The lutheransermons's Podcast

Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost - August 14, 2022

Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Genesis 18:20-33

Colossians 2:6-19

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon originally delivered July 28, 2013

Preparing for Worship - August 14, 2022

The Scriptures this week are challenging because they speak of the “fiery” challenges we may face at times in our lives because many are opposed to God and His will and will be a challenge to us, too

The Psalm is Psalm 119:81-88, at the very middle of this long psalm praising God and the blessings of His Word. The psalmist admits that he has “persecutors,” “insolent“ people who are against God and His Word and Law and therefore oppose him, too, with “falsehood.” The psalmist feels as worn and shriveled as a “wineskin in the smoke” above a hot fire. Yet he “hopes in God’s Word” and prays that he may faithfully “keep the testimonies of the mouth of the Lord.

The Old Testament lesson is from Jeremiah 23:16-29. The Lord sees many so-called prophets around Jeremiah, “who speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.” They create many problems and much confusion for people with their lies. The Lord commands Jeremiah to keep speaking the truth. “Let him who has my Word speak my Word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? Is not my Word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” That powerful Word of God needs to be shared, even in the midst of opposition.

Jesus is “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 8:9, John 14:27). Yet in our Gospel lesson, Luke 12:49-53 (54-56), Jesus says that He has come to bring “fire” and “division” on the earth. He does not wish that, but knows that many will oppose Him and His believers and that a “baptism” of “distress” and suffering is coming for Him, as He dies on the cross to pay the penalty for all sins. Sadly, people can predict the weather from signs in the earth and sky, but too many cannot see and believe that Jesus is the Promised Savior, coming to rescue people.

The Epistle lesson continues a reading from last week from Hebrews - Hebrews 11:17-31 (32-40) 12:1-3. We hear of more people who lived “by faith” in God’s promises, from Abraham and his descendants to Moses to David and the prophets, and so many more. “Some were tortured. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.” They kept the faith and will have life, yet did not see the ultimate fulfillment in “Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith.” We can “run with endurance the race set before us,” too, with our eyes on Jesus, who “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The alternate Gospel reading for St. James, Revelation 21:1-8, reminds believers in Christ that they, and we, too, will enjoy eternal life with Him. Though there will be sorrows and trials in this life, in heaven there will “not be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore” and those opposed to God will be in “the lake of fire” and will not trouble the children of God any longer.

Study of Galatians Part 10 - Galatians 3:23-4:7

Last week, we heard Paul teaching again that our only hope for life, now and forever, is in the promises of God in Jesus Christ, brought by faith to those who believe in Him. The Law is important, but in showing us that everything, including us, is imprisoned under sin because of our inherited “original sin” and our own failure to keep all of that Law as we should. There is no Life in the Law - only a recognition of our sinfulness and our need for a Savior (Galatians 3:21-22).

Paul used similar terms for what the Law does in Galatians 3:23-24. He said that people were confined, held “captive,” “imprisoned” under the law, until the “coming faith would be revealed” in Christ. He said that the Law was like our “guardian until Christ came” and we could be “justified,” counted righteous, simply “by faith” in Him and what He did for us.

Twice Paul used a term that means “a leader of a child.” We get our English word, “pedagogue,” a teacher,  from this Greek word. In the ancient Greco-Roman world, though, the word meant something more like a “guardian” for a child, until he comes of age, with more adult responsibilities. See Paul’s comments a little later, in Galatians 4:1-2, about a child who is an “heir,” but is under guardianship and is little different from a “slave” until “the date set by his father” to receive his privileges as a son. A Greek dictionary defines such a “guardian,” as “usually a slave, whose duty it was to conduct the boy or youth to and from school and to superintend his conduct” - to try to keep him out of trouble and care about his physical well-being and give him a sense of right and wrong, for his own good.

The Law serves such purposes for us, too, as a sort of guardian for us. Our Lutheran catechism for children (and all of us) says that the Law of God primarily serves as a “mirror,” showing us our sins and our need for Christ. But it also serves as a “curb,” with warnings and judgments for us if we “jump the curb” and, in doing so, hurt or harm ourselves and others, by going where we don’t belong and doing what we shouldn’t do. The Law also serves as “a ruler,” showing us “the straight and narrow way” that is best for us and others and will do good - and reminding us that we sin even by neglecting to do the good that we should do.

