The lutheransermons's Podcast

More Thought on 1 John, Chapters 4 and 5, and Cults

In my “Preparing for Worship” this week, I mention that there are false teachers who deny that Jesus really suffered and died on the cross (Gnostics, Marcion, Islam, and others). You have to throw out large portions of the Scriptures to say such a thing, but some do. If you have a Lutheran Study Bible, you can look at a short discussion of this on page 1561 and false writings (pseudepigrapha) written after the time of the New Testament, described there.

Martin Luther and others quote from an early church father, Irenaeus, who wrote of Gnostic heresies, including that of Cerinthus, which may, in an early form, have caused John to write what he wrote in 1 John 5:6-8. Cerinthus taught that Jesus was a superior man, but only a man. At his baptism, “the heavenly Christ” came upon him for a time but left him so that only the man Jesus died on the cross, Cerinthus said. That meant, according to Cerinthus, that the man dying on the cross was not Jesus, the Son of God, dying to pay for our sins. Gnostics then emphasized secret knowledge (gnosis) that people needed instead of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

In clear contrast, John speaks in his Gospel and letters, and 1 John 5:6-8 of Jesus being the Son of God and Savior all of His life. That is clearly shown in His public ministry when, at His baptism with water and the Spirit, He is identified as the "Beloved Son” of God the Father, with Whom the Father is “well-pleased.” He continued to be God the Son and true man, even as He shed His blood on the cross as payment for all of our sins. “Father, forgive them,” He said from the cross, and as He died, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, also testifies throughout the Scriptures He inspired that “Jesus is the Son of God” all through His life and ministry and in His mighty resurrection from the dead. “These three agree,” John says - “the Spirit and the water and the blood.”

This may seem a little obscure to us today, but it is clearly answering some false ideas that existed. The Lutheran Study Bible indicates Marcion is another example of the false gnostic teaching. Marcion rejected most of the Scriptures and “denied the Christ of Scripture, and taught that Jesus was a middle-level spirit being who came to teach his disciples a body of secret knowledge. Marcion’s false teachings helped cause the early church to define and defend the books of the Bible” even more than before (LSB, p.1561). (See also Martin Franzmann’s comments in his Concordia Bible with Notes, CPH, (c) 1971, p. 490-491.)

This is also important to note because a number of liberal “religious” scholars in recent times have referred to gnostic writings as superior to the writings of the Scriptures even though they were written much later and reflect ideas about special, secret knowledge and other ideas that Christians rejected, again and again, in the early church and as time went on. The popularity of The DaVinci Code and other radical religious ideas came out of that period. Instead, the Scriptures we know as the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, the Word of God, are the foundation on which we still stand.

Some are surprised that Islam also says that Jesus did not die on the cross. There are different ideas, but most Muslims say that Jesus was only a prophet and was taken directly to heaven, and God or someone made a different person who may have looked like Jesus die instead of him. Such ideas are found in their holy book, the Koran (Quran), and other traditions of Islam. God would not, in their view, allow one of his prophets to suffer such a terrible death. That then means that Islam also has no Savior, and they reject most of our other Biblical Scriptures and teachings. People are responsible for doing enough of what Allah wants them to do and then hope that he will be merciful to them. That is why some Islamic people are willing to be martyrs, dying for the cause of Islam, since that is one of the few ways to guarantee that you will reach paradise.

Non-Biblical ideas continue to appear up to our own time. John also warned in 1 John 4:1-6 “to test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” John calls this “the spirit of the antichrist” since these false teachers so often attack Christ Himself and His saving work. I was thinking about all this
and considering whether to write this study when, on Saturday, someone was at the door. It turned out to be two small boys. They didn’t look to be more than 7 or 8 years old. They were offering a free book if I wanted it. (I could see a car on the street, so gladly, a parent or someone was watching over them.) I recognized the book, and have a copy of it, given to me free, years ago. It is called The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. I asked the boys what church they went to, but they didn’t seem to know or know what this book was about.

This encounter reminded me that we still need to hear articles like this, as wrong religious ideas are still being pushed by many. The Seventh-Day Adventists do talk about Jesus and call Him Savior but confuse the issue with a number of wrong ideas. They insist that the only proper day for worship is Saturday and that we must follow this Old Testament commandment in the Old Testament way, with all sorts of dietary rules and no work of any kind on Saturday, and they reject that we are freed from many commands and ceremonies by the New Covenant in the New Testament. They say that they follow the Bible alone, yet give out Ellen White books, not the Bible. Their unique, non-Biblical ideas come largely from her and her writings. I can’t go into this in detail, but such misleading churches and groups are still around us. I have seen ads in recent weeks in local papers offering “Jesus Christ: The Real Story” from another group, The United Church of God, which denies the Triune God and insists on people following not only worship on Saturday but all of the other Old Testament festivals and has very different ideas about Jesus and the future.

In other words, be cautious about what you read and hear. Follow Scripture alone and watch out for false teachers and ideas, not only from clearly non-Christian groups but also from those who claim to be Christians but are not in many of their teachings. If you have questions or are confused, ask a pastor or raise a question in a Bible study. Keep worshiping and studying Scripture and focusing upon Christ alone as your Savior.

