The lutheransermons's Podcast

Bible Study - Numbers 21:4-9

One of our readings this coming Sunday, Numbers 21:4-9, is the story of another great rebellion by God’s people, on their way to the promised land, resulting in a plague of fiery poisonous snakes biting many of them and bringing many to sickness and death. Moses prayed for God’s mercy, and God had Moses make a bronze serpent on a pole. If the people looked upon the serpent, trusting the Word of the Lord, they would not die, even if they were bitten. This was prophetic of our Lord Jesus, lifted up on the cross, to rescue us. As we are brought to look upon Him and keep trusting in him, by God’s grace, in this Lenten season, our sins are forgiven and we have the gift of eternal life, too. Read more about this in the Preparing for Worship comments on the Old Testament lesson.

Have you ever noticed, though, that this mercy of God did not seem to be good enough? The bronze serpent was saved, and over time became a relic, an object of worship, to which some of God’s people made offerings, as if it were a god. Read 1 Kings 18:1-5. Hezekiah became king of Judah at age 25 and reigned from 715-686 BC. He was a king largely faithful to God. Before him, some kings and others had brought in worship of false gods. He destroyed many objects of false worship and places where they were worshiped in Judah. Amazingly, the bronze serpent was still around and was being used as an object of worship, too.

That was the opposite of what God commanded in His explanation of the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:3-6. People were to worship the one true God alone, and not make any other objects that people would worship. (Obviously, God had commanded that the bronze snake be made, in Numbers 21, for the purpose described there. There were cherubim (a kind of angel) on the Ark of the Covenant, too, and cherubim in Solomon’s temple, as well. None of these objects were to be worshiped as if they were gods or had godlike power, though.)  Hezekiah, therefore, broke the bronze serpent into pieces and stopped this kind of worship of something other than God Himself.

At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther and others condemned the collection of supposed relics of saints and other people, in churches, as if they had special, godlike power and could help people. Luther did not condemn artwork itself, as some do, as long as it did not become an object of worship and only pointed people to the Lord Himself. It is only the one True Triune God we worship, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, though we are grateful to hear of the bronze serpent, which served its purpose in pointing us eventually to Christ and the cross on which He died for us.

Sermon for Saturday, March 2, 2024

Third Sunday in Lent
Saturday, March 2, 2024
“We Preach Christ Crucified”
1 Corinthians 1:18-31

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. The text for our meditation is the Epistle lesson, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. 

Many years ago, I was asked to lead a Vespers Service at Westminster Village, and when I was finished leading and preaching, someone said to me, “So you are one of those sin and salvation preachers!” I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or a criticism, so I simply said, “Yes, in our church we preach Christ crucified (and risen) as our Lord and Savior.” That is what  Paul was teaching and proclaiming in our text for today.

The apostle Paul had come to the Greek city of Corinth during his second missionary journey, between 49-51 AD. You can read about this in Acts, Chapter 18. He began his work among fellow Jews, using the Word of God to testify that the Christ, the promised Savior, was Jesus. Many Jews opposed him and reviled him, and he moved on to non-Jews, Greeks and Romans, and some Jews who would listen. 

The Lord told him in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you." He stayed in Corinth for a little over a year and a half, teaching the Word of God among them. Then there was a unified attack on Paul by Jewish people, and he had to leave Corinth - but a Christian church had been established there. 

Paul began a third missionary journey in 52 AD and spent about three years in Ephesus and other places. In about 55 AD, he heard that there were problems and divisions in the church at Corinth and wrote this letter that we have before us. 

Paul knew that both the Jews and the non-Jews of Corinth thought themselves to be elite people. The Jews had been the chosen people of God of the Old Testament, and many still expected a mighty Savior to come and overthrow their political enemies. A humble, lowly Jesus could not be the one, especially since He was cursed by being hung on a tree (the tree of the cross) as the Old Testament said (Deuteronomy 21:23). The Jews were religiously elite in their own view. 

The Greeks and Romans at Corinth thought that they were intellectually elite, with their many philosophers and powerful leaders and great human thinkers in their history. When Paul had been in Athens, Greece earlier, it was said (in Acts 17) that the philosophers and others would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul was an interesting babbler, in their view, until he began to talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Many mocked Paul and quickly rejected him. In their human view, for most Greeks and Romans, only the spirit of a person was important. The body was useless. You could do with it whatever you wanted - and that is why sexual morality was so low in Corinth. You discarded the body at death and never wanted it back anyway. 

Both Greeks and Romans would also agree that no reputable person would ever be crucified. Hardly ever were any Romans crucified. Only the worst of the worst would die that way. 

Paul knew exactly what he was up against as he wrote this letter. He himself had been one of those religious elites, a highly respected Jewish Pharisee, who thought he knew a lot. He already was opposed to Greek and Roman gods and philosophers and morality. But he was also very active in opposing and persecuting Christians and all their talk about Jesus Christ - until the crucified and risen, resurrected Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Him, saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

His name had been Saul, which means "one asked for and prayed for," a kind of important person. Now his name became Paul, "a little one," who now knew his weaknesses and his true sins and his need for Jesus as his Savior and for the forgiveness earned only by Jesus' crucifixion for him and for the world. 

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy that he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent opponent of Christ Jesus, but received mercy, "as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life." If he, Saul (now Paul), could be forgiven and accepted through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, then so could any of us, no matter what we have been, by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus. 

Paul knew he could no longer be talking about human wisdom and human efforts to be acceptable to God and pleasing in His sight. That would never save people, trying to get them to be good enough. 

