The lutheransermons's Podcast

The Unforgiveable Sin - Mark 3:29

Read Mark 3:28-29. Sometimes, people worry about having committed this sin because they have had times in their lives when they have drifted from the Lord and struggled with certain sins. Could they have done this “unforgivable, unpardonable” sin at some point?

Many Lutheran commentators, including Lenski, say, “Whoever fears that he has committed the unpardonable sin thereby furnishes evidence that he has not done so” (Lenski, Commentary on Matthew, p.485). If he had done so, he would not even be concerned about Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit and would not even be troubled about his sins. J.T. Mueller describes this sin as “perverse, persistent denial and rejection of the divine truth” … “malicious and persistent resistance against the converting and sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost, through which alone sinners are saved.” Some point to Hebrews 6:4-6, where such people are described as continually “crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt” (Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, p.233). This is a very strong warning to those resistant to Christ and the Word and Sacraments through which the Holy Spirit works to bring people to faith. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).

On the other hand, Lenski and others remind us that only God knows enough to give this verdict that someone has committed the unforgivable sin. “We can never say of any man, no matter how blasphemous he may be, that he has committed this sin” (Lenski, p.485). We can still keep sharing Law and Gospel with others, no matter what, showing people the reality of their sins and yet also telling of the love and forgiveness of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit can still work through that Word and bring people to faith. Think of Paul and how resistant He was to Christianity until the Lord Jesus turned his life around. Know for yourself, too, that no matter how hard you may have been struggling with sin and your beliefs, there is forgiveness and new life for you in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit and His Word. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The Lord’s continued blessings!

Preparing for Worship - June 2, 2024

The Scriptures this week focus on the transition from the Old Testament understanding of the Sabbath Day to the New Covenant understanding, centered on Christ Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath, who frees us from many of the Old Testament rules and regulations about this day, but for the purpose of being filled by Him.

The Old Testament lesson is Deuteronomy 5:12-15. God’s people were to observe the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy, set apart for the Lord. No one was to do any work but to have a day of rest. That included servants and animals. This was to be a day to remember their time of slavery in Egypt and how the Lord rescued them with His mighty power.

The Psalm is Psalm 81:1-10. Remembering the Sabbath day was to be a statute and rule and decree for God’s people of Israel, but it was to be a day of joy and song because God had heard the distress of His people in slavery in Egypt and delivered them and brought them through the wilderness to the promised land. Above all, they were to listen to the Lord and not listen to strange and foreign gods. They were to open their mouths in praise of Him, and He would fill them with His good gifts.

The Gospel lesson is Mark 2:23-28 (3:1-6). Early in His ministry, Jesus was being challenged by Pharisees as his disciples were doing work, plucking some grain to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus used an Old Testament example of David and his friends being so hungry that they ate some bread that only the priests were supposed to eat. Jesus made the point that people were not made just to obey Sabbath rules but that the Sabbath was ultimately made to be of benefit to them. Jesus also made the claim that He, as the Son of Man (and really, the Son of God) was Lord even of the Sabbath. Jesus demonstrated that by healing a man with a withered hand. The Sabbath was made for the benefit of people, and especially for the Lord to do good and save the lives of people. Already, though, the Pharisees were upset enough to want to get rid of Jesus, for He was upsetting their rules and systems and control.

The Epistle lesson is from 2 Corinthians 4:5-12. Paul speaks of the importance of proclaiming not himself, but Jesus Christ as Lord. The light of the glory of God is shone in the face of Christ and His surpassing power, through His death and resurrection, for us and the world. Paul and others are simply God’s servants, jars of clay, with many troubles and afflictions, but bringing the Good News of life in Christ to as many as possible, no matter what the cost.

Bible Study - The Ending of the Lord's Prayer

The original writings of the parts of the New Testament had to be copied by hand and sent on to other places so that more people could hear and read the Word of God. See how Paul writes in Colossians 4:16: “When this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.” Over time, many copies were being circulated. Those who made the copies tried to do their best, but mistakes were sometimes made, and not all copies, even of the same material, are exactly the same.

Today there are thousands of copies available, along with various early translations into other languages and comments made by early church fathers, quoting passages, etc. Some scholars have specialized in putting together what they think are the best copies from which our English translations are made. Our pastors are trained to read Greek and can look at what the scholars have come up with, with variant readings also indicated. The good news is that most all of the variants are very minor (for example, the spelling of names of towns), and they do not affect the doctrines and teachings of Scripture.