Preparing for Worship - April 28, 2024

The Psalm for this week is the last Psalm in the Book of Psalms, Psalm 150. It simply calls us to “praise the Lord,” to sing “Hallelujah” or “Alleluia” (the Hebrew form of this phrase). The Lord is to be praised in the heavens, as well as on earth, for His greatness and mighty deeds (and especially for His saving work in Jesus). He is to be praised with musical instruments and by everything that has breath, including all people. Praise the Lord!

In the Gospel lesson, John 15:1-8, Jesus uses another of His “I AM” statements: “I am the True Vine.” Believers are His branches, connected to Him by faith. He brings us to that faith. Now, we need to abide in Him, for apart from Him, we can do nothing. Through Him, we can bear much fruit. Apart from Him, we would wither and die and be burned in a fire. If we are His, He will “prune” our branch and cleanse us so that we can bear more fruit for our Lord. (See Acts 15:7-9 as another example of this terminology.)

The first lesson is from Acts 8:26-40 and gives an example of someone being connected to Christ, the True Vine, through the Word of God and the gift of Baptism. An Ethiopian man has heard of the true God of the Old Testament and comes to worship in Jerusalem but knows very little and does not understand Scripture or God’s saving plan. Philip is sent by an angel and by the Holy Spirit to meet the man as he returns home. The man is reading from Isaiah 53:7-8, and Philip begins with this Scripture and uses many others to tell the man “the good news about Jesus” as Savior. The man is brought to baptism and faith in Jesus and goes home “rejoicing” as a believer in Christ and His Word. Philip is taken away by the Holy Spirit and continues to preach the Gospel of Jesus in many more towns. (Note that this happens in the area of Gaza, about which we still read so much today. The Good News of Christ still needs to be preached there and in Israel and everywhere, to this very day.)

The Epistle lesson is from 1 John 4:1-11 (12-21). The Apostle John warns that there are many false prophets and false teachers who are serving “the spirit of the antichrist.” They speak from the viewpoint of a sinful world that is opposed to Christ Jesus alone as Lord and Savior and His Word alone, the Holy Scriptures. As John tells us, “God is love” and “sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning and forgiving sacrifice) for our sins.” “We love Him and others because He first loved us and made His Son our Savior and the Savior of the world.” This is Good News to be shared with all.

Sermon for Saturday, April 20, 2024

Sermon for Saturday, April 20, 2024

“I AM the Good Shepherd”

John 10:11-18

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 10:11-18. You’re welcome to look at it together with me, as it is printed in your bulletin.

Two times in this very short passage, Jesus says, “I AM the Good Shepherd… I am the Good Shepherd.“ And a third time, referring to Himself, Jesus describes what the Good Shepherd does. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

The way Jesus says this is very important, too, for seven times in the Gospel of John
Jesus is quoted as saying, “I AM” and then saying what He is.
 - I AM the Bread of Life. (John 6:35)
 - I AM the Light of the world. (John 8:12)
 - I AM the True Vine. (John 15:1)
...and on and on. The fact that He begins each of these statements with the words “I AM” is also very significant.

In Exodus 3, in the Old Testament, Moses is called to go and help the people of Israel in slavery in Egypt. Moses is reluctant to go and tries to make excuses not to go and even says, “If I come to the people and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me,’ and they asked me, ‘What is His Name?’ what shall I say?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And God said: “‘Say this to the people, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.’”

And ever since that time, by far the most common name for the One True God in the Old Testament is that name. Most scholars think that it was pronounced YAHWEH, and it is a form of the Hebrew verb “I Am.” I have not counted it, but scholars say it occurs 6,820 times in the Old Testament, and in English translations, it is the LORD (capital LORD).

And Scriptures like Psalm 105:1 say, “O give thanks to the LORD (capital LORD); call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples.” The Lord never asked His people not to speak His Name, but rather, as the 2nd Commandment says, “not to misuse it or take His Name in vain.” As Martin Luther explained it, “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His Name, but call upon It in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”

But between the time of the Old Testament and New Testament, many Jewish people were so fearful of breaking the 2nd Commandment that they avoided the true name of God and substituted another name or something else. They might say, “By heaven we pray,” instead of “By the Lord we pray.”

How different that is from our OMG society, where many people just throw around God’s Name without thinking or even meaning to talk with Him in a serious way or at all. His Name becomes a way only to emphasize something  - often not good things at all.

So, when Jesus in the New Testament began to use the true Name of the Lord, in reference to Himself, with His “I AM” sayings, the religious leaders were very upset. When in John, Chapter 8, Jesus said, “I AM the Light of the world” and spoke of doing His heavenly Father’s Word and will, the religious leaders said, “Abraham is our father, and we follow him….” “You, Jesus, are a Samaritan and have a demon.” Jesus finally had to say to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” The reaction of the people was to pick up stones to stone Jesus for blasphemy, but He was able to escape.

Jesus had to say and do these things because He truly was God the Son, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, from all eternity, and was involved with the Creation and everything since, even long before the time of Abraham. And again, in the Old Testament, the Lord often had to send many prophets to warn the kings and other leaders that they were being terrible shepherds of their nation and leading the people astray. Even the spiritual shepherds, the priests and the Levites and others were often condemned for not caring for their flock, their people. Finally, the Lord Himself said, in passages like Ezekiel 34, “I Myself will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”

So, God the Son came into this world and became man, Jesus, to help the people, the sheep of this world. Sheep are not the smartest of animals and can easily go astray. Their struggles are a good picture of our human struggles, too, as the imperfect people we all are. Jesus had compassion on the people, for they were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Jesus was the Good Shepherd, healing and helping and teaching many people as much He could. But He also wanted to bring to people the promise of eternal life beyond this life. “This charge (this calling), I have received from My Father,” Jesus said at the end of our text.

