"Is Our God Small?" (Sermon on Mark 4:26-34) | June 20, 2021

Text: Mark 4:26-34
Date: June 20, 2021
Event: The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 

Mark 4:26–34 (EHV)

26He said, “The kingdom of God is like this: A man scatters seed on the ground, 27and while he sleeps and rises, night and day the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28The ground produces fruit on its own: first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29When the crop is ready, he swings the sickle without delay, because the harvest has come.” 

30Then he said, “To what should we compare the kingdom of God? Or with what parable may we picture it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is one of the smallest of all the seeds planted in the ground. 32Yet when it is planted, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.” 

33With many similar parables he continued to speak the word to them, as much as they were able to hear. 34He did not speak to them without a parable. But when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them. 

Is Our God Small?

This week I saw a brief video clip of a person whose job it was to work with cheetahs. Cheetahs are often pretty skittish animals, despite their size and speed. (You might look up pictures or videos of cheetahs being assigned a companion dog to help them in their nervousness if you want to be overloaded with some cute images.) But the person in the video I saw was staying with a group of two or three cheetahs and comforting them when they got scared during the night. It showed someone in a sleeping bag, encouraging these big cats to come and snuggle with him when they appeared anxious. The person ends up with a pile of cheetahs right beside him, huddled in close.

A part of me found this adorable, but another part of me was really concerned about this. What happened if the cheetahs got too scared or got agitated? Could they kill a person? I know the person could not outrun these big cats and I assume if something clicked and they decided their comforter was actually their enemy, it seems very possible that that would be his end. But then I got to thinking: our two cats at home will snuggle with us on the couch or plop themselves on our laps and sometimes even pile up at the end of a bed. Why was I not really alarmed about that, but was alarmed about the cheetahs?

It probably comes down to size, right? Our cats, despite being big guys, are still just house cats. But these cheetahs were wild animals that can weigh upwards of 150lbs. Our cats are fast when they’re not being lazy, but they’re not cheetah fast. The apparent size and strength of something probably heavily influence what we think about its power to hurt or help.

But sometimes, our assumptions about power based on size are very, very wrong. We’ve seen how a microscopic virus can turn the world upside down. At Christmas, a birthday, or a graduation, a simple card may have a more life-changing gift tucked inside than a giant box with shiny wrapping paper. Smallness should not be equated with insignificance. 

Which brings us to Jesus’ parables in our Gospel for this morning. Jesus is teaching a crowd so large he had to get into a boat and push off a bit from the shore to talk to them. This is not an intimate gathering of his disciples. This is a crowd being taught en masse in the early days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. As such, Jesus uses parables to try to ground the spiritual things he’s teaching in terminology and experiences that would have been familiar to the large audience before him.

The two parables we have before us are both related to agriculture, as many of Jesus’ parables were. He’s using these parables to explain the “kingdom of God.” We should note that when Jesus talks about “kingdom of God,” he’s often not speaking about eternal life. Jesus is not talking about heaven. He’s talking about God’s rule of grace in our hearts. When you hear the “kingdom of God” either in parables like these or the Lord’s Prayer, you should think primarily of the faith that God gives.

So Jesus is talking about the faith by which he rules in the hearts of his people. How does he describe that faith? “A man scatters seed on the ground, and while he sleeps and rises, night and day the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. The ground produces fruit on its own: first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. When the crop is ready, he swings the sickle without delay, because the harvest has come.” What is Jesus’ point? The seed of faith is planted; we have little idea of how it grows, but it does grow, producing a harvest.

A seed planted in the ground seems kind of ridiculous, right? If you didn’t know anything about plants and you saw someone planting seeds, you might be tempted to ask, “You’re going to put that tiny thing in the dirt, and somehow, after some time, it’s going to produce food to sustain you?” A seed is insignificant. It looks small and powerless. And that’s Jesus’ focus in the second parable: “It is like a mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is one of the smallest of all the seeds planted in the ground. Yet when it is planted, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.” The mustard seed is this tiny, tiny speck of a seed. And yet, the plant that comes from it can dwarf most garden plants. Birds can nest in and around it. This minuscule dot produces a powerful blessing for many.

We can be tempted to think our God is small. He doesn’t show himself in clearly visible and powerful ways. He doesn’t make his providence known with splashy demonstrations of might. Instead, he works in ways that seem weak and dull. Saving people through the spoken or written Word? Strengthening faith through a bit of bread and a sip of wine? Really? This is the omnipotent Creator of the universe? This is the one we are to trust with our eternal well-being?

And perhaps this leads to some of the shame we mentioned last week. Perhaps we are ashamed of our God. Maybe we are tempted not to share what we believe because it seems so… unbelievable? Powerless? Small?

Is our God small because he uses small-looking means? Hardly! If we return to Christmas for just a bit, Jesus in the manger, this whole scene looks small and insignificant. But when you know what is going on at the manger, your mind is blown. Because this is the incarnation of God, this is the eternal God taking his place in time and flesh to rescue his creatures from their sin! What seemed small, what looked insignificant, is not at all. These appearances are deceiving. 

Truly, we don’t fully understand how faith grows, like the farmer or gardener planting a seed may not fully understand why the seed grows. And that’s because faith is not a rational, explainable thing; faith is a supernatural thing. We don’t turn a crank to make our faith grow. We don’t work out our “faith muscles” to make our faith stronger. The Holy Spirit uses the means of grace—his Word and the sacraments—to create and strengthen faith in a way that we can feel but not fully understand. I sense that my faith is stronger after having contact with God’s Word, but I can’t draw a diagram of how that worked.

Likewise, faith seems like nothing, no matter how strong it is, no matter how much it has grown. Faith doesn’t leave me with something concrete to hold on to. It doesn’t materialize itself as a weapon or shield or anything else I can lay my hands on. It’s esoteric. It is simply trusting God that what he’s said he has done and will do is actually true. And it’s not something that I can produce in my heart; it is something that God places there, cultivates there, and makes it flourish. 

But is that God or is that faith actually small and insignificant? No! Think of what God does with that planted seed. The seed of faith, planted and grown, leads someone to cling to their Savior. This tiny, insignificant-looking thing is what God uses to rescue us from our sins and, at our death, bring us to eternal life. That faith he gives grips to Jesus’ cross tightly, depending on his life and death as the certainty of our forgiveness. It leads from death to life. It leads from hell to heaven. This tiny little thing produces something that has massive, eternal ramifications for us. But not only for us.

As God makes that seed of faith grow, it shows itself in your life. The way you serve others, the way you treat other people reflects that faith in your heart. It may bring comfort to someone in need or peace to someone in distress. The branches of your faith may provide peaceful shade to those around you. If that person is a fellow Christian, that leads to mutual encouragement. If that person is not a Christian, it may lead to the opportunity to share this insignificant-looking but eternally-indispensable seed of faith with them.

Don’t let appearances deceive you. Is your faith powerless? No! Is your God small? Absolutely not! Your Savior has defeated all of your eternal enemies and has given you this faith—his very rule in your heart—to trust him. That faith, given by God, will be used to bring you to eternal life. Your God is your eternal Champion. He provides what we need, always, even if it doesn’t always look spectacular with our human eyes and reason. Praise be to God for that seed of faith that he causes to grow, leading up to eternal life! Amen.

"Jesus Is Not Ashamed of Us!" (Sermon on Hebrews 2:9-11) | June 13, 2021

Text: Hebrews 2:9-11
Date: June 13, 2021
Event: The Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year B (Non-Lectionary)

Hebrews 2:9–11 (EHV)

But we look to Jesus (the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone), now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. 

Certainly it was fitting for God (the one for whom and through whom everything exists), in leading many sons to glory, to bring the author of their salvation to his goal through sufferings. For he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified all have one Father. For that reason, he is not ashamed to call them brothers.

Jesus Is Not Ashamed of Us!

Shame can be a powerful force. Wanting to avoid shame can lead us to be cowardly or curb our impulses to be better in line with socially acceptable behavior. Maybe the thought of feeling shame over answering a question wrong in class leads you to not even raise your hand. Perhaps the idea of feeling shame over disgraceful words or actions leads you to avoid drinking too much alcohol. On a more lighthearted side, perhaps children are worried that Mom or Dad might say something embarrassing in public or with their friends, or parents might be concerned about shame resulting from a young child who just speaks his or her mind—or repeats what they’ve heard at home.

We don’t want people to be ashamed of us. We want people to think well of us. And that’s pretty universal, whether we consider our family, our fellow members at church, our coworkers, or even perfect strangers. We don’t want anyone to be ashamed to be near us or be associated with us. And perhaps much of our outward behavior is driven to trying to avoid letting this happening.

But what about God? Do we think about what God thinks of us? Do we think about him being ashamed of us or proud of us? Surely, if we’re concerned about what the stranger at the restaurant might think about us if we slip and fall on a patch of wet tile, then we should care what the Almighty thinks about us, right? 

Except we don’t want to think about that. Because we know what God thinks. And shame doesn’t even begin to describe it. He’s so massively disappointed, frustrated, and angry with us. But why? Because he had expectations and goals for us. And we’ve missed all of them, completely. Never has a parent been disappointed by their children nor a child disappointed by their parents in the same way that we have let down God.

He created us to be perfect, to have this flawless harmony with him. Our sin destroyed that. Instead of being united with God, we are separated from him. Instead of having harmony with God, we’re fighting against him. As we think of God’s feelings toward us, it’s pretty hard to feel that he has anything but what he felt just before the flood where Moses records, “The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with sorrow” (Genesis 6:6). Regret, sorrow, and we might rightly assume shame at having any connection to us. This is not the kind of relationship we wanted with God.

Of course, it’s not the relationship that he wanted with us, either. But to change it was going to be difficult; it was going to be costly. But God also did not shy away from that effort and cost. Because while his shame, disappointment, and anger over sin were all real, so was his love for you. The shame he felt over us  because of our sins did not mean total abandonment. It meant he was that much more invested in changing our sinful status. 

The writer to the Hebrews is writing to Christians in crisis. His original audience was Jewish converts to Christianity. He’s writing amid a great persecution that has broken out against Christians around the Roman Empire. In some places, it meant death. In other places, it meant challenging times in life and commerce. The author’s audience was tempted to turn away from their Christian faith and return to their former life in Judaism. There would be no persecution there; Judaism wasn’t an illegal religion in the empire, so it would have been really appealing.

But to do so would mean abandoning Jesus and everything that he had done for them. The author lays out a detailed reminder of who this Jesus is. In Chapter 1, before our lesson, he spends a great deal of time reminding his readers of Jesus’ divinity, that he is God, higher than all things, greater than anything that has been made—even the angels!

But what did this great Son of God do with that power? Come to destroy the insolent sinners? Terrify them with his wrath? No. We look to Jesus (the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone), now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. The Creator became a lowly part of his creation. Jesus humbled himself to take on our human nature and live as one of us. God inserted himself in time and in flesh to save us, becoming a bit lower than even the angels.

Any of our catechism students or recent confirmands can tell you that our Savior had to be God to keep God’s law perfectly in our place. But God is enteral; he cannot die. So he had to be a man to be able to die because that death was necessary to pay for sins. Every animal sacrifice offered on Israel’s altar pointed ahead to that one great sacrifice that was coming and has in fact come as the writer to the Hebrews reminds all of us!

But our Savior also had to be God for the reason the writer makes explicit here: the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone. Jesus had to be God for the universal application of his death. It was once for all. No more sacrifices are necessary. Jesus, true God and true man, finished the work. It is over and done. Our sins are forgiven.

The writer continues: Certainly it was fitting for God (the one for whom and through whom everything exists), in leading many sons to glory, to bring the author of their salvation to his goal through sufferings. Jesus is indeed the author of our salvation. He is the one where our salvation finds its beginning and its completion. And what is the result of that? We are led to glory. We are sanctified, made holy, set apart for the special calling as God’s children. And that glory that we are led to is the same glory with which Jesus has been crowned. 

We have this beautiful unity with our conquering Savior! The writer to the Hebrews says, “For he who sanctifies (that is, Jesus) and those who are being sanctified (that is, you and me) all have one Father. For that reason, he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” We are connected to our Savior; we are members of the same family. This is what Jesus said in our gospel: “He looked at those who sat around him in a circle and he said, ‘Look, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mark 3:34-35). What is the will of God? To believe in the Savior he sent and to live our lives in thankful gratitude to him. 

Jesus’ work means that our sins are gone. That means all the reasons we had for shame before God or for God to be ashamed of us are also gone. Jesus doesn’t begrudgingly call us his siblings; he boasts in it! He rejoices in it! This was the whole reason he came, to conquer sin, Satan, and death and to bring us to be with him, to bring us where we belong. 

It is easy for this to become same-old, same-old for us. We’ve heard this message how many times in our lives? Hundreds? Thousands? But don’t let it become dull and blasé. Let these truths, solidified by your baptism, be of prime importance and the reason for your rejoicing. Let your actions, your words, even the tone of your words be motivated by your membership in God’s household, your siblinghood with Jesus. Let us not be ashamed of our Savior, who is not ashamed of us. Let us live our lives as beacons of his light in this dark world, drawing all people to the love God has shown in our Savior.

Jesus’ forgiveness leads us to glory in his house forever. He is not ashamed of us! Rejoice in that truth today and always! Amen.

"Peace Comes from God Alone" (Sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14) | May 23, 2021

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Date: May 23, 2021
Event: The Day of Pentecost, Year B

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (EHV)

The hand of the Lord was upon me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, which was full of bones. 2He had me pass through them and go all over among them. There were very many on the valley floor, and they were very dry.

3He said to me, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?” I answered, “Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’”

5This is what the Lord God says to these bones.

I am about to make breath enter you so that you will live. 6I will attach tendons to you. I will put flesh back on you. I will cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

7So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling, as the bones came together, one bone connecting to another. 8As I watched, tendons were attached to them, then flesh grew over them, and skin covered them. But there was no breath in them.

9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind that this is what the Lord God says. From the four winds, come, O wind, and breathe into these slain so that they may live.”

10So I prophesied as he commanded me. Breath entered them, and they came back to life. They stood on their feet, a very, very large army.

11Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost. We have been completely cut off.’ 12Therefore, prophesy and say to them that this is what the Lord God says. My people, I am going to open your graves and raise you up from your graves and bring you back to the soil of Israel. 13Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. I will settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.”

Peace Comes from God Alone

Have you noticed an uptick in anxiousness in yourself and other people lately? In the last year and a half we’ve had to transition from ignorance to knowledge about a pandemic, which produced anxiousness in wondering what we didn’t know about this disease and its short-term and long-term effects. We also then didn’t clearly understand the harm those who would deny what we did know would cause. There was anxiousness about the best way to protect others and to protect yourself. And now, we seem to be entering a period of anxiousness surrounding how to properly, safely, and responsibly transition in the tail end of the pandemic. Perhaps you’re anxious to see no more masks around you; perhaps the sight of someone without a mask makes you anxious.

Being anxious means you’re on edge, you feel like you could snap at a moment’s notice, that peace and calm are generally not in your heart. It’s not a good feeling. It’s almost like you drank too much coffee—but it doesn’t go away. And for you, it might not be the pandemic that does it to you. Maybe it’s state, national, or global politics and conflict. Maybe it’s concern about the overall health, well-being, and futures of the members of your family. Maybe it’s your own decisions and plans about what’s ahead, challenges both known and unknown. Very likely, there’s some special personal cocktail of bits of all of these things that swirl around in your heart.

No matter what causes anxiousness in your heart, I think there’s probably the universal desire that it just go away. This is not a feeling we cherish or enjoy. It’s not something that we want to keep around. It’s not useful. We want to replace anxiety with peace. This morning, as we celebrate the fact that Jesus kept his promise to send the Holy Spirit to his people and send them on an evangelism effort that continues to this day, we are reminded that real, lasting, even eternal peace comes from God alone.

