tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69605168538041373102024-03-17T07:41:31.981-05:00Rev's RamblingsFor I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
~1 Corithians 15:3-5Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.comBlogger1159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-81138115496587854532024-03-17T07:39:00.003-05:002024-03-17T07:39:13.745-05:00Learning Obedience - Fifth Sunday in Lent - March 17, 2024 - Text: Hebrews 5:1-10<p style="text-align: justify;">The word “obey” is not necessarily a popular word in our world today. To some it gives a negative connotation of being inferior or under someone else, or to be in someone else’s control. Even my dictionary says that part of being obedient is to submit to another’s control. Here in America we have come to believe that we are self-made people, that we make our own decisions and that we are under no one’s control. This lack of control, lack of obedience is one reason for chaos and anarchy in our society today. The problem is that we have come to misunderstand that we are not free from control, it is just the controller, so to speak, who has changed. Paul would describe it this way, we are no longer under the control of our loving Lord, rather we are under the control of sin. We are obedient, whether we want to be or not, it is just where does our obedience lay? In our Epistle lesson we read of Jesus’ obedience and where that lead.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The writer to the Hebrews first lays out the Office of the High Priest. We begin at verse one, “1For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’; 6as he says also in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek’” (v. 1-6).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The high priest who would offer sacrifices was the one who was elected from his brethren. He did not elect or appoint himself. Every year on the day of atonement the chosen Priest would enter the most Holy place to offer sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Not only was this high priest elected from his brethren, he was also called and appointed by God. Thus, we see two parts to the election to the office of the high priest, that is that one is elected from his people and one is chosen by God. This election reflects the calling processes of our church body in calling a man to be a pastor in any given congregation, that is that a man does not elect himself or call himself to be a pastor, but he is chosen by a congregation and this choosing is as directed by God. To put it more succinctly, God calls the man through the congregation to be the pastor in that congregation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The writer to the Hebrews now moves to speaking about our Great High Priest, even Jesus Himself. Our text continues with verse seven, “7In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (v. 7). The first image that comes to mind is the image of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. As we read through each of the four gospels we continually find Jesus in prayer, but the most vivid image of Jesus in prayer is when He was in the Garden praying, even pleading, that there might be some other way to save the world. Jesus was a human being. He had the human emotion of humiliation and of not wanting to be crucified. But while praying in the Garden, as He always did, He prayed for the will of the Father. Jesus did not try to get out of doing the Father’s will, rather He prayed so the He might be sure of the Father’s will and being sure of His Fathers will He proceeded with confidence to lay down His life for the world.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God the Father answered Jesus’ prayer, not by taking the crucifixion from Him, but by giving Him the strength to go through His suffering and death and ultimately by raising Him from the dead. God the Father answered Jesus’ prayer in that through Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection He saved all people from their sins. He saved us, you and me from our sins.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moving on and picking up at verse eight we read about true obedience, “8Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (v. 8-10). Jesus was obedient. He was a perfect child. He was a perfect teenager. He was a perfect adult. He was perfect and obedient in all things. He did what Adam and Eve were unable to do. He did what the nation of Israel was unable to do. He did what we are unable to do. He was perfectly obedient and ultimately He was perfectly obedient in our place, for us, to the point of death.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">His perfect obedience became the source of our eternal salvation. By faith in Jesus, His perfect obedience has become our perfect obedience. By faith in Jesus, His death has become our death and ultimately His resurrection will become our resurrection. Even in our Gospel Lesson Jesus refers to His obedience unto death, meaning that this was the fulfillment of the Father’s plan for the salvation of the world and through it He would be glorified.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The words of our text offer to us Jesus as an example of a high priest and specifically Jesus is called our High Priest. One of the jobs of a high priest was to pray for the people. Jesus as High Priest prayed for the people. Again, going back to the four gospels we have account after account showing Jesus in prayer, praying for the people.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As our high priest Jesus prays for us. Jesus stands before God the Father, our eternal judge, and prays for us. As we pray to the Father in Jesus’ name, Jesus confesses us before the Father and pleads for us along with our plea.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another job of the high priest was to offer sacrifices for the people. The people would bring a spotless lamb which the priest would sacrifice for the sins of the people. The problem with this sacrifice was that it had to be repeated over and over again, because the people continued to sin. The reason for these sacrifices was to show that blood had to be shed. The price for sin is death. The blood of an innocent lamb was shed for the forgiveness of sins of the guilty person. Being that people are sinful and do not stop sinning, sacrifices had to continually be made.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But, Jesus was a different High Priest. As our High Priest Jesus offered Himself, a sinless person, as a sacrifice for us. His sacrifice was the perfect sacrifice. His sacrifice accomplished for all people of all time and all places what the other sacrifices only pointed to, this ultimate sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the cross made all other sacrifices obsolete. No longer do we or anyone else need to make any kind of sacrifice to remind us of the price of sin. Jesus’ obedient suffering, death, and resurrection accomplished the forgiveness of all people of all time and all places, once and for all. Thanks be to God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? First, we must remember that in these historic accounts from the Bible as we learn about Jesus there is no moral to the story. I get quite concerned when I hear people talking about the moral of the story, especially when the reference is a Biblical parable or narrative account. The moral of the story is good for fables and the like, but with God’s Word there is no moral to the story, there is only Law and Gospel. So, first we must remember that the main message from God’s Words always is what God has done for us, and in today’s lesson, specifically, what God has done for us in and through Christ Jesus. Remembering what God has done for us then we move to seeing Jesus’ life as an example of how we are to live our lives. Right from the start then we will realize that Jesus was perfect and we are not, so any attempt to live as Jesus is really an attempt at futility on our part. But thanks be to God that He has sent us His Holy Spirit, so that with the Holy Spirit working in and through us we can accomplish great things. With the Holy Spirit working in and through us we can live our lives following Jesus’ example, but of course it is not we who are doing these great things, but God working through us, thus we say as always, to God alone be the glory. And I would always add, yet with God working these things in and through us we still accomplish them imperfectly.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Because of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, because we see Him in prayer, we learn that we too need to pray and that we can go to Him in prayer because He has experienced all the problems we are dealing with and even more. We can pray to Him because He understands all our trials and tribulations because He has already experienced the same ones and has overcome. We know that, because He has overcome, He will help us to overcome and win out in the end.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From Jesus we learn persistence in prayer, again with the help of the Holy Spirit. We know that God always answers prayer, even though sometimes His answer is no. We pray in all sincerity, with strength of belief and in persistence but we remember that these are not the reasons God answers our prayers. God answers our prayers for Jesus’ sake. That is why we end our prayers in Jesus’ name, remembering that He too is pleading our case before our Father in heaven.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From Jesus we learn what true submission and obedience really is. True submission and true obedience is to know that God answers prayer according to our need and according to His good and gracious will, according to what He knows we need. Perhaps that is reason enough that we should end our prayers, not only praying that God’s will be done, but also that we be able to accept whatever is God’s will.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From Jesus we learn obedience, but we realize that it is not our obedience that saves us, rather it is Jesus’ obedience that saved us. With the help of the Holy Spirit we too can be obedient as a response to what Jesus has done for us, and yet imperfectly.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">No matter how hard we try we can never be free from some kind of control. There is something or someone to which we will always be obedient. We can either remain in our sin and remain under that control, being obedient to sin, or we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit become obedient to our Lord. Obedience to the Lord entails remaining faithful, that is living our lives to His glory, despite what negatives that may have for our lives, including our own obedience to death. Jesus said it this way, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Love for our own life goes back to the garden of Eden and the desire to be our own gods. Hating our own life goes back to Jesus and His death on the cross because of our sins; we hate what our lives of sin have done for Jesus. Because of His great love for us, Jesus was obedient, for us, in our place, obedient even to the point of death. Now, remembering that in pointing to Jesus we are reminded that we love only because He first loves us, and we are obedient only as He has first been completely obedient giving His life for ours, knowing that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our works, yet saved to do the good works which God has initiated beforehand, my prayer is that you will not resist the working of the Holy Spirit so that He might have control of your life and work such obedience in you. Even if it is imperfect. God grant it for Jesus’ sake. And to Him be the glory. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-43295321435291282572024-03-13T08:11:00.002-05:002024-03-13T08:11:14.013-05:00The Law as Guide - March 13, 2024 - Fifth Wednesday in Lent - Text: Commandments; Ps. 119:105; 1 Timothy 1:8-11; 1 John 4:9, 11<p style="text-align: justify;">Last week we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the prayer. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about the Law as a guide in our lives. <br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In confirmation class we are taught and hopefully we learn that the Law serves three purposes, as a curb, a mirror and a guide or rule. The Law serves as a curb in that it attempts to keep order with its does and don’ts. Just as a curb on a street is there to keep cars on the street and off the sidewalk or out of the ditch, so God gives us the Law to keep us on the straight and narrow. The Law, and specifically speaking of the Ten Commandments, is intended to curb us from doing things we should not be doing and to move us to be doing the things we should be doing. Indeed, the Law is a list of dos and don’ts. When we do the things we should not be doing we sin sins of commission, committing things we should not commit. When we fail to do the things we should be doing, as Luther points out in his explanations to the commandments, “but we should . . . “ then we sin sins of omission, omitting to do what we should be doing.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Law as a curb is meant to attempt to control our behavior. Now we might understand that to control one’s behavior does not mean that one’s heart can be controlled as well and that is most certainly true. Thus, we see that although the Law may be an outward control it does not and cannot change our hearts.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Law also serves as a mirror, that is it shows our sins. The purpose of the Law is to show us our sins, to show us how sinful we truly are and how we cannot do anything to work off our sins or save ourselves. Although we may try to find some grey area in the Law in order to justify ourselves, our sinful thoughts, our sinful words and our sinful actions or sinful inactions, that is not the purpose of the Law. The Law as a mirror reflects our thoughts, words, and deeds so that we see how sinful we are especially compared to the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Himself. The purpose of the Law is to move us to hear the Gospel. Please note, although we may believe the purpose of the Law is to move us to repent, it cannot do so.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Law, without the Gospel never leads to repentance. The Law without the Gospel leads to works righteousness or despair. The Law leads to works righteousness when we believe we can actually keep the Law, that is that we can be the good obedient people the Law requires us to be. We believe we are good and are doing what we should be doing and not doing what we should not be doing. Or, the Law leads us to despair when we realize that there really is no way we can keep the Law so we begin to believe there is no hope for us so we despair and give up all together.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As you have heard me say many times before, the Law points us to ourselves. As the apostle Paul so well wrote to young pastor Timothy, “8Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (1 Timothy 1:8-11). Indeed, the Law shows us our sins.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, as Christians and only as Christians is the Law available and useful as a guide. We might suggest something to the effect that the Law is a rule book in the game of life in order to keep order so there is not anarchy and chaos. For the non-Christian, for those without faith, the Law is strictly a set of rules intended to hamper one’s freedom. But for the Christian, for those who hear, learn, know, believe the Gospel, as King David so well stated, for us the Law from God is “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). We rejoice in the Law, not because we believe we can keep the Law, but we know the Law is a gift from God to keep us, though imperfectly, on the straight and narrow.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Law is a guide only to those who have faith and thus desire to lead God pleasing lives. Without faith in Jesus or even in a god for that matter there would be no reason to need a guide. Indeed, if all life is but a survival of the fittest then the Law is seen as hampering one’s ability to survive, to get ahead. As Christians we rejoice in the Law, not because we believe we can keep the Law, but because the Law was given so that we might, with God’s help love our neighbor as ourselves, which is the second table of the Law, those Commandments dealing with our relationships with our neighbor.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Again, by faith, one is motivated to lead a God pleasing life. As Christians we rejoice in the Law because the Law was given so that we might, with God’s help, love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our might, which is the first table of the Law, those commandments which deal with our relationship with God Himself. As we have most certainly heard, if we could keep the first commandment we could keep them all. The problem is we cannot even keep the first commandment. And since we, since Adam and Eve, have broken the first commandment we cannot keep any of the rest. Since our relationship with God has been broke so have our relationships with each other and the purpose of the Law is to show us this broken-ness so that we might hear the good news of the Gospel and repent.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? As I said earlier, the Law without the Gospel leads to despair, believing there is no hope or to works righteousness, believing we can keep the Law. Thus, we see the importance of the Law as a curb and mirror, continually attempting to keep us on the straight and narrow and showing us our sins by reflecting our sinful lives compared to Jesus perfection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We know the Law does not motivate repentance, but only the Gospel. As you have no doubt heard my illustration of the teacher in the classroom who passed out new boxes of crayons to all her students with the warning to be careful and not break the crayon. Yet, several students did break the crayons so when the teacher asked if those students that broke crayons would place them on their desks, one student decided to not get in trouble and hid the broken crayon in the box. When the teacher picked up the broken crayons and gave new crayons that student did not get one because he failed to confess his broken crayon. Such is the Law without the Gospel. However, had the teacher proclaimed the Gospel, that she would give a new crayon for the old crayon, the student, motivated by the Gospel of forgiveness would have confessed the broken crayon and been given a new one.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, when Law and Gospel are confused and commingled it leads to moralism, such as Aesop’s fables. Moralism takes the Gospel and makes it into a new Law, such as if you want to be saved all you have to do is be good, choose Jesus, be obedient, dedicate your live to Jesus, and so forth rather than simply hearing the Words of the Gospel.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, the Law must be preached in all its harshness and the Gospel in all its sweetness. The Law must be preached so we can know just how sinful we truly are. And the Gospel must be preached so that we can know for sure, have the certainty that the reason God created us was to love us and the reason Jesus came into the world was to do for us what we could not and cannot do. Jesus came to live for us, to be obedient for us, to choose us, to dedicate His life for ours. Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus came to take our sins, all our sins and to pay the complete price for our sins so that nothing more need to be done. Indeed, the Gospel must predominate.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we continue in this Lenten Season, we too rejoice in the Law that although it is for us Christians a guide, when we are in our sin it still continues to be a curb and a mirror showing us our sins and our part in putting Jesus on the cross. But even more we rejoice in our privilege to hear the Gospel, the Good News of God’s great love for us, of Jesus living for us, of Jesus paying the price for our sins, of Jesus giving us the forgiveness He earned and of our gift and promise of eternal life with Him in heaven. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-40168782801324248152024-03-10T07:34:00.004-05:002024-03-10T07:34:20.326-05:00Dead and Alive - Fourth Sunday in Lent - March 10, 2024 - Text: Ephesians 2:1-10<p style="text-align: justify;">Our text for this morning contains a very familiar verse and one that is particularly important for us as Lutherans, the verse which reminds us that we are saved by God’s grace, through the faith which He gives to us, and not by our works. This verse is one which is important to us and sets us apart from other religions, cults and sects and even from many other denominations. Not only is our text for this morning familiar, so are the Old Testament lesson and the Gospel lesson.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the Old Testament lesson we hear the account of the grumbling of the children of Israel in the wilderness. As we follow the life of the children of Israel, we know that God took care of them, watched over them, provided for all their needs and yet, they still found things to complain about. In the Old Testament reading for today we hear them complaining about a lack of food and water, as if God had not provided these in the past and as if He would not continue to provide these for them now. They sound a lot like we sound today. God has provided for all our needs and yet, at times, we tend to doubt if He will continue to provide for our needs today and tomorrow. We would rather trust in ourselves than in Him. In the Old Testament reading we are introduced to what is called a type of Christ. A type of Christ is something which looks like Christ will look like when He comes. In the Old Testament reading the serpent is the type of Christ. The serpent is that thing which brought death, but is also that thing which would bring life. If a person was bitten by the serpent, the person would die, unless that same person looked at the image of the serpent on the pole which would then bring life to that person.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the Gospel Lesson we are given what we call the antitype, that is Christ Himself. Christ is the antitype. Christ is a human being, as well as truly God. In Genesis we are reminded that Adam, a human being, brought death into the world. In the Gospel lesson we are reminded of Christ, a human being, who brings life into the world. Thus, as a serpent brought death, so a man brought death and as one looked at the serpent on the cross to gain life, so we look at a man, Christ on the cross to gain life, eternal life. Paul expounds on this in our text for this morning when he reminds us that our salvation is ours by God’s free grace.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul begins by laying out our condition. We being with verse one, “1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (v. 1-3).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul reminds us that we are spiritually dead. We are conceived and born in sin. From moment of conception we are spiritually dead. And just as a physically dead persons cannot raise himself, so it is with spiritually dead people, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Indeed and unfortunately there are those that would suggest that we are to reach out to God, we are to choose, accept, or do something, anything to save ourselves, which is just as impossible as it is for someone to raise themselves from the dead.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Not only are we spiritually dead, we are also spiritually blind. We are so wrapped up and involved in our sinfulness we cannot see how sinful we really are. We cannot see what is right or good. Indeed and again unfortunately there are those who do not see their spiritual blindness and so unwittingly lead others to think they can do something, even anything to bring themselves alive from spiritual death.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thus, we are also enemies of God. If we are not for God, we are against Him. Paul says it this way, that we “follow the prince of the power of the air,” in other words, we follow Satan. Yes, we are enemies of God, fighting against Him. This fighting against God is, or rather, happens before Christ has His way with us, in other words, this was our condition.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">After laying out our condition, Paul lays out God’s rich mercy. We continue at verse four, “4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (v. 4-7).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God shows His great love for us in this that He raised us up with His grace and He did this while we were yet sinners. We talked about this a couple weeks ago, that is that someone might give their life for someone or some cause deemed worthy, but for someone or some cause deemed unworthy this would never happen. Yet, God shows His great love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, while we were sinning and fighting against Him, He gave His life for ours. This is just as John spells it out for us in our Gospel reading for this morning, the Gospel in a nutshell as we call it.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God in Christ has given His life for ours, yet God is not through with His giving. He also gives us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. As we talked about last week and many times before, the greatest gift we are given is the gift of forgiveness of sins, because with forgiveness of sins is life and salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And here, our Lord gives us a glimpse of His immeasurable riches in heaven. Our God is a gift giving God. He gives and we are given to. And when our Lord gives He does not give some now and hold off and give some more later. There are no conditions on His giving, that He will give us some now and if we do this or if we do that He will give us more later. No, our Lord always gives us the whole lot of His gifts and a whole lot more.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, in our text for this morning we have the infamous words that remind us that we are saved by grace through faith. We pick up at verse eight, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 8-10).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We are saved by grace and I do like how this is spelled out as, grace is “God’s riches at Christ expense.” God’s grace is His undeserved love. We do not deserve any of the gifts our Lord gives. As a matter of fact, this is what Paul is so well laying out for us, we are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God. There is no reason we should imagine that God owes us anything. And the more sinful we realize we are, the greater God’s great grace is understood. Yet, as we know, God’s grace did not come without a cost. While it costs us nothing, it cost Christ His life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We are saved by grace and through faith. This faith is something that is given to us as well, This faith is given through the means of grace and this faith is the instrument which grabs hold of and makes the rest of the gifts ours. Thus, we see that not only is faith important, but the object of faith is important. Not only does it matter that we believe, it also matters in whom we believe.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And finally, Paul does bring up the issue of good works. We are saved for a purpose, to do the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. Thus, we see that these are not good works we initiate, but these are good works which God initiates, which God works in and through us and which are done to His glory. Always the focus going back to our Lord. And what are these good works which God prepared in advance for us to do? They are works which the Holy Spirit works in and through us, so we can take no credit in these good works. They are good works which begin with loving God and loving our neighbor, and we show these good works by living confident lives of faith, that is by living with a joyous trusting attitude in all things. They are good works which include encouraging each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, encouraging each other in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They are good works which include spreading the good news of Jesus. They are good works which give glory to our great Lord.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What Does This Mean? We live in a world in which many people are looking for meaning and purpose. For too long we have been taught, and unfortunately too many people believe, that we are simply a product of many thousands of accidents. Our Christian country has digressed to the point of no longer being a Christian country but in being a country in which there are some Christians. As we look at the three lessons for this morning and in particular as we look at these texts wrapped up in our text, Paul reminds us, as Moses does in Numbers and as John does in his Gospel, that we do have a purpose. Our purpose in life is first and foremost that God created us to love us. As we were reminded last week, parents do not have children in order to be served by them, but parents have children in order to love them, care for them and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so our Lord created us, not to serve Him, as if He needs anything from us, but in order to love us, care for us and bring us up in His nurture and admonition.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God created us. We sin. God redeems us. God created us to love us and to do for us. At the same time, God redeemed us for a purpose, to do good works. But, lest we think in terms of our good works as something we do on our own, let us remind ourselves that our good works are good works because they are good works which He works in and through us. Remember Paul’s words, that these are good works which were prepared beforehand. God is the one who initiates. God initiated in the creation of the world. God initiated in our redemption. God initiates or gives us faith, bringing us from spiritual death to eternal life. And now we see that God initiated in our sanctification.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What a Great God we have. God does, God gives and we are done to and we are given to. And even when God does and gives, we continue to follow our former ways of resisting and sinning. We tend so much to be like the children of Israel. Thanks be to God that He does not and will not give up on us. Thanks be to God that He continues to do for us and give to us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What a great trio of lessons we have again this morning. With God’s Word, we cannot go wrong. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” So that, “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us,” has taken care of everything. God gives and we are given to. Thanks be to God and to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-61031179787744107692024-03-06T08:41:00.007-06:002024-03-06T08:41:37.420-06:00Prayer - March 6, 2024 - Fourth Wednesday in Lent - Text: First Petition; Ps. 19:14; Matthew 6:5-15<p style="text-align: justify;">Last week we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the correlation of faith and works. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about the prayer. What is prayer? What is the best prayer and why the Lord’s Prayer is the best prayer? And the importance of prayer, not for God, but for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, what is prayer? In confirmation class we define prayer as a heart to heart talk with God, anytime and any place. And we distinguish between prayer and a creed, as you might remember, we study the Ten Commandments followed by the Creed and then the Lord’s Prayer, so we distinguish between a creed and a prayer as such; a creed is a confession of faith. A prayer is simply speaking to God as we would speak to another person. I bring up this difference because on any given Sunday when we profess our faith using the creed many of us do so bowing our heads as if we are praying. And we can pray the creed, there is nothing wrong with that practice. However, perhaps we would do well to boldly hold up our heads and do as one of my friends said they do in their church, open the doors and confess and profess to the world.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But, I digress. A prayer is a heart to heart talk with God. I like the bumper sticker I once read that said, “As long as there are tests there will be prayer in public schools.” How true I am sure. A prayer does not necessarily have to be spoken out loud, although it is suggested by some that speaking our prayers out loud is a good habit as it helps us to hear what we are praying. To define prayer as a heart to heart talk with God helps us better understand that our prayer includes our thoughts as well as our words. Indeed, in my own life I often find myself in prayer, not out loud, but simply speaking to God as I walk or drive or whatever it is I may be doing.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Prayer is also a part of our conversation with God. A conversation is a two way path, God speaks to us through His Word, we speak to Him in prayer. We are reminded that God commands that we pray, but also He promises to hear our prayer and to answer our prayers. Although we often need to be reminded that sometimes God’s answer is “no.”<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Prayer is a gift from God, given to us so that we might know His love for us and His desire to hear us. Because prayer is so important He even gives us the best prayer, His Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer as we call it. In the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus taught His disciples and us to pray, at their request, Jesus gives us the very words to say and Jesus rejoices when we speak back to Him the very words He has given us to say, indeed, to pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer makes it the most perfect prayer because they are God’s perfect Word.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yet, not only has God given us the most perfect prayer, He has also given us all of Scripture and especially the Psalms. When we may be having a difficult time we can read through the Psalms and we can find great prayers throughout the Psalms, prayers that express the thoughts and feelings that we are having, but are not sure how to express them.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And again, as I said, Jesus rejoices when we speak back to Him the Words He has given us to say. One of my favorite professors expressed that all words are Law words until Jesus makes them Gospel words. So, here in His prayer, throughout the Psalms, in all of Holy Scripture, Jesus gives us His Word, Gospel Words to speak and to pray back to Him. And He rejoices when we speak His Word, His perfect Gospel Word back to Him.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Along with God’s gifts of faith, forgiveness and life is His gift of prayer. As we navigate the struggles of this world we see the importance of prayer and we see our need to pray. Truly it is we who need this gift of prayer and that is why God gives us His gift of prayer. Because God is omniscient, all knowing, certainly we know that God’s knows what we need even before we pray, which may bring us to wonder why then do we pray? We pray because of our need to acknowledge such needs. We pray because of our need to pray.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is the same with all that we do. We come to Divine Service because of our need to be given the gifts God gives in the Divine Service. While God might rejoice in our coming to Him to Divine Service and even to worship Him, He does not need our worship, as if it is our worship that keeps God going. Why do you thing we call our service, Divine Service, that is God service? Because first and foremost we come to be given to by God so that we might then be able to go out into the world and face the world for another week.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Again, all that we do, worship, pray, even bringing our firstfruits, tithes and offerings we do because of our need, our need to give, as a response of faith, we simply cannot help ourselves. God needs nothing from us. God does not need our prayers. God does not need our worship. God does not need our money. Why would we think that God would actually need anything from us? Speaking to the people on Mars Hill Paul expresses the fact that as the Creator of all, God needs nothing from us, rather He is the One who does all and gives all to us. As Luke relates the account, “22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:22-25). God gives and we are given to and He even gives to us to respond because of our need to respond.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? Prayer is another example of what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. God created us to love us and He does love us and He shows His love for us in all that He does for us and gives to us. God gives us His Word. The Word that God gives is a Word that effects, that does and gives what it says because it is a Word with power. When God says it, that settles it. God gives us His Word and His Word is the power in Holy Baptism, in Holy Absolution and in His Holy Supper.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God gives us His Word and today we rejoice that God gives us prayer, the privilege to communicate with Him, to speak to Him. He speaks to us and gifts us with all that He has to give through His Word and He gives us prayer to speak to Him responding in faith, acknowledging the gifts He gives and seek further gifts from Him, which is His greatest desire to give to us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God gives us His Word. God gives us prayer. And because of our need to respond to all that He does for us and gives to us, God gives us, stirs in us, and rejoices when we respond with our prayers as well as our thanks and praise.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Growing up I was always a bit concerned about Paul’s words of encouragement writing to the Thessalonians. Paul says, “16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). I had a difficult time understanding how one can “pray without ceasing.” Now that I am older and life seems to be throwing more and more difficulties at me I can truly understand Paul’s exhortation. Indeed, I can truly say that my life is a life of “praying without ceasing,” as I find myself constantly during the day in prayer, that is in a silent, thoughtful, heart to heart talk with God, whether that be in the morning brushing my teeth, driving to work, driving to see a shut-in or to the hospital, in prayer seeking an answer in Bible Class, asking the Spirit for the Words while preaching. Yes, I can see my life as being in constant prayer and I rejoice in this most blessed and wonderful gift that God has given to us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we continue rejoicing in the gifts of God, I would encourage you as Paul does to “pray without ceasing.” Speak to God as you would speak to a friend. His desire is to hear you and His desire is to pour out on you all the gifts and blessings He has to give. To paraphrase James a bit, “You have not because you ask not.” Today we rejoice in this most wonderful gift of God, the gift of prayer and even more in the most perfect prayer, His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. Thanks be to God for His gifts and love for us. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-15797858830701551472024-03-03T07:39:00.001-06:002024-03-03T07:39:06.652-06:00Wisdom and Strength - Third Sunday in Lent - March 3, 2024 - Text: 1 Cor. 1:18-31<p style="text-align: justify;">There seems to be a war going on in our world today, a war for the minds of people in general and a war for the minds of our children in particular. With the idealism that we want only the best for our children, that we want our children to have it better than we had it, that we really are looking out for what will make for a better future for our children, with such idealism we make some horrendous blunders in the name of education. With a great misunderstanding of wisdom and strength we make great strides toward raising the STAAR scores as well as college entrance exam SAT and ACT scores. We strive to make our children smarter than the children from other countries. More often than not all this striving is striving for human wisdom which our text reminds us is foolishness when compared to God’s wisdom.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul tells us that of the seeking of signs and wisdom there is no end. We have had sign seekers, of one kind or another, since the beginning of time. We have specially educated people who look into the sky to see what kind of weather we are going to have and when all is said and done their guess is usually no better than yours or mine. As we often joke, the job of a weather man is the only job one can have and be wrong more times than right and still keep his job. We have specially educated (and I say that loosely) people who look into the stars, or into cards, or tea leaves and so on to see what our future will bring. Today we have many sign seekers who want proof. We even have people in our own Christian churches who are seeking for signs as proof that a person is a Christian. We have forgotten what faith really is. Faith based on proof is no faith. But faith that is firmly based on the objective facts of the past and the hope of the future in heaven is true faith.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We have sign seekers and we have wisdom seekers. We have people who work for one degree after another thinking that if they just knew enough then they would have it made. And I have to admit that even I like to read, study and learn even more. But it gets worse, shall we say, as we even have people today who have studied so much that they believe they are smarter than the Bible. There are people who believe God’s word has become another book with stories that can be explained in human terms and there is nothing special about it. To these “educated” people, to believe in the so called miracles of the Bible is foolishness and is only for those people who need that as a crutch in their lives.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Is it no wonder that the proclamation of Christ crucified is a stumbling block? Why would anyone put their faith in someone who was condemned to die? Heros are not people who die, heros are people who overcome and win out in the end. The good always defeats the evil. Thus, Christ crucified is more than a stumbling block, it is a death trap, an eternal death trap.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Not only is Christ crucified a stumbling block, it is also foolishness. How can death be a way to life? It does not make sense to us that someone who is supposed to be our Savior dies. It is not logical that death is a way to life? To the unbeliever this is all foolishness.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But to those who are called, to the Christian, to us, it is the power and wisdom of God. No human being can raise another person from the dead, although our doctors and scientists are trying their best. Only the power of God can raise Christ from the dead. What more do we need as proof that Jesus is the Son of God than the witness of all those who saw Him alive after His resurrection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Christ resurrection showed the power of God, but it also shows the wisdom of God to save us from our sins. Remember in the beginning, back at creation, God created the world and everything in it perfect and everything was perfect until Adam and Eve fell into sin. Adam and Eve’s sin separated them and us from God. Physical death is a result of that sin and eternal death and hell is a result without faith in Jesus Christ. But, God in His grace immediately came up with the perfect plan to bring us back into a right relationship with Himself. His plan included the foolishness of the death of His only Son. Yet, even with that promise we continue to be sinners. Our Old Testament lesson for today is the account of the giving of the ten commandments. One quick skimming of those commandments puts us in our place and makes us realize what sinful people we really are. We constantly break our relationship with God by placing our human needs above our Lord, trusting in ourselves instead of relying completely on Him, by cursing and swearing, by neglecting to be in God’s Word, through personal reading of our Bible, through personal and family devotions, by not being in Bible Class as well as by not being in Divine Service every Sunday. We constantly break our relationship with our fellow human beings by being disobedient, not only to our parents, but also to those in authority over us, by killing and if not actual killing, by hurting and harming others through hating, name calling, and the like, through our lusting, through our stealing, through not only our gossiping, but also our listening to gossip, through our discontent and coveting. We break these commandments in thought, word, and in deed. And we break these commandments by doing something we are not supposed to do and by not doing what we are supposed to do.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Praise the Lord for the power and wisdom of God. Praise the Lord that His weakness is stronger than our power. We may think we have power, well, after all, we can blow up the earth, but in His power God said, “Let there be” and there was. God alone can create and destroy matter. We human beings can only change the matter which our Lord has created for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Praise the Lord that His foolishness is wiser than our wisdom. We may think we are wise, especially when we begin to explain the processes that occur in our world. This is where we need to constantly remind ourselves, lest we forget, that we are merely explaining processes. It is God who created all the processes, how long has it taken us to understand just a few? Oh, there are people who would like to explain away the world according to chance, but the faith it would take to believe those theories is much greater than the faith the Lord gives us to believe His truth.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From time to time I see a car with the Christian fish made with legs and the name “Darwin” inscribe in the middle. I have always wondered what it would be like to stop the person and asked, “So, how many years did it take for all those parts to come together by themselves to make your car?” Certainly, the person would look at me like I was crazy. And I did leave out the whole problem of where did the parts come from in the first place. If you would ask anyone this question they would think you were out of your mind. Yet, no one seems to mind suggesting that our bodies, which are even more complex than a car, evolved over millions of years. How much greater is the foolishness of God than the greatest wisdom of man.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What Does This Mean? There are basically two religions in the world. There is man’s religion and there is God’s religion. The religion of man is based on self-righteousness, on man’s reaching up to God, on man’s ability, his character, his working out his own salvation, his attempting to be the person God wants him to be. Basically, according to man’s religion, one must earn his or her salvation. A person is to do good and then he or she is saved.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And then there is God’s religion. God’s religion is based on grace. God does it all and gives it all. And God does it all and gives it all even though we are undeserving of any and all that He does and has to give. God gives salvation and then a person is motivated, again, by God, to respond, that is to do and to live.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thus, the cross is foolishness to the self-righteous and so they do not hear the preaching of the cross. The cross is simply another reminder of our sin and our inability to do anything about our sin. We like to think of ourselves as basically good people. Have you noticed how the people of our world flock to these churches that, basically tell people they are good people. And if we are basically good people, then we do not need anyone to pay any price for our sins, because basically we do not have any sin. This is man’s wisdom. Or should I say, “This is man’s wisdom?” (Said in a questioning tone). Remember, as I said last week and as I have said numerous times before, the forgiveness of sins is our greatest need and the greatest gift we are given to by God. For, without forgiveness, we are yet in our sins and we would be destined to eternal death and hell. When we think we are so good that we have no need for forgiveness, when we are not reminded of our sins so that we confess, then we remain in our sins and our destiny is set.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yet, as we see, there are many in our world today who revel in this foolishness and in this powerlessness. People flock to churches and seminars where they are told how good they really are and how they can do some many good things to please the Lord. There are many who believe God wants and even needs something from them. Here again we see human wisdom at its best. As Christians, as redeemed children of God, as sinners made saints through God’s grace which gives faith, forgiveness and eternal life we are certainly reminded, what could our God possibly need from us? He is the One who created us. He is the One who redeemed us. He is the One who is working in us our Sanctification. He created us in order to do for us and give to us, in order to love us. How many parents do you know have children so they can be served by their children? No, we have children in order to love them, care for them, and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We are God’s children and He created us to love us, care for us and nurture us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, if we are going to boast, then we only boast in the Lord. As we look at our three texts for this morning, we are reminded that we boast in the fact that our Lord loves us so much that He gives us the Ten Commandments, which point out our sins, so we do repent. We boast in the Lord, that Jesus is the Son of God, even God Himself, who came to earth to do for us what we are unable to do. That is, Jesus obeyed all the commandments perfectly for us and then took our sins of breaking all the commandments, and paid the price for our sins. And now we are reminded of the foolishness and weakness of our Lord, which are far greater than what we believe to be our wisdom and strength.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Praise the Lord that in His power and wisdom He did not let the weaknesses and foolishness of this world get in the way so that He did accomplish His plan of salvation so that by grace, through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection we have the promise of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. <br /></p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-90950170909281056032024-02-28T08:10:00.011-06:002024-02-28T08:10:43.688-06:00Faith and Works - February 28, 2024 - Third Wednesday in Lent - Text: Eph. 2:8-10; Heb. 11:6<p style="text-align: justify;">Last week we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe, teach and confess about the Freedom of the Will. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe, teach and confess about faith and works and how these two important parts of our lives works together, especially how they interact.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">There are truly only two religions in the world, the religion of man and the religion of Christ, the Christian Church. The religion of man is based on one’s character or good works. A person is commanded to do in order to live. Failure to do leads to death. This religion is based solely on the law and points a person to himself or herself. As you have heard me say before, a preaching of Law only, without the Gospel will lead a person either to despair believing there is no salvation and no hope or to works righteousness that is believing one is able to do what is commanded, like choose Jesus, dedicate your life to Jesus, be obedient and so on. Of course, the bar for doing enough good is always lowered and lowered as we are unable to do any good in and of ourselves.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The religion of man is based on good works, whereas the Christian faith is based on the Gospel and points us to Jesus. We are not saved because of some innate goodness in ourselves, we are not saved because we have been obedient or because we have chosen Jesus, but we are saved by God’s grace, through faith, given to us, in Jesus. We are saved because Jesus chose us. We live by faith and because faith is given to us our response is to live lives of faith. So, instead of doing and living we live and are moved to be doing.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Apostle Paul writes concerning the connection of faith and works. To the Ephesians he writes, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul writes to make sure we understand that first and foremost we are saved by grace. We cannot save ourselves. We might asked, “Can a dead man bring himself back to life?” “Can a drowning person save himself?” “Can a person choose to be born?” The answer to all these questions is a resounding “No.” Our salvation must come from outside of us and it does. Our salvation is a gift given to us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As for this word “grace” unfortunately there are others who would misdefine this word as God giving us the ability to do something. The word “grace” actually means gift. Here I would point out that gift and present are not exactly the same. I would define present as, “You give me a present and I will reciprocate and give you a present.” Whereas I would define a “gift” as giving something without receiving anything in return and without expecting anything in return. Indeed, something that is truly a gift is something that always points us to Jesus. Gift is Gospel talk.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul says that we are saved by grace, that is, salvation is a gift and he goes on to say that it is through faith. Thus, faith is important. So, how do we define “faith?” Although there are different types or aspects of faith, that is faith may simply be an ascent, accepting something as true, “Yes, I believe it will rain,” or it may be an acknowledgment, “Yes, the sky is blue,” true saving faith is complete trust in something outside ourselves. For faith to be saving faith it must have an object and its object must be Jesus and only Jesus. Faith in a tree does not save. Only faith in Jesus, faith given as a gift, that is graced to us, will save us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now that Paul has established this fact that we are saved by God’s grace as a gift given to us, a gift giving us faith in Jesus alone for our salvation, he moves on to encourage us in our response of faith, that is in what naturally follows the gift of faith, which is our desire to live lives of faith, as Paul further states, “10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). <br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As you have heard me say before, and as I said at the beginning of this series, God created us, first and foremost, to love us. At the same time, as God gifts us faith the faith He gives stirs in us the desire to be the people He would have us to be, though as we know we can only be the people He would have us to be rather imperfectly. Paul express our desire as being created to do the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do. In other words, it is something we really cannot help but desire to do.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, Paul encourages us much like James does in his epistle to understand that good works flow from faith. A person who has been given faith cannot help but want to respond by living a life of faith, by doing those works God has prepared in advance for us to do. It simply becomes a natural flow out of a thankful heart.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, what is a good work. What is a good work in God’s eyes? Good works that are truly good works in God’s eyes are those works that are motivated by God, work in and through us by God and give God glory. In other words, our sinful nature will not prompt us to do good works. It is only as God stirs in us that we will be moved to do good works. Because good works do not come natural for us, God works them in and through us, meaning we usually are not aware of when we are doing a good work. And certainly any work that is a good work in God’s eyes is done to His glory. Meaning, quite frankly, most of the time we are doing a good work we do not even realize what we have done.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the writer to Hebrews tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 ). So, good works in God’s eyes are different than what we would identify as social good works. A rather harsh way of looking at social good works is to suggest that social good works are those good deeds done for oneself, self recognition, tax write off, or other personal gain.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We believe, teach and confess that without faith a person cannot do good works that are good works in God’s eyes, but one can only do good works which we would consider to be social good works. In other words, many if not most of the good deeds we see done in our world today, especially those done by people outside the faith, are simply social good deeds and works and have no accounting in God’s eyes for, as Isaiah tells us, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6a). And the polluted garments of which Isaiah speaks are menstrual rags, in other words, when we offer what we believe to be our good deeds to God, outside of faith they are filthy rags. It is faith, and faith alone, that motivates what are truly good works in God’s eyes.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? First, we would recognize that, although faith and good works go together, faith must come first. It is faith, given to us as a gift, graced to us, and faith in Jesus alone that stirs in us and moves us to live lives of faith, to be the people God would have us to be, though imperfectly we would always add, and to do the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thus, good works are a demonstration of one’s faith. Although a person without faith might be inclined to do a social good work for whatever benefit, a Christian cannot help but let his or her faith shine through not only their desire, but also their doing the good deeds God motivates them to do, works in and through them and does to His glory. Indeed, all good works, that are motivated by God, worked in and through us by God, are done to His glory.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we continue on during this Lenten Season first and foremost we are reminded of our sin and the fact that it was because of our sin and God’s great love for us that the events of Holy Week had to take place. As we celebrate Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday with Good Friday in view we do so in humility understanding that all these things are done because of God’s great love for us. And we rejoice in God’s gifts to us, His grace poured out on us. His gift of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And most especially the fact that He stirs in us our response of faith, living lives as His people, giving praise and glory to His holy name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-65899541437188001992024-02-25T07:27:00.007-06:002024-02-25T07:27:34.518-06:00We Have Been Justified (Accomplished Action) - Second Sunday in Lent - February 25, 2024 - Text: Romans 5:1-11<p style="text-align: justify;">Computers are great inventions, at least, I believe they are. I remember getting my first computer and being very hesitant about doing anything wrong, after all, it was rather expensive and I did not want to break it. Then I discovered the “reset” button. I also remember my first word processing program. And then getting into a more powerful word processing program. Today these programs almost type what you want before you even think it. Most word processing programs have spell check and even a grammar checker. I tried using the grammar checker a couple times on my sermons, but I found that they do not really work, at least on sermons. Let me explain. The times I checked my sermons for grammar I kept getting corrected on using the passive voice. At first I was not sure what that meant, but as I learned, I realized that, grammatically speaking, I should use the active voice, in other words, I should be talking about how things are and how we are doing things, instead of the passive voice, that is how things were and how things are done even without any action or initiative of our own. Then I realized, although the active voice is good grammar and the passive voice should be avoided, that does not make for good theology. The passive voice and not the active voice are what make for good theology. In other words, I do not preach about what we have done or are doing or even have to do for our salvation, rather I talk about what God has done, how God acts on us, and how we are simply done to and given to. Now, that may not be good grammar, but that is great theology. And so, this morning we get even more great theology as Paul continues to use the passive voice in describing who God is and what He continues to do for us and in and through us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We begin with a very familiar passage of Scripture where Paul talks about peace in suffering. We begin at verse one, “1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (v. 1-5).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we know, faith is not something we get, or do or proclaim, indeed as we confess in the explanation of the Third article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” Rather we know and believe that God gives faith. God gives faith, not directly, but indirectly, that is through means. Through the means of grace, the Word, the Bible, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, God gives faith. It is this faith which God gives through these means that grasps all the other gifts God gives. Faith is the instrument which is what takes hold of and makes God’s gifts and blessings ours.