Reconciled Ambassadors - Fourth Sunday in Lent - March 30, 2025 - Text: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

We are about half way through the Lenten Season. Let me remind you that the purpose of the Lenten Season is to take the time to contemplate our sins and the seriousness of our sins. We see how God views the seriousness of our sins when we look at the passion and the cross of Christ. So serious does God take our sins that Jesus suffered greatly for them. As we contemplate the passion of Christ certainly we contemplate that it was our sins, your sins and my sins that put Jesus on the cross.
 

Before we get to our text for this morning, let us take a brief look at the other lessons. The Old Testament lesson for this morning might rightly be considered an answer to the question of “how” we are to be ambassadors and that is by giving thanks to the Lord. And why do we give thanks to God, because of His salvation. Indeed, our sin makes God angry and yet, rather than take His anger out on us, He took it out on Jesus so that Jesus suffered God’s just punishment for our sins, for us in our place. Certainly we give thanks and praise to the Lord for His forgiveness and salvation.
 

Our Gospel lesson for this morning is the account of the prodigal son. This account shows us what great love the father has for his son. Rightly we might put ourselves in either of the brothers shoes. Certainly we are the younger son when we squander the gifts our Lord has to give to us. But, more often than not, as “older” Christians, we are probably more like the older son. We have a difficult time accepting newer Christians into our congregation, because we believe, because of our perceived faithfulness, that we deserve more. Yet in both instances we see what great love the Father has for both His Sons and what great love our Heavenly Father has for us, His children.
 

Getting to our text for this morning we are reminded that all our good gifts and blessings are indeed gifts and blessings and all this is from God. We read, “16From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (v. 16-19).
 

The word reconcile is an interesting word. And actually, it is a financial word. I have to admit, I never really thought much about the word reconcile, never even really used the word until I got my first computer checkbook and it asked if I wanted to reconcile my bank account. I never reconciled my account before, although I did attempt to balance my checkbook from time to time, as encouraged by my parents. The word reconcile means that one side of the equation must equal the other side. For my checkbook that means that the deposits must be equal to or be greater than the withdrawals, my checks, otherwise I have a problem. When it comes to God reconciling us, the problem for us is that our deposits are actually zero when it come to paying the price of our sins and the checks we have written, our sins, are beyond our imagination. For God to reconcile us means that He has made a deposit of as much as and even greater than our sins. He has reconciled our account by paying the price that our sins cost, death, indeed, eternal death, hell. He made us right before Himself, forgiving our sins, through Christ.
 

The fact that we are reconciled by God means that He paid the price for our sins. This is often stated as He made atonement for our sins. To make atonement means that one makes amends or pays the price for another. Christ made atonement for us. He made amends, He paid the price for us. Christ’s atonement was first an objective atonement, that means that His atonement was accomplished outside of us and was for all people. Jesus made amends, paid the price for the sins of all people of all places of all times. This was the goal, the objective in that no one deserves that He did this and even though some have and may refuse His gift of atonement, it was still accomplished for all.
 

Christ’s atonement was also a subjective atonement, that is it was meant for me. The fact that Jesus died for all is one thing. What makes His death for all important to me is that He died for me, personally. Even if I were the only person in the world, He would have and He did die for me. While He was alive, He had me in mind. When He took the sins of all people on Himself, He had me and my sins in mind. When He suffered on the cross for all sin, He had me in mind. When He died on the cross He had me in mind. He made amends for my sins. He paid the price for my sins.
 

And so we are recreated. The old is gone. We are no longer what we were before, that is we are no longer only complete lost and condemned sinners, but we are not yet what we will be in heaven, completely and only saints. We are somewhere along the road. While we continue living in this world we live being at the same time sinner and saint.
 

Thus, Paul reminds us, we regard no one according to the flesh, that is we no longer look at the outside of a person, instead we look into the heart of a person. This is especially true concerning Christ. Before his conversion, Paul viewed Jesus as merely a man. Now that he has been reconciled he knows Jesus as true God and true man, even the Savior of the world and his own Savior.
 

All this is from God (v. 18) who does all and gives all. Notice, Paul takes himself completely out of the picture. In just the same way we take ourselves completely out of the picture. We have done nothing and we do nothing to reconcile ourselves to God. It has all been taken care of for us by God Himself. He lived the perfect life demanded of us. He took our sins and He paid the price for our sins, all our sins, the ones we have committed and the ones we have yet to commit. He gives us faith. He gives us forgiveness of sin. He gives us life, even eternal life and salvation.
 

Our response of faith, that is our response for all that our Lord has done for us is that we are ambassadors. Paul says, “20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v. 20-21). Our response is that we are made ambassadors. An ambassador is one who represents another. We represent Christ. How do we represent Christ? Well, sometimes we represent Him well and other times we misrepresent Him. Anytime we are not living as a reconciled child of God, we misrepresent Him. Anytime we speak ill of this congregation or members of this congregation or anytime we do anything that is not in the best interest of this congregation and the members of this congregation we are misrepresenting Him. Anytime we speak evil of anyone, even if it is the truth, anytime we fail to explain everything in the kindest way possible, we are misrepresenting Him.
 

It is only as God has His way with us, that is, it is only as the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace works in and through us that we are ambassadors living lives of faith. Again, this is not something we do on our own, this is something we do only as the Lord has His way with us through His means of grace.
 

Thus, as ambassadors, the most important thing we do is that we speak the Word of God. We speak the Word of God, not of our own, but on His authority. We speak the Word of God as He gives us even fills us with His Word through His means of grace. We speak the Word of God as He moves us. And we are ambassadors as we live lives of faith, that is as our actions speak for and attest to the faith that is in our hearts, the faith that He has given to us and that He nourishes in us. As you have heard me describe before, we are ambassadors as we live our lives as priest, offering our lives as living sacrifices for Lord, always being ready to give an answer for the hope we have in Jesus as our Savior. And we have God’s authority to speak and His promise that when the time comes He will give us the very words He would have us to speak on His behalf.
 

What Does This Mean? First and foremost this means that we sin, and we need to be reminded of our sin. We daily sin much. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, not doing the things God would have us to do, not living the life He would have us to live, and sins of commission, doing the things He forbids and commands us not to do. We sin and it is our sin that brought Jesus to earth. It was our sin that brought Jesus suffering. It was our sin, your sin and mine, which cost Jesus His life. And so, it is our sin which places us at the foot of the cross. When we look at the cross, that is when we seriously look at the cross, we do not see a pretty fashion statement. We do not see something that is simply a reminder that we are Christians. When we look at the cross we see an instrument of death, even an instrument of pain, suffering and torture. And when we look at the cross we see what great love our Lord has for us, a love that moved Him to actively, without hesitation, take our sins upon Himself and to pay the price, suffering all, even death for us, in our place.
 

The fact of the matter is that Christ never sinned. He was tempted, even beyond what we may be tempted, beyond what we might think or imagine, yet He never sinned. And although He never sinned, He made Himself sin for us. He took our sins upon Himself. And He paid the price for our sins, for all our sins and for the sins of all people, of all places of all times. He suffered eternal death, complete and utter separation from God the Father, He suffered hell for us, in our place.
 

Our response of faith is to live lives of faith. This is not something we do on our own. As a matter of fact, God never expects us to do this on our own. Remember Paul’s words in Ephesians when he tells us that “we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). We are Christ’s ambassadors created by Him, redeemed by Him and now walking as His ambassador being directed by Him.
 

What a great God we have and what wonderful words from Him through Paul this morning. We are privileged first and foremost to revel in God’s forgiveness earned, paid for and given to us by Christ because of His great love for us. We are privileged to be ambassadors for Christ because He makes us so. As always, God is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. He does and He gives and we are done to and we are given to. He gives us faith. He takes our sins and gives us forgiveness. He gives us the gift and promise of eternal life in heaven. And while we remain in this world He gives to us the privilege and responsibility to represent Him as His ambassadors. And all this He does out of His great love for us. What a great God, what a loving God we have. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Jesus, Forsaken by God - March 26, 2025 - Fourth Lent Midweek - Text: Matthew 27:45,46

Last week we saw Jesus fulfilling His Fourth Commandment responsibility by taking care of His mother, Mary. He completed the fulfillment of the fourth commandment by giving her to the disciple whom He loved, John to care for her. Last week Jesus became motherless. This evening we see Jesus become a complete orphan as He loses His Father as well. This evening we see Jesus completely alone, suffering for the sins of the whole world.
 

Before we get to Jesus’ words, let us take a moment to look at another significant event that is portrayed in this text, the event of darkness. Our text tells us that it was about the sixth hour, that is, about noon. During the middle of the day darkness covers the whole land for three hours, until the ninth hour, that is three in the afternoon. How can this be? This is nothing short of a miracle of God. Remember, it is the time of the month that there is a full moon. I am not an astronomer, but I am told that there can be no eclipse during a full moon. So, that would rule out any logical reason for darkness at midday. But there was darkness, and we, as Christians might actually say, by a miracle of God.
 

