The Gift of the Holy Spirit - May 24, 2015 - The Day of Pentecost - Text: Acts 2:1-21

Not too long after the flood waters had subsided, Noah and his family, his wife, his three sons and their wives began repopulating the earth. By the time we get to chapter eleven of Genesis, just two chapters after the flood, the world has already begun crumbling back to its old sinful self. And then we get to the account of the tower of Babel. Remember the Tower of Babel? The people of the world were working to make a name for themselves; that is a nice way of saying they were perceiving themselves as being their own gods and goddesses. Instead of spreading out and filling the world, instead of subduing the world, as the Lord had commanded them after the flood, they stayed in one place, the put their minds together and they began looking to make a name for themselves. The Lord’s response was quick and sure. He came down and He confused their languages and from there the people were scattered, as He told them to do in the first place, and from there we have the initiation of the various culture and people groups which are present in our world today.
 

There is a lot of talk about races in our world today, which is actually a term that springs from the religion of evolution and the belief that certain “races” have evolved faster and above other races. I believe the teaching is that there are four major “races” that have evolved. Unfortunately if you look back at history, not revised history mind you, you can read of the many atrocities that came about because of these teachings. From the Bible we understand that there is only one race, the human race. At the tower of Babel what happened was that as the people of various languages moved to the various parts of the world, they took with them certain dominate genetic information so that certain culture and people groups are dominated with certain dominate physical characteristics. In our text for today we read of how many of these culture and people groups speaking many different languages had all gathered in Jerusalem when the Lord sent the promised Comforter.
 

Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost was fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection and ten days after His ascension. Also, in the year of Jesus’ death and resurrection, this day coincided with the Jewish festival of Pentecost which was not unlike our Thanksgiving celebration. This day, that is the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit, is called, by some, the undoing of the day of the confusing of the tongues at the tower of Babel. For the children of Israel, the day of Pentecost was given as a day to celebrated the harvest festival. This was the second great Jewish festival, after the Passover celebration.
 

Because this was an important festival, Jews came to Jerusalem on pilgrimage from around the world to celebrate. I certainly believe that this too was a part of God’s plan, that His death and resurrection corresponded to this day, which He has now given to us as a day of celebration of the sending of the Holy Spirit. As we are told by our Lord, at just the right time, Jesus came into the world. Because this was an important Israelite holiday, there were many Jews in Jerusalem and many from the various cultures around the world who spoke different languages.
 

So, what happened at the giving of the Holy Spirit? Luke outlines the visible phenomena. He says that they heard a great wind. I guess that makes sense, because you cannot see wind, but we certainly know how, when a big storm arises, we can hear the wind and we can see the branches and bushes as the wind blows them. Luke describes the wind as a “mighty rush of wind.” And he says, “it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” So, this was not some natural phenomena that was occurring outside, but this was a supernatural phenomena that was happening in the house where they had gathered.
 

Next Luke tells “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” This fire is an image of divine presence, thus they knew that this was something from the Lord. The tongues appeared, certainly as a metaphor, symbolizing what was about to happen next, namely the speaking in tongues, or the languages of the people who had gathered and were present in Jerusalem from the various parts of the world.
 

Which brings us to Luke telling us that they “began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” This gift of tongues was not simply a babbling as some would think of speaking in tongues in our modern world. This gift of tongues was indeed the gift of languages, that is these disciples, these uneducated men were now, without any formal training, able to speak in languages or literally in the dialects of which they were not able to speak in before. Thus, at the tower of Babel the languages of the people were confused, so now the Lord gives the ability to speak in the languages of all the people.
 

Luke outlines the visible phenomena and then he explains the invisible phenomena. How is all this happening? All of this is happening as a gift of the Holy Spirit. God is directing these doings. God is giving the gifts and the disciples and the people are being given to. This is what Jesus promised to His disciples just ten days earlier at His ascension when He told them to wait in Jerusalem until the coming of the Holy Spirit.
 

