The lutheransermons's Podcast

Bible Study - "Receiving God's Grace" and "Powerful Angels"

“Receiving God’s Grace”

We have heard several readings from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians on Sundays in recent weeks. Paul clearly emphasizes, as the Scriptures so often do, that we are saved purely by the grace of God (His undeserved love and favor and gift for us) through faith in Jesus Christ and His saving work for us, and even our faith is not our own doing, that we produce. It is a gift of God, not by our works so that no one can boast about what we have done. We were spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, but God made us alive by His grace and worked faith in us through His Holy Spirit, through His Word and our baptism, and strengthened us through the Word and Sacraments, as we receive Jesus, the Bread of Life. (Read especially Ephesians 2:1-10, again, as a summary of all this. This grace and gift of God is already ours if we are trusting in Jesus as our Savior. We could not believe without that grace.)

We also have heard that God has given us the gifts of prophets and apostles and evangelists, who taught and wrote down God’s Word for us. These are the Holy Scriptures through which the Holy Spirit works and we can learn and be strengthened in God’s Word and will for us and in knowing what is truly right and wrong for our new life in Jesus. God’s Word is vital for us, and through it, we also know the value of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as the Lord connects His Word to the water of baptism and the bread and wine, Christ’s true body and blood, in the Lord’s Supper. These are all gifts of God’s grace, by which we have received our salvation.

But Paul also says, in Ephesians 4:7, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” This seems to refer to the unique gifts of grace we each are given to serve one another in the body of Christ. Paul speaks of “each part working properly, helping the body grow and build itself up in love.”

In a Bible study discussion, this seemed confusing to some. Are these natural gifts and abilities that we have that can be used? Some people are better than others in certain things, as we are all unique individuals, and none of us are strong in everything. But Paul mixes in God’s grace given to each, which seems different from the same grace given to all by which we are saved. Our natural abilities are surely a gift from God, too. That does not make us superior or inferior to others in the church. That just makes us different.

The Biblical writers often use blessings like “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” See Philippians 1:2. Peter even writes, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Peter 1:2). And Peter says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” That seems to say that we can wish and ask for God’s grace for a greater understanding of our Lord and His will and what we can do in service as the unique person we are.

That does not mean that we can be more saved. Christ has already done everything we need, and we simply trust Him for His completed work of salvation. This has nothing to do with competition with other Christians about anything, either. Paul writes about “walking in a manner worthy of our calling” as Christians, which involves “humility and gentleness with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:1-2). And we do not ask for God’s grace for personal glory, but to serve our Lord and others in a better way, for God’s glory. Right after Peter speaks of “growing in grace,” he adds, “To God be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” And while Paul writes his letter to the Ephesians, inspired by God, he just has to stop and give all the glory to the Lord and His grace. If we accomplish anything, it is by God’s power at work in us, in our Christian life. Paul writes, “Now to Him Who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

“Powerful Angels”

Two of our readings this Sunday mention “an angel of the Lord” helping people. An angel helped the prophet Elijah survive and provided food for him for a long journey (1 Kings 19:5-8). David also knew that the Lord “delivered him from all his fears” and “saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:4,6). And right after that, David wrote, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them” (Psalm 34:7). In the Bible, the good angels are powerful servants of God in service to the Lord and in protecting us.

I recently came across an old devotion I had saved, written many years ago by a Purdue student who became a pastor and, for a while, sent out regular devotions to friends. He spoke of how angels are often pictured in very different ways. Rafael has a famous painting in which several “cherubs” (one of the kinds of angels) are “pictured as adorable, chubby little babies. The image of a cherub looking like a baby comes from Eros of Greek mythology or Cupid of the Romans, but not from Scripture at all.”

That made me think of how often in movies and books these days, angels are pictured as bumbling creatures sent from God to help someone but not able to get things right and messing things up, at least for a while, until they earn their wings. Again, that is never the Biblical picture. Angels are spirits and do not have a “body.” They can appear in various forms. Nor do people ever become angels. Angels are uniquely created by God to be His servants. The good angels in the Bible are mighty, powerful servants of God, always doing God’s will as they should, for us and our good and our protection. They can be powerful warriors against Satan and the other angels who rebelled against God and fell into great sin and evil and oppose God.

The good angels are also God’s messengers who bring good news to people. It was an angel who was sent by God to the prophet Isaiah when he realized his sin and said, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.” The angel touched his lips and said, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Angels announced to Mary the coming birth of her Savior, born to her; angels announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem; and on and on. When you hear of good angels, make sure that they fit the Biblical picture of powerful servants of God working for good. What a blessing that we still have such guardians and helpers from the Lord, for children, but for all of us.