There was darkness because this was the darkest time for the world since before the creation of the world. At creation we are told that all was darkness and chaos. At the very beginning, the first thing that God does is that He called light out of the darkness of chaos. And we remember that the light was not the Sun as it was created on day four of creation. Anyway, following Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden the darkness of sin has infected the world. In the Gospel of John we are reminded that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the light that the darkness cannot understand nor can it overcome. The darkness of the devil in our sin filled world cannot understand the love of God, so much that He would give His life for His creation, nor can the darkness of the devil overcome the Light of Christ. And yet, there is darkness while Jesus is on the cross. It is no coincidence that this darkness is during the time that God forsook Jesus who became a curse on the cross.
 

In this dark hour we hear Jesus’ cry. He cries, “My God, My God.” Jesus cries out to God. Notice that He does not call Him “Father.” At this point Jesus has no Father. Jesus has no one. He is left on His own to suffer for the sins of the world. This is in direct contrast to just a few hours earlier when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to His Father in heaven. Now Jesus is in a different situation than when He was in the Garden. Now Jesus is cursed with the sins of all people of all places of all times.
 

Notice that at no time did Jesus forsake God, nor did He lose His God-ness, His divinity. He was still true God and true man. Jesus did not forsake God, but God forsook Him. In His humility, His humanity, in much the same way that you and I will one day face our own death, our own physical passing from this world, Jesus, as true man is suffering and is about to die.
 

As David prophesied and foresaw in the Psalm Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1). God the Father forsook Jesus, God the son on the cross. Why was Jesus forsaken? Jesus was forsaken because He was made to be a curse. On Jesus was placed all the sins of all people of all places of all times. Jesus became sin and as sin He could not be in the presence of God who is perfection.
 

Jesus was forsaken which is what suffering eternal death is all about. Hell, eternal death, is complete absence from God and His love. Jesus was forsaken by God. God’s love was taken away from Him and He was suffering eternal death on the cross. I am not sure we as human beings can completely understand the torment and suffering of hell. We may compare it to being depressed, down, burnout, or whatever human way we may think and yet magnifying such suffering to the degree of suffering for all people of all places of all times. But, the simplest way to understand hell is to know that it is total absence from God and His love or any love or that matter. Truly, it is not a place anyone would want to be.
 

Certainly we have days when we would like to ask why God has forsaken us, or at least we feel like He has forsaken us. Even David wrote in many of his Psalms that he felt as if God had forsaken or abandoned him. Yet, our feelings of being forsaken by God do not come anywhere near what it is truly like to be forsaken by God.
 

Jesus was forsaken by God. He suffered what we deserved to suffer. Our sins earn for us death, physical death, yes, but even more, our sins earn for us the eternal death penalty of hell. Left to our own devises to save ourselves we would be utterly helpless. Left to ourselves we fail miserably. Instead of working our way out of hell we tend to make things worse. We daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. We sin in our thoughts, with our words and in our actions, our deeds. We sin sins of commission, doing those things we should not be doing and we sin sins of omission, failing to do those things we should be doing. As God says in Genesis, every intention of our hearts is evil all the time. We are conceived and born in sin. Our very nature is to sin and we simply cannot help ourselves. And the price for our sin was set in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, the price for sin is death, human death, eternal death and hell for sin.
 

Because God lives in the eternal present He is omniscient, that is He is all knowing. For God there is no yesterday and there is no tomorrow, there is only the now. For God, He is omniscient because He sees all of our history and time, which He created for us on day one with the creation of light marking night and day. Thus, God knows all that will happen even before it happens. We call this knowledge God’s foreknowledge. Yet, just because God knows all before it happens does not mean that God predetermines or predestines things to happen. And here in God’s foreknowledge we see just how much God truly loves us. Knowing that Adam and Eve would sin, knowing that we would be conceived and born in sin, knowing that God would have to take care of the sins of all people of all places of all times, and even knowing that many would reject Him and His forgiveness, He created the world anyway.
 

Fortunately we do not get what we deserve. Instead we get what Jesus earned for us. We get forgiveness. We get life. We get these gifts because God gives them to us. We get these gifts because Jesus has earned them for us. Yes, we can refuse and reject these gifts. We can try to go it alone. We can try to get to heaven of our own works and merit, but as we have seen, our good works and merit amount to “digging” our hole deeper in hell.
 

As bad as it sounds, we rejoice in the cross of Christ. We rejoice, not because we like to see Jesus die for us; not because of Jesus’ death. We rejoice because His death earned our forgiveness. His death earned our new life, renewed life here on this earth and eternal life in heaven. We rejoice because we know the rest of the story. Jesus did not stay dead, but rose on Easter morning.
 

We do not like the dark. As children we grow up afraid of the dark. Darkness is frightening, maybe because it is under the cover of the dark that many bad things happen. Darkness is one way of hiding our wrongdoing. When we are down, when we are depressed, when we think we are all alone, we feel like we are in the dark. Jesus’ suffering and death were the darkest hours of this world. Jesus, true God and true man, took on all our darkness. He, who knew no sin, became sin for us. Jesus, the light of the world, died the most cruel death, death on the cross. Jesus died that we might have life and have it to the fullest. Jesus died that we might have faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And Jesus rose, the first fruits of all who died showing us that as He rose, we too will rise again. Thanks be to God and to Him alone be the glory. Amen.

Jesus Becomes an Orphan - March 19, 2025 - Third Lent Midweek - Text: John 19:26,27

Two weeks ago we began our Lenten Season and our Midweek series as we heard Jesus speak the words of forgiveness, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Last week we heard the result of the forgiveness in the words spoken to the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” This evening we come to hear Jesus as He keeps the Fourth Commandment and as He speaks words of care, concern, and comfort for His mother.
 

As you constantly hear me say, God’s Word is a word with power. God’s Word does what it says and gives the gifts of which it speaks. And as we know, Jesus is God and thus, His word is also a word with power to do and give what He speaks. As Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples He told them they would all desert Him. Now, here on the cross we see that they have deserted Him and He is left alone to die on the cross. Everyone deserted Jesus, but as things had calmed down, Mary, His mother and John, the disciple whom He loved, came near the cross. They came near to watch with the others.
 

Again, while in the midst of His suffering and death, Jesus thinks not of Himself, but of His mother. This time He thinks of His Fourth Commandment duties to take care of His mother. Yes, even as Jesus is suffering for the sins of the world, for your sins and mine, He continues to do what Adam and Eve could not do, what the whole nation of Israel could not do and what we cannot do, He continues to be obedient to the Law. Notice, that it is not Mary who has come to the cross to “help” Jesus in His suffering, nor to be a “co-redeemer” with Him. Mary, as a human being, and as Jesus’ mother is as impotent in her abilities to do anything, just as everyone else. Mary comes to the cross as the woman, the mother who gave birth to this one who is suffering for her sins. And yes, Mary was a sinner just like you and me and all people as we are all conceived and born in sin. As His mother, certainly Mary comes as one with a broken heart knowing that her son is innocent. As He is suffering on the cross Jesus thinks of His mother because of His love for her.
 

Jesus calls Mary, “woman,” not out of disrespect, but out of a sense that at this very moment He is Her Savior. Again, note what the Bible says, Jesus is there on the cross giving His life for all people of all places of all times, including His mother. Mary is not there in any way to help lessen or to take from Jesus His suffering. She is there as we are there, standing at the foot of the cross on which Jesus is dying because of her sins and ours.
 

Jesus speaks, “Dear woman, here is your son.” Jesus gives John to Mary to be her son. Jesus knows that life is not over for Mary or for John. He knows that Mary will need to be cared for, especially as she grows older. Jesus knows that He will not be there as her son to give her the care that she will need, thus He gives John to be her son in His place.
 

Then, Jesus turns to John and says, “Here is your mother.” To complete the adoption, Jesus gives Mary to be John’s mother. And we are told that “from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” John did take care of Mary as his own mother.
 

Jesus’ suffering is not what we would call typical suffering. Most of us would say that we have had times in our lives when we suffered. What happens in the midst of suffering? Most people in times of suffering tend to turn inward, to thoughts of self. Often these times become times of self pity, “how bad I have it.” “I have it even worse,” we hear people say, or even brag. When we are in the midst of suffering we want sympathy, not help. We want to blame others even God, “God why are you doing this to me, what have I done to deserve this?” More often than not we want to make excuses and blame others and cry out that we being punished unjustly. Of course we know that the truth is that we are sinners and any suffering we may encounter is justly suffered.
 

Not so with Jesus. Jesus is being punished most assuredly unjustly. He was born sinless, as He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He obeyed all God’s Laws and command, perfectly. He never sinned, even once. Of His own free will He took our sins and the sins of the world on Himself. No one was there to take His life, He gave it freely. In the midst of His suffering Jesus thought of others. He saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved and thought of them. His concern was for the well being of His mother, that she would be cared for through her life and so He provides for her by giving her a new son, His disciple John.
 

I have to repeat it again so that we do not get confused. Mary was at the cross, not to help Jesus in His suffering, not to take any of the suffering on herself, and not to alleviate His suffering, but because of her love for Him as a mother loves her son. She was there, just like the others, as one who helped put Jesus on the cross because of her sins.
 

As we look at Jesus’ actions on the cross we are reminded once again that Jesus is an example for us to follow, but He is not just an example, because we would never be able to follow His perfect example. Not only is He an example, but praise the Lord, He fulfilled His example. This evening as we hear Him care for His mother we are reminded that suffering does not excuse us from our disobedience or our faithlessness.
 