Why is this important? Why is the ability to speak in other languages important? Because all these pilgrims to Jerusalem would be able to hear the Gospel message, the message of Jesus’ life, His suffering, His death and resurrection and then they would be able to take that message back to the people of their homes and countries and share the message with them. It is the same in our churches each and every Sunday. It is so important that we rightly hear the message of law, of our sins, our sins of thought, word and deed, our sins of omission, not doing what we are supposed to be doing and our sins of commission, doing what we are supposed to be doing. It is so important that we understand our role, our part in putting Jesus on the cross, that is that He died for you and for me. It is so important that we hear the law so that we might hear the Gospel, the Good news of Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection for us, in our place so that we are assured of our own forgiveness and our eternal salvation. The sending of the Holy Spirit today is just as important as at the first Pentecost.
 

Again, the first Pentecost is what some refer to as the reversal of the tower of Babel. At the tower of Babel the languages were confused and people moved to the various places around the world. Unfortunately many of the fathers failed to share the message with their children and so many were lost because they no longer had the message or heard the message. And that is why, today, we have so many people groups and cultures who do not know Jesus, because their fathers failed to share the message with them. Now, today, there is a new opportunity for the message to be heard.
 

The day of Pentecost is also important, especially for the Apostles and disciples of Jesus, because at the giving of the Holy Spirit, God now gives a complete understanding of the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Remember, before Jesus’ death, whenever Jesus spoke about death and dying, His disciples did not understand. Now they have a complete understanding.
 

And so, they are also given boldness. Now that they understand the purpose of Jesus’ life, that is that He lived for them and for us. Now that they understand the purpose of Jesus’ death, that He died for them and for us. Now that they understand His resurrection, that He is and remains a living God, watching over, ruling over, and interceding for them and us. Now that they understand that He has sent the Holy Spirit so that He is with them and us, even to the end of the world. Now they no longer need to fear. They no longer need to be afraid of the Pharisees, or the teachers of the law, or the Romans, or anyone. Now they may freely, with all boldness and confidence, go out and proclaim the message of salvation, by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ alone.
 

What does this mean for us today? Today we continue to celebrate Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit. We celebrate that the Holy Spirit continues to come to us today. Today He comes to us through means and in particular through the means of grace, the Word, that is the Bible and the Sacraments, that is, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and through Confession and Absolution. Through these means our Lord comes to us to give us the good gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

And what are those good gifts and blessings our Lord has to give to us? Through these means of grace the Holy Spirit gives, strengthens and keeps in faith. Through these means of grace the Holy Spirit gives forgiveness, life and salvation. Our Lord’s usual way of coming to us today is not to come to us directly. In other words, in Jesus’ day and immediately following His resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit, Jesus continued for a short time, coming directly through His apostles and disciples so that His Word through them might be confirmed as just and right and true. As time moved on and the days of the apostles ended, our Lord decreased His immediate activity among us. Even though our Lord may choose to come to us directly today, that is not His usual way of coming to us. Today His usual way of coming to us is to come through means namely through the means of grace. Thus, we see the importance of making regular and diligent use of these means. In other words, to make regular use of the means of grace means to be in worship as often as worship is offered. To be diligent in use of the means of grace means to pay attention to the proclamation of the Gospel. To make regular use of the means of grace means to personally, daily, read the word of God or hear it read, to have personal and family devotions. To be diligent about these means of grace means, again, to pay attention to that Word. To make regular use of the means of grace means to daily remember your baptism and how at your baptism the Lord washed you and put His name on you. He forgave you, He wrote your name in the book of Life. To make regular use of the means of grace means to hunger and thirst for the Lord and to come to His Table to eat and drink His body and blood at His holy supper. For, to absent ourselves from these means takes away the means through which our Lord comes to gives us His good gifts and blessings. To absent ourselves from these means would be like refusing gifts at your birthday or at Christmas or even refusing food on a daily basis. Thus, we certainly see the importance of these means of grace.
 

But, not only does the Holy Spirit give us individual gifts, faith, forgiveness, earned by Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, life and salvation. The Holy Spirit also gives gifts to the Church, that is, the Holy Spirit gives the Church, His Holy Christian Church, all that it needs to be His Church here on this earth.
 