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God gives faith and it is this faith which grasps forgiveness of sins, the most important gift. Perhaps you have heard me say this before, that the most important gift we are given is forgiveness of sins and maybe you have wondered why I say that. Forgiveness of sins is the most important gift we are given because without forgiveness of sins, we are left to suffer the punishment for sin, which is eternal death and hell. It is only with forgiveness that we have life and salvation. And so we see the need, every Sunday, and even every day, for confession and absolution, that is to confess before God, all our sins in thought, word and deed, sins of omission and sins of commission. And it is important that we hear God’s words of absolution, that our sins are, that our sins have been, past tense, passive voice, forgiven. This is not something we accomplish but what has already been accomplished for us, outside of us and given to us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God gives faith which grasps forgiveness of sins. With forgiveness of sins we are given peace. This peace is not a moment of calm during one’s hectic life, but this peace is true peace. This peace is the peace we have from the removal of sin and guilt. And that is true peace.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God gives faith, God gives forgiveness, and God gives peace. And with faith, forgiveness and peace we also have the hope of eternal life in heaven. This hope of eternal life in heaven is not a far off hope, but is a hope which is ours now. This hope is not a wishy washy maybe hope, but is a certainty. And this hope is a present reality, it is ours now. Certainly we will not move into our heavenly home until after we pass away from this world, or the Lord returns, but our place in heaven is secure, right at this very moment.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And so, while we remain in this world there may be suffering. This suffering is a result of temptation and sin. Ever since the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, the whole world, the earth itself has been groaning, waiting for the end. Because we live in a world that has been tainted by sin, we will incur temptation and sin.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Last week we were reminded that God tempts no one to sin. We were also reminded that God may allow testing in our lives. This morning we are reminded that God uses suffering to produce endurance, character and hope. So, again, we are always pointed to that fact that God is the one doing the doing and we are being done to, that is, passively being done to.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But Paul is not finished. He reminds us even more of what God is doing and how He is doing it according to His own perfect timing. We pick up at verse six, “6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (v. 6-11).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul says, “at the right time,” that is at just the right time, the right time according to human history, the right time according to our need for a Savior. God’s timing is always perfect timing. When all the events of the world were where they needed to be, God sent His Son to live for us and to give His life for ours. And Paul shows us the difference between man’s love and God’s love.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Man’s love is this that someone, some human being may give one’s life for a good person or even for a good cause, but for a person or cause we deem unworthy, probably not. Certainly we have heard of situations where a person may give bone marrow or a kidney, or some other “spare” body part, but not one’s life. Or, we may have heard of someone giving their life for someone deemed worthy as we understand the secret service men are to give their lives to save the president. But, that is about as far as we human beings will go.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, God’s love is so much greater and He shows how His love is so much greater. God’s love is so great that He was willing and He did give His life for us while we were sinners. Well, after all, we are conceived and born in sin. Our natural inclination is to sin. We talked about that last week, even the fact that we love to sin because sinning is fun. And yet, to call ourselves sinners really does not do justice to how bad we really are. Not only are we sinners, but we are also enemies of God, actually fighting against Him. We are not simply passive sinners, but we are active sinners. We actively fight against God. We actively refuse and reject His gifts. We actively disobey all His commandments. And yet, God’s love is such that while we are active sinners, He gave His life for ours.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God’s love is shown in the shedding of Jesus’ blood. He shed His blood, that is He paid the price of His life, the price or cost for sin, for us. What we owed, He paid. Thus, we are saved from the wrath of God, because the wrath of God was taken out on Jesus.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">When we talk about partaking of the Lord’s Supper in “remembrance” of Him, we understand that remembrance is a participation. Thus, we understand that Jesus’ life is our life. Jesus’ death is our death. And now, how much more do we understand that His life is our life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">All that is left is the rejoicing. All we can do is respond and interestingly enough, that is something we do passively as well. It is the Holy Spirit who moves in us to rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What Does This Mean? In and of ourselves, apart from Christ, we are lost and condemned persons. When we attempt to take an active role, our active role is that we are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and actually enemies of God, fighting and striving against Him. Of course, that is our nature after all and bad habits are hard to change.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thanks be to God that Christ has taken an active role. In His active role Christ has taken care of everything. He has paid the price, notice past tense, that we owe. He paid the price, which is eternal death and hell, by shedding His blood. Jesus actively obeyed all the law and the prophets perfectly, doing for His people, the children of Israel, what they were unable to do, and doing for us, His children by faith, faith given to us, what we are unable to do. He lived perfectly for us in our place. He took our sins upon Himself and suffered and paid the price for all our sins. He died, for us, in our place. And yet, death and the grave, as we know, had no power over Him. He rose, for us, in our place so that we know that we too will rise again.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Our response, then, again, is a passive response. Yes, God gives and we are given to. God has done it all and we have been done to. That may not be good grammar, but it is great theology and that is what is more important, great theology.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Christ does it all; dying to pay the price for our sins, while we were yet His enemies, fighting and sinning against Him; giving us faith so that we have peace, which comes from forgiveness of sin and guilt; strengthening us during times of suffering so that we have true hope which does not disappoint us; and stirring in us to rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, our response is to passively be given to and to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-1979055358895859472024-02-22T07:39:00.003-06:002024-02-22T07:39:10.505-06:00Freedom of the Will - February 21, 2024 - Second Wednesday in Lent - Text: Rom. 8:7; 1 Cor. 12:3<p style="text-align: justify;">Last week we began our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the creation of the world. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about the freedom of the will and I will break the news to you now, truly we really do not have a free will because our will has been cursed and tainted from the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The apostle Paul tells us, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom. 8:7). Our nature is that we are dead, dead in our trespasses and sins. Our nature is that we are spiritually dead, spiritually blind and enemies of God. Our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin. Our nature is that sin is in our DNA and because the price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, we will die. We will die an earthly physical death, and except for the fact that Jesus paid the price for our sins, we would be destined to an eternal death in hell.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Because our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin our natural inclination is to refuse and reject anything that is good and from God. We cannot accept Jesus as our personal Savior. We cannot choose to follow Jesus. Because we can only refuse and reject, our condemnation is our own fault. Truly, although God’s desire and will is that all people are saved, and although He has never intended, let alone predetermine or predestined anyone to hell, because our nature is to reject Jesus, it is our own fault if we die in unbelief. At the same time, Jesus gets the credit for our salvation and rightly so, after all, He is the one who gave His life for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, our journey in understanding the freedom of our will is that our will has been tainted by sin and the curse so our will and our nature is evil and contrary to God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul continues by telling us, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Here again we are reminded that we cannot choose or accept Jesus, except by the power of the Holy Spirit working faith in our hearts, meaning, it is not we who are doing the choosing and accepting, but God who is choosing and accepting us and giving us faith. We reiterate Paul’s words in our confession of faith. In the explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed we confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” We might well add, thanks be to God that He comes to us, that He chooses us, that He accepts us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We further confess that our being given faith also comes from outside of us and it comes by the work and power of the Holy Spirit. As we confess, “but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” Here we confess the means through which the Holy Spirit calls us to and gives us faith, the outward means of the Gospel and the means of grace, Holy Absolution and the Sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here we are reminded once again that faith is not some internal feeling or inclination. Faith is a gift given to us from outside of us. Here again we are reminded of the importance of the external means of grace. God comes to us from outside of us through the means He has given, His Word, water, bread and wine. He gives us life and conception. He gives us new life, even eternal life, forgiving our sins and writing our names in the book of life, writing His name on us through the water and His name at Holy Baptism. He forgives our sins through Holy Absolution. He strengthens us through bread and wine and His Word, His body and blood in His Holy Supper.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean in ourselves? Because we may die at any time from the moment of conception this fact means we are accountable for our sins from the moment of conception. Remember there was no death until Adam and Eve sinned. At the moment of their sin they and all God’s cursed world was subject to death. Thus, we see the importance of infant baptism. Just as no one can choose to be born, so we cannot choose to be reborn. Thanks be to God that our parents brought us to the font so that God, using the hands of the pastor could put water on us and using the mouth of the pastor could put His name on us, giving us faith, forgiveness and eternal life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Just as a dead man cannot bring himself back to life so we cannot bring ourselves back to life. We cannot choose Jesus. We cannot accept Jesus. We cannot dedicate our lives to Jesus. We can do nothing because we are born spiritually dead. We are born spiritually blind and enemies of God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Whenever be begin pointing to ourselves we lose. We can never be sure of ourselves. We can never be sure of our feelings. As Ebenezer Scrooge would admit, he did not believe in ghost because it could have been something he ate. Our surety and confidence must and does come from outside of us. We are most sure that God speaks to us, that God calls us from the external means of grace, especially His Holy Word. And when God gives us His gifts through the external means of grace of Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. These means are most sure because they are outside of us and from God who does and gives what His Word says. Left to ourselves we would refuse, deny, and reject anything of God and from God because that is, after all, our conceived and born in nature. Thanks be to God that there is another way.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean in Jesus? When we come to Divine Service we are not pointed to ourselves. Although we hear the Law, that we are sinners in need of forgiveness, we are never pointed to ourselves as if there is something in us that can have any part in gaining God’s forgiveness and favor. We are not encouraged to accept or choose Jesus, to dedicate our lives to Him, to be obedient to His Word.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Rather we are encourage and we rejoice in hearing the Gospel, the good new that it is God who has chosen us. It is God who promised and sent Jesus to dedicate His life to us. It is Jesus who was obedient, perfectly obedient to all God’s Laws, all God’s commands and demands. It is Jesus who lived the perfect life for us in our place because we cannot. And Jesus did what He did for us of His own, untainted, perfect and holy free will. Because of His great love for us God created us and Jesus redeemed us, bought us back with His Holy Precious Blood and His innocent suffering and death, again as we confess in our creeds.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we rightly confess and as we should indeed confess every week, in our creeds we confess our faith in God our Creator, in Jesus our Redeemer and in the Holy Spirit, the one who gives us faith and strengthens us in our faith. What better confession can we have and what joy and relief to confess that our salvation does not depend on us. What joy to confess that faith, forgiveness and life are all gifts from our great and loving God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And even more, not only does God give us faith, forgiveness and life He also stirs in us to respond by living lives as priest in the priesthood of all believers. He stirs in us our response of faith, giving praise and glory to Him for all His good gifts and blessings.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we continue on during this Lenten Season we are reminded of our part in these events of Jesus life. We are reminded of our sin and the price for our sin, death, blood being shed. We are reminded of our nature, our sinful nature that is always contrary to God. We are reminded of our total depravity. And we need that reminder lest we begin to think more highly of ourselves as if we have any part in our salvation, thus denying all that our Lord has done, does and continues to do for us. And so we most certainly rejoice in the fact, that although in and of ourselves we would be lost thanks be to God that He does all and all gives all to us. Thanks be to God that He calls us to and gives us life. He calls us to and gives us faith. He forgives our sins. He strengthens our faith. He gives us eternal life with Him in heaven. He stirs in us our response of faith, that is to live lives of faith, imperfect as they may be. He shows His love for us in creating us, in sending Jesus to live for us, in taking our sins and paying the price for us, in giving us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give. Indeed, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-68133137979368817322024-02-18T07:47:00.003-06:002024-02-18T07:47:14.720-06:00Testing - First Sunday in Lent - February 18, 2023 - Text: James 1:12-18<p style="text-align: justify;">This morning we again have three texts that work well together. In the Old Testament reading we were reminded of Abraham and his testing of faith. In the Gospel reading we were reminded of Jesus and His temptation by Satan. And with Jesus’ tempting we are reminded that when Jesus was tempted, He was tempted way beyond what you and I could ever imagine, because He was tempted with every temptation with which we may be tempted and even more. And He never sinned. In the Epistle lesson, our text, James explains the difference between temptation and testing.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">James begins by reminding us that temptations will come. We begin with verse twelve, “12Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (v. 12-15).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">James begins by reminding us that the person who remains faithful through trials and temptations is certainly blessed. Perhaps that is an understatement. And, as we realize, in and of ourselves, we cannot remain faithful through trials and temptations, thus we realize that the person who remains faithful does so because God is with them and so we realize, yes, when God is with us we are certainly blessed.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">James goes on to remind us that although God may allow trails to come, He tempts no one to sin. God is the author and giver of only good. God is not the author of sin. God tempts no one to sin, that is not His nature. When temptations come to us, we know that they are not coming from God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We know that we are tempted to sin. Each person is tempted by his or her own desire, what we call our sinful flesh. When we are reminded of the fact that, as King David says, we are conceived and born in sin, then it is only natural that our inclination is to sin. We simply cannot help ourselves. We sin in our thoughts, even in church. We sin in our speaking. We sin in our doing what we should not be doing and in not doing what we should be doing, sins of commission and sins of omission. We do not even need practice sinning because it comes so naturally. And the great thing about sinning is the fact that while we are sinning it is fun. Think about it, if sinning were not fun, would we be doing it? Oh, we may have regrets later, but again, while we are sinning it is fun.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">James lays out the progression of sinning as this; sin begins with a thought, and for those who would deny our sinning in our thoughts, I would ask, “What does God mean when He says that if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out?” Your eye cannot commit an actual sin, but it is connected to your brain which has a sinful thought. So, our sin begins with a thought, then it moves to a word, that is we are moved to speak evil words, and finally, sin can end in a deed, an action. The best example of this progression of sin is the sin of Cain killing his brother Abel in Genesis. Remember, Cain first despised, or hated his brother. He had evil thoughts. He devised, or thought up a plan to kill his brother. He called him out into the field and then he actually murdered his brother. Also, notice the eternal progression of sin. Sin begins inside of us, in our heart. That should make you think about the encouragement from our culture to look inside ourselves for the answers to life’s questions. All we find inside ourselves is our sinful nature. Sin has its start inside of us, in our heart. As James says, sin is conceived inside of us. And after its gestation, sin is born. And as sin grows, it reaches its fullness in death, and here we do understand, full grown, unrepentant sins brings death, eternal death and hell.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But do not be dismayed. James goes on to explain the key in times of temptation. We pick up at verse sixteen, “16Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation” (v. 16-18). First and foremost we are reminded that every good and perfect gift comes from God. As we said earlier, God only gives good. God does not tempt anyone to sin or evil.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">“Of his own will,” God brought forth the greatest gift. The greatest gift was the gift of the “word of truth,” in other words, Christ Himself. As the Gospel writer John so poetically reminds us, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Apart from Jesus there is no and can be no truth. Jesus is the Word, the word of promise, the word of fulfillment, the word made flesh, the word made tangible in His Holy Supper. Jesus is the Word of Truth.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jesus, the “word of truth” came, not for Himself, but as our substitute. Jesus came to do what Adam and Eve could not do, obey one command, what the whole nation of Israel could not do, obey the Ten Commandments, and what we cannot do, be obedient. Remember, last week we saw Jesus appear with Moses and Elijah on the mountain of transfiguration. There Jesus conferred with Moses the law giver and Elijah the great prophet, to make sure He had actively obeyed and fulfilled all the law and the prophets, perfectly. Jesus came to do for us what we are unable to do. The fullness of the Gospel is that Jesus came to do what we cannot do. He came to live the perfect life for us, obeying all of God’s commands, because we cannot resist temptation and not sin. Jesus came to complete all things for us in our place. He came in life, in temptation, in suffering, in death, and in His resurrection for us, to be our substitute.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jesus is our strength and our reward, even “that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.” Jesus has accomplished all things for us, in our place. We are a kind of firstfruits of His creation when we, with His help and by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us live lives of faith.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What Does This Mean? This means that we recognize the difference between temptation and trials. God may allow us to undergo trials, but these trials are not temptation to sin. The struggles and difficulties we may and will face in life are not meant to lead us into sin, but are meant to strengthen us in our faith.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, the devil, the world and our own sinful nature (what we might call the unholy three) constantly hound us to sin. The devil, the world and our own sinful nature do not tempt us in order to strengthen us in our faith. Rather they tempt us to sin and even to sin boldly. The devil tempts us, not because he loves us, but because he hates us. He hates anything that is good, and anything that is from God. The world tempts us and even the things of this world which may be created for good can be used for tempting to evil. Remember such things that were created for good as dynamite, gun powder, nuclear energy and so on, all these were created for good and yet became temptations for evil. And our own sinful nature, that thing that is closest to us, that is a very part of us, is the thing which tempts us the most.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In and of ourselves, we cannot keep from sinning. We are conceived and born in sin. Sinning is our nature. It is natural for us to sin. Actually, for us to not sin is very unnatural. Yet, we have James’ exhortation to remain steadfast. Certainly this adds to the pressure as we daily face the temptations of the world.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the Old Testament Lesson, God tested Abraham. God required of Abraham that he give back to Him the one most important thing, his son. At the same time, God gave Abraham the strength to accomplish his trial. Abraham could not have accomplished his task without the Lord’s help and strength. Remember, even when Isaac asked Abraham were the sacrifice was, Abraham responded that God would provide.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the Gospel Lesson, Jesus, as true God, and as true man was tempted. Jesus was tempted for the whole forty days. He was tempted with every temptation with which you and I are tempted. He was tempted in every way. And yet, He did not succumb to temptation. He never sinned.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we see in the Old Testament reading, as we see in the Gospel reading, and as we see in the Epistle lesson, only with God’s help, only with Jesus on our side are we able to resist and flee from temptation and sin. Again, as every Sunday, then we are pointed back to where we need to be, always at the mercy of our great God. We fail. God accomplishes. We fall for temptation and sin. God resists and overcomes. We mess up. God cleans up. We are doomed to eternal death and hell. God, in Christ, suffers our punishment for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The result is this, that every good and perfect gifts comes from God, even and especially eternal life in heaven. God gives and we are given to. Is it no wonder that I continue to remind you of the importance of making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. It is through the means of grace that our Lord gives us the strength to bear up under temptation. Our making regular and diligent use of these means, the Word of God, through personal reading of His Word, through personal and family devotions, through every Sunday Divine Service and Bible Class attendance, through remembering our baptism, through our regular confession and absolution, through our regular participation in the Lord’s Supper, this is how our Lord strengthens and keeps us in faith. As we begin this Lenten season and reflect on the fact that it was and is because of my sin that Jesus had to die on the cross, certainly we see the need, and from the word of the Gospel we are given the desire to make such regular and diligent use of these means of grace.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Temptations do come. Temptations arise through our own sinful flesh, through the attractions and distractions of the world, and especially through Satan himself. At the same time, these temptations are not to be confused with our Lord’s testing of our faith. Yet, in all these times, it is our Lord who is there, ready, willing, and able to strengthen us so that we might keep from sinning, so that we might bear up under any and all trials, so that we might win out in the end. And the greatest encouragement we have is this, the Gospel message, that even when we do fail (and we will fail), Jesus has already taken care of the consequences of our sins. Through His life, suffering, death and resurrection Jesus has already paid for our sins, giving us comfort and encouragement, indeed to confess and ask for His forgiveness and help. And He even pours out on us all His good gifts and blessings. To Him be the glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-36488119507277694032024-02-14T11:07:00.006-06:002024-02-14T11:07:35.858-06:00Creation - February 14, 2024 - Ash Wednesday - Text: First Article; Gen. 1, 2<p style="text-align: justify;">As Lutheran Christians, what do we believe about God, about faith, about good works, about prayer, about Justification and Sanctification, about creation, about the Law and Gospel, about worship? This year during the season of Lent we will be looking at the various teachings (doctrines) of our church and why we believe what we believe (as attested by God’s Word), so that when we are asked we will be better able to give an answer for the hope that we have in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Today we begin with what we believe about creation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Whenever I begin talking about such things as creation, or really any part of God’s Word I like to begin by making a distinction between the Word of God and the word of man. First, I usually ask the question, “Are human beings ever wrong?” Of course, the answer is yes. Humans are wrong and quite often are quite often wrong. Because we human beings are conceived and born in sin, our reasoning ability is fallible, corrupt, and cursed. We have faulty wisdom and reasoning. Indeed, humans get it wrong.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The second question I ask is, “Is God ever wrong?” Now, although there are those who would say yes or that they do not believe in God, I would have to suggest that “If there were a God, do you suppose He would ever be wrong?” Of course, as Christians we would agree that God is never wrong. How can the one who created all things, who is from eternity, who is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent be wrong. Indeed, I would posit the truth that nothing in the Bible is wrong and nothing in the Bible has ever been proven to be wrong.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, as Lutheran Christians, not only do we believe the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and infallible, we also believe the Bible is sufficient, clear, efficacious and powerful. Indeed, God’s Word has the power to effect, to bring about, to give what He speaks. So, when humans speak, they may get it wrong, but when God speaks I know it is true and trustworthy.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As for the teaching of the creation of the world and all things, there is man’s idea, man’s theory and there is the truth God has given to us. According to man’s theory, the theory of molecules to man evolution the purpose of this theory which is to be rid of God, if man can explain the world without a god, then man becomes his own god. Think about it this way, why do we have so many problems in our world, children shooting children, robbery, theft, murder, and so forth. When we are taught there is no god, then there is no accountability. In other words, as Christians we understand that we are accountable to the one who created us, who gave us life. We are accountable to God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Also, if there is no god then that means there is no ultimate authority. If there is no god then you have no right to tell me what I can or cannot do. Indeed, to be taught that all things simply appeared from nothing and there is no god, no ultimate authority and no accountability, that we are all simply attempting to survive and work our way up the “food chain” as it were, then who are you to tell me that to kill a lesser creature is wrong? I am simply living out my natural inclinations.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I would posit, that there is not one iota of proof of man’s molecules to man idea and theory. Please understand that I when I speak of what is called “evolution” I make sure to speak of the theory itself which suggest that through natural selection pond scum has evolved into humans. Those who actually teach the theory as fact do what I call a bait and switch. They will suggest that it is through natural selection that things evolve. Here I would point out that as Christians we believe in natural selection because that is what gives us our many differences, eye color, hair color, shape of eyes, noses, etc. However, I would also point out that for natural selection to occur there must be something in one’s DNA from which to select and there is no proof that any such preexisting options exist, thus, natural selection can only work if a creator has provided all those options. So much for the wisdom of fallible human beings.