Jesus’ actions this evening also remind us that He came to and did fulfill all the Law and the prophets perfectly. The Sunday before Ash Wednesday we celebrated Transfiguration Sunday, the day Jesus appeared on the mountain with His disciples, Peter, James and John and there with Him were Moses and Elijah. Moses the Lawgiver and Elijah the prophet. Perhaps they were there reviewing Jesus’ life to make sure He had indeed fulfilled the Law and the prophecies completely and fully. And perhaps they were there to give Him encouragement as the cross and suffering were always before Him and very near at that time. Jesus left nothing undone. He did what we were unable to do, what has always been commanded and demanded of us. He lived perfectly and then gave His life for ours so that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
 

And one thing we must keep reminding ourselves, Jesus work was for us and it was enough. One of the greater enemies of Jesus are those people who do not deny the cross, but say that it was not efficacious, in other words, that it had no effect on our eternal standing with God, that we still need to do something in order to be saved. Anytime we hear anyone put conditions on our salvation, “all you gotta do,” “if you do this or claim this or dedicate this or make this decision,” those are demands of the Law and do nothing for our salvation. Indeed, those are works and we know that our good works do not save us. Mary does not and did not save us. Jesus’ work, His life, His suffering, His death alone is what saves us.
 

We might well summarize this third time Jesus spoke from the cross by saying, “Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary,” completes and fulfills all that Law and the prophets completely, including and especially, while on the cross of thinking of His love for His mother and the fourth commandment in providing for her and supplying her with a care giver, His beloved disciple John. May Jesus’ love for His mother remind us of His love for us, so much that not only did He provide for us care and protection in our every day lives, but He also provided for us forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven. To Him be the glory. Amen.

Stand Firm in the Lord - Second Sunday in Lent - March 16, 2025 - Text: Philippians 3:17-4:1

A few years ago, alright, a lot of years ago, I was invited to Camp Lone Star, our Lutheran Camp in LaGrange, to try out their new “team challenge” course. The “team challenge” course is a course of obstacles that must be overcome by individuals as well as teams. There are low obstacles, about a foot off the ground, and there are high obstacles, about thirty feet in the air. Over the course of a couple of days the ten members of our team covered a lot of obstacles. I also found out that there are many companies, big businesses, that will send their employees to these courses and video tape their going through the challenges to see how they operate, that is how the individuals work as individuals and how they work and cooperate together as a team. The theory is that the way each individual reacts and interacts on the course is the way they will react and interact while working for the company. At any given obstacle people come forward as leaders, as motivators, or as just followers. The theory is that  how people react and interact on the course is most likely how they will react and interact to challenges in the “real” world and so they are assigned jobs in the company accordingly.
 

There was one challenge in particular that made an impress on me, especially in the sense of its life application. The one challenge that I want to describe is the one that helped a person to understand how and where one must focus their attention, and in a human or business way, we might say to focus one’s attention in order to be successful. The challenge looked simple. There was a large log hanging horizontal above the ground about a foot or so. It was hanging from two trees, one on each end, by a cable attached to each end, so that the log was able to swing and move between the two trees. The object of the obstacle was to jump up on the log at one end and walk to the other end. The difficulty was that the log was free to swing, so in the process of jumping on the log it would swing to knock you off. Some participants jumped on the log only to immediately fall off. Some participants were able to jump onto the log, but after only a few steps fell off. Others were able to jump up onto the log and walk the distance of the log and then jump off. The solution to the challenge was in one’s focus. Where do you focus your attention? You could either focus your attention on the log below your feet or something else. The participants who focused on the log always fell off. The solution was to focus on something that was not moving, like a tree in front of you. The life “lesson,” or life “application,” of the challenge was that when we have struggles in life if we focus on the struggles, the swinging log, we do not get very far, but if we focus on a solid firm foundation, like the sturdy tree, and as Christians we would say, like Jesus Christ, then we can make it through the struggles. This morning Paul talks to us about our focus. Where is our focus? Is it on the things of this world, or is it on the things of our eternal life in heaven?
 

Paul begins by putting himself up as an example for the people. He does not do so as a braggart, that is he is not bragging about himself, saying look at how wonderful I am. He simply says to imitate himself and others. We are to see the good in his example as well as the good in the example in others and imitate that good.
 

Paul suggests that we imitate him. Well, we might first be reminded that Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was a persecutor of the church, even putting Christians to death. Obviously this is not the parts of Paul’s life he wants us to imitate. Certainly, then, to be encouraged to imitate Paul would be to forgive his sins and faults and to look to follow his good example. Paul’s words remind me that I am to live in such a way as to be an example to you, the members of this congregation, as well as to others, and I try to do that with the help of God. Certainly, I, too, am a sinful human being and I am not a perfect example, but I know I am forgiven and by God’s grace and with the help of the Lord I strive to set a good example. I think Paul’s words remind all of us that we are all to be examples and particularly, the stronger Christian is to be an example for the weaker brother or sister.
 

The difficulty in following the example of others is the fact that there are not many good examples left in our world today. It would seem that there are more bad examples than good examples and as sinful human beings we tend to move more to follow the bad examples rather than the good examples. That is just our nature, as God reminds us, every intention of our heart is evil all the time and this has been the way it has been since the fall into sin. This does not give us an excuse to sin, simply a warning to be watchful and alert.
 

Paul cites as particular bad examples the enemies of the cross. Who are the enemies of the cross? Anyone who says that the cross was not efficacious is an enemy of the cross. In other words, it is not only the person who denies that Jesus died on the cross, but the person who denies that it was worth anything, the persons who says that Jesus’ death did not earn our forgiveness or salvation. Thus, an enemy of the cross is anyone who states or even implies that Jesus’ death was not enough to earn our forgiveness and so we must do something to help pay for our sins, as if we could do anything.
 

The enemies of the cross are those who desire to continue to live life in this world more than to live life in heaven. I would suggest that this would apply to many of us at times. How often do we find ourselves thinking more of our lives in this world, planning what we will be doing now and then with no thought of our life in heaven? We often forget the story of the rich man who built bigger and better barns thinking, today I will eat drink and be merry and tomorrow I will concern myself with my spiritual needs. As you may remember the parable, we are told that very night his soul was required of him, in other words, he died. We tend to live life as if we will live here on this earth forever and forget that we are all just one breath away from death and our final judgement.
 

The enemies of the cross are also those who try to lure us away from heaven. The devil, the world and our own sinful nature are constantly battling to seduce us into disbelief, despair, or other great shame or vice. And the devil, the world and our own sinful nature continue to win battle after battle as we are lead into sin, daily, in thought, word and deed, sins of omission and sins of commission. We are tempted to think that our lives are our own to live as we wish. We are tempted to believe what we have, the physical blessings of life are ours as if we have somehow earned the blessings God has given. We are tempted to believe that the commandments are simply suggestions. We are tempted and indeed we constantly act out the putting of ourselves before God, absenting ourselves from His gifts, taking His gifts for granted, refusing to acknowledge Him as the gift giver and indeed outright refusing and rejecting His gifts and then wonder why He does not bless us more. Indeed, left to ourselves we would be lost.
 

Thanks be to God that we are not left to ourselves. Paul’s remedy is to move our focus heavenward. We are to eagerly await for heaven. But really we do not wait for heaven, because heaven is a present reality, it is ours now. We may have to wait to move in, but heaven is ours now. As Paul says, our citizenship is in heaven. We are merely visitors here on this earth. As we can see, our citizenship is one with privileges and responsibilities. We have the privilege of knowing that our fellowship with the Father in heaven has been restored by Jesus, but we also have the responsibility, as we have been talking about, of being good examples for others.
 

We do eagerly await for heaven because we know that heaven is where we will be perfect. Everyone and everything in heaven will be like the world before the fall into sin, perfect. We will live in perfect fellowship with each other and with Jesus. There will be no more pain and suffering, no more sorrow or tears, no more temptation or sin. Only perfection, only holiness, only joy.
 

And heaven, like hell, is eternal. When the Lord returns or when we pass on, that is die the physical death we will all die, unless the Lord returns first, and leave this earth we will go to only one place or the other, either heaven or hell. There will be no movement from one place or the other. Upon our judgement we will either live in hell for eternity, remaining absent from God and His love. Or we will live in heaven for eternity, remaining in Jesus’ presence and love forever.
 

As we await our entrance into the Lord’s kingdom in heaven we continue to prepare ourselves for that entrance. We prepare ourselves by making use of the means of grace, by reading our Bibles, by remembering our Baptism, by confessing our sins and hearing those most beautiful words of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven,” and by making use of the Lord’s Supper, partaking of His body and blood and thus participating in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We prepare ourselves by continuing to focus our attention on the important things, the cross of Jesus Christ and His crucifixion. As we are reminded, there can be no glory without the cross. The Holy Spirit continues to work through the means of grace to point us to the cross of Christ so that we might be assured of our forgiveness and strengthened in our faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

As we await our entrance into the Lord’s kingdom in heaven we also continue to prepare ourselves for that entrance by looking at and following the example of Paul and all the saints who have gone on before us. Notice I did not say that we are to worship or pray to Paul and all the saints that have gone on before us, but we are to set their lives up as examples for us to follow. Besides, it would do no good to pray to them or to worship them because they would not be able to hear us anyway. Heaven is a place of perfection and it would not be perfection if all those in heaven could hear how things were here on earth. Only God can hear our prayers and our worship.
 

