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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 15, 2023
Wednesday Feb 15, 2023
Sermon for the 6th Sunday after Epiphany, based on:
Sermon originally delivered February 13, 2011
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
The Scripture readings this week are very heavy on the Law and will of God. We are only about a week and one-half away from the Lenten season, and these Scriptures tell us very clearly how much we need the saving work and forgiveness and mercy of Jesus, in what He did for us, as our Savior.
The Psalm is Psalm 119:1-8, the beginning of 176 verses of praise of God and the importance of listening to and following His Word and His commands. Those are blessed who are “blameless,” who “seek the Lord with their whole heart,” who “keep His precepts diligently,” who “have their eyes fixed on all His commandments,” and who praise God with “an upright heart.” The psalm writer says, “I will keep your statutes,” but the last part of v.8 indicates that he is not so sure he can really do that. He prays to the Lord, “Do not utterly forsake me,” and he admits in the last verse of the whole psalm, v. 176, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant.”
The Old Testament lesson is Deuteronomy 30:15-20. In previous chapters, the Lord has presented the way of “blessing” for His people, of “life and good,” if they will “love Him and keep His commandments.” The Lord also warns of the way of the “curse, of death and evil,” if His peoples’ “hearts turn away from Him and they will not hear” and they “are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them.” Moses calls upon His people to continue to “choose life… loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your Life.”
The Gospel lesson continues readings from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:21-37. Jesus quotes from a number of Old Testament laws and rules. The first is the 5th Commandment, “You shall not murder.” Then Jesus adds, “But I say to you” and explains that if we are “angry” with others or “insult” others or call someone a”fool,” we are also sinners, breaking that commandment and hurting people and are in danger of the “fire of hell” for our wrongdoing. Jesus uses example after example of how we can sin in thought and word, as well as in deed. He can say and explain all this, because He is the very Son of God. He is showing us our sins and helping us see how much we need Him, as He also reveals Himself as our Savior, who has come to save us from our sins.
The Epistle lesson continues reading from 1 Corinthians, from Chapter 3:1-9. Paul tells the Christians at Corinth, in Greece, that they are still “infants in Christ” and have much to learn and must battle their “sinful human flesh.” There is too much jealousy and strife and comparison of themselves with others and even comparing their leaders with one another. Paul says that neither he nor another leader, Apollos, are “anything.” They are only “servants” who “plant” and “water.” Twice Paul says that “only God gives the growth.” He is the truly important One in “his field,” “His building,” the church. Let us not compare ourselves with each other, as we are all sinners. Let us compare ourselves with our Lord and His Word. Then we will know that we are forgiven and saved and strengthened only by God and His work in Word and Sacraments, through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
Tuesday Feb 07, 2023
Last week we looked at Psalm 44, a psalm that describes the struggle God’s people sometimes have when they think they are faithfully trying to follow the Lord, and yet it seems as if God is not listening or helping or caring about them and the serious problems they are going through. Through this psalm and other Scriptures, especially Romans 8, we were reminded of God’s promise always to be working for our good, even though we may not be able to see or understand what He has been doing. We are called to keep trusting Him and His timing and to keep listening to His Word and promises that nothing, even great troubles, can separate us from His love. Our future is secure in Christ our Savior, no matter what is going on right now.
Psalm 38 reminds us, though, that sometimes we may have been fooling ourselves and bringing troubles upon ourselves and “our steps have actually departed from God and His ways” - different from what was said and thought in Psalm 44:8. We don’t know the exact situation, but there were times when David had done wrong to himself and others and God and couldn’t seem to recognize it or admit it. It took God’s prophets bringing God’s Word to him to help him recognize and admit his sins and failings. This is one of his “penitential” psalms, along with Psalms 32 and 51 and 143, where he had to cry out, “Give ear to my pleas for mercy… enter not into judgment with Your servant, for no one living is righteous before You” (Psalm 143:1,2).