Our First Lesson this morning takes us to the time that the southern kingdom of Judah is in exile in Babylon, in the 500s BC. They were regularly unfaithful to God. They ignored his commands; they worshiped other gods. God called to them, warned them over and over and over again. But his people did not listen. They continued to do what they wanted rather than what God wanted. This people didn’t even change course when their brothers in the northern kingdom of Israel were exiled by Assyria for the same reason a couple hundred years before this. Judah had a few bright spots but generally continued down the path of unfaithfulness. 

So now, as Ezekiel lives and works, the nation of Judah is in exile in Babylon. Think they were feeling anxious? Separated from their homes, knowing they were undergoing this trouble because of their action and inaction, it might have felt hopeless. And really, on their own, it was hopeless. They couldn’t topple the Babylonian empire; they couldn’t get themselves home. 

But God had promised through the prophet Jeremiah, even before they were carried off into captivity, that this would be temporary. It would last around 70 years, then God would bring them back. But in the middle of that time, those promises would’ve been hard to see, hard to remember, hard to trust. So God, in his mercy, sent reinforcements to those promises through Ezekiel and other messengers. God had promised them peace from their exile and he was going to follow through.

The valley of the dry bones is a vivid depiction of God keeping that promise. The nation was dead, dry, dusty—powerless. But what does God do? He, through the proclamation of the prophet, brings life to these bones that were beyond hope. Tendons, flesh, skin, breath—they all return. But God is clear how this all happened: I am about to make breath enter you so that you will live. I will attach tendons to you. I will put flesh back on you. I will cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord…. My people, I am going to open your graves and raise you up from your graves and bring you back to the soil of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. I will settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.”

I, I, I, I, I. God leaves no room for doubt or misapplied credit. This would not be Ezekiel’s doing, or any secular leader’s accomplishment. Everything that was going to happen to bring them out of exile and return them to their homes was going to be God’s work for them, not their work for themselves. He was going to keep those promises. He was going to bring them peace and rest from the upheaval of exile.

But why? Why is God promising these things? After all, these people had made clear how little they respected or loved him. They were in exile because they had largely chosen to ignore God. Why does he even waste his time, his breath, the work of his prophet on these miserable, fickle people? Couldn’t there possibly be other people who would be more faithful, more deserving of God’s time and attention? 

God continues on because he loves them, despite their hard hearts. God continues on because he is faithful, despite their faithlessness. But more to the point, God continues on because he has other, greater promises to fulfill. He has other, greater peace to bring. The reason the Israelites were God’s chosen people, the reason God initially plucked Abraham out of the mass of the world’s population and made him his special family, was because he had a global promise to fulfill. From the fall into sin, God promised a Savior for all people. The purpose of God’s special relationship, the singular reason he promised to bring them back from exile and put them back in their land, was so that he could keep these other promises. The reason Judah would be rescued from their exile and return to their homes was so that through them God could bring forth the Champion, the Messiah, the Savior so long-promised.

Because, really, sin is the chief of all anxieties, right? We have done things and said things and thought things that fly in the face of God’s requirements of perfection. We’ve sinned this week. We’ve sinned this morning. We’ve probably in some way sinned since our worship service started. We are far more similar to faithless and flounder Judah than we would ever like to admit. And our sin leaves us anxiety-stricken and hopeless. We know that hell is the only destination for one with even a single sin hanging on them, and you and I can do nothing to change that. We are, spiritually, very similar to that pile of dry bones in the desert. 

But what is God’s promise? “I’ll do it. I’ll fix it. I’ll make this right. You can’t, but I can and will.” And so Jesus took our place under the law’s condemnation. God brings us peace through the perfect life and the innocent death of our Savior Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection solidifies that he has done away with sin and eternal death in hell. We need not be anxious about anything for eternity because God has done it all for us. He keeps his promise. He, alone, brings peace to us.

And God’s faithfulness to these promises just continues to be clear as we move past Jesus’ ascension to the first Christian Pentecost day. Jesus had promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to his disciples in special measure to help them be his messengers. In the sound of a violent wind and tongues of fire, in special gifts like the ability to speak in languages they had not studied and in a Spirit-given boldness especially seen in Peter’s preaching, we see God being faithful to that promise. Jesus did send the Holy Spirit. He is with his people like he promised. And the good news of sins forgiven in Jesus, the results of all of God’s patience and hope-providing for the children of Abraham, continues to be a blessing even to this day. 

We are celebrating a birthday of sorts today: the beginning of the Christian church. But it’s not just the founding of an organization. It’s the beginning of God bringing peace to the whole world through the message of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s a message of events that the Israelites looked forward to, even in exile. It’s a message of reality that Peter and the others of his day lived through and were privileged to share. It’s a message of results that continues to be for you and me. The anxiousness brought by our guilt is gone because our sin is gone. Jesus gives us eternal peace, peace only God could provide. 

May the comfort that Jesus promised and gave to his disciples be yours forever: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid” (John 14:27). Amen.

"Remain in God's Love" (Sermon on John 15:9-17) } May 9, 2021

Text: John 15:9-17
Date: May 9, 2021
Event: The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B

John 15:9–17 (EHV)

9“As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. Remain in my love. 10If you hold on to my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have held on to my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you these things so that my joy would continue to be in you and that your joy would be complete. 

12“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you continue to do the things I instruct you. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17These things I am instructing you, so that you love one another.”

Remain in God’s Love!

If you get separated from a group in a crowd of people, do you know what the best thing to do is? Nothing. The best thing to do is stay right where you are and let others come find you. If you start moving around you’re more likely to just miss people looking for you than you are to find someone you’re looking for. In that situation, the best thing to do is to stay put and remain where you are, despite many impulses urging you to move out and look elsewhere for help.

The same can be said of our spiritual life. There is a constant pull inside of us to seek out safety by doing good things to make up for bad things or by trying to find something more certain, better, or more innovative to move our spiritual life forward. But Jesus’ direction to his disciples and you and me is that you are safe where you are. Stay put. Remain in God’s love.

This section of Jesus’ words on Maundy Thursday evening immediately follows our Gospel from last weekend, where we heard Jesus describe himself as the Vine and that we are his branches. We heard him encourage us, “The one who remains in me and I in him is the one who bears much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you continue to bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples” (John 15:5-8). As Jesus continues with this discourse, he stays on that theme of remaining, staying put. You are where you need to be, because here you are safe. 

As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. Remain in my love. God has loved you with the same love that the Father loves the Son. It’s a complete, total, uncompromising love that sacrifices all things to bring you back to himself. Because that’s what our sin did to us. It separated us from God. It divided us from him. We could not pray to him, we could not reach out to him, we could not benefit from him spiritually or eternally. We were lost, hopeless, spiritually dead and destined for eternal death in hell.

But then God gave to us the greatest expression of love that one can have: No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends. This is exactly what Jesus did. As we heard two weeks ago when Jesus described his work as the Good Shepherd, we hear again that Jesus’ chief loving work was to lay down his life for his friends—he calls us his friends!—to save them. Normally if someone lays down their life to save someone else, it’s a limited and temporary thing. Someone jumps in front of a bullet and saves the life of one person; someone dives on top of a grenade and perhaps saves multiple lives. But the people saved, be it one or several, will eventually die. Laying down our life for others is always limited, simply delaying the inevitable.

But not for Jesus. When he laid down his life for us, his friends, it had eternal ramifications. Jesus wasn’t simply saving us from a premature physical death; he was rescuing us from eternal death in hell. Laying down his life paid for our sin. There are no limits to Jesus’ love; there is nothing temporary in the blessings that God gives through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Which is why Jesus is so adamant, “Remain in my love!” Because to do otherwise would be to jettison all the blessings that God has given. If I let Jesus take a backseat in my life and heart to entertainment, work, family, friends, anything, I jeopardize my remaining in his love. Any time I feel guilt over my sins and try to do something good to make up for them, to earn forgiveness, to work off my debt, I’m running head-long outside of the protective bubble of Jesus’ love and thus facing my sin on my own. Anything that makes it so you or I do not remain in Jesus’ love means that we will face hell as our eternal destination. 

So, how does one remain in Jesus’ love? Before we can understand that, it’s important to remember how we got into the sphere of Jesus’ love in the first place. Jesus is very clear that this has nothing to do with you and it has nothing to do with me; it has everything to do with him. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” He decided to save us. He died for us. He sent the Holy Spirit through his Word to create faith in our hearts, which brought us from the death of unbelief to a new life lived for him. Everything that we are or have through Jesus is because of Jesus, not us. We did not choose any of this; he chose us and made it happen.

We know the spiritual results of Jesus’ work and choosing us. But what are the external results? What is the evidence that Jesus has done all of this for us? You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure. We are branches connected to the vine. Branches that are healthy, that draw their nourishment from the trunk of the vine bear abundant fruit. Good works are the evidence of our God-given faith. Good works do not cause Jesus’ love but they are an outward expression that we are staying put in Jesus’ love. Being in Jesus’ love causes his love to express itself in our thoughts, words, and actions. 

Jesus says that the best way to express that love, to express our thanks to him in our life, is by serving each other. In fact, showing love to others is the completion of the love Jesus has given to us. I have told you these things so that my joy would continue to be in you and that your joy would be complete. This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends.

We know that we can’t love in exactly the way Jesus loved, right? Nothing we do or sacrifice for someone else is going to get rid of someone’s sins. Nothing we do or sacrifice is going to rescue someone from hell. But that’s not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is not saying to love like he did so that it brings about the same result. That’s not only impossible but completely unnecessary—he did it all! 

No, when he says that we should love like he does he’s speaking about the spirit of that love, the motivation of that love. We do not show love to someone to get something in return. We show love to someone just to love them, to sacrifice for them. Laying down our life may not, and in fact most often will not be the dramatic, over the top, saving of someone’s life by sacrificing your own. We’re not likely going to have that opportunity to dive in front of a bullet or on top of a grenade to save someone’s life. Laying down your life may mean sacrificing the time that you had set aside for something really fun that you were looking forward to to help someone in their time of need. It may mean delaying something you had planned to talk with someone going through a difficult time. It means using your time, money, energy, whatever, to help someone who has a need. By this you show your connection to your Savior. In this you show that you remain in Jesus’ love. 

You can also love each other by doing the opposite. Help your brothers and sisters by telling them how they can love you! Do you need help? Ask for that help! Is there something someone is doing that is causing you physical problems or emotional distress? Let them know so that they can modify their behavior. Having these conversations is not selfish; it’s loving. Do not assume that someone is doing or not doing something to be unkind, but talk with them. In doing this, you are loving them because in doing this you are making a need known and enabling them to love you better. Counter-intuitive as it might feel, in this, too, you show your connection to your Savior. In this you show that you remain in Jesus’ love. 

And this goes beyond your family, beyond your friends, beyond your sisters and brothers in faith. This love, this self-sacrificing love can and should be shown to others. The stranger, the neighbor you don’t get along with, the person who seems to hate you with no reason. Your response? Love. Self-sacrificing love. As Jesus had said earlier on that Maundy Thursday evening continues to apply for us today, “Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Remain in God’s love that was freely given to you. Remain in God’s love by loving like he loves. Remain in God’s love because by that love you will be with him forever. Amen.

"God Meets Us Where We Are" (Sermon on Acts 8:26-40) | May 2, 2021

Text: Acts 8:26-40
Date: May 2, 2021
Event: The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B (Confirmation)

Acts 8:26–40 (EHV)

26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is an isolated area.) 27So he got up and went. And there was a man, an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. 28He was on his way home, sitting in his chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah. 

29The Spirit told Philip, “Go over there and stay close to that chariot.” 30Philip ran up to it and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. 

Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 

31The man replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 

32Now the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading was this: 

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will talk about his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. 

34The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet talking about—himself or someone else?” 35Then Philip began to speak. Starting with that very passage of Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. 36As they were traveling along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What is there to prevent me from being baptized?” 

38He ordered the chariot to stop. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When they stepped up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away. The eunuch did not see him anymore, but went on his way rejoicing. 

40Philip, however, found himself at Azotus. And as he went from place to place, he preached the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea. 

God Meets Us Where We Are

The Internet can be an amazing tool for learning. Should you want to learn a skill or take up a new hobby or figure out how to solve a problem in your home, very often there’s a written tutorial or a YouTube video that will show you how to do what you need to do.

But there is often a baseline level of knowledge you need. A tutorial for playing a difficult song on the guitar is probably not going to be of much use if you need to learn how to play basic chords. Complicated electrical work can’t be started until you know where the circuit breakers in your home are. The Internet is great, but often times it’s more useful to have someone in person meet us where we are to show us and teach us what we need to know. 

In our First Lesson for this morning, we’re taken to one of the early evangelism efforts that the Holy Spirit sent one of his people on. This event takes place not too long after Jesus had ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples on the first Christian Pentecost day. Philip was sent to meet with a man who was a high-ranking official in the Ethiopian government. He handled the finances for his queen. We don’t really know much about him other than these verses here, but we can make some assumptions.

First, it’s likely that he was what we might call an “Old Testament believer,” that is, someone who was looking forward to the coming of the Savior that had been promised but did not yet know that he had already come and completed his work. We know this because Luke tells us that he had come to Jerusalem to worship. But he didn’t have a clear idea of the promises or certainly the fulfillment of those promises. So, God send Philip to him. “Go over there and stay close to that chariot.”

The man from Ethiopia was reading from the prophet Isaiah, familiar verses for us from chapter 53, a prediction of the Messiah’s death on the cross. But the Ethiopian had questions. He didn’t know who these verses were about or to what events they were referring. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” This man needed someone to meet him where he was. And that’s what Philip did. Starting with that very passage of Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

And what good news he had to share! He was able to take that passage about a silent, passive Savior and point the man to his sins and need for God to rescue him. He was able to tell how Jesus perfectly filled that role for him, died and rose from the dead to conquer his sins and bring him to eternal life. That singular passage and question about it was the gateway for Philip to expand on everything that God had promised and done. Through Philip, God met this man where he was and brought him to where he needed to be.

God does the same for you and me, he meets us where we are. What was it that you needed to hear today? Is there sin in your life you’re just trying to convince yourself is not a big deal, not a problem? God’s law in his Word and our worship service doesn’t let it happen. God points to our sin and says, “This? This is damning. You’ll be in hell forever because of this.” What was it that you needed to hear today? Does guilt over your sin overwhelm you? Do you feel powerless, desperate, as if there was no solution to that sin? Well, God brings Jesus to the forefront for you. He shows you Jesus as the one who conquered your sins completely and forever. The cross and the empty tomb are your confidence that you will not be in hell for the wrong things you’ve done; God has forgiven you and will bring you to himself. 

The reality is we all probably needed to hear both of those things, likely as the Ethiopian needed as well. We need constant reminders of the seriousness of our sins and the solutions to those sins in Jesus’ perfect life lived in our place, his death that placed our punishment on him, and his glorious resurrection that assures us that because he lives we also will live.

But how many people are out there in our day like the Ethiopian who spoke with Philip? How many people need to have God’s work for them explained? How many people need God to meet them where they are and to explain these simple-yet-deep truths of God’s justice and his mercy? Here, too, God meets people where they are. 

God may not tell us to go hang out by a parked carriage and eavesdrop waiting for an opportunity to speak. But he sends people into our lives with spiritual needs that must be met. He sends people in our families, in our jobs, in our neighborhoods who need to have someone explain to them what God has done. He often meets people where they are through you and me. You get to share God’s truths with those around you. And in that way God brings to them the harsh reality of the law and the predominating good news of Jesus’ forgiveness. 

Do you feel wholly unqualified or unable to do that sharing work? In this God meets you where you are as well. Because you don’t need to get into long, detailed doctrinal discussions to do this work. You can share the basics of your faith in Jesus as your Savior. You can address their questions with a simple, “That’s a great question. I don’t know the answer. You should come with me to church—we can find some answers there.” Jesus’ promise to his disciples applies to you and me today as well. Jesus had said, “Do not be worried about how you will respond or what you will say, because what you say will be given to you in that hour. In fact you will not be the ones speaking, but the Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you” (Matthew 10:19-20). God will meet your needs with even the words to speak when the time comes.