And finally, as we await our entrance into the Lord’s kingdom in heaven we also prepare ourselves for that entrance by, with the help of the Holy Spirit, being examples for others. Certainly we realize that we are not perfect, we are still sinful human beings, yet, with the help of the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace He does help us to be the good examples that He wants us to be, as we live our lives with our focus heavenward and to His glory. We are imperfect humans, yet good examples as we exemplify God’s love and forgiveness in our lives such that others know that although we fail, although we sin much we are forgiven as God’s grace abounds in our lives.
 

One last reminder. I have said it before and I will say it again, our actions do speak louder than our words and our actions often betray us. Our actions show if our life focus is heavenward or earthward. Our actions show if our life focus is on the things of God or on the things of this world. I would exhort you to remember that your citizenship is in heaven, that heaven is where we will live our real lives, for eternity, not just the short sixty, eighty or hundred years on this earth, and that the Holy Spirit will continue to stir in your heart to keep your focus heavenward as you make use of the means of grace. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Paradise Today - March 12, 2025 - Second Lent Midweek - Text: Luke 23:43

As we began last week, so I will remind you that this year, during the Wednesdays of Lent we are looking at the words Jesus’ spoke from the cross. In the four Gospels we can count seven different times that Jesus spoke. The seven times that Jesus spoke were during His last six hours of life on the cross from nine o’clock in the morning, when He was nailed to the cross, until about three o’clock in the afternoon, when He died.
 

Last week we heard the beautiful Gospel filled words, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” This week we hear the words which are a result of that forgiveness. Jesus’ second words from the cross as the hours passed are spoken to one of the thieves on the cross, the thief who was repentant, who acknowledge his sin and his just punishment. “And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’” (Luke 23:42). “And Jesus answered to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’”
 

As always, we want to keep the Words of Scripture in their proper context so we want to go back and listen to the whole account. When He was crucified, Jesus was crucified between two criminals, one on His right and one on His left, as was prophesied by Isaiah, “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). One of the criminals that was hung on the cross with Him mocked Him. Luke relates the account, “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’” (Luke 23:39).This criminal showed no remorse. He was not sorry for his sin and in his own ignorance he did not know who Jesus was, that He was the Son of God who came to give His life for him. Indeed, had Jesus saved Himself and the two criminals then no one would be saved.
 

On the other cross was a second criminal. This other criminal knew what he did was wrong. Again, as Luke relates the account, “40But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong’” (Luke 23:40-41). He was sorry for his sins. He also knew who Jesus was, for it had been revealed to him by Jesus Himself. This second criminal believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God and in faith asked Jesus for forgiveness.
 

Jesus words to the criminal who repented were, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” The word “truly” is sometimes translated rightly as “Amen.” This word “Amen” comes to us from the Hebrew into the Greek and literally means “faithful,” or “God is faithful.” Thus, Jesus, as He has done on many occasions, emphasizes what He is about to say by saying that God is faithful and will do what He says. Maybe you have heard me put it into words today saying, “God’s Word does what it says.”
 

Jesus says, “Today,” not tomorrow, not in three or four days, which is how long a typical crucifixion might last, several days of suffering, but today. Jesus words also show that there is no place between earth and heaven. There is no holding place where we go to work off our sins. It is either directly to heaven or directly to hell (do not pass Go, do not collect $200). Jesus words show that for this criminal on the cross there is complete forgiveness. Because without forgiveness there is no way to get to heaven.
 

As an aside let me reiterate what I have said in Bible class on occasion, often when speaking about death and our own resurrection the Bible speaks from two points of view. At times it speaks about our point of view as we await our own passing or the Lord’s return. This point of view is spoken of as one is asleep and the body waits in the ground to be reunited with the soul on the last day, this point of view is the point of view of those of us who continue to live in the time frame the Lord has given to us. Other times the Bible speaks of death and resurrection, such as here to the thief on the cross and is speaks from God’s point of view. Because we know that God does not live in time, which He created on day one for us, but He lives in the eternal present, thus for God there is no yesterday nor tomorrow, only the now, so here Jesus is speaking from God’s point of view that today the thief will be in paradise with Him.
 

Moving on, Jesus also says, that you will be “with Me.” His words indicate that He was on His way to heaven, yet by His words He does not mean to localize Himself, to say that He will be only in this one place from now on, for as true God He is always, everywhere present, or as we learn in confirmation, He is omnipresent. Jesus was here suffering hell on the cross. He would then descend into hell, not for more suffering but, to declare victory over the devil. And He would ascend into heaven from where He descended to accomplish our salvation. And at the same time, as true God, Jesus is always everywhere present. And as an aside I believe this explanation helps us better understand the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine in His Holy Supper.
 

Jesus’ promise to the thief is that he was on his way to heaven to be with Jesus. What comfort those words must have brought to the thief. Here he was suffering and dying because of the social consequences of his own sin and next to him was his Savior suffering and dying for the eternal damnation of the sins of the thief and the sins that all people had earned for Him. And in the midst of Jesus’ suffering He speaks words of forgiveness and words of promise of heaven. Notice again how God created us to love us and how even in His suffering Jesus thinks of us, cares for us and forgives us. Also, notice that Jesus does not immediately remove the suffering of the thief. As we sin in our world and as Jesus forgives us, that does not necessarily mean that He always immediately takes away our suffering. Rather it means that we are forgiven and we can be certain of our eternal salvation where there is no more suffering.
 

Finally, the last part of Jesus words are that he will be with Him in “Paradise.” Paradise is a place of eternal bliss. Paradise is the name given the Garden of Eden before the fall into sin. Certainly heaven will be of similar grandeur, like the Garden of Eden before the fall into sin with humans and God in perfect fellowship with one another.
 

Paradise is also a reference to God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is heaven. Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with God’s glory and grace. The criminal on the cross who repented is told of his forgiveness and the gift of eternal life with Jesus in heaven. For him it was a good day to die.
 

We might be so “crass” as to say that Jesus words to the thief on the cross are words of comfort to us because, as sinful human beings, we deserve to be on the cross next to Jesus as that thief. As Jesus speaks to the thief, He is speaking to us. It is Jesus’ life, suffering and death which earns our forgiveness, just as His suffering and death earned forgiveness for all people of all places of all times.
 

And with the forgiveness which Jesus has earned for us comes life, even eternal life. “Today you will be with me in Paradise,” means that heaven is ours, now. It is a present reality. Certainly we will not move in until after our physical death or the Lord’s return, which I always remind you will be sooner than we know and sooner than we might imagine, but we do not need to concern ourselves with where we will spend eternity. Heaven is ours.
 

As we stand at the cross of Jesus, everything that is happening to Him should rightly be happening to us. We are the ones who deserve to suffer hell. Our sins earned eternal death for us. As Jesus speaks from the cross He speaks, not only to the people who are there at that time but, to us some two thousand years later. Thanks be to God that Jesus came to give His life so that we might have forgiveness, so that we might have eternal life, so that heaven might be ours. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Confessing, Jesus Is Lord - First Sunday in Lent - March 9, 2025 - Text: Romans 10:8b-13

In our text for this morning Paul reminds us that we cannot confess something with our lips if it is not in our hearts. Paul does not say it, but I think we would all agree that there are times when we may try to confess something that is not in our heart (I believe they call it acting), but our actions give us away, because our actions speak louder than our words. We simply cannot confess with our lips what we do not believe in our hearts. Paul also reminds us that we cannot believe in something or for that matter, in someone, unless that faith comes from somewhere. In other words, our confession must first be put into our hearts before it can be on our lips and before it can be acted out in our lives. Paul tells us that what we confess is put in our mouth and in our hearts and that confession comes from the Word. This morning, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word, that is, through the Word of Holy Scripture, we will come to be given that word that is put in our mouth and in our hearts so that we too may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
 

Our text begins by saying that “The word is near you.” The word that is translated “word” in our text is not the same word which is translated “Word” in John’s Gospel. You might remember that when John talks about, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” that the word John is using is the word “logos” which is used in reference to Jesus Christ Himself. The word which is translated “word” in our text for today is the word “rhema” which is used to mean the smallest unit of discourse, either spoken or written. While this word is a reference to the word of Holy Scripture, it is used to mean the very word or words we are given to profess with our mouths.
 

Paul reminds us that the Word is a means through which the Holy Spirit works to give us the gifts God has to give to us. The Word is a means through which the Holy Spirit works to give us faith in our heart. The word of God, the Bible is a book that is different from all other books. The Bible is different from any text book, Math, Science, History, English, Social Studies and the like. The Bible is different from any other book, a novel, a short story, poetry and the like. All these other books may be good books. They may be good for getting an education. They may be good for a bit of escape from the world. They may even have good moral lessons, but they are not the same as the Bible. The Bible is a book with power. Every Bible comes with the extra feature of the Holy Spirit. No other book can do what the Bible can do. Many people have tried to read the Bible to disprove it, only to be given faith through it. This ability is why we say the Bible is efficacious, that it effects or does what it says. The Bible is the word of God given to us through which the Holy Spirit works to give us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. It is a most precious word, indeed.
 