Sermon for August 3, 2024

11th Sunday after Pentecost            

“United in Christ, Speaking the Truth in Love”

Ephesians 4:1-16

Let us pray: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer." Amen (Psalm 19:140).

A few weeks ago, in Ephesians, Chapter 2:13-22, we heard the apostle Paul promising that the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus was for all people, non-Jews as well as Jews. Paul wrote, “Now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For Christ is our Peace, who has made us both one (both Jews and non-Jews - all who have been brought to faith in Christ) and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility… He has reconciled us both (Jews and non-Jews) to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility… For through Christ, we both (Jews and non-Jews) have access in one Spirit to (God) the Father.”

Note that this unity is the plan and the work of the One True Triune God, not of us, as we are built, Paul says, “on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,” those who taught and wrote down the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God, with Christ Jesus Himself being the Cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord… by the Spirit.” This is what we now call the Holy Christian Church.

In our text for today, Ephesians 4, Paul speaks again of “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” that is in the Church. Seven times in verses 4 through 6, Paul uses the word “one,” emphasizing the one plan and work of the Triune God for all of us and our salvation. Our primary strength in the Church is not in our diversity but in our unity in our Triune God and His Word and His one way to new and eternal life, centered in Christ as the cornerstone, and His sacrifice on the cross for us all.

Listen again to Paul’s words. There is only one Holy Spirit, who gathers people together in one body, the church, by one faith, in the one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit does this through the speaking of the one truth, the Word of God, and through the Word and promises of God connected with the water in one baptism, by which people are “born again” and brought to that one true faith (John 3:3,5-7) and then strengthened in that faith. That calling to faith also brings one great hope for this life and for eternal life to come for us and all believers through our one God and Father, who is with us always, over and through and in us.

Let me stop for a moment and ask: does the Christian church today really seem to be this united? We have so many groups and divisions and denominations; and we know that we are still sinful, struggling individuals, too. Yet the miracle of salvation by God’s grace through Christ is that God now looks at us through Jesus and sees Jesus in us so that we look and are counted as forgiven and acceptable to God through Jesus. Sometimes pastors wear two robes. The black robe underneath represents our sins. The white robe over that represents Jesus covering over all our sins.

Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake, God made Him (Jesus)to be sin who knew no sin.”  All our sins were dumped on Jesus, and He carried them to the cross and paid the penalty for all of them and forgave them all. He did that, Paul says, “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” We and all believers are counted righteous by being brought to faith and trust in Jesus. This is sometimes called the “invisible church” that only God can see. God looks at us, and He sees only Christ in us. That is the one true church, the one holy, Christian, and apostolic Church that God has made and sees, as described in the creeds.

How much we need all this that our one true triune God has done for us and continues to provide for us, in watching over us. For we live in challenging times, with all sorts of competing ideas and voices all around us, including on moral and spiritual teachings.

It has always been this way, though. A little later on in our text, Paul writes of children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. We do have concerns, don’t we, about our literal children and grandchildren, for fear that they might be led astray by false doctrines and wrong moral and religious ideas. But Paul is really talking about all of us, no matter what our age, as he wishes that we, too, may no longer be children or childish, tossed to and fro by false doctrines, by human cunning that leads to evil, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

You have probably read that senior citizens are estimated to have lost over 3 billion dollars to scammers in just 2022 alone. And my local bank had warnings out this week that people claiming to be bank fraud investigators were actually trying to steal from people. There are spiritual deceivers, too - people focused, Paul says, on human cunning - people talking about things that appeal to our human thoughts and the desires of our sinful human nature - and what we would like to hear about, and not on the things of God. How can we tell what is correct?

Paul tells us again, in our text, that God gives us the gifts that we need. He mentions again that God gave us the gift of the prophets and apostles and evangelists, who long ago taught and wrote down the Holy Scriptures, as Paul says on another occasion, “for our instruction, that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have Hope… in accord with Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:4-5). That means that if anyone ever comes with new “Scriptures” and new teachings, we should have nothing to do with them.

Paul also says, in our text, that God gave us, in addition, “shepherds” (that’s what pastors are, literally) and “teachers” to help us use and understand the Scriptures, “the foundation” for all our beliefs, “in the unity of the faith” (there are not many faiths, but only one true faith), centered in greater “knowledge of the Son of God,” our Lord Jesus Christ, and confidence in Him, and to what Paul calls being more “mature” believers.

How eager we are, then, to have the gift of our own new shepherd, Pastor Bombaro, with us in just a few weeks to lead and guide us. And how exciting that a new school year at St. James starts even sooner, with the gift of our teachers and principal, working with our children and helping us together focus on God’s Word, too. May we pray for and support and encourage them all as they lead and serve us.