We have a beautiful example of this in our service here this morning. We have our two confirmands from last spring here to confess what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown in their faith through their time of study in catechism classes. They will summarize and commit themselves to their faith in their Savior, which is our unified faith. They will show how God has met them where they were, brought them into a maturation process to be adult members of our congregation, and is setting them up to continue to meet them where they are as they continue to grow in their faith all the days of their life. God will always be with them to meet their needs as he will always be with all of us to meet our needs. The vine continues to meet the branches where they are.

So go from this place today encouraged. Not just because of the beautiful weather, the time with your brothers and sisters in the faith, and the opportunity to sing our praises to God. Go from this place today encouraged because here God met you where you are and will continue to do so. Here God encouraged and directed you to be his spokespeople and ambassadors to meet others where they are with his glorious truths. Go from this place today encouraged because, truly, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

"Jesus Is the Father's Love for Us" (Sermon on John 10:11-18) | April 25, 2021

Text: John 10:11–18
Date: April 25, 2021
Event: The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B

John 10:11–18 (EHV)

11“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired man, who is not a shepherd, does not own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. 13Because he works for money, he does not care about the sheep. 

14“I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me 15(just as the Father knows me and I know the Father). And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I also have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd. 17This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This is the commission I received from my Father.” 

Jesus Is the Father’s Love for Us

“Love” is a word that is often used in various situation with differing levels of meaning. We may love our spouse, our children, or our parents. We might say that we love a band or a type of ice cream. We may say we love a person who infatuates us, or we may say we love someone with whom we don’t get along in a heavily sarcastic way. English-speaking human beings use “love” in a variety of ways.

But God really only uses love in one way when talking about himself. He loves with a true love, a love that is unconditional, a love that loves not because it is loved in return but a love that loves just because it loves. It sacrifices self for the betterment of others. God’s love is a pure love that goes beyond the way we love anyone or anything. 

Today is one of my favorite Sundays each year, Good Shepherd Sunday. Today we get to see God’s love in a special way, through the lens of helpless sheep being cared for by their self-sacrificing Shepherd. Today we see that Jesus is the Father’s love for us, and in fact Jesus’ love for us is a reason why the Father loves his Son so dearly. 

Sheep, as you may know, are not bright animals. They wander into trouble unaware. Recently I saw a quick video on the internet of a sheep who hadn’t been sheared in a long time and the wool had all but completely covered its eyes making it nearly blind. The sheep was sheared, the wool from its face cleared away, and you could almost see the relief in the animal’s eyes. Sheep almost seem to be specially designed to require the care of human beings—to lead them to water, to food, and even to groom them so that they are safe. 

Were I thrown into the middle of a flock of sheep and told to care for them, it would not go well. No matter how much I wanted to care for these animals, to help and provide for them, as I am right now I know next to nothing about what they need or how to provide for them. I may have the desire to help them, but I lack the ability to do so.

Does that describe your feelings when you think of certain human relationships that you have? Someone is going through a difficult time in their family life, but there’s nothing you can do to change that. Your heart aches and reaches out to the friend who is going through horrible medical trials but you are powerless to do anything concrete on your own to bring healing. It is a powerless feeling to be overwhelmed with empathy or sympathy but have no way to help the people directly suffering.

Jesus knew we were in a desperate, hopeless situation. Our sin meant hell for us for eternity. Nothing we could do could change that. Nothing anyone else could do could change that. Except for Jesus. “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired man, who is not a shepherd, does not own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. Because he works for money, he does not care about the sheep.” As God, Jesus was the one person who could change our hopeless situation. He was not the powerless, self-preserving hired hands with the flock. He is the Good Shepherd who can and would do everything needed to provide for the sheep’s needs and to protect them from anything that threatened them harm.

Jesus’ knowledge of you and your needs is intimate and personal—I know my sheep and my sheep know me (just as the Father knows me and I know the Father). And I lay down my life for the sheep. He knew that you and I needed what only his death would provide. And he didn’t seek self-preservation; he didn’t look after “number one;” he didn’t wish us well and leave us to our doom. No, he laid down his life for the sheep; he laid down his life for us.

Jesus saw our need and was uniquely qualified to solve our problems. This was the mission the Father sent him on. Jesus says that his Father loves him because of his saving-mission he embarked on: This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This is the commission I received from my Father. The Father loves Jesus because he died to save you and me from our sins. The Father loves Jesus because he was not defeated by death. The Father loves Jesus because he rose from the dead triumphantly, having secured our forgiveness and eternal life. That’s how much we mattered to the Father, that he would sacrifice his only-begotten Son to rescue us from hell. Is it even possible to wrap our minds around how much both the Father and Jesus love us? 

Jesus, as our Shepherd, is always in control of everything happening around his sheep and to his sheep, around us and to us. Never, not even at the cross, was the Shepherd ever overwhelmed by external factors. His life wasn’t taken from him; he gave it up. He wasn’t defeated; he offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins. Nothing was spinning out of control; everything went according to plan.

And what is the end result of all of this? We’ll sing those results at the end of the service. “I am Jesus’ little lamb. Ever glad at heart I am. For my Shepherd gently guides me, knows my needs and well-provides me, loves me every day the same. Even calls me by my name.”  The Shepherd died to make us his sheep. His work for us means that we are always under his loving, protecting, and guiding care. And just as nothing happened to him that he wasn’t in control of, nothing happens to his sheep—to you or me—that he is not allowing and working for our eternal good. The bad things and hardships, the heartaches and the miseries of this life—our Shepherd knows all of them. He uses them, shapes them to point us to eternal life that he has won for us. Everything works for our good because our Shepherd works them all for our good.

Think back to those situations we mentioned earlier, those places where you want to help someone but can’t do anything. Don’t neglect or think little of the most powerful tool you possess. You can commend them to the care of the Good Shepherd who can do anything. So while you may feel powerless in those situations, pray for them. Ask for God’s help, power, guidance, and direction. Ask him to help open your eyes to the more concrete ways you can help. And know that your loving Shepherd is faithful to his promises, and will work all of this trouble, hardship, and heartache for good.

Jesus was clear that this work was just not for his disciples or the people of Israel. This work was for all. I also have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd. You and I get to share the good news of the Good Shepherd with lost sheep that are wandering out there on their own. Their Shepherd loves them, laid down his life for them, took his life up again for them. They just need to know, need to be brought into this flock, need to be shown the love of their Savior-Shepherd, love that means forgiveness for every sin and the certainty of a perfect, eternal life with him forever. 

Jesus calls these sheep to himself, but most often he calls them through you and me. So your encouragement to a friend going through a difficult time; your willingness to share what you believe with that random person who asks; your simple invitation to a worship service, Bible class, or livestream to that person who didn’t know they’d be welcome may be the way the Good Shepherd beings that sheep into his singular, eternal flock. You may be, in part or in whole, the way God brings his love to those people for whom he died.

In good times and in troubling times, let the love of your God shown to you in your Good Shepherd’s life, death, and resurrection bring you comfort. Your Shepherd walks beside you each day and will be with you through eternity. Truly, he knows your needs and well-provides you. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

“Jesus’ Resurrection Brings True Healing” (Sermon on Acts 3:12-20) | April 11, 2021

Text: Acts 3:12-20
Date: April 11, 2021
Event: The Second Sunday of Easter, Year B

Acts 3:12–20 (EHV)

12When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us, as if by our own power or godliness we have made this man walk? 13The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you. 15You killed the Author of Life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus that has strengthened this man, whom you see and know. This faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. 

17“Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just like your leaders. 18But in this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through the mouth of all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. 19Therefore repent and return to have your sins wiped out, 20so that refreshing times may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.”

Jesus’ Resurrection Brings True Healing

At our council meeting on Thursday evening, we were talking about various campus improvement projects the Building Committee has been hashing through and even dreaming a little bit of what could be. But as we talked the subject of the sewer lines on campus came up (I know… a great subject to start a Sunday morning sermon with, but bear with me). We got to be reminded that yes, the church lines had been totally redone so that they’re no longer the broken clay pipe from long ago but pipe that will endure for a long time. 

But that brought to mind all the trouble we had had years ago, at times with almost weekly calls to the plumber to get us by until we could get things fixed the right way. And a wave of gratitude washed over me that we haven’t had to do that for years. But that wasn’t something I had thought about for a long time. Sometimes the results of blessings aren’t clear until you stop to think about them, and it’s good to be reminded of how God works especially in those things that we can sometimes take for granted.

Our First Lessons during the Easter season will largely be taken from the book of Acts, the history of the early Christian church. And our lesson for this morning takes us to one of the earliest accounts in that book, just after the first Christian Pentecost day. In this lesson, Peter clearly reminds about the work God has done for us and blessings he has given to us, things that perhaps are easy to take for granted even just days after our Easter celebrations. Because Jesus’ resurrection is not a one-time celebration. Jesus’ resurrection is an enduring, constant blessing, one that brings true, eternal healing and comfort.

Sometime after Pentecost, Peter and John were in the temple. A man who had been born lame, never able to walk, called to Peter and John and asked for money. Peter looked at him and said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6). And as happened so often when Jesus addressed someone with a physical need during his ministry, Jesus empowered Peter to heal this man to not only hobble around, but even to jump while praising God!

The people at the temple knew this man and knew his condition. So to say they were shocked at this change of situation in his life would be an understatement. The people rushed to gather around the healed man, Peter, and John to try to find some answers. And the beginning of those answers that Peter gave is what serves as our sermon text for this morning.

From the very beginning, Peter deflects any praise or credit for this healing. “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us, as if by our own power or godliness we have made this man walk?” Peter knew he had nothing in this. It was not his pious life nor his strong faith that made this man able to walk. This was God’s work. But Peter makes a very important point for the Jewish believers there at the temple: “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus…” This is not a new God or a new religion. Everything that Peter is going to tell the crowd is going to be directly connected to the promises God had made for generations to and through the Israelites. 

In a similar theme to what he preached about not long prior to this on Pentecost, Peter fills in the details of what happened to this glorified Jesus, what perhaps some gathered there had participated in. “[God] glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you. You killed the Author of Life.” Peter is not trying to win many friends in this crowd, is he? He comes out swinging. “You condemned an innocent man and demanded the release of a murderer! You disowned the fulfillment of your entire faith and religion. You killed the Author of Life.” Oof…

But Peter has to start there. He not only has to address their sin, but he has to put forward Jesus’ death because everything—eternal life itself—hinges on that crucifixion. There’s law here—condemnation of their sin and rejection of Jesus—but it leads to gospel, right? Because how were those sins paid for? His crucifixion. 

And Peter doesn’t lose any time getting to that point: “You killed the Author of Life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses of this. And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus that has strengthened this man, whom you see and know. This faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.” Jesus is the source of every spiritual blessing (and in this case, a physical blessing as well). 

But the resurrection is so key to Peter’s message that he has to proclaim it immediately! How important it was for the disciples to know the certain reality of Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead! The whole gospel message hangs on this truth. It is the reason that we can have any confidence in God’s promises. It is the reason this man was healed. Is it any wonder that Jesus took the special time to meet Thomas’ confusion and doubts and address them head-on? Jesus being raised from the dead is key to everything.

The crowd gathered around, struck by the law, didn't need to apologize to Peter and John. They didn't need to make things right with the rest of the apostles. They needed to be concerned not with human relationships, but with their relationship with God. The resurrection is what makes a proper relationship with God possible. And Peter points the crowd to the resolution of everything bad: “Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just like your leaders. But in this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through the mouth of all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. Therefore repent and return to have your sins wiped out, so that refreshing times may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.” This was God’s plan all along. The Christ, the Messiah, would suffer and die so that sins would be wiped out, like an eraser on a chalk board. They need not wallow in guilt and hopelessness. This happened that they would be eternally refreshed and healed in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We saw all-too-clearly on Good Friday how it was really not the Jewish leaders, Pilate, or even the crowd of people Peter is addressing in our lesson who were responsible for Jesus’ death. It was your fault and mine. Our sins led him to the cross. He suffered in our place, suffered our punishment, endured our hell for our sins of ignorance and for sins of which we were well aware.

What does that mean? Well, as we said last Sunday on Easter, that gives us a life worth living. That means that our lives look and sound different. It means that sin should have no place of honor in our lives. We will never be rid of our sinful natures on this side of eternity and thus we will continue to fall into sin. Temptations will come from inside of us and outside of us, and we will fail. But because Jesus has wiped that sin away, we are not damned. Because Jesus wiped that sin away, we do not wallow in that sin or rejoice in that sin or seek out that sin. Instead, we come repent of that sin and, just like those listening to Peter in the temple that day, find that in Jesus’ death we have forgiveness, forgiveness that is proven by his resurrection from the dead.

For as remarkable as the lame man’s strong legs were, the miracle that God worked through Peter and John was just a foretaste, a glimpse, a sliver of the real healing that he wanted to provide and in fact has provided through Jesus’ resurrection. In him we are healed not from an inability to walk but from true spiritual death. We are rescued from sin and given a life of thanksgiving to lead here and an eternal life of perfection to look forward to in heaven. That is the healing that God provides. That is the healing that he’s given to you. That is our Easter joy which is for now and for eternity. Don’t take this for granted, but rejoice freshly in this Easter joy: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

"Hosanna!" (Sermon on Mark 11:1-10) | March 28, 2021

Text: Mark 11:1-10
Date: March 28, 2021
Event: Palm Sunday, Year B

Mark 11:1–10 (EHV)

As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it, and he will send it back here without delay.’” 

4They left and found a colt on the street, tied at a door; and they untied it. 5Some who were standing there asked them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6The disciples answered them just as Jesus had instructed them, and the men let them go. 

7They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. 8Many people spread their garments on the road. Others spread branches that they had cut from the fields. 9Those who went in front and those who followed were crying out, 

Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!
Hosanna in the highest! 

Hosanna!

We are here, at long last. Everything has been pointing ahead to this week, to these moments. This past Monday evening in our Bible Information Class we got to study not only Adam and Eve’s fall into sin but also God’s response. His response was to promise a Savior who would rescue mankind by crushing Satan’s head and eliminating all the work that he had done.

After the fall into sin, Adam named his wife Eve, which means “living” or “life,” in what might appear to be an ironic choice. After all, he and Eve had just brought sin and death into God’s creation. So why name his wife, “Life”? Because they trusted God’s promises, that God would bring life back from death, that he would follow through on his promise to send a champion who would crush the serpent’s head.

From that time on, God shaped world history for his purposes. Everything that happened God worked for the good of keeping his promises, even if at first blush it didn’t seem like a good thing. He saved his promises in the flood, he called Abraham to be the father of the nation from which this Savior would come. He was with his people during their slavery in Egypt and rescued them. He was patient when they demanded a king instead of the theocracy he had created for them. He did not abandon then in their exile in Babylon, even though they were there because of their unfaithfulness to him.

Along this path of history, God gave glimpses of what was to come. Through revelation given to his people, usually through the prophets, God gave details of the Messiah’s life and work. He would be from Abraham’s family; and then more specifically from Judah’s family; and then even more specifically from King David’s family. He would have a kingdom that would never end. He would be a servant who would suffer for the sins of all people. Hw would be born in Bethlehem. He would even, as Zechariah promised in our First Lesson, ride on a donkey’s colt, yet be a king, the King.

And so Palm Sunday is really the start of the final fulfillment of all of these promises. When Jesus sent his disciples to the town ahead to get that unridden colt, we might see shades of Jesus’ humility there. But even more than that, Jesus is specifically leaving no stone unturned when it comes to fulfilling the promises made about him. The Messiah would be a king bringing salvation that would ride on a young donkey, so that’s exactly what Jesus needed to do. And that’s what he does.

He leaves no doubt that he is, in fact, the Messiah, the Christ, the long-promised Savior of mankind. He has come to be the champion over Satan and sin and death that God first promised in the Garden of Eden. He is the one whose life and work God has been working to bring about.

