The lutheransermons's Podcast

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter April 19, 2020

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter, based on:

Acts 5:29–42

1 Peter 1:3–9

John 20:19–31

 

Sermon originally delivered May 1, 2011

Bible Study from April 13, 2020 - Colossians 1:15-20

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.

Sermon for Easter Sunday April 12, 2020

Sermon for Easter Sunday, based on:

Acts 10:34–43 

Colossians 3:1–4

Matthew 28:1–10

 

Sermon originally delivered April 24, 2011

Sermon for Holy (Maundy) Thursday April 9, 2020

Sermon for Holy (Maundy) Thursday, based on:

Matthew 26:17–30

 

Sermon originally delivered April 21, 2011

Bible Study from April 7, 2020 - Colossians 1:9-14

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!)

Sermon for Palm Sunday April 5, 2020

Sermon for Palm Sunday, based on:

Isaiah 50:4–9a

Philippians 2:5–11

John 12:12–19

 

Sermon originally delivered April 17, 2011

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent March 29, 2020

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, based on:

Ezekiel 37:1–14

Romans 8:1–11

John 11:1–53

 

Sermon originally delivered April 10, 2011

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent March 22, 2020

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, based on:

Isaiah 42:14–21

Ephesians 5:8–14

John 9:1-41

 

Sermon originally delivered April 3, 2011

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent March 15, 2020

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent, based on:

Jeremiah 26:1-15

Ephesians 5:1-9

Luke 11:14-28

Bible Study from March 9, 2020 - Colossians 1:1-8

Last week, we reviewed a bit of the introduction to Colossians. We also looked at Romans 1:1,7 and 1 Corinthians 1:2, to get more insight into what it means to be saints - people “loved” and “called by God to be saints” and “set apart” as “sanctified” people, counted as holy through what Jesus has done for us and our connection with Him. Paul counts as saints all believers, “all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” in faith.

Paul wishes the blessing of “grace” (the gift of God’s undeserved love and favor) and “peace” for the people of Colossae and for us all. (See how He speaks of “peace with God” in Romans 5:1-5, and the hope it brings us, even in times of suffering.) As an example of the grace and peace that God gives, we looked briefly at the Old Testament Book of Jonah. The prophet Jonah said to God, “I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2). Sadly, Jonah hated the evil people of Nineveh, to whom he was to go and preach, and did not want them to receive such grace and peace. He tried to run away from God, until God turned him around, partially through a great fish, and Jonah had to preach the truth, and the people of Nineveh repented and believed, by the grace of God. (See Jonah 3, and Jonah 4:11.) It is that grace and peace that God really wishes to keep giving to the people of Colossae and to us all.

As in most of his letters, Paul then offers a prayer of thanksgiving to God for all the good that is happening in Colossae and in all the world, as ”the Word of the truth, the Gospel,” is proclaimed and taught (Colossians 1:3-8). Note that Paul thanks the triune God in these verses (which in the Greek language are all one sentence). There is “God the Father” (v.3) and “our Lord Jesus Christ” (v.3,4) and “the Spirit” (v.8). This is the way the Trinity appears in the Scriptures - not with a neat definition, but with the one true God, Father, Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, simply working for us and our good.

Note also that Paul rarely thanks the Christian people directly, but thanks God for them, because it is through God’s work in them that they are believers in Jesus (v.3). As he often does, Paul also speaks of “faith," “love," and “hope." People “hear the Word of the truth, the Gospel” (v.5) and come to “understand” (to know and truly realize) “the grace of God in truth” (v.6) and come to “faith in Christ Jesus” (v.4). God’s Word has power, because the Holy Spirit is at work through it, and “in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing" (v.6), wherever it is proclaimed and taught. (See Romans 1:16 and 10:14-17, for the importance of sharing the Gospel and the whole Word of God.)

Through the Word of God, then, “love for all the saints” grows (v.4) and confidence in “the hope laid up in heaven” for all believers (v.5) - the promise of eternal life in Christ. It was a man named Epaphras, who had brought the Word of God to Colossae, as “a faithful minister of Christ” on their behalf (v.7).

Paul, on one of his missionary travels, had worked in Ephesus for two years, sharing the Gospel. Likely, Epaphras was one of the converts to faith in Jesus and then was sent to Colossae (about 100 miles southeast of Ephesus, but still in the Roman province of Asia) to start a mission church there, too. (You can read about some of the work in Ephesus and the surrounding area in Acts 19-20. Note especially Acts 19:8-11, and the reaction of people who opposed Paul, also in Acts 19:23-26.)

Paul could not do all this work himself, and so Epaphras and others worked of God’s behalf in places like Colossae (v.7), with much blessing from God. However, false teachers and teaching were now troubling the church in Colossae; and Epaphras has traveled to Rome to report to Paul, a prisoner there, and to tell him the good news (v.8) and to ask his help in dealing with the bad news and false ideas, about which we will hear as this letter goes on.

(For those listening to podcasts, these are real studies with real people. There are interruptions, as with a phone call from my family in the middle of this study; and the recording does not always get turned on and off as it should, I do not have time to edit the recordings; so try to bear with it all, as if you were right there in the study with others. if you have helpful thoughts and suggestions for all this, or questions at any time, let me know.)