Satisfaction, Guaranteed - August 2, 2026 - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 13) - Text: Matthew 14:13-21

Jesus, the man, the myth, the legend. Who is He? For the last few weeks in the Gospel readings we have been listening to Jesus tell stories and parables and then also tell us what those parables mean. But He is more than just a story teller. As those words come out of my mouth, I want to make a clarification. It seems unfortunate that in our world today the word “story” can have a negative connotation, such as one telling a fib or a lie, which is why I try not to talk about Bible Stories, but rather I talk about Bible history. And we can add to this discussion that Martin Luther always spoke well of fables, such as Aesop’s fables, but he reminded us the stories and parables of Jesus were not fables in that they were not told in order for us to understand the moral of the story which is always law talk. Jesus’ stories and parables were law and gospel talk giving us insights into what a great and loving God we have. Thus, in our text for this morning we see even more of Jesus and who He is, as we take a look at some of the events that happened during this one day in the life of Jesus.
 

We begin with verse thirteen of our text, “13Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns” (v. 13). What Jesus had heard was that His cousin and friend, His way preparer, John the Baptist, had been beheaded by Herod. Jesus, a man, a truly human man, a man of love and compassion, felt the pain of the loss of John, so He withdrew to be by Himself in order to have time to be in prayer and communion with His Father in heaven, in order to be consoled, comforted and strengthened. Here we see what a wonderful example Jesus sets for us. Here we see Jesus, who we know is truly God, reveal Himself to us as also being truly human, showing us His need to spend time in prayer. Jesus, true man, needs to spend time in prayer so that He might be comforted and strengthened in His own earthly life. If Jesus needs time for prayer, how much more do we, sinful human beings, also need time for prayer?
 

Yet, His time for prayer did not last very long. We pick up at verse fourteen of our text, “14When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (v. 14). Here we see that Jesus always had time, took time, and made time, for those in need. Even as He had a need to be in communion with His Father in heaven, even as He had a need to be spiritually strengthened, and even though He had His own needs, the needs of the people were always before Him and He was always ready, willing and able to meet their needs. Who is Jesus? He is a compassionate human person.
 

But Jesus is more than just a compassionate human person. Our text picks up at verse fifteen, “15Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves’” (v. 15). When the crowds had found Jesus and began to flock around Him, He responded by preaching and teaching and by healing those who had need. And He did this all day long. As the day drew to a close, Jesus again had compassion on the people. These people had been with Him all day with nothing to eat. Jesus knew their need for physical nourishment, if nothing else, so they would be able to make the walk home. His disciples understood this need as well, yet their suggestion is to send the people away so they can fend for themselves.
 

Jesus has a different answer. We pick up at verse sixteen, “16But Jesus said, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat’” (v. 16). Jesus tells His disciples that they are to give the people something to eat. The disciple are to feed these people, these over five thousand men, along with the women and children, as we find out a little later. One commentator suggested the crowd may have been as large as 15,000 people.
 

Picking up at verse seventeen, “17They said to him, ‘We have only five loaves here and two fish.’ 18And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ 19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds” (v. 17-19). After a quick survey of the crowd, and the physical resources or food that was available, five loaves and two fish are found and brought to Jesus. Jesus offers prayers for the meal and then the food is distributed to the crowd.
 

Picking up at verse twenty, “20And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children” (v. 20-21). Not only does Jesus feed the crowd, He feeds them with as much as they want until they are satisfied. His is the best buffet, the best smorgasbord, the best all you can eat dinner. And then, after the meal was complete, after everyone had enough to eat, He also provides twelve basketfuls of leftovers, perhaps a sign to each one of His skeptical disciples, one basketful for each. There are several things we learn from this miracle, one of which is, what I think is the obvious but most missed point and that is that not only is Jesus human, He is also divine, that is He is God. We see that He is God because who else could bless a meal of five loaves and two fish and multiply it to feed over five thousand, perhaps even 15,000 people? Here we see Jesus as God Himself and the crowd sees Jesus as a miracle worker. We also see the fact that Jesus came to provide for His people, namely for the children of Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel, perhaps as noted with the twelve baskets of left overs. Who is this Jesus? Previously we have said that He is a compassionate human being. Now we would say that He is also a compassionate and loving God who provides for the needs of His people. Might I remind you that the very reason God created us is to love us?
 