The introduction to Psalm 38 says that it was “a psalm of David, for the Memorial Offering.” There were various Old Testament offerings that God’s people were to make to the Lord in the Tabernacle and later in the temple in Jerusalem. Look at Leviticus 2:1-2, where a “grain offering” was to be made in just a certain way, and then the priest was to take a handful of the grain and burn it as a “memorial portion,” which would bring “a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” The Hebrew word for the “memorial” is related to the word
“to remember.” Scholars think this offering was a way of asking the Lord to remember us in a way that was pleasing to Him and according to His will, in the Old Testament. Psalm 38, then, was a plea from David to the Lord to remember him, in mercy, even though he had been very sinful.
Some think it is like the prayer of the thief on the cross in Luke 23:42. The thief had just admitted that he was rightly condemned for his wrongdoing, receiving “the due reward for his (evil) deeds.” Jesus, in contrast, had done nothing wrong, not deserving His punishment (v. 40-41). This thief humbly asked, “Jesus, remember me, when You come into Your kingdom” (v. 42). This was a pleasing response of faith to Jesus, and Jesus promised, though the thief did not deserve it, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (v. 43).
See also the story of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, who “feared God” and prayed to Him and helped the needy (Acts 10:1-2). An angel was sent to Cornelius to tell him, “Your prayers and your acts of mercy have ascended as a ‘memorial’ before God” (v. 3-4). God had not forgotten this man, but now remembered him in the sense of acting on his behalf, and sent Peter to tell him about Jesus; and he and his family and friends received faith and baptism. “To the Gentiles also God had granted repentance that leads to life,” through Jesus (Acts 10:5-11:18).
See also the prophecy of Zechariah in Luke 1:68-79, where Zechariah said that God Himself would “visit and redeem” His people (in the Person of His Son, Jesus) “to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to ‘remember’ His holy covenant” (v. 72). God had not forgotten, but now was the time for Him to act, through John the Baptist (v. 76) and especially through Jesus, “to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God” (v. 77-79). Or think of the gift of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Communion). Jesus told us to receive Communion - to do this - “in remembrance of Him.” We are to come in faith, remembering what Jesus has done for us and trusting that He will have mercy and forgive our sins.
In Psalm 38, then, David confesses his own sins, remembering his desperate need for God’s mercy. In v. 1, he asks the Lord not to rebuke and discipline him in His anger, though he knows he deserves that “wrath” of God. David uses very poetic language, for the psalms are poetry and hymns addressed to God. In v.2-8, David describes the agony of the guilt he feels for his sins and the “heavy burden” they are for him to carry. They are like “arrows that have sunk into Him” and “the hand of the Lord” pressing down upon him. He is drowning in his sins and guilt. Everything within him aches because of his sin and God’s “indignation” (disgust) at his “foolishness.” (Have you ever felt that way, maybe laying in bed at night, thinking about things that have gone wrong, sometimes your own fault, and parts of your body seem to ache and burn, and you feel very worn and crushed?) That is what David was feeling, when he was honest with himself and knew he had to admit to his sin. (Words and phrases like these appear in other psalms and other Scriptures, as everyone struggles with sin and its effects. See Psalm 6:1ff., Job 6:4, Psalm 32:3-4, Psalm 69:2-3,14-15, etc.)
David also realizes that he cannot hide his sin and problems from God or others. God already knows, and yet part of praying is being honest with God and confessing our sins and failings, as David knows he must do. Friends also may know, and may want to “stand aloof” (“far off” from him), as if he has a “plague” or leprosy. Some might even want to punish him themselves when “his foot slips” and he fails (v. 9-12).
David then becomes like a “deaf” and “mute” man. He tries not to hear what others say, and he cannot “rebuke” others, because he has no real defense for all that he has done in a wrong way (v. 13-14). David has enemies, too, who “rejoice” in his failings and are “vigorous” in their unfair attacks against him, and criticize him even for the “good” things he tries to do (v. 16,19-20).
For David has not lost faith in His Lord, even in his weaknesses and when he feels like he “is ready to fall” and “his pain is ever before him” (v. 17). He knows that ultimately, only His Lord can help him. He cries out, “But for You, O Lord, do I wait; it is You, O Lord my God, Who will answer" (v. 15). As he had already done in v. 3-4, David again “confesses his iniquity” (another word for wrongdoing) and expresses his “sorrow for his sin” (v.17). All he can do is throw himself upon the mercy of God; and so he says, “Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste (hurry) to help me, O Lord, my salvation” (v. 21-22).
