 16:10). And we have already talked about how David knew that he would also have “fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore” in the Lord’s presence (v.11).
There is one phrase, though, that God inspired David to write, that did not seem to fit. God would “not let His holy one see corruption.” David died and his physical body was put in a grave and did see physical corruption, though his soul was with the Lord in joy.
The Lord inspired the New Testament apostles to realize that David was prophesying about another “Holy One,” the only perfectly Holy One, our Lord Jesus. He would die on the cross to pay for the sins of the world, and was put in a grave, but His body would not decay, and He would be raised to life again, body and soul, in His Easter victory over sin and Satan and death.
See how Peter on Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection, and 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven, used David’s very words in Psalm 16:8-11 to proclaim Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, body and soul uncorrupted (unlike David’s body), and the certainty that Jesus was and is our living Lord and the Christ, the promised Savior (Acts 2:23-36). Paul proclaimed the same message more simply, but using the same inspired words of David, in Acts 13:35-37. Paul also assures the people that by the death and resurrection of Jesus there is “forgiveness of sins” and “freedom” from condemnation by the Law and the promise of eternal life by faith in Jesus.
That is the good news for us, too, in this Easter season. David was saved, and His soul is with Jesus because he believed by grace the promises of God and what God revealed to him in His Word. We have the same promises of God for us, but now fulfilled, because our Savior Jesus has come and did all that was necessary to rescue us. Our souls will be with the Lord in heaven when we die, as we keep trusting in Jesus as Lord and Christ, and our bodies will be raised and changed and glorified when Christ returns on the last day. In the meantime, we have the promise that the Lord is our “portion” even now, and He will stay close to us, keeping us in faith through His Word and Spirit throughout our life, as he did with David. See His promises in Matthew 28:18, “I will be with you always, to the end of the age,” and in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The Lord also gives us His special “cup” of blessings in the Lord’s Supper. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:16, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?” We have the same gifts as David had, that brought him great confidence and joy in the Lord. And we have even more, in seeing and hearing of the risen Lord Jesus and all His gifts to us, in His Word and Sacraments. May we all be strong in faith and joyful and confident in Christ, even as David was, with His portion, His Lord, so long ago.
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Sermon for Palm Sunday, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 17, 2011
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
This Sunday is known either as Palm Sunday or the Sunday of the Passion, at the beginning of Holy Week. There are quite a number of possible readings, depending on the emphasis a particular congregation wishes to make for this day. The Passion History readings are very long, and it would take a whole Lenten season to talk about what they say. I will simply list these Gospel readings now, and you are encouraged to read them on your own in the week ahead: Matthew 26:1-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-66 or John 12:20-43. I will comment briefly only on the John 12 passage.
There are two possible choices for the Psalm reading, too. Psalm 118:19-29 fits best if there is a Palm Sunday emphasis. This is one of the psalms that Jewish people spoke or sang as they went up to Jerusalem for the Passover festival and entered the gates of the city. They may have been thinking of this psalm as Jesus also entered Jerusalem that day. Many of the verses are prophetic references to Him. Jesus was the “Stone” the builders rejected, who became the “Cornerstone” for the Christian faith, as the one who brought us our “salvation.” This was “the Lord’s doing,” as He sent His Son to do the work of saving us. The “hosannas” sung that day to Jesus are literally the Hebrew form of the words, “Save us, O Lord!” - and Jesus went to the cross to do just that, later that week. Jesus truly was “the blessed one who came in the Name of the Lord ”for our benefit. He was and is “God“ the Son, the “Light” of the world, and we can only “thank“ and praise Him for “His steadfast love,” and sacrifice of His life for us.
Psalm 31:9-16 is an alternative reading and fits best with the Passion History readings. This psalm predicts the agony and sorrow Christ went through for us. David, the author, had plenty of sins, “iniquities,” as we also do, but Jesus took those sins upon Himself, as if they were His own, and suffered and died in payment for them, in our place. He became a “reproach,” even to those close to him, who ran away from Him. People “persecuted” Him and “plotted to take His life.” “But He still trusted in His heavenly Father, His Lord, as His “Servant” Savior, who would eventually be “saved” Himself by God’s ‘steadfast love,” as shown by His being raised from the dead on Easter.
