Steps of Action - September 6, 2026 - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 18) - Text: Matthew 18:1-20

Last week our Gospel reading had us sitting in and listening as Jesus laid out for His disciples what it meant that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. In other words, Jesus began to explain to His disciples that being the Messiah, the Savior of the world meant being mocked, ridiculed, persecuted, even suffering and dying on the cross, however, the cross and the grave would have no hold over Him, because on the third day He would rise again. This morning we skip a few verses to where Jesus speaks to us concerning how we are to treat each other as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, that is in the Holy Christian Church.
 

We live in a world which likes to quote or rather misquote the Bible. How often do we hear someone say something like, “My god is not like that,” and then they go on to describe, not the God of the Bible, which is what they are implying that they are describing, but they go on to describe, what I call their own, “god in a box,” which they have created. But, let us go back in time a little. I have to begin in the sixties, because that is where my memories begin. Some of you can remember further back and I think you may have similar memories. Anyway, I remember the so called sexual revolution of the sixties and the outcry that came when anyone suggested that what was happening was not right. The outcry was a misquote of the Bible, something like, “Well, the Bible says you are not supposed to judge other people.” The meaning of that misquote was to suggest that anyone can do anything they want, and it was often added, “as long as they are not hurting anyone else,” and we should approve, otherwise we are accused of judging. Today the outcry is one of, “Well, we should be tolerant of other people,” and with that phrase we imply, once again, that we should not say anything bad about anyone or anything they do, and again, “as long as they are not hurting anyone else,” only approve, otherwise we are accused of being intolerant. And let me take that one step further. If you listen carefully, you will notice that the world is to be tolerant of everyone except those of us who have a different view of the world, or to be more blunt, the world is to be tolerant to everyone except true Christians who understand that there is a right and a wrong, a good and a bad. And we might add, and we know that God does not tolerate sin.
 

But, what does the Bible really say? The Bible really does say to not judge other people, but it also says we are our brothers keeper, we are to recognize sin, and the Bible even gives us ways to recognize sin, such as the ten commandments. Even our Old Testament reading for today tells us that we are to warn the wicked, that is sinners of their sin, lest we become responsible for their failure to repent. The problem is that in an attempt to get by with “doing as we please” in the name of the Bible, we have put up a false definition of “judging” and “being tolerant.” To judge someone according to the Bible is to say that they are “damned to hell.” That is what we are not to do, but we are to recognize sin and call it what it is, sin. Think about it this way. Is it more loving to let someone go on sinning and doing something that is not good for them or others, such as abusing alcohol or drugs, or is it more loving to confront them with their destructive behavior? Is it judging a person to call into question their self-destructive behavior? The Bible says “no.” The Bible also says that we are to be tolerant of others, but not at the expense of breaking the loving commandments which are given to us by God. When we sin, God is not tolerant of us, so when others sin, we are not to be tolerant of them. So, how do we go about, not judging, but calling one to account for their actions? That is what Jesus lays out for us today.
 

Step one, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother”(Matthew 18:15). The first thing we are to do is not go tell everyone else, but go to our brother, or sister, who has sinned against us, or against whom we have sinned, or just to the one to whom we have seen sin, just the two of us. This step is not a time to judge, “you are going to hell if you do not repent and mend your ways,” rather this is a time to simply share our love and concern for that person and help them to see what they have done or are doing wrong according to what God tells us. This step might even begin with an acknowledgment of our own sin. If our brother or sister repents, we have won them over. We rejoice and pray a prayer of thanks. We do not tell anyone else of the incident, it is over.
 

If our brother or sister does not repent, we are to keep trying. Interestingly enough, most of the time when we hear this passage of the Bible we hear something like, “do step one and if that does not work, move on to step two.” Actually, what we are to do is to do step one and continue to do step one until we are totally convinced that step one is not working and is not going to work. In other words, do step one and if it does not work the first time, do it again. The goal is to get our brother or sister to see their sin, not to advertise their sin, not to judge, but to gently get them to see their sin. Before we move to step two we are to exhaust step one.
 

