Our God Is a Big God - August 27, 2023 - Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16) - Text: Romans 11:33-12:8

Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “God is good.” I have to admit, usually I do not get too warm a feeling when I hear that phrase, because it is usually uttered by someone who really does not understand how good God really is. Let me explain. To those who believe that God has promised and will give us only good things and a lot of good things in this life; to those who believe that if you just believe enough and ask God and expect from Him then He will be good to you; these are usually the people that I hear express this sentiment (we call this a theology of glory, or for some a prosperity Gospel). Of course, I would agree that God is good, but I believe He is good because I am so bad! It is only as I recognize my sin, the greatness of my sin and my ineptness and my inability to do anything about my sinfulness and my unworthiness to have God do anything about it for me and then realize that He has already done everything that needs to be done for me, in my place, then and only then can I really say, “God is good.”
 

Paul begins, this morning, by helping us, or at least trying to help us to understand the mind of God. We begin at verse thirty-three of chapter eleven, “11:33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ 35‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (v. 11:33-36). About God we know that His judgements and ways are inscrutable, in other words, we better not attempt to scrutinize God’s decisions. Well, that should be obvious, but how often it is that we do attempt to scrutinize God and His decisions. How often we find ourselves wondering, if not aloud, at least in our own hearts, “I wonder what God is trying to do?” “I wonder why God did this or allowed that to happen?” Yet, God is so much wiser than we are or could imagine ourselves to be. As a matter of fact, in his first letter to the Corinthians Paul reminds us that God’s foolishness is so much wiser than our wisdom. Yet day in and day out we continue to try to be smarter than God. How often do we find ourselves playing God in our own lives, working to make our own decisions and leaving God out. One of my favorite ways of doing this, and please, I am not trying to pick on anyone, but the whole question of “What would Jesus do?” is an example of this. When we have a decision to make, we ask, “What would Jesus do?” and then respond appropriately. That sounds great. But what about a difficult question, one which God does not directly address. What we end up doing is making our own decision and then blaming it on Jesus, because, of course, Jesus would always do what we think He would do, right? Anyway, when it comes to understanding God, let me say that I never want to get to the point where I believe I completely understand Him, because if my little brain can completely understand God, then He is not very big. I am glad He is so much bigger than me!
 

But Paul is not done. Not only are God’s judgments inscrutable, we must recognize that He is the prime mover in all things. How many of us think we are doing God a favor by coming to visit Him here in church once a week, or by bringing Him our offerings, especially if it is our leftover change instead of our first fruits and tithes? What is our attitude in bringing our offering? Paul points out the fact that there is nothing we can give God that would make Him indebted to us. Yet, we guard our finances as if they are ours to do with as we please and think God has nothing to do with our amassing our nest egg. The fact of the matter is that we have nothing with which to repay Him and He has given us everything we do have, one way or another. And He has paid it all, including and most importantly His life.
 

Paul expresses God’s giving as, “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” He is the one who does all and gives all and we are the ones who are given to. Did we choose to be conceived? Did we choose to have certain gifts, talents or abilities? Did we choose to have good health in order to be able to work? Did we choose God or Jesus to be our God? Did we choose to whom we would be born? Certainly not. We are always and always have been at the mercy of our great and good God who does all and gives all. To Him be the glory forever, Paul says.
 

Now, with this understanding as the backdrop, Paul moves on to give an appeal to sanctification. Remember sanctification? Sanctification is the Holy Spirit working in and through us to do the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. We begin with the first two verses of chapter twelve, “12:1I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (v. 12:1-2). Paul begins where we are to begin, with God as the prime mover. He says, by the mercies of God, live lives of faith. We cannot do it ourselves. Because of our sinful nature, we sin and we sin some more. When it comes to good and doing good, God is the prime mover. It is only as He fills us with Himself and works in and through us that we are able to live lives of faith as He would have us to live.
 

The difficult part is that he tells us not to conform to the tolerant society as many are doing. Our tolerant society says, “Live and let live.” “Do whatever you want as long as you do not hurt anyone else.” “It does not matter what you believe as long as you believe sincerely enough.” “There are many gods and many ways to enlightenment.” And we buy into this. We forget that God is not tolerant, that He abhors sin and that He tells us what is sin and what is not sin. We forget that apart from God there is only eternal death and hell and yet we go on living life as if God might have an alternative plan for all those who do not believe in Jesus. Yes, day in and day out we acquiesce to the thoughts and ways of our society. Instead of standing up and saying, “No,” God’s Word is His Word and it us just and right and true and the only rule and norm for all.
 