Six times in this Epistle lesson Paul says that what he preaches will sound like foolishness to many - but it is God's power for salvation through faith in Jesus. Listen again to what Paul says, over and over: "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Paul quotes Old Testament Scripture to show that God had to destroy the wisdom of the supposedly wise and discerning leaders who often led God's people astray to false human ideas and false gods. 

Where is the one who is wise? Human kingdoms and leaders have risen and fallen and where are they now? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world again and again? And the world did not know and follow the true God through what human wisdom taught anyway. 

It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe in Christ. For Jews keep on demanding signs, proof that Jesus is who He claims to be, and all the words and deeds of Jesus and the Scriptures are never enough for many of them. And Greeks and many other humanly wise people want more human wisdom and rational explanations that fit their own minds and thinking but are never enough. So, Paul says, this Gospel of Christ is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentles, but those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, and believers all over the world, Christ Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

Paul also says, look at your church. Not many of you are wise according to human, worldly standards. Not many are powerful. Not many are of noble birth. But God often chooses what is foolish in the world's eyes to shame the supposedly wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose even what is low and despised, nobodies in the world, which we may sometimes feel that we are on bad days, and He brings to nothing those apart from Christ, even though they seem so important and successful in this world right now. 

And again, Paul says, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. It seems to the sophisticated world that God the Father had a crazy plan in having His only Son come into this world and live as we do, in temptation and struggle and yet do everything the right and true way for us. Christ Jesus looked so weak, suffering and dying on a cross for our sins and what we deserve. But the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And Paul lists what we now receive through faith in Christ crucified for us:

• We have the true and lasting wisdom from God through His Word and the teaching of Christ and all that the Scriptures tell us. 
• We have righteousness - not our own, but credit for the righteous life and death of Jesus. 
• We have sanctification, acceptance by God and the living Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit at work in us for grateful living.
• And we know that we are redeemed. The price for our salvation is already paid for us by Christ. And we boast only in our Lord God and in Christ crucified for us and, on Easter, in His great resurrection victory, as well. 

Let us rise for prayer. Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)  

Sermon for Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Midweek Lenten Service 3

February 28, 2024

Significant Questions: Love

Mark 12:28-37

(I need to give credit to Concordia Publishing House for the title and helpful basic thoughts for this sermon, as part of a series from CPH on “Four Significant Days.” I did re-write parts of the sermon, though, and included some things of my own, too. CPH is not responsible for those changes. I also need to give credit to R.C.H. Lenski’s Commentary (Augsburg Publishing) for some of the comments on the 613 Commandments of the Jewish Scribes of that time.)

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. (Psalm 19:14)

We have been looking, this Lenten season, at what happened in the last days of Jesus’ life after he rode humbly into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. Last week, we heard how He came again to Jerusalem on Monday and cleansed the temple for a second time, as He had done earlier in His ministry, chasing out the sellers and money-changers and animals. This time He emphasized that the temple was not to be a place for greed and robbery, but a place of prayer for all nations, that all might hear of God’s Good News.

The next day, Tuesday, Jesus came again to Jerusalem and to the temple to teach people. This time, the religious leaders were ready for Him, challenging Him about why He thought He had the authority to cleanse the temple. He didn’t answer them because they wouldn’t answer His own questions. He then told a parable that showed that He knew just what they wanted to do to Him - to kill Him. He taught about paying taxes and even showed the Sadducees, the religious liberals of the time, why they were totally wrong to think that there would be no resurrection of the dead. A resurrection was certainly coming!

Then a scribe, an expert in Jewish Law, asked Jesus a sincere question: “Which commandment is the most important of all?” This was a significant question that Jewish scholars argued about all the time. They had developed a list of 613 commandments. 248 were positive -what you should do. 365 were negative - what you should not do.

• Some thought all the commandments about animal sacrifices and other sacrifices were most important.
• Some thought that the many Sabbath day laws were most important.
• Others thought that the rules about circumcision were most important.
• And on and on the arguments went.

But there was a general sense that you needed to keep all 613 Commandments very well to be acceptable to God. And some thought they really did that.

Jesus simply took the scribe back to Scripture, to God’s Word in the Old Testament reading we heard tonight, from Deuteronomy. “The most important,” Jesus said, was: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. (There is only one True God, Whom we are to follow.) And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” And then Jesus said, quoting from Leviticus: “The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself..”

Jesus had taught the same thing on other occasions - that love for God is a summary of the first Commandments and that love for our neighbor (anyone around us) summarized the seven other commandments. The scribe agreed with Jesus about loving the Lord and loving our neighbor as most important, even more important, he said, than “all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Jesus told the scribe that he was “not far from the Kingdom of God.” But he was not there yet - because he and others were ignoring that no one could ever obey all these commandments as he should. If we could love our Lord 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, then we would be keeping the first three Commandments and never be putting anyone or anything above God. But who can really do that? All too often we put our own ideas and desires before those of God.

And if we could always love our neighbor, we would always love and respect our parents and others in authority; we wouldn’t kill others, but also wouldn’t become unjustly angry or ever hurt others with our words; we wouldn’t have any bad thoughts; we wouldn’t shoplift or steal, but we also wouldn’t waste time and would always do our best in every job we are assigned; we would never speak falsely about anyone; and on and on. And who can or does do all that? We try, but we don’t do so well.