The word of God is that word which gives faith and that faith is what motives a confession with one’s lips. How can we confess what is not in our heart? The word of God gives faith, thus we are confessing what is in our heart, put there by God Himself through His Word.
 

There is something even more important about this particular confession than there is with all other confessions. This confession, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Jesus Christ is Yahweh, that Jesus Christ is true God, is a saving confession. Certainly we can make many different confessions. We can confess that we have sinned, which we did at the beginning of this service and after which we hear words of absolution. We can confess that we are Americans. Or for some of us, that we are Texans. We can confess that we are members of St. Matthew Lutheran Church. Perhaps we have confessed our undying love for another person, but none of these confessions come close to the confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. The confession that Jesus Christ is Lord comes from our lips by way of our heart given to us by the Holy Spirit through God’s word, which highlights that importance of God’s word.
 

We see that heart and mouth go together. And, in our text, there are two more words that go together, they are the words faith and confession. Where there is no faith, there is no confession. We cannot confess what we do not believe. And conversely, where there is no confession, there is no faith. We cannot believe what we do not confess.
 

These two things, faith and confession go together and they come through means. They are not something we can get on our own. They are not something that we get immediately. In other words, they are not something that God usually gives to us directly. I say usually, because God can do whatever He wants and if He wants He can give faith immediately, or directly, He can, after all, we do have the case of Paul being given faith immediately. Personally I do not know of any other instances in the Bible of anyone being given faith immediately. God’s usual way of working with us is mediately. In other words, God’s usual way of working with us is through a mediator of sorts, through means, namely the means of grace, His word, the Bible about which we have just been speaking and the sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And we might rightly add the Lord also comes to us through the means of our confession and absolution. The Lord works through these means to give us faith and to strengthen and keep us in faith. The Lord works through these means to give us forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness, we know we have life and salvation. The Lord works through these means so that we might confess with our lips what is in our hearts, that is that we might confess that we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord.
 

About faith, Paul tells us that faith is for all. There is no distinction of people. Jesus died for all people of all place of all times, this dying for all is called universal atonement and in this instance it is a reference to what we call the order of redemption. Because Jesus died for all people, we are all equal in God’s eyes, equal as redeemed sinners, or as we have heard it saysed we are equal as sinner/saints. Which begs the question, if faith is for all, then why are some not saved? Some are not saved because they refuse the faith which God has to give to them. Instead they look for a faith and confession in something or someone other than Jesus.
 

Paul’s struggle in his day was the thought that, maybe, the Jews have ownership of God and the Old Testament. Today Paul might just as well write to confront us and to remind us Christians that we do not have ownership of Jesus and the New Testament. Rather, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Old and New Testament. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. We are not to “keep” the faith, we are to give it away. We are to share the faith with others as we boldly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
 

This morning we are reminded of the importance of the word, the message of salvation, the message of sins forgiven for Jesus’ sake. As we are reminded of the importance of the word of God, so we are reminded of the importance of getting the message out and the ways we bring people to hear the message. Here at St. Matthew we get the message out through our Sunday school and Bible class as well as through our divine service. We get the message out through our vocations, that is through our living lives as priests in the priesthood of all believers, offering our lives as living sacrifices for the Lord. We get the message out by always being ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. Through our lives as well as through the means of grace we proclaim the good news of salvation. We can and we do talk about Jesus being the Light of the world. We talk about how Jesus is true God, who gave up all the glory that was His in heaven, took on human flesh and blood and became one of us, one of His creation. We talk about Jesus giving His life for ours on the cross. And we talk about His resurrection. We talk about the forgiveness of sins He pours out on us. We talk about the most important things of life, the things of our real eternal life in heaven. We teach the basics of what we need for our short time in this fast and fleeting world, and we teach the most important lessons of life, the lessons of faith and confession which is for the forever world of heaven.
 

Paul’s words in our text for this morning remind us of the importance of making using of the means of grace, the instruments or the ways in which Christ has of coming to us to give us all His good gifts and blessings. The means of grace are so important. To understand how important are the means of grace we need to understand that if we stay away from them, then we are refusing them and we are refusing the gifts that God has to give. When we stay away from the gifts God has to give we are in essence telling God, “No thank you, I do not need any more gifts, I have plenty, maybe next week.” “I have enough forgiveness Lord, I don’t need any more this week, maybe next time.” God’s Word is a must for us, not just at church, but at work, at school, in our homes and in all aspects of our lives. It is imperative that we make regular and diligent use of the Word of God in our homes, reading and hearing the Word which tells us of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection; reading and hearing the Word though which the Holy Spirit works to point us to the cross; reading and hearing the Word through which the Holy Spirit works to give faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

All of God’s gifts and blessings are important. Unfortunately, when we absent ourselves from where He gives His gifts then we are refusing and rejecting the gifts and if we refuse and reject the gifts enough we will eventually lose them. Paul mentions the importance of the gift of faith. Faith is that gift which the Holy Spirit gives through Holy Baptism as well as through the Word. Faith is that gift which the Holy Spirit puts in our hearts. Faith is that gift which is an instrument which gives us the ability to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
 

And our confession is important. Our confession tells what is in our hearts, if we have faith or no faith. Our confession is as Paul says, “what saves us.” “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” So we rightly understand that if a person does not call on the name of the Lord, then they are not confessing His name, rather they are in reality refusing and rejecting His name, they are refusing and rejecting the gifts He has to give. A person will not call on the name of the Lord unless it is to confess His name.
 

Paul speaks well, and loud and clear to us this morning. “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” “because, 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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” The word is here for you to come and hear. It is also in your Bible for you to read and hear. I would urge you to make use of the Word so that the Holy Spirit may give you faith, strengthening your faith give you life and salvation, and give you the good confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Father, Forgive Them March 5, 2025 Ash Wednesday Text: Luke 23:34

This year, during the Wednesdays of Lent we will look at the words Jesus’ spoke from the cross. In the four Gospels we can count seven different times that Jesus spoke. The seven times that Jesus spoke were during His last six hours of life on the cross from nine o’clock in the morning, when He was nailed to the cross, until about three o’clock in the afternoon, when He died.
 

The very first words we have recorded of Jesus speaking from the cross are the words, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” So, we begin with the words, “Father, forgive them.” Jesus first words are not words for Himself, but words for us and His words of plea for us are directed to His Father, and our Father, in heaven. Jesus prays as our intercessor. He prays for us because the very reason He is dying on the cross is because of our sin which has separated us from the Father in heaven. There is only one thing which will undo what was done in the Garden of Eden and which is done by us on a daily basis, that one thing is forgiveness. The only way to get that forgiveness is through the shedding of blood, the giving of life. Remember in the Garden of Eden God told Adam and Eve that they were not to eat of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that they eat of it, they will surely die. And God was not speaking of only a physical death, nor of an immediate physical death. He was speaking of an eternal life in hell death. He was speaking of hell.
 

And remember, the price for human sin is human death. Although God established the ceremonial law of the sacrificial system in the Mosaic law, all those animal sacrifices did not suffice for the forgiveness of human sin. The price for human sins was and is human life, thus, we understand that Jesus had to be truly human in order to be our substitute. But, not only was He our substitute on the cross, but also for our whole life. The perfect, obedient life demanded of us Jesus came to live for us in our place as our substitute. Indeed, the fullness of the Gospel is the fact that Jesus lived for us, then took our sins, suffered the price for our sins, hell, died and rose for us.
 

As we are so often reminded, God created us to love us and so the very first thing we see is that Jesus first thoughts on the cross are for us. It was for us that He gave up all the glory that was His as true God in heaven. It was for us that He took on human flesh and blood, being born as a human, being born as one of His own creation. It was for us that He lived perfectly, obeying all the Laws perfectly. It was for us that He took our sins upon Himself. It was for us that He came to give His life, so that we might have forgiveness of sins; so that our relationship with the Father might be restored, so that we might have life, yes, physical life, but even more importantly, so that we might have eternal life, life in heaven.
 

And so Jesus words are words asking for forgiveness. Jesus does not ask that our sins be excused. He does not ask that they be overlooked. He asks that they be forgiven, paid for, dismissed, and remitted. Of course, we know that Jesus, and really only Jesus can make this request because He is the One paying the very price for our sins, giving His life on the cross. Note also, that Jesus’ life was not taken from Him, but He gladly laid down His life and gave His life.
 

Jesus asks that we be forgiven, “for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus is not making any excuses for us, He is merely explaining our sinful human nature. We act, not knowing what we do. We merely go along with the crowd. Notice the soldiers. They acted in ignorance. They did not know who Jesus was. They did not know that they were putting to death the Son of God. They were merely following orders.
 

Notice the followers of Jesus. They acted in ignorance. Some of the same people who one week earlier were standing on the road waiving Palm branches and shouting, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest,” were the same ones who shouted, “crucify Him.” They did not know what they were doing, they were merely going along with the crowd.
 

Notice Jesus’ disciples. Even they acted in ignorance. They all talked a good talk. Remember Peter, “even if everyone else deserts you, I will not,” and he went on to deny that he even knew Jesus and he denied it three times. Remember all the disciples discussing who would be first in the kingdom of heaven and they all ran off and left Jesus to fend for Himself. And whenever Jesus talked about His impending death, they wanted to hear nothing of the sort. After all, what kind of Savior would He be if He died. It was not until after the resurrection that they began to understand God’s plan of salvation.
 