And finally, the Holy Spirit also continues to give us boldness. Our nature is certainly not the nature of our Lord. Our nature is to sin. Our nature is not to make use of the means of grace. Our nature is not to acknowledge our Lord. And so, our Lord takes care of this weakness in us as well. For the Holy Spirit works in us and through us to, with all boldness and confidence, respond to all our Lord has done, all He does and all He will continue to do for us, by living lives of faith as He would have us to live. And yet, even here we fail and so He must continue working in and through us. Notice again, our focus is always back on our Lord who gives all and does all.
 

Today we celebrate Pentecost. We celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus continues to send today. We celebrate that the Holy Spirit always points to Christ, who has taken care of everything for us, namely our forgiveness, life and salvation. We celebrate that the Holy Spirit works in us to give us, strengthen us and keep us in faith. We celebrate that the Holy Spirit works in us to respond to the faith given by moving in us, stirring in us, working in and through us to believe the message of Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, to live that message in our lives, and to speak words of thanks and praise to our Lord for all that He does for us. Yes, to Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Father’s Kind of Love - April 19, 2015 - Third Sunday of Easter - Text: 1 John 3:1-7

This morning we continue to bask in the glow of the resurrection. Indeed, for us Christians the very reason we worship on Sunday, the very reason that Sunday is now our Sabbath, our day of rest is because of the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week, thus for us Christians each and every Sunday is an Easter celebration. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
 

In our text for this morning, John’s first letter, not the Gospel of John, but his first letter, John helps us to understand what love is, what true love is, that is that true love begins with the Father’s love, with God the Father’s love. True love is that God loves us first and He shows His love in the gift of His Son. We begin at verse one, “1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (v. 1-3).
 

Notice first and foremost that God is the prime mover. He first loved us, making us His children. And notice that this is a passive clause indicating that this is all done by the Father Himself. It is the Father who has given love to us, making us His children and we are simply given to and made His children with no effort on our part. And how does He make us His children? Two weeks ago we celebrated Good Friday; the giving of Jesus’ life for ours on the cross, His suffering the punishment for our sins and on Sunday, on Easter Sunday we celebrated His resurrection, the complete defeat of sin, death and the devil. This is how He purchased us, by paying the price for our sins. And now He makes us His children through means, namely through His means of grace. He makes us His children through His Word, which does what it says, in other words, when the Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God gives us faith and says we have faith, that is exactly what we have, faith, given to us by God through His Word. Another means the Lord uses to make us His children is Holy Baptism. As water and God’s name are put on us at Baptism, the Lord gives us faith, forgiveness of sins, life, even eternal life and salvation. These things come to us from outside of us and are given to us from outside of us. These are the Lord’s doing and the Lord’s giving. He makes us His children.
 

When Jesus came into the world, as we are reminded in the Gospel accounts, the world rejected Him. Jesus was not the Savior the people were looking for. Jesus was not a social/political Savior. Jesus did not come and overthrow the oppressors of the Children of Israel, at least not the oppressors they wanted overthrown. Jesus simply did not fit their definition of who the Savior was or what He should do.
 

The world rejected Jesus and as He makes us His children, we should expect nothing more or less from the world, in other words, we should expect that the world will reject us as well. As children of the Lord we do not speak the same language as the world, we do not have the same priorities as the world, we do not have the same outlook as the world. The world speaks of power, fame and fortune. The world speaks of the things of this world, that is that this is all there is. We speak of sin and forgiveness. We speak of absolutes, absolute truth and love. We speak of the transient nature of this world, that our lives in this world are fast and fleeting And so, our hope is not in this world, but in the world to come.
 

John says that we are not yet what we will be. John is speaking of our goal of sanctification, that is that, after being given faith by the Holy Spirit, through the outward means of grace, the Word of God and Holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit continues to work in and through us to make us more and more Christ-like. Of course, we understand that we will never be completely Christ-like, at least not this side of heaven. But when we reach our eternal home of heaven, we will be made perfect. So, we are no longer what we were before being given faith, that is we are no longer complete sinners, lost and condemned persons, but we are not yet what we will be in heaven, complete and perfect saints.
 