At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, what scholars now think are the earliest and best manuscripts of Matthew, stop at the words “but deliver us from evil.” They then go on to more of the words of Jesus about forgiveness in Matthew 6:14-15. These manuscripts and writings come from the Western side of Christianity as it spread - from Rome and Alexandria in Egypt and North Africa - where the Roman Catholic Church was dominant over time. The Roman Catholic churches do not include the extra words but stop at “but deliver us from evil” when they pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Another group of manuscripts and writings was found more often in places farther to the East and in what became known as the Orthodox churches. Those manuscripts often included part or all of what many Protestants include at the end of the Lord’s Prayer: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” There is an example of this in a very early manuscript, The Didache, from the 100’s AD, which included worship materials. Many scholars now think that it became an early tradition to add these words at the end of the Lord’s Prayer as a kind of doxology, words of praise to our great Lord and God.

In fact, if you look at 1 Chronicles 29:10-11, you will find these very words as part of a blessing in praise of God spoken by King David when there was a great offering received for the future building of the temple in Jerusalem. “Therefore, David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth in Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as Head above all.” All the words we say are included in this Biblical doxology.

Today, in our Lutheran tradition, sometimes when an important event has happened, like the calling of a pastor or teacher, we choose to sing together the Common Doxology - “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow,” Hymn # 805, from our current hymnal. Some scholars think that adding the doxology based on parts of 1 Chronicles 29 became so common in parts of the early church that these words began to be included in manuscripts of the Scriptures as an ending to the Lord’s Prayer as time went on. We don’t know if all this “scholarship” is accurate, but what is said is clearly accurate and Biblical teaching: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

When the King James Bible was translated in 1611, it was based largely on the manuscripts that included the doxology. That had a great influence on how the Lord’s Prayer was said, with the doxology, for several centuries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, new translations were made based on what scholars now thought to be the earliest and best manuscripts and left out the doxology.

Ultimately, though there is some uncertainty about all this, we are certainly using Biblical words and language in how we pray the Lord’s Prayer as Lutherans, along with many others, and it is not worth arguing with Roman Catholics if they choose to pray without the “For Thine is the kingdom….” As I mention below, one of their official catechisms gives support to the content and intent of the doxology words.

A few final thoughts. Remember that Martin Luther grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and chose not to argue with its form of the Lord’s Prayer. If you want to see how that is handled in the latest version of Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (c) 2017, CPH, look at page 22, where Luther has an “Amen,” but not the rest of the conclusion. See also page 236, where we have the note: “The ending, ‘For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever,’ is not in the oldest manuscripts of the Bible. These words were included early in Church history as a response of praise at the conclusion of the prayer.” See also the Conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer and its explanation on pages 279-280, with other related Scripture references in support of the content of the Conclusion.

Luther’s Small Catechism is also included in the Book of Concord, writings by Luther and others that we believe are faithful to Scripture and what it teaches. There, too, we read the comment by the editor (c) 2005 CPH, page 448: “These words are not necessarily part of the original text of the Lord’s prayer and may have been inserted into later copies of the Gospel (perhaps in the second century). Nevertheless, they are fine and appropriate words.” Another translation of the Book of Concord, the Tappert Edition, (c) 1959, Fortress Press, p. 348 footnote, indicates that “The Nuremberg edition of 1558, and many later editions, inserted ‘For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever,’ before ‘Amen.’”

Very interestingly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (c) 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. - Libreria Editrice Vaticana, includes on page 687, Article 4, The Final Doxology, an affirmation that the doxology “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours, now and forever” along with the “Amen” are faithful to what the Scriptures say in other places and quotes from the first part of the Lord’s Prayer and mentions Revelation 1:6, 4:11, 5:13 and 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 and the early church father, Cyril of Jerusalem. There is also a warning that Satan tries to take these titles for himself in Luke 4:4-5.

Preparing for Worship - May 26, 2024

The Sunday after Pentecost, May 26, is known in the church as Trinity Sunday. (It may be overshadowed for many in the area where I live by the Indianapolis 500 race and by Memorial weekend activities, but knowing who is our God, the One True Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and worshiping Him, alone, is vitally important for us.)