Paul also speaks of one more gift we have, too. He writes, “But grace was given to each one of us according to Christ’s gift.” It is, of course, only by the grace of God that we have been brought to faith and received our baptism and been saved to begin with. But God can provide us also additional strength, by His grace, to be a blessing to fellow believers within the body of Christ, the church. That is what He wants us all to be, though we have different gifts and abilities, by the grace God has given us.

At the end of our text, Paul writes, “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love.”

“When each part is working properly,” the body grows, Paul says. Every one of us is important, as God gifts and graces us, even if only in the smallest ways. And if we are to speak the truth in love with one another, that starts with hearing the one truth, in God’s Word, in regular worship and remembering our own baptism and its blessings and receiving Christ, the Bread of Life, in the Lord’s Supper. It also means reading the Word on our own and/or studying it with our pastor and teachers and others when and if we can. When we see and hear of God’s great truth and love for us in Christ, we can then better speak and show that truth and love to others, too, in encouraging and helping each other, as we are able, or just in our prayers or in any other way we can.

And as Paul said, at the beginning of our text, we are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called by Christ,” by His great love and mercy and forgiveness for us, and thus that we can act with “humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love,” in what we say and do.

We also remember that the most important things have already been done for us for our salvation by the grace of God in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and His Word of Truth, brought to us.

Anything we can accomplish, then, is by the grace of God and His working in and through us. As Paul wrote in the same Epistle, that we heard last week, just before this week’s text, “Now to God, who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power (His power) at work in us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Let us rise for prayer: “Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds safe, in Christ Jesus. Amen.” (Philippians 4:7)

Preparing for Worship - August 4, 2024

The Old Testament Lesson for this Sunday is from Exodus 16:2-15. God had rescued His people from slavery and misery in Egypt and was leading them to the Promised Land. They quickly forgot God’s mercy and care, though, and began to grumble and complain as if God had led them into the wilderness to starve and die. God is patient with them, though, and provides daily food for them, in the gift of manna from heaven, and enough extra for the Sabbath Day, when they were to rest. God even provided meat for them, at times, with quail. God gave food on a daily basis as a kind of test for them and to teach them to trust Him each day, as we still pray in the Lord’s Prayer.

The Psalm is Psalm 145:10-21. David calls upon all people to give thanks and praise to God for His goodness. He is faithful in all His words and promises. Verses 15-16 are still used by some as a table prayer of thanks at meals, as God provides “food in due season.” Verse 18 is also a great promise of God: “The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth,” trusting in Him and His mercy. “He hears their cry and saves them,” especially in the saving work of Jesus which was to come. There is a word of warning, too, and of judgment for the wicked who continually reject the Lord and His will. David, though, will speak with his mouth in praise of the Lord and His kindness and His “everlasting kingdom.”

In the Gospel lesson, John 6:22-35, Jesus had just done the great miracle of feeding the 5,000. Now many people were “seeking Jesus,” but primarily because they had eaten their “fill of the loaves.” They were focusing on “food that perishes,” while Jesus wanted to give them “food that endures to eternal life.” Jesus was the Son of His Heavenly Father, upon whom “the Father had set His seal.” The true “work of God” was simply to bring people “to believe in Jesus.” The people wanted more signs to be able to believe in Jesus, though, like the manna provided in the Old Testament. Jesus says that He is “the Bread from heaven… the Bread of Life.” Those who come to and believe in Him will not hunger or thirst but will have true and eternal life through faith in Him.

The Epistle reading continues readings from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians - this week, Ephesians 4:1-16. We heard Paul promising last week that the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus was for all people, non-Jews as well as Jews. Now he says that this is a unity brought by the Holy Spirit for all believers in Christ, no matter who they have been. Seven times Paul uses the word “one.” There is only one Spirit who gathers people into “one body” by “one faith” in the “one Lord,” the Lord Jesus Christ, through “one baptism,” with “one hope” in “the one God and Father of all.” (Notice that this is the one true Triune God at work to accomplish this saving and uniting work. All believers have the same trust in the Father and His saving work in Jesus through the Holy Spirit. However, God gives different gifts of grace to believers to help in “building up the body of Christ,” the Holy Christian Church. The power is in “speaking the truth” of God and His Word “in love” so that believers may grow from childlike to mature “knowledge of the Son of God” through Christ and His Word. Otherwise, we could be “tossed to and fro” by false teachings and deceitful human ideas of those opposed to Christ and the teachings of God’s Word. We have the Scriptures, written by the apostles and prophets, as inspired by God Himself. Today, we also have pastors and teachers to help guide us through that Word and to be strengthened in our Savior. As “the body of Christ,” we can all help each other, too, doing what we can to encourage one another with the love of Christ. As Paul says, that takes a lot of “humility and gentleness and patience” toward one another, as our Heavenly Father enables us through Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

Preparing for Worship - July 28, 2024

The Old Testament lesson for today, Genesis 9:8-17, speaks of the first covenant that God gave to Noah and his descendants and to the whole earth. As with the other covenants to follow later, this is God’s doing, out of love and care and forgiveness for His people, and not because they had earned or deserved anything from Him. God promises that he will never again destroy the whole earth with a flood. A rainbow that appears in the sky is a sign of this promise of God.