But why? What is so important that God would embark on this millennia-long effort to plan and execute Jesus’ life and work? Well, it’s us. Maybe more to the point, it’s his love for us. Our sin that we inherited from our parents and then have contributed copious amount of further sins toward in our life means hell, eternal separation from God for all of our sins. There was nothing we could do to save ourselves; there was nothing we could do to save any other person, no matter how dear they are to us. We were lost to certain eternal condemnation without any hope of help or rescue. 

Which brings us to that word, that shout, that we hear from the crowd on Palm Sunday, “Hosanna!” They are quoting from Psalm 118, which was clearly a Messianic prophecy. The crowd is acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ. But “Hosanna!” rings out above all of it. It’s a simple phrase in Hebrew that simply means, “Please, save us!” 

How powerful that is! Whether or not those in the crowd on that Palm Sunday fully understood and appreciated everything the Messiah was going to do is kind of irrelevant. As we look at that today, as we join our voices in shouts of “Hosanna!” as well, what are we saying? We are saying there’s no way for us to fix our lives and our eternal situation. We are saying there is no hope of ever being rescued from the pit of eternal death unless someone were to reach down and pull us out. Hosanna is as much a plea for help as it is an acclamation of praise. Hosanna! Save us, please!

It’s fitting to shout this request to Jesus. Jesus’ name, Ieshua in Hebrew, points us to reality. The sibilance in Hosanna and Ieshua come from the same root in Hebrew, the word to “save.” Jesus’ name means “The LORD saves” or “Yahweh saves.” The crowd pleads to be saved by the one named “The LORD saves!” There was no one else who could do this saving, to truly rescue us from sin, other than Jesus who is the LORD, Yahweh, himself in human flesh! And even if the crowd was misguided, even if they thought Jesus was coming to free the nation from the Romans or some other short-sighted thing, God used their words of praise and their shouts from the Old Testament scriptures to point to what he was going to do. The angel had been clear with Jospeh when he gave him the child’s name—“he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The prophet Zechariah was clear in our First Lesson, “Look! Your King is coming to you. He is righteous and brings salvation” (Zechariah 9:9).

In John’s gospel we’re told that in the moment the disciples didn’t fully appreciate what all of this meant, but after Jesus’ work was completed they did. You and I here this morning have the benefit of the hindsight that the disciples and the crowd in the moment did not. We know the rest of the story; we know what is going to happen; we know what the results of Jesus’ work are going to be.

Jesus had lived a flawless life of perfect obedience to God, just as was promised. He was going to his horrible suffering and death, just as was promised. But all of that pain and torment, the crucifixion, the punishment for sins he never committed, the hell he did not deserve on the cross, all of it would result in saving you and saving me from our sins. All of it means that we are rescued from hell and will be brought into eternal life. 

We get to see and celebrate all of this, in full, this week. As we begin Holy Week today, as we join the crowd in celebrating the arrival of our King, we also know that the coming days are going to get darker and darker. The sounds of happy cheering in the streets will go quiet. There will be come secret trials and cries of “Crucify!” The one who never did anything wrong will be punished for everything you and I have done wrong. We will be rescued because he sacrificed himself.

What is there for us to say but, “Hosanna,” “Please save us!” He will and he has. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Amen.

“The Cross Is Jesus’ Glory” (Sermon on John 12:20-33) | March 21, 2021

Text: John 12:20–33
Date: March 21, 2021
Event: The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year B

John 12:20–33 (EHV)

20Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Festival. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” 22Philip went to tell Andrew. Andrew came with Philip and told Jesus. 

23Jesus answered them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain. 25Anyone who loves his life destroys it. And the one who hates his life in this world will hold on to it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 

27“Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name!” 

A voice came from heaven: “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.” 

29The crowd standing there heard it and said it thundered. Others said an angel talked to him. 30Jesus answered, “This voice was not for my sake but for yours. 

31“Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate what kind of death he was going to die

The Cross Is Jesus’ Glory

When we think of “glory,” we usually think of something amazing and wonderful. A parent’s glory might be found in their children being successful and productive members of society. A teacher’s glory might be in the students she teaches and helps through difficult subjects. A person’s glory might be in the accomplishments of their career, or their help for those in need, etc. The lists can go on and on, but they all have something in common. All of these are objectively good things. Maybe not everyone has a chance to accomplish or even be involved in all of them, but everyone can look at a list like this and say, “Yeah, those are positive things, things to be praised.”

But things that are cited as objectively bad things, suffering or causing pain, abusing someone or being abused, scaring someone or being taken advantage of, none of these things would ever be considered “glorious.” They might range from sad to criminal, but never good, never glory. 

We’ve seen throughout this Lenten season, though, that Jesus’ goals and work often go contrary to what we would expect. He ran counter to the expectations of his disciples; he ran counter to the expectations of the religious leaders. And here, again, we see his plans, his work, and what they accomplished running contrary to what most would thought to be true about the coming Messiah. Because in Jesus’ glorification of his Father, he will endure suffering and death. The Father will glorify his name by having his Son killed. But it will be for a purpose—a glorious purpose—the salvation of the world.

At the start of our Gospel, we meet up with Jesus during Holy Week after his Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem. Some people from Greece had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. Either before they came to town or since they had been there, they had heard something about this Jesus from Nazareth. Perhaps it was word about the miracles, perhaps it was the notion that he was thought by some to be the Christ. Regardless, they want to check him out and understand what he was about. So, they track down Philip and make a simple request, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

We don’t know if Jesus met with these Greek people to talk with them. But he does take the opportunity to point ahead to what is coming. In the future, this will be his disciples’ job—to show Jesus to those who need him. But for now, Jesus is set on what is coming in the short term: “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain.” Jesus uses this agriculture analogy to point to what he’s going to do in just a few days. He’s not here to be Mr. Popular. These Greeks really didn’t need to see and meet with him; they needed the work he was going to do. He, as one person, would be sacrificed, so that all people would benefit from it—many seeds from one seed.

But this is weighing heavily on Jesus. We will see it clearly in the Garden of Gethsemane a few days after this event, but even now Jesus is showing the pressure and the hardship that his work is putting on him, “Now my soul is troubled,” Jesus says. But Jesus sees no other options. “And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?” Jesus asks, as if it’s the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever said (because it kind of is). “No, this is the reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Should Jesus retreat from what is ahead of him? Should the Father change the plan at the eleventh hour? No! This was the whole reason that Jesus came into the world in the first place. He came to be the seed that dies in the ground which then produces a gigantic harvest! 

We hear the Father confirm this, “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.” Every step of the way from the fall into sin in Eden to this moment has served to glorify God. Despite mankind’s sin, he promised a Savior. That Savior would be his only-begotten, eternal Son. As God worked to mold history to bring about Jesus’ arrival, he glorified his name. As the baby was born in Bethlehem—as he promised—he glorified his name. As Jesus spoke the things the Father sent him to speak, the Father glorified his name. Even now, as Jesus testifies to his impending death being part of the Father’s plan, the Father glorifies his name.

And it will continue to happen, again and again over the coming days. When the Father tells Jesus that he cannot take the cup away from him, the Father will glorify his name. When Jesus submits to the abuse of the Sanhedrin, High Priest, and Pontius Pilate, the Father will glorify his name. When Jesus is stretched out over the cross and nailed in place, the Father will glorify his name. When Jesus suffers the Father’s wrath, hell itself, over your sins and mine, there, too, the Father will glorify his name.

Again, this doesn’t sound glorious, does it? It doesn’t sound praiseworthy at first blush. But the Father is glorified for his mercy to us, his forgiveness to us, his keeping the promises he made to us. And Jesus, too, in his willing sacrifice, is glorified. It’s why we’re here at all this morning, to glorify our Triune God for the redemption and forgiveness won for us in the vicious death of that kernel of wheat by which we have eternal life.

The Father’s name would be glorified again after all of this took place when he sent his angels to speak to people on earth. Like Christmas, this would once again be “good news of great joy, which will be for all people” (Luke 2:10). It would be good news not of birth, but of triumph and resurrection as his angels took their positions at the entrance to Jesus’ tomb. 

And here is the glory of the Father and of Jesus and, truly, of the Holy Spirit. This news of Jesus’ work is for all people. That’s exactly what Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Jesus’ death would heave Satan from any position of power that he might have thought he had and proclaim Jesus as that King of kings and Lord of lords. And in doing so, Jesus would draw all people to himself. He will become the Savior for all people of all time. Because he did not shy away from the cross but embraced it as his glory, all people—you and me included—have eternal life!

Let’s go back, briefly, to the very beginning of our Gospel: Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew. Andrew came with Philip and told Jesus. We see from Philip and Andrew models for our lives. They knew Jesus, and there were people that came to them with both a request and a need to see Jesus. So Philip gets help from Andrew, and they both go, presumably, to bring these people to Jesus. There are echoes to the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry when Philip called to Nathanael, and when confronted with questions about them supposedly finding the Messiah, he simply said, “Come and see” (John 1:46).  

We have an opportunity in a couple of weeks to do something unprecedented in our lifetimes. After more than a year of fear, confusion, hurt, and exhaustion dealing with the pandemic, its restrictions and aftershocks, we have a populace that in many different ways likely feels without any hope whatsoever. Whether people directly contracted COVID, knew someone who did, lost loved ones, or simply have spent a year trying to do the right things to keep others safe, this has perhaps peeled back the false ideas that life is fine, that they don’t need a Savior, that things are just ducky on their own.

They’re not ducky! Just look at the world around us! From disease to war to hate between people, this world is a disaster. Anyone who depends on this world, this life, or actions here will find nothing but failure, disaster, and eventual punishment. There is no hope here. There is no confidence here. There is no true, lasting glory here.

Ah, but you know where there is true, lasting glory, don’t you? “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” And you know how he draws all people to himself, right? Not through magic or storms or anything like that. Even the pandemic is only an ache that points to the real need. No, he draws people to himself with his Word; and his Word is shared by his people, by you and me.

So we have a world in an unprecedented condition and a message with eternal comfort. Share it. You have an opportunity to lead the “Greeks” in your life to Jesus. As we look ahead to Holy Week, invite people to join you for worship here on Good Friday and on Easter, to hear of the victory Jesus won. Forward the email invitations to someone who needs to hear this message of eternal hope and comfort, so they can join us for our worship livestreams. Be ready to answer questions, be ready to find answers with them through formal or informal study of God’s Word. You may be the one and only link someone ever has to the gospel. Take the opportunities to share it while we are able. This, too, is the Father glorifying his name.

Jesus’ glory is in his death on the cross because it was his power and love exercised to save you. The Father who sent his Son is glorified in it. The Holy Spirit who brings the message to us of this work is further glorified in it. Rejoice in Jesus’ glory, because it is your glory too. Your glory for eternity, and your glory to share. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Let Jesus’ Zeal Be Your Zeal" (Sermon on John 2:13-22) | March 7, 2021

Text: John 2:13-22
Date: March 7, 2021
Event: The Third Sunday in Lent, Year B

John 2:13–22 (EHV)

13The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

14In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. 15He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those selling doves he said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!” 

17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

18So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” 

19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” 

20The Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! And you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 22When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said.

Let Jesus’ Zeal Be Your Zeal

Zeal, passion, can be a good thing. Although we did see on Wednesday evening how misguided zeal can lead down really wrong paths, as we saw Peter brandishing his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane. But godly zeal, a zeal that is in tune with and focused on God’s will is a good thing. It’s a passion that leads to serving our God. It’s a fire that burns brightly in thanksgiving for all that he’s done for us.

This morning in our Gospel we’re taken to an early part of Jesus’ ministry, not long after he called his first disciples. This is the first Passover of Jesus’ ministry and, as we would expect, he and his disciples make the trek up to Jerusalem to go and worship.

The Passover was the celebration of God rescuing his people in Egypt from the plague of the firstborn and more generally from their slavery at the hands of Pharaoh. This was one of, if not the, biggest festival of the year. People would come from all over the known-world to return to Jerusalem, to the temple, to celebrate. 

You can see the logistical trouble people might have had, right? If they were coming from a great distance they probably couldn’t easily travel with sacrificial animals. Their money was probably not correct for offerings in Judea. And so something started that on the surface makes sense. Why not offer a service at the temple, especially around these festivals, where people could purchase the animals they needed for sacrifice right there rather than having to travel with them? Why not offer to exchange money into the local currency for ease of use at the temple and beyond?

But what might have started with good intentions had gotten out of hand. The noise and smell of the animals, the clinking of money, the din of conversations and bargaining undoubtedly distracted the people trying to  worship at the temple. It conveyed a sense of irreverence for God’s house and seemed to place a higher priority on business than worship and meditation.

Enter Jesus. He binds together some cords to make a whip to shoo the animals and people out of the temple courts. He overturns the money changers’ tables and casts the coins to the floor. He has a harsh rebuke for these people: “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!” 

There’s probably a lot to talk about here at the intersection of church and business, but that’s best left for another time. I want us to focus on what this brought to mind for the disciples, a quote from Psalm 69 about the Messiah that we read just a few minutes ago in our service, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Why was Jesus so passionate, so zealous, for God’s house? Because this was where the people heard about their sins and need for a Savior. Here was where they heard God’s promises to send that Savior, those promises that in the next three years Jesus would fulfill completely. This was the place that the people would find rescue from sin, death, and hell and find eternal life.

Are we zealous for God’s house? I think that’s a really difficult question to ask right now at this moment because for so long we have been separated from worshiping together and are just now beginning to cautiously come out of that. I’m hopeful that today’s worship service is our first step to ultimately restoring the sense of normalcy in our congregation. But we’re not there yet. So maybe it’s easier to ask about what we hear in the house than the house itself right now: are you zealous for God’s Word?

What place does God’s Word have in your life? Are you regularly tuning in for worship or making plans to come in person when certain safety metrics are met? Are Bible classes a priority for you? Is Sunday School or Catechism a priority for your children and your family at large? Do you have time in personal devotions or family devotions around the table at some point during the day? Do you spend time in prayer to thank, praise, and ask God for help? Or, are there a multitude of others things that take precedence in your life and heart so that God slips down the priority ladder? 

If the Word has priority in your life in worship, study, and devotional time, does it have an effect on the way you live? Do you walk away from a time with God’s Word more thankful for his love to you, more ready to serve your fellow people in gratitude to God? Or does it go in one ear and out the other? Does it become just a set of facts and figures to learn with no tangible effect on your heart or actions?

In other words, do you posses Jesus’ zeal for the Word or not? I can assure you I do not meet Jesus’ level of commitment and knowing that you all are sinners like me, I know that you don’t as well. We’re often dismissive of anything that would lead us off the of the path that we want to be going down, up to and including God’s will for our lives. Maybe we’re not setting up shop selling things at the back of church and distracting from worship, but often times our respect for God and his Word is on a similar level.

Understandably, those turning the house of worship into a market were annoyed by what Jesus did. Who was this guy to be doing this anyway? By what authority does he come in here and “clean house”? “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” they ask. And here’s were we get to the heart of Jesus’ message and mission: What sign will he give? “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” 

You and I have not kept this godly zeal for God’s house and Word like we should have, but Jesus did. As we see his passion and zeal for God’s house come out, he’s living the life that you and I should have lived but didn’t, but it’s that very perfect life that Jesus gives to us. You could ask our Catechism students and they would tell you that this is an example of Jesus’ active obedience, where he kept all of God’s laws perfectly in our place. 

But that doesn’t change the fact that we’ve not done this, that we’ve actively been not zealous for God and his Word and instead prioritized other things. Which takes us to Jesus’ statement about the temple. Destroy it and in three days I will raise it up. For us with the benefit of hindsight, we can see clearly what Jesus is talking about. And John, writing well after these events all took place, also gives us an explanation. Jesus is not talking about stone and mortar. But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 

When the temple of Jesus’ body is destroyed by being nailed to a cross, that’s your solution and mine for our lack of zeal for God’s Word. As the temple of his body bears the weight of all of our sins and the punishment of hell that they deserved, we find forgiveness. Jesus will pay the price for all sin of all time on the cross. By his wounds, you and I will be healed. 