The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 6:1-8. Isaiah is given a vision of the Lord Himself, high and lifted up, sitting on a throne, with His robe filling the temple. As the passage goes on, we don’t get a neat picture of the Trinity - just glimpses of what would be revealed more and more as the Scriptures go on. Angels called seraphim are praising the Lord, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, for He fills not only the temple; He will fill the whole earth with His glory (as happened with the coming of Christ Jesus as Savior for all). This three-fold calling of the Lord as holy occurs in other places, too. See, for example, Psalm 99: “Holy is He!…  Holy is He!… The Lord our God is holy.“ This prepares for the teaching that in the Triune God, each Person of God is Holy. In contrast, Isaiah knows that he is in big trouble. He is a sinner, a man of unclean lips, living among fellow sinners. He could not be in the presence of God and live. One of the angelic seraphim immediately took a burning coal and touched the lips of Isaiah, saying, “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.” This is unique. Normally in the Old Testament, sins were atoned for and forgiven through animal sacrifices. This prepares the way for the forgiving work of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world through His work of propitiation, His atoning sacrifice on the cross. (See passages like John 1:29, Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, and 1 John 2:2.) Then, the Lord Himself finally speaks, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Notice that the Lord used the plural word, “us,” as He had done at creation, in Genesis 1:26 and 3:22. Though God is One ( Deuteronomy 6:4), He is also three (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), as the Scriptures go to to make clear. Isaiah, cleansed and forgiven, then volunteers to go and speak for the Lord as a prophet. God reveals through him many things about the coming Savior, Jesus, true God and true man, and the Holy Spirit. (See passages like Isaiah 9:6-7 and Isaiah 11:1-2 and 53:3-12.)

The Psalm is Psalm 29, another of the Psalms of David. This psalm is appointed for the baptism of Jesus and for Trinity Sunday,  as we think of the Spirit of God, hovering over the waters in Genesis 1:2, and descending as a dove upon Jesus at His baptism, and the voice of God the Father (Psalm 29:3) over the waters of the Jordan River, powerfully identifying Jesus as His beloved Son, in Matthew 3:16-17. It is the Triune God at work, the same God enthroned forever as King in Psalm 29:10 and Isaiah 6:1. Notice also how the Lord gives strength to His people and blesses them with peace in Psalm 29:11. The same gifts are also connected with what both Jesus and the Holy Spirit can give. (See, for example, John 14:24-27, Matthew 11:27-30, and Galatians 5:22.) As the psalm also calls upon all to give the glory and worship due to the Holy Lord and His Name (Psalm 29:1-2), we now baptize and teach and worship in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20) and give glory to the Name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9-10) and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32), as well as to the Father.

In both the Gospel and the Epistle this week, we also see the Triune God mightily at work, with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit spoken of. In the Gospel lesson, John 3:1-17, Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God and the need to be born again, or born from above, through the water and the Holy Spirit, a reference to the Spirit’s work in baptism. Jesus also speaks of the fact that He, the Son of God, descended from Heaven and became the Son of Man, to do His saving work and be lifted up on a cross, that the world might be saved through Him. Here is one of the simplest and clearest expressions of the Gospel, too, sometimes called the Gospel in a nutshell, that God the Father so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. The ones condemned are simply those who do not believe. They are condemned already because of sin and their sinful nature unless they are brought to faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

The Epistle lesson lesson is Acts 2:14a, 22-36. This is Peter’s sermon on Pentecost. Through this Word of God, the Holy Spirit brings 3,000 people to faith in Christ Jesus and baptism. Peter focuses on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, showing that only Jesus could fulfill the prophecy from David, whose body is still in a grave. Jesus died on the cross but was raised from the dead and exalted back to heaven, at His ascension, to the right hand of God the Father, and then sent the promised Holy Spirit, through whom people could see and hear the Good News of Jesus, who is both Lord and Christ, the promised Savior. (See also the importance of the Holy Spirit in bringing people to faith in 1 Corinthians 12:3 and 2:12-14 and in my sermon from May 18 on “When the Spirit of Truth Comes.")

Sermon for Saturday, May 18, 2024

“When the Spirit of Truth Comes”

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

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 Gospel lesson read a few minutes ago. You are welcome to look at it, together with me, as it is printed in your bulletin.

In our text, Jesus, on the night before His death, is continuing to prepare His disciples for all that is to come. He says, “Now I am going to Him Who sent Me,” - the Heavenly Father. We do properly focus on Jesus’ words from the cross: “It is finished” - for through His suffering and death, Jesus paid the price for the forgiveness of all of our sins and the sins of the whole world. Jesus has done it all. We do not have to make partial payment for our sins, by ourselves, by things we also need to do.

