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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Tuesday May 02, 2023
Tuesday May 02, 2023
I had noticed last week, with Good Shepherd Sunday, the reference in Psalm 80:1 to God as “Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock.” This follows right after Psalm 79:13, where God’s people say to the Lord, “We your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.” Psalm 80 seemed like a good follow-up to what we heard in worship last week and has other important messages for us all, too.
The author is someone from the line of Asaph and his sons, from the tribe of Levi. Asaph was appointed by David to provide music in the tabernacle in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15:16-19, 16:4-5,7 and Nehemiah 12:46). Asaph’s sons later provided music and songs in the temple (1 Chronicles 25:1-9) and are called “prophets,” as their words were inspired by God and His Holy Spirit. This is a reminder again that all Scripture, including the psalms, is inspired by God and helpful for us (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Psalm 50 and Psalms 73-83 are also mentioned as psalms by Asaph and his family group.
The mention of “Lilies” in the introduction is most likely a notation of the melody or musical setting for this psalm, when it was sung. The term “Lilies” is also found in the introduction to Psalms 45 and 60. (If you use the Lutheran Service Book, you can find some of these same type of notations with the hymns but also in the back of the hymnal on pages 998-1017. For example, you can find that the “tune” called “Old Hundredth,” “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow,” is used for 5 different hymns - 632, 775, 791, 805, and 923. See page 1015 in the Lutheran Service Book.)
Psalm 80 is a prayer that God, the “Shepherd of Israel,” would come to save His people, especially the Northern Kingdom of Israel, from threats at this time. (You might remember that after the time of Kings David and Solomon, the Kingdom split into two kingdoms, because there was disagreement over who should be king. Ten of the 12 tribes supported the Northern Kingdom. This is complicated history, which I won’t get into here, but the names mentioned in Psalm 80:1-2 are all connected mostly with the North and with Joseph. This northern kingdom tended to have leaders and people who were less faithful to God over time, and had many troubles as a result. We don’t know for sure, but this psalm was likely written when the North was being threatened by the armies of Assyria, which finally overran and destroyed the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC. Even the Southern Kingdom of Judah was threatened at this time, too.)
There were people still faithful to God, though, and they were crying out to God to “give ear” and to “stir up His might and come to save them" (Psalm 80, v.2). They were calling upon the one true God, “enthroned upon the cherubim” in the temple in Jerusalem.
The cherubim were angels, and representations of two of them were placed on the Ark of the Covenant, according to instructions given to Moses by God (Exodus 25:10-22, especially v.22). Later on, when the temple was built, Solomon built two cherubim in the inner sanctuary, above where the Ark was placed (1 Kings 5:22-28). This is where God would appear in glory, at times, to communicate with Moses and later on with God’s people. (Parallel to this would be the altar area in churches today. We know that God is with us always and is not limited to one place in a church. Yet we respect this area, where we hear God’s Word and receive His presence and blessings in Word and Sacrament.)
In Psalm 80, three times the psalmist and people pray, “Restore us, O God; let Your face shine, that we may be saved” (Psalm 80:3, 7, 19). They know that they are sinful people, who need to be “restored” by God and His mercy and forgiveness. They know that they do not deserve this mercy. God has a right to be angry with them, and they ask, “How long will You be angry with Your people’s prayers?” (Psalm 80:4). They remember how much God had blessed them in the past, taking them from being a small “vine” in Egypt and allowing them to grow into a strong nation (Psalm 80:8-11).
The mention of “mountains” and “cedars” and “the sea” and “the River” describe the boundaries of Israel in its greatest times. See Deuteronomy 11:24 as another example of that description. We could spend a whole study and more on how often the images of a vine and vineyard is used to talk about God’s people, too. See Old Testament references like Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:2-6, Jeremiah 2:21, 12:10, and Hosea 10:1, and New Testament passages like John 10:4, Luke 13:6, Mark 12:1-12, and John 15:1-6.
Sadly, God’s own people had so often sinned and rebelled against Him and His will, including idolatry and worship of false gods, particularly in the Northern Kingdom, that the people had often experienced “the bread of tears” and “tears to drink in full measure,” as a result of their sins. There was “contention” with neighboring people and mockery and laughter from their enemies (Psalm 80:5-6). The trouble and sorrow all seemed to be happening again. God’s “vineyard,” the place of His people, was being “broken down” and plundered again by enemy peoples (Psalm 80:12-13, 16).