But we know even in these dark and doleful days of Lent, this story doesn’t end in despair. Jesus knew how this story concludes even years before it happened. “In three days I will raise it up again.” His death will mean our forgiveness; his resurrection will prove his victory and ours.

It’s interesting to see how much these words stuck with the leaders of the Jewish people even years after Jesus spoke them. This was one point that the false witnesses came closest to agreeing on during the kangaroo court trial Jesus underwent before the high priest, which we heard in our Passion History this past Wednesday evening, “Some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: ‘We heard him say, "I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.” ’ Yet even on this point, their testimony did not agree” (Mark 14:57-59). In fact, these promises seem to have resonated with Jesus’ enemies more than with his disciples. While the disciples were cowering in fear and later would be shocked at his resurrection, it’s the Pharisees who go to Pilate remembering Jesus’ teaching of his being raised up and call for extra security measures at Jesus’ tomb.

As we strive for this zeal of Jesus, as we aim to have his Word and work mean as much to us as it should, may his words never leave our hearts and minds. May we always cherish, always prioritize, always rejoice in what he has done for us. In good days and in bad, may God’s love for us shown clearly in Jesus be our all-in-all, now and forever. May you be consumed with zeal for your Savior—and the zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish that (cf. Isaiah 9:7)! Amen.

"Jesus' Cross Enables Us to Bear Our Crosses" (Sermon on Mark 8:31-38) | February 28, 2021

Text: Mark 8:31-38
Date: February 28, 2021
Event: The Second Sunday in Lent, Year B

Mark 8:31–38 (EHV)

31Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. 32He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But after turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.” 

34He called the crowd and his disciples together and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36After all, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38In fact, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” 

Jesus’ Cross Enables Us to Bear Our Crosses

Fiction is fun because you get to do things that aren’t realistic. Whether it’s reading a book that takes you to a world that doesn’t exist, playing a video game where you can to do things that defy human ability or the laws of nature, or watching a movie where the only limitation is the director’s vision and the special effects budget, these fictional things take you out of the mundane or difficult reality and give you a break, give you an escape. 

But, the issue with all of them is that at some point, you have to close the book, or turn off the game, or the credits roll on the movie. And then what are you left with? You’re back to reality. You still have those tough things to do for school, that troubled relationship still needs your attention, or your financial difficulties are still bearing down on you. We can escape reality for a little while, but we can’t ignore it completely. In the end, we always get a wake up call to be reminded of the difference between what is real and what is imaginary.

As Jesus was coming into the latter days of his ministry, he begins to give his disciples a wake-up-call of sorts. The disciples had been living a relatively easy, near-fictional life. They got to travel and learn from Jesus—God himself!—and they never wanted that to end. They loved Jesus and loved that they got to be near to him. Six days after this conversation in our Gospel would be the transfiguration that we saw just a couple of weeks ago, and we probably remember Peter’s stumbling words recognizing that he just wanted to stay in that glory with the radiant Jesus and the honored Moses and Elijah. 

But the closer we come to the end of Jesus’ ministry, the more blunt he becomes with his disciples. Because this will not go on forever. Jesus’ ministry would last about 3 years and then it would come to an end. So, Jesus is clear how it would end. Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. 32He was speaking plainly to them. No parables, no metaphors. Jesus is being blunt as blunt can be.

But as we saw at the transfiguration, Peter does not want to leave the pleasant and go to the unpleasant. So his response is to refuse to allow Jesus to do this, rebuking his own dearly-loved teacher! But Jesus is quick to see this for what it is—a trap laid by Satan to pull him off course—and so he turns and rebukes Peter in front of the other disciples, “You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.” 

How often does Jesus’ barb hit us exactly? How often are we like Peter, not noticing the things God is doing despite our troubles, the good he’s working in difficulties? How often don’t you and I only long for and even pray for things to be simple and easy and pleasant rather than the toilsome burden that they often are. And yet, along with that, how often don’t we forget the promises God has made. Good will come from bad, eternal blessing will come despite earthly trials. 

Consider the exact event that Jesus is talking about. Peter understandably doesn’t want Jesus to suffer all of those things. But those events that Peter and the others would undoubtedly call “very bad” in the moment are the eternal good from God because by them he would work the forgiveness of sins and give eternal life. Peter couldn’t see it as Jesus told him what was going to happen and it’s doubtful he could see it while these events were happening. But if Jesus has gone down the “easy” path, the path focused on the things of man rather and the things of God, it would’ve meant short-term ease but long-term disaster. If Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross, there would be no forgiveness for Peter, or you, or me, or anyone. We would all be lost to our sins.

But God’s plans are always greater than ours, and if he’s doing something in our lives or allowing something to happen to us that seems awful or even unbearable, he has a reason for it. He blesses our life through the good things he brings to it and works our eternal good from from the challenges he places on us. This is not often what we would choose, but these are the things of God, not the things of mankind.

But it’s hard to kick our natural reaction to bad, uncomfortable, and difficult things. It’s tempting to try to live in the daydream that God wants to and will always just make our lives better. Plenty of television preachers have made huge amounts of money peddling that very thing. “God wants you to be healthy! God wants you to be wealthy! God wants you to be happy!” Just this week the church received an email titled, “Three Bible passages that prove God wants you to be rich.” Appealing? Yes. But it’s fiction. 

If that’s where our mind and heart go, we need a wake-up-call from that delusion. God cares about us, yes, and God absolutely provides what we need. But never, ever has God ever said that our lives are going to be easy. What did Jesus tell his disciples? If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. We should see hardship and difficulty in this life not as God failing us or any indication that he doesn’t love us. The difficulties and crosses of this life simply prove that he is faithful to his promises and was honest with us about what was coming.

But as we look at Jesus’ cross, we find the strength to take up our own crosses. Look at what he did for us! Look how he did not hesitate to give up everything, even his very life, to save us from our sins! Look at how his suffering, the events that Peter forbade, mean our eternal rescue and deliverance! If God was able to work good—the ultimate good—from that most horrible of tragedies, is he not able to work good from your and my relatively smaller struggles and problems? The God who worked the death of his own Son for our salvation, is he too weak to work good and blessing through our difficulties? Is he not able to help us bear those crosses as we follow him?

This is hard to prioritize when all the world around us preaches a “gospel” of ease and comfort. Why take the difficult path when the easy one is right there? Why be a Christian when it’s far more in-sync with our culture to jettison faith? Jesus addresses that: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. The ultimate example of this would be someone who becomes a martyr, who dies for their faith in Jesus. But at this time and in this place, this is not the most common way that you and I will run into this. We may not always run into threats on our physical life, but maybe we run in threats to our way of life, to our reputation among unbelievers who are our neighbors, friends, or family members. And in an effort to preserve that way of life or the quality of those relationships, perhaps we are tempted to set aside our faith or our Christian morals or priorities that come from bearing crosses in this life and instead take the route of the things of men rather than the path God has placed before us.

But woe to us if we continue to be bewitched by the illusion that an easy life now is of the highest priority! If we discard our faith for the easy life now, we lose eternity. But prioritizing Jesus and his good news of salvation through his death on the cross despite any difficulties that comes from it means eternal safety with our Savior. 

Jesus put the guarantee of his suffering right in what he initially taught his disciples about his own path: the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. There is certain victory after those grim circumstances. He attaches the same promise to you and me in our life of cross-bearing. Continuing to patiently endure trials and difficulty and clinging to God by the faith he provides will end in guaranteed victory: whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. Paul expounded on this in our Second Lesson: We also rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope. And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us (Romans 5:3-5).

The victory of eternal life that Jesus won by his death on the cross means that you and I can bear our crosses in confidence. Difficulty is not a sign of God’s hate, but something he uses to work for our good, both now and especially toward eternity. Today, face your trials with joy and confidence, knowing God’s promises, knowing his eternal love, knowing that you are his now and forever. This is not fiction; this is the gospel truth! Amen.

"The Transfiguration Gives a Glimpse of the True Jesus" (Sermon on Mark 9:2-9) | February 14, 2021

Text: Mark 9:2-9
Date: February 14, 2021
Event: The Transfiguration of our Lord, Year B

Mark 9:2-9 (EHV)

2After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were alone by themselves. There he was transfigured in front of them. 3His clothes became radiant, dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. 4And Elijah appeared to them together with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 

5Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6He did not know what to say because they were terrified. 

7A cloud appeared and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him.” 

8Suddenly when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus alone. 

9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 

The Transfiguration Gives a Glimpse of the True Jesus

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At Christmas this past year, I thought I knew what one of the presents was that my mom had sent to the kids was. But when the presents arrived, it was not the shape or feel at all of what I thought it would look like. Eventually I began thinking that I misunderstood what Mom had said she was planning and had chosen something different instead. 

But around our house, the kids were mostly mystified about those presents, “But do you know what Gram sent?” the kids would ask. And I would have to puzzle out a truthful, “Well, I thought I did, but now looking at it, I’m just not so sure.” “Is it something practical or fun?” the questions continued. And my confusion continued as well, “I... I’m just not sure.” 

But then fast forward to Christmas Day and the presents are opened. Once the wrapping paper was off the puzzle made sense. Under the wrapping paper, the gift was wrapped in this thick, bubble shipping sleeve, which added the very strange feel and shape. But under the wrapping paper and bubble sleeve was the exact present that I thought was coming. It had just been masked and hidden.

In many ways, that’s kind of what happened with Jesus. The promises of the Messiah were clear that the Savior would be divine, would be God. And yet what did Jesus look like? Just another guy, right? If you were living at that time, he would’ve looked no different than you or your neighbor. And we’ve seen through this Epiphany season that yes, in many ways, Jesus and others revealed who Jesus truly was in words and actions. But there still would’ve been this nagging question in the minds of people seeing and listening to Jesus: “Really? This guy? He’s the Messiah?”

So that brings us to the Transfiguration, a moment later in Jesus’ ministry where he set aside all doubt as to who he was and focuses on what he had come to do. As we come closer and closer to our Lenten journey that will take us down the path of difficult self-examination and seeing the price our sins cost our Savior, we will keep the events on this hilltop in mind because it gives us perspective. For as difficult as it will be to see our Savior’s passion, for as weak he may appear, the transfiguration gives a glimpse of the true Jesus, the Savior who came to be our champion.

For this event, Jesus took just the “inner circle” with him—Peter, James, and John. It was just the four of them because, as the de facto leaders of even the twelve disciples, there was something important for them to see. There he was transfigured in front of them. The word “transfigured” comes from the Latin word used to translate the Greek “metamorphosis.” It simply means “changed.” Jesus’ appearance changed. He changed from something that masked his true nature into showing who he really is. His clothes became radiant, dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. This was not a wardrobe change on Jesus’ part. He didn’t bring a brighter set of clothes with him. These clothes were supernaturally white. The other gospel writers use words like “lightning” and “the sun” to describe Jesus’ changed appearance, both his clothing and his face.

This is Jesus showing himself to be God as he is. He wasn’t just like you or your neighbor. This was God who had taken on our human nature. And that’s important because in order to the Savior of the world, our Savior needed to be God. No one else but God could live the perfect life we needed, and have that life count for all people. No one else but God could have his death count for everyone. This glimpse into Jesus’ true nature was meant as a comfort for the disciples. “Yes, what you will see will be difficult to watch. It will appear that I am powerless, but I am not. I am doing this to save you and everyone else from their sins.”

As if this were not enough to take in in the moment, it is suddenly not four on the hilltop, but six. Moses and Elijah, two of God’s prophets from the Old Testament appear to speak with Jesus. Luke recounts in his Gospel that they were talking about Jesus’ upcoming “departure,” that is his death. Note with what focus Jesus approaches your need for a Savior! Nothing deters him; he is laser-focused on your forgiveness. Everything is leading to the cross and the empty tomb. It’s all leading to a triumphant “It is finished!” amid apparent defeat, and the glorious proclamations of “He has been raised!” As we will confess in the Nicene Creed, this was all “for us and for our salvation.” 

We can sympathize a bit with Peter, can’t we? Here is Jesus in his glory as God, here are two respected heroes of faith from the past. Who wouldn’t want to stay? And also, who wouldn’t be scared out of their wits? Peter’s offer to put up the tents makes some sense in a terrified-beyond-rational-thought sort of way. This is what happens to sinners in the presence of God, and yet a God who loves us. Our sin makes it impossible to stand in his presence, but knowing that is also our Savior means that we can recognize that it’s good to be here. 

And if Peter had any clarity on what would happen—the gut-wrenching upheaval that would come to all of their lives beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane—that would have been all the more the reason to want to just stay up here forever. But that’s not the plan. It was not the plan for Jesus to just be here and live out time in peace, and that wasn’t the plan for Peter, James, and John either. They all had work to do. They all had difficulty to endure. And it would all be for the good of those around them, for the good of all who so desperately needed the forgiveness that God freely provides. 

We get to experience good times that we hope will never end; we have to endure trials that we wish would end immediately. But the Savior who showed a glimpse of his power at his transfiguration stands by us in all of it, blessing the good and working the bad for our eternal benefit. Peter longed to stay with Jesus on the top of that mountain, but Jesus had bigger plans. Not an extended camping trip, but an eternity of perfection with our God. That is what he came to do, thus they could not stay there that day.

But before they break camp and move on, a cloud envelops them, likely the same cloud pillar that led the Israelites through the wilderness, the same glory of the Lord that surrounded the shepherds at Jesus’ birth. This is the presence of God made clear. Here the Father speaks again, like he did at Jesus’ baptism. But this time the Father speaks not to Jesus, but to the disciples, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him.” 

Jesus is going to ramp up how blunt and clear he’s going to be with his disciples in the days ahead. He’s going to be clear about the suffering he’ll undergo—the betrayal, arrest, condemnation, death, burial, and even the resurrection. Peter had already been direct with Jesus that these things should never happen to him and Jesus had to rebuke him as a messenger of Satan trying to veer him off course. The Father’s message for the disciples is clear, “Jesus knows what he’s doing. He’s doing what is right. I love him and his dedication to the mission that I sent him on. Listen to him.”

None of this is going to make sense in the moment. It’s going to seem weird, out of place, and shocking. It’s going to continue to seem like this Messiah is not the Savior that we expected. But what lies ahead for Jesus is not what it might seem. Jesus’ transfiguration points ahead to the greater glory, the greater victory that Jesus will display. That victory will be directly beneficial for Peter, James, John, you, and me. Jesus made it clear that the disciples shouldn’t talk about this until after he had been raised from the dead because only then would all of the pieces fit together. Even in that moment, they didn’t really understand what he was talking about in regard to the resurrection, but they would in time.

As we continue to go through trials and difficulty, as we continue to hope for and wish for the relief from trials we have and to experience blessings that we have not had, as we seek to understand what God is doing in our lives and why he’s doing it, take this scene and the Father’s words to heart. Your Savior knows what he’s doing. He’s conquered sin and death for you and will bring you to his heavenly home when the time comes. Until that day, rest easy in the one who might not have looked the part, but who is your heaven-sent Savior who conquered sin and death by his life and death for you. Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Amen.

“Jesus’ Authority Is Your Certainty” (Sermon on Mark 1:21-28) | January 31, 2021

Text: Mark 1:21-28
Date: January 31, 2021
Event: The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B

Mark 1:21-28 (EHV)

Then they went to Capernaum. On the next Sabbath day, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22They were amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them as one who has authority and not as the experts in the law. 23Just then there was a man with an unclean spirit in their synagogue. It cried out, 24“What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” 

25Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” 

26The unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions, and after crying out with a loud voice, it came out of him. 27Everyone was so amazed that they began to discuss this with each other. They said, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” 28News about him spread quickly through all the region of Galilee. 

Jesus’ Authority Is Your Certainty

“Um, well, I don’t know...” Those words can be both refreshing and frustrating. It can be refreshing because it’s honest. We’d probably rather someone admit that they don’t know the answer to a question or the best method to accomplish a goal than just make something up, pretending to have the information we needed. But, on the other hand, when it’s information we want or even need, to run into the a lack of knowledge from someone you hoped could help is frustrating. 