So, who is this Jesus? Jesus shows Himself to be truly human. He is tired and He needs rest, that is why He went off to be by Himself. He is hungry and He understands the hunger and the needs of the crowd. He is in need of spiritual, emotional, and physical rest, comfort and consolation. He is a man of compassion, that is a deep seated affection for others. Certainly He shows Himself to be completely human.
 

Who is this Jesus? Jesus shows Himself to be truly God. He is able to preach and teach for extended periods of time without need for human nourishment, although He does let us know that He, too, gets hungry. He is always ready, willing and able to provide  healing for those who are sick or in any need. He has power over the things of this world, power over the food in order to make it multiply to feed the crowds. Other times He has shown His power over nature in His ability to calm a storm, raise from the dead, change water into wine and the like. We see His powers over the spiritual world as we see Him cast out demons and give faith to unbelievers. Certainly He shows Himself to be completely divine, that is that He is truly God.
 

So what? So what if Jesus is truly human and truly divine? What does that have to do with me? That almost sounds like a line from that one song on the radio that keeps asking the question, “What about me?” But, that is how we are as sinful human beings, is it not? Do we not tend to always ask the questions, “What about me?” “What is in it for me?” Our concern is for ourselves. So, what about us? We may not want to admit it, because we might think that it makes us less of a person, less worthy or whatever, but are we not, at times, tired, lonely, hungry, and the like? Do we not have doubts? Do we not sin? And here I will not just say, “Do we,” but how often do we find ourselves in need. We have the need to be in prayer. We have the need to be in communication with our heavenly Father.
 

Also, very often we need healing. Sometimes we need physical healing. We need healing from bumps, scrapes, bruises and the like, and worse. Other times we need emotional healing. We need healing from emotional hurts and heart aches, from spats with family and friends. We need healing from the pain of the loss of a loved one. We sometimes need physical and emotional healing, but we always need spiritual healing. We need healing from the fact that we are conceived and born in sin and we daily sin much adding to our weight and burden of sin and the guilt associated with that sin. Forgiveness is our greatest need, because without forgiveness we would be left to pay the price for our sins ourselves and let me remind you that the price for sin is death, eternal death, hell in other words. Unfortunately, we do not always readily give up our sin and even when we ask for forgiveness, there are many times when we reject complete forgiveness as we cling to our guilt which tells us that we have not rid ourselves of our sin and have rejected God’s forgiveness. Yes, we are always in need of spiritual healing which only comes from the forgiveness of sins.
 

Thanks be to God that we have Jesus. Jesus provides for all our needs, guaranteed. He provides for all our physical needs. He provides us with food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home and all that we need for the support of our bodily needs. Not only that, Jesus also provides for all our emotional and spiritual needs. Through His means of grace, that is, through the Word and the sacraments, through our making regular and diligent use of His means of grace, reading our Bible, coming to divine service to hear the Word of God, confessing our sins and hearing His Word of absolution, remembering our Baptism, and coming to the Lord’s Supper, our Lord provides for us gifts of faith, and strengthening of faith, forgiveness of sins, life, that is, life in this world and life in the world to come, even eternal salvation.
 

Our most basic need, the thing we need the most is the forgiveness of sins and our Lord provides that for us first and foremost. As we hear the message of Jesus having compassion on the people; as we hear the message of Jesus preaching to and teaching the people; as we watch Jesus cast out demons and heal people of every kind of illness; as we watch Jesus provide food for the nourishment of the people, that is, as we watch Jesus provide for all the needs of the people in our text, we can know for certain that He daily and richly provides for all our needs as well. Who is Jesus? He is God in flesh who came to give His all, especially, first and foremost, to give His life, to suffer and die, to pay the price, the cost for our sins, which is the shedding of blood, which is eternal death and hell and He did this, gladly and willingly for each one of us, for you and for me, because of His great love for us.
 