Do you think that children of old always did what their “guardians” wanted them to do? Do you think the guardians themselves were perfect and always led in the right way? If you look in the mirror of God’s Law and compare it with the way our world looks or the way our own country looks or the way we ourselves look these days, how are we doing? All of us fall very far short of God’s expectations. The Law is about what we are to do, and we are not doing so well. The Law of God does not give us hope and comfort. When we really listen to it, we are also forced to say, with the tax collector in Luke 18:13, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

That is why Paul, in Galatians 3:25-26, then takes us back to the Gospel, the Good News of what God has done for us and continues to do. There is our hope. Paul writes, to the Galatians and to us, “Now that faith has come,” that faith brought to us by Christ Jesus, “we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, we “are all sons of God,” children of God, “by faith.” While we were still enslaved in sin, following the sinful “principals of this world,” and not keeping the Law as we should, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” of God, children of God (Galatians 4:3-5).

It was by the coming of Christ Jesus and His perfect life, keeping all the Law in our place, and His death on the cross in payment for our sins, in our place, and His resurrection from the dead for us, that we “are no longer a slave, but a son, a child of God, and if a son, also an heir” of all that God promised (Galatians 4:7). Paul also added that this was all “through God” and all His grace and mercy for us (Galatians 4:7).

And how did we personally receive all these promises earned for us by Christ Jesus? Paul writes in Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” God the Holy Spirit has also been at work, through the Word of God and that Word connected with water in baptism to bring us the gift of faith in the one true Triune God. We have Christ in us, and the Holy Spirit, too (see Galatians 4:6), and we are enabled to cry out in faith, “Abba, Father” - trusting our “Father, dear Father” as His dear children.

These are promises for all of us, as we are brought to faith and baptism. For our salvation, it does not matter if we are “Jew or Greek” or any other nationality. It does not matter if we are “slave or free.” It does not matter if we are “male or female”. We are “all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). And, Paul adds, “If we are Christ’s, then we are offspring (descendants by faith)) of Abraham, heirs according to promise, counted righteous in God’s eyes, simply by faith in our Savior, Jesus (Galatians 3:29).

Notice again that there is not a word in all that Paul has written about our good works somehow contributing to our salvation. It is not faith plus works, but faith alone that saves, as the gift of God’s grace. Paul wants the Galatians and us to know that as clearly as possible, and so he keep repeating the Gospel hope we have in Jesus.

The Lord’s continued blessings to you all, as you live confidently by faith in Him.

Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost - August 7, 2022

Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Genesis 18:1-14 

Colossians 1:21-29

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon originally delivered July 21, 2013

Preparing for Worship - August 7, 2022

The Scripture readings for this week encourage us to live by faith and trust in our Lord’s promises and His love for us and what he has done for us in Christ.

The Old Testament lesson is Genesis 15:1-6, where God renewed His promise to Abraham to give him many offspring, many descendants, even though he and his wife were still childless. It was difficult for Abraham, but the Lord strengthened his faith, and we hear, “He believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” He was counted righteous, not by his own good works, but by faith in God’s promises and work for him, including the eventual coming of the Savior, Jesus.

The Epistle lesson is part of the “By Faith” Chapter in Hebrews 11:1-16. We have a long list of people in the Scriptures who lived "by faith” in God and the power of His Word and promises, from the Creation onward, including Abraham. Faith is defined as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” We have the great privilege of knowing from Scripture about Jesus and His saving work already done for us, unlike those who lived beforehand and “greeted these promises from afar”
(Hebrews 11:13).

Jesus speaks to us all in the Gospel lesson, Luke 12:22-34 (35-40), encouraging us to trust in our Heavenly Father and in Him, even about the everyday challenges we face. Jesus reminds us that worry and anxiety won’t accomplish anything. God knows what we need, and if we “seek His kingdom,” He will take care of the rest, as He knows best. Above all, He has already given us the promise of His Kingdom through Christ and by His grace, His “good pleasure.” He promises that He will return for us, one unknown day, and we need only to be ready and waiting for Him, “by faith.”