Jesus shows again, in the Gospel lesson (Mark 6:45-56), that he is God’s Son and has power over the wind and waves, as He had done earlier, in stilling a storm (Mark 4:35-40). Jesus had gone to pray after feeding the 5,000 and sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee ahead of Him. He knew that they were having trouble, for the wind was against them, and He walked on the water near them. They thought they were seeing a ghost and were terrified until He said, “Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid.” Again, we hear that the disciples were not understanding about who He was, and they were “hard-hearted.” As our text goes on, Jesus stopped the wind and, when ashore, allowed many people to come in faith and receive healing by just touching the fringe of His garments.

The Psalm, Psalm 136:1-9, reminds people to give thanks to God for His steadfast love, beginning at the creation of this marvelous world and universe and continuing with His control over land and waters and all things. God the Son was there at creation, too, involved in this creative work (see John 1:1-5, for example) and continued to show this steadfast love while here on earth, though His disciples (and maybe we sometimes, too) do not see and understand it. Again and again, beyond our reading, Psalm 136 tells us, “His steadfast love endures forever.” May we believe and trust that, even on dark and troubled days!

The Epistle lesson is another reading from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul bows his knees in praise and thanks to the Triune God, the Father, from whom every family is named, along with Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who empower our inner being. Paul prays that in faith and love, we may comprehend the surpassing greatness of God’s love and His ability to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think through His power at work in us. To Him be the glory in the church, in Christ Jesus, forever and ever. Paul adds an Amen. This is most certainly true! We can trust this as we trust our Triune God.

Preparing for Worship - July 21, 2024

The Old Testament lesson this week is Jeremiah 23:1-6. The Lord condemns shepherds who have not attended to their sheep, God’s people, but, through evil deeds, have scattered and destroyed them. The Lord Himself will gather the remnant of His flock and bring them back and set shepherds over them who will care for them. And days are coming, declares the Lord, when He will raise up a righteous Branch who will reign and deal wisely and bring salvation and security. This is prophetic of the coming of Jesus, who is both our Lord and our Righteousness.

The Psalm is Psalm 23. This psalm also speaks of the Lord and His care for His people and points forward to the coming of Jesus. Jesus will restore our souls and lead us through this life in His righteous way and through the valley of death to the house of the Lord, where we will live forever.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 6:30-44, we see our Lord Jesus having compassion upon crowds of people because they were like sheep without Him, the Shepherd they really needed. He taught them the Word of God, and when it became late that day, He even provided physical food for them abundantly in a miraculous way. (Jesus did this again in a less heavily Jewish area, the region of the Decapolis, when in Mark 8:1-10, he fed another 4,000 people, spiritually and physically, in an abundant and miraculous way.)

This demonstrates what Paul talks about in the Epistle lesson, Ephesians 2:11-22. Jesus came not only for the old covenant people of Israel but for all people who were once far off from the promises of God but were now brought near through His blood shed for them. Christ Jesus is the Way to peace for all people, Jews and non-Jews, united in Him. He is the Cornerstone for a new and holy temple of believers in Him, the Holy Christian church, where God dwells among His people by His Word (and Sacraments) and through the Holy Spirit.

Bible Study - Thoughts on Psalm 85 and Jeremiah 23:1-6

Old Testament readings always show us our sinfulness and need and then point us forward to the coming of our Savior, Jesus, in God’s rescue plan for our world. The readings for July 14 and July 21 do an especially good job of showing us that.

In Psalm 85, a reading for July 14, the psalmists know that God has mercifully forgiven and covered over their sins in the past. But now they are in a situation where they are seeing God’s disgust with them and His anger over their continuing wrongdoing. They pray that the Lord would turn them around, restore them, and revive them again. They are repentant and ask that the Lord would speak peace to them, forgive them, and help them not return to folly. They are confident that their Lord will give them what is good, including such gifts as “steadfast love” (mercy), “peace," “His salvation," “righteousness” (mentioned 3 times), and “faithfulness” (mentioned 2 times). It is “His footsteps” that would lead the way for them to these gifts.

