The lutheransermons's Podcast

Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity - August 16, 2020

Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, based on:

Jeremiah 7:1-11

Romans 9:30-10:4

Luke 19:41-48

Bible Study from August 10, 2020 - Colossians 3:1-4

Paul begins Chapter 3 of Colossians by referring back to what has happened to us, because of all that Jesus did for us to save us, as described in the first few chapters of Colossians. Paul uses the word “if” but clearly he means that we really have died to our old life and risen to a new life with Jesus, because of the gifts of faith and baptism He has given us.

Then, he says, we are called to keep on seeking and setting our minds on the things that are above, rather than things on earth. He is not saying that all earthly things are evil or that material things are evil and only spiritual things are good. See 1 Timothy 4:4-5. He is referring to the things our old sinful nature wants us to do, as he will describe in verses 5 ff. - things we are to battle and seek to put to death. He does not say what the false teachers at Colossae said in 2:21. Rather, we focus on the things of Christ, since Christ is our life. It is often a hidden life, as we struggle with many things and do not yet see the fullness and glory of the life to come when Christ appears again at His second coming.

And yet, the promises of God are certain, in Christ. He is the basis and power for our new life in Him. 15 times the name of Jesus is mentioned in Chapter 3 and the early part of Chapter 4 - Christ, Lord. Lord Jesus, Lord Christ. 15 times Psalm 110:1 is quoted in the New Testament, as it is here. Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That means that He has power and majesty co-equal with God the Father. He can and will keep His promises as our risen and ascended Lord. Paul knew it, because the risen Lord Jesus appeared to Him. John knew it too, as he had been with Jesus before and after His resurrection, and speaks of the glory of the Word become flesh to be our Savior, in John 1:14.

This does not mean that Jesus is stuck in heaven, though, as some churches say. He is also with us always and in a very special way in Holy Communion. It is true that the fullness of all God promises us in Christ will be seen when He returns on the last day. See, for example, 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18, 2 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 John 3:2, and Philippians 1:20-21. At the same time, the certainty of our eternal future in Christ is so sure, as we stay in Him, that Paul can say that our true citizenship is in heaven, as we wait for our Lord’s return. See Philippians 3:20-21, in contrast with those whose minds are set on earthly things (Philippians 3:18-19). See the promise of Romans 8:30, also, along with the fact that Paul pictures us as already seated in the heavenly places with Christ, beginning to enjoy that heavenly hope we have. That is our heavenly hope that helps through earthly days that are sometimes very difficult. In those dark days, we keep our focus on the things above. As Paul says, “My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost - August 9, 2020

Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Job 38:4-18

Romans 10:5-17

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon originally delivered August 7, 2011

Bible Study from August 2, 2020 - Colossians 2:19 & Intro. to Colossians 3

We begin with a review of Colossians 2:19 and the need to “hold fast to the Head” (v.19), to Christ, (v.17), and not let false teachers pull us away from Christ and focus more on ourselves and what they say we need to be doing in our lives. Why hold fast to Christ? Because He is the means to spiritual life and growth for us as individuals and for our life together in the church, as the body of Christ. Verse 19 tells us that we only grow “with a growth that comes from God.”

 

If we lost our own head, we would die very quickly. Jesus uses another picture image with the same emphasis, in John 15:1-5. He is the vine, and we are the branches. We cannot live and bear fruit without our connection with Him. He cleanses us and prunes us through His Word and blessings. But He reminds, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 reminds us that we can plants seeds and water, but only God gives spiritual growth. 2 Peter 3:17-18 tells us not to be carried away by the error of lawless people, but to keep on growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ, above all. To Him be the glory for any growth we have.

 

The same is true for the church, the body of Christ. In Ephesians 2:20-22, Christ is our Cornerstone, and we are built up by the Word of God, coming from the prophets and apostles. In Christ, we grow and are built up, as the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, dwells among us. Ephesians 4:14-16 tells us not to be blown around by human ideas and teachings, but to speak the truth in love - the truth of Christ, our Head, Who is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). Then the church, the body of Christ, can grow and mature in Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

 

God brings us growth through His Word, but also through the Word connected with visible elements in the two Sacraments, the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. In John 6:47-48, 53-58, and in 63-64, Jesus is mainly emphasizing Himself and His Word as the Bread of Life for us, so much better than the physical food He gave the 5000+ and better than the manna of the Old Testament. But He is also preparing the way for the gift of the Lord’s Supper, which He would institute the night before His death on the cross. Christ Himself comes to us and strengthens us through His Real Presence, His Body and Blood, in this holy meal. The Holy Spirit is also at work in the Word to bring us life and help.