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, we have the history of how all things came in to being from the One who was there in the beginning doing all the work of creation. We have the truth of God’s Word of exactly what happened. God Himself tells us that, “1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God begins by telling us that before He began creating the world there was only darkness and chaos. It is interesting that He does not tell us that there was nothing, although all being darkness and chaos might not sound any better. Now, most of us understand and have never witnessed anything spontaneously appear out of nothing. To the average person that would not make any sense nor would it be believable, yet that is what the previous, human idea was. Here in Genesis, we will see that God never speaks of anything appearing by itself. Instead God begins with Himself. Now we could have a philosophical discussion about there begin a god or not, but the point would be simply that if there is a god, he would have to be the ultimate prime mover, the one who begins all things. To suggest life was planted on this earth by others would simply move the debate back to “where did the others come from,” and so on. So, we will forgo that philosophical nonsense, remember “philosophy” is the love of wisdom, which too many philosophers seem to fail to have.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">With our foundation that the Bible is God’s Word and that God is the prime mover, what we learn from what God is telling us here in Genesis is that in the beginning there was God. We also get an understanding that our God is a triune God, a God who is three persons in one godhead. We get this understanding because the very word God is in the plural, not that there are many Gods, but that there is one God in a Trinity and He is from eternity. As you have heard me say time and again, God does not live in time. In the beginning there is no indication of time simply that there was God, darkness and chaos. On the very first day of creation God created light, notice, not the sun, but light and He separated the light from the dark calling the light day and the dark night and giving us morning and evening He gave us the first day and the beginning of time for us humans He would eventually create.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As each day of creation proceeded the next we cannot help but see the awesome power of our God and the awesome power of His Word. Indeed, each day what God spoke it was. God spoke light into existence. God spoke dry land and seas into existence. God spoke plants into existence. God spoke sea creatures and flying creatures into existence. However, when it came time to create the crown of His creation God did not simply speak man into existence. Rather we are told that God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. Indeed, we humans are different from all the rest of God’s creation including His animals. While animals are living beings, we humans are not only living beings we also have an eternal soul so that we have an eternal immortal life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? If man’s idea is correct, if life spontaneously came about out of nothing and through mutations evolved from pond scum to human life that would mean there is no accountability to anyone because there is no ultimate authority meaning life has no meaning or purpose. If life has no meaning or purpose then why bother being good, doing good, trying to do anything except get ahead and be on top. Which might explain why when disasters happen you do not see too many evolutionist, atheist and the like out helping lend a hand.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, I would posit that we can quite clearly see God’s hand in all of creation. Unfortunately, as we know the history of creation, that soon after God created a perfect world, the humans He created fell for the lies of the devil, the father of lies and with that fall into sin, with that disobedience sin and a curse entered the world so that we live in a sin cursed world. Yet, we still cling to our faithful God who promised and kept His promise to send a Savior to redeem, to buy back His world. Which is what we are in the midst of preparing ourselves for, celebrating our salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God’s hand in seen in the intricacies of creation. Have you ever looked at the miracle of the human body and all the intricate details of the body, how it is fearfully and wonderfully made. How can anyone not believe the parts of a car, an inanimate, nonliving object did not put itself together by accident, but believe the human body did? That simply does not make reasonable sense.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As Christians we understand, we believe, teach and confess that in the beginning God created. God created all things out of nothing simply by speaking it into being. And God crowned His creation by creating us and creating us to love us. Our sole purpose in life then is to be loved by God and our response of all that God does for us and gives to us is to, with His help, live lives of faith. And although, in our attempt to live lives of faith we do so imperfectly, God continues to forgive us, love us and care for us because of His great love for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we prepare our hearts and minds to once again commemorate the events of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, we get ready by being mindful of the fact that it was because of our sin and God’s great love for us that Jesus came to live, suffer and die for us. We are reminded of God’s great love for us a love seen in the fact that although He knew what was going to happen even before He began creating, He created us anyway. He created us to love us and so He does. Indeed, we rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-15790896463288707022024-02-04T07:25:00.011-06:002024-02-04T07:25:54.289-06:00I Am Compelled - February 4, 2024 - Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: 1 Corinthians 9:16-27<p style="text-align: justify;">Over 200 years ago our country was founded on the idea that all people are created equal. Over the years we have struggled with the understanding of just what that means. Even today we struggle with the understanding of what it means to be free. We are people who do not like to be dependent on others and we are people who do not like to have to answer to others for our actions. We are people who like to have our freedom, whatever that means to us. To some, freedom means being able to do whatever I want to do without any interference from others. To some, freedom means not having to answer to others. In our text for today Paul gives us a better understanding of what freedom means for us as Christians.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although the word in our text is translated as “servant,” the more accurate translation would be “slave,” as some translations do record. Unfortunately, the very mention of the word slavery brings an uncomfortable feeling to the people of our country today, perhaps that is why it is so often translated as “servant.” Over the years our country has developed a very narrow view of slavery. Because of our understanding of slavery today, we find it strange and even hard to believe that Paul would tell us that he makes himself a slave to everyone. We might wonder to ourselves, why would anyone want to subject themselves to another human being, to be owned by them, to be abused by them, to be at their every beck and call? Obviously, our understanding of what it means to be a slave is quite different from Paul’s understanding.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">If our understanding of slavery is different from Paul’s, what about our understanding of freedom? Do we understand freedom today in the same way Paul did? I would suggest that even though we see freedom in a very positive light we tend to explain it in negative terms. When we think about freedom, instead of speaking about freedom to do or speak, we think about freedom from different things. Freedom from slavery; freedom from tyranny; freedom from having to listen to others, obey others, and for some even freedom from religion, going to church and the like. Again, I think our understanding of freedom is quite different from Paul’s understanding.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">For Paul, it was his freedom which led him to make himself a slave of the Lord. In verse sixteen Paul tells us that he is compelled to preach, “16For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (v. 16). To us that may not sound like freedom. And certainly that does not sound like gospel, but law. But, let us not get confused. Paul does not say that he must preach the gospel, because if he does not preach the gospel then he will go to hell. No, Paul says that he is compelled to preach, it is something within him, a burning desire to share the good news with others. Some have suggested that it is a gospel imperative that has moved Paul to preach. Of course, that seems to make the Gospel into a new law which is what an imperative would be, something demanded for us to do. Perhaps we might call it a Gospel urgency which has moved Paul to preach. I believe it would be great if we were all the same way. Certainly our salvation does not depend on what we do. We do not have to tell others about Jesus. But the more we hear and read the good news, the more the Holy Spirit fills us with the good news, the stronger we become in our Christian faith, the more we bubble over and we just cannot help ourselves, we just have to tell someone the good news. It is what we get to do. It is kind of like when we get something new, when we get a new car or a new home, we just have to tell someone or we will just burst.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul says it with even more emphasis when he says, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” By faith in Jesus’ work of redemption Paul was assured of his eternal salvation. He was free from the law. As a response to all that the Lord has done for him, Paul has volunteered himself as a slave to the Lord. As a slave of God he now has no choice in the matter of accepting or rejecting the tasks the master, God, gives him to do. But woe to him if he refused, and woe to him if he did not do well. Remember the parable of the talents; how the master gave his servants 5, 2, and one talent and when he returned expected that each had managed his talent or talents well. The Lord has given us all things, life, new life, faith, forgiveness, the promise of eternal life, and so on. The Lord has made us right before our Father in heaven. Because of all our Lord has done for us we respond, with the help of the Holy Spirit and make ourselves slaves to Him. As slaves He expects great things of us, things which we do with the help of the Holy Spirit.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jesus made Himself to be an example for His disciples. On Maundy Thursday He took a towel and some water and washed the feet of His disciples and He showed them by his example how they are to be toward one another. He showed them how they are to serve one another, not to gain righteousness, but as a response to the righteousness gained for them by His death on the cross. In our text Paul tells us that he has made himself to be a slave to everyone in order to win as many as possible. He goes on to list those he has become like in order to win. And notice, Paul does not say he become what he mentions, but he says he became like, one. We are included in the list as those who were under the law before coming to salvation, that is, we were under the curse of the law before coming to salvation. Remember, the purpose of the law is to show us our sins. The purpose of the law is to condemn us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thanks be to God, we are no longer under the power and curse of the law. By grace, through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross we now live under the Gospel. The purpose of the Gospel is to show us our Savior, to show us our forgiveness, earned for us by Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Does that mean that we can throw out the law? By no means, because we are still under what we call the third use of the law, that is the law is still a guide for our lives. And there are times that we still come under the first and second uses of the law, that is that the law is there to keep us on the right road and to show us our sins so that we repent, but for the most part, now that we have been given faith, now that we are Christ’s, the law is used to give us guidance in our lives, with the help of the Holy Spirit.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? This means that we have Jesus’ example to follow and we have Paul’s example to follow. With the help of the Holy Spirit we are to become all things to all people. This does not mean that we do anything that will compromise our Christian faith and life, but it does mean that we live our lives so that we are examples and witnesses of our faith through all we think, say, and do.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I believe Dr. Luther had it right in his explanation to the third article when he said, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason our strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.”<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">How easily we forget all our God has done for us and that God has done it all for us. It would seem that each day we wake up and ask, what God has done for me lately? And each and every day we need to be reminded of all that God has done for us. We are really no different from the children of Israel and their roller coaster existence as God’s chosen people. How often it was that they would fall away from God, He would allow for them to be taken captive, they would repent, and God would rescue them. So too with us, we daily sin much, God allows for us to be disciplined, we repent, and God assures us of our forgiveness and salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the most joyous thing about this life is what He continues to do for us. He continues to allow us another day to live. He continues to allow us to have a job, to earn a living to feed ourselves and our families and even more so to allow us to be able to have things we want, not just things we need. He continues to reassure us of our forgiveness. Through our daily reading of His Word, through our confession and hearing His Words of absolution, through our being given His body and blood in His Holy Meal, through our daily remembering of our baptism, through our daily devotions, through our studying of His Word He works to strengthen us and keep us in faith in Him.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">At the end of the explanation to the first article of the Apostles’ creed Dr. Luther expresses the idea that it is our “duty” to thank and praise, serve and obey our Lord. Our first reaction might be to think that this is a new law. After all, the word “duty” implies something we are compelled to do. This exhortation is not a new law. Dr. Luther is reminding us that everything that we have is a gift from God and that it is our privilege to respond to all our Lord has done for us by thanking and praising, serving and obeying Him. That is what this little word “duty” means, it is our privilege to respond. To use Paul’s words from our text, yes we are compelled, we cannot help ourselves, but to “thank and praise, serve and obey” our Lord.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Gospel gives us all that God has to give, forgiveness of sins, faith, life, even eternal life. God does all and gives all. He has taken care of everything, that is the Gospel. The freedom of the Gospel does not move us to live lives of cheap grace, that is to sit on our grace. Rather, the freedom of the Gospel moves us to respond, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to make ourselves slaves of our Lord. So, with the help of the Holy Spirit the Lord gives to us to live according to His good and gracious will to the praise and glory of His Holy Name. We just cannot help it. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-38853831255076998682024-01-28T07:38:00.001-06:002024-01-28T07:38:06.676-06:00Love Builds Up - January 28, 2024 - Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Have you ever played the game called “Trivia Pursuit”? Actually, today there are many such “trivia” games, games in which you are challenged in what you know about different areas of pop culture, television, movies, and life in general. Perhaps for us Christians, one of the most humbling “trivia” games is one in which our Bible knowledge is challenged. Of course, we understand that Bible knowledge is not “trivial,” and at the same time we also understand that knowledge simply for the sake of knowledge is not the goal of God’s Word either. We even have the warning from James that reminds us that the devil knows the Bible, probably better than many of us know our own Bibles, yet he is still condemned. Salvation is more than mere head knowledge or trivia knowledge. In our text for today, Paul speaks to us about our Bible knowledge, but even more, he speaks to us about how we live and love according to God’s Word.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Concerning knowledge Paul says, “1Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3But if anyone loves God, he is known by God” (v. 1-3). In essence Paul is making a distinction between what we might call head knowledge and what we might call heart knowledge. He tells us that the problem with head knowledge alone is that it puffs up, in other words it often makes one think more highly of themself. Heart knowledge is knowledge that thinks more of others than oneself.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">True knowledge, which we may define as head and heart knowledge together, has its roots in being known by God. Now, did you notice how this is stated in our text, not in our knowing God, but in our being known by God. Do you remember as a child, being out on the playground and it was time to pick teams to play a game. When your best friend was one of the captains, you wanted to be on his or her team. You actually chose, for yourself to be on their team. Of course, that did not matter. What mattered was that they chose you to be on their team. Most of us have heard the exhortation, by some, to choose Jesus as our personal Savior. Perhaps we might change that exhortation to fit the language of our text and say, we should know God. But go back and look at the text. The text runs the exhortation the other way. Instead of our running the show, God is running the show. Instead of knowing God, we are exhorted to be known by God. More important that our choosing God is His choosing us. And He has chosen us, even before the foundations of the world were set, even before He began creation our Lord chose us to be His people. And to me, that understanding gives me much more comfort for the simple fact that I cannot depend on myself and my choice, but I can be most certain when God is doing the choosing and especially when He has chosen me.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God has chosen us. He has revealed Himself to us through His means of grace and He gives us true knowledge of Himself. Thus, true knowledge is not simply knowing God but being known by Him. Even the Psalmist and the writer of the Proverbs tell us that, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">True knowledge, then, might rightly be defined as using knowledge rightly. True knowledge is knowing with your head and engaging your heart in order to think, say, and do what is meet, right and salutary. Some have defined wisdom in this way, that is that wisdom is the right use of knowledge.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now that Paul has given us some background on knowledge, he moves on to give us a concrete example of what he means. And his example is what he is dealing with among the Corinthians. Paul moves on to speak about idols, “4Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—6yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (v. 4-6). First, Paul reminds us that although there are other gods (notice, small “g”) meaning idols they really are nothing. An idol is not a living being. An idol is a figment of one’s imagination. An idol is a false god that needs, even demands the undivided attention of the idolater. An idol can do nothing on its own, it depends on its idolater to do everything for it, feed it, move it, and so on so that indeed the idolater is truly the false god of the idol worshiper.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, on the one hand there may be many gods (small “g”), but there is only one true God. The only one true God is the God of Holy Scripture who has revealed Himself to us as God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The only one true God is our God who has shown Himself to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ who is true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and true man, born of the human woman, the Virgin Mary. The only true God is our God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. To reiterate Paul’s words, all other gods (small “g”) are nothing.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, how do we use our knowledge correctly. Paul continues, “7However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (v. 7-13). Paul is encouraging us to always err on the side of grace. Paul is speaking of this thing we call <i>adiaphora</i>. <i>Adiaphora</i> means something that is neither commanded nor forbidden. So, exercise of knowledge in the area of <i>adiaphora</i> on a personal basis is okay. In other words, if I want to have some wine with my meal at home, then that is certainly okay.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, exercise of knowledge in the area of <i>adiaphora</i> in public, which may be a stumbling block to those weaker in faith is not okay. In other words, to use Paul’s example, for a person who has come from a background of worshiping idols, to see us eat meat sacrificed to an idol, could cause them to stumble in their own Christian faith life, thus we would refrain from such eating for the sake of their spiritual well being.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The bottom line for Paul and for us is that the right use of knowledge is being guided to care for those weaker in faith. So, the right use of knowledge may mean our own abstaining for the sake of another.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? This means that we want to get our knowledge right. We get our head knowledge right and we do that in the only way we can do that, through the means of God’s Holy Word. Here again, I encourage you, I exhort you, make regular and diligent use of the Word of God. Read the Bible on your own. Have personal and family devotions. Come to Divine Service and to Bible class. Divine Service is where we come to hear the Word of God exhorted and expounded, even proclaimed. Bible class is that place where we have the opportunity, not only to hear the Word and grow in our faith and knowledge, but we also have the opportunity to ask questions, to discuss issues, especially questions we might have concerning our culture and the relationship of the culture and our own Christian lives. Bible class is the place we have to ask those questions our coworkers always asks us and we are not sure how to give an answer.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Not only are we to get our head knowledge right, we are also to get our heart knowledge right. Our heart knowledge is how we live our head knowledge. Our heart knowledge guides us to rightly living according to God’s good and grace will.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We rightly exercise our knowledge when we realize that we cannot rightly exercise our knowledge on our own, but only with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we attempt to exercise our knowledge on our own we tend to do so in the way Paul suggests in our text, in the way of being puffed up instead of in the way of building up. Remember, our nature is to sin. Our nature is to run knowledge in the way we would like to run knowledge, not in the way our Lord would have us run knowledge. We would run knowledge in the way of thinking more highly of ourselves, at least until we should meet someone who would have more knowledge than we have, of course, then we would humble ourselves, but only to the one with more knowledge. We would run knowledge in the way of lording it over others of “less” knowledge, at least according to our understanding of their having less knowledge.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We rightly exercise knowledge when the Lord runs our knowledge. We rightly exercise knowledge when we are guided by the means of grace. We rightly exercise knowledge when we are guided by the Lord to make regular and diligent use of the means of grace; when we are guided to come and be given the gifts our Lord has to give and to be given these gifts through the very means He has of giving them, namely through the means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments. We rightly exercise knowledge when the Lord works in and through us to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do and when they are done to His glory. We rightly exercise knowledge when we confess, not that we have chosen God, but that He has chosen us, that we are known by Him, that He gives and we are given to.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And thanks be to God, that even as we fail to rightly exercise knowledge, we are always reminded that there is forgiveness. This does not give us an excuse to sin, but it gives us the freedom to not be afraid of living. The Old Testament reading for this morning pointed to the One who would come, namely the prophet, Christ Himself. The Gospel reading also points to this same person, namely Jesus Christ who was the one to come and who showed Himself through the signs, wonders and miracles He performed to be the Messiah, the Christ, even God in human flesh. Jesus is the one who not only shows us how to rightly exercise knowledge, but rightly exercised knowledge for us, in our place. He is the One who is always with us to help us to rightly exercise knowledge even today. And rightly exercising knowledge is love which builds up. Finally rightly exercising knowledge is forgiving others as we ourselves have been forgiven. And we know that with forgiveness is life and salvation and to that we say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-7514561134687667152024-01-21T07:30:00.007-06:002024-01-21T07:30:52.187-06:00The Time Is Short - January 21, 2024 - Third Sunday after the Epiphany/Life Sunday - Text: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (32-35)<p style="text-align: justify;">Can you believe it, we are already 21 days into 2024. We are almost through one month of this new year. Time has a way of getting past us. As children we may have thought that time took forever to get here, time for this or time for that. As adults, especially the more we have to do, the faster time seems to move. There is nothing we can do to stop time, it keeps coming at us, faster and faster. One person once described our traveling through time, not as our moving through time, but as time swiftly moving at us. We are born today, and we die tomorrow. We are here on this earth for a relatively short period of time.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Time is short especially when compared to eternity. Eternity is forever, no beginning and no end. Our lives on this earth have a beginning, and that is at our conception, and our lives have an end, usually less than 100 years later. We are mortal, which means we do die, at least our bodies die. And do not be fooled, just because some people may live to be a hundred, there are just as many and even more who die at birth, or are even murdered before birth. Indeed, from the moment of conception we are destined to die.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In our text Paul tells us that we are to live as if we had no wife, as if we did not mourn, as if we were not happy, as if we did not purchase things that belonged to us, as if we were not engrossed in the things of this world. Notice that he does not say that a man should not have a wife, nor that a person should not mourn, or not be happy, or not purchase things, rather he says we are to live as if we do not have these things. Paul is trying to direct our attention away from the unimportant things of this world to the important business of being prepared for our eternal life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul tells us that this world in its present form is passing away. How well we know the truth of that statement. We are constantly reminded that we live in a cursed world, by earth quakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, snow storms, wars and rumors of wars, terrorism all around, we are even told that the sun is burning up, that everything is getting worse. As Christians we realize that because of the curse after the fall into sin the whole world has been groaning waiting for the Lord to return and create a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does all this mean? Paul was writing shortly after Jesus ascension and he believed that Jesus would return very very soon. Paul and all the Christians of his day were expecting Jesus to return during their life time. Paul did not realize that Jesus would wait over 2000 years and more to return. But let us not lose our context. When we compare 2000 years to eternity we realize that even 2000 years is a very very short period of time. Paul is right when he reminds us that Jesus will return soon which means that even more so now, as we are 2000 years into the future from Paul’s day, should we heed his words today.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Because Jesus will return soon, Paul tells us to live as if we had no wife, as if we did not mourn, as if we were not happy, as if we did not purchase things that belonged to us, as if we were not engrossed in the things of this world. What does Paul mean by telling us live this way? He means that we are not to wrap ourselves up in the anxiety or the enjoyment of this world, but keep our eyes focused and fixed on the hope of eternal life. Marriage, tears, joys, purchases, the whole world of earthly things, we Christians may have all of them, use all of them, experience all of them, for what they are, as belonging to this present world. What Paul says is true: as soon as we go beyond this limit and permit any or all of these to interfere with our spiritual life and our relation to the life to come, a false power reaches into our lives and begins to ruin them.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Time is short. This world is going down hill, ever since the fall into sin things have been getting worse. Even evolutionist tell us that the world is getting worse, not better. Watch the news, listen to the radio, read the paper, we are here for a very short period of time.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Last week we were reminded that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We were reminded especially of two sins, gluttony and immorality. We were reminded that over eating is a sin just like any other big or little sin. We were reminded of the boundaries God gives us, good boundaries because He loves us and wants to keep us safe. And yet we were reminded how too often those good boundaries are despised by the world as barricades to our freedom or perceived freedom. We were reminded of our responsibility and privilege to speak up and speak out against the immorality of this world even if it means being labeled intolerant and perhaps even being persecuted or even jailed.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Two weeks ago we were reminded of our “duty” to struggle and fight against temptation and sin. We were reminded of what true grace is, not God giving us the ability to do something, not our choosing, accepting or making a decision for Jesus, but the fact that God has chosen us, that He has called us, that He gives us faith, forgiveness and eternal life. Indeed, to suggest that anything needs to be added to grace means it is no longer grace, but what has been added. Grace is grace plus nothing.