Likewise, the Old Testament reading for this coming Sunday, July 21, from Jeremiah 23:1-6, shows the failures of God’s shepherds and other leaders in the Old Testament. God Himself would need to be the Good Shepherd for His people, His flock, and provide better shepherds to help them. The Lord particularly speaks of a coming day when there will be a “Righteous Branch” from the line of King David who will reign and deal wisely and with justice and righteousness and bring salvation and security. Notice all the words describing this Branch who is to come. (The picture image of a branch or shoot from the stump of Jesse, David’s father, is used in a number of other places, too - in Isaiah 4:2, 6:13, 11:1,10, for example.) Jeremiah 23:6 also gives two more names for this Branch: “The Lord” and “our Righteousness.”

When we come to the New Testament, we see all these words connected to Jesus. Jesus is Lord, God the Son, sent into this world to bring forgiveness and salvation to us. See John 1:1-2, 14-18, and 20:27-31. See also 1 Corinthians 12:3, Philippians 2:8-11, Revelation 17:14, 19:16, and 22:20-21.

Jesus is also the Righteous One, who fulfills all righteousness for us, who fall far short of God’s righteousness, no matter how hard we try. See Matthew 3:15, 1 Peter 3:18, 1 John 1:7-8, 2:1-2, Philippians 3:8-9, 2 Corinthians 5:21, etc.

These two sets of Scriptures show us so clearly that Jesus is the One who fulfills the words of Jeremiah 23:6. We are counted righteous only by faith in Jesus, our Lord, and what He has done for us, including His righteousness for us.

Jesus is also then the “Branch” or “Shoot” or “Root,” the Greater One from the line of Jesse and David, who nourishes us through His Word and Sacraments. See Revelation 5:5 and 22:16 and Matthew 12:42. See also John 15:1-5, where Jesus calls Himself the Vine, and we are His branches, who cannot survive without Him. Jesus is also the Merciful and Faithful One, where we sometimes struggle. See Revelation 19:11,13, 2 Timothy 2:13, Hebrews 2:17, 3:6, 10:19, 23, and Revelation 1:5. Jesus is also the Wisdom of God, where we are not always so wise. See 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30, Romans 16:27, and 2 Timothy 3:15, the most important wisdom of the Scriptures, “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

All this work of Christ finally brings us “peace” and “hope.” As Paul writes in Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also gained access by faith into grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” This is exactly where we need to be, in Christ, as the Old Testament predicts and the New Testament reveals and fulfills in Jesus.

Preparing for Worship - July 14, 2024

The Scripture readings this week focus on the consequences of sin and how much we need God’s mercy - mercy that comes to us only through God’s love and His saving work in Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament lesson is from Amos 7:7-15. Amos says that he was simply a herdsman and one who took care of fig trees, but God had called him to prophecy against the northern Kingdom of Israel and its king, Jeroboam. The Lord was using a plumb line to measure how straight the people and their king were compared with His will and plans for them, and they were very crooked and evil. Even the priest of Bethel had gone wrong and ordered Amos to leave and speak only to the southern Kingdom of Judah. The Lord had sent Amos to that Northern Kingdom, though, and he had to predict that King Jeroboam would die by the sword and the people of Israel would be carried away into exile because of their continual sins and rejection of the Lord and His prophet.

The Psalm is Psalm 85:(1-7) 8-13. The psalmists, Sons of Korah, know of God’s forgiveness of His people’s sins in the past. They call upon God in another difficult time of their sinfulness and pray that the Lord would turn and revive His people and give them again His steadfast love and salvation and keep them from turning back to words and deeds of folly. The psalm ends with confidence that the Lord would give His people what is good - steadfast love (mercy) and righteousness and peace - and enable them to trust Him and walk in His steps. (These are the gifts of God brought ultimately by Jesus and His saving work.)

The Gospel lesson, Mark 6:14-29, is another example of refusing to follow God and His will and the trouble that is created. King Herod (not the Herod who had ruled at the time of Jesus’ birth, but a relative) had stolen away his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, and married her. John the Baptist had confronted Herod, saying, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” This made Herodias very angry, and she wanted John dead but could only convince her husband to have him put in prison. Herod actually thought John the Baptist was a holy man and feared him and kept him safe and even liked to hear him. Unfortunately, Herod, in a very weak moment at a party, agreed to do whatever his granddaughter wanted. Herodias convinced her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod knew this was wrong but had no courage to do what was right and had John executed and the granddaughter given his head. This all made Herod so paranoid that when he heard about Jesus, he feared that Jesus might be John the Baptist reincarnated and coming to take vengeance on him. Even with his power, Herod was clearly very troubled and far from God and His will and suffered for it.
Sin always has consequences.