And so God’s people cry out, “Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine” (Psalm 80:14). They knew that their only hope would be in God’s “letting His face shine” upon them again with His mercy and peace and blessing (Psalm 80:7, Numbers 6:24-27). They could not “restore” and “save“ themselves, by their own power.
Sadly again, most of the Northern Kingdom continued to “turn back from the Lord” (Psalm 80:18) and finally the Assyrians conquered these people and killed many and carried most others away into captivity in other lands. Very few of these Jews ever returned to the land of Israel. God did not give up on His people, though, even after the Southern Kingdom also drifted from the Lord’s will and many were carried away into captivity in Babylon, in 587-586 BC. God preserved a remnant of His people and brought them back to the land of Israel and continued His promises to answer His people’s prayers “to come and save” them (Psalm 80:3).
Look especially at Psalm 80:15,17-18. Several of the things said here refer to our coming Savior Jesus. The word “stock” in v.15 could be translated “the shoot” or “the root” that is planted by God’s right hand, His most powerful hand. See how that same term is used in the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 11:1-2 and referred to in passages like Acts 13:22-23, regarding Jesus, from the line of Jesse. Notice in Psalm 80:15,17, “the son God has made strong for Himself… the man of God’s right hand, the son of man whom God has made strong for Himself.”
The term “Son of Man” is a reference to the Messiah in Daniel 7:13 and Psalm 2 and other places. and it is a term Jesus often used for Himself in the Gospels, for His saving work. (See Mark 10:45 and Matthew 12:8 and Luke 19:10, etc.) Hosea 11:1 is quoted by Matthew as referring to Jesus, called out of Egypt as God’s Son. Even a Jewish writing, the Targum, paraphrased Psalm 80:15b as referring to “the King Messiah whom Thou hast established for Thyself,” though the emphasis was simply on the Messiah coming from the Jewish nation.
Clearly, the New Testament says that Jesus was the answer to these many prayers of Psalm 80. He was the Shepherd of Israel and the whole world - the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). The psalmist prays, “Give us life, and we will call on Your Name” (Psalm 80:18). He prays, “Let Your Face shine, that we may be saved,” again and again (Psalm 80:3,7,19). John 1:1,4-5 tells that “the Word (Jesus) was God… In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The psalmist prays, “Stir up Your might and come to save us” (Psalm 80:2). That is exactly why Jesus came. John 3:16-17 tells us, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him… that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus is the Answer, and we are “restored” through Him (Psalm 23:3, Psalm 51:12, and 1 Peter 5:10, “The God of all grace , who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you”).
Two final thoughts. We use the prayer, “Stir up your power and come to save us” (Psalm 80:2) also in the four weeks of the Advent season, as we prepare for a truly Christ-centered Christmas and its greatest gift, Jesus Himself. We can also use those words as a prayer for our churches, that Christ will do His saving work in and through the Word and Sacraments that we use, even in challenging days, when some seem more resistant to the faith. And we pray this prayer also as we await with confidence the return of Christ on the last day. As Revelation 22:20 says, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
Finally, one last thought that Lutherans might be especially interested in. Pope Leo X, in 1520, wrote a papal document condemning Martin Luther and his teachings and giving him 60 days to appear in Rome. Pope Leo quoted from Psalm 80:13, saying that Luther himself was “the boar from the forest who was ravaging the Church.” In early 1521, Pope Leo then excommunicated Luther from the Roman Catholic Church, even though Luther was trying to proclaim Jesus as the one and only Savior from sin (John 10:9, 14:6) and the one who was seeking to draw all people together in one flock, with one Shepherd, Jesus Himself, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit (John 10:16).
Monday May 01, 2023
Monday May 01, 2023
Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 15, 2011
Monday Apr 24, 2023
Monday Apr 24, 2023
This Sunday is known as Good Shepherd Sunday, and most of our readings have to do with Jesus as our Good Shepherd, in all that He did and still does for us.
The psalm is, of course, Psalm 23, David’s beautiful words about the Lord as his Shepherd. The Lord, in His wisdom, provides all that David really needs in a spiritual way. He restores David’s soul, after difficult times, and provides him with spiritual food and drink. Even in the shadow of death, when in the presence of enemies, the Lord gives him comfort and courage. The Lord will give him goodness and mercy, and one day, he will live in the house of the Lord forever.