And besides all that, many of the 613 commands that the Jewish scribes listed were not even in the Scriptures, but were man-made rules - like how far one could walk on the Sabbath Day without breaking God’s command about resting. You find no specific rule about that in the Scriptures.

We run that danger, still today, even as Christians, sometimes loading humanly-made expectations upon one another and adding guilt we don’t need. Years ago, when we still had a number of Christian bookstores in our community, I received an advertising brochure from one of these stores and noted these things, that I included in a newsletter. On just three pages, I saw ads for “Christian” books about:

• "Five Ways to a Healthier, Happier, and Creative Life”
• “Ten Keys to Extraordinary Success from Provers”
• “Eight Critical Lifetime Decisions”
• “How to Weather the Five Winds in Your Marriage”
• “Twelve Ways to Add Zest to Your Marriage”

I was already worn out, thinking about remembering these 40 keys to Christian life, without even getting to another popular Christian author who had books on “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” and "The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork” and on and on. Another company pushed a book on “Graduate to Greatness.” Chapter titles were on: “Achieving Greatness through… Gratitude for All Blessings; Reliability in All Circumstances; Enthusiasm in All Opportunities..." And on it went. I’d already decided that I would never be “great” according to such standards. Do you know anyone, other than Jesus, who is reliable in every circumstance?

That is why Jesus Himself, on that Tuesday of Holy Week, also asked two very significant questions, as He continued to teach in the temple. The first was, ”How can the scribes, the religious authorities, say that the Christ (the promised Anointed One and Savior) is the Son of David? That was an easy question because many Old Testament Scriptures said that the Christ would be from the line of King David. But then Jesus quoted also from Psalm 110, a psalm of David himself, and said, “David himself, in the Holy Spirit, (inspired by Him), declared: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.’ David himself calls this promised One the Lord - equal with God. So how could this promised One also be David’s son?

There was no answer from the religious leaders or anyone else. The only True answer was in Jesus Himself, standing right there in the temple that Tuesday. He was a true man, born of the Virgin Mary, from the line of King David. And he was also Lord and God, the Son of God, sent from the right hand of God the Father. This God/man came to do what none of us can do - perfectly doing His Father’s will for us, in our place, for our sake, as a kind of second Adam. He perfectly loved God and loved His neighbor, where we so often fail.

As a true man, son of David, He was tempted as we are yet never sinned and kept all the true Commandments of God, in perfect love for God and for us. And as the Lord of David, truly God the Son, He was able to make a sacrifice big enough and great enough to forgive all our sins and count us acceptable to God. And He is big enough and great enough, as True God, to bring us to trust in Him for our life and eternal future, though we cannot fully understand it all.

We still try to love God and our neighbor, but now in gratefulness for His overwhelming love for us. We love Him and others because He first loved us. And we know that the most significant question for our life and future is already answered for us, in Christ our Savior, without any merit or worthiness in us. We trust Him alone, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for His perfect love.

Let us rise, now, and praise our loving Lord with the Canticle and Magnificat.

Preparing for Worship - March 3, 2024

The Old Testament lesson for the Third Sunday in Lent, March 3, 2024, is Exodus 20:1-17, one of the two accounts of the giving of the 10 Commandments. These are the very Words of God, and notice that He begins with what He has already done for His chosen people. It is Gospel, Good News that He has rescued His people from slavery in Egypt. It is His doing, by His grace. The commandments that follow are how God’s people are now to respond in thanksgiving to their Lord and to know what will be best for them and for their lives and future.

Different groups number these commandments differently. We see v.3-6 as all relating to the first commandment, having no other gods, but the One true God. We divide v. 17 into two commandments about coveting. Others see v. 4-6 as a second commandment and see all of v.17 as the 10th Commandment. The content is the same. The difference only comes in some churches saying that there should be no images or artwork of any kind, even in churches. We believe that artwork is acceptable and good if it communicates messages about our Lord and His Word, as was done in the Old Testament, but we should worship no object or artwork, but only our Lord. As Jesus described, the first three commandments talk about love for God, and the other seven talk about love for our neighbor (anyone God has placed around us).

The psalm is Psalm 19. It begins with words about the amazing universe God has created and how it gives glory to Him and gives us a kind of “natural knowledge of God” and His power and majesty that we experience on a beautiful day or evening in nature. We need more than that, though. We need the Word of God, including the 10 Commandments, for guidance and direction for our life and understanding what is right and wrong. The Law of God also shows us our errors and sins when we meditate on it, and why we all need our Lord to be our Savior, our Redeemer, in Christ, and the Rock on whom alone our eternal future depends.

This is why our Epistle lesson, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, reminds us that in terms of our life and future, we cannot depend upon human wisdom, our own or others, and we cannot demand signs or proofs from God, on our terms. We simply trust “the Word of the cross," the “preaching of Christ crucified,” by which we have been called to faith in Jesus, who is now for us our Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption. He has already accomplished all we need, for this life and for eternal life, through His crucifixion and death and, as Paul talks about later in I Corinthians, His mighty resurrection from the dead. This may seem like foolishness to many, but it is the power and wisdom of God at work in Christ Jesus for us, and we simply “boast in the Lord,” and trust in Him, by His calling and grace.

In our Gospel lesson, John 2:13-22, (23-25), Jesus comes, early in His ministry, to Jerusalem for Passover and sees what is going on in the temple and chases out the sellers and money-changers and animals and says that the Lord’s house is not to be “a house of trade.” Fellow Jews challenge Him to give a sign or proof that He had the right to do these things. He gives them only a message of His death and resurrection, which even His own disciples did not understand until He had risen. Jesus entrusted Himself only to His Father and His plan for the salvation of the world. That would later take him back to Jerusalem and to a second cleansing of the temple and then to the cross and then to the empty tomb, in victory, for us.