That’s why, several times in this passage, Jesus says He has to do even more. He was the only truly Good Shepherd, living a perfect life in our place as a substitute for our failures. But even more was needed. At least five times in our text, Jesus says that the Good Shepherd also lays down His life for the sheep. Jesus had to suffer and die willingly, again as a substitute, in our place, to pay the penalty for our sins and the sins of all sheep in the world. Only Jesus, as true God as well as a true man, could forgive us completely.

It may seem as if Jesus’ life was taken from Him by cruel and evil people. But Jesus says, “I lay down my life. No one takes it from Me. I lay it down of My own accord.” That’s why Jesus says, God the Father loves Me. I am willingly doing everything He wishes and is needed for the salvation of sheep, of people. But there is still more for Jesus to do.

He says, “I lay down My life that I may take it up again.” “I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” Jesus is predicting that not only would He die for us, but He would rise again in victory over sin and Satan and death and earn for us the gift of eternal life, as we trust in Him as our Good Shepherd. Jesus has His life again through His resurrection from the dead, and he can continue to help us always, through this life, to eternal life with Him.

We still face many troubles and dangers in this sinful world. There are “hired hands” who care only about themselves and can desert us and disappoint us in times of need. There are wolves around, too, who want to do us great harm. These are usually described in Scripture as false teachers who follow the ways of Satan and want to lead us away from our confidence in our Lord.

Yet, in the midst of all this, we have our living Lord, Who loves us and will help us through. Jesus said, “I AM the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me. just as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father.” Jesus uses Himself as an example. The Father sent His Son into this world to lay down His life for us - not at all an easy thing to be doing, but Jesus trusted His Father and His Father’s plan completely, no matter what - and even in the agony of the cross and death, Jesus prayed, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” And the Father enabled Jesus to take up His life again in His Easter victory over death. In the same way, Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He knows us, and we know Him and trust that no matter the circumstances, He will be with us, as He knows us and loves us, and we listen to Him and His Word.

In the Epistle lesson for today, we heard that even if we mess up and fail, as sheep sometimes do, and our hearts condemn us (and our conscience troubles us), God is greater than our hearts, and he still loves us and forgives us and restores our souls, as Psalm 23 says.

In fact, everything that David spoke of for himself is ours, too, in Jesus our Good Shepherd. Jesus is the great I AM, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He can provide for what we really need and lead us in good and right ways as we listen to Him and His Word. Even if we have to walk through dark valleys, He is with us. He has given us goodness and mercy in our Baptism and blesses us with the table of His Presence in the Lord’s Supper. He is with us all the days of our life, and even death is only a gateway through Him to our heavenly home, where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And there’s one more great promise in our text from John 10. Jesus says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.” If we have family or friends who are still not following Christ, there is still hope for them. We don’t have to give up on them. We can still pray for them and encourage them and try to love them, as our Epistle lesson said, in deed and truth, as well as in Word and talk.

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 our Lord. Amen. (Philippians 4:9)

Preparing for Worship - April 21, 2024

This Sunday is the 4th Sunday of the Easter Season and is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Two of the readings have a very direct connection to Jesus as our Good Shepherd, as you will see.

The Psalm is Psalm 23, another psalm of David. David had been a shepherd for his family’s sheep when he was younger and knew what sheep needed. He speaks of those needs in this psalm but applies them to himself and to us, as spiritual sheep of our heavenly Father, and especially of His Son, Jesus, the true Good Shepherd. Sheep are not the smartest animals and need lots of help and protection. Spiritually, we are the same. We need nourishment and protection in times of danger and restoration when we go astray and get into trouble. The Lord disciplines and directs us with His rod and staff, the Law, and forgives and blesses us with His Gospel, His goodness and mercy and love, through this life and on into eternal life, as we trust in Him by His gift of faith.

In the Gospel lesson, John 10:11-18, Jesus clearly identifies Himself as our Good Shepherd, Who truly knows and cares about His sheep. There are “hired hands” who do not really care for the sheep and abandon them in a time of danger. Jesus gave His life for us sheep and then took up His life again in His resurrection so that He can continue to help and bless us always. Jesus knows us as His sheep and seeks to keep us always trusting in and following Him. He also has other sheep He wants to bring into His flock, as he is the one true Good Shepherd. No other will do.

In the first lesson, Acts 4:1-12, we see that there was opposition to Jesus and those who taught about Him. The Sadducees, who did not believe in life after death, were especially upset with the talk about a resurrection from the dead and had Peter and John arrested. The next day they questioned them about how and by what name the crippled man had been healed (Acts, Chapter 3). Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke boldly about Jesus’ death and resurrection and that the man had been healed by Him and His power. Though rejected by many, Jesus is the Cornerstone for faith and life and our eternal future. In fact, there is no other person or name by which we can be saved. Christ alone is our salvation, together, of course, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the one true Triune God.