And so we would do well to be discerning. I would encourage you as Paul encourages the Corinthians, be as the Bereans, who were of a more noble character and who checked everything Paul said with Scripture to make sure what He was saying was true. Do not believe everything you see on TV or read in the newspaper or in books or hear or read in the media. Please do not believe it. Instead, check everything against God’s Word. In this way you will be able to “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
 

Finally, Paul outlines our role as a member of the Church. We pick up at verse three, “3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (v. 3-8). Paul’s first bit of instruction is probably the most difficult. He says that we are to give sober judgement to the gifts, talents and abilities God has given us, yet how many times do we think more highly of ourselves, perhaps we are a legend in our own minds of how gifted and talented we are and how much God needs us. As if God needs anything from us.
 

Instead, we are to come together as members of the Body of Christ and individually use our God-given gifts, talents and abilities to His glory. There may even be times when we are to do things that we believe we are not gifted to do, but understand that even then, as the Lord works in and through us we can do all things as we do them to His glory. Yes, Paul does bring up the issue of stewardship this morning, but he is not side tracked by simply talking about money. Our stewardship is not a one issue topic, but our stewardship is a life topic. In other words, it is not whether we return a portion of our time or our talents or our treasures to the Lord, but that we return a portion of our time and our talents and our treasures recognizing that these are first given to us by the Lord and so we give or return a portion to Him in service to Him and His kingdom. Thus, we are to work together as individuals for the good of the collective body.
 

What does this mean? God is far wiser than we are and we are so grateful that this is so. I pray that we never get to the point that we believe that we are wiser than God, and we have examples of that in our world today as people constantly question the Bible, asking the question Satan asked Eve in Eden, “Did God really say?” Perhaps you have heard of the Jesus Seminary from a few years back. These smart men, or at least men who believe themselves to be smart, voted on such things as which words of the New Testament are really Jesus’ words and which miracles, if any, did Jesus really perform. In other words, anytime we place the Bible, God’s Word, below our intellect and reason, we are placing ourselves above God and we become our own gods. Thanks be to God that He is so much wiser than we are.
 

And there is more. We also recognize that God does everything for us and we are grateful. In and of ourselves we can do no good thing. The fact of the matter is our free will or what was our free will has been tainted by the fall into sin and so our will is subject to sin. Left to ourselves and our own free will we would be eternally condemned, actually we would be like many people in our tolerant society as we have made note earlier. Thanks be to God that He has done, does and will continue to do everything necessary for us, for our salvation. Thanks be to God that Jesus took care of the one thing needful, giving His life for ours on the cross. Thanks be to God that Jesus is, as Peter recognized in the Gospel reading for today, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And thanks be to God that He stirs in us to recognize Jesus as such as well.
 

Remember, as I constantly remind you, who is running the verbs, who is doing what. We get it right when we point to Jesus, when God is doing the doing and we are being done to. And when God is doing the doing and we are begin done to, then God is glorified. He is glorified  in all that He does for us and we are grateful.
 

Because God is so much greater than the world, with His help we are not conformed, but transformed by His gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation so that we live lives of faith in response to His gifts of grace. And of course, our response is to rejoice and say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Call to Faith - August 20, 2023 - Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15) - Text: Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32

What must I do to be saved? Last week Paul answered that question simply and succinctly, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And he said, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Although this may seem simple, at least to those of us who do confess faith in Jesus with our mouths and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, and who call on the name of the Lord, for many in our world this is a difficult thing indeed, that is why there are so many who have refused and rejected this simple gift and remain unsaved. As a matter of fact, the people of the world in which we live today more and more question the authority of the Bible and instead want to believe that the Christian Church is intolerant because of their exclusive claim of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus alone. In our text for this morning Paul continues expressing his concern for his own people, his own family and friends, his own fellow Jews, those who continue to reject Christ and refuse faith in Him.
 

As Paul expresses his concern, especially for his own people, he reminds us of God’s faithfulness. We begin at verse one, “1I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (v. 1-2). The fact that many of Paul’s own family are condemned to eternal death and hell is not due to God’s rejection of these people. As a matter of fact, God has not rejected His covenant people and Paul is an example of such. Paul is a member of the children of Israel, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, and one called to faith by God.
 