But there was still more to happen before Christ’s saving work was completed. As Paul wrote later, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (I Corinthians 15:17-20). We have just spent seven weeks celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. His disciples and many others had seen Him alive, and later on, Paul had seen Him alive, as well. Jesus had conquered death for us, too, as part of His saving work. Death was not the end but the beginning of a whole new life for us who trust in Him.

That became evident in one last part of Jesus’ saving work - His ascension into heaven and return to His Heavenly Father. He ascended as a true man into heaven, showing that we human beings can also be in heaven with Him when we die, and we have His promise that on the last day, our bodies will be raised and changed and glorified for eternal life, as well, even as happened with Jesus’ resurrected body.

And, of course, Jesus ascended into heaven as the true Son of God, also, and had His full power and glory restored, that He had given up, at least partially, to come to this earth to do His saving work. That meant that though His specific work of saving us was now complete, He also had the power to pray for us and answer our prayers and continue to bring help and blessings and His forgiveness to us.

In our text, Jesus says that He knows that the talk of His going away would cause sorrow to fill the hearts of the disciples, just as the departing from this life of our loved ones brings great sorrow. Still, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away… for then the Helper will come to you.” Jesus now turns the focus to the work of God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the one true Triune God, Who is that Helper.

At the beginning of our text, Jesus said, “When the Helper comes, Whom I will send to You from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me.” The Greek word for “Helper” literally means someone who comes to the side of someone else and gives that person help and aid. The word is sometimes translated in different ways, depending on the kind of help needed - as a Comforter, a Counselor, a Defender, and an Exhorter - in short, as a Helper in many ways, as needed.

And did you notice that what is said in the 3rd Article of the Nicene Creed, which we will say in a few moments, is very similar to what Jesus says in this passage, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from (comes forth from) the Father and the Son”? Jesus says, “I will send to you the Spirit of Truth from the Father.” The Spirit proceeds (comes forth from) both the Father and the Son. And notice that Jesus says, “The Spirit will bear witness about Me.” Jesus says it again later in our text: “The Spirit will glorify Me, for he will take what is Mine. and declare it to you.”

The Holy Spirit is not especially interested in telling us about Himself. He is more interested in our hearing about and knowing and trusting in the saving work of Jesus. This is the Holy Spirit’s most important work, as we shall hear.

This is also why I have a book written by a fellow Lutheran, calling the Holy Spirit “the Half-Known God.” We know what a human father is and can make some connection with God our Heavenly Father. We know that Jesus was a real man, a true man, while here on earth, and we have books with pictures in them, imagining what Jesus might have looked like. And we know what a son is in connection with a father. But the Holy Spirit is more difficult to grasp. He is a real Being or Person, the third Person of the Triune God, but He does not have a body and we cannot see Him except by evidence of His presence and work.

At the Baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. At Pentecost, there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and tongues as of fire came upon each of the believers, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, evidenced by the fact that they could suddenly speak in other languages that they had never learned and could communicate the mighty Word and works of God, in Christ Jesus, to people from many nations, who were in Jerusalem for Pentecost.

And the presence of the Holy Spirit was clearly evidenced by the results of that day of Pentecost, as well. We read in Acts 2:41 that “those who received the Word of God, spoken by Peter and the other believers, came to faith and were baptized, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls to the Christian church, the body of believers in Christ."

This is exactly what Jesus had predicted in our text. He had told the disciples, “You also will bear witness (about Me) because you have been with Me from the beginning.” But these were still weak, struggling disciples. There was much that they still did not know and understand. Even Jesus says, in our text, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”

The death and resurrection of Jesus were life-changing for the disciples. They understood much more of what Jesus had been saying and predicting, but even then, Jesus had to teach them and teach them for 40 more days. And when he returned to heaven, He promised, “I will send the Helper, God the Holy Spirit, to you. And when He comes, He will convict (and convince) the world concerning three things, especially - concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

The disciples could and would be witnesses, but they could never convert anyone to faith by their own power.  The Holy Spirit could and did, through the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. As Jesus said, “When the Spirit comes, He will guide you into all the truth,” which the disciples then preached and taught and wrote down in the New Testament.

The Spirit then worked (and still works) through that Word of God to convince people,
first, of the reality of sin and their own sin - sin so serious that they cannot overcome it on their own, no matter how hard they might try. The answer for them is never in their own efforts and righteousness.