With that said, I want to conclude with Paul’s words of reassurance from our Epistle lesson from last Sunday. Paul tells us, “35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39). Yes, Jesus demonstrates who He is and what He does for us so that we might give Him thanks and praise saying, “To Him be the glory,” for Jesus’ sake. Amen. 

Our Adoption - July 26, 2026 - Eighth Sunday after Trinity - Text: Romans 8:12-17

The Apostle John tells us, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:2 (ESV). In other words, John tells us the same thing Paul has been telling us. Paul is constantly telling us the importance of hearing the Law and the Gospel, the importance of properly distinguishing between the Law and the Gospel, and the importance of realizing our own state of being, that is that we are at the same time both sinner and saint. John simply expresses this fact as telling us that we are now, at this time, not what we were before, and what we were before was complete lost and condemned sinners, and yet we are not what we will be in heaven, that is in heaven we will be complete saints, but instead we are on this road of life as sinner/saints. This morning Paul out lines for us what we were like before being saved, as he says, before being adopted, and what we are like after our adoption.
 

Remembering David’s words, ‘we are conceived and born in sin,’ Paul tells us, beginning at verse twelve, “12So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (12-13). Immediately after birth and truly from the moment of conception before we were baptized, before we were given faith, we were lost and condemned creatures. There is no way around this unhappy scenario. Before our Lord gave us faith our spiritual status was that we were lost. But as I say that, let me assure you especially if you have lost a child as a stillborn, that God can and does also work through the means of His Word, so as a young pregnant mother attends divine service, indeed God can and does work through the Word as that child in the womb hears to give faith as well. My point is that we are conceived and born in sin, it is in our DNA, and as I have said before, we are accountable for that sin born in us otherwise we would not die until we reach a certain age. Thus we see the need for the washing waters of Holy Baptism as soon as after physical birth as possible.
 

Perhaps we were not given faith until we grew older or perhaps we rejected the faith given to us at an early age. And yes, even at this time in our own lives, even after being given faith there are times that we try to live according to the law. We try to live as if there is something we can do to earn, at least some bit of our own salvation. Kind of like our friends might express, we try to be obedient enough for Jesus. Of course, the law always fails us because the law only accuses us.
 

And then something wonderful happened. Paul tells us about our adoption in verse fourteen, “14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (v. 14). We are adopted as children of God. How are we adopted? We are adopted as the Holy Spirit gives us faith through the means of grace. We are adopted at Holy Baptism. When we are brought to the waters of Holy Baptism and water and God’s name are put on us we are saved. As we hear Peter say in his epistle and as we hear him say every time we have a Baptism, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). Yes, Baptism saves us. Baptism is not something we do, but is what God is doing and what God is doing is that He is saving us, giving us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

Yet, not simply through Baptism are we saved. If we are not saved through the waters of Holy Baptism, then we may be saved by the very Word of God. The Bible is also a means through which our Lord adopts us as His children. Remember the Bible is the Word of God and it does what it says. So, as we read or hear His Holy Word, the Holy Spirit works through that Word to give faith, to strengthen and to keep us in faith. Of course here we understand that if and when we are given faith though the Word of God our natural desire will be to want to be baptized, not to show God anything, but as a natural response of faith. These are two of the means our Lord has of giving us His good gifts and blessings.
 

But there is more. Not only does our Lord adopt us through His means of grace, He continues to be with us to strengthen and keep us in faith. The Holy Spirit strengthens faith through means as well. We pick up with Paul’s words in verse fifteen, “15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (v. 15). We are a church that believes as our Lord so teaches in His Word that our Lord comes to us through means, namely the means of grace. That is why we worship the way we worship, that is liturgically. Because we believe that Holy Baptism is important we begin each service with an invocation, an inviting of the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reminding us of our Baptism. Because we believe the Lord comes to us through the Word of God our service is permeated with the Word of God, even our saying back to God the very Words He has given us to say. This worship is not simply a way to flatter the Lord, but because our words are inadequate and because His Word is His Word, there is no better way to worship than to say back to Him the very Words He has given us to say. Because we believe we are sinners and are in constant need of forgiveness, in almost every worship service, in one way or another we have a time of public confession and absolution. We believe that through the very Words of God, spoken through the pastor that we have what God gives, namely, forgiveness of sins.
 