Other Scriptures tell us that David was forgiven and restored and joy returned to him, because of God’s great mercy, even though there were sometimes consequences, as a result of his sin. David could say, in Psalm 13:5-6: “I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.”
Of course, the greatest example of God’s mercy was in the gift of Jesus Himself, as our Savior. Walter Roehrs and others think that portions of Psalm 38 were prophetic of Jesus and what He went through for us, to be our Savior. Look again at verses 13-15 in light of what is said of Jesus in passages like 1 Peter 2:22-25. David was “deaf” and “mute” because of his own sins and his inability to defend himself. He was guilty. Jesus, in contrast, “committed no sin” of His own, but “he Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” of the cross. He was suffering the penalty of David’s sins and our sins, and “by His wounds, we have been healed” and forgiven. Jesus was “deaf” as He ignored the “reviling” and the accusations made against Him, and He was “mute” and did not “revile“ or “threaten” others. “No deceit was found in His mouth.”
Look also at Isaiah 53, another prophecy of Jesus. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities” (v. 4-5). “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth… he was “silent and “opened not His mouth” (v. 6-7). Jesus knew that “it was the will of the Lord to crush Him… as “an offering for guilt” (v. 10) - to suffer the guilt and consequences of the sin of David and us and the whole world.
The agony that Jesus suffered was so, so much greater than what David described in Psalm 38. But, He did this willingly for the sake of all of us, that we might be forgiven through Him and be “accounted righteous” (v. 11). As Peter said in 1 Peter 2:23, in life and death and resurrection, Jesus “continued entrusting Himself to Him (His Heavenly Father), Who would do all things justly and rightly, through His amazing grace and mercy and love and forgiveness for the world. That is the mercy that David also found from the Lord, because of what Jesus would eventually do for him and for us. May we, too, be honest about our sins and bring them also to our Lord Jesus for the full and free forgiveness and new hope that He has already earned for us. That is what He wants for us all.
Monday Feb 06, 2023
Monday Feb 06, 2023
Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Epiphany, based on:
Sermon originally delivered February 6, 2011
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Jesus is “the Light of the world” (John 8:12), but we can be lights, too, reflecting His Light to others, as our readings for this week say.
The Psalm is Psalm 112. The praise goes to the Lord, but blessed is one “who fears the Lord” and “delights” in His commands! Such an “upright” person is like “light” that “dawns in the darkness” and seeks to mirror our “gracious, merciful, and righteous” God. Such a person acts justly and gives generously to the poor. Above all, “his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.” The wicked are angry at him, but his righteousness endures, as an example and help to fellow believers.
The Old Testament lesson is Isaiah 58:3-9a and reminds us that people can look righteous by certain things they do, like fasting and acting very humbly and putting on ashes, (think about this on Ash Wednesday!) while they turn right around and “quarrel“ and “fight” and “oppress” others. Rather, one is called to help the “hungry” and “poor” and “naked“ and “loosen the bonds of wickedness.” “Then your light breaks forth like the dawn” and the Lord’s glory surrounds you.
In the Epistle lesson, 1 Corinthians 2:1-12(13-16), Paul talks about keeping the focus not upon himself and his “lofty” performances, but upon “Jesus Christ and Him crucified“ and “the power of God” and His Holy Spirit, who enables people to “understand the things freely given us by God.” The gifts of and from God are the key for us. This is not “a wisdom of this age and the rulers of this age,” who are focused on themselves and what they can accomplish and think that the wisdom and ways of God are “folly.” But in God and His wisdom and Word, “we have the mind of Christ” and what he has done for us in order to save us.
The Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:13-20, is a continuation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We are called to be “salt,” seasoning and preserving, and “light” for the Lord Jesus, showing that He is good, for the glory of our Heavenly Father. Jesus Himself is the true Light, not “relaxing” but “teaching” and “fulfilling” the law and will of God perfectly, in our place. (See Hebrews 4:15 and Matthew 3:15.) Through faith in Jesus, we are counted righteous in God’s eyes and enabled by Christ Jesus to “enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Today we look at another psalm of the Old Testament, Psalm 44.