That is the promise of God for all of us, too, with Jesus as our Good Shepherd. In the Gospel lesson, John 10:1-10, Jesus says that He is “the door for His sheep.” Those who enter into the sheepfold through faith in Him will be saved and find good pasture and have abundant life, now and forever. There are thieves and robbers who can endanger the sheep, but the sheep of Jesus’ flock will listen only to Him and His voice, in His Word. He knows us all by name and will care for us always.
The first lesson, Acts 2:42-47, tells how those who were brought to faith in Jesus and were baptized on Pentecost were able to stay in faith and were strengthened. They kept coming together in worship and fellowship and heard the apostles’ teaching through the Word of God and had “the breaking of bread,” including the Lord’s Supper. They also prayed for each other and helped with each other’s needs in a generous way, and the Lord added more people to them who were being saved.
Peter adds, in our Epistle lesson, 1 Peter 2:19-25, that we can also expect some suffering and trouble as sheep of our Good Shepherd, even when we are trying to do good and right things. We are following in the steps of Jesus, who suffered and was reviled and finally died for us, carrying our sins on the tree of the cross. By His wounds, we have been healed. We were like straying sheep, but now have been brought to our Good Shepherd, the Overseer of our souls, who will care for us.
Monday Apr 24, 2023
Monday Apr 24, 2023
Psalm 115 deals with a constant temptation for the children of Israel. The Lord had taught his people that there was only one true God, whom alone they should worship and serve. The foundation commandment of the 10 Commandments, the first commandment, is recorded in Exodus 20:3 and again in Deuteronomy 5:7 and repeated in many other ways throughout the Old Testament: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” An explanation of that commandment followed in both Exodus and Deuteronomy. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Exodus 20:4-5 and Deuteronomy 5:8-9).
All around them, though, were peoples and nations that were polytheists, believing in many gods and goddesses, and making idols for themselves. Psalm 115: 4-8 ridicules the making and worshiping of idols, “the work of human hands.” These idols may have mouths and eyes and ears, etc., but they cannot speak or see or hear or do anything at all. There are similar descriptions and statements in other places in the Scriptures. Psalm 135 says much the same thing in v.15-18, along with other similar words we will touch on later in v.6 and v.19-20. See also Jeremiah 10:3-5 and 8-11, and most strongly in Isaiah 44:6-20, where God says through Isaiah, “I am the first and I am the last, besides me there is no god” (v.6) and “Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing?”(v.10).
Still, the Israelites too often followed the temptation to be like so many others and follow false gods and idols like “the golden calf” in Exodus 32. A summary of the history of God’s people in 2 Kings 17:6-20 says things like this: The Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians “because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God… and feared other gods… and walked in the customs of other nations… things that were not right… They went after false idols and became false… They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves images of two calves and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served Baal.” (All these were false gods and idols or objects of worship of other nations.)
“None was left but the (Southern) tribe of Judah alone. Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had introduced (including idolatry)… And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel… until He had cast them out of His sight,” with the fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judah to the Babylonians. During low times like these, others nations would mock God’s people and say, “Where is their God” who lets them have such trouble (Psalm 115:2). See also passages like Psalm 42:10, where the some of God’s people wrote, “As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’” - implying that this “God” cannot be seen and thus did not exist.
Do we hear such challenges still today, as people attack God and Christianity at times? Our answer is in Psalm 115:3: “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.” We trust our Lord. He is not like the false gods of the Greeks and Romans and others of old, who were very human-like, in doing both some good and much evil. They literally did whatever they wished, even if it was wrong. The God revealed in Scripture is always working for ultimate good, though He may have to “discipline” at times and we do not always understand His ways. (See passages like Hebrews 12:5-7.)
Thus, the call comes in Psalm 115:9ff.: “O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their Help and their Shield.” God did not give up on His people, and after a time of captivity, He forgave and restored them to the land of Israel. Some think that this psalm was written as a warning and reminder, in this later time in Israelite history, that Israel should not slip back into gross idolatry again.
There could also be other kinds of idolatry and false worship, though, besides literal use of idols. Psalm 115: 1 says, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your Name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love (mercy) and Your faithfulness.” The Scriptures warn that we can turn many things into gods, including ourselves and things we have or “covet,” if we make them more important that God Himself and His Word and will. Psalm 115:1 says twice that glory and honor should go above all to God and not to ourselves and what we are and accomplish. We are not to love and trust in our possessions and money (Proverbs 11:28) or our family (Matthew 10:37) or our own goodness (Ephesians 2:8-9), or anything else, more than God and His good gifts to us (James 1:17-18).