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today Paul continues to encourage us in our faith life especially reminding us that our focus is to be heavenward, not earthward and that we cannot do both for we will either love this world or the world to come. Paul’s words may sound rather harsh. He tells us that a person’s first duty is to the Lord and no earthly duty should get in the way of that first duty. All the matters mentioned should not be the end and aim of existence. We do not wrap ourselves in the enjoyment of this world, but we keep our eyes focused and fixed on the hope for eternal life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul is telling us that marriage, tears, joys, purchases, the whole world of earthly things, we Christians may have all of them, use all of them, experience all of them, but with the warning that we are to use them for what they are, as belonging to the <i>schema</i>, σχμα or form of this present world. The things of this world belong in this world. The things of this world are only for this world and we must be vigilant about making this distinction. Paul’s words remind us that as soon as we go beyond this limit and permit any or all of the things of this world to interfere with our spiritual life and our relation to the life to come, a false <i>exousia</i>, ἐξουσία (6:12b) or power reaches into our lives and begins to ruin them.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Indeed, Paul’s words are so true and can be seen so well in our world today. The things of this world have so taken the attention of the people of this world that every Sunday morning more and more people find something they believe is more important than being in the Lord’s House to be given the eternal gifts He has to give. And just as you have heard me say before, when the preacher preaches about sin in general that is okay, but when he starts preaching about my sin, then he is meddling and so I will meddle again this morning. What is happening in our world today is that every Sunday morning more and more people believe it is more important to be at a ball game, fishing, hunting, at the lake house, on the golf course, or anywhere except in the Lord’s House where His gifts are being given out. It is as if we believe we really are good people, that we have not sinned too much and so we do not need too much forgiveness. “No gifts for me this week Lord, I’m okay.” Sometimes I wonder if our attitude comes from the fact that we do not really believe the Lord will return during our own lifetime. We are kind of like the rich man in the parable who tore down his barns and built bigger barns with the idea that today I will eat, drink and be merry and tomorrow I will worry about my soul. If we remember that parable, Jesus says that very night his soul was required of him.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">One look at the obituary section of the newspaper, which I believe is now called the life tribute section will remind us that from the moment of conception we are destined to die. Which reminds us that even if the Lord does not return during our own life, we will pass on and go to Him. Either way, we will stand before Him and I would suggest as I always do that day will be sooner than we know and sooner than we might image. So we would do well to heed, not my words, and really not Paul’s words, but God’s Word which says that we are to not let the things of this world get in the way of our spiritual well being, as we often do.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The good news, however, as was stated last week, and is stated every week, is that there is forgiveness. All the sins which we commit and even those we have yet to commit have been paid for by Jesus on the cross. The forgiveness is there. The problem is when we refuse and reject that forgiveness, which we do when we fail or refuse to confess. Remember, with confession comes absolution. The forgiveness is there so that all we can do is reject it and indeed Satan puts all kinds of temptations in our way, the things of this world, so that we do reject the gifts God gives.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">With confession is absolution, the forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness we know is life and salvation. Indeed, our greatest need is this forgiveness of sins, and God has it for us in abundance. His grace, His forgiveness always outweighs His law. What great joy comes from sins forgiven and the certainty of heaven.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Time is short, Paul reminds us. This world in its present form is passing away. Therefore we are to live our lives focused on our prize of eternal life with our Lord in heaven because of Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross because of His great love for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Time is short and so I encourage you, focus your attention, not on the things of this world, at least not so much that you become anxious about your lives in this world. Instead, focus on what is important, getting yourself ready for heaven. Focus on making regular and diligent use of the means of grace, those means through which the Lord works to get you ready for heaven, those means through which the Lord works to give you faith, forgiveness of sins, strengthening of faith, life and salvation. As the Lord helps you in getting your focus right, you will notice how your anxieties will melt away. As Paul says in the last verse of our text: “I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord” (v. 35). To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-14997814485467615492024-01-07T07:28:00.003-06:002024-01-07T07:28:29.616-06:00United with Christ - January 7, 2024 - The Baptism of Our Lord - Text: Romans 6:1-11<p style="text-align: justify;">This morning we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Just yesterday we celebrated the end of the Christmas Season and I hope everyone celebrated until January 6, which was Epiphany. Yesterday we celebrated the revelation of the Messiah, Christ the Lord, the Savior of the world, to the Gentile Magi from the East, or the wise men as they are called, as they came to the house where the toddler Jesus was staying. This visit reminded us of the fact that the Messiah was promised to all people, of all cultures, of all places, of all times. This morning we fast forward some twenty-eight years as we begin our trek, once again, to the cross, the focal point of this child’s birth.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul is writing, using one of the techniques he often employs in his writing, that is that he is writing asking and answering possible questions his opponents might be asking. We begin at verse one, “1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (v. 1-2). So, in essence Paul is asking, “Is God’s grace an excuse to sin?” The logic is that if we sin there is more grace so we should sin more so that grace may abound more. Or perhaps as you have heard it said, “sin boldly.” Of course, here we see what happens when we let our logic, our failed human logic, get in the way of the gifts God gives. Paul explains the illogic of this reasoning in that we are not to go on sinning because we have died to sin.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul explains further with the his explanation of the great gift of Baptism and being Baptized with Christ. We pick up at verse three, “3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (v. 3-5). Here we see the illogic of human logic, again fallible human logic, that baptism is something we do simply in obedience to God’s command, that is that we get baptized in order to show God that we have accepted Him or that we have dedicated our lives to Him and that this action, this work is a sign of our obedience. Here in our text we see baptism as it is, a sacrament, a means of grace, a giving from God to us. Here we see that God is the one who is doing the doing, doing the giving and we are the one’s being done to and being given to. Through baptism we are given. We are given faith and it is this faith that grabs hold of and makes the rest of the gifts that God gives ours.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">To be baptized means to be washed. To be baptized also means to be drowned. In our baptism we are drowned, we are literally killed. Our old sinful nature, our old Adam is drowned. In our baptism Jesus’ death becomes our death. Through His baptism Jesus identifies with us, doing what we need to do in order that He might be our substitute. In our baptism we identify with Jesus, giving Him our sins and being given His identity. Thus, through baptism, we identify with Jesus in that His death, His eternal death and hell becomes our death, which is the penalty we owe for our sins.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But there is more, it does not stop with death, thanks be to God. Not only does Jesus’ death become our death, but more importantly, Jesus’ life becomes our life. Here again we see this complete substitutionary role Jesus plays. He came, not only to die for us, but also to live for us. Thus, when God looks at Jesus on the cross, He sees our sins. When He looks at us He sees Jesus’ perfection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And as we know, Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead. Here, once again, through the waters of Holy Baptism, through Jesus completely identifying Himself as us, through His substitutionary role, His resurrection becomes our resurrection. When Jesus rose from the dead, we rose from the dead. Death and the grave have no power over Jesus. Death and the grave have no power over us. By faith in Jesus, given through the water and God’s name placed on us at our Baptism, we have been united with Jesus such that His work is ours and our sins are His.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But Paul is still not finished. He goes on to remind us that we yet have a life to live in this world. We pick up at verse six, “6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” (v. 6-8). Paul reminds us of the fact that remains. We are slaves and we always will be slaves. We will either be slaves to sin or slaves to Christ.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We were slaves to sin, notice the past tense, we were. We were conceived and born in sin. Our sinful nature shows itself in our propensity to sin. Our natural desire is to sin, we do not even need practice. We do not even need to think about it. We do sin and unfortunately, we often sin boldly. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, not doing what we should be doing and sins of commission, doing what we should not be doing. Yet, Paul reminds us, our old sinful self was crucified in Christ. By faith in Jesus, with His help we can and we do overcome temptation and sin. Certainly there are times that we yet fail, but, again, with God’s help we do win. So, again Paul reiterates, if we have died with Christ, we also are alive with Him. It is Christ who gives us the strength and power to overcome.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul concludes with words of our own assurance of eternal life. We pick up at verse nine, “9We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 9-11). Christ was raised from the dead, never to die again. Jesus did what He came to do, identify with us, live perfectly for us in our place, obey all of God’s laws and commands perfectly, fulfill all of God’s prophecies and promises completely, take our sins upon Himself, suffer and die for those sins, substitute Himself for us and die. And He did. He died. He died the eternal death penalty of hell, the price for sin, for us in our place. He died a physical death, which is also a consequence of sin and which awaits each one of us. Yet, Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">By faith in Jesus, faith given to us through the means of grace, we are identified with Jesus so that He becomes us and we become Him. By faith in Jesus, then we will never die. We will never die the eternal death of hell which He died for us, in our place. Certainly, we may die a physical death, that is, unless He returns first. Yet, we are reminded that eternal life is ours now. Eternal life is a present reality. We have eternal life, thus we need have no fear of death.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And please notice, Jesus’ death was once, for all, for all people. Jesus does not die again. He is never re-sacrificed. Jesus will never die again. And so, we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? This means we continue to live under God’s grace, His undeserved love for us. Even when we get confused, even when we get it wrong, He still gets it right. Thus, we have the constant reminder to let Jesus be Jesus in the way He shows Himself to be. You have heard me say it before, but it bears repeating, we get it right when we get right who is doing what. As we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, we celebrate His identifying with us. We celebrate His subsitutionary atonement for us. And we look to our own baptism as His gift to us as well. Thus, by grace, God gives. God gives through the means of grace, through the Word, that is through Holy Scripture, as well as through the sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and we would also include as a means of grace, confession and absolution. Through these very earthly means our Lord gives us faith and this faith is what takes hold of and makes all the other gifts and blessings the Lord gives ours as well, forgiveness, life and salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yes, through means our Lord gives faith and also through means our Lord works to strengthen us in faith. Faith is not something that is stagnant, but is alive and growing, or it begins to die and backslide. One cannot remain at one place in one’s faith life, for either we are growing in faith or we are losing faith. Thus, here again we see the importance of making regular, every day and every week and diligent, always, use of the means of grace, remembering our baptism, attending Divine Service and Bible class, coming to the Lord’s Supper and confessing and hearing those most beautiful words of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven.”<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Because, through these means, through faith, our Lord also gives eternal life. Think in terms of an eternal perspective. Our lives in this world are but a moment, a breath, a twinkle of the eye compared to our eternity in heaven and yet, unfortunately so often we spend most of our earthly life fretting about this world instead of making sure our lot in heaven is secure. Of course, our eternal lot is secure, by grace, through faith in Jesus. Heaven is ours and it is given to us. Yes, the Lord does it all and gives it all and we are done to and are given to.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I know you hear me continue to speak of making regular and diligent use of the means of grace and I will continue to encourage you in such manner. I do this because if we look at our lives we notice that, as Paul says in our text, we are Christ’s and we are slaves to Him and yet, we do continue to sin, to refuse and reject the gifts the Lord gives. So, I will continue to encourage you to be a slave to Christ, to continue to be given and done to as the Lord gives and does to you, regularly and diligently, remembering your Baptism, confessing and hearing that your sins are forgiven, reading your Bible, attending Bible Class, having personal and family devotions, partaking of the Lord’s Body and Blood in His Holy Sacrament, so there is never any reason to fret about your eternal inheritance. And so that ultimately we may all say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-41966711953600753852023-12-31T17:53:00.011-06:002023-12-31T17:53:50.773-06:00Holy Absolution - New Year’s Eve - December 31, 2023 - Text: Matthew 6:14-15<p style="text-align: justify;">This year during the season of Advent through to New Year’s Eve our theme has been “The Means of God’s Giving.” Today we rejoice in God’s gift of His Holy Absolution, that is we rejoice in God’s spoken Word of forgiveness of sins because we know that with forgiveness is life and salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we have been doing during this Advent through Christmas season and now here as we conclude this series we go back once again to Genesis. In Genesis we were reminded that before creation there was only God who lived in the eternal present. On day one God created time for us and that God in His creation of all things, living in the eternal present He was completely omniscient, all knowing, even knowing what would happen before He began creating, that His creation would sin and that He would have to live according to His commands and demands, suffer and die because His creation would be unable to do so.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And so, in the beginning we were reminded of the power and efficacy of God’s Word, such that as God spoke His creating Word all things were brought into being, were created. And as God created, all things were good and finally on the last day of creation God said that all that He created was good, even very good. In other words, according to God’s all powerful creating Word all things were created perfect and good.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, not only did God’s Word bring into being and create all things, God’s Word also brought a curse on the world, not that this curse was God’s desire, but was the consequence of the disobedience and sin of Adam and Eve. So, in the beginning we see God’s usual work, creation and Gospel and we see God’s alien work, justice, law and condemnation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yet, again we see God’s usual work in that immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, which God knew would happen, God gave His usual work in that by His Word of Gospel God brought the promise of a Savior. God did not give a time frame for His giving of a Savior, simply that He would send a Savior so that here in Genesis we see the beginning of the Christian Church, that is in God’s promise of a Messiah, a Savior, a Christened one, a Christ, the Christian Church began. All people who believed God’s promise of a Christ were a part of the Holy Christian Church. So, even in Genesis all people were saved by God’s grace through faith given to them in the One promised to come, the Christ.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">How does God deliver the gifts He has promised, the gifts won and paid for by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection? As we have been hearing throughout Advent and Christmas, through His means of grace. First and foremost God gives faith and forgiveness through the waters of Holy Baptism and His name. In the Old Testament a child was made a part of the people of God through the sacrament of Circumcision. Circumcision marked the Old Testament believers as members of the body of Christ.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the New Testament God has given us the sacrament of Holy Baptism to replace the sacrament of Circumcision. In Holy Baptism we are marked with the water and having God’s name put on us so that Holy Baptism gives us faith, forgives our sins and marks us as New Testament believers. As the Apostle Peter says so well, “Baptism . . . now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As always, as with all the means of grace, as we have heard time and again, the power of Baptism is in the Word of Jesus. Jesus says, “baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And again through Peter He tells us “baptism now saves.” What joy to be given faith, forgiveness, life and salvation, to have God’s name written on us, to have our names written in the book of Life, through Holy Baptism.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Having been brought into the Church through Holy Baptism, God gives us His Holy Supper so that we are strengthened and kept in faith. Just as the Passover Seder was celebrated in the Old Testament, pointing to Jesus, so Jesus came and fulfilled that to which the Passover pointed. In the Old Testament the unblemished lamb was selected and slaughtered. Its blood marked the homes of those to be saved and its flesh was eaten so that the lamb became a physical part of the people.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples and from that Passover meal He gives us His Holy Supper which also points us to Him. In the Holy Supper we eat the body of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptists so well pointed out and we drink His blood, thus we are marked with the body and blood of the Christ so that the angel of eternal death and hell pass over us. He becomes a physical part of us. His perfect life, suffering, death and resurrection become our perfect life, suffering, death and resurrection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Just as we see the creating power in the Word of God, so we see its power in Holy Baptism giving faith, forgiveness and eternal life, so also we see that the power of the Holy Supper is also the Word of Jesus, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. What joy is given to us through this Holy Meal.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Tonight we celebrate what is considered by some the third sacrament, and although it may not be considered a sacrament because it is missing a physical, earthly element, we do know that Holy Absolution is a means of grace, that it is a way in which God gives us the forgiveness of sins. What Jesus earned on the cross, forgiveness of sins, He gives to us through the means of Holy Absolution.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Before His ascension Jesus gives His Church and pastors the joy of giving forgive sins. When we confess our sins and the pastor speaks those words of Absolution, “As a called and ordained servant of the Word, and by His authority, I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” then we can be certain that our sins are forgiven. That they are forgiven in heaven just as the forgiveness is pronounced on earth.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yet, one more time we see the power of Holy Absolution is the same as that of Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper, it is the Word of Jesus. God said it and it really does not matter if we believe it or not, because God said it, that settles it. God’s Word does and gives what it says because of the power and efficacy of His Word.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? As we agree with many Christian Churches, God’s Word is Inspired, Inerrant, and Infallible. And yet we would continue and say that God’s Word is Sufficient, that is His Word is enough. God’s Word is Clear, that is we can understand His Word as plain word. God’s <br />Word is efficacious, that is it does what it says and gives the gifts it says it gives. And God’s Word is powerful. God’s Word creates. Again, as you have heard me say many times, God’s Word is efficacious, it does and gives what it says. We can be sure that when God speaks His Word that we are given faith we can be sure we have faith. When God’s Word says our sins are forgiven we can be sure our sins are forgiven. When God’s Word says we have life and salvation we can be sure we have life and salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">While humans may and do get it wrong and fail, all the time, God is always right and never fails. God’s Word is a Word with authority, the authority He has given us in His great giving of authority in Matthew 28. God’s Word is never wrong which is why we never elevate our own human reason over God’s Word, even when there are times we may not completely understand God’s Word and when God’s Word may seem too difficult for us to handle. We simply speak what God’s says, not taking away from it nor adding to it.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">For us Christians, God’s Word is the heart and power of the means that God uses to give, strengthen and keep in faith. Thus, the Holy Spirit works in and through us to have a desire and yearning to make regular and diligent us of His means of grace, being in Divine Service as often as offered, remembering our Baptism, confessing our sins and hearing His Word of Absolution, hearing His Word read and preached, partaking of Jesus’ body and blood in His Holy Supper, having personal and family devotions, reading God’s Word on our own. Indeed, God’s means of grace become most precious to us who are being saved because it is the means through which God lavishes us with all the good gifts and blessings He has to give.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is my prayer that having heard of all the wonderful power and gifts God’s Word and Sacraments and His means of grace give that we have an even greater desire to be where and when His gifts are given out so that we might always be strengthened and kept in faith until Christ comes again. What a great God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have. To Him alone be all glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-90045196446930749782023-12-31T07:40:00.006-06:002023-12-31T07:40:30.481-06:00God’s Plan Is Not Coincidence - First Sunday after Christmas - December 31, 2023 - Text: Gal. 4:4-7<p style="text-align: justify;">It was a cold night. You were on your way home from a friends house. It was late and the road seemed deserted. You had not seen a house or another car for miles. All of a sudden your tire blows, you swerve and find yourself in the ditch. You are not hurt, just a little shaken. You get out to survey the situation. Your mind is racing a hundred miles an hour as you see no way to move your car, and no house within miles. Behind you a car pulls up and stops. It is your neighbors who are on their way home. How relieved you are as you explain to them what happened. You all get in the neighbors car and marvel at the coincidence of the events that took place. I am here to tell you that it was not a coincidence. As a matter of fact, I do not believe in coincidence. God’s ways are not our ways. He works in our lives according to His plan and purposes. As I say that, however, let me remind you that God always has the best in mind for us in our lives. Pain, suffering, struggles, evil happen because we live in a sin filled world. Pain, suffering, struggles, evil happen because of sin. For God’s part, He always works to bring out the best in any and all situations especially for us His chosen children. And the best may not always be what we perceive to be the best. Certainly we might not think of physical death to a very ill person as being the best, but in Godly terms, what is better than the perfect healing of eternal life in heaven? So, this story is not meant to suggest that God necessarily or always only intends evil or “bad” things to happen, rather it illustrates how God works to bring good in our lives even out of seeming bad situations and so in our text this morning Paul explains the seeming coincidences of our salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From the events at the end of the book of Malachi to the beginning of the events of the gospel of Matthew was a period of over 400 years. From the events of Genesis chapter three to Matthew was a period of over 4000 years. After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three, God immediately promised to send a Savior. God’s promise was that the Savior would come and would crush Satan, while in turn being crushed, that is in completely defeating Satan, God would suffer death Himself. God did not attach a time to His promise. And as we know, God’s time is not our time. God’s plan was that at the right time, the time He had set, this Savior would be born. Paul’s reference is that Christ’s birth, which we celebrated last Sunday night and Monday morning, was the right time, thus Christ Jesus was born. This was not a coincidence but was a part of God’s plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for the census of Caesar Augustus because he was a descendant of David, King David. Joseph was also a descendant of the line of promise of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mary was pregnant at the time of the news of the census. You remember also that Mary’s relative Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist the fore runner, the way preparer of Jesus, was also pregnant at this time. That all these things were taking place and that Jesus was born at this time was not a coincidence, but was a part of God’s divine plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">One other aspect of this fullness of time is that as Paul says in Romans [5:6-8] “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinner, Christ died for us.” God did not wait until we could work out our own salvation. He did not wait for us to become good people. It was not a coincidence that He came while we were sinners, as a matter of fact this is the reason He came. He came in the fullness of time, while we were sinners, because we are sinners, Because we cannot save ourselves.