But, John is not through speaking. He moves on to outline the two sides of our nature. We pick up at verse four, “4Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous” (v. 4-7).
 

John talks about sin and sinning and we do not shy away from speaking about sin and sinning either. John says that sinning is lawlessness. Sinning, not doing what God would have us to do, that is sins of omission and doing those things God says we are not to do, that is sins of commission are lawlessness. Having other gods, taking His name in vain, absenting ourselves from worship, Bible class, family and private devotions, these are ways we break His laws, His commandment, His Words. Disobeying our parents or those in authority over us, hurting, harming, hating, actually killing others, lusting after others, taking things that do not belong to us, borrowing without returning, vandalism, speaking evil of others, gossiping, coveting, all these are ways we break His commandments. All these are ways we sin. And we do sin. We sin boldly. We sin daily. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, not doing as we ought and sins of commission, doing things we ought not. Let us face it, we are sinners.
 

And yet, there is good news, even great news. Jesus took away our sin. Actually we would better say, He paid the price for our sins. He did this by dying on the cross, which is what we celebrate on Good Friday, Jesus suffering the punishment for our sins. Certainly we may have a difficult time with Good Friday, and we should, because it is because of our sins that Jesus had to die, yet at the same time we are so thankful, because Good Friday shows God’s great love for us. As I have mentioned before, it is only as we realize, acknowledge and confess, just how sinful we really are that we can realize how gracious God really is. If God only had to die a little for me, then His love does not seem that big. But when we realize that I am the biggest sinner and still, Jesus died for me, then we realize just how great and wonderful His love truly is.
 

Because of what Jesus has done for us, because the Holy Spirit puts faith in our hearts, our response to all the Lord does for us and give to us is that as Christians, with the Lord’s help, we work to keep way from sinning, but please understand this does not imply perfectionism on our part. This side of heaven we will never reach perfection, let alone get close.
 

John next distinguishes between malicious sin versus sins of weakness. Malicious sins are sins where we are thinking up ways to sin against God. Malicious sins are when we want to ask, “Will God forgive me if I do ________?” and you fill in the blank. This is premeditated sin and this is malicious sin. This is not the same as sins of weakness and while we are on this earth, we can know for certain that we will continue to sin sins of weakness. Sinning is our nature, after all, we are conceived and born in sin as David tells us and we cannot help ourselves, as Paul reminds us.
 

And so, John puts up this division, that we are either Christ’s or the devil’s. And, although we may be Christians, we may have been given faith in Jesus, that does not keep the devil away, as a matter of fact, the devil works hardest on those he does not have. So, if you are never tempted, then be wary.
 

Yet, do not be deceived, there is no perfectionism while on this earth. Again, we will never reach the state of perfection while we live in this world It is only when we reach our eternal home in heaven that we will be perfect.
 

What does this mean? First we are reminded that God is the prime mover. As John says elsewhere, we love because He first loves us. Here, as you know and as you have heard me say many times, I like image of the Sun and the moon. When we see the moon shining in the sky, we know we are seeing the reflection of the Sun, because the moon has no light of its own. Thus when we love others and when we are loved by others, we know that we and they are merely reflecting the love of God to each other, because in and of ourselves, apart from God, we have no love of our own.
 

God first loves us and then God gives us faith, forgiveness and life. These are gifts from God. These are not gifts we take or get on our own, which would mean they are not gifts, but they are gifts from God. And these gifts He gives through means, namely through the outward, external means of His Word, the Bible; Holy Baptism wherein He tells us that Baptism which corresponds to circumcision which was done on the eight day after birth, now saves you; the Lord’s Supper wherein we eat His body and drink His blood thus participating in His sacrifice for us making His perfect life our perfect life, His perfect death our perfect death and His perfect resurrection our perfect resurrection; and confession and absolution where in as we confess all our sins so that as He speaks His most beautiful word of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven you,” and we know we have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness is life and salvation. Just as we did not choose to be born into this world, but we were conceived by our parents and born into this world, so we do not choose to save ourselves, to get forgiveness for ourselves, these gifts are given from outside of us, namely our Lord has chosen us and gives us the gifts He has to give, forgiveness, faith, and life and He delivers these gifts through these means of grace.
 