We hear the very Word of our Lord read to us straight from Holy Scripture and as it is proclaimed through the preaching of the Law and the Gospel. And we also hear the Word through our liturgy and the hymns we sing.
 

And finally, because we believe our Lord has also given us His Holy Supper as a means through which He also gives His good gifts and blessings, we come to His Supper wherein we are given to eat His body and drink His blood until He comes again and through this sacred means we participate in His life, suffering, death and resurrection and so we are given forgiveness of sins and strengthened in faith. Yes, these things, these means of grace are the ways in which our Lord comes to us to give us His good gifts and blessings and that is why we worship the way we worship. If we believed something else, then certainly we would worship in a different way, and as we see others worshiping in different ways, then we can see it is because they do have different beliefs.
 

To sum it up, our Lord adopts us as His children and He does this adoption through His means of grace, the Bible, Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution and the Lord’s Supper.
 

Now that we have been adopted into His family what is life like now, after adoption. We pick up with Paul’s words at verse sixteen, “16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (v. 16-17). Now, since we have been adopted as children of God, now we live life as children of God, that is we live life as brothers and sisters of Christ. With God’s help, and even though we know we will make mistakes and we will backslide, yet with God’s help we strive to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. We strive to build each other up as brothers and sisters in Christ. We look out for one another. We realize that caring for one another is not simply the elder’s and the pastor’s job, but is a joy we all share. We realize that being a member of this congregation and of the family of God means giving of ourselves, our time, talents and treasure, for the purpose of building the Kingdom of God. We have a whole new attitude about our life.
 

And we live life looking forward to eternal life, our eternal inheritance. We no longer spend all our time with our eyes focused on this world and the temporariness of this world. Instead we spend our time on getting ourselves ready and keeping ourselves ready for our Lord’s return or for our passing and going to Him. We spend our time making regular and diligent use of the means of grace because we know through this means is how He comes to us. We have a desire, a yearning to worship as often as worship is offered. We read the Word every day. We remember our Baptism, every day. We confess our sins every day and every Sunday we publicly confess and hear those most beautiful words of forgiveness. We partake of the Lord’s body and blood and as often as we do this we participate in His death and resurrection.
 

So, what does this mean? As usual, and as we need to hear every week, Paul reminds us that we were conceived and born in sin. Not only that, but we daily add to our sinfulness. We cannot help ourselves. We are conceived and born in sin so sinning comes natural to us. And so we know that daily we need forgiveness.
 

We are reminded and each week we need to be reminded that we were given faith. Faith is not something we got ourselves, it is not something we did, but it is a gift given through means, namely through the means of Holy Baptism and through the means of His Holy Word. And since these are the means through which we have been given faith, then we realize our need to make diligent and regular use of these means so that we might be strengthened and kept in this faith.
 

Being given faith, forgiveness, life and salvation we are reminded that now we live lives of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit is alive and well and continually working through the means of grace to give us the strength and courage to live lives of faith. So, what is there to fear in this world? What is the worst thing that can happen in this world? Most people will say that dying is the worst thing that could happen. Well, when you die, by faith in Jesus you go to heaven, and that is a great thing, so then back to the question of what is there to be afraid of? Nothing. And the Holy Spirit works in us to give us the courage we need to live lives of faith in this world
 

And finally, we look forward to eternal life, not in fear, but in anticipation. We know that heaven is a wonderful place filled with God’s glory and grace. We know that we have the certainty of eternal life in heaven, it is ours now. Certainly we will not move in until we pass on from this world, but heaven is ours and so we may rejoice and even anticipate our final move into our heavenly home.
 