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul goes on to add that Christ was born of a woman. Something so obvious seems trivial, but Paul does not write to be trivial. Our Savior is our Savior because He was born of a woman. Only because He was a human being like us could He save us. Only because He was a human being could He be our substitute, trading His perfect life for our imperfect, sin filled lives. And, so that we do not go away mislead I must remind you that Jesus was also truly God, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit as we confess in the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed. He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, in order to fulfill the command of God to be perfect and in order to raise Himself from the dead. Before the time had fully come, at which time Christ became a man, He was true God with the Father and the Spirit in heaven enjoying all the glory that was His as God. When the time had fully come, when all of human history was at just the right point, when the nine months of gestation was completed, Jesus took upon Himself to be one of us, a human being. This was not a coincidence, but was part of God’s plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As a human being He was born under the Law, the civil law, the moral law and the ceremonial law. We remember that eight days after His birth His mother and father took Him to be circumcised and as we heard read in our Gospel reading for today, we remember that at the age of 40 days Mary and Joseph took Him to the Temple to offer the sacrifice to redeem the first born as prescribed by the Law. We remember that at the temple Mary and Joseph met Simeon and Anna. We remember that at the age of twelve Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. He followed all the Jewish Laws, perfectly. This was not a coincidence, but was a part of God’s plan. What Adam and Eve could not do, obey one command. What the whole nation of Israel could not do obey the Ten Commandments. What we cannot do, be perfectly obedient, Jesus did perfectly, for us and for all people, in our place. All that the ceremonial laws commanded, all that the ceremonial laws were intended to point to, Jesus fulfilled, completing and abolishing all the ceremonial laws so that they are no longer necessary. All this He did for us in our place and for all people of all places of all times, because of His great love for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">He did all of this to redeem us. Redeem, that is a big word. And I know you have heard me say this before and I do so and continually repeat because it is such a great way to understand redemptions. When I hear the word redeem I usually think of trading stamps. You might remember, the S & H Green stamps. But now I want to pause for a moment, because my family has heard this illustration often as well and they tell me that no one knows S & H Green Stamps. So, I have tried to think of a more modern illustrations such as how fast food places, grocery stores and the like will let you collect points or reward points that you can cash in, but I cannot think of any that offer the best illustration of redeeming those points. So, back to my illustrious illustration. With S & H Green stamps, you collect the stamps, paste them in a book and then take them to the “redemption” center where you redeemed them or “traded” them for some merchandise. Redeem is a good word to use for Christ’s work. However, Christ did not collect a bunch of trading stamps with which to redeem us. We have been born into this world in sin. Each of us is a sinner. We are conceived in sin and lost and condemned from birth. As Scripture so well points out, we are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God. By ourselves we are lost. There is no way we can save ourselves. By God’s grace, His undeserved love for us, He sent His one and only Son born in the flesh for us. As God, Christ was born perfect. As man, Christ was born as one of us in order to save us. Christ lived the perfect life, under the Law. He fulfilled all the demands of the ceremonial law, all the demands of the moral law and all the demands of the civil law. Then, of His own free will He took all our sins upon Himself. He suffered, physically, mentally, spiritually and eternally and He died, suffering hell for us. By His suffering He bought us back, redeemed us from sin, Satan, death, and hell. He redeemed us, He traded, His life for ours, His death for ours, His resurrection for our. Purely by His grace for us, not as a coincidence, but as a part of His plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Because we are redeemed, God’s children, with the Holy Spirit we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Paul is not making reference to some charismatic utterance with which we will respond. What he is saying is that because God has redeemed us, made us His sons and daughters, He has filled us with His Spirit through which we can call upon Him and worship Him. Our worship of God is not something we do of our selves and is not a coincidence, but is from God and is a part of His plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">“So you are no longer a slave, but a son” (v. 7). A slave is subject to a master. In our case we were slaves to sin, ruled by our own sinful desires. Now, because we have been redeemed, we are no longer slaves, but God’s children. We are ruled by God, living our lives to please Him. It is not a coincidence that we live our lives for Him, this is a part of His plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In all His doings God made us His sons and daughters and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. He did it all. There is nothing left for us to do. As His sons and daughters, His children, we are His heirs. We are the one’s who are given and who receive the inheritance of eternal life in heaven. So that at the right time, when our time has fully come, He will take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity. This is not a coincidence, but this is a part of His plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The last two words of verse seven are very important. The last two words are “through God.” It is only through God and God in Christ that we are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Paul expresses this same idea in Romans [8:15-17], he says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Through Christ we are heirs. Through Christ we share in His suffering, death, and resurrection. Through Christ we are redeemed, bought back and made heirs. Through Christ we share in His glory in heaven not by coincidence but by God’s plan.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">That you are here today, that you are a redeemed child of God is not a coincidence. As Paul says in First Timothy, “This is good, and pleases god our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth [1 Tim. 2:3-4].” God has chosen you. He has sent His one and only Son to die for you and to rise for you. It did not just happen but is a part of God’s plan. Thanks be to the Lord for He is good for His mercy endures forever. To Him alone be the glory, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-92095803479647968182023-12-25T09:15:00.006-06:002023-12-25T09:15:25.768-06:00Holy Supper - Christmas Day - December 25, 2023 - Text: Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:18-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-25<p style="text-align: justify;">This year during the season of Advent through to New Year’s Eve our theme continues to be “The Means of God’s Giving.” Today not only do we rejoice and celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Word made flesh, we also rejoice in God’s gift of the Holy Supper and how through the simple earthly elements of bread and wine and the power of God’s Word, namely God’s name, God does such great things, strengthening us in faith, giving us forgiveness of sins and eternal life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In order to best under God’s gift of the Holy Supper we must go back to what Jesus was celebrating with His disciples when He gave us this Holy Meal. Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples, that is the deliverance of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, the tenth plague of the angel of death and their being spared through the blood of the lamb marking their houses. As you might remember, preparation for the night of the exodus and the tenth plague, a spotless lamb was chosen and sacrificed. It’s blood was collected and painted on door post and lintel of the house, a marking similar to making the sign of the cross, to mark the house so the angel of death would pass over that house.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the night of the plague along with unleavened bread, the lamb was eaten. At this time God also gave this ordinance to Israel that in remembrance of this night, this tenth plague and their deliverance from Egypt, every year they were to celebrate this event. They were to cleanse their houses of leaven. They were to eat unleavened bread as well as the lamb. No where do we have any indication that the children of Israel were to participate in this meal in any manner other than actually physically eating so that the lamb became a part of their physical being. In other words, no where do we get any idea that any of this was symbolic or representative.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the night of the tenth plague, the houses were marked with the blood of the lamb. Indeed, the people staying in those houses were marked. Those marked with the blood of the lamb were saved because the angel of death passed over those houses and spared the people inside.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Before we move to Jesus’ celebration of the Passover with His disciples we want to take a moment to connect the dots of history. First in the Garden of Eden, then throughout the Old Testament, especially in Exodus and Leviticus, and finally with John the Baptist. In the beginning God created all things perfect and holy. He created a perfect man and a perfect woman and placed them in the perfect garden He had created for them. He gave them one rule, do not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He even set the penalty if they disobeyed His one rule. The price for disobedience, for sin was set at death, human death for human sin. And we know that account, they sinned and God stepped in with the promise to take care of their sin by sending a Savior.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moving on to Exodus and Leviticus, as we were earlier reminded, God established the celebration of the Passover as the Israelites were being rescued from Egypt. In Leviticus God gives the ceremonial sacrificial system of laws which were intended to separate and set aside His people, the Israelites, from the rest of the world, the pagan nations that would surround them. All these sacrifices had the main emphasis and pointed to the fact that the price for sin was death, human death for human sin and ultimately pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice of the Savior God would send. Remembering that the price for human sin was human death the animal sacrifices were not what brought salvation but pointed to the One human who would pay the price, the complete price.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">When we get to the New Testament we begin with John the Baptist who was born to prepare the way for the One promised in Eden, the Savior. When John was with his disciples and sees Jesus he points to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John acknowledges that Jesus is the Lamb of God. The One ultimate sacrifice to which the people were looking was indeed this Lamb of God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, on Maundy Thursday, the night in which He was betrayed Jesus is celebrating this Passover meal, the eating of unleavened bread and drinking of wine. During the meal we are told as the three Gospel writers and Paul attests, “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body’” (Matthew 26:26). Jesus does not say that this bread symbolized His body nor that it represented His body, nor that it was changed into His body. He says the bread He was holding in His hand was and is His body.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">After giving His disciples the bread/body we are told that, “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’” (1 Corinthians 11:25). In other words, here again Jesus does not say that this cup of wine symbolized His blood nor that it represented His blood, nor that it was changed into His blood. He says the cup of wine He was holding in His hand was and is His blood.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">How can this be? How can this bread be His body and this wine be His blood? If we raise our human reason over the very Words Jesus speaks then we may not understand and so we may be tempted to attempt to explain these words in some way we as humans may accept as more rational. However, when we believe the Words that Jesus speaks we simply say what He says and believe what He tells us whether or not we may fully comprehend something of God’s nature we are not intended to fully comprehend.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But the important thing to know, believe and confess is that because the price for sin was set at death, at the shedding of human blood for human sin, in this Holy Supper Jesus gives us His body and blood marking His disciples and us so that eternal death and hell passes over us. In our physically eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus He becomes a physical part of us so that His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His perfect death and resurrection become our perfect death and resurrection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, what does this mean? And what does this mean as we celebrate the birth of our Savior? From the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden human beings have been cursed with the sin of our first parents as well as our own sin, the price of which was set at death. From the moment of conception we are all destined to die at least to physically pass away from this world. Left to ourselves we would also be destined to die an eternal death in hell. Yet, in the very beginning God promised to take care of the sin of Adam and Eve and all people, us included. In Egypt the people of God were physically marked with the blood and eating the lamb so that in their deliverance from bondage to slavery, the punishment of the Egyptians passed over them.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today, for us, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the birth of the One, as the Gospel writer John described, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1,14). We celebrate the first word, the oral word of the promise of a Savior spoken to Adam and Eve, the written words of promise given throughout the Old Testament, the Word of promise made flesh in Jesus and now the tangible Word given to us in the Lord’s Supper. Today we celebrate that we physically consume Jesus’ body and blood, marking us for salvation and the passing over of eternal death and hell.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we have been expounding on the power of these means that God uses, through which God gives us the gifts He has to give, this morning we rejoice once again in the Word of God which gives His Holy Supper the power to forgive sins and with forgiveness is life and salvation. Indeed, as we are given the bread and His body and the wine and His blood and as we hear those most beautiful words, “For you,” then we know that we are being given exactly what we are told, Jesus’ body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we begin our Christmas celebration and Christmas season we rejoice in the clarity, sufficiency, efficacy and power of God’s Word. Indeed, we rejoice that God’s Word is the power in His means of grace to give the gifts He has to give. We rejoice that nothing depends on us, nor our reason, but all God’s gifts are given to us and we are simply given to and moved to rejoice in being given to. And so now we begin our twelve day Christmas celebration, beginning by celebrating what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-75076393452077139362023-12-24T17:32:00.012-06:002023-12-24T17:32:53.306-06:00The Word Made Flesh - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2023 - Text: John 1:14<p style="text-align: justify;">This year during the season of Advent through to New Year’s Eve our theme is “The Means of God’s Giving.” Today we rejoice in God’s gift of His Word, made flesh, that is we rejoice in God’s spoken Word of creation and promise of a Messiah, Savior, God’s written Word and promise of a Messiah, Savior and God’s Word of promise begin born in the flesh in the person of Jesus.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As you have heard me say many times, God lives outside of time, in the eternal present. For God there is no yesterday nor is there a tomorrow, only the eternal present, the eternal now, which is why God is omniscient, all knowing. On the first day of creation God created time for us when He created the light and night and day, the first day. Because God lives in the eternal present and because He is omniscient He knew even before He began creating that Adam and Eve would sin and that He would have to live, suffer and die in order to pay the price for our sin and yet, because of His great love for us He created anyway. Indeed, no greater love can one have than they would lay down their life for another, which is what was promised in Eden, a Savior, Jesus.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Just as an aside, please do not mistake God’s omniscience, His foreknowledge, that is His knowing all even before it happens as if He predestines or predetermines all that will happen, including one’s eternal death in hell or salvation in heaven. To know something before it happens does not mean it is or has been predetermined.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the beginning, in Genesis, we have the history, the account of God creating a perfect world. We have the account of God creating a perfect man and from his side, from his rib God created a perfect woman. Finally, we have God creating a perfect garden, a place for the man and the woman to live. God also created two special trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And God gave the man and the woman one rule, to not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told them that if they did disobey Him and eat of the fruit of the tree they would begin to die a physical death and ultimately, without a sinless substitute, a Savior, they would die and eternal death in hell.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Of course, we know the history, Eve and Adam, tempted by the devil, Satan, Lucifer, the father of lies, they ate from the fruit questioning God and believing the devil and so their eyes were open so that now instead of knowing only good they also knew evil. In their defense I would suggest that because they only knew good and did not know what a lie was and because of their naivety, they sinned and their sin brought God’s just judgement and a curse.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thanks be to God that because He already knew what was going to happen He had a plan and so He immediately stepped in and promised a Savior, One who would do what Adam and Eve could not do, be perfectly obedient, and who would pay the price of eternal death for them.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As time moved forward, God continued to remember His promise. After God washed the world with a flood, as the population grew, God chose a man, Abram whose name He changed to Abraham and God promised Abraham that he would be the father of the Savior, that is through his family line, his DNA, the Savior promised some thousand years earlier, would be born. Of course, God did not mention it would be about another two thousand years before it would actually happen. God’s promise to Abraham, as we have heard earlier in this series, was an unconditional promise, just as His promise was to Adam and Eve, who had all nations of peoples in their DNA.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Moving on in time, God chose Moses and reiterated His promise of a Savior through Moses. However, part of God’s covenant with Moses had a conditional promise, that is Moses and Israel would be given a land flowing with milk and honey and they would keep that land as long as they would be faithful and obedient to God, which we know they were unable to do, so the land was forfeited. Yet, God’s unconditional promise of a Savior never wavered, indeed, God’s ultimate promise always pointed to Jesus.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Once again, moving forward in time and history. Finally, when all things were just right, or better said, at just the right time, that is according to God’s perfect timing. As the world and the powers of the world were in just the right place, God began fulfilling the promise He made in the Garden of Eden, the promise He reiterated to Abraham, the promise reiterated to the Children of Israel.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today we begin our celebration, once again, of God’s fulfilling His promise of a Savior for all people, of all places of all times, indeed, a Savior for you and for me. I would refer you back to the title of our message for this morning and remind you that the very first promise of a Savior God made was an oral promise, a promise spoken to Adam and Eve. At the time of Moses God told Moses and even moved in Moses to write down the history of His people and the history of the promise He made beginning in Genesis. So, the oral promise brought forth the written promise. In our text John expresses these promises as the Word, that is that now that oral and written promise take on flesh and blood in the person, the human being of Jesus. Jesus is the Word, the promise of God, made flesh in order to fulfill that promise. As we confess in the creeds, Jesus is truly God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, so that He could trade His perfection for our imperfection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Also, as we confess in our creeds, Jesus is truly man, born of the Virgin Mary. And Jesus had to be a true human because the price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden. The price for sin was death, human death for human sin, blood had to be shed. All the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, all the sacrifices truly did not bring forgiveness but simply were a reminder that the price for sin was death and pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” Jesus Himself. And so Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s first promise in Eden and God’s reiterated promise to Abraham and to Moses and all Israel.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? This evening we are reminded once again that the reason Jesus was born, the reason we celebrate the birth of this Christ-child is because God’s perfection and command were broken in Eden which brought sin and a curse on the world, which brought death. Indeed, as difficult as it may seem, we always celebrate Christmas in the shadow of the cross.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, not only were God’s perfection and commands broken in Eden so too were God’s promises and commands to His chosen people, the Children of Israel. Because of Israel’s disobedience they lost the conditional part of God’s promise of a land. Yet, God’s unconditional promise of a Savior through their family line was never negated. And even though Jesus was not a one hundred percent Hebrew as He had Moabites and prostitutes and other ethnicities in His family line.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, today we celebrate that God sent His one and only son, Jesus, God in flesh, to do what Adam and Eve could not do, what Israel could not do, what we cannot do, live perfectly according to all God’s laws, demands and commands. As you have heard me say time and again, the fullness of the Gospel is not simply that Jesus died and rose, but that Jesus lived for us, in our place, as our substitute, doing what we cannot do.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today we begin our celebration that Jesus is the Word, the Word spoken in Eden, the Word written by Moses, the Word born of Mary. Jesus is the Word made flesh who dwelt, tented, lived for a short time among us a time short enough, but long enough to complete what needed to be done for our forgiveness and salvation. A time short enough and long enough to accomplish what we could not accomplish. As you always hear me say, we get it right when we point to Jesus. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot be perfectly obedient. We cannot choose Jesus as our Savior. We cannot dedicate our lives to Him. Thanks be to God that He has saved us. He was perfectly obedient for us. He chose us. He dedicated His life to us. He does it all for us and give it all to us. Jesus gives faith, forgiveness, life, even eternal life and salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today we once again begin our Christmas celebration and remember, our celebration lasts for twelve day, the full twelve days of Christmas. Our celebration lasts until Epiphany, the visit of the Magi, the Wisemen to see Baby Jesus and what is often referred to as our Gentile Christmas. Let the celebration begin and to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. <br /></p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-67389472029400211072023-12-24T07:30:00.006-06:002023-12-24T07:30:28.845-06:00To God Be Glory - Fourth Sunday in Advent - December 24, 2023 - Text: Romans 16:25-27<p style="text-align: justify;">Have you ever heard someone say something like, “It’s a mystery to me.” Or have you ever read a “mystery” novel? Or, maybe you watch shows on television that are consider “mystery” shows? When we speak in such terms, using the word “mystery,” we usually mean something that we cannot explain, at least not right off. Of course, most “mystery” novels and “mystery” shows disclose the secret by the end of the book. In our text for this morning Paul speaks of “the mystery that was kept secret for long ages.” To help us better understand this “mystery” and the revelation of the secret of this mystery let us take a moment to do a little word study. The word “mystery” in the New Testament is often connected with another word, the word “kerygma,” which means “proclamation,” that is that one proclaims or preaches something. Paul links this word to the cross which is divine wisdom. Linking these words together, Paul is speaking of the mystery of the eternal counsel of God hidden from the world but fulfilled and revealed in the cross of Christ. This mystery is before the world, hidden from eternity, hidden in God, but fulfilled and revealed in Christ. And today this mystery is continually revealed through the means of grace, especially through the proclamation of the Gospel.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, what about this mystery? What is such a mystery? For us Christians, there really is no mystery, at least not any more. For those of us who have been given faith, the mystery has been revealed and we revel in the mystery and give glory to God. Yet, there are many in our world who continue to be confused and for whom the Gospel, the Good News of salvation is and continues to be a mystery. For too many, their eyes are veiled and they cannot fathom the revelation of the mystery of God. Perhaps we would do well to reveal this mystery to them. What is this mystery? The mystery is how a Creator God could so love and care for His creation so much that He would do anything and everything (even giving His own life) to save His creation. This just does not make sense to the average person. We live in what has been called a “throw away” society, even a consumer society. We buy, use, and dispense, that is, we throw away and discard what we have used. We purchase “fast” food, eat it on the run and then dispose of our trash. Certainly we must all admit that we are very wasteful people. Unfortunately, this translates into the fact that we very often care very little for the so many blessings we have.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Maybe the illustration of a potter might help. A potter works the clay in order to make a pot to serve a purpose. If the potter is not satisfied with the clay he or she simply smashes it and begins to rework it, or if they have completed the work and then in the firing process, that is when it is put in the oven to make it hard, something happens, they simply throw it away. God is our Creator. He has molded us. Through trials and tribulations He fires us. And yet, even as we are conceived and born in sin, even as we daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness, He does not simply start over or throw us away. Instead, because of His great love for us, He set out to redeem us, to buy us back to take care of our impurities and imperfections, which is no small task. And so it is to many a mystery, how a Creator God could have such love for His wayward creation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is not a new mystery, but is a mystery that was given through the prophetic writings of the Old Testament. Moses recorded the words of the Lord as He recounted the history of His creation of the world, out of nothing, in six - twenty-four hour days. Moses recorded the account of the perfection of God’s creation, that all was good and even very good. And Moses, by inspiration from God, who was there, recounts the fall into sin. God, who created all things out of nothing, who created the man in His own image, perfect and holy, who created the woman as a helper suitable for the man, gave only one requirement for His creatures, not to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And God even set the penalty for such transgression if it would occur and that penalty was eternal death and hell and physical death.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And, of course, we know the history, Eve and Adam did disobey God. They did eat from the fruit and their disobedience brought sin and death into our once perfect world. Fortunately, God, who knew this would happen, even before He set out and began creation, God also knew that He would take care of this sin as well. See, this too is a mystery, a mystery from eternity, that is that God knew all these things from before He set out to create and yet, He created this world and us anyway. And He also knew the price that He would willingly pay for His creation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The mystery is given in the Old Testament and the mystery is made know to the world through the birth of Jesus Christ. We are in the fourth week of Advent, preparing ourselves for our celebration of the birth of Christ, the birth of God in flesh, according to the promise God made in the Garden of Eden, the promise to send a Savior. Jesus is God from eternity, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God who took on human flesh and blood in order to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. Jesus had to be truly God in order to be perfect, in order to live perfectly, in order to do for us all that we in our imperfection cannot do for ourselves. Jesus also had to be truly human in order to be our substitute. Just as we speak of different things, such as apples and oranges, these cannot be substituted because they are not the same, so our substitute had to be one of us, thus Jesus was truly one of us, truly human.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jesus came, God in flesh, to do for us what we cannot do. Jesus came to bring reconciliation, to set our account with God straight, that is to pay what we owe, the price for our sins as well as for the sins of all people of all places of all times. Remember, when the promise to send a Savior was first made, it was made to Adam and Eve, to all people, to all their offspring. Yes, later the promise was narrowed, that is that the Savior would be born through the chosen people of the children of Israel, but that did not negate the fact that the promise was for all people, especially for you and for me.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today Jesus still comes to us. He comes to us to gives us all His good gifts and blessings. He comes to give us forgiveness of sins. He comes to give us faith and to bring us strengthening of faith. He comes to strengthen and keep us in faith.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And, as Paul says, our Lord continues to come to us to “bring about obedience of faith,” that is to work in and through us so that we do the good works which God has prepared for us to do. Of course we understand that this is properly the work of the Holy Spirit. And yet, this too is a mystery, that is how we, who are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God can do anything that is pleasing in God’s eyes. But these things we do, as the Lord works these good works in and through us and as they are done to His glory.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? For many in our world, and unfortunately for many even in the Christian church this continues to be a mystery. This is the mystery of God’s great love. How often we, even as faithful Christians, wonder how, in our sin, God can love us so much? Yet, we realize that this is just the work of Satan trying to fill us with doubt and despair in order to lead us away from Christ. Our answer is, as always, to go back to the place where God reveals His mystery and that is to go back to His Word which rightly and boldly proclaims our forgiveness and God’s love to us in Christ.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yes, the mystery has been and continues to be revealed. It is revealed every time the Word of God is read and heard and, yet it continues to be missed by many. It continues to be rejected by many. God’s word is rejected as phoney, as counterfeit, as restrictive and so it continues to be a mystery.