Why then are many of Paul’s family condemned? Because many of his own people have rejected and continue to reject Jesus as the Savior. Again this week, as week before last, Paul’s words might be difficult for us, especially as his words call us to think in terms of our own family and friends. God has not rejected anyone, yet how many people, family and friends do we know who continue to reject Him and thus are condemned. And how often do we fail, even to pray for these people, that the Lord might work to give them faith, but instead we consol ourselves thinking that certainly God has another plan, because we simply do not want to think of the alternative. Indeed, we have become as those of the world who question the authority of the Word of God and the exclusive claim of the Christian Church.
 

Paul goes on to speak to the Gentiles. By the way, if we have not been paying attention, as all of these words of Paul are Words of God to us, but especially here we would do well to pay attention, because we are Gentiles. We pick up at verse thirteen. “13Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” (v. 13-15). Although Paul is praying for us, he is also praying for his fellow Jews. His prayer may be a bit of a selfish prayer. He is praying that his preaching to the Gentiles might make his fellow Jews jealous. In other words, he is praying that our being given faith and being made a part of the Kingdom of God will stir in the hearts of his fellow Jews the desire to be a part of God’s Kingdom as well. Of course, when we use the word “jealous” here we are using it in a positive way. Normally we would say that being jealous is not a desirable thing, but when it comes to faith, we understand that even God is jealous in that He demands that we worship Him and Him alone. Again, thinking in terms of our own situations, perhaps as we live our lives as Christians, enjoying the blessings we are given, the hope that we have, we may hope that all this will bring our unbelieving family and friends to jealousy so that they too might be stirred to faith.
 

Paul explains his logic by saying that it was the rejection by the Jews that made it possible for the Gentiles to hear the good news. Remember, the Church started as a Jewish Christian church. Most all the first Christians were of Jewish descent. As these people rejected the message of Jesus, so then Paul was appointed to take the message to the Gentiles.
 

Paul goes on to explain. We picking up at verse twenty-eight, “28As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” (v. 28-32). What Paul describes is a reversal of fortunes. Once the Gentiles rejected God and now they are being given faith. Now the Jews are rejecting God so the Gentiles may be given faith.
 

At the same time, God’s call to faith is irrevocable. Remember, the promise to send a Savior, the promise of salvation was made back in the Garden of Eden before there was a Jew or a Gentile. In the Garden of Eden there was Adam and Eve. They sinned and God promised to them that He would send a Savior, for all people. Indeed, this event was the beginning of the Christian Church, that is all those who believed in the coming Savior, Messiah, Christ, were saved, were Christians. Eve thought the next son she bore was that Savior. She did not realize that it would be another four thousand years or so before God would fulfill this promise, nor did she realize how many different cultural groups there would be on the earth.
 

After the flood as the earth again began to repopulate, and even after the events of the Tower of Babel and the people were separated because of their different languages, God continued to wait to fulfill His promise to send a Savior. As the people who had separated at the Tower of Babel began to grow in families, the various cultures of the world began to emerge. Unfortunately, many of the fathers of the various cultures failed to share the message of the promise of a Savior with their children and so people began to fall away and lose faith in the Lord and His promises. Then, at the right time, God reiterated His promise to send a Savior. At the right time He issued His call specifically to Abraham and to his children. God called Abraham, his son Isaac, and his son Jacob whose name was changed to Israel and from there we have the Children of Israel. This call and narrowing of the promise line from which the Savior of the world would be born did not negate God’s call and promise to all people.
 

Jesus came to fulfill all God’s promises and He did, perfectly, all of God’s promises. Jesus came to do what all of humanity was created to do but could not do. Jesus came to do what Adam and Eve could not do, obey God perfectly. Jesus came to do what you and I cannot do, live perfectly, without sin, in thought, word or deed. Jesus came to His own people and although many did believe in Him, especially after His death and seeing Him alive, many of His own people also rejected Him. As the Apostles went out into the world to declare the good news of Jesus’, life, death and resurrection, unfortunately too many did not believe. All the while, God’s promise to send a Savior and His call to faith was also and always a call to the Gentiles who were included in His promise and call to all.
 

And Paul reminds us that God’s promises to all is irrevocable. In other words, God does not go back on His promises. God’s promise was made to all people and so all people are called to believe in Jesus and have a part in God’s Kingdom. Unfortunately, many, even today, continue to persist in refusing and rejecting that call to faith. For too many in our world today we would rather have life our own way, much like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
 

What does this mean? First and foremost, I want to remind you again, God’s promise to send a Savior was first given in the Garden of Eden and it was given to all. God’s promise was not a promise of compromise, nor a promise of a bargain. God’s promise was not a deal. God never said that there was something which we need to do on our part. As a matter of fact, as you read through the first three chapters of Genesis you will notice that the whole while that God is doing His thing, creating and so on, the whole while God is the actor everything is good and even very good. When we finally get to the man and the women and their actions and what they are doing, that is when sin entered the world. And it continues today. We mess up and God cleans up. God’s promise in Eden is His promise to us today, He will take care of our sin, our broken relationship with Himself, but He will not impose nor force us to believe.
 