The Epistle lesson, Ephesians 1:3-14, however, gives hope and the answer for all of us, as we all struggle with sin. It is a doxology, a great Word of praise to God (all one very long sentence in the Greek) for His redeeming plan for the world, centered in Christ Jesus our Savior, and guaranteed through the sending of the Holy Spirit to us. Note all the words that speak of God’s overarching plan: He chose, predestined, the purpose of His will, the mystery of His will, His purpose, a plan for the fullness of time, the counsel of His will, His wisdom and insight, etc. The plan centered “in Christ,” God’s own beloved Son, and the redemption we have through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, through the riches of His grace. “In Christ” or “in Him” or the equivalent is used ten times in these 12 verses. This saving and forgiving work comes to us personally as we hear the Word of Truth, the Gospel of our salvation, and are brought to believe in Christ and receive these gifts of God’s grace, also through baptism, spoken of later in this letter, and all through the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee, the down-payment, assuring our eternal inheritance. This is all God’s doing, by His grace, and therefore it is all “to the praise of His glory,” as is said several times. (We will have six more weeks of readings from Ephesians ahead,as this basic theme is emphasized and the blessings that come to us as a church, God’s gathered believers.)

Sermon for Saturday, July 6, 2024

7th Sunday after Pentecost

“When I am Weak, Then I am Strong”

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)

The text for our meditation this evening is the Epistle lesson from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. You are welcome to look at it, together with me, as printed in your bulletin.

All of our Scripture readings today tell of people who are trying to speak God’s Word but are being resisted and rejected. In the Old Testament lesson (Ezekiel 2:1-5), Ezekiel is called to be a prophet of God, but God warns him that he will be speaking to Israelites who have been stubborn and rebellious against Him. Ezekiel is still to speak God’s Word, saying, “Thus says the Lord,” whether the people hear or refuse to hear.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 6:1-13, Jesus Himself has come to His hometown, Nazareth, where He had grown up, to teach in the synagogue there. Many people took offense at Him and what he was doing, though, including some of His own family. Jesus marveled at their unbelief but did not give up and kept doing His Heavenly Father’s will. He went on to other villages, and He began sending out His own disciples, two by two, also, preparing them for their future work of calling people everywhere to repentance and faith in Him.

Paul, also, in the chapter just before our text, in 2 Corinthians 11, speaks of challenges to his own ministry. Some people have come to Corinth claiming to be, in their own minds, “super-apostles,” boastful of their mission in the Lord. Very unfortunately, they were proclaiming another Jesus than the One Paul proclaimed, with a different spirit. They were, Paul says, false apostles, deceitful workmen. How was Paul going to deal with this

Since these false teachers had been so boastful in themselves and who they were, Paul says that he must do a little boasting himself, but in a different way. He says, at the end of Chapter 11, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

Paul also speaks of sufferings that he has had and then he says, “There is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak.” Paul had written and taught on other occasions, “Do not be anxious about anything," but here he admits his own weakness and anxiety, in not living up to God’s standards, in his worry about the churches, including the church at Corinth.

Then, in Chapter 12, as our text begins, Paul says, “I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by that” - for him and his benefit. As we’ll see, he is really boasting in the Lord and the Lord’s saving plan and work in Christ and not in himself. Paul says he knows of a man in Christ, who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, though he does not know just how it happened, and he had glimpses of paradise and heard things he could not even speak about.

We don’t know for sure, but one Lutheran scholar writes, “The first heaven is that which we can see, up to the clouds. The second heaven is that of the planets and stars and the rest of the universe that is beyond. The third heaven is the dwelling place of God and the angels and the departed saints, the believers in glory - what Paul and Jesus and others call “paradise.”

As we read on, Paul is talking about himself as the one who received these special visions and revelations. If you remember, Paul (earlier called Saul) was strongly anti-Christian and a persecutor of Christians until the risen Lord Jesu appeared directly to him and turned his life around and brought him to faith. Paul had had some good training as a Jewish Pharisee, but he had not had the three years of personal training that Jesus had given the other disciples. There was so much to learn, especially about Jesus Himself and how He was at the center of God’s saving plan for the world, as God the Father’s only Son, sent to us all to be the Savior by living, dying, and rising again for us all.

These teachings and revelations from Jesus were to prepare Paul for his own public ministry, and some of them came 14 years earlier before Paul did His three great missionary journeys that we read about in the Book of Acts and other places. Through all of this, Paul was prepared and had certainty about what he was preaching and teaching, as the true Word of God, given him by Jesus Christ Himself.

Paul knew that he did not deserve any of these special visions. He calls himself, in other places, “the chief of sinners,” saved only by the grace and mercy of God, in Christ. Paul was still an ordinary human being, with his own weaknesses and struggles, as a forgiven sinner, too. So, he says, “To keep me from being conceited (proud in himself) because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”

We don’t know what this “thorn” was. Many think it might have been some kind of physical problem that troubled Paul off and on through the years. In his earlier letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote (Galatians 4:13-14), “You know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the Gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel, a messenger of God, as Christ Jesus.” Some think the illness might have been something like malaria, for which there was no certain cure in the ancient world. Malaria could flare up in people and then go away but could come back to trouble them again and again later.