Bible Study - Psalm 91 and Wings

In our Bible study of Psalm 91, we saw how that psalm related to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. The devil quoted from that psalm, out of context, trying to get Jesus to test God and jump off the pinnacle of the temple, at his (the devil’s) request, and then see if God would really take care of Him. Jesus resisted that temptation and all the others, by quoting Scripture and doing God’s will, not Satan’s. Jesus was taken care of, even among wild animals, and was helped and protected and strengthened by the Lord and His angels, until it was time for Him to suffer and die, in payment for our sins.

Psalm 91 emphasizes trusting Almighty God, the Most High, and dwelling in His shelter and knowing that He “holds fast to us in His love for us.” We still will have trouble in this life, but the Lord will be with us and deliver us as He knows best and one day show us His salvation in everlasting life. That is why Satan distorts this psalm and ignores its true message, in trying to pull Jesus and us away from the Lord as our Refuge and trying to get us to do foolish and hurtful things, against God’s will.

In Psalm 91:4, God is also pictured as gathering his people “under His wings” as a “refuge” and protection, as a bird would do for its little ones. (Pinions are the outer parts of wings, but all parts of the wings are used, as well.) This is an image used in a number of other psalms, also. (See Psalm 17:8, Psalm 61:4. and Psalm 63:7: “Hide me in the shadow of Your wings… in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.”) Boaz also says that as Ruth has left her Moabite “gods” and has been brought to believe in the one true God, it is “under His wings she has come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:12).

In prophecy in the Old Testament, God speaks through Malachi of “the sun of righteousness rising with healing in its wings.” That “sun” is Jesus, come into the world as a true man, as well as still being God the Son, for our salvation. (See Luke 1:78-79: “The Sunrise shall visit us from on high to give Light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”) Jesus calls Himself “the bright Morning Star” in Revelation 22:16, and Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24 that by His saving work and His “wounds, we have been healed.” (See also the prophecy of Jesus and His healing in Isaiah 53:5 and 58:8.) Jesus also identifies Himself as One with the God of the Old Testament by using this same image for Himself. In Matthew 23:37, Jesus comes to Jerusalem and sorrows over the people there and says, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.” He wants to provide peace and protection to all, but people can resist and reject Him and His “wings” of refuge.

Our primary protection is in God Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but also through created angels as messengers and for protection for us. (Some angels, including Satan and the evil spirits, rebelled against God and work against Him, as they work against Jesus and all believers in Jesus.) Good angels provide help and protection, though, as Psalm 91:11-12 describes.

Angels are “spirits” but can appear as people or often are pictured as “winged” creatures. See, for example, the seraphim, a kind of angel, in Isaiah 6:1-7. Images of cherubim, another kind of angel, were placed on the ark of the covenant in Exodus 25:18-21 and in the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple, in 1 Kings 6:21-21. Angels provide protection and help, as in the case of Daniel in the lions’ den in Daniel 6:22. (See also Psalm 34:7 and Matthew 18:10, regarding watching over “little ones,” as examples.)

As I have mentioned before, this protection does not mean that we will avoid all trouble and tragedy in this life. The Lord will care for us in the midst of trouble, though. Jesus predicts that some will even lose their life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel, in Mark 8:35. We do not understand many tragic events that happen but try to trust that God can work all things out for good for us, as He promises (Romans 8:28). Remember that when Jesus was arrested in the garden, He said that He could call 12 legions of angels to help Him, but His Father’s plan was for Him to suffer and die for our sake, as our Savior. He was not protected but paid the penalty for our sins.

One more comment about “wings” and the Scriptures. Eagles are mentioned 32 times in the Bible. As they can fly high and soar in the air, their strength is sometimes compared with the strength God can give us when we are spiritually tired and weary, whether young or old. See the words of Isaiah 40:28-31. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator, with unsearchable wisdom, who never grows weary. He can give strength and power to the faint. Even youth and young men can be exhausted. But those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles.

In Psalm 103:1-5, David asks us not to forget all of God’s blessings: forgiveness, healing, redemption, steadfast love, and mercy. He satisfies us with so much good that “our youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Eagles have been an inspiration to many cultures, including U.S. culture and in Biblical times. The wings of eagles remind us of the ultimate strength we receive from the Lord and His many blessings. He keeps on strengthening us through His Word and especially through the Good News of Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Sermon for Saturday, February 24, 2024

Sermon for the Second Weekend in Lent  

Saturday, February 24, 2024

“While We Were Still Sinners”

Romans 5:1-11

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditations 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 Epistle lesson and especially these words of Paul: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

I would like to begin, though, with our other two readings for today. We have already heard, the last few weeks, what we hear in our Gospel lesson, Mark 8:27-38 - how Peter could be so strong in faith one moment and so weak the next - so that he was even rebuking Jesus for talking about suffering and dying - which was an essential part of Jesus’ saving work. Peter, and we still today, needed a warning about being “ashamed of Jesus and His Words, in this adulterous and sinful generation” - where far too many people want to make fun of Jesus and His Word, or just not listen to it.