Their hope is only through belief in Jesus and His righteousness, earned for them. Jesus could go to the Father because He did His Heavenly Father’s will and lived perfectly and paid for all sins. Now, all those who have been brought to believe this and trust in Jesus and His saving work will also go to the Father, through Him and His righteousness for them, and to eternal life.

The remarkably good news is that those who believe in Jesus as Savior, including us, escape judgment for their sins through Him. Instead, it is Satan, “the ruler of this sinful, evil world,” where so much is wrong - it is Satan who is judged and condemned, along with, sadly, all those who resist and reject Jesus and do not trust in Him and then continue in unbelief until they die.

Until then, of course, there is still time and opportunity for more to come to faith through the Holy Spirit and what we call “the means of grace” - the channels by which God brings grace and faith and new life through the Holy Spirit’s work. This includes the Word of God and the Word of God connected with water in Baptism and the Word of God connected with bread and wine and the promises and presence of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper.

That’s why it is so important that we keep listening to and studying God’s Word and receiving the Sacraments and remembering our baptism so that the Holy Spirit can keep our faith strong; and then that we keep pointing others to Christ and His Word and His good gifts, as well.

But again, we don’t convert people. The Holy Spirit does. The Scriptures say, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ (and believe it and trust it) except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). And again, the Scriptures say, “The natural person (apart from the Lord) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (foolishness) to him… for they are spiritually discerned (understood).” But we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from God, that we may understand (and believe) the things freely given us by God, through Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14).

Though some may call the Holy Spirit the “Half-Known” God, how important He is for us all, for He has connected us to Christ and His saving work through the Word and Baptism and keeps us in that faith.

Let us pray: 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, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)

Bible Study - "If the World Hates You" - John 15:18-21, etc.

You may have noticed in recent weeks in our Scripture readings that Jesus warns that Christians will face hatred from the world. In John 15:18-21, Jesus taught His disciples, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but chose you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the Word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you… All these things they will do to you on account of My name.”

Again, Jesus said, “Whoever hates Me hates My Father also… they have seen and hated both Me and My Father… ‘They hated Me without cause’” (John 15:23-25 and Psalm 35:19). Jesus is quoting from David, who often had much opposition and whose words are prophetic of what Jesus would go through. David knew his faults and sins. See Psalm 69:4-5. But Jesus was sinless and yet suffered so much for us.  Speaking of His coming death, Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice” (John 16:20). Jesus also said, “I have given them (My disciples) Your Word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” And again, Jesus said, “O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these (My followers) know that You have sent Me (John 17:14, 25). And James says, in James 4:4, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

In all these verses, “the world” refers to the sinful, evil, fallen world, apart from God and His Word and His will. People following “the world” resist and reject God and His Word and/or are ignorant of Him and simply want to do what they want and choose. This also brings rejection of moral restraints that people don’t like and of views that they don’t like or are too restrictive, like the idea that Jesus alone is the Way to eternal life.

In our own day, this has brought increasing amounts of opposition to and even persecution of Christians. I want to refer you to the website of our national church (lcms.org/freetobefaithful) to hear of some of the challenges we are facing in our own country. Look also to opendoors.org for their WorldWatchList on the persecution of Christians in many countries in the world. It is estimated that 350 million Christians face serious danger in their countries from religious persecution.

Part of this is the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, consisting of 57 nations, 48 of whom are Muslim majority. Other countries with their own religious majorities sometimes give Christians a hard time, and there is limited religious freedom. There is also the influence of Marxist/Socialist/Communist thinking in many countries, including the influence in our own country and of those who are atheist or anti-religious and openly attack Christian views. Tolerance of churches in China is growing less and less, from many reports, too, and there is increasing pressure on Christians in some African countries, as well.

What can we do? We need to pray for persecuted Christians and for the Lord to help those in difficult situations.  We need to be more informed about this whole situation, using resources such as those listed above. We should not be surprised, as Jesus predicts such things, as we heard in the Scriptures above. We need to ask the Lord to strengthen us and our own faith and our churches and to help us keep using God’s gifts of His Word and Sacraments. We can encourage each other in keeping and sharing our faith. We can pray for our school and parents that they are able to prepare children for challenges they will be sure to face in years ahead.

Above all, we keep trusting our Lord and His promises in Christ and His Word. Satan stirs up so much, but Jesus promised, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). And by the way, the church is not built on Peter, but on the Rock of Christ and the confession of faith in Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and our Savior and hope in all things.