The Epistle lesson, 1 John 3:16-24, begins with what we heard in the Gospel for today. Our Good Shepherd, Jesus, was willing to and did lay down His life for us and our salvation. As He loved us, we are called to love one another, not just with words, but in deed and truth. However, when we fail, at times, and our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our guilty hearts and forgives and strengthens us. Seeing His love and forgiveness, we are moved again to seek to do His will more faithfully, believing in our Lord Jesus and seeking to love one another in a better way. God the Father abides in us to help us, along with Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the one true Triune God at work for us and with us.

Sermon for Saturday, April 13, 2024

Sermon for Saturday, April 13, 2024

“These are My Words”

Luke 24:36-49

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 Luke 24:36-49. You are welcome to follow along with the reading as printed in your bulletin.

From what we heard last weekend from John’s Gospel, it might seem as if Jesus’ first appearance to His disciples on Easter evening went pretty smoothly, except for the problems of doubting Thomas, who was not there that evening.

But from Luke’s Gospel, we get a different picture, at least at first. Just before our text, we hear that there were other people besides the 11 disciples in the locked room on Easter evening. Then the two disciples to whom Jesus had appeared on the road to Emmaus had come back to tell everyone what they had just seen and heard from Jesus. So, the disciples had already heard that some were claiming that Jesus was alive. Our text begins, then, “as they were talking about these things,” when Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace to you.”

This didn’t immediately bring them peace or joy, though. We hear that they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit - something like a ghost of some sort. This had happened once before when they were out in a boat in the stormy Sea of Galilee, and Jesus came to them, walking on the water of the sea. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 14, tells us, “When the disciples saw Him, they were terrified and said, 'It is a ghost!' and they cried out in fear." Immediately, Jesus said to them, "Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid!"

And if you remember the story, impetuous Peter said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to You on the water.” Note that he said, “If it is you, Jesus.” The disciples certainly had faith in God, but that faith was sometimes mixed up with doubts and confusion and even superstitions.

In this case, Peter started walking on the water, but when he saw the wind and the waves, he was afraid again and began to sink and cried out, “Lord, save me.” And immediately, Jesus rescued him. But Jesus also had to scold him, saying, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

The disciples on Easter evening were very similar. They saw Jesus standing right in front of them, but they were startled and frightened and unsure. Could a dead person really come back to life? - though they had recently known of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. And how could anyone get through locked doors and walls and be with them in person? It wasn’t just doubting Thomas who struggled to believe. Most all of them did. But before we get too critical of them, just imagine if I were here preaching tonight, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a person was standing right in front of the altar; what would we think? Would we be startled and frightened, too?

Jesus loved these disciples in spite of their doubts and fears. When He said to them, “Peace to you,” it was more than a typical Hebrew greeting among friends. By His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus was also bringing peace and reconciliation with God Himself for them (and for us) and forgiveness for all the sins and failings that separate us from God.

Listen to some other Scriptures that describe that peace that Jesus brings. Colossians 1:19-20 says, “In Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Christ to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.” And in Romans 5:1-2 we read, “Since we have been justified (counted right with God) by faith (in what Jesus did for us) we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace (of God) in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

To strengthen the faith of those frightened disciples, Jesus then spoke to them what we, as Lutherans, call both Law and Gospel. As Jesus had done with Peter earlier on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus scolded the disciples and said, “Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” - so that they could clearly see their own sins and failings. It wasn’t just doubting Thomas who needed help. They all needed the help and forgiveness and hope that only Jesus could give - as we all need that forgiveness and hope still today. We need the scolding, too.

Jesus then gave to His disciples the Gospel - the Good News that He really had risen from the dead and was not a spirit or ghost, but was the living Lord Jesus who could help and bless them always. He gave them proof, too, as He later did with doubting Thomas. He said, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see I have.” And when He had said this, “He showed them His hands and His feet” - where the nails had been. And when the disciples still “disbelieved for joy” - maybe thinking that this was “almost too good to be true” and marveling at all this, Jesus gave them one more proof. He said, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.” Jesus was showing them that He had been raised with the same human body, able to eat, yet changed and glorified, so that He could appear and disappear, even in a locked room, as He was just doing. And for 40 more days, Jesus appeared to the disciples and to many more people and ate with some and did other things that showed that He was truly alive.

Jesus also did one more very crucial thing that Easter evening. He pointed His disciples to the importance of His true Word and the true Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. Jesus knew that after 40 days, He would ascend into heaven and return to His Heavenly Father. He would still be with us as true God and man, but we would not be able to see Him and touch Him and talk with Him in the same direct way as those first disciples.

In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul wrote of the many people to whom the risen Lord Jesus appeared directly before His ascension, and then He wrote, “Last of all, (as if this would not keep happening), as to one untimely born, Jesus appeared also to me.... unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Jesus brought Paul to faith in Him. A little later, Paul wrote, so now “we preached” (the Word of God) and so “you believed” (in the Good News of the Savior Jesus.)

That is exactly what Jesus wanted to happen, as He spoke on Easter evening. He said to the disciples, “These are My Words, that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms (and the other Writings of the Old Testament) must be fulfilled.” 

Then Jesus opened the minds of the disciples to hear and understand the Scriptures, in which “it is written” that He, Jesus, the Christ “should suffer (enough to die) and on the third day rise from the dead.” That is exactly what Jesus had now accomplished, completely fulfilling what the Scriptures had predicted, for their salvation and the salvation now available to the whole world.