There are dangers here for us even today and even as God’s people. Our parents and family are very important. God even gave us commandments about them. We need some money and a place to live and on and on. But none of this is more important that our Lord. He is the One we are to trust above all, no matter who we are.
In Psalm 115:9-13, the psalmist especially speaks to “Israel,” the chosen people of God, and “the house of Aaron,” the priests who led the people in worship and learning, and faithful people, “small and great,” who “fear” and love God. All of them are called to “trust in the Lord” above all, and recognize that “being blessed by the Lord” is most important. It would be so easy to focus upon themselves and what they are doing or thinking or accomplishing, rather than giving God the glory and praise. (I have to watch out for that danger myself, as a pastor and teacher!) Remember the parable in Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee, the religious leader, can only seem to talk about himself and the great things he is doing. He goes home not “justified,” while the struggling tax collector can only pray, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” and goes home forgiven and blessed and right with God.
Think above all of our Lord Jesus, who did finally come from the people of Israel to be our Savior. See how He, too, was tempted as we are, yet did not sin, in Matthew 4:1-11. The devil tempted him with food and honor and fame and personal possessions and “glory,” if He would only “fall down and worship him,” instead of putting God first. Jesus simply quoted Scripture, ending with Deuteronomy 6:13, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.”
The whole life of Jesus was one of service to His heavenly Father, doing everything right, in our place, where we so often fail. Finally, we sinners were redeemed and ransomed and forgiven by His sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins. See 1 Peter 1:18-21: “You were ransomed… with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a Lamb without spot or blemish… and God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” In Christ Jesus we now trust, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the one true God “who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 115:15) - the complete fulfillment of the “trust in the Lord” spoken of in Psalm 115.
Two last comments on Psalm 115. Verse17 reminds us that we cannot take any of those things we cherish so much with us when we die. Our mouths will be stopped, and we can trust only in the “precious blood” of Christ, shed for us, and that will be enough.
But, as verse 18 says, and the New testament makes clear, “we will bless the Lord” - give Him all the praise and glory and honor, “forevermore” in a perfect way, in everlasting life “in the heavens” (v.3, too).
One more brief comment. Some churches understand Exodus 20:4 as a second and separate commandment, which forbids any kind of image or likeness of anything in a church building. Such churches are therefore very plain and have no artwork of any kind in them. Christians traditionally have understood v. 4 as an additional explanation of v.3, of having no other gods and forbidding worship and adoration of any objects or anything, that should be given only to God. We take this second view as Lutherans, and also believe that Scripture itself should help us to interpret Scripture. In the Old Testament tabernacle and later on in the temple, for example, the ark of the covenant had images of winged cherubs (a kind of angel) one on each side of the mercy seat (Exodus 25:18-20). The golden lampstand had “cups made like almond blossoms” (Exodus 25:33-34). The priestly robe had images of pomegranates and bells on it.
In other words, God Himself had commanded Moses to make these images of things for use in the temple. In the New Testament, John sees, in visions of heaven, seven stars and a two-edged sword (Revelation 1:16) and living creatures that look like a lion and an eagle, etc. (Revelation 4:6-8). All this is to says that many Christians feel that it is acceptable to use images and symbols and artwork in churches, for teaching purposes or for the glory of God, as long as these do not become sacred objects of worship, and we clearly worship only God Himself, as Psalm 115 indicates.
Monday Apr 24, 2023
Monday Apr 24, 2023
Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 22, 2023
Monday Apr 24, 2023
Monday Apr 24, 2023
Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 8, 2011
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Monday Apr 17, 2023
In Psalm 116, an unidentified psalmist “loves the Lord” and “will call on Him always,“ because the Lord has heard him and delivered his soul from “distress and anguish” and danger of “death” itself. He “believes” the Lord, for the Lord is “gracious and merciful” and will help “simple” people like him, who are open to learning God’s Word and His will, instead of the “lies“ of so much of mankind. The psalmist then sings a great song of praise to the Lord. We use these words in an offertory, an offering hymn, singing God’s Word to each other in Divine Service, Setting One, in the Lutheran Service Book. The psalmist also knows that the death of God’s saints, His believers, is “precious” to the Lord and this is in prophecy of the coming saving work and death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus (There is more detail about this psalm in this week's podcast Bible study, too.)
