The lutheransermons's Podcast

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.

Bible Study - Proverbs 30:1-6

Proverbs 30:1-6 is a very interesting part of the Book of Proverbs. Many of the proverbs were written by Solomon and others. We do not know who Agur, son of Jakeh, is. Scholars have tried to tie him in with others referred to in the Old Testament, but there is no agreement about this. Here is what Agur writes, quoting from the ESV translation: “The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name? Surely you know! Every Word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His Words, lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar.”

Based on other Scriptures, Agur is referring, in verses 3-4, to our Lord God, the Creator and Preserver of our universe. He is the One who alone has power over the wind and the waves of the sea and all that He has made. The Lord reminded Job of that in last week’s Old Testament lesson, Job 38:1-11, so that Job had to repent of his pride and his questioning of God, in Job 42:3,6, saying, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know… therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

Agur is admitting, in this proverb in Proverbs 30, that he, too, cannot understand the greatness of God and His ways. He does not have the wisdom or knowledge of the Holy One as he should. He is weary of trying to figure things out in his own human power. He finally just asks for the Name of God - and for the Name of God’s Son. The Lutheran Study Bible notes, p.1044-1045, quote from a great Lutheran scholar, Chemnitz, who says that this is “the clearest passage where He (God the Son) is called the Son of God without reference to His human nature.” Agur even uses the very same words that God used in questioning Job (Job 38:5 and Proverbs 30:4), “Surely you know!”

Agur then goes on to refer to trusting Scripture and says, “Every Word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His Words” (Proverbs 30:5). There are many other references to God the Son in the Old Testament and prophecies of His coming as our Savior. (See Psalm 2:7 and other quotations mentioned in Hebrews 1:1-13 in the New Testament, for example.) But Chemnitz points us to this passage and says, “These mysteries are known from the Word and we must believe nothing else about God than what he has revealed.”

The words of Agur about “ascending to heaven and coming down” are picked up in the New Testament in reference to Jesus in John 3:12-17. Only God the Son has been in heaven and then descended to earth and became true man and then did His saving work and then ascended to heaven again - all for our salvation. Note especially John 3:13. Look also at Romans 10:6-11, where Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 30:11-14, with regard to the Word of God. We don’t have to ascend to heaven to find and hear it. It is in our mouths and hearts.

And Paul ties that in with the coming of His Son, Christ Jesus, “the Word of God made flesh,” for us and our salvation (John 1:14-18). As Agur predicts, and the New Testament reveals, God the Son came down from heaven and ascended again to heaven, after His death and resurrection, and one day He will say, as He did in stilling the storm in last week’s Gospel, “Peace! Be still!” and He will take us also to eternal life in heaven. (See all this, too, in the context of last week’s sermon on Mark 4:35-41. Like Agur and the disciples of Jesus, we do not understand many things, but Jesus grows our faith and trust in Him through His Word.)

Sermon for Saturday, June 22, 2024

5th Sunday after Pentecost

“Great Fear”

Mark 4:35-41

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 tonight is the Gospel lesson from Mark 4:35-41. You are welcome to look at that reading with me, as found in your bulletin.

Jesus had already had a long day, as our text begins. We hear at the beginning of Mark, Chapter 4, (4:1-2), that Jesus “began to teach beside the sea (of Galilee). A very large crowd gathered about Him so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables.” This apparently went on all day.

As our text begins, we hear, “On that day, when evening had come, (Jesus) said to them (His disciples), 'Let us go across to the other side of the sea.' And leaving the crowd, they took Him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with Him.”

Jesus was a real human being just like us, and He had become very tired, as we sometimes do, too. (This is a good reminder to us that teaching, as Jesus was doing all day, is hard work. We think of Lydia Roland, teaching for 42 years in Lutheran schools, and many of them in our own school. It’s a call to appreciate and be grateful for her and all our teachers for the work they also do on our behalf.

Jesus was so tired that we hear He was soon asleep in the stern of the boat on a cushion. Some think that Jesus had something like a pillow, but it is more likely that it was a wooden railing on which he could rest His head. (All the Greek says is something “for the head.” It would be like trying to find a comfortable enough place in a car so that we could hopefully fall asleep.) Regardless, Jesus was still asleep even when a great windstorm arose and waves were starting to fill the boat with water.

The disciples woke Jesus up, crying out, “Teacher (Rabbi), do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus immediately, then, rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Clearly, this was a great miracle. Strong winds don’t just immediately stop blowing, and raging waves don’t suddenly stop so that the water is calm entirely.