Psalm 44 is one of those psalms that is never used in the Lectionary (the assigned readings) for the 3 year or 1 year series of readings that we use in our worship services. Yet it talks about an issue that we still struggle with today, at times, and is worth studying, as is every other part of Scripture.
Psalm 44 was written by “the sons of Korah” - who are identified in 1 Chronicles 6:22, 31 and 2 Chronicles 20:19, 21, as famous singers in the house of the Lord. The psalm begins as the psalmists remember what their forefathers had taught them about how God had “freed” them from slavery and “planted them” in the promised land (Psalm 44:1-2). (See also Exodus 15:17. Note the emphasis also on the children being taught by their parents, and fathers especially teaching and answering questions of their sons and grandsons in future generations. See also passages like Exodus 10:2, 12:24, 13:8, and Proverbs 1:8ff. Such teaching and hearing are very much needed, still today, along with what we learn in school and church and Sunday School.).
Israel’s enemies were also defeated, and this was done not by the “sword” and the “arm“ of the Israelites, but by the “right hand” and “arm” of God Himself, as “the light of His face” shone on them (Numbers 6:24-26) and He “delighted” in them (Psalm 44:3). The psalmist also knows that God is his “King,” and that “foes are pushed down“ only “through God’s Name,” not by Israel’s ”bows” and “swords” (Psalm 44:4-6). (See also Exodus 3:14-15 and Psalm 20:7.) The psalmists therefore “boast in God continually,” and “give thanks to His Name, forever” (Psalm 44:8).
And yet, in v.4, the psalmist also asks, in a way that is called an imperative - a strong wish, almost a command: “Ordain salvation for Jacob,” save Your people, the sons of Jacob! Why would the sons of Korah ask for this? They knew God’s help in the past, but now they were not sure they were seeing it in the present time. Read on in Psalm 44:9-16. We don’t know the exact situation or circumstances when these verses were written, but it seemed as if God had now “rejected and disgraced” His people (v.9). “Foes” were defeating and “scattering them among the nations” (v.10-11). God’s people seemed unimportant and not valuable to Him (v.12). Others were “taunting” and “reviling” and “shaming” God’s people (v.13-16). It was as if God had forgotten about them, they thought.
They couldn’t figure this out because they felt that they had “not forgotten God” or been “false” to Him or “departed from His ways” (v.17-18). If they had forgotten God or worshiped false gods, God would have known, “for He knows the secrets of the heart”
(v.20-21). But they knew better about themselves, they thought. God was “asleep” and needed to “wake up” (v.23). He was “hiding His face now from His people, and they were feeling very “beaten down” in their lives (v.24-25).
Have you ever felt this way? You trust God and yet everything seems to be going wrong. God seems far away from you and your problems, even when you cry out to Him. You pray: “Rise up, O God; come to our help!” (v.26) And you still don’t seem to find answers.
Finally, the sons of Korah just had to trust God and His ways, though they did not understand His plans. They knew God had loved them with a “steadfast love” and that He would still “redeem” them in His own way and time, if they would wait upon Him. The sons of Korah also wrote psalms like Psalm 42, which said, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God” (Psalm 42:5,11).
They wrote Psalms 45-49, including Psalm 46, from which Martin Luther wrote his great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” And they wrote Psalms 84-85 and 87-88, which said, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you” (Psalm 84:12). The sons of Korah did make it through, in faith, by God’s grace. And we can, too.
In fact, Paul, inspired by God, quotes from Psalm 44 in a great chapter of comfort and hope for New Testament Christians in Romans 8. He quotes Psalm 44:22, where the sons of Korah and fellow Israelites felt they were “being killed all the day long, like sheep to be slaughtered” (Romans 8:36). Paul applied those words to Christian people who have many troubles and challenges in life and can even be persecuted on account of being followers of Christ and His Word. He reminds us that the sufferings of this life are not worth comparing with the joys and glories of heaven (Romans 8:18). He also reminds us that even when we are overwhelmed and don’t know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and prays on our behalf to help us follow God’s will (Romans 8:26-27).
Paul also reminds us that whether we can see it or not, “for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). We may never find all the answers we want, but we trust God’s mercy and promises, shown us most clearly in Jesus and His saving work and His willingness to die for us.