Look in the mirror and we see ourselves. Yes, Jesus is looking through time and He is seeing us and He is speaking about us. We do not know what we are doing. Daily we sin much and are in need of forgiveness. Daily and deliberately we break the commandments. We simply cannot help ourselves. We are conceived and born in sin. Every intention of our hearts is evil all the time. Our nature is simply to sin and we do it well without any practice.
 

Jesus came, not just for the people of His day, not just for the people from the beginning of time until His time. Jesus came to give His life for all people of all places of all times. He came for you and for me. He came because we act in ignorance, daily, resisting and refusing God’s gifts. Yes, we have His Word. We know what is right and wrong, yet, we continue to do the wrong. We just cannot seem to help ourselves.
 

Lent is a time to be mindful of our sins. Jesus’ first words on the cross are a huge reminder that it was for us, for you and for me that He came to die. It was our sins that put Him on the cross. It was our sins that deserved death.
 

Jesus died because of and for me. He died because of my sins. Because I daily sin much and am in need of forgiveness, because I sin in ignorance, which is no excuse. Because I sin without even realizing that I sin. Sure, I know some of the sins that I commit, but I sin, more often than I know or realize because I do not know or recognize that what I am doing is sinning.
 

Jesus came to live and to die so that we might have forgiveness, so that we might have absolution. Again, ignorance is not an excuse for sin and absolution is not a licence to sin, rather, forgiveness and absolution attest to the fact that the sin was paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus shed His blood, He gave His life so that we might be forgiven.
 

Jesus’ death brings absolution for the world. Jesus died for all people of all place of all times. “Father forgive them,” means all those who have a part in Jesus’ death. We all have a part in Jesus’ death because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
 

But even more important to you and me than the fact that Jesus died for all people is the personal fact that Jesus died for you and me. Jesus’ death brings absolution for you and for me. The sin which separated us from the Father has been removed. We can now be confident that even though we sin, mostly in ignorance, because we do not know what we are doing, our sins are forgiven.
 

Today is the beginning of Lent. What better words could we have from the Lord than these, that we begin with words of forgiveness. That we begin with words of Gospel. That we begin with words that remind us that it was because of God’s great love for us, a love that cannot be understood according to human terms, but a love that can come only from God, a love that brings Jesus’ death, the shedding of His blood for us, the giving of His life so that we might have forgiveness and life. Jesus prays for us, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

We Are His House - March 2, 2025 -b The Transfiguration of our Lord/Last Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: Hebrews 3:1-6

Peter, James and John were privy to witness something the rest of the Apostles did not get to witness, at least not while on earth. Peter, James and John witnessed Jesus in all His glory and Peter’s response was, “Let’s build three houses.” Of course, we are let in on the fact that Peter did not know what he was saying and we might notice that James and John said nothing. And we know Peter, he says it like it is, no thinking, simply blurting out what is on his mind. Peter’s instinct was that this experience was, and if you will pardon the pun, a great mountain top experience and as is the case with most such experiences, we do not want them to end so we want to find a way to keep them going. Peter’s thought, “Let’s build three houses,” so this experience will not have to end. So, this morning, we will focus our attention on looking at the building of at least one house. In order to build a house that will last, the first thing that must be built is the foundation.
 

In our other readings for this morning we get our foundation. In the Old Testament reading we have the account of the death of Moses. Moses was a faithful leader in Israel. He did not choose his lot to be such a leader and as we know of his life, his history, he was rather a reluctant leader making excuses and asking the Lord to send someone else.
 

In our Gospel reading we have the account of the transfiguration of Jesus, the account of what marks our celebration of this day, this Sunday, Transfiguration Sunday. It must have been some sight to see, the transfiguration of Jesus, or as the Greek word literally says, the metamorphosis of Jesus. Jesus was morphed, that is He was changed so that the Apostles saw Him in His heavenly glory. Why this change? So that He might be able to consult with those who were already in their heavenly glory, Moses and Elijah, the great leader and law giver, and the great prophet of Israel.
 

In our text for this morning, we have words from the writer who, later in chapter eleven, recounts for us the great men of faith and in this text he gives us, what amounts to, a comparison of two great men of faith, Moses and Jesus. As for this man, Moses, he was a great man, especially by human standards we would say he was a great man. He was raised by the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Certainly he attended the best of schools, had the best teachers, and gained knowledge concerning everything that was known in his day. Later he continued his education while caring for sheep in the wilderness, giving him knowledge concerning life outside the protective confines of the kings castle.
 

More important than his education, was the fact that he was faithful. He was a faithful servant of the Lord. As we said earlier, he was reluctant, but he did lead and he did lead as the Lord commanded him to lead. Even while facing the adversity of the people he was leading he remained faithful to the Lord and to His leading. As a matter of fact, his faithfulness was seen in the glow of his face from his communing with the Lord.
 

And in essence, in one sense we might say that Moses “built” the children of Israel. They were slaves. They were in bondage. They were not wilderness nomads, but shepherds. They were not soldiers and fighting men, but workers. As Moses lead them out of bondage of slavery they had to learn how to live in the wilderness as well as how to be soldiers. Moses lead them, taught them, and even ruled them as prophet, priest and judge.
 

And finally, Moses brought them to the border of the promised land. But, of course you may remember, because of his own frailty and sin, because of his own doubt and disobedience, because he hit the rock instead of speaking to it, Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land, but he did bring the people to the point of entering into their promised possession. This Moses, is certainly a great man and a great leader.
 

Yet, the writer of Hebrews tells us that there is one greater than Moses and of course we would agree, that the one greater than Moses is Jesus. Moses was a great man, Jesus is our great high priest. Jesus is the one who hears and answers our confession, giving us forgiveness of sins.
 

Moses was faithful, reluctant, yet faithful. Jesus was faithful. He was not reluctant, but of His own will gave up the glory that was His in heaven in order to be born a man, in order to be our Savior. He actively obeyed all God’s laws perfectly. He actively fulfilled all God’s prophecies perfectly. He was faithful even to the point of death, death on a cross. He passively allowed Himself to be crucified and nailed to the cross. He came, freely. He lived perfectly. He freely obeyed all God’s laws. He freely fulfilled all God’s promises concerning Himself. He freely took our sins upon Himself. He freely was obedient, even obedient to death on a cross.
 

Thus, Jesus “built” the true “Israel.” To be a part of Israel is not something that one gains through a birth line, it is not a physical right or entitlement, it is not automatic, rather it is a gift that is given through faith and through faith in Jesus Christ alone. A true “Israelite” is not one by birth, but a true “Israelite” is one who has faith in Jesus alone. All believers, that is all who are members of the Holy Christian Church are true “Israelites.” You and I, those who have faith in Jesus Christ alone are true Israel.
 

Most of all, we see Jesus as greater than Moses, because, although Moses brought the Children of Israel out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt, Christ brings us out of our bondage of slavery to sin and ultimately He brings us to heaven, the greater promised land.
 

What does this mean? Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Today is the day we see Jesus in His heavenly glory while here on earth. We have been following along with Jesus’ life. We witnessed His birth, lowly, humbly, born in the small town of Bethlehem and placed in a manger. We witnessed the announcement to the shepherds as well as their visit to see the baby Jesus. We witnessed as the Magi from the East, led by God by the star, traveled many miles in order to be the first Gentiles to witness and worship the Christ Child, God in flesh, God incarnate, God in flesh made manifest. We witnessed Jesus’ presentation in the temple and we heard Simeon’s words professing that this was the Messiah who was promised of old. We witnessed Jesus’ baptism and heard the voice of God the Father pronouncing Jesus as His Son. We witnessed Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and saw how He never gave in to Satan’s temptations and never sinned. And today we bear witness of the beginning of the end, at least the beginning of the end of Jesus’ earthly life. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent. When Jesus comes down from the mountain He is ready to go to Jerusalem one last time, in order to be crucified.
 

The writer of Hebrews presents us with Jesus who is greater, even than Moses. The writer writes concerning the fact that the one who builds the house is greater than the house itself. As we have said, Moses helped to build the Children of Israel, but Jesus is the ultimate builder. Moses helped to build a people who, unfortunately, as we have been studying in Bible Class, time and again broke their covenant with the Lord, and even gave up their covenant. Their ultimate giving up of the covenant is seen in their rejection of Jesus.
 

Jesus came to fulfill all the law and the prophets. And He did fulfill all the law and the prophets perfectly. At His transfiguration we have Moses, the giver of the Law and Elijah, the great and even the greatest prophet in Israel come down from heaven in order to make sure Jesus had accomplished and was accomplishing all that He came to accomplish. In essence, Jesus came to do what all the people of Israel could not do and to do what we cannot do. God’s command to Adam and Eve was to obey Him and not eat of the forbidden fruit, yet they failed, they disobeyed and ate. God’s covenant with the Children of Israel was that He would be their God and they would be His people. They were simply to believe in Him and obey His commands, yet they failed. Time and again they failed and ultimately at their rejection of Jesus they failed. God’s command to us is that we are to be perfect even as He is perfect, yet, time and again we fail. Daily we sin much and are in need of forgiveness. Daily we sin, not against just one commandment, but two, three and sometimes even all ten. As we confess, we sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, not doing as we ought and sins of commission doing the things we should not. Indeed, our greatest need is not the physical comforts of this world, as God provides all that we truly need. No, our greatest need is forgiveness of sins. Without forgiveness we would be left in our sins and eternally lost and condemned, but with forgiveness is life and salvation. Not only does Jesus take care of all our physical, bodily needs, He has taken care of our greatest need, forgiveness of sins. And that is what He came to do and what He did.
 

