The lutheransermons's Podcast

Sermon for Saturday, May 18, 2024

“When the Spirit of Truth Comes”

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

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

The text for our meditation this evening is the Gospel lesson read a few minutes ago. You are welcome to look at it, together with me, as it is printed in your bulletin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preparing for Worship - May 19, 2024

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

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

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

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

 

Preparing for Worship - May 12, 2024

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

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

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

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

Sermon for Saturday, May 4, 2024

“I Have Called You Friends”

John 15:9-17

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

The text for our meditation this evening is the Gospel lesson from John 15:9-17. You are welcome to look at it with me, as it is printed in your bulletin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preparing for Worship - May 5, 2024

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

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

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

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

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.