And Paul reminds us that Jesus our Savior, as our risen Lord, is interceding for us, and that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, even if we face “tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword… or anything else… ”(Romans 8:34-39). The answers and the hope are all in Jesus. This is true even if we or the sons of Korah or anyone else is not quite as good as he or she pretends to be, as we will hear in next week’s psalm, Psalm 38, another psalm of David. The Lord’s continued blessings and strength, whatever you are going through, too. See His love for you, too, in spite of your challenges.
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany, based on:
Sermon originally delivered January 30, 2011
Wednesday Jan 25, 2023
Wednesday Jan 25, 2023
The Scripture readings for this Sunday remind us of the very high standards of our Holy God and the need to walk humbly before Him. The Psalm is Psalm 15. David begins by asking who can come and continue to stand in worship before the Lord in His tent, His tabernacle. He says it is a person who is blameless, does what is right, and speaks truth from his heart, in contrast to a person who slanders others, does evil to a neighbor, and reproaches (blames or shames or speaks disgracefully) of a friend. David lists other things that people should and should not do and says that one who does these things rightly will not be moved from God’s presence. God’s people try to do what is right, but sometimes fail. Can anyone then stand before the Lord?
In the Old Testament lesson, Micah 6:1-8, the Lord indicts (makes a case against) His own people. He has redeemed His people from slavery and brought them to a land of promise and blessed them with acts of righteousness. Yet His people have rebelled and sinned against Him, as previous chapters of Micah show. What can be done? There is nothing that people can offer to God to make things right. God calls them “to walk humbly” with Him (which implies confessing their sins and seeking His forgiveness and trusting Him,) and then seeking to act in a kind and just way toward Him and others.
Jesus teaches much the same thing as He begins His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12 and speaks of God’s high standards and ends Chapter 5 with the words: “You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Who can do that? He is teaching us all about our sins and our need for Him, the Savior. He says that those are blessed who know that they are spiritually poor, and mourn about their sins and weaknesses, and hunger and thirst for the righteousness that can only come from God, and know that they need and can receive God’s mercy for themselves. Then they can seek to show that mercy to others who, like them are not always pure in heart, and to be peacemakers with others, and stand up for the Lord in faith and in what is right, even if there is persecution on account of following Jesus.
In the Epistle lesson, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Paul says that the way of Christ and His Word will seem like foolishness to many in this world, whose own wisdom and standards are very different. In fact, no human being can boast in the presence of God and meet His expectations, no matter how wise and strong and noble a person thinks he is. Our only hope is in boasting in and trusting the Lord Jesus and receiving the wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption He provides for us as Christ the crucified, for our salvation. Through Jesus, we are forgiven and counted blameless in the eyes of God.
(One last note on Psalm 15. Receiving interest on a loan of money is not condemned in the New Testament. See the parable of Jesus in Luke 19:23, where a man is condemned for not even at least putting money in a bank in order to earn a little interest. Usury was condemned for the Old Testament people of Israel, as a nation, so that they would not charge interest for the very poor, who could barely pay back what they owed others, and would not harm their fellow Jewish people who were struggling. This could be a good principle still to follow to show kindness to some people in need.)
Wednesday Jan 25, 2023
Wednesday Jan 25, 2023
Today we will look at two shorter psalms that emphasize an important message of the season after Christmas, Epiphany - when God’s love and plan for the whole world became most clear, with the coming of His Son, Jesus, into the world. It is a time for sharing this Good News. These two psalms speak of God’s care for all people, not just the Jewish nation of Israel.
We look first at Psalm 67, in the Old Testament. Verse one begins with an abbreviated form of a benediction, a blessing, that God first gave to Moses in Numbers 6:22-27. Aaron and the priests that followed him were to speak this blessing to the people of Israel. In this way, God’s name was put upon them, along with His grace and peace, as He looked upon them with His favor.
What may seem to be a surprise, though, is that verse two says that God’s blessing came upon Israel so that His “way” may be “known on earth” and His “saving power among all nations.” God chose Israel to be His nation, so that eventually, His salvation would be among all nations, not just the Jews. This was actually God’s plan from the beginning and announced from the very time He called Abram (Abraham) to be the father of this nation and gave His blessing to him. See Genesis 12:1-3. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” This promise was given again in Genesis 17:3-6. Abraham was to be “the father of a multitude of nations” and “nations and kings” would “come” from him. These promises appear in many places as the Old Testament goes on and especially in promises of the coming Messiah.