Thanks be to God that Jesus has not, does not and never will fail. The very foundation of the Christians Church, the New Israel, if you will, is Jesus Christ Himself. As Peter confessed and as Jesus acknowledged His confession, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and on this confession, on Jesus Christ Himself God builds His Church. The covenant, first given in the Garden of Eden, first given even before there was a Jew and a Gentile, the first covenant given to all people continues even today. The covenant reiterated to the Children of Israel was broken, not by God, but the Israelites, meaning they gave up having a part in His covenant, at least the earthly part, the Mosaic Covenant. The covenant that was first given and continues today continues to be a covenant of grace. Jesus makes us a part of His kingdom by grace, through faith. Jesus is the foundation of the House of the Holy Christian Church. Jesus is the one who has accomplished everything that needed to be accomplished. And He gives everything to us. Yes, the children of Israel were a great people, but the people of God, the people of Christ Jesus are even greater as He is the foundation, the chief cornerstone, and the Builder.
 

This morning we come and once again we witness something great. Truly we witness the greatest thing we can witness here on this earth. Every Sunday morning we are privileged to come and bear witness, not only of our Lord, through the witness of His Word and Sacraments, but we are also privileged to bear witness of our forgiveness and our salvation. Our reaction, each and every Sunday morning, might rightly mirror that of the Psalmist who spoke well when he said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Ps. 122:1). Or our reaction might mirror Peter’s reaction in our text, “Let’s build three houses,” “let’s not leave this place,” “Don’t make me go home.” My prayer for us all is that as the Lord has His way with us, our desire might be even more the desire of Peter, the desire to continue to be given the gifts the Lord has to give. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Christ Has Been Raised - February 16, 2025 - Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: 1 Corinthians 15:(1-11) 12-20

Today is the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany. Next Sunday will be the seventh and last Sunday after the Epiphany. The following Sunday is the Sunday of Transfiguration which is followed by Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, and I would add an, “Already!” So now you might be asking, “If we have not yet gotten to Lent why do we have an Easter text for this Sunday?” Three possible answers are; 1) because every Sunday is an Easter Sunday; 2) because the resurrection is the climax of Epiphany; 3) and because we want to prepare ourselves for the Lenten season by moving our focus to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our Epistle lesson for today also helps us focus our attention on one essential difference between the Christian church and all other religions. We in the Christian Church worship a risen, living God. All other religions worship some dead person or some dead person’s ideologies. Paul writes to the Corinthians and to us to show us that we do worship a risen, living Lord. Paul’s method of argument is what we would call an argument from negative consequences. In other words, Paul argues, “look what sad shape we would be in if Jesus’ resurrection were not a fact, as it is.”
 

As we begin looking at this text we can see that Paul has some opposition in the church, or in the community surrounding the church at Corinth. Evidently there were some people, philosophers, maybe even those we call Gnostics, who were proclaiming that there is no resurrection. Certainly we understand that Paul is writing to us today, because we still have those in our world who deny the resurrection of Christ. Some even denying the very existence and life of Christ. As we read and hear Paul’s words to us this morning we understand that not only is Paul writing to settle the problem and to show the Christians at Corinth that Jesus did rise from the dead, his words have great meaning and value to us as we too might set out to “prove” Christ’s resurrection in our world today.
 

As Paul begins his argument, notice that he keeps himself out of the argument. He simply points to Christ and His Word. These are not Paul’s words. Paul does not speak for himself he is merely passing on what he first received from the Lord. Thus, these are the Lord’s Words. It is like Paul telling them, if you have an argument, take it up with the Lord. Likewise, this is how the pastor should preach every Sunday, not his words, but the words of the Lord. If you have an argument, do not take it up with the pastor, take it up with the Lord, because they are His Words which are simply delivered by the pastor. Of course, this does not negate our being as the Bereans, checking out what the pastor says to make sure that what he says is from the Lord.
 

So, we get to Paul’s argument. And again, as we mentioned, he argues from the negative. He begins by saying, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised” (v.16). Simple enough, if this is true, that the dead are not raised,  then the opposite cannot be true, that the dead are raised. Paul asserts, however that the opposite is true, that is that the dead are raised, because Christ has been raised and there have been eyewitness accounts of Christ’s resurrection. This fact that the dead are raised means that it is not true, that the dead are not raised. Even Paul himself witnessed Christ raised from the dead on the way to Damascus. So, we know that it is not true, that is that if the dead are not raised then not even Christ as been raised, because we know that it is true that Christ has been raise so then the dead are raised. Bottom line, the dead are raised, which means there is a resurrection of the dead.
 

Paul’s second negative argument states that, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (v.17). How well we know of the importance of forgiveness. Without forgiveness we do not have life, eternal life or salvation. Without forgiveness our faith would be futile, we would have no hope. The negative consequence, if Christ has not risen from the dead, that would mean hell for us all. However, and thanks be to God, we know that we are not still in our sins. We have Jesus’ words as He spoke to many people when He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” So, if our sins are forgiven, then Christ has been raised from the dead.
 

Paul continues his negative argument stating that, “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (v.18). If Christ had not been raised from the dead, not only would we have no hope for ourselves for life and eternal life, there would be no hope for those of our loved ones who have already died. Paul calls them the ones who have fallen asleep. Even if they “fell asleep,” that is even if they died with faith, they would still be lost, and Paul adds the big “if”, “if Christ has not been raised.” How would you be able to face anyone who has had a loved one fall asleep, that is die? If there were no hope of a resurrection, death would be the final victory. Yes, we know that Jesus told the thief on the cross, “This day you will be with me in paradise.” The thief died and is in heaven, with Jesus, so Jesus must have been raised. And those who have already fallen asleep, those who have already died must also be in heaven. Now that is hope, or as we stated a couple weeks ago, as Christians that is a certainty.
 

Finally, Paul’s last negative argument is that, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (v.19). How true! If we are hoping for eternal life, life after death; if we are putting all our hope in Jesus’ resurrection for this eternal life; and if Jesus really did not rise from the dead and if there really is no eternal life, then our hope is hopeless, our hope is useless, we are to be pitied. Another way of saying this is: If the commercial is true, “you only go around once in life, so you have to grab for all the gusto,” then why should we waste our time in reading the Bible, going to church, attending divine service, praying, praising Him and the like? If this life in this world is all we have, if this life is all that we are going to have, then we should be spending our time making a name for ourselves and leaving our mark. And unfortunately, this attitude is the attitude of much of our society. Too often our own actions show that we put more hope and trust in our lives in this world than we do in our eternal life. We spend more time busying ourselves with the things of this world and trying to convince ourselves and others that this is what we should be doing, rather than spend our time getting ourselves ready for our real life, our lives in heaven.
 

Our text has one last verse. And by the time we get to the last verse of our text I think we are ready to say, “thank God.” Paul moves from his negative arguments to stating emphatically, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v.20). Paul’s words are words of reassurance that Christ has been raised. He does not state it here, but we can read through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and we can read through the first part of Acts where we have testimony after testimony, eyewitness account after eyewitness account of those who saw Jesus risen from the dead.
 

And we know that, because Christ has been raised from the dead this fact means that we too will rise again. Christ is the “first fruits” of those who have fallen asleep, who have died. Christ is the first one who was raised from the dead, showing His total defeat of sin, death and the devil. Through our Baptism or conversion we have a part of Christ’ resurrection. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. He rose, we too will rise.
 

Thus, we consider ourselves not to be pitied. For us there is hope, not the “iffy,” “maybe” hope of this world, but the sure and certain confident hope of faith in Christ. We know that Christ was raised from the dead. We believe the eyewitness accounts. We trust God and His Word as He told us that this resurrection would happen. We believe Jesus as He speaks to us through His Word and as He comes to us through His means of grace.
 

I said it as I began this morning, but I believe it bears repeating. We, Christians, members of the Christian Church, the Christian religion, if you will, are different from all other religions in the world. All other religions worship either an idol, a dead person, or the ideologies of a dead person. Even the humanists of our own society here in America tells us that we should worship what amounts to ourselves. Which means we become our own gods, goddesses, or idols. We are told to look inside ourselves, to look deep down inside ourselves to find the answers to life’s questions, to find the comfort, hope or joy we might gain from this life. Self worship amounts to worshiping a dead god as well because we are living in bodies that are set to die while still on this earth. On the other hand, as Christians, we worship a living God. We worship a God who gave up the glory that was His as God, took on human flesh and blood, became one of His own creation, lived the perfect life demanded of His Father, took all our sins, our disobedience, suffered and died for us in the most cruel of deaths, death on a cross, and rose again.
 

Paul’s words in our text encourage us to believe the testimonies that we read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. As we read these testimonies we have faith in the facts of the resurrection.
 

The facts of the resurrection give us faith in our forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ death earned forgiveness for us on the cross. With forgiveness we have hope in and the certainty of our eternal salvation.
 