The Psalm is Psalm 33:12-22 and the Psalmist speaks about concerns we all have, about leaders and nations and sometimes their misplaced trust in themselves and their power and their wisdom, instead of trusting the Lord. The Psalmist assures us that Lord is watching, though it may not look like it, and as “we wait for the Lord” and “hope in Him,” His “steadfast love will be upon us.”

The alternate Gospel lesson used at St. James is John 20:11-18, as we hear that Jesus conquered death with His mighty resurrection, and showed Himself alive to Mary near the tomb. If Jesus could rise from the dead, He surely could take care of everything else He promised. With joy, Mary then went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” We can tell of the hope we have in Christ, too.

Study of Galatians Part 9 - Galatians 3:15-22

Last week we heard that our attempts to be acceptable to God by keeping His law put us under a curse, because we never come close to doing everything as we should. Our hope is not in our efforts, but in Christ, who “redeemed us from the curse of the law,” by taking on Himself all sins and “becoming a curse for us,” and paying the penalty for all our sins, in our place (Galatians 3:10-14).

Paul then continued to emphasize the difference between the Gospel promises of God, given to Abraham, and the Laws given 430 years later to Moses and God’s people at Mt. Sinai. Paul used a "human example” of a "man-made covenant” or agreement - for example, a Last Will and Testament that someone makes. Various promises are made about money and property and who will be given these things. Once that will is prepared and signed, it cannot be added to or changed by anyone other than the author of the will. Everything will finally be revealed at the time of death (Galatians 3:15).

This is in a sense what God did, Paul said, when He made the covenant of promise to Abraham, when He first called Abraham in Genesis 12. God promised that He would make of Abraham “a great nation” and He promised, “In you (in your seed, in your offspring) all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3, Galatians 3:16).

Paul went on to point out that in the original language, the word for “seed” or “offspring” was singular, not plural. One particular offspring of Abraham would be a blessing to all families on earth; and Paul identified that offspring, that descendant, to be “Christ“ Jesus (Galatians 3:14,16). What Abraham believed in Genesis 15:6, was that God would keep His promise and give Abraham that great nation, and give from that nation a particular descendant who would bless all nations. In effect, Abraham was ultimately believing in the coming Christ Jesus, and by that faith, Abraham was counted righteous in God’s eyes.

Paul also pointed out, in Romans 4:9-10, that Abraham was “counted righteous” by faith before, not after, he was circumcised. The call to to be circumcised came later, in Genesis 17, so circumcision itself had nothing to do with Abraham’s being called righteous. In fact, Paul explained in Romans 4:11-12 that circumcision was “a seal of the righteousness that he (already) had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.” “The purpose,” Paul said, “was to make him the father of all who believe” - whether they were circumcised or not - “so that righteousness would be counted to them all by faith” in God’s promises, not by circumcision itself.

Back in Galatians 3:17, Paul also reminded the Galatians that the 10 Commandments and other laws were not given until 430 years later (see Exodus 12:40), when God led His people out of Egypt, through Moses, and brought them to Mt. Sinai. There, God blessed them and said He loved them and had already rescued them from slavery in Egypt, by His own care and mercy. (See Exodus 20:1-2 and Deuteronomy 33:1-4.) Only then did God give them His commandments and other laws.

Paul was saying that the Law was important, but it was not a way of earning God’s favor and salvation. In Galatians 3:17, Paul made it clear that the Law did not “annul” the covenant of promise that God had already “ratified” through Abraham. The “inheritance,” the blessings of God, would still come by God’s promise, given to Abraham and fulfilled finally in the descendant, Christ Jesus, and not by keeping new laws which would make the promises of God “void.” For, Paul said, “if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise” (Galatians 3:18).

Why then the Law? Why was it given? It was not given to save us, by our obedience to it. Rather, Paul said, “it was added because of transgressions,” until the offspring, our Lord Jesus, would come, to whom and through whom the promise of God had been made and would be fulfilled (Galatians 3:19). The Law’s primary purpose was to show us and the whole world our transgressions, our sins, and that we could never be good enough in God’s eyes by our own efforts (Romans 3:19-20, 23).