The Old Testament lesson is Isaiah 50:4-9a, one of the Servant Songs of the coming Savior, Jesus, who would teach God’s Word and will, as He has been taught by His Lord God. Jesus would listen and not be rebellious to His Lord, even though it would mean being struck and spit upon and disgraced, etc., by others. He would “set His face like flint” to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. He would be “declared guilty” by His enemies, but not by the Lord God, who would “vindicate” Him and ultimately “not put Him to shame.”
The Epistle lesson is from Philippians 2:5-11, which makes it clear that God the Son was willing to do His saving work for us. Though He was God, He humbled Himself and became a real human man and our “Servant” and became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” for our sake and our salvation. He was then “exalted” in His resurrection and is the Name by which we can all be saved, by “confessing that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The Gospel lesson I’ll comment on very briefly is from John 12. John 12:12-19 tells the Palm Sunday story. Jesus came into Jerusalem, fulfilling more Old Testament Scripture, as He rode into Jerusalem humbly on a donkey’s colt, as our Savior King. John tells that the disciples did not really understand what was going on and that many who came to see Jesus came just because they had heard He had raised Lazarus from the dead. The people wanted to see a miracle worker. John 12:20-26 tells that even some Greek people wanted to see Jesus; but He instead talks about His coming death. He would be like a seed planted in the ground, which then springs forth with new life. In v.27-36, Jesus says that He had come to this crucial point where He would “glorify His Father’s Name,“ by being “lifted up from the earth.” The people did not understand that He was describing His death by crucifixion. Through that death (and resurrection), he would seek to “draw all people to Himself,” as their Savior. He was (and is) the Light for the world, and said, “Believe in the Light, that you may become sons of light.” Sadly, John tells in v.37-43 that there were Old Testament predictions that many people would still “not believe in Jesus,” even with the signs and miracles He did and His sharing of the true Word of God. There would also be those who wanted to believe, but would not “confess their belief,” because they feared the judgment of their religious leaders, who opposed Jesus. They loved “glory from other men,” more that they loved “the glory that came from God.” Can and does that still happen today?
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Our Bible study this week is Psalm 131. It is very short and yet has much to us that is very important, from what David learned from the Lord. Some suggest that it is a good follow-up to Psalm 130, where we are called to “wait for” and “hope” in the Lord. Sometimes, David “cried out” to the Lord in times of great “trouble” and brought his “complaint” loudly to the Lord with “uplifted hands,” “pleading for mercy” (Psalms 141 and 142).
In Psalm 131, though, David knew that he also needed to approach the Lord, not in a haughty and prideful way, thinking that he deserved God’s favor, but with humility. Some translate v.1 as saying, “O Lord, my heart is not haughty.” Many Scriptures warn about the danger of too much pride in oneself. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Isaiah 2:11-12 says, “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low; and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. The Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up - and it shall be brought low.”
David is, in verse 1, bowing in humility before the Lord, his heart not lifted up and his eyes not raised too high before the Lord. As he said in Psalm 138:6, “Though the Lord is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar.” See many other New Testament passages that tell us the same thing. Romans 12:16 says, “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.” James reminds us, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God…
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you" (James 4:6,7,10). Peter puts it this way, ”Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:5-6).
Paul points us to Christ Jesus and says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and ever circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Back in Psalm 131, still in v.1, David also says, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” This does not mean that David was unwilling to grow and learn and ask God honest questions. He was a simple shepherd boy and yet grew into a mighty king, with God’s blessings. As one commentator says, David was not in any way a “sluggard,” someone that the Bible calls lazy and lacking personal motivation. At the same time, David knew that he was only a weak, sinful human being (see Psalm 51 and he words in v.17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart You will not despise”).
In contrast, God was God, and there was so much about God and His ways that David could not and would not understand, but he was still called to trust the Lord. David says in Psalm 139:1,2,4,6, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar… Even before a word is on my tongue, You know it altogether… Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”
In a sense, you could say that David had learned (though he was far from perfect) what Job struggled to learn in his book of Scripture. Job’s friend had said, early on, “As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.” Job spent much, much time arguing with his friends and with God, feeling that God had been unfair and unjust with him. (Do we do the same, at times, simply not understanding God’s ways and why He does and allows things that don’t seem right to us? It is a struggle for us all, at times, when our prayers don’t seem to be answered, at least in the way we would expect and desire.)
God finally has to confront Job very strongly, saying in Job 41:34 that “He sees everything that is high; He is King over all the sons of pride.” Job then finally has to admit, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted… Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know… I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You. Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2,3,5-6).