This morning as we move deeper into the season of Epiphany, we see the completion of a change that has been happening over the last couple of weeks. In our Gospels we’ve seen a shift from revelation of who Jesus is coming other people to those revelations coming from Jesus himself. And this morning is kind of completeing that shift as Jesus’ teaching and his actions prove his authority. Jesus doesn’t run into a situation where he has to say, “Well, hmmm, I’m not sure...” Jesus has his own complete authority as God, and that authority is eternal certainty for you and me.

We meet up with Jesus again early on in his ministry. He’s in the northern region of Galilee, in the town of Capernaum. Jesus wastes no time and as soon as the Sabbath day rolls around, he goes to the local synagogue to teach. The people were amazed at how Jesus taught. Maybe as a relatively young man, it would have been surprising to hear him teaching at all. But it was more the tone and how he taught. Mark records that the people’s amazement was because Jesus was teaching as one who has authority, evidently a stark difference from the scribes, the experts in the law.

That’s not as big of a dig on the scribes as we might read in the first place. These men would teach, but often teach on the basis of history and tradition. They would teach about a certain section of God’s Word and bring many other opinions and interpretations from previous generation’s great teachers to help explain things. It’s the same sort of teaching you might have experienced when a pastor quotes from a Bible commentary to supplement and explain using God-given insight recorded from other faithful teachers.

But even the prophets throughout the Old Testament taught and preached with borrowed authority. A familiar refrain throughout the prophetic books is, “This is what the Lord says...” In other words, the prophets were not bringing their own ideas; they were telling the people what God had sent them to speak, often times with direct quotations and verbatim recountings of what God had said. There’s certainly nothing to scorn or scoff at there. They were doing exactly what God had called them to do.

But then put yourself in the position of those people in Capernaum’s synagogue. After all your life hearing “This is what the Lord says...” from the scriptures and commentary and insight from many different, respected teachers, here comes a man who teaches and speaks with no adherence to anyone else. Jesus doesn’t have to say, “This is the message God sent me to deliver,” because he himself is God. Jesus doesn’t have to rely on other teachers’ insights to expound on his teaching because all of those teachers, illumined as they might have been by the Holy Spirit, were still restricted in their understanding of God’s divine Word by their their human natures and their sin. But not so with Jesus. He teaches with authority with no deference to anyone else. He doesn’t say, “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand” because he has been the author of the Word from the beginning. This is God teaching his people.

As if the authority in his words was not enough, Jesus underscores his authority with a miracle. A man possessed by an unclean spirit approaches Jesus and testifies the truth about him, and yet we might well suppose that Jesus doesn’t really want an endorsement from a demon. So Jesus’ authority is directed at this spirit possessing this man, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” At that moment, the words stop and the spirit cannot help but come out of the man. The Creator of the universe commanded him; he had to obey. The spirit didn’t stand a chance against Jesus.

The crowd is further rightly amazed at Jesus as they begin to understand that Jesus is doing something new and spectacular, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” Jesus is not just teaching about these spirits, and he’s not unsuccessfully giving them directions. He commands and they obey. 

The people recognized the authority, they recognized the new teaching, but that is something a little bit different than trusting that the teaching is true. This is not necessarily faith in the promises of God.

How do we approach Jesus’ authority? For those of us who have known these truths for a long time, it can be easy to slip into apathy. The truths of God can easily slip and become just pieces of information we know like we know the plot of a movie rather than the promises we cling to with all of our being for rescue from sin and hell. Do we put God’s promises into practice? We might know that God promises to work good in all things for us, but when something bad is actually happening to me, do I trust that he’s doing that or do I treat my troubles as if they are beyond the scope of God’s promised help? 

My conscience also screams at me daily. It is all too ready to remind me of my failings to God, that I have not been the perfect person that God demands that I be. And my conscience is not wrong. Luther made this clear in his Small Catechism’s explanation to the faith petition of the Lord’s Prayer when he wrote, “We daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.” 

But do I live as if I’m unforgiven? Do I live as if that sin can never be taken away? Do I live as if my conscience is correct and the only thing I have to look forward to is an eternity of hell as the just punishment for my sins? May it never be! May Jesus’ authority be your certainty, not just of who he is, but of what he has done for you! Jesus is clear that he came to this earth not primarily to teach but to lay down his life as the payment for your sins and mine. 

So what should we do with the guilty conscience that screams out at us every day? Let Jesus treat it like the unclean spirit. His death and resurrection says to the fretting conscience, “Be quiet!” Our worries about things in life might lead us to start thinking that God can’t or at least won’t follow through on his promises to us. They make us start thinking that he can’t or won’t work all things for our eternal good to care for us as his dearly loved people. Jesus’ authority says to those misleading worries and fears, “Come out of [them]!” 

God’s authority is absolute, and nothing, not worry and fear, not sin and Satan, not our own emotions can make God’s promises untrue or leave them unkept. Jesus, who had the authority to drive our the unclean spirit from that man, has the authority to forgive sins and has, in fact, forgiven your sins by living and dying for you. Jesus who taught with astounding authority to the crowd gathered in Capernaum teaches with that same authority through his Word as he teaches that the forgiveness of sins means eternal life for us. He teaches that as we have been baptized, so we are members of his eternal family, that as we receive his true body and blood with the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, we are given his forgiveness directly and clearly. Nothing from inside of us or outside of us can invalidate Jesus’ authority. 

Jesus’ authority is absolute which means we can be absolutely certain that every promise he’s made for us will be kept. When he promises your troubles will be worked for good, they will. When he promises that he will always be at your side to guard and protect you, he will. When he promises that by his life and death and resurrection he has forgiven your sins, they are gone. When he promises that at the end of your time in this life, he will bring you to that eternal, perfect life with him forever, he will. 

My brothers and sisters, your authoritative Savior can be trusted. We can have certainty in him unmatched by anything else in this life. You are loved, cared for, and forgiven. Thanks be to God! Amen.

“Jesus Is God’s Kept Promise” (Sermon on John 1:43-51) | January 17, 2021

Text: John 1:43-51
Date: January 17, 2021
Event: The Second Sunday after Epiphany, Year B

John 1:43-51 (EHV)

43The next day, Jesus wanted to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 

45Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 

46Nathanael said to him, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” 

“Come and see!” Philip told him. 

47Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 

48Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” 

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 

49Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 

50Jesus replied, “You believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that!” 51Then he added, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” 

Jesus Is God’s Kept Promise

We’ve had semi-frequent conversations in our house over the last few months around the topic of “if something seems too good to be true, it’s probably not true.” You’ve seen the ads that make seemingly impossible promises. You’ve seen the social media post supposedly reporting on something you really wanted to happen only to find out it was a joke or mistaken or even purposefully misleading. The disappointment can be immense, especially when it was something you were really hoping or longing for. 

One possible end point of that is that you become a cynic, that you assume everything is false, everything is a lie, and nothing good or positive will ever happen. Clearly, that’s putting yourself in the extreme opposite ditch from the naïveté that would lead you to believe anything and everything you hear. Neither approach is beneficial or healthy. 

Can you imagine being around at the time of Jesus and being one of those people who was truly and appropriately longing for God to send his promised Savior, the Messiah? Think back to our time spent with Anna who rejoiced to tell everyone about the infant Jesus in the temple, or Simeon who was explicitly promised that he would live to see the arrival of the God’s long-promised Anointed One. In the moments when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple, did they have to pinch themselves, did they have to stave off cynicism or doubt? So many people for so long had dreamed to be in their shoes at that moment, to see this child. Were they really the ones to experience it?

After Jesus had grown and had begun his public ministry at his baptism by John, Jesus then sought to call disciples to follow after him. You can see that from the beginning, Jesus’ teaching pulled people in. The Holy Spirit was at work through Jesus to create faith, even if it was a fledgling faith, in the hearts of those Jesus taught and called. 

After his baptism and some time teaching in the southern region of Judea, Jesus was ready to leave that area and head back north to Galilee. But before he left, he wanted to call a few of people to come with him, people who would be part of his twelve disciples. These journeys north and south to and from Galilee would serve as great times to teach this “inner circle” while also making time to be with the larger crowds in various places. So just prior to our Gospel, Jesus called Peter and his brother Andrew.

The next day, just before he leaves, Jesus calls Philip who was from the same town and Andrew and Peter. It is possible that all of these men had been disciples of John the Baptist and are following Jesus at John’s direction and by Jesus’ calling. So before they head back to the northern region of Galilee where they’re all from, Philip runs to Nathanael with what seemed like too-good-to-be-true news: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Could it be? Could the Messiah really be here? Could the one who had been promised for so long actually be here among them? Nathanael doesn’t exactly show cynicism, but he does approach it was a lot of doubt. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” We can look at this response one of two ways. The first is just a bias against Nazareth in general. It wasn’t impressive; it had no renown. What good could come from a place like that?

But from what Jesus says about Nathanael in a few verses, another option seems more likely, and it’s a thought we heard in our Gospel a few weeks ago the would later divide the crowds on their opinion of Jesus. Nathanael knew the Scriptures. He was a true believer. He knew that the Messiah was not promised to come from Nazareth, but from Bethlehem. Could this greatest of good things possibly come from Nazareth when God had explicitly promised to send it via David’s family and David’s city? 

Philip doesn’t have the answers, but he knows someone who does, so Philip’s answer is short and sweet: “Come and see!” There were things that Philip knew Nathanael would want and need to learn about this Jesus, but Jesus himself would be in the best position to do that teaching.

So he comes. One wonders what the conversation was like on the way to where Jesus was. We might assume that Philip was sharing a lot of why he believed that Jesus was the Christ. Likely the Holy Spirit used whatever that conversation was to prime Nathanael’s heart to actually meet his Savior. 

When they round the corner and Jesus sees them both coming he says about Nathanael: “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” As an “Israelite in whom there is no deceit” Jesus seems to be indicating that Nathanael was a faithful believer, someone who trusted God’s promises. Nathanael is taken aback. He’s never met this man before; how does he know anything about him? Jesus reveals of small sliver of his power as God by telling Nathanael exactly where he was before Philip came to call him. He saw him, not with his eyes, but with his omniscience as God. And this is enough for Nathanael! “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 

Let’s unpack what Nathanael is saying and confessing with these titles for Jesus. In our Psalm of the Day for last weekend, we spoke Psalm 2 responsively. There the Messiah speaks: “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord. He said to me: “‘You are my Son. Today I have begotten you’” (Psalm 2:7). By confessing Jesus to be the Son of God he’s confessing him to be the fulfillment of the begotten-of-God promised to be the Savior of the world. He also (perhaps unknowingly) is underscoring what the Father had just recently testified about Jesus at his baptism, that Jesus was the Father’s beloved Son. 

His second statement is further revealing, “You are the King of Israel!” God promised David that he would have an eternal king to come from his descendants (2 Samuel 7), and long before David was born, an eternal ruler was promised to Jacob’s son, Judah (Genesis 49:8-12). 

Philip’s concerns about Jesus being from Nazareth seem to have melted away. He is confessing that in Jesus he is seeing the promises of God to Judah, David, and all people fulfilled. Whether at this moment there was or later there would be a clarification of where Jesus was born, by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, Nathanael sees what Philip saw: here is the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote!

You can almost see a smirk on Jesus’ lips as he reacts to Jesus confession, both in love for what has been confessed and in the sense of, “Oh, my friend, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Jesus gives Nathanael and the others an epiphany glimpse of his work to come. “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jesus is referencing back many, many generations to when Jacob was fleeing from his brother Esau because he deceived his father Isaac and “stole” the birthright from his older twin, thought it was a birthright God had said would be Jacob’s in the first place. In the account from Genesis 28, we hear that as Jacob fled from Esau’s anger, he slept in the wilderness and had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. There were angels of God ascending and descending on it. There at the top stood the Lord” (Genesis 28:12-13). In the dream, God reiterated the promises he had made to Abraham and Isaac, Jacob’s grandfather and father, including the promise of a singular descendant who would be a blessing for all nations, the Messiah. After the dream was over, Jacob remarked, “Certainly the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and he said, “How awe-inspiring is this place! This is nothing other than the house of God, and this is the gate to heaven.” (Genesis 28:16-17).

Jacob, in his dream stood at the gate to heaven and the access to heaven from earth was that staircase (or ladder as we might have grown up with hearing). Jesus says that he is the access from earth to heaven, he is the one by whom we gain access to the gate of eternal life. His knowing where Nathanael was before Philip spoke to him was but a parlor trick compared to the real work Jesus came to do: giving access to eternal life to all people by removing their sins. 

This is the Jesus who has loved us, called us, saved us. He is the fulfillment of every promise God has made to us. He is everything we needed him to be. He is the Son of God who came to save us. He is our eternal king who rules all things for our eternal good. He is the one by whom we have access to eternal life because he died to pay for our sins. Do not consider this news about Jesus to be too good to be true; he is the Truth! May we like Nathanael continually come and see Jesus in the Word. May we continue to have God’s promises confirmed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. May we rejoice at God’s faithfulness to his promises, faithfulness to his love, faithfulness to us! Amen.

“Who Is This Jesus?” (Sermon on Mark 14-11) | January 10, 2021

Text: Mark 1:4-11
Date: January 10, 2021
Event: The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B

Mark 1:4-11 (EHV)

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 

5The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him. They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. 6John was clothed in camel’s hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 7He preached, “One more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals! 8I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 

9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10Just as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with you.” 

Who Is This Jesus?

First impressions are important, but they aren’t everything, right? You’ve probably met someone in your life for whom your initial impression was really, really wrong. Maybe it was wrong in a good way or wrong in a bad way, but once you started to get to know the person better, or other people shared experiences they had had with that person, your first impressions perhaps shifted rapidly.

We’ve begun the season of Epiphany where we see Jesus and others telling us more and more about our Savior. Because, first impressions about Jesus aren’t great, right? We celebrated his birth just a little over 2 weeks ago but we saw how lowly, humble, and unimpressive the whole thing is for someone who didn’t know what was going on. Epiphany itself was on Wednesday, the day we would celebrate the wise men coming to worship the young King. But they go to where it made sense to find such a child—to the capital, to Jerusalem. They would never have dreamed (unless they had Micah’s prophecy in front of them) that such an important person would be in a place like Bethlehem. 

As Jesus grew he would have stood out somewhat as a kid who never seemed to get in trouble or do anything wrong. But there’s not much particularly surprising about that. You probably know several children or even adults whom you’ve never seen or heard them do or say anything sinful. Jesus would have come off as a polite child, but likely nothing more. 

So, to get the ball rolling and understand who this Jesus really is, we need others to testify about him, those who have more than just observations one can make with our eyes and ears. We need people with information that goes beyond the skin-deep. And in our Gospel for this morning, we have two such people to testify about Jesus and who he is. The first is John the Baptist and the second is God the Father himself.

We saw John the Baptist doing his preaching and baptizing work in some more detail during the season of Advent. Here, Mark gives us a brief reminder of John’s unique appearance, work, and location for that work. But the results were impressive. Many people from the southern region of Judea, and especially those in Jerusalem itself, were going out to see John in the wilderness to check him out and hear what he had to say. But while John was calling the people to repentance, to turn from their sins and to a life that would better please and thank God, he also told them something of the one who was to come: “One more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals! 8I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

So, who is this Jesus? He’s someone who would be more impressive and powerful than John. For as popular as John was, John is clear that he is nothing compared to the One who was coming. Likewise, John’s baptism was only a ceremonial washing. Jesus would bring the Holy Spirit to the people.

And so it is in this context that Jesus comes to John to be baptized. In parallel accounts of this event, we hear John arguing a bit with Jesus. Recognizing how much more superior Jesus is to himself, John says that he should be baptized by Jesus, not the other way around! But Jesus assures him that this baptism is part of the plan. As our substitute, Jesus is baptized with John’s baptism of repentance not for his sins, but as part of his taking our place in all things.