Preparing for Worship - May 19, 2024

In the Psalm for this Sunday, Psalm 139:1-12 (13-16), David marvels that the Lord knows everything about him, even before he thinks or speaks. The Lord’s knowledge is so high and wonderful that he cannot understand it. Even darkness is bright and light to Him. The Spirit of God is with him wherever he is or goes. He can only praise the Lord that he has been fearfully and wonderfully made and that the Lord even knows about his future. He is confident in his Lord.

In the Old Testament reading, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Ezekiel writes in a different time. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had fallen long before, and now the Southern Kingdom of Judah had fallen, too, and many of the people had been carried away into captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel writes in Babylon to the people whose hopes for their future were very dim. The Lord, through His Spirit, gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley full of dry bones, representing the hopeless house of Israel. Could these bones live? Ezekiel does not know. The Lord predicts that they will, by His power. The bones came together and had flesh and skin on them, but no life in them, until the Spirit of the Lord breathed on them and lived within them. Then, they would have renewed life and return to the Promised Land. The Lord had spoken through Ezekiel, and he would do this. After about seventy years in captivity. Jews began to return to Israel with the Lord’s blessings and renewed faith.

The culmination of renewal was the coming of Jesus, the Messiah from the line of King David, to do His saving work for His own people but also for the sake of the whole world, as we hear in the Gospel lesson, John 1:26-27;16:4b-15.  Jesus would complete this work through His life, death, and resurrection. He would then return to the Father in Heaven so that He and the Father could send the Holy Spirit with power to bring faith and new life to people. Through the Word of God and baptism, the Holy Spirit would show the people their sins and need for a Savior and the gift of forgiveness and righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus and the defeat of Satan, “the ruler of this world.” The Holy Spirit would also guide the apostles and the Biblical writers “into all the truth.” Since Jesus is the Way to eternal life, twice Jesus says, “The Spirit will bear witness about Me… He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.”

In the Epistle lesson, Acts 2:1-21, we hear the story of Pentecost and of the Holy Spirit coming with “a mighty rushing wind” and “tongues as of fire” resting on each of the believers in Jesus and the Spirit also enabling these believers to speak the Good News of Jesus in other languages since people from many countries were there. Peter then spoke and explained that this day was prophesied by Joel in the Old Testament, and he quoted from Joel 2:28-32, showing that the Spirit is now available to all and that the goal is that “everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord, (now through the Lord Jesus,) shall be saved.” (The result is the beginning of the New Israel, the Holy Christian Church, Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ Jesus and are baptized. 3,000 people came to faith and were baptized that day (Acts 2:41).

 

Preparing for Worship - May 12, 2024

The Psalm for this week is Psalm 1. Truly blessed is the person who delights in the Lord and His Word and will and avoids the way of the evil around him. He is blessed like a fruitful, well-watered tree, in contrast with the wicked, who are like chaff and will be in great trouble on judgment day.

The Epistle lesson is from 1 John 5:9-15. John makes it very clear that righteousness and eternal life come only as a gift through believing in Jesus, the Son of God. He who has the Son of God has “the testimony of God” in him and knows that he has eternal life through what Jesus has done for him. He can pray with confidence in God and knows he is heard as he prays, asking that God’s will be done in his life through Christ.

Jesus strengthens that confidence in Him in the Gospel lesson, John 17:11b-19. He has been watching over His disciples and prays that the Heavenly Father would keep them in faith in the Name of Christ, too. There is much hatred of Christ and His believers in the world, and Jesus prays that they will be safe from “the evil one” and stick closely to His Word of Truth. They have been saved by that Word of Truth and sanctified (counted holy) by that Word, as well, even though they are sent out into a very troubled world.

In the First Lesson, Acts 1:12-26, the early Christians were following Christ and staying in Jerusalem after His ascension into heaven and awaiting the promise of the coming Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They were devoted to prayer and encouraging one another and chose, by God’s leading, another disciple, Matthias, to replace Judas, who had taken his life. Matthias had been around through much of Jesus’ ministry, from His baptism, and was a witness to His resurrection. He could be a faithful sharer of the Good News of Christ as Savior, along with the eleven “apostles.”

Sermon for Saturday, May 4, 2024

“I Have Called You Friends”

John 15:9-17

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 Gospel lesson from John 15:9-17. You are welcome to look at it with me, as it is printed in your bulletin.

