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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Someone reminded me of a book study I had done years ago on Just Words by Dr. J.A.O. Preus III, from Concordia Publishing House. That book covered many important Biblical terms that speak of the Good News of what Jesus has done for us, in a rich variety of ways. Paul has already used a number of those Gospel words in what we have already studied in Colossians 1. You might go back and see how many of those Gospel words you can identify in Colossians 1:1-22, and what they tell you about what Jesus has done for you personally.
Last week, we heard Paul speaking what Lutherans call both Law and Gospel. Paul spoke in Colossians 1:21 of our sinful human nature and how we are alienated, other than and away from God, (separated from Him and even enemies of Him and His will) on our own. Then Paul speaks the gospel in verse 22, telling how we have been “reconciled” (another of those big Gospel words) to God through the bodily death of Jesus on the cross. We have peace with God and are counted as “holy and blameless and above reproach” through Christ and “before Him." This same message is given by Paul in Ephesians 5:26-27, where He emphasizes the blessing of Baptism, “the washing of water with the Word," and how we are now “holy and without blemish" before Him. (Remember that Paul likely wrote both Ephesians and Colossians while he was in prison in Rome, and the two letters have many similarities.)
As we are brought to faith by our Lord through Baptism and the Word of God, Paul calls us in verse 23 to “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast” in the Gospel we have in Jesus and His Word “that you have heard.” The Greek words here emphasize that this faith is on a solid foundation, built by God as we came to faith, and with ongoing value for us, so that we can be “grounded” and “immovable," not shifting, not moving away from “the hope of the Gospel. (Other Scriptures that use the same and similar words are Ephesians 3:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:58, based also on the certainty of Christ’s resurrection described earlier in 1 Corinthians 15.)
This Good News in Jesus is exactly what Epaphras had preached to the church at Colossae and exactly what was being proclaimed wherever Paul and others have been able to bring it. It is meant for the whole world, for it is Good News for everyone, as Paul will go on to say in Colossians 1 verses 24-28, which follow. (See Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Acts 1:8, Romans 10:13-18, 1 Timothy 2:3-6, and on and on. Note also Romans 8:18-23, where the whole creation is affected by Christ’s saving work.) Paul is in effect saying to the people at Colossae: if this message of Christ is being proclaimed everywhere by Paul and many others, don’t be led astray from this solid foundation to some new and different teachings being pushed by false teachers who have come to you.
Paul is a “minister” of the Gospel of Jesus (v.23) and rejoices to serve others in this way, even if it means suffering for himself, on the front lines of sharing and defending the Good News of Jesus (v.24), as front-line medical people face danger and suffering in the battle against Covid-19 today to help protect the rest of us. When Paul speaks of suffering for Christ, he does not means that Christ’s sufferings for us for our salvation were not enough or were incomplete. Christ suffered “once for all," and when He said from the cross, “It is finished,” He had done all that was needed. Every one of our sins is paid for, by His sacrifice for us. There is no “purgatory” ahead for us after death, and we cannot and do not have to pay for the sins of others somehow in this life.
Jesus does predict, however, that we all will face some trouble and tribulation from our sinful, unbelieving world, just by being believers in Christ. (See John 15:18-21, John 16:33, and the story in Acts 14:19-22, for example.) Paul tells how Jesus had told him, at his conversion to Christianity, that he would suffer much as a Christian leader (Acts 9:16) and Paul tells the Ephesians “not to lose heart” over his being in prison in Rome (Ephesians 3:13).
God can bring good out of our troubles, as Paul will talk about later in Colossians. Paul will keep serving the church, the body of Christ, no matter what, for God made him a “steward," a manager of the church, especially “to make the Word of God fully known” (Colossians 1:25). That involves revealing the “mystery“ hidden before but now clearly revealed - that Jesus is the Savior for all people, Jews and non-Jews (v.26-28).
We will hear much more about that in next week’s lesson. May the Lord enable us all to stay in the faith, on the firm foundation of Jesus and His Word, as we keep listening to it and studying that Word!
Saturday Apr 25, 2020
Saturday Apr 25, 2020
Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 8, 2011
Tuesday Apr 21, 2020
Tuesday Apr 21, 2020
The study begins with a review of Colossians 1:11-20. Paul is certain about all that he writes, because he has been brought to faith by the resurrected Lord Jesus Himself.
Look at this, as recorded in Acts 26:9-18. Paul (called Saul, before his conversion to Christianity) tells about how anti-Christian he was and how much he did against Christianity (v. 9-11) until Jesus Himself appeared to him to bring him to faith, while he journeyed to Damascus, and promised to continue to appear to him to teach him the truth of God’s Word (v. 12-18). Notice that Paul uses some of the same words that Jesus used with him in his letter to the Colossians (1:12-14).
Paul also knows that the way that he describes Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20 is absolutely true. He has seen Jesus and been taught by Him and could no longer look at Him in the old, false ways, as simply a man who led people astray. Paul describes this in a passage we closed with last week: 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2. Paul knew better than to regard Christ Jesus “according to the flesh” (v.16-17). He is the Son of God, Creator of all things and of the “new creation” that we are, through faith in Him. Jesus forgives and “reconciles” us to Himself and to the Heavenly Father and brings us “grace” and ”salvation” (v.18-6:2). Paul describes all this and so much more in Colossians 1:15-20.
He says, “In Him (Christ) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.”
It is now Paul’s calling to share this news with everyone he could, including the church at Colossae. In verse 21, he begins with the bad news of the natural sinful condition of all human beings, apart from the Lord. Even the Colossians were “alienated” (separated from God) and “hostile” (enemies of God) in their understanding and ”doing evil deeds." (See Ephesians 2:12 and 4:17-19, and Romans 5:6ff and especially verse 10 and Romans 8:7, and Peter’s description in 1 Peter 2:9-10, etc.)
The good news is that in spite of our human condition, Jesus loved us and has now “reconciled” us, made peace between us and God, “in His body of flesh by His death” on the cross (v.19,22). He was God become man, with a real human body, being sacrificed, once for all, for us and our forgiveness. (See Hebrews 10:5-10, 14 as a description of Jesus coming to do God’s will and making us “perfected” and ”sanctified” through His bodily death for us.)
In Colossians 1:22, Paul says that we are presented to God as “holy” (separated out for God, as His people) and “blameless” (spiritually without spot or wrinkle or blemish) and “above reproach” (Lenski: “no one can accuse us in any way”). This is the way God looks at us, through Christ and His sacrifice for us, that washes every sin away. Jesus has done enough to make us acceptable to God. The people at Colossae and we, too, do not need new and different knowledge or to do other things to make ourselves pleasing to God. Jesus is enough, provided that we continue in the faith in Jesus, “stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel" (v.23).
We don’t just begin in the faith, but are called to continue in the faith, to the end of our life or the return of Jesus, whichever comes first. (See also Matthew 24:12-13, Revelation 2:10, John 8:31-36, etc.) We can remain on the firm foundation of the faith through God’s strength and power. (See Colossians 1:11, 28-29 and Hebrews 12:2, where Jesus is “the Founder and Perfecter” of our faith.) See 1 Corinthians 1:7-9, where Jesus “will sustain us to the end, guiltless (holy and blameless and without reproach) in the day of our Lord Jesus," as we continue in Him and His Word and “do not shift from the hope of the Gospel we have heard” from Paul and the other Biblical writers (v.23). That is our eternal hope in Christ.
Saturday Apr 18, 2020
Saturday Apr 18, 2020
Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 1, 2011
Monday Apr 13, 2020
Monday Apr 13, 2020
In this study, we briefly review Col. 1:11-14, where we heard many important Biblical words describing what God has done for us by His “glorious might" as v.11 tells us. The Father has “qualified “ us to receive His blessings (v.12). He has “delivered” us, “rescued” us, from the “domain of darkness” where Satan is in control. He has “transferred” us, moved us from that darkness to the Kingdom of His beloved Son (v.13). And in God the Son, Jesus, we have “redemption” - literally, we are “ransomed.” Jesus has paid the price, by His blood, to set us free from slavery to sin. And we have “the forgiveness of sins.” Our sins are put far away, removed, never to be found again (v.14). And through all this work of God, we “share in the (eternal) inheritance of the saints in light” (v.12). What wonderful news for us!
Paul goes on to say why we can be sure that God can do all this, through His Son. He gives us in verses 15-20 one of the richest, fullest descriptions in the Bible of who Christ Jesus, God the Son, really is. He says that the Son “is the Image of the invisible God” (v.15). In Genesis 1:26-27, we are told that the first people, Adam and Eve, were created “in the image of God" with a few qualities like God, such as sinlessness, which were lost in the fall into sin in Genesis 3. The Son of God, however, is the Image of God. Verse 19 tells us that “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Him." Whatever God is, God the Son is. (See 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 as another description of Christ as the Image of God. Though the devil tries to blind people to this, that is who Christ Jesus is - the true Son of God. Jesus reveals to us “the invisible God“ (Colossians 1:15), “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
In Colossians 1:15, the Son is also called "the firstborn of all creation.” This really means that He was the supreme One, “preeminent in everything" (v.18), "above all of creation," as a “firstborn son” was most important in an Old Testament family. False teachers of the past like Arius (300’s AD) thought that this passage meant that the Son was simply a created being just like us and could not be God. The context of this passage says that Arius was wrong. All things were created by the Son of God, including the invisible “authorities" ( the angels).The Son existed before anything that was created, and by His power, all of creation “holds together." The universe would fall apart without Him (v.15-17).
Clearly, the Son is God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God and yet three Persons, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. We cannot fully understand the nature of the Triune God, but we believe it, for that is what the Scriptures tell us, here and in many other places. In the beginning, Genesis 1:1 tells us there was only God. However, the Spirit of God was there, too, (v.2) along with the Son. (See John 1:1-5, 14 for the Word as the Creator and the Son of God. Notice also that John 1:16 tells us that we receive “grace upon grace," all the undeserved love and gifts of God, through the “fullness” of the Son, as God. And John 1:18 tells us that through God the Son, God the Father is made known to us. See Hebrews 1:1-6 and 1 John 1:1-3, as well.)
In Colossians 1:18-20, we hear that God the Son, Christ Jesus, is also ”the Head of His body, the church.” The church is often pictured as like a human body in the New Testament. (See Romans 12:3-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-22 as examples.) Christ Jesus, not some human leader, is really the Head. We follow Him and His Word as the ‘beginning” of our new life in Him, as “the firstborn from the dead," with the reality of the Easter Resurrection. He has reconciled us to God, making peace between us and God, through His Good Friday sacrifice, His blood shed on the cross for us. (See 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 as another description of this reconciliation.)
In these verses, Paul is telling the church at Colossi that they don’t need the new ideas of the false teachers or more things people are being told to do to add to what Jesus has done. He is God, He has done everything necessary for us. In all things, He is preeminent (v.17). He is enough for us, as our Savior.
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Sermon for Easter Sunday, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 24, 2011
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Sermon for Holy (Maundy) Thursday, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 21, 2011
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
This week, as requested by some, I have recorded a Bible study for you, looking at Colossians 1:9-14, concentrating especially on v. 11-14. Here is a brief summary of what was discussed in the study.
I began with a few thoughts from Psalm 25, which we looked at last week. David has a Holy Week theme, confessing his sins and his need for forgiveness. God does forgive and then teaches David, as God’s forgiven child, to seek to follow in His way and will for his life.
God says much the same things in Col. 1:9-10. He teaches and fills the Colossians and us with His Word, that we may understand and seek to live in a way pleasing to Him and be doing much good and growing even more in knowledge of God.
We want to live this way, according to God’s will, in thankfulness for God’s grace and love; but we find ourselves falling very far short of what He wants for us. The Law of God shows us our sins and that we can never do enough for ourselves or for anyone else, to be acceptable to God. See Psalm 49:7-9, 15, for example.
God turns us back to Himself for strength and power that we need, in Col. 1:11. Anything we can accomplish in our Christian life, then, is really only by the power of God, for God’s glory. God strengthens us, not to do spectacular things like Jesus did. We are strengthened, Paul, says, “for all endurance and patience” (v.11).
These are important Biblical words, for what we need in these challenging days. The words literally mean “remaining under” and “being long suffering.” We face many challenges and struggles in our life. With the current pandemic, we are very limited, with little control over what we can do; and we don’t know how long this will last. This is true of many situations in our life. As we lean upon our Lord and His strength for us (see Psalm 50:15, for example) we receive help to persevere and endure in what we have to remain under and to have patience, even if we have to suffer a long time in the process.
We can even have endurance and patience, with joy and thanksgiving, as Paul says, in v.11-12, because of the Good News of what God has already done for us. “He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (v.12). God has already qualified us for eternal life, and counts us as saints and gives us His light.
How did He do this? He rescued us from the power of darkness - the realm of sin and Satan and death, and transferred us (removed us from Satan’s kingdom) and placed us in “the Kingdom of His beloved Son” - Jesus. He did all this for us, as a gift. He did it, and we also receive from Him “redemption” (literally, we are “ransomed”: the payment is made by Jesus to set us free from the condemnation of sin and Satan and eternal death). We have this through the “forgiveness of our sins.” Our sins are let go, sent away so far that they can never be found, through the blood of Christ. (See Scriptures such as Psalm 103:12, Micah 7:19, Isaiah 43:25, Isaiah 44:22, and Ephesians 1:7, etc.)
There is nothing to condemn us when we are in faith in Christ as a gift of God’s doing. We are pardoned, and our debt of sin is canceled, and our future is secure in Jesus (v.14). (Pay attention to the many big, important Biblical words in this short passage, describing God’s work and action for us! What hope and joy we have in Him!)
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Sermon for Palm Sunday, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 17, 2011
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 10, 2011