Paul even went so far as to say in Romans 5:20 that “the Law came in to increase the trespass” - not that God wants sin to increase, but that we would have increasing knowledge of how great our own sins are, as we compare our lives with God’s standard, His Law. Then we stop trying to trust our own good works and efforts and know how much we need a Savior, that Offspring from Abraham, our Lord Jesus. There are other purposes of the Law, but this is the primary one, showing us how serious and hopeless our sinful condition is, left on our own.

Paul ends this section of his letter by talking about intermediaries and mediators. There is mention in the Scriptures that when the Law was given, angels were involved in some way. (See Deuteronomy 33:1-4, Acts 7:38, Hebrews 2:2, etc.) But even with all these angels around, we humans still do not always do what the law says.

Stephen preached, “You who received the Law, as delivered by angels, did not keep it” (Acts 7:53). In fact, “God is one," Paul says (Galatians 3:20). No sinful human being can mediate with God and help himself or any other person. (See Psalm 49:7-9.) Only God Himself can help us - and He does so in the person of His Son, who became man, that perfect Offspring, and did His saving work for us.

The Law is not contrary to the Gospel, the promise of God in Christ, Paul concluded. We need both, but they serve different purposes. There is no Law that can “give us life”(Galatians 3:21). Rather, the “Scripture” that is Law shows us that we and everything else are “imprisoned under sin” and cannot rescue ourselves by our own works and efforts.

We are driven by the Law, therefore, to Christ alone and what He has earned for us and gives us: “the promise by faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe,” including us (Galatians 3:22). We, along with Abraham, are counted as righteous simply by God’s promise and His gift of faith, given to us in Christ (Galatians 3:22).

That is what Paul wanted the Galatians, and us today, to believe. Being circumcised or keeping other old laws and rules cannot save us, in spite of what false teachers say. We are saved only by God’s grace, through the gift of faith that Jesus gives to us, through His Spirit, working in His Word and Sacraments.

The Lord’s blessings to you all, in the promises of God in Christ Jesus.

Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost - July 31, 2022

Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Leviticus 18:1-5; 19:9-18

Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37 

Sermon originally delivered July 14, 2013

Preparing for Worship - July 31, 2022

The Scripture readings for this week cause us to think about our lives and what we are really focusing on as important. The Psalm is Psalm 100. The author is filled with joy, gladness, singing, thanksgiving, praise, and blessing, as he enters God’s house, because he remembers the goodness and steadfast love of God, who created His people and continues to care for them as His precious sheep.

In contrast, in Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, and 2:18-26, the author of Ecclesiastes, most likely Solomon, is cynical and sees, even as king, a lot of “unhappy business” and vanity in life, like trying to catch the wind. He works hard and yet what he has built might go to someone who is a fool. There is much sorrow, and his heart cannot find rest. Yet he knows that only the hand of God can give him enjoyment and wisdom, as he seeks again to trust in and please Him.

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 12:13-21, Jesus warns about “covetousness” and focusing on the “abundance of one’s possessions.” He then tells a parable of a rich man who finally thinks he has “ample goods laid up for many years” and can just relax and enjoy himself. He was a “fool,” for he died that very night. “So it is,” Jesus said, for anyone who “lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

How can we be “rich toward God?” Our Epistle lesson, Colossians 3:1-11 tells us that by “setting our minds” on “Christ, who is our life” and our guarantee of our eternal future in heaven. Even in this life, “Christ is all and in all” believers, and He can help us live with our “new self” in Him and battle the old, sinful things in our lives that are hurtful to us and others, as we await His “appearance in glory.” 

The alternative Gospel lesson, for St. James, is Luke 23:26, 32-46, where we hear of how God’s plan of salvation was completed for us by the work of Christ on the cross. He prayed for the forgiveness of all our sins and earned that forgiveness for us by His sacrificial death in our place. Then, because His mighty resurrection was coming, He could also promise to the criminal and to all us who trust in Him, “You will be with me in Paradise.”