It is not very often in the Scriptures where people are specifically called “friends of God.” We read in James 2:23, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness - and he was called a friend of God.” Only two other times in the Scriptures is this term used for Abraham, and in one of those cases, the much more common term for believers, “servants of God,” is also used. God said through Isaiah, “You, Israel, My servant, are the offspring of Abraham, My friend” (Isaiah 41:8).

The second person called a “friend of God” was Moses, for we hear that when he was on Mt. Sinai, “the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). And Moses asked God, “Please show me now Your ways, that I may know You.” God did show Moses so much that he became the first great prophet of God and wrote the first five books of Scripture, and predicted the coming of the greater Prophet, our Lord Jesus. Yet the Lord also told him on Mt. Sinai, “You cannot (really) see My face (in all its glory), for (no) man shall see Me and live” (Exodus 33:13-14, 20). And so, beyond this one occasion, Moses is simply known as “the servant of the Lord.”

And as time went on, that is how all the other prophets and writers of the Old Testament were known - as “God’s servants, the prophets.” To them the Lord revealed more and more of His will and His plans for Israel and for all nations and for the coming Messiah, the Savior Jesus. As we read in Amos 3:7-8, “The Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets… The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” And so we now have the whole Old Testament, the Words of God through the prophets, that we can still read and study to this day.

And when the Messiah, Jesus, came into the world, He emphasized the same things. He quoted the Old Testament and said, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10). Since God is God, and we are only lowly sinful human beings, how can we be anything but His servants, too? Jesus also taught, in one of His parables, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’” (Luke 17:10).

This finally takes us to our text, the Gospel, from John 15, where three times Jesus calls His disciples His “friends.” This is the Greek word “philos," which means “friendship love” or “brotherly love.” The city of Philadelphia is known as “the city of brotherly love, of “philos.” Unfortunately, that city and most all cities these days don’t always demonstrate a lot of that brotherly love. The problem is sin and our sinful nature, which isn’t always friendly toward all others.

That’s why Jesus, in our text, combines that word for “friendship” love with another word for love, “agape,” which means “sacrificial love.” And this “agape” love comes first and foremost from God the Father and His Son, Jesus, and His sacrificial love for us as a gift. Listen again to our text. Jesus says, “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love.” (In fact, in this passage, "sacrificial love" is mentioned nine times, while “friendship love” is mentioned only three times.)

Remember also that Jesus spoke these words to His disciples on Maundy Thursday, the night before His suffering and death on the cross. And he also taught them, in our text, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” We know that, humanly speaking. We probably should say it more often to more people, but to whom do we typically say, “Thank you for your service”? Don’t we usually use these words for those who we think could literally be risking their lives for us at some point - those in the military, police, firefighters, emergency personnel, and those in the medical field who risk exposure to serious disease and illness?

How much greater is the sacrificial love of Jesus, knowing what was coming and being willing to do it anyway! Remember the words of Paul in Romans 5: “While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die - but God shows His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Romans 5:6-8,10).

Think also of how, in the Lenten season, we heard of the agony of Abraham, the friend of God, being asked to sacrifice his son, his only son, and yet being stopped from doing that. Could it have been easy for God the Father to go ahead with the plan He and God the Son had agreed to, even when He heard the cry of Jesus from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” - when Jesus suffered the God-forsakenness of hell, in our place, for what we deserved? It took that kind of complete sacrificial love, “agape” love, for the forgiveness of all sins and eternal life to be earned for us and for the world, by Jesus.

Jesus said again, in our text, “I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” It gave Him joy to do His Father’s will, even with all the suffering, because it would bring such great joy to so many, who would be saved through faith in Him once He had completed His sacrificial, “agape” work. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” The future would be secure for these believers and for all believers, through Jesus.

But this was a future to be believed and shared, and that is why Jesus had chosen these disciples to whom He was talking. Jesus said to them, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.”

All believers, including these disciples, were servants of the Lord, as were Abraham and Moses and the other prophets of the Old Testament. But they were more than just that. Jesus says, “You are My friends… No longer do I call you (just) servants, for the servant does not know what his Master is doing.” In ancient times, many servants were slaves. They simply had to obey, no matter what, whether they understood what was going on or not. Jesus says, in contrast, “I have (also) called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus had been teaching these disciples for three years, and after His death and resurrection, He would keep teaching them more and more, as we have been hearing in this Easter season. He was pulling everything together about His saving work for them and for the world. In a few weeks, we will also hear again about Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to lead and guide and empower these disciples. In fact, soon after our text for today, still on Maundy Thursday, Jesus would say, in John 16, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12-13).