Step two, “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses’”(Matthew 18:16). Step two is to take a witness, another friend. This step still requires not to make this sin a public spectacle, but to show our friend and help our friend to understand our sincerity and the severity of their sin. Again, our brother or sister is to be approached in love, gently and with kind words, in other words, we go and speak to them recognizing our own sin and imperfection as well. And again, if he or she repents, it all stops, no one else needs to know, the matter is dropped.
 

And again, if he or she does not repent, we do not go directly to step three, instead we do step two over again. We continue to do step two, over and over again, we and our friend, until either our friend repents, or we believe we have exhausted the whole situation.
 

Step three, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17). At step three, and only at step three do we take it to the church. But even here, this step is not something which becomes a smear campaign. This person’s sin is shared only with the church, the members of the congregation and this sharing is done in the utmost of confidence with the best construction put on everything, as much as possible. If we win the brother or sister over, if they acknowledge and repent, then there is forgiveness and the matter is dropped.
 

And again this step is not something which is done once, but this process is repeated until either the person repents, or there is no resolve. If, and only if, there is no resolve, then we move on to the final step which is excommunication. And again, the whole point in this exercise is to win the brother or sister over to repentance and forgiveness.
 

After He outlines these steps, Jesus again reiterates the giving of the office of the keys, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:18-20).
 

The office of the keys is judging, so that whatever is not forgiven on earth will not be forgiven in heaven. And, whatever is forgiven on earth will be forgiven in heaven. As a church we have the duty, the right, the privilege, the obligation, and the responsibility to lovingly recognize sin, to call it sin, to confront sin and to seek ways of winning the sinner over to Christ and forgiveness. We have the awesome responsibility to say, “you have sinned and unless you repent, you will remain in sin and your soul is in peril.” Not because that is something we say, but because that is what God says, that is what the Bible says, that is how we are to love others. What we are talking about is not judging and intolerance, rather that is love and care. The other option, which is the option that is truly judging and intolerance, is to let them go on sinning and let them die and go to hell. And again as I mentioned earlier, we are warned against this tolerance of sin in our Old Testament Reading for today. We could let our drug addict friend go on doing drugs and they will kill themselves. How much greater is our need to confront someone with sin because sin has to do, not so much with physical death, but with spiritual life and death even eternal death and hell. And yes, God is a just God, lest we forget this fact.
 

The goal of Christian discipline, of confronting our brother or sister with their sins, is to win the sinner, to get them to repent so that they might hear those most precious words, “Your sins are forgiven.” The most loving thing we can do is to not be tolerant of sin, to not let our family and friends go on doing the things that are harmful to them, but to lovingly confront them so that they might repent. If you had charge of a child who liked to run out into the busy street to play, would the most loving thing be to let your child do as he wished, or to discipline them so that they would not harm themselves? And, just as little children do not like to be disciplined and just as it is difficult as a mother or father or guardian to discipline, because it does not “feel” good to do so, so it is even harder when it comes to doing the things of God.
 

Jesus’ final words are a reminder of what is the church. The church is “where two or three are gathered together in His name.” We are the church. We have the duty, the responsibility, the privilege to rightly preach the Gospel in all its truth and purity and here I am speaking of the Gospel in its broad meaning, that is proclaiming what is sin and proclaiming what is forgiveness. We have the duty, the responsibility, the privilege to rightly administer the sacraments. And we have the duty, the responsibility to rightly say, “your sins are not forgiven” and unless you repent and change your ways, your sins will remain unforgiven. And when there is repentance, when there is a change of behavior, when there is faith given through the means of grace, we have the privilege and joy to say, “your sins are forgiven” and go out and sin no more.
 