“You are witnesses of these things.” Jesus then said. They were actually eyewitnesses, for Jesus then told them, You have seen these things and heard My Word. You have the proof that I died but also rose from the dead in victory for you. It is now your job to share this Good News with everyone you can - “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in My Name,” Jesus said, “to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

Jesus wanted His disciples to start there. He still cared for His own Jewish people and wanted them, too, to believe in Him as Savior. And, Jesus said, you will not have to do this on your own, in your own power. “These are My Words,” Jesus said, and “I will be with you always” - though they could not see Him or hear Him so directly after His ascension. Jesus also promised, as our text ends, “I am also sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Jesus was referring to the third Person of the Trinity, Who would come at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, who then worked through the Word proclaimed by Peter and others and brought 3,000 people to faith and the gift of Baptism and, later, the Lord’s Supper.

As we heard in our first Scripture lesson for today, those disciples then continued to proclaim the Good News of Jesus in the temple and wherever they could, and the Holy Spirit continued to bring more people to faith in Jesus.

The Lord also inspired Peter and John and Matthew and Mark and Paul and others to write down what they had seen and heard from Jesus so that still today, we can see and hear Christ and His Word and all that happened through the New Testament, as well as the predictions that pointed forward to Jesus.

And we thank our Lord for parents and family and pastors and teachers who shared that same Word of Christ that brought us to faith and baptism and to be here tonight. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3, “All Scripture is breathed out by God,” and is vital for not only bringing us to faith in Christ but for keeping us in that faith.

And Jesus said, “If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free,” - free from the condemnation of sin and free for the blessings and peace of this life, and for eternal life to come. And we even have the privilege of letting others know of that Good News, too,

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. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)

Preparing for Worship - April 14, 2024

The first lesson this week is again from the New Testament, Acts 3:11-21, and the history of the early Christian church. A man lame from birth was begging at a gate of the temple. Peter has no money to give him, but he gives him something much greater and better. Through Christ’s power, the man is healed. For the first time in his life, he can walk and leap, and he praises God and hears of Christ the Savior (Acts 3:1-10). People want to praise Peter and John, but Peter points to Jesus Christ, the Author of Life, who was rejected by many and died but rose again. Peter calls the people to repent of their sins and turn to Christ for forgiveness and to be refreshed and restored by the Lord and await His return and final restoration of all things on the last day.

The Psalm is Psalm 4. David knows that the Lord has given him relief when he was in many tight spots in his life, being shamed and attacked by vain words and lies of others. He has been angry but seeks not to let that lead him into sin.  He trusted the Lord, and the Lord heard his prayers and gave him renewed joy in his heart and more restful sleep. The light of God’s face was upon him and allowed him to dwell in safety, even in difficult times.

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 24:36-49, we hear more about Jesus’ appearance to His disciples and some others after His resurrection. At first, they thought they were seeing a spirit or ghost. Jesus gives them lots of evidence that it is truly He, alive again with them, in His resurrected body. They can see His pierced hands and feet and touch Him. He asked for some food and ate it in front of them. He also gave them His Words, the Words of Scripture that predicted all this, and He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He showed them that “it is written” that He, the Christ, would suffer and die and rise again on the third day. Now it would be their job to call people everywhere to repentance and forgiveness through Jesus and His Name and Word, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who would soon come upon them from on high at Pentecost.

That is exactly what we see Peter and John doing in our First lesson for today, in Acts, Chapter 3. That is also how we have come to faith in Jesus to this very day, John tells us, in our Epistle lesson, 1 John 3:1-7. It is through the Word of God proclaimed to us and taught to us, along with the Word connected with water in the gift of Baptism for us. Through the love of God, in Christ, we have come to faith and are actually children of God now, as we also await Christ’s appearance on the last day, when we shall see Him as He is, as those first disciples saw Jesus on Easter. We are purified now through Christ’s forgiveness, but we also try to battle the sin, the lawlessness, to which Satan seeks to lead us astray. We live by God’s Word and confess our sins and live by God’s mercy and forgiveness and strength in Jesus.

Bible Study - Thoughts on Acts 4:32-35

Acts 4:32-35 describes the early Christian church after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when 3,000 people came to faith in Jesus and were baptized. Most important was that “the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” As a result, we hear in Acts 6:7 that “the Word of God continued to increase“ through the sharing of Christ, “and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great number of the priests became obedient to the faith.” That was exactly what the Lord wanted to happen, through the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God and bringing more people to faith and baptism.

At the same time, we hear that these Christians were also “of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him were his own, but they had everything in common…. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:
32, 34-35). Some people say that it sounds as if they had set up a Christian Socialist or even a Christian Communist society. Everyone was equal, and no one had anything more than anyone else. It was a kind of Christian commune, in their view, and we should do the same today.

This view takes these Scriptures out of context, though, and ignores what is said in passages that follow. Chapter five of Acts tells that a couple sold a piece of property and kept part of the proceeds for themselves while lying and saying they were giving it all to the church. The problem was not in keeping some of the proceeds but in lying “to the Holy Spirit" in what they claimed to be doing (Acts 5:1-3). Peter told the husband, “While the property remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?” (Acts 5:4). The church did not own everything that people had. The people owned their property and could do with it what they wished. The problem was with lying - and they were ultimately not “lying to man but to God.” Martin Franzmann commented, “These words show how completely voluntary the sharing of property was. The term ‘Christian communism,’ sometimes applied to this aspect of the life of the Jerusalem church, is at best misleading” (Concordia Bible with Notes, CPH, 1971, p. 217).