Think also about our Old Testament lesson, Genesis 17:1-7,15-19, and Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation and our spiritual father, too. He certainly had great faith at times, especially when he was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as we heard last week if that was really God’s will. It was not, of course, but was a prophecy of the fact that Jesus, the only Son of God the Father, would be willing to take up his cross and lose his life, so that we may be saved.

At other times, though, Abraham did not do so well. God had promised a great nation from him and a descendant, (our Lord Jesus), who would be a blessing to all nations. This promise was first given in Genesis 12 when Abram first came to what was to be the Promised Land. God had renewed this promise, again and again, but Abraham and Sarai got tired of waiting and took things into their own hands, and Abraham had a child, Ishmael, by his wife’s servant - and he did other things that were not pleasing to God.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, God gives the promise once again to Abraham, and we hear that Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you.” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.”

Some think that Abraham was laughing in joy at this promise, but others think that he sounded very skeptical that God could or would really give him a son now, at such an old age - as if it was another bad joke on him. In fact, Abraham even reminds God that he does have a son, Ishmael, already. Wouldn’t he do as the promised one? God clearly says “No!” and renews the promise again. Sarah will have this child and name him Isaac, which means “he laughs.”

In Genesis, Chapter 18, the Lord and two angels came again to Abraham and renewed the promise another time. This time, Sarah was in the tent listening, and this time she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and (Abraham) is old, shall I have pleasure?” It sounds like a very skeptical laugh, and the Lord says to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Shall I now indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” And God said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Sarah denied laughing, for she was afraid, but the Lord said, “You did laugh!" It sounds, then, as if both Abraham and Sarah struggled at times to believe the promise. Maybe it seemed too hard for the Lord, and it just wasn’t going to happen.

I looked at a complete concordance of the Bible, with every word mentioned, and found that there are only 39 references to laughing or laughter in the whole Bible. And more than half of those were negative laughter, where enemy nations or people were making fun of God’s people or of God himself, and God can only laugh in return at their invalid and foolish attacks.

Some of this laughter was directed against Jesus Himself. In an Old Testament prophecy, in Psalm 22:7, Jesus is pictured as saying, “All who see Me laugh me to scorn, they mock Me; they make mouths at Me; they wag their heads (saying): ‘He trusts in the Lord; let Him deliver Him; let Him rescue Him, for He delights in Him.” Almost those exact same words were said by the religious leaders and others, laughing at and ridiculing Jesus when He hung on the cross (Matthew 27:41-44). Earlier in His ministry, the mourners for a young girl who had died laughed at Jesus when He came to help her, a dead person. They ridiculed Jesus until He raised the girl from the dead (Matthew 9:23-26).

There is still much challenging of God and His Word and mockery of Christians and what we believe, to this very day, isn’t there? - in both doctrine and moral teachings and so much else. Just take one example. In this age of evolutionary theory, how many people would really agree with the prophet Jeremiah’s words, “Ah, Lord God, It is You Who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

We have had questioning and challenges even in our own Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod at times. It was 50 years ago this past week that there was a walkout of the majority of students and most of the faculty of one of our seminaries, in St. Louis, protesting the suspension of the seminary president, because he was allowing faculty to teach false ideas.

I lived through that time, though I had gone to the other seminary. I knew there were serious problems, but didn’t realize how serious they were until doing more reading in more recent times. There were professors and others who were questioning the infallibility of the Scriptures, whether God really created the earth and universe, whether Adam and Eve really existed, whether the miracle of the virgin birth of Jesus actually happened, the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, the bodily resurrection of Jesus (was the tomb really empty?), and if there will ever be a resurrection of the dead in the future. You take those basic Christian beliefs away and what do you have left of the Christian faith?

We thank the Lord that we had strong leaders at that time, who with the Lord’s guidance and His Word, got things straightened out and kept our Lutheran church conservative and Biblical. I am grateful for my pastor here at that time, Marcus Lang, and other people here who were involved in that battle for the truth. That was so important for me as a young pastor. Most of those who walked out in protest left our Lutheran church and went elsewhere with their false teachings. But such false ideas are still around, and we have to keep guarding against them.

At the same time, as we look at great leaders like Abraham and Peter and Paul, we realize from Scripture that they were far from perfect and had ups and downs, but as is said of Abraham, “He grew strong in his faith,” “he acquired strength” - and that was not from himself but from God and His Word and promises” (Romans 4:20).

It’s a growing faith for us, too, by God’s mercy. A man in the Gospel of Mark had a son possessed by an evil spirit. He asked Jesus for help if He could help his son. The man wasn’t sure about Jesus, but he finally said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” - my struggles that I still have (Mark 9:24). At another time Jesus was teaching His disciples about forgiving others, and they cried out to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” - as they knew how hard it was to forgive at times (Luke 17:5).

Even after the resurrection of Jesus, when He appeared to the disciples, and they could see Him alive, He still had to say to them, “Why do doubts arise in your hearts?” (Luke 24:38) and Luke writes, “They disbelieved for joy” (Luke 24:41). Joy and disbelief were mixed together. Maybe it just seemed to be too good to be true! And even later on, when the eleven disciples (minus Judas) went to Galilee, as Jesus had asked them to do, we read that “when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.” Some were still struggling with all this (Matthew 28:16-17).

What all this tells us is that we do not have to have great faith or perfect faith and understanding for God to pay attention to us and help us. Jesus kept coming to His disciples to help them. And our Epistle lesson for tonight tells us that He does the same for us. In Romans 5:6 we read, "While we were still weak (not strong), at the right time Christ died (not for the godly, since none of us are godly enough, on our own) Christ died for the ungodly…“ and in verse 8, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners (not holy people) Christ died for us.” Paul uses an even stronger word for us in verse 10. “While we were still (not friends, but) enemies of God, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."