The Gospel lesson, Luke 24:13-35, continues the story of the resurrection of Jesus and His appearance alive to two ordinary followers of Jesus, not part of the original 12 disciples. They are very sad, because their hopes that Jesus was the “the one to redeem Israel” had now been dashed by His death. Jesus appears to them, but hides who He really was, until He taught them from Scripture and became their Host in His meal with them and “the breaking of the bread” with them. Then Jesus vanished, and these two followers hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive!
The first lesson, Acts 2:14a, 36-41, concludes the preaching of Peter on Pentecost, as He proclaimed that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. 3,000 people were cut to the heart and received the Word of God and were brought to faith by the Holy Spirit, and baptized. The promised blessings in baptism are the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and these promises are for all, including children, and people who are far off. Repentance, too, is through God’s working in people and not by our efforts and decisions. See Acts 5:30-31 and Acts 11:15-18
The Epistle lesson is from 1 Peter 1:17-25. Peter is writing to Christians scattered in many places and reminding them of what Christ Jesus had done for them. They were ransomed from their futile ways through the precious blood of Christ. They and we are believers in God through Him. God raised Jesus from the dead and gave Him glory, and we are “born again” through “the living and abiding Word of God” - the Good News preached to us (as well as through baptism). (See John 3:1-6, also.) In response to our salvation, we are called to fear, love and trust in God and seek to serve Him and live in “brotherly love” with one another.
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Psalm 116 in a psalm of thanksgiving to God for deliverance from great danger and from death itself. The specific situation is not described, and this has thus been a psalm used by many as a prayer in times of great difficulty, whatever they may be. The author is not identified, but many think this is one of the later psalms written in the Old Testament because there are many references to psalms of David and others.
The psalmist begins by declaring that he loves the Lord, because the Lord has heard his voice and his pleas for mercy. The psalmist was surrounded by the snares of death, of Sheol, and suffered distress and anguish (Psalm 116:1-3). He cried out, “O Lord, deliver my soul,” and “the Lord delivered his soul from death, his eyes from tears, and his feet from stumbling.” “He walks before the Lord again in the land of the living” (v.4,8-9).
Therefore, the psalmist will keep “calling on Him as long as he lives” because he knows that the Lord is “gracious and righteous and merciful” and “has dealt bountifully with him.” He can “rest in the Lord” and His care (v.2,5,7). He knows that the Lord “preserves simple people” like him (v. 6). (The word “simple” does not mean someone who is naïve and feeble in mind, but someone who is “open” to learning and instruction, especially from the Lord. See, for example, Proverbs 1:1-7, where the same word is used for those “open” to the Lord’s knowledge, in contrast with “fools who despise wisdom and instruction.”)
The psalmist knows that he must turn to the Lord, because he is “alarmed” to discover that “All mankind are liars” (Psalm 116:11). Fellow human beings, and he himself, and all of us, are weak, sinful people, far from true Godly wisdom if left on our own. (See Scriptures like Genesis 6:5 and Jeremiah 4:22 and 17:9 and Romans 3:22-23. Be sure to read these!) So, the psalmist continues to “believe” the Lord and trust Him, even when he himself says, “I am greatly afflicted” (Psalm 116:10). He know that he will be taken care of by his Lord, no matter what comes for him. He knows that he would be blessed by His Lord, even if he would die (v. 15). (“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” - those who are right with God by faith in His mercy.)
This mercy of God would be shown most clearly, of course, in Christ our Savior, who always followed His Heavenly Father’s will, even if it meant, as it did, suffering and dying for us to pay the penalty for our sins. That was not the end for Jesus, for He rose in victory for us on the day we call Easter. See how Paul uses words from this psalm, Psalm 116:10, in 2 Corinthians 4:13-15: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will bring us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.”
The psalmist, who knew of God’s mercy and promises in his life and in prophecy for the future, fulfilled finally in Jesus, then broke into a song of praise and thanks to the Lord in Psalm 116:12-17. He was “God’s servant,” and the Lord had “loosed his bonds,” bringing him freedom and hope and rest (v.7,16). He will now worship the Lord with fellow believers “in the courts of the house of the Lord” (v.14,18,19), and he will “pay his vows,” make his commitments to the Lord, in gratefulness and praise to the Lord (v.14,17-19).