God first loves us, God gives us faith, forgiveness and life and then God works in us our sanctification. Sanctification is our becoming more and more Christ-like, but here again, this is not something we do in and of ourselves, this is God’s doing as well. God the Holy Spirit, whose work it is to always point to Christ and that is why we do not hear or see much of Him, He is the one, working through the means of grace who works in us to do the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do and we do them because He is working them in and though us.
 

And finally, God brings us into His kingdom. Notice how in all these instances it is God who is doing the doing. God does and we are done to. God gives and we are given to. God has His way with us and we are thankful. We know we get it right and we can have confidence only in this, that God always does it right, and gets it right. I may err, but God never errs. Thanks be to God.
 

As we continue to celebrate Easter and the resurrection and life of our Savior, He continues to fill us with His love and as He helps us to reach out and love others, so we pray that He will reach out, in and through us, to share His love with even more, so that all people may come to know His great love, be given faith and be kept in faith until His return, or our departure from this world. Finally, may the Lord bless our time together in this world, and His Word, so that we might be given, strengthened, and kept in faith, so that His kingdom may be extended and so that praise and glory may be given to His Holy Name. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

As We Pray, So We Believe - How Practice Changes Doctrine

“As we pray, so we believe” is one way of expressing the understanding that what we do informs and instructs how we believe so that when we change how we pray, we are changing what we believe. Another way of saying this more distinctly is that our doctrine, that is what we believe, teach and confess, should determine our practice, that is how we do what we do, whether what we are doing has to do with the way we evangelize, the way we teach, the way we live, and especially the way we act out our faith in Divine Service, or worship. Indeed, we practice our faith in worship in a way that flows out of what we believe, so that in worship we are instructed in what we believe. So these two things, doctrine and practice, or as sometimes stated and equated, style (practice) and substance (doctrine) cannot be separated but go together hand in hand. This understanding of doctrine and practice being inseparable can be seen in what has been happening in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod over the past thirty-five years as there was an attempt to separate these two entities with the belief that to change how one acts does not affect what one believes. The following is an example of how these two, doctrine and practice do go hand in hand.
 

The so called “Church Growth” movement of the early 1980s brought many ideas to the table concerning how to “grow” a church. All of the ideas however were ideas from a social or cultural understanding of how people act and respond to, shall we say, “persuasion.” In other words, as a famous movie says, “Build it and they will come,” the church growth strategy was “do this or change that and they will come.” Now, from a strictly social point of view of attracting people, many of the ideas were valid and true. Certainly people are prone to only fill 80% of a space before they feel uncomfortable, except we might suggest being at a concert or ball game of sorts. Certainly it is true that in order to fill a church building that ample parking is necessary. So, we concede that there are obvious (or not so obvious) secular, social, cultural norms that need to be acknowledged and provided.
 

But what about the very heart of the Church? What about what we believe, teach and confess? Are these things that we believe important, just as important, more important or less important than luring people into our facility? How is it that a person is brought to faith? How is it that a person is strengthened and kept in faith? Where is the power of the giving of faith? What is the means through which one comes into the church, is given faith, and made a member of the Holy Christian Church?
 

The Lutheran Church has always believed in the “solas”; Sola Fida (faith alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone), Sola Scritpura (Scripture alone) and these three “alones” have guide our faith lives, at least up until recent history. We believe, teach and confess, or at least according to our confessional documents and history, that we are conceived and born in sin, that our will is no longer free but has been tainted by sin, that we cannot come to Jesus nor claim faith in Him but that He must come to us, that He is the one who gives us faith, forgiveness and life, and that He does His work through means, namely the means of grace, that is through His Holy Word, through Holy Baptism, through Confession and Absolution and through His Holy Supper. Thus we believe that we are saved by grace through faith given to us through Scripture as the Holy Spirit works through these means to give us the gifts God has to give.
 