As Job 42 ends, Job prays for his “friends,” too, that they would be forgiven their “folly” in trying to straighten him out with human ideas and thoughts that were often not correct, either. The Lord forgives them, too, as He does us, as we sometimes struggle to find the right things to say to others, in a time of sorrow and grief, and other times.
Go back now to Psalm 131, v.2. David uses here a surprising picture image for himself - being like a “weaned child.” He says, “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” This might be a hard picture image to understand unless you have been a nursing mother or a husband or close family who has seen this process. (In earlier times, there were no baby formulas or good ways effectively to preserve milk and keep it from spoiling very quickly. Women had to nurse their babies; and babies will cry and fuss whenever they are hungry and won’t stop until they are satisfied. And before long, they will be crying and fussing again and again and again.) In fact, Peter uses this very image in describing how all believers in Christ should be continually eager for God’s Word - and the Word connected with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).
A mom who has nursed can better describe the special bond with a child during this time - but also how challenging and tiring this time can be, until the child is finally weaned - done with nursing and happy with other foods and content just quietly to be with Mom. (That time of weaning was even celebrated in the Old Testament. See Genesis 21:8 and 1 Samuel 1:21-28, for example.)
That is what David is describing in Psalm 131:2. His soul is “calmed down.” (The Hebrew suggests the image of a stormy sea that has finally smoothed down and become “a glassy sea,” as mentioned in Revelation 4:6. It is a picture of being at peace.) David also says his soul is “quieted.” He does not have to cry and fuss at the Lord all the time, trying to get answers and figure things out himself. He can rather just trust the Lord and His ways and plans, knowing they are “too great” for him to comprehend.
This idea of being quiet and silent before the Lord is often mentioned in other Scriptures, too. David wrote in Psalm 37:5,7: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act… Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!” See also Psalm 46:10-11: “Be still and know that I am God”… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” David also writes in Psalm 62:1-2, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He alone is my Rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.” See also Lamentations 3:24-26, Habakkuk 2:20, and passages like Exodus 14:9-14, where the Egyptians are chasing after God’s people and have them trapped, it seemed, and the people are in a panic. Moses simply says, “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (How hard that is for all of us to grasp. How often don’t we panic, too, instead of quietly and calmly trusting our Lord?)
Twice in Psalm 131:2, David also calls himself a “child.” Compared with God that is what he always would be, and what we are, too - just children. Think of how Jesus taught us the same thing, in passages like Matthew 18:1-3, where we are called to “turn and become like children,” in “humble” trust in Him. Jesus also taught in v.6 that “little ones” could believe in Him, too, by the gift of God’s grace, through Baptism (John 3:5) and the Word (1 Peter 1:23). See also Matthew 11:25-30 and Mark 10:13-16 and other such passages, where children are welcomed and the Good News is revealed to them. Of course, children, even little children, are also sinners, with a sinful nature, and continually need God’s mercy and forgiveness and love, as we all do. See these words of our Lord in Zephaniah 3:16-17: “Fear not, O Zion; let not you hearts grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a Mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” That is the voice of a Heavenly Father who truly cares for His dear children.
Finally, in Psalm 131:3, David says that he wishes all Israel to have the humble calmness and quietness and trust in the Lord that he describes. “O Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.” In two different places (2 Samuel 22:28-29 and Psalm 18:27-28), the following words of David about the Lord are recorded: “You save a humble people, but the haughty eyes You bring down. For it is You who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.” David is affirming what was said in Psalm 130:7-8: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all His iniquities.” This is Good News enough for David and for all people who will humbly trust in the Lord, ultimately through the coming work of Jesus our Savior. It will also carry all us children of God by faith through this life and to eternal life forever with our Heavenly Father.
Did David really live out what he describes in Psalm 131? David was far from perfect and had to live by God’s grace and forgiveness. But there was also a long period of time where he really did have to wait patiently and humbly on the Lord’s plans for him, as the commentator, F. Delitzsch, described.
Saul was already the first King of Israel when David courageously defeated Goliath. Saul became rebellious and drifted away from the Lord, though, and the Lord had Samuel anoint David to be the future King. David then went through nearly 10 years of persecution by King Saul. He had chances to kill Saul and might have tried to overthrow Saul by force. Instead, he patiently waited for God to take care of the problem with Saul. When Saul was killed, David was chosen to be King by his own tribe of Judah, but Saul’s son Ishbosheth became King of all the other tribes. Again, David had to wait a few years until Ishbosheth was killed and then about give more years before he could truly become King of all Israel in Jerusalem.