Because of what Christ has done for us, living the perfect life demanded of us for us in our place, taking our sins and paying the price for our sins, for us, giving His life for ours, because of the forgiveness we have, because of the assurance of heaven that is our, and because the Holy Spirit works in and through us, we then reflect that love for others as we share the good news of salvation with others, through our thoughts, our words and our actions.
 

How fitting it is that we have a resurrection text as our text for this morning. Yes, we did just celebrate the birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord, but we are reminded that He was born to die. In just two weeks we will celebrate Transfiguration Sunday after which we will begin tracing Jesus’ last days of ministry to and through Jerusalem, following with Him to the cross and the grave before we celebrate what has been our text for today, His resurrection. May the Lord give us the strength that we need as well as the understanding and eyes that see as we live our lives to His glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Excel in Building up - February 9, 2025 - Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20

This week we continue in our reading of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Last week we learned about love in particular we learned about agape love that is about a love that is a self-less concern for another person, a love so great that one would lay down their life for another person. And what we learned about this type of love is that it is a God-like love, and truly a love that only God can have for us. Agape love is that love with which only the God-man Jesus can love. Paul reminded us that there is no greater love than this agape love our Lord has for us, so much that He gave His life for ours on the cross. This week Paul reminds us that it is this love that the Lord has for us which we dimly and imperfectly reflect to others. In our reflecting the Lord’s love to one another, we build up the body of Christ, which is the church. Paul continues telling us about spiritual gifts, in particular those gifts which God gives to us at our Baptism or conversion. Those gifts which we are to use for the edification, the building up of the church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Those gifts which are to be used for extending God’s kingdom, sharing His Word with others, especially those in our own neighborhood, and thus, those gifts which we use to give glory to our Lord.
 

I want to begin this morning by answering the question, “what are spiritual gifts?” True spiritual gifts come with two criteria; they are those gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit and those gifts that are given only to Christians. In several of his letters Paul lists some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I say some, because Paul never intends to give a complete listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul never intends to give a complete list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because you cannot give a complete list of the gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives gifts even some for which we are unable to name. He gives all the gifts that He has to give and He gives a whole lot more. That is just the way it is with God and the gifts He has to give. Remember, God does not do fractions. He does not gives us some of His gifts now and tell us He will give us some of His gifts later. God always gives us the whole lot of His gifts now and a whole lot more later. Thus, in his letters to the Romans, Corinthians, and Ephesians Paul outlines some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Certainly, you have heard some of these mentioned and the fact that each list does not list the exact same gifts of any of the other lists is another reminder that Paul is not trying to make an exhaustive list of such gifts. Some of the gifts Paul mentions are: the gifts of prophecy, pastoring, teaching, wisdom, knowledge, exhortation, discernment, giving, helping, mercy, missionary, evangelism, hospitality, faith, leadership, administration, miracles, healing, speaking in tongues, interpretation, apostleship, celibacy, intercession, martyrdom, and serving, just to name a few.
 

The Holy Spirit gives Spiritual gifts only to Christians. These gifts are not to be confused with talents that people have, although they may be similar. People, Christians and non-Christians alike have many talents, such as arts and crafts, music and acting, sports and recreation, and the like. I guess we could put it in simplistic terms and say that the difference between talents and spiritual gifts is that spiritual gifts have more of a spiritual nature to them. Or better said, spiritual gifts are those gifts the Lord gives for the sake of His people, that is so that we might be strengthened in our faith and so that the Lord’s kingdom may be extended, that is so that we might share the good news of salvation with others so they too might be a part of God’s kingdom, so that He may be given praise and glory.
 

Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit at our Baptism or conversion and are given for the purpose of edifying the Church, that is, the Body of Christ. If what a person is doing is not edifying the church then they are either not using their spiritual gift, or they are misusing their spiritual gift. Evidently this was at least a part of the problem in the church at Corinth, people were misusing their spiritual gifts. They were using their spiritual gifts as a way of “one-up-man-ship” with others. “I am better than you because I have this spiritual gift.” Much like people continue to do in the Christian church still today. “If you do not have a certain spiritual gift, or show that you have a spiritual gift, then you are not saved,” is what we are told. Paul would tell us that this is not how we build up the body of Christ and so instead of using our gift to edify the church we would be using our gift to tear down.
 

We are given spiritual gifts so that we might use them to bringing glory to the Lord. If we are using our spiritual gifts for any other reason, such as for self glory, then we are not using them to the glory of the Lord and instead we are misusing them. And we are sinning. If we are not using our spiritual gift in service to the Lord in this place then we are sinning sins of omission.
 

Getting to the practical part of spiritual gifts, how do we know what is our spiritual gift and how do we know how to use it? Your spiritual gift is something you like to do and is something you find “easy” to do. It is something that you do for the building up of the body of Christ, the church. It is something you do to the glory of the Lord. There are a “ton” of books available about spiritual gifts. I would not recommend any. Instead I would recommend reading through Paul’s letters to the Romans, the Corinthians and the Ephesians. Read through the lists of Spiritual gifts that Paul gives and then experiment. Try doing some of the things that are mentioned. Your spiritual gift or gifts are those things that “come easy,” are enjoyable, and are done for the edification of the body of Christ and to the glory of the Lord. But remember, as I have spoken about before, you may never know what your individual spiritual gifts is and that is okay. The important thing is not that you can identify by name your own personal spiritual gifts, but rather that you use your gifts for the purpose of encouraging and building up the body of Christ, to extend His kingdom, and to give praise and glory to His Holy Name.
 

I said it earlier, but I do need to say it again, God gives us spiritual gifts to use. If we do not us the gifts that God gives to us, then we are sinning, we are sinning by refusing the gift that He has given to us. Likewise, if we misuse our spiritual gifts, using them to tear down, rather than build up the body of Christ, or using them for self glory, rather than using them to the glory of the Lord, we are also sinning.
 

We will want to exercise caution when exploring our spiritual gifts. I know I have talked about this issue before, but it has been some time ago. There are those who would encourage us to identify what gifts we have so that we can use them for service in God’s Kingdom, unfortunately this identification may also lead us to think that if we have not identified ourselves with any one particular spiritual gift then we have an excuse to not serve the Lord in other ways. In other words, if we were to identify our own personal spiritual gift, we might end up thinking, “well, I would like to help on this particular board or committee, but my spiritual gift lies in another area, so I cannot serve.” And that would not be using the gifts God has to give, but would indeed be refusing the gifts. And also remember, not using God’s gifts is gift refusal and is sin.
 

As I was looking at this text and working on this sermon I got to this point and I had to ask the question that I hope you are asking, “where is the cross?” My first answer is rather simplistic, but it works. It is the cross on which Christ died that He earned our greatest spiritual gift, forgiveness of sins. Without the cross there would be no forgiveness, there would be no life, there would be no eternal life, and there would certainly be no spiritual gifts. None would be needed.
 

As I have done so at times in the past, so I continue to remind you that the main work of the Holy Spirit is to point us to the cross and to point us to Jesus. He points us to the cross through the means of grace, the Word, the Bible, Holy Absolution, and the Sacraments, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. If we absent ourselves from these means, we no longer see the cross. Without the cross there is no forgiveness and where there is no forgiveness there is no salvation. The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus and the cross through the means of grace, and as He works faith and strengthening of faith in our hearts, as He fills us with spiritual gifts. He gives us the gifts which we need to point still others to Jesus and the cross.
 

That brings us back to the point I mentioned earlier, if we do not use our gifts, then we are sinning, because to not use our gifts is to refuse the gift. And gift refusal means no gift.
 

We would do well to heed Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians. In order to heed Paul’s exhortation we will first, be mindful of the fact that God promises and does give us spiritual gifts and we are to use our spiritual gifts. Again, I would suggest making use of your Bible rather than some other book on Spiritual Gifts. Read through, especially, Paul’s letters to the Romans, Corinthians, and Ephesians. Try out some of the things mentioned. Your gift is that thing in which you find joy, peace, comfort in doing, and rewarding.
 

Second, we will use our gift for edifying the Church. If we are using our gifts to make ourselves look like someone we are not, if we are using our spiritual gift to put down someone in order to raise up ourselves, then we are not using it to edify the Church. We are using our spiritual gift properly when we are using it for the building up of the body of Christ.
 

Third, we will use our gift to the glory of the Lord. Similarly to what I just said, if we are using our gift for self-glorification instead of for giving glory to the Lord, then we are misusing our gift and we are sinning. Using our spiritual gifts to the glory of the Lord means that we use our gifts as we are motivated by the Lord, as He moves us to use our gifts and then as we use them to His glory.
 

This morning we are reminded that God gives. God gives us life at our conception, new life at our Baptism, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. God also gives us spiritual gifts to be His people in this place. That does not mean that we are perfect, by no means, because we still carry around our sinful nature. It is a struggle for us in life to use our gifts for the edification of the Church and to the glory of the Lord. My prayer for you is that as you continue to be in the Word, that you will continue to remember your Baptism, hear those most precious words of Absolution, that is that your sins are forgiven, and partake of the Lord’s body and blood in His Holy Supper, the places where our Lord comes to us to give us the gifts He has to give. And my prayer is that He will continue to work in you to use your gifts, the gifts He gives to you, for the building up of the body of Christ and to the praise and glory of the Lord. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.