Paul also mentions in Galatians 6:11, “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” Paul dictated numbers of his letters, and others would write them down for him. He would write something on his own, too, sometimes with large letters, so that people knew the letter was from him - sort of like John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence in a very big way. Some people think that Paul may have had vision problems at times that caused him to write in this way.

Scholars record many other possibilities, but whatever the “thorn” was, Paul says in our text, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’”

It reminds us of Jesus, too, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane three times that His Heavenly Father would take away the cup of suffering that was ahead for Him at the cross. Yet He also knew His Father’s plan and also prayed three times, “But not My will, but Yours, be done.” Jesus was the greatest, the perfect example of power made perfect in weakness, For through the agonizing suffering and death of the cross, in great weakness, Jesus, as our substitute, was the Power of God for salvation, as He paid the price for all sins, including our own, that we might be forgiven and accepted by God.

The cross looked only like a place of terrible suffering and sorrow and loss and defeat for Jesus. But it was the place of victory for us over sin and Satan and death through Jesus. Of course, the victory was only clearly evident in His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven and returning to His throne to glory in heaven, where He is preparing a place for us, too, who trust in Him. This all started in this world with His birth as a tiny, very vulnerable baby in Bethlehem and a life of much suffering and trouble as a human man and, finally, what one commentator called “the throne of the cross.” So Paul, with his eyes only on Jesus, said in our text, “Therefore I will boast all the gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me… for when I am weak (and know it) then I am strong (in Christ alone)."

It is something to be learned by all through Christ and His Word and Work. Remember John the Baptist. He had a strong ministry, but he was only preparing the way for Christ. When Jesus’ ministry began at His baptism, John said, He (Jesus) must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30). For Jesus alone was “the Lamb of God Who would take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

When Paul was brought to faith in Christ, he said, “We preach Christ crucified… Christ, the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God (as interpreted by man) is wiser than men, and the weakness of God (in human eyes) is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:23-25).

And Paul said, “When I came to you, I did not come with lofty speech or wisdom. I preached Christ Jesus and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling… so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of man but in the power of God (and His Word) (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

Again, Paul said, “What we proclaim are not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves simply as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, Who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:5-6).

“The face of Jesus Christ” - that is the message of God for us all. We do not trust in ourselves or in anyone else but in Christ, our Savior. When the Lord Jesus called Paul, He said that Paul “is a chosen instrument of Mine to carry My Name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My Name” (Acts 9:15-16). The suffering was real, but it served important purposes for Paul and his ministry. And God’s grace was sufficient for Him.

As forgiven sinners in this sinful world, we, too, have faced and will face sufferings and troubles. But when we are weak, in this way, we are strong where we should be strong and are strong, in the Lord, leaning on Him.  And He can make us stronger yet, depending upon Him more, as He helps us through these times and as He finally leads us by faith to eternal life.

An early church leader, Chrysostom, wrote in the 300s AD, “How great is the advantage of affliction: for now indeed that we are in the enjoyment of peace (as Christians) we have become lazy and lax… When we were persecuted, we were more sober-minded and more earnest and more ready for church attendance and hearing the Word of God.” Isn’t that sometimes still true today?

The Lord helped Job and John the Baptist through times of great weakness to learn to say, “Even when I am weak, I am strong in the Lord. I trust in Him.”

The Lord helped Paul to say, in our text, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong in the Lord. I trust in Christ.”

And we can say, too: “When I am weak, I am still strong in my Savior, Jesus. I trust not in myself but in Him alone and in how He can and will bless me, now and forever. His grace is sufficient also for me.”

Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe, only where they are safe, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)

Preparing for Worship - July 7, 2024

In our Scriptures this week, we see people being challenged about their faith and how they respond and how the Lord guides and helps them.

The Old Testament lesson is Ezekiel 2:1-5. Ezekiel was one of those Jews carried away into captivity in the land of Babylon after Jerusalem was destroyed in 587-586 BC. In these verses, the Lord calls him to be His prophet to His people in captivity. His work would be very difficult because God’s own people had been so rebellious against their Lord, and their descendants continued to be impudent and stubborn and transgressed against the Lord. (That is why the captivity happened, because of great sinfulness and rejection of God.) Whether the people would now hear or refuse to hear, Ezekiel was to keep speaking God’s Word to them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” as he is led by the Holy Spirit.