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The mystery has been revealed in Christ, the Word made flesh. As we read and hear all the promises of the Old Testament, we see all these promises, not just some, but all these promises fulfilled in this one person, Jesus Christ, God in flesh. Certainly the odds that only one person might fulfill one or two of these promises would be great, but Jesus fulfilled them all. He is the one eternal God from eternity, without beginning, without end, who intervened in our own human history, who took on human flesh and blood in order to take care of our broken relationship with Himself as Creator God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The mystery is revealed in Holy Absolution. Whenever we confess our sins as we do at the beginning of almost every service, and we hear those most beautiful words, “your sins are forgiven,” then we know that this is exactly what we have, forgiveness of sins. Our sins did not simply vanish. The price for our sins had to be paid and it was paid. It was paid by Christ on the cross.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The mystery is revealed in Holy Baptism. Again, unfortunately too many people fail to understand the power of water and God’s Word, depending, instead, on their own finite, human understanding. And yet our Lord tells us how baptism even saves us, not simply the water, but the word connected with God’s Word, namely His name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through which our Lord works to give us faith, to write His name on us, to write our names in the book of life, to claim us as His own.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the mystery is revealed in our Lord’s Holy Supper. Again, according to our own finite human understanding too many fail to understand our Lord’s Word when He tells us that Jesus took bread and took wine and gave it saying that this “is,” not that this “is changed into,” nor that this “symbolizes,” but that this “is” My body and My blood. And that as we do “this,” that is as we eat His body and drink His blood we do this in remembrance, that is we do this in participation of His death and resurrection, so that His life becomes our life, His death becomes our death and His resurrection becomes our resurrection.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Most of you know that I tend to be a simple person and I like things simple. The simpler the better. That is the reason I always say, when you have a theological question, the first place I always go for an answer is my catechism, which many equate with being a children’s catechism. Yet, this is the first place I always go for answers to great theological questions. So, for an answer to the mystery of God, might I suggest in simple terms and this is nothing new, you have heard it before, we know we get it right, we know we get the mystery of God right when we get it right as to who is doing what. When we are “running the verbs,” that is when we put ourselves in the position of doing the doing, we get it wrong and everything continues to be a mystery. However, when we have God “running the verbs,” that is when God is doing the doing and we are the ones being done to, when God is doing the giving and we are the ones being given to, then we get it right and we have the mystery revealed. And certainly, when God is doing the doing and doing the giving, then He is also the one who moves and stirs in us to say, “to Him be the glory.” Which brings us back to Paul’s words, which are words of benediction and words with which I leave you this morning, “25Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—27to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (v. 25-27).</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-73777447230623721882023-12-20T08:08:00.003-06:002023-12-20T08:08:16.803-06:00Holy Baptism - Third Wednesday in Advent (Midweek 3) - December 20, 2023 - Text: Matthew 28:17-20<p style="text-align: justify;">This year during the season of Advent through to New Year’s Eve our theme is “The Means of God’s Giving.” Today we rejoice in God’s gift of Holy Baptism and how through the simple earthly element of water and the power of God’s Word, namely God’s name, God does such great things, giving us faith, forgiveness and eternal life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Before His ascension Jesus gathered His disciples on the mountain. Interestingly enough, Matthew tells us, “And when they saw him [Jesus] they worshiped him, but some doubted” (Matt. 28:17). I guess we are in good company when we at times have doubts in our own lives. Anyway, as Jesus gathers His disciples He tells them that all authority has been given to Him by God. As Matthew relates the account, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Indeed, as true God Jesus does have all authority. Before His being born in human flesh He was in heaven enjoying all the authority and glory that was His and that He gave up in order to take on human flesh and blood. So, now Jesus once again has all authority and is once again able to exercise His divine power in all things.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Notice that Jesus does not keep His authority to Himself, but, and it seems more implied here in the text, but we know that Jesus is giving His authority to His apostles and I would say, yes, He even gives us His authority today. I say that because Jesus’ authority is in His divine Word. God’s Word is a Word with authority and power to give and do what it says. As for the Apostles, they were also given the power to perform signs and wonders as evidence, proof if you will of the Word they proclaimed. And we understand that as they passed away so did such power and authority to perform such signs and wonders. Today we do not need signs and wonders because we have the authority of God’s Word.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And then Jesus gives directions. He says, “19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Please understand, Jesus’ instructions are not a command, not an imperative, but are passive as in “As you are going, as you are living in your vocation, nothing out of the ordinary.” In other words, Jesus is simply expressing what naturally occurs in our lives. As we are living our daily lives in our vocations and as we have the opportunity we are to share the good news of Jesus with others.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now, Jesus words, “make disciples” is an imperative, yet here too we understand that we cannot make anyone have faith, that is not our work, but the work of the Holy Spirit, yet what is imperative is our natural desire to share the good news with others. How can we not help but share the greatest news of all with others. And to whom are we to share this good news, not to some “target audience,” but to “all nations.” And notice, at what point in ones life one is a citizen of a nation? At their birth, in other words as an infant child. And how do we make one a disciple? Jesus says, “by baptizing,” yet, here again this is God’s work, not ours. So, we see Jesus’ Words that baptism is for all people from the moment of birth until the grave and baptism is the instrument through which He gives faith.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But, Jesus is not done with His instructions. He tells us that one is a disciple, that is one is given faith through the water and God’s name put on them at baptism, but then there is the living a life and growing in one’s faith by teaching. So, we understand, we are given faith through baptism and we grow in our faith through our continuing to read, study and learn God’s Word.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In our Catecheses we learn what is Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is water and Word, namely God’s name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We learn that Baptism is a means of grace, that is it is one of the ways in which God comes to us to give us the good gifts and blessings He has to give.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, how can Baptism give the gifts God has to give? What gives Baptism its power? The power of Baptism is God’s Word, His name, which is efficacious, it effects, gives and does what it says. As we started out, God’s Word is the power in all of God’s means of grace. God’s Word speaks clearly. God’s Word is enough, we do not have to add anything especially not our human reason nor understanding, nor misunderstanding. God’s Word is efficacious, it effects, does what it says. God’s Word has power because it is God’s Word. Remember back at creation? It was God’s Word that brought all things into existence.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thus, we rejoice that Holy Baptism gives faith because it comes from God, it is a gift from God and because it points us to Jesus. Baptism is not about us, what we are doing or think we are doing, it is about God and His promises. It is about the gifts that God gives, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And just as a person cannot get faith, claim faith, make a decision for Jesus, so one cannot baptize themself. Indeed, just as a dead person cannot bring themself back to life so we who are spiritually blind, dead and enemies of God cannot save ourselves no matter what we might think or try to do.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Finally, getting back to our text from Matthew, Jesus gives another promise. He says, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20b). What great comfort to know that God is with us, always. When the time comes and it may come soon, when we are being persecuted for our faith, when we are being put before Kings and Princes, or simply when we are asked to give an answer for the hope that we have we can know for certain that Jesus is with us giving us the authority, the words, and the courage to speak.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Our flimsy excuse of, “Well I would not know what to say,” is overshadowed by Jesus promise to be with us and His promise to give us the words to speak and the courage to speak. From where does He get those words He gives us to speak, from our making regular and diligent use of His means of grace, reading our Bible, having personal and family devotions, being in Divine Service and Bible Class. As we hear and learn so the Holy Spirit draws from our well of learning and gives us the words and the courage to speak.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? In the Old Testament the children of Israel were marked as children of the covenant through the sacrament of Holy Circumcision. Even Jesus Himself was circumcised on the eighth day as a child of Israel. In the New Testament, here as Jesus is ready to ascend back into heaven He gives us a new sacrament and mark as His children that is He gives us Holy Baptism which now supercedes circumcision.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In Holy Baptism God, using the hands of the pastor puts water on us and using the mouth of the pastor speaks His name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In so doing, in speaking and with simple earthly water God promises and gives faith and marks one as a redeemed child of God. The baptism of an infant demonstrates well the gift, joy and power of Holy Baptism. The child is doing nothing, not even bringing itself. The parents, out of love and care for their child and its eternal well being bring the child. God speaks through the pastor putting His name on us, forgiving us our sins, marking us as His children and writing our names in the book of heaven.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Holy Baptism saves because it is God’s doing and we know how we get it right when we point to Jesus, just Jesus. We are justified, given faith, made God’s children and our response of faith is then the desire to continue in the faith or as Jesus expresses to continue to be taught the faith. There are many of us who have come to understand that the more we grow in our faith the more we realize how much more we need to learn instilling in us a stronger desire to continue to be in the Word and be given more and more of God’s gifts.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today we are reminded once again of the importance of the means of Grace, those means through which God comes to us to give us the good gifts and blessings He has to give. We are again reminded of the power of those means, that it is the Word of God which gives power to Holy Absolution, the Holy Supper and specifically today, Holy Baptism. And we are reminded of what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what gift giving God we have. So that all we can do is rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-90996562467014218502023-12-17T07:34:00.004-06:002023-12-17T07:34:12.298-06:00Give Thanks in All Circumstances - Third Sunday in Advent - December 17, 2023 - Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24<p style="text-align: justify;">“Some day you will thank me for this.” “This will hurt me more than it hurts you.” “If I do not punish you now you will never learn you lesson and I will be doing a disservice to you if I do not punish you.” These are just a few statements you may have heard or even said yourself when being disciplined or when disciplining your child. Discipline is not an easy thing to do. For the parent it is a matter of tough love, love that demands boundaries be set and kept for the safety and security of the child. The good news for parents is that children need and want those boundaries because these boundaries do make them feel safe and secure. And really, the fact of the matter is, it does not matter how old we are, we all like boundaries because boundaries keep us safe and secure. God has set up such boundaries, including boundaries such as the ten commandments, in order to keep us safe and secure. It is when we test those boundaries and find those boundaries no longer there, that is when we no longer feel safe and secure. Unfortunately, we live in a world and a society that is continually testing and working to remove such boundaries. Boundaries are necessary and discipline is necessary. For the one being disciplined it is not always easy to see the good that is intended which makes reception of discipline not always easy. Our text for today is Paul’s exhortation to “rejoice always . . . in all circumstances,” including times of discipline which can be difficult. As we look at our text we will see how God gives us the strength and encouragement to give thanks in all situations.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Beginning with verses sixteen Paul says, “16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (v. 16-18) What does Paul mean? Why and how are we to be joyful always? We are to be joyful always because that is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus. More specifically God’s will is that all people are saved, what could be more joyful than that? Even more specifically it is God’s will that you are saved. How amazing this will of God is, especially when we step back and think about our own personal situation. We are sinful human beings. We are conceived and born in sin. We are enemies of God. We daily sin much and are worthy of eternal punishment in hell. We daily sin in thought, word and deed, that is by what we think, say and do. We sin sins of omission, not doing what we should be doing and sins of commission, doing what we should not be doing. We sin with our evil wishes on another person, our calling our neighbor a bad name, our cursing the slow driver in front of us, our neglect to help another in need. When we think about our sinful state how can we do anything except rejoice because we know that while we were in our sinful state God sent His only Son to take all our sins upon Himself, to suffer and die for our sins so that we might have forgiveness and with forgiveness we are saved.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Knowing what our Lord has done for us makes it much easier to be joyful in all circumstances. Knowing that God knows the reason for all circumstances, why He allows certain things to happen in our lives makes it much easier to be joyful in all circumstances. Why is it you got laid off from your job? Maybe the Lord has a better job in mind for you. Why is it you got sick and went into the hospital? Maybe the Lord needed you there to bear witness to others of your faith. Why is it you got a speeding ticket? Maybe the Lord was reminding you to be more careful while driving. Our Lord only has our good in mind for us, even when seeming bad things happen to us. Knowing that He has good in mind makes it easier for us to be joyful in all circumstances.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Our joy moves us to pray continually. Does that mean we spend all our time in church, or even at home kneeling with our heads bowed in prayer? Not necessarily. To pray means to have a heart to heart talk with God. This can be done anytime and anyplace. How often do you find yourself in prayer as you work through the struggles of each day. I find myself constantly say, “Lord help me.” We pray constantly when we live our lives as a prayer, that is when we live our lives bearing witness to all our Lord has done for us and to the joy that is in us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">About what kind of joy are talking? Are we talking about temporal or eternal joy? Yes, we are, we are talking about both. We do have temporal, earthly joy while we are here on this earth, but an even greater joy awaits us in heaven, an eternal joy which, of course, lasts forever.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Our joy is based on God’s good gifts which lead Paul to say, “19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies, 21but test everything; hold fast what is good” (v. 19-21). These verses are definitely a reference to the third commandment, that is, that we do not despise preaching and God’s Word. We do not want to “quench the Spirit,” that means we do not want to put out the Spirit’s fire in us, nor do we want to “despise prophecies,” that is we do not want to despise the proclamation of God’s Word. We quench the Spirit when we absent ourselves from Divine Service. Some of you may be familiar with the illustration of how charcoal, when all piled together burns well, but take a lump of that charcoal and place it by itself and it goes out because it does not have the warm flames of fellowship with the other charcoal. Likewise, when we as members of the body of Christ absent ourselves from Divine Service and fellowship with each other, we are putting out the Spirit’s fire by being away from the glowing, warming Christian fellowship. How encouraging we should be toward each other and especially toward those who absent themselves from the means of grace to work to bring them back into the fold. How we have forgotten and fall into the sin of omission by not speaking, exhorting and encouraging each other and especially those who absent themselves to come to Divine Service with us. May the Lord strengthen us so we do not put out the Spirit’s fire and so we may encourage each other as brothers and sisters in the faith.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In our text for this morning we also have the answer to the question that some ask, “How do we know that what we teach is true?” We know by doing what Paul says in our text, by testing everything. We do not take people’s word for what is true, rather we take God’s Word for truth. We know that what we teach is true because His Word tells us so. When we have doubts we do not rely on our own understanding, that only leads to more doubt and confusion. Rather when we have doubts we go to God’s Word which has power to make us wise unto salvation. We test everything and pray, “Lord show me what is true, show me what is from You.”<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The last two verses of our text are Paul’s blessing, “23Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (v. 23-24). Paul’s words of blessing are the reason we can be joyful in all circumstances. We are joyful because we have been made right with God, we have been justified because of Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf. Now, as Christians we live the life of sanctification which is also a gift from God. Because of what God has done for us, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we respond by living our lives according to His good and gracious will, learning more and more each day through His gracious discipline and guidance how to be more and more Christlike, more and more holy.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We are able to do this not because there is something special about us but simply because it is God who is faithful and moves us to do so. We rejoice and are sure of our salvation because God is faithful. Our faith rests in Him, not ourselves. God makes us blameless, right before Himself. God works good in us, through and through. God calls us to faith. God does it and we say thank you with our very lives.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What beautiful words for Advent Paul gives us. We are here in the third week of advent, waiting to celebrate the first coming of the Messiah and we give thanks. We give thanks because our Lord saw our sinful condition and sent His Son to take our place and give us forgiveness. God saw our sinful condition and intervened in human history. God saw our sinful condition and became a human being. He took our sins of commission, the sins we do against God and our neighbor, as well as our sins of omission, the sins of neglecting to help one another and our neighbor, He took all those sins upon Himself and shed His blood upon the cross for those sins, for us. Not because He had to, but because He wanted to, because He wanted to fulfill the promise He made to Adam and Eve way back in the garden of Eden, immediately after the fall into sin.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We give thanks for God’s faithfulness in sending the Messiah. God promised to send a Savior and He kept His promise. How often it is that we have made promises to God to try to be better Christians and how often it is we fail to keep our promises, but God is faithful and just and remembers His promise and we are so thankful to Him.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We give thanks for God’s faithfulness in bringing us to faith. Not only has our God given us forgiveness, but He has also given us the faith to grasp that forgiveness and make it ours. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us to faith through His Word and sacraments. He brings us to faith and works constantly through times of discipline and chastisement to keep us in faith and we say thank you Lord.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We give thanks for God’s faithfulness in keeping us in faith, in our sanctification, until He comes again. Here we are in the third Sunday of Advent, 2023 getting ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior over 2000 years ago. At the same time we are preparing our hearts to receive our Savior when He comes again to take us to be with Him forever in eternity. We do not know when He will come again, so we keep ourselves constantly prepared for when He does come.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">“16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” How can we do this? Only with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit, as He works in us to not put out the Spirit’s fire; to not treat prophecies with contempt. By testing everything. By holding on to the good. And by avoiding every kind of evil. These things we cannot do by ourselves that is why Paul gives us the blessing he gives us, the blessing that tells us that it is God who works these things in and through us, to the praise and glory of His holy name. So, I leave your with Paul’s blessing, “23Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-82192671018746321602023-12-14T07:39:00.001-06:002023-12-14T07:39:04.754-06:00The Written Word, Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants - Second Wednesday in Advent (Midweek 2) - December 13, 2023 - Text: Gen. 12:1-3; Ex. 19:1-6<p style="text-align: justify;">This year during the season of Advent through to New Year’s Eve our theme is “The Means of God’s Giving.” Today we rejoice in God’s gift of His Written Word, Covenants and promises and how through the power of God’s Written Word, Covenants, and promises God does such great things, giving us faith, forgiveness and eternal life.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the Garden of Eden, immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, God cursed the world, as He promised. But, He also then promised to send a Savior, One who would take care of the sin of Adam and Eve and all people. In the Garden of Eden there were no Jews or Gentiles, only Adam and Eve and from their seed the nations of the world would be born. Later on in Genesis God chose Abram and narrowed the line of promise of the Savior, that is that through the blood line of Abram, whose name He changed to Abraham, the Savior would be born. God made a covenant with Abraham. The covenant God made with Abraham was an unconditional covenant, one that God would not break. God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation. Now, just so we understand, the nation God promised to make of Abraham’s descendants was not necessarily an earthly nation, in other words, the nation of Abraham would ultimately be an eternal life in heaven nation for all those who believe in the Savior.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God promised Abraham that He would bless Him and God most certainly did. During Abraham’s life he became a very blessed man, not only because of the promise of the Savior, but also in his amassing flocks, herds, and many earthly blessings. God was with Abraham and protected him.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And because of God’s promise, “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed,” God granted he and his wife Sarah a son. Of course, all of this was done according God’s good and gracious will and His perfect timing, which is not always according to our imperfect will and our timing. As we know the history of Abraham and Sarah, they were old and beyond child bearing years when their son Isaac was born, but God did keep His promise and the line of Abraham continued through Isaac as well as through his son Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel through the line of Judah.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As time went on, God remembered His promise to Adam and Eve and to Abraham. When the twelve sons of Jacob, Israel, were enslaved in Egypt, God called Moses to lead His people out of slavery and into what is called the promised land. So, God made a covenant with Moses. But, God’s covenant with Moses, while being similar to His covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Moses was a conditional covenant, at least the promised land, earthly part of the covenant was a conditional covenant. God’s covenant with Moses was that, “if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant” I will bless you and these people.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, if and as long as the Children of Israel would obey God’s voice and keep His covenant He would make them His people, that is they would live under His divine care and protection. And very often we seek God’s care and protection for His people, pillaging the Egyptian people, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt, routing the Egyptians army, guiding them through the wilderness, defeating those destined for destruction in the land they were to possess.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God’s promise to the Children of Israel is that if they would obey God’s voice and keep His covenant He would make them into an earthy kingdom. And God did make them into an earthly kingdom beginning with King Saul, King David and King Solomon. And yet as we review their sordid history we can see that because of their sinful nature, that they were a stiff-necked people, that they continually were disobedient and did not keep God’s covenant so that the kingdom was divided and eventually the people were carried off to other nations.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God’s promise to the Children of Israel is that if they would obey God’s voice and keep His covenant He would bless them. And indeed, they were blessed, at least for a while. God continually disciplined His people because of His love and promises to them. Ultimately, however, although they lost the conditional Mosaic covenant, the land and the kingdom, they never lost the unconditional covenant, that is the Abrahamic covenant. Indeed, through the line of Judah and King David, the Savior of the world was born.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, how do these two covenants compare? The Abrahamic Covenant was an unconditional, eternal covenant. The first promise of a Savior given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was reiterated to Abraham who was chosen by God’s grace to be the family through which the promise would be fulfilled. It was not until later that the people of Abraham became know as the Jews or Jewish nation, and after God changed Jacob’s name to Israel that they became known as Israelites. Yet, the promise made to Abraham, that is the promise of a Messiah was not a promise of salvation because of one’s DNA, their being born from the line of Abraham. As Jesus said, speaking to the Pharasees, “And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). And, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Luke 3:8). Indeed, all who have faith in Jesus are children of Abraham. We are children of Abraham.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As for the Mosaic Covenant, that was a conditional, earthly covenant with its main objective ultimately pointing to the heavenly covenant. In other words, the Mosaic covenant with all the ceremonial, sacrificial laws was given to continually remind the people that the price for sin was death, the shedding of blood. Even more, the price for human sin, the sin of Adam and Eve in Eden was set at death, human death for human sin. Thus, none of the animal sacrifices were counted for forgiveness, but pointed to the One Human, the One Promised, the Messiah, the Savior, whose birth we are preparing to celebrate.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Fortunately, Israel’s breaking of the Mosaic covenant did not negate God’s unconditional Abrahamic covenant. So, although Israel lost the promised land and God’s hand of blessing, the world never lost God’s promise of a Savior.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? During this Advent season we are preparing our hearts and minds to celebrate once again the birth of the One promised in Eden. Indeed, God never forgot the promise He made to Adam and Eve and to all people, the promise He reiterated and narrowed through Abraham and the promise reiterated to Moses. Jesus was born to fulfill that promise in Eden, to Abraham, and to Moses.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In simple terms, in the beginning God gave Adam and Eve one command, which they could not keep so God promised to send a Savior to take care of what they could not do. God made a covenant with Israel, which they could not keep. God calls us to live lives of faith and obedience, which we cannot do. So, what Adam and Eve could not do, what the whole nation of Israel could not do, what we cannot do, Jesus did. Jesus was born, true God in human flesh for the purpose of doing for us what we cannot do, live a perfectly obedient life and He did. Jesus obeyed all of God’s laws and promises perfectly, never sinning even once. Then, of His own free will, not by coercion, but because of His great love for us, He took our sins, all our sins, our sins of thought, word and deed, our sins of commission and omission and the sins of all people of all times on Himself and suffered and paid the price of eternal death and hell for us and all people, just as He promised.