 

As we also heard already in Colossians 2:13-14, in our Baptism we are connected to Christ and die to our old life and are raised to a new life in Him, as Jesus died on the cross for us and rose again on Easter for us. See also Romans 6:3ff.

 

This leads us into Colossians 3:1-4, where Paul speaks of our focus now on things above, where Christ is, rather than on earthly things. It is a hidden life in Christ right now. But as we go about our daily life as believers in Christ, we are called to seek to “put to death” the ways of our old life and sinful nature (Colossians 3:5-9), and to “put on" the ways of our new life in Christ (Colossians 3:10-17).

 

This is all very practical, for it affects family life and much else that we do, as Colossians 3:18-4:1 tells us. All this gives us a simple outline of what we will be looking at in more detail beginning next week. Christ and what He has done for us are still the key for us; but He can help re-direct our lives in ways that can better honor Him and say “Thank you“ to Him for His great love - and ways that are actually better for us and for one another, too.

Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost - August 2, 2020

Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

 

Isaiah 55:1-5

Romans 9:1-13

Matthew 14:13-21

 

Sermon originally delivered July 31, 2011

Bible Study from July 29, 2020 - Colossians 2:16-23 Part 5

We begin this portion of our study with a quick review of what we have been focusing on in Colossians 2:16-23, the danger points mentioned there, and anything else that would keep us from “holding fast to Christ, the Head” of the church, and our own connection with one another in the body of Christ.

 

I gave another example from a local obituary (death notice) that shows the confusion about angels. We also looked a bit more at the warning about having a “sensuous mind,” which literally is a mind “of the flesh” - with an overwhelming focus on ourselves and our ideas and our fleshly desires, which can obscure our life in Christ, led by the Holy Spirit. See Ephesians 4:17, where this focus is called the futility of our minds, pulled away from the Lord. See also Romans 8:5-8, for the contrast between a mind led by the flesh and a mind led by the Spirit.

 

Colossians 2:19 tells us that only by staying connected to and listening to Christ and His Word can we also stay connected with other believers and be nourished and grow in faith and life, together with them. 1 Corinthians 10:23ff gives another example of a problem in the early church. Can you eat food that is offered to an idol and then sold as regular food? Paul reminds that idols are not real, and that we have freedom about this; but we do not want to do things that hurt the faith of others. In whatever we do, we try to honor God and be helpful to others. 1 Timothy 4:5-10 also encourages us to keep focus on “godliness” - the things of God, especially the Word of God, words of the faith, good doctrine, hope in our Savior, etc. We do not put our primary focus on the body and bodily training, though it has some value, and we try to avoid the deceitful things required by some in verses 1-3. You could also review Romans 14, especially verses 7-8,  and v. 17ff.    

 

Finally we briefly looked at a few of many passages that remind us of the body of Christ, the church, with Christ as the Head. That is where we can best grow in faith and life. See Ephesians 1:20-23, where Christ is clearly the Head of the church, His body. See also Ephesians 2:20-22 for some picture images of the church and growth in it. In these days of Covid, we cannot always get to a church building. It is hard. Yet we are still the church, and the Lord can still help us grow as believers through our Bible study and prayer and concern for one another.

 

See also Ephesians 4:4-5 and 11-16, and a very extended look at the church as the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. Notice how every one of us is important, just as every part of the human body is important. We need Christ, above all, but also we need each other and the encouragement we receive from one another. Again, this is difficult these days with limitations on how we can gather and help each other. Some of us are also in places where there are not a lot of Christians or churches to begin with. We can pray for each other, though, no matter where we are. We can keep studying His Word. And the Lord promises to be with us and help us. And remember that Christ has already done everything we need to be His people, and we have His gift of salvation already, by the faith and baptism He has given us. That is what was encouraging the people at Colossae, too, even while their original pastor was gone to see Paul and they faced challenges and those false teachers. We can always make it through, with Christ, too.

Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost - July 26, 2020

Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

 

Deuteronomy 7:6–9

Romans 8:28–39

Matthew 13:44–52

 

Sermon originally delivered July 24, 2011

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity - July 26, 2020

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, based on:

 

Genesis 2:7-17

Romans 6:19-23

Mark 8:1-9

Bible Study from July 20, 2020 - Colossians 2:16-23 Part 4

This week’s study begins with a reminder that the freedom we have under the New Covenant does not forbid having traditions and seasons and festivals and worship days. We certainly have those in the Lutheran church because we feel they are helpful in teaching about the life and work of Christ our Savior, in the first half of the church year from late November to early June. Jesus is at the center of our faith, and we want to keep learning of Him and His Word and then, in the second half of the church year, in the Trinity/Pentecost season, thinking about how we can respond in faith and in service to others by God’s grace. We see real value in this time tested way of worship, based on God’s Word. At the same time, we cannot insist that everyone must follow our ways and patterns about this; nor should others condemn our way of worship. See Colossians 2:16-17.