Today we are reminded that there is a right and a wrong. We live in a world, even in a country which is so intent on tolerance that it often refuses to make any distinction between right and wrong, or for that matter between religions, whether one is more valid than another. As Christians, as believers in Jesus, as followers of His Word, we are reminded this morning, by our text, by Jesus Himself, that there is a right and a wrong, that there is only one way to eternal life as Jesus Himself tells us that He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that there is no other way to eternal life than through faith in Him and in His death and resurrection for us. How much more is it important that we first remain true to the Word of God, that is that we ground our faith and our lives in His Word, and I do not mean in our own understanding or misunderstanding of His Word, but in His Word whether we like that word or not, and that we ground our lives in His Word, living our lives according to the way that He would have us to live. Our text for this morning reminds us of the importance of caring for one another, which flows out of the fact that God first cares for us, because, yes, we are our brothers and sisters keepers.
 

Again I am reminded of the fact that we get it right and we know we get it right when we get our focus right. When our focus is on ourselves, we get it wrong. When our focus is on Jesus and His cross we know we get it right. May the Lord guard, guide and direct us so that we might always focus on Him. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

He must Be Killed - August 30, 2026 - Pentecost 14(Proper 17) - Text: Matthew 16:21-28

I hope you noticed that our Gospel reading for this morning comes right after our Gospel reading for last week. Last week we were with Jesus and His disciples as Jesus questioned His disciples concerning who others thought He was and who they thought He was. You might remember that Peter’s confession and the disciples confession was that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus then went on to give His disciples the keys to the Kingdom of heaven and to state that His Church, the Holy Christian Church, the body of believers is built on Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah. Our “What does this mean?” of last week was that by faith in Jesus, that is, as we confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, we too are a part of the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints and we too have the keys to the Kingdom of heaven which gives us the authority to tell others about Jesus as well as to announce forgiveness earned by Jesus to others.
 

Our text for this morning continues from last week by saying, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (v. 21). Now remember, Peter and the disciples had just confessed that they believed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I am sure that Jesus is thinking that the disciples understand His mission and so He begins laying out the master plan in more detail.
 

The reason Jesus came to earth was to be our substitute, to suffer the punishment for our sins, the eternal death penalty of hell, to give His life for ours. He did not come to invest Himself in this world. He did not come to write a book nor to earn a wage in order to build a financial empire. He came humbly. He was born in poverty. He lived perfectly for us, in our place, because we cannot. He obeyed all of God’s laws perfectly. He fulfilled all of God’s promises, all His prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, perfectly. He took all our sins upon Himself and the sins of all people so that we might be given forgiveness through the payment of the price for sin which was His death. These details are what He is now laying out for His disciples. He wants to make sure that they understand what it means that He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
 

“And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (v. 22). Peter does not like what Jesus is saying. He does not like all this talk about suffering and death. This suffering and death talk does not fit into Peter’s idea of what it means that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This lack of understanding should not surprise us, because we do not like to talk about death either, and as you may have noticed, neither do the TV preachers and so called “evangelicals” of today. Certainly we do not like to talk about the death of someone who is very close to us, a loved one perhaps and especially, a young loved one. And certainly that would not fit into our understanding of messiahship either. If we take a close look at the “Messiahs” that have come and gone in this world, we notice that they are not the Messiah as presented in Holy Scriptures. I believe that one of the reasons Peter, TV evangelists, evangelicals, and we do not like this death and dying talk, especially when it comes from Jesus, is the implication of such talk. The implication of such death and dying talk is that we are sinners who are, left in our sins, destined to eternal death and hell, and unless the price, the price of life, is paid, we have no hope. Thus, to recognize that Jesus had to suffer and die for us is to recognize and to confess the gravity of our true sinful nature. And we do not like that, it is not good for our self-esteem.
 

And so Jesus rebukes Peter, “But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (v. 23). Jesus knew the reason He came to earth. He knew the task that was ahead of Him. He had already been tempted by the devil himself to try a different way of “saving” the people. Now, here, one of His own disciples was tempting Him to try a different way. It is only Jesus’ death that will save all people. His death for our death. His life for our life. Thus, Jesus’ death would go contrary to the devils plan and so the devil will use whatever means necessary, even working through one of Jesus’ own disciples to stop Jesus’ plans to save the world. And so, Jesus calls Peter, Satan.
 

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?” (vs. 24-26).
 