Paul’s words this morning are nothing new. He knows about our adoption as children of God and he knows about the importance of the means of grace. Perhaps the words of Isaiah were on Paul’s mind when he penned these words to the Romans. “10For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,  11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11). Yes, God’s Word does what it says. Throughout the Gospel Jesus related the importance of the Word of God and its power to give faith, meaning to bring us into adoption as His children.
 

Finally, we are again reminded that it is all God’s doing, all God’s giving and all our being given to. It is God who runs the verbs and so we know we get it right. And so we rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Weeding the Garden - July 19, 2026 - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 11) - Text: Matthew 13:24-30 (36-43)

Last week we heard Jesus tell the parable of the Farmer who sowed his seed on the path, on the rocks, among the thorns and weeds and on good soil. We were also told by Jesus that the meaning of that parable was that He was the one who sows the seed and He still sows the seed today through the proclamation of His Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the means of Grace. Those people who reject the Word of God, either outright or because of the cares and concerns of this world, those people who reject the message of salvation, that Jesus alone is the way to be saved are like the seed sown on the path, on the rocks and among the weeds and thorns. Those people who hear the Word of God, those people who hear the message and are given faith in Jesus alone for salvation are those seeds sown on good soil that produces a crop, a hundred, sixty and thirty times what is sown. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” This week we continue listening to the parables of Jesus as He continues to use the imagery of the sowing of seeds.
 

Our text begins with Jesus telling the parable, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matt. 13:24-30).
 

Our Lectionary System for this morning then takes the liberty to skip past the parable of the mustard seed  in which Jesus reminds us that, although the mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds, the plant that grows from it is so big that the birds of the air can build a nest in it, reminding us that although our faith may begin small, it can grow as we grow and mature in our faith. Also, the parable of the leaven is skipped. This parable reminds us that a little leaven leavens the whole loaf, that is that a little sin causes a great amount of trouble and a little forgiveness also goes a long way. Finally, what our text skips is the fact that Jesus spoke in parables for a purpose, in order that the message of salvation is not wasted on those who refuse and reject it.
 

Finally, after we have skipped these parts, Jesus tells the meaning of the parable. We pick up at verse thirty-six: “Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (36-43).
 

So, just like the parable from last week, Jesus is the one who sows the good seed. Jesus is not the author of evil, nor does He condone it. Jesus gives good gifts and blessings. Jesus comes to give faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Jesus came to save us through the giving of His life for ours. He sows the seeds of His Word and as we were reminded in the Old Testament lesson from last week, that Word which He sows is a Word with power. His Word is a Word which does what it says. As His Word is sown, it will not return void or empty, because it is His Word.
 

On the other hand, the one who sows bad seed is the devil. This one is the one who often times takes his own words and twists them to make them sound like God’s Word, but instead they are words of deception and lies, coming from the devil, the father of lies. The devil would have us believe that there are many ways to the same eternal enlightenment, that is that all religions are valid. The word of the devil is a word with power as well, not the power to save, but the power to condemn.
 

The end result is that on judgement day the fruit of the good seed will be separated from the fruit of the bad seed. The fruit of the good seed will gain eternal life in heaven. The fruit of the bad seed will reap destruction, eternal death in hell with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 

The people to whom Jesus spoke this parable understood what Jesus was saying. And yet, this parable was not spoken only to the people of His day, Jesus speaks this parable to us today. Today God continues to sow good seed through the means of Grace. This parable reminds us of the importance of making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. This parable reminds us of the importance of coming to divine service and Bible class. This parable reminds us of the importance of reading God’s Word on our own and having personal and family devotions. This parable reminds us of the importance of remembering our Baptism, the importance of confessing our sins and hearing those most beautiful words we can ever hear, the words of absolution, that our sins are forgiven, and it reminds us of the importance of coming to the Lord’s Supper to be given His body and blood and the good gifts and blessings He has to give to us.
 

Today we live in a pluralistic society. We live in what is called a tolerant society, even though we know it is intolerant of Christians. We live in a world where there are many religions, cults and sects, where there are many weeds. There are many religions, cults and sects vying for our time and attention. There are many “opportunities” for doing many things, many things except doing the one thing needful as Jesus so pointed to busy Martha. There are many weeds in our world which try to choke our faith in Jesus alone.
 