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we continue through this Advent season we see clearly that Jesus is the fulfillment of the spoken Word in Eden, the Written Word of Moses, the Word in flesh for us and our salvation. We rejoice in the fact that every Sunday we are able to hear the Word God, be reminded of our Baptism, be given the forgiveness He earned for us, and partake of His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and strengthening of our faith.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have, One who created us to love us, One who has taken care of all our needs, reconciling us with Himself and One who rejoice in our coming to be given the gifts He has to give. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen. <br /></p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-88726260555368893062023-12-10T07:25:00.001-06:002023-12-10T07:25:13.024-06:00Anticipating His Coming - Second Sunday in Advent - December 10, 2023 - Text: 2 Peter 3:8-14<p style="text-align: justify;">Today brings us to the second week of advent and just as it was fitting last week to look at Paul’s epistle, so this week it is fitting that we look at Peter’s epistle. As Peter encourages the people of his day, so today I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you so that you might be strengthened in your faith and in your belief that Christ will return. And as a “by-product” of your faith and encouragement I want to stimulate your anticipation of the celebration of His first coming at Bethlehem in the manger as we look forward to that celebration on Christmas morning. Again, I encourage you, do not celebrate Christmas yet. We celebrate Christmas for twelve days beginning with Christmas.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As I mentioned Wednesday in our mid-week service, back in the book of Genesis, before God created the Sun, He created time. God, who is outside of time, created time for us, His creatures. On the first day of creation God created light and set time in motion. It was not until the fourth day that God created the sun and when He created the sun He set it in motion to help mark time for us, in other words, at the time He created the sun He also set the sun in the heavens to conform to His creation of a twenty-four hour day. All through Scripture, the reference of a “day” is a reference to a twenty-four hour period, please keep this in mind. Indeed God lives outside of time. God lives in the eternal present. For God there is no yesterday, nor is there a tomorrow, there is only the eternal now. God created time for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, Peter says, “. . . with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (8b). Peter’s statement here is not meant to be confusing. He is not saying, nor is he implying any reference to creation and the length of a day at the time of creation as some people would have you believe. Peter’s statement is meant to help the reader to understand that God’s time is not our time. God does not see time or live in time as we humans do. Again, to God there are no yesterdays and no tomorrows. God lives in what we might call the eternal present, in the eternal now. God created time for us human beings in order that we might be able to have a frame of reference in which to live. Because He lives in the eternal now, for God a day may be no shorter than many years and many years may be no longer than a day. Since time is purely relative, for God, He can sit and watch patiently as we humans live impatiently.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thus, the Lord’s timing is such that He is giving enough time for all mankind to be saved. In his letter to Timothy Paul says, “3This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). As I have said before of Paul, so it is with Peter as well as all the disciples, they believed that Christ’s return would be very soon after His ascension. This is true for people throughout history. We all believe that Christ’s return will be very soon. We read our Bibles and every day we believe we see the signs of the end times and expect Christ to return. We hear of wars and rumors of wars. We hear of earthquakes, hurricanes, and natural disasters and rumors of earthquakes, hurricanes and natural disasters and we believe that He will be here soon. Who knows, He may wait another 2000 years before He comes again. But be assured, that He will come and He will come when He knows that He has given enough time for everyone, or as many people as possible to come to repentance.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And when He comes, He will come as a thief in the night. Just as a thief will not come when the owner expects him, so Christ will not return at our expectation. Peter’s imagery is interesting because I wonder if he was not saying something about our human character when he uses the term thief. As a thief comes at night so as to not be seen, so we often do our best sinning in what we think is secret so as to not be seen by others. But God sees our sins, whether we sin in the open or in secret. God’s coming will be as a thief in the night, when we least expect it, and maybe even when we are in the middle of our own thievery and sin.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">At the Lord’s coming, “the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (v. 10b). We know that fire is a purifying agent. Precious metals like gold and silver are purified by fire. Milk and other foods are purified, or pasteurized by fire. In the beginning God created a prefect world. Man spoiled God’s prefect world and infected it with sin. The world that the people from Adam to Noah knew was destroyed, or purified by water. At Christ’s second coming fire will burn up the old heaven and earth, purifying them into one new heaven and earth, a perfect heaven and earth.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although we do not know when the Lord will return, as in Paul’s day, as in Peter’s day, we know the time will be soon. How do we know it will be soon? We have waited some 2000 years already, so certainly we are 2000 years closer to the Lord’s return than in Paul’s and Peter’s day. And as I have said before, each day we live brings us one day closer to the Lord’s return. And as I have said, or our passing on and going to Him. But be sure of this, the day will come when we will stand before our Lord.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">How then are we to live in order to prepare ourselves for Christ’s second coming? First and foremost we are to prepare our lives by being given the gifts our Lord has to give and being given them through the means He has of giving them, in other words by making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. Then, we are to prepare ourselves by living holy and Godly lives. We do this by making regular and diligent use of the means of grace, by our daily remembering of our baptism. We daily repent and are given forgiveness. We have daily devotions, Scripture reading, and prayers. We prepare ourselves by attending Divine Service, the Lord’s Supper, Bible studies, and Adult Bible class. We prepare ourselves by living our lives according to God’s good and gracious will, knowing that, as I said earlier, His coming will be as a thief in the night, when we least expect it. So, with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we live our lives daily according to His good and gracious will, imperfectly as that may be this side of heaven.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We prepare ourselves by expecting a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Christ has promised to return and to take us with Himself to live with Him forever. Because of His long delay in coming, do not think that He is not coming. We may be reminded of the people of Noah’s day who laughed at his building the ark and telling them that the flood would come. We remember that at His first coming, at His birth, the Jewish nation had been waiting many thousands of years and many who were not ready really did miss His coming. We are reminded of those of Jesus day who would not believe He was the Messiah. Each year at this time we begin anew, looking forward to celebrating His birth on Christmas morning. Today we have many skeptics who each year add another notch in their belt of skepticism and the idea that He is not coming. But just as His patience convinces some that He is not coming, so it convinces us even more that His coming will be soon and each year we draw that much closer to His return.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We prepare ourselves by having Him find us without spot or blemish and at peace with one another. Actually for us to be completely without spot and blemish is impossible, but it is something we strive for in our sanctified life, that is with God’s help. Peter’s imagery here reminds us of Jesus, the spotless lamb of God, who without spot or blemish allowed Himself to be the perfect sacrifice for us, in our place, so that we can be at peace with Him and with one another. Because we are made right with God through faith in Jesus, He makes us right, He makes us without spot or blemish. Now with His help we live in peace with one another. We do this in preparation for His second coming.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What Does This Mean? First and foremost we constantly remind ourselves that our time on this earth is limited. Certainly, while we are alive in this world, and especially as little children, we might think our hundred years of life, if we should live that long, is a long time, but compared to eternity, our lives are but a blink of an eye. Because time is relative for us, and remember how it was as a child, it seemed like Christmas took so long to get here, but as we have grown older and have added so many responsibilities and things to our lives it seems as if we just celebrated Christmas about a month ago. As we grow older we tend to think more in terms of our mortality, whereas, if we look at the obituaries in the paper we notice that death is no respecter of persons, that is that people die at any age, from the age of the moment of conception to even a hundred years. Thus it is important that we focus on what is important, our spiritual well being, our faith and our forgiveness.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Remember, God’s desire is that all people are saved. God does not want anyone to perish and so He is patient and waiting patiently for as many people as possible to be given faith before He returns to judge the world. Certainly this implies our responsibility to be living lives of faith, sharing our faith through our actions as well as through our words, through inviting others to Divine Service to hear the message of salvation as well.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">God has taken care of everything. He has created us and continues to take care of us, providing us with all that we need (and we talked about that on Thanksgiving Eve). God has taken care of our sins, by sending Jesus, even Himself in flesh in order to pay the price for our sins. And yes, even as we continue to daily sin much and need forgiveness, Jesus’ death has taken care of all those sins as well. And now our Lord continues to be a part of our lives in that He helps us to live our lives as lives of faith looking forward to heaven.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is the second week in Advent. The second candle, the Bethlehem Candle, is lit. The second candle reminds us that the promised Savior would be born in Bethlehem. As we daily prepare for Christ’s second coming, even so as we are in this season of Advent, we prepare for our celebration of His first birth in Bethlehem. May the Lord continue to work faith and strengthening of faith in your heart during this Advent season, so that when He does return He will find you ready to receive Him and to go to be with Him in heaven forever. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-36529016180521225552023-12-06T08:07:00.001-06:002023-12-06T08:07:01.578-06:00The Spoken Word - First Wednesday in Advent (Midweek 1) - December 6, 2023 - Text: Gen. 1-3; John 1:1-15<p style="text-align: justify;">This year during the season of Advent through to New Year’s Eve our theme is “The Means of God’s Giving.” We will be answering the questions: “How does God give us the gifts He has to give? What are the means He uses? And what is the power behind the means God uses?” This year we will look at the power of God’s Word and how His Word is what gives power to the other means of grace. We will hear how God’s Word effects, that is how God’s Word actually does what it speaks. Today we begin with “The Spoken Word.”<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the beginning, the very beginning, Genesis one, we hear and see the power of God’s creating Word. In Genesis one we are told, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light” (Gen. 1:3 ). Simply by speaking, “God said,” all things were brought into being. Indeed, in this very first book and first chapter of God’s Word we are witnesses of the power of God’s Word. And I do not necessarily believe it was that God said, “let there be,” but perhaps He simply said, “light.” As we hear the cliche, “the pen is mightier than the sword,” so indeed, God’s Word is mighty in creation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the beginning we are told that all was chaos, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:2a). In the beginning there was no time, there was no yesterday, or tomorrow, only the eternal present. Thus, in the beginning God began by creating and giving us time. He gave us time when He gave us light, night and day. “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Gen. 1:5). You may have noticed that this light was not the Sun which was not created until day four. Yet, at this very moment God gives us time, a twenty-four hour day.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Very much like the temptation of Lucifer, to believe himself to be like God such that he rebelled against God, so too today, too many people think more highly of themselves, thinking they are smarter or mightier than God such that they elevate their own reason over God’s Word. In so elevating themselves they deny the Word of God and elevate human reason which truly amounts to idolatry, a belief in themselves and their own reasoning. Thus, we have such outlandish unprovable theories as “molecules to man evolution,” but I will not delve into that topic any more for today.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Later in Genesis chapter three after God had completed His creation, having created the man and the woman, the crown of His creation, and given them a perfect garden home, Lucifer, Satan, the light bearer, the one who rebelled and for which hell was created, the one who is the father of lies and hates everything that is of God and from God moved in to tempt Adam and Eve. His lie was that God was holding something back from Adam and Eve. He convinced them that God was holding back their knowledge of evil. Most assuredly they knew good as God had created them in perfection. Perhaps they were easy targets because they were naive and did not know what a lie was nor what was evil and so they did as Satan tempted and ate from the fruit in the middle of the Garden the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. That one sin brought God’s Condemning curse into the world. But it also brought God’s saving Promise.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From this one account, here so early in Genesis, we see that God’s Word is truth, including His warnings and threats. God’s gave Adam and Eve one rule, not to eat from the one tree. They failed. They believed the lies of Satan. They believe their own reason over God’s Word and their sin brought death. Oh, they did not die immediately, but they would most certainly die a physical death as we all will. But their sin also brought eternal death, or would have brought hell if God had not stepped in.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Notice how doubting, testing, and questioning God’s Word brought a curse. The curse was such that now man’s own ability to reason and think have been tainted. We no longer have perfect reasoning. Our reasoning is tainted by sin and the curse. Our thoughts are such that “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Thanks be to God that He immediately stepped in with His Word of promise. God promised that He would take care of the sin of Adam and Eve. He would send One who would be perfectly obedient, in other words, One who would live as He expected Adam and Eve to live. He would send One who would pay the price for their sin, that is One who would die the eternal death penalty of hell for them.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In our Gospel reading we hear God fulfill the promise He made to Adam and Eve and to all people. We hear and see God’s Word becoming flesh. Yes, what was spoken, what was written, the promise of a Savior was born in flesh. John tells us, “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Notice how John tells us that Jesus is truly God as He was there in the beginning, in Genesis, with the Father and the Holy Spirit creating the world. Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, that is He is forgiveness shining in the darkness of our sin-filled world. And the darkness, sin, death and the devil cannot overcome Him, they cannot and will not defeat Him. Interestingly enough, there are some translations that say “the darkness cannot comprehend it,” that is those sitting in the darkness of sin in our world cannot comprehend how God can love His sinful, corrupt people so much that He would die for them, but as we know, such is God’s love for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The four Gospels continually bear out the facts, the history of Jesus fulfilling all of God’s Word and promises. What Adam and Eve could not do, obey one command, what the whole nation of Israel could not do, obey Ten Commandments, what we cannot do, be obedient to God’s Word, Jesus came to do and did, perfectly. As true God Jesus was born in perfection. As true man Jesus was born to be our substitute, to live for us and He did. Jesus lived in perfect and complete obedience.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, as John bears out, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus, the Word, the spoken promise, the written promise, is the Word in flesh, bring forgiveness, life and salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does this mean? As we begin this series concerning the means of God’s giving us the gifts He has to give I hope and pray that we will see how God’s Word is the power in all things. How does God give us the gifts He has to give? We believe, teach and confess, according to the Word of God that first and foremost God gives us His gifts through the very means of His Word. As God speaks it is done and given to us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I pray we will see that God’s Word is the power in Holy Baptism. As water and God’s name are put on us by God using the hands of the pastor and the voice of the pastor, so we are given faith and forgiveness. Our names are written in the book of life and we have eternal salvation.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I pray that we will see God’s Word is the power in Holy Absolution. As we confess our sins each and every Sunday and as we hear God speak through the mouth of the pastor announcing that our sins are forgiven that we know and believe that is exactly what has happened, our sins have been forgiven.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I pray that we will see God’s Word is the power in the read and preached Word. As the pastor reads the Word and expounds on the Word from the pulpit in the sermon that we will know that was is said is what God gives and accomplishes. We are forgiven, our faith is strengthened, we are ready to go out into the world, the mission field and live lives as priests in the priesthood of all believers, living in our vocations always being ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in our faith in Jesus.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And I pray that we will see God’s Word is the power in His Holy Supper. As the pastor gives us the bread and the body of Jesus in our mouths and the wine and the blood of Jesus we will know for certain that we are partaking of Jesus’ body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins such that He actually becomes a physical part of us so that the angel of eternal death will pass over us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, once again, what a great God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have. What joy we have to know and understand, to believe, teach and confess the power of God’s Word and the means through which He gives us the gifts He has to give. What joy to know our sins are forgiven and that we have life and salvation in the Word made flesh, the Word in Holy Baptism, the Word in Holy Absolution and the Word in the Holy Supper. To God be the glory for Jesus’, the Word in flesh, sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6960516853804137310.post-25271693628746670972023-12-03T07:32:00.009-06:002023-12-03T07:32:37.886-06:00I Always Thank God - First Sunday in Advent - December 3, 2023 - Text: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9<p style="text-align: justify;">Today is our New Year’s Day of sorts. Today is the first Sunday in the new church year. Our church year begins with Advent. The word advent means coming. The season of advent is the time we spend preparing for our celebration of Jesus’ coming to earth. We prepare ourselves for our celebration of God taking on human flesh and being born as one of us. What an awesome event. God intervening in human history to save all people from death and hell. Our text for today is the beginning of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. In the seven verses of our text Paul outlines who God is and what He has done, notice that what Paul says is a past and completed action, what God has done for us. How fitting our text is at the beginning of this new church year as we prepare our hearts and minds for our Christmas celebration that Paul outlines the reason for our joy.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Our text begins with Paul saying, “3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 3). How easy one could read over those words and just continue on as if they were mere words, especially since they are often the words we hear at the beginning of many a sermon. But when we stop and take some time to unpack these fourteen words we see that Paul says a tremendous amount with such few words. Paul begins by invoking God’s grace upon us. God’s grace is His undeserved love for us. God’s grace is the love that He has for us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us. Jesus’ life, suffering, and death on the cross earned our forgiveness. And it is only because of God’s grace, knowing that we are forgiven, that we can have true peace. True peace comes only from knowing we are forgiven and that we are no longer guilty. For most people peace is difficult because of guilt. Too many people spend too many restless nights because of guilt. With forgiveness, the guilt is removed and one can have peace. True peace is that peace which comes from knowing the love of our Father in heaven, a love that is so great that He gave the life of His Son for us. <br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But Paul does not stop there he continues, “4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus” (v. 4). Here we are reminded, again, that the grace about which Paul is speaking is the grace which comes at a price, the price of the cost of Jesus on the cross. The cost for our sins did not just vanish, the cost had to be paid and Jesus paid the price for our sins. He suffered the punishment, the eternal punishment, the eternal death penalty of hell, which should have been ours to suffer. Paul rightly gives thanks to God for us, because without God’s grace we would be lost and condemned creatures, but with God’s grace, which we are given through His Word and Sacraments, we are forgiven children of God.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul continues in verse five, “5that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge” (v. 5). It is through Jesus that we have been made new people. It is through Jesus that we have been enriched, we have been transformed, from being sinful human beings to being saints on our way to heaven. We are no longer what we were before, complete sinners and enemies of God, but we are not yet what we will be in the future, completely and only saints in heaven. We are somewhere in the middle. We are on our journey heavenward and with the help of the Holy Spirit we are enriched each day so that we continually conform our lives to God’s good and gracious will.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul continues in verse six, “—6even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you” (v. 6). The Word of the Lord that Paul proclaimed to the Corinthians was not preached in vain, but took root in the hearts of the people and bore fruit which showed the affect of his preaching. In simple terms we might say that their faith was shown in the change of their behavior. No longer did they act like heathens and enemies of God but instead they lived their lives according to God’s good and gracious will.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In verse seven Paul says, “7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 7). In particular Paul is speaking about the gift of grace. Our God is a generous God, so much so that His grace is continually poured out upon us. We never lack for God’s grace.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Verse eight reads, “8who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 8). How can we be guiltless or blameless before the Lord on the day of judgement? In and of ourselves we cannot. But because of God’s grace, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection we are guiltless, we are blameless. And remember, this guiltlessness is what gives us peace. His righteousness is counted as our righteousness.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And we have God’s promise given through Paul in verse nine, “ 9God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 9). It is God who calls us to fellowship with His Son, we do not come seeking Him, He comes calling us. And note that it is God who is faithful, we are not the ones who are faithful. We have a tendency to forget our promises, to go back on our promises, but God is faithful, He never goes back on His promises, no matter what we do, He is faithful.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">At our Baptism our Lord placed His name on us. He claimed us as His children. We have just heard Paul’s words of all that our Lord has done for us, undeserved as we are. So, what? What is our response to all that our Great God has done for us? Our response begins with giving thanks and praise to God. We give Him thanks and praise by coming to Divine Service to be given His gifts. We give Him thanks and praise by praying to Him and saying thank you, by singing hymns and songs of praise to Him. Even more, we praise and thank our Lord best when we, with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us, do so with our very lives, when we live our lives according to His good and gracious will, bearing witness to all the world of who our God is and what He has done for us.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We respond to all the many good gifts and blessing we have been given to by our great God by overflowing and sharing God’s gifts with others. We do this through speaking to others, through telling others about Jesus, but even more by acting out what we have learned. Unfortunately it is difficult to allow God’s gifts to overflow from us when we reject and neglect to be given God’s gifts. When we absent ourselves from God’s Word and Sacraments then God cannot give us His gifts and without His gifts we cannot overflow and share them with others. Thanks be to God that as we come and are given His gifts that He pours out His gifts on us so much that we do overflow and share those gifts with others.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We respond to the good gifts and blessing we are given to by God when, with the help of and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we strive to strengthen our faith. You know, people who love to read always seem to find a book to read. People who love to hunt always try to find time to hunt or read magazines about hunting, or try to do anything that has something to do with hunting. People who love to golf always try to find time to golf, or read magazines about golfing, or try to do anything that has something to do with golfing. People who love to fish always try to find time to fish, or read magazines about fishing, or try to do anything that has something to do with fishing. People who love sports always try to find time for sports, or read magazines about sports, or try to do anything that has something to do with sports. The same things can be said about people who love any kind of activity, skating, exercise, bicycling, cooking, needle point, quilting and the list goes on. Why is it then that people who say they love the Lord try to find as many excuses as they can to keep from reading about the Lord, to keep from learning about the Lord, to keep from doing anything that has to do with the Lord?<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We respond to the good gifts and blessing we are given to by God when we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, strive to strengthen our faith. Indeed as you have heard me say before, faith shows itself in the desire to be when and where the gifts of God are given out and the opposite is true as well, for there to be no desire to be given the gifts of God would indicate a lack of faith. Here at St. Matthews we offer many opportunities to be given the gifts God has to give from the Wednesday morning Bible class, two Wednesday evening Bible classes, the monthly Saturday morning men’s breakfast Bible Study, two Bible classes on Sunday morning as well as our regular Sunday Divine service and now during advent our midweek noon and evening services as well as Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. My prayer is that the Lord will move you to be a part of these opportunities to grow and be strengthened in your faith and my prayer continues to be that so many people will respond that we will need to add more times and places to study God’s Word and be filled with His good gifts and blessings.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We respond to the good gifts and blessing we are given to by God when, with the help of he Holy Spirit, we strive to be faithful. Praise the Lord because even when we are not faithful, He is faithful. Even when we forget to respond to His many good gifts and blessings He still remembers His promise to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He still remembers His promise to take us to heaven to be with Himself forever in eternity.<br /> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Paul’s words of reminder of all that our Lord has done for us are good words to begin this new church year. Now we pray that the Holy Spirit will come into our hearts and lives and move us to respond, with His help, to be given all those gifts and blessing, to then give praise and glory to His Holy Name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.</p>Rev.Doc.Texhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09873655414133118642noreply@blogger.com0