The question that comes out of Jesus’ words to His disciples is the rhetorical question of, “What is discipleship?” “What does it mean to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus?” Jesus answers that question by saying that a follower of Jesus is one who denies him or herself. A follower of Jesus is one who takes up his or her cross. And I do not believe that He is talking about the crosses we put on ourselves. When we put ourselves in the position to be tempted to sin, that is not a cross which is put on us because of our faith. That is a self inflicted cross. In other words, and you have seen this scenario in movies and commercials on television and in real life, when someone has an addiction of one kind or another and still puts themselves in the position to be tempted with the excuse, “I can handle it.” That is a self inflicted cross. We would all probably relate the most to this self inflicted temptation when we go to an all you can eat smorgasbord and think that we will not over do it. Yes, we often forget that gluttony is a sin, just as stealing, killing and the like. Anyway, these things are not the crosses and self-denial of which Jesus is speaking.
 

When Jesus says to deny ourselves and take up our cross, He is speaking about living our faith even if it means being made fun of at work or leisure. He is speaking about not joining in, but walking away from the group that is telling the “off color” joke at the office coffee pot or around the office water cooler. He is speaking about walking away and not joining in the group that is “bashing” the boss or the new employee, or the person everyone loves to “hate,” or even a member of our own congregation. He is speaking about living your life in such a way that others notice that you are different, really different, not different like everyone else.
 

Jesus tells us that we are to lose our life in this world in order to save our life in heaven. It is a matter of investment. Do we invest all our time and energies in this world, or do we invest them in the world to come? Do we live as if we have plenty of time (like the rich man who built bigger and better barns and said to himself, “today, I will eat, drink and be merry and tomorrow I will worry about my soul” and that very night his soul was required of him), or do we live as if today might be our last day on this earth? If you knew that today would be your last day on earth, would you do anything different? Would you live any different? And if you would, then why are you not? After all you do not know when you will die. Your birth certificate does not have an expiration date on it. There are so many things vying for our attention in this world, important things no less, but the question we need to ask is this, “What is more important? Our 50, 60, 80 or 100 years in this world, or our forever eternity in heaven?”
 

You know, the devil is a smart guy. He does not tempt you to do something he knows you will not do. Not too long ago, the things of this world were scheduled around church activities. Today church activities are discounted to being just one of many options of which to be a part. Sunday morning rolls around and, to use the language of our world today, we have the “choice” of going to the beach, after all it is a beautiful day. Or we can go on a picnic. Or we can take our child to the school sponsored athletic event. Or we can sleep in. Or we can go shopping. Or we can go hunting, or golfing. Or, we can first go to church and be given the gifts the Lord has to give in the Divine Service, go to Bible Study and be in discussion and fellowship with other Christians, and then do these other things. What we choose to do we choose according to what is most important to us, our true priorities, our life in this world, or our life in the world to come. What we choose we choose according to the leading of the Holy Spirit or according to the leading of the devil. And yes, we acknowledge that we are all here this morning, but we have this struggle going on every week.
 

How do we lose our life in this world? We lose our life in this world by denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Jesus. And yes, this is a hard thing. Jesus did not say it would be easy. Denying oneself is never an easy thing. The question we might ask, instead of “Is this easy?” is “What is the result?” The result, according to Jesus, is life, even eternal life! Remember, the very reason Jesus came to earth was to deny Himself, take up His cross, suffer and die so that we might have forgiveness. With Jesus, even when we put other things in this world ahead of Him, there is still forgiveness, because that is what He came to earn for us.
 

We might boil our text down to this question, “What is the worth of a soul?” or “How much does life cost?” To Jesus, the worth of a soul is His own life. We are constantly reminded, as we should be, that the wages of sin is death, eternal death and hell. Our sins have earned and continue to earn the eternal death penalty of hell for us. And yet, that is not what we are given. By God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, we are given forgiveness and life, eternal life.