Maybe, Paul says, we might be persuaded to die for a good friend or maybe for our country, to help protect the blessings and freedoms we enjoy, but we are not likely to want to die for weak, ungodly, sinful enemies. Yet that is what Jesus has done for us, while we were and still are struggling sinners.

We are justified, counted just and right with God by the blood of Christ, shed on the cross for us, to take away the wrath and judgment of God for sin, by taking it all upon Himself and forgiving us. We are also saved, Paul says, by Jesus’ life, His resurrection from the dead, with certainty that death is not the end for us, but the gateway to eternal life.

And there’s not a word about what we have to do to receive all this. The opening verses of Romans, Chapter Five, tell us that by the grace of God, we receive the gift of faith and peace with God and access to Him in prayer and hope for our future, through the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, given to us in our baptism and through God’s Word and in the Lord’s Supper.

Even as we suffer and struggle at times, the Lord can work endurance and character and hope in us. And while we may not always have laughter, the end of our Epistle reading says that we can have joy, rejoicing in God always, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: Lord we believe! Help us by Your Spirit and Words of promise, with our struggles and questions, and may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
(Philippians 4:7)  

Preparing for Worship - February 25, 2024

The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis 17:1-7, 15-19. In this reading, God renews His covenant promise to Abram, originally given in Genesis 12 and repeated since then. God promises blessings for his offspring in the land of Canaan, but now changes Abram’s name to Abraham, “father of many nations,” as the promise now goes to a multitude of nations and kings and an everlasting covenant. God changes Sarai’s name to Sarah and says again that she and Abraham will have a child, to be named Isaac (he laughs). Abraham laughs at this since he and his wife are far beyond child-bearing years, but God says it will happen and that the child of promise will not be Ishmael, but Isaac.

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 8:27-38, Peter makes a great confession of faith, that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Anointed One of God. Quickly, though, he struggles and tries to rebuke Jesus, when He (Jesus) talks about suffering and dying. That was not the vision of the Messiah that Peter had in mind. Jesus has to rebuke Peter, saying that he was following Satan in trying to block God’s saving plan, which did involve Jesus losing His life for the sake of the saving Gospel. Jesus called Peter and all of us not to be ashamed of Jesus and His words, in an evil and adulterous nation. (The world was very evil back then, too, even as it is now.)

As Peter and Abraham struggled at times to trust God’s plan and will, so we all do, our Epistle lesson, Romans 5:1-11, tells us. Christ died for us and for the world, not when we were perfectly strong in faith and understanding, but when we were “weak, ungodly, sinners, and enemies” of God. We were “justified” and forgiven by “Christ’s bloody suffering” on the cross, so that “the wrath of God” was taken away from us, and we were reconciled to God and “saved by His life,” His perfect life for us and His resurrection from the dead. We now “rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The opening verses of this passage also tell us that through Christ, we also have “peace with God,” and “access” to “God” and His “grace.” Even if we suffer at times, the Lord produces “endurance, character, and hope” in us, through God’s love “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, given to us” through the Word of God and our Baptism.

Psalm 22:22-31 reminds us that God would do His saving work for us through Christ Jesus not just to get us off punishment for our sins but for an eternal future. (He did do that for us, as verses 1-21 of Psalm 22 tell and predict many parts of His suffering and death for us. We will hear more about that in Holy Week and Good Friday.) We are also saved by God’s grace so that we can tell others of God’s grace “in the great congregation,” as we worship together and speak and sing God’s Word together and praise our Lord. We also seek to “tell of the Lord” to “the families of the nations” and to our children and others in “coming generations” and “to a people yet unborn.” We confess that we cannot keep ourselves alive on our own, but that Christ Jesus “has done it” all for us, that we may trust in Him and “our hearts may live forever” through Him.

Preparing for Worship - February 18, 2024

The Old Testament lesson for this week is Genesis 22:1-22. Abraham had waited so long for a son, promised by God as the beginning of a great nation and a future blessing to all nations. Now God told him to sacrifice that son, his only son, Isaac. Abraham obeyed God and took his son to a place that would later be the site of the temple in Jerusalem, as God directed him. He was about to kill his son when God stopped him, knowing that he would be willing to give up his only son if that was really God’s will. It was not, and instead, God provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son. And again, God renewed His promise that in Abraham’s offspring, all nations of the earth would be blessed. That offspring was, of course, Jesus our Savior, who would willingly sacrifice His life for us all, as the Father gave up His Son, His only Son, into death for us.

The Psalm is Psalm 25:1-10. David is the author and was in the line of promise from Abraham, and Jesus would be a “Son of David” many generations later. David trusted the Lord God and waited upon Him as “the God of his salvation.” He knew that the Lord had been “merciful” and full of “steadfast love” “from of old.” He asked forgiveness for his past sins and that the Lord would teach and lead him in His ways. He approached God as a “humble sinner” and asked that the Lord look upon him with His goodness and mercy. And the Lord did so, by His grace.

James, too, in our Epistle lesson, James 1:12-18, calls upon people not to be tempted by their own sinful desires, but to trust the Lord and “His good and perfect gifts, coming down from above from the Heavenly Father,” the “Father of Lights.” “Of His own will," "He “brings us forth by the Word of Truth,” our Lord Jesus Christ, to a whole new life. We are “blessed,” as we remain steadfast in faith in Him, even if there are trials, and we “will receive the crown of Life,” everlasting life, as we have been brought to love and serve Him.