God also reminded the Israelites that they were not His people because they had bigger numbers than others (Deuteronomy 7:6-8) or even were “more righteous” than others (Deuteronomy 9:4-7), but simply because of His choice and love and plan (Deuteronomy 9:6,8). By His grace they were saved and were His people. But there were also warnings of judgment if they rebelled and rejected the Lord. (See Deuteronomy 28:15ff. and verses like “62-63.”)
Passages like Isaiah 45:21-23 also remind that is no other “god” than the one True God and that “all the ends of the earth” need to turn to Him to “be saved.” God still wishes to save all of His chosen people (Isaiah 45:25), but there are warnings that only a “remnant” would be saved. See Ezra 9:15, for example. There was also the promise of a whole New Covenant, a New Testament, which finally came with the coming of Jesus as the promised one, the Messiah, the Savior for the whole world, including Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) who would trust in Him. (See Jeremiah 31:31-34 and the quotation and comment about this in the New Testament in Hebrews 8:6-13.)
If we go back to Psalm 67: 2-5, then, we see the psalmist saying again and again that “all nations” and “all the peoples” should “be glad” and “sing for joy” at God’s saving plan available to all. God will judge the peoples “with equity” (literally meaning “with uprightness,” in a fair way); and He wishes to “guide the nations” with His wise ways, ultimately centered in Christ Jesus.
Verses 6-7 also say that as the Lord blesses people with good crops and other good things, that will be a witness to His goodness and help He wishes to bring to all, so that eventually “all the ends of the earth could fear Him” and love and trust in Him, as their Lord, too. (Jesus Himself reminded that God sends His sun and His rain upon all. That shows His mercy and care for all.)
The other psalm for today is Psalm 117, the shortest psalm in the Bible. It says much the same thing as Psalm 67, but in a simpler, more compact way, in 2 verses. “All nations” and “all peoples” should praise the Lord, for “His steadfast love toward us is great, and His faithfulness will never fail. It “endures forever.” These are promises available to all, Gentiles (non-Jews, the nations) as well as Jews. Verse 1 is quoted in the New Testament in Romans 15:11, along with several other Old Testament passages, telling of God’s love and mercy for all nations (Romans 15:8-13), so that “the God of hope” can fill anyone “with all joy and peace in believing” in Jesus as Savior, “through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13)
In fact, the New Testament says that the true Israel of God is now all believers in Christ, whether Jews or of any other nation, when they are brought to trust in Him. (See Galatians 6:14-16; Galatians 3:11-14, 28-29; Romans 10:8-13; Romans 4:13,16-17,20-25; Luke 2:30-32, 3:6; etc.)
The New Testament also makes clear that God’s “way,” mentioned in Psalm 67:2 and now known on earth among all nations, is centered in Jesus. As we have heard, God plan was to work through Abraham and the Jewish nation to bring, at last, Jesus, His Son, born of a Jewish woman, Mary, to be the Savior of the world (through His life, death, and resurrection for us all). This is clearest in the words of Jesus Himself, who said, in John 14:6, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The early Christians who trusted in Jesus were then called “followers of the Way, of Jesus” (Acts 9:2, 18:25, 19:9,23, 24:22 ).
As Psalms 67 and 117 say, the Good News that the Bible shares, centered in Jesus, is really for everyone in the world. Jesus Christ “gave Himself as a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6). “Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
As I write this podcast I know that this Good News of God’s rescue plan through Jesus can be an eternal blessing to everyone who hears and comes to believe in Him. People are reading or listening in various places in the US and in at least 6 other countries and who knows how many more places. Please pray that more will hear and come to trust the Word of God about Jesus:
- “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31-33)
- “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:15-16)
- “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16-18)
May we each also be strengthened in our own faith through what God tells us in His Word. Jesus said, “If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the Truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). And that Benediction, first given to the children of Israel and mentioned in Psalm 67, is a Benediction given also to us through Christ. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).
Monday Jan 23, 2023
Monday Jan 23, 2023
Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany, based on:
Sermon originally delivered January 23, 2011