“What can a man give in exchange for his soul?” What is the value of our soul? We answer that question with the way we live our lives. Self-denial is not an easy thing. It does not come naturally. It is the difference between valuing the things of this world or the things of heaven. I am told that the way to catch a monkey is to find a hole in a tree. To drive nails into the hole so that you can put your hand in the hole, but if you make a fist you cannot pull it out because it will be caught by the nails. If you then place something shiny in the hole, a monkey will put in its hand, grab the shiny thing and will be caught. The monkey could easily escape if he would let go of the shiny thing and pull out his hand. But the monkey will not let go. Too often it would appear that we are like the monkey. We see the shiny things of this world. We take hold of them and we refuse to let them go. Whereas, if we would just let them go, we would be free. We tend to grab hold of the things of this world thinking that these things will give us freedom and happiness, but all the while they only bring us pain and suffering like the nails in the hole. When, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we let go of the things of this world we have true freedom and happiness.

Our “What does this mean?” of our text for today is that Jesus came for us. He came to live for us, perfectly because we cannot be perfect. He came to obey all God’s laws perfectly for us because we cannot. He came to fulfill all God’s promises and prophecies concerning Himself as the Messiah. He came to take all our sins upon Himself. He came to give His life for ours. Jesus’ suffering and death earned forgiveness for us. God gives us all His good gifts and blessings by His grace, through faith in His Son, which He gives to us as well. And He stirs in us to live our lives in such a way, that with His help, they say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

You Have Great Faith - August 16, 2026 - Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15) - Text: Matthew 15:21-28

Last week Jesus showed Himself to us again as truly human and truly divine, that is that He is true man and true God, or another way of saying this fact is that He is God in flesh. Last week we were again reminded of the importance of Jesus being God in flesh, that is, that Jesus is truly human so that He might be our substitute and that He is truly God so that He might be born sinless, perfect and holy and so that He might be able to overcome sin, death and the power of the devil. Our text for this week moves us past Jesus’ explanation to His disciples that what makes a person unclean is what is in a person’s heart, not what a person eats. Our text for this morning focuses our attention on the reason Jesus came to earth.
 

We have all been raised to believe that God answers prayer with “yes,” “no,” or “wait.” We have been told that when we pray we are to believe what we pray. And we have been taught by Jesus Himself to be persistent in our prayers. In our Bible reading for this morning it would appear that our learning is still missing one element, that element of, “What do we do when Jesus ignores our prayers and when He even suggests that we are not worthy to be listened to?” Well, that is how this lesson seems to play out.
 

Jesus had been discussing with His disciples what makes a person clean or unclean, that is, spiritually clean or spiritually unclean. It is not what you eat that makes you clean or unclean, because what you eat simply passes through your body. What makes you clean or unclean, in God’s eyes, is what comes out of your heart, either faith or unbelief. Moving on in our text, leaving from that place and that discussion, our text says that Jesus withdrew privately to go to a place near the region of Tyre and Sidon. Here, again, we see Jesus as a human in need of some time alone for rest and relaxation, for reflection and time for strengthening through prayer with His Father in heaven. As He comes near to this place, this Gentile town, He is met by a Canaanite woman. Matthew makes sure that we understand that this is not a Jewish woman, but a Gentile woman, a foreigner, because that fact is an important fact to know, because we know how Jews, good Jews, good practicing Jews, are not allowed to associate or even speak with foreigners. Anyway, this foreigner, and a woman at that, comes crying out, yelling and hollering to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon” (v. 22). Her’s is not a cry for self pity or for self help. Her’s is a painful cry of a loving mother for her daughter.
 

We know what it is like when one of our children is sick and we pray and expect God to hear our prayers and to answer them. We do not come to Him expecting Him to turn away or even to turn a deaf ear. What kind of a God would we be worshiping if we believed He would turn away? Yes, Jesus is Jewish and the woman in our lesson is a Gentile or we might imagine even worse, a Samaritan, but we would certainly think that Jesus, who is God, who is love, who came to save the world, would make an exception and have mercy on her. Certainly, if anyone would listen to her and help her it would be Jesus, at least that is what we think and I believe what she thinks. But . . .  “[Jesus] did not answer a word” (v. 23a). Can you believe it? Jesus, loving God, loving Savior, cold heartedly does not answer her, not even a word. It just does not make sense, not to us and not to this Canaanite woman. And it was not just Jesus alone who turned away from her, it was His disciples as well, but we might expect that from His disciples. Remember these are the same disciples who turned children away from Jesus as well. However, this woman would not take “no” for an answer and instead continued to hound Jesus and His disciples. “[So] his disciples came and begged him saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us’” (v. 23b). It is really rather embarrassing.
 