The Gospel lesson for this Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent, is always the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, immediately after His baptism and anointing by the Holy Spirit for His ministry as “the Word of Truth.” This year’s Gospel is very short, Mark 1:9-15, with a special focus on v.12-13. We pray “Lead us not into temptation,” but “the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.” He had to face Satan “head-on” and resist all that Satan threw against Him for 40 days, and throughout His life and during the three years of ministry that were coming, too. Other Gospels give details of some of this particular time of testing for Jesus, but Mark especially reminds us in his Gospel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, of the many other times Jesus battled “demons,” evil spirits, evil angels, opposed to God and His will. We have already, in past weeks, heard of some of these. See Mark 1:21-27, 1:32, 1:34, and 1:39. This was a very important part of Jesus’ saving work for us. None of this was easy, but Jesus perfectly did His Father’s will, for us, in our place, and the Lord and His good angels strengthened Him. (See also passages like Hebrews 2:14-18 and 4:15-16, which talk about some of this victorious battle against Satan, for us.)

Bible Study - Psalm 91

This coming Sunday is the First Sunday in Lent, where our Gospel reading always tells about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, right after His baptism. The temptation portion of this year’s reading, from Mark 1:12-13, is very short. It simply tells us that “the Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness, where He was for forty days, being tempted by Satan.” The nature of the temptations is not mentioned, but it is said that Jesus “was with the wild animals.” This may be mentioned for one of two reasons.           

A wilderness area with wild animals was considered by some a place where evil spirits, demons, might be. See, for example, the story of a man who had demons in him in Luke 8:26-33. Note in v. 29 that this man was sometimes “driven by a demon into the desert” area. See also Luke 11:24, where a demon is described as "passing through waterless places seeking rest.” It would be no surprise, then, to find Satan in such a dry, desolate area and be tempted by him.

On the other hand, the mention of being with the wild animals also indicates the care and the protection from the Lord for Jesus, in the wilderness, and a prophecy in Psalm 91:13: “You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.” Jesus Himself used this passage in Luke 10:18-19, when He said to His disciples, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” There is one New Testament example of this happening - when Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta and was bitten by a deadly viper. People thought he would die, but he did not get sick at all. Then they thought he might be a god (Acts 28:1-6).

Psalm 91 played an even more important role in one of the actual temptations recorded by both Matthew and Luke. We will just look at Luke’s account in Luke 4:9-12. The devil had taken Jesus to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and then said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.” Then the devil actually quoted Scripture to Jesus, from Psalm 91:11-12, which seemed to promise that the Lord would send angels to catch Jesus in the air before He struck the ground. What a spectacular miracle that would be and how impressive for lots of people near the temple at the time, the devil was implying. “He (the Lord) will command His angels concerning you, to guard you” and “on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus, of course, knew that the devil was taking these words he quoted totally out of their context. Psalm 91 is talking about a person who “trusts in God” and “dwells” (lives) in “the shelter” and “shadow” of “the Almighty,” “the Most High” God. The Lord is his “refuge” and “dwelling place.” Jesus was such a person in a perfect way, and the Lord says, “Because He holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver Him; I will protect Him because he knows My Name.”

Jesus would be the opposite of what He really was if He listened to the devil and followed his direction and jumped off the temple. Jesus also knew and quoted Scripture in answer to Satan, from Deuteronomy 6:16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,” by doing something reckless and foolish, just to see if He would really help you if you jumped off the temple.

In the last two verses of Psalm 91, the Lord is still speaking and does not promise that all will go perfectly, even for His people, in this sinful, fallen world. What He does promise is that He will be “with us” in times of ”trouble” and “answer us” when we “call out to Him.” He will “rescue” those who trust in Him and will finally “show us His salvation” in eternal life.

Even Jesus, following His Heavenly Father’s plan, had much sorrow and trouble in His life here on earth and did not have the “long life” spoken of in verse 16, but all His sacrifices were for us, that we might be forgiven and blessed and receive the gift of eternal life. Jesus Himself rose in victory on Easter Sunday, assuring our ultimate victory in Him, and Jesus, as God the Son, received at His ascension what He had asked from the Father, “Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed” (John 17:5). (See also John 1:1-5 and Philippians 2:5-11.)

Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday - February 11, 2024

Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday

“The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus”      

Mark 9:2-9 and 2 Corinthians 4:5-7

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 Mark 9, along with a few thoughts from our Epistle lesson.

About a week before our text, the disciple Peter had made a great and true confession of faith, saying to Jesus, “You are the Christ,” the Messiah, the Anointed One sent from God to be the Savior (Mark 8:29). Soon after that, Jesus began to tell His disciples that He needed to suffer much and be killed and after three days rise again. He had indicated this before, but now Jesus said it plainly (Mark 8:31-32).

Right away, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, telling Him that He was wrong and shouldn’t be saying such things. Jesus then had to rebuke Peter, telling him that his mind was not on God’s will, but on his own will and desires, and that he was actually serving Satan, the devil, in this thinking (Mark 8:32-33). Clearly, Peter and the other disciples still had much to learn about Jesus and God’s saving plan. Peter, in particular, could be so strong and right one moment and so weak and confused the next.