The idea of a utopian system, where everyone shares and is equal, does not work because even a church is made up of imperfect sinners who sometimes have trouble with each other. By Acts, Chapter 6, v.1, we hear that the Hellenists, Greek-speaking Christians, were complaining that their widows were “being neglected in the daily distribution.” They felt that the Hebrew widows were getting more than the Greek widows. It just wasn’t fair.

After this, we don’t hear of an “everything-in-common” system in the Scriptures. It was not that in the first place, as we have seen in context.  Certainly, Christians were and are called to “love their neighbor,” “help the poor and needy,” and assist one another. Paul and others sponsored a large gathering of funds to help suffering Christians in Jerusalem when there was famine and other problems. If we see how much Christ loved us, we also are moved by our Lord to help others. At the same time, look at a Scripture like 1 Timothy 5:3-16, where Paul warns about people taking advantage of a system of help - people who are “self-indulgent” and “idlers” and “gossips and busybodies.” Paul also encourages families and relatives to do what they can to help their own when they can.

Historically, “communal systems” have not worked well because of sin and our sinful human nature. In my state, Indiana, in the US, there is a place called New Harmony. It was started in the early 1800’s by George Rapp and German separatists, who came to the US for freedom and thought they could establish a perfect Christian community, with all people equal and sharing. It did not last very long. Then, Robert Owen tried to establish the same sort of system in the same place. His movement was called Owenism by some, and it lasted only about 12 years before falling apart. Think also of the tragedy in Guyana in 1978, where 918 died in what turned into a communal cult led by Jim Jones, who started off as a Christian pastor in Indianapolis. The examples are many.

Again, at the same time, historically, many hospitals, charities, and social ministries were started by Christians to help people in need. Christians have often been willing to be “taken advantage of” just to help as many people as possible, especially the poor and needy and children and the suffering. Jesus certainly was often “taken advantage of” to do His saving work for us, which none of us deserved. Reading the Scriptures carefully, in context, and letting Scripture interpret Scripture can help us act responsibly as individuals and as a church. May the Lord bless us all in that and in our primary responsibility - sharing Christ and His resurrection and His Word with others
(Acts 4:33) while we also seek to show love for others.

Preparing for Worship - April 7, 2024

This Sunday is the Second Sunday of our Easter celebration. Note that we do not have reading from the Old Testament during the Easter season, but rather from the Book of Acts and the history of the early Christian church.

The First lesson is from Acts 4:32-35. The most important part of this passage is that the apostles were giving powerful testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, and that great grace of God was upon them all. They were united and willing to sacrifice what they had to help others in need. They “had everything in common” at first, but that did not last, as the events of Acts 5 and 6 tell, and there was lying and deceiving and complaining, too. In a sinful world, there is no utopia, even among Christians. The Word of the Lord continued to be spread and increased, though, and the Lord grew His church (Acts 6:7).

Psalm 148 calls everyone and everything to praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the highest heavens and the starry skies. Praise the Lord from the earth and all that is in it, including kings and all the peoples. Praise the Lord for His Name that is above all names. Praise the Lord for the “Horn” that He has raised for the people near to Him. That Horn of salvation was and is Jesus, our Redeemer. (See Luke 1:68-69.)

The Gospel is John 20:19-31. Thomas missed Jesus's Easter Sunday appearances and seemed to be unable to believe that Jesus was really alive again. Jesus appeared again about a week later, and Thomas saw Jesus and believed and called Jesus “My Lord and My God.” Jesus said, “Blessed are those, also, who have not seen Me but have believed.” He is talking about us, who have come to faith through the written Word of God, and the many who testify about Jesus to us through that Word, also. In Christ, we have “life,” now and forever.

The Apostle John was one of those witnesses to Christ Himself, as one of His 12 original disciples. John writes in 1 John 1:1-2:2 of his certainty in Christ, Who was with God the Father and came to be the Light of our world and to cleanse us from all sin. We are all sinners who need to be brought to confess those sins and trust in Jesus, Who is the Righteous One for us and our Advocate before the Father. John is absolutely sure of all this because he has seen and heard and touched and proclaimed Jesus as “the Word of Life” for us and our “Eternal life,” risen from the dead for us.

Bible Study - Additional Thoughts on Maundy Thursday Sermon

I preached a sermon a few days ago on Maundy Thursday. If you would like to listen to it or read it, you can find it here. It is called “Participation in Christ’s Body and Blood,” based on Mark 14:12-26 and 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, and is about Christ’s love and concern for His disciples, especially in transforming the Passover into a new meal of the New Covenant, in the Lord’s Supper He instituted that Maundy Thursday evening.

There is so much richness in God’s Word, and as happens often, I cannot fit into one sermon all that I think about or would like to say. Some things are also just interesting historical information that doesn’t really fit into a sermon and might not be of general interest.

I will start with a Biblical question. Some of our prayers describe the Lord’s Supper as “a foretaste of the feast to come” and also mention “the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end.” (You can find this in the third possible Past-Communion Collect on p. 166 in our hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book. If you have the Lutheran Study Bible, you can also find a discussion of “The Heavenly Banquet” on p. 1689 of the LSB, with a number of parables of Jesus and other Scriptures to look at and think about.)