That was over 17 years of waiting until God’s promise to him was finally fulfilled. God’s promises were fulfilled, but in His own time and way for David. That could be our situation in life, too, at times. This psalm of David is for our own learning, in waiting for the Lord and trusting that He knows what is best for us.
Think above all of our Lord Jesus, who came from the family line of David as a real human baby boy and yet was also true God, the second person of the Trinity. He had to wait patiently for 30 years, growing up and doing His Father’s will perfectly and being tempted and tested and troubled all that time. Then there were the three years of public ministry, with disciples who did not fully understand Him and many religious leaders who opposed Him and Satan constantly tempting Him.
And finally, when the time for His final suffering and death was near, Jesus said, “What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your Name.” Then a voice came from heaven, ’I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again’” (John 12:27-28).
Jesus then fully glorified His Father and His Father’s will by suffering and then dying on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of all humanity. Before His accusers, Jesus was largely calm and quiet and silent. From the cross He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.” That is the worst part of hell - to be forsaken by God and separated entirely from Him and all His goodness.
Yet that is what Jesus suffered for us, in our place. We don’t understand how that could happen. It is “too great” and “too marvelous” for us all. Yet that is what Jesus did; and we hope and trust in this that He did for us. He never lost trust in His Heavenly Father, no matter what. His first words from the cross were, “Father, forgive them;” and His last words were, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” even as He died. Only in His resurrection from the dead were His kingdom, power, and glory more fully seen again. And all of this was for us, that that we can confidently hope and trust in Him, now and forever, just as David said.
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 10, 2011
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
The Scriptures this week talk about the reality of sin and death and yet also the hope we have in the redeeming work of Jesus for us and the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit.
The psalm is Psalm 130. The psalmist pleads for God’s mercy and asks if any of us could stand before God if God kept a record of all our sins. The good news is that in the Lord there is “forgiveness” and “steadfast love” and “plenteous redemption” for all our iniquities, our sins. Again it is said that the Lord will “redeem,” which means that He will make a payment to ransom us, to buy us back from the consequences of our sins and set us free.
The Old Testament lesson is from Ezekiel 37:1-14. The Lord gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley full of very dry bones. Could these bones live again? The Lord has Ezekiel say to them, “O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.” Then the bones came together and had flesh and skin, but no breath in them. Then the Lord asked Ezekiel to call for breath to come into them and they all lived and stood like a great army. The Lord then explains that these are the people of Israel, in a hopeless condition and cut off from the Lord by their sins, and in exile. God then promises that He will put His Spirit within His people and give them new spiritual life through His Word, that they may know the Lord and return to the promised land. (From that renewed group of God’s people, the Savior, our Lord Jesus, would come. This vision also predicts that the Savior would be able to bring new spiritual life for people, through faith in Him by the Holy Spirit, and be able to raise people from the dead on the last day, just as He would also predict.)
In the Epistle lesson, Romans 8:1-11, Paul explains how Jesus did His saving work. None of us could keep the Law of God, because of “the weakness of our sinful flesh.“ Jesus therefore “fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law” for us, in our place, by His perfect life, (and by His payment of the penalty for all our sins by His death on the cross, again in our place). “Christ now lives in us” personally, as we have been brought to faith in Him through the Holy Spirit, who also lives and works in us (through our baptism and the Word of God.)
“There is therefore now no condemnation for us,” as long as we are in Christ Jesus. We are “set free from the law of sin and death,” and through the Spirit there is “life and peace” and His power to produce “spiritual fruit” the Lord wishes to see in us. As Jesus “was raised from the dead by the power of the Spirit,” our “mortal bodies will also be given new life through Jesus and the Spirit,” on the last day.
The Gospel lesson is John 11:1-45 (46-53) or selected verses from John 11. Mary and Martha send a message that their brother, Lazarus, was very ill and they want Jesus to come to help them. Jesus delays for some days, though, so that He can show His power even over death, and Lazarus has died and has been in the grave for four days before Jesus arrives. Martha talks with Jesus first and makes a strong confession of faith in Him as “the Christ, the Son of God, the One Whom God had promised would come into the world.” Jesus assures her that He is “the Resurrection and the Life.” “Whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die.” (Though believers die physically, their spirits live on with Jesus in heaven and on the last day, their bodies will also be raised and glorified.) When Jesus meets Mary, she and many others are weeping in sorrow and sad that Jesus did not come sooner. “Jesus wept.” (This is the shortest verse in the Bible and shows Jesus' genuine love for people and His grief at all the troubles of sin and death in this broken world.) Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead, in a great miracle that drew more people to believe in Him. Lazarus came out, still wrapped in his grave cloths. The religious leaders hear of this and determine that Jesus must die before He creates more trouble for them and their religion and nation.