That is just what happened, and soon these same disciples were going out and sharing the Good News of Jesus with everyone they could, both Jews and non-Jews. In
our Acts passage, the first reading for tonight, we heard Peter taking some non-Jews, Gentiles, step by step, through the saving work of Jesus, and that “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name. And while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit came upon all who heard the Word,” and brought many to faith in Jesus and to baptism.

And a number of these original disciples, including Peter and others God chose, wrote down the very Words and message of Jesus in what we now call the New Testament so that future generations, including our own, can still hear the same messages and the same Words and the Good News of Jesus.

And what about us today? We are obviously not called to write new Scriptures. We already have everything we need and what God intended for us in the Old Testament, which points forward to Jesus, and the New Testament, which shows us the saving work of Jesus. Through that same Word of God, we have been brought to faith in the sacrificial love of Jesus and to Baptism and to the joy of Christ in us in gifts like the Lord’s Supper — or, we can still be brought to such faith if we still have doubts and questions and struggles.

We are called also to keep hearing and studying that Word of God so that we can better understand what Christ wants for us and is doing for us, as our Friend. An Old Testament proverb says, “A friend loves at all times” (Proverbs 17:17). According to that standard, our friendships are often imperfect. Christ is our truest Friend, though, always working for our good and loving us with both the Law and the Gospel in His Word. Another Old Testament proverb says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6). We don’t usually think of friends wounding us, but sometimes we need that. Jesus is our most faithful Friend when he shows us, through His Word, our weaknesses, and calls us to repentance, and then gives us His forgiving love. In contrast, the kisses of an enemy don’t always mean goodness of any kind, as we know from the story of Jesus and Judas.

And one more Old Testament proverb says, “A man of many companions may come to ruin; but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Provers 18:24). Jesus is that closest Friend, in whom we can always trust. He teaches us to pray that His will be done and helps us to love others, as He has first loved us, as our text says, too. Then our joy will be more and more full, no matter what,

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

Preparing for Worship - May 5, 2024

The Psalm for this week, the 6th Sunday of Easter, is Psalm 98. It is the only psalm introduced with simply the words “A Psalm.” It is like Psalm 96 is calling for singing “a new song” to the Lord. It speaks of God’s saving work for the nation of Israel in the Old Testament but also looks forward to the coming of the Messiah, the Promised Savior Jesus, through Whom “all nations,” “all the ends of the earth” would see “the salvation of our God.” “All the earth,” including the sea and rivers and hills, is pictured as singing for joy at the Lord’s coming. He comes through Christ Jesus to bring salvation available to all, yet He also judges with “righteousness” and “uprightness,” with “the soundness of His principles of what is right” (Kretzmann, OT, Vol.2, p.163).

We see that plan of our Lord at work in the first lesson for this week, from Acts 10:34-48. Peter is called by God to visit a non-Jew, Cornelius, and his non-Jewish (Gentile) friends and tells them the “good news of peace through Jesus Christ.” Peter takes them through the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and testifies that “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name.” The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God spoken by Peter, and these Gentiles came to faith by the Holy Spirit and were baptized, to the “amazement” of Jews who were there. The Gospel of Jesus was truly for all people, as Psalm 98 predicted, not just for Jews - and Jews also needed to believe now in Jesus for salvation.

The same message is in the Epistle lesson for this week, 1 John 5:1-8. John emphasizes that we are “born of God” when we are brought to faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Promised Savior. We believe that Jesus is “the Son of God,” sent from God the Father and baptized by water and the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Unlike some false teachers, who deny that Jesus suffered and died on the cross (Gnostics, Marcion, Islam, and others), John also emphasized the “blood” of Christ, shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, as well as the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This was also the message of God the Holy Spirit, Who inspired the writers who wrote down the New Testament books, with the same message of Christ Jesus as Savior and victory that overcomes our sinful world through Christ.

The Gospel lesson, John 15:9-17, continues a reading from last week, where Jesus calls us to keep abiding in Him and His Word and His love. Jesus laid down His life for us on the cross to save us. We are called to love others in a sacrificial way, too. Jesus calls us His “friends,” not just His servants and has revealed His saving plan to us through His Spirit and Word. We did not choose Him. He chose us so that we can bear abiding fruit for Him, witnessing to His love and living with fruits of the Spirit in our lives by His grace and power. (See Galatians 5:22-26, for example.)