We also hear, in Exodus 24:1, 9-11, that the Lord invited Moses and Aaron and other leaders of God’s people to come up and meet Him as part of sealing the Old Covenant. Based on other Scriptures, the people could only get the slightest glimpse of Him, but this passage says that they “ate and drank” with Him.

We also have the prophecy in Isaiah 25:6-9, which we heard on Easter Sunday. Once Jesus had died and risen from the dead and won His victory over sin and Satan and “swallowed up death forevermore,” there would be a joyous celebration, “a feast of rich foods” for all who reach eternal life through faith in Him. Jesus speaks of this in some of His parables, too, sometimes with the picture image of a wedding feast. See Luke 12:35-38 and Revelation 3:20-21 and the description of the “marriage feast of the Lamb” in Revelation 19:6-9, where the holy Christian church, all believers, are called “the bride” of the Lamb.

We don’t know what all of this means or exactly what heaven will be like, but we do know that there is only peace and joy with the Lord in heaven for all those who live and die in faith in Christ. There is no hunger or thirst, no tears or any troubles or sorrows. There is only joy and blessing and celebrating with the Lord, a great feast or banquet, with all the praise going to our great Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All we need to know will be answered when we reach eternal life ourselves, in heaven with the Lord.

I’ll move on now to some history. At the end of the Maundy Thursday sermon, I quoted from a Communion hymn in our hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book, #639. I had not noticed before that this hymn was written in German by Pastor Wilhelm Loehe, and then translated into English by a Lutheran, Herman Stuempfle, who has other hymns and translations in the LSB.

Rev. Loehe was never in the U.S. but was influential in helping the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in its earliest days, in the 1840s and 1850s. He was a Lutheran pastor in Bavaria and heard of German Lutheran immigrants who were coming to the U.S. but had very few pastors who knew German and could serve them. Loehe started a training program for future pastors and helped send them to the U.S. and other countries. He also helped support one of our seminaries in its very early years in Fort Wayne and provided a few of its pastors, who started Lutheran churches there and in other places, including in Frankenmuth, Michigan, along with ministry to native Americans.

The seminary I attended was the seminary Loehe helped start. It had moved to Springfield, Illinois when I attended from 1969-73, and then was moved back to Fort Wayne, and still is there, as Concordia Theological Seminary. There were and still are halls or areas named after Rev. Loehe, and some of those whom he recruited, including Pastors Wyneken, Sihler, and Craemer, as far as I remember. Pastor Loehe still benefits our churches through his hymns and other things he wrote, as well as his part in our Synod’s history.

I will stop my ramblings now. A blessed Easter season, in Christ’s name.

Sermon for Maundy Thursday - March 28, 2024

Sermon for Maundy Thursday

March 28, 2024

“Participation in Christ’s Body and Blood”

Mark 14:12-26 and 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

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 tonight is the Gospel lesson, along with some thoughts from our Epistle. (All quotations are from the ESV translation, except for a few from my own self-translation. The hymn quoted is Hymn 639, “Wide Open Stand the Gates,” stanzas 2-3, from the Lutheran Service Book. Text by Wilhelm Loehe, Translation by Herman Stuempfle, (c) 2002, GIA Publications. Lutheran Service Builder (c) 2024, CPH.)

It is Thursday of Holy Week in our text, and the arrest and suffering and death of Jesus is drawing very close. But He is not thinking about Himself, but about doing His Father’s will and helping His disciples and providing gifts that are a blessing to them and to you and me to this very day.

First, Jesus made sure that He and His disciples properly celebrated the remembrance of the Passover, when God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt almost 1500 years earlier. Old Testament Law said, in Deuteronomy 16:2-3, “You shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, from the flock or the herd, at the place the Lord will choose, to make His Name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it.”

That is exactly what Jesus made sure happened. He sent out two of His disciples to find, following His directions, the place for eating the Passover meal. They then had to purchase an unblemished lamb and have it properly sacrificed at the Temple and the proper Passover meal prepared. This was all part of Jesus’ saving work for us here on earth. He was like a second Adam, perfectly following His Father’s will, unlike the first Adam and Eve, and unlike the Old Testament people of God, who so often broke the Old Covenant (Jeremiah 31:32) will of God too - and as we all still do, too often.

The sacrifice of the lamb was also prophetic of what Jesus would soon do. John the Baptist had earlier said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29,36). By His perfect life in our place, and by His sacrificial death and shedding of His blood, instead of ours or an animal’s, Jesus would forgive all our sins and count us acceptable to God through the gift of faith. He would also free us from Old Testament rituals, like Passover, to follow His New Covenant, as we will hear.

At the Passover meal, Jesus showed His continuing care for His disciples, too - and even for Judas. We hear that while they were eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me, one who is eating with Me.” Then, a bit later, Jesus said, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with Me.” The other disciples do not seem to realize who it is, but Judas certainly knows that Jesus is aware of what he, Judas, plans to do. Jesus then gives a very serious warning to Judas. “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Jesus is giving Judas a chance to wake up and repent of what he is planning.