What we hear today are statements such as, “We have to get out of the way of God’s Word.” “We have to be conscious of the culture in which we are working.” “We have to make God’s Word fitting for the culture we are trying to reach.” These statements not only infer but outright state that we no longer believe that the Word of God is efficacious, but that it is ineffective, and so there is something we must do in order to help God out. Here again, we are not only implying but outright stating that the Holy Spirit is ineffective as well because even He cannot work through God’s Word. So we see that as we have changed something we believe as innocuous as our practice of how we present the Word of God, we have changed our belief concerning the power and effectiveness of that same Word.
 

So, today the three solas of the church have become the solas of “Sola Cultura,” “Sola Societas,” “Sola Civilis,” that is, culture alone, society alone, and civil alone. It would seem that today we believe, teach and confess that God gives His gifts through how we relate to the culture and society especially in a civil manner. It would seem that today we believe it is our efforts and how we exercise those efforts that are what are effective in giving faith to people.
 

So, in an attempt to grow the church, we have analyzed the culture, interviewed the society, and have civilized what we do so that we might attract people to be a part of our group. In the process we have given up the true identity of our group and that thing that makes us who we are, or who we were, so that we are no longer that to which we were attempting to draw others to in the first place. Now we are a different body of beliefs and believers practicing a different set of practices which conform to our new beliefs and which teach those beliefs, even if they are not what we profess them to be.
 

Perhaps it is time to get back to God’s Word and let His Word dictate, guide and instruct us in how we are to be His people and His church. Perhaps it is time to renew our faith in the Good News of Christ alone for our salvation and God’s promise that the Holy Spirit will work when and where He pleases through His Word to give, strengthen and keep in faith. And then realize that means practicing being His people in the way He has given us to be His people, i.e., vocationally with His authority and promise to be with us giving us the words, His Word to speak as we have opportunity and as we are asked, in gentleness with respect and let God be God.

He Interpreted to Them All of Scripture - Easter Morning - April 5, 2015 - Text: Luke 24:13-35

Our text is Luke 24:13-35: “13That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” 25And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 28So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” This is our text.
 

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! This morning as we celebrate our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His resurrection, we get a wonderful sermon from Him and a bold and gracious example of how we too might boldly, with His authority and promise to be with us, share the good news of His life, death and resurrection to others.
 

The whole of Scripture, the whole of the world focuses and centers on Christ. Jesus Christ is the focus of all things. All things focus on Jesus. In the Old Testament, in the beginning, in the book of Genesis, after God created the world, after man disobeyed and brought God’s curse on the world, God promised to send a Savior. The whole Old Testament points to that Savior, Jesus. Some have even suggested, and I believe it, that the events of the Old Testament were laid out in accord with God’s giving of the New Testament, in other words, God directed the events of the Old Testament so that we might be given the gifts of the New Testament.
 

Throughout the Old Testament, the patriarchs, that is our great church fathers, the great men of faith of the Old Testament always point to Jesus. The call of Abraham pointed to Jesus. The confirmation of the covenant to Isaac and Jacob, pointed to Jesus. The call of Moses pointed to Jesus. All the prophets, judges and kings pointed to Jesus.
 

Indeed, the whole nation of Israel, the children of Israel point to Jesus. Jesus was born as the embodiment of the nation of Israel. This is true because Jesus was born to do what the nation of Israel could not do. Jesus was born to do what we and all people of all times could not and cannot do. Remember, God’s demand has been, is and always will be perfection. We are to be perfect and yet, because of the curse, we are born in and live in imperfection.
 

The Old Testament pointed to Jesus and Jesus came into this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the human woman, the Virgin Mary. Jesus was born as the embodiment of Israel and all people for that matter. Jesus was born to fulfill all the promises concerning the coming Christ, and He did just that, being born of the line of King David even in the town of David, the town of Bethlehem. Indeed, all the promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah, in Hebrew, the Christ, in Greek, the Savior were fulfilled, completely in Jesus.
 