You would think that the disciples would be overjoyed. They thought that they were perishing, being destroyed, in the storm, but now they were entirely safe. But instead, we hear that the disciples “were filled with great fear.” Literally, in the Greek, “They feared with a great fear.” Twice, fear is mentioned.

This is often what happened when people were directly confronted with the power of the Almighty God. In Luke 2:9, when angels appeared to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth, exactly the same words are used: (the shepherds) “feared with a great fear.” And in Luke 5:4-10, when Jesus enabled Peter and others to catch a great number of fish, Peter fell down at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” Peter and the others were astonished at the catch of fish and felt so unworthy of being in the presence of Jesus. Jesus had to say to Peter, “Do not be afraid.” And Jesus called Peter and the others to be His disciples and said, “From now on, you will be catching men” (catching people for the Christian faith).

Jesus loved those disciples and had very important work for them to do, but Jesus also knew that faith was a gift and a growing process, as He then humbled them and showed them their weaknesses and sins and their need for Him and His saving help, and then built them up and strengthened them further in faith in Him.

In our text, Jesus had to say very bluntly to those disciples in the boat, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And the disciples showed their very weak faith by their great fear and then by their saying to one another as our text ends, “Who then is this, (this man Jesus), that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

If these disciples had known the Scriptures better, they would have realized that Jesus was showing them that He really was God’s Son, as well as a true, tired man and that He had been sent into this world to rescue them and us from our sins and for a whole new life with Him.

Job is known as a great man of God, but in our Old Testament lesson for today, he also needed to be questioned by God and reminded that only God had control over “the sea” and its “proud waves” - and over Job and his life, even with its ups and downs for him and his family.

The Psalms often give us the picture image of God’s care as exactly what Jesus helped the disciples through in our text.

• Psalm 65:5-7 says, “The God of our salvation, the Help of all the ends of the earth... stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.”
• Psalm 107:23-30 speaks of people "going down to the sea in ships... and seeing the stormy winds which lifted up the waves of the sea... Their courage melted away at their evil plight... They were at their wit's end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” This is a prediction of what the Savior, the Messiah, Jesus, would do when He came into the world and what He did in our text and in other ways in the New Testament.

There is also a remarkable passage in Proverbs 30:1-5, where a man says, “I am weary, O God, and worn out… I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One (as I should). Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who wrapped up water in a garment? Who established all the ends of the earth? What is His Name, and what is His Son’s Name? Surely you know.” And the very next verse says, “Every Word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”

It is through that Word of God, revealed in the Old Testament, and explained even more in the New Testament, that we know of God, our Heavenly Father, and of His Son, God the Son, named our Lord Jesus Christ, and His saving work for us in His life, death, and resurrection. In fact, it is not until after the saving work of Jesus is complete, as He had paid for all sins and made us acceptable to God through faith in Him, that God the Holy Spirit pulled everything together for the disciples and for us, in God’s saving plan.

Before that, as you read through the Gospel of Mark, you find Jesus having to say to His disciples again and again in Mark 7:18, “Are you also without understanding?” and in 8:17, “Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?” and in 8:21, “Do you not yet understand?” and in 9:19, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?”

Yet Jesus never gave up on His disciples and kept teaching them and doing everything necessary for their salvation and for ours. All this is very comforting for us, too. I help teach a Friday morning Bible study where 15 to as many as 20 men meet weekly for Bible study, and I help with other studies at times. We can usually understand things as we read and talk together about the most important teachings, but sometimes we struggle with some things, and I can imagine Jesus saying to us, “Do you still not understand?” But we keep meeting, and the Lord is patient with us, and the Holy Spirit keeps leading and guiding us through His Word.

This is some of what Martin Luther meant when he introduced the 10 Commandments with the words, “We should fear, love, and trust in God.” The Word of God shows us fear, fear of our sins and failings and our need for repentance and forgiveness, and then leads us to that repentance. But the Word of God also points us to the love of God in Christ, in spite of our struggles, and the Holy Spirit calls us to and enables us to trust in Christ’s mercy and forgiveness and eternal hope in Him because of what He perfectly accomplished for us.

And this text, and others like it, gave the early Christians a picture of the church. It is said that they often drew boats as symbols - reminding of the ark, through which Noah and family were saved. In our text, Jesus also used a boat from which to preach and teach and rescue His disciples - and  how important it is for us, too, to keep gathering and hearing and learning about Christ’s rescue mission for us, as we do in worship and Bible study. Here we also receive God’s gifts of forgiveness and the Lord’s Supper and remember the promises of our baptism. All these gifts of God help us through the storms and troubles we face in life, too, as we stay in the Lord’s boat for our strength.

The place where we sit together for worship is often called “the nave” - the Latin word for a ship or boat. (That’s why we also have a branch of our military called the Navy - people going out in boats to help and protect us.)

Of course, our Lord provides the greatest help and protection for us in Christ. Jesus promises never to leave us or forsake us, and one day He will say to us, “Peace! Be still!” Then all the storms and troubles of this life will be over for us, in the eternal life Christ has prepared for us.

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

Preparing for Worship - June 23, 2024

In the Old Testament lesson for this week, Job 38:1-11, the Lord begins to confront Job by taking him back to the time of the creation and questioning him about how much he really knows and understands about God’s work and ways. He shows Job that his words were “words without knowledge” and humbles him so that Job finally has to confess in Job 42:6, “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (The Lord also exposes the sins of Job’s “friends,” who were trying to straighten him out but not doing so in “right” ways.) As a part of the Lord God’s message, He speaks of how He alone has control of everything, including “the sea” and its “proud waves” - an important message for some of the readings that follow.

The Psalm is Psalm 124. David speaks of the disasters he and others would have had if the Lord had not been with him and helping him and those with him. “Floods would have swept them away,”  and “raging waters would have gone over them.” Twice David says, “We have escaped” by the blessing of the Lord. “Our help,” he says, “is in the Name of the Lord,” the Creator, “Who made heaven and earth.”

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 4:35-41, Jesus goes in a boat across the Sea of Galilee with His disciples and some others, also in boats. “A great windstorm arose,” and “waves were filling the boat with water.” Jesus, who was sleeping, was awakened and said to the wind and the sea, “Peace. Be still.” Immediately, the sea was calm. Instead of joy, the disciples have “great fear,” wondering who this man Jesus really was. They had much need of a growing faith and trust in Jesus as the One He really was, the Son of God and their Savior. Do we need the same, as we struggle with fear and uncertainty at times?

In the Epistle lesson, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, the apostle Paul continues to write of his ministry, with many ups and downs; yet he keeps offering what everyone needs, the grace of God, in Christ, by which salvation comes. He says, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” There is no better time than now to trust the Lord and His saving work through Christ. “All this is from God” (2 Corinthians 5:18), and He can “widen our hearts” and bring us to faith through His Word and the working of the Holy Spirit in us. We may seem to have nothing, yet we can possess everything we really need in Christ our Savior.

Preparing for Worship - June 16, 2024

The picture image of a tree is used in several of the readings this week, representing an individual believer and Christ the Savior and His growing kingdom, the church, in contrast with a dry, dying tree - people without the Lord and His blessings, in Christ.

The Psalm is Psalm 1. Pictured is a man blessed by God and delighting in His Word and will, who is like a strong, well-watered tree, in contrast with the wicked, who are sinners and scoffers and will perish, useless and like chaff that the wind blows away.

The Old Testament lesson is from Ezekiel 17:22-24. The context is that many of God’s rebellious people had been carried away to captivity in Babylon. The Babylonians then appointed Zedekiah as a puppet king. He was actually from the line of David but rebelled against both God and the Babylonians and was carried away - the last of the kings of God’s Old Testament people. God has still not given up on His people, though, and promised in this passage that He Himself would take a sprig from a tree and plant it in the mountain height of Israel. It would become a great, noble tree, and birds of every kind would find fruit and shelter in it. This is prophetic of Christ Jesus, brought into this world by His Heavenly Father and prospering and being a blessing and a King with dominion all over the world.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 4:26-34, Jesus tells parables of the Kingdom of God. God’s kingdom will grow as the seed of His Word is planted and grows into a great harvest, though we don’t have control over it and don’t fully understand how it grows. We simply trust God to give growth, as He wishes, as more and more people come to faith. Another parable is of a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large tree, where birds can find shelter and prosper. This is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy, with Christ Jesus planting and growing and prospering His church in many places over time. He especially taught His chosen disciples so they could eventually begin to sow the seed of His Word in others.

In the Epistle lesson, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (11-17), Paul continues to speak of the challenges of His ministry. He would prefer to be with his Lord in heaven when his mortal, tent-like nature would be swallowed up by eternal life. He has the Spirit of God as a guarantee for His future (as all believers do).  He still has work to do in this life, though, and His work, though hard, is still what he needs to be doing so that more people can become a new creation through faith in Christ. The love of Christ controls and compels Paul to tell others of Jesus. For Jesus died for all, for their sake, that they might be forgiven and have new life through trust in Jesus, as well.