I do not know about you, but I never really looked at this text in this way. It does not look so good for Jesus. We are raised to see Him as kind and loving. We are told that He is our best friend. We are told that He always answers our prayers. We are told that He came to save all people, but here we have it, right here in the pages of the Bible, right here in black and white. Jesus is refusing service, even refusing to speak to this foreigner. Certainly we must be mistaken. Certainly He has to listen and answer her.
 

And yet, we seem to be confirmed in our suspicions, that Jesus is cold hearted when “He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’” (v. 24).
 

Well what does that mean? I thought Jesus was sent to save all people of all places of all times. What does He mean, “only”? What does He mean, “lost sheep”? What does He mean, “Israel”? Can things get any worse? Today we would approach Jesus and we might cry out, “But I am an American. I am a Texan. I am entitled to Your hearing me.” Or even, “But I am a Lutheran.” “You have to listen to me.”
 

It is obvious that the woman either did not believe Jesus, that He was cold hearted and uncaring, or she did not believe the words He spoke, or maybe she had a different understanding than we seem to be getting from the reading. We are told that she came and knelt before him. Actually she fell prostrate, that is she fell with her face to the ground, in the dirt, before Him, a true act of submission and she said, “Lord, help me!” She recognized her unworthiness, that she was not worthy to have Him listen to her or answer her prayer, yet, she comes to Him anyway. And this time she finally gets a reaction. This time Jesus turns and speaks to her, but He still seems to be pretty cold hearted. He says, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (v. 26).
 

Let me say that it is true, Jesus did come only for the lost sheep of Israel. That was His primary purpose, His first reason for coming to earth, to save the lost sheep of Israel. But now it seems worse. Jesus stoops to calling her a dog. She is one who falls into the spiritually unclean group. It is as if everything is against her. Well, maybe we can pull some shred of decency out of this text because the type of dog of which Jesus was speaking was at least a house pet. So the woman has now moved from being ignored to being a house pet.
 

And just as you and I would not give up when praying for our sick child, so she does not give up. She searches for and finds some bit of hope in Jesus’ words. She clings to that hope and turns His words back to Him. “She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly” (v. 27, 28a).
 

This word of Scripture falls between Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand and His feeding of the four thousand. The feeding of the five thousand with the twelve baskets left over is considered God’s providing for the children of Israel, the twelve tribes. The feeding of the four thousand and the seven baskets of leftovers is considered God’s providing for the Gentiles. And in between these two miraculous feedings we have this account with this Gentile woman. This Canaanite woman is not a part of the lost sheep of Israel. She is merely a Gentile who happened to be at the right place at the right time, the place where Jesus is, the place where he brings faith and where faith brings life.
 

Faith is possible among others, even those we might not see or think. We cannot look into the hearts of others, only God can. Faith is not dependent on birth, on ethnic origin, on culture or even on us, but faith is possible only with Christ. Jesus is drawing the faith, which He has given to her, out in this woman. He alone draws faith, which He gives to us, out of us.
 

Jesus was sent only to save the lost sheep of Israel, that was His main goal and objective. The woman had no right to come begging for help. In a very real way, we are very much like the Gentile woman. We are sinful human beings, conceived and born in sin, daily sinning much, and we have no right coming to Jesus to ask for anything. Martin Luther goes so far as to say that we are sinful worms. And his dying words were, “We are beggars, it is true.” Thanks be to God that not only is He a just God who condemns sins, but He is also a merciful God, a God of love who sent His Son to save the world.
 

What does all this mean? Our Old Testament Lesson for today reminds us of the Lord’s promise to us foreigners, us Gentiles, that by faith in Jesus, we too will have a part in His kingdom. It is not something to which we are entitled, it is a gift from God. Isaiah reminds us that it is “the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel” (v. 8a) and He “declares, ‘I will gather yet others [to him] besides those already gathered” (v. 8b). In other words, Jesus did come to save all people, you and I included. What this means is that Jesus did come to save you and me.
 