And, as Jesus told His disciples, so He reminds us, we will live this way until the end. Life will not get any easier. As a matter of fact, if you have been watching the way things have been going in our world, you may have noticed that it is getting harder and harder to be a Christian. It is getting harder because a Christian is one who believes what Jesus says in His Word and that is, that there is no other name, given among men, whereby we must be saved, in other words, there is only one way to eternal life and that is by God’s Grace, through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross alone. Yes, we Christians are intolerant. Think about it like this, if there were any other way to eternal life, why in the world would Jesus go through the pain of suffering and dying for our sins? As I say many times, all the religions of the world, all the cults and sects, can be divided into two categories, those who believe in self for salvation, that is, those who believe that one must do something, that we must be obedient, that we must live a certain way, that their character is what saves them and we, those who believe that we are saved by God’s Grace alone because of something outside of us, namely, because of Jesus’ life, suffering and death for our sins.
 

Thus, we realize that our work until the end of the world is to share the good news of Jesus with others. No this is not explicitly stated in our text, but it is there nonetheless. It is only at the end, it is only at Judgement day that we will see the results of faith and unbelief. And rest assured, we will see the results.
 

So, what? Jesus says, “He who has ears, let him hear.” Yes, there were those in Jesus’ day and there are still those in our world today who hear the Word of God and yet refuse and reject His good gifts and blessings. There are many in our world today who would just as soon go along with the philosophies and ideologies of this world, there are those who would just as soon go along with the ideas of cultural tolerance and pluralism rather than make waves, rather than stand up for what Jesus says, because it is a lot easier. It is very difficult and it is getting even harder for us in our world today to take a stand and to proclaim the difficult truth of what Jesus tells us in His Word, that is that there is only one way and that way is only through faith in Him. And yet, that is what we are to do.
 

So, we are continually reminded of our need to hear the Word of God. We are continually reminded of our need to make regular and diligent use of the means of grace, to read our Bible everyday, to daily remember our Baptism, to come to divine service every Sunday, as well as to come to Bible class and to come to the Lord’s Supper as often as we can so that we might be strengthened in our faith so that we might be able to face the struggles and accusations of this world.
 

“He who has ears, let him hear.” “We hear,” when the Word of God is proclaimed in its truth and purity and when we believe that Word of God. But faith is not simply something in our mind, it is what we do. We hear when we act, that is when we live lives of faith. We hear when we believe and trust in Jesus alone for our forgiveness and our salvation and when we live our lives in such a way that we are not apathetic, but are boldly proclaiming our faith in Jesus alone, no matter what the cost, because we imply cannot help but do so.
 

You know, it is fascinating that even though we are hearing Jesus’ Words some 2000 years after He first spoke them, the world has not changed very much. Jesus’ Word is still being sown as the Word of God, it is rightly proclaimed and taught in its truth and purity and the devil, the enemy is still sowing weeds as the Word of God is mis-proclaimed, twisted and outright thrown out, and as other weeds of other religions, cults and sects are sown. And we will go on living this way until the end, until the day of Judgement, when God will sort out the wheat from the chaff, when the chaff, when those who believe in something or someone other than Jesus alone for salvation will be cast into the fires of eternal death and that will happen.
 

For us, Christians, the good news, the greatest news is that when we, those of us who believe in Jesus alone are gathered before the Lord’s throne, we will be robed with Jesus’ robes of righteousness. It all begins and ends with Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the one who created us to love us. Jesus is the one who loved us so much that He gave up the glory of heaven in order to take on flesh and blood. Jesus is the one who lived for us, perfectly. Jesus is the one who fulfilled all the law and prophecies of the Old Testament, for us. Jesus is the one who paid the price for our sins, suffering eternal death and hell on the cross for us. Jesus died for us. Jesus rose for us. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to give us faith. At our Baptism Jesus gives us faith. Through our hearing God’s Word, through our confession and absolution, through our participation in the Lord’s Supper we are given faith, strengthening of faith, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Jesus works in us to do the good works He has for us to do. Jesus does it all and in the end, He will gather us with all the saints and we will give praise and glory to Jesus alone. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ - July 12, 2026 - Sixth Sunday after Trinity - Text: Romans 6:1-11

Interestingly enough, this text from Romans is the Epistle reading for the Baptism of our Lord in the three year lectionary series. And this morning we find this text sandwiched between the Old Testament text of the Ten Commandments, God giving Moses the Moral Law, and the Gospel reading of Jesus telling us that He came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill the Law, whatever that means.
 