Study of Galatians Part 8 - Galatians 3:6-14

As last week’s study closed, Paul quoted from Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Galatians 3:6). What does that mean? What Paul wrote later in his Letter to the Romans, Chapter 4, helps us to understand, as he quoted the same passage there, in Romans 4:3, and then commented that someone who works for wages expects to be paid. His wages are not a gift, but are what is due to him or her. He has earned that pay (Romans 4:4).

In contrast, in the spiritual realm, with regard to salvation, a person should not try to earn salvation by doing good works, but simply “believe or trust in Him (God) who justifies the ungodly.” That “faith or trust is counted as righteousness” for people, no matter who they are (Romans 4:5).

What Paul says here just does not sound right to our human reason and way of thinking in this world. It used to be said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” The common perception is that you only get what you have earned and deserved and paid for. (That thinking may be changing, in a culture where people think they deserve a break and deserve more and more for themselves, regardless of their actions. But in general, people still think they should work and earn for themselves in some way if they are capable of doing so.)

In the spiritual realm with God, that will not work, Paul is saying. Go back to Galatians 3, verse 10. Paul writes, “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.’” This is a quotation from Deuteronomy 27:26, and in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, there is a long list of curses and judgments coming even for God’s Old Testament people of Israel if they sinned and rebelled against God’s will. And from what we just read, they would have to do it all correctly to be acceptable to God.

This is a message found throughout the Bible. See, for example, James 2:10-11: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.’”

See also what Jesus says in  Matthew 5:21-22 and 27-28. Who of us has never broken these commandments of God, in the ways that Jesus says are still sins? Hear also what is said in James 3:2: “For we all stumble (sin) in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect person, able to bridle his own body.” Who among us is really that perfect?

See also the story in Mark 10:17-22, where a man asks Jesus what he must do “to inherit eternal life.” Jesus talked about keeping the commandments and then challenged the man about wise use of his “great possessions,” showing him that he was trusting in possessions too much, instead of trusting God. The disciples, who seemed to think that it was always a sign of blessing and favor with God to be very wealthy, asked Jesus, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus answered very bluntly, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God” (Mark 10:23-27). Imagine that! It is impossible for us to be saved by our efforts and work to please God, no matter how hard we try.

That is exactly what Paul was trying to teach the Galatian Christians as he wrote to them. If they listened to and followed the false teachers, who had given them a bunch of new laws to follow to be a "genuine" Christian, then they were doomed. They would have to keep all these laws perfectly. One failure - and they were unacceptable and condemned as sinners. And who is perfect? No one, according to God’s standard, if they tried to please God by the good things they did. (See Matthew 5:48.)

So Paul said, in Galatians 3:11, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by (keeping) the law,” because the law says, “The one who does them shall live by them” (Leviticus 18:5, Galatians 3:11-12). And who does that, all the time?

Paul is saying that we need to give up on trying to save ourselves by our good works and efforts. That will never work. We need to trust God and what he can do for us, for as Jesus said, “With God, nothing is impossible,” for our salvation (Mark 10:27). Or as the Genesis quotation said, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Galatians 3:6). Abraham was declared and counted as a righteous man simply by faith, by believing God Himself and His promises, and not by doing his own works of the law.

And this was a promise not just for Abraham, but for all people who live by faith in God and especially in the work done for us by Christ Jesus. His work saved us, not our work. Paul said, “Know then that it those of faith who are the sons of Abraham,” as well. For God was preaching this Good News, this Gospel, to all people, including non-Jews, when he said to Abraham, “In you, (in your descendant, Jesus) shall all the nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). “So then,” Paul said, “those who are of faith (in Jesus) are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:9, 12-14).

Trusting in Jesus and His saving work is enough, Paul is emphasizing. Everyone who trusts in Him is counted as righteous. That is true of the Galatian Christians and that is true of us, as well. Any sin of ours curses us, but Jesus has “redeemed us” (paid the price to rescue us) “from the curse of the law.” What good news for us all!

There is much more that Paul says, in Galatians and Romans, about this, and we will continue on in weeks ahead. Keep reading in Galatians and Romans 4, if you have time. The Lord’s blessings! And keep hoping in Christ alone and what He has done for you!

Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost - July 24, 2022

Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Isaiah 66:10-14 

Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18   

Luke 10:1-20

Sermon originally delivered July 7, 2013