In our Epistle lesson for today Paul shows us the ultimate conclusion of Jesus coming to earth, that is that Jesus, who came only for Israel, was rejected by Israel. Their rejection opened up the kingdom of heaven for all believers. Thus, by faith, the Gentile woman is a part of the lost sheep of Israel. Thus, by faith, we, you and I, are a part of the lost sheep of Israel. So it is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus, faith given to us through the means of grace, either at our Baptism as a baby or through the means of the Word of God as an adult, it is by this faith that we have a part in God’s kingdom. Jesus is not the bad guy He seems to be portrayed as in this reading. He did come to seek and to save the lost. He did come to give His life to save all people of all places of all times. He did come to give His life, to suffer the eternal death penalty of hell, the cost, the wage, the price for our sin, for us. He came to give us faith to believe in Him and to share in His glory in heaven. The Good News of our text is that we have great faith because Jesus gives us that great faith which clings to Him, who forgives us, who gives us life, even eternal life and He stirs in our hearts the joy to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Concerning Spiritual Gifts - August 9, 2026 - Tenth Sunday after Trinity - Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Concerning spiritual gifts, that topic we really do not like to talk about, especially as we think we know about our Pentecostal friends, you know, they will tell you that you are not saved unless you speak in tongues. So, as to not be like the Pentecostal’s, we simply refrain from any spiritual gifts talk. But what about spiritual gifts? What does God say? Perhaps if we actually read what God says about spiritual gifts we might then be more willing to actually talk about spiritual gifts and the good gifts God gives to us.
 

Now, getting to our text for this morning. Paul speaks to us concerning spiritual gifts. And we might say, “Praise the Lord for Paul’s words,” as there are many in our world who get confused about such gifts. Paul begins by pointing us where we need to be pointed. He begins by speaking of the gift Giver. It all begins with God. God is the active party giving the gifts He has to give. God gives and we are given too, especially concerning what we call these spiritual gifts. Paul begins by speaking of the gift of faith. We begin at verse one, “1Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit” (v. 1-3).
 

Paul’s words here remind us that faith is a gift from God. Faith is not something we get or do on our own. Faith is not our cooperating with God, nor is it making a decision for God, nor saying the “Believer’s Prayer.” Notice Paul’s words. First, he tells us that noone who is a Christian can curse Jesus. Notice the flow: no one speaking in the Spirit of God is a reference to us Christians, because the Spirit of God is not in a non-Christian, as they are the ones who refuse and reject the Spirit of God, thus they are non-Christians. So, only a non-Christian, one who refuses and rejects God can curse God.
 

On the other hand, no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. These are God’s Words through Paul. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, one cannot choose Jesus. Thus, we rightly understand that faith is a gift from God and lack of faith is the fault of one refusing the gifts. If we are saved, God gets the credit. If we are condemned, it is our own fault. And so we see the importance of baptism, and we see God’s work especially when we baptize an infant, they are not choosing Jesus, but being passively brought, and having Jesus chose them. Jesus puts His name on us at our baptism as the water and the words spoken by the Lord’s instrument, the pastor, are put on us. As a pastor, all I am in a baptism is an instrument. When we witness a baptism we see the Holy Spirit of God doing the doing, putting faith in the heart of the one being baptized, giving that person forgiveness and writing their name in the book of Life. It is all God’s doing.
 

And why does God give faith? Paul continues by explaining the gifts and works of the Holy Spirit. We pick up at verse four, “4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (v. 4-11).
 

Here in this text Paul mentions a variety of gifts including wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, as well as the ability to speak and interpret tongues. In his other epistles Paul mentions a variety of other spiritual gifts so I do not believe Paul is ever attempting to make a catalogue of gifts. One thing is certain, these are gifts that are given only to Christians, only by the Holy Spirit, and only for the purpose of service to the Lord in His Kingdom. The main purpose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for the Church as a whole and not for anyone’s special interest or usage. Notice, the focus is still on God, the gift giver, not us, the ones being given the gifts.
 