God’s promise was first made in the Garden of Eden. Later God reiterated and narrowed down His covenant, to Israel, the line through which the Savior would be born. This narrowing down of the line did not negate that the promise was to all people. Nor did this negate that the promise was a promise of faith, not a right of birth. In other words, simply being born of a certain descent does not guarantee one’s salvation. Faith is what brings salvation, but only that faith which has Jesus as its object.
 

God made a promise. God narrowed the line of fulfillment of His promise. God kept His promise and Jesus came and brought us back into a right relationship with Himself. And now, yet today, we continue to have God’s call to all to faith. God calls us to faith and forgives our sins through His means of grace, namely through His Word, the Bible, through His Sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and through Holy Absolution. And yet, unfortunately for us, God’s call to faith and God’s gift of forgiveness does not mean that we cannot refuse and reject what He has to offer. At the same time, our refusal or rejection does not negate God’s continual call.
 

The fact of the matter is, God’s gifts and promises are certain. We are the one’s who are wishy washy. We are the one’s who stray and fall into sin, daily, hourly, every minute. And yet, our sinning does not negate our being given faith and forgiveness. In other words, yes, even as Christians, even as believers in Jesus, we too continue to sin, but as we continue to repent we are given forgiveness and strengthened to face the trials and temptations of the world each and very day.
 

For God and His part, it is a done deal. For us and our part, we fail miserably time and again. Thanks be to God that we do not need to depend on ourselves, but we continually place ourselves and our faith in Jesus knowing that He always keeps His promises and that His gifts and calling are irrevocable. Thanks be to God for His gifts, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Believe and Confess - August 13, 2023 - Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14) - Text: Romans 10:5-17

Today Paul answers the simple question of what must we do to be saved. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And he says, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” It is just that simple and yet as we look at all the unbelieving people of our world we might think, it is just that difficult. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to confess that He is truly God and truly man. To call on the name of the Lord is to recognize our own failings and how we cannot save ourselves, but we must be completely dependent on Jesus. Both of these things are indeed difficult, even impossible for us, in and of ourselves and so we have many religions, cults, and sects in our world who take the road of human reason and logic and, really the bottom line is they make themselves out to be their own gods, even if it is only subtly.
 

Paul begins by distinguishing between righteousness based on Law and righteousness based on faith. We begin at verse five, “5For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down) 7or ‘”Who will descend into the abyss?”’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ 12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (v. 5-13).
 

Paul begins by telling us that Moses gave the Law and about that Law he says that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. In other words he says that you must live by the law in order to be saved. Of course Paul knows, as we know, that this is impossible. We cannot keep the Law, at least not as we ought to keep the Law, perfectly as God demands. And apart from the Lord helping us we cannot even keep the Law imperfectly. As Paul has addressed us before, the purpose of the Law is not to show us how good we need to be in order to be saved, but to show us how sinful we are in order for us to see our need to look outside ourselves for a Savior.
 

Paul goes on to tell us about faith. He says that faith does not require heroic measures, such as bringing Christ down from heaven or taking Him up from the dead. No, faith means believing and confessing that Jesus is Lord. And here, this word “Lord” is the Hebrew name of God, “Yahweh,” that is the God who revealed Himself to Moses in the wilderness. “The Word is near you,” almost sounds like Paul is echoing the Gospel of the Apostle John as he declares that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . .” and “. . . The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world. Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Word of the Law of the Commandments. Jesus is the Word of the Gospel which gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. Jesus is the Word that is near us each and every day.
 

And this Word is for all people. There is no distinction. Remember, the promise to send a Savior was given before there were Jews and Gentiles. Today we might express this by saying that in God’s eyes there is no distinction between the races or better, between the cultures; the same Lord is Lord of all. Everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved.
 

So, again this week we are reminded of the importance of the means of grace. We are reminded that God calls to faith, gives faith, strengthens faith and works through the Means of Grace to do so. And Paul goes on to explain this giving and working in the next section.
 

How important are the means of grace? And what about those who have not heard? Paul goes on to say, “14But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (v. 14-17).
 