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
The introduction to Psalm 90 indicates that it was written by Moses, making it most likely the earliest of the psalms we have in the Bible. This is a “prayer” of Moses, speaking very seriously of the reality of sin and its consequence, death, and yet giving hope to people through the mercy and love of God.
Moses often had to pray to God for this mercy because the people of Israel were so often rebellious against him as their leader and against God Himself. Read just one example of this in Numbers 14:1-4, 10, when “all the congregation” wanted to stone Moses and choose a new leader to take them back to Egypt. They even blamed the Lord for bringing them into the promised land “to die by the sword.” The Lord threatened to disinherit them, but Moses “the man of God” (Deuteronomy 33:1 and Joshua 14:6) pleaded for mercy for them. God pardoned them, but warned of His wrath if people continued “to put Him to the test and not obey His voice.” They would not enter the promised land at all (Numbers 14:11-23).
Psalm 90 is a similar psalm, in which Moses gives a strong warning to us all, but also prays for the Lord to pity us and give us His steadfast love and a heart of wisdom, as He works in our lives.
Moses begins by reminding us, in Psalm 90:1-2, that God our Lord is “from everlasting to everlasting.” He has always existed and always will exist for us. He is the Creator of all things, including majestic mountains, symbols of His great power, though He can do away with them, too, if he chooses. (See Deuteronomy 33:15 and yet also Habakkuk 3:6.) God created us human beings, male and female, also, and wishes us to find in Him “our dwelling place.”
See, for example, Psalm 91:1-2 and 9-16. You might remember that the devil quoted a part of this passage, trying to tempt Jesus and get Him to worship him. The devil left out, of course, the part about having the Lord, alone, as our dwelling place, our refuge (Psalm 91:9-10). Jesus knew His Heavenly Father, though, and His Name (v.14) and obeyed Him and resisted the devil, and in that way was “trampling that serpent underfoot” (v.13), doing perfectly what we have failed to do, and showing us His salvation for us” (v.16).
In contrast, we human beings, starting with Adam and Eve, have all sinned and rebelled against God and are under His wrath and judgment if left on our own. Sin and its consequences and results are described in dramatic ways, as we go back to Psalm 90, v.3-11. God had warned Adam and Eve that they would die and return to dust if they did what He asked them not to do. (Genesis 2:17 and 3:16-19 and Psalm 90:3). We have all inherited that sinful nature and choose to sin, too, with the same results. See Job’s words in Job 4:17-21 and the words of Psalm 104:29, about God’s judgment for sin.
All this is to say that for the everlasting God, a thousand years are like one day (Psalm 90:4 and other Scriptures, like 2 Peter 3:8). In contrast, we sinful human beings struggle through life because of our sins, and don’t live long compared with God. Look at some of the picture images given in Psalm 90:5ff. We are sometimes swept away, “as with a flood.” Think of the floods going on right now in California, and tsunamis and hurricanes and on and on. Sometimes we are “like a dream.” Dreams come and go quickly and can be good or bad. Dreams can be shattered, and so can we, in this sinful world.
We are also “like grass, which can grow up quickly, but then “fades and withers.” Think of how often this imagery is used in the Bible, in Isaiah 40:6-8, 1 Peter 1:24, Psalm 103:15-16, and other places. All these images are used in Psalm 90:5. Another is used in Psalm 90:9: “We bring our years to an end like a sigh,” like one last breath, and we are gone. And of the years we have, even if they are 70 or 80 years, their “span” (literally in the Hebrew, their “pride”) is “but toil and trouble; they are soon gone and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Even Shakespeare quoted from this passage because it reflects reality, too often.