But Judas does not care. John’s Gospel tells us that Judas was a thief and had stolen from the disciples’ money bag before (John 12:6). Maybe he just wanted the thirty pieces of silver promised him more than he cared about Jesus or anything else. Other Gospels tell us that Judas soon left the Passover meal to prepare for betraying Jesus. Jesus’ attempt to help him fell on deaf ears.

It is also interesting that when Jesus brought up a betrayal coming, the other disciples began to be sorrowful and to say, one after another, “Is it I? Is it I?” They seemed to have a guilty conscience, too, as if they all had let Jesus down before and might be capable of failing Him again. And, of course, a little later on that evening, when Jesus was seized by the religious authorities and led to the Garden of Gethsemane by Judas, Mark tells us that all the disciples left Jesus and ran away. Jesus had warned them, too, with the prophetic words of the Old Testament, “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7 and Mark 14:27). But the disciples did not heed Jesus’ warning, either, and they all fled from Jesus in that dangerous situation, so fearful for them.

But even with their weaknesses and failings, John’s Gospel tells us (John 13:1), “Having loved His own who were in the world, Jesus loved these disciples to the end.” And he did so that Thursday evening in one more very special way, even before He and the disciples went out to the Garden of Gethsemane, and He went to His suffering and death and resurrection, for them and for us.

While they were still eating the Passover meal, we hear that Jesus took some of the elements of that meal and transformed it into a whole new meal of the New Covenant, the New Testament He was bringing in, the meal of love and forgiveness and strengthening that we now know of as the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. Other Scriptures give us more detail, including Jesus saying, “Do this, in remembrance of Me.”

But it was much more than just a remembrance of Jesus. Our text tells us that Jesus “took bread” - some of that flat unleavened bread used at Passover - “and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to them and said, ‘Take; this is My Body.’ And He took a cup’ (a cup of the wine used at Passover) and when he had given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, ‘This is My Blood of the (New) Covenant, which is poured out for many'" (for the forgiveness of sins).

We also know that Jesus later promised, before He returned to heaven, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). As true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, He is “omnipresent,” always present with us as well as with those in heaven.

But the Lord’s Supper is a very special, personal way He comes to us. We can’t understand it, but we believe that when we receive the bread and wine, we also receive Christ Himself, His Body and Blood. Jesus didn’t say, “This is a symbol, This is a representation.” He said, “This is My Body! This is My Blood! Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

And these were not just gifts for those disciples on Maundy Thursday. Jesus said, “Keep on doing this.” And decades later, Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth in our Epistle lesson for tonight, and for us still today, with very similar words. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?” The word for “participation” is the same word translated as “communion” or “fellowship” or a “closing sharing” in and with Christ Himself and His Body and Blood in this Holy Communion.

This is also why the Scriptures stress the importance of proper preparation for the Lord’s Supper. We don’t just say, “You all come” to everyone who is present, as some churches do. There is the need for baptism and faith and instruction, in what we call Confirmation of the faith. For Paul also warns, soon after the words we just heard, that “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the Body and Blood of the Lord and not discerning the Body" (1 Corinthians 11: 27-29).

That doesn’t mean we have to be perfect people to receive the Lord’s Supper. None of us are or could come close to that. In fact, our sins are the reason why we need God’s Word and the Lord’s Supper again and again. And when we do come, repentant for our sins and trusting in Christ’s love and promises, we do really receive forgiveness of our sins, through that Body and Blood sacrificed on the cross for us; and we receive strength to carry on with our lives, in Him, whatever we face.

I was working on this sermon on Tuesday when I heard of a bomb threat and a possible shooter at one of our local high schools. Thankfully, none of it turned out to be true, but we do live in very troubled times, and how much we need that strength and assurance in Christ that we receive in the Lord’s Supper.

Receiving Holy Communion builds our unity with one another, too. Paul also writes, in our Epistle lesson, “Because there is one Bread, we who are many are one body, for all partake of the one Bread,” which is Christ. United in that way in Christ, we have more strength at least to try to be more patient and understanding and caring and forgiving to one another, as Jesus has already been with us.

In the Gospel lesson, Jesus closed the giving of the Lord’s Supper with these words, “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God,” in heaven. That is where Jesus is now, in glory, after having been raised from the dead and returning to His Father in heaven. And with Him are all of our loved ones and friends who lived and died in faith in Him. They now enjoy His presence and blessings in a perfect way, in heaven.

And some suggest that when we are united with Christ in the special closeness of His presence in the Lord’s Supper and are united with fellow believers, we are also united with our loved ones, through Christ, in some of the closest unity we can have with them, until we reach heaven ourselves. They are with Jesus, and so are we, in this very special gift of the Lord’s Supper. We are all united in Christ.

Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn before they went to the garden of Gethsemane, and there’s a hymn in our hymnal, #639, that suggests that closeness that I’d like to read in closing:

“(Christ) speaks the Word the bread and wine to bless.
       ‘This is My Flesh and Blood.’
     He bids us eat and drink with thankfulness
        The gift of holy food.
     All human thought must falter -
         Our God stoops low to heal.
     Now present on the altar, for us
         Both Host and Meal.

     The cherubim, their faces veiled from light,
          While saints in wonder kneel,
      Sing praise to Him Whose Face with glory bright,
          No earthly masks conceal.
      This sacrament God gives us.
           Binds us in unity,
       Joins earth with heaven beyond us,
           Time with eternity.”
 
Let us pray: “Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe, in Christ Jesus. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)