So, we must understand what the gifts are not. The gifts are not necessarily individually given nor discerned. In other words, Paul does not specify that each Christian will receive any one specific gift. A few years back, and I would suppose it goes on even today, there were “spiritual gifts inventories” that a person would fill out in order to discover one’s own spiritual gift. One of the problems with this misunderstanding of the gifts God gives is that this can be misleading. People can be “tested” and find they have gifts they do not really have, because God has not given them such gifts, such as a woman discovering she has the gift of being a pastor. Although the Lord can do whatever He wants to do, the evidence is that some of these gifts has faded as we have moved past their purpose in the first century. In other words, although the Lord gave the apostles gifts of healing, speaking in tongues and the like, in order to attest to their authority, as that generation passed on, so did the gifts and the use of such gifts because they were and are no longer necessary.
 

Today, the Holy Spirit continues to give gifts. The gifts He gives He gives through the means of Grace. And He gives these gifts for the purpose of strengthening His people, extending His Kingdom here in this place, and for the praise and glory of His Holy Name. Any use of these gifts beyond this usage is indeed a misuse and is not from God. In other words, any misuse for personal gain, power, fame or privilege is not from God. Yes, I am speaking of such usage as we might see in particular among TV evangelists, faith healers and the like, as if what they are doing is in fact real.
 

So, what does this mean? What is Paul telling us this morning? First, Paul is reminding us of the bondage of our will. We may think we have free will and we do, but the free will we have is completely tainted by sin. According to our free will all we do and all we want to do is sin. Even as Moses writes, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Paul puts it this way, we cannot say “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
 

On the other hand, we do have an indication of one’s salvation. Paul’s words remind us that when the Holy Spirit gives faith, He also gives spiritual gifts. And, although we may not be able to discern exactly what our spiritual gift is, we might rightly discern that the purpose for our spiritual gifts is to use them in service to our Lord and in service to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. As Martin Luther reminds us in speaking about our vocation, we serve God in our vocations by serving others.
 

We will then say, “yes,” the Holy Spirit gives gifts to do good works. We are to do good works, not for the sake of doing good works, not for the sake of earning something, but simply as a response of faith. In other words, to do good works, truly good works, is a natural response of faith. I would suggest three guides for knowing if we are truly doing good works according to God. A good work in God’s eyes is one that is motivated by Him, working in and through us by Him and done to His glory. So, most of the time when we are actually doing a good work, we do not even realize it as such. I guess that gives us an indication that this is really not something that comes natural to us.
 

And one more word on good works. According to Paul, our good works are to be done for the whole of the Church. Even Jesus reminds us that whatever we do for one of the least of His children, we have done it for Him, who is the head of the Church.
 

As we make our way through the Trinity season, we continue to celebrate that Jesus also came to save Gentiles and to give us faith and spiritual gifts. Paul’s words, from God, remind us that God knows us. He knows our nature, that we are conceived and born in sin. He knows that we cannot do anything to save ourselves. He knows that we cannot choose or accept God. As we well confess in the explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason our strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.”
 

Again, as always we are then pointed back to God. God gives, God does and we are given to and done to. And lest we forget, God gives and does through means or instruments. When we are privileged to witness a baptism we are witnessing God working through Holy Baptism, so we also almost every service of worship witness God working through Confession and Absolution to give us the gifts He has to give. Although we might not recognize it is through the readings of Holy Scripture and at this moment through the preaching of that word, and in a bit we will witness God working through His Holy Supper to give us the gifts He has to give. Through these means, these means of grace, our Lord gives the gifts He has to give, faith, forgiveness, strengthening of faith, life and salvation.
 

And our response is simply a response of faith, a response of thanks and praise. Thanks be to God. We can do nothing else and we can do nothing else except by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us as Paul so well reminds us this morning, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” No one can give thanks and respond to faith except in the Holy Spirit.
 

And so we do simply respond with a response of faith this morning and say, To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.