Why is all this happening? This is the part that many people try to avoid talking about, but is exactly what Moses needed to remind his people (and us) about. The problem is sin, the sin of others and our own sin. “Sin is lawlessness,” says 1 John 3:4. It is going against the words and will of our Holy God, who knows what is best for us all. Sin hurts us and others. That brings “anger” and “wrath” and judgment from God, as Psalm 90:7-11 says repeatedly. Three times the wrath of God is mentioned, and twice, God’s anger about sin. Psalm 90:8 also reminds us that God knows about every sin, even our “secret sins” that we try to hide from Him and others. See Psalm 19:12 and 40:12, for example. These sins are all directly “before God… in the light of His Presence” (Psalm 90:8).
Even the New Testament says the same thing. What do we earn for our own sins? “The wages of sin is death,” says Romans 6:23. Romans 5:12 reminds us, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” The fact that everyone dies and will die, until Jesus returns, tells us that we are all sinners. “Through the law of God comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20), and “the law brings wrath” (Romans 4:15) because we do not obey that law as we should. All this is the Law spoken in its strongest form, and that is what Moses needed to warn people, including us, about, so that we would recognize our own sins and be honest with God about them and know how much we need our Savior.
But that is not all that Moses wanted talk about in his prayer. He also had words of hope and new life for us in our Lord. He prayed in Psalm 90:12 that the Lord would teach us to “number our days” and get “hearts of wisdom” from Him. See passages like Proverbs 1:7, which tells us that “the beginning of wisdom starts with fear of the Lord,” recognizing as true what Moses already has said. Then see passages like Psalm 39:4–8 and Hosea 14:9, where growing wisdom about God takes us to the Lord for His mercy. In spite of our sins, the Lord does “have pity on us, His servants” and wants to forgive and satisfy us with His steadfast love” (Psalm 90:13-14).
Our hope and confidence come not from looking at ourselves and our troubled world, but from looking to the Lord and the help He can and does give us. Jesus put it very simply in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” It is not our righteousness, but God’s righteous and merciful work for us that gives us help and forgiveness and strength. Notice how Moses keeps praying for God’s intervention on our behalf. “Have pity.” Psalm 90, v. 13. “Satisfy us… with Your steadfast love.” (v. 14) “Make us glad…” (v.15) “Let Your work be shown… Your glorious power…” (v.16) “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us… Establish the work of our hands…” (v. 17)
The great Good News of the New Testament is that the pity and steadfast love of God did come to us most clearly in the gift of God’s Son, Jesus. “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already” (unless of course, he or she does eventually come to trust in Jesus) (John 3:17-18).
Paul tells us in Romans 4:6-8 “of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from his works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sins.” That full and free forgiveness comes through Jesus’ perfect life in our place, His death on the cross in payment for all of our sins, and His glorious resurrection from the dead. See a description of all that in Romans 5:1-10.
All this gives us great confidence for our future, as we trust, by God’s grace and mercy, in Jesus and what He has already done for us. Even the sorrows of this life and the death of loved ones and our own impending death become more bearable (even though they are still very hard to deal with), because of God’s promises in Jesus and His presence and help for us. Paul writes, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” in heaven” (Romans 8:18).
See also 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (as Moses describes very well), but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Think about Moses himself, the author of Psalm 90. Sin has consequences, and Moses sinned, too. Eventually he died and was not able to set foot in the promised land he had been leading people to for 40 years (Deuteronomy 34:4-5). Yet Scripture interprets Scripture, and we know that Moses did also receive eternal life in heaven, by God’s grace and forgiveness, and he even had the great privilege of appearing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. See Matthew 17:1-9. His appearance, and above all, the glory of Jesus, helped the disciples later on, after the resurrection of Jesus.
Through Jesus our Savior, then, we can “rejoice and be glad all our days” and have strength and hope, even in times of affliction, as the Lord grows our “heart of wisdom”(Psalm 90:12,14). The Lord can also “establish the work of our hands,” even in this difficult, sinful world we live in, as the Lord helps and blesses us. We can do things that honor our Lord Jesus and help others who struggle, even as we do. That is part of “numbering our days” and using them as “wisely” as we can (Psalm 90:12).
See passages like Ephesians 2:8-10, 2 Thessalonians 3:11-13, and 1 Timothy 6:17-21. Through our hopeful living in Christ, we might even have a chance to witness to some hopeless people all around us and help some of them also to find hope in Jesus, through God’s grace. See 1 Peter 3:13-15. In these ways, God can truly “establish the work of our (weak) hands” and our (imperfect) “hearts” and bring blessings through us (Psalm 90:12,17).
The Lord’s continued blessings in Christ our Savior to you all!
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 3, 2011