Doesn’t that sound like us, too, at times? We can be so strong in faith, but when God’s will and ways don’t seem to fit with our wishes and desires, we can sometimes question and struggle, too. Jesus cared about these disciples, as He cares about us; and Mark, who wrote this Gospel, inspired by God, makes it very clear that Jesus purposely took Peter and James and John along for His Transfiguration so that their faith in Him might be strengthened.

We hear in our text that Jesus took these three leaders of the disciples and led them up a high mountain by themselves and then was transfigured before them. A little later, we hear that there appeared to them, to these disciples, Elijah and Moses, great prophets and leaders of the Old Testament, talking with Jesus. And a little later, a cloud overshadowed them, including the disciples - a cloud as in the Old Testament, when God Himself appeared to His people, and the voice of God the Father came from the cloud, telling the disciples, “This Jesus is My Beloved Son!” - the Son of God and God the Son.

That was indicated, too, by the way Jesus was transfigured. The Greek word here is “metamorphosis” - “a dramatic change in physical form, a striking alteration in appearance,” Webster’s Dictionary says. We think of the change from a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. In Jesus’ case, it was much more than that. Jesus was a real man, a human being, like us - and yet now the disciples had a glimpse of what He also was - God the Son Himself. They or any of us could only handle a glimpse, in this life, of that glory.

The clothes of Jesus were radiant, intensely white, whiter than bleach or Tide or Oxi-Clean or any humanly made product could make a robe or anything else, and Matthew’s Gospel says that Jesus’ face “shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:3). We all know how long we could stand to look at that brilliance.

Clearly, this amazing experience showed that Jesus was God the Son, and God the Father then literally said to the disciples, “Keep on listening to Him" - to Jesus - and following Him. Our text says that the disciples were terrified by all this, and Peter didn’t know what to say, except that he wanted to keep the glory and the miracle of all this going by following an Old Testament festival, where God’s people would build temporary booths and tent-like structures and remember the glory days of the past.

But that was not to be. Suddenly no one was with the disciples, but Jesus only, and He looked in His ordinary way. And they had to come down from the mountain to their ordinary lives, with joys but many challenges and troubles. Jesus particularly had to come down to just what He had predicted, and to what we will hear about in the Lenten season, starting this coming Wednesday, Ash Wednesday.

The Transfiguration event was also for His benefit - for Jesus was a real man, too, not always using His Godly powers. He was tempted as we are and yet did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). As we heard last week, Jesus kept praying to His Heavenly Father and leaning upon Him for His strength, as God’s Beloved Son. He kept listening to God’s Word, given through Moses and Elijah and the other Old Testament writers, and following it. In fact, Luke tells us in his Gospel that on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus about His departure, His “exodus,” His “going out” from this world, at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31), and they surely were encouraging Him always to do His Father’s will. They knew that they had failed at that, even as great leaders. Moses had gone against God’s will and was not able to enter the promised land of Israel, but he was forgiven and entered into eternal life, by God’s grace. Elijah also had rough times. He once was so discouraged that he wanted to lay down and die. He too went to eternal life, by God’s grace.

Jesus, though, perfectly followed His Father’s will in the days following the Transfiguration. He suffered many things and was rejected by the religious authorities and many others, and was killed in a most horrible way, by crucifixion, and after three days, rose from the dead. Above all, He paid the penalty for the sins of His disciples and of the whole world, including you and me - the penalty we should have had to pay. He conquered sin and Satan and death for us all - and we receive forgiveness and new life and the promise of life everlasting, in return, through the gift of faith and trust in what He did for us, that God works in us. And one day, we also will stand with Moses and Elijah and with Jesus, in the glory of heaven.

How important all this was for Jesus’ disciples. They didn’t do so well in the days following the Transfiguration. They still didn’t understand Jesus’ words about suffering and dying and rising. When He was arrested, they all ran away. Even Peter, in fear, denied three times that he ever knew Jesus - though he’d seen that glorious mountaintop event. The disciples huddled in fear after Jesus died until He appeared to them as the Risen Lord and forgave them and strengthened them for 40 more days, through  God’s Word, and then He and God the Father sent them His Holy Spirit.

And the Spirit inspired Biblical writers and preachers to put down in a perfect way the New Testament, as well as the Old, so that to this day, we can still keep listening to Christ Jesus and hearing of all He did and continues to do for us, as our Savior, just as God the Father asked us to listen, on the Mount of Transfiguration. We have the Word, through which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Triune God, works. And we have the Word, connected with water in the gift of Holy Baptism, and the Word connected with bread and wine and the very Body and Blood of Christ, given and shed for us, in the Lord’s Supper.

Even with all that, the early church was not perfect, except as counted that way in the eyes of God, through Christ and His forgiveness, earned for them and for us.

• Peter and Paul had some difficulties with each other.
• Paul and John Mark, who wrote the Gospel we’re hearing today, had a falling out with each other at one point.
• The churches we hear about were not perfect.
• And we are certainly not sitting here tonight as a perfect church and perfect people.

But we know where our hope always is. Paul put it so well in our Epistle lesson for today. He said, “What we proclaim is not ourselves (or our church, or the great things we are doing). But we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves simply as servants, for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let Light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.   

In fact, in the very next verse, after this Epistle, Paul says, “We have this great treasure” - the Good News of the Gospel of Christ and what he has done for us, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit - we have this great treasure “in jars of clay.” We are the jars of clay, with all our chips and cracks and imperfections, and yet we are also the children of God, through the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

And, Paul says, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). And our great Triune God is enough, all we need, for this life and for eternal life to come.

Please rise for prayer. 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. Amen.