The means of grace are so important. The means of grace are indeed a matter of faith, life and salvation. These words tie in with the old question about those we think have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel, how can they be held accountable for their lack of faith? The fact of the matter is that they have had the opportunity, but somewhere along the line their fathers failed to share the faith and so they are being punished for the sins of the fathers. Remember, we all go back to Noah who had the word. Thanks be to God that He allows for other opportunities to hear the Word so that those whose fathers fail to share the Word may hear it elsewhere and be given faith through that Word.
 

Paul says, “How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” How can one hear unless some one is sent to administer the means of grace? Notice the importance of the means of grace and making use of them? God’s usual way of coming to us is through means, namely through the means of grace, His Holy Word, Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. And notice the importance, again, of making regular, every Sunday, and diligent, everyday, use of these means. When we absent ourselves from these means then we fall into this group about whom Paul is speaking, how can we believe if we do not hear?
 

And Paul speaks of the importance of the Office of Holy Ministry. How can one preach unless one is sent? Notice, a man does not and cannot appoint himself for the Office of Holy Ministry. Simply to feel a calling does not validate such a calling. A man’s calling by God is validated when God through a congregation, calls him into the Office of Holy Ministry in order to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, the means of grace.
 

Notice the bottom line in Paul’s words for us this morning. The bottom line is the Word of God. Certainly I could stand up here every Sunday and entertain you. Or I could stand up here and try to motivate you, which would amount to preaching law to you because that is what such motivation is, telling you what you have to do in order for God to do something for you. I could preach to you that now that you are saved now you need to be obedient to God’s words, in other words, chase you back to the law. I could tell you that you need to do good things in order to overcome the bad you have done. I could even use some great Christian sounding words, words your itching ears might want to hear. I could tell you how God wants you to succeed in life. I could tell you that all you have to do is believe hard enough or all you have to do is work hard enough and God will reward you. (I could sound like many of the preachers you hear on TV.) But, is that what God promises us and is that what God tells us in His Word? Does God promise us great success and happiness in life? The last few weeks we have been following along with Paul and he has been telling us and encouraging us because, especially as a Christian, life will have times of trials and affliction. God’s Word, which is what I am to preach to you, begins with the Word made flesh, Jesus, who came to do what we are unable to do, who came to pay the price for our sins by dying on the cross.
 

So, what does this mean? And what is important? What is important is the means of grace through which the Holy Spirit gives faith, forgiveness, life and salvation and works a response of faith. Oh, we might make it in life without these means. We might be quite successful and we might even believe that God has made us successful. Even more important, for our eternal salvation, is the forgiveness of sins and faith in Jesus. Paul does not even mention success as a part of salvation, but he does mention faith, believing and confessing our faith.
 

Faith and confession of faith is important and so the Office of Holy Ministry is important. God has given us the Office of Holy Ministry and He has called some men into this Office for the administration of the means of grace, preaching the Gospel, administering of absolution, the forgiveness of sins, and administering the sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
 

The important things Paul tells us are, hearing, believing and confessing. These three work together. We hear the Word which gives faith. Faith motivates us to confess that we believe. And as we believe, so that becomes our confession. This hearing, believing , and confessing are reflected in our worship. Our worship practice, that is our Divine Service flows out of our confession of faith and our confession of faith flows out of and instructs us in our worship practice, our Divine Service. Because we believe the means of grace are the way in which our Lord comes to us, so our worship practice is that our worship is permeated with the means of grace, beginning with the invocation which reminds us of our baptism, to our confession and hearing the most wonderful words of Holy Absolution, to our responsive readings which are our repeating back to God the very words He has given us to say, and to our celebration of the Lord’s Holy Supper. As we worship this way we understand the importance of the means of grace and we are strengthened and kept in faith.
 

Paul continually reminds us of the importance of the Word, namely, the Gospel, and the Word, Jesus, God in flesh. The Jesus of the Bible is not a Jesus of glory. He is not a Jesus of success, at least not in the terms the world would like to frame Him. As a matter of fact, He is a God who gave up the glory that was His, as God, in heaven, in order to go to the cross, to pay the price for ours sins. The Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of the Word is a Jesus of the cross. And He is a Jesus for all.
 

Paul covers a lot for us this morning and clears up some misunderstandings about the Word. There is no distinction between races or cultures, for there is only one God and one Lord who calls to and gives faith and he does this through His means of grace, as the Holy Spirit works through these means, the Holy Bible, Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Holy Supper, so that we might respond by listening, believing and confessing that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.