And that’s why Jesus is so much greater than John. John led people to see and recognize their sins, to hopefully instill in them a desire to turn away from their sins. But John couldn’t get rid of those sins. But Jesus could. And that was his whole mission, to be the sinners’ substitute.

But to look at Jesus, you never would have known. John will later point back to this event as the sign even to him that Jesus was the promised Savior, because with our human perspective it sure didn’t look like this man was the eternal God, or the one who would rescue all humanity from our sins, death, and hell.

You know Jesus because this message of who he is has been revealed to you by people who played the role of John the Baptist in your life. Those parents, teachers, pastors, friends, even perfect strangers who pointed you to Jesus and said, “There! Him! He’s the one who is the Savior! He’s the one who is the eternal King!” Jesus is not who he looks like, nor is he who we want to mold him to be. He doesn’t fit our expectations or meet our demands. But, to follow John’s guidance, Jesus is exactly who we need him to be, the one who brings the Holy Spirit, the one who brings the faith we need to trust in him.

Jesus is not meant to be a mystery. He’s meant to be known, as John made him known. And that is made incredibly clear when, as Jesus walks out of the Jordan, a voice from heaven, the voice of God the Father himself, speaks to Jesus but also tells us what we need to know about this Jesus as well: “You are my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with you.” Once again, as with John, the Father tells us who Jesus is and what he’s come to do. First and foremost, Jesus is God’s Son.

This would not have been clear. We know the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth. We know how unique they were among all births of all times. But we also know what the presumption would have been. The first impressions of this Jesus would have been that he was Joseph’s son. Who, without being told, would have assumed anything else? But God here sets the record straight. This is not just some guy who was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth. This was not a carpenter’s son. This is the Son of God.

And what did he come to do? He came to do everything that pleases the Father—to be perfect. And not only to be perfect, but to accomplish the work laid out for him from the beginning of time. What is that work? We heard the Father to his Son in the words of Isaiah in our First Lesson this morning: But now the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to turn Jacob back to him, so that Israel might be gathered to him, so that I will be honored in the eyes of the Lord, because my God has been my strength—the Lord said: It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant to raise up only the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel, so I will appoint you to be a light for the nations, so that my salvation will be known to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:5-6). Jesus would be the one to bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth, to every nation, to every person. John’s role was limited; he largely spoke and preached to the people of Judaea. But not Jesus. Jesus’ role was to bring about God’s global forgiveness.

The “well pleased” nature of Jesus work means accomplishing the salvation of mankind by living and dying in our place. God does not want our sins to condemn us to hell—though they do. And so he sent Jesus to solve that problem, to be our eternal solution. Jesus pleases the Father chiefly because he accomplished that which was most important to the Father—laying down his life for the sins of the world, for your sins and my sins.

So, who is this Jesus? What we learn from the testimony of both John and the Father here at Jesus’ baptism is well summarized by the “Jesus fish.” You’ve seen this fish on the backs of cars and in artwork. It’s a simple one-line drawing of a fish. But it was used by the early Christians as a sort of covert symbol and confession. The Greek word for fish, ichthys, was used as an acronym. It stood for the phrase, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” That is who John said Jesus was; that’s who the Father Said Jesus was; that’s who Jesus is. 

This morning amid unrest and strife and a nation that seems continually at the brink of falling off the precarious edge that we’ve taken ourselves to, let this be your comfort. You know who this Jesus is because he’s made sure you know. He is God’s eternal Son. He is the long-promised Christ. He is your Savior. May the rest of our lives be spent learning more of him and rejoicing in who he is, what he’s done, and how he continues to love us until he calls us home to himself. Thanks be to God! Amen.

“The Truth Divides and Unifies” (Sermon on John 7:40-43) | January 3, 2021

Text: John 7:40-43
Date: January 3, 2021
Event: The Second Sunday after Christmas, Year B

John 7:40-43 (EHV)

After hearing his words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.” 41Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Surely the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? 42Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s descendants and from the little town of Bethlehem where David lived?” 43So the people were divided because of him.

The Truth Divides and Unifies

Have you ever had that uncomfortable conversation with someone who was convinced they were right but they were really, really wrong? Maybe it was a child who had some bad information. Maybe it was a parent or grandparent who just didn’t understand what they were talking about or were conflating two different things. Maybe it was someone who felt they were an expert in your special area of interest or expertise but in reality just knew enough to be dangerous. 

These conversations are frustrating because you know better, but to convince the person you’re talking to of that can be really difficult. So, if it wasn’t all that important, perhaps you just let it go because forcing people to acknowledge you’re right is probably not a great thing. Likewise, if it was really important, perhaps you had to sit down with the person and slowly, carefully, and gently explain why they were wrong and about what they thought.

As we’ve gone through the Christmas season, we’ve seen times of possible confusion about Jesus and the events surrounding his birth and how God stepped in through angels or shepherds or faithful believers to explain and extol everything this child would grow to be and do. But this morning we jump ahead a bit to Jesus’ adulthood, to his ministry. He’s been gaining in popularity, although that popularity has recently hit a slide as he made clear his reason for being with the people was not to provide free food, but to provide himself as the solution to their sins (cf. John 6, esp. vv. 66-69).

Jesus was never popular with the religious leaders but at this point the crowd is starting to divide on their thoughts about him too. His teaching clearly had its intended results for many of them. The Holy Spirit worked faith in the hearts of many in the crowd, and we hear their statements of faith at the start of our brief Gospel: After hearing his words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” They were right on. Jesus was the Prophet God promised through Moses. Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, long promised from the Garden of Eden through all of the prophets. Whether or not the people fully understood the true role and work of the Messiah is another matter, but they were clearly demonstrating their faith in Jesus’ teaching and trusting that Jesus was who he said he was. 

But others come with doubt and division: “Surely the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s descendants and from the little town of Bethlehem where David lived?” Too true! We heard that specific promise in our first lesson from Micah 5: Bethlehem in the area of Ephrathah in the southern region of Judea would be the place from which God’s eternal ruler, the Messiah, would come. Could the Christ really be one who came from the northern region of Galilee, from Nazareth of all places? Nazareth had no connection to King David whatsoever! 

Here was issue. They were asking the right questions, but they didn’t go to the right source for the answers. They were relying on themselves and their own presuppositions about who Jesus was rather than inquiring further about him. It certainly might have happened, but nowhere in Scripture do we have anyone questioning Jesus saying, “Teacher, you claim to be the Christ, but the Scriptures say the Christ will be born in Bethlehem.” To which Jesus might possibly have answered, “Wonderful question! Do you remember Caesar’s census some 30-odd years ago…?” It seems likely that this confusion was one of the reasons the Holy Spirit inspired both Luke and Matthew to hammer home Jesus’ Bethlehem birth and very early life. 

But rather than inquiring of the truth from Jesus we’re only told the people were divided because of him. Those assumptions and half-truths prevented some from seeing who Jesus really is and what he had come to do for them.

Do we sometimes let our own presuppositions divide us? Do we let our assumptions about what I do or don’t want God to have said or done rule the way I think about my spiritual journey? Do we sometimes place more emphasis on what we want to be true rather than the truth that God has provided for us in his Word? Are we guilty of, at times, wanting to bend God to our will rather than having him conform us to his? Sometimes we approach God’s Word with our fingers in our ears shouting out “lalalalalala I can’t hear you!” when he tries to teach us. Sometimes, we can approach his Word and his truth in these ways and not even realize we’re doing it.

There is plenty of misinformation and an abundance of misunderstandings about Jesus out there. Perhaps you shared a Christmas dinner table or video call with some of them among your own family or friends last week. Someone who thinks Jesus was a good man or an upright teacher but nothing more. Someone who doesn’t think Jesus as he’s presented in the Bible ever existed. Someone who thinks the whole story of a virgin birth, angels and shepherds, etc., is all just a crazy fairy tale. Maybe someone thinks it might be true, but they just don’t care enough for it to interfere with living the way they want to live. 

But the reality is that all of Scripture’s accounts of Jesus’ life and work are true. Everything that Jesus came to do he accomplished. The birth we celebrated just a little over a week ago is always pointing us ahead to his death. Simeon made that clear as he took the infant Jesus into his arms as we heard last week. The angel who announced Jesus’ upcoming birth to Joseph had also made his work clear by the name he gave him: “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

And that’s where the rub really comes, right? It’s not the events surrounding Christmas or Good Friday or Easter that are fundamentally objectionable to people. It’s the truth that all of these events point to. Unbelievers and believers alike do not like to be shown their sin. We as people do not like to be told that we need a Savior. We do not like to be told that we need God’s help, rescue, or forgiveness. We want to do it on our own. But we cannot. We want to believe our own narratives that we construct, but that is not truth.

These truths may cause divisions—dividing us from other people or even causing contradictions in our own hearts. But just because the truth causes these divisions doesn’t make it any less true. Jesus is still who he is whether I want to accept it or not, whether I understand it or not, whether I know reality or not, whether I accept my need or not. We must take God at his Word and give thanks for what he’s done for us.

And that’s still the joy of Christmas. Not in ornaments and lights and treats and presents under the tree. No, the joy of Christmas is that we had a spiritual need that God has completely met in Jesus. Our sins are forgiven by the baby who was born, who would grow, live, and die in our place. Our hearts may not like to hear the truth by nature, but the Holy Spirit has shown us the truth for what it is: our eternal life.

As we enter into the season of Epiphany this week, starting with next Sunday, we’re going to see Jesus more clearly reveal to those around him and to us as well who exactly he is. We will see the truth that might divide us from those around us. We will feel that uncomfortable sensation inside of us as the the truth tells us things about ourselves that we don’t want to the true. But in the end we will rejoice in the truths about our Savior that unify us with the members of our congregation and with all believers of all time in the Holy Christian Church. 

May the truth that Jesus has come for you and has saved you unite you with God and your fellow Christians. May that truth fill you with joy in these earliest days of this new year and for the rest of your life. Thanks be to God! Merry Christmas! Amen.

“Our Shepherd Is with Us” (Sermon on Psalm 23) | December 31, 2020

Text: Psalm 23
Date: December 31, 2020
Event: New Year’s Eve 

Psalm 23 (EHV)

The Lord is my shepherd. 
I lack nothing. 
2He causes me to lie down in green pastures. 
He leads me beside quiet waters. 
3He restores my soul. 
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 
4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil, for you are with me. 
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 
5You set a table for me in the presence of my foes. 
You drench my head with oil.
My cup is overflowing. 
6Surely goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life, 
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. 

Our Shepherd Is with Us

If there was ever a year that we would want to escort out of our lives with the Word of God and prayer, it would probably be 2020. For a while it seemed like every month from January on presented some new big threat or tragedy or hardship to deal with. Fires close by or across the world, saber rattling among nations, and perhaps most notably the pandemic whose rippling effects are still felt here tonight so that we can’t be together for this year-closing service.

But the reality is that we will not see the end of our problems when the calendar flips to January 2021, will we? The pandemic doesn’t go away. Our personal emotional hardships and heartaches won’t magically end. Whatever is heavy on our heart tonight is probably going to be heavy on our heart tomorrow.

So that’s why, tonight, we chose to specially focus on the comfort and care of our loving Savior, our Good Shepherd. Because despite how miserable this year has been for so many people in so many different ways, we did not take a step through this year without our Shepherd by our side. And for as concerning as this coming year might be, we also will not spend one moment in 2021 without our Shepherd right with us.

We’ll spend tonight going through the classic and familiar words that the Holy Spirit inspired King David to write in Psalm 23. David knew about sheep and shepherding. He grew up tending the flocks in the fields. In fact, he almost missed out on his anointing as the next king of Israel because he was tending to the sheep while everyone else had gathered for the celebration. 

And David knew something about being a king, being the most successful and faithful king in Israel’s history—though certainly not without his flaws. But he knew well that the leadership that a king or other ruler must present for his people is very similar to the care of the sheep. The nation needed a strong leader willing and able to do what needed to be done, to make difficult decisions, to sacrifice self for the good of the whole. This was King David in a nutshell. 

But David also has the clear vision to recognize that he was not the be-all, end-all of leadership, governing, or even shepherding. He didn’t execute on his responsibilities perfectly and in fact his sin got him into danger more than once. He recognized that without God, he was nothing. Without God’s forgiveness, he would be lost forever. Without God at his side every moment of every day, he would have had no success either in the field or on the throne. He saw very clearly that God was the perfect King, the perfect Shepherd.

But the truths that David expounds on in Psalm 23 are not just for him nor just for shepherds around 1000 BC nor just for kings and other leaders. The things that David points to God doing as his Shepherd apply to you and me just as much as they did to King David. As we journey into a new year, let us see the promises of our God as he shepherds us into the future just as he has shepherded us in the past. 

The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He causes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. Sheep are not great at finding food or water. The shepherd needs to be diligent about leading the flock not only to where they can eat and drink but also where they can eat and drink safely. And so the shepherd leads the sheep to the ideal spots where they can have their needs met while doing so without threat from predators or other dangers. 

God does the same for us. Left on our own, we would flail about all over the place looking for our ways to meet our needs. If we’ve ever felt lost or separated from our God, if we’ve ever tried to figure out everything on our own, we know how discouraging and upsetting that is. Perhaps this year saw the loss of a job or a reduced capacity to acquire what you needed for you and your family. Perhaps there was not a financial crunch but maybe it was an availability question as there were runs on the stores for important products and food staples. Perhaps it was some paralysis of what you needed to do to ensure your safety and the safety of those around you amid the pandemic while the rules and guidelines seemed to be constantly changing.

But our Good Shepherd promises to provide daily bread—he’s going to give us what we need. And you’ve probably seen that in action. Maybe as you look back, despite the concerns or worries of this past year, you realize that you always had what you needed. Perhaps you didn’t, and yet God provided in a way that you were not expecting. As a bit of an aside, if you find yourself in circumstances where you are lacking what you need right now, please contact me. Your brothers and sisters in Christ in your congregation may be a way that God leads you to green pastures and quiet waters. 

God’s guidance doesn’t end at providing for our physical needs, though. David continues: He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Our Shepherd is not only concerned about us physically, but all the more spiritually. He restores our soul. The broken heart, the screaming conscience, he comes to heal. We heard Jesus say clearly what his chief work would be as our Good Shepherd—to lay down his life only to take it up again. The forgiveness of sins that Jesus has won for us by his death and proved by his resurrection is the ultimate in soul restoration. 

Because of Jesus’ forgiveness, we are led by our shepherd in paths of righteousness, walking in the way that shows and proves the right relationship with God that he has given to us. Sins are forgiven so we need not walk the path of sin and death any more. We don’t have to walk those dark and dreary streets that lead to eternal death, because sin is not our master. Our Shepherd leads us and we belong to him. We know his voice and because of him we can walk about, live lives, that thank and glorify him.

And this is true no matter how rough the terrain is that we are walking on. David doesn’t leave room for avoiding the “valley of the shadow of death.” It’s not if; it’s even though. This kind a trouble will come, may be our surroundings right here and right now. But what remains true? We need not fear because even in the darkest places we might find ourselves, our Shepherd is with us. He is there to comfort with his rod and his staff.

A shepherd’s staff has several uses. He might use that staff to fight off an enemy to protect the sheep. Or he might use the hook at the end of it to drag the sheep by the neck to get the animal out of danger. That likely is against the sheep’s will. It’s not pleasant for a sheep to have the staff hooked around the neck and be dragged, but the shepherd knows that temporary discomfort likely will mean the difference between life and death. 

God’s staff comforts in the same way. He might fend off our enemies that threaten us, or he may drag us away from the sin that threatens in a way that is not so pleasant and not so comfortable. Our Shepherd is not interested in us living the way we want to live; he wants us to live in the way that is best for us, and best for us eternally. So even though some sin might seem fun or harmless or whatever, our Shepherd is going to drag us away from that lest it drag us to hell and separate us from him forever.