If some of these words sound familiar to you, it it because v.12-14 and 17-19 are used as an “offertory," an offering song, after the sermon and before the Communion liturgy, in the Divine Service, Setting One, in the Lutheran Service Book, as offerings are brought to the Lord. We are singing God’s Word to and with each other, just as the psalmist was doing.
Note also that the psalmist says, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (v.13). When God’s people came to Jerusalem to celebrate the yearly Passover, one of the cups of wine they shared with each other in the Passover service was called “the cup of salvation.” That service ended with singing of psalms, from Psalms 113-118, also. This is prophetic of Jesus.
Remember that when Jesus came as the Savior, He also celebrated the Passover with His disciples the night before His death. He used the unleavened bread and the wine of “the cup of salvation” and transformed them into what we now call The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. In and with and under the bread and wine, we also receive the body and blood of Christ Jesus and the blessings of His forgiveness. That is now our “cup of salvation,” that we can receive regularly in faith. (See, for example, Matthew 26:26-28.) Note also that then they closed the Passover “with a hymn they sang and then went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30), where Jesus prayed and then was arrested and died on the cross the next day. Most likely, Jesus sang Psalm 116 as a part of His last hymn before His suffering and death on the cross.
Read through Psalm 116 again, thinking about it with reference to Jesus. The psalmist is grateful that he escaped death, but Jesus went to His death for our sake. Jesus suffered “distress and anguish, tears and stumbling and death” that we deserve. He was “greatly afflicted” in our place, for our sins, because “all mankind, including us, are liars.”
“His death was precious in the eyes of His Heavenly Father,” and he was raised to life on Easter, and earned for us eternal life, as we believe and trust in Him. “What shall we render to the Lord, for all His benefits to us?” We believe in and praise and thank the Lord! And we are His servants, in gratitude for all He has done for us, in Christ.
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 1, 2011
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
At the heart of our Scripture readings this week is the Gospel lesson, the story of Jesus and doubting Thomas and the other readings all revolve around it.
The Psalm is Psalm 148, a song of praise to the Lord. First, the angels are called upon to praise the Lord and then the sun, moon, and stars and all we see above - for He commanded, and they were created. Then, the things of earth are called upon to praise the Lord, as well, culminating with all rulers and people of all ages. All of creation is thus to praise the Lord’s Name and majesty. Finally there is a prophecy of the Lord raising up “a horn” for His people, and for this, especially, the Lord is to be praised. A horn had been a symbol of power and strength in the Old Testament, and Zechariah, in the Gospel of Luke, identifies this “horn” as the coming Savior, Jesus, whose way John the Baptism would prepare. (See Luke 1:67-79, and especially, v.69.)
The Gospel lesson is John 20:19-31. The Risen Lord Jesus shows Himself alive to His disciples on Easter evening and gives them His Holy Spirit and the power to forgive sins. The disciple Thomas was not there, though, and refuses to believe that Jesus could be alive unless he sees Him and touches Him. A week later, Jesus appears again to the disciples, and Thomas is there. Quickly he believes, calling Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” It is good that he believes, but Jesus adds, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John adds that all that he has written in this Gospel was written that we too may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, we may have life, also, in His Name.
The first Scripture lesson is from Acts 5:28-42, part of the history of the early Christian church. The disciples had been arrested and jailed for telling people about the Risen Lord Jesus, but an angel came and set them free. They were telling about Jesus again when religious leaders stopped them and brought them before the Jewish Council. They were threatened again and told not to teach in the name of Jesus. They responded, “We must obey God, rather than men” and proclaimed Jesus as leader and Savior, now alive again and exalted to the right hand of God. The Council members talked among themselves, and a respected Pharisee, Gamaliel, spoke of other troublemakers who had died away eventually. He recommended that they leave the disciples alone and see what happened. This would avoid the very unlikely chance that the Council could even be opposing God, themselves. They beat and threatened the disciples and let them go, and the disciples felt it an honor to suffer dishonor for the sake of Jesus. They kept right on teaching and preaching that “the Christ is Jesus.”
The Epistle lesson is from 1 Peter 1:3-9. Peter writes this later letter to Christian believers scattered in various places. He talks of Christians being born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. They now have an inheritance kept for them in heaven that would be fully revealed at the return of Christ, and they already have “the outcome of their faith, the salvation of their souls.” Their souls will be with their Lord in heaven when they die, even if they have to go through various trials and testing of their faith , when still here on earth.