Jesus came as the embodiment of Israel and all people. He was conceived and born without sin. There was no sin in Him and He obeyed all of God’s laws perfectly, fulfilling the complete demand of God, to be perfect. Jesus accomplished and fulfilled the demands of God on all people, thus He was the embodiment, doing for all what we could not do.
 

Jesus lived perfectly for us, in our place, as our substitute. He had to be and was truly human so that He could substitute Himself for us. He lived perfectly for us in our place and then He who had no sin, He who knew no sin took our sins upon Himself. And He suffered. He suffered the complete punishment for our sins, eternal spiritual death, hell, for us in our place. He suffered and paid the price for all sins for all people for all times and He died. Yes, in Jesus, our God died. Jesus died and when He died His body was placed in the tomb and His soul, God Himself descended into hell to declare victory over Satan before He rose. On the third day He rose defeating sin, death and the devil.
 

During Jesus earthly life many of the people as we are told, those who had eyes could not see and ears could not hear or understand, indeed while Jesus was alive there was confusion concerning His identity. Was He a prophet? Was He simply a good man? Was He simply a good teacher? Or was He more? Was He the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior? Of course this confusion was also part of God’s plan because if the world had known who Jesus was they may not have crucified Him so that He would not have been able to accomplish our salvation.
 

Yet, after Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, after He lived, suffered, died and rose, and especially after He ascended and sent the Holy Spirit, He opened the eyes and ears of all the faithful so that seeing and hearing they may believe. Indeed, as Jesus showed Himself to be alive for those forty days, He opened their eyes and ears to hear and believe. And after He ascended, after Pentecost and the sending of the Holy Spirit He continued even more opening the eyes, ears and hearts of many people through the preaching of the Word of God.
 

In our text for this morning we hear Jesus explaining how it all fit together. As they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty, so it is much easier after looking back on these events to see how well they fit together, how they all pointed to Jesus, how all history points to Jesus.
 

And so, even today we are better able to look back and see how all of history is focused on Jesus, the pivotal point and focus of time. In the Old Testament people were looking forward to the Christ and in faith in the Christ to come they were Christians and they were saved by God’s grace through faith given to them by God. Today we point back to Jesus, we believe Jesus is the Christ and so we are Christians and we are saved by God’s grace through faith given to us by the Holy Spirit.
 

And yet even in our world today there continue to be too many people who cannot see nor hear, because they do not and will not believe in Jesus. Too many in our world today continue to refuse and reject Jesus as the Christ. And yes, even among us Christians, day in and day out, week in and week out we continue to refuse and reject Jesus and the gifts He has to give. We refuse and reject our Lord and His gifts when we absent ourselves from the means of grace, from those means He has of giving us His good gifts and blessings. That is when we absent ourselves from reading God’s Word, having personal and family devotions, being in divine service and Bible class as often as offered, we are refusing and rejecting Jesus.
 

And yet, Jesus continues, He persists in coming to us in giving us chance after chance after chance, at least while we remain alive in this world and until He comes again, at which time it will be too late. Yes, Jesus continues to come to us today to give us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give. He comes to us to give to us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation won for us on the cross. That is why we come to worship every Sunday so that we might celebrate His resurrection and be given the gifts He has to give and because we worship a living God. We worship our God who defeated sin, death and the devil. We worship our God, Jesus who is the focus of all time.
 

Jesus is the answer, really, no matter what the question. Jesus is the focus of the Old Testament. All the Old Testament pointed to Him. Jesus is the focus of the New Testament. All the New Testament points to Him. Just as the people of the Old Testament were Christians, believing in the promised Christ to come, so we in the New Testament are Christians, believing that Jesus is the Christ who lived, suffered, died and rose for us. Just as the Old Testament Christians were saved by faith in the coming Christ, we are saved by faith in Jesus, the Christ. And just as the Old Testament Christians were saved by grace, by no effort of their own, we too are saved by grace, by the faith given to us by the Holy Spirit giving us faith, by Jesus earning and giving us forgiveness by God’s rich, undeserved grace for us. And so we rejoice, we celebrate, we give thanks. We say, to God alone be all glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen.