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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Sunday Aug 02, 2020
Sunday Aug 02, 2020
Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 31, 2011
Wednesday Jul 29, 2020
Wednesday Jul 29, 2020
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.
Monday Jul 27, 2020
Monday Jul 27, 2020
Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 24, 2011
Saturday Jul 25, 2020
Saturday Jul 25, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
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!
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 17, 2011
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Monday Jul 13, 2020
This study begins with a brief review of what we talked about in the previous study, issues of eating and drinking and the general freedom we have about such issues under the new Covenant in Christ, in comparison with the Old Testament and what quite a number of groups still require of their members today - sometimes even for salvation. We also were reminded that this additional study of more Scripture passages helps understand why Paul mentions these issues as ones that can lead us away from the centrality of Christ our Savior.
Then we focused on the issues of "a festival or new moon or sabbath." These were important in the Old Testament as days and festivals that the Jewish people were to follow on a regular basis, and were based upon a lunar calendar and cycles of the moon. Examples we looked at were Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, remembering God’s rescue of the people from slavery in Egypt described in Exodus 12 and 13. Note the command in Exodus 13:10 to follow these festivals year after year.
We also saw in Exodus 31:12ff the importance of sabbath days and the weekly Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The Sabbath was part of the 10 Commandments and was to be observed “throughout their generations, as a covenant forever” (v.16). A summary requirement to follow these days “required of them, regularly “ is described in 1 Chronicles 23:24ff, using the same listing that Paul has in Colossians 2:16, “Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days” (v.30).
How then can we set aside these things so clearly spoken of in the Old Testament? It is Jesus and the New Testament writers who free us again from these Old Testament regulations and many other human traditions added within Judaism, as with the eating and drinking requirements. See Mark 2:23ff, where Jesus and his disciples do things considered “unlawful” to Jews. Jesus gives an example of the same sort of thing being allowed in the Old Testament and call Himself “Lord even of the Sabbath.” As true God, as well as true man, He can interpret God’s true will and even change things, because of the New Covenant He brings in. He reminds, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” We still need time for rest and to hear and focus upon God’s Word, but we are freed from the exact day and ways we do this. See the story in Mark 3:1-6, too. Note also such New Testament Scriptures as John 20:19, Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, and Revelation 1:9-10, where the day for worship is switching to Sunday, seemingly in remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday. Paul also warns in Galatians not to go back to Old Testament rules and regulations, including observing “days and months and and seasons and years.” See Galatians 4:8-11.
This last passage also seems to indicate a danger from the ancient non-Jewish world, too, which had a fascination with the sun, moon, and stars, and wrong ideas about them. Think about how religious and other ideas about observing the sky were mixed together at Stonehenge in England and ancient Americas and people like the Aztecs and with astrology and horoscopes and signs of the Zodiac - some of which are still a danger today. See the warning in Isaiah 47:1, 9-15, to nations like ancient Babylon and other nations wrapped up in sorcery and enchantments and star-gazing, in order to predict the future (v.12-14, especially). See the warning of Paul in Romans 1:18ff and especially v. 25, about worshipping parts of the creation, instead of the Creator. Many people worshiped the sun, moon and stars as “gods” and thought they had control over us in some way, depending on when we were born. All of this is wrong.
In Colossians 2:17, Paul goes on to explain that the things listed in Colossians 2:16 were only a “shadow” in the Old Testament, pointing forward to the reality, the substance, our Lord Jesus Christ and what He would do for us. We know the difference between a shadow and the real person who casts a shadow. Paul does not explain more here; but many other Scriptures help us understand this more, using similar imagery, especially in Hebrews in the New Testament. Hebrews is largely a comparison of the Old Testament and the New Testament. (Testament and Covenant mean about the same thing. Note in Hebrews 8:4-5 that the earthly priests at the temple in Jerusalem were only doing “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” But Jesus brought a better and more excellent way when He came with the New Covenant (v.6ff). The prophecy of a New Covenant is quoted from Jeremiah 31:31-34, right in Hebrews 8:8-12. Note especially what is said then in v.13. The old covenant is “obsolete” and “ready to vanish away.” That includes the rules about eating and drinking and festivals and sabbaths, etc.
In Hebrews 9:9-10, we hear of the “present age” of the first century AD, which dealt only with the Old Testament shadow activities - until Jesus came with the new covenant and new life through His own sacrifice for us. See Hebrews 9:11-15 and 25-28. This is what Hebrews calls “the time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10). Hebrews 10 gives us the same message. Verse 1 says that “the law has been but a shadow of the good things to come.” The good things come through Christ Jesus, when he came into the world (Hebrews 10:10-18). Note the emphasis on the fact that Jesus came with a real body (the substance, the reality, not the shadow). And through the sacrifice of that real body for us, we are forgiven and sanctified (counted holy) before God.
In all this, Christ Jesus is the key and our hope, and we are called to “hold fast” to Him, as the “Head” of His body, the church, including the church at Colossae and our own churches still today. The study ends with a quick note that Lutherans have traditions and festivals, etc., that we value, but only if and because they help us remember Jesus and His life and work for us. There will be more about that next week, along with other dangers that Paul speaks of in Colossians 2:18ff.
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Monday Jul 06, 2020
This podcast focuses more on the issues of “eating” and “drinking“ as mentioned in Colossians 2:16. Paul in Colossians simply says not to judge one another about these issues. He is emphasizing the freedom that we have now in Christ, but does not go into more detail or talk much about why we have this freedom. We looked at Romans 14 last week, which also emphasized that freedom and that we ought not to be condemning each other about that freedom. At the same time, we should not abuse our freedom in a way that hurts others and their faith, who may be confused about this freedom.
In general, the Scriptures warn us about abuse of eating and drinking in a way that we go to extremes - gluttony and drunkenness, both of which can harm us and others. (See Scriptures like Proverbs 23:20-21.) There are also warnings about extreme judging about these issues too, no matter what people do. Jesus points out that people judged John the Baptist because of his unusual Nazarite vows and criticized Jesus because he seemed to have too much freedom about eating and drinking. (See Luke 7:33-34.)
In the Scriptures most of the conflict came because of Old Testament rules about eating and the idea that there were “clean” and “unclean” foods (and unclean people and other unclean things) and ideas about these that gradually went far beyond the OT Scriptures, too. They were important in the OT, but when Jesus came, He freed us from these rules and distinctions. He taught that all foods were now clean and that none would pollute us spiritually by our eating them. Rather, it is what comes out of our own sinful nature, in evil thoughts, words, and deeds, that pollute us and others. (See the conflict Jesus had with Jewish religious authorities in Mark 7:1-23, and especially v. 15-23, and v. 19, in particular. See also Peter’s struggle to overcome the OT rules about food, for himself and to allow non-Jews to eat freely, without fear, too, in Acts 10-11.)
With regard to “drinking,” the primary conflict has revolved around drinking wine or other beverages. The Old Testament does not forbid the use of wine, the primary alcohol of ancient times. It was used by Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18ff and in Old Testament offerings and rituals. It is spoken of positively in Psalm 104:14-15 and other places. It is pictured as being used in the heavenly banquet to come, when death is overcome and all tears are washed away. (See Isaiah 25: 6ff.) Jesus turns water into wine in abundance at the wedding at Cana, as His first sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God. It is used in the giving of the Lord’s Supper. Paul tells Timothy to use it for medicinal purposes in 1 Timothy 5:23. And so on.
At the same time, abuse of wine or other alcohols is consistently called wrong. See Proverbs 20:1 and examples of Noah and others who became drunk. See Ephesians 5:18 and the lists in the New Testament which warn of behaviors which are sinful and which can lead us out of the Kingdom of God, which include drunkenness. See 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Galatians 5:19-21, as examples.
Paul and the Scriptures say we have freedom about eating and drinking, as long as we do not abuse these in ways the Scriptures warn about. At the same time, we are free in Christ and do not have to eat or drink as others do. For example, there is much pressure to drink alcohol in certain places. We can choose not to drink, if we wish. We are to take care of our bodies, but we do not have to follow every dieting fad or pressure to look or eat in a certain way. And Scripture tells us to obey our government; and so we should not break laws about use of alcohol or drugs in a way that is illegal.
At the same time, we should not feel compelled to eat and drink in ways that certain religious organizations tell we must do, especially if they tell us we are sinning and salvation depends on our doing what they say about these issues. The old Methodist view against all alcohol and the refusal of some to use anything but grape juice could be examples of this problem. The Mormons and other cultic groups have their own unique dietary rules, which they insist people must follow. Jewish people still follow OT rules, of course, in rejecting Jesus as Messiah and the whole New Testament. 7th Day Adventists and the United Church of God and other groups want to drag us back into following OT regulations on foods and other rituals. Even the Roman Catholic Church has at times added prescribed rules: Lenten rules, required fasting, no meat on Fridays, etc. See 1 Timothy 4:1-4 for a warning about such additions, including the forbidding of marriage to some, as the Roman Catholic church has done with priests. There is much more background we could look at, but this gives us an idea of what Paul was talking about and warning about, when he simply said, “Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink” (Colossians 2:16).
Sunday Jul 05, 2020
Sunday Jul 05, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
Monday Jun 29, 2020
This study begins with a quick reminder that Chapters 1 through 2:15 of Colossians are focused primarily on Jesus - who He is, as true God and true man Who came for us and our salvation, and what that saving work has accomplished for us, forgiving every sin and giving us new and eternal life, and breaking the power of Satan and the forces of evil for us. Jesus has done everything we need.
“Therefore,” Paul says, beginning in Chapter 2, verse 16, to the Christians at Colossae, do not be distracted by the many things that the false teachers are trying to get you to focus upon, as if these things are essential for your Christian life and salvation - and that you must do things the way they tell you. Paul gives a long list of items these Christians should be concerned about, according to these false teachers.
It is vitally important what you are doing or not doing, the false teachers say, about: the food you eat, what you drink, whether you are following various religious festivals and new moon events and sabbath days, if you are being humble and hard enough on yourself (asceticism), if you are worshipping angels properly, if you are paying attention to dreams and visions that others are telling you they have had and you need to know about, if you are following their regulations about what you should not handle, taste, or touch, if you are treating your body in a severe way to control it, and on and on (v.16-23).
Paul gives this long list of what to watch out for and says to “let no one pass judgment on you in questions” about these things (v.16). He does not tell us, though, how to react to all these; but he points us back to Jesus and listening to him in His Word. Many of these things, he says, are only a shadow from the Old Testament, preparing the way for the real substance, the body, our Savior Jesus Himself and His work and teaching for us (v.17). He is the “Head” and only as we “hold fast” to Him, will we grow and be nourished as we need to be (v.19).
On many of these concerns, we find help in other Scriptures. We looked at Romans, Chapter 14, as an example. Paul deals with the the question of what we can eat or not eat and which days are most important. He says that we have much freedom about these issues, and that Christians can honestly differ and don’t need to judge each other about these. We are free from Old Testament rules about clean and unclean foods, and we are even free from the sabbath day as Saturday. We need to worship our Lord, but the day is not crucial. Christians moved to Sunday as the day of worship, because each Sunday is like a mini-Easter celebration of our new life in Christ. But we could worship at other times and even work on Sunday, if necessary. We have much freedom, within what the New Testament now tells us. We don’t need to judge one another, but should be sensitive to others and their needs. We can help others know more of what Scripture says; but we also don’t want to try to get new or“weak” Christians to do things that they really think are wrong, though they actually are not. “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)
Above all, our worship and life are now led by Christ and His Word. For our spiritual life, we have the food and drink of the Word of God and the gifts of Baptism and Christ’s presence in our life and uniquely, personally (His very Body and Blood, in and with and under the bread and wine) in the Lord’s Supper (John 6:35-51. 7:37; 1 Corinthians 11:23-31). Christ is our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:6-8) and in Him we find the Sabbath rest we need, in His peace and promises.(Hebrews 4:9-10).
(The quotation from Dr. Martin Franzmann is from the Concordia Self-Study New Testament Commentary (c) 1971,1979, p. 203.)