 

We then moved on to Colossians 2:18, where Paul tells us not to let others “disqualify” us by insisting that we follow other ways and rules that pull us away from Christ. We have heard in Colossians 1:12-14 that God the Father has already “qualified” us for our eternal inheritance through what Jesus has done for us. In Colossians 2:18, Paul uses a word that refers to athletic events or contests, where an umpire or referee could disqualify people who were breaking the rules of the game or sport. Paul does not want us to think we can be spiritually disqualified by failing to keep an additional set of man-made rules being pushed by the false teachers at Colossae or by others. Note that the list Paul gives has to do with what some say we need to be doing to make ourselves acceptable and worthy in God’s eyes. Paul emphasizes what Jesus already has done for us - not what we do. Certainly God has clear Biblical standards for us - the Law of God. We try to follow the Law; but keeping the Law  is never what saves us. We fall short of God’s will. and it only the grace and mercy of God, in Christ, that saves us (Romans 3:20-24).

 

Paul first mentions the insistence by some that we must live an ascetic life. Literally, Paul calls it a lowly, humble life - but he means a false humility that focuses on self-denial and even being harsh to one’s own body, by beating or harming our bodies. See what Paul says in Colossians 2:20-23. Such things may look impressive, because of their harshness and rigid rules; but they do not help us in our life with God and are human ideas, not God’s. Martin Luther tried such things as a monk and found they did not work in drawing him closer to God. Neither do they work in groups like the Catholic Opus Dei and many others, who often include in self-denial, all kinds of man-made rules about what we can’t eat or drink, etc.

 

Paul then mentions “worship of angels” (Colossians 2:18). Angels are simply beings created by God to serve Him and help others. Some angels rebelled against God, not happy to be His servants. They are the devil and all the evil spirits we hear about in the Bible. The proper work and relationship of the good angels to God is described in Hebrews 1, in passages like 1:4-7 and especially 1:13-14, where angels serve us, on behalf of God. Only God is to be worshipped, though, as Jesus makes clear in Matthew 4:9-10, when the evil angel, the devil, tried to get Jesus to worship him. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13-14. This is still a temptation today, as Satan still tries to get us to follow him instead of God; and some have a fascination with angels, and have ideas about them that are far from Scripture - for example, the idea that people become angels when they die. Here again is also where some go wrong in worrying about so-called spirits of the dead and trying to contact them to get information or appease them and keep them happy, so that we are not harmed.

 

There was also a false religious philosophy that was probably already around in Paul’s day and developed more fully in the second century, called Gnosticism. It was the idea that “God” was so great and distant and far away that no one could reach him directly. You could only reach God indirectly through intermediary beings like angels; and you needed special secret knowledge (Gnostic ideas) to be able to make these contacts. Angels were almost like semi-gods, coming out from God, in this false view. It may be that Paul is warning about this sort of false thinking, too. (We know, of course, that we can reach God directly in prayer and can know what we need to know through Jesus and the Word of God, the Scriptures.)

Paul also warns about people who claim to have special visions and messages from God and may be very “puffed up” in their own minds about this special knowledge. There are many warnings, in both the Old and New Testaments, about such claims. See Jeremiah 23:25-28, Ezekiel 13:11, and 1 Timothy 1: 5-11, as examples. We should compare any such claims with what we know is a message from God - the Scriptures. Paul uses the same Greek word for being “puffed up” a number of times in 1 Corinthians, too, where it is often translated as being “arrogant." See 1 Corinthians 4:6,11,19; 5:2; 8:1; and 13:4. In all this, Paul is warning us not to follow people who are focused on their own ideas and “sensuous minds” - literally, a mind of the (sinful) flesh.

 

All of these false ideas pull us away from Christ, the Head of His body, the church. Only Christ and His Word can help us grow as we should (Colossians 1:19). That is why we keep studying the Scriptures and are having this study today, too!

Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost - July 19, 2020

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Isaiah 44:6–8

Romans 8:18–27

Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43

 

Sermon originally delivered July 17, 2011