To set the stage for our text for this morning, we want to make note that Paul’s words in our text come after his explanation of justification, that is that we do not justify ourselves, we do not  make ourselves right before God, especially by anything we should think we do, but we are made right before God by grace, through faith. Again, we are made right, we are passively made right, even apart from anything we do. Now we move to our text.
 

Paul’s question is, “Does Grace give license to sin?” We begin at verse one, “1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 1-4). Our human thinking and logic is that more sin means more forgiveness means more grace, so in order to help grace abound we should sin more. And I guess, according our human, tainted by sin logic, that would be the logical conclusion. And we might add that this is the way of the law and of law thinking, which, again, is the way we, as sinful human beings, tend to think.
 

The fallacy of our law logic is that we have forgotten the gospel. We have forgotten that faith means one does not want to sin. Perhaps we have forgotten that when we live according to the law the temptation to sin is even greater. We all know how it is, when we are told not to do something the temptation to sin is greatest. “Don’t eat the cookies you will spoil your dinner.” “Oh, I have got to have one of those cookies.” However, to live according to the Gospel frees us from temptation. The Gospel reminds us that we are already forgiven. We are forgiven because Jesus paid the price for our sins, He died for our sins. Because we are forgiven, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will want to not sin.
 

As Paul puts it, death causes one to no longer be susceptible to temptation, in other words, being tied to Jesus’ death means one is no longer susceptible to the stimuli of temptation. Certainly temptations will continue to come, but being reminded that our sin caused Jesus to die, the Holy Spirit stirs in us to resist temptation and sin.
 

But Paul is not finished, he continues, “5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin” (v. 5-7). Paul reminds us of the importance of Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is not simply a ritual. It is not an act of obedience, that would be pointing to us as if it were something we are doing. Holy Baptism is a sacrament, a sacred act, instituted by God and connected with His Word which ties us with Jesus. Paul says we have been united with Jesus. The word united literally means we have been planted with Jesus. When a seed is planted in the ground it dies and then comes to life. Likewise, through Holy Baptism, our old nature is drowned, is killed and we arise as new creatures.
 

In this uniting with Christ, His life is our life. Here we are reminded that this understanding is the fullness of the Gospel, not simply that Jesus died for us, but that He lived for us. God’s demand is that we are perfect and we fail at being perfect. We fail miserably at being perfect, and it is getting worse. You know, I believe one of Satan’s greatest victories today is that our churches are beginning to look like the rest of the world. Instead of the Christian community shaping our society, too often our society is shaping our Christian community. Have you noticed that what was taboo and illegal in our society a few years ago is now legal and even encouraged. The same can be said for what was taboo and prohibited in our churches. Things that would not be thought of years ago as being allowed in church are now hailed as meet, right and salutary, and anyone who opposes such is called intolerant, a bigot and mean spirited. You may recall that this hatred is indeed what happened to Jesus during His earthly life as He called all people to repent. The fact that Jesus’ life becomes our life through our being united with Him in Holy Baptism first and foremost gives us confidence in our forgiveness and salvation and it also gives us courage to stand up and, at least according to our society, be intolerant, bigoted and mean spirited.
 

Not only has Jesus’ life become our life, by faith in Him His death is our death. Remembering the fact that if we are born once (physical birth only) we die twice (physical death and eternal death), but if we are born twice (one’s physical birth and Holy Baptism) we only die once (physical death), we rejoice that Jesus has suffered eternal death and hell for us in our place so that we will only suffer physical death, we will only fall asleep in the Lord. By His death Jesus has paid the price for our sins.
 