The Psalm is Psalm 123. This is called “a song of ascents,” which means that it was a song sung when people went up to Jerusalem, especially for one of the Jewish festivals of the Old Testament. Many think this psalm was used first in post-exilic times, after the Babylonian captivity, because the psalmist is trusting in the Lord’s mercy for His people, His servants, as they return to Jerusalem, even though many people living in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem at that time were not Jews and had scorn and contempt for them and did not want them coming back to reclaim and rebuild their holy city, destroyed by the Babylonians. See, for example, the reception Nehemiah received, when he went back to help his people in Jerusalem at that time. Read Nehemiah 2:10,19-20, and 4:1, and the opposition he and others received, yet they still sought to do the Lord’s will.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 6:1-13, even when God’s own Son, Jesus, came into the world to do His saving work and reached out to fellow Jews in Nazareth, where He had grown up, many people took offense at Him and did not believe in Him. That included members of His own family at that point. He did not give up, though, and kept teaching God’s Word in other villages and sent out His disciples, two by two, to call people to repent and with power to battle evil spirits and do some healings through Him. He warns them that there would be people who would not listen, though, and to keep sharing God’s message, regardless.

The Epistle lesson includes one more reading from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. The church at Corinth was being troubled by what Paul calls “super-apostles,” who challenged what Paul taught and spoke of another Jesus and a different Spirit. (See 11:3-5, for example.) Paul does not want to brag, but he points out, indirectly, that he had received much teaching and many revelations from Jesus Himself and had even had glimpses of heaven. He, therefore, knew that he was speaking the true Word of God. To keep him from being proud, however, the Lord had also given him many troubles and a ”thorn in the flesh” that continued to bother him, though he prayed and prayed that it would go away. He was taught in this way that God’s power would be clearest even through his (Paul’s) own weaknesses. Through his weaknesses, God’s power and glory would shine through, and he would be shown to be strong only in and through the Lord. God’s power and His saving Word and work in Christ are alone what is important, in what he, Paul, proclaims.

Preparing for Worship - June 30, 2024

The Scriptures this week remind us of the great mercy and care of our Lord for us, and then, in the final reading, the Lord’s call for us to be merciful to others as the Lord blesses us.

The psalm, Psalm 30, is another of the psalms of David. David has had difficult times and has seemed near to death, but he cried to the Lord, and the Lord helped and healed him. If the Lord seemed to hide His face from him, David knew that joy would return. Mourning and weeping may come, but dancing and gladness would also come in time. David knew that he would eventually thank and praise the Lord forever with His blessings.

In the middle of his laments and sorrows about the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, Jeremiah speaks in Lamentations 3:22-33 of the steadfast love and faithfulness of the Lord. There will be times of grief and affliction, as with the Babylonian captivity, but God's people are to seek Him and wait quietly for His salvation. The Lord’s heart really wants to give people His compassion and mercies, above all else.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 5:21-43, we see the great compassion of Jesus, the promised Savior sent from God the Father, for people in need. The daughter of a synagogue leader, Jairus, is near death, and Jesus immediately leaves a crowd of people to go and be of help to her. The crowd follows, and people keep bumping into Jesus, but He notices a woman who just touches His garment in hopes of being healed of a discharge of blood that had troubled her for 12 years, and doctors and others could not help her. Jesus calls for her, and she comes to Him in fear and trembling, for she was considered a ritually unclean person because of her blood flow and yet still had touched Jesus, making Him ritually unclean, too. Jesus simply rejoices in her and her faith that brought her to Him and to complete healing through Him. “Go in peace,” He tells her. During this delay, news comes that Jairus’s daughter has died. Jesus just tells Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe.” He still wants to see the girl, and people laugh at Him for thinking He could still help her, a dead person. Jesus takes her hand and says, “I say to you, arise,” and immediately, the girl gets up and walks, alive again. Jesus even conquers the great enemies of sin and death for us, as we are brought to faith in Him, too, as our Savior. He frees us also from the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, including that which would have condemned the woman for touching Jesus to get help.

The Epistle lesson continues readings from 2 Corinthians - this week, from 8:1-9 and 13-15. As God has shown such great compassion for us, in Christ, Paul encourages believers, including us, to be compassionate toward others, especially in helping others in need. A collection was being taken to assist the believers, the saints in Jerusalem, who were very poor and needy. It was a way of showing support for both Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians. More importantly, Paul is encouraging basic Christian principles of giving in support of the Lord’s work. Paul begins by giving the example of churches in Macedonia, where people were very poor, and yet by faith, how they gave generously and even beyond their means. Paul encourages the Corinthians to excel in this gracious act of giving, too - not as a command, but out of genuine love for others. Paul also points to Jesus, who became poor in this world in order to give them (and us) the riches of His grace, for our salvation. Paul does not call us to become poverty-stricken ourselves but to give as we are blessed by our Lord, and the Lord in His mercy, will help even things out.