But, that’s not to say that God has a desire for us to be miserable forever in this life. Just the opposite, in fact. You set a table for me in the presence of my foes. You drench my head with oil. My cup is overflowing. Notice the table is prepared, but enemies are still there. God’s blessings persist even in difficult times. The peace that comes from knowing sins forgiven means that our blessings go beyond what any unbeliever might have. Our enemies might seek to drag us for our faith or our life or our priorities or because we do not live and think and speak the way they do, but God prepares a beautiful table for us in front of them. We have an over abundance—overflowing spiritual blessings—because of our Shepherd who loves us. 

It may not always feel like the Good Shepherd is doing all of these things for us or that they’ll turn out the way he promises they will, but we can have them confidence that God will be faithful. God will keep every promise to us. 

As we look back on 2020, we might see some silver linings around dark clouds. For all the trouble and bad we might have experienced, we might also see some good that God is working from it all. If nothing else, as a congregation, we know that our proclamation of the gospel is going out to more people and is more available than it’s ever been. And, when we are able to gather together again with our fellow Christians, we will likely value and cherish that together time more than we ever have in the past. Knowing what we’ve missed will help us to better appreciate what we have when it is restored.

But no matter what 2021 looks like, whether it’s better or worse by our measure than any years coming before it, we have the assurance of God’s promises to us as our Shepherd: Surely goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life. God’s goodness and mercy will track us down no matter where we are or what difficulties we experience. His love and care will pounce on us like a lion of forgiveness and encouragement. We will never be separated from his mercy and his kindness. They, like him, are our ever-present companions through this walk of life.

The end result of all of God’s shepherding is clear—I will live in the house of the Lord forever. We will be in heaven, eternal perfect life with our God forever because of our Shepherd’s work. He laid down his life for us and took it up again to provide the payment needed to satisfy the debt of our sins. He shepherds us through our lives, our walk of faith, to keep us close to him, clinging to him for the assurance of forgiveness. The life that is coming will be free from all sin and sorrow and hardship. No matter what the past may have done or what the future may yet do, we go forward confident of our Savior’s love with the absolute assurance that when it’s all over, we will be with him forever. Thanks be to our Shepherd forever and ever! Happy New Year! Amen.

“Look! The Arm of the Lord!” (Devotion on Isaiah 52:7-10) | December 25, 2020

Text: Isaiah 52:7-10
Date: December 25, 2020
Event: The Nativity of Our Lord (Christmas Day), Year B

Isaiah 52:7-10 (EHV)

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of a herald, 
who proclaims peace and preaches good news, 
who proclaims salvation, 
who says to Zion, “Your God is king!” 
8The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voices. 
Together they shout for joy, 
because with both eyes they will see it 
when the Lord returns to Zion. 
9Break out, shout for joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, 
because the Lord is comforting his people. 
He is redeeming Jerusalem. 
10The Lord lays bare his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, 
and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation from our God.

Look! The Arm of the Lord!

Christmas celebrations are so familiar to us that it can become easy to not stop and consider the oddities surrounding it. But, perhaps this year’s pandemic restrictions mean that we’re taking a fresh look at the ways we celebrate by virtue of this year’s celebrations being forced into being strange. We didn’t get together last night as a congregation nor are we together this morning. Maybe you’re having your family Christmas celebrations this year via teleconference. Even for me, right now, I’m having to get manufacture some “Christmas energy” ahead of Christmas itself for this special prerecorded service rather than it naturally happening in the moment as we’d normally gather for worship this morning. 

Regardless of where we are or how we’re celebrating this moment, the prophet Isaiah can help us put our celebrations in their appropriate context this morning. We are not simply celebrating the birth of a baby. We are not simply observing tradition or a enjoying reason to be off of work or school. This morning we are celebrating the announcement of the good news, the best news: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of a herald, who proclaims peace and preaches good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God is king!” 

Today we are celebrating the reign of our eternal King and the salvation that he has worked. This morning is nothing less than the celebrating of rescue from sin, death, and hell and the assurance of eternal life with our God forever!

But it doesn’t really look like it, right? It looks like a poor couple being forced by their government into a harsh journey at the worst possible time in their family’s life, and having no place for a baby to be born but among the animals, with a feeding trough for a bed. This looks more like sadness and systemic failure than joy and salvation. 

But Isaiah tells us what we’re really seeing here: The Lord lays bare his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation from our God. This little tiny helpless child is the arm of the Lord, the strength of God, being made clear to all people. Christmas is God rolling up his sleeves, digging into his promised work, his work to save us from our eternal death. Christmas is step one of his plan that will lead Jesus to the cross to die for our sins and then to his resurrection that will prove his victory for us.

It perhaps doesn’t look like it. Perhaps this year it doesn’t feel like it. But here in Bethlehem God is starting to do what he had promised to do. The long-promised Savior old the world is here. Christmas is the triune God saying, “Now it’s time to get to work.” And his work is focused on you, your rescue, your eternal safety and well being. Nothing else matters to him but that you are freed from your slavery to sin and death. He’s going to do everything we need him to do to save us. 

The Word became flesh for you. This baby was born in these humble surroundings for you. The arm of the Lord has been laid bare for you. God is using his almighty power to rescue you. Christmas is a clear demonstration that God loves, selflessly loves you, self-sacrificingly loves you. How beautiful is the proclamation of that truth this morning, and forever! Thanks be to God! Merry Christmas! Amen.

“We Are Jesus’ Chosen People!” (Devotion on Titus 2:11-14) | December 24, 2020

Text: Titus 2:11-14
Date: December 24, 2020
Event: The Nativity of Our Lord (Christmas Eve), Year B

Titus 2:11-14 (EHV)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. 12It trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope, that is, the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14He gave himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are his own chosen people, eager to do good works.

We Are Jesus’ Chosen People!

Can you imagine what it would’ve been like to be there that first Christmas? To be one of the shepherds who heard the proclamation of the angels, or even one of the people the shepherds raced to tell about what they had seen and heard which was just as they had been told? To be Mary or Joseph and to be, for a few minutes at least, the only people aware that this special child, this Jesus the Savior, had been born? On Sunday we’ll hear about Simeon and Anna, two faithful believers who were privileged enough to see the Messiah as a newborn at the temple, seeing the fulfillment of God’s promises made flesh. How unbelievably privileged and amazing it would have been to be there!

But to be there was one thing, to understand and value what this all meant is another. The reality is, no matter how amazing it would have been to be at or around the events of Jesus’ birth, that amazement is nothing compared to being the beneficiaries of what this all means. And tonight, as we sing the familiar hymns and hear the familiar words of the Christmas account, the apostle Paul takes us beyond a surface-level, factual understanding of the events of Christmas and takes us into the why’s and what’s of this birth among the animals in Bethlehem. 

Paul lays it all out for us in the first verse of our lesson: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. This child is the embodiment of God’s grace. Grace is God’s undeserved love for sinners. We didn’t deserve to have him do anything for us and he has done it all anyway.

Contrast that with the secular view of Christmas. What the reason for presents? Someone identifies you as having been “bad or good” and gives according to what you’ve done. Presents for the good and coal for the bad, right? By that way of reckoning, these are not so much gifts as they are things earned by behavior. That is the opposite of grace.

God’s grace means that he gives us the good things that we absolutely did not deserve. Our sin has made us disgusting in God’s sight, repulsive. And yet he doesn’t throw us away as we deserved. He sends his Son to us, to save us from that sin. Jesus came to give himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are his own chosen people, eager to do good works. 

This makes Jesus the greatest Christmas gift ever given, or more to the point, the greatest Christmas gift ever received. Every Christmas present you give or receive this year will, over days or years, break or get lost or become unneeded or unwanted. But not Jesus. His value never wears out. His birth and subsequent life and death have eternal importance. It changes our lives for now and forever: [God’s grace] trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, that is, the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Some gifts we might receive may have a lasting impact on our lives. Maybe a new calendar or whiteboard will finally help us to get organized. Maybe a new computer ensures we have the tools we need for success in school or work, or just an outlet to unwind. Maybe a gift box or subscription service that regularly delivers different foods allows you to find a new life-long favorite. 

But Jesus, God’s grace, changes everything, our very thoughts, motives, and attitudes. Because of Jesus we can see our sin for the danger that it is. Because of Jesus was can see God’s love for what it truly is, love that isn’t given because we earned it but given because he wants to rescue us and save us from ourselves. And so knowing the gift God has given to us in Jesus, knowing that his birth, life, and eventual death and resurrection means the forgiveness of every sin, we change the way we live. We don’t want to live in sin which kills us and is offensive to our God. We reject the world’s ideas of embracing our desires, our greed, or lust, or whatever pulls us away from him, but rather live our lives filled with the works God wants us to do. We live our lives to thank God for the grace he has shown us, specially shown tonight at the birth of our Savior. 

But as we spent the Advent season looking ahead to this moment but also looking ahead to Jesus’ second advent, we do well to remember that God’s faithfulness at Christmas points to his faithfulness at the end. We continue to look forward to the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He will not return as he first arrived, a helpless baby in Bethlehem. He will return as the glorious King of kings and Lord of lords. His arrival will not need to be announced by angels to shepherds—every eye will see him. And that day will mean the end of this life tainted with sin and the beginning of the eternal, perfect life that God has prepared for us.

So while we are waiting for that day, we continue to prepare our hearts and to have our lives molded by those truths. We serve God and one another every moment of every day not because we have to, but because we want to. We don’t just give generous gifts to loved ones on Christmas; we selflessly give our time and hearts to any and all who have needs, always. We look for new ways to thank our Savior by serving our neighbor. And we hold onto this grace of God, shown clearly tonight, that has made us his chosen people as the motivation that makes us eager to do good works.

Until that day our Savior returns, we will continue to take these reminders and assurances of what God has done for us to heart. He loves us. He’s given himself to us and for us. We have the forgiveness of our sins because of his grace. We have the certain hope of eternal life because of that same undeserved love. On this Christmas Eve, do not fret over God’s feelings toward you, do not worry that he will not follow through on his promises to you. Look in the manger to see the assurance that our God is faithful to each and every promise. Live your life in thankful joy to the God who has saved you! Merry Christmas! Amen.

"Jesus Is Coming! Nothing Will Be Impossible for God!" (Sermon on Luke 1:26-38) | December 20, 2020

Text: Luke 1:26-38 
Date: December 20, 2020
Event: The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year B

Luke 1:26-38 (EHV)

26In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee named Nazareth, 27to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” 

29But she was greatly troubled by the statement and was wondering what kind of greeting this could be. 30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have found favor with God. 31Listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.” 

34Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 

35The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Listen, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age even though she was called barren, and this is her sixth month. 37For nothing will be impossible for God.” 

38Then Mary said, “See, I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. 

Jesus Is Coming! Nothing Will Be Impossible for God!

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“That’s impossible!” We might remark at news that seems unbelievable. It can be bad—so bad and horrifying that we would never imagine it could happen to anyone. It can be good—so wonderful that we would never dream of hoping that it would happen. It can simply be something that just defies reality—news that some athletic record was shattered or that the difficult-to-find Christmas present was secured. 

You might notice that we often use the word flippantly, because clearly, if something happened, it can’t be impossible. And that’s where we have to note a difference between impossible, and impossible for us. I can watch the gymnast do things and say, “That’s impossible!” and what I mean is that it would be impossible for me to ever do that, which given my general lack of coordination or physical ability is absolutely true. But clearly it’s not fundamentally impossible because there someone has accomplished the feat I deemed impossible for myself.

But there are some things that seems objectively impossible. I can’t jump and launch myself into outer space. People can’t survive more than a few weeks without food, or days without water, or minutes without air. And if someone makes a promise to you that seems to be in the realm of the impossible either for them or in general, there’s a good chance we might dismiss the promise as meaningless. If it can’t be done, why get your hopes up only to have them dashed by reality?

God’s promise surrounding the Savior might have felt impossible. How would God get rid of sin? How would he solve the fact that we’ve been rebellious and hateful toward him? How would he be able to do anything that he promised to do? The truth is that God would accomplish these impossible-sounding goals by impossible-sounding means. And yet, nothing will be impossible for God!

In our Gospel this morning, Mary was met with some impossible-sounding news. She, who was a virgin, who had never known a man in that way, was going to have a child? Impossible! That goes against basic biology. And yet, wasn’t that what God had promised to do? The promise to King Ahaz in Isaiah 7 was clear—the virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, Immanuel. Impossible! But not!

Mary trusts Gabriel’s message but is confused. “How will this be?” And Gabriel’s explanation is vague yet sufficient: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” In summary, Gabriel’s message is, “God’s power will accomplish this.” He points Mary to Elizabeth, her relative, who was said to not be able to have children. Yet even in her old age, Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John the Baptist, the way-preparer of the Savior. And in this moment we might see that his work of way-preparing begins here as his mere existence points to God’s ability to do whatever he needs to do to accomplish his promises. And Mary’s response is pure humble trust: “See, I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said.”

Do we approach God’s seemingly impossible promises like Mary did? Do we really believe that everything—that heartbreak, that loss of a loved one, that loss of job, those financial problems, that troubled relationship, that harsh exchange with a total stranger—everything God is going to work out for our eternal good? Do we even start to doubt the possibility that there is forgiveness for our sins? Or do we start trusting Satan’s reasoning rather than God’s promises? He continually lies into our ears, “Sure, God could be forgiving towards him or her, but not you. It’s not possible for God to forgive you after what you did or said or thought...”

My brothers and sisters, God accomplishes what seems to be impossible. And he does the impossible because he loves you. This whole scene before us at the last Sunday in Advent is the God of faithful love beginning to turn the wheels in the machine of his long-promised plan of salvation. Generation after generation of people after Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden longed to hear these words spoken to Mary. And Mary, too, would have longed to see and hear what you have seen and heard in the Scriptures concerning what would happen with this long-promised child. 

Because this child to be born is not amazing because of the circumstances surrounding his conception or even the birth that we’re gearing up to celebrate. In some ways, that is the least remarkable thing about him. Because here will the Word—God himself—made flesh. His name is given very specifically: Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew. It literally means “the LORD saves” or “Yahweh saves”. This is not just some sentimental name to reflect the faith of their parents. No, this child is literally Yahweh, the God of free and faithful love, the one who created the universe, promised to Abraham, called Moses, led his people, supported David, spoke through the prophets. This child is the one true God coming to earth, taking on our human nature, to save us from our sin. Impossible! But, nothing will be impossible for God!

This child, conceived by the Holy Spirit through the power of the Most High, would be born, grow, live a life of perfection and die a innocent death. Tragic, yes, but again, for a purpose. This was the plan. This was God’s design. This was his plan to save you and me from sin. Jesus would shoulder the burden of our sin that we committed against him. Impossible! But, nothing will be impossible for God!

And as we draw nearer and nearer to our Christmas celebrations, as we get closer and closer to Bethlehem’s manger, don’t take your eyes off the skies. Because this same Jesus, born of a virgin, will return. He will return to take you and me away from this world of sin and bring us to himself in heaven. Based on everything we’ve experienced in our life, this is completely impossible. We’ve never seen Jesus return. We’ve never seen heaven. Everything in our lives, in the world, goes on today as it has every day of our life. We live in this world and thinking that it will come to an end at Jesus’ return seems like it will never happen. Impossible! Yet, nothing will be impossible for God!

God kept his promise to his ancient people to send the Savior for all people of all times and was faithful to that promise, so he will not prove untrustworthy with this final promise. Whether he calls us home by death or we lift up our eyes at the sounding of the last trumpet, God will rescue us for Jesus’ sake. He will be faithful to this final promise as he has been to every single one that has come before.

We are venturing into a Christmas season unlike any that we’ve ever experienced. We might be wrestling with our health, or the health or even loss of loved ones. We will likely struggle with the reality that we won’t be able to see the friends and family we want to see or keep up the traditions that surround this season that we’re used to. But no matter what changes Christmas in the year of our Lord 2020 brings, one thing remains absolutely certain, something that we can trust and rely on no matter how much worse or better things get from here: Jesus is coming! Nothing will be impossible for God! All praise and glory be to him forever and ever! Amen.