And finally, Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection. Because Jesus rose again we know that death and the grave have no power over us, we know that we too will rise again. Thus, the fulness of the Gospel is that Jesus has taken care of everything for us in His life, death and resurrection and He offers everything free to us.
 

But Paul is still not done. He goes us to remind us that we need not fear. “8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 8-11). At Christmas we celebrate Jesus birth. Then we move ahead and we celebrate His baptism and the beginning of His earthly ministry. Then we enter the season of Lent which begins our trek to the cross on Good Friday. On the cross Jesus defeated death. Not only did He defeat death, but He rose from the dead.
 

The reason Jesus was born was to give His life as a ransom for all. As our substitute, His death was once and for all, in other words, it never needs repeating. So, because He died, because we are united with Him in His death, we no longer need to fear death. For us, the only death we may face is a falling asleep in faith, a passing on from this world into heaven.
 

Again, Jesus’ defeat of death and our connection to Him means we never need to fear death. By faith in Jesus we are not subject to the second death, eternal death and hell, because that is the death He faced and defeated for us.
 

What does this mean? Paul’s words remind us that Jesus took care of our sin. That Jesus took care of our sin does not give us a license to sin. That Jesus took care of our sin does not gives us a license to emulate the world. Yes, there are a lot of things that are legal in our country today, things that were not legal years ago, and for good reason. Just because something is legal does not mean it is good or not sin. And just because we know we are forgiven does not give us encouragement to go out and sin either. As a matter of fact, the fact that we are forgiven is what gives us the encouragement to not sin.
 

Temptations do abound in our world today. In times of temptation we fall back on our faith in Jesus who helps us especially during times of temptation. As we are reminded of Jesus’ baptism we might also be reminded that right after His baptism He was lead into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days and yet during those forty days He never sinned. And as He has suffered all the temptations we might suffer and even greater temptations, and never sinned, so we know that He is with us to help us to fight against temptation and sin as well.
 

But getting back to Jesus’ words in the Gospel, that He came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. What does He mean? As Lutheran Christians we believe the authority and power of the external Word of God, the external Word of God which does what it says and gives the gifts it says it gives. We believe God’s Word and the Word of Jesus who completely fulfilled all the Words, Laws, demands, and promises of God and who gives that fulfillment to us so that the Law is no longer demanding. Rather, our desire as children of God is to strive, with only the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit working lives of faith in and through us. We desire to live as priests in the priesthood of all believers, being living sacrifices in our vocations, and serving God by serving others. We are no longer under the Law, but we willingly obey the Law as a response of faith as God works good works in and through us. Again, we always get it right when we point to Jesus.
 

Thus, it is most certainly true that Christ has fulfilled the Law and not abolished it. He has completely and utterly fulfilled all the demands of the Law, and He freely gives us His fulfilled life so that we are no longer under the demands of the Law. He has not abolished the Law because the Law continues to serve the purpose of pointing out sin so that the Gospel of sins forgiven might move all to repent and be given forgiveness.
 

This morning then, we are reminded that Jesus gives gifts. Jesus gives faith and forgiveness. Jesus gives these gifts through means, namely through the means of grace. He gives faith through His Word, the Bible as well as through Holy Baptism. He gives forgiveness through these means as well and through Holy Absolution and through His Holy Supper.
 

And Jesus gives life and salvation, again, through His means of grace. What a great God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have.
 

Unfortunately the fact remains that we do continue to sin, that is our nature. We sin and then we come up with excuses, or exceptions as to why our sin is valid. Paul’s words to us this morning remind us of the good news, the Gospel, that through our baptism, through faith given to us, we are united with Jesus so that our sins have been taken care of, so that we do not need to be afraid of the consequences of our sins, eternal death and hell, but instead we may be confident that we are forgiven and that we have life, even eternal life. It is this good news, this Gospel that encourages us to live God pleasing lives. And even when we fail, which we do daily, even when we backslide, which we do weekly, there is still forgiveness. As always then, we are pointed to Jesus who does all and gives all. To Him be all the glory. For His names sake. Amen.